From giulio.sandini at iit.it Tue Mar 2 09:51:21 2010 From: giulio.sandini at iit.it (Giulio Sandini) Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 15:51:21 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: "vision for the Blind" - Post-doc Fellowship dedicated to prof. Vincenzo Tagliasco Message-ID: <005f01caba17$d30c1900$79244b00$@sandini@iit.it> "Vincenzo Tagliasco" POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP ON VISION RESEARCH FOR THE BLIND This is to announce the availability of a post-doctoral fellowship for research in the field of vision from a neuroscience, cognitive sciences and engineering perspective to improve the autonomy of blind and low-vision persons in private and professional life. The fellowship is sponsored by the David Chiossone Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Department of Communication Computer and System Sciences of the University of Genoa, the Italian Union of the Blind, and the Municipality of Genoa, Italy in memoriam of Prof. Vincenzo Tagliasco and in celebration of the 2nd centenary of Louis Braille?s birth. The fellowship of ? 20,000 will have a duration of 10-18 months and will support the salary of a researcher holding a Ph.D. or a graduate student attending the last year of a Ph.D. course. Candidates are eligible regardless of sex and nationality, if younger than 35 years yrs. at time of application. To stimulate cross-fertilization of Genoa's research activities, a special rule of the fellowship is that applicants should be either graduates from the University of Genoa who propose to carry out research elsewhere, or graduates from any other university who propose a program to be carried out at the University or in Research Institutes or Industries in Genoa. The research project, in the field of neuroscience and vision engineering, must be dedicated to developing prostheses, equipments or tools for the blind or the visually impaired to improve personal interaction, social integration, education, autonomy in private and professional life. Application must include: CV, PhD certification or certified attendance to the last PhD year, a detailed research project, a formal statement from the host Institute accepting the project and indicating a local tutor, scientific publications, a statement excluding conflicts of interest or parallel funding. Arrange for two letters of reference to be sent independently. Deadline is March 31st, 2010. Applications or questions should be sent to bandi at chiossone.it A specifically appointed selection committee will evaluate the applications on the basis of scientific relevance and feasibility and the applicant and hosting Institute qualifications. No grant will be awarded in case no application meets the requirements. The winner must accept formally within 2 weeks; the research project must be started and operative by September, 30th, 2010. See www.chiossone.it to download the full text of the call for applications. The David Chiossone Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Corso Armellini 11, 16122 Genova, Italy, tel. 0039-010-83421, fax ++8311414. www.chiossone.it --- Prof. Giulio Sandini Italian Institute of Technology Head: Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department Phone: +39 010 7178101 - Fax +39 010 7170817 and LIRA-Lab, University of Genova Phone: +39 0103532779 - Fax: +39 010353.2948 http://www.liralab.it http://sandini.liralab.it -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100302/54f49256/attachment-0001.html From retienne at jhu.edu Mon Mar 1 00:03:25 2010 From: retienne at jhu.edu (retienne) Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:03:25 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Deadline Extended to March 7th: 2010 Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop Announcement Message-ID: <4B8B4A9D.208@jhu.edu> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEUROMORPHIC COGNITION ENGINEERING WORKSHOP www.ine-web.org Sunday June 27th - Saturday July 17th, 2010, Telluride, Colorado Directors: Ralph Etienne-Cummings, Johns Hopkins University Timothy Horiuchi, University of Maryland, College Park Tobi Delbruck, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Zurich 2010 Topic Area Leaders: Ernst Niebur & Malcolm Slaney - Attention and Selection Jorg Conradt & Matt Cook ? Spike-based Robotics/Navigation in Spikes Bert Shi & Patrick Kanold ? Multimodal Sensory Fusion/Self 0rganization John Harris & Shih-Chii Liu? Spike-based Computation Chuck Higgins & Justin Sanchez ? Brain-Machine Interfacing Ralph Etienne-Cummings & Paul Hasler ? Education/Tutorials/Methods Terry Sejnowski ? Computational Neuroscience (mini-workshop) Workshop Advisory Board: Andreas ANDREOU (The Johns Hopkins University) Andre van SCHAIK (University of Sydney) Avis COHEN (University of Maryland) Barbara SHINN-CUNNINGHAM (Boston University) Giacomo INDIVERI (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Jonathan TAPSON (University of Cape Town) Rodney DOUGLAS (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Shihab SHAMMA (University of Maryland) We invite applications for a three-week summer workshop that will be held in Telluride, Colorado from Sunday June 27th - Saturday July 17th, 2010. The application deadline is *Monday, March 1st, but extended to Sunday March 7th, 2010* and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. The 2010 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Institute for Neuroinformatics - University and ETH Zurich, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland - College Park, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, University of Sydney, and the Salk Institute. Previous year workshop can be found at: http://ine-web.org/workshops/workshops-overview/index.html and last year's wiki is https://neuromorphs.net/ws2009/ . GOALS: Neuromorphic engineers design and fabricate artificial neural systems whose organizing principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. Over the past 13 years, this research community has focused on the understanding of low-level sensory processing and systems infrastructure; efforts are now expanding to apply this knowledge and infrastructure to addressing higher-level problems in perception, cognition, and learning. In this 3-week intensive workshop and through the Institute for Neuromorphic Engineering (INE), the mission is to promote interaction between senior and junior researchers; to educate new members of the community; to introduce new enabling fields and applications to the community; to promote on-going collaborative activities emerging from the Workshop, and to promote a self-sustaining research field. FORMAT: The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems and cognitive neuroscience (in particular sensory processing, learning and memory, motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on analog VLSI design, mobile robots, hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, some of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. In the early afternoon there will be tutorials on a wide spectrum of topics, including analog VLSI, mobile robotics, auditory systems, central-pattern-generators, selective attention mechanisms, cognitive systems, etc. LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in Southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350 miles). Great Lakes Aviation and America West Express airlines provide daily flights directly into Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Wireless internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We will have a network of PCs running LINUX and Microsoft Windows for the workshop projects. We encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. ------ FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS: ------ Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around mid March 2009. The Workshop covers all your accommodations and facilities costs. You are responsible for your own travel to the Workshop. For expenses not covered by federal funds, a Workshop registration fee is required. The fee is $550 per participant, however, due to the difference in travel cost, we offer a discount to non-US participants. European registration fees will be reduced to $300; non-US/non-European registration fees will be reduced to $150. The cost of a shared condominium will be covered for all academic participants but upgrades to a private room will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. ------ HOW TO APPLY: ------- Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. Anyone interested in proposing or discussing specific projects should contact the appropriate topic leaders directly. The application website is (after January 1st, 2010): http://ine-web.org/telluride-conference-2010/apply-info Application information needed: * First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. * Curriculum Vitae (a short version, please). * One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop, including possible ideas for workshop projects. Please indicate which topic areas you would most likely join. * Two letters of recommendation (uploaded directly by references). The application deadline is March 1, 2010: Extended to March 7th, 2010 Applicants will be notified by e-mail. 1 January, 2010 - Applications accepted on website 1 March, 2010 - Applications Due: Extended to March 7th, 2010. mid-March - Notification of Acceptance (v8-28.2.2010) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Etienne-Cummings Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 105 Barton Hall/3400 N. Charles St. Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD 21218 Email: retienne at jhu.edu E URL: http://etienne.ece.jhu.edu/~etienne Tel: 410 - 516 - 3494 Fax: 410 - 516 - 5566 From kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Mon Mar 1 08:33:28 2010 From: kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 14:33:28 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: ADVANCED COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE, Freiburg, Germany Message-ID: <002a01cab943$c7bcd870$57368950$@uni-freiburg.de> ADVANCED COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE, 15th Edition. (A FENS-IBRO/Bernstein Training Center) August 2-27, 2010 Freiburg, Germany Applications open until April 2, 2010 SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS: * John Rinzel (New York University, New York, USA) * Peter Latham (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, UK) * Yifat Prut (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) * Carl van Vreeswijk (CNRS, Universit? Paris Descartes, France) ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTORS: * Florence Dancoisne & Gunnar Grah (Bernstein Center Freiburg, Germany) For its third and final year, the Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience (ACCN) will be held this summer in Freiburg in the Southwest of Germany. The ACCN is for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are interested in learning the essentials of the field of computational neuroscience. The course has two complementary parts. Mornings are devoted to lectures given by distinguished international faculty on topics across the breadth of experimental and computational neuroscience. During the rest of the day, students pursue a project of their choosing under the close supervision of expert tutors. This gives them practical training in the art and practice of neural modeling. The first week of the course introduces students to essential neurobiological concepts and to the most important techniques in modeling single cells, synapses and circuits. Students learn how to solve their research problems using software such as MATLAB, NEST, NEURON, Python, XPP, etc. During the following three weeks the lectures cover networks and specific neural systems and functions. Topics range from modeling single cells and subcellular processes through the simulation of simple circuits, large neuronal networks and system level models of the brain. The course ends with project presentations by the students. In addition, we will offer three internships to ACCN students. These fully funded internships will allow students to work, post-ACCN, on a research project in a faculty member?s lab for up to three months. Applications for internships will be considered after the ACCN. The course is designed for students from a variety of disciplines, including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics and psychology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology as well as some computer experience. Students of any nationality can apply. A maximum of 30 students will be accepted. The current fee for the course will be EUR 500; this will cover tuition, lodging, breakfast and dinner. There will be a limited number of course fee scholarships and travel stipends available for students who need financial help for attending the course. We specifically encourage applications from researchers who work in the developing world. Applications for the ACCN, including a description of the target project, must be submitted electronically (see below) and will need to be accompanied by the names and email details of two referees who have agreed to furnish references. Applicants will need to ensure that their referees have submitted their references. Applications will be assessed by a committee, with selection being based on the following criteria: the scientific quality of the candidate (CV) and of the project, the recommendation letters, and evidence that the course will afford substantial benefit to the candidate. Please apply electronically using a web browser. For more information and access to the application database go to: http://www.neuroinf.org/courses/accn.html Contact address: * Fiona Siegfried Bernstein Center Freiburg Albert-Ludwigs-Universit?t Freiburg Hansastrasse 9A 79104 Freiburg Germany * email: accn at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Application deadline: April 2, 2010 Deadline for letters of recommendation: April 2, 2010 Notification of results: April 30, 2010 INVITED FACULTY (* = confirmed) Ad Aertsen, Freiburg (*) Hagai Bergman, Jerusalem Nathaniel Daw, New York (*) Erik De Schutter, Okinawa (*) Alain Destexhe, Gif sur Yvette (*) Zhaoping Li, London (*) Gianluigi Mongillo, Paris (*) Yael Niv, Princeton (*) Jonathan Pillow, London (*) Idan Segev, Jerusalem (*) Alex Thomson, London Matt Tresch, Evanston (*) Mark Van Rossum, Edinburgh Fred Wolf, G?ttingen (*) INVITED TUTORS Farzad Farkhooi, FU Berlin, Germany Pablo Jercog, Columbia U, USA Shaul Druckmann, Hebrew U, Israel Sukbin Lim, NYU, USA SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR Bernd Wiebelt, U. Freiburg, Germany From vcut at bu.edu Tue Mar 2 00:12:29 2010 From: vcut at bu.edu (Vassilis Cutsuridis) Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 00:12:29 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Final CfP for the special Issue "Saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning" of the Cognitive Computation journal References: <953C27FB8C8C43E18AF3EFA8E0EC491F@Zeus> Message-ID: ======================== FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS ======================== ---------------------------------------------------------------- Special Issue of the Cognitive Computation Journal (Springer) on "Saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning" ---------------------------------------------------------------- Guest Editors John G. Taylor, King's College, London, U.K. (john.g.taylor at kcl.ac.uk) Vassilis Cutsuridis, Boston University, USA (vcut at bu.edu) -------- Scope -------- How is a complex visual scene processed? How is the selection of one particular location in a visual scene accomplished? Does it involve bottom-up, sensory driven cues or top-down world knowledge expectations or both? How is the decision made when to terminate a fixation and move the gaze? How is the decision made where to direct the gaze in order to take the next sample? The goal of the special issue is to advance our understanding of the state-of-the-art on bottom-up and top-down approaches to active visual search and picture scanning. Neurocomputational, computer vision and experimental review papers on perceptual saliency, attention, learning and memory, decision making and gaze control are welcome. The manner in which attention is involved is considered a highly relevant topic to the special issue. ----------------- Important dates ---------------- Submission deadline: April 1, 2010 Review deadline: July 1, 2010 Author notification: July 2, 2010 Author?s response: August 1, 2010 Publication by journal: ~November/December, 2010 ----------- Submission ----------- Electronic submissions for the Cognitive Computation journal can be found under http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559 Please indicate in your cover letter that your article is for the special issue "Computational models of saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning". ------------- Contact ------------- Dr. Vassilis Cutsuridis Center for Memory and Brain Psychology Department Boston University Boston, MA USA Email: vcut at bu.edu Web: http://people.bu.edu/vcut/ From juergen at idsia.ch Wed Mar 3 12:35:18 2010 From: juergen at idsia.ch (Schmidhuber Juergen) Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 18:35:18 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Pybrain Machine Learning Library Message-ID: <77F6CA51-E91A-4FD4-95E0-25A3B82CBE53@idsia.ch> Just published: The Pybrain Machine Learning Library http://pybrain.org , written in Python, with strong emphasis on reinforcement learning and optimization, but also supervised and unsupervised learning, in particular, methods for recurrent networks with and without teachers. Many of the algorithms cannot be found in other libraries. Pybrain also features standard benchmarks and visualization tools. Full list of features: http://www.pybrain.org/pages/features Video of PyBrain in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEM7YDNonSE Mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/pybrain All other information (source, documentation, etc.): http://www.pybrain.org Core PyBrain developers are (in alphabetical order): Justin Bayer, Martin Felder, Thomas Rueckstiess, Tom Schaul, Frank Sehnke, Daan Wierstra We are always looking for motivated contributors. Post feedback or feature requests on github: http://github.com/pybrain/pybrain/issues Reference: T. Schaul, J. Bayer, D. Wierstra, S. Yi, M. Felder, F. Sehnke, T. Rueckstiess, J. Schmidhuber. PyBrain. Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR), 11:743-746, 2010. Jobs: http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/sn2010.html Juergen Schmidhuber http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/whatsnew.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100303/fce354d5/attachment.html From wermter at informatik.uni-hamburg.de Tue Mar 2 14:11:07 2010 From: wermter at informatik.uni-hamburg.de (Stefan Wermter) Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:11:07 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: 6 new posts: knowledge technology, neural symbolic robotic systems Message-ID: <4B8D62CB.9030803@informatik.uni-hamburg.de> A new research group for Knowledge Technology is currently being established in the department of Informatics at the University of Hamburg (from March 2010). We have now six new job openings in the area of knowledge technology, intelligent systems, neural networks, hybrid neural symbolic systems, ambient intelligence and intelligent robotics. The six posts in various projects are described for the following areas as below: ------------------------------------------------------------ The university has two positions open for research associates (wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in) salary group 13 TV-L (equivalent to Verg.Gr. IIa BAT) with a starting date of as soon as possible. The positions are for 39 (fulltime) hours per week. This contract will end after three years and can be extended for a further 2 years (see also ? 2 of the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Law (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz)). The university intends to increase the number of women amongst its academic personnel and encourages qualified women to apply. In compliance with the Hamburg Equal Opportunity Law, preference will be given to qualified female applicants. Responsibilities: A research associate?s duties include academic service, primarily in the areas of research and teaching. Within this framework associates have the opportunity to further their academic education, in particular through the completion of a doctoral dissertation. At least one-third (13 hours/week) of the set working hours will be made available for this purpose. Area(s) of Responsibility: The research area is knowledge technology and knowledge management, in particular: Research Associate 1) Hybrid Neural Systems: neural networks in the context of hybrid knowledge-based systems. Application could be in data mining, speech or text mining. Research Associate 2) Neural Knowledge Management: Application could be in adaptive knowledge discovery, ambient intelligence, or learning cognitive robots. Requirements: Academic degree in one of the above academic subject areas qualifying the holder to carry out the above-mentioned responsibilities. In particular, at least an MSc or equivalent in Artificial Intelligence or Computer Science is required. Excellent programming skills are needed and a background in hybrid neural systems is an advantage for these two positions. We are also looking for very good communication skills and teamwork. Preference will be given to disabled applicants with equal qualifications. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The university has further positions open for 1.5 research associates (wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in) - salary group 13 TV-L (equivalent to Verg.Gr. IIa BAT) ? with a starting date of as soon as possible for the EU-funded project KSERA. The positions can be filled as either two 0.75 positions or as one fulltime (39h/w) and one halftime (19.5h/w) position. This contract will end 31.1.2013 (see also ? 2 of the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Law (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz)). The university intends to increase the number of women amongst its academic personnel and encourages qualified women to apply. In compliance with the Hamburg Equal Opportunity Law, preference will be given to qualified female applicants. Responsibilities: A research associate?s duties include academic service for the following project: KSERA Knowledgeable SErvice Robots for Aging. Outside of these tasks the research associates have the opportunity to further their academic education, in particular through the completion of a doctoral dissertation. Results obtained by the associate through project work may be used for the dissertation. Area(s) of Responsibility: The research area is intelligent systems and artificial intelligence, in particular socially assistive robots and ambient intelligence. This includes the integration of an ambient environment with a cognitive humanoid robot. A system architecture, new sensor, localization, navigation and monitoring modules for the robotic device will be developed. Requirements: Academic degree in one of the above academic subject areas qualifying the holder to carry out the above-mentioned responsibilities. In particular, at least a MSc or equivalent in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science or Engineering with a focus on Intelligent Computing is required. Excellent programming skills (C++, Python etc) are needed and a background in robotics or sensor technology would be an advantage for the two positions. The posts involve traveling within Europe. We are also looking for good communication skills and teamwork. Preference will be given to disabled applicants with equal qualifications. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The university has two further open positions Early Stage Researcher (ESR) (wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in) - salary group ESR of the EU for Germany ? with a starting date of as soon as possible for the following EU-funded project RobotDoc. The positions are for 39 hours per week (fulltime). This short-term contract will end after three years (see also ? 2 of the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Law (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz)). The university intends to increase the number of women amongst its academic personnel and expressly encourages qualified women to apply. In compliance with the Hamburg Equal Opportunity Law, preference will be given to qualified female applicants. Responsibilities: The two associates? duties include academic service for the project RobotDoc: Robotics for Development of Cognition and pursue doctoral studies. Area(s) of Responsibility: The research area is knowledge technology, intelligent systems and artificial intelligence, in particular neural networks for the development of cognition in robots. The first ESR post is on Neural Emotion and Action and the second ESR is on Neural Cognitive Integration. Requirements: Academic degree in one of the above academic subject areas qualifying the holder to carry out the above-mentioned responsibilities. In particular, at least an MSc or equivalent in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science or Engineering with a focus on Intelligent Computing is required. Excellent programming skills are needed and a background in neural networks and/or robotics would be an advantage for these two positions. The posts involve traveling within Europe. Each PhD student will be expected to spend a study period in at least one of the other partner sites. According to EU mobility rules, applicants must not be nationals of Germany. They must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Germany for longer than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment. Early-Stage Researchers are defined as those who are, at the time of selection, in the first four years (full-time equivalent) of their research careers. Preference will be given to disabled applicants with equal qualifications. Applications (application letter, curriculum vitae, degree certificate(s), etc.) are to be submitted electronically as a single pdf file to morawski at informatik.uni-hamburg.de or to University of Hamburg, MIN-Fakult?t, Department Informatik, Annette Morawski, Vogt-K?lln-Str. 30, 22527 Hamburg, Germany by 11.3.2010 but we will accept applications until the jobs are filled. For more information on the context of the first two posts see the department pages http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/ . For more information on the KSERA project posts see http://www.ksera-project.eu/ For more information on the RobotDoc project posts see http://robotdoc.org/ For queries or more information please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter, Head of new Research Group for Knowledge Technology at wermter at informatik.uni-hamburg.de ****************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Head of the Research Group for Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt Koelln Str. 30 22527 Hamburg Germany email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de ******************************************* From frank.ritter at psu.edu Tue Mar 2 15:09:00 2010 From: frank.ritter at psu.edu (Frank Ritter) Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 15:09:00 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CogModel notes: ICCM10/Brims10/Book/grant/Positions Message-ID: This is based on the International Cognitive Modeling Conference mailing list, which I maintain. I forward messages about twice a year, a few more close to ICCMs. (this is the first one for ICCM 2010) The first two announcements are driving this email, the call for papers and tutorials. If you would like to be removed, please just let me know. I maintain it by hand to keep it small. cheers, Frank Ritter frank.e.ritter at gmail.com http://acs.ist.psu.edu http://www.frankritter.com 1. ICCM 2009, Paper call, 5-8 August 2009, Philadelphia, PA http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/ papers due 19 April 2010 Proceedings of 2009 available online. 