Connectionists: 4th European School of Neuro-IT and Neuroengineering, ,

Sun Apr 16 09:15:27 EDT 2006

  4^th   European School of Neuro-IT and Neuroengineering

*Dynamics, Computation and Learning in Neural Systems*

* *

**

  June 13-17, 2006

The University of Genova <http://www.unige.it/> (Department of 
Biophysical and Electronic Engineering -- DIBE 
<http://www.dibe.unige.it/>, Department of Informatics, Sistems and 
Telematics -- DIST <http://www.dist.unige.it/>, and the Faculty of 
Engineering, curriculum on Bioengineering),

Doctorate school on Information Society and Technologies, University of 
Genova (ITALY), PhD Program in Bioengineering,

Doctorate school on Humanoid Technologies, Italian Institute of 
Technology (IIT), and University of Genova (ITALY), PhD Program in 
Humanoid Technologies

nEUro-it.net <http://www.nEUro-it.net> (EU network of excellence), 
NEUROversIT (EU Marie Curie program)

*are organizing the fourth edition *

*of the European Summer School of  Neuro-IT and Neuroengineering.

*

The school, named after Massimo Grattarola who initiated the series in 
2000, will take place from June 13 to June 17, 2006 at the Faculty of 
Engineering, University of Genoa in a beautiful historical building: 
Villa Giustiniani-Cambiaso

The school is intended for junior and senior researchers and other 
professionals (doctors, engineers, biologists and psychologists etc.) 
working in these areas as well as for students attending faculties of 
engineering, medicine, biology or psychology.

A total of 50 PhD students or postdocs will be admitted. Admissions will 
be on first-come first-serve basis.

  Organization and sponsorship

Neuro-IT (EU network of excellence)

NEUROversIT (EU Marie Curie program)

University of Genova

  Scientific organizers:

Alois Knoll (München, Germany)

Marc de Kamps (München, Germany)

Andreas Engel (Hamburg, Germany)

Sergio Martinoia (Genova, Italy)

Giulio Sandini (Genova, Italy)

Vittorio Sanguineti (Genova, Italy)

  Goals

The school will focus on a new and rapidly growing field -- the areas of 
neuro-information technologies (Neuro-IT) and neuroengineering where 
neuroscience, information technologies and robotics merge. The school 
will be organized and partly funded by Neuro-IT.net, and NEUROversIT, an 
EU-funded Marie Curie program.

The 2006 edition of the school will specifically focuses on the 
*/_dynamical, adaptive and computational properties of neural 
systems_/*, seen as 'devices' that process information and can control 
external devices. This includes neural prostheses, brain-machine 
interfaces and neurally controlled robots.

The objective is to move beyond the well established neuroinformatics or 
AI (Artificial Intelligence) domains by fostering research that would 
benefit both the neuroscience (NS) and Information Technology (IT) 
communities by helping solve the fundamental problems linked to the 
emergence and the modelling of computational properties, learning and 
cognitive processes in natural systems. The goal is for IT to profit 
from NS results to improve IT artifacts and for NS to validate models or 
hypotheses with a better use of IT. Neuro-IT.net and the NEUROversIT 
consortium is therefore committed to spearheading the emergence of 
visionary long term research objectives that could fully exploit the 
potential of collaboration between neurosciences and information 
technology.

*Overall organisation*

The school will have a duration of 5 days in total (Tuesday to Saturday 
morning).

The first day will feature /advanced tutorials/ with the goal of 
equalizing the backgrounds of students from different disciplines. These 
tutorials will focus on background materials directly relevant to the 
topic of the summer school, that will improve understanding of the 
expert presentations that will follow in day 2-4 of the school. Friday 
afternoon and Saturday morning will be devoted to practical lecturers 
and Lab activities. The first day will be devoted to presenting 
important concepts and data from neuroscience for students from 
technical disciplines, and for presenting topics in neuro-IT and 
neuroengineering for student from life science.

