Graduate Training in CNS at Boston University

[Boston University - Cognitive and Neural Systems]

*******************************************************************
GRADUATE TRAINING IN THE
DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS (CNS)
AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
*******************************************************************

The Boston University Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
offers comprehensive graduate training in the neural and computational
principles, mechanisms, and architectures that underlie human and
animal behavior, and the application of neural network architectures
to the solution of technological problems.

Applications for Fall, 1999, admission and financial aid are now being
accepted for both the MA and PhD degree programs.

To obtain a brochure describing the CNS Program and a set of application
materials, write, telephone, or fax:

DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS
Boston University
677 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215

617/353-9481 (phone)
617/353-7755 (fax)

or send via e-mail your full name and mailing address to the attention
of Mr. Robin Amos at:

inquiries at cns.bu.edu

Applications for admission and financial aid should be received by the
Graduate School Admissions Office no later than January 15.  Late
applications will be considered until May 1; after that date
applications will be considered only as special cases.

Applicants are required to submit undergraduate (and, if applicable,
graduate) transcripts, three letters of recommendation, and Graduate
Record Examination (GRE) scores. The Advanced Test should be in the
candidate's area of departmental specialization. GRE scores may be
waived for MA candidates and, in exceptional cases, for PhD
candidates, but absence of these scores will decrease an applicant's
chances for admission and financial aid.

Non-degree students may also enroll in CNS courses on a part-time
basis.

Stephen Grossberg, Chairman
Gail A. Carpenter, Director of Graduate Studies

Description of the CNS Department:

The Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS) provides
advanced training and research experience for graduate students
interested in the neural and computational principles,
mechanisms, and architectures that underlie human and animal
behavior, and the application of neural network architectures to
the solution of outstanding technological problems. Students are
trained in a broad range of areas concerning cognitive and
neural systems, including vision and image processing; speech
and language understanding; adaptive pattern recognition;
cognitive information processing; self-organization; associative
learning and long-term memory; cooperative and competitive
network dynamics and short-term memory; reinforcement,
motivation, and attention; adaptive sensory-motor control and
robotics; and biological rhythms; as well as the mathematical
and computational methods needed to support modeling research
and applications. The CNS Department awards MA, PhD, and BA/MA
degrees.

The CNS Department embodies a number of unique features. It has
developed a curriculum that consists of interdisciplinary
graduate courses, each of which integrates the psychological,
neurobiological, mathematical, and computational information
needed to theoretically investigate fundamental issues
concerning mind and brain processes and the applications of
neural networks to technology. Additional advanced courses,
including research seminars, are also offered. Each course is
typically taught once a week in the afternoon or evening to make
the program available to qualified students, including working
professionals, throughout the Boston area. Students develop a
coherent area of expertise by designing a program that includes
courses in areas such as biology, computer science, engineering,
mathematics, and psychology, in addition to courses in the CNS
curriculum.

The CNS Department prepares students for thesis research with
scientists in one of several Boston University research centers
or groups, and with Boston-area scientists collaborating with
these centers. The unit most closely linked to the department is
the Center for Adaptive Systems.  Students interested in neural
network hardware work with researchers in CNS, at the College
of Engineering, and at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.  Other research
resources include distinguished research groups in neurophysiology,
neuroanatomy, and neuropharmacology at the Medical School and
the Charles River Campus; in sensory robotics, biomedical
engineering, computer and systems engineering, and neuromuscular
research within the College of Engineering; in dynamical systems
within the Mathematics Department; in theoretical computer science
within the Computer Science Department; and in biophysics and
computational physics within the Physics Department.

In addition to its basic research and training program, the
department conducts a seminar series, as well as conferences and
symposia, which bring together distinguished scientists from
both experimental and theoretical disciplines.

The department is housed in its own new four-story building
which includes ample space for faculty and student offices and
laboratories, as well as an auditorium, classroom and seminar
rooms, a library, and a faculty-student lounge.

