From t.heskes at science.ru.nl Sat Jan 1 05:23:04 2011 From: t.heskes at science.ru.nl (Tom Heskes) Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2011 11:23:04 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Neurocomputing volume 74 (issue 4) Message-ID: <4D1F0088.3040006@science.ru.nl> Neurocomputing volume 74 (issue 4) ----------- REGULAR PAPERS B-spline backstepping control with derivative matrix estimation and its applications Yih-Guang Leu, Chun-Yao Chen Global exponential synchronization of fuzzy cellular neural networks with delays and reaction?diffusion terms Fang Yu, Haijun Jiang Estimation of learning rate of least square algorithm via Jackson operator Yongquan Zhang, Feilong Cao, Zongben Xu Local matrix adaptation in topographic neural maps Banchar Arnonkijpanich, Alexander Hasenfuss, Barbara Hammer Non-goal scene analysis for soccer video Xinbo Gao, Zhenxing Niu, Dacheng Tao, Xuelong Li Robust parametric CMAC with self-generating design for uncertain nonlinear systems Hung-Ching Lu, Chih-Ying Chuang Global impulsive exponential anti-synchronization of delayed chaotic neural networks Hongyong Zhao, Qi Zhang Generalized nonlinear discriminant analysis and its small sample size problems Original Research Article Li Zhang, Wei Da Zhou, Pei-Chann Chang Local Kernel Feature Analysis (LKFA) for object recognition Baochang Zhang, Yongsheng Gao, Hong Zheng Localized twin SVM via convex minimization Qiaolin Ye, Chunxia Zhao, Ning Ye, Xiaobo Chen A data-based approach for multivariate model predictive control performance monitoring Xuemin Tian, Gongquan Chen, Sheng Chen Enhanced locality preserving projections using robust path based similarity Guoxian Yu, Hong Peng, Jia Wei, Qianli Ma Guaranteed performance state estimation of static neural networks with time-varying delay He Huang, Gang Feng, Jinde Cao An evolutionary network model of epileptic phenomena Somayeh Raiesdana, S. Mohammad P. Firoozabadi, S. Mohammad Hashemi Gholpayegani Sparse two-dimensional local discriminant projections for feature extraction Zhihui Lai, Minghua Wan, Zhong Jin, Jian Yang Global exponential stability in Lagrange sense for neutral type recurrent neural networks Qi Luo, Zhigang Zeng, Xiaoxin Liao ----------- BRIEF PAPERS Growing fuzzy topology adaptive resonance theory models with a push?pull learning algorithm Bumhwi Kim, Sang-Woo Ban, Minho Lee Large-margin nearest neighbor classifiers via sample weight learning Qinghua Hu, Pengfei Zhu, Yongbin Yang, Daren Yu ------------ JOURNAL SITE: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/neucom SCIENCE DIRECT: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/5660-2011-999259995-2814746 From ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu Sat Jan 1 11:09:38 2011 From: ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu (Ila Fiete) Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2011 10:09:38 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: COSYNE 2011: registration and hotels Message-ID: <4D1F51C2.2010405@mail.clm.utexas.edu> ==================================================== Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING WORKSHOPS 24 - 27 Feb, 2011 28 Feb - 1 Mar, 2011 Salt Lake City, Utah Snow Bird Ski Resort, Utah http://www.cosyne.org ==================================================== REGISTRATION AND HOTEL: Online registration is currently open. Hotel booking is currently open. Early registration deadline: midnight (EST), 1 Feb 2011. Online registration deadline: midnight (EST), 20 Feb 2011. Deadline for discounted hotel rates: 3 Feb, 2011. For more detailed information, visit www.cosyne.org INVITED SPEAKERS: David Anderson Alison Barth EJ Chichilnisky Tom Clandinin Stanislas Dehaene David Kleinfeld Peter Latham Roberto Malinow Tirin Moore Anna Nobre Murray Sherman Anthony Zador THE MEETING: The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience. The MAIN MEETING is arranged in a single track. A set of invited talks are selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, computation with spiking networks. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Anthony Zador (CSHL) Alexandre Pouget (U Rochester) Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: General Chairs: Anne Churchland (UWashington) and Bartlett Mel (USC) Program Chairs: Rachel Wilson (Harvard) and Jim DICarlo (MIT) Workshop Chairs: Mark Laubach (Yale) and Brent Doiron (U Pittsburgh) Communications Chair: Ila Fiete (UT Austin) -- ________________________________ Ila Fiete Assistant Professor Center for Learning and Memory The University of Texas at Austin Phone: 512.232.8439 From celikel at usc.edu Sat Jan 1 11:42:11 2011 From: celikel at usc.edu (Tansu Celikel) Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2011 08:42:11 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Integrative Theoretical Neuroscience Symposium at USC on January 7 In-Reply-To: <1BBCD7AE-F027-457F-83E9-696CDB0A90D5@usc.edu> References: <1BBCD7AE-F027-457F-83E9-696CDB0A90D5@usc.edu> Message-ID: You are cordially invited to the Integrative Theoretical Neuroscience Symposium at the University of Southern California?to be held on Friday, January 7th.? Distinguished speakers of the symposium include: Terrence J. Sejnowski (Salk Institute) Bruno Olshausen (UC, Berkeley) William Bialek (Princeton University) Ulman Lindenberger (Max-Planck Institute, Berlin) Eve Marder (Brandeis University) Date: Friday, January 7, 2011 Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (Registration is not required) Place: USC University Park Campus, SGM 124 http://web-app.usc.edu/maps/? (Enter "SGM" in the search box) This symposium is organized by the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences to explore exciting emerging directions in Neuroscience. ?For program information, visit?http://tlab.usc.edu/ITN_Program.pdf?. We hope to see you on January 7th for this exciting event! Organizing Committee From jonrubin at pitt.edu Sat Jan 1 20:09:24 2011 From: jonrubin at pitt.edu (Jon Rubin) Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:09:24 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CNS*2011 Stockholm, July 23-28th Message-ID: <4D1FD044.50601@pitt.edu> CNS*2011 Twentieth Annual International Computational Neuroscience Conference Main conference: July 24-26th, 2011 Tutorials: July 23rd, 2011 Workshops: July 27-28th, 2011 Stockholm, Sweden http://www.cnsorg.org Conference theme: "Neuronal network structure and dynamics in function and dysfunction" REGISTRATION WEBSITE: http://www.cnsorg.org/2011/index.shtml ABSTRACT SUBMISSION WEBSITE: http://www.cnsorg.org/2011/submission.shtml ABSTRACT SUBMISSION OPEN: January 18, 2011 SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 14, 2011 (11 PM Pacific Time, USA) NOTIFICATION OF ABSTRACT ACCEPTANCE: April 16, 2011 EARLY MEETING REGISTRATION CLOSED: May 15, 2011 (11 PM Pacific Time, USA) CNS*2011 will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 23-28th, 2011. The meeting will kick off with a day of tutorials and an evening welcome reception on Saturday, July 23rd. The main meeting of CNS*2011 will follow on July 24-26th, after which will come two days of workshops on July 27-28th. The main meeting will be held at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. A welcome event will be held in the beautiful Stockholm City Hall, where the Nobel Prizes are awarded, on Monday, July 25th. Submissions can include experimental, model-based, as well as more abstract theoretical approaches to understanding neurobiological computation. We especially encourage research that mixes experimental and theoretical studies. We also accept papers that describe new technical approaches to theoretical and experimental issues in computational neuroscience or relevant software packages. INVITED SPEAKERS: Ivan Soltesz, USA Peter Tass, Germany Anders Lansner, Sweden TUTORIALS: To Be Announced WORKSHOPS: A Call for workshops appeared in a separate announcement. ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: Submissions to the meeting should take the form of a formatted abstract. Submission instructions, submission website, and a full description of the review process are at http://www.cnsorg.org/2011/submission.shtml. Authors wishing to give an oral presentation are required also to submit a 1-3-page summary (for the OCNS reviewers only) describing the nature, scope and main results of the work in more detail. The summaries will be reviewed to construct the oral program. All submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail. OPEN ACCESS, CITABLE ABSTRACT PUBLICATION: The formatted abstracts will again be published as a Supplement to the online journal BMC Neuroscience. The supplement is citable, indexed by PubMed, and open access. At least one author must register for CNS*2011 by the early registration deadline of May 15, 2011 for the abstract to be published and included in the program book. Last year's abstracts are available at the URLs: --http://www.cnsorg.org/meetings/archives/CNS2010.shtml --http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/11?issue=S AWARDS: A limited number of merit based travel grants, awarded based on review of abstracts by the program committee, will be available to students and postdocs. Women and underrepresented minorities in STEM are particularly encouraged to apply. Applications will be due Feb. 28, 2011. See instructions for requesting travel awards at www.cnsorg.org. Recipients of travel grants will be notified by May 5, 2011. Student posters presented at CNS*2011 will also be judged for cash prizes awarded at the meeting. Please check www.cnsorg.org periodically for announcement of additional categories of awards for postdoctoral fellows. The CNS*2011 meeting is organized by the Organization for Computational Neurosciences, Inc. President: Erik De Schutter (OIST, Japan and U Antwerp, Belgium) Program chair: Astrid Prinz (Emory U, USA) Local organizers: Erik Frans?n (Royal Inst of Tech, Stockholm, Sweden) Meeting Liaison: Udo Ernst (U Bremen, Germany) Workshop Organizer: Alex Dimitrov (Washington State University, USA) Workshop Assistant Organizer: Volker Steuber (U Hertfordshire, UK) Tutorials Organizer: TBA Travel Awards administrator: Avrama Blackwell (George Mason U, USA) Travel Awards assistant administrator: Jeanette Kotaleski (Royal Inst of Tech, Stockholm, Sweden) Program Committee: Jean-Marc Fellous (U Arizona, USA; Publication Chair) Hide Cateau (RIKEN, Japan) Netta Cohen (U Leeds, UK) Gennady Cymbalyuk (Georgia State U, USA) Andrew Davison (UNIC, France) Bruce Grahm (U Stirling, UK) Boris Gutkin, (ENS, France) Thomas Nowotny (U Sussex, UK) Duane Nykamp (U Minnesota, USA) Simon Schultz (Imperial College, UK) Peggy Series (U Edinburgh, UK) Miriam Zacksenhouse (Technion, Israel) ___________________________________________________________________________ OCNS - Organization for Computational Neurosciences, Inc. http://www.cnsorg.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110102/c443ef21/attachment.html From frank.ritter at psu.edu Sat Jan 1 20:41:22 2011 From: frank.ritter at psu.edu (Frank Ritter) Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2011 20:41:22 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CogModel notes: ICCM12/BRIMS11&10/EuroCogSci11/Newell video/Prizes/Book/Positions Message-ID: This is based on the International Cognitive Modeling Conference mailing list that I maintain. I forward messages about twice a year. (this is the firstone for ICCM 2012.) The first announcement is driving this email, ICCM 2012 will be in Berlin. If you would like to be removed, please just let me know. I maintain it by hand to keep it small. (and I wish you a happy new year!) cheers, Frank Ritter frank.e.ritter at gmail.com http://acs.ist.psu.edu http://www.frankritter.com 1. ICCM 2012, April 2012, Berlin, Germany http://www.iccm2012.com 2. ICCM 2010, Philadelphia, PA proceedings now available online, http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/proceedings/ 3. BRIMS 2011, 21-24 March 2011, 6 Jan 2011 submission deadline http://www.brimsconference.org 4. BRIMS 2010 proceedings available, BRIMS special issue in CMOT http://brimsconference.org/archives/2010/toc.htm http://acs.ist.psu.edu/papers/CMOT-brims09-si10/special-issue.txt 5. Dissertation Prizes in Cognitive Science http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/CogSciPrizes/index.htm 5b. CogSci Conference, 20-23 July 2011, Boston, Due 1 Feb 2011 http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2011/index.html 6. European Conference on Cognitive Science, 21-24 May 2011 http://nbu.bg/cogs/eurocogsci2011 7. Newell's Desires and Diversions videos now online http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH6oRMNk6hw 8. Cognitive scientist, Anderson, recieves Franklin Medal http://fi.edu/franklinawards/ 9. Practical guide to running studies book available for use frank.ritter at psu.edu 10. Free iPhone app to compute caffeine usage http://caffeinezone.net 11. New book on modeling multi-tasking, Salvucci & Taatgen 12. CFP 8th ACM Conf on Creativity & Cognition, 3-6 nov 2011, due 25 mar 11 http://dilab.gatech.edu/ccc/index.html 13. CFP: Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics, 23 Jun 11, due 1 apr 11 http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~cmcl/ 14. Assoc. Prof., Florida State, learning 15. Department head, U. of North Florida, review from 6 Dec 2010 http://www.unf.edu/ccec/cis/ 16. 3 year post-doc in intelligent tutoring, Canterbury, NZ, due 14 Jan 2011 http://ictg.canterbury.ac.nz/ 17. Postdoc in computational cognition at PARC, no date given 18. Lectureship in Multi-Agent Systems, Liverpool (DEADLINE: 04:01:2011) http://www.liv.ac.uk/working/job_vacancies/ 19. Professor in Interaction Design at UCL Interaction Centre, due 31 Jan 2011. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/uclic *************************************************** 1. ICCM 2012, Berlin, Germany http://www.iccm2012.com The conference will be held from 13 to 15 April 2012 in Berlin at the Technische Universitat Berlin (Berlin Institute of Technology (TU/Berlin)). The conference web page will be htpp://www.iccm2012.com (although this is still under construction). The first version will go online in January (the web address has been reserved). The chairs are: "Nele Russwinkel" , "Uwe Drewitz" , "Hedderik van Rijn" , "Jeronimo Dzaak" *************************************************** 2. ICCM 2010, Philadelphia, PA proceedings now available online, http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu/proceedings/ *************************************************** 3. BRIMS 2011, 21-24 March 2011, 6 Jan 2011 submission deadline http://www.brimsconference.org http://brimsconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/BRIMS_2011_Call_for_Papers.pdf You are invited to participate in the 20th Conference on Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (BRIMS), to be held at the Sundance Resort in Sundance, UT. BRIMS enables modeling and simulation research scientists, engineers, and technical communities across disciplines to meet, share ideas, identify capability gaps, discuss cutting-edge research directions, highlight promising technologies, and showcase the state-of-the-art in Department of Defense related applications. The BRIMS Conference will consist of many exciting elements in 2011, including special topic areas, technical paper sessions, special symposia/panel discussions, and government laboratory sponsor sessions. Highlights of BRIMS 2011 include a fantastic lineup of keynote speakers spanning cognitive modeling, sociocultural modeling, and network science: John Laird, University of Michigan, http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/laird/ Lael Schooler, Max Planck Institute, http://ntfm.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/mpib/FMPro Kathleen Carley, CMU, http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/bios/carley/carley.html Chris Barrett, Virginia Tech, http://ndssl.vbi.vt.edu/people/cbarrett.html The BRIMS Executive Committee invites papers, posters, demos, symposia, panel discussions, and tutorials on topics related to the representation of individuals, groups, teams and organizations in models and simulations. All submissions are peer-reviewed (see www.brimsconference.org for additional details on submission types). KEY DATES: All submissions due: 6 Jan 2011 Tutorial Acceptance: 31 Jan 2011 Authors Notification 31 Jan 2011 Final version due: 18 Feb 2011 Tutorials: 21 March 2011 BRIMS 2010 Opens: 22 March 2011 Special Topic Areas of Interest are identified to elicit specific technical content: * M&S in network science * Statistical/Graphical approaches to M&S * M&S for asymmetric warfare and joint force applications * Cognitive or behavioral performance moderators in M&S * Integration and reuse of models * Large-scale, persistent, and generative modeling issues ACCOMMODATIONS and REGISTRATION The conference will be held at the Sundance Resort in Sundance, UT (http://www.sundanceresort.com) BRIMS PROGAM COMMITTEE: Bradley Best (Adaptive Cognitive Systems) William Kennedy (George Mason University) Frank Ritter (Pennsylvania State University) If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the BRIMS 2011 Conference Chair, Dr. Tiffany Jastrzembski (tiffany.jastrzembski at wpafb.af.mil). *************************************************** 4. BRIMS 2010 proceedings available, BRIMS special issue in CMOT http://brimsconference.org/archives/2010/toc.htm http://acs.ist.psu.edu/papers/CMOT-brims09-si10/special-issue.txt The BRIMS 2010 proceedings are now available at http://brimsconference.org/archives/2010/toc.htm A special issue of the best papers from BRIMS 2009 revised and extended was recently published as a special issue in Computational and Mathematical Organizational Theory: Kennedy, W. G., Ritter, F. E., & Best, B. J. (2010). The best papers from BRIMS2009: Cultural and group models. Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 16(3), 217-219. Reitter, D., & Lebiere, C. (2010). A cognitive model of spatial path-planning. Computational and Mathematical Organization Science, 16, 220-245. Morgan, J. H., Morgan, G., & Ritter, F. E. (2010). A preliminary model of participation for small groups. Computational and Mathematical Organization Science, 16, 246-270. Ball, J., Myers, C., Heiberg, A., Cooke, N. J., Matessa, M., Freiman, M., & Rodgers, S. (2010). The synthetic teammate project. Computational and Mathematical Organization Science, 16, 271-299. Lin, L., & Goodrich, M. A. (2010). A Bayesian approach to modeling lost person behaviors based on terrain features in Wilderness Search and Rescue. Computational and Mathematical Organization Science, 16, 300-323. The listing is also available at http://acs.ist.psu.edu/papers/CMOT-brims09-si10/special-issue.txt *************************************************** 5. Dissertation Prizes in Cognitive Science http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/CogSciPrizes/index.htm Call for Nominations The Robert J. Glushko Dissertation Prizes in Cognitive Science Nomination Deadline: January 15, 2011 The Cognitive Science Society and the Glushko-Samuelson Foundation seek nominations for up to five outstanding dissertation prizes in cognitive science. The goals of these prizes are to increase the prominence of cognitive science, and encourage students to engage in interdisciplinary efforts to understand minds and intelligent systems. The hope is that the prizes will recognize and honor young researchers conducting ground-breaking research in cognitive science. The eventual goal is to aid in efforts to bridge between the areas of cognitive science and create theories of general interest to the multiple fields concerned with scientifically understanding the nature of minds and intelligent systems. Promoting a unified cognitive science is consistent with the belief that understanding how minds work will require the synthesis of many different empirical methods, formal tools, and analytic theories. 2011 is the inaugural year of this annual prize. Up-to-date information on the prizes can be found at http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/CogSciPrizes/index.htm . A Description of the Prizes 1) Up to five Robert J. Glushko Dissertation Prizes in Cognitive Science will be awarded annually. Each prize will be accompanied by a certificate and a $10,000 award to be used by the recipient without any constraints. Prize winners will also receive three years of complimentary membership in the Cognitive Science Society starting with the year in which they have won the prize. 2) Prize-winning dissertations are expected to transcend any one of the individual fields comprising cognitive science. They should centrally address issues of interest to multiple fields that comprise cognitive science, including: psychology, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, and education. 3) Prize-winners must have received a PhD degree no more than two years before the January 15 nomination deadline. For the 2011 prizes, dissertations will be considered from individuals who received their PhD degrees during the period from January 15, 2009 to January 15, 2011. 