IWANN'97 final announcement and Call for Papers

[Joan Cabestany]

Dear collegue, please find herewith the Call for Papers and final
Announcement of IWANN'97 (International Work-Conference on Artificial and
Natural Neural Networks) to be held in Lanzarote - Canary Islands (Spain)
next June 4-6, 1997.

If you need more details, feel free for contact me: cabestan at eel.upc.es

I am sorry if you receive this message from several distribution lists.
Yours,
Joan Cabestany
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IWANN'97 - Final Call for Papers

INTERNATIONAL WORK-CONFERENCE
ON
ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Biological and Artificial Architectures, Technologies and Applications

Contact URL http://petrus.upc.es/iwann97.html

Lanzarote - Canary Islands, Spain
June 4-6, 1997


ORGANIZED BY

Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED), Madrid
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya
Universidad de Malaga
Universidad de Granada


IN COOPERATION WITH

Asociacion Espaola de Redes Neuronales (AERN)
IFIP Working Group in Neural Computer Systems, WG10.6
Spanish RIG IEEE Neural Networks Council
UK&RI Communication Chapter of IEEE


IWANN'97. The fourth International Workshop on Artificial Neural Networks,
now changed to International Work-Conference on Artificial and Natural
Neural Networks, will take place in Lanzarote, Canary Islands (Spain) from
4 to 6 of June, 1997. This biennial meeting with focus on biologically
inspired and more realistic models of natural neurons and neural nets and
new hybrid computing paradigms, was first held in Granada (1991), Sitges
(1993) and Torremolinos, Malaga (1995) with a growing number of
participants from more than 20 countries and with high quality papers
published by Springer-Verlag (LNCS 540, 686 and 930).

SCOPE

Neural computation is considered here in the dual perspective of analysis
(as science) and synthesis (as engineering). As a science of analysis,
neural computation seeks to help neurology, brain theory, and cognitive
psychology in the understanding of the functioning of the Nervous Systems
by means of computational models of neurons, neural nets and subcellular
processes,  with the possibility of using electronics and computers as a
"laboratory" in which cognitive processes can be simulated and hypothesis
proven without having to act directly upon living beings.
As a synthesis engineering, neural computation seeks to complement the
symbolic perspective of Artificial Intelligence (AI), using the
biologically inspired models of distributed, self-programming and
self-organizing networks, to solve those non-algorithmic problems of
function approximation and pattern classification having to do with
changing and only partially known environments. Fault tolerance and dynamic
reconfiguration are other basic advantages of neural nets.

In the sea of meetings, congresses and workshops on ANN's, IWANN'97 focus
on the three subjects that most concern us:

(1) The seeking of biologically inspired new models of local computation
architectures and learning along with the organizational principles behind
of the complexity of intelligent behavior.

(2) The searching for some methodological contributions in the analysis
and design of knowledge-based ANN's, instead of "blind nets", and in the
reduction of the knowledge level to the sub-symbolic implementation level.

(3) The cooperation with symbolic AI, with the integration of connectionist
and symbolic processing in hybrid and multi-strategy approaches for
perception, decision and control tasks, as well as for case-based
reasoning, concepts formation and learning.

To contribute to the posing and partially solving of these global topics,
IWANN'97 offer a brain-storming interdisciplinary forum in advanced Neural
Computation for scientists and engineers from biology neuroanatomy,
computational neurophysiology, molecular biology, biophysics, linguistics,
psychology, mathematics and physics, computer science, artificial 
intelligence, parallel computing, analog and digital electronics, advanced
computer architectures, reverse engineering, cognitive sciences and all the
concerned applied domains (sensory systems and signal processing,
monitoring, diagnosis, classification and decision making, intelligent
control and supervision, perceptual robotics and communication systems).

Contributions on the following and related topics are welcome.

TOPICS

1.
Biological  Foundations of Neural Computation: Principles of brain
organization. Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology of synapses,
dendro-dendritic contacts, neurons and neural nets in peripheral and
central areas. Plasticity, learning and memory in natural  neural nets.
Models of development and evolution. The computational perspective in 
Neuroscience.


2.
Formal Tools and Computational Models of Neurons and Neural Nets
Architectures: Analytic and logic models. Object oriented formulations.
Hybrid knowledge representation and inference tools (rules and frames with
analytic slots). Probabilistic, bayesian and fuzzy models. Energy related
models.


