From avi at eecs.harvard.edu Tue Jul 1 11:04:38 2003 From: avi at eecs.harvard.edu (Avi Pfeffer) Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 11:04:38 -0400 Subject: Announcing IBAL release Message-ID: <3F01A306.5020503@eecs.harvard.edu> Readers of this list may be interested in the following announcement: I am pleased to announce the initial release of IBAL, a general purpose language for probabilistic reasoning. IBAL is highly expressive, and its inference algorithm generalizes many common frameworks as well as allowing many new ones. It also provides parameter estimation and decision making. All this is packaged in a programming language that provides libraries, automatic type checking, etc. IBAL may be downloaded from http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~avi/IBAL. Avi Pfeffer From Thomas.Wennekers at neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de Wed Jul 2 09:36:37 2003 From: Thomas.Wennekers at neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de (Thomas Wennekers) Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 15:36:37 +0200 (MEST) Subject: Special issue on "Cell Assemblies" Message-ID: <200307021336.h62DabQg005005@fsnif.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> Dear all, the following collection of papers appeared recently as a special issue on "Cell Assemblies" at "Theory in Biosciences". Preprint versions of the papers are available under http://www.neuroinformatik.rub.de/thbio/publications/specialissue/cellassemblies.html Final versions should be available from the authors. Best wishes, Thomas Thomas Wennekers, Friedrich T. Sommer, and Ad Aertsen Editorial: Cell Assemblies Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 1-4. Thomas Wennekers and Nihat Ay Spatial and Temporal Stochastic Interaction in Neuronal Assemblies Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 5-18. The observation of various types of spatio-temporal correlations in spike patterns of multiple cortical neurons has shifted attention from rate coding paradigms to computational processes based on the precise timing of spikes in neuronal ensembles. In the present work we develop the notion of "spatial" and "temporal interaction" which provides measures for statistical dependences in coupled stochastic processes like multiple unit spike trains. We show that the classical Willshaw network and Abeles' synfire chain model both reveal a moderate spatial interaction, but only the synfire chain model reveals a positive temporal interaction, too. Systems that maximize temporal interaction are shown to be almost deterministic globally, but posses almost unpredictable firing behavior on the single unit level. Anders Lansner, Erik Frans?n, and Anders Sandberg Cell assembly dynamics in detailed and abstract attractor models of cortical associative memory Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 19-36. During the last few decades we have seen a convergence among ideas and hypotheses regarding functional principles underlying human memory. Hebb's now more than fifty years old conjecture concerning synaptic plasticity and cell assemblies, formalized mathematically as attractor neural networks, has remained among the most viable and productive theoretical frameworks. It suggests plausible explanations for Gestalt aspects of active memory like perceptual completion, reconstruction and rivalry. We review the biological plausibility of these theories and discuss some critical issues concerning their associative memory functionality in the light of simulation studies of models with palimpsest memory properties. The focus is on memory properties and dynamics of networks modularized in terms of cortical minicolumns and hypercolumns. Biophysical compartmental models demonstrate attractor dynamics that support cell assembly operations with fast convergence and low firing rates. Using a scaling model we obtain reasonable relative connection densities and amplitudes. An abstract attractor network model reproduces systems level psychological phenomena seen in human memory experiments as the Sternberg and von Restorff effects. We conclude that there is today considerable substance in Hebb's theory of cell assemblies and its attractor network formulations, and that they have contributed to increasing our understanding of cortical associative memory function. The criticism raised with regard to biological and psychological plausibility as well as low storage capacity, slow retrieval etc has largely been disproved. Rather, this paradigm has gained further support from new experimental data as well as computational modeling. Andreas Knoblauch and G?nther Palm Synchronization of Neuronal Assemblies in Reciprocally Connected Cortical Areas Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 37-54. To investigate scene segmentation in the visual system we present a model of two reciprocally connected visual areas comprising spiking neurons. The peripheral area P is modeled similar to the primary visual cortex, while the central area C is modeled as an associative memory representing stimulus objects according to Hebbian learning. Without feedback from area C, spikes corresponding to stimulus representations in P are synchronized only locally (slow state). Feedback from C can induce fast oscillations and an increase of synchronization ranges (fast state). Presenting a superposition of several stimulus objects, scene segmentation happens on a time scale of hundreds of milliseconds by alternating epochs of the slow and fast state, where neurons representing the same object are simultaneously in the fast state. We relate our simulation results to various phenomena observed in neurophysiological experiments, such as stimulus-dependent synchronization of fast oscillations, synchronization on different time scales, ongoing activity, and attention-dependent neural activity. Friedrich T. Sommer and Thomas Wennekers Models of distributed associative memory networks in the brain Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 55-69. Although experimental evidence for distributed cell assemblies is growing, theories of cell assemblies are still marginalized in theoretical neuroscience. We argue that this has to do with shortcomings of the currently best understood assembly theories, the ones based on formal associative memory models. These only insufficiently reflect anatomical and physiological properties of nervous tissue and their functionality is too restricted to provide a framework for cognitive modeling. We describe cell assembly models that integrate more neurobiological constraints and review results from simulations of a simple nonlocal associative network formed by a reciprocal topographic projection. Impacts of nonlocal associative projections in the brain are discussed with respect to the functionality they can explain. Hualou Liang and Hongbin Wang Top-Down Anticipatory Control in Prefrontal Cortex Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 70-86. The prefrontal cortex has been implicated in a wide variety of executive functions, many involving some form of anticipatory attention. Anticipatory attention involves the pre-selection of specific sensory circuits to allow fast and efficient stimulus processing and a subsequently fast and accurate response. It is generally agreed that the prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in anticipatory attention by exerting a facilitatory "top-down" bias on sensory pathways. In this paper we review recent results indicating that synchronized activity in prefrontal cortex, during anticipation of visual stimulus, can predict features of early visual stimulus processing and behavioral response. Although the mechanisms involved in anticipatory attention are still largely unknown, we argue that the synchronized oscillation in prefrontal cortex is a plausible candidate during sustained visual anticipation. We further propose a learning hypothesis that explains how this top-down anticipatory control in prefrontal cortex is learned based on accumulated prior experience by adopting a Temporal Difference learning algorithm. Friedemann Pulverm?ller Sequence detectors as a basis of grammar in the brain Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 87-104. Grammar processing may build upon serial-order mechanisms known from non-human species. A circuit similar to that underlying direction-sensitive movement detection in arthropods and vertebrates may become selective for sequences of words, thus yielding grammatical sequence detectors in the human brain. Sensitivity to the order of neuronal events arises from unequal connection strengths between two input units and a third element, the sequence detector. This mechanism, which critically depends on the dynamics of the input units, can operate at the single neuron level and may be relevant at the level of neuronal ensembles as well. Due to the repeated occurrence of sequences, for example word strings, the sequence-sensitive elements become more firmly established and, by substitution of elements between strings, a process called auto-associative substitution learning (AASL) is triggered. AASL links the neuronal counterparts of the string elements involved in the substitution process to the sequence detector, thereby providing a brain basis of what can be described linguistically as the generalization of rules of grammar. A network of sequence detectors may constitute grammar circuits in the human cortex on which a separate set of mechanisms establishing temporary binding and recursion can operate. ____________________________________________________________________________ Jr.Prof.Dr.Thomas Wennekers Theoretical Neuroscience Group Institute for Neuroinformatics Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum Universitaetsstrasse 150 ND 04/589a 44780 Bochum Phone: +49-234-3224231 Fax: +49-234-3214209 Priv.: +49-160-6123416 Email: Thomas.Wennekers at neuroinformatik.rub.de ____________________________________________________________________________ From eurich at physik.uni-bremen.de Wed Jul 2 11:33:40 2003 From: eurich at physik.uni-bremen.de (Christian Eurich) Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 17:33:40 +0200 Subject: PhD position in Theoretical Neuroscience Message-ID: <3F02FB54.3C538E71@physik.uni-bremen.de> Dear Connectionists, a PhD position is available in the Institute for Theoretical Neurophysics at the University of Bremen for a project on human sensorimotor control loops. In cooperation with experimental groups, dynamical models of action and perception will be developed to investigate, for example, human postural sway and the task of balancing sticks on the fingertip. Typical methods we employ in our institute include dynamical systems theory, neural networks, and statistical estimation theory. Our homepage is http://www.neuro.uni-bremen.de/index.php The University of Bremen has several institutions in the field of Neuroscience, including a Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and a Special Research Project "Neurocognition". There are several theoretical and experimental groups in the Physics, Biology and Psychology working on neural network modeling, psychophysics, and electrophysiology. The Hanse Institute for Advanced Study in Delmenhorst (which is close to Bremen) hosts international guests from the area of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science and also organizes Neuroscience workshops and conferences. Closing date is July 25, 2003. For further information and applications, please contact Dr. Christian Eurich during the upcoming CNS conference in Alicante or at Universitaet Bremen Institut fuer Theoretische Neurophysik, FB 1 Postfach 330 440 D-28334 Bremen, Germany Phone: +49 (421) 218-4559 Fax: +49 (421) 218-9104 e-mail: eurich at physik.uni-bremen.de From Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp Wed Jul 2 05:30:27 2003 From: Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp (Luc Berthouze) Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 11:30:27 +0200 Subject: postdoc position in developmental robotics and motor learning Message-ID: <20030630075928.1B61613B65C@aidan6.a02.aist.go.jp> The Cognitive Neuroinformatics group in the Neuroscience Research Institute at the Japanese National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba (Japan) is seeking an outstanding postdoctoral researcher to join our lab for two years starting between April 2004 and September 2004. Candidates should have a solid background in robotics and computational modeling, and a keen interest in developmental robotics and embodied cognition. The postdoc will be expected to contribute to our study of the acquisition of motor skills in human infants. Our approach is interdisciplinary. On the one hand, we exploit studies in developmental psychology to propose candidate mechanisms; and, on the other hand, we use robots to test and validate those hypotheses. The purpose of this approach is two-fold: (a) to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying motor development in infants; (b) to propose new methods for robot learning. Experience in using neural oscillators to implement motor control models, and a good understanding of the so-called "dynamical systems approach" will be highly appreciated. For more information, please consult our lab's website at: http://www.neurosci.aist.go.jp/~mechwa The Neuroscience Research Institute, and more generally, AIST, provides an excellent environment for interdisciplinary research, with groups engaged in research in biology, neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and robotics. See http://www.aist.go.jp (AIST website) and http://www.neurosci.aist.go.jp (Neuroscience Research Institute) for more information. Candidates should contact Luc Berthouze with a CV and a one-page statement of research interests. If electronic submission is not possible, fax your application to +81-298-615841, directed to the attention of Luc Berthouze. From P.Tino at cs.bham.ac.uk Thu Jul 3 11:27:30 2003 From: P.Tino at cs.bham.ac.uk (Peter Tino) Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2003 16:27:30 +0100 Subject: papers on architectural bias of RNNs Message-ID: <3F044B62.9060906@cs.bham.ac.uk> Dear Connectionists, a collection of papers dealing with theoretical and practical aspects of recurrent neural networks before and in the early stages of training is available on-line. Preprints can be found at http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pxt/my.publ.html B. Hammer, P. Tino: Recurrent neural networks with small weights implement definite memory machines. Neural Computation, accepted, 2003. - Proves that Recurrent networks are architecturally biased towards definite memory machines/Markov models. Also contains rigorous learnability analysis of recurrent nets in the early stages of learning. P. Tino, M. Cernansky, L. Benuskova: Markovian architectural bias of recurrent neural networks. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, accepted, 2003. - Mostly empirical study of the architectural bias phenomenon in the context of connectionist modeling of symbolic sequences. It is possible to extract (variable memory length) Markov models from recurrent networks even prior to any training! To assess the amount of useful information extracted during the training, the networks should be compared with variable memory length Markov models. P. Tino, B. Hammer: Architectural Bias in Recurrent Neural Networks - Fractal Analysis. Neural Computation, accepted, 2003. - Rigorous fractal analysis of recurrent activations in recurrent networks in the early stages of learning. The complexity of input patterns (topological entropy) is directly reflected by the complexity of recurrent activations (fractal dimension). Best wishes, Peter Tino -- Peter Tino The University of Birmingham School of Computer Science Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK +44 121 414 8558 , fax: 414 4281 http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pxt/ From gary at cs.ucsd.edu Thu Jul 3 13:31:50 2003 From: gary at cs.ucsd.edu (Gary Cottrell) Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 10:31:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: papers on architectural bias of RNNs Message-ID: <200307031731.h63HVoO29370@fast.ucsd.edu> Folks interested in Peter's paper on RNN's and Definite Memory Machines may also be interested in our papers on TDNN's and definite memory machines: Clouse, Daniel S., Giles, Lee C., Horne, Bill G. and Cottrell, G. W. (1997) Time-delay neural networks: Representation and induction of finite state machines. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks. This work attempts to characterize the capabilities of time-delay neural networks (TDNN), and contrast two subclasses of TDNN in the area of language induction. The two subclasses are those with delays limited to the inputs (IDNN), and those which include delays also on hidden units (HDNN). Both of these architectures are capable of representing the same languages, those representable by definite memory machines (DMM), a subclass of finite state machines (FSM). They have a strong representational bias towards DMMs which can be characterized by little logic. We demonstrate this by learning a 2048 state DMM using very few training examples. Even though both architectures are capable of representing the same class of languages, HDNNs are biased towards learning languages which are characterized by shift-invariant behavior on short input windows in the mapping from recent inputs to the accept/reject classification. We demonstrate this difference in learning bias via a set of simulations and statistical analysis. http://www.neci.nec.com/%7Egiles/papers/IEEE.TNN.tdnn.as.fsm.ps.Z Clouse, Daniel S., Giles, Lee C., Horne, Bill G. and Cottrell, G. W. (1997) Representation and induction of finite state machines using time-delay neural networks. In Michael C. Mozer, Michael I. Jordan, and Thomas Petsche (eds.) Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 9, pp. 403-409. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1997. (Similar abstract!) http://nips.djvuzone.org/djvu/nips09/0403.djvu From r.gayler at mbox.com.au Thu Jul 3 19:26:23 2003 From: r.gayler at mbox.com.au (Ross Gayler) Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 09:26:23 +1000 Subject: Response to Jackendoff's challenges -- notice of conference presentation and availability of paper Message-ID: <001001c341ba$8517fc50$2402a8c0@Chennai> The linguist, Ray Jackendoff, proposed four challenges to cognitive neuroscience in his book "Foundations of Language". Each challenge corresponds to an element of core linguistic functionality which Jackendoff sees as being poorly addressed by current connectionist models. On August 5, 2002, Jerome Feldman broadcast these challenges to the Connectionists mailing list under the subject "Neural binding". After receiving several responses, Feldman concluded on August 21 that "it isn't obvious (at least to me) how to use any of the standard techniques to specify a model that meets Jackendoff's criteria". I have prepared a paper setting out how I believe one family of connectionist architectures can meet Jackendoff's challenges. This will be presented at the Joint International Conference on Cognitive Science to be held in Sydney, Australia from 13 - 17 July, 2003 (http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/cogsci2003/). If you will be attending the conference and wish to hear the presentation - it is currently scheduled for 1 p.m. on Thursday 17th in the Language stream (http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/cogsci2003/conf_content/program_thurs_pm.htm). An extended abstract is included below and anyone who wishes a preprint copy of the paper (which is very condensed to fit the conference format) should e-mail me at r.gayler at mbox.com.au Ross Gayler Melbourne, AUSTRALIA r.gayler at mbox.com.au +61 413 111 303 mobile Vector Symbolic Architectures answer Jackendoff's challenges for cognitive neuroscience. Ross Gayler Vector Symbolic Architectures (Gayler, 1998; Kanerva, 1997; Plate, 1994) are a little-known class of connectionist models that can directly implement functions usually taken to form the kernel of symbolic processing. They are an enhancement of tensor product variable binding networks (Smolensky, 1990). Like tensor product networks, VSA's can create and manipulate recursively-structured representations in a natural and direct connectionist fashion without requiring lengthy training. However, unlike tensor product networks, VSA's afford a practical basis for implementations because they require only fixed dimension vector representations. The fact that VSA's relate directly, without training, to both simple, practical vector implementations and core symbolic processing functionality suggests that they would provide a fruitful connectionist basis for the implementation of cognitive functionality. Ray Jackendoff (2002) posed four challenges that linguistic combinatoriality and rules of language present to theories of brain function. These challenges are: the massiveness of the binding problem, the problem of dealing with multiple instances, the problem of variables, and the compatibility of representations in working memory and long-term memory. The essence of these problems is the question of how to neurally instantiate the rapid construction and transformation of the compositional structures that are typically taken to be the domain of symbolic processing. Drawing on work by Gary Marcus (2001), Jackendoff contended that these challenges had not been widely recognised in the cognitive neuroscience community and that the dialogue between linguistic theory and neural network modelling would be relatively unproductive until the challenges were answered by some technical innovation in connectionist models. Jerome Feldman (2002) broadcast these challenges to the neural network modelling community via the Connectionists Mailing List. The few responses he received were unable to convince Feldman that any standard connectionist techniques would meet Jackendoff's criteria. In this paper I demonstrate that Vector Symbolic Architectures are able to meet Jackendoff's challenges. References Feldman, J. (2002). Neural binding. Posted to Connectionists Mailing List, 5th August, 2002. (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/connect/connect-archives/arc h.2002-08.gz 0005.txt see also 8, 9, 18, and 21) Gayler, R. W. (1998). Multiplicative binding, representation operators, and analogy. In K. Holyoak, D. Gentner & B. Kokinov (Eds.), Advances in analogy research: Integration of theory and data from the cognitive, computational, and neural sciences (p. 405). Sofia, Bulgaria: New Bulgarian University. (http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000502/ see also 500 and 501) Jackendoff, R. (2002). Foundations of language: Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kanerva, P. (1997). Fully distributed representation. In Proceedings Real World Computing Symposium (RWC'97, Tokyo). Report TR-96001 (pp. 358-365). Tsukuba-city, Japan: Real World Computing Partnership. (http://www.rni.org/kanerva/rwc97.ps.gz see also http://www.rni.org/kanerva/pubs.html) Marcus, G. (2001). The algebraic mind. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. Plate, T. A. (1994). Distributed representations and nested compositional structure. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. (http://pws.prserv.net/tap/papers/plate.thesis.ps.gz see also http://pws.prserv.net/tap/) Smolensky, P. (1990). Tensor product variable binding and the representation of symbolic structures in connectionist systems. Artificial Intelligence, 46, 159-216. From j.hogan at qut.edu.au Fri Jul 4 03:44:11 2003 From: j.hogan at qut.edu.au (James Michael Hogan) Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 17:44:11 +1000 Subject: Symposium on Statistical Learning Message-ID: <200307040744.AKA05918@mail-router02.qut.edu.au> An upcoming workshop in Sydney - organised by people from UNSW- jh S E C O N D A N N O U N C E M E N T \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute symposium on /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: .. .. .. STATISTICAL LEARNING .. .. .. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia 2nd-3rd October, 2003 ========================================================== The symposium is now just 3 months away. Here are some updates: * The new and improved web-site is www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~inge/symp and information about the symposium is continuously being added. The latest addition is a tentative programme. * HOTEL BOOKING ALERT!!!! The symposium takes place just one week before the 2003 Rugby World Cup commences in Sydney. Therefore you are advised to book accommodation as soon as possible. Accommodation suggestions have been added to the web-site. Flights may also be affected by the World Cup. * Early bird special (late bird penalty). We recommend you register as soon as possible, but not later than 2nd September when the lower rates expire. Full registration procedures are now on the web. * Speaker addition/subtraction Drs. Markus Hegland and Alex Smola have been added to the invited speaker list. Professor Geoff McLachlan has had to withdraw. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Inge Koch and Matt Wand Department of Statistics University of New South Wales Sydney 2052, Australia +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ----- End Forwarded Message ----- From rporter at lanl.gov Mon Jul 7 14:46:41 2003 From: rporter at lanl.gov (Reid Porter) Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2003 12:46:41 -0600 Subject: Postdoctoral position in digital neural networks Message-ID: <5.0.0.25.2.20030707121230.02d91d78@nis-pop.lanl.gov> Postdoctoral position available in digital neural networks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Space Data System Group (NIS-3) of Los Alamos National Laboratory seeks outstanding candidates for a postdoctoral research position in the areas of pattern recognition, mathematical morphology and reconfigurable computing. The candidate will help develop high performance feature extraction and classification algorithms to be deployed in reconfigurable computing hardware. Applications include remotely sensed satellite imagery, unmanned aerial vehicle video and other spatio-temporal data sets. The main focus will be to develop novel cellular non-linear networks suitable for digital hardware by building on mathematical morphology and non-linear digital filter theory. The position will require research (typically mathematics) and algorithm proto-typing (typically Matlab), software development and implementation (typically in C / C++) targeting eventual deployment with reconfigurable computing (typically in VHDL). Required Skills: Prospective candidates should have good oral and written communication skills, and a demonstrated ability to perform independent and creative research. We are most interested in candidates with research interests and experience in the following areas: - Cellular non-linear networks and spatio-temporal processing - Mathematical morphology and non-linear digital filters - Machine learning, artificial intelligence and optimization - Image, video and signal processing. - Digital design, reconfigurable computing Education: A PhD completed within the past five years or soon to be completed is required. Post-doc starting salaries are usually in the range $59,300 - $67,300 depending on experience, and generous assistance is provided with relocation expenses. The initial contract offered would be for two years, with good possibilities for contract extensions. Candidates may be considered for a Director's Fellowship and outstanding candidates may be considered for the prestigious J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard P. Feynman or Frederick Reines Fellowships. Please see http://www.hr.lanl.gov/jps/regjobsearch.stm, job number #205519, for more information. Los Alamos is a small and very friendly town situated 7200 ft up in the scenic Jemez mountains in northern New Mexico. The climate is very pleasant and opportunities for outdoor recreation are numerous (skiing, hiking, biking, climbing, etc). The Los Alamos public school system is excellent. LANL provides a very constructive working environment with abundant resources and support, and the opportunity to work with intelligent and creative people on a variety of interesting projects. Applicants are asked to send a resume, publications list and a cover letter outlining current research interests to rporter at lanl.gov. Hard copies may be sent to: Reid Porter, NIS-3, MS D440, Los Alamos National Lab, New Mexico 87545, USA. From becker at mcmaster.ca Wed Jul 9 23:05:47 2003 From: becker at mcmaster.ca (S. Becker) Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 23:05:47 -0400 (EDT) Subject: NIPS 2003 Survey Message-ID: To Connectionists: We are asking for a few minutes of your time to complete an online Survey consisting of four yes/no questions. The Survey deals with a number of major changes to the format of the NIPS Conference that are under consideration. The impetus for these possible changes is to accommodate the growth in submissions in recent years (a 50% increase between 1999 and 2002), as well the diverse demographics of the Conference attendees. Your responses to the four questions, as well as any additional input you may have, will be valuable in shaping the future of NIPS. We thank you for your participation. https://register.nips.salk.edu/surveys/survey.php?id=1 Terrence Sejnowski President Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation From terry at salk.edu Fri Jul 11 19:01:45 2003 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:01:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: NEURAL COMPUTATION 15:8 Message-ID: <200307112301.h6BN1jT51877@purkinje.salk.edu> Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 15, Number 8 - August 1, 2003 ARTICLE Computation In a Single Neuron: Hodgkin and Huxley Revisited Blaise Aguera Y Arcas, Adrienne L. Fairhall and William Bialek NOTE Learning the Nonlinearity of Neurons from Natural Visual Stimuli Christoph Kayser, Konrad P. Kording and Peter Konig LETTERS Analytic Expressions for Rate and CV of a Type I Neuron Driven by White Gaussian Noise Benjamin Lindner, Andre Longtin, and Adi Bulsara What Causes a Neuron to Spike? Blaise Aguera y Arcas and Adrienne L. Fairhall Rate Models for Conductance-Based Cortical Neuronal Networks Oren Shriki, David Hansel, and Haim Sompolinsky Neural Representation of Probabilistic Information M.J. Barber, J.W. Clark and C.H. Anderson Learning the Gestalt Rule of Collinearity from Object Motion Carsten Prodoehl, Rolf Wuertz and Christoph von der Malsburg Recurrent Neural Networks With Small Weights Implement Definite Memory Machines Barbara Hammer and Peter Tino Architectural Bias in Recurrent Neural Networks: Fractal Analysis Peter Tino and Barbara Hammer An Effective Bayesian Neural Network Classifier with a Comparison Study to Support Vector Machine Faming Liang Variational Bayesian Learning of ICA with Missing Data Kwokleung Chan, Te-Won Lee and Terrence J. Sejnowski ----- ON-LINE - http://neco.mitpress.org/ SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2003 - VOLUME 15 - 12 ISSUES USA Canada* Other Countries Student/Retired $60 $64.20 $108 Individual $95 $101.65 $143 Institution $590 $631.30 $638 * includes 7% GST MIT Press Journals, 5 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142-9902. Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-orders at mit.edu ----- From Olivier.Buffet at loria.fr Fri Jul 11 11:13:11 2003 From: Olivier.Buffet at loria.fr (Olivier Buffet) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 17:13:11 +0200 Subject: EWRL-6 : Call for Participation References: <3E9D2408.7000301@loria.fr> Message-ID: <3F0ED407.7038A41@loria.fr> -- Please excuse us if you receive multiple copies of this message --- ********* Please Distribute around you ******** Call for participation European Workshop on Reinforcement Learning EWRL-6 Nancy, FRANCE, September 4-5, 2003 URL: http://www.loria.fr/conferences/EWRL6/ Reinforcement learning (RL) is a growing research area. To build an European RL community and give visibility to the current situation in the old continent, we are running a now biennial series of workshops. EWRL-1 took place in Brussels, Belgium (1994), EWRL-2 in Milano, Italy (1995), EWRL-3 in Rennes, France (1997), EWRL-4 in Lugano, Switzerland (1999), and EWRL-5 in Utrecht, the Netherlands (2001). EWRL-6 will take place in Nancy, France. The workshop will feature a plenary talk by Bernard Walliser, professor at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausses and Ecole Polytechnique (Paris). He is also research director of the ECCO group (CNRS). He is working on cognitive economics and game theory. The rest of the two-day workshop will be dedicated to presentations given by selected participants. The program will be on-line next week. An inscription fee of euros 200 (only euros 100 for students) will cover local organization expenses, lunch, coffee breaks, the proceedings, and a social dinner on Thursday evening. Registration procedure is detailed at : http://www.loria.fr/conferences/EWRL6/Inscription/inscription_form.htm If you have any question, please contact dutech at loria.fr and buffet at loria.fr From jason at cs.jhu.edu Sat Jul 12 13:21:56 2003 From: jason at cs.jhu.edu (Jason Eisner) Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 13:21:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: postdoc opportunities at Johns Hopkins Message-ID: <200307121721.h6CHLus17035@emu.cs.jhu.edu> Johns Hopkins University seeks to hire outstanding postdoctoral researchers immediately at its Center for Language and Speech Processing (CLSP). Candidates should have previous experience in quantitative approaches to machine learning, speech, language, or other AI domains. Strong computational and mathematical skills are required. CLSP is a leading center for research on speech and language. It specializes in formal and quantitative approaches such as probabilistic modeling, unsupervised machine learning, and grammar formalisms. Our core faculty presently include: Luigi Burzio Cognitive Science Bill Byrne Electrical & Computer Engineering Jason Eisner Computer Science Bob Frank Cognitive Science Fred Jelinek Electrical & Computer Engineering Sanjeev Khudanpur Electrical & Computer Engineering Paul Smolensky Cognitive Science David Yarowsky Computer Science We are looking for postdocs to contribute to one or more of the following long-term projects funded by NSF and/or DoD. Postdocs participating in these highly visible projects can expect to gain considerable research experience in speech and language technology. Speech Recognition * MALACH: Multilingual Access to Large Spoken Archives * ASR for Rich Transcription of Conversational Mandarin Machine Translation * Improving Statistical Translation Models Via Text Analyzers Trained from Parallel Corpora Algorithmic Infrastructure * Weighted Dynamic Programming and Finite-State Modeling for Statistical NLP Applicants are invited to email us a CV, a one-page statement of research interests, a list of three references, and a cover letter that briefly summarizes qualifications. Applications may be sent to Sue Porterfield at sec at clsp.jhu.edu (fax to +1 410 516 5050 if email is not possible). Johns Hopkins University is located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Our URL is http://www.clsp.jhu.edu/. From bolshausen at rni.org Sun Jul 13 16:53:42 2003 From: bolshausen at rni.org (Bruno Olshausen) Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 13:53:42 -0700 Subject: Workshop on Inference and Prediction in Neocortical Circuits Message-ID: <3F11C6D6.2070700@rni.org> Dear Connectionists, The American Institute of Mathematics will be hosting a workshop on "Inference and Prediction in Neocortical Circuits," September 21-24, in Palo Alto, California. Please see http://www.aimath.org/ARCC/workshops/brain.html Space and funding are available for a few more participants. If you would like to participate, please apply by filling out the on-line form at http://koutslts.bucknell.edu/~aimath/WWN/cgi-bin/participantapply.prl?workshop=14 no later than August 1, 2003. Applications are open to all, and we especially encourage women, underrepresented minorities, junior mathematicians, and researchers from primarily undergraduate institutions to apply. Bruno -- Bruno A. Olshausen (650) 321-8282 x233 Redwood Neuroscience Institute (650) 321-8585 (fax) 1010 El Camino Real http://www.rni.org Menlo Park, CA 94025 bolshausen at rni.org From no-spam-please-find-my-address-typing-frasconi-email at google.com Sun Jul 13 20:41:26 2003 From: no-spam-please-find-my-address-typing-frasconi-email at google.com (Paolo Frasconi) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 02:41:26 +0200 Subject: New book: Modeling the Internet and the Web (Wiley 2003) Message-ID: Some of the readers of this list might be interested in the following book Pierre Baldi, Paolo Frasconi, and Padhraic Smyth, Modeling the Internet and the Web Probabilistic Methods and Algorithms Wiley, 2003, ISBN: 0-470-84906-1. It covers various models and algorithms for the Web including generative models of networks, IR and machine learning algorithms for text analysis, link analysis, focused crawling, methods for modeling user behavior, and for mining Web e-commerce data. 1. Mathematical Background - 2. Basic WWW Technologies - 3. Web Graphs - 4. Text Analysis - 5. Link analysis - 6. Advanced Crawling Techniques - 7. Modeling and Understanding Human Behavior on the Web - 8. Commerce on the Web: Models and Applications - Appendix A Mathematical Complements - Appendix B List of Main Symbols and Abbreviations The webpage http://ibook.ics.uci.edu/ contains more details, a hyperlinked bibliography, and a sample chapter in pdf. Regards, Paolo Frasconi http://www.dsi.unifi.it/~paolo/ From ddlewis4 at worldnet.att.net Sun Jul 13 22:32:32 2003 From: ddlewis4 at worldnet.att.net (ddlewis4@worldnet.att.net) Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 21:32:32 -0500 Subject: Research Software Developer w/ Ornarose, Inc. (short term, Chicago or NJ) Message-ID: <676e01c349b0$6cb21df0$0500a8c0@colussus> Company: Ornarose Inc. Location: Northern New Jersey or Chicago, IL Title: Research Software Developer - Data Mining/Statistics/Text Classification Requirements: B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, or related field. 5+ years professional software development experience. 2+ years professional experience with one or more of the following: machine learning, data mining, statistics, pattern recognition, numerical optimization, numerical analysis. Experience with designing and running computational experiments in computer science or statistics highly desirable. Also desirable is experience in information retrieval, text categorization, natural language processing, computational linguistics, or text mining. C and Perl proficiency required. C++ proficiency desirable. Unix/Linux experience required. Windows experience desirable. Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English. Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and communicate effectively when working from home. Responsibilities: This is a short-term (5 to 6 month) position for an SBIR-supported startup company. Developer will be responsible for prototyping and testing advanced algorithms for supervised and unsupervised learning, prediction, classification, etc. Work also includes preparation and cleaning of large text and non-text data sets, experimentation with new algorithms and modeling techniques, and measuring the effectiveness of these techniques and their demands for computing resources. Interested candidates should send a resume (leads also welcome) in ASCII or PDF to job2003a at ornarose.com. Ornarose, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Because the position begins immediately, the candidate must be eligible to work legally in the United States throughout 2003. From gbarreto at sel.eesc.sc.usp.br Mon Jul 14 13:44:03 2003 From: gbarreto at sel.eesc.sc.usp.br (Guilherme de Alencar Barreto) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 14:44:03 -0300 (EST) Subject: Papers on Self-Organizing Neural Networks Message-ID: Dear Connectionists, Maybe the following papers can be of interest for those working with Unsupervised Neural Networks and their applications to generative modeling and robotics. Abstracts and downloadable draft versions can be found at http://www.deti.ufc.br/~guilherme/publicacoes.htm Best regards, Guilherme A. Barreto Department of Teleinformatics Engineering Federal University of Ceara, BRAZIL ------------------------------------ Paper (1): Barreto, G.A., Araújo, A.F.R. and Kremer, S. (2003). "A taxonomy for spatiotemporal connectionist networks revisited: The unsupervised case." Neural Computation, 15(6):1255-1320. ------------------------------------ Paper (2): Barreto, G.A., Araújo, A.F.R. and Ritter, H. (2003). "Self-organizing feature maps for modeling and control of robotic manipulators." Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 36(4):407-450. ------------------------------------ Paper (3): Barreto, G.A., Araújo, A.F.R., Dücker, C. and Ritter, H. (2002). "A distributed robotic control system based on a Temporal Self-Organizing Neural Network" IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, C-32(4):347-357. From amasuoka at atr.co.jp Mon Jul 14 07:03:34 2003 From: amasuoka at atr.co.jp (Aya Masuoka) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 20:03:34 +0900 Subject: ATR CNS Labs Inaugural Symposium Message-ID: Dear members of the Connectionists, We are happy to announce the Inaugural Symposium of ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, which started on May, 2003. In addition to the speakers from the new laboratories, we will have two keynote speakers, Dr. Dietmar Plenz from National Institute of Health and Dr. Miguel A.L. Nicolelis from Duke University . The symposium is open to everyone. Please join us to commemorate this event together. ATR CNS Labs Inaugural Symposium Date: Monday, August 4, 2003 Place: ATR Main Conference Room Hosted by :ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories For latest information on the symposium: http://www.cns.atr.co.jp/events.html Please complete the registration form provided below to register for the event and return by 7/30 by email: amasuoka at atr.co.jp *********************************************************** Registration Form Last Name: First Name: MI: Institution/Agency: Email Address: Please type 'X' next to the following options. I will attend : the symposium the lab tour the reception all of the above I have special dietary requirement: Please state clearly your requirement. Fee: \1,000 for participating the reception.? There is no fee for the symposium and lab tour. Method of Payment: Please make a payment at the on-site registration desk by cash. *********************************************************** 12:30 PM - Registration 1:00 PM -1:05 PM Mitsuo Kawato, Director (ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories) Opening Remarks 1:05 PM -1:30 PM Kenji Doya (Department Head, Computational Neurobiology, ATR, CNS) "Neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning" 1:30 PM - 1:55 PM Hiroshi Imamizu (Department Head, Cognitive Neuroscience, ATR, CNS) "Internal models for cognitive functions" 1:55 PM - 2:20 PM Gordon Cheng (Department Head, Humanoid Robotics and Computational Neuroscience, ATR, CNS) "Paving the paths to the brain with humanoid robotics" 2:20 PM - 2:40 PM Coffee Break 2:40 PM - 3:40 PM Dr. Dietmar Plenz (National Institute of Health) 3:40 PM - 4:40 PM Dr. Miguel A.L. Nicolelis (Duke University) 4:40 PM - 5:05 PM Mitsuo Kawato, Director (ATR, CNS) "Controversies in computational motor control." 