2. ICCM 2009 Conference Tutorial Call, 5 August 2010, Philadelphia, PA http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/tutorials.html proposals due 8 March 2010 3. BRIMS 2010, program available, 22-25 March 2010 http://www.brimsconference.org 4. Soar Workshop, 19-21 May 2010, Ann Arbor, MI 5. European ACT-R Spring School and Workshop: Call for Abstracts / Registration 6. Two career resources on my mind 7. Mind, Machine and Morality [book] http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754673583 8. A new remote eyetracker http://www.designinteractive.net/products/eyetracking/index.html 9. Call for proposals on human factors and cognitive modeling from the (US) Air Force 10. Pre-doctoral position(s) in traffic and transportation http://www.adaptation-itn.eu 11. Research Positions Available with AFRL's PALM Team 12. Graduate student, postdoctoral, and research programmer positions at RPI [from Soar-group] 13. Job opportunity at Design Interactive http://www.designinteractive.net 14. *************************************************** 1. ICCM 2009 Conference Program available, 5-8 August 2009, Philadelphia, PA http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/ papers due 19 April 2010 ICCM is the premier international conference for research on computational models and computation-based theories of human behavior. ICCM is a forum for presenting, discussing, and evaluating the complete spectrum of cognitive models, including connectionism, symbolic modeling, dynamical systems, Bayesian modeling, and cognitive architectures. ICCM includes basic and applied research, across a wide variety of domains, ranging from low-level perception and attention to higher-level problem-solving and learning. The proceedings of the 2007 conference are available from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/iccm2007.org/iccm_2007_proceedings_and_papers The proceedings of the 2009 conference are available from http://acs.ist.psu.edu/papers/iccm2009.pdf *************************************************** 2. ICCM 2009 Conference Tutorial Call, 5 August 2010, Philadelphia, PA http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/tutorials.html proposals due 8 March 2010 The Tutorials program at the International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (ICCM) 2010 will be held on 5 Aug 20010. It will provide conference participants with the opportunity to gain new insights, knowledge, and skills from a broad range of areas in the field of cognitive modeling. Tutorial topics will be presented in a taught format and are likely to range from practical guidelines to academic issues and theory. Tutorials at ICCM have been held many times before, and this year's program will be modelled after them and after the series held at the Cognitive Science Conference. Tutorial participants will either be doing cognitive modeling or be interested in learning more. They will be looking for insights into their own areas and summaries of other areas providing tools, techniques, and results to use in their own teaching and research. Tutorials must present tutorial material, that is, provide results that are established and to do so in an interactive format. They will tend to involve an introduction to technical skills or methods (e.g., cognitive modelling in Soar or ACT-R, statistical "causal" modelling, or methods of analysing qualitative observational data). They are likely to include substantial review of material. The level of presentation can assume that the attendees have at least a first degree in a cognate area. Tutorials are welcome to assume a higher level if necessary. On the other hand, tutorials about "last week's results from your lab" are not acceptable. ****************************************************************** 3. BRIMS 2010, program available, 22-25 March 2010 http://www.brimsconference.org BRIMS (Behavior Representation in Modeling Simulation) enables human behavior representation (HBR) modeling and simulation research scientists, engineers, application users and technical communities to meet, share ideas and experiences, identify gaps in current capabilities, discuss new research directions, highlight promising technologies, and showcase applications. It is in its 19th year and continues to reach an ever widening military, government, academic, and industry community in the U.S. and internationally. Registration is Open. The BRIMS conference includes plenary speakers, in-depth presentations, poster sessions, and a half day/full day tutorials. Conference Lodging The BRIMS 2010 will be nestled along the white sandy beaches of Charleston, South Carolina. Steeped in southern charm and hospitality, the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina provides ocean waves gently rolling ashore and palmetto leaves softly rustling in the breeze. The natural beauty of this island paradise will indulge your senses, invigorate your mind, and nourish your soul. Discounted room rates are available through February 28. The proceedings from last year's conference is available at: http://brimsconference.org/archives/2009/toc.htm ****************************************************************** 4. Soar Workshop The 30th Soar workshop will be May 19-21, and we will have a reception the evening of May 18 and we will be finished by noon on May 21. If there is interest, we will have tutorials on May 17 & 18. The workshop will be held in the CSE Building on the University of Michigan North Campus. Previous workshop: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/soar/sitemaker/workshop/29/ *************************************************** 5. European ACT-R Spring School and Workshop: Call forAbstracts / Registration From: "Hedderik van Rijn" Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:50:17 +0100 from: act-r-users at act-r.psy.cmu.edu European ACT-R Spring School and Workshop Organizers: Niels Taatgen and Hedderik van Rijn University of Groningen, Netherlands April 12-17, 2010 ACT-R is a cognitive theory and simulation system for developing cognitive models for tasks that vary from simple reaction time paradigms to driving a car and air traffic control. In most years, a summer school and workshop are organized at Carnegie Mellon University for training and discussion of the theory. This year, CMU will only host a summer school, no multi-day workshop is planned. Instead, there will be a two day ACT-R workshop in Europe in the spring that follows a four-day spring school. Spring School The spring school will take place from Monday April 12 to Thursday April 15. After an earlier call for applications, we have selected a group of 14 students for a "traditional summer school curriculum", and in additional 6 researchers will join us to work on their own projects during the week. European ACT-R Workshop The European ACT-R workshop will take place from Friday April 16 to Saturday April 17. Both days will be devoted to research presentations, each lasting about 20 minutes plus questions. Participants are invited to present their ACT-R research by submitting a title and abstract with their registration. Given that this is the first European ACT-R workshop, we would also like to invite research groups to present themselves. What we have in mind is a presentation focussed on the general themes covered by the group rather than on the details of specific studies. Aim of these presentations is to get to know what other groups are working on, or planning to work on, and to start or facilitate cooperation between research groups. Admission to the workshop is open to all. The early registration fee is Euro 100 and the late registration fee (after March 12) is Euro 150. Requests for presentations should be submitted before February 28 to receive full consideration for inclusion in the workshop program. A preliminary program of presentations will be made available early March. If, because of travel plans, an earlier decision about a submission is required, please contact us. Housing We have reserved a block of rooms in the University Guest House. Details on reserving a room will be sent upon registration. Registration To register for the Workshop, please send the filled out registration form in an email to Hedderik van Rijn (hedderik at van-rijn.org). Registration Form First European ACT-R Workshop April 16-17, 2010 at University of Groningen, The Netherlands Name: Address: Affiliation: Tel/Fax: Email: Registration fee: On or before March 12: 100 Euro ... After March 12: 150 Euro ... Details on how to transfer the registration fee will be sent after registration. Non-European participants can pay the registration fee at the start of the workshop. Presentation topic / title (optional abstract: please attach a PDF): ACT-R-users mailing list ACT-R-users at act-r.psy.cmu.edu http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/act-r-users *************************************************** 6. Two career resources on my mind A couple of resources are in my head, and are not typical announcements. I thought you might all know about these. Using a reference management tool is very helpful when writing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software has a review of them. Some are free. Second, this book reads very well. I agree with 80%, learn 10%, diagree with 5%. What They Didn't Teach You in Graduate School 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career Paul Gray , David E. Drew http://stylus.styluspub.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=171247 *************************************************** 7. Mind, Machine and Morality [book] http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754673583 Toward a Philosophy of Human-Technology Symbiosis Peter A. Hancock, University of Central Florida, USA 'Hancock makes a definitive break with Human Factors as "device advice" or "appliance science". 'Mind, Machine and Morality is a masterwork by one of the great scientists and thinkers of our time. Hancock's theory relies on notions of perception-action coupling and goal-orientation of human-machine systems. Thus, were I to reach into history, I would say that Hancock has taken Edward C. Tolman's Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men and James J. Gibson's Ecological Psychology, arguably two of the great works in psychology, and extended them into the computer age, and well beyond. Hancock does far more than present tales of caution about the impact of machines on people: He presents tales of celebration of the human ability to adapt and to exercise its moral faculty. Hancock's intellect, itself charged with a clear sense of right and wrong, races across history, approval. If you are not completely satisfied, return the material to us in good condition and we will cancel your invoice. Technology is our conduit of power. In our modern world, technology is the gatekeeper deciding who shall have and who shall have not. Either technology works for you or you work for technology. It shapes the human race just as much as we shape it. But where is this symbiosis going? Who provides the directions, the intentions, the goals of this human- machine partnership? Such decisions do not derive from the creators of technology who are enmeshed in their individual innovations. They neither come from our social leaders who possess only sufficient technical understanding to react to innovations, not to anticipate or direct their progress. Neither is there evidence of some omnipotent 'invisible hand'. The simple fact is that no one is directing this enterprise. In Mind, Machine and Morality, Peter Hancock asks questions about this insensate progress and has the temerity to suggest some cognate answers. He argues for the unbreakable symbiosis of purpose and process, and examines the dangerous possibilities that emerge when science and purpose meet. Historically, this work is a modern-day child of Bacon's hope for the 'Great Instauration.' However, unlike its forebear, the focus here is on human-machine systems. The emphasis centres on the conception that the active, extensive face of modern philosophy is technology. Whatever we are to become is bound up not only in our biology but critically in our technology also. And to achieve rational progress we need to articulate manifest purpose. This book is one step along the purposive road. Drawing together his many seminal writings on human-machine interaction and adapting these works specifically for this collection, Peter Hancock provides real food for thought, delighting readers with his unique philosophical perspective and outstanding insights. This is theoretical work of the highest order. Order your copy today and open your mind to a fresh perspective on our humanity and our technology. Mind, Machine and Morality offers thought- provoking insights into: * The Morality of Human-Machine Symbiosis * The Moral Imperatives of Design * The Link between Technology and Torture * The Scientific Neglect of Intention and Purpose * The Future of Humans and Machines '... I believe that the divorce between our purpose (that is, the reasons why we do something), from our processes (that is, the way we accomplish whatever we want to do), is a very damaging situation. It promises to destroy us unless the rift can be first bridged and then healed.' From the author's preface For full reviews and downloads of the Preface and Index go to http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754673583 July 2009 Hardback 202 pages 978-0-7546-7358-3 *************************************************** 8. A new remote eyetracker http://www.designinteractive.net/products/eyetracking/index.html [Christina asked me to foward this, looks interesting, but does only 1 deg accuracy] Here is the link for Design Interactive's product info for our eyetracker hardware and software. Please let me know if you have any questions. http://www.designinteractive.net/products/eyetracking/index.html Christina Kokini Research Associate Design Interactive, Inc. christina.kokini at designinteractive.net Phone: 407-706-0977 x 238 Fax: 407-706-0980 *************************************************** 9. Call for proposals on human factors and cognitive modeling from the (US) Air Force Federal Agency: 711th Human Performance Wing, Human Effectiveness Directorate Broad Agency Announcement Title: Science and Technology For Warfighter Training and Aiding Broad Agency Announcement Type: This is the initial announcement. Broad Agency Announcement Number: BAA 09-05-RH. THIS BAA REPLACES BAA 05-04-HE IN ITS ENTIRETY. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s): If a grant or assistance instrument is awarded, the CFDA number will be 12.800_AF or 12.910 (DARPA) THIS WILL BE A TWO-STEP SOLICITATION: First Step: WHITE PAPER DUE DATE AND TIME: White Papers will be accepted until 5 PM Eastern time 30 Sep 2014. Submission of white papers will be regulated in accordance with FAR 15.208. Second Step: PROPOSAL DUE DATE AND TIME: To be provided in response to the Requests for Proposals sent to offerors that submit White Papers considered to meet the needs of the Air Force. NOTE: White Paper/Proposal receipt after the due date and time shall be governed by the provisions of FAR 52.215-1(c)(3). It should be noted that this installation observes strict security procedures to enter the facility. These security procedures are NOT considered an interruption of normal Government processes, and proposals received after the above stated date and time as a result of security delays will be considered "late." Furthermore, note that if offerors utilize commercial carriers in the delivery of proposals, they may not honor time-of-day delivery guarantees on military installations. Early white paper submission is encouraged. Solicitation Request: 711th Human Performance Wing, Human Effectiveness Directorate, Wright Research Site is soliciting white papers on the research effort described below. White Papers should be addressed to the Contracting Point of Contact (POC) stated in Section VII of the Full Text Announcement. This is an unrestricted solicitation. Small businesses are encouraged to propose on all or any part of this solicitation. The NAICS Code for this acquisition is 541712 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology), and the small business size standard is 500 employees. White Papers/Proposals submitted shall be in accordance with this announcement. There will be no other solicitation issued in regard to this requirement. Offerors should be alert for any BAA amendments that may permit extensions to the white paper submission date. On-line Representations and Certifications (ORCA): Potential offerors are notified that effective 01 Jan 2005 to be eligible for an award, they must submit annual Electronic Representations and Certifications, otherwise known as On-line Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) via the Business Partner Network (BPN) at http://www.bpn.gov/orca. These FAR and DFARS level representations and certifications are required in addition to the representations and certifications specific to this acquisition. Before submitting the Electronic Representations and Certifications, contractors must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) Database. On-line registration instructions can be accessed from the DISA CCR home page at http://www.ccr.gov/ Estimated Program Cost: $49 Million Anticipated Number of Awards: The Air Force anticipates awarding 3-5 awards for this announcement per year. Brief Program Summary: The objective of this BAA is to research, demonstrate, evaluate, and transition human performance methods and technology to enable warfighters to have the right skills, knowledge, experience and capabilities at the right time to make the right decisions. Address technical questions to: M. Jay Carroll, 711 HPW/RHAO, 6030 South Kent Street, Mesa, AZ 85212, telephone: (480) 988-9773 or e-mail: Matthew.Carroll at mesa.afmc.af.mil Address contracting questions to: Helen Williams, Det 1 AFRL/PKH, 2310 Eight Street, B167, Wright Patterson AFB OH 45433-7801, 937-656-9833, Helen.Williams at wpafb.af.mil or Gerema A. Randall, Det 1 AFRL/PKH, 2310 Eight Street B167, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7801, 937-255-0406, Gerema.Randall at wpafb.af.mil *************************************************** 10. Pre-doctoral position(s) in traffic and transportation http://www.adaptation-itn.eu There is still one PhD-position open within ADPATATION, a Marie-Curie Initial Training network funded by the EC. It is a 3 year position (full time) for early stage researches (less than 4 years research experience after the master degree). Since the position will be hosted by BMW, Munich, only "non-Germans" can apply. Candidates with a background in psychology, engineering or computer science may apply. They should have research interests in Traffic and Transportation. More details: http://www.adaptation-itn.eu [Josef noted this on 20 January, so it may be gone] Josef Krems can provide further details if needed. ****************************************************************** 11. Research Positions Available with AFRL's PALM Team From: "Gluck,Kevin A Civ USAF AFMC 711 HPW/RHAC" With apologies and respect to our valued colleagues of other nationalities, only U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents of the United States are eligible for these positions. We have a variety of research positions available for talented cognitive, computational, and computer scientists interested in working with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Performance and Learning Models (PALM) Team on basic and applied cognitive science research. Full-time, paid positions range from undergraduate and graduate-level internships and research assistantships, to post-doctoral research appointments, to visiting faculty appointments. Salaries are commensurate with experience. The PALM research portfolio continues to expand and evolve. We use a combination of empirical human-subjects studies and formal, rigorous, computational and mathematical modeling and simulation methods to understand, replicate, and predict human performance and learning, and to create new cognitive science-based technology options. Currently there are research efforts underway in all of the following areas (with associated PIs): Basic research: - large scale cognitive modeling (Scott Douglass) - representations and processes of spatial visualization (Glenn Gunzelmann) - modeling the relationships between alertness and cognitive processes (Glenn Gunzelmann) - persistent, generative, situated agents (Christopher Myers) Applied research: - natural language comprehension and generation (Jerry Ball) - robust decision making in integrated human-machine systems (Kevin Gluck) - model exploration and optimization using distributed and high performance computing (Jack Harris) - mathematical models for performance prediction and prescription (Tiffany Jastrzembski) Brief elaborations of each area can be found below. Anyone interested in working with us on one or more of the research efforts listed above is encouraged to contact the PI for that particular research area as soon as possible. Email addresses are first.lastmesa.afmc.af.mil Natural language comprehension and generation (Jerry Ball) The focus of the natural language research is development of computational cognitive models which are both functional and cognitively plausible. There may be short-term costs associated with adoption of cognitive constraints, but we expect, and have to some extent already realized, longer-term benefits. We focus on communication via text messaging, avoiding complex challenges of speech recognition, but make no assumptions about the grammatical quality of messages and put no arbitrary limits on their linguistic range. Our current project, the Synthetic Teammate, is aimed at development of a cognitive agent capable of functioning as the pilot of a simulated UAV. The cognitive agent interacts with two teammates-a navigator, and a photographer-in order to take pictures of ground targets over the course of a simulated 40 minute reconnaissance mission. Lightweight agent versions of the navigator and photographer currently support development, but the cognitive agent will eventually interact with human teammates in an empirical study. Large scale cognitive modeling (Scott Douglass) Explores how paradigms in software engineering called "meta-modeling" and "model-integrated computing" can be used to produce domain-specific modeling languages tailored to the specification and integration needs of cognitive modelers. These new formalisms will help cognitive modelers increase the scale of their efforts by allowing them to specify self-modifying models at high levels of abstraction. These new formalisms will share a foundation in general systems theory and will therefore help their users: (a) compose and compare models; and (b) integrate models into task environments and simulations that subscribe to the same formal foundation. This research reciprocates value back to software engineering by demonstrating how specifications of cognitive processes can be formally captured and exploited during the design of human/machine systems. Representations and processes of spatial visualization (Glenn Gunzelmann) Human spatial competence is applied ubiquitously as individuals encode information about the location of objects in the world, plan routes and navigate through the environment, reason about spatial relationships, or make decisions in environments that are rich with spatial information. Despite the criticality of spatial information processing in human cognitive functioning, detailed mechanistic theories that can be used to explain and predict behavior are lacking. Our research in this area is targeted at producing a mechanistic, quantitative theory of human spatial competence, focused on representing and processing visuospatial knowledge. This research involves rigorous empirical data collection, to understand human performance in this area and to support validation of quantitative theoretical accounts instantiated as mathematical and computational models. Modeling the relationships between alertness and cognitive processes (Glenn Gunzelmann) Understanding the functioning of the human cognitive system is as important as understanding the human physiological system in operational environments. As an example, research on fatigue has uncovered neurophysiological changes in the human brain resulting from sleep loss, circadian desynchrony, or time on task. In addition, corresponding deficits in human performance on a variety of tasks have been documented in the empirical literature. What is unknown, however, are the mechanisms through which physiological changes impact cognitive performance. This line of research is aimed at understanding how cognitive processing changes as a result of fatigue, bridging the gap between mathematical models that capture the dynamics of overall change in neurobehavior performance and in situ performance on particular tasks. Robust decision making in integrated human-machine systems (Kevin Gluck) It is increasingly clear that the traditional boundaries between human and machine are disappearing. The future vision of integrated human-machine decision systems is already upon us. Hence, there is escalating pressure on AFRL researchers to better understand the basic science of mixed human - machine decision making, and make use of this science to develop increasingly robust, automated knowledge-extraction tools and intelligent machine-based decision aids that optimize, speed up, and adaptively adjust inference, prediction, and decision processes. This is a new-start research area in which we are interested in new models and methods for assuring high quality decision processes and outcomes, especially in complex and uncertain dynamic environments. Model exploration and optimization using distributed and high performance computing (Jack Harris) Computational complexity grows quickly with increases in the granularity of models, the fidelity of the models' operating environment, and the time scales across which these models are used in simulations. We must find ways to deal with the computational demands of large-scale basic and applied cognitive modeling. One approach is to acquire more computational horsepower, such as through high performance computing (HPC) clusters, volunteer computing, or cloud computing. Another approach is to reduce the size of the required computational space through predictive analytics and parallelized exploration and optimization algorithms. Our view is that it is only through the combined use of these approaches that we can meet our far-term scientific and technological objectives, both as a research team and as a broader research community. Mathematical models for performance prediction and prescription (Tiffany Jastrzembski) Training people to stable levels of high performance in specialized skills requires a great deal of investment in both time and capital, and this is particularly true in highly complex domains like military operations. Given the length, complexity, resource limitations, and cost of warfighter training, it is critical to ensure that the timing and frequency of training events are tailored to the needs of the learner to maximize learning and performance effectiveness. This research identifies the mathematical regularities of human learning and forgetting as a function of the temporal distribution of training in order to (1) validly, precisely, and quantitatively predict future levels of learner performance, and to (2) prescribe more optimal training schedules to enhance retention, achieve more effective learning, and streamline training to the needs of the individual. Persistent, generative, situated agents (Christopher Myers) The typical approach to computational cognitive modeling is to isolate a process of interest and capture enough detail within the model to account for a set of data obtained from humans performing within a particular task environment. The promise of this approach is that veridical models of cognitive processes will eventually be integrated to produce more complex processes. While this approach has proven beneficial to isolating, studying, and understanding arguably distinct cognitive processes, the resulting models are typically brittle, engineered, short-lived and tailored to specific experimental psychology paradigms. These characteristics are limitations to the development of models which require persisting over long periods of time and generating their own knowledge. This research is focused on identifying, developing, and integrating process models of cognitive capacities to enable persistent and generative models. _______________________________________________ ACT-R-users mailing list ACT-R-users at act-r.psy.cmu.edu http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/act-r-users *************************************************** 12. Graduate student, postdoctoral and research programmer positions at RPI [from Soar-group] List-Id: "The soar-group mailing list." The Human-Level Intelligence Laboratory at Rensselaer has just been awarded a grant to study "Unified Theories of Language and Cognition". As a consequence, we have funding for several graduate student, postdoctoral and research programmer positions. The project aims to develop a unified computational theory of language use that significantly expands the ability of computers to understand language and explains how people use background knowledge and context to achieve deep understanding of language even when it is highly ambiguous, novel, ungrammatical and/or metaphorical. Many aspects of this problem (for example, the reasoning algorithms and ontologies involved) are not specific to language and thus an interest in language is not strictly necessary to participate. Rensselaer is located in the Hudson Valley, equidistant from Boston and New York City. It is conceivable that we could work something out with someone who is constrained to reside near one of those cities. Our primary criterion for bringing new people into the lab is the intelligence, curiosity, energy and motivation needed to solve the problems involved in this project. Background in one or more of the following areas, would help, though is not necessary: * Linguistics. Formal syntax and semantics, construction grammars and pragmatics are especially relevant. * Reasoning algorithms. Our work integrates multiple forms of reasoning algorithms, including those based on first-order logic, SAT, probability theory and analogy. * Ontologies. Our approach is knowledge-intensive and will require the ability to acquire and organize this knowledge. * Semantic Web. We will be interfacing with information available in many machine-readable, distributed knowledge bases. There are many interesting problems involved in using this information for reasoning and language understanding. * Software engineering. All our work is integrated within a single cognitive architecture. This presents several interesting software engineering challenges. If you are interested in a position, please send a note to me at cassin at rpi dot edu. *************************************************** 13. Graduate Student Positions at RPI Research Assistants The CogWorks Laboratory in the Cognitive Science Department at Rensselaer has funding for new Graduate Research Assistants in AY2010 (beginning August 2010). The theme to our work is the Cognitive Science of Natural Interaction with a focus on the integration of perception, motor, and cognitive operations. This work has focused on human-technology, human-information, and (most recently) human-human interactions. We see the human-human interactions as part of Cognitive Social Science; namely, an approach to traditional social psychology type questions that is rooted in cognitive science theory, modeling approaches, and methodologies. Recent work in human-technology interaction includes the study of fast-paced action games. In our premier gaming project we have collected EEG, eye data, and behavioral data, and are building computational cognitive models of expert game play as a means to understanding the control problems in real-time interactive behavior. We are also building models of airline pilots who get lost or confused while taxingly on the ground from the runway to the gate. Our work on human-information interaction has focused on the cognitive control of multitasking, interruptions, errors, and other common human behaviors which turn out to be incredibly hard to understand. We are looking for people with good computer science and mathematics skills and an intense interest in cognitive science! To apply contact: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/admissions/graduate/index.html [the deadline may have passed, but it is recurring, and there may be other opportunities for really good matches] For more information contact: **Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer**Rensselaer** Wayne D. Gray; Professor of Cognitive Science & Professor of Computer Science Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Carnegie Building (rm 108) ;;for all surface mail & deliveries 110 8th St.; Troy, NY 12180 EMAIL: grayw at rpi.edu, Office: 518-276-3315, Fax: 518-276-3017 *************************************************** 14. Job opportunity at Design Interactive http://www.designinteractive.net Design Interactive, Inc. (located just outside of Orlando, FL) is looking for masters level students who recently graduated and are looking for job opportunities. We are looking to hire an entry level person, with a background in observational task analysis, requirements specification, experimental design and conduct, data analysis, literature review, supporting development of theoretical foundations, usability engineering, critical thinking, problem-solving, and applied engineering. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Please have potential candidates send their resumes to Kay Stanney, Kay.Stanney at DesignInteractive.net. Thanks! Queries to Kay or to Christina Kokini, christina.kokini at designinteractive.net *************************************************** 15. Rutgers seeks Cognitive Science Director http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ruccs/jobs.php [posted by Michael Littman To: comp-neuro at neuroinf.org] The Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS) at the New Brunswick Campus of Rutgers University is searching for a new director. The ideal candidate is an outstanding scholar with proven administrative abilities and a vision for the future of cognitive science at Rutgers. A primary goal of the Center is to understand aspects of intelligent performance such as perception, language processing, decision making, problem solving, reasoning, learning and knowledge formation. RuCCS has 22 jointly appointed faculty members and 30 associates who play an active role in the intellectual life of the Center. The Center promotes the integration of techniques and knowledge drawn from a wide variety of fields, primarily psychology, computer science, linguistics and philosophy. The Center offers a Certificate for graduate students and a minor and major for undergraduates. Candidates should be at the Full Professor level. Salary is negotiable. Consideration of applications will begin on March 29, 2010. Please see the posting at http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ruccs/jobs.php for details on the position as well as contact information. *************************************************** -30- From cards at ntcnet.com Wed Mar 3 14:30:31 2010 From: cards at ntcnet.com (Brenda & Stu Card) Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:30:31 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: GECCO-2010 Workshop on Entropy, Information and Complexity Message-ID: <4B8EB8D7.4010402@ntcnet.com> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 WORKSHOP ON ENTROPY, INFORMATION & COMPLEXITY to be held as part of the 2010 GENETIC AND EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION CONFERENCE (GECCO-2010) Sponsored by ACM SIGEVO http://www.sigevo.org/GECCO-2010 July 7-11, 2010 (Wednesday-Sunday) Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront Hotel Portland, Oregon, USA PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR WORKSHOP: March 25, 2010 Among the basic concepts and state variables of thermodynamics, ENTROPY plays a central role, explained by Boltzmann et al as statistical mechanics. Entropy and its complement [mutual] INFORMATION play key roles in the theory of communication by Shannon et al. COMPLEXITY and algorithmic information play the corresponding roles in the complexity theory of Kolmogorov et al. All three theories are directly applicable to both natural biological evolution and evolutionary computation, but have been applied generally by neither theoreticians nor practitioners in the latter field. In the past few years, a few papers have appeared, scattered across different venues. This workshop will for the first time bring together researchers with a common interest in applying these concepts systematically to evolutionary computation and learning. This Call For Participation invites submissions of 8 page papers to be published in the GECCO proceedings and the ACM digital library (in ACM format, see http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2010/papers.html) and extended abstracts of presentations on research in progress or concepts likely to be of interest to workshop participants. Each submitted paper will be independently reviewed by at least two reviewers. Important dates: Paper submission deadline: 25 March 2010 Notification of acceptance: 01 April 2010 Camera-ready copy deadline: 13 April 2010 Workshop: afternoon of Thursday 08 July 2010 For more information about the workshop as it develops see http://evolearn.org To be able to post information there, register for a login (we ask only for a login name and a valid e-mail address). Organizers Stuart W. Card Yossi Borenstein < yos bor gmail com > GECCO is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (SIGEVO). SIG Services: 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY, 10121, USA, 1-800-342-6626 (USA and Canada) or +212-626-0500 (Global). -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkuOuNcACgkQS7PQ0a2weL49PgCeNKc2sLHz9+sfjvoooQpinTjF r9QAmgNmL03haUi/8IWTsvTq+I0H3jCz =L/Mp -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From terry at salk.edu Wed Mar 3 14:41:09 2010 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:41:09 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - March, 2010 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 22, Number 3 - March 1, 2010 LETTERS Feature Selection in Simple Neurons: How Coding Depends on Spiking Dynamics Michael Famulare and Adrienne Fairhall Phase Locking Below Rate Threshold in Noisy Model Neurons Jan A. Freund, Alexander Nikitin, and Nigel G. Stocks Population Models of Temporal Differentiation Bryan Tripp and Chris Eliasmith Precise Capacity Analysis in Binary Networks with Multiple Coding Level Inputs Yali Amit and Yibi Huang Growing Self-Organizing Surface Map: Learning a Surface Topology from a Point Cloud Vilson Dalle-Mole and Aluizio Fusto Ribeiro AraúAutonomous Development of Vergence Control Driven by Disparity Energy Neuron Populations Yiwen Wang and Bertram Shi A Moving Bump in a Continuous Manifold: A Comprehensive Study of the Tracking Dynamics of Continuous Attractor Neural Networks C. C. Alan Fung, K. Y. Michael Wong, and Si Wu Regularization Techniques and Suboptimal Solutions to Optimization Problems in Learning from Data Giorgio Gnecco and Marcello Sanguineti ----- ON-LINE - http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/neco SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2010 - VOLUME 22 - 12 ISSUES USA Others Electronic only Student/Retired $65 $128 $60 Individual $115 $178 $107 Institution $962 $1,025 $860 Canada: Add 5% GST to USA prices MIT Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge, MA 02142-9902. Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-orders at mit.edu http://mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp ----- From getoor at cs.umd.edu Wed Mar 3 22:14:20 2010 From: getoor at cs.umd.edu (Lise Getoor) Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:14:20 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: Eighth International Workshop on Mining and Learning from Graphs, MLG 2010 @ KDD 2010 Message-ID: <4B8F258C.4070105@cs.umd.edu> Call for Papers Eighth Workshop on Mining and Learning with Graphs 2010 (MLG-2010) http://www.cs.umd.edu/mlg2010 Washington, DC, July, 24-25 (co-located with KDD 2010 ) Submission Deadline May 7, 2010 This year's workshop on Mining and Learning with Graphs will be held in conjunction with the 16th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining that will take place in July 25-28, 2010 in Washington, DC. There is a great deal of interest in analyzing data that is best represented as a graph. Examples include the WWW, social networks, biological networks, communication networks, and many others. The importance of being able to effectively mine and learn from such data is growing, as more and more structured and semi-structured data is becoming available. This is a problem across widely different fields such as biology, economics, statistics, social science, physics and computer science, and is studied within a variety of sub-disciplines of machine learning and data mining including graph mining, graphical models, kernel theory, statistical relational learning, etc. The objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers from a variety of these areas, and discuss commonality and differences in challenges faced, survey some of the different approaches, and provide a forum to present and learn about some of the most cutting edge research in this area. As an outcome, we expect participants to walk away with a better sense of the variety of different tools available for graph mining and learning, and an appreciation for some of the interesting emerging applications for mining and learning from graphs. The key challenge we address in this workshop is how to efficiently analyze large data sets that are relational in nature and hence easily represented as graphs. Such data are becoming ubiquitous in a plethora of application and research domains and now is the time to bring together people from these various fields to exchange ideas about how we can mine and learn from these large data sets. The goal of this workshop will be to explore the state-of-the-art algorithms and methods, leveraging existing knowledge from other sub-disciplines, to examine graph-based models in the context of real-world applications, and to identify future challenges and issues. In particular we are interested in the following topics: * Graph mining * Kernel methods for structured data * Probabilistic models for structured data * (Multi-)relational data mining * Methods for structured outputs * Network analysis * Large-scale learning and applications * Sampling issues in graph algorithms * Evaluation of graph algorithms * Relationships between mining and learning with graphs and statistical relational learning * Relationships between mining and learning with graphs and inductive logic programming * Semi-supervised learning * Active learning * Transductive inference * Transfer learning We invite researchers working on mining and learning with graphs to submit regular and position papers detailing the major points and/or results they would present during a talk. Regular papers are a maximum of 8 pages long in two-column format, position papers comprise 2 pages. Authors whose papers were accepted to the workshop will have the opportunity to give a short presentation at the workshop as well as present their work in a poster session to promote interaction and dialog. The workshop itself is a two-day workshop. Each day will consist of keynote speakers, short presentations showcasing accepted papers, discussions at end of sessions, and a poster session to promote dialog Important Dates Paper submission deadline May 7 Notification of acceptance May 21 Final paper deadline May 28 Workshop July 24-25 Organizers * Ulf Brefeld (Yahoo! Research, Barcelona) * Lise Getoor (University of Maryland) * Sofus A. Macskassy (Fetch Technologies / USC) Program Committee * Edo Arioldi * Tanya Berger-Wolf * Hendrik Blockeel * Karsten Borgwardt * Chris Burges * Diane Cook * Tina Eliassi-Rad * Stephen Fienberg * Paolo Frasconi * Thomas Gaertner * Brian Gallagher * Aris Gionis * Marko Grobelnik * Jiawei Han * Susanne Hoche * Lawrence Holder * Jure Leskovec * George Karypis * Samuel Kaski * Kristian Kersting * Dunja Mladenic * Alessandro Moschitti * Jennifer Neville * Massimiliano Pontil * Foster Provost * Padhraic Smyth * Swapna Somasundaran * Eric Xing * Philip Yu * Mohammed Zaki * Fabio Massimo Zanzotto * Zhongfei (Mark) Zhang Contact Information * Sofus Macskassy Fetch Technologies 841 Apollo Street Suite 400 El Segundo, CA 90245 http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~sofmac http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~macskass sofmac at fetch.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100303/c965ebbc/attachment-0001.html From holy at pcg.wustl.edu Thu Mar 4 15:30:10 2010 From: holy at pcg.wustl.edu (Tim Holy) Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010 14:30:10 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position in computational optics and neuroscience Message-ID: <201003041430.10199.holy@pcg.wustl.edu> A postdoctoral position is available to an individual interested in applying computational approaches to optical imaging and neuroscience. Our research group develops new techniques for high-speed three-dimensional microscopy, with applications to monitoring neuronal activity. Our techniques enable simultaneous recording in populations of hundreds or thousands of neurons in intact tissues. Applicants may consult our web site (http://holylab.wustl.edu) and publications for information about some of our scientific and technological interests. Candidates for this position must have strong skills in both analytical mathematics and numerical analysis. The research program for this position includes various topics in computational optics, such as adaptive optics and phase diverse imaging. Formal training in optics would be viewed as a strength but is not required; substantive mathematical and numerical talents are the primary requisite for this position. The laboratory is at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, ranked as one of the top 5 medical schools in the United States. This position is supported by NIH funding, including funding from the NIH Director's Pioneer Award program. To apply, send an email containing a statement of your research interests, your CV, and contact information for three references to Tim Holy at holy at wustl.edu. Candidate must be available for an interview in St. Louis, USA. --- Tim Holy Associate Prof. of Neurobiology Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine From jpezaris at gmail.com Thu Mar 4 13:19:21 2010 From: jpezaris at gmail.com (John Pezaris) Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010 13:19:21 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: AREADNE 2010 Second Call for Abstracts Message-ID: ------ SECOND CALL FOR ABSTRACTS ------ AREADNE 2010 Research in Encoding and Decoding of Neural Ensembles June 17 - 20, 2010 Nomikos Conference Center Santorini, Greece http://www.areadne.org info at areadne.org CONFERENCE MISSION This conference will bring scientific leaders from around the world to present their recent findings on the functioning of neuronal ensembles. It will provide an informal yet spectacular setting on Santorini in which attendees can discuss and share ideas outside of the presentations at the conference center. Finally, this conference continues our long term project to form a systems neuroscience research institute within Greece to conduct state-of-the-art research, offer meetings and courses, and provide a center for visiting scientists from around the world to interact with Greek researchers and students. FORMAT AND SPEAKERS The conference will span four days, in morning and early evening sessions. Confirmed speakers include experts in the field of multi-neuron experiment and analysis (in alphabetic order): David Anderson (Caltech), Helen Barbas (Boston University), Carlos Brody (Princeton University), Matteo Carandini (University College London), Jose Carmena (University of California Berkeley), Bob Desimone (MIT), Tim Ebner (University of Minnesota), Adrienne Fairhall (University of Washington), Eb Fetz (University of Washington), Tamar Flash (The Weizmann Institute of Science), David Freedman (University of Chicago), Georgia Gregoriou (University of Crete), Melina Hale (University of Chicago), Michael Hausser (University College London), Jeff Lichtman (Harvard University), Nikos Logothetis (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics), John O'Keefe (University College London), Cathy Ojakangas (University of Chicago), Bijan Pesaran (New York University), Hans Scherberger (German Primate Center), Maneesh Sahani (UCL Gatsby Institute), Alcino Silva (University of California Los Angeles), Wolf Singer (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research), Mike Shadlen (University of Washington), Irini Skaliora (Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens). CALL FOR ABSTRACTS We are currently soliciting abstracts for poster presentation. Submissions will be accepted electronically, and must be received by March 12, 2010. Automated email acknowledgment of submission will be provided, and manual verification will be made a few days after submission. Notification of acceptance will be provided by March 30, 2010. Please see our on-line Call for Abstracts at http://areadne.org/call-for-abstracts.html for additional details. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Nicho Hatsopoulos, Co-Chair John Pezaris, Co-Chair Catherine Ojakangas Yiota Poirazi Thanos Siapas Andreas Tolias FOR FURTHER INFORMATION For further information please see the conference web site http://www.areadne.org or send email to info at areadne.org. -- Dr. J. S. Pezaris AREADNE 2010 Co-Chair Massachusetts General Hospital 55 Fruit Street Boston, MA 02114, USA john at areadne.org From g.goodhill at uq.edu.au Fri Mar 5 01:45:03 2010 From: g.goodhill at uq.edu.au (Geoffrey Goodhill) Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:45:03 +1000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc positions in modelling brain development Message-ID: <545F878B-6D42-4C2C-8DEB-3CDA2CC71595@uq.edu.au> Two postdoc positions studying neural wiring development are now available in the lab of Prof Geoff Goodhill at the Queensland Brain Institite in Brisbane, Australia. Both positions involve a combination of theoretical modelling and data analysis in collaboration with experimental neuroscientists. The salary range starts from AU$64,000 (currently US57,000) 1. The first position is in the area of axon guidance, particularly axonal chemotaxis. This will build on our recent work in two PNAS papers: A Bayesian model predicts the response of axons to molecular gradients. Mortimer et al, PNAS, 106:10296-10301 (2009). Axon guidance by growth rate modulation. Mortimer et al, PNAS, Early Edition, March 1st (2010). Part of this work is an HFSP-funded collaboration with Guillermina Lopez-Bendito (Alicante), Ole Paulsen (Oxford) and Tomomi Shimogori (Tokyo). 2. The second position is in the area of visual map development, particularly the effect of abnormal visual input during development. This will build on our recent work in two Neuroimage papers: Natural scene statistics and the structure of orientation maps in the visual cortex. Hunt et al, Neuroimage, 47: 157-172 (2009). The influence of restricted orientation on map structure in primary visual cortex. Giacomantonio et al, Neuroimage, in press (2010). This is an NHMRC-funded collaboration with Michael Ibbotson (ANU). The above papers can be downloaded from http://cns.qbi.uq.edu.au/pubs.html Applicants should have a strong background in theoretical/ computational modelling. Ideally this would be in a neuroscience context, but this is not required. To apply please send a covering letter and detailed CV including contact details for at least 3 referees to the address below. The QBI is a new, well-funded research institute, one of the largest in the world dedicated to neuroscience research, containing close to 30 different research groups using state-of-the art research tools. It is part of the University of Queensland, ranked in the top 50 universities in the world by topuniversities.com. Brisbane is a cosmopolitan and rapidly-developing subtropical city of 2 million people, a short drive from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, subtropical rainforests, and close to the Great Barrier Reef. The UN's Human Development Index in 2009 ranked Australia as the 2nd most developed country in the world (after Norway). Professor Geoffrey J Goodhill, PhD Queensland Brain Institute and School of Mathematics & Physics University of Queensland St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia Phone: +61 7 3346 6431 Fax: +61 7 3346 6301 Email: g.goodhill at uq.edu.au http://www.uq.edu.au/qbi/index.html?page=26835 Editor-in-Chief, Network: Computation in Neural Systems http://informahealthcare.com/net From furaoshen at gmail.com Fri Mar 5 06:59:41 2010 From: furaoshen at gmail.com (Shen Furao) Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 19:59:41 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: connectionists: CFP 1st SOINN workshop, SOINN 2010@ICANN 2010 Message-ID: <3b0a3d601003050359m41d96c63l3082d59ee051eaa9@mail.gmail.com> *20th ICANN (International Conference on Neural Networks) Thessaloniki, Greece http://delab.csd.auth.gr/icann2010/ * * * *Call for papers - 1st SOINN Workshop * *Call for papers* *Title:* Self-organizing incremental neural network *Organizer: *Furao Shen, Osamu Hasegawa *Program Committee:* Furao Shen (Nanjing University), Shogo Okada (Kyoto University), Akihito Sudo, Wataru Kasai, and Osamu Hasegawa (Tokyo Institute of Technology) *Subjects:* Self-organization and incremental learning have undergone a rapid growth over the last decade in area of neural networks. While some research issues have received significant attention and matured into stable solutions, new problems and goals are emerging as the focus of neural networks research community. As part of ICANN 2010, the workshop of ?Self-organizing incremental neural network? will bring together researchers interested in all aspects of self-organizing incremental neural network topics and their applications. Papers for this workshop include, but are not limited to: l Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network (SOINN) n New theory and/or algorithm of SOINN n SOINN Applications l Theoretical analysis of incremental learning l Life-long learning n New theory and/or algorithm for life-long learning n Life-long supervised/semi-supervised/unsupervised learning l Incremental learning for pattern recognition n Incremental feature extraction n Incremental learning for clustering n Incremental learning for classification tasks n Incremental learning with support vector machines l Incremental learning for artificial intelligence n Incremental learning for data mining n Incremental learning for autonomous mental development n Incremental learning for robotics Prospective authors are invited to submit original, high quality manuscripts of up to 6-pages electronically to ?frshen at nju.edu.cn? and ? furaoshen at gmail.com?. The submissions will be reviewed rigorously by an international review committee. The submission must conform to the Springer LNCS format, detailed instructions for preparing the manuscript in the required format can be found in ? http://delab.csd.auth.gr/icann2010/submission.html?. *Publication:* All accepted papers will appear in a separate chapter of the ICANN 2010 conference proceedings. *Registration**:* Registration policy will be exactly the same as the one of the main 20th ICANN event. Please visit " http://delab.csd.auth.gr/icann2010/registration.html". *IMPORTANT DATES:* Submission Deadline: May 1, 2010 Notification of acceptance: May 17, 2010 Camera-ready manuscript and pre-registration: May 31, 2010 Conference dates: September 15-18, 2010 -- Furao Shen Associate Professor National Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing 210093, China Tel: +86-25-8368-6522 E-mail: frshen at nju.edu.cn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100305/8c869e4c/attachment-0001.html From francois.fleuret at idiap.ch Fri Mar 5 05:20:21 2010 From: francois.fleuret at idiap.ch (Francois Fleuret) Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:20:21 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: SVRT challenge Message-ID: <19344.56037.848234.248585@moose.fleuret.org> THE SYNTHETIC VISUAL REASONING TEST CHALLENGE ============================================= ** The first dead-line has been moved to August 31, 2010. This competition is part of the PASCAL2 challenge program http://pascallin2.