Telluride Workshop 1998

[Terry Sejnowski]

               "NEUROMORPHIC ENGINEERING WORKSHOP"

                     JUNE 29 - JULY 19, 1998

                       TELLURIDE, COLORADO

             Deadline for application is February  1, 1998.

Avis  COHEN (University of  Maryland)
Rodney DOUGLAS (University  of Zurich  and  ETH, Zurich/Switzerland)
Christof KOCH   (California Institute of Technology)
Terrence SEJNOWSKI (Salk Institute and UCSD)
Shihab SHAMMA (University of Maryland)

We  invite  applications for a three week summer workshop that will be 
held in Telluride, Colorado from Monday, June 29 to Sunday, July 19, 
1998.

The 1997 summer workshop on  "Neuromorphic Engineering", sponsored  by
the   National Science Foundation, the   Gatsby  Foundation and by the
"Center  for   Neuromorphic Systems   Engineering"  at  the California
Institute of Technology, was an exciting event and a great success.  A
detailed     report  on     the      workshop    is    available    at
http://www.klab.caltech.edu/~timmer/telluride.html      We    strongly
encourage interested parties to browse through these reports and photo
albums.

GOALS:

Carver  Mead introduced the  term "Neuromorphic Engineering" for a new
field     based on the design    and  fabrication of artificial neural
systems, such as vision  systems, head-eye systems, and roving robots,
whose   architecture and design  principles   are  based on those   of
biological  nervous  systems. The goal  of this  workshop  is to bring
together young   investigators and  more established  researchers from
academia   with  their    counterparts   in  industry   and   national
laboratories,  working on both  neurobiological as well as engineering
aspects of sensory systems and sensory-motor integration. The focus of
the  workshop will  be  on "active"  participation, with demonstration
systems and hands-on-experience for all participants.

Neuromorphic   engineering has  a  wide range    of  applications from
nonlinear adaptive control of complex  systems to the design of  smart
sensors. Many of the fundamental principles in this field, such as the
use  of   learning methods and the  design   of parallel hardware, are
inspired  by  biological  systems. However,  existing applications are
modest  and the challenge  of scaling up  from small artificial neural
networks  and designing completely   autonomous systems at  the levels
achieved by biological  systems lies ahead. The  assumption underlying
this  three week workshop is  that the next generation of neuromorphic
systems  would benefit from closer attention  to  the principles found
through experimental and theoretical studies of real biological nervous
systems as whole systems.

FORMAT:

The  three week   summer workshop  will  include  background  lectures
systems  neuroscience (in  particular learning, oculo-motor  and other
motor systems and  attention),   practical tutorials on   analog  VLSI
design, small mobile robots (Khoalas),  hands-on projects, and special
interest groups.  Participants are  required to take part and possibly
complete at  least one of the projects  proposed (soon to be defined).
They are furthermore  encouraged to become involved  in as many of the
other activities proposed as interest and time allow.

There will be  two lectures in the morning  that cover issues that are
important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of
backgrounds  among the participants,  the  majority of these  lectures
will be tutorials, rather  than detailed reports of current  research.
These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Participants will be
free to  explore and play with  whatever they choose in the afternoon.
Projects  and interest groups meet  in the late  afternoons, and after
dinner.

The analog VLSI  practical tutorials will  cover all aspects of analog
VLSI design, simulation, layout, and testing  over the workshop of the
three  weeks.   The first week covers   basics of  transistors, simple
circuit   design and  simulation.   This  material   is intended   for
participants who have no experience  with analog VLSI. The second week
will focus  on design  frames for silicon   retinas, from the  silicon
compilation  and layout of  on-chip   video scanners, to building  the
peripheral boards necessary for   interfacing analog VLSI retinas   to
video output monitors.  Retina chips  will be provided. The third week
will  feature  sessions on floating  gates, including  lectures on the
physics of  tunneling and  injection, and on  inter-chip communication
systems. We will also feature  a tutorial on  the use of small, mobile
robots, focussing on   Khoala's,  as an  ideal  platform  for  vision,
auditory and sensory-motor circuits.