5:05 PM - 6:00 PM Lab tour 6:00 PM - Reception at the ATR Cafeteria *********************************************************** Thank you. We look forward to seeing you at the symposium. Mitsuo Kawato, Director ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories -- --------------------------- Aya Masuoka, Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, ATR International Department of Computational Neurobiology 2-2-2 Hikaridai,Keihanna Science City Kyoto,619-0288 Japan TEL +81-774-95-1252 FAX +81-774-95-1259 EMAIL amasuoka at atr.co.jp ============================== CNS was established in May 1, 2003! ============================== From canete at ctima.uma.es Mon Jul 14 07:18:40 2003 From: canete at ctima.uma.es (=?iso-8859-1?Q?Javier_Fern=E1ndez_de_Ca=F1ete?=) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 13:18:40 +0200 Subject: EANN'03 Final Programme (8-10 September 2003, Malaga SPAIN) Message-ID: <002801c349f9$ade29d60$836dd696@isa.uma.es> Dear colleagues: This e_mail is to inform that you can find the Final Programme of the Engineering Application of Neural Networks (EANN'03) available at the web page http://www.isa.uma.es/eann03 With regards Javier Fernandez de Canete EANN'03 Secretariat eann03 at ctima.uma.es Prof. Javier Fernandez de Canete. Ph. D. Dpto. de Ingenier=EDa de Sistemas y Automatica E.T.S.I. Informatica Campus de Teatinos, 29071 Malaga (SPAIN) Phone: +34-95-2132887 FAX: +34-95-2133361 e_mail: canete at ctima.uma.es From James-Johnson at nyc.rr.com Tue Jul 15 10:28:03 2003 From: James-Johnson at nyc.rr.com (James Johnson) Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:28:03 -0400 Subject: A Generative Theory of Shape References: <000101c342a5$8aec87e0$66df75d8@thinkpad> Message-ID: <000f01c34add$4def6bb0$ff5a6c42@ibmntgzhmy5bef> The following book has just appeared in Springer-Verlag. A Generative Theory of Shape Michael Leyton Springer-Verlag, 550 pages -------------------------------------------------------------------- The purpose of the book is to develop a generative theory of shape that has two properties regarded as fundamental to intelligence - maximizing transfer of structure and maximizing recoverability of the generative operations. These two properties are particularly important in the representation of complex shape - which is the main concern of the book. The primary goal of the theory is the conversion of complexity into understandability. For this purpose, a mathematical theory is presented of how understandability is created in a structure. This is achieved by developing a group-theoretic approach to formalizing transfer and recoverability. To handle complex shape, a new class of groups is developed, called unfolding groups. These unfold structure from a maximally collapsed version of that structure. A principal aspect of the theory is that it develops a group-theoretic formalization of major object-oriented concepts such as inheritance. The result is an object-oriented theory of geometry. The algebraic theory is applied in detail to CAD, perception, and robotics. In CAD, lengthy chapters are presented on mechanical and architectural design. For example, using the theory of unfolding groups, the book works in detail through the main stages of mechanical CAD/CAM: part-design, assembly and machining. And within part-design, an extensive algebraic analysis is given of sketching, alignment, dimensioning, resolution, editing, sweeping, feature-addition, and intent-management. The equivalent analysis is also done for architectural design. In perception, extensive theories are given for grouping and the main Gestalt motion phenomena (induced motion, separation of systems, the Johannson relative/absolute motion effects); as well as orientation and form. In robotics, several levels of analysis are developed for manipulator structure, using the author's algebraic theory of object-oriented structure. -------------------------------------------------------------------- This book can be viewed electronically at the following site: http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/tocs/t2145.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------- Author's address: Professor Michael Leyton, Center for Discrete Mathematics, & Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) Rutgers University, Busch Campus, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA E-mail address: mleyton at dimacs.rutgers.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------- From juhn at utopiacompression.com Tue Jul 15 16:48:14 2003 From: juhn at utopiacompression.com (Juhn Maing) Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 13:48:14 -0700 Subject: Job posting: Sr. machine learning scientist Message-ID: <004501c34b12$69c7eb70$066fa8c0@JUHN> JOB POSTING: SENIOR MACHINE LEARNING SCIENTIST UtopiaCompression (UC) is an early-stage, intelligent imaging solutions company. UC's core offering is an intelligent image compression technology, which was recognized in 2002 as one of the top emerging technologies in the US by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (http://jazz.nist.gov/atpcf/prjbriefs/prjbrief.cfm?ProjectNumber=00-00-4 936). Job Description UtopiaCompression is looking for a highly qualified candidate with extensive experience and knowledge in machine learning, data mining and knowledge discovery. The candidate is required to have an MS or Ph.D. in the areas mentioned above from a highly reputable university. Post-doctorate and/or industry experience is strongly preferred. The ideal candidate will be thoroughly versed in the latest research, methods, developments and theories in machine learning and data mining as well as possess in-depth experience applying them to commercial, scientific or industrial applications. The candidate is also required to be a visionary, highly creative and a great problem solver capable of proposing solutions to multiple problems in parallel, and mentoring and guiding R&D engineers in developing and implementing the solutions. Permanent residents or US citizens are preferred. This position is ideally suited for full-time employment, but part-time, contract and contract-to-hire arrangements may also be considered. Skills & Qualifications 1 - In-depth knowledge and experience in statistical analysis, reasoning and learning (e.g., Bayesian learning, estimation maximization and maximum likelihood algorithms, and feature extraction problems), (statistical) combinatorial optimization and learning (e.g., simulated annealing, genetic programming), neural networks, inductive and rule generation learning, fuzzy reasoning, (numeric) decision tree learning, search methods, (image) data mining and understanding, etc. Candidates are expected to have knowledge and working experience in various learning regimes. For instance, in the case of layered neural nets dexterous familiarity with the back propagation algorithm, radial basis functions, etc., in decision tree learning working experience in information gain measure, category utility function, tree pruning, etc. 2 - Dexterous familiarity with various machine learning and statistical software tools. 3 - Fluency in software analysis, design and development using C programming environment. Candidates must be well versed and experienced in C. Working experience in C++ (and Java) is a plus. 4 - Knowledge and working experience with image compression techniques, and image analysis and processing is a big plus. Contact: Juhn Maing Product Manager UtopiaCompression Tel: 310-473-1500 x104 Email: juhn at utopiacompression.com From poznan at iub-psych.psych.indiana.edu Wed Jul 16 16:50:40 2003 From: poznan at iub-psych.psych.indiana.edu (Roman Poznanski) Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 13:50:40 -0700 Subject: JIN, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 2003 Message-ID: <3F15BAA0.7040109@iub-psych.psych.indiana.edu> [ Moderator's note: this journal special issue may be of interest to readers of Connectionists, but only the article abstracts are available free online. Full text requires a subscription. -- DST ] Special Issue: Complex Nonlinear Neural Dynamics: Experimental Advances and Theoretical Interpretations Editorial Peter Andras, Robert Kozma and Peter Erdi 1 The Wave Packet: An Action Potential for the 21st Century Walter J. Freeman 3 Two Species of Gamma Oscillations in the Olfactory Bulb: Dependence on Behavioral State and Synaptic Interactions Leslie M. Kay 31 The Global Effects of Stroke on the Human Electroencephalogram Rudolph C. Hwa, Wei He and Thomas C. Ferree 45 A Model for Emergent Complex Order in Small Neural Networks Peter Andras 55 Dimension Change, Coarse Grained Coding and Pattern Recognition in Spatio-Temporal Nonlinear Systems David DeMaris 71 On the Formation of Persistent States in Neuronal Network Models of Feature Selectivity Evan C. Haskell and Paul C. Bressloff 103 Basic Principles of the KIV Model and its Application to the Navigation Problem Robert Kozma and Walter J. Freeman 125 Book Review Book Review: "Computational Neuroanatomy: Principles and Methods", G. A. Ascoli, ed., (2002) A. Garenne and G. A. Chauvet 147 -- Roman R. Poznanski, Ph.D Associate Editor, Journal of Integrative Neuroscience Department of Psychology Indiana University 1101 E. 10th St. Bloomington, IN 47405-7007 email: poznan at iub-psych.psych.indiana.edu phone (Office): (812) 856-0838 http://www.worldscinet.com/jin/mkt/editorial.shtml From bogus@does.not.exist.com Wed Jul 16 11:13:28 2003 From: bogus@does.not.exist.com () Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 11:13:28 -0400 Subject: postdoc position available Message-ID: From stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk Thu Jul 17 08:23:49 2003 From: stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk (Stefan Wermter) Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 13:23:49 +0100 Subject: Stipends for MSc Intelligent Systems Message-ID: <3F169555.446E5938@sunderland.ac.uk> Stipends available for MSc Intelligent Systems ---------------------------------- We are pleased to announce that for eligible EU students we have obtained funding to offer a bursary for our new MSc Intelligent Systems worth up to 9.000 EURO as fee waiver and stipend. ***Please forward to students who may be interested.*** The School of Computing and Technology, University of Sunderland is delighted to announce the launch of its new MSc Intelligent Systems programme for October 2003. Building on the School's leading edge research in intelligent systems this masters programme will be funded via the ESF scheme (see below). Intelligent Systems is an exciting field of study for science and industry since the currently existing computing systems have often not yet reached the various aspects of human performance. "Intelligent Systems" is a term to describe software systems and methods, which simulate aspects of intelligent behaviour. The intention is to learn from nature and human performance in order to build more powerful computing systems. The aim is to learn from cognitive science, neuroscience, biology, engineering, and linguistics for building more powerful computational system architectures. In this programme a wide variety of novel and exciting techniques will be taught including neural networks, intelligent robotics, machine learning, natural language processing, vision, evolutionary genetic computing, data mining, information retrieval, Bayesian computing, knowledge-based systems, fuzzy methods, and hybrid intelligent architectures. Programme Structure -------------- The following lectures/modules are available (at least modules with * are intended to be available for the Oct. 2003 cohort entry) Neural Networks * Intelligent Systems Architectures * Learning Agents * Evolutionary Computation Cognitive Neural Science * Knowledge Based Systems and Data Mining * Bayesian Computation Vision and Intelligent Robots * Natural Language Processing * Dynamics of Adaptive Systems Intelligent Systems Programming * Funding up to 6000 pounds (about 9.000Euro) for eligible students ------------------------------ The Bursary Scheme applies to this Masters programme commencing October 2003 and we have obtained funding through the European Social Fund (ESF). ESF support enables the University to waive the normal tuition fee and provide a bursary of 75 per week for 45 weeks for eligible EU students, together up to 6000 pounds or 9000 Euro. For further information in the first instance please see: http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/Teaching_frame.html http://osiris.sund.ac.uk/webedit/allweb/courses/progmode.php?prog=G550A&mode=FT&mode2=&dmode=C For information on applications and start dates contact: gillian.potts at sunderland.ac.uk Tel: 0191 515 2758 For academic information about the programme contact: alfredo.moscardini at sunderland.ac.uk Please forward to interested students. Stefan *************************************** Stefan Wermter Professor for Intelligent Systems Centre for Hybrid Intelligent Systems School of Computing and Technology University of Sunderland St Peters Way Sunderland SR6 0DD United Kingdom phone: +44 191 515 3279 fax: +44 191 515 3553 email: stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0stw/ http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/ **************************************** From norbert at cn.stir.ac.uk Fri Jul 18 10:09:23 2003 From: norbert at cn.stir.ac.uk (Norbert Krueger) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:09:23 +0100 Subject: Special Session: NEXT GENERATION VISION SYSTEMS Message-ID: <3F17FF93.5DA48668@cn.stir.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues, I would like to point you to the special session NEXT GENERATION VISION SYSTEMS to be held at the Fourth International ICSC Symposium at the ENGINEERING OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (EIS 2004) With best regards Norbert Krueger _______________________________________________________ Special Session NEXT GENERATION VISION SYSTEMS Fourth International ICSC Symposium at the ENGINEERING OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (EIS 2004) http://www.icsc-naiso.org/conferences/eis2004/index.html February 29 - March 2, 2004 at the University of Madeira, Island of Madeira, Portugal Organisers: Dr. Norbert Krueger University of Stirling Email: norbert at cn.stir.ac.uk http://www.cn.stir.ac.uk/~norbert Dr. Volker Krueger Aalborg University, Esbjerg Email: vok at cs.aue.auc.dk Dr. Florentin Woergoetter University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA Scotland, UK Email: worgott at cn.stir.ac.uk Abstract Vision based devices have been entering the industrial and private world more and more successfully: Face recognition systems control the access to buildings; airports and train stations are controlled by Video Surveillance devices; and cars become equipped with vision based driver assistance systems. However, the gap between human performance and the top performance of today's artificial visual systems is considerable. Especially, scene analysis in unfamiliar environments allowing for highly reliable actions is yet an outstanding quality of biological systems. The next generation of vision systems will have to show stable and reliable performance in uncontrolled environments in real time. To achieve reliability these systems need to make use of regularities in visual data. In this respect, the representation of the temporal structure of visual data as well as the fusion of visual sub-modalities are crucial. Such systems also need to be equipped with a sufficient amount of prestructured knowledge as well as the ability to deal with uncertainties and to learn in complex environments. The invited session focusses on requirements for and prospects of future vision systems. This covers all questions of visual representation and integration as well as questions of hardware and software design. Submission Deadline: 15.9.2003 Maximum number of pages: Fifteen pages (including diagrams and references) Papers (either as pdf or postscript) to be send to norbert at cn.stir.ac.uk From levys at wlu.edu Fri Jul 18 16:03:04 2003 From: levys at wlu.edu (Simon Levy) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 16:03:04 -0400 Subject: Software Release Announcement: SNARLI, free/open-source Java package for neural nets Message-ID: <3F185278.3040403@wlu.edu> Dear Connectionists, I would like to announce the release of a free, open-source Java package that may be of interest to members of this list. This package is currently available at http://snarli.sourceforge.net, and is described below. Please feel free to download this package, and contact me with question, criticism, or suggestions. I am especially interested in hearing from educators and researchers who find the package useful in their work, and anyone who has a feature or neural architecture that they would like to see implemented. Thanks, Simon ======================== Simon D. Levy Assistant Professor Computer Science Department Washington & Lee University Lexington, VA 24450 540-458-8419 (voice) 540-458-8479 (fax) levys at wlu.edu http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy *SNARLI* (*/S/*imple */N/*eural */AR/*chitecture */LI/*brary) is a Java package containing two classes: BPLayer, a general back-prop layer class, and SOM, a class for the Kohonen Self-Organizing Map. BPLayer also supports sigma-pi connections and back-prop-through-time, allowing you to build just about any kind of back-prop network found in the literature. *SNARLI* differs from existing neural-net packages in two important ways: First, it is /not/ GUI-based. Instead, it is meant as a code resource that can be linked directly to new or existing Java-based projects, for those who want to try a neural-network approach without having to write a lot of new code. Given the variety of platforms that currently interface to Java, from HTML to Matlab , it made more sense to me to focus on the neural net algorithms, and leave the GUI development to others. Second, *SNARLI* gets a great deal of mileage out of a single class (BPLayer), instead of adding a new class for each type of network. Using this class, my students and I have been able to construct a large variety of back-prop networks, from simple perceptrons through Pollack's RAAM , with very little additional coding. We have used these networks successfully in coursework , thesis projects , and research . Future versions of *SNARLI* may include classes to support other popular architectures, such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Hopfield Nets , and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), as user interest dictates. From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Fri Jul 18 20:51:44 2003 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr. Amir Hussain) Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 01:51:44 +0100 Subject: Final Call for Papers: IJRA Journal Special Issue on Neuromorphic Systems ( IASTED / ACTA Press, Vol.19, 2004) Message-ID: <002101c34d8f$ee4cf9b0$4f98fc3e@DrAmir> Please post and distribute to colleagues and friends: http://www.actapress.com/journals/specialra6.htm Final Call for Papers: (with apologies for cross-postings!) Note extended paper submission deadline (upon request from numerous authors) of: 1 Sep 2003 For readership of the International Journal of Robotics & Automation (IJRA), please see the parent organization (IASTED's) website: http://www.iasted.org/ ---------- Call for Papers: Special Issue on "Neuromorphic Systems" International Journal of Robotics & Automation (IJRA), IASTED / ACTA Press, Vol.19, 2004 There has recently been a growing interest in neuromorphic systems research, which is part of the larger field of computational neuroscience. Neuromorphic systems are implementations in silicon of systems whose architecture and design are based on neurobiology. In general, however, neuromorphic systems research is not restricted to one specific implementation technology. This growing area proffers exciting possibilities, such as sensory systems that can compete with human senses, pattern recognition systems that can run in real time, and neuron models that can truly emulate living neurons. Neuromorphic systems are at the intersection of neuroscience, computer science, and electrical engineering. The earliest neuromorphic systems were concerned with providing an engineering approximation of some aspects of sensory systems, such as the detection of sound in the auditory system or the detection of light in the visual system. More recently, there has been considerable work on robot control systems, on modelling various types of neurons, and on including adaptation in hardware systems. Biorobotics, or the intersection between biology and robotics, is a growing area in neuromorphic systems. Biorobotics aims to investigate biological sensorimotor control systems by building robot models of them. This includes the development of novel sensors and actuators, hardware and software emulations of neural control systems, and embedding and testing devices in real environments. The aim of this Special Issue on Neuromorphic Systems is to bring together active researchers from different areas of this interdisciplinary field, and to report on the lastest advances in this area. Contributions are sought from (amongst others): - engineers interested in designing and implementing systems based on neurobiology - neurobiologists interested in engineering implementations of systems - modellers and theoreticians from all the relevant disciplines Any topic relevant to neuromorphic systems and theory, sensory neuromorphic systems, and neuromorphic hardware will be considered. Instructions for Manuscripts: All manuscripts should be e-mailed to the ACTA Press office at calgary at actapress.com by September 1, 2003. On the e-mail subject line please put "Submission for the IJRA Special Issue on Neuromorphic Systems." The paper submission should include the name(s) of the author(s) and their affiliations, addresses, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. Manuscripts should strictly follow the guidelines of ACTA Press, given at the following website: http://www.actapress.com/journals/submission.htm Important Dates: Deadline for paper submission: September 1, 2003 Notification of acceptance: December 1, 2003 Final Manuscripts due: January 31, 2004 Publication in special issue: Vol.19, 2004 Guest Editors: Dr. Amir Hussain & Prof. L.S.Smith