Below are listed departmental faculty, courses and labs.


1998-99 CAS MEMBERS and CNS FACULTY:

Thomas J. Anastasio
Visiting Scholar, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (9/1/98-6/30/99)
Associate Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology,
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign
PhD, McGill University
Computational modeling of vestibular, oculomotor, and other sensorimotor
systems.

Jelle Atema
Professor of Biology
Director, Boston University Marine Program (BUMP)
PhD, University of Michigan
Sensory physiology and behavior.

Aijaz Baloch
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Electrical Engineering, Boston University
Neural modeling of role of visual attention in recognition, learning and
motor control, computational vision, adaptive control systems, reinforcement
learning.

Helen Barbas
Associate Professor, Department of Health Sciences
PhD, Physiology/Neurophysiology, McGill University
Organization of the prefrontal cortex, evolution of the neocortex.

Jacob Beck
Research Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Psychology, Cornell University
Visual perception, psychophysics, computational models.

Daniel H. Bullock
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Psychology
PhD, Psychology, Stanford University
Real-time neural systems, sensory-motor learning and control, evolution of
intelligence, cognitive development.

Gail A.Carpenter
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Mathematics
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Pattern recognition, machine learning, differential equations, technology
transfer.

Gert Cauwenberghs
Visiting Scholar, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (6/1/98-8/31/99)
Associate Professor of Electrical And Computer Engineering,
The Johns Hopkins University
PhD, Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
VLSI circuits, systems and algorithms for parallel analog signal processing
and adaptive neural computation.

Laird Cermak
Director, Memory Disorders Research Center, Boston Veterans Affairs Medical
Center
Professor of Neuropsychology, School of Medicine
Professor of Occupational Therapy, Sargent College
PhD, Ohio State University
Memory disorders.

Michael A. Cohen
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Computer Science
PhD, Psychology, Harvard University
Speech and language processing, measurement theory, neural modeling,
dynamical systems.

H. Steven Colburn
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
PhD, Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Audition, binaural interaction, signal processing models of hearing.

Howard Eichenbaum
Professor of Psychology
PhD, Psychology, University of Michigan
Neurophysiological studies of how the hippocampal system is involved in
reinforcement learning, spatial orientation, and declarative memory.

William D. Eldred III
Associate Professor of Biology
PhD, University of Colorado, Health Science Center
Visual neural biology.

Gil Engel
Research Fellow, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Chief Engineer, Vision Applications, Inc.
Senior Design Engineer, Analog Devices, CTS Division
MS, Polytechnic University, New York
Space-variant active vision systems for use in human-computer interactive
control.

Bruce Fischl
Research Fellow, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Anisotropic diffusion and nonlinear image filtering, space-variant vision,
computational models of early visual processing, and automated analysis of
magnetic resonance images.

Paolo Gaudiano
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Computational and neural models of robotics, vision, adaptive sensory-motor
control, and behavioral neurobiology.

Jean Berko Gleason
Professor of Psychology
PhD, Harvard University
Psycholinguistics.

Sucharita Gopal
Associate Professor of Geography
PhD, University of California at Santa Barbara
Neural networks, computational modeling of behavior, geographical information
systems, fuzzy sets, and spatial cognition.

Stephen Grossberg
Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Professor of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering
Chairman, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Director, Center for Adaptive Systems
PhD, Mathematics, Rockefeller University
Theoretical biology, theoretical psychology, dynamical systems, and applied
mathematics.

Frank Guenther
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Biological sensory-motor control, spatial representation, and speech production.

Catherine L. Harris
Assistant Professor of Psychology
PhD, Cognitive Science and Psychology, University of California at San Diego
Visual word recognition, psycholinguistics, cognitive semantics, second
language acquisition, computational models.

Thomas G. Kincaid
Professor of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering,
College of Engineering
PhD, Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Signal and image processing, neural networks, non-destructive testing.