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Challenges/ * INTRODUCTION We are pleased to announce a new challenge for machine learning and computer vision: The Synthetic Visual Reasoning Test (SVRT). One motivation is to expose some limitations of current methods for pattern recognition, and thereby to argue for making a larger investment in other paradigms and strategies, emphasizing the pivotal role of relationships among parts, complex hidden states and a rich dependency structure. This test consists of a series of 23 hand-designed, image-based, binary classification problems. The images are binary and with resolution 128x128. For each problem we have implemented a generator in C++, which allows one to produce as many i.i.d samples as desired. A pdf document containing examples of images is available at http://www.idiap.ch/~fleuret/svrt/svrt.pdf The Bayes error rate of each problem is virtually zero, and nearly all of them can be perfectly solved by humans after seeing fewer than ten examples from each class. Nonetheless, some of them are probably as difficult as various "real" problems featured in previous challenges and widely known data-sets. In particular, solving these synthetic visual tasks with high accuracy requires "reasoning" about relationships among shapes and their poses. Human experiments were conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Steven Yantis, a cognitive psychologist at Johns Hopkins University; those results will appear in a future publication. A number of people were asked to solve the problems and the number of samples required to master each concept was recorded. SVRT challenge participants who follow the rules described below and whose results are noteworthy for either their originality or sheer performance will be invited to co-author a comprehensive, and hopefully visible, article summarizing the performance of their methods, including a discussion of the performance of humans (and possibly monkeys) on the same tasks. * CHALLENGE The generators for a randomly-selected subset of 13 problems are made available to participants. Using these 13 problems as "case studies," the challenge is to develop or adapt a learning algorithm which inputs a training set and outputs a classifier for labeling a binary image. An important performance metric is the number of training examples required to obtain any given accuracy. Algorithms should be designed to be trained on sets of varying sizes. Participants have until August 31, 2010, for development, and are required to make public the results achieved on the 13 problems as well as the source code required to reproduce these results and to test the algorithm on other problems. The source code and test error rates must be sent to the challenge organizers Francois Fleuret (francois.fleuret at idiap.ch) and Donald Geman (geman at jhu.edu) before midnight EST, August 31, 2010. The test error rates must be provided in a single text file, with one line per problem and number of training examples. At minimum, results are to be provided for exactly 10, 100 and 1000 training examples per class per problem. Participants may choose to also send their results for higher powers of ten. On each line there should be the problem number, followed by the number of training samples, followed by ten test error rates estimated on ten different runs, with 10,000 test samples per class. Numbers should be separated by commas. On September 1, 2010, we will publish the ten remaining problems (i.e., make the generators available). Participants will measure the performance of their algorithms *with no additional change* on this new set of problems and send the performance by mail to the challenge organizers before midnight EST, September 31, 2010. At that point, we may use the participants' code to verify the reported performance. * DOWNLOAD The source code of the generators can be downloaded from http://www.idiap.ch/~fleuret/svrt/ A pdf document containing ten samples of each class of each problem, together with the error rate of a baseline classifier trained with Boosting, is available at http://www.idiap.ch/~fleuret/svrt/svrt.pdf * CONTACT Fran?ois Fleuret, Idiap Research Institute francois.fleuret at idiap.ch http://www.idiap.ch/~fleuret/ Donald Geman, Johns Hopkins University geman at jhu.edu http://www.cis.jhu.edu/people/faculty/geman/ From wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk Sat Mar 6 06:46:29 2010 From: wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk (Daniel Wolpert) Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 11:46:29 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Senior Research Associate/Research Associate in Sensorimotor Control Message-ID: <9167620A-77E2-418B-8F75-1FEC65A4C708@eng.cam.ac.uk> Senior Research Associate/Research Associate in Sensorimotor Control Wolpert-lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge Salary: ?36,715-46,510 pa or ?27,319-35,646 pa We are seeking a highly motivated Senior Research Associate/Research Associate (postdoctoral fellow) to join our group working on theoretical and experimental approaches to human sensorimotor control. The project is led by Professor Daniel Wolpert and involves investigating the processes involved in motor learning, sensorimotor integration and control. The successful applicants will be expected to conduct independent research involving both computational and experimental studies in motor learning in humans. Candidates should have finished or have submitted a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Psychology, or Physical and Engineering Sciences relevant to sensorimotor control, with an academic record of scientific excellence, independent research, and a strong interest in an interdisciplinary approach to motor control. A strong mathematical, statistical, and/or computational background and experience with computers and programming (Matlab, C++, etc.) is expected. Applicants with a strong computational background relevant to neuroscience who wish to learn experimental approaches will also be considered. Appointment at the level of Senior Research Associate will be dependant upon qualifications, skills and experience to date. The appointment will be for one year initially (with the possibility of extension) starting May 2010 or as soon as possible thereafter. Informal enquiries should be addressed by email to Professor Wolpert (wolpert at eng.cam.ac.uk). The cover sheet for applications, PD18 is available at http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/personnel/forms/pd18/ . Parts I, II and III should be sent, preferably by e-mail, with a letter of application, a statement of research interests, and a CV (in pdf or plain text formats if possible) with the names and full contact details (including e-mail addresses) of three referees to Ms Diane Unwin (dsu21 at cam.ac.uk), Department of Engineering, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, (tel: +44 (0)1223 332600, fax: +44 (0)1223 3 32662), so as to reach her not later than April 1st 2010. Interviews will be held with selected candidates as soon as possible after the closing date. Further particulars are available on http://cbl.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/SensorimotorRa From akira-i at brest-state-tech-univ.org Sun Mar 7 16:07:35 2010 From: akira-i at brest-state-tech-univ.org (Akira Imada) Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 23:07:35 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: Incremental Topological Learning Models and Dimensional Reduction Message-ID: CFP: ICNNAI-2010 Special Session: Incremental Topological Learning Models and Dimensional Reduction See also https://sites.google.com/site/itlmdm or http://icnnai.bstu.by/special-session-1.htm ================================= Submissions Due: April 4, 2010 ================================= 1 - 4 June, 2010 Brest State Technical University Belarus http://icnnai.bstu.by/icnnai-2010.html SCOPE Incremental Learning is a subfield of the Artificial Intelligence that deals with data flow. The key hypothesis is that the algorithms are able to learn data from a data subset and then to re-learn with new unlabeled data. At the end of the learning, one of the problems is the clustering analysis and visualization of the results. The topological learning is one of the most known technique that allows clustering and visualization simultaneously. At the end of the topographic learning, "similar'' data will be collect in clusters, which correspond to the sets of similar observations. These clusters can be represented by more concise information than the brutal listing of their patterns, such as their gravity center or different statistical moments. As expected, this information is easier to manipulate than the original data points. Dimensionality reduction is another major challenge in the domain of unsupervised learning which deals with the transformation of a high dimensional dataset into a low dimensional space, while retaining most of the useful structure in the original data, retaining only relevant features and observations. Dimensionality reduction can be achieved by using a clustering technique to reduce the number of observations or a features selection approach to reduce the features space. This session would solicit theoretical and applicative research papers including but not limited to the following topics : - Supervised/Unsupervised Topological Learning; - Self-Organization (based on artificial neural networks, but not limited to); - Clustering Visualization and Analysis; - Time during the learning process; - Memory based systems; - User interaction models; - Fusion (Consensus) based models; - Clustering; - Feature selection; SUBMISSION The special session will be held as a part of the ICNNAI'2010 conference (The 5th International Conference on Neural Network and Artificial Intelligence ). The authors would submit papers through easychair site : http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=itlmdr10. All paper submissions will be handled electronically. Detailed instructions for submitting the papers are provided on the conference home page at http://icnnai.bstu.by/icnnai-2010.html Papers must correspond to the requirements detailed in the instructions to authors from the ICNNAI 2010 web site. Accepted papers must be presented by one of the authors to be published in the conference proceeding. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to direct your questions to nistor.grozavu at lipn.univ-paris13.fr IMPORTANT DATES - Paper Submission Deadline: 4 April - Notification of acceptance: 22 April - Camera-ready papers: 29 April ORGANIZERS Nistor GROZAVU, Post-Doc, Computer Science Laboratory of Paris 13 University, FRANCE Mustapha LEBBAH, Associate Professor at the Paris 13 University, FRANCE Younes BENNANI, Full Professor at the Paris 13 University, FRANCE Best regards, Nistor Grozavu PhD, Computer Science Laboratory of the Paris 13 University (LIPN) http://www-lipn.univ-paris13.fr/~grozavu/ tel: +33 (0)626901790 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100307/4ee04961/attachment-0001.html From Mikko.Kurimo at hut.fi Sun Mar 7 12:31:19 2010 From: Mikko.Kurimo at hut.fi (Mikko.Kurimo@hut.fi) Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 19:31:19 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: MLSP 2010 Competition: Mind Reading Message-ID: <20100307193119.msqcpfifdw0cc8c0@webmail2.tkk.fi> MLSP 2010 Competition: Mind Reading http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk http://www.bme.ogi.edu/~hildk/mlsp2010Competition.html Competition supported by Nokia and PASCAL2 Challenge Program Goal: The goal is to select/design a classifier (and any pre-processing systems, including a feature extractor) that correctly classifies EEG data into one of two classes. The winner will be the submission that maximizes the area under the ROC curve. Eligibility: Anyone that has an interest in machine learning and that has access to Matlab. Registration: Registration is not required. However, if you wish to receive important updates on the competition by email then please send a request to the address provided on the web page. Deadline: Submissions must be emailed to the email address provided at the web page no later than one week after the main conference paper submission deadline, i.e. by April 8, 2010. Awards: Up to two N900 high-performance mobile computers from Nokia and travel stipends to MLSP 2010 by PASCAL2 will be awarded as prizes. Data and more details: Available on the competition page. http://www.bme.ogi.edu/~hildk/mlsp2010Competition.html Competition Chairs: Mikko Kurimo, Vince Calhoun, Kenneth Hild ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From akira-i at brest-state-tech-univ.org Sun Mar 7 16:04:35 2010 From: akira-i at brest-state-tech-univ.org (Akira Imada) Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 23:04:35 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: Can Artificial Neural Network be Intelligent? Message-ID: Call for Papers for Special Session: "Can Artificial Neural Network be Intelligent?" in The International Conference on Neural Networks and Artificial Intelligence (ICNNAI'2010) 1 - 4 June, 2010 in Brest, Belarus (See also http://icnnai.bstu.by/special-session-2.html) Submissions Due: April 14, 2010. SCOPE Once my friend, who worked in a world famous electric company as an engineer, told me, "it's amateurish," when I admired a food in a Chinese restaurant telling him, "It's really wonderful that they every time cook in slightly a different way whenever I order the same one, and every time it's delicious." He told me, "Real professional should cook exactly the same way every time." McClelland wrote "Even after more than a half a century of research on machine intelligence, humans remain far better than our strongest computing machines at a wide range of natural cognitive tasks."[1] However, as far as its application to industry is concerned, the state of the art of machine intelligence reaches quite an impressive level nowadays. But what is human intelligence? Assume, for example, we are in a foreign country where we are not so conversant in its native language, and assume we ask, "Pardon?" to show we have failed to understand what they were telling us. Then intelligent people might try to change the expression with using easier words so that we understand this time, while others, perhaps not so intelligent, would repeat the same expression, probably with a little bigger voice. This conference names "Artificial Intelligence and Neural Network," expecting an establishment of artificial intelligence by means of neural network. In fact, we have had lots of successful reports proudly claiming a design of intelligent machine. Then question arises. What is intelligence? Some of what they call an intelligent machine perform the given task much more efficiently, effectively, or precisely than human. However we human are not usually very efficient, effective nor precise, but rather spontaneous, flexible, or unpredictable. We see what they call an intelligent humanoid robot or pet whose behavior looks pretty intelligent. But what if they always behave exactly as before whenever it comes across exactly the same situation as it learned the behavior? However it might be very efficient, we would loose an interest sooner or later. We organize this special session looking forward a hot discussion on this topic. Both positive and negative article are welcomed. We also plan to publish in a special issue in the journal "Advances in Artificial Neural Systems" from the Hindawi Publishing Corporation. [1] James L. McClelland (2009) "Is a Machine Realization of Truly Human-Like Intelligence Achievable?" Published online from "Springer Science + Business." SUBMISSION Submission should be by attaching to an e-mail directly to the session organizer akira-i at brest-state-tech-univ.org by the submission due. The submission paper should follow the conference proceeding format. See the sample.pdf found in the authors' kit which can be downloaded by from the Call for Paper http://icnnai.bstu.by/icnnai-2010.html SCHEDULE - Submission due ... 14 April 2010 - Notification to authors ... 21 April 2010 - Camera ready due ... 7 May 2010 SESSION ORGANIZER Prof. Dr. Akira Imada (Brest State Technical University, Belarus) akira-i at brest-state-tech-univ.org Looking forward to seeing you in this fancy town of Brest in this wonder land of Belarus. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100307/30ae63d9/attachment-0001.html From elio.tuci at gmail.com Tue Mar 9 12:30:22 2010 From: elio.tuci at gmail.com (Elio Tuci) Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 18:30:22 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: SWARM INTELLIGENCE JOURNAL: Special Issue on Swarm Cognition - DEADLINE EXTENSION Message-ID: <818AE809-EBFA-4FFF-9C14-30D793B7950D@gmail.com> ======================================================= CALL FOR PAPER - DEADLINE EXTENSION SWARM INTELLIGENCE JOURNAL Special Issue on Swarm Cognition http://laral.istc.cnr.it/swarm-cognition/Main_Page Manuscript due: April 15, 2010 Notification: May 31, 2010 Final manuscript due: July 19, 2010 ======================================================= ---------------------------------------- --------------- Topic --------------- ---------------------------------------- Swarm Cognition is the juxtaposition of two relatively unrelated concepts that evoke, on the one hand, the power of collective behaviours displayed by natural swarms, and on the other hand the complexity of cognitive processes in the vertebrate brain. In recent years, scientists from various disciplines have been suggesting that, at a certain level of description, operational principles used to account for the behaviour of natural swarms may turn out to be extremely powerful tools to identify the neuroscientic basis of cognition. Generally speaking, these studies claim that the massively parallel animal-to-animal interactions which operationally explain cognitive processes of natural swarms are functionally similar to neuron-to-neuron communication which underlie the cognitive abilities of living organisms, including humans. With this premise, research work in Swarm Cognition aims at identifying the operational principles of cognitive behaviour by calling upon the underlying mechanisms of self-organising systems, i.e., systems whose internal organisation changes without being guided by an outside source. We encourage submissions of innovative research work which highlights the importance of the mechanisms of self-organisation as operational principles to explain cognitive processes displayed by individuals or collectives, both natural and artificial. Particularly welcome are contributions focusing on the distributed mechanisms underlying cognitive processes, like, for instance, decision-making, attention, learning or memory. Topics of interest in relationship to the above issues include but are not limited to: ? Cognitive and computational neurosciences ? Cognitive and social ethology ? Swarm intelligence and swarm robotics ? Adaptive control ? Systems biology ? Neural computation and distributed representations ? Cultural evolution and Learning ? Cognitive sociology ? Bounded rationality ---------------------------------------- --------------- Editors --------------- ---------------------------------------- Dr. Vito Trianni, ISTC-CNR, Italy vito.trianni at istc.cnr.it Dr. Elio Tuci, ISTC-CNR, Italy elio.tuci at istc.cnr.it Prof. Kevin M. Passino, Ohio State University, OH passino at ece.osu.edu ---------------------------------------- ---- Instructions for authors ----- ---------------------------------------- All manuscripts must be prepared according to the publication guidelines of the Swarm Intelligence Journal that can be found at the journal web-site: http://www.springer.com/journal/11721 Prospective authors are invited to submit their papers using the online submission system of the journal at http://www.editorialmanager.com/swrm selecting "Special Issue on Swarm Cognition" as the article type. When submitting a paper, please send at the same time also an e-mail to Vito Trianni (vito.trianni at istc.cnr.it) with paper title and author list to inform about the submission. ---------------------------------------- -------------- Timeline -------------- ---------------------------------------- Manuscript due: April 15, 2010 Notification: May 31, 2010 Final manuscript due: July 19, 2010 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: flyer-sc-sij.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 294502 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100309/cbfbe2f7/flyer-sc-sij-0001.pdf -------------- next part -------------- From z.kourtzi at bham.ac.uk Tue Mar 9 09:28:04 2010 From: z.kourtzi at bham.ac.uk (Zoe Kourtzi) Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 14:28:04 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Advanced Training Course: BRAIN IMAGING AND ITS APPLICATIONS Message-ID: <1E827D1F-1FCF-4E4B-A798-294CD144FF8C@bham.ac.uk> Marie Curie FP7 Advanced Training Course: BRAIN IMAGING AND ITS APPLICATIONS Great Malvern, UK July 7th-10th 2010 Application deadline: 15th April 2010 Organisers: Zoe Kourtzi, Andrew Welchman European Initial Training Network CODDE www.optimaldecisions.org/events/biaa/ ABOUT THE COURSE Advances in imaging technology over the past fifteen years have revolutionised the study of the human brain, providing an invaluable, non-invasive tool for the study of cognitive functions. Despite the excitement around the techniques, brain imaging generates large amounts of data that differs in its information content (e.g. MRI, fMRI, EEG). Future advances depend on integrating these methodologies and applying mathematical approaches to mine complex biological data. This intensive course introduces young scientists (from late pre-doctoral to early post-doctoral stage) to outstanding contemporary work in the theory and application of modern brain imaging methods. Moreover, it focuses on thow these methods are applied to advance basic understanding of the brain and can be applied to help solve practical problems. The workshop consists of a series of research lectures and hands-on experience in small groups. Scientific training will be complemented with tutorials on generic skills that promote career development. The workshop is organized by the European Initial Training Network CODDE ("Co-ordination for optimal decisions in dynamic environments") that links several European labs. The network and this course is funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme. The course will be held in the charming historic town of Malvern, UK. The main selection criterion will be the degree to which each individual can be expected to benefit from the course. Food and lodging is expected to be free for all selected applicants. Travel support is not available. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS Rianer Goebel (Maastraicht), Chris Chambers (Cardiff), Krish Singh (Cardiff), Niko Kreigeskorte (Cambridge), Kia Nobre (Oxford), Denis Schluppeck (Nottingham), Sabene Kastner (Princeton), Andy Smith (London), Guy Orban (Leuven), Wim Vanduffel (MGH / Leuven), Heidi Johannssen-Berg (Oxford), Holly Bridge (Oxford), Tony Movshon (NYU), Glyn Humphreys (Birmingham), Marlene Behrmann (Carnegie Mellon), Paul Matthews (Glaxo-Smith-Klein). HOW TO APPLY Complete the online form: www.optimaldecisions.org/events/biaa/application Deadline: 15th April 2010 From z.kourtzi at bham.ac.uk Tue Mar 9 11:33:01 2010 From: z.kourtzi at bham.ac.uk (Zoe Kourtzi) Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 16:33:01 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Research Fellow in the perception of 3-D shape Message-ID: <66D8629F-83B2-46C6-966C-EAF27A4E7558@bham.ac.uk> SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM, UK Research Fellow in the perception of 3-D shape and surface reflectance A Wellcome Trust funded position is available to work on a collaborative project between Dr Andrew Welchman (University of Birmingham), Dr Roland Fleming (Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany) and Prof. Andrew Blake (Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK). The successful applicant will combine computational image analysis, psychophysical measurements and modelling to examine the perception of 3-D shape from specular highlights. The work makes use of state-of-the-art rendering techniques and provides the opportunity to work with a high dynamic range display. Research will be conducted within well-equipped labs that incorporate a range of bespoke equipment. The School is one of the UK?s top 3 research departments in the UK and has strong groups in Behavioural Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience and Vision Science. Candidates should hold (or expect to hold) a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics or a related field. Programming skills (e.g. Matlab, C) are essential and experience with simulation, modelling and behavioural testing desirable. Informal enquiries should be directed to Dr Andrew Welchman (A.E.Welchman at bham.ac.uk). Details of application procedures are available from: www.vacancies.bham.ac.uk Reference 47154 Closing date for applications: 30th March 2010 Interviews in the week of 19th April. From zilles at cs.uregina.ca Tue Mar 9 15:05:05 2010 From: zilles at cs.uregina.ca (Sandra Zilles) Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 14:05:05 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: COLT 2010 open problems - deadline Mar 13 Message-ID: The 23rd Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT 2010) will include a session devoted to the presentation of open problems. A description of these problems will also appear in the COLT proceedings. The write-up of an open problem should include the following: 1. A clear, self-contained description of an open problem 2. Motivation for the study of this problem 3. The current state of understanding for this problem, including known partial solutions and citations of related published work We especially encourage people to propose descriptions of new interesting research directions in areas that are currently outside the scope of COLT, such as bioinformatics, privacy and security, and vision, to name a few. Ideally, your open problems or research directions should include well-defined mathematical questions, nontrivial, and explainable without requiring too much specialized background knowledge in a 5-10 minutes talk. Monetary rewards for solving an open problem are encouraged but not required. Format and submission: The open problems should be 1-2 pages long in the COLT proceedings format. Please submit them electronically to open at colt2010.org with subject line "open problem for Colt2010". The submissions, in pdf or ps, should be attached to the email. Deadline: March 13, 2010. For more information on COLT 2010 see below. --------- The 23rd Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT 2010) will take place in Haifa, Israel, on June 27-29, 2010 and will be co-located with ICML 2010. We invite submissions of papers addressing theoretical aspects of machine learning and empirical inference. We strongly support a broad definition of learning theory, including: ? Analysis of learning algorithms and their generalization ability ? Computational complexity of learning ? Bayesian analysis ? Statistical mechanics of learning systems ? Optimization procedures for learning ? Kernel methods ? Inductive inference ? Boolean function learning ? Unsupervised and semi-supervised learning and clustering ? On-line learning and relative loss bounds ? Learning in planning and control, including reinforcement learning ? Learning in games, multi-agent learning ? Mathematical analysis of learning in related fields, e.g., game theory, natural language processing, neuroscience, bioinformatics, privacy and security, machine vision, data mining, information retrieval We are also interested in papers that include viewpoints that are new to the COLT community. We welcome experimental and algorithmic papers provided they are relevant to the focus of the conference by elucidating theoretical results in learning. Also, while the primary focus of the conference is theoretical, papers can be strengthened by the inclusion of relevant experimental results. Papers that have previously appeared in journals or at other conferences, or that are being submitted to other conferences, are not appropriate for COLT. Papers that include work that has already been submitted for journal publication may be submitted to COLT, as long as the papers have not been accepted for publication by the COLT submission deadline (conditionally or otherwise) and that the paper is not expected to be published before the COLT conference (June 2010). Feedback on Review Quality There will be no rebuttal phase this year. However, authors will be given the opportunity to assess the quality of reviews and provide feedback to the reviewers, after the decisions have been made. These assessments will be used in particular to determine the Best Reviewer award (see below). Paper and Reviewer Awards This year, COLT will award both best paper and best student paper awards. Best student papers must be authored or coauthored by a student. Authors must indicate at submission time if they wish their paper to be eligible for a student award. This does not preclude the paper to be eligible for the best paper award. To further emphasize the importance of the reviewing quality, this year, COLT will also award a best reviewer award to the reviewer who has provided the most insightful and useful comments. Open Problems Session We also invite submission of open problems (see separate call). These should be constrained to two pages. There is a shorter reviewing period for the open problems. Accepted contributions will be allocated short presentation slots in a special open problems session and will be allowed two pages each in the proceedings. Paper Format and Electronic Submission Instructions Formatting and submission instructions will be available in early December at the conference website. Submissions should include the title, authors' names, and a 200-word summary of the paper suitable for the conference program. Papers should not exceed 13 pages (including bibliography) and should be formatted according to the following style file and sample LaTeX source (colt10e.sty, colt10- sample.tar.gz). Authors not using latex should ensure that their document complies with similar formatting (similar margins, 11pt font, single column). Shorter papers are strongly encouraged. Additional material beyond the 13 page limit can be placed in the appendix and might be read, at the discretion of the program committee. Important Dates Preliminary call for papers issued October 15, 2009 Electronic submission of papers (due by 5:59pm PST) February 19, 2010 Electronic submission of open problems March 13, 2010 Notice of acceptance or rejection May 07, 2010 Submission of final version May 21, 2010 Feedback on reviews due May 28, 2010 Joint ICML/COLT workshop day June 25, 2010 2010 COLT conference June 27-29, 2010 OrganizationProgram Co-chairs: ? Adam Tauman Kalai (Microsoft Research) ? Mehryar Mohri (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Google Research) Program Committee: Shivani Agarwal Mikhail Belkin Shai Ben-David Nicol? Cesa-Bianchi Ofer Dekel Steve Hanneke Jeff Jackson Sham Kakade Vladimir Koltchinskii Katrina Ligett Phil Long Gabor Lugosi Ulrike von Luxburg Yishay Mansour Ryan O?Donnell Massimiliano Pontil Robert Schapire Rocco Servedio Shai Shalev-Shwartz John Shawe-Taylor Gilles Stoltz Ambuj Tewari Jenn Wortman Vaughan Santosh Vempala Manfred Warmuth Robert Williamson Thomas Zeugmann Tong Zhang Publicity Chair: ? Sandra Zilles (University of Regina) Local Arrangements Chair: ? Shai Fine (IBM Research Haifa) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100309/fb4a4753/attachment.html From shuicheng.nus at gmail.com Wed Mar 10 08:44:00 2010 From: shuicheng.nus at gmail.com (Shuicheng Yan) Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:44:00 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: Deadline Extension: IEEE International Workshop on Analysis and Modeling of Faces and Gestures (AMFG2010) Message-ID: <3b50b55f1003100544v30b14664yee491a545051e286@mail.gmail.com> Upon the requests from many authors (for ECCV10 deadline), the organizing committee of the workshop on Analysis and Modeling of Faces and Gestures (AMFG2010) decided to extend the paper submission deadline from Mar 10 to Mar 20, 