4) The dissertation prizes are open to any student who has conducted dissertation research related to cognitive science, regardless of nationality or originating department. How to submit details are on the web site. The deadline for nominations is January 15, 2011. Awardees will be announced by April 15, 2011. *************************************************** 6. European Conference on Cognitive Science, 21-24 May 2011 http://nbu.bg/cogs/eurocogsci2011 European Conference on Cognitive Science EuroCogSci 2011 New Bulgarian University in Sofia May 21-24, 2011 Paper submission deadline: December 20, 2010 Program co-chairs are: Annette Karmiloff-Smith (Birbeck College, London, UK) Nancy Nersessian (Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA) Boicho Kokinov (New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria) http://nbu.bg/cogs/eurocogsci2011/ or by email: eurocogsci2011 at cogs.nbu.bg *************************************************** 7. Newell's Desires and Diversions videos now online http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH6oRMNk6hw Allen Newell, Desires and Diversions video is now online on YouTube. This video talks about how to do research. Fatslowkid put them up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH6oRMNk6hw part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1XeIFgXtWc part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=874dCzBLyZM part3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b8gQ0EBdyg part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmRXNP44KMU part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swzUAqo5lwY part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXHT8hv7y44 part 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FYKBV6p7vM part 8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYBl6KlApP4 part 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfrS3sQwcmc part 10 *************************************************** 8. Cognitive scientist, John Anderson, recieves Franklin Medal details at: http://fi.edu/franklinawards/ *************************************************** 9. Practical guide to running studies frank.ritter at psu.edu We have written a 70 page practical guide to running cogsci and HCI studies for research assistants, e.g., how to dress, how to setup and breakdown for each subject. It is used in teaching at 5 universities. If you would like a copy or would like to use it to teach with, please let me know and I'll send you a copy. It may be available in the future from a publisher, and we are continuing to revise it based on feedback. *************************************************** 10. Free iPhone app to compute caffeine usage http://caffeinezone.net This is an application that when you type in your caffeine usage will display your caffeine dose, dosage, and the time course of the caffeine level with respect to default (changable) caffeine levels, including amount you can sleep with. It is free and works on iPhones, iPads, and iPods. *************************************************** 11. New book on modeling multi-tasking, Salvucci & Taatgen http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Psychology/CognitivePsychology/?view=usa&ci=9780199733569 The Multitasking Mind Dario D. Salvucci and Niels A. Taatgen Oxford University Press, $45 Multitasking is all around us: the office worker interrupted by a phone call, the teenager texting while driving, the salesperson chatting while entering an order. When multitasking, the mind juggles all the many tasks we're doing this second, this hour, this week, and tries to perform them together-sometimes with great ease, sometimes with great difficulty. We don't often stop to think about how exactly we accomplish these feats of multitasking great and small. How do we switch from one task to another? What types of multitasking are disruptive, and when are they most disruptive? And ultimately, how can we take advantage of the benefits of multitasking while alleviating its negative effects in our daily lives? This book presents the theory of threaded cognition, a theory that aims to explain the multitasking mind. The theory states that multitasking behavior can be expressed as cognitive threads-independent streams of thought that weave through the mind's processing resources to produce multitasking behavior, and sometimes experience conflicts to produce multitasking interference. Grounded in the ACT-R cognitive architecture, threaded cognition incorporates computational representations and mechanisms used to simulate and predict multitasking behavior and performance. The book describes the implications of threaded cognition theory across three traditionally disparate domains: concurrent multitasking (doing multiple tasks at once), sequential multitasking (interrupting and resuming tasks), and multitask skill acquisition (learning and practicing multiple tasks). The work stresses the importance of unifying basic and applied research by alternating between in-depth descriptions of basic research phenomena and broader treatments of phenomena in applied domains, such as driver distraction and human-computer interaction. The book also includes practical guidelines for designers of interactive systems intended for multitasking contexts. *************************************************** 12. CFP 8th ACM Conf on Creativity & Cognition, 3-6 nov 2011, due 25 mar 11 http://dilab.gatech.edu/ccc/index.html We cordially invite submissions to the 8th ACM Conference on Creativity & Cognition (C&C 2011) as well as to the related art program, tutorials, workshops, and graduate student symposium. Conference: Creativity & Cognition 2011 http://dilab.gatech.edu/ccc/index.html Conference dates: November 3-6, 2011 Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA Submission deadline (for all kinds of submissions): March 25, 2011. [including tutorials, art works, graduate symposium] We welcome contributions from researchers and practitioners, from artists and scientists, from designers, educators and decision makers. Please send all inquiries to: acmcc2011 at gmail.com Program Co-Chairs: Ashok Goel, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Fox Harrell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Brian Magerko, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Yukari Nagai, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan Jane Prophet, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK **************************************************************** 13. CFP: Cognitive Modeling and ComputationalLinguistics, 23 Jun 11, due 1 apr 11 http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~cmcl/ From: "David Reitter" Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:27:32 -0500 To: Subject: [Call for Papers: Cognitive Modeling and ComputationalLinguistics Cognitive Modeling and Computational Linguistics (CMCL) and TopiCS special issue Models of Language Comprehension A workshop to be held June 23, 2011 at the Association for Computational Linguistics meeting in Portland, Oregon http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~cmcl/ CALL FOR PAPERS Workshop Description This workshop provides a venue for work in computational psycholinguistics. ACL Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Martin Kay described this topic as "build[ing] models of language that reflect in some interesting way, on the ways in which people use language." The 2010 workshop follows in the tradition of several previous meetings (1) the computational psycholinguistics meeting at CogSci in Berkeley in 1997 (2) the Incremental Parsing workshop at ACL 2004 (3) the first CMCL workshop at ACL 2010 in inviting contributions that apply methods from computational linguistics to problems in the cognitive modeling of any and all natural language abilities. Scope and Topics The workshop invites a broad spectrum of work in the cognitive science of language, at all levels of analysis from sounds to discourse. Topics include, but are not limited to * incremental parsers for diverse grammar formalisms; models of comprehension difficulty derived from such parsers * models of factors favoring particular productions or interpretations over their competitors * models of semantic interpretation, including psychologically realistic notions of word and phrase meaning * models of human language acquisition, including the prediction of generalizations and time course in acquisition * applications of cognitive models of language, e.g., in tutoring systems, human evaluation, clinical and cognitive neuroscience settings Submissions This call solicits 8-page, full papers reporting original and unpublished research that combines cognitive modeling and computational linguistics. Accepted papers are expected to be presented at the workshop and will be published in the workshop proceedings. They should emphasize obtained results rather than intended work, and should indicate clearly the state of completion of the reported results. A paper accepted for presentation at the workshop must not be presented or have been presented at any other meeting with publicly available proceedings. If essentially identical papers are submitted to other conferences or workshops as well, this fact must be indicated at submission time. To facilitate double-blind reviewing, submitted paper should not include any identifying information about the authors. Submissions must be formatted using ACL 2011 style files available at http://www.acl2011.org/latex/ http://www.acl2011.org/word/ Contributions should be submitted in PDF via the submission site: https://www.softconf.com/acl2011/CogModCL The submission deadline is 11:59PM Eastern Time on April 01, 2011. Pathway to Journal Publication All accepted CMCL papers will be published in the workshop proceedings as is customary at ACL. However, CMCL presenters whose work holds broad interest for the wider cognitive science community will be encouraged to prepare extended versions of their papers (16 pages in APA format). If approved by a second round of reviewing, these extended papers will appear in a forthcoming issue of TopiCS, a Journal of the Cognitive Science Society, entitled entitled "Models of Language Comprehension". These expanded papers will need to be substantially adapted to address the broader TopiCS readership. The Program Committee will be assisted by additional experts, as needed, to apply this and other review criteria. Important Dates Submission deadline: April 01, 2011 Notification of acceptance: April 25, 2011 Camera-ready versions due: May 06, 2011 Workshop: June 23, 2011, at ACL 2011 Workshop Chairs Frank Keller, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh David Reitter, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University Program Committee Steven Abney Michigan Harald R. Baayen Alberta Matthew Crocker Saarland Vera Demberg Saarland Tim O'Donnell Harvard Amit Dubey Edinburgh Mike Frank Stanford Ted Gibson MIT John Hale Cornell Keith Hall Google Florian Jaeger Rochester Lars Konieczny Freiburg Roger Levy San Diego Richard Lewis Michigan Stephan Oepen Oslo Ulrike Pado VICO Research Douglas Roland Buffalo William Schuler Ohio State Mark Steedman Edinburgh Patrick Sturt Edinburgh Shravan Vasishth Potsdam **************************************************************** 14. Assoc. Prof., Florida State, learning Subject: [ACT-R-users] Faculty Position Available - Associate Professor This is an informal call for your input regarding a position at here at LSI, at FSU. I have been asked to consider people suitable for a mid-level position (i.e., Associate Professor), who would interested in joining LSI to undertake interdisciplinary work in the area of the psychology of skill acquisition and skilled and expert performance. The appointment would involve earning tenure in an academic department at FSU such as Psychology or Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (LSI is a research institute, not a formal academic department, and thus does not offer tenure). It would be expected that candidates have established funding connections with state and federal agencies or foundations. They will have published in outlets concerned with these topics such as applied psychology, applied cognitive psychology, applied experimental psychology, human factors, and cognitive field research. Faculty in LSI have reduced teaching and advising loads and thus have opportunities (as well as expectations) for grant capture and project delivery surpassing those associated with more traditional faculty. About LSI: Located on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, the Learning Systems Institute is a multidisciplinary organization dedicated to bridging the gap between research and practice in education and training. The institute develops practical and workable solutions in learning and performance, based on solid research. The Learning Systems Institute maintains project-based teams led by FSU faculty and graduate students with a wide range of experience in many varied disciplines. These multidisciplinary teams develop robust solutions using systems approaches to the planning, design, evaluation, and improvement of instruction, learning, and human performance. Over the past 40 years, the Learning Systems Institute has made significant contributions, nationally and internationally. If you know of anyone that you feel would be interested in this opportunity, please pass on this information to them or their names to me (with their permission) for consideration. We plan to invite interested parties for virtual and actual meetings to explore the possibility of their joining our team. Very best regards, David W. Eccles, BSc. (Hons.), PhD. Associate Professor and Lead Research Scientist, Learning Systems Institute, and Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, College of Education, Florida State University. Learning Systems Institute, C-4600 University Center, Tallahassee, Florida 32306. Direct line: 850-644-5465. Fax: 850-644-4952. deccles at lsi.fsu.edu **************************************************************** 15. Department head, U. of North Florida, review from 6 Dec 2010 http://www.unf.edu/ccec/cis/ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:19:03 -0400 From: "Umapathy, Karthikeyan" Subject: Position announcement for Director, School of Computing, U. of North Florida To: CHI-JOBS at LISTSERV.ACM.ORG List-Subscribe: The University of North Florida, one of eleven public universities in the State of Florida, invites applications and nominations for the position of Director of the School of Computing. The School of Computing resides within College of Computing, Engineering and Construction, offering a bachelor's degree in Computing and Information Sciences with specializations in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Science, and Information Technology and a master's degree in Computing and Information Sciences with specializations in Computer Science, Information Systems, and Software Engineering. The undergraduate computer science, information systems, information science, and information technology programs are accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of ABET Inc. UNF consists of five colleges and has over 16,000 students. The university is located seven miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean and twelve miles southeast of downtown Jacksonville and is a comprehensive urban university in the midst of a nature preserve of more than 1,300 acres. For more information about the city of Jacksonville, visit the official city website at http://www.coj.net/. Candidates for this position must have attained the rank of Full Professor, have an earned doctorate in computing, and must be eligible for tenure within the School of Computing. Preference will be given to candidates who have experience in developing and growing academic programs as well as having a national presence in his/her discipline. Duties will include budget management and oversight, strategic planning, conducting personnel evaluations, community outreach and service, and overseeing accreditation and program assessment activities. The Director reports to the Dean of the College of Computing, Engineering and Construction. For more information about the School of Computing, visit the website: http://www.unf.edu/ccec/cis/. Review of applications begins December 6, 2010 and the position is open until filled. The anticipated start date is July 1, 2011. To apply for this position (#315250), a candidate must complete a one-page online application in the UNF Human Resource system (OASys) at http://www.unfjobs.org, and upload a letter of interest addressing the qualifications mentioned above, a curriculum vitae and a list of three references including the names, titles, phone numbers, physical addresses and email addresses. Questions regarding this search should be directed to: Dr. Bob Roggio, Search Committee Chair School of Computing University of North Florida 1 UNF Drive Jacksonville, FL 32224 socsearch at unf.edu *************************************************** 16. 3 year post-doc in intelligent tutoring, Canterbury, NZ, due 14 Jan 2011 http://ictg.canterbury.ac.nz/ Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:10:08 +1300 From: Tanja Mitrovic Subject: post-doc at ICTG To: CHI-ANNOUNCEMENTS at LISTSERV.ACM.ORG 3 year Post-doc position within the Intelligent Computer Tutoring Group Applications are invited for a 3-year, fixed-term Post Doctoral Research Fellowship in the Intelligent Computer Tutoring Group within the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. The position is a part of the new project titled "Adaptive computer-based cognitive training for post-stroke rehabilitation", funded by the prestigious Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand. The Fellow will be expected to contribute to the project, and enhance the research of the Department. A Ph.D. degree in Computer Science is required, as well as experience in Artificial Intelligence in Education and/or Cognitive Psychology. The candidate should have prior experience and future goals of publishing research. The successful applicant must be able to take up the position by 1 February 2011, or as soon as possible thereafter. The project will develop a new ontological modelling methodology that will enable computer-based training systems adapt to users' specific cognitive functioning abilities. Current intelligent systems do not take the user's cognitive functioning into account; they assume all users have the same level of cognitive functioning, with no restrictions on memory, attention, learning capability, or speed of processing. This new modelling method will be tested in the context of adaptive cognitive training for stroke patients. Current assistive technologies provide simple reminders to stroke patients to compensate for memory loss, but do not provide adaptive training. The proposed intelligent and adaptive training system will use the created methodology to monitor each patient's cognitive deficit and initiate adaptive strategies (e.g. provide specific exercises or tailored advice). Such adaptive training is extremely important to a country with an ageing population such as New Zealand, as it decreases substantial costs of specialized human treatment and patient care. This project will provide a framework for neuropsychological researchers to conduct similar rehabilitative research into training strategies with other brain injuries (even degenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease). It also advances the field of knowledge engineering and paves the way for next-generation, human-centred intelligent systems. The Department of Computer Science is a strong and forward-looking department, dedicated to excellence in research and teaching. It has research strengths across a broad range of areas in pure and applied Computer Science. Information on the Department's research is available at http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/research/. Information about the Intelligent Computer Tutoring Group is available at http://ictg.canterbury.ac.nz/ Enquiries of an academic nature are to be made to the Head of Department, Professor Tanja Mitrovic (tanja.mitrovic at canterbury.ac.nz). Please complete an on-line application at https://ucvacancies.canterbury.ac.nz/psp/ps/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS _CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_JOB_DTL&Action=A&JobOpeningId=1134&SiteId=1&PostingS eq=1 The closing date for applications is 14 Jan 2011 *************************************************** 17. Postdoc in computational cognition at PARC, no date given From: "Peter Pirolli" Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:29:31 PST To: Subject: [ACT-R-users] Postdoc in computational cognition at PARC The Augmented Social Cognition area (ASC) at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is opening a postdoctoral position in computational cognitive modeling. Applications are welcome for a postdoctoral position under the direction of Dr. Peter Pirolli. The overall goal of the project is to develop integrated cognitive-neuroscience architectures for understanding sensemaking. The project brings together researchers in cognitive psychology and neuroscience from multiple organizations to develop biologically-inspired computational cognitive systems. The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, or related fields, with experience in performing empirical psychological studies and developing computational models of cognition. Experience with ACT-R models and/or spatial cognition would be a plus. _______________________________________________ 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 *************************************************** 18. Lectureship in Multi-Agent Systems, Liverpool (DEADLINE: 04:01:2011) http://www.liv.ac.uk/working/job_vacancies/ From: "T.J.M.Hendrey-Seabrook" Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:53:01 +0000 Subject: AISB OPPORTUNITIES BULLETIN To: "Therie Hendrey-Seabrook" Dear AISB members This is the AISB opportunities bulletin for 15/12/2010 ----------------------------- 2. Lectureship in Multi-Agent Systems, Liverpool (DEADLINE: 04:01:2011) www.liv.ac.uk/working/job_vacancies/ (DEADLINE: 04:01:2011) Lecturer in Multi-Agent Systems Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool - Faculty of Science and Engineering ?36,715 - ?46,510 pa The Department, ranked in the top 10 UK Computer Science Departments in RAE2008, is seeking to further strengthen their current research portfolio around existing themes in the Agent ART group including: Logical Approaches to Multi-agent Systems, Co-operation and Game Theory, The Semantic Web and Argumentation and Dialogue. The Agent ART group enjoys close collaborative links with other research groups in the Department (Economics and Computation, Logic and Computation, Complexity Theory and Algorithms). You should have a PhD in computer science or a related discipline, and demonstrated the ability to carry out independent research to a high standard. Job Ref: A-557059/JAC Closing date : 4 January 2011 For full details, or to request an application pack, visit www.liv.ac.uk/working/job_vacancies/ or e-mailjobs at liv.ac.uk Tel 0151 794 2210 (24 hr answerphone) please quote job ref in all enquiries. Committed to diversity and equality of opportunity ******************************************************** 19. Professor in Interaction Design at UCL Interaction Centre, due 31 Jan 2011. