Connectionists: From Brains to Machines symposium (at IJCNN, sponsored by NSF)

[Yoonsuck Choe]

IJCNN 2011 in San Jose to Feature "From Brains to Machines" Symposium 
Sponsored by NSF

Doubletree Hotel, San Jose
Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The 2011 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, to be held at 
the San Jose Doubletree Hotel from July 31 to August 5, will feature a 
special symposium entitled "From Brains to Machines" sponsored by the 
National Science Foundation. The symposium, to be held all day on Tuesday, 
August 2, will bring together leading neuroscientists, cognitive 
scientists and engineers seeking to understand the brain and build 
neuromorphic machines. Keynote plenary talks will be given by Michael 
Arbib, Director of the USC Brain Project at the University of Southern 
California, and Dharmendra Modha, Manager of Cognitive Computing at IBM 
Almaden Research Center. The full program for the symposium is as follows:

Plenary Session
Michael Arbib, University of Southern California
Brains, machines and buildings

Session 1
Adam Gazzaley, University of California San Francisco
Neural networks underlying top-down enhancement and suppression of visual 
processing

Cheryl Grady, Rotman Research Institute, Toronto
The effects of aging on functional connectivity during cognitive tasks and 
at rest

Jennie Si, Arizona State University
New insights into the cortical neural substrate for goal-directed 
cognitive control

Vinod Menon, Stanford University
Dynamical functional organization of the human brain


Plenary Session
Dharmendra Modha, IBM Almaden Research Center
Cognitive computing: neuroscience, supercomputing, nanotechnology

Session 2
Jose Carmena, University of California Berkeley
Neural adaptations to a brain-machine interface

Michel Maharbiz, University of California Berkeley
Cyborg beetles: building interfaces between synthetic and multicellular

Ted Berger, University of Southern California
Biomimetic models and microelectronics for neural prosthetic devices that 
support memory systems of the brain

Dileep George, Vicarious Systems
How to work towards a mathematical understanding of the brain


In addition to the symposium, the conference will feature:

* Plenary lectures by internationally renowned researchers in neural 
networks, cognitive science, robotics and distributed intelligence, 
including a special session on “The Emergence of Mind”.

* More than 500 research presentations, including special sessions on 
neuromorphic hardware, smart grid applications and autonomous machine 
learning.

* Tutorials, workshops and panels in a wide range of areas related to 
neural networks, computational intelligence and cognitive science.

Discounted early registration is available through June 30. For details 
and registration information, please visit http://www.ijcnn2011.org