2010. Below is the revised detail for this workshop: =========================================================================== Call For Paper: IEEE International Workshop on Analysis and Modeling of Faces and Gestures (AMFG2010), in conjunction with CVPR 2010 =========================================================================== IEEE International Workshop on Analysis and Modeling of Faces and Gestures (AMFG2010) --- Towards Large-Scale Data from Real-World Environments Website: http://www.lv-nus.org/AMFG2010/ During the last 30 years, human-centered perceptual understanding tasks such as face/body detection/ tracking, facial characteristic analysis (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, and expression), face/gait based human identification, and from understanding simple hand gesture to complex human body language, activity and behaviour, have attracted researchers from both computational and psychological communities. To be able to build tractable models has significant scientific and practical values. For example, human-computer interaction, video indexing, visual surveillance, and Internet vision are active application areas. To that end, researchers have made substantial progress. However, significant challenges still remain. This one-day workshop (AMFG2010) will provide a focused international forum to bring together researchers and research groups to review the status of recognition, analysis and modeling of face, gesture, and body, to discuss the challenges that we are facing, and to explore future directions. A particular interest and focus of this workshop will be placed upon large-scale data from real-world environments. The workshop will consist of two to three invited talks together with peer-reviewed regular papers (oral and poster). Original high-quality papers are solicited on a wide range of topics including: ? Face and body language recognition in real-world environments with unknown/changing background, e.g., Internet image search, or Facebook, or crowded public spaces. ? Soft biometrics and profiling: age, gender, and ethnicity classification by facial and/or body descriptions. ? Novel mathematical modelling and algorithms, sensors and modalities for face & body gesture/action representation, analysis and recognition. ? Novel applications based on robust detection, tracking and recognition of face, body and action. ? Psychological studies that can assist in understanding computational modelling and building better automated computer vision systems. ? Motion analysis, tracking and extraction of face and body models from image sequences captured by a single or multiple cameras from either a fixed or mobile platform. ? Detection and recognition of face and body under large 3D rotation, illumination change, partial occlusion, and aging. ? Face, gait and action recognition in low-quality, low-resolution video from fixed or mobile cameras. ? Dynamics and learning for gesture, activity, and body behavior interpretation. Important Dates: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Paper Submission: Mar 20, 2010 2. Notification of Acceptance: Apr 07, 2010 3. Camera-ready Version: Apr 14, 2010 4. Workshop Date: Jun 14, 2010 Workshop Co-Chairs: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ? Wen-Yi Zhao, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. ? Xiaoou Tang, Chinese University of Hong Kong ? Shaogang Gong, Queen Mary University of London ? Shuicheng Yan, National University of Singapore Program Committee: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ? Aleix Martinez, "Ohio State, USA" ? Cha Zhang, "Microsoft, USA" ? Fernando De la Torre, "CMU, USA" ? Gerard Medioni, "USC, USA" ? Guodong Guo, "WVU, USA" ? Ioannis Patras, "QMUL, UK" ? Jake Aggarwal, "UT Austin, USA" ? Jiebo Luo, "Kodak, USA" ? Larry Davis, "Maryland, USA" ? Marios Savvides, "CMU, USA" ? Matti Pietikainen, " OULU, Finland" ? Ming-Hsuan Yang, "UCM, USA" ? Rama Chellappa, "Maryland, USA" ? Stan Li, "NLPR, China" ? Tao Xiang, "QMUL, UK" ? Tony X. Han, "University of Missouri, USA" ? Vassilis Athitsos, "UTA, USA" ? Vittorio Murino, "Verona, Italy" ? Xiaoming Liu, "GE, USA" ? Yun Fu, "University at Buffalo (SUNY),USA" ? Zhifeng Li, "MSU, USA" Zicheng Liu "Microsoft, USA" Web Co-Chair: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ? Qiang Chen, National University of Singapore Best Paper Award shall be given to the paper with the most potential impacts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Submission: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Submission site is open at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/AMFG2010/ The author kit can be download at : http://www.lv-nus.org/AMFG2010/submission.html Note that the page number limit is 8 pages and it is double-blinded as for regular CVPR submission. Contact: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shuicheng Yan Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, E-Mails: eleyans at nus.edu.sg; shuicheng.yan at gmail.com; Tel: +65-6516-2116 Address: Office E4-05-11, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 3, 117576, Singapore -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100310/03ac5414/attachment-0001.html From P.Tino at cs.bham.ac.uk Fri Mar 12 09:36:27 2010 From: P.Tino at cs.bham.ac.uk (Peter Tino) Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:36:27 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: 2 Postdoc positions in Computational Neuroscience & Imaging Message-ID: <4B9A516B.7040803@cs.bham.ac.uk> UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM, UK 2 Research Fellow positions in Computational Neuroscience & Imaging * Unified probabilistic modeling of adaptive spatial-temporal structures in the human brain * We invite applications for 2 postdoctoral positions within an interdisciplinary project jointly coordinated by Zoe Kourtzi (School of Psychology) and Peter Tino (School of Computer Science), University of Birmingham, UK. The work aims to understand functional brain plasticity mechanisms in the human brain. The project will develop a novel methodology based on generative probabilistic modeling for analysis of complex brain imaging data (fMRI, EGG) measured during multiple sessions and across stages of training. One of the post-doc positions (based in Computer Science) will have a computational-mathematical orientation, focusing on the development of modeling and data analysis methods. The other position (based in Psychology) will bridge experimental work with methods development. The University of Birmingham has a state-of-the-art Imaging Centre (3T MRI scanner), EEG systems and TMS systems. The School of Psychology is one of the UK's top 3 research departments. The School of Computer Science ranked 7th in the proportion of 4* awards out of all UK Computer Science Departments in the recent RAE. We welcome applications from candidates undergoing or having completed a PhD in Computer science, Neuroscience, Psychology, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field. Programming skills (e.g. Matlab, C) and experience with advanced probabilistic modeling, brain imaging and signal processing methods are highly desirable. The positions are available for 1 year at first instance with the possibility of extension to a total of 3 years. Informal enquiries should be addressed to Zoe Kourtzi (z.kourtzi at bham.ac.uk) or Peter Tino (P.Tino at cs.bham.ac.uk). Applications should include CV, publication list, brief statement of research interests, and the names of 3 referees. -- 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 wsenn at cns.unibe.ch Sat Mar 13 17:56:31 2010 From: wsenn at cns.unibe.ch (Walter Senn) Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:56:31 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Cybernetics: vol 102, issue 3 --- Table of Content Message-ID: <4B9C181F.3030409@cns.unibe.ch> Biological Cybernetics: vol 102, issue 3 --- Table of Content BC Forum: "How stimulus shape affects lateral-line perception: analytical approach to analyze natural stimuli characteristics" Andreas B. Sichert & J. Leo van Hemmen http://www.springerlink.com/content/n26wl0q581252772/ Original papers: "Persistent reflection underlies ectopic activity in multiple sclerosis: a numerical study" Sharon Zlochiver http://www.springerlink.com/content/p2p8384400h66hk6/ "The identification of critical fluctuations and phase transitions in short term and coarse-grained time series?a method for the real-time monitoring of human change processes" Guenter Schiepek & Guido Strunk http://www.springerlink.com/content/9714766012131601/ "Neural network simulations of the primate oculomotor system. V. Eye?head gaze shifts" A. A. Kardamakis, A. Grantyn & A. K. Moschovakis http://www.springerlink.com/content/k0gk4x024761x312/ "Action and behavior: a free-energy formulation" Karl J. Friston, Jean Daunizeau, James Kilner & Stefan J. Kiebel http://www.springerlink.com/content/30227385434q4022/ "Fully decentralized control of a soft-bodied robot inspired by true slime mold" Takuya Umedachi, Koichi Takeda, Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi & Akio Ishiguro http://www.springerlink.com/content/x572h717l047w6u0/ ---- Biological Cybernetics, all issues: http://www.springerlink.com/content/100465/ From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Mon Mar 15 10:45:13 2010 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr. Amir Hussain) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:45:13 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Table of Contents Alert: "Cognitive Computation" (Springer) - Vol. 2, No.1 / March 2010 Message-ID: <48E2D51075CA41FD9B0EA63298CC4E45@cs.ad.stir.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues: (with advance apologies for any cross-postings!) We are delighted to announce the publication of Volume 2, No. 1 / March 2010, of Springer's exciting multi-disciplinary journal in the neurosciences: "Cognitive Computation" - www.springer.com/12559 You will also be pleased to know that ALL (full) published articles in Cognitive Computation are FREELY AVAILABLE for access/download through December 31, 2010. The full listing of Vol.2, No. 1 / March 2010, (in PDF) can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/ju877014765w/?p=ec2da5ba66c44d66889a041c 25b684ec &pi=0 The individual list of published articles (Table of Contents) for Vol. 2, No. 1 / March 2010, can be found at the end of this message. ---------------------------------- Archive/Previous Issues: ----------------------------- The full listing of the Inaugural Vol. 1, No. 1 / March 2009, can be viewed here (which included invited authoritative reviews by leading researchers in their areas - including keynote papers from London University's John Taylor, Igor Aleksander and Stanford University's James McClelland, and invited papers from Kevin Gurney, Ron Sun, Pentti Haikonen, Geoff Underwood, Claudius Gross, Anil Seth and Tom Ziemke): http://www.springerlink.com/content/w2826455k852/?p=603724902f224ec4ab2a0e52 213f8d3e&pi=0 The full listing of Vol. 1, No. 2 / June 2009, can be viewed here (which included invited reviews and original research contributions from leading researchers, including Giacomo Indiveri, Rodney Douglas, Jurgen Schmidhuber, Thomas Wennekers, Pentti Kanerva and Friedemann Pulvermuller): http://www.springerlink.com/content/n6134575mg14/?p=0ae0e58e2b8444c48fc62261 e6b6a13f&pi=0 The full listing of Vol.1, No. 3 / Sep 2009, can be viewed here: http://springerlink.com/content/m224t1178m77/?p=61f9d0eb786e434783d7e55414ff 013f&pi=0 The full listing of Vol. 1, No. 4 / Dec 2009, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/n0p15n7p7222/?p=dc8c1547af2641d38b3e2882 e2f52dfa&pi=0 Other 'Online First' published articles not yet in a print issue can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/121361/?Content+Status=Accepted For further information and to sign up for electronic "Table of Contents alerts" please visit the Cognitive Computation homepage: http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559 Finally, we would like to invite you to submit short or regular papers describing original research or timely review of important areas - our aim is to peer review all papers within approximately six-eight weeks of receipt. We also welcome relevant high quality proposals for Special Issues. With our very best wishes to all aspiring readers and authors of Cognitive Computation, Amir Hussain, PhD (Editor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation) E-mail: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Igor Aleksander, PhD (Honorary Editor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation) John Taylor, PhD (Chair, Advisory Board: Cognitive Computation) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- Table of Contents: Springer's Cognitive Computation, Vol.2, No.1 / March 2010 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- (Full listing of Articles, in PDF, is available here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/ju877014765w/?p=ec2da5ba66c44d66889a041c 25b684ec&pi=0 ) Articles Fast Learning Mapping Schemes for Robotic Hand?Eye Coordination Martin H?lse, Sebastian McBride and Mark Lee http://www.springerlink.com/content/40217q277w71n654 Adaptive-Wave Alternative for the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model Vladimir G. Ivancevic http://www.springerlink.com/content/q4j2326668550427 Attentional Focus Modulated by Mesothalamic Dopamine: Consequences in Parkinson?s Disease and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder D. Q. M. Madureira, L. A. V. Carvalho and E. Cheniaux http://www.springerlink.com/content/d611775133030453 Comparison of Event-Related Potentials Between Conceptually Similar Chinese Words, English Words, and Pictures Jianfeng Hu, Kerong He and Jianying Xiong http://www.springerlink.com/content/13w7270224r5kq15 -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100315/03fe520f/attachment-0001.html From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Mon Mar 15 10:52:38 2010 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr. Amir Hussain) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:52:38 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: ICANN 2010 Workshop - Call For Papers Message-ID: <10E0E85F182A4D959E87CB3E881AE867@cs.ad.stir.ac.uk> Dear all (with advance apologies for any cross-postings): Please forward the Call below to interested colleagues.. Thank you in advance, Amir Hussain, PhD University of Stirling, Scotland, UK E-mail: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk -- 1st International Workshop "Consciousness Versus Attention": Call for Papers Workshop for the 20th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN2010), Thessaloniki,Greece, 15-18 Sep, 2010 - http://delab.csd.auth.gr/icann2010/ Workshop Chair: JG Taylor, Dept of Mathematics, King's College London Email: john.g.taylor at kcl.ac.uk Programme Committee 1) JG Taylor (King's College London: taymore2002 at aol.co.uk) 2) S Grossberg (Boston U: steve at bu.edu) 3) W Duch (Torun, Poland: wduch at is.umb.pl) 4) A Hussain (Stirling, UK: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk 5) S Kollias (NTUA, Athens: skollias at ntua.gr) 6) A Villa (Univ Grenoble: alessandro.villa at unil.ch) 7) N Kasabov (AUT Univ, Auckland: nkasabov at aut.ac.nz) Subject Areas Experiments on attention and consciousness Modelling attention and role of emotion Modelling consciousness Creativity and its modelling Developmental analyses of attention and consciousness Evolutionary analyses of attention and consciousness Modelling unconscious versus conscious processing Role of Emotion in Attention vs. consciousness Call for papers All interested are invited to submit by email a brief abstract (up to 4 pages) to Professor J Taylor, john.g.taylor at kcl.ac.uk or taymore2002 at aol.co.uk and attend to give a paper if the abstract is accepted. In particular the workshop is keen to have presentations in which neural network models of attention and of creativity are used as a basis for an argument one way or the other for the independence of consciousness and attention. The submissions will be reviewed rigorously by an international review committee. The submission must conform to the Springer format detailed instruction for preparing the manuscript in the required format can be found in http://delab.csd.auth.gr/icann2010/submission.html Short versions (up to six pages) of all accepted papers will appear in a separate chapter of the ICANN 2010 (springer) conference proceedings. An effort will be made to prepare a Special Issue of the Springer journal Cognitive Computation (www.springer.com/12559) on this topic based on the papers presented at the workshop Registration Registration policy will be exactly the same as the one of the main 20th ICANN event. Please visit http://delab.csd.auth.gr/icann2010/registration.html Important Dates Paper submission: May 1st 2010 Review to author by: May 17 2010 Final submission to conference: May 31 2010 Contents There is an important controversy presently being fought out in both the experiment and theory of attention as to the requirement of attention being applied to a stimulus for the occurrence of consciousness of that stimulus. The extreme positions are that a) attention and consciousness are independent [1-6] and b) attention is necessary for consciousness of a stimulus to arise [7, 8]. Some discussion supporting position b) is given in the papers [9 - 11] (which is the majority position across brain science).The purpose of this workshop is to attempt to bring together some of the adversaries in this battle so that they can present their case, especially from the point of view of experimental results claimed by one side or the other to be final proof of their position. The experiments being claimed by those who regard consciousness and attention as independent will be fully summarised and argued for by their supporters. However the alternate interpretation, that attention forms the gateway to consciousness, may also be used to interpret some aspects of these experiments. One particularly crucial aspect in this controversy is the recognition that important aspects of mental life occur outside consciousness. However how then is consciousness used in such partially unconscious information processing. In creativity, for example, consciousness arises as a crucial component after important unconscious processing has occurred. More generally we expect the interchange between the two states is highly non-trivial and needs to be teased out by experiment. It will be these presently ambiguous experiments that need further discussion. References [1] C. Willimzig, N. Tsuchiya, M. Fahle, W. Einhauser & C. Koch (2008) Spatial attention increases performance but not subjective confidence in a discrimination task. J. Vis. 8(5):1-10 [2] A. Rahnev, B. Maniscalco, E. Huang, L. Bahdo & H. Lau (2009) Weakly attended stimuli produce an inflated sense of subjective visibility (U. of Columbia preprint) [3] A. Pastukhov & J. Braun (2007) Perceptual reversals need no prompting from attention. J. Vis. 7(10)5:1-17 [4] N.Tsuchiya & C. Koch (2007) Attention and consciousness. Scholarpedia 3(5):4173 [5] C. Koch & N. Tsuchiya (2007) Attention and consciousness: two distinct brain processes? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11(1):61-22 [6] V. A. F. Lamme (2004) Separate neural definitions of visual consciousness and visual attention: a case for phenomenal awareness Neural Networks 17(5-6):861-872 [7] N. Srinivasan (2008) Interdependence of attention and consciousness Prog Brain Res 168, eds R. Banarjee & B. K. Chakrabarti, Ch 6 [8] P. Zhang, S. Engel, C. Rios, B. He & S. He (2009) Binocular rivalry requires visual attention: Evidence from EEG. J. Vis. 9(8): Abstract 291, p291a [9] Taylor JG (2010) A Review of Models of Consciousness, in The Perception-Reason-Action Cycle, eds V Cutsuridis, A. Hussain & JG Taylor. Berlin: Springer [10] Taylor JG (2007) CODAM: A Model of Attention Leading to the Creation of Consciousness. Scholarpedia 2(11):1598 [11] Taylor JG (2010) The Creativity Effect: Consciousness versus Attention IJCNN2010 (submitted) -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100315/c82772c5/attachment-0001.html From neuro.informatics.at.mbl at gmail.com Mon Mar 15 23:03:56 2010 From: neuro.informatics.at.mbl at gmail.com (Neuro Informatics) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:03:56 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Announcement: Neuroinformatics course at Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, August 14-29, 2010 Message-ID: <45f3a6f11003152003s45c99a65k17f1916dc08058ef@mail.gmail.com> Neuroinformatics course at Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA Dates: August 14th to 29th, 2010 Web: http://www.mbl.edu/education/courses/special_topics/neufo.html The objective of this two week course is to develop an understanding of the methods of managing and analyzing data sets from neurophysiological and behavioral measurements, particularly large data volumes that require systematic statistical and computational approaches. The course includes lectures on fundamental analytical methods, established and emerging applications and focused hands-on computer-based sessions. Topics include point processes (e.g., spike trains), continuous processes (e.g., LFP/ECoG/EEG/MEG recordings, fMRI, and behavioral recordings), and methods for analyzing neuroanatomical (e.g., light and electron microscopy) data. Various statistical techniques for exploratory and confirmatory analysis of the data will be treated along with underlying scientific questions and potential applications. The course also includes tutorials on computer methods and discussions of major open issues in the field. The course is targeted broadly, from experimental researchers to researchers with a theoretical or analytical orientation who work closely with data. A main aim of the course is to foster close working relations between the theorists and experimentalists. Researchers at all levels, from advanced graduate student to working professional, may benefit from the course. Application deadline is April 16, 2010. Limited to 26 participants. Computer Laboratory: A hands-on approach will be taken in a computer laboratory that forms an integral part of this course. Example data sets will be supplied, and participants are encouraged to bring their own data. We will primarily use MATLAB, with additional tools used as needed (e.g., MySQL). Participants will be guided in applying analytical techniques to the example data sets and will further participate in a structured "data analysis challenge", in which teams will analyze published data sets in the context of specific questions. This should benefit both experimental researchers that wish to analyze their own data sets and theorists who want to work with data. Structure of the Course: The first week will contain lectures dealing with fundamental statistical and analytical techniques appropriate for neural data analysis. A concurrent computer laboratory will run in the evenings to supplement the lectures. The second week contains application-based lectures, focused on emerging research areas and associated analytical and experimental techniques, along with the "data analysis challenge". From H.Bowman at kent.ac.uk Tue Mar 16 16:22:13 2010 From: H.Bowman at kent.ac.uk (H.Bowman) Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:22:13 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Advert for PhD position at University of Kent at Canterbury, UK Message-ID: <004501cac546$5d31ae40$a7290c81@ad.kent.ac.uk> PhD positions: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems at Kent The Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems (CCNCS, http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/projects/cncs/index.html) is seeking PhD applicants across the topics encompassed by the Centre. The CCNCS is a cross-disciplinary grouping, which brings together academics in Psychology, Neuroimaging, Neuropsychology and Computational Intelligence. Topics currently being investigated in the CCNCS include: language, attention, emotions, decision making, object recognition, face processing, categorisation, memory, neural modelling, machine learning, electrophysiology and modelling of EEG. Professor Howard Bowman is looking to appoint PhDs in his areas of research (http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/~hb5). Professor Bowman has ongoing research projects in the areas of temporal and spatial attention, emotions and attention, decision making and language, with both electrophysiological and computational modelling methods being applied. He is also undertaking more applied research on brain-computer interaction Applicants crossing the disciplines of the CCNCS are particularly welcome. Typically, PhD students in the CCNCS undertake behavioural experimentation, electrophysiological experimentation and neural modelling. The PhD programme is particularly set up to develop researchers with skills in all three of these methods. Funding will be allocated on a competitive basis. Research council eligibility criteria limit a proportion of the funding available to UK nationals. Inquiries concerning these PhD positions should be made to Professor Howard Bowman (H.Bowman at kent.ac.uk), University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. -------------------------------------------- Professor Howard Bowman (PhD) Professor of Cognition & Logic Joint Director of Centre for CNCS Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems and the School of Computing, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NF, United kingdom Telephone: +44-1227-823815 Fax: +44-1227-762811 email: H.Bowman at kent.