From h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de Sun Feb 1 14:28:44 2015 From: h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de (Herbert Jaeger) Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 20:28:44 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: European Spring School on Integrated Cognitive Systems (Herbert Jaeger) Message-ID: <54CE7E6C.6070106@jacobs-university.de> Invitation to Participate: INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLEGE 2015 www.interdisciplinary-college.de An intense, decidedly interdisciplinary Spring School in Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, Machine Learning, Psychology, AI and Philosophy. Guenne, Lake Moehne, Germany - March 6-13, 2015 Chairs: Herbert Jaeger, Ansgar Bueschges Fokus theme 2015: From Neuron to Person: Assembling Behavior and Cognition *The Interdisciplinary College* (IK) is an annual European one-week spring school, now in its 18th year. It offers a dense, rich, 4-track state-of-the-art course program in the wider sciences of intelligent/cognitive systems. The perspective and mission is decidedly interdisciplinary. The IK is also a unique social and networking event. Minds meet, music is played, and friends are made in long evening and night sessions in the welcoming conference site at Lake Moehne. Each IK is centered on a *focus theme*. In 2015 the focus is on integrated, complex cognitive systems. Research in the wider cognitive and neurosciences (including AI, machine learning and robotics) often deals with specific subsystems or functions, like "motor control", "object recognition", "working memory", etc. There are numerous reasons for this fragmentation: a divide-and-conquer strategy of isolating subsystems has been very successful in the sciences; commercially relevant applications mostly are centered on single functionalities; interdisciplinary research is not easy in practice. Defying these obstacles, the IK 2015 will cast its focus on complete, autonomous agents -- animals, humans, robots, and software characters. An offering of 25+ courses (each course 4-6 hours) is grouped under the following perspectives: - *Modeling cognitive architectures*: theoretical / mathematical / computational frameworks to analyse or design complete intelligent agents - *Person, Identity, Dignity*: philosophical / psychological / ethics perspectives on sentient beings - *Engineering Agents*: technological approaches to build robots and software agents - *Neurons, Muscles, Bodies*: "bottom-up" modeling of sensing and motor control in neurobiology, genetics and motor science - *Language and Thought*: "top-down" modeling of higher cognitive capacities in cognitive psychology and linguistics Please visit www.interdisciplinary-college.de for the detailed program, venue and registration and everything else, including the IK's 30-year-long history. Participants from outside Europe are of course most welcome too! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Herbert Jaeger Professor for Computational Science Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH Campus Ring 28759 Bremen, Germany Phone (+49) 421 200 3215 Fax (+49) 421 200 49 3215 email h.jaeger at jacobs-university.de http://minds.jacobs-university.de ------------------------------------------------------------------ From erik at oist.jp Mon Feb 2 02:53:09 2015 From: erik at oist.jp (Erik De Schutter) Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 16:53:09 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: Okinawa/OIST Computational Neuroscience Course 2015: application deadline soon Message-ID: <81451511-5B80-45E0-B0AC-5BEF47CF3CE6@oist.jp> OKINAWA/OIST COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE COURSE 2015 Methods, Neurons, Networks and Behaviors June 8 - June 25, 2015 Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan https://groups.oist.jp/ocnc The aim of the Okinawa/OIST 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 8th through June 25th, 2015 at an oceanfront seminar house of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. Applications are through the course web page (https://groups.oist.jp/ocnc) only; they will close February 8th, 2015. Applicants will receive confirmation of acceptance in March. The course has a strong hands-on component based on student proposed modeling or data analysis projects, which are further refined with the help of a dedicated tutor. Applicants are required to propose their project at the time of application. 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. There is no tuition fee. The sponsor will provide lodging and meals during the course and may 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: ? Gordon Arbuthnott (OIST) ? Axel Borst (MPI, M?nich, Germany) ? Erik De Schutter (OIST) ? Kenji Doya (OIST) ? Eugene Izihikevich (Brain Corporation, USA) ? Bernd Kuhn (OIST) ? Peter Latham (Gatsby Unit, UCL, UK) ? Miguel Nicolelis (Duke University, USA) ? Steve Prescott (University of Toronto, Canada) ? John Rinzel (New York University, USA) ? Jackie Schiller (Technion, Israel) ? Greg Stephens (OIST) ? Jeff Wickens (OIST) ? Taro Toyoizumi (RIKEN BSI, Japan) ? Xiao-Jing Wang (New York University, USA) ? Wako Yoshida (ATR, Japan) From tomas.hromadka at gmail.com Mon Feb 2 06:32:17 2015 From: tomas.hromadka at gmail.com (Tomas Hromadka) Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2015 12:32:17 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS) Message-ID: <54CF6041.3000508@gmail.com> Dear colleagues, Please find below an announcement about the fourth edition of the Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS). We would be very grateful if you could forward this announcement to potentially interested people. Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS) June 1-19, 2015. The Pike Lake, Transylvania, Romania www.tenss.ro TENSS will concentrate top-level international expertise to teach a dozen students techniques and concepts in experimental systems neuroscience. We will focus on modern optical and electrophysiological methods to study the connectivity and function of neuronal circuits. The course is designed to be intensive and highly interactive, including both lab sessions and theoretical lectures. Coursework will take place in a land of myth and legend, beyond large forests (Transylvania), on the shores of a picturesque natural reserve called Pike Lake. Applications are welcome from interested (and interesting) graduate students and postdocs. Please note that the registration fee has been reduced and there is a significant number of full and half waivers available for supporting our applicants. Application deadline -- March 1st, 2015 Notification of acceptance -- March 21st, 2015 Summer School -- June 1-19th, 2015 Confirmed lecturers: Acs?dy, L?szl? -- Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest Albeanu, Florin -- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, USA Battaglia, Francesco -- Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands Bhalla, Upinder -- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India Burrone, Juan -- King's College, London, UK Engert, Florian -- Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA Gradinaru, Viviana -- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA H?usser, Michael - University College, London, UK Hofer, Sonja -- Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland Hrom?dka, Tom?? -- Institute of Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic H?bener, Mark -- Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany Ji, Na -- HHMI, Janelia Farm, USA Kampff, Adam -- Champalimaud Foundation, Institute for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal Keller, Georg -- Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland Mrsic-Fl?gel, Tom -- Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland Muresan, Raul -- Coneural, Romanian Institute of Science and Technology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Monyer, Hannah -- University of Heidelberg, Germany Murthy, Venkatesh -- Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA Nikolic, Danko -- Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany Roska, Botond -- Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland Rumpel, Simon -- University of Mainz, Germany Singer, Wolf -- Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany Whitlock, Jonathan -- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Trondheim, Norway Organizers: Muresan, Raul -- Coneural, Romanian Institute of Science and Technology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Kampff, Adam -- Champalimaud Foundation, Institute for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal Albeanu, Florin -- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, USA Information about how to apply can be found here: http://tenss.ro/apply/. Best regards, TENSS Organizing Committee contact at tenss.ro From ckello at ucmerced.edu Mon Feb 2 05:27:10 2015 From: ckello at ucmerced.edu (Chris Kello) Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 10:27:10 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Abstracts: Society for Complex Systems in Cognitve Science, July 21st 2015, Pasadena CA Message-ID: Call for Abstracts 4th Bi-Annual Meeting of the Society for Complex Systems in Cognitive Science July 21st, 2015 Co-located with Cogsci 2015 in Pasadena, CA Deadline for abstracts: March 15th, 2015 http://cogmech.ucmerced.edu/scscs2015.html SCSCS was founded in 2009 at an inaugural meeting immediately following the annual Cognitive Science Society meeting in Amsterdam. The intent was to provide a forum for the growing numbers of researchers who study mind, brain, and behavior from complex/dynamical systems perspectives. The last meeting was co-located in Berlin with Cogsci 2013. It lasted one full day and consisted of a single track of talks with posters during lunch and dinner after the close of the scientific meeting. About 50 people were in attendance. This year, the meeting will be held at the Pasadena Convention Center on July 21st, one day before the tutorials for Cogsci 2015, also being held at the convention center. The format of the meeting will be similar to last year, except that we are honored to have Professor J. A. Scott Kelso give a keynote lecture. Professor Kelso is the Glenwood and Martha Creech Chair in Science at Florida Atlantic University, and a pioneer in applying complex and dynamic systems approaches to mind, brain, and behavior. His work on the famous HKB model, and his book entitled Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior, have been hugely influential across a wide range of scientific disciplines related to cognitive science. Cognitive scientists of all kinds are invited to submit a 250-word abstract to present at the meeting. Please email your title, authors and their affiliations, and abstract to scscs2015 at gmail.com by the end of the day March 15th, 2015 (pacific standard time). In your email, please note if you would prefer a talk or poster, or no preference. Also please specify if the presenter will be an undergraduate or graduate student, a postdoc, a faculty member, or another type of researcher. The registration fee will be $25 for students and postdocs, and $50 for faculty and other researchers. Authors will be notified of acceptance or not no later than April 1st, 2015. On behalf of the SCSCS conference co-organizers, Chris Kello, Jay Holden, Scott Jordan, and Cees van Leeuwen -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rjgsousa at gmail.com Mon Feb 2 05:39:10 2015 From: rjgsousa at gmail.com (Ricardo Gamelas Sousa) Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2015 10:39:10 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Participation: VISUM Summer School (25 days until deadline) Message-ID: <54CF53CE.5040702@gmail.com> Apologies for cross-posting. --- Call for Participation 3^rd VISion Understanding and Machine intelligence summer school, Porto, Portugal First Computer Vision Summer School with an industrial track 2-9 July, 2015 http://www.fe.up.pt/visum/|Facebook: http://goo.gl/FbVNtq *Important Dates* Application Deadline March 1, 2015 Decision March 8, 2015 Early Registration April 10, 2015 Late Registration May 8, 2015 Summer School July 2-9, 2015 *Visum will comprise three main tracks* 1.Fundamental subjects 2.Examples of computer vision applications 3.Industrial session Each one with extensive practical ?hands-on? sessions* * *Topics* Randomised Decision Forests and Tree-structured Algorithms in Computer Vision Tae-Kyun Kim, Imperial College London, UK Local Features Extraction and Description Jiri Matas, Czech Technical University, CZ Document Image Analysis Alicia Fornes, Universitat Aut?noma de Barcelona, ES Scene Understanding Martial Hebert, CMU, USA Automatic Facial Expression Recognition Michel Valstar, University of Nottingham, UK RGB-D Cameras Thomas Whelan, Imperial College London, UK *Applications* Point Clouds 3D* Jo?o P. Costeira, IST, PT ** *Tentative titles *Industry Track* http://asap54.com/ Daniel Heesch www.enermeter.pt/en Manuel Jo?o Ferreira www.philips.com Jacek Kustra *Venue* visum will take place in Porto, Portugal?s second-largest city, European Best Destination 2012 and Lonely Planet?s top 10 for 2013. Here, you can find famous baroque style monuments, the worldwide known Port Wine cellars, always having the World Heritage Douro River as the background of this youthful, active and charming city. visum?s program includes social activities. *Accommodation*** *Tattva Design Hostel* Students will have 10% of discount. The prices include: Buffet breakfast, Wi-Fi all over the building, 4 computers in Lounge area, free linen, free locks, free City Maps, free Luggage Storage, free Portuguese Lessons, free Walking Tours, Happy Hour (exclusive prices for TattvaBar for guests). *Hotel da M?sica* All accepted participants will have a special price included in visum?s fees. Hotel da M?sica is a luxurious 4-star property set in a prime location in the centre of Porto. Local tourist attractions such as Rotunda da Boavista, Casa da Musica and Hospital Militar are not far from the hotel. Hotel da M?sica is equipped with free wifi. For more details please follow the link: http://www.hoteldamusica.com/and do not forget to check the special conditions at http://www.fe.up.pt/visum/ Please visit our webpage for up to date information: http://www.fe.up.pt/visum/. We are looking forward for your participation! visum organising committee Tiago Esteves, INEB, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto Kelwin Fernandes, INESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto Eduardo Marques, INESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto Ana Rebelo, INESC TEC, Universidade do Porto Ricardo Sousa, INEB, Universidade do Porto Lu?s Teixeira, INESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto Follow us on: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/visum/402527539813446 Google+: https://plus.google.com/104076275960053201744/posts Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/visumschool From Pierre.Bessiere at imag.fr Mon Feb 2 07:20:46 2015 From: Pierre.Bessiere at imag.fr (=?utf-8?Q?Pierre_Bessi=C3=A8re?=) Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 13:20:46 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PostDoc position: stochastic signal processing and probability computation Message-ID: PostDoc position: stochastic signal processing and probability computation Position available at ISIR (Institut des Syst?mes Intelligents et de Robotique) from Sorbonne Universit? - Universit? Pierre et Maris Curie, 4 place Jussieu, Paris: http://www.isir.upmc.fr/ Context: The framework of this position is the FP7-ICT European project BAMBI (Bottom-up Approaches to Machines dedicated to Bayesian Inference) launched in January 2014 for 3 years: https://www.bambi-fet.eu/ Content: The objective of the position is to develop theoretical studies and simulations of several ways to encode probability distribution with stochastic signals and to process these signals to implement probabilistic inferences. These studies should be done in strong interaction with our partners of the project working in the fields of fundamental electronics and spintronics. The researcher will have first to do a review of existing studies, including ongoing works done in our group and partners. He will then propose methods for the evaluation of building blocks performing basic probabilistic computation with stochastic signals, with a special focus on dynamic properties. Outcomes of these works will be published in international conferences and project deliverables. Competences: Good mathematical proficiency, especially in the field of probability theory and Markov models, is required. A perfect mastering of programming languages (C/C++, Python, Matlab) is also necessary. Duration: One year starting in spring 2015, with a possible prolongation until the end of the project (December 2016). Salary: Around 2500 euros/month, depending on previous research experience. Please submit CV and references by mail to Pierre Bessi?re (pierre.bessiere at isir.upmc.fr ) and Jacques Droulez (jacques.droulez at isir.upmc.fr ). _________________________________ Pr. Pierre Bessi?re - CNRS ********************** SORBONNE Universit?s - UPMC - ISIR http://bayesian-programming.org Tel: +33 1 44 27 51 54 Skype: Pierre.Bessiere Pyramide - T55/65 CC 173 - 4 Place Jussieu 75005 Paris FRANCE _________________________________ http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bessiere+bayesian&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Abessiere+bayesian _________________________________ Pr. Pierre Bessi?re - CNRS ********************** SORBONNE Universit?s - UPMC - ISIR http://bayesian-programming.org Tel: +33 1 44 27 51 54 Skype: Pierre.Bessiere Pyramide - T55/65 CC 173 - 4 Place Jussieu 75005 Paris FRANCE _________________________________ _________________________________ Pr. Pierre Bessi?re - CNRS ********************** SORBONNE Universit?s - UPMC - ISIR http://bayesian-programming.org Tel: +33 1 44 27 51 54 Skype: Pierre.Bessiere Pyramide - T55/65 CC 173 - 4 Place Jussieu 75005 Paris FRANCE _________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 9781439880326-180x278.