3.
Plasticity Phenomena (Maturing, Learning and Memory): Biological mechanisms
of learning and memory. Computational formulations using correlational,
reinforcement and minimization strategies. Conditioned reflex and
associative mechanisms. Inductive-deductive and abductive
symbolic-subsymbolic formulations. Generalization.


4.
Complex Systems Dynamics: Self-organization, cooperative processes,
autopoiesis, emergent computation, synergetic, evolutive optimization and
genetic algorithms. Self-reproducing nets. Self-organizing feature maps.
Simulated evolution. Social organization phenomena.


5.
Cognitive Science and AI: Hybrid knowledge based system. Neural networks
for knowledge modeling, acquisition and refinement. Natural language
understanding. Concepts formation. Spatial and temporal planning and
scheduling. Intentionality.


6.
Neural Nets Simulation, Emulation and Implementation: Environments and
languages. Parallelization, modularity and autonomy. New hardware
implementation strategies (FPGA's, VLSI, neurodevices). Evolutive
architectures. Real systems validation and evaluation.


7.
Methodology for Data Analysis, Task Selection and Nets Design.


8.
Neural Networks for Perception: Biologically inspired preprocessing. Low
level processing, source separation, sensor fusion, segmentation, feature
extraction, adaptive filtering, noise reduction, texture, stereo
correspondence, motion analysis, speech recognition, artificial vision, and
hybrid architectures for multisensorial perception.


9.
Neural Networks for Communications Systems: Modems and codecs, network
management, digital communications.


10.
Neural Networks for Control and Robotics: Systems identification, motion
planning and control, adaptive, predictive and model-based control systems,
navigation, real time applications, visuo-motor coordination.


LOCATION

BEATRIZ Costa Teguise Hotel
Costa Teguise
Lanzarote - Canary Islands, June 4-6, 1997

Lanzarote, the most northerly and easterly island of the Canarian
archipelago, is at the same time the most unusual one and produces a
strange fascination on those who visit it because the fast succession of
fire, sea and colors contrasts with craters, green valleys and
unforgettable golden and warm beaches.

LANGUAGE

English will be the official language of IWANN'97. Simultaneous translation
will not be provided.

INVITED SPEAKERS

Prof. Marvin Minsky - Neuronal and Symbolic Perspectives of AI
MIT (USA)

Prof. Reinhard Eckhorn - Models of Visual Processing
Philips University (D)

Prof. Valentino Braitenberg - Sensory-Motor Integration
Institute for Biological Cybernetics (D)

Dr. Javier De Felipe - Microcircuits in the Brain
Instituto Cajal. CSIC (E)

Dr. Paolo Ienne - Digital Architectures in Neurocomputers
EPFL (CH)

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Programme Committee seeks for original papers on the above mentioned
topics. Authors should pay special attention to explanation of theoretical
and technical choices involved, point out possible limitations and describe
the current state of their work. All received papers will be reviewed by
the Programme Committee. Accepted papers may be presented orally or as
poster panels, however all accepted contributions will be published in full
length (LNCS Springer-Verlag Series).

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Five copies (one original and four copies) of the paper must be submitted.
The paper must not exceed 10 pages, including figures, tables and
references. It should be written  in English on A4 paper, in a Times font,
10 point in size, without page numbers (please, indicate the order by
numbering the reverse side of the sheets with a pencil) . The printing area
should be 12.2 x 19.3 cm. The text should be justified to occupy the full
line width, and using one-line spacing. Headings (12 point, bold) should be
capitalized and aligned to the left. Title (14 point, bold) should be
centered. Abstract and affiliation (9 point) must be also included.

If possible, please make use of the latex/plaintex style file available in
the WWW page: http://petrus.upc.es/iwann97.html, where you can get more
detailed instructions to the authors. In addition, one sheet must be
attached including: Title and authors names, list of five keywords, the
Topic the paper fits best, preferred presentation (oral or poster) and the
corresponding author (name, postal and e-mail addresses, phone and fax
numbers).