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/hb5/ From jaakko.peltonen at tkk.fi Wed Mar 17 11:41:45 2010 From: jaakko.peltonen at tkk.fi (jaakko.peltonen@tkk.fi) Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:41:45 +0200 (EET) Subject: Connectionists: Final call for papers: MLSP 2010, the Twentieth IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing Message-ID: =================================================================== Final Call for Papers for the Twentieth IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP 2010) August 29 - September 1, 2010, Kittila, Finland Website: http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk Paper submission now open! IMPORTANT DATES: Submission of full papers: April 1, 2010 Notification of acceptance: May 28, 2010 Camera-ready paper and author registration: June 18, 2010 Advance registration before: June 23, 2010 =================================================================== The 2010 IEEE International Workshop on MACHINE LEARNING FOR SIGNAL PROCESSING (MLSP 2010) will be held in Kittila, Finland, in August-September 2010. MLSP 2010 is the twentieth workshop in the series of workshops sponsored by IEEE Signal Processing Society. It will present the most recent and exciting contributions in machine learning for signal processing through keynote talks as well as special and regular single-track sessions. INVITED SPEAKERS: - Prof. Zoubin Ghahramani, University of Cambridge - Prof. Tom Mitchell, Carnegie Mellon University - Dr. Henry Tirri, Head of Nokia Research Center ORGANIZATION: General chair: Erkki Oja Program chairs: Samuel Kaski, David Miller Special session chairs: Samy Bengio, Mikko Kurimo Publicity chairs: Marc Van Hulle, Jaakko Peltonen Web and publication chairs: Antti Honkela, Jan Larsen Data competition chairs: Vince Calhoun, Kenneth Hild, Mikko Kurimo Local arrangements: Tapani Raiko (chair), Francesco Corona, Ali Faisal, Mari-Sanna Paukkeri VENUE: MLSP 2010 will be held in the Levi Summit conference and exhibition centre in Kittila, Finland. Levi is one of the largest resorts in Finnish Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle. In the summer, Levi offers many sports activities as well as lots of wild northern nature. The conference centre is located high on the hillside of the Levi fell, accessible by gondola from the main village. For information on travel and hotels see http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk . CONFERENCE TOPICS: Machine learning in signal processing is concerned with tasks such as detection, estimation, prediction, classification, and optimization, with a wide range of applications. The following is a non-exhaustive list of topics for MLSP 2010: - Bayesian learning and signal processing - Cognitive information processing - Graphical and kernel methods - Information-theoretic learning - Learning theory and algorithms, including bounds on performance - Supervised learning, including signal detection, pattern recognition and classification - Unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning - Source separation and component analysis - Data fusion and integration - Feature extraction, information visualization - Sparse and structured representations - Neural network learning - Time-series analysis - Adaptive filtering - Data mining, information retrieval - Sequential learning and sequential decision methods - Hardware implementation of machine learning in signal processing - Applications of machine learning: Bioinformatics, Biomedical and neural signal processing, Neuroinformatics, Speech and audio processing, Image and video processing, Computer vision, Sensor networks, Robot control, Communications, Cognitive radio, Multimodal interfaces and context modeling, Intelligent multimedia and web processing SPECIAL SESSION: A special session "Towards multimodal proactive interfaces using large-scale machine learning" is being organized. For more information see http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk . DATA COMPETITION: In conjunction with the workshop, a data and signal analysis competition "Mind Reading" is being organized. Winners will present their works and receive their award during the Workshop. For more information see http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk . PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Paper submission is now open! Authors are invited to submit a double column paper of up to six pages using the electronic submission procedure described at http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk . Accepted papers will be published by IEEE Press; electronic proceedings will be distributed at the workshop and included in IEEE Xplore. PAPER AWARD: An award will be given to the best paper. JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE: Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit extended versions to a special issue of Neurocomputing. SOCIAL PROGRAM: The social program will include an outdoors get-together party by a campfire, a hiking excursion at a fell with wonderful views of Lapland, and a banquet with local music. SPONSORS: MLSP 2010 is supported by IEEE, by the IEEE Signal Processing Society, by the PASCAL2 Network of Excellence, and by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. The data competition is sponsored by Nokia and the PASCAL2 Challenge Program. ========= See http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk for more details! ========= From bisant at umbc.edu Wed Mar 17 17:49:15 2010 From: bisant at umbc.edu (bisant@umbc.edu) Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:49:15 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Connectionists: FLAIRS 2010, Daytona Beach, FL, Message-ID: <1688.130.85.53.56.1268862555.squirrel@webmail.umbc.edu> CALL FOR PARTICIPATION The 23rd International FLAIRS Conference Daytona Beach, Florida, USA May 19-21, 2010 http://www.flairs-23.info/ Early registration ends *** March 22, 2010 *** INVITED SPEAKERS: Eugene Charniak, Brown University Herbert H. Clark, Stanford University Anthony Cohn, University of Leeds Janet Kolodner, Georgia Institute of Technology David Poole, University of British Columbia Jorge Ramirez, Apple, Inc. Hosted by the Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society in cooperation with AAAI ================================================================== Join us for the 23rd Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS-23), which will be held May 19-21, 2010 at the Shores Resort & Spa (http://www.shoresresort.com/) in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. FLAIRS-23 continues a tradition of presenting and discussing artificial intelligence research in a convivial atmosphere within a beautiful setting. Events will include invited speakers, special tracks, discussion panels, and presentations of papers and posters. Daytona Beach, on Florida's Atlantic coast, is famous for its sparkling white beaches, up to 500 feet wide, with blue-green waters. Juan Ponce de Leon landed near here in 1513, naming the land La Florida for its verdant landscape, while legendarily searching for the Fountain of Youth. The fine, hard-packed sand was used in the early 20th century for automobile racing and land speed records. With natural beauty, sites of historical interest, and a vibrant nightlife, Daytona Beach has become a favorite U.S. vacation destination. GENERAL CONFERENCE TOPICS Topics of interest are in all areas of artificial intelligence, including but not limited to: --- Foundations: Knowledge representation, Cognitive modeling, Perception, Reasoning & programming, Search, Learning --- Architectures: Agents & distributed AI, Intelligent user interfaces, Natural language systems, Information retrieval, Robotics --- Applications: Aviation and aerospace, Education, Entertainment, Medicine, Management and manufacturing, World Wide Web --- Implications: Philosophical foundations, Social impact and ethics, Evaluation of AI systems, Teaching AI SPECIAL TRACKS Special tracks are an integral part of the conference. This year's special track tracks are: --- AI, Cognitive Semantics and Computational Linguistics: New Perspectives --- Applied Natural Language Processing --- Artificial Intelligence Education --- Case-Based Reasoning --- Cognition and AI: Capturing Cognitive Plausibility and Informing Psychological Processes --- Data Mining --- Games & Entertainment --- Intelligent Tutoring Systems --- Uncertain Reasoning Online registration is available at http://www.flairs-23.info/. Registration includes all social events, including a reception, lunches, and breaks. From huajin.tang at gmail.com Thu Mar 18 02:03:04 2010 From: huajin.tang at gmail.com (Huajin Tang) Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:03:04 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: Research Fellow and Research Officer positions in Institute for Infocomm Research Message-ID: <1c8c580a1003172303g2edcf7fcu4001fe8e224de49@mail.gmail.com> Applicants are invited for Research Fellow and Research Officer positions in a project on neural system modeling and neural computation. Fresh graduates with a passion for research are encouraged to apply. S/he will work in an interdisciplinary team of researchers in mathematics, computer science, microelectronics, and neuroscience and will be involved in developing neural computation models and algorithms for cognitive memory system, storage/retrieval, spatial-temporal pattern encoding and learning. Requirements: 1. PhD/Master/Honor?s degree in Computer/Electronics &* *Electrical Engineering Computer Science or related disciplines. 2. Solid background in neural networks, neural computation or computational neuroscience. 3. Keen on research, and a strong publication record for Research Fellow applications. 4. Proficient programming skills in Matlab, or C/C++ . 5. Good written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work independently as well as a team-player. The Institute for Infocomm Research is an affiliated research organization of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore?s lead government agency dedicated to fostering world-class scientific research and talent. For more information about our research and enrivroment, please visit http://www.a-star.edu.sg/, http://www.i2r.a-star.edu.sg/. Enquiries can be sent to Dr. Huajin Tang (htang at i2r.a-star.edu.sg). Applications including a CV and the names of two references should be received before 30 Apr 2010 for a full consideration. The review will begin immediately and the position is open until filled. Huajin Tang, Ph.D. Institute for Infocomm Research A*STAR, Singapore 138632 Tel: +65 6408 2688 Fax: +65 6776 1378 E-mail: htang at i2r.a-star.edu.sg -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100318/19656a64/attachment-0001.html From chiestand at salk.edu Sat Mar 20 14:25:03 2010 From: chiestand at salk.edu (Chris Hiestand) Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:25:03 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NIPS 2010 Call For Papers Message-ID: <7BD547E2-B23F-4550-8E7A-79B6C1E2E2AE@salk.edu> NIPS 2010 CALL FOR PAPERS http://nips.cc/Conferences/2010/CallForPapers Submissions are solicited for the Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, an interdisciplinary conference that brings together researchers in all aspects of neural and statistical information processing and computation. The conference is a highly selective, single track meeting that includes invited talks as well as oral and poster presentations of refereed papers. Submissions by authors who are new to NIPS are encouraged. This year we are encouraging our reviewers to favor papers that open new avenues of research as well papers with solid applications. Preceding the main conference will be one day of tutorials (December 6), and following will be two days of workshops at the Whistler/Blackcomb ski resort (December 10-11). Deadline for Paper Submissions: Thursday June 3, 2010, 23:59 Universal Time (4:59pm Pacific Daylight Time) ? please note the change of day to Thursday from the usual Friday deadline. submit here: https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/NIPS2010/ Technical Areas: Papers are solicited in all areas of neural information processing and statistical learning, including, but not limited to: * Algorithms and Architectures: statistical learning algorithms, kernel methods, graphical models, Gaussian processes, neural networks, dimensionality reduction and manifold learning, model selection, combinatorial optimization, relational and structured learning. * Applications: innovative applications or fielded systems that use machine learning, including systems for time series prediction, bioinformatics, systems biology, text/web analysis, multimedia processing, and robotics. * Brain Imaging: neuroimaging, cognitive neuroscience, EEG (electroencephalogram), ERP (event related potentials), MEG (magnetoencephalogram), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), brain mapping, brain segmentation, brain computer interfaces. * Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence: theoretical, computational, or experimental studies of perception, psychophysics, human or animal learning, memory, reasoning, problem solving, natural language processing, and neuropsychology. * Control and Reinforcement Learning: decision and control, exploration, planning, navigation, Markov decision processes, game playing, multi-agent coordination, computational models of classical and operant conditioning. * Hardware Technologies: analog and digital VLSI, neuromorphic engineering, computational sensors and actuators, microrobotics, bioMEMS, neural prostheses, photonics, molecular and quantum computing. * Learning Theory: generalization, regularization and model selection, Bayesian learning, spaces of functions and kernels, statistical physics of learning, online learning and competitive analysis, hardness of learning and approximations, statistical theory, large deviations and asymptotic analysis, information theory. * Neuroscience: theoretical and experimental studies of processing and transmission of information in biological neurons and networks, including spike train generation, synaptic modulation, plasticity and adaptation. * Speech and Signal Processing: recognition, coding, synthesis, denoising, segmentation, source separation, auditory perception, psychoacoustics, dynamical systems, recurrent networks, language models, dynamic and temporal models. * Visual Processing: biological and machine vision, image processing and coding, segmentation, object detection and recognition, motion detection and tracking, visual psychophysics, visual scene analysis and interpretation. Evaluation Criteria: Submissions will be refereed on the basis of technical quality, novelty, potential impact, and clarity. Submission Instructions: All submissions will be made electronically, in PDF format. As in previous years, reviewing will be double-blind -- the reviewers will not know the identities of the authors. Papers are limited to eight pages, including figures and tables, in the NIPS style. An additional ninth page containing only cited references is allowed. Complete submission and formatting instructions, including style files, are available from the NIPS website, http://nips.cc. Supplementary Material: Authors can submit up to 10 MB of material, containing proofs, audio, images, video, or even data or source code. Note that the reviewers and the program committee reserve the right to judge the paper solely on the basis of the 9 pages of the paper; looking at any extra material is up to the discretion of the reviewers and is not required. Electronic submissions will be accepted until Thursday June 3, 2010, 23:59 Universal Time (4:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time). Note that as with last year, final papers will be due in advance of the conference. Dual Submissions Policy: Submissions that are identical (or substantially similar) to versions that have been previously published, or accepted for publication, or that have been submitted in parallel to other conferences are not appropriate for NIPS. Exceptions to this rule are the following: 1. Submission is permitted of a short version of a paper that has been submitted, but not yet accepted, to a journal. 2. Papers presented or to be presented at conferences or workshops without proceedings, or with only abstracts published. The rules only apply during the NIPS review period that begins June 14 and ends August 27, 2010. It is acceptable to submit to NIPS 2010 work that has been made available as a technical report (or similar, e.g. in arXiv) as long as the conditions above are satisfied. However, note that this could compromise the authors' anonymity. Authors? Responsibilities: If there are papers that may appear to violate any of these conditions, it is the authors' responsibility to (1) cite these papers (preserving anonymity), (2) argue in the body of your paper why your NIPS paper is non-trivially different from these concurrent submissions, and (3) include anonymized versions of those papers in the supplemental material. Demonstrations and Workshops: There is a separate Demonstration track at NIPS. Authors wishing to submit to the Demonstration track should consult the Call for Demonstrations. The workshops will be held at the Whistler/Blackcomb ski resort from December 10-11. The upcoming call for workshop proposals will provide details. From jeanette at nada.kth.se Sun Mar 21 11:37:40 2010 From: jeanette at nada.kth.se (jeanette@nada.kth.se) Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:37:40 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Two postdoc positions in computational neuroscience in Stockholm Message-ID: <7764281f7bde630bda6cdbc1b7c7c51d.squirrel@webmail.csc.kth.se> Dept. Computational Biology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, currently has an opening for two postdoctoral positions in computational neuroscience / neuroinformatics. Both projects are integrated in ongoing collaborations with the Karolinska Institute as well as with international partners in Europe and USA. One position is focused on subcellular signaling pathways involved in synaptic plasticity, and modeling of those using a systems biology approach. The project aims specifically at understanding the mechanisms underlying reward dependent learning and action selection in the cortex - basal ganglia system. The ideal candidate has a PhD in the field of computational biology/neuroscience/systems biology, as well as experience of collaboration with experimentalists in neurobiology/biochemistry. For the first position apply at: http://www.kth.se/aktuellt/vacancies/1.55620?l=en_UK The other position is focused on software development for and use of large-scale neuronal network simulations, including simulators and tools for model specification and 3-D visualization. A focus is on parallel computing in a Linux environment with a 1K processor IBM Blue Gene/L cluster computer as a dedicated resource. The ideal candidate has a PhD in computer science ? mathematics ? physics with a profile towards algorithms, computational science, and/or 3D visualization. For the second position apply at: http://www.kth.se/aktuellt/vacancies/1.55618?l=en_UK For both positions a strong interest in brain research, as well as good collaborative and communicative skills are necessary. Co-supervising of PhD students may take place. The positions are for maximally two years. Contacts: Prof. Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski (postdoc 1 above), email: jeanette at csc.kth.se; or Prof. Anders Lansner (postdoc 2 above), email: ala at csc.kth.se See also http://www.csc.kth.se/forskning/cb/ From wsenn at cns.unibe.ch Tue Mar 23 02:33:54 2010 From: wsenn at cns.unibe.ch (Walter Senn) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 07:33:54 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Cybernetics: vol 102 -- issue 4 Message-ID: <4BA860D2.5050907@cns.unibe.ch> Biological Cybernetics: vol 102, issue 4 --- Table of Content Original papers: "A competitive integration model of exogenous and endogenous eye movements" Martijn Meeter, Stefan Van der Stigchel & Jan Theeuwes http://www.springerlink.com/content/m20307274848uk20/ "Network bursts in cortical cultures are best simulated using pacemaker neurons and adaptive synapses" T. A. Gritsun, J. Le Feber, J. Stegenga & W. L. C. Rutten http://www.springerlink.com/content/ph87833027825m01/ "On population encoding and decoding of auditory information for bat echolocation" Jonas Reijniers & H. Peremans http://www.springerlink.com/content/e01081wu2764p129/ "Assessing cortico-hippocampal functional connectivity under anesthesia and kainic acid using generalized partial directed coherence" Jiannis Taxidis, Ben Coomber, Rob Mason & Markus Owen http://www.springerlink.com/content/m4k70l4jl8540358/ "Extending the mirror neuron system model, II: what did I just do? A new role for mirror neurons" James Bonaiuto & Michael A. Arbib http://www.springerlink.com/content/d383v14xt5u111vh/ ---- Biological Cybernetics, all issues: http://www.springerlink.com/content/100465/ From inna.stainvas at siemens.com Sun Mar 21 08:56:45 2010 From: inna.stainvas at siemens.com (Stainvas, Inna) Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:56:45 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Final call for papers: MLSP 2010, the Twentieth IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: -----Original Message----- From: connectionists-bounces at cs.cmu.edu [mailto:connectionists-bounces at cs.cmu.edu] On Behalf Of jaakko.peltonen at tkk.fi Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 5:42 PM To: connectionists at cs.cmu.edu Subject: Connectionists: Final call for papers: MLSP 2010, the Twentieth IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing =================================================================== Final Call for Papers for the Twentieth IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP 2010) August 29 - September 1, 2010, Kittila, Finland Website: http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk Paper submission now open! IMPORTANT DATES: Submission of full papers: April 1, 2010 Notification of acceptance: May 28, 2010 Camera-ready paper and author registration: June 18, 2010 Advance registration before: June 23, 2010 =================================================================== The 2010 IEEE International Workshop on MACHINE LEARNING FOR SIGNAL PROCESSING (MLSP 2010) will be held in Kittila, Finland, in August-September 2010. MLSP 2010 is the twentieth workshop in the series of workshops sponsored by IEEE Signal Processing Society. It will present the most recent and exciting contributions in machine learning for signal processing through keynote talks as well as special and regular single-track sessions. INVITED SPEAKERS: - Prof. Zoubin Ghahramani, University of Cambridge - Prof. Tom Mitchell, Carnegie Mellon University - Dr. Henry Tirri, Head of Nokia Research Center ORGANIZATION: General chair: Erkki Oja Program chairs: Samuel Kaski, David Miller Special session chairs: Samy Bengio, Mikko Kurimo Publicity chairs: Marc Van Hulle, Jaakko Peltonen Web and publication chairs: Antti Honkela, Jan Larsen Data competition chairs: Vince Calhoun, Kenneth Hild, Mikko Kurimo Local arrangements: Tapani Raiko (chair), Francesco Corona, Ali Faisal, Mari-Sanna Paukkeri VENUE: MLSP 2010 will be held in the Levi Summit conference and exhibition centre in Kittila, Finland. Levi is one of the largest resorts in Finnish Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle. In the summer, Levi offers many sports activities as well as lots of wild northern nature. The conference centre is located high on the hillside of the Levi fell, accessible by gondola from the main village. For information on travel and hotels see http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk . CONFERENCE TOPICS: Machine learning in signal processing is concerned with tasks such as detection, estimation, prediction, classification, and optimization, with a wide range of applications. The following is a non-exhaustive list of topics for MLSP 2010: - Bayesian learning and signal processing - Cognitive information processing - Graphical and kernel methods - Information-theoretic learning - Learning theory and algorithms, including bounds on performance - Supervised learning, including signal detection, pattern recognition and classification - Unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning - Source separation and component analysis - Data fusion and integration - Feature extraction, information visualization - Sparse and structured representations - Neural network learning - Time-series analysis - Adaptive filtering - Data mining, information retrieval - Sequential learning and sequential decision methods - Hardware implementation of machine learning in signal processing - Applications of machine learning: Bioinformatics, Biomedical and neural signal processing, Neuroinformatics, Speech and audio processing, Image and video processing, Computer vision, Sensor networks, Robot control, Communications, Cognitive radio, Multimodal interfaces and context modeling, Intelligent multimedia and web processing SPECIAL SESSION: A special session "Towards multimodal proactive interfaces using large-scale machine learning" is being organized. For more information see http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk . DATA COMPETITION: In conjunction with the workshop, a data and signal analysis competition "Mind Reading" is being organized. Winners will present their works and receive their award during the Workshop. For more information see http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk . PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Paper submission is now open! Authors are invited to submit a double column paper of up to six pages using the electronic submission procedure described at http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk . Accepted papers will be published by IEEE Press; electronic proceedings will be distributed at the workshop and included in IEEE Xplore. PAPER AWARD: An award will be given to the best paper. JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE: Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit extended versions to a special issue of Neurocomputing. SOCIAL PROGRAM: The social program will include an outdoors get-together party by a campfire, a hiking excursion at a fell with wonderful views of Lapland, and a banquet with local music. SPONSORS: MLSP 2010 is supported by IEEE, by the IEEE Signal Processing Society, by the PASCAL2 Network of Excellence, and by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. The data competition is sponsored by Nokia and the PASCAL2 Challenge Program. ========= See http://mlsp2010.conwiz.dk for more details! ========= From torcini at gmail.com Mon Mar 22 18:23:37 2010 From: torcini at gmail.com (Alessandro Torcini) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:23:37 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Post-doc position in neuroscience for italian researchers In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ?The newly funded Israeli-Italian Neuroscience Laboratory (IINL) ?offers a post-doc position (two years) to italian researchers ?to work within a joint israeli-italian project in experimental and/or ?theoretical neuroscience. ?The collaboration will require that the selected candidate will ?spend large part of his time in Tel Aviv University (Israel), but ?with long stays also at Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi in ?Firenze (Italy). ?More details (in italian) can be found at the following web page: ? ? ?http://neuro.fi.isc.cnr.it/index.php?page=job-offers ?The deadline for application is April, 11th 2010 From torcini at gmail.com Tue Mar 23 05:32:55 2010 From: torcini at gmail.com (Alessandro Torcini) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:32:55 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Nonlinear Dynamics on Networks, Kiev July 5-9, 2010 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ========================================== ? ? ? ? ? ?http://biomed.kiev.ua/wshop2010/ ========================================== International Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics on Networks (July 5 - 9, 2010 ?Kiev, Ukraine) Deadline for registration is April 15, 2010 Network models is a novel powerful tool for describing complex real-world systems - ranging from the internet and other communication systems to neuronal microcircuits of the brain. To study nonlinear dynamics on networks, one incorporates approaches from the dynamical system theory, statistical physics, and mathematics. Enormous progress in the field has been achieved with a help of computational approaches. The goal of the workshop is to bring together theoreticians and experimentalists with a purpose to discuss novel trends in the nonlinear dynamics on networks, and to exchange ideas in this rapidly growing interdisciplinary field. Workshop Program consists of invited talks and a discussion session. Younger scientists will be able to present their results as short oral communications or posters. We plan 5 working days: from July 5 (Monday) till July 9 (Friday). People are welcome to arrive on Sunday, July 4 and leave on Saturday, July 10. Please refer to the workshop web-site http://biomed.kiev.ua/wshop2010/ for further information. SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Peter Ashwin ? ?Exeter University Aleksandr Dmitriev ? ? ?IRE-RAN Moscow Martin Hasler ? EPFL Lausanne Yuri Maistrenko ? ? ? ? NASU Kiev ? ? ? co-chair Arkady Pikovsky ? ? ? ? Potsdam University ? ? ?co-chair Alessandro Torcini ? ? ?ISC-CNR Firenze Matthias Wolfrum ? ? ? ?WIAS Berlin LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Vladimir Maistrenko ? ? NASU Kiev ? ? ? co-chair Anna Vasylenko ?NASU Kiev ? ? ? scientific secretary CONTACT For the further information, please contact Anna Vasylenko networks2010 at biomed.kiev.ua ?Deadline for registration is April 15, 2010 From salah at boun.edu.tr Tue Mar 23 11:34:11 2010 From: salah at boun.edu.tr (Ali Salah) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:34:11 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: CfP: International Workshop on Human Behaviour Understanding 2010 (HBU@ICPR) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5a3d15d1003230834v26aee502l5b15be3fd7f1525c@mail.gmail.com> =============================================================================== SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS International Workshop on Human Behaviour Understanding 2010 (HBU at ICPR) August 22, 2010 - Istanbul, TURKEY, held in conjunction with ICPR'10 http://www.icpr2010.org/workshops/hbu/ Apologies for cross-posting =============================================================================== DESCRIPTION: Domains where human behavior understanding is a crucial need (e.g., human-computer interaction, affective computing and social signal processing) rely on advanced pattern recognition techniques to automatically interpret complex behavioral patterns generated when humans interact with machines or with others. This is a challenging problem where many issues are still open, including the joint modeling of behavioral cues taking place at different time scales, the inherent uncertainty of machine detectable evidences of human behavior, the mutual influence of people involved in interactions, the presence of long term dependencies in observations extracted from human behavior, and the important role of dynamics in human behavior understanding. This workshop will gather researchers dealing with the problem of modeling human behavior under its multiple facets (expression of emotions, display of relational attitudes, performance of individual or joint actions, etc.), with particular attention to pattern recognition approaches that involve multiple modalities and those that model the actual dynamics of behavior. The contiguity with ICPR, one of the most important events in the Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning communities, is expected to foster cross-pollination with other areas, e.g. temporal pattern mining or time series analysis, which share their important methodological aspects with human behavior understanding. Furthermore, the presence of this workshop at ICPR is expected to attract researchers (in particular PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) to a domain like human behavior understanding that is likely to play a major role in future technology (ambient intelligence, human-robot interaction, artificial social intelligence, etc.), as witnessed by a number of research efforts aimed at collecting and annotating large sets of multi-sensor data, collected from observing people in natural (often technologically challenging) conditions. TOPICS: We particularly solicit contributions that make use of temporal and dynamic information, as well as contributions that take into account multi-modal correlations. The covered topics include, among others: - Social behaviour analysis & modeling, multimodal behaviour patterns - Temporal patterns - Facial, gestural and voice-based affect recognition - Sign-language recognition - Human motion analysis - Pattern recognition applied to novel sensors - Pattern discovery in personal sensor networks, reality mining - Smart environments - Human-computer interaction - Benchmarking studies on novel databases - New feature selection and extraction methods - Mathematical description and integration of contextual information - Behavioural biometrics IMPORTANT DATES: April 9, 2010: Submission of full paper (the system is OPEN for submissions) May 1, 2010: Notification of acceptance May 14, 2010: Early registration ends May 14, 2010: Camera-ready paper August 22, 2010: Workshop PROCEEDINGS: The proceedings are published by Springer's Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. Selected papers will be considered for a special journal issue. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Albert Ali Salah, University of Amsterdam Nicu Sebe, University of Trento Alessandro Vinciarelli, University of Glasgow Theo Gevers, University of Amsterdam PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Yiannis Aloimonos, Univ. Maryland Oya Aran, IDIAP Manuele Bicego, Univ. Verona Jeffrey Cohn, Univ. Pittsburgh Hazim Ekenel, Karlsruhe Univ. Jordi Gonz?les, CVC, Univ. Aut?noma Barcelona Jonathan Gratch, USC Dirk Heylen, Univ. Twente Ashish Kapoor, Microsoft Research Redmond Seong-Whan Lee, Korea Univ. Vittorio Murino, Univ. Verona Fabio Pianesi, Univ. Trento Ioannis Pitas, Univ. Thessaloniki Eraldo Ribeiro, Florida Institute of Technology Michael S. Ryoo, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute Marc Schroder, DFKI Language Technology Lab Bjorn Schuller, Technical Univ. Munich Metin Sezgin, Ko? Univ. Jianhua Tao, NLPR - Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Sciences Qi Tian, Univ. Texas at San Antonio Matthew Turk, Univ. California, Santa Barbara Hezy Yeshurun, Tel Aviv Univ. For more information contact: Dr. Albert Ali Salah Informatics Institute, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam Science Park 107, 1098XG The Netherlands phone: +31 (0) 20 525 7550 home: http://staff.science.uva.nl/~asalah/ e-mail: a.a.salah at uva.nl From szepesva at ualberta.ca Tue Mar 23 21:13:08 2010 From: szepesva at ualberta.ca (Csaba Szepesvari) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:13:08 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: Reinforcement Learning and Search in Very Large Spaces, Workshop at ICML 2010 Message-ID: <4BA96724.6070703@ualberta.ca> (Apologies for cross-postings) CFP: Reinforcement Learning and Search in Very Large Spaces Workshop at ICML 2010 June 25th, 2010, Haifa, Israel http://institute.unileoben.ac.at/infotech/research/workshops/icml2010-RLsearch/ SCOPE: This workshop is about reinforcement learning in large state/action spaces, learning to optimize search, and the relation of these two. Content-based information retrieval with relevance feedback is a multi-stage process, where at each stage a user selects the item which is closest to the requested information from a set of presented items, until the requested information is found. The task of the search engine is to present items such that the search terminates in few iterations. More generally, interactive search concerns multi-stage processes where a search engine presents some information and as response gets some feedback, which may be partial and noisy. Since the reward for finding the requested information is delayed, learning a good search engine from data can be modeled as a reinforcement problem, but the special structure of the problem needs to be exploited. Since for realistic search applications the state space is enormous, this learning problem is a difficult one. Although the literature of reinforcement learning offers many powerful algorithms that have been successful in various difficult applications, we find that there is still relatively little understanding about when reinforcement learning might be successful in a realistic application, or what might make reinforcement learning successful in such an application. Furthermore, little work has been done on applying reinforcement learning to optimize interactive search. Thus this workshop addresses in particular but not exclusively the following two questions: * Identify cases when realistically large problems with delayed feedback can be solved successfully, possibly but not necessarily by reinforcement learning algorithms. Such algorithm may need to exploit the special structure of the learning problem. As an example we see content-based information retrieval. * Application of learning techniques to develop powerful interactive search algorithms: optimizing a single search or learning across searches, with or without probabilistic assumptions. A partial list of topics relevant to the workshop contains: * reinforcement learning in large state/action spaces * automatic state/action aggregation and hierarchical reinforcement learning * special cases or assumptions which facilitate fast reinforcement learning * reinforcement learning, relevance feedback, and information retrieval * search strategies based on relevance feedback * learning efficient search strategies from multiple search sessions * applications. SUBMISSIONS: We are seeking quality contributions describing recent or ongoing work in the scope of the workshop. Both theoretical and applied work is solicited. Submissions on applying learning techniques in a principled manner - either by providing theoretical guarantees or conclusive empirical studies - are especially encouraged. We additionally welcome position papers, in particular papers presenting an important and promising problem field for discussion, and demonstrations. Submissions should be either 4-page research papers or 2-page position papers. Papers must be in English and formatted according to the ICML 2010 stylefiles. Submission should be sent in PDF to icml2010learninginsearch at gmail.com. The submissions will be reviewed by two reviewers on the basis of relevance, significance, technical quality, and clarity, with the goal of assembling a diverse and stimulating workshop agenda. At least one of the authors of every accepted contribution is expected to present the contribution. As this workshop has no formal proceedings, it is fine for the submissions to be under consideration elsewhere, as long as they will not be published at any venue before this workshop takes place. People interested in submitting or participating in the workshop are welcome to contact any of the organizers with questions. IMPORTANT DATES: * Submission deadline: 8 May 2010 * Notification of acceptance: 23 May 2010 * Workshop date: 25 June 2010 Organizers: Peter Auer (http://personal.unileoben.ac.at/auer/) - University of Leoben Samuel Kaski (http://www.cis.hut.fi/sami/ - Aalto University, Helsinki Csaba Szepesvari (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~szepesva/) - University of Alberta From jdrugowitsch at bcs.rochester.edu Tue Mar 23 22:06:43 2010 From: jdrugowitsch at bcs.rochester.edu (Jan Drugowitsch) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:06:43 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Submission deadline approaching for IWLCS 2010, 13th International Workshop on Learning Classifier Systems Message-ID: <779ada561003231906p7ba0600fk2b5da1ffc1e13d6f@mail.gmail.com> Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13th International Workshop on Learning Classifier Systems to be held as part of the 2010 GENETIC AND EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION CONFERENCE (GECCO-2010) Sponsored by ACM SIGEVO http://www.sigevo.org/GECCO-2010 July 7-11, 2010 (Wednesday-Sunday) Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront Hotel Portland, Oregon, USA PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR WORKSHOP: Wednesday, March 25, 2010 Workshop Website: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~jqb/IWLCS2010/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Thirteenth International Workshop on Learning Classifier Systems (IWLCS 2010) will be held in Portland, Oregon, USA, Thursday, July 8, 2010 during the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2010), July 7-11, 2010. Originally, Learning Classifier Systems (LCSs) were introduced by John H. Holland as a way of applying evolutionary computation to machine learning and adaptive behavior problems. Since then, the LCS paradigm has broadened greatly into a framework that encompasses many representations, rule discovery mechanisms, and credit assignment schemes. Current LCS applications range from data mining, to automated innovation and the on-line control of cognitive systems. LCS research includes various actual system approaches: While Wilson's accuracy- based XCS system (1995) has received the highest attention and gained the highest reputation, studies and developments of other LCSs are usually discussed and contrasted. Advances in machine learning, and reinforcement learning in particular, as well as in evolutionary computation have brought LCS systems the necessary competence and guaranteed learning properties. Novel insights in machine learning and evolutionary computation are being integrated into the LCS framework. Thus, we invite submissions that discuss recent developments in all areas of research on, and applications of, Learning Classifier Systems. IWLCS is the event that brings together most of the core researchers in classifier systems. Moreover, a free introductory tutorial on LCSs is presented the day before the workshop at GECCO 2010. Tutorial and IWLCS workshop thus also provide an opportunity for researchers interested in LCSs to get an impression of the current research directions in the field as well as a guideline for the application of LCSs to their problem domain. Topics of interests include but are not limited to: - Paradigms of LCS (Michigan, Pittsburgh, ...) - Theoretical developments (behavior, scalability and learning bounds, ...) - Representations (binary, real-valued, oblique, non-linear, fuzzy, ...) - Types of target problems (single-step, multiple-step, regression/function approximation,...) - System enhancements (competent operators, problem structure identification and linkage learning, ...) - LCS for Cognitive Control (architectures, emergent behaviours, ...) - Applications (data mining, medical domains, bioinformatics, ...) Submissions and Publication --------------------------- Submissions will be short-papers up to 8 pages in ACM format. Please see the GECCO 2010 information for authors for further details. However, unlike GECCO, papers do not have to be submitted in anonymous format. All accepted papers will be presented at IWLCS 2010 and will appear in the GECCO workshop volume. Proceedings of the workshop will be published on CD-ROM, and distributed at the conference. Authors will be invited after the workshop to submit revised (full) papers that, after a thorough review process, are to be published in the next post-workshop proceedings volume (scheduled for 2012), in the Springer LNCS/LNAI book series. All papers should be submitted in PDF format and e-mailed to: jqb at cs.nott.ac.uk. Important dates --------------- * Paper submission deadline: Thursday, March 25, 2010 * Notification to authors: Thursday, April 1, 2010 * Submission of camera-ready material: by Tuesday, April 13, 2010 * Conference registration: by Monday, April 19, 2010 * Workshop date: Thursday, July 8, 2009 Committees ---------- - Organizing Commitee * Jaume Bacardit, University of Nottingham (UK). E-mail: jaume.bacardit at nottingham.ac.uk * Will Browne, Victoria University of Wellington (NZ). E-mail: will.browne at ecs.vuw.ac.nz * Jan Drugowitsch, University of Rochester (USA). E-mail: jdrugowitsch at bcs.rochester.edu - Advisory Committee * Ester Bernad-Mansilla, Universitat Ramon Llull (Spain). * Martin V. Butz, Universitat Wurzburg (Germany) * Tim Kovacs, University of Bristol (UK) * Pier Luca Lanzi, Politechnico de Milano (Italy) * Xavier Llora University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) * Wolfgang Stolzmann, Daimler Chrysler AG (Germany) * Keiki Takadama, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) * Stewart Wilson, Prediction Dynamics (USA) Further information ------------------- For more details, please visit the workshop website at: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~jqb/IWLCS2010/ GECCO is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (SIGEVO). SIG Services: 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY, 10121, USA, 1-800-342-6626 (USA and Canada) or +212-626-0500 (Global). From bowlby at bu.edu Wed Mar 24 08:54:19 2010 From: bowlby at bu.edu (Brian Bowlby) Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:54:19 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: 14th ICCNS Conference: Call for Registration Message-ID: <52CE4CFC-9BC7-47A3-AF50-ECA61BDAF392@bu.edu> ***** CALL FOR REGISTRATION ***** FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS (ICCNS) May 19?22, 2010 Boston University 677 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA http://cns.bu.edu/meetings/ Sponsored by the Boston University Center for Adaptive Systems, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (http://cns.bu.edu/), and Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (http://cns.bu.edu/CELEST/) with financial support from the National Science Foundation CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS: CELEST Workshop on ?To Sleep, Perchance to Dream?: Mark Brandon, Steffen Gais, Michael Hasselmo, Bruce McNaughton, Cliff Saper, Robert Stickgold, Erin Wamsley, and Matt Wilson CELEST Workshop on ?Neuromorphic Computing: From Brains to Nanochips?: Ralph Etienne-Cummings, Henry Markram, Karlheinz Meier, Ennio Mingolla, and Narayan Srinivasa Keynote Lecturers: Leon Chua and Earl Miller Invited Speakers: Moshe Bar, Carol Colby, Heiner Deubel, Stephen Grossberg, Anthony Movshon, Steven Petersen, Russell Poldrack, Josef Rauschecker, Barry Richmond, Linda Smith, and Xiao-Jing Wang Please visit the web site for conference details, including: --the registration form (http://cns.bu.edu/cns-meeting/registration.html) --a presentation schedule (http://cns.bu.edu/cns-meeting/schedule.html) --local lodging options (http://cns.bu.edu/cns-meeting/hotels.html) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100324/a09ca717/attachment-0001.html From vcut at bu.edu Wed Mar 24 09:40:50 2010 From: vcut at bu.edu (Vassilis Cutsuridis) Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:40:50 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Submission deadline for the special Issue "Saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning" has been EXTENDED!!! References: <201003020604.o2264FNM004934@lawton.ewind.com> Message-ID: FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS is now EXTENDED till May 1st, 2010 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special Issue of the Cognitive Computation Journal (Springer) on "Saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guest Editors John G. Taylor, King's College, London, U.K. (john.g.taylor at kcl.ac.uk) Vassilis Cutsuridis, Boston University, USA (vcut at bu.edu) -------- Scope -------- How is a complex visual scene processed? How is the selection of one particular location in a visual scene accomplished? Does it involve bottom-up, sensory driven cues or top-down world knowledge expectations or both? How is the decision made when to terminate a fixation and move the gaze? How is the decision made where to direct the gaze in order to take the next sample? The goal of the special issue is to advance our understanding of the state-of-the-art on bottom-up and top-down approaches to active visual search and picture scanning. Neurocomputational, computer vision and experimental review papers on perceptual saliency, attention, learning and memory, decision making and gaze control are welcome. The manner in which attention is involved is considered a highly relevant topic to the special issue. ----------------- Important dates ---------------- **New** submission deadline: May 1, 2010 Review deadline: July 1, 2010 Author notification: July 2, 2010 Author's response: August 1, 2010 Publication by journal: ~November/December, 2010 ----------- Submission ----------- Electronic submissions for the Cognitive Computation journal can be found under http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559 Please indicate in your cover letter that your article is for the special issue "Computational models of saliency, attention, active visual search and picture scanning". ------------- Contact ------------ Dr. Vassilis Cutsuridis Center for Memory and Brain Psychology Department Boston University Boston, MA USA Email: vcut at bu.edu Web: http://people.bu.edu/vcut/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100324/4c9ab0cf/attachment-0001.html From C.Campbell at bristol.ac.uk Mon Mar 22 05:59:06 2010 From: C.Campbell at bristol.ac.uk (Dr. Colin Campbell, Intelligent Systems Laboratory, University of Bristol) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:59:06 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Papers: Applications of Pattern Analysis Message-ID: <04A0B1F33A516A8D5197D6E3@ENM-ICGC.enm.bris.ac.uk> Call for Papers --------------------- Workshop on Applications of Pattern Analysis 1 - 2 September 2010, Cumberland Lodge (Windsor, UK) Submission deadlines: may 9th for abstract; may 16th for full paper. www.pascal-network.org/wapa2010 DESCRIPTION Pattern Analysis and Statistical Learning cover a wide range of technologies and theoretical frameworks, and significant activity in the past years has resulted in a remarkable convergence and many advances in the theory and principles underlying the field. Bringing these technologies to real world demanding applications is however often treated as a separate problem, one that does not directly affect the field as a whole. It is instead important to consider the field of Pattern Analysis as fully including all issues involved with the applications of this technology, and hence all issues that arise when deploying, scaling, implementing and using the technology. We call for contributions in the form of Demo papers, Case Studies, Working Systems, Real World Applications and Usage Scenarios. Challenges may stem from the violation of common theoretical assumptions, from the specific types of patterns and noise arising in certain scenarios, or from the problem of scaling up the implementation of state of the art algorithms to real world sizes, or from the creation of integrated software systems that contain multiple pattern-analysis components. We are also interested in new application areas, where Pattern Analysis has been deployed with success, and in issues involving the visualisation and delivery and exploitation of the patterns discovered by PA technologies. Systems working in noisy and unstructured environments and situations are particularly interesting. SUBMISSION PROCEDURE We welcome papers (and possibly also related demos) in all of the areas described above. Papers should be max 7 pages long, in PDF, using the provided style file, describing a working system that makes use of Pattern Analysis technology and for which interesing challenges were encountered and overcome during its deployment, or an application that has benefited another field of research. Papers describing software and web demos are welcome, as are case studies. Submissions should be sent by email to wapa2010 at pascal-network.org. Abstracts are due on may 9th, and full papers on may 16th, 2010. Proceedings will be published containing the accepted papers within the JMLR Proceedings Series: http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/proceedings/ IMPORTANT DATES 9 May 2010 Deadline for abstract submission 16 May 2010 Deadline for paper submission 28 June 2010 Notification of Acceptance 31 August 2010 Workshop arrival at 4pm 1 - 2 September 2010 Workshop ORGANISERS: Tom Diethe University College London John Shawe-Taylor University College London Nello Cristianini University of Bristol ---------------------- ICG Campbell, Engineering Mathematics C.Campbell at bristol.ac.uk From samn at neurosim.downstate.edu Wed Mar 24 14:33:54 2010 From: samn at neurosim.downstate.edu (Sam Neymotin) Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:33:54 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: postdoc/programmer position available Message-ID: <201003241833.o2OIXsLV002924@ru.neurosim.downstate.edu> Dear Connectionists, Below, I've pasted an ad for a postdoc/programmer position at the lab I'm a graduate student in. The contact information is at the bottom. Sam --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Real people needed for research in virtual laboratory. We are recruiting programmers and postdocs for development of in silico brain (thalamus-cortex) for interfacing within a real sensorimotor task being performed online with ongoing cortical and thalamic recording. Project offers an unusual opportunity to combine machine learning algorithms with realistic neuronal network simulation and to combine both with actual tasks being performed in real time. The concrete tip of this virtual lab-berg is sited in New York so preference will be given to NYC metropolitan area and East Coast individuals. Those elsewhere in USA will also be considered. Excellent virtual communication skills and ability to function in a virtual laboratory are required -- ie fluent typing with ability (and willingness) to communicate frequently via email/IM and to maintain an online laboratory notebook. Lab runs linux; simulations are run in NEURON; a new HPC supercomputer is being purchased for this project's use. Ideal candidate should know everything, failing that should know something out of these long lists: For programmers: linux/unix environment; strong programming skills in C/C++, perl, python, other scripting languages; numerical algorithms, ODE simulation; machine learning algorithms. Preference will be given to individuals who have been heavily involved in major software projects in past with work in optimizing code/algorithms/data structures, use of software management/versioning tools within a development team. For postdocs: Much of the above listed computer knowledge; computational neuroscience; neocortical/thalamic anatomy and physiology; simulation with NEURON; information theory; signal processing; ensemble activity analysis contact: Bill Lytton (billl at neurosim.downstate.edu) with CV and a nice letter. (equal opp employer of course) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Thu Mar 25 06:41:12 2010 From: kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de (Janina Kirsch) Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:41:12 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Deadline approaching: ADVANCED COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE, Freiburg, Germany Message-ID: <002d01cacc07$b0103510$10309f30$@uni-freiburg.de> ADVANCED COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE, 15th Edition. (A FENS-IBRO/Bernstein Training Center) Applications open August 2-27, 2010 Freiburg, Germany SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS: * John Rinzel (New York University, New York, USA) * Peter Latham (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, UK) * Yifat Prut (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) * Carl van Vreeswijk (CNRS, Universit? Paris Descartes, France) ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTORS: * Florence Dancoisne & Gunnar Grah (Bernstein Center Freiburg, Germany) For its third and final year, the Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience (ACCN) will be held this summer in Freiburg in the Southwest of Germany. The ACCN is for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are interested in learning the essentials of the field of computational neuroscience. The course has two complementary parts. Mornings are devoted to lectures given by distinguished international faculty on topics across the breadth of experimental and computational neuroscience. During the rest of the day, students pursue a project of their choosing under the close supervision of expert tutors. This gives them practical training in the art and practice of neural modeling. The first week of the course introduces students to essential neurobiological concepts and to the most important techniques in modeling single cells, synapses and circuits. Students learn how to solve their research problems using software such as MATLAB, NEST, NEURON, Python, XPP, etc. During the following three weeks the lectures cover networks and specific neural systems and functions. Topics range from modeling single cells and subcellular processes through the simulation of simple circuits, large neuronal networks and system level models of the brain. The course ends with project presentations by the students. In addition, we will offer three internships to ACCN students. These fully funded internships will allow students to work, post-ACCN, on a research project in a faculty member?s lab for up to three months. Applications for internships will be considered after the ACCN. The course is designed for students from a variety of disciplines, including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics and psychology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology as well as some computer experience. Students of any nationality can apply. A maximum of 30 students will be accepted. The current fee for the course will be EUR 500; this will cover tuition, lodging, breakfast and dinner. There will be a limited number of course fee scholarships and travel stipends available for students who need financial help for attending the course. We specifically encourage applications from researchers who work in the developing world. Applications for the ACCN, including a description of the target project, must be submitted electronically (see below) and will need to be accompanied by the names and email details of two referees who have agreed to furnish references. Applicants will need to ensure that their referees have submitted their references. Applications will be assessed by a committee, with selection being based on the following criteria: the scientific quality of the candidate (CV) and of the project, the recommendation letters, and evidence that the course will afford substantial benefit to the candidate. Please apply electronically using a web browser. For more information and access to the application database go to: http://www.neuroinf.org/courses/accn.html Contact address: * Fiona Siegfried Bernstein Center Freiburg Albert-Ludwigs-Universit?t Freiburg Hansastrasse 9A 79104 Freiburg Germany * email: accn at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Application deadline: April 2, 2010 Deadline for letters of recommendation: April 2, 2010 Notification of results: April 30, 2010 INVITED FACULTY (* = confirmed) Ad Aertsen, Freiburg (*) Hagai Bergman, Jerusalem Nathaniel Daw, New York (*) Erik De Schutter, Okinawa (*) Alain Destexhe, Gif sur Yvette (*) Zhaoping Li, London (*) Gianluigi Mongillo, Paris (*) Yael Niv, Princeton (*) Jonathan Pillow, London (*) Idan Segev, Jerusalem (*) Alex Thomson, London Matt Tresch, Evanston (*) Mark Van Rossum, Edinburgh Fred Wolf, G?ttingen (*) INVITED TUTORS Farzad Farkhooi, FU Berlin, Germany Pablo Jercog, Columbia U, USA Shaul Druckmann, Hebrew U, Israel Sukbin Lim, NYU, USA SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR Bernd Wiebelt, U. Freiburg, Germany -- Dr. Janina Kirsch -- Coordinator for the Teaching & Training Programs Bernstein Center Freiburg Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9a D - 79104 Freiburg Germany Phone: +49 (0) 761 203-9575 Fax: +49 (0) 761 203-9559 Email: kirsch at bcf.uni-freiburg.de Web: www.bcf.uni-freiburg.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100325/808b4d07/attachment-0001.html From h.sprekeler at biologie.hu-berlin.de Thu Mar 25 05:49:24 2010 From: h.sprekeler at biologie.hu-berlin.de (Henning Sprekeler) Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:49:24 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: ECVP 2010: last call Message-ID: <4BAB31A4.7050209@biologie.hu-berlin.de> ECVP 2010, the 33rd European Conference on Visual Perception, will take place in Lausanne, Switzerland, from August 22-26, 2010. Abstract submission will close March 31. http://ecvp2010.epfl.ch/index.php?page=procedure ECVP 2010 will host participant-initiated symposia. Symposia proposals should be sent to the Organizing Committee no later than March 31. http://ecvp2010.epfl.ch/index.php?page=symposia We have reserved hotel rooms available at special ECVP rates. These offers are valid only for a limited time, as indicated on the ECVP website. We strongly recommend early booking, in particular for low budget accommodation. http://ecvp2010.epfl.ch/index.php?page=accommodation Students will benefit from reduced registration fees. Student status has to be proven latest by April 15. Travel fellowships will be granted competitively to a limited number of students from less-privileged countries covering registration fee, travel costs, and accommodation (deadline March 31). In addition, travel fellowships of 500 EUR will be awarded to the best abstract submissions. http://ecvp2010.epfl.ch/index.php?page=procedure See you in Lausanne, The ECVP 2010 Organizing Committee From sanchez at uji.es Thu Mar 25 08:33:45 2010 From: sanchez at uji.es (=?iso-8859-1?Q?J._Salvador_S=E1nchez?=) Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:33:45 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: AERFAISS 2010 Call-for-Participation Message-ID: <1678BC3E355248C5BCDB237476C3BD1D@dlsi.uji.es> Call for Participation (apologies for multiple copies)_____________________________________________________ AERFAI International Summer School on Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning in Multimedia Systems --- Benic?ssim, June 7-11, 2010 URL: http://www.aerfaiss2010.uji.es E-mail: info at aerfaiss2010.uji.es DESCRIPTION The AERFAI Summer School 2010 is organized by the Spanish Association for Pattern Recognition (AERFAI) in collaboration with the Institute of New Imaging Technologies at Universitat Jaume I of Castell? (Spain). This is the fifth edition in a series of AERFAI Summer Schools devoted to a wide range of topics in the fields of Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. The focus of this year Summer School is to study the most relevant approaches to Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning in Multimedia Systems. This event is open to any researcher or PhD-student who is interested in learning or refreshing their knowledge about the most successful approaches in the fields of object & human-action detection/categorization and recognition. AERFAISS'2010 is organized as a five-days intensive course to be held June 7-11 in Benic?ssim (Spain). Leading experts in the field shall present each tutorial, followed by a practice session with specific software in order for participants to gain a better understanding of the theory. A non-formal poster session will also be organized for the participants to present their current research and interact with their scientific peers. ORGANIZATION CO-CHAIRS Prof. J. Salvador S?nchez, Local Chair AERFAISS'2010, sanchez at uji.es Prof. Filiberto Pla, Chairman of the AERFAI, pla at uji.es LIST OF LECTURERS Learning with Structured Inputs and Outputs Dr. Christoph Lampert, Institute of Science and Technology, Vienna (Austria) Interactive Video Retrieval Dr. Cees G.M. Snoek, University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) Human Action Recognition (Video) Dr. Ivan Laptev, INRIA, Paris - Rocquencourt (France) Human Activity Modelling from Mobile Phone Sensors Dr. Daniel Gatica-Perez, IDIAP Research Institute, Martigny (Switzerland) Visual Recognition and Features Dr. Krystian Mikolajczyk, CVSSP, University of Surrey (UK) Multimodal Data Fusion Dr. St?phane Marchand-Maillet, University of Geneva (Switzerland) New Challenges in Machine Learning Prof. Ethem Alpaydin, Bogazi?i University, Istanbul (Turkey) REGISTRATION Fees for the AERFAISS'2010 are as follows: AERFAI members - Early registration (by May 10, 2010): Full ... 500 Euros / Single lecture ... 100 Euros AERFAI members - Late registration (after May 10, 2010): Full ... 550 Euros / Single lecture ... 110 Euros Non-members - Early registration (by May 10, 2010): Full ... 600 Euros / Single lecture ... 120 Euros Non-members - Late registration (after May 10, 2010): Full ... 650 Euros / Single lecture ... 130 Euros The full registration fee includes access to all lectures, handling material, coffee breaks, lunches, a guided tour and social dinner. The single lecture registration allows access to the lecture chosen, handling material, coffee breaks and lunch. Payment of registration fee should be done by bank transfer (more information at http://www.aerfaiss2010.uji.es). VENUE AERFAISS'2010 will be held at Hotel Intur Bonaire in Benic?ssim. The hotel is located 150 meters from one of the best fine sandy beaches in Benic?ssim at the Mediterranean coast. It is 10 minutes from the city of Castell?n and the train station, while the Valencia airport is 45 minutes by car. ACCOMMODATION Participants will have a special group rate at Hotel Intur Bonaire and other hotels very close to the AERFAISS'2010 venue. More information about reservation is available on the web site. CONTACT AERFAISS'2010 Dept. Llenguatges i Sistemes Inform?tics Universitat Jaume I Av. Vicent Sos Baynat, s/n 12071 Castell?n de la Plana (Spain) Tel. +34 964728348 / +34 964728350 / +34 964728359 Fax +34 964728435 E-mail: info at aerfaiss2010.uji.es -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100325/b5aa950f/attachment-0001.html From jose.millan at epfl.ch Fri Mar 26 10:23:25 2010 From: jose.millan at epfl.ch (Jose del R. Millan) Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:23:25 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: Shared Control for BMI Message-ID: <4BACC35D.90206@epfl.ch> A gentle reminder that the deadline for this workshop is approaching. Looking forward to your submissions! Jose del R. Millan -------------------------------- *2010 IEEE Int. Conf. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics */Workshop on Brain-Machine Interface/s Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) offer the possibility of a new generation of technologies that allow users to directly control devices directly via the nervous system. BMIs can be used to develop new communication pathways to restore and augment sensory and motor function in disabled individuals. At the core of BMI system design is a controller that must accommodate the seamless interaction between systems of neurons with electronics and robotics. This workshop solicits papers in any area of BMI, but it will prioritize contributions on innovations in signal processing, controls, and robotics to revolutionize information handling between the nervous system and computing machines. The concept of "sharing control" between humans and machines has its roots back to the early history of Cybernetics. Compared to that early history, the challenges for BMIs involves developing control systems capable of handling biological signals that are sparse, noisy and dynamic in nature. Moreover, these systems are operating in a wide variety of dynamic environments encountered in the activities of daily life. One of the goals of this workshop is to identify leading advancements in Cybernetics theory that can improve performance in BMIs through cooperative control. Several examples of such systems include intelligent robotics that can assist with obstacle avoidance or accurate grasping, and adaptive algorithms that can learn the robot's optimal behavior from the user's nonstationary brain signals. Of particular interest in this workshop are the principles that allow bi-directional communication and assistance between the user's nervous system and the device being controlled as well as how to support the dynamic sharing of roles and responsibilities of a control task. In addition, topics sought include the design of collaborative, cognitive workspaces and signal analysis that supports a shared understanding of the task and environment. The workshop will feature some prominent invited speakers active in research on "shared control" in BMI and other fields such as robotics and human-computer interaction. Best contributions presented during the /workshop/ will be invited to submit an extended version to a special issue of the /IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics -- Part B/ that will undergo a normal full review process. The theme of this special issue of SMC-B is "Shared Control in Brain-Machine Interfaces", and submissions are open to active researchers in the field independently of whether or not they participate in this workshop. *Place & Dates:* Istanbul, Turkey. October 10-13, 2010. http://www.smc2010.org *PAPER SUBMISSIONS:* Papers should follow the IEEE format and conference guidelines. The template is available at: http://www.smc2010.org/SMC2010_Paper_Format.zip Send a PDF copy of your paper to jose.millan AT epfl.ch with the title "SMC'10-BMI Workshop". *ORGANIZERS:* Jos? del R. Mill?n, Ph.D. EPFL, Switzerland (http://people.epfl.ch/jose.millan) Jose M. Carmena, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA (http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~carmena) Justin C. Sanchez, Ph.D. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA (http://nrg.mbi.ufl.edu) Michael Smith, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA *Schedule:* Deadline for submissions: April 15th, 2010 Notification of review: May 15th, 2010 Final manuscript due: June 27th, 2010 -- Dr. Jos? del R. Mill?n, Defitech Professor Defitech Chair in Non-Invasive Brain-Machine Interface Center for Neuroprosthetics School of Engineering Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) EPFL STI-CNBI ELB 138. Station 11 CH-1015 Lausanne Switzerland Tel: +41-21-6937391 Fax: +41-21-6935307 jose.millan at epfl.ch http://people.epfl.ch/jose.millan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100326/f3c37881/attachment-0001.html From rsun at rpi.edu Sun Mar 28 00:18:20 2010 From: rsun at rpi.edu (Professor Ron Sun) Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:18:20 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Cognitive Systems Research, Vol. 11, Iss. 2, 2010 Message-ID: <42E22AAE-141D-4380-BA22-E06FADB217F6@rpi.edu> New issue is now available on ScienceDirect: * Cognitive Systems Research Volume 11, Issue 2, Pages 131-210 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/ 6595-2010-999889997-1623128 NOTE: If the URLs in this email are not active hyperlinks, copy and paste the URL into the address/location box in your browser. = = = = = = = = ======================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS 2) Emergence of self-organized symbol-based communication in artificial creatures Pages 131-147 Angelo Loula, Ricardo Gudwin, Charbel Ni?o El-Hani, Jo?o Queiroz http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_urlVersion=4&_origin=SDVIALERTASCII&_version=1&_uoikey=B6W6C-4V47CMR-2&md5=5d5cd58988a4c82e0c67b770c8f16eb1 3) On strong anticipation Pages 148-164 N. Stepp, M.T. Turvey http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_urlVersion=4&_origin=SDVIALERTASCII&_version=1&_uoikey=B6W6C-4WCTX00-1&md5=c12f6221f55e78c717e66419b1fa0c56 4) Is a naturalistic theory of communication possible? Pages 165-180 Gabriella Airenti http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_urlVersion=4&_origin=SDVIALERTASCII&_version=1&_uoikey=B6W6C-4W9XF0T-1&md5=f4abf20c98092f5c151a3eb27d50fbe4 5) A micro-level simulation for the prediction of intention and behavior Pages 181-193 Juliette Richetin, Abhijit Sengupta, Marco Perugini, Iqbal Adjali, Robert Hurling, Danica Greetham, Michael Spence http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_urlVersion=4&_origin=SDVIALERTASCII&_version=1&_uoikey=B6W6C-4X1J78V-1&md5=b33294e98947549df4c075be98a951d5 6) An alternative account of the minimal counterintuitiveness effect Pages 194-203 M. Afzal Upal http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_urlVersion=4&_origin=SDVIALERTASCII&_version=1&_uoikey=B6W6C-4X5JSXD-1&md5=3128a5a204bf1bacd2f56fe1b794ca21 Book Review 7) Review of T.T. Rogers and J.L. McClelland, semantic cognition: A parallel distributed processing approach , MIT Press (2004). Pages 204-207 J.F. Glazebrook http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_urlVersion=4&_origin=SDVIALERTASCII&_version=1&_uoikey=B6W6C-4XDKCH6-1&md5=586bc83f1241be999038f8b78c281099 Call for papers 8) The Workshop on Cognitive Social Sciences?Grounding the Social Sciences in the Cognitive Sciences Pages 208-209 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_urlVersion=4&_origin=SDVIALERTASCII&_version=1&_uoikey=B6W6C-4Y0THTV-1&md5=88b9ce7ce3e93e597be2940d91853eaf =========== See the following Web page for submission, subscription, and other information regarding Cognitive Systems Research: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun/journal.html See http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cogsys for further information regarding accessing these articles. If you have questions about features of ScienceDirect, please access the ScienceDirect Info Site at http://www.info.sciencedirect.com ======================================================== Professor Ron Sun President-Elect, International Neural Network Society Cognitive Science Department Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 110 Eighth Street, Carnegie 302A Troy, NY 12180, USA phone: 518-276-3409 fax: 518-276-3017 email: rsun at rpi.edu web: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun ======================================================= From cymbalyuk at yahoo.com Mon Mar 29 21:47:11 2010 From: cymbalyuk at yahoo.com (Gennady Cymbalyuk) Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:47:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Connectionists: Dynamics of Bursting Activity of Neurons Message-ID: <673524.20904.qm@web35501.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dynamics of Bursting Activity of Neurons 2 day workshop April 16-17, 2010 The Commerce Club, 34 Broad St, Atlanta Location of the Bennett A. Brown Commerce club is marked 7 on the GSU interactive map (http://www.gsu.edu/interactive_map.html). Sponsors of the event are the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, The Neuroscience Institute and The Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University. Bursting behavior is an oscillatory activity consisting of intervals of repetitive spiking separated by intervals of quiescence. Recently, the functional role of bursting has been actively discussed. There is agreement that it is an important mode for the control of rhythmic movements and is frequently observed in central pattern generators, neuronal networks controlling motor behavior (Marder & Calabrese, 1996). Also, bursting has been widely observed in sleep and pathological brain states. We would like to gather scientists from different fields of neuroscience, physics and mathematics who are interested in the geneses of bursting patterns and mechanisms of control of their characteristics. The main goal of the workshop is to discuss the potential roles of bursting in the operation of the central nervous system under normal and pathological conditions. We would like to spotlight the coexistence of bursting with other regimes of neuronal activities, and its role in brain functions and pathologies, especially in central pattern generation and epilepsy. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of Journal of Biological Physics. The registration is required. The registration fee is $70 for faculty and $40 for postdocs and graduate students. A limited number of registration fee waivers may be granted upon request in writing placed by April 5, 2010. The fee covers breakfast, lunch and the reception dinner. Instructions concerning the registration are at the bottom of the message. Organizers: Gennady Cymbalyuk, Sonya Bahar, Igor Belykh, Vladimir Bondarenko, Ronald Calabrese, Robert Clewley, Mukesh Dhamala, Andrey Shilnikov. For questions contact Gennady Cymbalyuk (gcymbalyuk at gsu.edu). Keynote speakers: Ramirez, Nino University of Washington, Seattle. "Neuromodulation and bursting gone mad: Insights gained from studying neurological disorders" Smith, Jeff NINDS, Laboratory of Neural Control Traub, Roger IBM, "Some normal and abnormal collective phenomena in cortical circuits amongst bursting neurons" Invited Speakers: Bahar, Sonya, University of Missouri at St Louis, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, St. Louis MO Barreto, Ernest, George Mason University , Dept of Physics & Astronomy Bazhenov, Maxim, University of California Riverside, Dept. of Cell Biology and Neuroscience Berkowitz, Ari, University of Oklahoma, Department of Zoology, Norman, OK Bunimovich, Leonid, GaTech, School of Mathematics, Atlanta ?Isospectral reduction of networks and spectral networks? equivalence?. Butera, Robert, GaTech, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Atlanta "Co-existing bursting attractors in a class of bursting neurons: models, mechanisms, and experimental hints." Calabrese, Ronald, Emory University, Biology Department, Atlanta ?The more we look, the more biological variation we see: How has and should this influence modeling of small rhythmic networks?? Dzakpasu, Rhonda, Georgetown University, Physics Dept. Edwards, Donald, Georgia State University, Neuroscience Institute, Atlanta Gross, Robert, Emory University, Atlanta Jaeger, Dieter, Emory University, Biology Department, Atlanta "Pathological bursting in basal ganglia circuits in Parkinson's disease." Katz, Paul , Georgia State University, Neuroscience Institute, Atlanta ?Biological Evolution of central pattern generators? Mogul, David, Illinois Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Chicago Prilutsky, Boris, GaTech, Center for Human Movement Studies, School of Applied Physiology Rybak, Illya, Drexel University, College of Medicine, Dept. of Neurobiology and Anatomy Sorensen, Michael, President, Simatra Modeling Technologies "Accelerating simulations of bursting neurons with simEngine" Tabak, Joel, Florida State University, Biomedical Research Facility, Tallahassee Tryba, Andrew, Medical College of Wisconsin, Dept. of Physiology, Milwaukee, WI Volgushev, Maxim University of Connecticut, Dept of Psychology: ?UP and DOWN states in neocortical neurons during slow wave oscillation? Wagenaar, Daniel Caltech, Division of Biology, "Bursting with desire: a two-timescale rhythm for mate exploration in the medicinal leech" Yamaguchi , Ayako, Boston University, Dept of Biology Belykh, Igor Georgia State University, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics, "Inhibitory synchronization in bursting networks" Clewley, Robert, Georgia State University, Neuroscience Institute, "Reducing the fine structure of bursting dynamics" Cymbalyuk , Gennady, Georgia State University, Neuroscience Institute "Co-existence of bursting and silent regimes in neuronal dynamics" Dhamala, Mukesh , Georgia State University, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, GSU "Synchronization of Time-Delayed Coupled Bursting Neurons" Shilnikov, Andrey Georgia State University, - Neuroscience Institute ?Polyrhythms of bursting patterns in deterministic models for central pattern generators. To register, please, send an e-mail to Gennady Cymbalyuk (gcymbalyuk at gsu.edu). Please include in your e-mail the following information: I________________________ wish to attend the Workshop ?Dynamics of Bursting Activity of Neurons? in the Commerce Club, 34 Broad St, Atlanta on April 16 ? 17. Position: Address: E-mail: Check one: ____ I will not present a poster. ____ I will present a poster. The title of the poster (the abstract is optional, limited to 250 words): Dietary restrictions: Check one: _____ I will pay the registration fee by check _____ I will pay the registration fee from my funded project (for GSU faculty). The speedtype is _______ _____ I request a registration fee waiver (the deadline for the request is April 5, 2010) If you pay the registration fee by check, please make it payable to Georgia State University. You could make a payment during the registration on April 16, 8 am ? 9 am or mail it by April 13 to Ms. Tara Alexander, Neuroscience Institute Georgia State University PO Box 5030 Atlanta, GA 30302-5030. Poster session will be held on Friday 16, 19:00-21:30. Reception will be held on Friday 16, 18:00-20:00. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100329/ede27cef/attachment.html From G.Bugmann at plymouth.ac.uk Wed Mar 31 04:56:01 2010 From: G.Bugmann at plymouth.ac.uk (Guido Bugmann) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:56:01 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: TAROS 2010 second call for papers Message-ID: 2nd Call for papers: Deadline for submission: 30 April 2010. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11th Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS'2010) Tuesday 31 August 2010 - Thursday 2 September 2010 Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom http://www.taros.org.uk/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TAROS is a platform for robotics researchers and industry with a wide range of interests from the UK, Europe and worldwide. Plenary Speakers: Plenary presentations will be given by Giorgio Metta (IIT, Genoa) and Geoff Pegman (R.U. Robots, Manchester). Call for contributions: TAROS-10 welcomes submissions from senior researchers and research students alike, and will specifically provide opportunities for research students and young research scientists to present their work to the scientific community. An indicative list of topics is provided below. Special Session on Personal and Service Robotics. Submission are encouraged in this area of rapid growth, e.g. on user needs and experiences, technical progress and bottlenecks, and all relevant forms of scientific developments. Industry Workshop: An extra half day has been added to this year's edition, to host an industrial symposium on developments in service robotics, on 2 September 2010. Please consult the conference's website for more details. http://www.taros.org.uk/ List of topics Submissions of papers are invited in any of the following topics, and in related areas: * Advanced applications of autonomous robots (industrial and research) * Advanced materials * Advanced medical robotics, robots for surgery * Analysis of robot-environment interaction * Applications development * Assistive Robotics * Autonomous assembly robotics * Biologically inspired robotics * Cognitive robotics * Collective robots * Developmental robotics * Hardware issues, devices and techniques, advanced sensor and actuator hardware * Human-Robot Interaction and Interfaces * Learning and adaptation * Long-term Interaction and Operation * Modeling and analysis of robot models * Navigation, localization, map building and path planning * Personal robotics * Robot autonomy * Robot vision, sensing and perception * Robot control architectures * Robots in education, the arts and entertainment * Service robotics * Space and planetary robotics Deadline for submission: 30 April 2010. Submission instructions are given on http://www.taros.org.uk/ The participation of representatives of the industry is welcome. Limited exhibition space is available. Please contact taros2010 at plymouth.ac.uk The annual meeting of the Virtual Research Centre in Personal Robotics will take place during the Conference. Members of the VRC will be able claim partial reimbursements of their travel expenses. See: http://vrcpersonalrobotics.org Plymouth is a friendly sea-side town located in the South-West of England. Its University hosts a dynamic and highly rated research community in Robotics and Neural systems. Looking forwards to seeing you in Plymouth Guido Bugmann & Tony Belpaeme (Co-chairs). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guido Bugmann, PhD Reader in Intelligent Systems School of Mathematics and Computing University of Plymouth, PSQ A309 Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AA, United Kingdom tel: +44 (0)1752 58 62 15 fax: +44 (0)1752 58 63 00 email: gbugmann at plymouth.ac.uk web: http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/soc/staff/guidbugm/bugmann.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20100331/e38f319d/attachment-0001.html From T.Nowotny at sussex.ac.uk Wed Mar 31 14:58:42 2010 From: T.Nowotny at sussex.ac.uk (Thomas Nowotny) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:58:42 +0100 (BST) Subject: Connectionists: Second call: Workshop on Dynamical Olfaction, 30-06 to 02-07-2010, Brighton, UK Message-ID: Dear connectionists! Second call for Abstracts, International Workshop on Dynamical Olfaction, 30 June - 2 July, 2010, Brighton, UK Abstract deadline 15 April. Registration now open! Animals are able to experience complexly structured plumes of different combinations of chemicals as individual olfactory percepts. It appears that the olfactory system utilizes rich temporal dynamics to achieve this goal but exactly how is still an open challenge for modern neuroscience. In the last few years rapid progress has been made in our understanding of olfactory information processing. In this focused workshop on Dynamical Olfaction we will share recent developments, both experimental and theoretical, between the active researchers in the field. Confirmed keynote speakers include Maxim Bazhenov, University of California Riverside, USA C. Giovanni Galizia, University of Konstanz, Germany Peter Kloppenburg, University of K?ln, Germany Hong Lei, The University of Arizona, USA Johannes Reisert, Monell Chemical Senses Center, USA Brian H. Smith, Arizona State University, USA Mark Stopfer, National Institutes of Health, USA Stephen Trowell, CSIRO, Australia Massimo Vergassola, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France Jan Wessnitzer, University of Edinburgh, UK The programme committee is formed by Jean-Pierre Rospars, INRA Versailles Dominique Martinez, LORIA Nancy & INRA Versailles Thomas Nowotny, University of Sussex Sylvia Anton, INRA Versailles The workshop is financed by the BBSRC in the framework of the PheroSys project, part of the ANR-BBSRC SysBio initiative. Registration IS FREE OF CHARGE but mandatory for our planning. Important Dates: March 31, 2010: Second call for abstracts, Registration opens (this call) April 15, 2010: Deadline for abstract submissions April 30, 2010: Abstract acceptance notifications June 30, 2010: The workshop starts Participation is limited to 100 participants. Contributors will have preferential treatment over other participants. To submit an abstract, direct your browser to http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/users/tn41/signupPhero2010/abstract To register, go to http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/users/tn41/signupPhero2010/register Further information is available and will be updated regularly on the workshop website http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/users/tn41/PheroSys2010/index.html If you have additional questions, please contact the local organiser, Chris Buckley at C.L.Buckley at sussex.ac.uk . Regards, The PheroSys programme committee -- Dr. Thomas Nowotny RCUK Academic Fellow Phone: +44-1273-678593 CCNR, Informatics, Fax: +44-1273-877873 University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QJ http://sussex.ac.uk/informatics/tnowotny From vidit at cs.umass.edu Wed Mar 31 17:04:52 2010 From: vidit at cs.umass.edu (Vidit Jain) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:04:52 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: ECCV 2010 workshop on Face Detection Message-ID: (Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message.) We are happy to announce the call for submissions for the ECCV 2010 workshop on Face Detection. Please distribute this message to all interested parties. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Face Detection: Where we are, and what next? (In conjunction with ECCV'10) September 10, 2010 Heraklion, Crete, Greece http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/fdWorkshop/ Submission Deadline: June 16th, 2010 Invited Speakers: Yann LeCun (New York University) Hartmut Neven (Google Research) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Introduction: Face detection has been a core problem in computer vision for more than a decade. Not only has there been substantial progress in research, but many techniques for face detection have also made their way into commercial products. Despite this maturity, the algorithms for face detection remain difficult to compare, and somewhat brittle to the specific conditions under which they are applied. One difficulty in comparing different face detection algorithms is the lack of enough detail to reproduce the published results, which makes it important to establish better benchmarks of performance. In this workshop, we introduce a new, challenging data set of images (FDDB) with faces in unconstrained settings. A rigorous evaluation of different face detection algorithms on this benchmark will emphasize the two main objectives of this workshop: (1) establish the current state-of-the-art in face detection, and (2) identify new frontiers of research in face detection. To encourage an easy access of these face detection systems to the research community, this workshop will present a cash award for best performing face detector (see FDDB page for further details). Also, there will be a best paper award. Both of these awards are sponsored by Microsoft Research India. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Organizing Committee: Vidit Jain (University of Massachusetts Amherst) Gang Hua (Nokia Research Center Hollywood) Michael Jones (Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Call for papers: We solicit contributions in two broad categories: Category A: Novel approaches for face detection Papers in this category should present novel scientific contributions in face detection. We are particularly interested in the domain of unconstrained faces in which faces are not presented in a laboratory controlled setting. Category B: Face detection benchmark The goal of these submissions is to compare algorithms for the unconstrained face detection problem, and should present results on the FDDB benchmark, which is available at FDDB page. Authors may submit either a short paper or a regular paper in this category. A more detailed call for papers including specific areas of interest is available at: http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/fdWorkshop/cfp.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Important dates: Paper Submission : June 16, 2010 Acceptance Decisions : July 9, 2010 Camera-ready : July 14, 2010 Workshop Date : September 10, 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We would appreciate if you could kindly print the following flyer for this workshop and post on appropriate message boards. Workshop flyer [.pdf] : Grayscale, Color