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 11133 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: STAR-256x394.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 10490 bytes Desc: not available URL: From fbln at ecomp.poli.br Mon Feb 2 11:44:20 2015 From: fbln at ecomp.poli.br (Prof. Fernando Buarque) Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 13:44:20 -0300 Subject: Connectionists: [ICSI-CCI'2015 + BRICS-CCI2015]: Call for Papers (Extension to *February 28, 2015*) Message-ID: ---Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP---- Dear friends of BRICS-CCI, we have some good news for you: a CFP Extension for ICSI-CCI'2015 + BRICS-CCI2015. Please help us pass on this news! Name: Sixth International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ICSI-CCI'2015) in conjunction with Second BRICS Congress on Computational Intelligence (BRICS-CCI'2015) Theme: SERVING OUR SOCIETY AND LIFE WITH INTELLIGENCE URL: http://www.ic-si.org/ Dates: 26-29 June, 2015 Location: BICC, Beijing, China Requested by many authors and experts, the organization committee decided to extend the paper submission deadline to FEBRUARY 28, 2015. Please make your manuscript ready for submitting via Online Submission System (http://www.ic-si.org/submission/) as soon as possible. IMPORTANT DATES: Deadline for Paper Submission: ---February 28, 2015---(***EXTENDED***) Notification of acceptance: ---March 30, 2015---(***EXTENDED***) Author Registration: ---April 15, 2015--- The Sixth International Conference on Swarm Intelligence and the Second BRICS Congress on Computational Intelligence (http://www.ic-si.org) ??IEEE Conference Record #36364?? will be jointly held in Beijing, China, from June 26 to 29, 2015. With the advent of big data analysis and intelligent computing techniques we are facing new challenges to make the information transparent and understandable efficiently. The ICSI-CCI?2015 will provide an excellent opportunity and/or an academic forum for academia and practitioners to present and discuss the latest scientific results and methods, the innovative ideas and advantages in theories, technologies and applications in both swarm intelligence and computational intelligence. The technical program will cover all aspects of swarm intelligence, neural networks, evolutionary computation and fuzzy systems applied to all fields of computer vision, signal processing, machine learning, data mining, robotics, scheduling, game theory, DB, parallel realization, etc. Sponsored by Peking University, Xi??an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Technically Co-sponsored by IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, World Federation of Soft Computing, International Neural Network Society, Chinese Association of Artificial Intelligence, Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Springer, Brazilian Computational Intelligence Society and more. All papers accepted by ICSI-CCI'2015 will be published by Springer in Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) and IEEE CPS Xplore(IEEE Conference Record #36364) before the conference, some high-quality papers will be selected for special issues of several SCI-indexed Journals and Transactions. You are welcome to submitting to our ICSI-CCI'2015! We are looking forward to meeting you at Beijing, China! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joint General Chair and Co-chairs: Ying Tan (China), Fernando Buarque (Brazil), Alexander Gelbukh (Russia),Swagatham Das (India) and Andries Engelbrecht (South Africa) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ICSI-CCI'2015 Secretariat Email: icsi-cci2015 at ic-si.org WWW: http://www.ic-si.org Phone: +86-13366085591 ---Please contact with icsi-cci2015 at ic-si.org to unsubscribe from us if you do not wish to receive further mail--- Prof. Fernando Buarque, BSc MSc DIC PhD Hab., Senior Member IEEE, PQ-2 CNPq On sabbatical leave at ERCIS - Westf?liche Wilhelms-Universi?t M?nster (ERCIS / WWU) Professor Associado - Escola Polit?cnica/Universidade de Pernambuco (POLI/UPE) Visiting Professor - University of Johannesburg, South Africa (Kingsway Campus) Graduate Faculty - Computer Science/Florida Institute of Technology, USA (CS at FIT) Ponto focal Brasil 2014/15 - Fronteiras da Ci?ncia (Brasil-CAPES e Alemanha-Funda??o Humboldt) (BRAGFOST) Presidente 2014/15 da Sociedade Brasileira de Intelig?ncia Computacional (SBIC) Universidade de Pernambuco / Escola Polit?cnica de Pernambuco Rua Benfica, 455 (Bl. 'C' 2. andar) * Bairro: Madalena CEP 50720-001 * Recife, Pernambuco - Brasil Fone: +55(0)81 3184-7542 * Fax: +55(0)81 3184-7548 National => http://www.fbln.pro.br/ * International => http://www.fbln.net "Se voc? quiser educar um homem, comece pela av? dele" (Victor Hugo). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dwang at cse.ohio-state.edu Tue Feb 3 01:55:43 2015 From: dwang at cse.ohio-state.edu (DeLiang Wang) Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2015 01:55:43 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL NETWORKS, February 2015 Message-ID: <54D070EF.4050306@cse.ohio-state.edu> Neural Networks - Volume 62, February 2015 http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neural-networks SPECIAL ISSUE: Communication and Brain: Emergent Functions through Inter-Neuron and Inter-Brain Communications Guest Editorial: Communication and brain Yutaka Sakaguchi, Takeshi Aihara, Peter Ford Dominey, Ichiro Tsuda Mathematical modeling for evolution of heterogeneous modules in the brain Yutaka Yamaguti, Ichiro Tsuda Self-organization of a recurrent network under ongoing synaptic plasticity Takaaki Aoki Hodge-Kodaira decomposition of evolving neural networks Keiji Miura, Takaaki Aoki Memories as bifurcations: Realization by collective dynamics of spiking neurons under stochastic inputs Tomoki Kurikawa, Kunihiko Kaneko Multistate network model for the pathfinding problem with a self-recovery property Kei-Ichi Ueda, Masaaki Yadome, Yasumasa Nishiura Neural coordination can be enhanced by occasional interruption of normal firing patterns: A self-optimizing spiking neural network model Alexander Woodward, Tom Froese, Takashi Ikegami Phase shifts in alpha-frequency rhythm detected in electroencephalograms influence reaction time Yasushi Naruse, Ken Takiyama, Masato Okada, Hiroaki Umehara, Yutaka Sakaguchi Spatial consistency of neural firing regulates long-range local field potential synchronization: A computational study Naoyuki Sato Arm-use dependent lateralization of gamma and beta oscillations in primate medial motor areas Ryosuke Hosaka, Toshi Nakajima, Kazuyuki Aihara, Yoko Yamaguchi, Hajime Mushiake Spatiotemporal patterns of current source density in the prefrontal cortex of a behaving monkey Kazuhiro Sakamoto, Norihiko Kawaguchi, Kohei Yagi, Hajime Mushiake Computational model of visual hallucination in dementia with Lewy bodies Hiromichi Tsukada, Hiroshi Fujii, Kazuyuki Aihara, Ichiro Tsuda Immediate return preference emerged from a synaptic learning rule for return maximization Yoshiya Yamaguchi, Takeshi Aihara, Yutaka Sakai A wavelet-based method for extracting intermittent discontinuities observed in human motor behavior Yasuyuki Inoue, Yutaka Sakaguchi Exploiting the gain-modulation mechanism in parieto-motor neurons: Application to visuomotor transformations and embodied simulation Sylvain Mahe, Raphael Braud, Philippe Gaussier, Mathias Quoy, Alexandre Pitti Communication, concepts and grounding Frank van der Velde From lpulina at uniss.it Tue Feb 3 04:51:09 2015 From: lpulina at uniss.it (Luca Pulina) Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2015 10:51:09 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [RR 2015] Call For Papers -- Deadline in 1 month! Message-ID: <54D09A0D.6070900@uniss.it> [apologies for any cross-posting] ****************************************************************** CALL FOR PAPERS The 9th International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems (RR 2015) Berlin, Germany, August 4-6, 2015 http://www.csw.inf.fu-berlin.de/RR2015/ ****************************************************************** The International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems (RR) is a major forum for discussion and dissemination of new results concerning Web Reasoning and Rule Systems. RR 2015 is colocated with the following events: - 11th Reasoning Web Summer School (RW 2015) Berlin, Germany, July 31 - August 4, 2015. http://www.csw.inf.fu-berlin.de/rw2015/ - The 25th International Conference on Automated Deduction (CADE 2015). Berlin, Germany, August 1 - August 7, 2015. http://conference.mi.fu-berlin.de/cade-25/home - The 9th International Web Rule Symposium (RuleML 2015). Berlin, Germany, August 3-5, 2015 http://2015.ruleml.org RR 2015 also hosts a doctoral consortium, which will provide PhD students with an opportunity to present and discuss their research directions, to be involved in discussions on the state-of-the-art research, and to establish fruitful collaborations. In particular, the doctoral consortium will include a mentoring lunch and a poster session, organized jointly with the 9th International Web Rule Symposium (RuleML 2015). Further details on the RR doctoral consortium will be communicated by means of a separate Call for Papers, as well as on the RR 2015 website. == TOPICS AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS == The scale and the heterogenous nature of web data poses many challenges, and turns basic tasks such as query answering and data transformations into complex reasoning problems. Rule-based systems have found many applications in this area. The RR conference welcomes original research from all areas of Web Reasoning and Rule Systems. Topics of particular interest are: - Rule-based languages for intelligent information access and for the semantic web - Ontology-based data access - Data management, and data interoperability for web data - Distributed agent-based systems for the web - Scalability and expressive power of logics for the semantic web - Reasoning with incomplete, inconsistenct and uncertain data - Non-monotonic, commonsense, and closed-world reasoning for web data - Constraint programming, inductive logic programming for web data - Streaming data and complex event processing - Rule-based approaches to machine learning, knowledge extraction and information retrieval - Rule-based approaches to natural language processing - System descriptions, applications and experiences There are two submission formats: - Full papers (up to 15 pages in LNCS style) - Technical Communications (up to 6 pages in LNCS style) Submitted full papers should present original and significant research results. They must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or a conference/workshop with formal proceedings. Double submission to a workshop with informal proceedings is allowed, like for instance the DL 2014 workshop. Technical communications are intended for promising but possibly preliminary work, position papers, system descriptions, and applications descriptions (which may be accompanied by a demo). The conference proceedings will be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series (LNCS), and all submissions must be prepared in Springer's LaTeX style llncs (http://www.springer.com/comp/lncs/Authors.html). Submissions are made via EasyChair: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rr2015 == IMPORTANT DATES == - Title and Abstract submission: March 3, 2015 - Full papers submission: March 10, 2015 - Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2015 - Camera-ready submission: May 15, 2015 For each of these deadlines, a cut-off point of 23:59 AOE (anywhere on earth) applies. == BEST PAPER AND BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARDS == Awards for Best Paper and Best Student Paper will be presented to the corresponding author(s) at the conference. The best student paper will be selected among the ones mainly only by students (i.e., authors a PhD as of the paper submission deadline). To qualify for the Best Student Paper award, the authors must indicate their eligibility upon submission at easychair. The program committee reserves the right to not give out a Best Student Paper award, or to split the award among multiple submissions. == INVITED SPEAKERS == - Michael Genesereth (Stanford University) - Benny Kimelfeld (Technion & LogicBlox) - Lora Aroyo (Free University of Amsterdam) == ORGANIZATION == General Chair: - Wolfgang Faber (University of Huddersfield) Doctoral Consortium Chair: - Marco Montali (Free Universiy of Bozen-Bolzano) Local Organization Chair: - Adrian Paschke (Free University of Berlin) Sponsorship Chair: - Marco Maratea (University of Genova) Publicity Chair: - Luca Pulina (University of Sassari) Web Chair: - Ralph Schaefermeier (Free University of Berlin) Program Committee: - Balder ten Cate (LogicBlox, USA) - co-chair - Alessandra Mileo (DERI, Ireland) - co-chair - Darko Anicic (Siemens AG, Germany) - Marcelo Arenas (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile) - Marcello Balduccini (Drexel University, USA) - Leopoldo Bertossi (Carleton University, Canada) - Meghyn Bienvenu (Universite Paris Sud, France) - Fernando Bobillo (University of Zaragoza, Spain) - Daniel Deutsch (Tel Aviv, Israel) - Agostino Dovier (Universit? degli Studi di Udine, Italy) - Thomas Eiter (TU Vienna, Austria) - Sergio Flesca (University of Calabria, Italy) - Paul Fodor (Stony Brook University, USA) - Andres Freitas (INSIGHT NUI Galway, Ireland) - Andre Hernich (Liverpool, UK) - Stijn Heymans (SRI, USA) - Aidan Hogan (National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland) - Benny Kimelfeld (Technion, Israel & LogicBlox, Inc) - Roman Kontchakov (Birkbeck College, UK) - Markus Kr?tzsch (University of Oxford, UK) - Georg Lausen (Universitaet Freiburg, Germany) - Joohyung Lee (Arizona State University, USA) - Domenico Lembo (Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy) - Carsten Lutz (Universit?t Bremen, Germany) - Thomas Meyer (CSIR Meraka Institute, South Africa) - Boris Motik (Oxford University, UK) - Marco Montali (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy) - Marie-Laure Mugnier (LIRMM/INRIA, Montpellier, France) - Matthias Nickels (NUI Galway, Ireland) - Magdalena Ortiz (TU Vienna, Austria) - Giorgio Orsi (University of Oxford, UK) - Jeff Z. Pan (University of Aberdeen) - Adrian Paschke (Freie Universit?t Berlin, Germany) - Axel Polleres (WU-Vienna, Austria) - Lucian Popa (IBM Almaden, USA) - Francesco Ricca (University of Calabria, Italy) - Riccardo Rosati (Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy) - Sebastian Rudolph (TU Dresden, Germany) - Luciano Serafini (FBK Trento, Italy) - Evgeny Sherkhonov (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) - Steffen Staab (University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany) - Umberto Straccia (ISTI-CNR, Pisa, Italy) -- Luca Pulina, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Computer Science POLCOMING - Department of Political Science, Communication, Engineering and Information Technologies University of Sassari e-mail lpulina at uniss.it http://sites.google.com/site/lpulina From boracchi at elet.polimi.it Mon Feb 2 17:33:28 2015 From: boracchi at elet.polimi.it (Giacomo Boracchi) Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 23:33:28 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: IJCNN 2015, final CFP: Papers are due on February 5th, 2015 Message-ID: IJCNN 2015 - International Joint Conference on Neural Networks July 12-17, 2015, Killarney Convention Center, Killarney, Ireland http://www.ijcnn.org This is the final Call for Papers, which are due in 3 days : Thursday, February 5th, 2015!! IJCNN is the premier international conference in the area of neural network theory, analysis, and applications. Co-sponsored by the International Neural Network Society and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, over the last three decades this conference and its predecessors has hosted [past, present, and future] leaders of neural network research. In an era when neural networks are widely used and reported in many areas, scientists, engineers, educators, and students from all over the world can get the best overall view of neural networks, from neuroscience to advanced control systems to cognition, at the IJCNN. *Competitions are underway!