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/uclic Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:59:55 +0000 "ACM SIGCHI Job Postings in HCI (Mailing List)" From: Louise Gaynor Subject: Professor in Interaction Design at UCL Interaction Centre Please find below details of a Chair position in the UCL Interaction Centre. University College London, UCL Interaction Centre Professor in Interaction Design Applications are invited for newly established post of Professor in Interaction Design in the UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC). The successful applicant will serve a term of office as Director of UCLIC after a brief handover period. UCLIC is a Centre of Excellence in Human Computer Interaction, working collaboratively with industry and the research community and drawing on the best scientific traditions in computer science and psychology. It is a leading research centre, with both an EPSRC Platform Grant and a Programme Grant on human error and medical devices, as well as several other substantial grants. In UCLIC, we offer an advanced Masters course in HCI with Ergonomics which regularly recruits over 50 high calibre students. We are seeking to appoint someone with an international reputation for excellent research, with enthusiasm for both research and teaching, who will further raise the international profile of the Centre, particularly in the area of novel technology design. The appointment will be on the UCL professorial grade. The salary range will be negotiable on the professorial scale, but not less than ?61,713 per annum. Applications for the position should be made online at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/jobs/. Any candidates unable to apply online should submit an electronic copy to academic.services at ucl.ac.uk or a hard copy to the Director of Academic Services, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT. Please note that the job reference is 1170959. Further information about UCLIC, its staff, research and teaching can be found at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/uclic/. If you have any queries about the application process, please contact Nick McGhee (N.McGhee at ucl.ac.uk, tel: +44 (0)20 7679 8878). Informal inquiries about the post can also be made to Prof. Ann Blandford (Director of UCLIC: A.Blandford at ucl.ac.uk, tel. +44 (0)20 7679 0688) or Prof. John Shawe-Taylor (J.Shawe-Taylor at cs.ucl.ac.uk, tel. +44 (0)20 7679 7680). The closing date for applications is 31 Jan 2011. Interviews are provisionally scheduled for 25 March 2011. -- Dr. Louise Gaynor, Scientific Manager, UCL Interaction Centre, Malet Place Engineering Building 8th floor, Malet Place, London WC1E 7JE Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 0686 Internal extension: 30686 L.Gaynor at ucl.ac.uk From Dave_Touretzky at cs.cmu.edu Tue Jan 4 07:26:32 2011 From: Dave_Touretzky at cs.cmu.edu (Dave_Touretzky@cs.cmu.edu) Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2011 07:26:32 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Faculty position in Computational Neuroscience at CMU Message-ID: <15046.1294143992@ammon.boltz.cs.cmu.edu> Faculty Opportunities: Computational Neuroscience The Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) and the School of Computer Science (SCS) at Carnegie Mellon University are jointly soliciting applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor in computational neuroscience and computer science (including the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics). We are particularly interested in applicants who build computational models of brain processes, who apply machine learning to model neural data, or who develop computational models of learning in biological systems. The specific research program can cover any aspect of cognition, including perception, memory, language, or the planning and coordination of action. The faculty appointment will be joint between the CNBC and the most relevant of several departments within SCS, including the Computer Science Department, the Machine Learning Department, and the Robotics Institute. Regardless of appointment, we expect a successful candidate to collaborate with experimentalists, who may use any of a variety of techniques, including two-photon imaging, multiunit electrophysiology, fMRI, MEG, EEG, and behavioral psychophysics. Candidates must have evidence of compelling research contributions and a commitment to high quality teaching. Carnegie Mellon University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. The deadline for initial review of applications is January 1, 2011, but later applications will be considered until the position is filled. Applications, including a cover letter, a CV, a statement of teaching philosophy, a statement of research interests, copies of no more than 3 relevant papers, and the contact information for at least three individuals who have been asked to provide letters of reference should be submitted electronically – in PDF format – to the following email address: faculty-search at cs.cmu.edu. Please include the subject line "Application Submission" with your application. Applications should indicate citizenship and, for non-US citizens, current visa status. Only complete applications in pdf format will be processed. Applicants should also arrange for reference letters in PDF format to be sent directly to faculty-search at cs.cmu.edu before January 15th, 2011. More information regarding this search may be found at: www.cs.cmu.edu/~scsdean/FacultyPage/scshiringad.html If you encounter technical problems, please write to faculty-search at cs.cmu.edu Additional information about the CNBC may be found at www.cnbc.cmu.edu Additional information about the School of Computer Science may be found at www.cs.cmu.edu -- Dr. David S. Touretzky Research Professor Computer Science Department & Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891 tel. 412-268-7561 From matthewb at Princeton.EDU Tue Jan 4 07:49:37 2011 From: matthewb at Princeton.EDU (Matthew Botvinick) Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 07:49:37 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Research Assistant Opening at Princeton (Please pass along to your favorite undergrads!) Message-ID: RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSITION -- PRINCETON UNIVERSITY A position as a Research Assistant is available in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Botvinick, in the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University. Research in the lab employs functional neuroimaging, behavioral methods and computational modeling to understand basic cognitive functions, including cognitive control, working memory, action programming, and language processing. Research Assistant responsibilities include subject recruitment, designing, programming and running behavioral and imaging experiments, data analysis, some administrative work, and the mentoring of undergraduates in the lab. The position will begin in the summer of 2011. A commitment of two years is required. A background in psychology, neuroscience, or computer science is preferred, as is familiarity with basic statistical procedures (ANOVA, regression). Familiarity with Unix and MATLAB, and some experience with computer programming are also desirable. The final candidate must successfully pass an MR safety screening in order to work in the MR environment. To apply please visit our website at http://jobs.princeton.edu, create an application and submit documents to req # 1000941. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, and will continue until the position is filled. Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative action regulations. You may apply online at http://jobs.princeton.edu or for general application information and how to selfidentify, see http://web.princeton.edu/sites/dof/ApplicantsInfo.htm. We strongly recommend, however, that all interested candidates use the online application process. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110104/7d1ef739/attachment-0001.html From m.kaiser at newcastle.ac.uk Tue Jan 4 09:33:49 2011 From: m.kaiser at newcastle.ac.uk (Marcus Kaiser) Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 14:33:49 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Final call: 4-year PhD programme in Systems Neuroscience (Newcastle University) Message-ID: Dear all, our Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme in systems neuroscience, aimed at applicants from the physical sciences (physics, engineering, mathematics, or computer science), is now accepting applications for studentships starting in September 2011 (see below). Research areas include Neuroinformatics, Computational Neuroscience, Neuroimaging (fMRI, DTI, EEG, ECoG), Brain Connectivity, and Brain Dynamics (simulations and time series analysis). You can find out more about participating faculty members and research areas at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/staff/academic.htm Best, Marcus Systems Neuroscience: From Networks to Behaviour - sponsored by the Wellcome Trust Programme Directors: Prof Miles Whittington, Prof Tim Griffiths and Dr Marcus Kaiser The Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University integrates more than 100 principal investigators across medicine, psychology, computer science, and engineering. Research in systems, cellular, computational, and behavioural neuroscience. Laboratory facilities include auditory and visual psychophysics; rodent, monkey, and human neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI, PET); TMS; optical recording, multi-electrode neurophysiology, confocal and fluorescence imaging, high-throughput computing and e-science, artificial sensory-motor devices, clinical testing, and the only brain bank for molecular changes in human brain development. You can find out more about participating faculty members and research areas at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/staff/academic.htm The Wellcome Trust?s Four-year PhD Programmes are a flagship scheme aimed at supporting the most promising students to undertake in-depth postgraduate research training. The first year combines taught courses with three laboratory rotations to broaden students? knowledge of the subject area. At the end of the first year, students will make an informed choice of their three-year PhD research project. This programme is based at Newcastle University and is aimed to provide specialised training for physical and computational scientists (e.g. physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and computer science) wishing to apply their skills to a research neuroscience career. Eligibility/Person Specification: Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a 1st or 2:1 degree, or equivalent, in a physical sciences, engineering, mathematics or computing degree. Value of the award: Support includes a stipend for 4 years, PhD registration fees at UK/EU student rate, research expenses, general training funds and some travel costs. How to apply: You must apply through the University's online postgraduate application form (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/ ) inserting the reference number IN042 and selecting PhD Faculty of Medical Sciences - Neuroscience (full time) as the programme of study. Only mandatory fields need to be completed (no personal statement required) and a covering letter, CV and (if English is not your first language) a copy of your English language qualifications must be attached. The covering letter must state the title of the studentship, quote the reference number ION64 and state how your interests and experience relate to the project. The deadline for receiving applications is 14 January 2011. You should also send your covering letter and CV to Helen Stewart, Postgraduate Secretary, Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, or by email to h.stewart at ncl.ac.uk . For more information, see http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/postgrad/research/wellcome/ -- Marcus Kaiser, Ph.D. Reader (Associate Professor) in Neuroinformatics School of Computing Science Newcastle University Claremont Tower Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK http://www.biological-networks.org/? From bowlby at bu.edu Wed Jan 5 08:26:08 2011 From: bowlby at bu.edu (Brian Bowlby) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 08:26:08 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: 15th ICCNS Conference: Call for Abstracts and Confirmed Invited Speakers Message-ID: <87C7041F-E473-4AB6-9C6A-784DD555922F@bu.edu> FIFTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS May 11?14, 2011 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://celest.bu.edu) with financial support from the National Science Foundation This interdisciplinary conference is attended each year by approximately 300 people from 30 countries around the world. As in previous years, the conference will focus on solutions to the questions: HOW DOES THE BRAIN CONTROL BEHAVIOR? HOW CAN TECHNOLOGY EMULATE BIOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE? The conference is aimed at researchers and students of computational neuroscience, cognitive science, neural networks, neuromorphic engineering, and artificial intelligence. It includes invited lectures and contributed lectures and posters by experts on the biology and technology of how the brain and other intelligent systems adapt to a changing world. The conference is particularly interested in exploring how the brain and biologically-inspired algorithms and systems in engineering and technology can learn. Single-track oral and poster sessions enable all presented work to be highly visible. Three-hour poster sessions with no conflicting events will be held on two of the conference days. Posters will be up all day, and can also be viewed during breaks in the talk schedule. CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS Edward Adelson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) The perception of materials and surfaces George Alvarez (Harvard University) How does neural architecture constrain attentional selection? Daphne Bavelier (University of Rochester) Action video games as an exemplary learning tool Ed Boyden (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Controlling brain circuits with light: New tools for analyzing neural systems Marvin Chun (Yale University) Competitive interactions in memory encoding and retrieval James DiCarlo (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Untangling object recognition in the ventral visual stream Howard Eichenbaum (Boston University) The hippocampus in space and time Michale Fee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Prime movers of the brain: Neural circuits that drive complex motor behavior Michael Goldberg (Columbia University) [Plenary Speaker] Attention and arousal in the parietal cortex Stephen Grossberg (Boston University) Neural dynamics of invariant object recognition, sequential memory, and action Takao Hensch (Harvard University) Shaping neural circuits by early experience Okihide Hikosaka (National Institutes of Health) [Plenary Speaker] Basal ganglia mechanisms for reward-based learning Nancy Kopell (Boston University) [Plenary Speaker] Multiple gamma rhythms and their functional implications Laurence Maloney (New York University) Perception, action, and uncertainty John Maunsell (Harvard Medical School) A neuronal population code for attentional state Michael Paradiso (Brown University) Saccadic eye movements and their role in neural coding and perception Ning Qian (Columbia University) Low- and high-level contributions to face perception: An adaptation study Kamal Sen (Boston University) At a cocktail party for songbirds David Sheinberg (Brown University) From shape to action Barbara Shinn-Cunningham (Boston University) Understanding individual differences in auditory attention: From physiology to behavior Herbert Terrace (Columbia University) [Plenary Speaker] Missing links in the evolution of language Steven Zucker (Yale University) Learning long-range horizontal connections in visual cortex CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Session Topics: * vision * image understanding * audition * speech and language * unsupervised learning * supervised learning * reinforcement and emotion * sensory-motor control * cognition, planning, and attention * spatial mapping and navigation * object recognition * neural circuit models * neural system models * mathematics of neural systems * robotics * hybrid systems (fuzzy, evolutionary, digital) * neuromorphic VLSI * industrial applications * other Contributed abstracts must be received, in English, by January 31, 2011. Email notification of acceptance will be provided by February 28, 2011. A meeting registration fee must accompany each abstract. The fee will be refunded if the abstract is not accepted for presentation. Fees of accepted abstracts will be returned upon written request only until April 8, 2011. Abstracts must not exceed one 8.5"x11" page in length, with 1" margins on top, bottom, and both sides in a single-column format with a font of 10 points or larger. The title, authors, affiliations, surface, and email addresses should begin each abstract. A separate cover letter should include the abstract title; name and contact information for corresponding and presenting authors; requested preference for oral or poster presentation; and a first and second choice from the topics above, including whether it is biological (B) or technological (T) work [Example: first choice: vision (T); second choice: neural system models (B)]. Contributed talks will be 15 minutes long. Posters will be displayed for a full day. Overhead, slide, and computer projector facilities will be available for talks. Accepted abstracts will be printed in the conference proceedings volume. No extended paper will be required. Abstracts should be submitted electronically as Word files to cindy at bu.edu using the phrase ?15th ICCNS abstract submission? in the subject line or as paper hard copy (four copies of the abstract with one copy of the cover letter and the registration form) to Cynthia Bradford, Boston University, CNS Department, 677 Beacon Street, Boston MA 02215 USA. Fax submissions of the abstract will not be accepted. REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Early registration is recommended using the registration form below. Student registrations must be accompanied by a letter of verification from a department chairperson or faculty/research advisor. REGISTRATION FORM Fifteenth International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems May 11?14, 2011 Boston University Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems 677 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA Fax: +1 617 353 7755 Mr/Ms/Dr/Prof:_____________________________________________________ Affiliation:_________________________________________________________ Address:__________________________________________________________ City, State, Postal Code:______________________________________________ Phone and Fax:_____________________________________________________ Email:____________________________________________________________ The registration fee includes a copy of the conference proceedings volume, a reception on Friday night, and 3 coffee breaks each day. CHECK ONE: ( ) $150 Conference (Regular) ( ) $95 Conference (Student) METHOD OF PAYMENT: [ ] Enclosed is a check made payable to "Boston University" Checks must be made payable in US dollars and issued by a US correspondent bank. Each registrant is responsible for any and all bank charges. [ ] I wish to pay by credit card (MasterCard, Visa, or Discover Card only) Name as it appears on the card:___________________________________________ Type of card: _____________________________ Expiration date:________________ Account number: _______________________________________________________ Signature:____________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110105/d1faabed/attachment-0002.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: brochure.doc Type: application/msword Size: 261632 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110105/d1faabed/brochure-0001.doc -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110105/d1faabed/attachment-0003.html From Yuko.Munakata at Colorado.EDU Tue Jan 4 12:37:30 2011 From: Yuko.Munakata at Colorado.EDU (Yuko Munakata) Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 10:37:30 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Applications in Cognitive Development at CU Boulder Message-ID: <95174070-4731-484A-9199-7EB2ECEFF3E3@colorado.edu> Postdoctoral Applicants Cognitive Development Center University of Colorado Boulder I am seeking postdoctoral applications from candidates interested in studying the development of cognitive control. Work in my lab investigates these issues primarily through behavioral studies with children and through neural network simulations. In collaboration with colleagues in our NIMH Center for Executive Function and Dysfunction, we are also investigating mechanisms of cognitive control using fMRI, ERP, and pharmacological methods. Start date is preferably Fall 2011. Interested individuals should send a curriculum vitae, representative publications, a statement of research interests, and three letters of recommendation via email to munakata at colorado.edu. Review of applications will begin Jan 31. For more information, see: http://psych.colorado.edu/~munakata/ http://psych.colorado.edu/cdc/ http://defd.colorado.edu/ The University of Colorado Boulder is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment. Yuko ------------- Yuko Munakata, Professor Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, 345 UCB University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0345 munakata at colorado.edu, http://psych.colorado.edu/~munakata From erik at oist.jp Wed Jan 5 01:43:31 2011 From: erik at oist.jp (Erik De Schutter) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 15:43:31 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course 2011: Application form available Message-ID: <211F40B7-80F8-4F2B-9313-C552095EF7DE@oist.jp> OKINAWA COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE COURSE 2011 Methods, Neurons, Networks and Behaviors June 13 - June 30, 2011. Okinawa, Japan http://www.irp.oist.jp/ocnc/2011 The aim of the Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course is to provide opportunities for young researchers with theoretical backgrounds to learn the latest advances in neuroscience, and for those with experimental backgrounds to have hands-on experience in computational modeling. We invite graduate students and postgraduate researchers to participate in the course, held from June 13th through June 30th, 2011 at an oceanfront seminar house of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Applications are through the course web page only; they will open January 3rd and close February 14th, 2011. Applicants are required to propose a project at the time of application. Applicants will receive confirmation of acceptance in March. Like in preceding years, OCNC will be a comprehensive three-week course covering single neurons, networks, and behaviors with ample time for student projects. The first week will focus exclusively on methods with hands-on tutorials during the afternoons, while the second and third weeks will have lectures by international experts. We invite those who are interested in integrating experimental and computational approaches at each level, as well as in bridging different levels of complexity. The sponsor will provide lodging and meals during the course and support travel for those without funding. We hope that this course will be a good opportunity for theoretical and experimental neuroscientists to meet each other and to explore the attractive nature and culture of Okinawa, the southernmost island prefecture of Japan. Invited faculty: ? Brenner, Sydney ? De Schutter, Erik ? Doya, Kenji ? Ermentrout, Bard ? Gerstner, Wulfram ? Haruno, Masahiko ? Jeff, Wickens ? Li, Zhaoping ? McCormick, David ? Nicolelis, Miguel ? Prinz, Astrid ? Seung, Sebastian ? Stevens, Chuck ? Stiefel, Klaus ? Yu, Angela From x.tao at qut.edu.au Thu Jan 6 01:04:08 2011 From: x.tao at qut.edu.au (Daniel Tao) Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 16:04:08 +1000 Subject: Connectionists: CfP: Brain Informatics 2011 In-Reply-To: <545658E09448254E973C5204015BA95D048B348F45@QUTEXMBX01.qut.edu.au> References: <390601707330354F80015E0BDC999F0C06DEFADE5B@QUTEXMBX01.qut.edu.au> ,<545658E09448254E973C5204015BA95D048B348F45@QUTEXMBX01.qut.edu.au> Message-ID: <6980AE062BD7A948AC400460C90C57220B0626@QUTEXMBX01.qut.edu.au> [Apologies if you receive this more than once] ############################################################### Brain Informatics 2011 CALL FOR PAPERS ############################################################### 2011 International Conference on Brain Informatics (BI 2011) September 7-9, 2011, Lanzhou, China Homepage: http://wi-consortium.org/conferences/amtbi11/ Mirror page: http://uais.lzu.edu.cn/amtbi11 Co-organized by IEEE Task Force on Brain Informatics (IEEE TF-BI) Web Intelligence Consortium (WIC) Co-sponsored by Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science ################################################################## # Papers Due: *** 31 March 2011 *** # Accepted papers will be published by Springer as a volume of # the series of LNCS/LNAI. # Extensions of selected papers from the proceedings will be # considered for publication in special issues of journals, ################################################################## Brain Informatics (BI) is an emerging interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research field that focuses on studying the mechanisms underlying the human information processing system (HIPS). BI investigates the essential functions of the brain, ranging from perception to thinking, and encompassing such areas as multi- perception, attention, memory, language, computation, heuristic search, reasoning, planning, decision-making, problem-solving, learning, discovery, and creativity. One goal of BI research is to develop and demonstrate a systematic approach to an integrated understanding of macroscopic and microscopic level working principles of the brain, by means of experimental, computational, and cognitive neuroscience studies, as well as utilizing advanced Web Intelligence (WI) centric information technologies. Another goal is to promote new forms of collaborative and interdisciplinary work. New kinds of BI methods and global research communities will emerge, through infrastructure on the wisdom Web and knowledge grids that enables high speed and distributed, large-scale analysis and computations, and radically new ways of data/knowledge sharing. The series of Brain Informatics Conferences started with The First WICI International Workshop