Dept. of Computing Science & Mathematics University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK Email: a.hussain at cs.stir.ac.uk Website: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~ahu/ From aude.billard at epfl.ch Fri Jul 18 08:51:58 2003 From: aude.billard at epfl.ch (aude billard) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:51:58 +0200 Subject: Workshop on Robot Learning by Demonstration Message-ID: <0a4f01c34d2b$5fd1e6f0$7391b280@sti.intranet.epfl.ch> ======================= Call For Papers ====================== IROS-2003 Workshop on Robot Learning by Demonstration http://asl.epfl.ch/events/iros03Workshop/index.php Friday 31st of October 2003, 12-5pm IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems: IROS 2003 Bally's Las Vegas Hotel, October 27-31, 2003 Objectives: =================== Programming by demonstration has become a key research topic in robotics. It impacts both fundamental research and application-oriented studies. Work in that area tackles the development of robust algorithms for motor control, motor learning, gesture recognition and visuo-motor integration. While the field has been ongoing for more than twenty years, recent developments, taking inspiration in biological mechanisms of imitation, have brought a new perspective, which this workshop aims at assessing. Call for Papers: =================== We solicit papers relevant to the general workshop theme in the three categories: - research papers - application papers - challenge/position statements (typically only 1 or 2 pages) Relevant workshop topics include (non-exhaustive list): - Programming by Demonstration - Imitation learning - Task and Skill Learning - Motor control - Motor learning - Visuo-motor Integration - Gesture recognition Important Dates: =============== - August 4, 2003 Deadline for paper submission - August 15, 2003 Notification of acceptance - August 26, 2003 Deadline for final contributions Papers should not exceed 8 pages and conform to the single column, 10pt, A4 format. Papers should be submitted by email to: aude.billard at epfl.ch Proceedings will be distributed at the Workshop. A number of papers presented in this workshop will be selected for publication in a special issue of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems journal. Detailed Information: =================== For more detailed information, please visit the workshop website at http://asl.epfl.ch/events/iros03Workshop/index.php Program Chairs: =================== Aude Billard & Roland Siegwart Autonomous Systems Lab EPFL, Swiss Institute of Technology CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland http://asl.epfl.ch Program Committee: ==================== Luc Berthouze, ETL, Japan Henrik Christensen, KTH, Sweden Kerstin Dautenhahn, University of Hertfordshire, UK Yiannis Demiris, Imperial College London, UK Rudiger Dillmann, Karlsruhe, Germany Auke Jan Ijspeert, EPFL, CH Helge Ritter, University of Bielefeld, Germany Stefan Schaal, University of Southern California, USA Ales Ude, ATR, Japan Jianwei Zhang, University of Hamburg, Germany From wolpert at hera.ucl.ac.uk Fri Jul 18 05:43:35 2003 From: wolpert at hera.ucl.ac.uk (Daniel Wolpert) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 10:43:35 +0100 Subject: Postdoctoral Positions in Sensorimotor Control Message-ID: <003901c34d11$0e9674f0$51463ec1@aphrodite> Two Postdoctoral Research Fellows Sensorimotor Control Laboratory Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience & Movement Disorders Institute of Neurology University College London The Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, under the direction of Professor Daniel Wolpert has openings for two highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellows in the area of computational and experimental human motor control. The Fellows will join a team investigating planning, control and learning of skilled action.One Research Fellow will work on modelling of the motor system using optimal control and Bayesian approaches and should have a background in a computational field (e.g. Computational Neuroscience, Engineering, Physics, Maths). The other will work on psychophysical studies of human motor control and should have a background in an experimental field (e.g. Neuroscience, Psychology). Applicants should ideally have a PhD, plus technical expertise and computational skills relevant to the study of human movement. Further details of both posts and laboratory facilities can be found on www.hera.ucl.ac.uk/vacancies. Informal enquiries can be addressed to Professor Daniel Wolpert by email to wolpert at hera.ucl.ac.uk. The positions are available for two years in the first instance with a starting date from September 2003. Starting salary is up to =A332,794 pa inclusive, depending on experience, superannuable. Applicants should provide (ideally by email) by August 11th 2003: - a maximum 1 page statement of research interests relevant to the project - copy of CV (2 if sent by post) - names and contact details of 3 referees - 1 copy of Declaration (required - see further details of posts) - Equal Opportunities form (optional - see further details of posts) to: Miss E Bertram, Assistant Secretary (Personnel) Institute of Neurology Queen Square London WC1N 3BG Fax: +44 (0)20 7278 5069 Email: e.bertram at ion.ucl.ac.uk Taking Action for Equality From dhwang at cs.latrobe.edu.au Sun Jul 20 21:47:01 2003 From: dhwang at cs.latrobe.edu.au (Dianhui Wang) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 11:47:01 +1000 Subject: Call for Papers References: <3EC48075.E8BBA612@cs.latrobe.edu.au> Message-ID: <3F1B4614.4A072F26@cs.latrobe.edu.au> Dear Colleages, This email solicits your submission for Invited Session on Advances in Design, Analysis and Applications of Neural/Neuro-fuzzy Classifiers, KES2004: 8th International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems21th-24th September 2004, Hotel Intercontinental, Wellington, New Zealand. Details of the "Call for Paper" could be found at http://homepage.cs.latrobe.edu.au/dhwang/KES04.htm I am looking forward to receiving your submissions. Kind regards, Dr Dianhui Wang (Session Chair) Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3083, Australia Tel: +61 3 9479 3034 Fax:+61 3 9479 3060 Email: dhwang at cs.latrobe.edu.au From bengio at idiap.ch Mon Jul 21 08:37:20 2003 From: bengio at idiap.ch (Samy Bengio) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 14:37:20 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Open position for a senior in Machine Learning - IDIAP Message-ID: Open position for a Senior Researcher in Machine Learning --------------------------------------------------------- The Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence (IDIAP, http://www.idiap.ch) seeks qualified applicants to fill the position of Senior Researcher in its Machine Learning group. Given the current scientific strengths of IDIAP, the ideal candidate should have strong research experience in machine learning problems related to speech processing, vision processing, and above all, multimodal processing. The ideal candidate will have been active for several years in the machine learning research community, and have yielded a strong publication record. He or She is expected to supervise PhD students and postdoctoral fellows in machine learning, propose new research projects at a national and European level, and be open to eventually giving lectures (either at IDIAP, or at the nearby EPFL engineering school, http://www.epfl.ch). In fact, given the strong relationship between IDIAP and EPFL, extremely qualified and experienced candidates have the possibility of being offered an academic title of professor at EPFL, while working at IDIAP. IDIAP has recently been awarded several large research projects in multimodal processing, both at the national and European level (see for instance http://www.im2.ch), and the ideal candidate will be interested in the research projects associated with this funding. IDIAP is an equal opportunity employer and is actively involved in the European initiative involving the Advancement of Women in Science. IDIAP seeks to maintain a principle of open competition (on the basis of merit) to appoint the best candidate, provide equal opportunity for all candidates, and equally encourages both females and males to consider employment with IDIAP. Although IDIAP is located in the French part of Switzerland, English is the main working language. Free English and French lessons are provided. IDIAP is located in the town of Martigny (http://www.martigny.ch) in Valais, a scenic region in the south of Switzerland, surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe, and offering exciting recreational activities, including hiking, climbing and skiing, as well as varied cultural activities. It is within close proximity to Montreux (Jazz Festival) and Lausanne. Interested candidates should send a letter of application, along with their detailed CV to jobs at idiap.ch. More information can also be obtained by contacting Samy Bengio (bengio at idiap.ch). ---- Samy Bengio Research Director. Machine Learning Group Leader. IDIAP, CP 592, rue du Simplon 4, 1920 Martigny, Switzerland. tel: +41 27 721 77 39, fax: +41 27 721 77 12. mailto:bengio at idiap.ch, http://www.idiap.ch/~bengio From ckiw at inf.ed.ac.uk Mon Jul 21 07:37:53 2003 From: ckiw at inf.ed.ac.uk (Chris Williams) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 12:37:53 +0100 (BST) Subject: Faculty positions at the British University in Dubai Message-ID: [note that machine learning is one of the areas highlighted --- Chris] The British University in Dubai Institute of Informatics and Communications Chair and 4 Lectureships * Context The British University in Dubai is an important development in higher education, providing cutting-edge research and education in key areas of science and technology, and is supported in its early growth by the University of Edinburgh and by other front-ranked UK universities. Early research and teaching programmes will be developed in association with the University of Edinburgh's 5*-rated School of Informatics. Newly appointed staff will spend part of their first year working with colleagues in Edinburgh and be eligible for Honorary Fellowships in the University of Edinburgh. (This is intended to help cement the foundations for continuing collaborative research projects and exchanges.) * Posts The new Professor will be Director of the Institute, provide leadership in creating innovative research and teaching programmes and be involved in appointments to the lectureships. Appointment to the chair and the 4 lectureships will be made in areas of Informatics related to the first programmes to be developed by the Institute in: - Natural Language and Speech Engineering - Knowledge Management & Engineering - Machine Learning * Closing date 11 August 2003. * Remuneration etc. Full details are available at: http://www.jobs.thes.co.uk/rs6/cl.asp?action=view_ad&ad_id=15134 These will shortly be copied to: http://www.informatics.ed.ac.uk/events/vacancies/ You are encouraged to consult Professor Michael Fourman (buid at inf.ed.ac.uk) to learn further details, and to discuss potential ways of taking up a post. From ncopp at jsd.claremont.edu Wed Jul 23 13:18:51 2003 From: ncopp at jsd.claremont.edu (Newton Copp) Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 19:18:51 +0200 Subject: POSITION AVAILABLE - ENDOWED CHAIR Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20030718103048.00b13ee0@jsd.claremont.edu> To all: I would appreciate it if you would consider the position described below or pass this announcement along to someone who might be interested. Thank you, Newt Copp Regarding the William R. Kenan Professorship in Computational Neuroscience at The Claremont Colleges; The undergraduate colleges in the Claremont consortium (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, and Scripps Colleges) seek an accomplished, broadly trained neuroscientist with expertise in computational work to fill the William R. Kenan Chair beginning in September of 2004. The Kenan Professorship was formed as an all-Claremont position to be held by a person who has achieved a record of distinction in an interdisciplinary area. The successful candidate will have an unusual opportunity to take a leadership role in an intercollegiate, interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program that focuses on undergraduate education and research and involves faculty members in Biology, Psychology, Engineering, and Philosophy. A commitment to excellence in undergraduate teaching, an interest in exploring interdisciplinary collaborations, and an active research program are expected. Area of research interest is open. Preference will be given to candidates at the associate professor level or higher, although outstanding candidates at the advanced assistant professor level may be considered. The Claremont Colleges include five highly selective liberal arts colleges, the Claremont Graduate University, and the Keck Graduate Institute for Applied Life Sciences (see http://www.claremont.edu/about.html). The hire will be made within the Joint Science Department (see http://www.jsd.claremont.edu/), a department of 22 faculty members in Biology (12), Chemistry (7) and Physics (4) that is co-sponsored by Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges. Send a curriculum vita, copies of three publications, statements of research interests and teaching interests/philosophy to Kenan Search Committee, W. M. Keck Science Center, 925 N. Mills Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Arrange to have three letters of recommendation sent to the same address. Please direct inquires to Newton Copp, Professor of Biology and Chair of the Search Committee (tel: 909 621-8298; E-mail: ncopp at jsd.claremont.edu). Review of applications will begin on Dec. 1, 2003 and continue until the position is filled. (This is a re-posting of a position unfilled last year.) In a continuing effort to enrich our academic environment and provide equal educational and employment opportunities, The Claremont Colleges actively encourage applications from women and members of historically under-represented groups in higher education. ________________________ Newton Copp Professor of Biology Joint Science Department The Claremont Colleges Claremont, CA 91711 tel: 909 607-2932 fax: 909 621-8588 From bolshausen at rni.org Wed Jul 23 13:18:50 2003 From: bolshausen at rni.org (Bruno Olshausen) Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 19:18:50 +0200 Subject: Workshop on Inference and Prediction in Neocortical Circuits Message-ID: <3F11C7B5.4080501@rni.org> The American Institute of Mathematics will be hosting a workshop on "Inference and Prediction in Neocortical Circuits," September 21-24, in Palo Alto, California. Please see http://www.aimath.org/ARCC/workshops/brain.html Space and funding are available for a few more participants. If you would like to participate, please apply by filling out the on-line form at http://koutslts.bucknell.edu/~aimath/WWN/cgi-bin/participantapply.prl?workshop=14 no later than August 1, 2003. Applications are open to all, and we especially encourage women, underrepresented minorities, junior mathematicians, and researchers from primarily undergraduate institutions to apply. -- Bruno A. Olshausen (650) 321-8282 x233 Redwood Neuroscience Institute (650) 321-8585 (fax) 1010 El Camino Real http://www.rni.org Menlo Park, CA 94025 bolshausen at rni.org From H.Bowman at kent.ac.uk Thu Jul 24 09:51:33 2003 From: H.Bowman at kent.ac.uk (hb5) Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 14:51:33 +0100 Subject: NCPW 8 Call for Participation Message-ID: <3F1FE465.A2BC7FB3@ukc.ac.uk> Please distribute this call for participation to anybody you think might be interested in this event. Apologies for multiple copies. -------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Eighth Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW 8) Connectionist Models of Cognition, Perception and Emotion 28-30 August 2003 at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK The Eighth Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW8) will be held in Canterbury, England from 28-30th August 2003. The NCPW series is now a well established and lively forum that brings together researchers from such diverse disciplines as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. 35 papers will be presented, of which eight will be invited papers. In addition to the high quality of the papers presented, this Workshop takes place in an informal setting, in order to encourage interaction among the researchers present. Website ------- More details, including registration information, can be found on the conference website, http://www.cs.ukc.ac.uk/events/conf/2003/ncpw/ The Programme ------------- Highlights of the programme include a session on modelling face perception, including three invited papers, Gary Cottrell University of California, San Diego, USA Modeling Face Perception Peter Hancock, Mike Burton and Rob Jenkins Stirling University, Scotland Face Recognition: Average or Examplar? C.J. Solomon, S.J. Gibson, A. Pallares-Bejarano and M. Maylin University of Kent at Canterbury Exploring the Case for a Psychological "Face-space" Five more invited papers have been scheduled, John A. Bullinaria The University of Birmingham On the Evolution of Irrational Behaviour Bob French University of Liege, Belgium The bottom-up nature of category acquisition in 3- to 4-month old infants: Predictions of a connectionist model and empirical data Richard Shillcock and Padraic Monaghan University of Edinburgh, Scotland Sublexical units in the computational modelling of visual word recognition John G. Taylor King's College Strand, University of London Through Attention to Consciousness by CODAM Marius Usher and Eddy Davelaar Birkbeck College, University of London Short/long term memory in terms of activation versus weight based processes The full programme can be found at the following site, http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/events/conf/2003/ncpw/prog/ Conference Chair ---------------- Howard Bowman, University of Kent, UK Conference Organisers --------------------- Howard Bowman, UKC Colin G. Johnson, UKC Miguel Mendao, UKC Vikki Roberts, UKC Proceedings Editors -------------------- Howard Bowman, UKC Christophe Labiouse, Liege Publication ----------- Proceedings of the workshop will appear in the series Progress in Neural Processing, which is published by World Scientific. From shih at ini.phys.ethz.ch Thu Jul 24 07:30:09 2003 From: shih at ini.phys.ethz.ch (Shih-Chii Liu) Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 13:30:09 +0200 (CEST) Subject: NIPS03 demonstration track Message-ID: Would you like to show off a demo of your hardware system, robots, or software system to people who are interested in all aspects of neural and statistical computation? The Neural Information Processing conference has a relatively new Demonstration track for submissions of this sort. The participants in this track will have a chance to show their interactive demos in the areas of for example, hardware technology, neuromorphic systems, biologically-inspired and biomimetic systems, robotics, and also software systems. The only hard rule is that the demo must be live. Check out the web site, http://www.nips.cc/Conferences/2003/CFP/CallForDemos.php for details. Students can also apply for a limited number of travel funds provided by the Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering for submissions that are accepted to the Demonstration Track. The conference will be held in Vancouver, Canada on Dec 8-10 2003. The DEADLINE for submissions to this track is on Aug 1, 2003. Remember that acceptance to this track does not mean an automatic acceptance to your submission to the main conference. Regards Shih-Chii Liu and Tobi Delbruck Co-Chairs NIPS 2003 Demonstration Track From bogus@does.not.exist.com Thu Jul 24 11:49:47 2003 From: bogus@does.not.exist.com () Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 16:49:47 +0100 Subject: PhD Studentship Available: Neural Networks for Natural Language Processing Message-ID: <2D50DF8AA284EC438C8DCAA2D0021FD52665EF@lime.ntu.ac.uk> From thrun at robotics.Stanford.EDU Fri Jul 25 11:48:21 2003 From: thrun at robotics.Stanford.EDU (Sebastian Thrun) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:48:21 -0700 Subject: NIPS - Deadline Reminder Message-ID: <200307251548.h6PFmL421238@robo.Stanford.EDU> Dear Connectionists: A brief reminder that NIPS workshop proposals and submission to the demonstration track are due August 1, 2003. Please consult nips.cc for details. You are encouraged to submit. Sebastian Thrun NIPS*2003 General Chair From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Mon Jul 28 16:49:12 2003 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 16:49:12 -0400 Subject: NEURON course at SFN 2003 meeting Message-ID: <3F258C48.2010402@yale.edu> Short Course Announcement USING THE NEURON SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT Satellite Symposium, Society for Neuroscience Meeting 9 AM - 5 PM on Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 Speakers to include M.L. Hines and N.T. Carnevale This 1 day course with lectures and live demonstrations will present information essential for teaching and research applications of NEURON, an advanced simulation environment that handles realistic models of biophysical mechanisms, individual neurons, and networks of cells. The emphasis is on practical issues that are key to the most productive use of this powerful and convenient modeling tool. Features that will be covered include: constructing and managing models of cells and networks importing detailed morphometric data expanding NEURON's repertoire of biophysical mechanisms database resources for empirically-based modeling Each registrant will a comprehensive set of notes which include material that has not appeared elsewhere in print. Registration is limited to 50 individuals on a first-come, first serve basis. For more information see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/no2003.html --Ted From avi at eecs.harvard.edu Tue Jul 1 11:04:38 2003 From: avi at eecs.harvard.edu (Avi Pfeffer) Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 11:04:38 -0400 Subject: Announcing IBAL release Message-ID: <3F01A306.5020503@eecs.harvard.edu> Readers of this list may be interested in the following announcement: I am pleased to announce the initial release of IBAL, a general purpose language for probabilistic reasoning. IBAL is highly expressive, and its inference algorithm generalizes many common frameworks as well as allowing many new ones. It also provides parameter estimation and decision making. All this is packaged in a programming language that provides libraries, automatic type checking, etc. IBAL may be downloaded from http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~avi/IBAL. Avi Pfeffer From Thomas.Wennekers at neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de Wed Jul 2 09:36:37 2003 From: Thomas.Wennekers at neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de (Thomas Wennekers) Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 15:36:37 +0200 (MEST) Subject: Special issue on "Cell Assemblies" Message-ID: <200307021336.h62DabQg005005@fsnif.