* A winning certificate and free registration will be provided to the winner of each competition who attends IJCNN 2015. Remember to submit and related papers (if that is your intent) through the regular IJCNN2015 paper submission system. If you need any other information about the general organisation of the competitions, please do not hesitate to contact : Abir Hussain. IJCNN2015 Competition Chair. Liverpool John MooresU. UK 1) ChaLearn AutoML challenge http://www.codalab.org/AutoML Here is your chance to realize the dream of many researchers in data science: create the "perfect black box", i.e. a learning machine capable of learning from examples without any human intervention. Until June we are progressively introducing 30 classification and regression tasks, with datasets pre-formatted in feature representations. Until February 14 you can win 2 sets of prizes in the: . Round 0 Tweakathon: result or code submission on well known sample datasets (preparation phase) . Round 1 AutoML: code submission on binary classification problems (novice phase) See the challenge website website for submissions, and for questions contact : Isabelle Guyon ClopiNet. California. USA guyon at clopinet.com 2) Speech-Music discrimination algorithms in the context of unseen audio data https://sites.google.com/site/aggelospikrakis/ijcnn Without making any assumptions with respect to the origin of the signals. Although the Speech-Music classification problem is already almost two decades old and several algorithms have been proposed over the years, there still remains to answer the question whether the proposed solutions can address audio streams from diverse sources or audio streams that suffer from (mild) spectral and time-stretching distortions. Most published work focuses on evaluating the respective methods on radio broadcasts over the Internet or, in general, on non-reproducible audio streams. To enter the competition, send an email to : Aggelos Pikrakis Uof Piraeus. Greece pikrakis at unipi.gr 3) Predict pathological cases in pregnant women during labour using cardiotography data. The challenge is to detect with high accuracy when a child is genuinely compromised before medical intervention is considered. For this competition, participants will be given an open dataset containing 552 intrapartum recordings, which can be access online via physionet.org. Contact : Paul Fergus. IJCNN2015 Competition on pathological pregnanacies. Liverpool John MooresU. UK p.fergus at ljmu.ac.uk 4) Neural Network based Weather Prediction Competition The importance of being able to accurately predict Weather cannot be overstated; beyond predicting catastrophic events such as storms or unusually severe spells of cold or heat, weather has a dramatic effect on a population's day to day health and behaviour and a significant impact on the economy. This competition involves the prediction of minimum maximum Temperatures The Dataset covers historic daily values for the period between 1st January 2007 and 30th September 2014, for the Oak Park Weather Station, which is the closest weather station to the IJCNN2015 conference venue. . 20th April 2015: Brief description of the algorithm used and generalisation results. . 20th May 2015: Announcement of the competition results Inquiries and submissions should be made through : David Reid. Liverpool Hope University. UK, reidd at hope.ac.uk Hissam Tawfik. IJCNN2015 Weather Competition. Liverpool Hope University. UK tawfikh at hope.ac.uk * PLENARY SPEAKERS - Steve Furber, The ICL Professor of Computer Engineering at the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester "The SpiNNaker Project" - Vincenzo Piuri, Professor in Computer Engineering at the University of Milan, Italy "Computational Intelligence Technologies for 3D Surface Reconstruction" - Lee Giles, The David Reese Professor at the College of Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University "Machine Learning and Data Mining for Scholarly Big Data" - Marios M. Polycarpou, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, Cyprus "Fault Detection and Isolation in Uncertain Big-Data Environments" - Barak Pearlmutter, Professor, Department of Computer Science, National University of Ireland, Ireland "Critical Dynamics and Pathological Phenomena in the Brain" - Giacomo Rizzolati, Professor of Human Physiology at the University of Parma, Italy "The double life of the motor system: Action production and action understanding" * Deadlines for Submission: - Paper submission deadline: February 05, 2015 (EXTENDED) - Paper Decision notification: March 25, 2015 - Camera-ready submission: April 25, 2015 - Conference: July 12-17, 2015 * Hotel Reservations: The Killarney region is an extremely popular tourist destination, and rooms that have been reserved for IJCNN 2015 will likely disappear as soon as the contracted booking date has passed. For that reason we strongly recommend that you book your hotel room by 01May2015! (see the IJCNN2015 home page for our accommodations at the Gleneagle Hotel, the Brehon Hotel and the River Apartments). * IJCNN Killarney site video: Marianne van Wagner, Executive Co-ordinator of the International Neural Network Society (INNS), commissioned this delightful promotional video for IJCNN2015, based on her own photographs : Killarney tour. It's well worth looking at for the local Irish scenery, and for background information about the conference. (You may have to download it if your internet connection is slow.) Keep working on your paper submissions, and submit your proposals for Tutorials and Workshops SOON! Email any of the Chairs if you wish to discuss your ideas for proposals. IJCNN General Chair De-Shuang Huang, Tongji University, China, Director - Machine Learning and Systems Biology Laboratory IJCNN Program Chair Yoonsuck Choe, Texas A&M University Director, Brain Networks Laboratory Many thanks to our Sponsors and Contributors: - International Neural Network Society - IEEE Computational Intelligence Society - Failte Ireland, National Tourism Development Authority. -- Giacomo Boracchi, PhD DEIB - Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria Politecnico di Milano Via Ponzio, 34/5 20133 Milano, Italy. Tel. +39 02 2399 3467 http://home.dei.polimi.it/boracchi/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From janla at dtu.dk Wed Feb 4 05:25:56 2015 From: janla at dtu.dk (Jan Larsen) Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 10:25:56 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: =?iso-8859-1?q?HC_=D8rsted_Postdoc_in_Cognitive_A?= =?iso-8859-1?q?udio_Systems_or_Sensor_Information_Processing_at_DTU_Denma?= =?iso-8859-1?q?rk?= Message-ID: Dear colleagues Please forward this email to relevant candidates. HC ?rsted Postdoc in Cognitive Audio Systems or Sensor Information Processing at DTU Denmark I am encouraging and will be happy to support qualified postdoc candidates to apply for an incoming mobility HC ?rsted Postdoc grant within Cognitive Audio Systems or Sensor Information Processing in relation to activities at the Cognitive Systems Section, Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark. Link to call: http://www.dtu.dk/english/Research/Research-at-DTU/HC-Oersted-Postdoc---COFUND DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 23, 2015, midnight CET PostDocs will be formal employees at the university up to max. two years, and the monthly salary (before tax) is around 3,600 EUR (pension plan included). The actual salary and employment contract is regulated by the collective agreement with the Confederation of Professional Associations (AC) in accordance with the Danish labor laws. Cognitive Audio Systems (CoSound) My current activities in Cognitive Audio Systems deals with processing of audio and related information from sensing related information, context as well as users' state, interaction, intention, and goals with the purpose of providing innovative services related to relevant societal challenges in ? Transforming big data into semantically interoperable data assets and knowledge: enrichment and navigation in large sound archives such as broadcast; ? Healthcare: Music interventions to improve quality of life in relation to disorders such as stress, pain, and ADHD and user-driven optimization of hearing aids; ? Experience economy and edutainment: new music services based on mood. The research is currently funded by the strategic research project CoSound (www.cosound.dk) with 10+ partners. The aim of CoSound is integration of audio and other modalities with interactive user data to improve music experience/navigation and search & retrieval in large audio archives. The project has developed a modular computational platform, which enables large-scale analysis and conduction of experiments. In addition, I direct the Danish Sound Innovation Network (http://www.danishsound, which is a Danish university/industry network that facilitates knowledge dissemination and cross-sector collaboration. Sensor Information Processing (MakeSense) Mu research in this area involves processing of sensor signals and related information with the purpose of fostering innovative cyber-physical systems addressing societal challenges in ? Food: Grain analysis ? Security: Explosives and drug detection ? Health: blood and water analysis ? Energy: wind mill maintenance ? Environment: exhaust gas analysis, large diesel engine monitoring ? Resource efficiency: waste sorting This research is currently funded by various Danish and European projects. Best regards, Jan Larsen [Picture1] Jan Larsen Director of Danish Sound Innovation Network Associate Professor, Ph.D. Danish Sound Innovation Network Section for Cognitive Systems Department Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Richard Petersens Plads, Building 324 Technical University of Denmark DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark Office: Room 015, Building 321 Direct: (+45) 45 25 39 23 Mobile: (+45) 22 43 00 25 Danish Sound Technology Secretariat: (+45) 45 25 34 11 Fax: (+45) 45 88 26 73 Email: janla at dtu.dk Skype: janflynut Personal web: www.imm.dtu.dk/~jl Sound Technology web: www.danishsound.org Social networks: [t_small-a] [btn_profile_greytxt_80x15] [danishsound_logotype_white_100x147] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 41749 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.png Type: image/png Size: 2233 bytes Desc: image002.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1594 bytes Desc: image003.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image004.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 9535 bytes Desc: image004.jpg URL: From p.gleeson at ucl.ac.uk Wed Feb 4 14:25:07 2015 From: p.gleeson at ucl.ac.uk (Padraig Gleeson) Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 19:25:07 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Open Source Brain 2015: Building and sharing standardised neuronal models Message-ID: <54D27213.2070909@ucl.ac.uk> (Apologies for cross postings) Announcing the third annual Open Source Brain Workshop, May 12-14th 2015, Alghero, Sardinia. http://opensourcebrain.org/docs/Help/Meetings#OSB_2015 The Open Source Brain initiative aims to encourage collaborative, open source model development in computational neuroscience and is primarily supported by the Wellcome Trust. As with past OSB meetings this workshop will bring together experimentalists, theoreticians and tool developers who are interested in creating open, community developed models of neuronal systems. Researchers interested in building and sharing models of any brain region and from any species are welcome to attend the meeting. There will be presentations on the latest developments and functionality of the OSB resource and associated technologies including NeuroML and LEMS. There will also be a special focus session on Wed 13th May on *creating and sharing experimentally constrained models of the hippocampus*. *Confirmed speakers* Giorgio Ascoli, Krasnow Institute, George Mason University, USA Tiago Branco, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Claudia Colpath, Imperial College London, UK Michael Hines, Yale University, USA Peter Jonas, Institute of Science and Technology, Austria Troy Margrie, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK Michele Migliore, National Research Council, Italy & Yale University School of Medicine, USA Yiota Poirazi, Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, Foundation for Research & Technology Hellas, Greece Stefan Remy, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany Nelson Spruston, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Virginia, USA Full details of the workshop can be found here: http://opensourcebrain.org/docs/Help/Meetings#OSB_2015. The meeting is free to attend, but registration is required (deadline April 15th). The OSB 2015 organising committee Sergio Solinas Padraig Gleeson Angus Silver Boris Marin ----------------------------------------------------- Padraig Gleeson Room 321, Anatomy Building Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom +44 207 679 3214 p.gleeson at ucl.ac.uk ----------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From fjaekel at uos.de Thu Feb 5 05:17:48 2015 From: fjaekel at uos.de (Frank =?ISO-8859-1?Q?J=E4kel?=) Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2015 11:17:48 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: INCF Short Course on Information Processing in Neural Systems Message-ID: <1423131468.5004.46.camel@pappel.ikw.uni-osnabrueck.de> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INCF Short Course on Information Processing in Neural Systems -- From Single Neurons to Large-Scale Models of Cognition -- May 2-10, 2015 @ Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabr?ck, Germany +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ One of the big challenges in neuroinformatics is bridging the gap between our biophysical understanding of single cells and of networks of neurons on the one side, and the cognitive functions that are characterized in terms of information processing on the other side. This INCF Short Course will provide lectures and hands-on tutorials ranging from dynamical systems theory to cognitive modeling. Target Audience: PhD candidates and post-docs with backgrounds in neuroinformatics, theoretical neuroscience, complex systems, machine learning, applied mathematics/statistics or cognitive modeling. Topics: Dynamical systems: attractors, bifurcations, etc. (Herbert J?ger) Single neuron dynamics, networks, and computation (Nicolas Brunel) Mean-field theory, neurodynamics, and decision-making (Gustavo Deco) Probabilistic models of population coding and perception (tba) Reservoir computing in simple cognitive systems (Gordon Pipa) Learning of sensory representations in neural systems (Peter K?nig) Neural architectures for biological cognition (tba) Neural networks, kernel methods, and categorization (Frank J?kel) A tutorial on reservoir computing (Pipa & J?ger) A tutorial on large-scale simulations in Nengo (tba) A tutorial on information processing models with NEST (Marc-Oliver Gewaltig) The yearly, two-day OCCAM workshop (www.occam-os.de) is integrated into the INCF course and participants of the INCF course will also take part in the workshop. Applications will be accepted until March 7, 2015. The registration fee is 250 Euros. We can offer a limited number of travel stipends to support students. More information on the course and on application details can be found on the course webpage: http://www.incf.ni.uos.de/ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature Size: 6293 bytes Desc: not available URL: From fjaekel at uos.de Thu Feb 5 05:09:35 2015 From: fjaekel at uos.de (Frank =?ISO-8859-1?Q?J=E4kel?=) Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2015 11:09:35 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Osnabrueck Computational Cognition Alliance Meeting Message-ID: <1423130975.5004.40.camel@pappel.ikw.uni-osnabrueck.de> Dear Colleague, we would like to invite you to register for the 5th +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Osnabr?ck Computational Cognition Alliance Meeting (OCCAM 2015) "From Simple Neurons to Large-Scale Models of Cognition" May 6-7, 2015. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ List of invited speakers: Nicolas Brunel Gustavo Deco Wolfgang Einh?user Virginia Flanagin Sonja Gr?n Marc-Oliver Gewaltig Herbert J?ger Gordon Pipa Kai Vogeley The workshop will take place in Osnabr?ck, Germany, and will be hosted by the Institute of Cognitive Science (University of Osnabr?ck). Details can be found below and on the following webpage: http://www.occam-os.de The registration deadline is March 7, 2015 (first come first served). The registration fee is 100,- Euros. This year the OCCAM workshop is co-located with an INCF Short Course on the same topic (http://www.incf.ni.uos.de/). The OCCAM workshop series aims at understanding the principles of information processing in the brain with a particular focus on 3 major topics: 1. Neural coding and representation in hierarchical systems 2. Self-organization in dynamical systems 3. Mechanisms for probabilistic inference There will also be a poster session where conference participants will have the opportunity to present their work. The deadline for submitting an abstract for a poster presentation is also March 7. Best regards, Frank J?kel, Peter K?nig, Gordon Pipa (Organizing committee) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature Size: 6293 bytes Desc: not available URL: From fjaekel at uos.de Thu Feb 5 05:10:28 2015 From: fjaekel at uos.de (Frank =?ISO-8859-1?Q?J=E4kel?=) Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2015 11:10:28 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Osnabrueck Computational Cognition Alliance Meeting Message-ID: <1423131028.5004.42.camel@pappel.ikw.uni-osnabrueck.de> Dear Colleague, we would like to invite you to register for the 5th +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Osnabr?ck Computational Cognition Alliance Meeting (OCCAM 2015) "From Simple Neurons to Large-Scale Models of Cognition" May 6-7, 2015. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ List of invited speakers: Nicolas Brunel Gustavo Deco Wolfgang Einh?user Virginia Flanagin Sonja Gr?n Marc-Oliver Gewaltig Herbert J?ger Gordon Pipa Kai Vogeley The workshop will take place in Osnabr?ck, Germany, and will be hosted by the Institute of Cognitive Science (University of Osnabr?ck). Details can be found below and on the following webpage: http://www.occam-os.de The registration deadline is March 7, 2015 (first come first served). The registration fee is 100,- Euros. This year the OCCAM workshop is co-located with an INCF Short Course on the same topic (http://www.incf.ni.uos.de/). The OCCAM workshop series aims at understanding the principles of information processing in the brain with a particular focus on 3 major topics: 1. Neural coding and representation in hierarchical systems 2. Self-organization in dynamical systems 3. Mechanisms for probabilistic inference There will also be a poster session where conference participants will have the opportunity to present their work. The deadline for submitting an abstract for a poster presentation is also March 7. Best regards, Frank J?kel, Peter K?nig, Gordon Pipa (Organizing committee) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature Size: 6293 bytes Desc: not available URL: From olbrich at mis.mpg.de Thu Feb 5 05:44:14 2015 From: olbrich at mis.mpg.de (Eckehard Olbrich) Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2015 11:44:14 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: School and Workshop on Dynamics of Multi-Level Systems, Dresden, June 2015 Message-ID: <54D3497E.1070202@mis.mpg.de> "Dynamics of Multi-Level systems" School: 01-12.06.2015 Workshop: 15-19.06.2015 LOCATION: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany Applications for participation at http://www.pks.mpg.de/~dymult15/ until FEBRUARY 28, 2015. The emergence of levels is a key feature in a variety of complex systems. Experts from different disciplines will discuss current trends in the theoretical understanding of multi-level and multi-scale systems and present applications from physics and chemistry, sociology and economics, ecology and neuroscience. Workshop topics include * multiscale methods * hierarchies in dynamical systems * physics of information * self-organization and level identification * multilevel networks * coarse graining * aggregation methods The school will provide the opportunity to learn key techniques and theories from mathematics and physics for dealing with multiscale and multilevel systems. School topics include * Dynamical Systems with multiple time scales * Averaging and singular perturbation theory * Projection methods * Collective chaos * Information geometry * Information theoretic approaches to complex systems Lecturers Shun-ichi Amari, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan Bruno Cessac, INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France Hugues Chat?, CEA Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France Leo van Hemmen, TU M?nchen, Germany Holger Kantz, MPIPKS, Dresden, Germany Christian Kuehn,Vienna University of Technology, Austria Kristian Lindgren, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden David Wolpert, Santa Fe Institute, USA Ferdinand Verhulst, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands Additional invited speakers for the workshop Nihat Ay, MPI-MiS, Leipzig, Germany Philippe Blanchard, Universit?t Bielefeld, Germany Olivier Faugeras, INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France Mauro Gallegati, Universit? Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy Bj?rn Peter G?rdenfors, Lund University, Sweden Shlomo Havlin, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Martin Nilsson Jacobi, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden J?rgen Jost, MPI-MiS, Leipzig, Germany Tamas Vicsek, E?tv?s Lor?nd University, Hungary Massimo Warglien, Ca'Foscari University, Venice, Italy Applications for the school and/or workshop have to be submitted via the school & workshop webpage http://www.pks.mpg.de/~dymult15/ until February 28, 2015. For successful applications, accommodation and subsistence will be covered by MPIPKS. The registration fee is 120 Euro and should be paid by all participants. For school participants additional travel funds are available on request. Scientific Coordinators: Fatihcan Atay (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany) Eckehard Olbrich (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany) Kristian Lindgren (Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden) Organization: Claudia Domaschke (MPIPKS Dresden, Germany) For further information see http://www.pks.mpg.de/~dymult15/ or e-mail to: dymult15 at pks.mpg.de -- Dr. Eckehard Olbrich Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences Inselstrasse 22 D-04103 Leipzig Germany Tel.: +49 341 9959 568 Fax: +49 341 9959 658 E-mail:olbrich at mis.mpg.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ab0487 at coventry.ac.uk Thu Feb 5 10:47:44 2015 From: ab0487 at coventry.ac.uk (Mark Elshaw) Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2015 15:47:44 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Neural Network PhD Studentship Message-ID: Dear all I would be grateful if you could distribute this advert for a PhD student in neural robotics to any students who might be interested. http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-students/research-studentships/associative-neural-networks-model-for-developing-emotional-communication-for-a-robot-buddy/ Best regards Mark Dr Mark Elshaw Lecturer in Computer Science Dept of Computing Coventry University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mccallum at cs.umass.edu Thu Feb 5 11:09:37 2015 From: mccallum at cs.umass.edu (Andrew McCallum) Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2015 11:09:37 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Call for site proposals ICML 2017 Message-ID: <84E7F096-D171-4E6D-896B-FEF7F91D0B96@cs.umass.edu> ############################################################################## INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MACHINE LEARNING (ICML) 2017 CALL FOR SITE PROPOSALS ############################################################################## In the summer of 2017, the 34th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML-2017) will be held. We invite groups interested in hosting the conference to submit a letter of intent by March 31, 2015, and a complete proposal by May 31, 2015. Proposals from the Asia-Pacific region are particularly encouraged; however, proposals from elsewhere will also be given serious consideration. Past and future ICML locations and plans are: 2014: Beijing, China 2015: Lille, France 2016: New York, USA 2017: Asia-Pacific encouraged 2018: Europe, coordinated with Federated AI Conference 2019: USA, co-located with CVPR Proposals should address the following issues: 1. Proposed Dates. The conference should be scheduled for five-six days (two-three days reserved for workshops and tutorials; three days for paper sessions, poster sessions, and invited talks). The conference prefers dates in the range from June 15 to July 15, but other dates will be considered, particularly if they permit co-location with other related conferences. 2. Locale Parameters. - Cost issues. Historically ICML conferences have tried to keep attendance costs low, to encourage attendence from students and newcomers to the field. Thus the proposal should address the accessibility of the location---i.e., if is it easy and inexpensive for people (especially graduate students) to travel to the conference site. (To answer this question, please compute mean airfares from Europe, North America, and Asia, and discuss visa issues if relevant.) The proposal should also discuss whether meals and lodging available conveniently at reasonable cost. (To answer this question, please estimate costs for meals and lodging, and discuss the proximity to the conference site of eating places.) - Meeting Rooms, AV Equiment, etc. What are the physical facilities like? Consider rooms for plenary sessions, parallel sessions, workshops, tutorials, and poster sessions. Is there visible space for sponsors and publishers who want to set up displays? What are the charges, if any, for using the various rooms/locations? - Internet Access. Is wired or wireless internet access available? At what cost? - Other features. You may mention any other aspects of the site or the region that are relevant. 3. Local Machine Learning Community. Is there a local ML group/community that can help with organization and funding? 4. Opportunities to co-locate with other conferences. In the past, we have co-located with COLT, UAI, and KDD. There is strong interest in co-locating with these conferences and also with other related conferences including ISMB (Intelligent Systems in Molecular Biology), EMNLP (Empirical Methoers in Natural Language Processing), CoNLL (Conference on Natural Language Learning), IUI (Intelligent User Interfaces), and CVPR (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition). 5. Organizational and Institutional Support. Is there a conference office that can help with local arrangements? 6. Budgetary Issues. In order to compare competing proposals, every proposal will be asked to complete a spreadsheet that discusses budgetary aspects and capacities. Blank sample budget and checklist are http://www.cs.umass.edu/~mccallum/imls/Sample-Bid-Checklist.xlsx http://www.cs.umass.edu/~mccallum/imls/Sample-Bid-Expenses-Budget.xlsx Some issues that must be addressed are: Is any financial support available from the hosting institution and/or local industry? What is a rough estimate of the expected conference registration fees (including a student rate, and the rate for workshops only, if applicable?) Letters of intent need contain nothing other than a non-binding statement of intent and a list of likely principals, and should be emailed by March 31 2015 with Subject line "ICML 2017 Site Proposal" to: Andrew McCallum President, International Machine Learning Society (IMLS) mccallum at cs.umass.edu General questions about proposing a site should also be addressed to Andrew McCallum. Proposals (in PDF) should be emailed to the same address by May 31, 2015, accompanied by a spreadsheet for budgetary information. Note that IMLS will provide a spreadsheet format for budget predictions (so that we can more easily compare competing proposals.) The IMLS governing board will rank proposals according to cost and accessibility, proposed dates, opportunities for co-location, attractiveness of the location, and experience of the host group. Note that IMLS chooses the Program Chair and General Chair as a decision separate from the choice of the site. The site proposal should propose a Local Arrangements Chair and other relevant supporting positions (e.g., Volunteers Coordinator, Registration Chair, etc.). From sahil.moza at gmail.com Thu Feb 5 13:15:31 2015 From: sahil.moza at gmail.com (Sahil Moza) Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2015 18:15:31 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Summer CAMP@Bangalore: Short course in Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity Message-ID: We would like to announce CAMP at Bangalore 2015 from 27 June 2015 to 12 July 2015. Please see the course website at http://camp.ncbs.res.in/ CAMP @ Bangalore (Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity at NCBS, Bangalore) is a 16-day summer school on the theory and simulation of learning, memory and plasticity in the brain. The course will start with remedial tutorials on neuroscience / math / programming and then work upwards from sub-cellular electrical and chemical signaling in neurons, onward to micro-circuits and networks, all with an emphasis on learning, memory and plasticity. Students worldwide are encouraged to apply. Accommodation and food will be free for the selected students. There is no registration fee. Students are advised to obtain independent travel grants. Instructors include: Ad Aertsen (Bernstein Center, Freiburg) Dan Johnston (UT-Austin) Sumantra Chattarji (NCBS, Bangalore) Suhita Nadkarni (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune) Michael Hausser (University College, London) Stefano Fusi (Columbia University, New York) Raghav Rajan (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune) Eric DeWitt (Champalimaud, Lisbon) Mohan Raghavan (Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad) Course Organizers: Upinder Bhalla (NCBS, Bangalore) Arvind Kumar (KTH Stockholm) Rishikesh Narayanan (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) Thank you, Sahil Moza -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From morency at cs.cmu.edu Thu Feb 5 19:29:26 2015 From: morency at cs.cmu.edu (Louis-Philippe Morency) Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2015 19:29:26 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: ICMI 2015 - Call for Contributions - Nov 9-13, Seattle, USA Message-ID: <081339BF5B085646911B69780926302C066EDA450B48@EXCH-MB-1.srv.cs.cmu.edu> =================================================================== Call for Contributions ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI 2015) November 9-13, 2015, Seattle, WA, USA http://icmi.acm.org/2015/ =================================================================== ICMI is the premier international forum for multidisciplinary research on multimodal interaction and multimodal interfaces. The conference focuses on theoretical and empirical foundations, component technologies, and combined multimodal processing techniques that define the field of multimodal interaction analysis, interface design, and integrative, multimodal system development. ICMI'2015 will take place between November 9th and 13th at Motif Hotel in Seattle (USA). The main conference is single-track and includes: keynote speakers, technical full and short papers (including oral and poster presentations), special sessions, demonstrations, exhibits and doctoral spotlight papers. The conference will also feature workshops and grand challenges. The proceedings of ICMI'2015 will be published by ACM as part of their series of International Conference Proceedings. Calls for Contributions (chronological order): * Grand Challenge Proposals. Deadline: February 21, 2015 (http://icmi.acm.org/2015/index.php?id=cfc) * Workshop Proposals. Deadline: April 11, 2015 (http://icmi.acm.org/2015/index.php?id=cfw) * Long and Short Papers. Deadline: May 15, 2015 (http://icmi.acm.org/2015/index.php?id=cfp) * Doctoral Consortium Papers. Deadline: July 14, 2015 (http://icmi.acm.org/2015/index.php?id=cfdc) * Demonstration Proposals. Deadline: August 14, 2015 * Exhibit Proposals. Deadline: September 4, 2015 (http://icmi.acm.org/2015/index.php?id=cfd) TOPICS * Multimodal signal and interaction processing technologies - Multimodal signal processing, inference, and input fusion - Combinations of signals and semantic interpretations - Multimodal output planning and coordination - Machine learning approaches for multimodal signals * Multimodal models for human-human and human-machine interaction - Multimodal models for human communication dynamics - Models for physically situated human-robot/computer interaction - Models for multiparty, group and social interaction - Affective computing and interaction models - Models for long-term multimodal interaction * Multimodal data, evaluation and tools - Multimodal corpora, resources and tools - Evaluation methodologies, assessment and metrics - Multimodal annotation methodologies and coding schemes - Design issues, principles and best practices for multimodal interfaces * Multimodal systems and applications - Ambient intelligence and smart environments - Human-robot interaction and embodied conversational agents - Multimodal interfaces for internet-of-things - Meeting spaces and meeting analysis systems - Multimodal mobile applications For more information, please visit the conference website: http://icmi.acm.org/2015/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Johan.Suykens at esat.kuleuven.be Fri Feb 6 09:40:49 2015 From: Johan.Suykens at esat.kuleuven.be (Johan Suykens) Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2015 15:40:49 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: BigDat 2015 lectures In-Reply-To: <54D4D1EF.4020805@esat.kuleuven.be> References: <54D4D1EF.4020805@esat.kuleuven.be> Message-ID: <54D4D271.40104@esat.kuleuven.be> Dear all, My lectures given at BigDat 2015 Tarragona Spain (Jan 26-30, 2015) on "Fixed-size Kernel Models for Big Data" can be viewed at: -Part I: Support vector machines and kernel methods: an introduction http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/lssvmlab/big1.pdf -Part II: Fixed-size kernel models for mining big data http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/lssvmlab/big2.pdf http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/lssvmlab/bigvideo_RoccoLangone.avi -Part III: Kernel spectral clustering for community detection in big data networks http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/lssvmlab/big3.pdf Best regards, Johan Suykens ---------------------- Prof. Dr.ir. Johan Suykens Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Departement Elektrotechniek - ESAT-STADIUS Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 B-3001 Leuven (Heverlee) Belgium Tel: 32/16/32 18 02 Fax: 32/16/32 19 70 Email: Johan.Suykens at esat.kuleuven.be http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/members/suykens.html http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/ADB/ From marco.baroni at unitn.it Fri Feb 6 09:10:41 2015 From: marco.baroni at unitn.it (Marco Baroni) Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2015 15:10:41 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: post-doc in compositional distributional semantics Message-ID: <54D4CB61.7060505@unitn.it> 1 (RENEWABLE) 2-YEAR POST-DOC POSITION AVAILABLE The CIMeC-CLIC laboratory of the University of Trento, an interdisciplinary group of researchers studying language and cognition using computational and experimental methods announces the availability of a 2-year Post-Doc position. The scholarship is partially funded by an European Research Council Starting Grant awarded to the COMPOSES (COMPositional Operations in SEmantic SPACE) project (clic.cimec.unitn.it/composes), that aims at modeling composition in distributional/vector-based semantics. * Desired Profile * We seek a brilliant researcher with a background in computational linguistics or closely related disciplines (e.g., AI, machine learning, with emphasis on dealing with language problems). Areas of special interest include: - Distributional semantic models / word embeddings - Data-driven compositional methods - Neural networks, representation learning - Machine learning with a focus on regression, large-scale multivariate problems, incremental/curriculum learning Good programming and mathematical skills are required. If you think that your background is relevant to the research program outlined on the project website (clic.cimec.unitn.it/composes) and you have good quantitative skills, please get in touch even if you do not fit the profile above. * Representative Publications from the COMPOSES project * Our papers at ACL 2014 can give you an idea of the topics we are working on (see the website for more): D. Paperno, N. Pham and M. Baroni. A practical and linguistically-motivated approach to compositional distributional semantics: http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/marco/publications/acl2014/paperno-etal-practical-comp-acl2014.pdf G. Dinu and M. Baroni. How to make words with vectors: Phrase generation in distributional semantics: http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/marco/publications/acl2014/dinu-baroni-generation-acl2014.pdf M. Baroni, G. Dinu and G. Kruszewski. Don't count, predict! A systematic comparison of context-counting vs. context-predicting semantic vectors: http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/marco/publications/acl2014/baroni-etal-countpredict-acl2014.pdf A. Lazaridou, E. Bruni and M. Baroni. Is this a wampimuk? Cross-modal mapping between distributional semantics and the visual world: http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/marco/publications/acl2014/lazaridou-etal-wampimuk-acl2014.pdf * The Research Environment * The CLIC lab (clic.cimec.unitn.it) is a unit of the University of Trento's Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC, www.unitn.it/en/cimec), an English-speaking, interdisciplinary center for research on brain and cognition whose staff includes neuroscientists, psychologists, (computational) linguists, computer scientists and physicists. CLIC researchers, also affiliated with the Departments of Computer Science (DISI) and Psychology (DIPSCO), combine methods from computational linguistics, computer vision and machine learning, as well as brain, behavioural and corpus data, to study various aspects of human cognition. CLIC is part of the larger network of research labs specializing in Natural Language Processing and related domains in the Trento region, one of the areas with the highest concentration of researchers in NLP and related fields anywhere in Europe. The CIMeC-CLIC laboratories are located in beautiful Rovereto, a lively town in the middle of the Alps, famous for its contemporary art museum, the quality of its wine, and the range of outdoors sport and relax opportunities it offers (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rovereto). * Application Information * For further information, please send an expression of interest to marco.baroni at unitn.it, attaching a CV. The position is available immediately and open until filled. -- Marco Baroni Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC) University of Trento http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/marco From m.lengyel at eng.cam.ac.uk Fri Feb 6 10:59:24 2015 From: m.lengyel at eng.cam.ac.uk (=?utf-8?Q?M=C3=A1t=C3=A9_Lengyel?=) Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2015 15:59:24 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience 2015 Message-ID: ADVANCED COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE 9-29 August 2015, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal + pre-school 5-7 August 2015 http://www.accn.pt Applications deadline: 15 March 2015 DIRECTORS * Gilles Laurent (Max Plank Institute for Brain Research, Germany) * M?t? Lengyel (University of Cambridge, UK) * Christian Machens (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Portugal) This three-weeks school teaches the central ideas, methods, and practice of modern computational neuroscience through a combination of lectures and hands-on project work. Each morning will be devoted to lectures given by distinguished international faculty on topics across the breadth of experimental and computational neuroscience. During the rest of the day, students will work on research projects in teams of 2-3 people under the close supervision of expert tutors and faculty. Research projects will be proposed by faculty before the course, and will include the modeling of neurons, neural systems, behavior, the analysis of state-of-the-art neural data (behavioral data, multi-electrode recordings, calcium imaging data, connectomics data, etc.), and the development of theories to explain experimental observations. The course is designed for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from a variety of disciplines, including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics and psychology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology, a solid foundation in mathematics, as well as some computer experience. An optional three-day pre-school in mathematics and programming is available to students who want to catch up on or fine-tune their math and programming skills. Essential details: * Course size: 24 students maximum * Fee (which covers tuition, lodging, and meals): 2250 EUR (+ 245 EUR for optional pre-school) * Scholarships and travel stipends are available. * Application deadline: 15 March 2015 * Notification of results: April 2015 Information and application http://www.accn.pt Contact address: T?nia Li Chen FACULTY * Nicolas Brunel (University of Chicago, USA) * Claudia Clopath (Imperial College London, UK) * Peter Dayan (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience, UCL, UK) * David Fitzpatrick (Max-Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, USA) * Boris Gutkin (?cole Normale Sup?rieure, France) * Michael Hausser (Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, UCL, UK) * Moritz Helmstaedter (MPI Brain Research, Germany) * Claus Hilgetag (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany) * Matthias Kaschube (Frankfurt Institute for Advanced studies, Germany) * Simon Laughlin (University of Cambridge, UK) * Gilles Laurent (MPI Brain Research, Germany) * M?t? Lengyel (University of Cambridge, UK) * Jennifer Linden (Ear Institute, UCL, UK) * Christian Machens (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Portugal) * Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Portugal) * Tony Movshon (New York University, USA) * Michael Orger (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Portugal) * Alexandre Pouget (University of Geneva, Switzerland) * Maneesh Sahani (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience, UCL, UK) * Eero Simoncelli (New York University, USA) * Daniel Wolpert (University of Cambridge, UK) From grlmc at urv.cat Sat Feb 7 02:50:10 2015 From: grlmc at urv.cat (GRLMC) Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2015 08:50:10 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: LATA 2015: call for participation Message-ID: <9E7E4815EAF64A52BB40E371A3BAA1FF@Carlos1> *To be removed from our mailing list, please respond to this message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line* ***************************************************************************** 9th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE AND AUTOMATA THEORY AND APPLICATIONS LATA 2015 Nice, France March 2-6, 2015 Organized by: CNRS, I3S, UMR 7271 Nice Sophia Antipolis University Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics (GRLMC) Rovira i Virgili University http://grammars.grlmc.com/lata2015/ ***************************************************************************** PROGRAM Monday, March 2 09:15 - 10:15 Registration 10:15 - 10:25 Opening 10:25 - 11:15 Azadeh Farzan, Matthias Heizmann, Jochen Hoenicke, Zachary Kincaid and Andreas Podelski: Automated Program Verification - Invited Lecture 11:15 - 11:45 Coffee Break 11:45 - 13:00 Ala Eddine Ben Salem: Single-pass Testing Automata for LTL Model Checking Conrad Cotton-Barratt, Andrzej S. Murawski and C.-H. Luke Ong: Weak and Nested Class Memory Automata Joey Eremondi, Oscar H. Ibarra and Ian McQuillan: Insertion Operations on Deterministic Reversal-Bounded Counter Machines 13:00 - 14:30 Lunch 14:30 - 16:10 Adrien Boiret, Vincent Hugot, Joachim Niehren and Ralf Treinen: Logics for Unordered Trees with Data Constraints on Siblings Fran?ois Gonze and Rapha?l M. Jungers: On the Synchronizing Probability Function and the Triple Rendezvous Time: New Approaches to Cerny's Conjecture Vesa Halava, Reino Niskanen and Igor Potapov: On Robot Games of Degree Two Shankara Narayanan Krishna, Lakshmi Manasa and Ashutosh Trivedi: Time-Bounded Reachability Problem for Recursive Timed Automata is Undecidable 16:10 - 16:25 Break 16:25 - 18:10 Rui Li and Yiguang Hong: On Observability of Automata Networks via Computational Algebra Nicolas Peltier: Reasoning on Schemas of Formulas: An Automata-Based Approach Martin Sulzmann and Peter Thiemann: Derivatives for Regular Shuffle Expressions Eric Allender and Ian Mertz: Complexity of Regular Functions Tuesday, March 3 09:00 - 09:50 Marco Autili, Paola Inverardi, Filippo Mignosi, Romina Spalazzese and Massimo Tivoli: Automated Synthesis of Application-layer Connectors from Automata-based Specifications - Invited Lecture 09:50 - 10:05 Break 10:05 - 11:20 Peter Thiemann and Martin Sulzmann: From Omega-Regular Expressions to B?chi Automata via Partial Derivatives Guillaume Verdier and Jean-Baptiste Raclet: Quotient of Acceptance Specifications under Reachability Constraints Parvaneh Babari and Manfred Droste: A Nivat Theorem for Weighted Picture Automata and Weighted MSO Logics 11:20 - 11:50 Coffee Break 11:50 - 13:05 Luc Boasson and Olivier Carton: Rational Selecting Relations and Selectors Peter Leupold and Norbert Hundeshagen: A Hierarchy of Transducing Observer Systems Antoine Ndione, Aur?lien Lemay and Joachim Niehren: Sublinear DTD Validity 13:05 - 14:35 Lunch 14:35 - 16:15 Carl Barton, Costas S. Iliopoulos and Solon P. Pissis: Average-case Optimal Approximate Circular String Matching Johanna Bj?rklund, Frank Drewes and Niklas Zechner: An Efficient Best-Trees Algorithm for Weighted Tree Automata over the Tropical Semiring Bastien Cazaux, Thierry Lecroq and Eric Rivals: Construction of a de Bruijn Graph for Assembly from a Truncated Suffix Tree Da-Jung Cho, Yo-Sub Han and Hwee Kim: Frequent Pattern Mining with Non-overlapping Inversions 16:15 - 16:30 Break 16:30 - 17:45 H.K. Dai and Z. Wang: A Parallel Algorithm for Finding All Minimal Maximum Subsequences via Random Walk Hern?n Ponce-De-Le?n and Andrey Mokhov: Building Bridges Between Sets of Partial Orders Vojt?ch Vorel and Adam Roman: Complexity of Road Coloring with Prescribed Reset Words Wednesday, March 4 9:00 - 9:50 Antonio Restivo: The Shuffle Product: New Research Directions - Invited Lecture 9:50 - 10:05 Break 10:05 - 11:20 Marcella Anselmo, Dora Giammarresi and Maria Madonia: Structure and Measure of a Decidable Class of Two-dimensional Codes Thibault Godin, Ines Klimann and Matthieu Picantin: On Torsion-Free Semigroups Generated by Invertible Reversible Mealy Automata Luis-Miguel Lopez and Philippe Narbel: Coding Non-orientable Laminations 11:20 - 11:50 Group Photo and Coffee Break 11:50 - 13:05 Pavel Panteleev: Preset Distinguishing Sequences and Diameter of Transformation Semigroups Charalampos Zinoviadis: Hierarchy and Expansiveness in 2D Subshifts of Finite Type Stefano Bilotta, Elisa Pergola, Renzo Pinzani and Simone Rinaldi: Recurrence Relations, Succession Rules and the Positivity Problem 13:05 - 14:35 Lunch 14:35 - 16:15 Philip Bille, Inge Li G?rtz and S?ren Vind: Compressed Data Structures for Range Searching Alberto Policriti, Nicola Gigante and Nicola Prezza: Average Linear Time and Compressed Space Construction of the Burrows-Wheeler Transform Jan Tr?vn??ek, Jan Janou?ek, Bo?ivoj Melichar and Loek Cleophas: Backward Linearised Tree Pattern Matching Vladimir Ulyantsev, Ilya Zakirzyanov and Anatoly Shalyto: BFS-based Symmetry Breaking Predicates for DFA Identification 17:00 - 20:00 Touristic visit Thursday, March 5 09:00 - 09:50 Giancarlo Mauri, Alberto Leporati, Luca Manzoni, Antonio E. Porreca and Claudio Zandron: Complexity Classes for Membrane Systems - Invited Lecture 09:50 - 10:05 Break 10:05 - 11:20 Davide Bresolin, Dario Della Monica, Angelo Montanari, Pietro Sala and Guido Sciavicco: On the Complexity of Fragments of the Modal Logic of Allen's Relations over Dense Structures Nadia Creignou, Ra?da Ktari, Arne Meier, Julian-Steffen M?ller, Fr?d?ric Olive and Heribert Vollmer: Parameterized Enumeration for Modification Problems Martin L?ck, Arne Meier and Irena Schindler: Parameterized Complexity of CTL: A Generalization of Courcelle's Theorem 11:20 - 11:50 Coffee Break 11:50 - 13:05 Kazuyuki Amano and Atsushi Saito: A Nonuniform Circuit Class with Multilayer of Threshold Gates Having Super Quasi Polynomial Size Lower Bounds against NEXP Georg Bachmeier, Michael Luttenberger and Maximilian Schlund: Finite Automata for the Sub- and Superword Closure of CFLs: Descriptional and Computational Complexity Olaf Beyersdorff, Leroy Chew and Karteek Sreenivasaiah: A Game Characterisation of Tree-like Q-resolution Size 13:05 - 14:35 Lunch 14:35 - 16:15 Alberto Dennunzio, Enrico Formenti, Luca Manzoni and Antonio E. Porreca: Preimage Problems for Reaction Systems Ryo Yoshinaka: Learning Conjunctive Grammars and Contextual Binary Feature Grammars Rapha?l Bailly, Fran?ois Denis and Guillaume Rabusseau: Recognizable Series on Hypergraphs Yohan Boichut, Jacques Chabin and Pierre R?ty: Towards More Precise Rewriting Approximations 16:15 - 16:30 Break 16:30 - 17:45 Michael Codish, Lu?s Cruz-Filipe and Peter Schneider-Kamp: Sorting Networks: the End Game Konrad Kazimierz Dabrowski, Shenwei Huang and Dani?l Paulusma: Bounding Clique-width via Perfect Graphs Ryszard Janicki, Jetty Kleijn, Maciej Koutny and ?ukasz Mikulski: Order Structures for Subclasses of Generalised Traces Friday, March 6 9:00 - 9:50 Johann A. Makowsky and Nadia Labai: Hankel Matrices: From Words to Graphs - Invited Lecture 9:50 - 10:05 Break 10:05 - 11:20 Golnaz Badkobeh, Gabriele Fici and Zsuzsanna Lipt?k: On the Number of Closed Factors in a Word Gabriele Fici, Thierry Lecroq, Arnaud Lefebvre and ?lise Prieur-Gaston: Online Computation of Abelian Runs Guilhem Gamard and Gwena?l Richomme: Coverability in Two Dimensions 11:20 - 11:50 Coffee Break 11:50 - 13:05 Jana Hadravov? and ?t?p?n Holub: Equation xiyjxk=uivjuk in Words ?ukasz Mikulski, Marcin Pi?tkowski and Wojciech Rytter: Square-free Words over Partially Commutative Alphabets Ananda Chandra Nayak and Kalpesh Kapoor: On the Language of Primitive Partial Words 13:05 - 13:15 Closing --- Este mensaje no contiene virus ni malware porque la protecci?n de avast! Antivirus est? activa. http://www.avast.com From danko.nikolic at googlemail.com Sun Feb 8 14:04:27 2015 From: danko.nikolic at googlemail.com (Danko Nikolic) Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2015 20:04:27 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?Practopoiesis=E2=80=94empirical_predict?= =?utf-8?q?ions?= Message-ID: <54D7B33B.50508@gmail.com> Dear all, For those who are interested in practopoiesis, a revised version of the manuscript is available that now lists testable empirical predictions. An apparent lack of significant empirical predictions was the main critique I received. While I was saving those predictions for a separate manuscript the reviewers at a journal that is currently reviewing the paper asked me put the predictions already into this big manuscript (and they were probably right). So, the result is that one can download the revised version with the empirical predictions here: http://www.danko-nikolic.com/practopoiesis/ Summary of the predictions: The key prediction of practopoietic theory is that cognition is implemented by the mechanisms of neural adaptation. Thus, it is not the widely-assumed network computations that produce cognitive operations. Instead, it is the mechanisms responsible for adapting the neural responses that create our perception, attention, decision making, capability to consciously understand, etc? The network dynamics serves its obvious function: delivering information. But it is the mechanisms or neural adaptation that ultimately create the mind within the brain. The paper lists, in more details, the actual predictions that can be easily transformed into tests in laboratories. (If anyone needs help designing a study, please contact me. I?d be happy to collaborate.) This makes practopoiesis a testable theory. Also, the theory opens numerous interesting possibilities for computational studies. (Same here: I?d be happy to help develop research ideas.) In addition to the empirical predictions, the revised version discusses in more detail the following: - self-organization - downward causation - shielding of cybernetic knowledge - flow of information towards lower levels of organization - a philosophical summary of the theory (which is also laid out as a table attached to this message). I would like to thank everyone for the great interest in practopoiesis expressed through so many downloads and visits to the website. With kind regards, Danko Nikoli? -- Prof. Dr. Danko Nikoli? Web: http://www.danko-nikolic.com Mail address 1: Department of Neurophysiology Max Planck Institut for Brain Research Deutschordenstr. 