on Web Intelligence meets Brain Informatics (WImBI'06), held at Beijing, China, December 15-16, 2006. The second conference, Brain Informatics 2009, was held again in Beijing, China, October 22-24, 2009. And the third International Conference on Brain Informatics (BI 2010) was jointly held with the 2010 International Conference on Active Media Technology (AMT10) in Toronto, Canada. The Brain Informatics Conferences provide a leading international forum to bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse fields, such as computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence, Web intelligence, cognitive science, neuroscience, medical science, life science, economics, data mining, data and knowledge engineering, intelligent agent technology, human computer interaction, complex systems, and system science, to explore the main research problems in BI lie in the interplay between the studies of human brain and the research of informatics. On the one hand, one models and characterizes the functions of the human brain based on the notions of information processing systems. WI centric information technologies are applied to support brain science studies. For instance, the wisdom Web and knowledge grids enable high-speed, large-scale analysis, simulation, and computation as well as new ways of sharing research data and scientific discoveries. On the other hand, informatics-enabled brain studies, e.g., based on fMRI, EEG, MEG significantly broaden the spectrum of theories and models of brain sciences and offer new insights into the development of human-level intelligence on the wisdom Web and knowledge grids. Brain Informatics 2011 will be jointly held with the 2011 International Conference on Active Media Technology (AMT 2011). The two conferences will have a joint opening, keynote, reception, and banquet. Attendees only need to register for one conference and can attend workshops, sessions, exhibits and demonstrations across the two conferences. The WIC decided to organize AMT2011 and BI 2011 in memoriam of Herbert Simon. +++++++++++++++++++ Topics of Interest +++++++++++++++++++ CONFERENCE TOPICS AND AREAS INCLUDE, BUT NOT LIMITED TO - Thinking and perception-centric investigations of HIPS: * Human reasoning mechanisms (e.g., principles of human deductive/inductive reasoning, common-sense reasoning, decision making, and problem solving) * Human learning mechanisms (e.g., stability, personalized user/student models) * Emotion, heuristic search, information granularity, and autonomy related issues in human reasoning and problem solving * Human higher cognitive functions and their relationships * Human multi-perception mechanisms and visual, auditory, and tactile information processing * Methodologies for systematic design of cognitive experiments * Investigating spatiotemporal characteristics and flow in HIPS and the related neural structures and neurobiological process * Cognitive architectures; their relations to fMRI/EEG/MEG * HIPS meets complex systems * Modeling brain information processing mechanisms (e.g., neuro-mechanism, mathematical, cognitive and computational models of HIPS). - Information technologies for the management and use of brain data: * Human brain data collection, pre-processing, management, and analysis * Databasing the brain and constructing data brain models * Data brain modeling and formal conceptual models of human brain data * Multi-media brain data mining and reasoning * Multi-aspect analysis in fMRI/EEG/MEG activations * Simulating spatiotemporal characteristics and flow in HIPS * Developing brain data grids and brain research support portals * Knowledge representation and discovery in neuroimaging * Multimodal information fusion for brain image interpretation * Statistical analysis and pattern recognition in neuroimaging - Applications * Neuro-economics and neuro-marketing * Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI) * Brain/Cognition inspired artificial systems * Wisdom Web systems based on new cognitive and computational models * MCI and AD diagnosis * e-Science, e-Health and e-Medicine ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ On-Line Submissions and Publication ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ High-quality papers in all BI related areas are solicited. Papers exploring new directions will receive a careful and supportive review. All submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance, and clarity. The proceeding of the conference will be published by Springer as a volume of the series of Lecture Notes in Computer Science/Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI). (Pending for approval.) Authors are strongly encouraged to use Springer LNCS/LNAI manuscript submission guidelines (available at http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html) for their initial submissions (a maximum of 12 pages in Springer LNCS/LNAI style file). All papers must be submitted electronically in PDF format only, using the conference management tool. We will also have poster, demonstration, and late breaking result paper sessions. More detailed instructions and a paper submission form can be found the BI'11 Web page at http://wi-consortium.org/conferences/amtbi11/ A selected number of the best papers from BI'11 will be expanded and revised for possible inclusion in "Knowledge and Information Systems: An International Journal" (http://www.cs.uvm.edu/~kais/) by Springer and "Cognitive Systems Research: An International Journal" (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13890417) by Elsevier. +++++++ Awards +++++++ BI 2011 best paper awards and student paper awards will be conferred on the authors at the conference. ++++++++++++++++ Important Dates ++++++++++++++++ Electronic submission of full papers (12 pages in Springer LNAI/LNCS style file): *** 31 March 2011 *** Notification of paper acceptance: June 1, 2011 Camera-ready of accepted papers: June 24, 2011 Conference: September 7-9, 2011 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Conference Organization ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Conference General Chairs Lin Chen, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Ning Zhong, Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan Program Chairs Bin Hu, Lanzhou University, China Jiming Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, HK Organizing Chairs Yuejia Luo, Beijing Normal University, China Mariano Alcaniz, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain Cristina Botella Arbona, University Jaume I, Spain Publicity Chairs Li Liu, Lanzhou University, China Xiaohui (Daniel) Tao, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Yi Zeng, Beijing University of Technology, China IEEE-CIS-TFBI Chair Ning Zhong, Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan WIC Co-Chairs/Directors Ning Zhong, Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan Jiming Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, HK WIC Advisory Board Edward A. Feigenbaum, Stanford University, USA Setsuo Ohsuga, University of Tokyo, Japan Benjamin Wah, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA Philip Yu, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA L.A. Zadeh, University of California, Berkeley, USA WIC Tech. Committee Jeffrey Bradshaw, UWF/Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, USA Nick Cercone, York University, Canada Dieter Fensel, University of Innsbruck, Austria Georg Gottlob, Oxford University, UK Lakhmi Jain, University of South Australia, Australia Jianchang Mao, Yahoo! Inc., USA Pierre Morizet, Mahoudeaux Compiegne University of Technology, France Hiroshi Motoda, Osaka University, Japan Toyoaki Nishida, Kyoto University, Japan Andrzej Skowron, Warsaw University, Poland Jinglong Wu, Okayama University, Japan Xindong Wu, University of Vermont, USA Yiyu Yao, University of Regina, Canada *** Contact Information *** Li Liu, liliu at lzu.edu.cn Yi Zeng, yizeng at bjut.edu.cn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110106/58ae77a9/attachment-0001.html From a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk Thu Jan 6 11:49:34 2011 From: a.k.seth at sussex.ac.uk (Anil Seth) Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:49:34 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: postdoctoral position available in consciousness science (for posting) Message-ID: <4D25F29E.8090405@sussex.ac.uk> *Postdoctoral Position available in consciousness science*: A two-year full-time post-doctoral position is available within the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science (SCCS) at the University of Sussex, starting in Spring/Summer 2011. This research initiative is funded by the large-scale EU project 'collective experience of empathic data systems' (CEEDS, see www.ceeds-project.eu ). You will work with Dr. Anil Seth (SCCS co-director) and others in the group, on developing and testing a theoretical model of the neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning conscious presence. Presence is a key dimension structuring conscious experience, but one that requires explanation. For example, in virtual reality, researchers try to engender conscious presence in simulated environment. Conversely, certain psychiatric disorders (e.g., depersonalization, derealisation) seem to selectively affect conscious presence. For more information and for how to apply see www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ACC296/ and follow the links on www.anilseth.com. More information about the SCCS is at www.sussex.ac.uk/sackler/. The closing date for applications if Feb 28, 2011 -- Anil K. Seth, D.Phil. Co-Director, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science School of Informatics, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, UK W: www.anilseth.com, T: +44 1273 678549, -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110106/791b7d3c/attachment.html From R.Bogacz at bristol.ac.uk Fri Jan 7 08:24:16 2011 From: R.Bogacz at bristol.ac.uk (Rafal Bogacz) Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:24:16 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Senior Lecturer/Reader in Engineering Mathematics at Bristol Message-ID: <4D271400.7090205@bristol.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues, I would like to let you know that the following faculty position is available at the University of Bristol. Researchers working on application of dynamical systems and network theory to neuroscience are most welcome to apply. Best wishes, Rafal Bogacz Senior Lecturer/Reader in Engineering Mathematics Merchant Venturers' School of Engineering, University of Bristol, UK. Contract: Permanent Salary: ?46510 - ?52347 Closing date for applications: 9:00am 14 Jan 2011 We are seeking an outstanding individual to join the Department of Engineering Mathematics based in the Merchant Venturers School of Engineering (comprising of three departments and nine research groups). The appointment will be made at Senior Lecturer or Reader level although in exceptional cases a more senior appointment may be considered. You will join a vibrant and unique department with a strong international reputation for research in Applied Nonlinear Mathematics and Intelligent Systems. Recent success has included a ?1.6M EPSRC grant, a Royal Society Wolfson award, a doctoral training centre in Complexity Sciences and the Bristol/Bath EngD in Systems Engineering. The Doctoral Training Centre in Complexity Science has just been awarded a ?3.6M extension providing 10 EPSRC studentships each year for the next three years. The Department has a strong interdisciplinary culture, with strong links in biology and social medicine, and industrial links with BT, GCHQ and Airbus, amongst others. Candidates should have an established track record in an area related to the Department's current research interests and a desire to engage in interdisciplinary research across the university and beyond. Applicants with a background in complex networks as applied to dynamical systems in engineering, communications, data mining, computer science, bio-medical systems or the social sciences would be particularly welcome. Candidates should also be willing to engage in teaching mathematics across the Faculty of Engineering as well as taking an active part in the development of our unique Engineering Mathematics degree programmes. Informal enquiries should be made to Prof. Jonathan Lawry (email: j.lawry at bris.ac.uk) as Head of Department, Prof. John Hogan (email: S.J.Hogan at bris.ac.uk), Head of the Applied Nonlinear Mathematics Group (https://wikis.bris.ac.uk/display/ANMwiki/Home) or Prof. Nello Cristianini (email: nello.cristianini at gmail.com), Head of the Intelligent Systems group (http://intelligentsystems.bristol.ac.uk/home/index.html). Interviews are anticipated to be held in March 2011. Full details available at: http://www.bris.ac.uk/boris/jobs/feeds/ads?ID=91848 From t.heskes at science.ru.nl Sat Jan 8 16:06:31 2011 From: t.heskes at science.ru.nl (Tom Heskes) Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:06:31 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Neurocomputing volume 74 (issue 5) Message-ID: <4D28D1D7.3000208@science.ru.nl> Neurocomputing volume 74 (issue 5) ----------- REGULAR PAPERS Image reconstruction by an alternating minimisation Xiaoqiang Lu, Yi Sun, Yuan Yuan An application of the self-organizing map in the non-Euclidean Traveling Salesman Problem Jan Faigl, Miroslav Kulich, Vojt?ch Von?sek, Libor P?eu?il Statistical approaches to combining binary classifiers for multi-class classification Yuichi Shiraishi, Kenji Fukumizu Stability and bifurcation analysis of a six-neuron BAM neural network model with discrete delays Changjin Xu, Xianhua Tang, Maoxin Liao A novel robust kernel for visual learning problems Chia-Te Liao, Shang-Hong Lai Mean square exponential stability in high-order stochastic impulsive BAM neural networks with time-varying delays Haibo Gu Passivity analysis for neural networks with a time-varying delay Hong-Bing Zeng, Yong He, Min Wu, Shen-Ping Xiao Melt index prediction by RBF neural network optimized with an MPSO-SA hybrid algorithm Jiubao Li, Xinggao Liu Bimode model for face recognition and face representation Hui Yan, Jian Yang, Jingyu Yang Convergence analysis of a back-propagation algorithm with adaptive momentum Hongmei Shao, Gaofeng Zheng Fault tolerant machine learning for nanoscale cognitive radio Joni Pajarinen, Jaakko Peltonen, Mikko A. Uusitalo Boundedness and convergence of online gradient method with penalty and momentum Hongmei Shao, Gaofeng Zheng Error tolerance based support vector machine for regression Guoqi Li, Changyun Wen, Guang-Bin Huang, Yan Chen ART-type CMAC network classifier Ming-Feng Yeh, Min-Shyang Leu State estimation of recurrent neural networks with time-varying delay: A novel delay partition approach He Huang, Gang Feng Pyramid binary pattern features for real-time pedestrian detection from infrared videos Hao Sun, Cheng Wang, Boliang Wang, Naser El-Sheimy Synchronization for general complex dynamical networks with sampled-data Nan Li, Yulian Zhang, Jiawen Hu, Zhenyu Nie Local margin based semi-supervised discriminant embedding for visual recognition Feng Pan, Jiandong Wang, Xiaohui Lin Unsupervised feature extraction via kernel subspace techniques A.R. Teixeira, A.M. Tom?, E.W. Lang Global exponential stability in Lagrange sense for periodic neural networks with various activation functions Ailong Wu, Zhigang Zeng, Chaojin Fu, Wenwen Shen Stochastic dissipativity analysis on discrete-time neural networks with time-varying delays Qiankun Song Cluster synchronization in an array of coupled stochastic delayed neural networks via pinning control Lulu Li, Jinde Cao On the exponential synchronization of stochastic impulsive chaotic delayed neural networks Tiedong Ma, Jie Fu Comment on ?Blind source separation based on endpoint estimation with applications to the MLSP 2006 data competition? Sergio Cruces, Andrzej Cichocki ------------ JOURNAL SITE: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/neucom SCIENCE DIRECT: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/5660-2011-999259994-2844748 From rak at minduploading.org Mon Jan 10 20:56:59 2011 From: rak at minduploading.org (Randal Koene) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:56:59 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Fwd: Call for Contributed NEUROSCIENCE Papers to the Artificial General Intelligence conference (AGI-11) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear friends and colleagues, I am organizing a *Special Track on NEUROSCIENCE and AI* at the Artificial General Intelligence conference (AGI-10) that will take place *3-6 August 2011 in Mountain View, California*, USA. http://agi-conf.org/2011/ Previous AGI conferences in the series have clearly demonstrated the many areas of overlap between neuroscience and AI, as well as the strong need for more interaction and collaboration between the two fields of research. *CALL FOR NEUROSCIENCE PAPERS* We would like to specifically solicit paper submission from neuroscientists (and researchers in neuroscience related fields) that cover: - NEUROSCIENCE results of ideas with implications for ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE - Discussions of the relation between NEUROSCIENCE and ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE Submission deadline is 15 FEBRUARY 2011. We welcome solid theoretical papers, as well as those presenting relevant experimental results. We also welcome speculative ideas so long as they are properly grounded in science. The *generic Call for Papers* below describes the conference and the paper submission process, which is identical for Neuroscience papers. I hope to see you at AGI-11 in August! Best regards, Dr. Randal A. Koene, member Organizing Committee AGI-11 *Call for Papers* The original goal of the AI field was the construction of ?thinking machines?, that is, computer systems with human-like general intelligence. For the last few decades, however, the majority of AI researchers have focused on what can be called ?narrow AI? ? systems with intelligence limited to specific, highly constrained tasks. In recent years more and more researchers have recognized the necessity ? and feasibility ? of returning to the original goals of the field. Increasingly, there is a call for confronting the more difficult issues of human-level intelligence, and more broadly ?artificial general intelligence? (AGI). Continuing the mission of the first three highly successful Conferences on Artificial General Intelligence, AGI-11 will gather an international group of leading academic and industry researchers involved in serious scientific and engineering work aimed directly at the goal of AGI. This is the only major conference series devoted wholly and specifically to the creation of AI systems possessing general intelligence at the human level and beyond. AGI-11 will be hosted by Google in Mountain View, California. Submit papers or proposals, for workshops, tutorials, or demos, electronically to EasyChair (you may need to Create an EasyChair Account first). Whether an accepted paper (either full-length or short position statement) will be presented as a talk or as a poster will be determined by the Program Committee, in part based on paper quality as assessed by the anonymous reviewers, and in part according to the extent the paper addresses a topic of core interest to the AGI community. All accepted papers are required to have at least one registered author per paper. Multiple papers require multiple registrations. AGI-11 will accept two types of submissions: full-length papers (10 pages) and short position statements (3 pages). A good sense of the overall nature of the conference may be found via perusing AGI-10 , AGI-09, and AGI-08 . *Author Instructions* Submissions should follow the Spring Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence author instructions here . *Important Dates* February 15, 2011 ? Final Submissions *AGI-11 Submissions Policy* Whether an accepted paper (of either length) will be presented as a talk or as a poster will be determined by the Program Committee, in part based on paper quality as assessed by the anonymous reviewers, and in part according to the extent the paper addresses a topic of core interest to the AGI community. The acceptance of a paper is based on the assumption that one of the authors will attend the conference to present the paper. Any questions can be directed to one of the conference chairs . *AGI-11 Copyright Policy* Springer-Verlag will hold the copyright to the published paper. Authors should archive their paper on their own web site as well, with the following text included: ?The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com?. The Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence copyright form is available here . Call for Papers The original goal of the AI field was the construction of ?thinking machines?, that is, computer systems with human-like general intelligence. For the last few decades, however, the majority of AI researchers have focused on what can be called ?narrow AI? ? systems with intelligence limited to specific, highly constrained tasks. In recent years more and more researchers have recognized the necessity ? and feasibility ? of returning to the original goals of the field. Increasingly, there is a call for confronting the more difficult issues of human-level intelligence, and more broadly ?artificial general intelligence? (AGI). Continuing the mission of the first three highly successful Conferences on Artificial General Intelligence, AGI-11 will gather an international group of leading academic and industry researchers involved in serious scientific and engineering work aimed directly at the goal of AGI. This is the only major conference series devoted wholly and specifically to the creation of AI systems possessing general intelligence at the human level and beyond. AGI-11 will be hosted by Google in Mountain View, California. Submit papers or proposals, for workshops, tutorials, or demos, electronically to EasyChair (you may need to Create an EasyChair Account first). Whether an accepted paper (either full-length or short position statement) will be presented as a talk or as a poster will be determined by the Program Committee, in part based on paper quality as assessed by the anonymous reviewers, and in part according to the extent the paper addresses a topic of core interest to the AGI community. All accepted papers are required to have at least one registered author per paper. Multiple papers require multiple registrations. AGI-11 will accept two types of submissions: full-length papers (10 pages) and short position statements (3 pages). A good sense of the overall nature of the conference may be found via perusing AGI-10, AGI-09, and AGI-08. Author Instructions Submissions should follow the Spring Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence author instructions here. Important Dates February 15, 2011 ? Final Submissions AGI-11 Submissions Policy Whether an accepted paper (of either length) will be presented as a talk or as a poster will be determined by the Program Committee, in part based on paper quality as assessed by the anonymous reviewers, and in part according to the extent the paper addresses a topic of core interest to the AGI community. The acceptance of a paper is based on the assumption that one of the authors will attend the conference to present the paper. Any questions can be directed to one of the conference chairs. AGI-11 Copyright Policy Springer-Verlag will hold the copyright to the published paper. Authors should archive their paper on their own web site as well, with the following text included: ?The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com?. The Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence copyright form is available here. The AGI conference will be part of Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI). This subseries is devoted to the publication of state-of-the-art research results in artificial intelligence, at a high level and in both printed and electronic versions. The topics in LNAI include automated reasoning, automated programming, algorithms, knowledge representation, agent-based systems, intelligent systems, expert systems, machine learning, natural-language processing, machine vision, robotics, search systems, knowledge discovery, data mining, and related programming languages. The AGI conference will be part ofSpringer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI). This subseries is devoted to the publication of state-of-the-art research results in artificial intelligence, at a high level and in both printed and electronic versions. The topics in LNAI include automated reasoning, automated programming, algorithms, knowledge representation, agent-based systems, intelligent systems, expert systems, machine learning, natural-language processing, machine vision, robotics, search systems, knowledge discovery, data mining, and related programming languages. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110110/da5aea0e/attachment-0001.html From ale at sissa.it Sun Jan 9 16:12:50 2011 From: ale at sissa.it (Alessandro Treves) Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2011 22:12:50 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: FENS Forum 2012 in Barcelona - Call for Symposia Message-ID: <20110109221250.peg3pmmgisg04c44@webmail.sissa.it> as you may know already, the Call for Symposia for the next FENS Forum in Barcelona, in July 2012, will be open between February 1 - 28, 2011. I was included in the Programme Committee, who will establish the scientific programme of the FENS Forum 2012 on the basis of proposals from scientists from all over the world and all areas of neuroscience research. I very much hope that the Neural Computation community will have a vibrant representation at the Forum, in particular with Symposia that combine experiments, theory and models; therefore I warmly encourage you all to prepare proposals. Instructions for symposium and technical workshop proposals are now available on the Forum website at http://forum.fens.org/2012/ where you find also guidelines and exclusion rules (speakers and chairs from the 2010 meeting listed on http://fens2010.neurosciences.asso.fr/abstracts/speakers2010.html cannot be speakers or chairs at the 2012 meeting). Alessandro Treves -- SISSA - Cognitive Neuroscience - via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy rm:241 tel:39040-3787623 fax:39040-3787528 http://people.sissa.it/~ale ---------------------------------------------------------------- SISSA Webmail https://webmail.sissa.it/ Powered by Horde http://www.horde.org/ -------------- next part -------------- D I D Y O U K N O W T H A T . . . . ....the Call for Symposia for the next FENS Forum in Barcelona in July 2012 will be open from February 1 - 28, 2011 ? The Programme Committee will establish the scientific programme of the FENS Forum 2012 on the basis of proposals from scientists from all over the world and all areas of neuroscience research. Instructions for symposium and technical workshop proposals are now available on the Forum website at: http://forum.fens.org/2012/ A must in Europe for neuroscientists all over the world -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110109/dea9368f/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Logo Barcelona =?us-ascii?b?Q2zpbWVuY2UuanBn?= Type: image/jpeg Size: 58541 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110109/dea9368f/LogoBarcelonaus-asciibQ2zpbWVuY2UuanBn-0001.jpe -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Call for Symposia Barcelona 2012.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 121253 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110109/dea9368f/CallforSymposiaBarcelona2012-0001.pdf From shimon.whiteson at gmail.com Tue Jan 11 09:33:37 2011 From: shimon.whiteson at gmail.com (Shimon Whiteson) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:33:37 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral vacancy in reinforcement learning and human computer interaction at the University of Amsterdam Message-ID: The Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam invites applications for a fully funded post-doctoral researcher position in the area of Reinforcement Learning and Human Computer Interaction. The position is within the Intelligent Autonomous Systems group headed by Prof. Frans Groen, with daily supervision by Dr. Shimon Whiteson and Dr. Vanessa Evers. Application closing date: January 31, 2011. Starting date: April 1st, 2011 (earlier starting date possible) Duration: 12 months The research will focus on developing novel reinforcement learning techniques for learning from interaction with humans. The goal is to leverage insights from human-computer interaction to augment explicit feedback with implicit feedback (e.g., from facial expressions or voice analysis) and thereby make learning more efficient. The position is within the European project entitled "Distributed Human-Robot System for Chemical Incident Management", whose overall goal is to develop an intelligent system that can detect potential chemical incidents and help crisis professionals make informed decisions about how best to respond to them. Applicants must have a PhD (or be near completion) in computer science or a closely related area. In addition, a successful candidate should: * have a strong track record of successful research in artificial intelligence. * have good knowledge of modern machine learning methods (knowledge of reinforcement learning, decision-theoretic planning, human-computer interaction and/or user evaluation studies is a plus). * have a good knowledge of programming in at least one of the following languages: C, C++, Java, Python, or Perl. * have excellent oral and written communication skills. * NOT be a Dutch citizen or have worked in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the last 3 years. The successful candidate will be based in the Intelligent Systems Lab Amsterdam (ISLA) within the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam. ISLA consists of 20 members of faculty, 20 post-doctoral researchers, and more than 50 PhD students. Members of the lab are actively pursuing a variety of research initiatives, including machine learning, decision-theoretic planning and learning, multiagent systems, human-computer-interaction, natural language processing, information retrieval, and computer vision. Some of the things we have to offer: * competitive pay and excellent benefits * extremely friendly working environment * high-level of interaction * location near the city center (10 minutes by bicycle) of one Europe's most beautiful and lively cities * international environment (10+ nationalities in the group) * access to high-end computing facilities (cluster with 4,000+ cores) * brand-new building Since Amsterdam is a very international city where almost everybody speaks and understands English, candidates need not be afraid of the language barrier. To submit an application, follow the instructions at: http://www.uva.nl/vacatures/vacatures.cfm/CFD25617-DB63-4345-BB9F633B338D1402 Informal inquiries can be made by email to Shimon Whiteson (s.a.whiteson at uva.nl). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110111/d3cad1ff/attachment.html From david at carandinilab.net Tue Jan 11 11:20:39 2011 From: david at carandinilab.net (David Schulz) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:20:39 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc opportunity in, Carandini laboratory, University College London Message-ID: The Carandini laboratory at University College London seeks a postdoctoral researcher to work on exciting projects aimed at establishing neural responses to visual stimuli and neural correlates of perceptual behaviors, at the levels of circuits and systems in the mouse brain. The techniques involve combinations of multielectrode recordings, optogenetics, imaging, operant conditioning, and virtual reality simulation. Our work typically involves a combination of experiment and computational analysis, so the ideal candidate has not only a doctoral degree in neuroscience (or in a related discipline), but also training at the undergraduate level (or higher) in quantitative disciplines such as mathematics, physics or engineering. We expect candidates to be facile with Matlab programming. The position is called Research Associate, and the deadline for applications is February 15, 2011. To apply, see the instructions at www.carandinilab.net/positions. Feel free to contact Matteo (@carandinilab.net) if you have any questions. It helps if your subject line says "2011 Research Associate YOURNAME". We will respond to all inquiries that explain at least briefly the reasons for a specific interest in our lab. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110111/bd21714f/attachment.html From Dave_Touretzky at cs.cmu.edu Sat Jan 15 07:10:28 2011 From: Dave_Touretzky at cs.cmu.edu (Dave_Touretzky@cs.cmu.edu) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 07:10:28 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: faculty position in computational neuroscience at CMU Message-ID: <13214.1295093428@ammon.boltz.cs.cmu.edu> When I posted this position announcement two weeks ago, it appears people were misled by the January 1 deadline for "initial consideration". We are still seeking applicants, and we invite qualified persons to apply. There will be a cutoff at some point, but if you're interested in the position, it is not too late to get your materials in (but do so promptly). -- Dr. David S. Touretzky Research Professor Computer Science Department & Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891 tel. 412-268-7561 ================================================================ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scsdean/FacultyPage/CNBC2010.html Faculty Opportunities: Computational Neuroscience The Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) and the School of Computer Science (SCS) at Carnegie Mellon University are jointly soliciting applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor in computational neuroscience and computer science (including the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics). We are particularly interested in applicants who build computational models of brain processes, who apply machine learning to model neural data, or who develop computational models of learning in biological systems. The specific research program can cover any aspect of cognition, including perception, memory, language, or the planning and coordination of action. The faculty appointment will be joint between the CNBC and the most relevant of several departments within SCS, including the Computer Science Department, the Machine Learning Department, and the Robotics Institute. Regardless of appointment, we expect a successful candidate to collaborate with experimentalists, who may use any of a variety of techniques, including two-photon imaging, multiunit electrophysiology, fMRI, MEG, EEG, and behavioral psychophysics. Candidates must have evidence of compelling research contributions and a commitment to high quality teaching. Carnegie Mellon University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. The deadline for initial review of applications is January 1, 2011, but later applications will be considered until the position is filled. Applications, including a cover letter, a CV, a statement of teaching philosophy, a statement of research interests, copies of no more than 3 relevant papers, and the contact information for at least three individuals who have been asked to provide letters of reference should be submitted electronically – in PDF format – to the following email address: faculty-search at cs.cmu.edu. Please include the subject line "Application Submission" with your application. Applications should indicate citizenship and, for non-US citizens, current visa status. Only complete applications in pdf format will be processed. Applicants should also arrange for reference letters in PDF format to be sent directly to faculty-search at cs.cmu.edu before January 15th, 2011. More information regarding this search may be found at: www.cs.cmu.edu/~scsdean/FacultyPage/scshiringad.html If you encounter technical problems, please write to faculty-search at cs.cmu.edu Additional information about the CNBC may be found at www.cnbc.cmu.edu Additional information about the School of Computer Science may be found at www.cs.cmu.edu From mikio at cs.tu-berlin.de Mon Jan 17 05:41:16 2011 From: mikio at cs.tu-berlin.de (Mikio Braun) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:41:16 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Introducing mldata - the machine learnign data repository Message-ID: <4D341CCC.1070305@cs.tu-berlin.de> Dear Connectionists, we are proud to announce mldata, the machine learning data set repository at http://mldata.org. mldata is a community website aimed at exchanging data sets. Compared to existing sites, the emphasis lies on community. That means that anyone can upload data, comment on existing data sets, contribute solutions to existing data sets, discuss topics in the forum, and in general easily interact with other users. mldata is organized into four main types of objects: * Data - just raw data * Task - learning tasks defined on data sets * Method - a machine learning method, can be applied to a Task * Challenge - a set of Tasks defining a challenge In principle, any kind of data can be uploaded, but mldata can parse some data formats like ARFF, CSV, and that used libsvm and other SVM solvers. For such data sets, more functionality is available like automatic conversion to other data sets. Other features include automatic evaluation of solutions for tasks using one of a large number of already available performance measures, but of course we're glad to add any user contributed performance measure. So have a look, and let us know what you think on the mldata forum! Mikio Braun - on behalf of the mldata team. mldata is sponsored by the Pascal2 Network of Excellence. -- Dr. Mikio Braun email: mikio at cs.tu-berlin.de TU Berlin web: ml.cs.tu-berlin.de/~mikio Franklinstr. 28/29 tel: +49 30 314 78627 10587 Berlin, Germany -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 262 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature Url : https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110117/3b8866a5/signature-0001.bin From opossumnano at gmail.com Mon Jan 17 11:00:32 2011 From: opossumnano at gmail.com (Tiziano Zito) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:00:32 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: MDP release 3.0 Message-ID: <20110117160032.GA25627@tulpenbaum.cognition.tu-berlin.de> We are glad to announce release 3.0 of the Modular toolkit for Data Processing (MDP). MDP is a Python library of widely used data processing algorithms that can be combined according to a pipeline analogy to build more complex data processing software. The base of available algorithms includes signal processing methods (Principal Component Analysis, Independent Component Analysis, Slow Feature Analysis), manifold learning methods ([Hessian] Locally Linear Embedding), several classifiers, probabilistic methods (Factor Analysis, RBM), data pre-processing methods, and many others. What's new in version 3.0? -------------------------- - Python 3 support - New extensions: caching and gradient - Automatically generated wrappers for scikits.learn algorithms - Shogun and libsvm wrappers - New algorithms: convolution, several classifiers and several user-contributed nodes - Several new examples on the homepage - Improved and expanded tutorial - Several improvements and bug fixes - New license: MDP goes BSD! Resources --------- Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mdp-toolkit/files Homepage: http://mdp-toolkit.sourceforge.net Mailing list: http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/mdp-toolkit-users Acknowledgments --------------- We thank the contributors to this release: Sven D?hne, Alberto Escalante, Valentin Haenel, Yaroslav Halchenko, Sebastian H?fer, Michael Hull, Samuel John, Jos? Quesada, Ariel Rokem, Benjamin Schrauwen, David Verstraeten, Katharina Maria Zeiner. The MDP developers, Pietro Berkes Zbigniew J?drzejewski-Szmek Rike-Benjamin Schuppner Niko Wilbert Tiziano Zito From t.heskes at science.ru.nl Tue Jan 18 11:18:37 2011 From: t.heskes at science.ru.nl (Tom Heskes) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:18:37 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Two PhD students Bayesian machine learning / statistics Message-ID: <4D35BD5D.4000003@science.ru.nl> Two PhD students Bayesian machine learning for identifying synaptic gene networks (1,0 fte) ================================================ VU University Amsterdam, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research (CNCR) Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS) Maximum Salary: EUR 2,612 gross/month Closing date: 1 March 2011 http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOP_8BWBKD Job description =============== You will be working on the NWO Complexity project SYNCOBE, which aims to identify synaptic gene networks in complex brain disorders. Brain disorders are one of the most pressing health problems in today?s western society. Despite the fact that most brain disorders are highly heritable it has been difficult to identify gene defects causing the disease. Most likely the expected complexity of these diseases, involving interactions between very many genes, hampered the identification of disease genes so far. In this project we want to improve standard methods for identification of disease genes using Bayesian statistics. One PhD student will focus on methods to characterize the gene networks that influence synaptic functioning. Synapses are small dynamic units in the brain of about 1 ?m3 in size, which are critical for information processing. Synaptic dysfunction is currently implicated in a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases, depression, and mental retardation. The second PhD student will apply Bayesian statistics to investigate whether genetic variation in the gene networks can predict brain disease. On the long run, this must pave the way for new rational therapeutic strategies, exploiting the predictive power of a probabilistic network description. Requirements ============ You should meet the following requirements: A masters degree in computer science, mathematics, physics, bioinformatics or a related field, with a strong interest in (Bayesian) statistics/machine learning, genetics, or cellular (neuro)biology. A strong motivation to pursue a career in science, an interest in working as a team and the ability to work across disciplines are required. Organization ============ The project is a collaboration between CNCR at the VU University in Amsterdam and iCIS at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Both are leading academic communities in the Netherlands. The first PhD student will be primarily based in Amsterdam, the second one in Nijmegen. Websites: http://www.cncr.nl and http://www.ru.nl/is/ml Conditions of employment ======================== Employment: 1,0 fte Starting at ? 2,042 per month, the salary will increase to ? 2,612 per month in the fourth year. Additional conditions of employment =================================== You will be appointed as a PhD student for a period of four years. Your performance will be evaluated after 18 months. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years. Additional Information ====================== Dr. Niels Cornelisse (CNCR) Prof.dr. Tom Heskes (iCIS) niels.cornelisse at cncr.vu.nl t.heskes at science.ru.nl Application =========== You can apply for the job before 1 March 2010 by sending your application by email to: Mrs. Els Borghols els.borghols at cncr.vu.nl From jbednar at inf.ed.ac.uk Fri Jan 14 08:56:52 2011 From: jbednar at inf.ed.ac.uk (James A. Bednar) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:56:52 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD studentships in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience, Edinburgh Message-ID: <19760.22052.505212.83970@cortex.inf.ed.ac.uk> UPDATE: Funding eligibility for EU citizens has been revised; see below! 2011-2012 applications for fully-funded PhD studentships at the University of Edinburgh Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience are now being considered. The DTC is a world-class centre for research at the interface between neuroscience and the engineering, computational, and physical sciences. Our four-year programme is ideal for students with strong computational and analytical skills who want to employ cutting-edge methodology to advance research in neuroscience and related fields, or to apply ideas from neuroscience to computational problems. The first year consists of courses in neuroscience and informatics, as well as lab projects. This is followed by a three-year PhD project done in collaboration with one of the many departments and institutes affiliated with the DTC. Current DTC PhD topics fall into five main areas: * Computational neuroscience: Using analytical and computational models, potentially supplemented with experiments, to gain quantitative understanding of the nervous system. Many projects focus on the development and function of sensory and motor systems in animals, including neural coding, learning, and memory. * Biomedical imaging algorithms and tools: Using advanced data analysis techniques, such as machine learning and Bayesian approaches, for imaging-based diagnosis and research. * Cognitive science: Studying human cognitive processes and analysing them in computational terms. * Neuromorphic engineering: Using insights from neuroscience to help build better hardware, such as neuromorphic VLSI circuits and robots that perform robustly under natural conditions. * Software systems and applications: Using discoveries from neuroscience to develop software that can handle real-world data, such as video, audio, or speech. Other related areas of research may also be considered. Edinburgh has a large, world-class research community in these areas and leads the UK in creating a coherent programme in neuroinformatics and computational neuroscience. Edinburgh has often been voted 'best place to live in Britain', and has many exciting cultural and student activities. Students with a strong background in computer science, mathematics, physics, or engineering are particularly encouraged to apply. Highly motivated students with other backgrounds will also be considered. 