Mark Kon
Professor of Mathematics
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Functional analysis, mathematical physics, partial differential equations.

Nancy Kopell
Professor of Mathematics
PhD, Mathematics, University of California at Berkeley
Dynamical systems, mathematical physiology, pattern formation in
biological/physical systems.

Gregory Lesher
Research Fellow, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Modeling of visual processes, visual perception, statistical
language modeling, and augmentative communication.

Jacqueline A. Liederman
Associate Professor of Psychology
PhD, Psychology, University of Rochester
Dynamics of interhemispheric cooperation; prenatal correlates of
neurodevelopmental disorders.

Ennio Mingolla
Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems and Psychology
PhD, Psychology, University of Connecticut
Visual perception, mathematical modeling of visual processes.

Joseph Perkell
Adjunct Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Senior Research Scientist, Research Lab of Electronics
and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Motor control of speech production.

Alan Peters
Chairman and Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology,
School of Medicine
PhD, Zoology, Bristol University, United Kingdom
Organization of neurons in the cerebral cortex, effects of aging on
the primate brain, fine structure of the nervous system.

Andrzej Przybyszewski
Research Fellow, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Warsaw Medical Academy
Retinal physiology, mathematical and computer modeling of dynamical
properties of neurons in the visual system.

Adam Reeves
Adjunct Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Professor of Psychology, Northeastern University
PhD, Psychology, City University of New York
Psychophysics, cognitive psychology, vision.

Mark Reinitz
Assistant Professor of Psychology
PhD, University of Washington
Cognitive psychology, attention, explicit and implicit memory,
memory-perception interactions.

Mark Rubin
Research Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Research Physicist, Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, CA (on leave)
PhD, Physics, University of Chicago
Neural networks for vision, pattern recognition, and motor control.

Elliot Saltzman
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy, Sargent College
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
and Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action
University of Connecticut, Storrs
Research Scientist, Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT
PhD, Developmental Psychology, University of Minnesota
Modeling and experimental studies of human speech production.

Robert Savoy
Adjunct Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Scientist, Rowland Institute for Science
PhD, Experimental Psychology, Harvard University
Computational neuroscience; visual psychophysics of color, form, and motion
perception.

Eric Schwartz
Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems; Electrical, Computer
and Systems Engineering; and Anatomy and Neurobiology
PhD, High Energy Physics, Columbia University
Computational neuroscience, machine vision, neuroanatomy, neural modeling.

Robert Sekuler
Adjunct Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering,
BioMolecular Engineering Research Center
Jesse and Louis Salvage Professor of Psychology, Brandeis University
PhD, Psychology, Brown University
Visual motion, visual adaptation, relation of visual perception, memory,
and movement.

Barbara Shinn-Cunningham
Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
and Biomedical Engineering
PhD, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Psychoacoustics, audition, auditory localization, binaural hearing,
sensorimotor adaptation, mathematical models of human performance.

Malvin Teich
Professor of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
and Biomedical Engineering
PhD, Cornell University
Quantum optics, photonics, fractal stochastic processes, information
transmission in biological sensory systems.

Lucia Vaina
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Research Professor of Neurology, School of Medicine
PhD, Sorbonne (France); Dres Science, National Politechnique Institute,
Toulouse (France)
Computational visual neuroscience, biological and computational learning,
functional and structural neuroimaging.

Takeo Watanabe
Assistant Professor of Psychology
PhD, Behavioral Sciences, University of Tokyo
Perception of objects and motion and effects of attention on perception
using psychophysics and brain imaging (fMRI).

Allen Waxman
Adjunct Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Senior Staff Scientist, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
PhD, Astrophysics, University of Chicago
Visual system modeling, mobile robotic systems, parallel computing,
optoelectronic hybrid architectures.

James Williamson
Research Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
PhD, Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University
Image processing and object recognition.  Particular interests: dynamic
binding, self-organization, shape representation, and classification.