CONTRIBUTIONS MUST BE SENT TO:

Prof. Jose Mira
Dpto. Inteligencia Artificial, UNED
Senda del Rey, s/n	
E - 28040 MADRID, Spain	
E-mail:  iwann97 at dia.uned.es

Phone: + 34 1 3987155 
    Fax: + 34 1 3986697

IMPORTANT DATES

Final Date for Submission: January 15, 1997 
Notification of Acceptance: March 1997 
Work-Conference: June 4-6, 1997

INSCRIPTION, TRAVEL AND HOTEL INFORMATION

ULTRAMAR EXPRESS
Diputacio, 238, 3
E-08007 BARCELONA, Spain	

Phone: +34 3 4827140
    Fax: +34 3 4827158
E-mail: gcasanova at uex.es

IBERIA and AVIACO will be the official carriers for IWANN'97, offering
special rates and conditions. International code for special rate:
BT71B21MPE0038.(See WWW page for special forfaits rates)

POSSIBILITY OF GRANTS
 
The Organization Committee of IWANN'97 will provide a limited number of
full or partial grants. Please contact the WWW address for further
information.

STEERING COMMITTEE

Joan Cabestany , Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya (E)
Jose Mira Mira, UNED (E)
Alberto Prieto, Universidad de Granada (E)
Francisco Sandoval, Universidad de Malaga (E)

ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE

Joan Cabestany and Francisco Sandoval (E), Co-chairmen
Michael Arbib, University of Southern California (USA)
Senen Barro, Universidad de Santiago (E)
Gabriel de Blasio, Univ. de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (E)
Trevor Clarkson, King's College London (UK)
Ana Delgado, UNED (E)
Dante Del Corso, Politecnico de Torino (I)
Belen Esteban-Sanchez, ITC (E)
Tamas D. Gedeon, University of New South Wales (AUS)
Karl Goser, Universitt Dortmund (G)
Jeanny Herault, Institute National Polytechnique de Grenoble (F)
Jaap Hoekstra, Delft University of Technology (NL)
Shunsuke Sato, Osaka University (Jp)
Igor Shevelev, Russian Academy of Science(R)
Juan Sigenza. IIC (E)
Cloe Taddei-Ferretti, Istituto di Cibernetica, CNR (I)
Marley Vellasco, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro (Br)
Michel Verleysen, Universite Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (B)


PROGRAMME COMMITTEE

Jose Mira and Alberto Prieto, Co-chairmen (E)
Igor Aleksander, Imperial Coll. of Science Technology and Medicine (UK)
Jose Ramon Alvarez, UNED (E)
Shun-Ichi Amari, University of Tokyo (Jp)
Xavier Arreguit, CSEM (CH)
Franois Blayo, Univ. Paris 1 (F)
Leon Chua, University of California (USA)
Marie Cottrell, Univ. Paris 1 (F)
Akira Date, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Jp)
Antonio Diaz-Estrella, Universidad de Malaga (E)
M. Duranton, Phillips (F)
Reinhard Eckhorn, Philips University (D)
Kunihiko Fukushima, Osaka University (Jp)
Patrik Garda, Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie (F)
Anne Guerin-Dugue, INPG (F)
Martin Hasler, EPFL (CH)
Mohamad H . Hassoun, Wayne State University (USA)
Gonzalo Joya, Universidad de Malaga (E)
Simon Jones, IERI Loughborough Univ. of Tech. (UK)
Christian Jutten, INPG (F)
H. Klar, Technische Universitt Berlin (G)
K.Nicholas Leibovic, Univ. Buffalo (USA)
J.Lettvin, MIT (USA)
Francisco Javier Lopez Aligue, Universidad de Extremadura (E)
Jordi Madrenas, UPC (E)
Pierre Marchal, CSEM (CH)
Juan Manuel Moreno, UPC (E)
Josef A. Nossek, Der Technischen Universitt Mnchen (G)
Julio Ortega, Universidad de Granada (E)
Francisco Jose Pelayo, Universidad de Granada (E)
Franz Pichler, Johannes Kepler Universitt Linz (A)
Vicenzo Piuri, Politecnico di Milano (I)
Leonardo Reyneri, Politecnico di Torino  (I)
Tamas Roska, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (H)
E. Sanchez-Sinencio, Texas A&M Univ. (USA)
J. Simoes Da Fonseca, Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon (P)
John G. Taylor, King's College London (UK)
Carme Torras, Instituto de Cibernetica del CSIC-UPC (E)
Philip Treleaven, University College London (UK)
Elena Valderrama, Centro Nacional de Microelectronica (E)