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> Dear all, the following collection of papers appeared recently as a special issue on "Cell Assemblies" at "Theory in Biosciences". Preprint versions of the papers are available under http://www.neuroinformatik.rub.de/thbio/publications/specialissue/cellassemblies.html Final versions should be available from the authors. Best wishes, Thomas Thomas Wennekers, Friedrich T. Sommer, and Ad Aertsen Editorial: Cell Assemblies Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 1-4. Thomas Wennekers and Nihat Ay Spatial and Temporal Stochastic Interaction in Neuronal Assemblies Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 5-18. The observation of various types of spatio-temporal correlations in spike patterns of multiple cortical neurons has shifted attention from rate coding paradigms to computational processes based on the precise timing of spikes in neuronal ensembles. In the present work we develop the notion of "spatial" and "temporal interaction" which provides measures for statistical dependences in coupled stochastic processes like multiple unit spike trains. We show that the classical Willshaw network and Abeles' synfire chain model both reveal a moderate spatial interaction, but only the synfire chain model reveals a positive temporal interaction, too. Systems that maximize temporal interaction are shown to be almost deterministic globally, but posses almost unpredictable firing behavior on the single unit level. Anders Lansner, Erik Frans?n, and Anders Sandberg Cell assembly dynamics in detailed and abstract attractor models of cortical associative memory Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 19-36. During the last few decades we have seen a convergence among ideas and hypotheses regarding functional principles underlying human memory. Hebb's now more than fifty years old conjecture concerning synaptic plasticity and cell assemblies, formalized mathematically as attractor neural networks, has remained among the most viable and productive theoretical frameworks. It suggests plausible explanations for Gestalt aspects of active memory like perceptual completion, reconstruction and rivalry. We review the biological plausibility of these theories and discuss some critical issues concerning their associative memory functionality in the light of simulation studies of models with palimpsest memory properties. The focus is on memory properties and dynamics of networks modularized in terms of cortical minicolumns and hypercolumns. Biophysical compartmental models demonstrate attractor dynamics that support cell assembly operations with fast convergence and low firing rates. Using a scaling model we obtain reasonable relative connection densities and amplitudes. An abstract attractor network model reproduces systems level psychological phenomena seen in human memory experiments as the Sternberg and von Restorff effects. We conclude that there is today considerable substance in Hebb's theory of cell assemblies and its attractor network formulations, and that they have contributed to increasing our understanding of cortical associative memory function. The criticism raised with regard to biological and psychological plausibility as well as low storage capacity, slow retrieval etc has largely been disproved. Rather, this paradigm has gained further support from new experimental data as well as computational modeling. Andreas Knoblauch and G?nther Palm Synchronization of Neuronal Assemblies in Reciprocally Connected Cortical Areas Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 37-54. To investigate scene segmentation in the visual system we present a model of two reciprocally connected visual areas comprising spiking neurons. The peripheral area P is modeled similar to the primary visual cortex, while the central area C is modeled as an associative memory representing stimulus objects according to Hebbian learning. Without feedback from area C, spikes corresponding to stimulus representations in P are synchronized only locally (slow state). Feedback from C can induce fast oscillations and an increase of synchronization ranges (fast state). Presenting a superposition of several stimulus objects, scene segmentation happens on a time scale of hundreds of milliseconds by alternating epochs of the slow and fast state, where neurons representing the same object are simultaneously in the fast state. We relate our simulation results to various phenomena observed in neurophysiological experiments, such as stimulus-dependent synchronization of fast oscillations, synchronization on different time scales, ongoing activity, and attention-dependent neural activity. Friedrich T. Sommer and Thomas Wennekers Models of distributed associative memory networks in the brain Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 55-69. Although experimental evidence for distributed cell assemblies is growing, theories of cell assemblies are still marginalized in theoretical neuroscience. We argue that this has to do with shortcomings of the currently best understood assembly theories, the ones based on formal associative memory models. These only insufficiently reflect anatomical and physiological properties of nervous tissue and their functionality is too restricted to provide a framework for cognitive modeling. We describe cell assembly models that integrate more neurobiological constraints and review results from simulations of a simple nonlocal associative network formed by a reciprocal topographic projection. Impacts of nonlocal associative projections in the brain are discussed with respect to the functionality they can explain. Hualou Liang and Hongbin Wang Top-Down Anticipatory Control in Prefrontal Cortex Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 70-86. The prefrontal cortex has been implicated in a wide variety of executive functions, many involving some form of anticipatory attention. Anticipatory attention involves the pre-selection of specific sensory circuits to allow fast and efficient stimulus processing and a subsequently fast and accurate response. It is generally agreed that the prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in anticipatory attention by exerting a facilitatory "top-down" bias on sensory pathways. In this paper we review recent results indicating that synchronized activity in prefrontal cortex, during anticipation of visual stimulus, can predict features of early visual stimulus processing and behavioral response. Although the mechanisms involved in anticipatory attention are still largely unknown, we argue that the synchronized oscillation in prefrontal cortex is a plausible candidate during sustained visual anticipation. We further propose a learning hypothesis that explains how this top-down anticipatory control in prefrontal cortex is learned based on accumulated prior experience by adopting a Temporal Difference learning algorithm. Friedemann Pulverm?ller Sequence detectors as a basis of grammar in the brain Theory in Biosciences 122 (2003) 87-104. Grammar processing may build upon serial-order mechanisms known from non-human species. A circuit similar to that underlying direction-sensitive movement detection in arthropods and vertebrates may become selective for sequences of words, thus yielding grammatical sequence detectors in the human brain. Sensitivity to the order of neuronal events arises from unequal connection strengths between two input units and a third element, the sequence detector. This mechanism, which critically depends on the dynamics of the input units, can operate at the single neuron level and may be relevant at the level of neuronal ensembles as well. Due to the repeated occurrence of sequences, for example word strings, the sequence-sensitive elements become more firmly established and, by substitution of elements between strings, a process called auto-associative substitution learning (AASL) is triggered. AASL links the neuronal counterparts of the string elements involved in the substitution process to the sequence detector, thereby providing a brain basis of what can be described linguistically as the generalization of rules of grammar. A network of sequence detectors may constitute grammar circuits in the human cortex on which a separate set of mechanisms establishing temporary binding and recursion can operate. ____________________________________________________________________________ Jr.Prof.Dr.Thomas Wennekers Theoretical Neuroscience Group Institute for Neuroinformatics Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum Universitaetsstrasse 150 ND 04/589a 44780 Bochum Phone: +49-234-3224231 Fax: +49-234-3214209 Priv.: +49-160-6123416 Email: Thomas.Wennekers at neuroinformatik.rub.de ____________________________________________________________________________ From eurich at physik.uni-bremen.de Wed Jul 2 11:33:40 2003 From: eurich at physik.uni-bremen.de (Christian Eurich) Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 17:33:40 +0200 Subject: PhD position in Theoretical Neuroscience Message-ID: <3F02FB54.3C538E71@physik.uni-bremen.de> Dear Connectionists, a PhD position is available in the Institute for Theoretical Neurophysics at the University of Bremen for a project on human sensorimotor control loops. In cooperation with experimental groups, dynamical models of action and perception will be developed to investigate, for example, human postural sway and the task of balancing sticks on the fingertip. Typical methods we employ in our institute include dynamical systems theory, neural networks, and statistical estimation theory. Our homepage is http://www.neuro.uni-bremen.de/index.php The University of Bremen has several institutions in the field of Neuroscience, including a Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and a Special Research Project "Neurocognition". There are several theoretical and experimental groups in the Physics, Biology and Psychology working on neural network modeling, psychophysics, and electrophysiology. The Hanse Institute for Advanced Study in Delmenhorst (which is close to Bremen) hosts international guests from the area of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science and also organizes Neuroscience workshops and conferences. Closing date is July 25, 2003. For further information and applications, please contact Dr. Christian Eurich during the upcoming CNS conference in Alicante or at Universitaet Bremen Institut fuer Theoretische Neurophysik, FB 1 Postfach 330 440 D-28334 Bremen, Germany Phone: +49 (421) 218-4559 Fax: +49 (421) 218-9104 e-mail: eurich at physik.uni-bremen.de From Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp Wed Jul 2 05:30:27 2003 From: Luc.Berthouze at aist.go.jp (Luc Berthouze) Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 11:30:27 +0200 Subject: postdoc position in developmental robotics and motor learning Message-ID: <20030630075928.1B61613B65C@aidan6.a02.aist.go.jp> The Cognitive Neuroinformatics group in the Neuroscience Research Institute at the Japanese National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba (Japan) is seeking an outstanding postdoctoral researcher to join our lab for two years starting between April 2004 and September 2004. Candidates should have a solid background in robotics and computational modeling, and a keen interest in developmental robotics and embodied cognition. The postdoc will be expected to contribute to our study of the acquisition of motor skills in human infants. Our approach is interdisciplinary. On the one hand, we exploit studies in developmental psychology to propose candidate mechanisms; and, on the other hand, we use robots to test and validate those hypotheses. The purpose of this approach is two-fold: (a) to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying motor development in infants; (b) to propose new methods for robot learning. Experience in using neural oscillators to implement motor control models, and a good understanding of the so-called "dynamical systems approach" will be highly appreciated. For more information, please consult our lab's website at: http://www.neurosci.aist.go.jp/~mechwa The Neuroscience Research Institute, and more generally, AIST, provides an excellent environment for interdisciplinary research, with groups engaged in research in biology, neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and robotics. See http://www.aist.go.jp (AIST website) and http://www.neurosci.aist.go.jp (Neuroscience Research Institute) for more information. Candidates should contact Luc Berthouze with a CV and a one-page statement of research interests. If electronic submission is not possible, fax your application to +81-298-615841, directed to the attention of Luc Berthouze. From P.Tino at cs.bham.ac.uk Thu Jul 3 11:27:30 2003 From: P.Tino at cs.bham.ac.uk (Peter Tino) Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2003 16:27:30 +0100 Subject: papers on architectural bias of RNNs Message-ID: <3F044B62.9060906@cs.bham.ac.uk> Dear Connectionists, a collection of papers dealing with theoretical and practical aspects of recurrent neural networks before and in the early stages of training is available on-line. Preprints can be found at http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pxt/my.publ.html B. Hammer, P. Tino: Recurrent neural networks with small weights implement definite memory machines. Neural Computation, accepted, 2003. - Proves that Recurrent networks are architecturally biased towards definite memory machines/Markov models. Also contains rigorous learnability analysis of recurrent nets in the early stages of learning. P. Tino, M. Cernansky, L. Benuskova: Markovian architectural bias of recurrent neural networks. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, accepted, 2003. - Mostly empirical study of the architectural bias phenomenon in the context of connectionist modeling of symbolic sequences. It is possible to extract (variable memory length) Markov models from recurrent networks even prior to any training! To assess the amount of useful information extracted during the training, the networks should be compared with variable memory length Markov models. P. Tino, B. Hammer: Architectural Bias in Recurrent Neural Networks - Fractal Analysis. Neural Computation, accepted, 2003. - Rigorous fractal analysis of recurrent activations in recurrent networks in the early stages of learning. The complexity of input patterns (topological entropy) is directly reflected by the complexity of recurrent activations (fractal dimension). Best wishes, Peter Tino -- Peter Tino The University of Birmingham School of Computer Science Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK +44 121 414 8558 , fax: 414 4281 http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pxt/ From gary at cs.ucsd.edu Thu Jul 3 13:31:50 2003 From: gary at cs.ucsd.edu (Gary Cottrell) Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 10:31:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: papers on architectural bias of RNNs Message-ID: <200307031731.h63HVoO29370@fast.ucsd.edu> Folks interested in Peter's paper on RNN's and Definite Memory Machines may also be interested in our papers on TDNN's and definite memory machines: Clouse, Daniel S., Giles, Lee C., Horne, Bill G. and Cottrell, G. W. (1997) Time-delay neural networks: Representation and induction of finite state machines. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks. This work attempts to characterize the capabilities of time-delay neural networks (TDNN), and contrast two subclasses of TDNN in the area of language induction. The two subclasses are those with delays limited to the inputs (IDNN), and those which include delays also on hidden units (HDNN). Both of these architectures are capable of representing the same languages, those representable by definite memory machines (DMM), a subclass of finite state machines (FSM). They have a strong representational bias towards DMMs which can be characterized by little logic. We demonstrate this by learning a 2048 state DMM using very few training examples. Even though both architectures are capable of representing the same class of languages, HDNNs are biased towards learning languages which are characterized by shift-invariant behavior on short input windows in the mapping from recent inputs to the accept/reject classification. We demonstrate this difference in learning bias via a set of simulations and statistical analysis. http://www.neci.nec.com/%7Egiles/papers/IEEE.TNN.tdnn.as.fsm.ps.Z Clouse, Daniel S., Giles, Lee C., Horne, Bill G. and Cottrell, G. W. (1997) Representation and induction of finite state machines using time-delay neural networks. In Michael C. Mozer, Michael I. Jordan, and Thomas Petsche (eds.) Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 9, pp. 403-409. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1997. (Similar abstract!) http://nips.djvuzone.org/djvu/nips09/0403.djvu From r.gayler at mbox.com.au Thu Jul 3 19:26:23 2003 From: r.gayler at mbox.com.au (Ross Gayler) Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 09:26:23 +1000 Subject: Response to Jackendoff's challenges -- notice of conference presentation and availability of paper Message-ID: <001001c341ba$8517fc50$2402a8c0@Chennai> The linguist, Ray Jackendoff, proposed four challenges to cognitive neuroscience in his book "Foundations of Language". Each challenge corresponds to an element of core linguistic functionality which Jackendoff sees as being poorly addressed by current connectionist models. On August 5, 2002, Jerome Feldman broadcast these challenges to the Connectionists mailing list under the subject "Neural binding". After receiving several responses, Feldman concluded on August 21 that "it isn't obvious (at least to me) how to use any of the standard techniques to specify a model that meets Jackendoff's criteria". I have prepared a paper setting out how I believe one family of connectionist architectures can meet Jackendoff's challenges. This will be presented at the Joint International Conference on Cognitive Science to be held in Sydney, Australia from 13 - 17 July, 2003 (http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/cogsci2003/). If you will be attending the conference and wish to hear the presentation - it is currently scheduled for 1 p.m. on Thursday 17th in the Language stream (http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/cogsci2003/conf_content/program_thurs_pm.htm). An extended abstract is included below and anyone who wishes a preprint copy of the paper (which is very condensed to fit the conference format) should e-mail me at r.gayler at mbox.com.au Ross Gayler Melbourne, AUSTRALIA r.gayler at mbox.com.au +61 413 111 303 mobile Vector Symbolic Architectures answer Jackendoff's challenges for cognitive neuroscience. Ross Gayler Vector Symbolic Architectures (Gayler, 1998; Kanerva, 1997; Plate, 1994) are a little-known class of connectionist models that can directly implement functions usually taken to form the kernel of symbolic processing. They are an enhancement of tensor product variable binding networks (Smolensky, 1990). Like tensor product networks, VSA's can create and manipulate recursively-structured representations in a natural and direct connectionist fashion without requiring lengthy training. However, unlike tensor product networks, VSA's afford a practical basis for implementations because they require only fixed dimension vector representations. The fact that VSA's relate directly, without training, to both simple, practical vector implementations and core symbolic processing functionality suggests that they would provide a fruitful connectionist basis for the implementation of cognitive functionality. Ray Jackendoff (2002) posed four challenges that linguistic combinatoriality and rules of language present to theories of brain function. These challenges are: the massiveness of the binding problem, the problem of dealing with multiple instances, the problem of variables, and the compatibility of representations in working memory and long-term memory. The essence of these problems is the question of how to neurally instantiate the rapid construction and transformation of the compositional structures that are typically taken to be the domain of symbolic processing. Drawing on work by Gary Marcus (2001), Jackendoff contended that these challenges had not been widely recognised in the cognitive neuroscience community and that the dialogue between linguistic theory and neural network modelling would be relatively unproductive until the challenges were answered by some technical innovation in connectionist models. Jerome Feldman (2002) broadcast these challenges to the neural network modelling community via the Connectionists Mailing List. The few responses he received were unable to convince Feldman that any standard connectionist techniques would meet Jackendoff's criteria. In this paper I demonstrate that Vector Symbolic Architectures are able to meet Jackendoff's challenges. References Feldman, J. (2002). Neural binding. Posted to Connectionists Mailing List, 5th August, 2002. (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/connect/connect-archives/arc h.2002-08.gz 0005.txt see also 8, 9, 18, and 21) Gayler, R. W. (1998). Multiplicative binding, representation operators, and analogy. In K. Holyoak, D. Gentner & B. Kokinov (Eds.), Advances in analogy research: Integration of theory and data from the cognitive, computational, and neural sciences (p. 405). Sofia, Bulgaria: New Bulgarian University. (http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000502/ see also 500 and 501) Jackendoff, R. (2002). Foundations of language: Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kanerva, P. (1997). Fully distributed representation. In Proceedings Real World Computing Symposium (RWC'97, Tokyo). Report TR-96001 (pp. 358-365). Tsukuba-city, Japan: Real World Computing Partnership. (http://www.rni.org/kanerva/rwc97.ps.gz see also http://www.rni.org/kanerva/pubs.html) Marcus, G. (2001). The algebraic mind. