Software Release: BrainWave neural network simulator (version 1.1)

[Devin McAuley]

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the release of BrainWave (version 1.1).  
BrainWave is a web-based  neural network simulator, designed for
teaching and research of connectionist models of cognition. 

It employs a highly graphical, direct manipulation interface 
-much like a drawing program - allowing students to focus on 
the models and not the interface. 

BrainWave is written in the Java programming language meaning that 
it can be run directly from web browsers such as Netscape and 
Internet Explorer (on Windows 95, MacOs 7.0 and several Unix platforms).
You can access BrainWave at 

  http://psy.uq.edu.au/~brainwav

The following algorithms are included in version 1.1.

 * Interactive Activation and Competition
 * Self Organizing Map
 * Backpropagation
 * Hebbian Learning 
 * Hopfield Network 
 * Simple-Recurrent Network
 * Phase-Resetting Oscillators
 * ALCOVE

All models in BrainWave are accessible in a user modifiable
Networks menu, or can be loaded directly from local disk or 
a URL.  Some of the models included in version 1.1 are

 * Letter Perception (McCelland & Rumelhart 1981)
 * Orientation Selectivity (von der Malsberg 1973)
 * Controlled and Automatic Processing 
   -The Stroop Effect (Cohen, Dunbar & McClelland 1990)
 * Category Learning - ALCOVE (Kruschke 1993)
 * Episodic Memory - The Matrix Model (Humphreys, Bain & Pike 1989) 
 * Language Acquisition - Simple Recurrent Network (Elman 1990) 
 * Deep Dyslexia (Hinton & Shallice 1991)
 * Synchronous Fireflies Example (Buck & Buck 1976)

Neural Networks by Example is an online workbook designed for use 
with the BrainWave simulator in the context of a course on neural 
networks or through a program of self study. The chapters of Neural 
Networks by Example (available from the BrainWave home page) cover 
a set of neural architectures that have been instrumental in the 
development of the field and that illustrate key concepts in the 
area. Network architectures are introduced through a series of 
exercises using the simulator, highlighting important issues or 
concepts that the architectures demonstrate. The approach is very 
hands on, and the best way to use the workbook is with a running 
copy of BrainWave.

We hope that you find BrainWave a useful teaching and research tool.
If you have any questions, please email us at

brainwav at psy.uq.edu.au

cheers,

Simon Dennis and Devin McAuley