46 60528 Frankfurt am Main GERMANY Mail address 2: Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Wolfgang Goethe University Ruth-Moufang-Str. 1 60433 Frankfurt am Main GERMANY ---------------------------- Office: (..49-69) 96769-736 Lab: (..49-69) 96769-209 Fax: (..49-69) 96769-327 danko.nikolic at gmail.com ---------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: What is thought--table with legend.png Type: image/png Size: 85086 bytes Desc: not available URL: From gangluo at cs.wisc.edu Sun Feb 8 20:58:59 2015 From: gangluo at cs.wisc.edu (Gang Luo) Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2015 18:58:59 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: VLDB Workshop on Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare (DMAH 2015) In-Reply-To: <201502090122.t191Mr46031156@igor.cs.wisc.edu> References: <201502090122.t191Mr46031156@igor.cs.wisc.edu> Message-ID: <54D81463.2040707@cs.wisc.edu> -- Call for Papers -- The First International Workshop on Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare (DMAH 2015) In Conjunction with VLDB 2015 Big Island, Hawaii, September 4, 2015 http://dmah.info/ Healthcare enterprises are producing large amounts of data through electronic medical records, medical imaging, health insurance claims, surveillance, and others. Such data have high potential to transform current healthcare to improve healthcare quality and prevent diseases, and advance biomedical research. Medical Informatics is an interdisciplinary field that studies and pursues the effective use of medical data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving and decision making, driven by efforts to improve human health and well being. The goal of the workshop is to bring people in the field cross-cutting information management and medical informatics, to discuss innovative data management and analytics technologies highlighting end-to-end applications, systems, and methods to address problems in healthcare, public health, and everyday wellness, with clinical, physiological, imaging, behavioral, environmental, and omic- data, and data from social media and the Web. It will provide a unique opportunity for interaction between information management researchers and biomedical researchers for the interdisciplinary field. This workshop welcomes papers that address fundamental research issues for complex medical data environments, data management and analytical methods, systems and applications. Topics of interest include, but not limited to: Big data integration for medical data; Data cleansing for noisy and missing data; Medical data and knowledge management and decision support; Data management technologies for medical data; Semantic Web and ontologies for clinical and biomedical applications; Medical natural language processing and text mining; Data mining and knowledge discovery from medical data; Algorithms to speed up the analysis of big medical data; Innovative visualization techniques for query and analysis of medical data; Medical image mining; Medical information retrieval; Data privacy and security for healthcare data; Hospital readmission analytics; Medical fraud detection; Social media and Web data analytics for public health; Data analytics for pervasive computing for medical care. Submitted papers can be of three types: 1) Regular Research Papers: These papers should report original research results or significant case studies. They should be at most 12 pages. 2) Short Papers: These papers should offer a focused contribution to the research program. They should be at most 6 pages. 3) Extended Abstracts. The extended abstracts will present novel research directions or identify challenging problems. They should be at most 2 pages. Important Dates: Individual Workshop Papers: June 1, 2015, 11.59 pm PST Notification of Acceptance: June 27, 2015 Workshop date: September 4, 2015 All submitted papers will be rigorously reviewed. All accepted papers will be made available as a workshop proceedings to be published by Springer LNCS. Organizing Committee: Workshop Chairs: Fusheng Wang, Stony Brook University, USA Gang Luo, University of Utah, USA Further details: http://dmah.info From marcello.pelillo at gmail.com Mon Feb 9 02:22:14 2015 From: marcello.pelillo at gmail.com (Marcello Pelillo) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 08:22:14 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: SIMBAD 2015 - 2nd Call for Papers Message-ID: CALL FOR PAPERS SIMBAD 2015 3rd International Workshop on Similarity-Based Pattern Analysis and Recognition October 12-14, 2015 Copenhagen, Denmark http://www.dsi.unive.it/~simbad/2015/ MOTIVATIONS AND OBJECTIVES Traditional pattern recognition and machine learning techniques are intimately linked to the notion of "feature space." Adopting this view, each object is described in terms of a vector of numerical attributes and is therefore mapped to a point in a Euclidean vector space so that the distances between the points reflect the observed (dis)similarities between the respective objects. This kind of representation is attractive because such spaces offer powerful analytical as well as computational tools that are simply not available in other representations. This approach, however, suffers from a major intrinsic limitation, which concerns the representational power of vectorial, feature-based descriptions. In fact, there are numerous application domains where either it is not possible to find satisfactory features or they are inefficient for learning purposes. In the last few years, interest around purely (dis)similarity-based techniques has grown considerably. For example, within the supervised learning paradigm the well-established kernel-based methods shift the focus from the choice of an appropriate set of features to the choice of a suitable kernel, which is related to object similarities. This shift in focus, however, is only partial, as the classical interpretation of the notion of a kernel is that it provides an implicit transformation of the feature space rather than a purely similarity-based representation. Similarly, in the unsupervised domain, there has been an increasing interest around pairwise or even multiway algorithms, such as spectral and graph-theoretic clustering methods, which avoid the use of features altogether. By departing from vector-space representations one is confronted with the challenging problem of dealing with (dis)similarities that do not necessarily possess the Euclidean behavior or do not even obey the requirements of a metric. The lack of such properties undermines the very foundations of traditional pattern recognition and machine learning theories and algorithms and poses totally new theoretical and computational questions and challenges. The aim of this workshop, following those held in Venice and York, is to consolidate research efforts in this area and to provide an informal discussion forum for researchers and practitioners interested in this important yet diverse subject. We aim at covering a wide range of problems and perspectives, from supervised to unsupervised learning, from generative to discriminative models, and from theoretical issues to real-world applications. Original, unpublished papers dealing with these issues are solicited. Topics of interest include (but are of course not limited to): - Embedding and embeddability - Graph spectra and spectral geometry - Indefinite and structural kernels - Game-theoretic models of pattern recognition - Characterization of nonmetric behavior - Foundational issues - Measures of metric violations - Learning and combining (dis)similarities - Multiple-instance learning and other set-based approaches - Applications PAPER and ABSTRACT SUBMISSION We allow three types of contributions. Regular papers (not exceeding 16 pages LNCS format) must be submitted electronically. The submission site can be found through http://www.dsi.unive.it/~simbad/2015/index.php/pages/submission. All submissions will be subject to a rigorous peer-review process. Accepted papers will be published in Springer's Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. In addition to regular, original contributions, we also solicit presentation of papers (in any LaTeX format, no page restriction) that have been recently published elsewhere. These papers will undergo the same review process as regular ones. If accepted, they will be presented at the workshop, but only an abstract will be published. Submission of such contribution requires the additional submission of a two-page abstract in LNCS format with the original paper submitted as supplementary material. Finally, we encourage the submission of two-page abstracts in general. These could contain preliminary results, topics for discussion, appeals for novel research directions, or anything else that suits the aim of SIMBAD and underlines the workshop character. Upon acceptance, these submissions will be assigned a poster presentation and the abstract will be published. Submission implies the willingness of at least one of the authors to register and present the paper on acceptance. INVITED SPEAKERS TBA IMPORTANT DATES Submission of paper abstract: March 15, 2015 Submission of the final version of the paper: March 30, 2015 Submission of extended abstract only: April 15 Notifications: May 30, 2015 Camera-ready due: June 30, 2015 Conference: October 12-14, 2015 ORGANIZATION Program Chairs Aasa Feragen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Marco Loog, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Marcello Pelillo, University of Venice, Italy Steering Committee Joachim Buhmann, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Robert Duin, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Mario Figueiredo, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal Edwin Hancock, University of York, UK Vittorio Murino, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy Marcello Pelillo (chair), University of Venice, Italy Program Committee [provisional] Ethem Alpaydin, Bogazici University, Turkey Chlo?-Agathe Azencott, Mines Paris Tech, France Manuele Bicego, University of Verona, Italy Joachim Buhmann, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Tiberio Caetano, NICTA, Australia Umberto Castellani, University of Verona, Italy Veronika Cheplygina, Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands Aykut Erdem, Hacettepe University, Turkey Francisco Escolano, University of Alicante, Spain Mario Figueiredo, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal Ana Fred, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal Edwin Hancock, University of York, UK Soren Hauberg, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark Christian Igel, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Brijnesh Jain, Technical University of Berlin, Germany Robert Krauthgamer, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel Walter Kropatsch, Vienna University of Technology, Austria Xuelong Li, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Yingyu Liang, Princeton University, USA Vittorio Murino, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy Antonio Robles-Kelly, NICTA, Australia Fabio Roli, University of Cagliari, Italy Luca Rossi, University of Birmingham, UK Samuel Rota Bulo', Bruno Kessler Foundation, Italy Volker Roth, University of Basel, Switzerland Anastasios Sidiropoulos, Ohio State University, USA Stefan Sommer, University of Copenhagen, Denmark David Tax, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Andrea Torsello, University of Venice, Italy Richard Wilson, University of York, UK -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From norbert.kopco at upjs.sk Sun Feb 8 23:51:55 2015 From: norbert.kopco at upjs.sk (Norbert Kopco) Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2015 15:51:55 +1100 Subject: Connectionists: Kosice Neuroscience Workshop 20-24 April 2015 Message-ID: <54D83CEB.1090703@upjs.sk> SAVE THE DATE! The Second Workshop and Lecture Series on */"Cognitive neuroscience of auditory and cross-modal perception"/* 20 - 24 April 2015 Kosice, Slovakia http://pcl.upjs.sk/ Objectives: This workshop and lecture series will include introductory lectures and advanced research talks on a range of topics related to the */neural processes of auditory, visual and cross-modal perception/*. The talks will illustrate the */multidisciplinary character of cognitive neuroscience research/*, covering behavioral, neuroimaging, and modeling approaches, as well as applications of the research in auditory prosthetic devices. The workshop is aimed at */early-stage and advanced students and young researchers/*, and it will provide ample opportunities for direct interactions between the lecturers and the attendees. *Format* Lectures 20 - 22 April, Consultations 23 ? 24 April *Venue* Historicka aula, P. J. Safarik University, Srobarova 2, 040 11 Kosice, Slovakia *Organizers* Norbert Kopco, PhD. (norbert.kopco at upjs.sk ) Frederick Gallun, PhD. (Frederick.Gallun at va.gov ) *Organizing team and contact* Beata Tomoriova, Lubos Hladek, Perception and Cognition Lab ,**kogneuro at gmail.com *Speakers (lecture topics TBA, see last year?s topics at *http://pcl.upjs.sk/workshop2014/*)* Simon Carlile (University of Sydney) Pierre Divenyi (Stanford University) Christopher Stecker (Vanderbilt University) Bernhard Laback (Austrian Academy of Sciences) Volker Hohmann (University of Oldenburg) Arash Yazdanbakhsh (Boston University) Aaron Seitz (University of California, Riverside) Frederick (Erick) Gallun (US Dept. of Veterans Affairs and Oregon Health & Science University) Istvan Winkler (Hungarian Academy of Science) Travel, accommodation, visitor information Attendees are kindly requested to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. /Travel: /The Kosice Airport (http://www.airportkosice.sk/en/) is served by Austrian Airlines (http://www.austrian.com/) and Czech Airlines (http://www.csa.cz/) via Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, and by low-cost airline Wizzair (http://wizzair.com/en-GB/Search) from London Luton Airport. Alternatively you can fly to Budapest and take a 3.5-hr shuttle bus to Kosice, for example, using the cassoviaexpres (http://cassoviaexpres.sk/en/) shuttle bus. From Krakow you can take the 4-hr shuttle bus operated by Airtrans.sk . More information about how to get to Kosice (also by train or bus) can be found at http://www.visitkosice.eu/en/to-get-there/arriving-to-the-city . /Accommodation:/ There are several hotels close to workshop venue, for example Hotel Teledom , Villa Regia , Doubletree by Hilton , Hotel Yasmin , Hotel Maraton (for more hotel options please see http://www.booking.com, http://www.hotels.com, for hostels see: http://www.hostels.com, http://www.hostelworld.com) /Visitor information and current events:/ see http://www.visitkosice.eu/ , http://www.slovaktours.eu/, http://www.mickosice.sk/ , http://slovakia.travel/ , or http://www.slovakia.com/ * Registration* The workshop is open to all interested students/scientists. Registration is free of charge but required (mostly for organizational reasons). In order to register, please send an email to kogneuro at gmail.com stating your name and affiliation, dates on which you are planning to attend. In case you would like to have a presentation please send us an abstract (up to 200 words) and an indication whether you prefer poster or oral presentation no later than April 10, 2015. -- doc. Norbert Kopco, Ph.D. Assoc Professor / Senior Researcher: Inst of Computer Sci, Faculty of Science, Safarik Univ, Kosice, Slovakia Adjunct: Ctr for Computational Neurosci (CompNet), Boston University & Martinos Ctr for Biomed Imaging, Harvard Med School - Mass Gen Hospital P: +16175759556 F: +14847279884, kopco at bu.edu, http://cns.bu.edu/~kopco -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michael.hirsch at tuebingen.mpg.de Mon Feb 9 02:00:49 2015 From: michael.hirsch at tuebingen.mpg.de (Michael Hirsch) Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2015 08:00:49 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: Application deadline for MLSS 2015 in Tuebingen, Germany In-Reply-To: <54B41AB0.5040303@tuebingen.mpg.de> References: <54B41AB0.5040303@tuebingen.mpg.de> Message-ID: <54D85B21.7080106@tuebingen.mpg.de> ************************************************************************** *** APPLICATIONS END SOON *** *** http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2015/application.html *** ************************************************************************** Dear Colleagues, please note that the application deadline for the -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MACHINE LEARNING SUMMER SCHOOL at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in T?bingen, Germany 13 to 24 July 2015 http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2015/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- is approaching soon. The deadline is this Thursday, February 12th at 23.59 