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. Plate, T. A. (1994). Distributed representations and nested compositional structure. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. (http://pws.prserv.net/tap/papers/plate.thesis.ps.gz see also http://pws.prserv.net/tap/) Smolensky, P. (1990). Tensor product variable binding and the representation of symbolic structures in connectionist systems. Artificial Intelligence, 46, 159-216. From j.hogan at qut.edu.au Fri Jul 4 03:44:11 2003 From: j.hogan at qut.edu.au (James Michael Hogan) Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 17:44:11 +1000 Subject: Symposium on Statistical Learning Message-ID: <200307040744.AKA05918@mail-router02.qut.edu.au> An upcoming workshop in Sydney - organised by people from UNSW- jh S E C O N D A N N O U N C E M E N T \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute symposium on /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: .. .. .. STATISTICAL LEARNING .. .. .. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia 2nd-3rd October, 2003 ========================================================== The symposium is now just 3 months away. Here are some updates: * The new and improved web-site is www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~inge/symp and information about the symposium is continuously being added. The latest addition is a tentative programme. * HOTEL BOOKING ALERT!!!! The symposium takes place just one week before the 2003 Rugby World Cup commences in Sydney. Therefore you are advised to book accommodation as soon as possible. Accommodation suggestions have been added to the web-site. Flights may also be affected by the World Cup. * Early bird special (late bird penalty). We recommend you register as soon as possible, but not later than 2nd September when the lower rates expire. Full registration procedures are now on the web. * Speaker addition/subtraction Drs. Markus Hegland and Alex Smola have been added to the invited speaker list. Professor Geoff McLachlan has had to withdraw. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Inge Koch and Matt Wand Department of Statistics University of New South Wales Sydney 2052, Australia +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ----- End Forwarded Message ----- From rporter at lanl.gov Mon Jul 7 14:46:41 2003 From: rporter at lanl.gov (Reid Porter) Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2003 12:46:41 -0600 Subject: Postdoctoral position in digital neural networks Message-ID: <5.0.0.25.2.20030707121230.02d91d78@nis-pop.lanl.gov> Postdoctoral position available in digital neural networks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Space Data System Group (NIS-3) of Los Alamos National Laboratory seeks outstanding candidates for a postdoctoral research position in the areas of pattern recognition, mathematical morphology and reconfigurable computing. The candidate will help develop high performance feature extraction and classification algorithms to be deployed in reconfigurable computing hardware. Applications include remotely sensed satellite imagery, unmanned aerial vehicle video and other spatio-temporal data sets. The main focus will be to develop novel cellular non-linear networks suitable for digital hardware by building on mathematical morphology and non-linear digital filter theory. The position will require research (typically mathematics) and algorithm proto-typing (typically Matlab), software development and implementation (typically in C / C++) targeting eventual deployment with reconfigurable computing (typically in VHDL). Required Skills: Prospective candidates should have good oral and written communication skills, and a demonstrated ability to perform independent and creative research. We are most interested in candidates with research interests and experience in the following areas: - Cellular non-linear networks and spatio-temporal processing - Mathematical morphology and non-linear digital filters - Machine learning, artificial intelligence and optimization - Image, video and signal processing. - Digital design, reconfigurable computing Education: A PhD completed within the past five years or soon to be completed is required. Post-doc starting salaries are usually in the range $59,300 - $67,300 depending on experience, and generous assistance is provided with relocation expenses. The initial contract offered would be for two years, with good possibilities for contract extensions. Candidates may be considered for a Director's Fellowship and outstanding candidates may be considered for the prestigious J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard P. Feynman or Frederick Reines Fellowships. Please see http://www.hr.lanl.gov/jps/regjobsearch.stm, job number #205519, for more information. Los Alamos is a small and very friendly town situated 7200 ft up in the scenic Jemez mountains in northern New Mexico. The climate is very pleasant and opportunities for outdoor recreation are numerous (skiing, hiking, biking, climbing, etc). The Los Alamos public school system is excellent. LANL provides a very constructive working environment with abundant resources and support, and the opportunity to work with intelligent and creative people on a variety of interesting projects. Applicants are asked to send a resume, publications list and a cover letter outlining current research interests to rporter at lanl.gov. Hard copies may be sent to: Reid Porter, NIS-3, MS D440, Los Alamos National Lab, New Mexico 87545, USA. From becker at mcmaster.ca Wed Jul 9 23:05:47 2003 From: becker at mcmaster.ca (S. Becker) Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 23:05:47 -0400 (EDT) Subject: NIPS 2003 Survey Message-ID: To Connectionists: We are asking for a few minutes of your time to complete an online Survey consisting of four yes/no questions. The Survey deals with a number of major changes to the format of the NIPS Conference that are under consideration. The impetus for these possible changes is to accommodate the growth in submissions in recent years (a 50% increase between 1999 and 2002), as well the diverse demographics of the Conference attendees. Your responses to the four questions, as well as any additional input you may have, will be valuable in shaping the future of NIPS. We thank you for your participation. https://register.nips.salk.edu/surveys/survey.php?id=1 Terrence Sejnowski President Neural Information Processing Systems Foundation From terry at salk.edu Fri Jul 11 19:01:45 2003 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:01:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: NEURAL COMPUTATION 15:8 Message-ID: <200307112301.h6BN1jT51877@purkinje.salk.edu> Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 15, Number 8 - August 1, 2003 ARTICLE Computation In a Single Neuron: Hodgkin and Huxley Revisited Blaise Aguera Y Arcas, Adrienne L. Fairhall and William Bialek NOTE Learning the Nonlinearity of Neurons from Natural Visual Stimuli Christoph Kayser, Konrad P. Kording and Peter Konig LETTERS Analytic Expressions for Rate and CV of a Type I Neuron Driven by White Gaussian Noise Benjamin Lindner, Andre Longtin, and Adi Bulsara What Causes a Neuron to Spike? Blaise Aguera y Arcas and Adrienne L. Fairhall Rate Models for Conductance-Based Cortical Neuronal Networks Oren Shriki, David Hansel, and Haim Sompolinsky Neural Representation of Probabilistic Information M.J. Barber, J.W. Clark and C.H. Anderson Learning the Gestalt Rule of Collinearity from Object Motion Carsten Prodoehl, Rolf Wuertz and Christoph von der Malsburg Recurrent Neural Networks With Small Weights Implement Definite Memory Machines Barbara Hammer and Peter Tino Architectural Bias in Recurrent Neural Networks: Fractal Analysis Peter Tino and Barbara Hammer An Effective Bayesian Neural Network Classifier with a Comparison Study to Support Vector Machine Faming Liang Variational Bayesian Learning of ICA with Missing Data Kwokleung Chan, Te-Won Lee and Terrence J. Sejnowski ----- ON-LINE - http://neco.mitpress.org/ SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2003 - VOLUME 15 - 12 ISSUES USA Canada* Other Countries Student/Retired $60 $64.20 $108 Individual $95 $101.65 $143 Institution $590 $631.30 $638 * includes 7% GST MIT Press Journals, 5 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142-9902. Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-orders at mit.edu ----- From Olivier.Buffet at loria.fr Fri Jul 11 11:13:11 2003 From: Olivier.Buffet at loria.fr (Olivier Buffet) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 17:13:11 +0200 Subject: EWRL-6 : Call for Participation References: <3E9D2408.7000301@loria.fr> Message-ID: <3F0ED407.7038A41@loria.fr> -- Please excuse us if you receive multiple copies of this message --- ********* Please Distribute around you ******** Call for participation European Workshop on Reinforcement Learning EWRL-6 Nancy, FRANCE, September 4-5, 2003 URL: http://www.loria.fr/conferences/EWRL6/ Reinforcement learning (RL) is a growing research area. To build an European RL community and give visibility to the current situation in the old continent, we are running a now biennial series of workshops. EWRL-1 took place in Brussels, Belgium (1994), EWRL-2 in Milano, Italy (1995), EWRL-3 in Rennes, France (1997), EWRL-4 in Lugano, Switzerland (1999), and EWRL-5 in Utrecht, the Netherlands (2001). EWRL-6 will take place in Nancy, France. The workshop will feature a plenary talk by Bernard Walliser, professor at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausses and Ecole Polytechnique (Paris). He is also research director of the ECCO group (CNRS). He is working on cognitive economics and game theory. The rest of the two-day workshop will be dedicated to presentations given by selected participants. The program will be on-line next week. An inscription fee of euros 200 (only euros 100 for students) will cover local organization expenses, lunch, coffee breaks, the proceedings, and a social dinner on Thursday evening. Registration procedure is detailed at : http://www.loria.fr/conferences/EWRL6/Inscription/inscription_form.htm If you have any question, please contact dutech at loria.fr and buffet at loria.fr From jason at cs.jhu.edu Sat Jul 12 13:21:56 2003 From: jason at cs.jhu.edu (Jason Eisner) Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 13:21:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: postdoc opportunities at Johns Hopkins Message-ID: <200307121721.h6CHLus17035@emu.cs.jhu.edu> Johns Hopkins University seeks to hire outstanding postdoctoral researchers immediately at its Center for Language and Speech Processing (CLSP). Candidates should have previous experience in quantitative approaches to machine learning, speech, language, or other AI domains. Strong computational and mathematical skills are required. CLSP is a leading center for research on speech and language. It specializes in formal and quantitative approaches such as probabilistic modeling, unsupervised machine learning, and grammar formalisms. Our core faculty presently include: Luigi Burzio Cognitive Science Bill Byrne Electrical & Computer Engineering Jason Eisner Computer Science Bob Frank Cognitive Science Fred Jelinek Electrical & Computer Engineering Sanjeev Khudanpur Electrical & Computer Engineering Paul Smolensky Cognitive Science David Yarowsky Computer Science We are looking for postdocs to contribute to one or more of the following long-term projects funded by NSF and/or DoD. Postdocs participating in these highly visible projects can expect to gain considerable research experience in speech and language technology. Speech Recognition * MALACH: Multilingual Access to Large Spoken Archives * ASR for Rich Transcription of Conversational Mandarin Machine Translation * Improving Statistical Translation Models Via Text Analyzers Trained from Parallel Corpora Algorithmic Infrastructure * Weighted Dynamic Programming and Finite-State Modeling for Statistical NLP Applicants are invited to email us a CV, a one-page statement of research interests, a list of three references, and a cover letter that briefly summarizes qualifications. Applications may be sent to Sue Porterfield at sec at clsp.jhu.edu (fax to +1 410 516 5050 if email is not possible). Johns Hopkins University is located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Our URL is http://www.clsp.jhu.edu/. From bolshausen at rni.org Sun Jul 13 16:53:42 2003 From: bolshausen at rni.org (Bruno Olshausen) Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 13:53:42 -0700 Subject: Workshop on Inference and Prediction in Neocortical Circuits Message-ID: <3F11C6D6.2070700@rni.org> Dear Connectionists, The American Institute of Mathematics will be hosting a workshop on "Inference and Prediction in Neocortical Circuits," September 21-24, in Palo Alto, California. Please see http://www.aimath.org/ARCC/workshops/brain.html Space and funding are available for a few more participants. If you would like to participate, please apply by filling out the on-line form at http://koutslts.bucknell.edu/~aimath/WWN/cgi-bin/participantapply.prl?workshop=14 no later than August 1, 2003. Applications are open to all, and we especially encourage women, underrepresented minorities, junior mathematicians, and researchers from primarily undergraduate institutions to apply. Bruno -- Bruno A. Olshausen (650) 321-8282 x233 Redwood Neuroscience Institute (650) 321-8585 (fax) 1010 El Camino Real http://www.rni.org Menlo Park, CA 94025 bolshausen at rni.org From no-spam-please-find-my-address-typing-frasconi-email at google.com Sun Jul 13 20:41:26 2003 From: no-spam-please-find-my-address-typing-frasconi-email at google.com (Paolo Frasconi) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 02:41:26 +0200 Subject: New book: Modeling the Internet and the Web (Wiley 2003) Message-ID: Some of the readers of this list might be interested in the following book Pierre Baldi, Paolo Frasconi, and Padhraic Smyth, Modeling the Internet and the Web Probabilistic Methods and Algorithms Wiley, 2003, ISBN: 0-470-84906-1. It covers various models and algorithms for the Web including generative models of networks, IR and machine learning algorithms for text analysis, link analysis, focused crawling, methods for modeling user behavior, and for mining Web e-commerce data. 1. Mathematical Background - 2. Basic WWW Technologies - 3. Web Graphs - 4. Text Analysis - 5. Link analysis - 6. Advanced Crawling Techniques - 7. Modeling and Understanding Human Behavior on the Web - 8. Commerce on the Web: Models and Applications - Appendix A Mathematical Complements - Appendix B List of Main Symbols and Abbreviations The webpage http://ibook.ics.uci.edu/ contains more details, a hyperlinked bibliography, and a sample chapter in pdf. Regards, Paolo Frasconi http://www.dsi.unifi.it/~paolo/ From ddlewis4 at worldnet.att.net Sun Jul 13 22:32:32 2003 From: ddlewis4 at worldnet.att.net (ddlewis4@worldnet.att.net) Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 21:32:32 -0500 Subject: Research Software Developer w/ Ornarose, Inc. (short term, Chicago or NJ) Message-ID: <676e01c349b0$6cb21df0$0500a8c0@colussus> Company: Ornarose Inc. Location: Northern New Jersey or Chicago, IL Title: Research Software Developer - Data Mining/Statistics/Text Classification Requirements: B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, or related field. 5+ years professional software development experience. 2+ years professional experience with one or more of the following: machine learning, data mining, statistics, pattern recognition, numerical optimization, numerical analysis. Experience with designing and running computational experiments in computer science or statistics highly desirable. Also desirable is experience in information retrieval, text categorization, natural language processing, computational linguistics, or text mining. C and Perl proficiency required. C++ proficiency desirable. Unix/Linux experience required. Windows experience desirable. Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English. Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and communicate effectively when working from home. Responsibilities: This is a short-term (5 to 6 month) position for an SBIR-supported startup company. Developer will be responsible for prototyping and testing advanced algorithms for supervised and unsupervised learning, prediction, classification, etc. Work also includes preparation and cleaning of large text and non-text data sets, experimentation with new algorithms and modeling techniques, and measuring the effectiveness of these techniques and their demands for computing resources. Interested candidates should send a resume (leads also welcome) in ASCII or PDF to job2003a at ornarose.com. Ornarose, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Because the position begins immediately, the candidate must be eligible to work legally in the United States throughout 2003. From gbarreto at sel.eesc.sc.usp.br Mon Jul 14 13:44:03 2003 From: gbarreto at sel.eesc.sc.usp.br (Guilherme de Alencar Barreto) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 14:44:03 -0300 (EST) Subject: Papers on Self-Organizing Neural Networks Message-ID: Dear Connectionists, Maybe the following papers can be of interest for those working with Unsupervised Neural Networks and their applications to generative modeling and robotics. Abstracts and downloadable draft versions can be found at http://www.deti.ufc.br/~guilherme/publicacoes.htm Best regards, Guilherme A. Barreto Department of Teleinformatics Engineering Federal University of Ceara, BRAZIL ------------------------------------ Paper (1): Barreto, G.A., Araújo, A.F.R. and Kremer, S. (2003). "A taxonomy for spatiotemporal connectionist networks revisited: The unsupervised case." Neural Computation, 15(6):1255-1320. ------------------------------------ Paper (2): Barreto, G.A., Araújo, A.F.R. and Ritter, H. (2003). "Self-organizing feature maps for modeling and control of robotic manipulators." Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 36(4):407-450. ------------------------------------ Paper (3): Barreto, G.A., Araújo, A.F.R., Dücker, C. and Ritter, H. (2002). "A distributed robotic control system based on a Temporal Self-Organizing Neural Network" IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, C-32(4):347-357. From amasuoka at atr.co.jp Mon Jul 14 07:03:34 2003 From: amasuoka at atr.co.jp (Aya Masuoka) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 20:03:34 +0900 Subject: ATR CNS Labs Inaugural Symposium Message-ID: Dear members of the Connectionists, We are happy to announce the Inaugural Symposium of ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, which started on May, 2003. In addition to the speakers from the new laboratories, we will have two keynote speakers, Dr. Dietmar Plenz from National Institute of Health and Dr. Miguel A.L. Nicolelis from Duke University . The symposium is open to everyone. Please join us to commemorate this event together. ATR CNS Labs Inaugural Symposium Date: Monday, August 4, 2003 Place: ATR Main Conference Room Hosted by :ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories For latest information on the symposium: http://www.cns.atr.co.jp/events.html Please complete the registration form provided below to register for the event and return by 7/30 by email: amasuoka at atr.co.jp *********************************************************** Registration Form Last Name: First Name: MI: Institution/Agency: Email Address: Please type 'X' next to the following options. I will attend : the symposium the lab tour the reception all of the above I have special dietary requirement: Please state clearly your requirement. Fee: \1,000 for participating the reception.? There is no fee for the symposium and lab tour. Method of Payment: Please make a payment at the on-site registration desk by cash. *********************************************************** 12:30 PM - Registration 1:00 PM -1:05 PM Mitsuo Kawato, Director (ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories) Opening Remarks 1:05 PM -1:30 PM Kenji Doya (Department Head, Computational Neurobiology, ATR, CNS) "Neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning" 1:30 PM - 1:55 PM Hiroshi Imamizu (Department Head, Cognitive Neuroscience, ATR, CNS) "Internal models for cognitive functions" 1:55 PM - 2:20 PM Gordon Cheng (Department Head, Humanoid Robotics and Computational Neuroscience, ATR, CNS) "Paving the paths to the brain with humanoid robotics" 2:20 PM - 2:40 PM Coffee Break 2:40 PM - 3:40 PM Dr. Dietmar Plenz (National Institute of Health) 3:40 PM - 4:40 PM Dr. Miguel A.L. Nicolelis (Duke University) 4:40 PM - 5:05 PM Mitsuo Kawato, Director (ATR, CNS) "Controversies in computational motor control." 