Jeremy Wolfe
Adjunct Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School
Psychophysicist, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Surgery Dept.
Director of Psychophysical Studies, Center for Clinical Cataract Research
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Visual attention, preattentive and attentive object representation.

Curtis Woodcock
Associate Professor of Geography; Chairman, Department of Geography
Director, Geographic Applications, Center for Remote Sensing
PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara
Biophysical remote sensing, particularly of forests and natural vegetation,
canopy reflectance models and their inversion, spatial modeling, and change
detection; biogeography; spatial analysis; geographic information systems;
digital image processing.


CNS DEPARTMENT COURSE OFFERINGS

CAS CN500  Computational Methods in Cognitive and Neural Systems
CAS CN510  Principles and Methods of Cognitive and Neural Modeling I
CAS CN520  Principles and Methods of Cognitive and Neural Modeling II
CAS CN530  Neural and Computational Models of Vision
CAS CN540  Neural and Computational Models of Adaptive Movement Planning
                        and Control
CAS CN550  Neural and Computational Models of Recognition, Memory and
Attention
CAS CN560  Neural and Computational Models of Speech Perception and Production
CAS CN570  Neural and Computational Models of Conditioning, Reinforcement,
           Motivation and Rhythm
CAS CN580  Introduction to Computational Neuroscience
GRS CN700  Computational and Mathematical Methods in Neural Modeling
GRS CN710  Advanced Topics in Neural Modeling
GRS CN720  Neural and Computational Models of Planning and Temporal Structure
           in Behavior
GRS CN730  Models of Visual Perception
GRS CN740  Topics in Sensory-Motor Control
GRS CN760  Topics in Speech Perception and Recognition
GRS CN780  Topics in Computational Neuroscience
GRS CN810  Topics in Cognitive and Neural Systems: Visual Event Perception
GRS CN811  Topics in Cognitive and Neural Systems: Visual Perception

GRS CN911,912
Research in Neural Networks for Adaptive Pattern Recognition

GRS CN915,916
Research in Neural Networks for Vision and Image Processing

GRS CN921,922
Research in Neural Networks for Speech and Language Processing

GRS CN925,926
Research in Neural Networks for Adaptive Sensory-Motor Planning
and Control

GRS CN931,932
Research in Neural Networks for Conditioning and Reinforcement Learning

GRS CN935,936
Research in Neural Networks for Cognitive Information Processing

GRS CN941,942
Research in Nonlinear Dynamics of Neural Networks

GRS CN945,946
Research in Technological Applications of Neural Networks

GRS CN951,952
Research in Hardware Implementations of Neural Networks

CNS students also take a wide variety of courses in related departments.
In addition, students participate in a weekly colloquium series, an informal
lecture series, and a student-run Journal Club, and attend lectures and
meetings
throughout the Boston area; and advanced students work in small research
groups.


LABORATORY AND COMPUTER FACILITIES

The department is funded by grants and contracts from federal
agencies that support research in life sciences, mathematics,
artificial intelligence, and engineering. Facilities include
laboratories for experimental research and computational
modeling in visual perception, speech and language processing,
and sensory-motor control and robotics. Data analysis and
numerical simulations are carried out on a state-of-the-art
computer network comprised of Sun workstations, Silicon Graphics
workstations, Macintoshes, and PCs.  All students have access to
X-terminals or UNIX workstation consoles, a selection of color
systems and PCs, a network of SGI machines, and standard modeling
and mathematical simulation packages such as Mathematica, VisSim,
Khoros, and Matlab.

The department maintains a core collection of books and
journals, and has access both to the Boston University libraries
and to the many other collections of the Boston Library
Consortium.

In addition, several specialized facilities and software are
available for use.  These include:

Computer Vision/Computational Neuroscience Laboratory

The Computer Vision/Computational Neuroscience Lab is comprised
of an electronics workshop, including a surface-mount
workstation, PCD fabrication tools, and an Alterra EPLD design
system; a light machine shop; an active vision lab including
actuators and video hardware; and systems for computer aided
neuroanatomy and application of computer graphics and image
processing to brain sections and MRI images.