GMT. Due to several requests, the deadline for reference letters will be extended by one week. Reference letters will be accepted till Thursday, February 19th, 23.59 GMT. Please also note the extended list of speakers! Overview -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The machine learning summer school provides graduate students and industry professionals with an intense learning experience on the theory and applications of modern machine learning. Over the course of two weeks, a panel of internationally renowned experts of the field will offer tutorials covering basic as well as advanced topics. Confirmed Speakers and Topics -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rohit Babar (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will co-teach a practical on Kernel Methods Michael Black (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on Learning Human Body Shape Olivier Bousquet (Google) will speak on Machine Learning in Industry Stephen Boyd (Stanford) will speak on Optimization Tamara Broderick (MIT, ex Berkeley) will speak on Bayesian Nonparametrics Rob Fergus (Facebook / NYU) will speak on Neural Networks Zoubin Ghahramani (Cambridge) will speak on Bayesian Inference Arthur Gretton (UCL) will speak on Kernels Ralf Herbrich (Amazon) will speak on Machine Learning in Industry Neil Lawrence (Sheffield) will speak on Gaussian Processes David Lopez-Paz (MPI for Intelligent Sytems) will co-teach a practical on Kernel Methods Ulrike von Luxburg (University of Hamburg) will speak on Learning Theory Krikamol Muandet (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will co-teach a practical on Kernel Methods Jonas Peters (ETH Z?rich, MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on Causality Stefan Schaal (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on Learning Robots Ilya Tolstikhin (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will co-teach a practical on Learning Theory Ruth Urner (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will co-teach a practical on Learning Theory Chris Watkins (Royal Holloway) will speak on Reinforcement Learning Jason Weston (Facebook) will speak on a topic tbc Frank Wood (Oxford) will teach a practical on Probabilistic Programming Bernhard Sch?lkopf (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on Causality Philipp Hennig (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on Probabilistic Numerical Methods Michael Hirsch (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on Computational Imaging Application process -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Applications are invited from graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and industry professionals looking to use, or already using machine learning methods in their work. This includes researchers in applied fields as well as students of machine learning itself. Prior experience is not strictly required, but helpful. A small number of travel stipends will be available. Applicants will be asked to submit a CV, a cover letter of up to 2000 characters, and a short letter of recommendation from one referee of their choice. We are also seeking to give participants a chance to discuss their own work with their peers and the speakers. Each applicant is thus invited to provide the title of a poster they would like to present at the school. For more information visit http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2015/application.html Important Dates -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Monday 12 Jaunary 2015 application system opens * Thursday 12 February 2015 DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS * Thursday 19 February 2015 DEADLINE FOR REFERENCE LETTERS * Thursday 12 March 2015 notification of acceptance The school takes place from Monday 13 July to Friday 24 July 2015 Organizers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Hirsch Philipp Hennig Bernhard Sch?lkopf inquiries should be directed to michael.hirsch at tuebingen.mpg.de ========================================================================== From emmanuel.vincent at inria.fr Tue Feb 10 02:50:13 2015 From: emmanuel.vincent at inria.fr (Emmanuel Vincent) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 08:50:13 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Last Cfp: LVA 2015 (12th International Conference on Latent Variable Analysis and Signal Separation) Message-ID: <54D9B835.30604@inria.fr> ---------------------------------------------- LVA 2015 - 12th International Conference on Latent Variable Analysis and Signal Separation August 25-28, 2015, Liberec, Czech Republic Paper submission deadline: March 27, 2015 http://amca.cz/lva2015/ ---------------------------------------------- *News* The submission website is now open. The conference will feature 5 special sessions: - Advances in nonlinear blind source separation (Y. Deville) - Deep neural networks for supervised speech separation/enhancement (D. Wang) - Joint analysis of multiple datasets, data fusion, and related topics (D. Lahat & C. Jutten) - Sparse and low-rank modeling for acoustic signal processing (A. Asaei & S. Gannot) - Tensor-based methods for blind signal separation (L. De Lathauwer) The best audio paper will receive an award sponsored by Conexant. *About LVA* LVA 2015 will be the 12th in a series of international conferences which attracted hundreds of researchers and practitioners over the years. Since its start in 1999 under the banner of Independent Component Analysis and Blind Source Separation (ICA), the conference has continuously broadened its horizons. It encompasses today a host of additional forms and models of general mixtures of latent variables. Theories and tools borrowing from the fields of signal processing, applied statistics, machine learning, linear and multilinear algebra, numerical analysis and optimization, and numerous application fields offer exciting interdisciplinary interactions. *Highlights* The conference will be preceded by a Summer School on Latent Variable Analysis and Signal Separation and it will feature the much-awaited results of the 5th Signal Separation Evaluation Campaign (SiSEC 2015). Keynote talks will be given by three leading researchers: - T?lay Adali (University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA) - R?mi Gribonval (Inria, France) - DeLiang Wang (Ohio State University, USA) *Call for Papers* The proceedings will be published in Springer-Verlag's Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series (LNCS). Prospective authors are invited to submit original papers (up to 8 pages in LNCS format) in areas related to latent variable analysis and signal separation, including but not limited to: - Theory: sparse coding, dictionary learning; statistical and probabilistic modeling; detection, estimation and performance criteria and bounds; causality measures; learning theory; convex/nonconvex optimization tools - Models: general linear or nonlinear models of signals and data; discrete, continuous, flat, or hierarchical models; multilinear models; time-varying, instantaneous, convolutive, noiseless, noisy, over-complete, or under-complete mixtures - Algorithms: estimation, separation, identification, detection, blind and semi-blind methods, non-negative matrix factorization, tensor decomposition, adaptive and recursive estimation; feature selection; time-frequency and wavelet based analysis; complexity analysis - Applications: speech and audio separation, recognition, dereverberation and denoising; auditory scene analysis; image segmentation, separation, fusion, classification, texture analysis; biomedical signal analysis, imaging, genomic data analysis, brain-computer interface - Emerging related topics: sparse learning; deep learning; social networks; data mining; artificial intelligence; objective and subjective performance evaluation. *Important Dates* Mar 27, 2015: Paper submission deadline May 22, 2015: Notification of acceptance Jun 12, 2015: Submission of camera-ready papers Aug 25-28, 2015: Conference dates *Organizing Committee* General chairs: Zbynek Koldovsky (Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic) Petr Tichavsky (Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic) Program chairs: Arie Yeredor (Tel-Aviv University, Israel) Emmanuel Vincent (Inria, France) Special sessions: Shoji Makino (University of Tsukuba, Japana) SiSEC chair: Nobutaka Ono (NII, Japan) Overseas liaison: Andrzej Cichocki (RIKEN, Japan) *Sponsors* Technicolor Technical University of Liberec Conexant Systems, Inc. Jablotron Sony From jesus.m.cortes at gmail.com Tue Feb 10 07:28:52 2015 From: jesus.m.cortes at gmail.com (Jesus Cortes) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 13:28:52 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: final program, qbio seminar in Bilbao, February 17-18, 2015 Message-ID: This is the final program for the BCAM workshop in Quantitative Biomedicine next week Tuesday, February 17, 2015 9:30-11:30. Session 1. 09:30-10:10 Joanna Tyrcha. Stochastic stability and dynamic behavior of a compound cell-cycle model 10:10-10:50 Mathieu Desroches. Mixed-Mode Bursting Oscillations (MMBOs): slow passage through spike-adding canard explosion 10:50-11:30 Albert Granados. The period adding phenomenon in periodically driven hybrid spiking models 11:30-12:10. Coffee Break 12:10-14:10 Session 2. 12:10-12:50 Edward J. Vigmond. Cardiac Applications of Computational Electrophysiology 12:50-13:30 Pablo Lamata. Extraction of diastolic biomarkers through personalization of computational models 13:30-14:10 Aciel Eshky. Condition Monitoring of Athletes with a Wearable Heart Rate Variability Sensor 14:10-15:20 Lunch 15:20-18:00. Session 3. 15:20-16:00 Cesar Caballero. The power of haemodynamic deconvolution for mapping brain dynamics with BOLD functional MRI 16:00-16:40 Andrea Fuster. Geometric framework for diffusion MR images of the brain: theory and applications 16:40-17:20 Ernesto Sanz-Arigita. Multimodality MRI in different groups at risk for developing Alzheimer?s disease: towards multidimensional brain imaging biomarkers. 17:20-18:00 Pierrick Coupe. New patch-based estimators for early detection of Alzheimer?s disease Wednesday, February 18, 2015 9:30-11:30. Session 4. 09:30-10:10 Bert Kappen. Explaining missing heritability with Gaussian Process regression 10:10-10:50 Alberto Llera. Efficient Gaussian/Inverse Gammas mixture-models: a new tool for thresholding ICA statistical maps from fMRI data 10:50-11:30 Estibaliz Garrote. Computer vision applied to digital pathology: image search engine based on clinical similarity 11:30-12:10 Coffee Break 12:10-14:10. Session 5. 12:10-12:50 Michael Wibral. Information transfer and causal interactions - Conceptual differences and combined analyses strategies 12:50-13:30 Luca Faes. Dynamics of Information Storage, Transfer and Modification in the Cardiovascular System 13:30-14:10 Adam Barrett. Synergistic and redundant information sharing in Gaussian systems 14:10-15:20 Lunch 15:20-18:00. Session 6. 15:20-16:00 Ruedi Stoop. Power-law size distribution of activated avalanches - what do they really mean? 16:00-16:40 Daniele Marinazzo. Tracking slow modulations in synaptic gain using dynamic causal modelling: Validation in epilepsy 16:40-17:20 Paolo Paradisi. Intermittency-based complexity measures in brain EEG data 17:20-18:00 Jordi Soriano. Experiments in Neuronal Cultures: Exploring Open Questions in Physics and Medicine -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas.j.palmeri at Vanderbilt.Edu Mon Feb 9 13:15:06 2015 From: thomas.j.palmeri at Vanderbilt.Edu (Thomas Palmeri) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 12:15:06 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) in cognitive modeling at Vanderbilt this summer Message-ID: <847FE996-45AE-4E99-A5A5-8E68B3901736@vanderbilt.edu> Please pass on to undergraduates interested in a research experience this summer. We are especially interested in recruiting students with interests in modeling. RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR UNDERGRADUATES (REU) AT THE CatLab AT VANDERBILT We looking for outstanding students interested in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the CatLab at Vanderbilt University. Our REU is part of an NSF-funded project entitled Perceptual Categorization in Real-World Expertise. This project uses online behavioral experiments to understand the temporal dynamics of perceptual expertise, measuring and manipulating the dynamics of object recognition and categorization at different levels of abstraction and assessing how those dynamics vary over measured levels of expertise, using computational models to test hypotheses about expertise mechanisms. Students have opportunities to work on projects ranging from the development of online experiments, development of analysis routines, and development and testing of computational models. This REU is especially appropriate for students interested in applying to graduate programs in psychology, vision science, cognitive science, or neuroscience. The REU provides a $5000 summer stipend, $500 per week for ten weeks; an additional $150 per week helps offsets the cost of housing and meals; a $250 travel allowance is also provided. REUs are restricted to undergraduate students currently enrolled in a degree program and must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United States. Undergraduates who are students at Vanderbilt may have the opportunity to continue the REU experience into the 2015-16 academic year. For more information: http://catlab.psy.vanderbilt.edu/research-experience-for-undergraduates-reu-at-the-catlab ------------- Thomas Palmeri Professor of Psychology Director of Graduate Studies co-Director of Scientific Computing 507 Wilson Hall Vanderbilt University thomas.j.palmeri at vanderbilt.edu http://catlab.psy.vanderbilt.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hosengbeng at gmail.com Tue Feb 10 02:28:35 2015 From: hosengbeng at gmail.com (sengbeng ho) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 15:28:35 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: Application deadline for MLSS 2015 in Tuebingen, Germany In-Reply-To: <54D85B21.7080106@tuebingen.mpg.de> References: <54B41AB0.5040303@tuebingen.mpg.de> <54D85B21.7080106@tuebingen.mpg.de> Message-ID: *Scientist Positions Available at the Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore* The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) - http://www.a-star.edu.sg/ - is a Singapore government funded group of research institutions which receives multi-billion (U.S.) dollar funding from the Singapore government - http://www.nrf.gov.sg/research/r-d-ecosystem/overview. The Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) - http://www.ihpc.a-star.edu.sg/ - is a member institute of A*STAR that was established in 1998 to provide leadership in high performance computing as a strategic resource for scientific inquiry and industry development. We are seeking highly self-motivated individuals capable of working independently yet cohesively as a team in the pursuit of scientific work with high demands on technical flair and a knack for innovative solutions to various problems. Successful candidates will become part of a multidisciplinary research team in building algorithms for computational and artificial intelligence, processing, analysing and interpreting social media data, data and video analytics, language processing including understanding and generation, computer vision, behaviour understanding, and commonsense reasoning. If you share our interests in solving challenging scientific problems, we welcome you to apply for the following positions: *1. Scientist (Artificial Intelligence)* *Job Description:* You will contribute towards capability development in some of the following areas: computational and artificial intelligence systems, cognitively-inspired systems, intelligent processing, analysis and interpretation of social media data, data and video analytics, behaviour understanding systems, and probabilistic and commonsense inference systems. *Requirements:* 1. A PhD degree in Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Information Systems / Cognitive Science / Psychology / Physics, or equivalent. 2. A good scientific research track record and practical experience in some of the following disciplines: computational and artificial intelligence, cognitive systems, modelling and simulation, data and video analytics, and social media data analysis. 3. Interest and experience with commonsense reasoning systems will be advantageous. 4. Able to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team. 5. Strong potential for producing impactful scholarly publications. 6. Demonstrates strong interest and ability in research. *2. Scientist (Linguistics/Computational Linguistics)* *Job Description:* You will contribute towards capability development in the following area: design and development of computational and artificial intelligence systems, specifically language understanding and generation systems. *Requirements:* 1. A PhD degree in Linguistics / Computational Linguistics / Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Information Systems / Cognitive Science, or equivalent. 2. A good scientific research track record in one or more than one of the following areas: linguistics, computational linguistics, natural language processing systems, etc. 3. Interest and experience with cognitive linguistics will be advantageous. 4. Able to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team. 5. Strong potential for producing impactful scholarly publications. 