5:05 PM - 6:00 PM Lab tour 6:00 PM - Reception at the ATR Cafeteria *********************************************************** Thank you. We look forward to seeing you at the symposium. Mitsuo Kawato, Director ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories -- --------------------------- Aya Masuoka, Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, ATR International Department of Computational Neurobiology 2-2-2 Hikaridai,Keihanna Science City Kyoto,619-0288 Japan TEL +81-774-95-1252 FAX +81-774-95-1259 EMAIL amasuoka at atr.co.jp ============================== CNS was established in May 1, 2003! ============================== From canete at ctima.uma.es Mon Jul 14 07:18:40 2003 From: canete at ctima.uma.es (=?iso-8859-1?Q?Javier_Fern=E1ndez_de_Ca=F1ete?=) Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 13:18:40 +0200 Subject: EANN'03 Final Programme (8-10 September 2003, Malaga SPAIN) Message-ID: <002801c349f9$ade29d60$836dd696@isa.uma.es> Dear colleagues: This e_mail is to inform that you can find the Final Programme of the Engineering Application of Neural Networks (EANN'03) available at the web page http://www.isa.uma.es/eann03 With regards Javier Fernandez de Canete EANN'03 Secretariat eann03 at ctima.uma.es Prof. Javier Fernandez de Canete. Ph. D. Dpto. de Ingenier=EDa de Sistemas y Automatica E.T.S.I. Informatica Campus de Teatinos, 29071 Malaga (SPAIN) Phone: +34-95-2132887 FAX: +34-95-2133361 e_mail: canete at ctima.uma.es From James-Johnson at nyc.rr.com Tue Jul 15 10:28:03 2003 From: James-Johnson at nyc.rr.com (James Johnson) Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:28:03 -0400 Subject: A Generative Theory of Shape References: <000101c342a5$8aec87e0$66df75d8@thinkpad> Message-ID: <000f01c34add$4def6bb0$ff5a6c42@ibmntgzhmy5bef> The following book has just appeared in Springer-Verlag. A Generative Theory of Shape Michael Leyton Springer-Verlag, 550 pages -------------------------------------------------------------------- The purpose of the book is to develop a generative theory of shape that has two properties regarded as fundamental to intelligence - maximizing transfer of structure and maximizing recoverability of the generative operations. These two properties are particularly important in the representation of complex shape - which is the main concern of the book. The primary goal of the theory is the conversion of complexity into understandability. For this purpose, a mathematical theory is presented of how understandability is created in a structure. This is achieved by developing a group-theoretic approach to formalizing transfer and recoverability. To handle complex shape, a new class of groups is developed, called unfolding groups. These unfold structure from a maximally collapsed version of that structure. A principal aspect of the theory is that it develops a group-theoretic formalization of major object-oriented concepts such as inheritance. The result is an object-oriented theory of geometry. The algebraic theory is applied in detail to CAD, perception, and robotics. In CAD, lengthy chapters are presented on mechanical and architectural design. For example, using the theory of unfolding groups, the book works in detail through the main stages of mechanical CAD/CAM: part-design, assembly and machining. And within part-design, an extensive algebraic analysis is given of sketching, alignment, dimensioning, resolution, editing, sweeping, feature-addition, and intent-management. The equivalent analysis is also done for architectural design. In perception, extensive theories are given for grouping and the main Gestalt motion phenomena (induced motion, separation of systems, the Johannson relative/absolute motion effects); as well as orientation and form. In robotics, several levels of analysis are developed for manipulator structure, using the author's algebraic theory of object-oriented structure. -------------------------------------------------------------------- This book can be viewed electronically at the following site: http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/tocs/t2145.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------- Author's address: Professor Michael Leyton, Center for Discrete Mathematics, & Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) Rutgers University, Busch Campus, New Brunswick, NJ 08854, USA E-mail address: mleyton at dimacs.rutgers.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------- From juhn at utopiacompression.com Tue Jul 15 16:48:14 2003 From: juhn at utopiacompression.com (Juhn Maing) Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 13:48:14 -0700 Subject: Job posting: Sr. machine learning scientist Message-ID: <004501c34b12$69c7eb70$066fa8c0@JUHN> JOB POSTING: SENIOR MACHINE LEARNING SCIENTIST UtopiaCompression (UC) is an early-stage, intelligent imaging solutions company. UC's core offering is an intelligent image compression technology, which was recognized in 2002 as one of the top emerging technologies in the US by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (http://jazz.nist.gov/atpcf/prjbriefs/prjbrief.cfm?ProjectNumber=00-00-4 936). Job Description UtopiaCompression is looking for a highly qualified candidate with extensive experience and knowledge in machine learning, data mining and knowledge discovery. The candidate is required to have an MS or Ph.D. in the areas mentioned above from a highly reputable university. Post-doctorate and/or industry experience is strongly preferred. The ideal candidate will be thoroughly versed in the latest research, methods, developments and theories in machine learning and data mining as well as possess in-depth experience applying them to commercial, scientific or industrial applications. The candidate is also required to be a visionary, highly creative and a great problem solver capable of proposing solutions to multiple problems in parallel, and mentoring and guiding R&D engineers in developing and implementing the solutions. Permanent residents or US citizens are preferred. This position is ideally suited for full-time employment, but part-time, contract and contract-to-hire arrangements may also be considered. Skills & Qualifications 1 - In-depth knowledge and experience in statistical analysis, reasoning and learning (e.g., Bayesian learning, estimation maximization and maximum likelihood algorithms, and feature extraction problems), (statistical) combinatorial optimization and learning (e.g., simulated annealing, genetic programming), neural networks, inductive and rule generation learning, fuzzy reasoning, (numeric) decision tree learning, search methods, (image) data mining and understanding, etc. Candidates are expected to have knowledge and working experience in various learning regimes. For instance, in the case of layered neural nets dexterous familiarity with the back propagation algorithm, radial basis functions, etc., in decision tree learning working experience in information gain measure, category utility function, tree pruning, etc. 2 - Dexterous familiarity with various machine learning and statistical software tools. 3 - Fluency in software analysis, design and development using C programming environment. Candidates must be well versed and experienced in C. Working experience in C++ (and Java) is a plus. 4 - Knowledge and working experience with image compression techniques, and image analysis and processing is a big plus. Contact: Juhn Maing Product Manager UtopiaCompression Tel: 310-473-1500 x104 Email: juhn at utopiacompression.com From poznan at iub-psych.psych.indiana.edu Wed Jul 16 16:50:40 2003 From: poznan at iub-psych.psych.indiana.edu (Roman Poznanski) Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 13:50:40 -0700 Subject: JIN, Vol. 2, No. 1, June 2003 Message-ID: <3F15BAA0.7040109@iub-psych.psych.indiana.edu> [ Moderator's note: this journal special issue may be of interest to readers of Connectionists, but only the article abstracts are available free online. Full text requires a subscription. -- DST ] Special Issue: Complex Nonlinear Neural Dynamics: Experimental Advances and Theoretical Interpretations Editorial Peter Andras, Robert Kozma and Peter Erdi 1 The Wave Packet: An Action Potential for the 21st Century Walter J. Freeman 3 Two Species of Gamma Oscillations in the Olfactory Bulb: Dependence on Behavioral State and Synaptic Interactions Leslie M. Kay 31 The Global Effects of Stroke on the Human Electroencephalogram Rudolph C. Hwa, Wei He and Thomas C. Ferree 45 A Model for Emergent Complex Order in Small Neural Networks Peter Andras 55 Dimension Change, Coarse Grained Coding and Pattern Recognition in Spatio-Temporal Nonlinear Systems David DeMaris 71 On the Formation of Persistent States in Neuronal Network Models of Feature Selectivity Evan C. Haskell and Paul C. Bressloff 103 Basic Principles of the KIV Model and its Application to the Navigation Problem Robert Kozma and Walter J. Freeman 125 Book Review Book Review: "Computational Neuroanatomy: Principles and Methods", G. A. Ascoli, ed., (2002) A. Garenne and G. A. Chauvet 147 -- Roman R. Poznanski, Ph.D Associate Editor, Journal of Integrative Neuroscience Department of Psychology Indiana University 1101 E. 10th St. Bloomington, IN 47405-7007 email: poznan at iub-psych.psych.indiana.edu phone (Office): (812) 856-0838 http://www.worldscinet.com/jin/mkt/editorial.shtml From bogus@does.not.exist.com Wed Jul 16 11:13:28 2003 From: bogus@does.not.exist.com () Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 11:13:28 -0400 Subject: postdoc position available Message-ID: From stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk Thu Jul 17 08:23:49 2003 From: stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk (Stefan Wermter) Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 13:23:49 +0100 Subject: Stipends for MSc Intelligent Systems Message-ID: <3F169555.446E5938@sunderland.ac.uk> Stipends available for MSc Intelligent Systems ---------------------------------- We are pleased to announce that for eligible EU students we have obtained funding to offer a bursary for our new MSc Intelligent Systems worth up to 9.000 EURO as fee waiver and stipend. ***Please forward to students who may be interested.*** The School of Computing and Technology, University of Sunderland is delighted to announce the launch of its new MSc Intelligent Systems programme for October 2003. Building on the School's leading edge research in intelligent systems this masters programme will be funded via the ESF scheme (see below). Intelligent Systems is an exciting field of study for science and industry since the currently existing computing systems have often not yet reached the various aspects of human performance. "Intelligent Systems" is a term to describe software systems and methods, which simulate aspects of intelligent behaviour. The intention is to learn from nature and human performance in order to build more powerful computing systems. The aim is to learn from cognitive science, neuroscience, biology, engineering, and linguistics for building more powerful computational system architectures. In this programme a wide variety of novel and exciting techniques will be taught including neural networks, intelligent robotics, machine learning, natural language processing, vision, evolutionary genetic computing, data mining, information retrieval, Bayesian computing, knowledge-based systems, fuzzy methods, and hybrid intelligent architectures. Programme Structure -------------- The following lectures/modules are available (at least modules with * are intended to be available for the Oct. 2003 cohort entry) Neural Networks * Intelligent Systems Architectures * Learning Agents * Evolutionary Computation Cognitive Neural Science * Knowledge Based Systems and Data Mining * Bayesian Computation Vision and Intelligent Robots * Natural Language Processing * Dynamics of Adaptive Systems Intelligent Systems Programming * Funding up to 6000 pounds (about 9.000Euro) for eligible students ------------------------------ The Bursary Scheme applies to this Masters programme commencing October 2003 and we have obtained funding through the European Social Fund (ESF). ESF support enables the University to waive the normal tuition fee and provide a bursary of 75 per week for 45 weeks for eligible EU students, together up to 6000 pounds or 9000 Euro. For further information in the first instance please see: http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/Teaching_frame.html http://osiris.sund.ac.uk/webedit/allweb/courses/progmode.php?prog=G550A&mode=FT&mode2=&dmode=C For information on applications and start dates contact: gillian.potts at sunderland.ac.uk Tel: 0191 515 2758 For academic information about the programme contact: alfredo.moscardini at sunderland.ac.uk Please forward to interested students. Stefan *************************************** Stefan Wermter Professor for Intelligent Systems Centre for Hybrid Intelligent Systems School of Computing and Technology University of Sunderland St Peters Way Sunderland SR6 0DD United Kingdom phone: +44 191 515 3279 fax: +44 191 515 3553 email: stefan.wermter at sunderland.ac.uk http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0stw/ http://www.his.sunderland.ac.uk/ **************************************** From norbert at cn.stir.ac.uk Fri Jul 18 10:09:23 2003 From: norbert at cn.stir.ac.uk (Norbert Krueger) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:09:23 +0100 Subject: Special Session: NEXT GENERATION VISION SYSTEMS Message-ID: <3F17FF93.5DA48668@cn.stir.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues, I would like to point you to the special session NEXT GENERATION VISION SYSTEMS to be held at the Fourth International ICSC Symposium at the ENGINEERING OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (EIS 2004) With best regards Norbert Krueger _______________________________________________________ Special Session NEXT GENERATION VISION SYSTEMS Fourth International ICSC Symposium at the ENGINEERING OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (EIS 2004) http://www.icsc-naiso.org/conferences/eis2004/index.html February 29 - March 2, 2004 at the University of Madeira, Island of Madeira, Portugal Organisers: Dr. Norbert Krueger University of Stirling Email: norbert at cn.stir.ac.uk http://www.cn.stir.ac.uk/~norbert Dr. Volker Krueger Aalborg University, Esbjerg Email: vok at cs.aue.auc.dk Dr. Florentin Woergoetter University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA Scotland, UK Email: worgott at cn.stir.ac.uk Abstract Vision based devices have been entering the industrial and private world more and more successfully: Face recognition systems control the access to buildings; airports and train stations are controlled by Video Surveillance devices; and cars become equipped with vision based driver assistance systems. However, the gap between human performance and the top performance of today's artificial visual systems is considerable. Especially, scene analysis in unfamiliar environments allowing for highly reliable actions is yet an outstanding quality of biological systems. The next generation of vision systems will have to show stable and reliable performance in uncontrolled environments in real time. To achieve reliability these systems need to make use of regularities in visual data. In this respect, the representation of the temporal structure of visual data as well as the fusion of visual sub-modalities are crucial. Such systems also need to be equipped with a sufficient amount of prestructured knowledge as well as the ability to deal with uncertainties and to learn in complex environments. The invited session focusses on requirements for and prospects of future vision systems. This covers all questions of visual representation and integration as well as questions of hardware and software design. Submission Deadline: 15.9.2003 Maximum number of pages: Fifteen pages (including diagrams and references) Papers (either as pdf or postscript) to be send to norbert at cn.stir.ac.uk From levys at wlu.edu Fri Jul 18 16:03:04 2003 From: levys at wlu.edu (Simon Levy) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 16:03:04 -0400 Subject: Software Release Announcement: SNARLI, free/open-source Java package for neural nets Message-ID: <3F185278.3040403@wlu.edu> Dear Connectionists, I would like to announce the release of a free, open-source Java package that may be of interest to members of this list. This package is currently available at http://snarli.sourceforge.net, and is described below. Please feel free to download this package, and contact me with question, criticism, or suggestions. I am especially interested in hearing from educators and researchers who find the package useful in their work, and anyone who has a feature or neural architecture that they would like to see implemented. Thanks, Simon ======================== Simon D. Levy Assistant Professor Computer Science Department Washington & Lee University Lexington, VA 24450 540-458-8419 (voice) 540-458-8479 (fax) levys at wlu.edu http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy *SNARLI* (*/S/*imple */N/*eural */AR/*chitecture */LI/*brary) is a Java package containing two classes: BPLayer, a general back-prop layer class, and SOM, a class for the Kohonen Self-Organizing Map. BPLayer also supports sigma-pi connections and back-prop-through-time, allowing you to build just about any kind of back-prop network found in the literature. *SNARLI* differs from existing neural-net packages in two important ways: First, it is /not/ GUI-based. Instead, it is meant as a code resource that can be linked directly to new or existing Java-based projects, for those who want to try a neural-network approach without having to write a lot of new code. Given the variety of platforms that currently interface to Java, from HTML to Matlab , it made more sense to me to focus on the neural net algorithms, and leave the GUI development to others. Second, *SNARLI* gets a great deal of mileage out of a single class (BPLayer), instead of adding a new class for each type of network. Using this class, my students and I have been able to construct a large variety of back-prop networks, from simple perceptrons through Pollack's RAAM , with very little additional coding. We have used these networks successfully in coursework , thesis projects , and research . Future versions of *SNARLI* may include classes to support other popular architectures, such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Hopfield Nets , and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), as user interest dictates. From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Fri Jul 18 20:51:44 2003 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr. Amir Hussain) Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 01:51:44 +0100 Subject: Final Call for Papers: IJRA Journal Special Issue on Neuromorphic Systems ( IASTED / ACTA Press, Vol.19, 2004) Message-ID: <002101c34d8f$ee4cf9b0$4f98fc3e@DrAmir> Please post and distribute to colleagues and friends: http://www.actapress.com/journals/specialra6.htm Final Call for Papers: (with apologies for cross-postings!) Note extended paper submission deadline (upon request from numerous authors) of: 1 Sep 2003 For readership of the International Journal of Robotics & Automation (IJRA), please see the parent organization (IASTED's) website: http://www.iasted.org/ ---------- Call for Papers: Special Issue on "Neuromorphic Systems" International Journal of Robotics & Automation (IJRA), IASTED / ACTA Press, Vol.19, 2004 There has recently been a growing interest in neuromorphic systems research, which is part of the larger field of computational neuroscience. Neuromorphic systems are implementations in silicon of systems whose architecture and design are based on neurobiology. In general, however, neuromorphic systems research is not restricted to one specific implementation technology. This growing area proffers exciting possibilities, such as sensory systems that can compete with human senses, pattern recognition systems that can run in real time, and neuron models that can truly emulate living neurons. Neuromorphic systems are at the intersection of neuroscience, computer science, and electrical engineering. The earliest neuromorphic systems were concerned with providing an engineering approximation of some aspects of sensory systems, such as the detection of sound in the auditory system or the detection of light in the visual system. More recently, there has been considerable work on robot control systems, on modelling various types of neurons, and on including adaptation in hardware systems. Biorobotics, or the intersection between biology and robotics, is a growing area in neuromorphic systems. Biorobotics aims to investigate biological sensorimotor control systems by building robot models of them. This includes the development of novel sensors and actuators, hardware and software emulations of neural control systems, and embedding and testing devices in real environments. The aim of this Special Issue on Neuromorphic Systems is to bring together active researchers from different areas of this interdisciplinary field, and to report on the lastest advances in this area. Contributions are sought from (amongst others): - engineers interested in designing and implementing systems based on neurobiology - neurobiologists interested in engineering implementations of systems - modellers and theoreticians from all the relevant disciplines Any topic relevant to neuromorphic systems and theory, sensory neuromorphic systems, and neuromorphic hardware will be considered. Instructions for Manuscripts: All manuscripts should be e-mailed to the ACTA Press office at calgary at actapress.com by September 1, 2003. On the e-mail subject line please put "Submission for the IJRA Special Issue on Neuromorphic Systems." The paper submission should include the name(s) of the author(s) and their affiliations, addresses, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. Manuscripts should strictly follow the guidelines of ACTA Press, given at the following website: http://www.actapress.com/journals/submission.htm Important Dates: Deadline for paper submission: September 1, 2003 Notification of acceptance: December 1, 2003 Final Manuscripts due: January 31, 2004 Publication in special issue: Vol.19, 2004 Guest Editors: Dr. Amir Hussain & Prof. L.S.Smith Dept. of Computing Science & Mathematics