Neurobotics Laboratory

The Neurobotics Lab utilizes wheeled mobile robots to study
potential applications of neural networks in several areas,
including adaptive dynamics and kinematics, obstacle avoidance,
path planning and navigation, visual object recognition, and
conditioning and motivation. The lab currently has three Pioneer
robots equipped with sonar and visual sensors; one B-14 robot
with a moveable camera, sonars, infrared, and bump sensors; and
two Khepera miniature robots with infrared proximity detectors.
Other platforms may be investigated in the future.

Psychoacoustics Laboratory

The Psychoacoustics Lab houses a newly installed, 8 ft. x 8 ft.
sound-proof booth.  The laboratory is  extensively equipped to
perform both traditional psychoacoustic experiments and
experiments using interactive auditory virtual-reality stimuli.
The major equipment dedicated to the psychoacoustics laboratory
includes two Pentium-based personal computers; two
Power-PC-based Macintosh computers; a 50-MHz array processor
capable of generating auditory stimuli in real time;
programmable attenuators; analog-to-digital and
digital-to-analog converters; a real-time head tracking system;
a special-purpose, signal-processing hardware system capable of
generating "spatialized" stereo auditory signals in real time; a
two-channel oscilloscope; a two-channel spectrum analyzer;
various cables, headphones, and other miscellaneous electronics
equipment; and software for signal generation, experimental
control, data analysis, and word processing.

Sensory-Motor Control Laboratory

The Sensory-Motor Control Lab supports experimental studies of
motor kinematics. An infrared WatSmart system allows measurement
of large-scale movements, and a pressure-sensitive graphics
tablet allows studies of handwriting and other fine-scale
movements.  Equipment includes a 40-inch monitor that allows
computer display of animations generated by an SGI workstation
or a Pentium Pro (Windows NT) workstation.  A second major
component is a helmet-mounted, video-based, eye-head tracking
system (ISCAN Corp, 1997).  The latter's camera samples eye
position at 240Hz and also allows reconstruction of what
subjects are attending to as they freely scan a scene under
normal lighting.  Thus the system affords a wide range of
visuo-motor studies.

Speech and Language Laboratory

The Speech and Language Lab includes facilities for
analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog software conversion.
Ariel equipment allows reliable synthesis and playback of
speech waveforms.  An Entropic signal processing package
provides facilities for detailed analysis, filtering, spectral
construction, and formant tracking of the speech waveform.
Various large databases, such as TIMIT and TIdigits, are
available for testing algorithms of speech recognition.  For
high speed processing, supercomputer facilities speed
filtering and data analysis.

Visual Psychophysics Laboratory

The Visual Psychophysics Lab occupies an 800-square-foot suite,
including three dedicated rooms for data collection, and houses
a variety of computer controlled display platforms, including
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) Onyx RE2, SGI Indigo2 High Impact,
SGI Indigo2 Extreme, Power Computing (Macintosh compatible)
PowerTower Pro 225, and Macintosh 7100/66 workstations.
Ancillary resources for visual psychophysics include a
computer-controlled video camera, stereo viewing glasses,
prisms, a photometer, and a variety of display-generation,
data-collection,  and data-analysis software.

Affiliated Laboratories

Affiliated CAS/CNS faculty have additional laboratories ranging
from visual and auditory psychophysics and neurophysiology,
anatomy, and neuropsychology to engineering and chip design.
These facilities are used in the context of faculty/student
collaborations.

*******************************************************************
DEPARTMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS
GRADUATE TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT

Boston University
677 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215

Phone: 617/353-9481
Fax:   617/353-7755
Email: inquiries at cns.bu.edu
Web: http://cns-web.bu.edu/
*******************************************************************