Connectionists: Call for participation: ICANN 2011 - Machine learning re-inspired by brain and cognition

Thu May 12 14:06:23 EDT 2011

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Call for Participation: 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

Registration is now open.

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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 presents research on two major themes, Brain-inspired
computing and Machine learning research; Keynote speakers and
competitions highlight cross-disciplinary interactions and
applications.

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 presents research on two major themes, 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

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)

All ICANN participants are also welcome to follow the WSOM
2011 plenary session by Teuvo Kohonen on "Contextually
Self-Organized Maps of Chinese Words".

ORGANIZATION

General chair:                Erkki Oja
Program 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

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

PROGRAMME

ICANN 2011 features six plenary sessions, a panel discussion on
central issues related to neural networks and machine learning
research, five workshops, fourteen oral sessions, a poster spotlight
session, and a poster session.

The full programme of ICANN 2011 is now available at
http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011 .

WORKSHOPS

ICANN 2011 hosts five workshops:
- Computational Intelligence for Quality of Life Environmental
   Information Services
- Validation of Computational Models in Social and Economic Sciences
- Beyond Correlations: Developments in Supervised Learning Algorithms
   for Spiking Neural Networks
- Challenge Workshop: Mind Reading Competition on MEG Data
- META-NET Workshop: Context in Machine Translation

Details of the workshops 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.

REGISTRATION

Registration for ICANN 2011 is now open. The on-line registration
is available at http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011 .

In addition to ICANN registration, joint registration to both ICANN
2011 and WSOM 2011 is available. See http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011
for the full range of registration options and prices.

ACCOMMODATION

A conference price has been arranged at the Sokos Presidentti Hotel,
and convenient public transportation to the conference site is
available. See http://www.cis.hut.fi/icann2011 for accommodation
details.

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. ======