University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK Email: a.hussain at cs.stir.ac.uk Website: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~ahu/ From aude.billard at epfl.ch Fri Jul 18 08:51:58 2003 From: aude.billard at epfl.ch (aude billard) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:51:58 +0200 Subject: Workshop on Robot Learning by Demonstration Message-ID: <0a4f01c34d2b$5fd1e6f0$7391b280@sti.intranet.epfl.ch> ======================= Call For Papers ====================== IROS-2003 Workshop on Robot Learning by Demonstration http://asl.epfl.ch/events/iros03Workshop/index.php Friday 31st of October 2003, 12-5pm IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems: IROS 2003 Bally's Las Vegas Hotel, October 27-31, 2003 Objectives: =================== Programming by demonstration has become a key research topic in robotics. It impacts both fundamental research and application-oriented studies. Work in that area tackles the development of robust algorithms for motor control, motor learning, gesture recognition and visuo-motor integration. While the field has been ongoing for more than twenty years, recent developments, taking inspiration in biological mechanisms of imitation, have brought a new perspective, which this workshop aims at assessing. Call for Papers: =================== We solicit papers relevant to the general workshop theme in the three categories: - research papers - application papers - challenge/position statements (typically only 1 or 2 pages) Relevant workshop topics include (non-exhaustive list): - Programming by Demonstration - Imitation learning - Task and Skill Learning - Motor control - Motor learning - Visuo-motor Integration - Gesture recognition Important Dates: =============== - August 4, 2003 Deadline for paper submission - August 15, 2003 Notification of acceptance - August 26, 2003 Deadline for final contributions Papers should not exceed 8 pages and conform to the single column, 10pt, A4 format. Papers should be submitted by email to: aude.billard at epfl.ch Proceedings will be distributed at the Workshop. A number of papers presented in this workshop will be selected for publication in a special issue of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems journal. Detailed Information: =================== For more detailed information, please visit the workshop website at http://asl.epfl.ch/events/iros03Workshop/index.php Program Chairs: =================== Aude Billard & Roland Siegwart Autonomous Systems Lab EPFL, Swiss Institute of Technology CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland http://asl.epfl.ch Program Committee: ==================== Luc Berthouze, ETL, Japan Henrik Christensen, KTH, Sweden Kerstin Dautenhahn, University of Hertfordshire, UK Yiannis Demiris, Imperial College London, UK Rudiger Dillmann, Karlsruhe, Germany Auke Jan Ijspeert, EPFL, CH Helge Ritter, University of Bielefeld, Germany Stefan Schaal, University of Southern California, USA Ales Ude, ATR, Japan Jianwei Zhang, University of Hamburg, Germany From wolpert at hera.ucl.ac.uk Fri Jul 18 05:43:35 2003 From: wolpert at hera.ucl.ac.uk (Daniel Wolpert) Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 10:43:35 +0100 Subject: Postdoctoral Positions in Sensorimotor Control Message-ID: <003901c34d11$0e9674f0$51463ec1@aphrodite> Two Postdoctoral Research Fellows Sensorimotor Control Laboratory Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience & Movement Disorders Institute of Neurology University College London The Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, under the direction of Professor Daniel Wolpert has openings for two highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellows in the area of computational and experimental human motor control. The Fellows will join a team investigating planning, control and learning of skilled action.One Research Fellow will work on modelling of the motor system using optimal control and Bayesian approaches and should have a background in a computational field (e.g. Computational Neuroscience, Engineering, Physics, Maths). The other will work on psychophysical studies of human motor control and should have a background in an experimental field (e.g. Neuroscience, Psychology). Applicants should ideally have a PhD, plus technical expertise and computational skills relevant to the study of human movement. Further details of both posts and laboratory facilities can be found on www.hera.ucl.ac.uk/vacancies. Informal enquiries can be addressed to Professor Daniel Wolpert by email to wolpert at hera.ucl.ac.uk. The positions are available for two years in the first instance with a starting date from September 2003. Starting salary is up to =A332,794 pa inclusive, depending on experience, superannuable. Applicants should provide (ideally by email) by August 11th 2003: - a maximum 1 page statement of research interests relevant to the project - copy of CV (2 if sent by post) - names and contact details of 3 referees - 1 copy of Declaration (required - see further details of posts) - Equal Opportunities form (optional - see further details of posts) to: Miss E Bertram, Assistant Secretary (Personnel) Institute of Neurology Queen Square London WC1N 3BG Fax: +44 (0)20 7278 5069 Email: e.bertram at ion.ucl.ac.uk Taking Action for Equality From dhwang at cs.latrobe.edu.au Sun Jul 20 21:47:01 2003 From: dhwang at cs.latrobe.edu.au (Dianhui Wang) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 11:47:01 +1000 Subject: Call for Papers References: <3EC48075.E8BBA612@cs.latrobe.edu.au> Message-ID: <3F1B4614.4A072F26@cs.latrobe.edu.au> Dear Colleages, This email solicits your submission for Invited Session on Advances in Design, Analysis and Applications of Neural/Neuro-fuzzy Classifiers, KES2004: 8th International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems21th-24th September 2004, Hotel Intercontinental, Wellington, New Zealand. Details of the "Call for Paper" could be found at http://homepage.cs.latrobe.edu.au/dhwang/KES04.htm I am looking forward to receiving your submissions. Kind regards, Dr Dianhui Wang (Session Chair) Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3083, Australia Tel: +61 3 9479 3034 Fax:+61 3 9479 3060 Email: dhwang at cs.latrobe.edu.au From bengio at idiap.ch Mon Jul 21 08:37:20 2003 From: bengio at idiap.ch (Samy Bengio) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 14:37:20 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Open position for a senior in Machine Learning - IDIAP Message-ID: Open position for a Senior Researcher in Machine Learning --------------------------------------------------------- The Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence (IDIAP, http://www.idiap.ch) seeks qualified applicants to fill the position of Senior Researcher in its Machine Learning group. Given the current scientific strengths of IDIAP, the ideal candidate should have strong research experience in machine learning problems related to speech processing, vision processing, and above all, multimodal processing. The ideal candidate will have been active for several years in the machine learning research community, and have yielded a strong publication record. He or She is expected to supervise PhD students and postdoctoral fellows in machine learning, propose new research projects at a national and European level, and be open to eventually giving lectures (either at IDIAP, or at the nearby EPFL engineering school, http://www.epfl.ch). In fact, given the strong relationship between IDIAP and EPFL, extremely qualified and experienced candidates have the possibility of being offered an academic title of professor at EPFL, while working at IDIAP. IDIAP has recently been awarded several large research projects in multimodal processing, both at the national and European level (see for instance http://www.im2.ch), and the ideal candidate will be interested in the research projects associated with this funding. IDIAP is an equal opportunity employer and is actively involved in the European initiative involving the Advancement of Women in Science. IDIAP seeks to maintain a principle of open competition (on the basis of merit) to appoint the best candidate, provide equal opportunity for all candidates, and equally encourages both females and males to consider employment with IDIAP. Although IDIAP is located in the French part of Switzerland, English is the main working language. Free English and French lessons are provided. IDIAP is located in the town of Martigny (http://www.martigny.ch) in Valais, a scenic region in the south of Switzerland, surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe, and offering exciting recreational activities, including hiking, climbing and skiing, as well as varied cultural activities. It is within close proximity to Montreux (Jazz Festival) and Lausanne. Interested candidates should send a letter of application, along with their detailed CV to jobs at idiap.ch. More information can also be obtained by contacting Samy Bengio (bengio at idiap.ch). ---- Samy Bengio Research Director. Machine Learning Group Leader. IDIAP, CP 592, rue du Simplon 4, 1920 Martigny, Switzerland. tel: +41 27 721 77 39, fax: +41 27 721 77 12. mailto:bengio at idiap.ch, http://www.idiap.ch/~bengio From ckiw at inf.ed.ac.uk Mon Jul 21 07:37:53 2003 From: ckiw at inf.ed.ac.uk (Chris Williams) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 12:37:53 +0100 (BST) Subject: Faculty positions at the British University in Dubai Message-ID: [note that machine learning is one of the areas highlighted --- Chris] The British University in Dubai Institute of Informatics and Communications Chair and 4 Lectureships * Context The British University in Dubai is an important development in higher education, providing cutting-edge research and education in key areas of science and technology, and is supported in its early growth by the University of Edinburgh and by other front-ranked UK universities. Early research and teaching programmes will be developed in association with the University of Edinburgh's 5*-rated School of Informatics. Newly appointed staff will spend part of their first year working with colleagues in Edinburgh and be eligible for Honorary Fellowships in the University of Edinburgh. (This is intended to help cement the foundations for continuing collaborative research projects and exchanges.) * Posts The new Professor will be Director of the Institute, provide leadership in creating innovative research and teaching programmes and be involved in appointments to the lectureships. Appointment to the chair and the 4 lectureships will be made in areas of Informatics related to the first programmes to be developed by the Institute in: - Natural Language and Speech Engineering - Knowledge Management & Engineering - Machine Learning * Closing date 11 August 2003. * Remuneration etc. Full details are available at: http://www.jobs.thes.co.uk/rs6/cl.asp?action=view_ad&ad_id=15134 These will shortly be copied to: http://www.informatics.ed.ac.uk/events/vacancies/ You are encouraged to consult Professor Michael Fourman (buid at inf.ed.ac.uk) to learn further details, and to discuss potential ways of taking up a post. From ncopp at jsd.claremont.edu Wed Jul 23 13:18:51 2003 From: ncopp at jsd.claremont.edu (Newton Copp) Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 19:18:51 +0200 Subject: POSITION AVAILABLE - ENDOWED CHAIR Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20030718103048.00b13ee0@jsd.claremont.edu> To all: I would appreciate it if you would consider the position described below or pass this announcement along to someone who might be interested. Thank you, Newt Copp Regarding the William R. Kenan Professorship in Computational Neuroscience at The Claremont Colleges; The undergraduate colleges in the Claremont consortium (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, and Scripps Colleges) seek an accomplished, broadly trained neuroscientist with expertise in computational work to fill the William R. Kenan Chair beginning in September of 2004. The Kenan Professorship was formed as an all-Claremont position to be held by a person who has achieved a record of distinction in an interdisciplinary area. The successful candidate will have an unusual opportunity to take a leadership role in an intercollegiate, interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program that focuses on undergraduate education and research and involves faculty members in Biology, Psychology, Engineering, and Philosophy. A commitment to excellence in undergraduate teaching, an interest in exploring interdisciplinary collaborations, and an active research program are expected. Area of research interest is open. Preference will be given to candidates at the associate professor level or higher, although outstanding candidates at the advanced assistant professor level may be considered. The Claremont Colleges include five highly selective liberal arts colleges, the Claremont Graduate University, and the Keck Graduate Institute for Applied Life Sciences (see http://www.claremont.edu/about.html). The hire will be made within the Joint Science Department (see http://www.jsd.claremont.edu/), a department of 22 faculty members in Biology (12), Chemistry (7) and Physics (4) that is co-sponsored by Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges. Send a curriculum vita, copies of three publications, statements of research interests and teaching interests/philosophy to Kenan Search Committee, W. M. Keck Science Center, 925 N. Mills Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Arrange to have three letters of recommendation sent to the same address. Please direct inquires to Newton Copp, Professor of Biology and Chair of the Search Committee (tel: 909 621-8298; E-mail: ncopp at jsd.claremont.edu). Review of applications will begin on Dec. 1, 2003 and continue until the position is filled. (This is a re-posting of a position unfilled last year.) In a continuing effort to enrich our academic environment and provide equal educational and employment opportunities, The Claremont Colleges actively encourage applications from women and members of historically under-represented groups in higher education. ________________________ Newton Copp Professor of Biology Joint Science Department The Claremont Colleges Claremont, CA 91711 tel: 909 607-2932 fax: 909 621-8588 From bolshausen at rni.org Wed Jul 23 13:18:50 2003 From: bolshausen at rni.org (Bruno Olshausen) Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 19:18:50 +0200 Subject: Workshop on Inference and Prediction in Neocortical Circuits Message-ID: <3F11C7B5.4080501@rni.org> The American Institute of Mathematics will be hosting a workshop on "Inference and Prediction in Neocortical Circuits," September 21-24, in Palo Alto, California. Please see http://www.aimath.org/ARCC/workshops/brain.html Space and funding are available for a few more participants. If you would like to participate, please apply by filling out the on-line form at http://koutslts.bucknell.edu/~aimath/WWN/cgi-bin/participantapply.prl?workshop=14 no later than August 1, 2003. Applications are open to all, and we especially encourage women, underrepresented minorities, junior mathematicians, and researchers from primarily undergraduate institutions to apply. -- Bruno A. Olshausen (650) 321-8282 x233 Redwood Neuroscience Institute (650) 321-8585 (fax) 1010 El Camino Real http://www.rni.org Menlo Park, CA 94025 bolshausen at rni.org From H.Bowman at kent.ac.uk Thu Jul 24 09:51:33 2003 From: H.Bowman at kent.ac.uk (hb5) Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 14:51:33 +0100 Subject: NCPW 8 Call for Participation Message-ID: <3F1FE465.A2BC7FB3@ukc.ac.uk> Please distribute this call for participation to anybody you think might be interested in this event. Apologies for multiple copies. -------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Eighth Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW 8) Connectionist Models of Cognition, Perception and Emotion 28-30 August 2003 at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK The Eighth Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW8) will be held in Canterbury, England from 28-30th August 2003. The NCPW series is now a well established and lively forum that brings together researchers from such diverse disciplines as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. 35 papers will be presented, of which eight will be invited papers. In addition to the high quality of the papers presented, this Workshop takes place in an informal setting, in order to encourage interaction among the researchers present. Website ------- More details, including registration information, can be found on the conference website, http://www.cs.ukc.ac.uk/events/conf/2003/ncpw/ The Programme ------------- Highlights of the programme include a session on modelling face perception, including three invited papers, Gary Cottrell University of California, San Diego, USA Modeling Face Perception Peter Hancock, Mike Burton and Rob Jenkins Stirling University, Scotland Face Recognition: Average or Examplar? C.J. Solomon, S.J. Gibson, A. Pallares-Bejarano and M. Maylin University of Kent at Canterbury Exploring the Case for a Psychological "Face-space" Five more invited papers have been scheduled, John A. Bullinaria The University of Birmingham On the Evolution of Irrational Behaviour Bob French University of Liege, Belgium The bottom-up nature of category acquisition in 3- to 4-month old infants: Predictions of a connectionist model and empirical data Richard Shillcock and Padraic Monaghan University of Edinburgh, Scotland Sublexical units in the computational modelling of visual word recognition John G. Taylor King's College Strand, University of London Through Attention to Consciousness by CODAM Marius Usher and Eddy Davelaar Birkbeck College, University of London Short/long term memory in terms of activation versus weight based processes The full programme can be found at the following site, http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/events/conf/2003/ncpw/prog/ Conference Chair ---------------- Howard Bowman, University of Kent, UK Conference Organisers --------------------- Howard Bowman, UKC Colin G. Johnson, UKC Miguel Mendao, UKC Vikki Roberts, UKC Proceedings Editors -------------------- Howard Bowman, UKC Christophe Labiouse, Liege Publication ----------- Proceedings of the workshop will appear in the series Progress in Neural Processing, which is published by World Scientific. From shih at ini.phys.ethz.ch Thu Jul 24 07:30:09 2003 From: shih at ini.phys.ethz.ch (Shih-Chii Liu) Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 13:30:09 +0200 (CEST) Subject: NIPS03 demonstration track Message-ID: Would you like to show off a demo of your hardware system, robots, or software system to people who are interested in all aspects of neural and statistical computation? The Neural Information Processing conference has a relatively new Demonstration track for submissions of this sort. The participants in this track will have a chance to show their interactive demos in the areas of for example, hardware technology, neuromorphic systems, biologically-inspired and biomimetic systems, robotics, and also software systems. The only hard rule is that the demo must be live. Check out the web site, http://www.nips.cc/Conferences/2003/CFP/CallForDemos.php for details. Students can also apply for a limited number of travel funds provided by the Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering for submissions that are accepted to the Demonstration Track. The conference will be held in Vancouver, Canada on Dec 8-10 2003. The DEADLINE for submissions to this track is on Aug 1, 2003. Remember that acceptance to this track does not mean an automatic acceptance to your submission to the main conference. Regards Shih-Chii Liu and Tobi Delbruck Co-Chairs NIPS 2003 Demonstration Track From bogus@does.not.exist.com Thu Jul 24 11:49:47 2003 From: bogus@does.not.exist.com () Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 16:49:47 +0100 Subject: PhD Studentship Available: Neural Networks for Natural Language Processing Message-ID: <2D50DF8AA284EC438C8DCAA2D0021FD52665EF@lime.ntu.ac.uk> From thrun at robotics.Stanford.EDU Fri Jul 25 11:48:21 2003 From: thrun at robotics.Stanford.EDU (Sebastian Thrun) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 08:48:21 -0700 Subject: NIPS - Deadline Reminder Message-ID: <200307251548.h6PFmL421238@robo.Stanford.EDU> Dear Connectionists: A brief reminder that NIPS workshop proposals and submission to the demonstration track are due August 1, 2003. Please consult nips.cc for details. You are encouraged to submit. Sebastian Thrun NIPS*2003 General Chair From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Mon Jul 28 16:49:12 2003 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 16:49:12 -0400 Subject: NEURON course at SFN 2003 meeting Message-ID: <3F258C48.2010402@yale.edu> Short Course Announcement USING THE NEURON SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT Satellite Symposium, Society for Neuroscience Meeting 9 AM - 5 PM on Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 Speakers to include M.L. Hines and N.T. Carnevale This 1 day course with lectures and live demonstrations will present information essential for teaching and research applications of NEURON, an advanced simulation environment that handles realistic models of biophysical mechanisms, individual neurons, and networks of cells. The emphasis is on practical issues that are key to the most productive use of this powerful and convenient modeling tool. Features that will be covered include: constructing and managing models of cells and networks importing detailed morphometric data expanding NEURON's repertoire of biophysical mechanisms database resources for empirically-based modeling Each registrant will a comprehensive set of notes which include material that has not appeared elsewhere in print. Registration is limited to 50 individuals on a first-come, first serve basis. For more information see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/no2003.html --Ted