15 full studentships (including stipend of 14,082-16,870 UK pounds/year) are available to permanent UK residents or other EU citizens who have been residing in the UK for the past three years (e.g. for education); see the web site (below) for full details. Other applicants can be accepted if they provide their own funding, typically via a scholarship from their country of origin. Further information and application forms can be obtained from: http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/dtc For full consideration for entry in September 2011, the deadline for complete applications is January 30th, 2011. -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. From andrea.green at umontreal.ca Mon Jan 17 21:55:10 2011 From: andrea.green at umontreal.ca (Andrea Green) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:55:10 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Doctoral and postdoctoral studies in the neuroscience of spatial motion estimation and motor planning Message-ID: <5C3F57622E284513A87D72148A9155F9@AGREENLAPTOP> Doctoral and postdoctoral studies in the neuroscience of spatial motion estimation and motor planning D?partement de physiologie, Universit? de Montr?al. Applications are invited for doctoral and postdoctoral studies in systems neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Andrea Green. The successful applicant will join a multidisciplinary research group studying how the brain integrates multisensory cues to create estimates of our spatial motion as well as how such estimates are used in motor planning. Research in my laboratory involves computational models of the nervous system, behavioral and neural recording experiments in non-human primates as well as human behavioral studies. Depending on the applicant's qualifications and interests, they will help to design and conduct behavioral and/or neurophysiological experiments, analyze data, develop theoretical models of neural systems, prepare manuscripts for publication, and participate in international conferences. While students with a strong background in biological sciences, engineering, mathematics, or computer science, are particularly encouraged to apply, all motivated students with an interest in understanding the brain will be considered. The successful applicant will receive a competitive salary in accordance with university guidelines. For further information, please contact Dr. Andrea Green (andrea.green at umontreal .ca) Applicants are asked to submit a curriculum vita, a transcript of previous studies, and the contact information for two references, to: Dr. Andrea Green andrea.green at umontreal.ca Tel: 514-343-6111 x3301 D?partement de physiologie, Universit? de Montr?al C.P 6128 Succursale Centre-Ville Montr?al, QC H3C 3J7, CANADA Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. ____________________________________ Montr?al is consistently rated as one of the world's most livable cities and has been called "Canada's Cultural Capital". It has the highest number of university students per capita in the entire continent. More than 17,000 foreign students from some 150 countries benefit from among the lowest tuition fees in North America. Compared to other cities of similar stature, the cost of living in Montr?al is very reasonable, particularly in terms of housing. Montr?al has a vibrant neuroscience community spanning four major universities (Universit? de Montr?al, McGill University, Concordia University, and the Universit? de Qu?bec ? Montr?al) and the Montr?al Neurological Institute. The Universit? de Montr?al, with its two affiliated schools, the ?cole Polytechnique and the HEC Montr?al, is the largest university in Qu?bec and the second largest in Canada, with over 55,000 students from around the world and some 10,000 employees. Deeply rooted in Montr?al and dedicated to its international mission, the Universit? de Montr?al is one of the top universities in the French-speaking world. The Universit? de Montr?al is a French-speaking institution, and most of the courses are given in French. However, the work environment is bilingual and the MSc or PhD thesis can be written in French or English. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110118/067db15b/attachment-0001.html From jaakko.peltonen at tkk.fi Wed Jan 19 11:32:26 2011 From: jaakko.peltonen at tkk.fi (jaakko.peltonen@tkk.fi) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:32:26 +0200 (EET) Subject: Connectionists: Extended deadline: ICANN 2011 - Machine learning re-inspired by brain and cognition Message-ID: =================================================================== Third Call for Papers: ICANN 2011 The Twentieth Anniversary ICANN is back at its roots: Machine learning re-inspired by brain and cognition International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks 14 - 17 June 2011, Espoo, Finland http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011 IMPORTANT DATES - Submission deadline extended! Submission of full papers: February 15, 2011 Notification of acceptance: April 1, 2011 Camera-ready paper and author registration: April 15, 2011 Advance registration before: April 15, 2011 =================================================================== The International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN) is the annual flagship conference of the European Neural Network Society (ENNS). In 2011, ICANN returns to its roots after 20 years. The very first ICANN in 1991 was organized at Helsinki University of Technology in Espoo, Finland. We invite all neural network researchers worldwide to join us in celebrating this 20th anniversary of ICANN and to see the latest advancements in our fast progressing field. ICANN 2011 will have two tracks: Brain-inspired computing and Machine learning research, with PC chairs from both worlds and a renewed reviewing system. Keynote speakers and competitions will highlight cross-disciplinary interactions and applications. To welcome everyone to participate in ICANN's twentieth anniversary conference, we are happy to announce an extension to the submission deadline: full papers may be submitted until February 15, 2011. VENUE ICANN 2011 will be held in the Dipoli Congress Center located on the beautiful campus of Aalto University (former Helsinki University of Technology), in Espoo (8km west from the city centre of Helsinki). The time of the year is particularly suitable for visiting Finland. CONFERENCE TOPICS ICANN 2011 will feature two main tracks: Brain inspired computing and Machine learning research, with strong cross-disciplinary interactions and applications. A non-exhaustive list of topics: - Brain inspired computing: Connectionist cognitive science, Neural and hybrid architectures and learning algorithms, Neural control and planning, Reinforcement learning, Computational neuroscience, Neural dynamics and complex systems, Self-organization, Neuro- cognitive architectures, Recurrent networks - Machine learning research: Graphical models, Bayesian networks, Kernel methods, Generative models, Information theoretic learning, Nonlinear projection, Relational learning, Online learning, Dynamical models, Reinforcement learning - Applications and cross-disciplinary connections: Data analysis, Pattern recognition, Signal and time series processing, Blind source separation, Hardware implementations and embedded systems, Intelligent multimedia, Knowledge management, Multimodal interfaces, Vision and image processing, Biomedical image analysis, Speech and language processing, Robotics applications, Intelligent control, Neuroinformatics, Bioinformatics, Biomedical applications, Brain-computer interfaces, Critical infrastructure systems, Complex networks CONFIRMED PLENARY SPEAKERS Tom Griffiths, University of California Berkeley (http://cocosci.berkeley.edu/tom/) Riitta Hari, Aalto University (http://ltl.tkk.fi/wiki/Riitta_Hari) Geoffrey Hinton, University of Toronto (http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/) Aapo Hyvarinen, University of Helsinki (http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/ahyvarin/) John Shawe-Taylor, University College London (http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/j.shawe-taylor/) Josh Tenenbaum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (http://web.mit.edu/cocosci/josh.html) ORGANIZATION General chair: Erkki Oja Program co-chairs: Wlodzislaw Duch, Mark Girolami, Timo Honkela, Samuel Kaski Workshop chair: Alexander Ilin Local chair: Amaury Lendasse Publicity chair: Jaakko Peltonen Organizing committee members: Francesco Corona, Krista Lagus, Yoan Miche, Ilari Nieminen, Mari-Sanna Paukkeri, Tapani Raiko, Ricardo Vigario CONFIRMED AREA CHAIRS Peter Auer, Austria Christian Bauckhage, Germany Wray Buntine, Australia Vince Calhoun, USA Antonius Coolen, UK Barbara Hammer, Germany Giulio Jacucci, Finland Kristian Kersting, Germany Mikko Kurimo, Finland Neil Lawrence, UK Te-Won Lee, USA Hiroshi Mamitsuka, Japan Fernando Morgado Dias, Portugal Klaus-Robert Muller, Germany Klaus Obermayer, Germany Cheng Soon Ong, Switzerland Jan Peters, Germany Marios Polycarpou, Cyprus Jose Principe, USA Volker Roth, Switzerland Craig Saunders, UK Alan Stocker, USA Masashi Sugiyama, Japan Ron Sun, USA Peter Tino, UK Alfred Ultsch, Germany Koen Van Leemput, USA Michel Verleysen, Belgium Jean-Philippe Vert, France Ole Winther, Denmark Chang D. Yoo, South Korea WORKSHOPS Details of workshops and tutorials at ICANN 2011 will be available at http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011 . WSOM 2011, the 8th Workshop on Self-Organizing Maps (13-15 June 2011) will be co-located with ICANN 2011. COMPETITIONS Mind reading competition on MEG data: classify from MEG signals which type of video stimulus the subject is viewing such as football match, movie, natural scenery, etc. META-NET Multimodal Machine Translation Challenge: choose the best translation from translations given by multiple machine translation systems, using additional context information like domain, surrounding text, etc. See http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011 for more details! PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE Submitted papers should be up to 8 pages in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science format. Papers will be submitted through Microsoft's Conference Management Toolkit (CMT). Further details are available at http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011 . Accepted papers will be published in a collected volume by Springer in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, www.springer.com/lncs and will also be available online through the SpringerLink digital library. SPONSORS ICANN 2011 is supported by European Neural Network Society (ENNS), Pattern Recognition Society of Finland and Finnish Artificial Intelligence Society. ====== See http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011 for more details! ====== From d.polani at herts.ac.uk Wed Jan 19 16:57:26 2011 From: d.polani at herts.ac.uk (d.polani@herts.ac.uk) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:57:26 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Research Assistant/Fellows in Agent Learning/Adaptation Algorithms Message-ID: <19767.24134.149038.155211@gargle.gargle.HOWL> I apologize in advance for crossposting the following announcement: RESEARCH ASSISTANT/FELLOWS IN AGENT LEARNING/ADAPTATION ALGORITHMS ------------------------------------------------------------------ Adaptive Systems Research Group School of Computer Science University of Hertfordshire, UK http://adapsys.feis.herts.ac.uk/ Research Assistantships/Fellowships in Agent Learning/Adaptation Algorithms Salary: ?18,643-?21,565/?25,001-?29,853 per annum (depending on level, qualifications and experience) The positions are full-time, and they are based on a fixed-term contract for up to 48 months. Contact: Dr. Daniel Polani (E-mail: d.polani at herts.ac.uk) PROJECT AND REQUIREMENTS ------------------------ Two postgraduate/postdoctoral Research Assistant/Fellow posts are available in the EU Framework VII funded project CORBYS (Cognitive Control Framework for Robotic Systems). As part of a European project, these full-time research post will allow the postholders to pursue research into novel methods for self-motivated behaviour generation, behaviour anticipation, intentionality and initiative detection, based on recently developed, highly promising principled approaches. A successful postgraduate applicant will have the opportunity to pursue research towards a PhD. The CORBYS consortium consists of several European partners in Germany, UK, Belgium, Spain, Norway and Slovenia. The University of Hertfordshire team is involved in the development of novel algorithms for above tasks, based on existing methodologies and research expertise by the project team. Applicants for the post should have a strong postgraduate degree (MSc or PhD) in a quantitative research-oriented discipline, such as computer science, mathematics or physics. The post requires strong mathematical background, ideally in the areas of probabilistic modeling, information theory and/or dynamic systems. Excellent programming skills are essential. It is desirable (but not required) for applicants to have experience in robot learning, machine learning, or related areas. Applicants are highly motivated and able to work both independently as well as in collaboration with the other investigators in the group and the project consortium in an exciting and ambitious research project. This includes preparation of publications as well as presentations at international conferences. FURTHER INFORMATION ------------------- The postholders will be members of the Adaptive Systems Research Group (http://adapsys.feis.herts.ac.uk/) at the School of Computer Science of the University of Hertfordshire which includes more than 30 research staff members (postdocs and PhD students). The Adaptive Systems Research Group is an enthusiastic, vibrant and highly innovative multidisciplinary research group with an excellent international research track record, including work on principled mathematical methods to construct biologically inspired models for Artificial Intelligence, cognitive embodied systems and Artificial Life. The University of Hertfordshire itself ranks 27th in England for post-2008 RAE-funding in Computer Science and Informatics. The university is located in Hatfield, less than 25 minutes by train from London Kings Cross and with convenient access to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow airports and, via St. Albans Thameslink, also to Gatwick airport. The positions are full-time. The work will be based at University of Hertfordshire and may include short stays at European partner institutions. The position is based on a fixed-term contract for up to 48 months. The positions are to be filled as soon as possible. CONTACT AND APPLICATION ----------------------- All formal applications must be made via the Human Resources Department at University of Hertfordshire, see also http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/hr/research-vacancies.cfm. The above website contains additional information about the post. Under current UKBA regulations, the University is unlikely to be able to get a work permit in respect of this post. We can therefore only accept applications from people who will have the right to work in the UK for the total duration of the contract. CV, list of publications (especially for the research fellowship) and research summary (in Word or PDF format) are to be emailed to jobs at herts.ac.uk. Applicants should also arrange for 2 references to be sent to the Human Resources Department by the closing date. Closing Date: 3 February 2011 Quote Reference: 003208 For informal inquiries please contact Dr. Daniel Polani (d.polani at herts.ac.uk). From opossumnano at gmail.com Thu Jan 20 05:10:59 2011 From: opossumnano at gmail.com (Tiziano Zito) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:10:59 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [Ann] EuroScipy 2011 - Call for papers Message-ID: <20110120101059.GD31049@tulpenbaum.cognition.tu-berlin.de> ========================= Announcing EuroScipy 2011 ========================= --------------------------------------------- The 4th European meeting on Python in Science --------------------------------------------- **Paris, Ecole Normale Sup?rieure, August 25-28 2011** We are happy to announce the 4th EuroScipy meeting, in Paris, August 2011. The EuroSciPy meeting is a cross-disciplinary gathering focused on the use and development of the Python language in scientific research. This event strives to bring together both users and developers of scientific tools, as well as academic research and state of the art industry. Main topics =========== - Presentations of scientific tools and libraries using the Python language, including but not limited to: - vector and array manipulation - parallel computing - scientific visualization - scientific data flow and persistence - algorithms implemented or exposed in Python - web applications and portals for science and engineering. - Reports on the use of Python in scientific achievements or ongoing projects. - General-purpose Python tools that can be of special interest to the scientific community. Tutorials ========= There will be two tutorial tracks at the conference, an introductory one, to bring up to speed with the Python language as a scientific tool, and an advanced track, during which experts of the field will lecture on specific advanced topics such as advanced use of numpy, scientific visualization, software engineering... Keynote Speaker: Fernando Perez =============================== We are excited to welcome Fernando Perez (UC Berkeley, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, USA) as our keynote speaker. Fernando Perez is the original author of the enhanced interactive python shell IPython and a very active contributor to the Python for Science ecosystem. Important dates =============== Talk submission deadline: Sunday May 8 Program announced: Sunday May 29 Tutorials tracks: Thursday August 25 - Friday August 26 Conference track: Saturday August 27 - Sunday August 28 Call for papers =============== We are soliciting talks that discuss topics related to scientific computing using Python. These include applications, teaching, future development directions, and research. We welcome contributions from the industry as well as the academic world. Indeed, industrial research and development as well academic research face the challenge of mastering IT tools for exploration, modeling and analysis. We look forward to hearing your recent breakthroughs using Python! Submission guidelines ===================== - We solicit talk proposals in the form of a one-page long abstract. - Submissions whose main purpose is to promote a commercial product or service will be refused. - All accepted proposals must be presented at the EuroSciPy conference by at least one author. The one-page long abstracts are for conference planing and selection purposes only. We will later select papers for publication of post-proceedings in a peer-reviewed journal. How to submit an abstract ========================= To submit a talk to the EuroScipy conference follow the instructions here: http://www.euroscipy.org/card/euroscipy2011_call_for_papers Organizers ========== Chairs: - Ga?l Varoquaux (INSERM, Unicog team, and INRIA, Parietal team) - Nicolas Chauvat (Logilab) Local organization committee: - Emmanuelle Gouillart (Saint-Gobain Recherche) - Jean-Philippe Chauvat (Logilab) Tutorial chair: - Valentin Haenel (MKP, Technische Universit?t Berlin) Program committee: - Chair: Tiziano Zito (MKP, Technische Universit?t Berlin) - Romain Brette (ENS Paris, DEC) - Emmanuelle Gouillart (Saint-Gobain Recherche) - Eric Lebigot (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Universit? Pierre et Marie Curie) - Konrad Hinsen (Soleil Synchrotron, CNRS) - Hans Petter Langtangen (Simula laboratories) - Jarrod Millman (UC Berkeley, Helen Wills NeuroScience institute) - Mike M?ller (Python Academy) - Didrik Pinte (Enthought Inc) - Marc Poinot (ONERA) - Christophe Pradal (CIRAD/INRIA, Virtual Plantes team) - Andreas Schreiber (DLR) - St?fan van der Walt (University of Stellenbosch) Website ======= http://www.euroscipy.org/conference/euroscipy_2011 From yokoy at brain.riken.jp Thu Jan 20 00:18:35 2011 From: yokoy at brain.riken.jp (Yoko YAMAGUCHI) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:18:35 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: ICCN 2011: Submission deadline extended to Feb 5 Message-ID: Dear connectionists, The 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Neurodynamics (ICCN 2011) is held on June 6 - 13 2011 in Hilton Niseko Village, Hokkaido, Japan. http://iccn2011.com/index.htm Abstract submission deadline is extended to Feb 5, 2011. We look forward to seeing you in Hokkaido. With best regards, Yoko YAMAGUCHI General Chair of ICCN 2011 RIKEN Brain Science Institute From terry at salk.edu Thu Jan 20 13:07:34 2011 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:07:34 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - February, 2011 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Contents - Volume 23, Number 2 - February 1, 2011 ARTICLES A Theory of Slow Feature Analysis for Transformation-Based Input Signals with an Application to Complex Cells Henning Sprekeler and Laurenz Wiskott Bayes-Optimal Chemotaxis Duncan Mortimer, Peter Dayan, Kevin Burrage, and Geoffrey J. Goodhill Least Squares Estimation Without Priors or Supervision Martin Raphan and Eero P. Simoncelli NOTE Improved Integral Equation Solution for the First Passage Time of Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Neurons Yi Dong, Stefan Mihalas, and Ernst Niebur LETTERS Abstract Stimulus-Specific Adaptation Models Robert Mill, Martin Coath, Thomas Wennekers, and Susan L. Denham Modeling Basal Ganglia for Understanding Parkinsonian Reaching Movements K.N. Magdoom, D. Subramanian, V.S. Chakravarthy, B. Ravindran, and Shun-ichi Amari Conjugate Mixture Models for Clustering Multimodal Data Vasil Khalidov, Florence Forbes, and Radu Horaud Learning Active Fusion of Multiple Experts' Decisions: An Attention-Based Approach Maryam S. Mirian, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, and Babak N. Araabi, Thomas Wennekers, and Roland R. Siegwart ----- ON-LINE - http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/neco SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2011 - VOLUME 23 - 12 ISSUES USA Others Electronic only Student/Retired $67 $130 $62 Individual $118 $181 $110 Institution $986 $1,049 $882 Canada: Add 5% GST 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 arjen.van.ooyen at falw.vu.nl Fri Jan 21 05:23:56 2011 From: arjen.van.ooyen at falw.vu.nl (Arjen van Ooyen) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:23:56 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD position in computational neuroscience Message-ID: <4D395EBC.8000904@falw.vu.nl> PhD position in computational neuroscience: Stability and rewiring in adaptive neuronal networks Applications are invited for a PhD position in the Computational Neuroscience Group of the Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU University Amsterdam. The position is funded by the NWO Complexity grant ?Stability and rewiring in adaptive neuronal networks? (STARNET). The general aim of this project is to investigate the reciprocal interactions between neuronal activity and changes in network structure and topology. In the PhD project, the focus is on activity-dependent network formation and emerging topological properties of network connectivity. Neurons change their morphology in an activity-dependent fashion. We will investigate the impact of such local changes in connectivity on global network topology and stability, during development and after disturbances such as experience-dependent stimulation, local damage and progressive degeneration. The work has direct medical relevance in the context of multiple sclerosis research and will be conducted in close collaboration with Dr. Jeroen Geurts, VU Medical Center Amsterdam. The ideal candidate combines a strong neurobiological background with excellent programming skills, preferably in MatLab. Experience with biophysical neuron models, non-linear dynamical systems, or neuronal network modeling would be an advantage. Proficiency in spoken and written English is required. For further information about this position, see http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOP_8CBE2M or contact Dr. Arjen van Ooyen, arjen.van.ooyen at cncr.vu.nl, or Dr. Markus Butz, mbutz at cncr.vu.nl. Application letters including a CV, research experience, a short statement of research interests, and contact details of two referees should be sent by email to Dr. Arjen van Ooyen. -- Dr. Arjen van Ooyen Computational Neuroscience Group Department of Integrative Neurophysiology Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research VU University Amsterdam De Boelelaan 1085 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands E-mail: arjen.van.ooyen at cncr.vu.nl Phone: +31.20.5987090 Fax: +31.20.5987112 Room: B-451 Web: http://www.bio.vu.nl/enf/vanooyen From R.Bogacz at bristol.ac.uk Sat Jan 22 06:11:30 2011 From: R.Bogacz at bristol.ac.uk (Rafal Bogacz) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:11:30 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD programme in Neural Dynamics at Bristol Message-ID: <4D3ABB62.9070407@bristol.