NCAF Meeting Announcement, Aston 22-23 January 2003

[Iead Rezek]

Dear All,

NCAF is UK group with interests in Natural Computing Applications and Research.
NCAF holds three times a year discussing recent developments in Academia as well
as Industry: talks range form high theoretical to completely applied.  All
interested parties are welcome, and we encourage students in particular to
attend. 



Registration is now open for the next NCAF meeting at Aston University,
22-23 January 2003. The special theme for this meeting is Applications in
Medicine and Biology. The NCAF AGM will also take place after lunch on the
second day.

Please refer to the web site at http://ncaf.org.uk (or
http://www.ncaf.co.uk) for further information. The "Meetings" page
(accessible from the home page and menu bar) contains the full programme.
>From the "Meetings" page you can get to the "Venue Details" for information
on location, maps, parking, accommodation and full social programme. There
is also a link to the on-line registration form.

There will be a poster session for students at lunchtime on the second day.
See the website for more details or contact Ian Nabney
(i.t.nabney at aston.ac.uk).

PLEASE TRY TO REGISTER BY 14 JANUARY 2003, although we can deal with
bookings after this date. We would always rather take a late booking than
have you miss the meeting! However, reserving catering in case of late
bookings can leave us financially exposed. The alternative is to keep
guarantees at a conservative level and hope that the venue can cope with
late additions. It's a delicate balancing act which we have to do at every
meeting. We appreciate any help you can give us to minimise the stress and
uncertainty that this process routinely brings. Book as early as possible
and you'll be helping us out a great deal.

As further encouragement to book in good time, all those registered by 8
January 2003 will be entered into a free prize draw for a bottle of quality
wine! The draw and award will take place at the meeting. [NCAF Officers are
not eligible for this draw.]

Also, there is an upcoming one day discussion meeting on "Independent
Component Analysis: Generalisations, Algorithms and Applications" to be held
at Queen Mary, University of London on Fri 20 Dec 2002. This meeting is
supported by IEE, NCAF and QMUL. Details are appended to this email.

Many thanks,
Graham Hesketh
NCAF Chairman
email: graham.hesketh at rolls-royce.com
phone: 01332 246989

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Independent Component Analysis: Generalisations, Algorithms and
Applications

A one day discussion meeting supported by IEE, NCAF and QMUL.
At
Department of Electronic Engineering
Queen Mary, University of London,
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS UK


Friday 20th December 2002

http://www.elec.qmul.ac.uk/ica

Overview

Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is a new field of research emerging
from the areas of nonGaussian Signal Processing, Neural Networks and
probabilistic modelling. It has been heralded by some as the new Principal
Component Analysis (PCA) but, in stark contrast to traditional 2nd order
methods, it has been able to effectively solve the Blind Signal Separation
Problem (BSS).

Recent research has generated a number of classic algorithms for this
purpose and these are already being applied to a broad range of problems
from telecommunications to analysing medical data. Current research is
concentrating on generalizations of the basic ICA model: more sources than
sensors, convolutive and nonlinear mixing, the effects of noise, etc., and
there is also a growing body of emerging applications aiming to exploit ICA.

The purpose of this one day discussion meeting is to bring together
practitioners from the various different disciplines interested in ICA and
to explore the future directions of this field. The programme will comprise
a series of seminars on aspects of ICA, its generalisations and
applications. The day will conclude with a discussion on future research
directions.

The event will take place in the Department of Electronic Engineering, Queen
Mary, University of London. We have detailed travel instructions and a 3D
map indicating the department's location on campus. There is a nominal
attendence fee of 25 to cover food and administration. To register please
complete the registration form by 6th December 2002.

Attendees interested in presenting a poster are encouraged to contact Mike
Davies for details.

Provisional Programme

      09:30 Registration and coffee: foyer of Peoples Palace  

ICA Theory & Generalizations 
      10:00 Blind Source Separation with convolutive mixtures,
            John McWhirter, Qinetiq

      10:30 Extensions of Hebbian Learning which perform ICA
            Colin Fyfe, Paisley University

      11:00 Coffee: foyer of Peoples Palace  

      11:30 Non-negative ICA
            Mark Plumbley, QMUL  

      12.00 The Generative Topographic Mapping for nonlinear ICA
            Richard Everson, Exeter University  

      12:30 Lunch: foyer of Peoples Palace  
       
Applications 
      14:00 Has the permutation problem in Transform Domain BSS been
solved?
            Jonathon Chambers, Kings College London

      14.30 The cocktail party problem: solutions and problems
            Mike Davies, Queen Mary University of London

      15:00 Tea: Foyer of Peoples Palace 
      15:30 Application of BSS to Space Time Coded Wireless
Communications
            Darren Ward, Imperial College London

      16:00 Application of BSS to blind identification and
equalization
            of digital communication channels
            Asoke Nandi, Liverpool University

      16:30 Discussion: "Future Directions in ICA" 
      17:00 Close



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