Projects that are carried out during  the workshop will be centered in
a  number of  groups, including  active  vision, audition,  olfaction,
motor control,    central  pattern  generator,   robotics,   multichip
communication, analog VLSI and learning.

The "active perception" project group  will emphasize vision and human
sensory-motor coordination. Issues to  be covered will include spatial
localization and constancy, attention,  motor planning, eye movements,
and the   use   of  visual  motion  information for    motor  control.
Demonstrations will    include  a robot   head  active   vision system
consisting of a three  degree-of-freedom binocular camera  system that
is fully programmable.

The   "central pattern generator"  group  will  focus on small walking
robots.  It  will look  at characteristics  and sources of   parts for
building robots,  play  with working examples   of legged  robots, and
discuss CPG's and theories  of  nonlinear oscillators for  locomotion.
It  will also  explore  the use   of simple  analog  VLSI sensors  for
autonomous robots.

The "robotics" group will use  rovers, robot arms and working  digital
vision boards to  investigate  issues  of sensory  motor  integration,
passive compliance of the limb, and learning of inverse kinematics and
inverse dynamics.

The  "multichip  communication"  project   group  will   use  existing
interchip  communication   interfaces to   program  small networks  of
artificial  neurons    to   exhibit  particular  behaviors    such  as
amplification, oscillation,   and    associative memory.   Issues   in
multichip communication will be discussed.

LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS:

The workshop   will  take place at   the Telluride  Elementary  School
located in the  small town of  Telluride, 9000 feet high in  Southwest
Colorado, about 6 hours away from Denver  (350 miles). Continental and
United  Airlines provide daily  flights directly  into Telluride.  All
facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are
fully accessible to participants with disabilities.  Participants will
be housed in ski condominiums, within  walking distance of the school.
Participants are expected to share condominiums. No cars are required.
Bring  hiking boots, warm clothes  and  a backpack, since Telluride is
surrounded by beautiful mountains.

The workshop    is   intended to   be very   informal    and hands-on.
Participants   are  not required  to  have  had previous experience in
analog  VLSI circuit design, computational  or machine vision, systems
level  neurophysiology  or   modeling   the   brain  at  the   systems
level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant
backgrounds  from   academia,  industry and national  laboratories  to
apply, in   particular  if  they  are  prepared  to  work on  specific
projects,  talk about  their  own   work  or bring demonstrations   to
Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software).

Internet access will be provided.   Technical staff present throughout
the  workshops will assist with software  and hardware issues. We will
have a network of SUN workstations  running UNIX, MACs and PCs running
LINUX and Windows95.

Unless   otherwise  arranged with one   of  the organizers,  we expect
participants to stay for the duration of this three week workshop.

FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT:

We have several funding requests pending to pay  for most of the costs
associated with this workshop.

Different from previous years,  after notification of acceptances have
been mailed  out around March  15., 1998, participants are expected to
pay a  $250.- workshop  fee.  In case   of real hardship,  this can be
waived.

Shared condominiums will be provided  for all academic participants at
no cost to them. We expect participant  from National Laboratories and
Industry to pay for these modestly priced condominiums.

We expect to  have funds to reimburse a  small number of  participants
for up to travel  (up to $500 for domestic  travel and up to $800  for
overseas travel).    Please specify on  the   application whether such
financial help is needed.

HOW TO APPLY:

The deadline for receipt of applications is  February 1., 1998.

Applicants  should be   at the  level  of graduate  students or  above
(i.e. post-doctoral fellows, faculty,  research and engineering  staff
and  the equivalent positions in  industry and national laboratories).
We  actively  encourage qualified women   and  minority candidates  to
apply.

Application should include:

1. Name, address, telephone, e-mail, FAX, and minority status (optional).
2. Curriculum Vitae.
3. One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop.
4. Description of special equipment needed for demonstrations that could be
   brought to the workshop.
5. Two letters of recommendation

Complete applications should be sent to:

Prof. Terrence Sejnowski
The Salk Institute
10010 North Torrey Pines Road
San Diego, CA 92037

email: terry at salk.edu

FAX: (619) 587 0417

Applicants will be notified around March 15. 1998.