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues, 4-year PhD programme in Neural Dynamics at the University of Bristol is inviting applications for studentships fully funded by the Wellcome Trust. More information about the programme is available below. Best wishes, Rafal Bogacz NEURAL DYNAMICS: FROM SYNAPSES TO SYSTEMS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD Studentships Introduction This PhD programme builds on unique research strengths at Bristol and will train the next generation of neuroscientists in a supportive environment of scientific excellence. What is neural dynamics? It is the study of the nervous system's remarkable capacity to change - at the systems level the dynamic interplay between integration and segregation of brain regions enables all aspects of behaviour, including learning, memory, homeostasis and sensorimotor control. The mechanisms that underpin this activity can be explored at multiple levels from the molecular level of epigenetic changes through to dendritic remodelling, synaptic plasticity and neural networks. These may be very rapid at molecular and synaptic levels through to days at the network level and even years for the development of new motor skills. Students will select from a wide choice of projects, which can be tailored to their own interests. Projects will include the opportunity to combine the very latest molecular and systems level techniques, with computational and engineering methods. The programme also includes the option for an industrial placement or an overseas training visit to one of our many international collaborators. Why enrol for a PhD programme in neural dynamics? A vital key to comprehending the brain is to understand how the complex changes in activity occurring at all levels of neural organization give rise to normal brain function. Furthermore, understanding of normal brain activity will allow us to investigate abnormalities of neural dynamics that underlie many neurological and psychiatric disorders (e.g. epilepsy, Parkinson?s disease, schizophrenia, chronic pain). Understanding neural dynamics requires interdisciplinary approaches that span many neuroscience areas, but crucially, depends on integration of experimental and clinical approaches with mathematical and computational expertise. This PhD programme will train a future generation of neuroscientists who will successfully be able to combine experimental and theoretical techniques in their research. Why Bristol? Bristol has one of the largest concentrations of neuroscientists in Europe and is a major centre for basic and clinical neuroscience. The University of Bristol is an acknowledged world leader in many key areas of neural dynamics from both an experimental and theoretical perspective: Our research spans molecular, cellular and systems levels of neuroscience. Together with experts in systems dynamics, based in the Departments of Engineering Mathematics, Mathematics, Computer Science and the Bristol Robotics Lab we can provide considerable scope for ground breaking integrative research projects. Bristol is also a fantastic place to live. How to apply? Applicants will have a 1st class/2.1 degree or a Masters in a biomedical science discipline or a relevant theoretical discipline (mathematics, computer science or physics). The deadline for applications is 18th February 2011. Please send current curriculum vitae and interim transcript of your marks, two signed and sealed references (one of whom should be a project supervisor from your current or previous studies) and a one page covering letter explaining your particular interest in neural dynamics to Lindsey Watson, Graduate Office, Medical Sciences Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD (Lindsey.Watson at bris.ac.uk). Informal enquiries may be directed to Professor Richard Apps (R.Apps at bristol.ac.uk), Dr Rafal Bogacz (R.Bogacz at bristol.ac.uk), Professor Zafar Bashir (Z.I.Bashir at bristol.ac.uk) or Professor Stafford Lightman (Stafford.Lightman at bristol.ac.uk) More details about the PhD programme available at: http://www.bris.ac.uk/phys-pharm/teaching/neural-dynamics/ (for detailed information click on links "Training programme", "Topic and techniques" and "How to apply" on the left side of the website) From choe at cs.tamu.edu Sat Jan 22 11:51:22 2011 From: choe at cs.tamu.edu (Yoonsuck Choe) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 10:51:22 -0600 (CST) Subject: Connectionists: IJCNN 2011: Neuroscience & Neurocognitive track (Feb. 1 deadline) Message-ID: REMINDER: IJCNN 2011 Submission Deadline is February 1, 2011 IJCNN 2011, to be held in San Jose, California, July 31 - August 5, 2011, is making a special effort to invite participation from researchers working in computational neuroscience, cognitive science, neurocognitive models, neuroengineering and related areas. The conference will feature: * A special track on "Neuroscience and Neurocognition", where authors can submit full papers or abstracts. * A multi-session symposium featuring invited talks by leading researchers in areas covering the spectrum from neurocognitive brain networks through computational neuroscience to brain-machine interfaces and embodied robotics. * Special sessions and poster sessions on areas related to neuroscience and neurocognition. If your work falls into any of these areas, we strongly encourage you to submit papers or abstracts to IJCNN 2011. Please visit http://www.ijcnn2011.org for more information. The complete call for papers and abstracts is attached below. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2011 International joint Conference on Neural Networks CALL FOR PAPERS AND ABSTRACTS Submissions of research papers and abstracts are now open for the 2011 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks to be held at the Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, California, July 31 to August 5, 2011. The conference is sponsored jointly by the International Neural Network Society and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. For the first time, IJCNN 2011 will also feature a Special Track on Neuroscience and Neurocognition, for which authors may submit abstracts as well as full papers (for details, please see http://www.ijcnn2011.org/callforabstracts.php) Submission Deadlines: Full Papers: February 1, 2011 Abstracts: February 1, 2011 (for Special Track on Neuroscience and Neurocognition only) Papers and abstracts should be submitted through the on-line submission system at the conference website: http://www.ijcnn2011.org The range of topics covered includes, but is not limited to: * Neural network theory & models. * Collective intelligence. * Computational neuroscience. * Pattern recognition. * Cognitive models. * Machine vision. * Brain-machine interfaces. * Hybrid systems. * Embodied robotics. * Self-aware systems. * Evolutionary neural systems. * Data mining. * Neurodynamics. * Sensor networks. * Neuroinformatics. * Agent-based systems. * Neuroengineering. * Computational biology. * Neural hardware. * Bioinformatics * Neural network applications. * Artificial life. The conference will feature: * Contributed technical talks and posters describing the latest research from around the world. * Plenary lectures by world-famous researchers in neural networks and related fields. * Special sessions and panels covering topics of active current interest. * Focused sessions on the theme "From Brains to Machines" featuring invited speakers and contributed presentations. * Pre-conference tutorials and post-conference workshops with presentations by experts. * Challenging competitions on applying neural networks to difficult computational problems. Several Competition Challenges are also open with deadlines between January and March 2011 (check www.ijcnn2011.org/competitions.php for details). New high-quality proposals for post-conference workshops will also continue to be considered. We look forward to seeing you in San Jose! General Chair: Ali A. Minai (University of Cincinnati) Program Chair: Hava Siegelmann (University of Massachusetts Amherst) Technical Co-Chairs: Michael Georgiopoulos (University of Central Florida) Cesare Alippi (Politecnico di Milano) From ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu Sun Jan 23 16:12:44 2011 From: ilafiete at mail.clm.utexas.edu (Ila Fiete) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:12:44 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: COSYNE 2011: early registration and discount hotel deadlines fast approaching Message-ID: <4D3C99CC.1010308@mail.clm.utexas.edu> ==================================================== Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING WORKSHOPS 24 - 27 Feb, 2011 28 Feb - 1 Mar, 2011 Salt Lake City, Utah Snow Bird Ski Resort, Utah http://www.cosyne.org ==================================================== REGISTRATION AND HOTELS: Online registration is currently open. Hotel booking is currently open. Early registration deadline: midnight (EST), 1 Feb 2011. Online registration deadline: midnight (EST), 20 Feb 2011. Deadline for discounted hotel rates (main meeting, Salt Lake city): 3 Feb, 2011. Deadline for discounted hotle rates (workshops, Snowbird): 27 Jan, 2011. For more detailed information, please visitwww.cosyne.org INVITED SPEAKERS: David Anderson Alison Barth EJ Chichilnisky Tom Clandinin Stanislas Dehaene David Kleinfeld Peter Latham Roberto Malinow Tirin Moore Anna Nobre Murray Sherman Anthony Zador THE MEETING: The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience. The MAIN MEETING is arranged in a single track. A set of invited talks are selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, computation with spiking networks. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Anthony Zador (CSHL) Alexandre Pouget (U Rochester) Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: General Chairs: Anne Churchland (UWashington) and Bartlett Mel (USC) Program Chairs: Rachel Wilson (Harvard) and Jim DICarlo (MIT) Workshop Chairs: Mark Laubach (Yale) and Brent Doiron (U Pittsburgh) Communications Chair: Ila Fiete (UT Austin) ________________________________ Ila Fiete Assistant Professor Center for Learning and Memory The University of Texas at Austin Phone: 512.232.8439 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110123/3c93bd66/attachment.html From emmanuel.vincent at inria.fr Tue Jan 25 12:02:50 2011 From: emmanuel.vincent at inria.fr (Emmanuel Vincent) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:02:50 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: PASCAL CHiME Speech Separation and Recognition Challenge In-Reply-To: <4CB40BD7.4010407@inria.fr> References: <4CB40BD7.4010407@inria.fr> Message-ID: <4D3F023A.7040000@inria.fr> ---------------------------------------------- PASCAL CHiME Speech Separation and Recognition Challenge Deadline: April 14, 2011 Workshop: September 1, 2011, Florence, Italy http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/spandh/chime/challenge.html ---------------------------------------------- News: * Postponed deadlines: The deadlines for papers and results have been postponed to April 14 and April 21, 2011, respectively. * Special Issue: The Elsevier Journal Computer Speech and Language has agreed to publish a Special Issue on the theme of Speech Separation and Recognition in Multisource Environments. CHiME challenge participants will be invited to submit extended versions of their workshop papers. * CHiME Workshop: The workshop will take place at the Interspeech venue on the day after the main conference has finished, 1st September. The workshop will feature a session on the PASCAL CHiME speech separation challenge but will also be accepting papers on the general theme of source separation and recognition. A call for papers providing full details and a link to the Workshop website will be issued shortly. * Human listener data: We are currently running listening tests with the CHiME data and will be making the human data available for human speech recognition versus automatic speech recognition comparisons. If you require any support with the challenge or if there is anything about the evaluation procedure that is unclear then please do not hesitate to contact us at chime at dcs.shef.ac.uk. Best regards, Jon Barker (University of Sheffield, UK) Emmanuel Vincent (INRIA Rennes, France) Ning Ma (University of Sheffield, UK) Heidi Christensen (University of Sheffield, UK) Phil Green, (University of Sheffield, UK) On 10/12/2010 09:18 AM, Emmanuel Vincent wrote: > ---------------------------------------------- > > PASCAL CHiME Speech Separation and Recognition Challenge > > Deadline: March 31, 2011 > Workshop: September 1, 2011, Florence, Italy > > http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/spandh/chime/challenge.html > > ---------------------------------------------- > > In 2006 the EU PASCAL Network funded the first speech separation > challenge, addressing the problem of separating and recognising speech > artificially mixed with other speech. The best system was able to > achieve super-human performance! We are now turning to a more realistic > - but more difficult - scenario: recognising speech in the reverberant > multisource mixtures that are typical of everyday listening conditions. > Specifically, the challenge will employ binaural, distant-microphone > recordings made over a period of several weeks in a real family house. > > The challenge will be to separate and recognise simple command > utterances which have been convolved with a binaural room impulse > response and embedded in this continuous background. The challenge is > motivated by the demands of real distant-microphone speech recognition > applications and has been designed to draw participation from multiple > disciplines including signal processing, computational hearing, machine > learning and speech recognition. Evaluation will be through speech > recognition results but participants will be allowed to submit either > separated signals, robust speech features or the outputs of complete > recognition systems. We are interested in measuring the performance of > both emerging techniques and established approaches. > > A full description of the challenge, including details of the source > separation and recognition tasks, the noisy speech data sets, and the > rules for participation can be found on the Challenge web site. > > http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/spandh/chime/challenge.html > > Results of the Challenge will be presented at a dedicated one-day > workshop that will be held as a satellite event of Interspeech 2011 in > Florence, Italy. Participants will be invited to submit abstracts or > full papers for presentation at this event. > > > SCHEDULE > > September 2010: Training and development data are available for download > October 2010: Additional tools are available > February 2011: Test data are released > 31st March 2011: Submission deadline for the CHiME 2011 workshop. > > If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the > organisers, chime at dcs.shef.ac.uk > > > Looking forward to your participation, > > Jon Barker, (University of Sheffield, UK) > Emmanuel Vincent, (INRIA Rennes, France) > Ning Ma, (University of Sheffield, UK) > Heidi Christensen, (University of Sheffield, UK) > Phil Green, (University of Sheffield, UK) From erhan at atr.jp Tue Jan 25 00:48:01 2011 From: erhan at atr.jp (erhan) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:48:01 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: Humanoids 2011 : Call for Papers Message-ID: <4D3E6411.8060009@atr.jp> HUMANOIDS 2011, INITIAL CALL FOR PAPERS ========================================================================== 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (HUMANOIDS 2011) Conference Venue : Golf Hotel, Bled, Slovenia Conference Dates : October 26-28, 2011 Submission Deadline : May 29, 2011 Conference Website : http://www.humanoids2011.org/ ========================================================================== The 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids 2011) will be held on October 26-28, 2011, in the Alpine town of Bled in Slovenia. Bled is easily accessible from the Ljubljana Airport which has excellent connections to all major European hubs. The conference is sponsored by IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. Papers from academic institutions, industrial communities, and government agencies are solicited in all areas related to humanoid robotics including, but not limited to, mechatronics, control, perception, planning, learning, neural and behavioral sciences, and human- robot interaction. Contributed papers will be presented either at a single track oral presentation session or at poster sessions. All the contributed papers will appear without distinction in the conference proceedings as well as in IEEE Xplore. For general inquiries about the conference, please contact the conference secretariat at humanoids at ijs.si. The official call for papers with more details can be found at http://www.humanoids2011.org/cfp.pdf, which can also be accessed through the conference website. For paper submission details, please refer to the conference website at http://www.humanoids2011.org. IMPORTANT DATES: May 29, 2011 Submission of full-length papers May 29, 2011 Proposals for tutorials/workshops August 6, 2011 Notification of paper acceptance September 6, 2011 Submission of final camera-ready papers ORGANIZING COMMITTEE General Chair: Ale Ude, Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia General co-Chairs: R?diger Dillmann, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany Stefan Schaal, University of Southern California, USA Program co-Chairs: Nancy Pollard, CMU, USA Jun Morimoto, ATR, Japan Tamim Asfour, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany Tutorials/Workshops co-Chairs: Giorgio Metta, Italian Institute of Technology Ales Leonardis, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Awards co-Chairs: Gordon Cheng, Technical University of Munich, Germany Kazuhito Yokoi, AIST, Japan Publicity Chair: Erhan Oztop, ATR, Japan Finance Chair: Bojan Nemec, Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia Publications Chair: Andrej Gams, Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia http://www.humanoids2011.org/ From oby at cs.tu-berlin.de Wed Jan 26 10:57:29 2011 From: oby at cs.tu-berlin.de (Klaus Obermayer) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:57:29 +0100 (CET) Subject: Connectionists: PhD/Postdoc position, TU Berlin Message-ID: Dear List Manager, can you please post the job offer below on the mailing list? Thank you very much. Klaus Obermayer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Technische Universitaet Berlin, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Neural Information Processing Group 1 PhD / Postdoc Position MACHINE LEARNING / NEURAL NETWORKS The successful candidate is expected to join the ongoing projects of the Neural Information Processing Group (http://ni.cs.tu-berlin.de/). Potential research areas include Learning on Structured Representations, Active and Semisupervised Learning or Reinforcement Learning. Since the position involves some teaching obligations, candidates must have good German language skills. Starting date: April 1st, 2011 Salary level: TV-L E13 The position of for five years. Candidates should hold a recent Diplom- or Master-degree (for the PhD position) and PhD degree (for the postdoctoral position) and should have excellent mathematical and programming skills. Candidates with good knowledge and with research experience in Machine Learning / Neural Networks will be preferred. Application material (CV, list of publications, abstract of Diplom- / Master- / PhD-thesis, copies of certificates and two letters of reference) should be sent to: Prof. Dr. Klaus Obermayer, FR 2-1, Technische Universit?t Berlin, Franklinstrasse 28/29, 10587 Berlin, email: oby at cs.tu-berlin.de, preferably by email. All applications received before February 15, 2011, will be given full consideration, but applications will be accepted until the position is filled. TUB seeks to increase the proportion of women and particularly encourages women to apply. Women will be preferred given equal qualification. Disabled persons will be preferred given equal qualification. From msh at aber.ac.uk Wed Jan 26 19:41:29 2011 From: msh at aber.ac.uk (msh@aber.ac.uk) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:41:29 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: IM-CLeVeR 2011 Spring School Announcement Message-ID: <57a0d0ae48117548dba25cd90231adf2.squirrel@webmail.aber.ac.uk> The IM-CLeVeR/Aberystwyth University Spring School 2011 is being held at the 2011 CapoCaccia Cognitive Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop in Sardinia from 1st to 7th May inclusive. It is aimed at PhD students and young researchers in the fields of computer science, robotics, autonomous systems, machine vision, biologically inspired robotics, machine learning and engineering but is open to interested students in biology, psychology and neuroscience etc. with a reasonable background and skills in robotics and programming. The school is intended as a platform for work exchange, for meeting other students and learning from each other by working in small robotic related research projects of a maximum of five people. It is an unique opportunity to see their own research from a different angle and to gain the valuable experience of applying competence and skills in new domains. This year we are running the school in conjunction with the 2011 CapoCaccia Cognitive Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop (http://capocaccia.ethz.ch/capo/wiki/2011 ). Students of the school will be registered to the workshop, and will be able to attend workshop events and talks as well as those of the school. The main school will run during the first 7 days of the workshop, but we will provide space and supervision for students wishing to stay until the end on the 14th May so that they may continue working on their school projects. Students wishing to attend the school should apply to James Law (jxl at aber.ac.uk), with the following information: * A covering letter indicating how your research relates to the school topics and how you perceive attendance will benefit you * A letter of endorsement from your research supervisor, or equivalent * Your order of preference for the school projects (http://www.im-clever.eu/announcements/events/ first-im-clever-summer-school/projects/ ) Applications must be received by Monday 21st February. Bursaries are available to assist with some of the costs. Applications will be processed rapidly upon receipt and successful applicants will be notified within a week. Please be aware that the school is limited to 15 places, and so early application is strongly advised. For more details, please visit http://www.im-clever.eu/announcements/events/first-im-clever-summerschool-1 James Law Spring School organiser From icais11 at cuas.at Thu Jan 27 03:20:43 2011 From: icais11 at cuas.at (icais11) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 09:20:43 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: The 2011 International Conference on Adaptive and Intelligent Systems (ICAIS'11), Austria, September 