The other three days of the school feature expert lectures on selected 
topics under the theme "Dynamics, Computation and Learning in Neural 
Systems". These lectures will cover state-of-the-art research related to 
one or multiple of the topics mentioned below.

Students participating to the school are invited to present their own 
activity in specific dedicated sessions.

Lab sessions will be organized on Friday 16^th (afternoon) and Saturday 
17^th (morning) and they will be devoted to practical presentations and 
activities on:

-        NEURON simulator

-        Data analysis for multisite recorded neuronal signals 
(sponsored by eTT, http://www.ettsolutions.com 
<http://www.ettsolutions.com/>)

Students interested in such activities are requested to specifically 
enroll to one or both Lab. The Lab activity are included in the 
registration fees.

*  Topics 
<http://www.bio.dibe.unige.it/news_and_events/news_and_events_file/ESGrattarola2004/EuropeanSchoolGrattarola2004.htm#topics#topics>*

*  Speakers 
<http://www.bio.dibe.unige.it/news_and_events/news_and_events_file/ESGrattarola2004/EuropeanSchoolGrattarola2004.htm#speakers#speakers>*

*  Program 
<http://www.bio.dibe.unige.it/news_and_events/news_and_events_file/ESGrattarola2004/EuropeanSchoolGrattarola2004.htm#program#program>*

*  Information 
<http://www.bio.dibe.unige.it/news_and_events/news_and_events_file/ESGrattarola2004/EuropeanSchoolGrattarola2004.htm#information#information>*

*  Fees 
<http://www.bio.dibe.unige.it/news_and_events/news_and_events_file/ESGrattarola2004/EuropeanSchoolGrattarola2004.htm#fees#fees>*

*  Accomodations 
<http://www.bio.dibe.unige.it/news_and_events/news_and_events_file/ESGrattarola2004/EuropeanSchoolGrattarola2004.htm#accomodations#accomodations>*

* *

* *

*Topics*

The school will address key topics in the Neuroengineering field, with a 
focus on "Dynamics, Computation and Learning in Neural Systems" and 
their technical realization in artificial systems. All issues should be 
dealt with, in an interdisciplinary way, both from the biological and 
the IT/engineering perspective.  Key topics will include:

. Neural-network dynamics

-        Neurobiology of in-vivo and in-vitro neuronal systems

-        non linear dynamics and neuronal signal analysis

-        theoretical and experimental models

. Coding and decoding neuronal signals

-        rate/time coding

-        ......

. Neural plasticity - learning -- development

-        neurobiology of learning and memory

-        closed-loop system and learning

-        learning and plasticity in in-vitro neuronal system

. Advanced neuro-prosthetics - brain-machine interfaces

-        technological advances in BMI

-        decodying of neuronal signals

. Neuro-robotics - biologically inspired robots

-        bi-directional neuro-robotic interfaces

-        cognitive ...

*Faculty members*

/(to be filled)/

*REGISTRATION FEES* (*)

*CATEGORIES*

*BEFORE MAY 15*

*AFTER MAY 15*

PhD students

200 €

250 €

Postdocs

250 €

300 €

Business and medical professionals

350 €

400 €

(*) includes program, reception, two coffee breaks and lunch each day
lab activities and lecture notes

* *

*LOCAL ORGANIZATION:*

Prof. Sergio Martinoia
University of Genova
e -mail: martinoia at dibe.unieg.it <mailto:martinoia at dibe.unieg.it>

Phone: +39-010-3532251
Fax: +39-010-3532133

Prof. Vittorio Sanguineti
University of Genova
e -mail: _vittorio.sanguineti at unige.it 
<mailto:vittorio.sanguineti at unige.it>_
Phone: +39-010-3536487
Fax: +39-010-3532154

*ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION:*

Ms. Jessica Gaggero
University of Genova
e -mail: jessica at dibe.unige.it <mailto:jessica at dibe.unige.it>
Phone: +39-010-3532787
Fax: +39-010-3532133