06-08, 2011 Message-ID: <29E93A60E97FC647BD76AAA56A3D935E0B3203595A@exchange05.technikum.local> [Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * CALL FOR PAPERS * * * The 2011 International Conference on Adaptive & Intelligent Systems - ICAIS'11 September 06th - 08th, 2011 Klagenfurt, Austria http://icais.uni-klu.ac.at Sponsored by - IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) - The International Neural Network Society - The Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * AIMS OF THE CONFERENCE * * * The ICAIS'11 conference aims at bringing together international researchers, developers and practitioners from different horizons to discuss the latest advances in system learning and adaptation. ICAIS'11 will serve as a space to present the current state of the art but also future research avenues of this thematic. Topics of the conference cover three aspects: Algorithms & theories of adaptation and learning, Adaptation issues in Software & System Engineering, Real-world Applications. ICAIS'11 will feature contributed papers as well as world-renowned guest speakers (see webpage), interactive breakout sessions, and instructional workshops. Conference Proceedings will be published by Springer in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence Series. * * * IMPORTANT DATES * * * - Workshop/Special Session proposal: April 18, 2011 - Full paper submission: June 10, 2011 - Acceptance notification: July 08, 2011 - Final camera ready: July 18, 2011 * * * POST-CONFERENCE PUBLICATION * * * A selected number of accepted and personally presented papers will be considered for possible inclusion in one of the following special issues of international journals: - Special Issue of Evolving Systems (Springer) on Clustering and Classification in Dynamic Environments - Special Issue of Neurocomputing (Elsevier) on Neurocompting for Dynamically Changing Systems * * * MAIN TOPICS (but not limited to) * * * - Track 1: Self-X Systems o Self-adaptation o Self-organization and behavior emergence o Self-managing o Self-healing o Self-monitoring o Multi-agent systems o Self-X software agents o Self-X robots o Self-organizing sensor networks o Evolving systems - Track 2: Incremental Learning o Online incremental learning o Self-growing neural networks o Adaptive and life-long learning o Plasticity and stability o Forgetting o Unlearning o Novelty detection o Perception and evolution o Drift handling o Adaptation in changing environments - Track 3: Online Processing o Adaptive rule-based systems o Adaptive identification systems o Adaptive decision systems o Adaptive preference learning o Time series prediction o Online and single-pass data mining o Online classification o Online clustering o Online regression o Online feature selection and reduction o Online information routing - Track 4: Dynamic and Evolving Models in Computational Intelligence o (Dynamic) Neural networks architectures o (Dynamic) Evolutionary computation o (Dynamic) Swarm intelligence o (Dynamic) Immune and bacterial systems o Uncertainty and fuzziness modeling for adaptation o Approximate reasoning and adaptation o Chaotic systems - Track 5: Software & System Engineering o Autonomic computing o Organic computing o Evolution o Adaptive software architecture o Software change o Software agents o Engineering of complex systems o Adaptive software engineering processes o Component-based development - Track 6: Applications - Adaptivity and Learning o Smart systems o Ambient / ubiquitous environments o Distributed intelligence o Robotics o Industrial applications o Internet applications o Business applications o Supply chain management o etc. * * * SUBMISSION * * * Papers must be in PDF, not exceeding 10 pages and conforming to Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes guidelines. Author instructions and style files can be downloaded at http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html. Papers must be submitted through the submission system ( http://icais.uni-klu.ac.at/submission.php ). Short papers describing novel research visions, work-in-progress or less mature results are also welcome. All submission will be peer-reviewed by at least 3 qualified reviewers. Selection criteria will include: relevance, significance, impact, originality, technical soundness, and quality of presentation. Preference will be given to submissions that take strong or challenging positions on important emergent topics. At least one author have to attend the conference to present the paper. The conference proceedings which will be published as a hardcopy by Springer in LNAI, will be available at the conference. * * * ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE * * * General Chair: - Abdelhamid Bouchachia, University of Klagenfurt, Austria International Advisory Committee: - Nikola Kasabov, Auckland University, New Zealand - Nicolo Cesa-Bianchi, University of Milano, Italy - Djamel Ziou, University of Sherbrooke, Canada - Plamen Angelov, University of Lancaster, UK - Hani Hagras, University of Essex, UK - Witold Pedrycz, University of Edmonton, Canada - Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland Organization Committee: - Roland Mittermeir, University of Klagenfurt, Austria - Annette Lippitsch, University of Klagenfurt, Austria - Markus Kuenstner, University of Klagenfurt, Austria - Andreas Bollin, University of Klagenfurt, Austria Publicity Chair: - Markus Prossegger, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110127/0dc8362e/attachment-0001.html From vanessa.casagrande at bccn-berlin.de Thu Jan 27 10:46:39 2011 From: vanessa.casagrande at bccn-berlin.de (Vanessa Casagrande) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:46:39 +0100 (CET) Subject: Connectionists: Call for applications: Graduate Programs Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <39120.130.149.23.86.1296143199.squirrel@portal.bccn-berlin.de> *Apologies for cross-posting* Doctoral Program "Sensory Computation in Neural Systems" and Master Program "Computational Neuroscience" Application deadline March 15, 2011. Begin of Courses: October/November 2011 http://www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de *Doctoral Program* The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and the TU Berlin invite applications for *4 fellowships* of the Research Training Group "Sensory Computation in Neural Systems" (GRK 1589/1). Doctoral candidates will develop computational methods for the study of sensory computation, focusing on time and dynamics, and apply these in experiments by combining techniques and concepts from computational neuroscience, cognitive science, machine learning, and system neurobiology. The training group offers a structured supervision complemented by a teaching and training program. Each student will be supervised by two investigators with complementary expertise and will be associated with the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin (http://www.bccn-berlin.de/) a leading research center dedicated to the theoretical study of neural processing. Candidates are expected to hold a Masters degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject (e.g., neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, physics, etc.) and have the required advanced mathematical background. Candidates selected in the first application step will be invited for lab visits and an interview, expected to take place in June 2011. The fellowships of approximately 1500 ?/month (with additional children allowances if applicable) will be granted for up to three years. *Master Program* The Master program offers ten places per year, has a duration of 2 years and is fully taught in English. The curriculum is subdivided into ten modules, whose content includes theoretical neuroscience, advanced programming, data acquisition and computational analysis, machine learning, and modeling of experimental data, with a strong focus on a complementary theoretical and experimental training. Three lab rotations and a master thesis are accomplished in the second year. The aim of the program is to grant the students an interdisciplinary education and an early contact to the neurocomputational research environment. Requirements: BSc or equivalent degree, (typically in the natural sciences, in an engineering discipline, in cognitive science, or in mathematics), certificate of English proficiency, proof of sufficient mathematical knowledge (i.e. at least 24 ECTS credit points). For further information concerning the graduate programs and the application procedure, see http://www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de or e-mail graduateprograms at bccn-berlin.de . With best regards, Vanessa Casagrande -- Dr. Vanessa Casagrande Teaching Coordinator Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Humboldt University Philippstr. 13 House 6 10115 Berlin Germany Phone +49 (0)30 2093 6773 Fax +49 (0)30 2093 6771 http://www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de GRK 1589/1 Sensory Computation in Neural Systems Technische Universitaet Berlin Sekretariat FR 2-1 Franklinstr. 28/29 10587 Berlin Phone +49 (0)30 314 72006 Fax +49 (0)30 314 73121 From r.gross at sheffield.ac.uk Thu Jan 27 14:09:24 2011 From: r.gross at sheffield.ac.uk (Roderich Gross) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:09:24 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CFP: TAROS 2011 - 12th Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (LNAI, Springer) Message-ID: * Apologies if you receive this multiple times * Second Call for Papers The submission system is now open! TAROS 2011 12th Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems 31 August - 2 September 2011. Sheffield, United Kingdom More details and up-to-date information at http://www.taros.org.uk/ ABOUT TAROS Now in its 12th edition, TAROS is the UK's premiere annual conference for autonomous robotics. The meeting encompasses topics across the entire range of robotics research and is open to worldwide contributors and participants. TAROS 2011 will be a single-track conference, which includes a limited number of invited talks as well as oral and poster presentations of high quality, original research. Submissions by authors who are new to TAROS are encouraged. An extra day (Friday 2nd September) has been added to this year's meeting to host a symposium on links between the academic and industrial robotics communities. PLENARY SPEAKERS Joseph Ayers (Northeastern University) Simon Blackmore (UniBots Ltd) Yiannis Demiris (Imperial College London) Paul Newman (The Oxford Mobile Robotics Group) PUBLICATION DETAILS Accepted full papers and extended abstracts will be published by Springer in the LNAI/LNCS series (http://www.springer.com/lncs) and authors will be required to follow the Springer publishing guidelines. The series is listed in various indexing services (e.g., ISI Proceedings, Scopus, ACM, and EI). The journal Robotics and Autonomous Systems will publish a special issue dedicated to TAROS 2011. ULRICH NEHMZOW BEST PAPER AWARD (In Memoriam of Professor Ulrich Nehmzow, founder of TAROS) A best paper award will be presented at the conference. The selection is based on the originality and quality of the submission and its potential impact. SUBMITTING TO TAROS 2011 TAROS 2011 invites both full papers (up to 12 pages, LNCS format) and extended abstracts (2 pages, LNCS format). Full papers are invited from researchers at any stage in their career but should present significant findings and advances in robotics research; more preliminary work would be better suited to extended abstract submission. All contributions will be fully refereed by at least three members of the programme committee. Full papers will be accepted for either oral presentation or poster presentation. Extended abstracts will be accepted for poster presentation only. Papers are solicited in all areas of robotics, including, but not restricted to: - 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 - Autonomous vehicles - Biohybrid robotic systems - Biomimetic and bio-inspired robotics - Cognitive robotics - Cooperative robotics - Developmental robotics - Ethical and societal issues in robotics - Evolutionary robotics - Field robotics - Flying robots (unmanned- and micro- air vehicles) - Hardware issues, devices and techniques, advanced sensor and actuator hardware - Human-Robot interaction and interfaces - Humanoid robotics - Intelligent prostheses - Learning and adaptation - Legged robots - Long-term interaction and operation - Modelling and analysis of robot models - Modular reconfigurable robots - Navigation, localisation, map building and path planning - Personal robotics - Robot autonomy including energy self-sufficiency - Robot communication and language - Robot control architectures - Robots in education, the arts and entertainment - Robot vision, sensing and perception - Service robotics - Space and planetary robotics - Swarm robotics The submission system is now open. Submission instructions are available on http://www.taros.org.uk/. ABOUT SHEFFIELD The City of Sheffield is built on seven hills and near the confluence of five rivers, it borders on to the UK's first national park (the Peak District). The city is known for its industrial heritage, current hi-tech industries, and as a cultural hub for South Yorkshire. The City hosts two Universities - Sheffield Hallam University (http://www.shu.ac.uk/) who will host TAROS 2011 and the University of Sheffield (http://www.shef.ac.uk/) who will co-organise the event. The two Universities house many active robotic research groups who are working together to organise the meeting. DEADLINES March 11, 2011 Submission deadline May 11, 2011 Notification of acceptance May 27, 2011 Camera ready copy August 31 - September 2, 2011 Conference INDUSTRIAL PARTICIPATION The participation of representatives of the industry is welcome both in the main conference and particularly in the academic-industry 1-day symposium. Exhibition space is available. Please contact info at taros.org.uk. TAROS 2011 SPONSORS IEEE Robotics and Automation Society - UKRI Chapter (co-sponsor) Looking forwards to seeing you in Sheffield. Jacques Penders & Tony Prescott Conference chairs, TAROS 2011 http://www.taros.org.uk info at taros.org.uk --- Roderich GROSS, Ph.D. Lecturer Department of Automatic Control & Systems Engineering The University of Sheffield Mappin Street Sheffield S1 3JD, UK Tel: +44 114 2225610 Fax: +44 114 2225683 http://www.shef.ac.uk/acse/staff/roderich-gross -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/private/connectionists/attachments/20110127/0fdf7338/attachment.html From frank.jaekel at tuebingen.mpg.de Sun Jan 30 13:31:00 2011 From: frank.jaekel at tuebingen.mpg.de (=?iso-8859-1?Q?Frank_J=E4kel?=) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 19:31:00 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Doctoral position in Cognitive Modeling at University of Osnabrueck Message-ID: <6E7ABBED-F69C-4C8D-B245-C8B7B7D97C52@tuebingen.mpg.de> Please forward the following job ad to students who are interested in cognitive modeling and/or visual perception. The interdisciplinary Institute of Cognitive Science (IKW) at the University of Osnabrueck (Germany) seeks applicants for a three-year doctoral position (50%) (salary level E13 TV-L) The position involves participation in the research activities of the Cognitive Modeling Group as well as teaching Cognitive Science courses (the weekly teaching load is two hours, teaching language is English). The Cognitive Modeling Group currently works on categorization, concepts, and vision. Methodologically, the group combines psychophysical techniques with machine learning. Probabilistic models of concept formation and visual perception are of particular interest. The position offers the possibility of further academic qualification. Applicants are expected to have an excellent academic degree (Master/Diploma) in either Cognitive Science, Psychology, Computer Science or another discipline relevant to Cognitive Science. Prior experience with at least one of the following fields is desirable: Experimental psychology, psychophysics, mathematical psychology, or machine learning. The University of Osnabrueck is an equal opportunity employer. Women are therefore especially encouraged to submit their applications and will be preferentially considered provided they are equally qualified. Disabled candidates with equal qualifications will be given preference. Applications with the usual documentation (CV, list of publications, and the names of two referees) and a letter of motivation should be submitted no later than March 4th, 2011 to the Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrueck, Albrechtstra?e 28, 49076 Osnabrueck. Further information can be obtained from Prof. Dr. Frank J?kel (fjaekel at uos.de). From toyoizumilab at brain.riken.jp Mon Jan 31 01:05:07 2011 From: toyoizumilab at brain.riken.jp (Taro Toyoizumi) Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:05:07 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Positions in Computational Neuroscience RIKEN Brain Science Institute Message-ID: <1296453907732458.1343799703@pop.brain.riken.jp> Postdoctoral Positions in Computational Neuroscience RIKEN Brain Science Institute [Laboratory] New laboratory (From April, 2011. Laboratory head: Taro Toyoizumi) [Job title and Research Field] Postdoctoral Research Scientist (Number of positions: 1 or 2) in Computational Neuroscience [Job Description and Qualification] Our lab is interested in the information theoretical analysis of neural circuits and the modeling of activity-dependent plasticity in the brain. We seek highly motivated postdoctoral researchers with a strong analytical background and interest in neuroscience. Applicants should have a PhD in physics, neuroscience, mathematics, computer science, or a related area. Candidates who want to link theory and experiment in close collaboration with an experimental lab are also encouraged to apply. Current interest of the lab includes: • Influences of synaptic connectivity and the resulting dynamical state on information representation and the dynamical memory capacity in the brain • Modeling of the interaction of Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity • Unifying description of activity-dependent plasticity across different developmental stages and animal species • Optimal synaptic plasticity rules for information transmission For more information, see http://www.brain.riken.jp/labs/mns/toyoizumi/ (A high-performance super workstation with 256 processors and 448GB memory is accessible for parallel neuronal network simulation and data analysis upon request.) [Work location] RIKEN Brain Science Institute (2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, Japan) is located in greater Tokyo area, about 30 min from the center of the city by train. [Conditions and benefits] Full-time position with an annual contract up to 5 years based on the evaluation. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Commuting and housing allowances will be provided. Social insurance will be applied. RIKEN BSI is an international research institute. We use English as the common language for research and for administration. [Application and required documents] 1. Complete CV 2. List of publications 3. Contact information for two or three references [Deadline] The search will continue until the positions are filled. [Handling Personal Data] All private data sent to RIKEN in application for employment is handled in strict confidentiality, and such data is not utilized for any other purpose or disclosed to any third party. Application documents will not be returned. [Selection process] Selection will be made based on application screening and interviews. [Start of Employment] April 1st, 2011 or later (negotiable) [Send application to] toyoizumilab at brain.riken.jp [Contact information] Taro Toyoizumi, Ph.D. 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan RIKEN Brain Science Institute Email: toyoizumilab at brain.riken.jp From dong at wi-lab.com Mon Jan 31 11:23:23 2011 From: dong at wi-lab.com (Juzhen Dong) Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:23:23 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: IEEE-IS: Special Issue on Brain Informatics - Call for Papers Message-ID: <4D46E1FB.9050604@wi-lab.com> IEEE Intelligent Systems Call for Papers Special Issue on Brain Informatics Publication: September/October 2011 Submissions due for review: 24 February 2011 Brain informatics (BI) is an emerging interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research field that focuses on studying the mechanisms underlying the human information processing system (HIPS). BI investigates the essential functions of the brain, ranging from perception to thinking, and encompassing such areas as multiperception, attention, memory, language, computation, heuristic search, reasoning, planning, decision-making, problem-solving, learning, discovery, and creativity. One goal of BI research is to develop and demonstrate a systematic approach to an integrated understanding of macroscopic- and microscopic-level working principles of the brain via experimental, computational, and cognitive neuroscience studies as well as using advanced Web intelligence centric information technologies. Another goal is to promote new forms of collaborative and interdisciplinary work. New kinds of BI methods and global research communities will emerge through infrastructure on the semantic/wisdom Web, knowledge grids, and cloud computing. This new infrastructure will enable high-speed, distributed, large-scale analysis and computation and radically new ways of data/knowledge sharing. This special issue will present some of the best work being done worldwide to deal with the new challenges of brain informatics, especially from intelligent systems perspectives. Submissions covering the following areas are welcome: - Human brain data collection, preprocessing, management, and analysis - Brain data modeling and formal conceptual models of human brain data - Multimedia brain data mining and reasoning - Multiaspect analysis in functional magnetic resonance imagery, electroencephalography, and magneto-encephalography (fMRI/EEG/MEG) activations - Developing brain data grids and brain research support portals - Multimodal information fusion for brain image interpretation - Statistical analysis and pattern recognition in neuroimaging - Cognitive architectures and their relations to fMRI/EEG/MEG - HIPS meets complex systems - The cyber-individual meets BI - Eye-tracking meets fMRI/EEG for human-computer interaction and brain-computer interfaces - Modeling brain information-processing mechanisms - Neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, and neurolinguistics - New cognitive and computational models for intelligent systems Submission Guidelines Submissions should be 3,000 to 5,400 words (counting a standard figure or table as 200 words) and should follow IEEE Intelligent Systems style and presentation guidelines (computer.org/intelligent/author.htm). Submit all manuscripts online at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/is-cs. We strongly encourage submissions that include real-world social media, data, and community content. Selected live social-media content and sites will be featured on the IEEE Computer Society Web site along with the accepted papers. Questions? For more information, contact the guest editors: Ning Zhong, Maebashi Institute of Technology and the International WIC Institute (Beijing University of Technology); zhong(at)maebashi-it.ac.jp Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition; jbradshaw(at)ihmc.us Jiming Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University and the International WIC Institute (Beijing University of Technology); jiming(at)comp.hkbu.edu.hk John G. Taylor, King?s College London; john.g.taylor(at)kcl.ac.uk