6. Demonstrates strong interest and ability in research. *Salary:* For comparison, in 2013, Singapore?s per capita GDP is US$55,000 and US?s per capita GDP is US$53,000. Therefore salaries are commensurate with these figures. Please submit CV and references by email to Dr. Seng-Beng Ho at hosb at ihpc.a-star.edu.sg. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Michael Hirsch < michael.hirsch at tuebingen.mpg.de> wrote: > ************************************************************************** > *** APPLICATIONS END SOON *** > *** http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2015/application.html *** > ************************************************************************** > > Dear Colleagues, > > please note that the application deadline for the > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > MACHINE LEARNING SUMMER SCHOOL > at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in T?bingen, Germany > 13 to 24 July 2015 > http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2015/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > is approaching soon. The deadline is this Thursday, February 12th > at 23.59 GMT. > > Due to several requests, the deadline for reference letters will be > extended by one week. Reference letters will be accepted till Thursday, > February 19th, 23.59 GMT. > > Please also note the extended list of speakers! > > > Overview > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The machine learning summer school provides graduate students and industry > professionals with an intense learning experience on the theory and > applications of modern machine learning. Over the course of two weeks, > a panel of internationally renowned experts of the field will offer > tutorials covering basic as well as advanced topics. > > Confirmed Speakers and Topics > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Rohit Babar (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will co-teach a practical on > Kernel Methods > > Michael Black (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on > Learning Human Body Shape > > Olivier Bousquet (Google) will speak on > Machine Learning in Industry > > Stephen Boyd (Stanford) will speak on > Optimization > > Tamara Broderick (MIT, ex Berkeley) will speak on > Bayesian Nonparametrics > > Rob Fergus (Facebook / NYU) will speak on > Neural Networks > > Zoubin Ghahramani (Cambridge) will speak on > Bayesian Inference > > Arthur Gretton (UCL) will speak on > Kernels > > Ralf Herbrich (Amazon) will speak on > Machine Learning in Industry > > Neil Lawrence (Sheffield) will speak on > Gaussian Processes > > David Lopez-Paz (MPI for Intelligent Sytems) will co-teach a practical on > Kernel Methods > > Ulrike von Luxburg (University of Hamburg) will speak on > Learning Theory > > Krikamol Muandet (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will co-teach a practical on > Kernel Methods > > Jonas Peters (ETH Z?rich, MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on > Causality > > Stefan Schaal (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on > Learning Robots > > Ilya Tolstikhin (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will co-teach a practical on > Learning Theory > > Ruth Urner (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will co-teach a practical on > Learning Theory > > Chris Watkins (Royal Holloway) will speak on > Reinforcement Learning > > Jason Weston (Facebook) will speak on a topic tbc > > Frank Wood (Oxford) will teach a practical on > Probabilistic Programming > > Bernhard Sch?lkopf (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on > Causality > > Philipp Hennig (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on > Probabilistic Numerical Methods > > Michael Hirsch (MPI for Intelligent Systems) will speak on > Computational Imaging > > > Application process > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Applications are invited from graduate students, postdoctoral researchers > and industry professionals looking to use, or already using machine > learning methods in their work. This includes researchers in applied > fields as well as students of machine learning itself. Prior experience > is not strictly required, but helpful. A small number of travel stipends > will be available. > > Applicants will be asked to submit a CV, a cover letter of up to 2000 > characters, and a short letter of recommendation from one referee of their > choice. We are also seeking to give participants a chance to discuss their > own work with their peers and the speakers. Each applicant is thus invited > to provide the title of a poster they would like to present at the school. > > For more information visit > http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2015/application.html > > Important Dates > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > * Monday 12 Jaunary 2015 application system opens > * Thursday 12 February 2015 DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS > * Thursday 19 February 2015 DEADLINE FOR REFERENCE LETTERS > * Thursday 12 March 2015 notification of acceptance > > The school takes place from > > Monday 13 July to Friday 24 July 2015 > > Organizers > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Michael Hirsch Philipp Hennig Bernhard Sch?lkopf > > inquiries should be directed to michael.hirsch at tuebingen.mpg.de > ========================================================================== > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From marco.baroni at unitn.it Mon Feb 9 13:26:15 2015 From: marco.baroni at unitn.it (Marco Baroni) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 19:26:15 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: phd position in computational models of language and vision Message-ID: <54D8FBC7.7060003@unitn.it> PHD POSITION IN COMPUTATIONAL MODELS OF LANGUAGE AND VISION One PhD position/studentship to study computational models of language and vision is available in the Language, Interaction and Computation track of the 3-year PhD program offered by the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences at the University of Trento (Italy) (www.unitn.it/en/cimec). The PhD program (start date: November 2015) is taught in English by an international faculty. The Language, Interaction & Computation track is organized by the CIMeC-CLIC laboratory, an interdisciplinary group of researchers studying language and conceptualization using both computational and cognitive methods (clic.cimec.unitn.it). The topic of the PhD thesis will be defined with the student selected as PhD candidate. Possible research directions include: Compositionality in images; Methaphors in images; Searching for images through natural language queries; Language, vision and reasoning. The selected student will work closely with the research team of the ERC project COMPOSES (http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/composes/). * Desired Profile * Given the interdisciplinary nature of the project, we seek a brilliant student with at least some of the following background: - Machine learning - Computer Vision - Natural Language Processing - Good programming skills - Ability to work with big data - Mathematical and statistical skills. If you think that your background is relevant to the research program outlined on the project website (clic.cimec.unitn.it/lavi) and you have good programming and quantitative skills, please do get in touch even if you do not fully fit the profile above. All prospective students are expected to have an interest in working in an interdisciplinary environment. * The Research Environment * The CLIC lab (clic.cimec.unitn.it) is a unit of the University of Trento's Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC, www.unitn.it/en/cimec), an English-speaking, interdisciplinary center for research on brain and cognition whose staff includes neuroscientists, psychologists, (computational) linguists, computer scientists and physicists. CLIC consists of researchers from the Departments of Computer Science (DISI) and Psychology and Cognitive Science (DiPSCo) carrying out research on a range of topics including concept acquisition, corpus-based computational semantics, combining NLP and computer vision, combining brain and corpus data to study cognition, formal semantics and theoretical linguistics. CLIC is part of the larger network of research labs focusing on Natural Language Processing and related domains in the Trento region, that is quickly becoming one of the areas with the highest concentration of researchers in NLP and related fields anywhere in Europe. The CLIC/CIMeC laboratories are located in beautiful Rovereto, a lively town in the middle of the Alps, famous for its contemporary art museum, the quality of its wine, and the range of outdoors sport and relax opportunities it offers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rovereto * Application Information * The official call of the Doctoral School in Cognitive and Brain Sciences will be announced shortly, and application details will be available on the page: http://www.unitn.it/en/drcimec/10140/admission-doctoral-school-cognitive-and-brain-sciences We strongly encourage a preliminary expression of interest in the project. Please contact Raffaella Bernardi (bernardi at disi.unitn.it), attaching a CV in pdf or txt format, or a link to an online CV. For information about the application process, please contact the school administrator (phd.cimec at unitn.it). -- Marco Baroni Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC) University of Trento http://clic.cimec.unitn.it/marco From hosengbeng at gmail.com Tue Feb 10 02:31:18 2015 From: hosengbeng at gmail.com (sengbeng ho) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 15:31:18 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: Scientist Positions Available at the Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore Message-ID: Resending with correct subject heading. Apologies. *Scientist Positions Available at the Institute of High Performance > Computing, A*STAR, Singapore* > > > > The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) - > http://www.a-star.edu.sg/ - is a Singapore government funded group of > research institutions which receives multi-billion (U.S.) dollar funding > from the Singapore government - > http://www.nrf.gov.sg/research/r-d-ecosystem/overview. > > The Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) - > http://www.ihpc.a-star.edu.sg/ - is a member institute of A*STAR that was > established in 1998 to provide leadership in high performance computing as > a strategic resource for scientific inquiry and industry development. We > are seeking highly self-motivated individuals capable of working > independently yet cohesively as a team in the pursuit of scientific work > with high demands on technical flair and a knack for innovative solutions > to various problems. Successful candidates will become part of a > multidisciplinary research team in building algorithms for computational > and artificial intelligence, processing, analysing and interpreting social > media data, data and video analytics, language processing including > understanding and generation, computer vision, behaviour understanding, and > commonsense reasoning. If you share our interests in solving challenging > scientific problems, we welcome you to apply for the following positions: > > *1. Scientist (Artificial Intelligence)* > > *Job Description:* > > You will contribute towards capability development in some of the > following areas: computational and artificial intelligence systems, > cognitively-inspired systems, intelligent processing, analysis and > interpretation of social media data, data and video analytics, behaviour > understanding systems, and probabilistic and commonsense inference systems. > > *Requirements:* > > 1. A PhD degree in Computer Science / Computer Engineering / > Electrical Engineering / Information Systems / Cognitive Science / > Psychology / Physics, or equivalent. > 2. A good scientific research track record and practical experience in > some of the following disciplines: computational and artificial > intelligence, cognitive systems, modelling and simulation, data and video > analytics, and social media data analysis. > 3. Interest and experience with commonsense reasoning systems will be > advantageous. > 4. Able to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team. > 5. Strong potential for producing impactful scholarly publications. > 6. Demonstrates strong interest and ability in research. > > > > *2. Scientist (Linguistics/Computational Linguistics)* > > *Job Description:* > > You will contribute towards capability development in the following area: > design and development of computational and artificial intelligence > systems, specifically language understanding and generation systems. > > *Requirements:* > > 1. A PhD degree in Linguistics / Computational Linguistics / Computer > Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Information > Systems / Cognitive Science, or equivalent. > 2. A good scientific research track record in one or more than one of > the following areas: linguistics, computational linguistics, natural > language processing systems, etc. > 3. Interest and experience with cognitive linguistics will be > advantageous. > 4. Able to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team. > 5. Strong potential for producing impactful scholarly publications. > 6. Demonstrates strong interest and ability in research. > > > > *Salary:* > > For comparison, in 2013, Singapore?s per capita GDP is US$55,000 and US?s > per capita GDP is US$53,000. Therefore salaries are commensurate with these > figures. > > > > Please submit CV and references by email to Dr. Seng-Beng Ho at > hosb at ihpc.a-star.edu.sg. > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jms at isep.ipp.pt Mon Feb 9 13:07:41 2015 From: jms at isep.ipp.pt (Jorge M. Santos) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 18:07:41 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CFP - Special Session on Transfer Learning - International Work Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, 10-12 June, 2015 Message-ID: <307e01d04493$4d3514b0$e79f3e10$@isep.ipp.pt> (Deadline Extension) Please consider to contribute to the Special Session on Transfer Learning International Work Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, 10-12 June, 2015 - http://iwann.ugr.es/2015 Transfer Learning (TL) aims to transfer knowledge acquired in one problem, the source problem, onto another problem, the target problem, dispensing with the bottom-up construction of the target model. The TL approach has gained significant interest in the Machine Learning (ML) community since it paves the way to devise intelligent learning models that can easily be tailored to many different domains of applicability. The following aspects have recently contributed to the emergence of TL: ? Generalization Theory: TL often produces algorithms with good generalization capability for different problems; ? Efficient TL algorithms: TL provides learning models that can be applied with far less computational effort than standard ML methods; ? Unlabeled data: TL can be advantageous since unlabeled data can have severe implications in some fields of research, such as in the biomedical field. Some examples of topics for this special session: ? Big Data with Deep Neural Networks; ? Generalization Bounds; ? Domain Adaptation or Covariate Shift; ? Algorithms for TL; ? New advancements in TL; ? Real-world applications. Deadline: 23 February 2015 Organizers Lu?s M. Silva, Dep. of Mathematics, University of Aveiro, Portugal - lmas at ua.pt Jorge M. Santos, Dep. of Mathematics, School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal - jms at isep.ipp.pt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From T.Nowotny at sussex.ac.uk Tue Feb 10 08:38:11 2015 From: T.Nowotny at sussex.ac.uk (Thomas Nowotny) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 13:38:11 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Masters in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems at the University of Sussex Message-ID: Dear Connectionists, The Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems MSc is open for applications. One of its core strengths is Neural Computation. For the first time the University of Sussex is offering additional scholarships to MSc students this year. For more information see the EASy MSc website, download the Flyer or read on below. If you have students who may be interested in this opportunity, please pass this information on and/or consider posting the Flyer. With best regards, Thomas Nowotny -- Prof. Thomas Nowotny CCNR, Sussex Neuroscience Phone: +44-1273-678593 Engineering and Informatics Fax: +44-1273-877873 University of Sussex Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QJ http://sussex.ac.uk/informatics/tnowotny ? Detailed information: Since 1996, the University of Sussex has offered a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems (EASy). The study of natural and articial evolutionary and adaptive systems is at the heart of rapidly developing areas from articial intelligence, adaptive behaviour and autonomous robotics to computational neuroscience, consciousness and cognitive science. Sussex is internationally renowned for its research in these areas. The EASy MSc provides a solid foundation with topics including: articial life, adaptive systems, computational neuroscience, neural networks, biologically inspired robotics, dynamical systems approaches to cognition, mathematics of complex systems, neuroscience of consciousness, evolutionary computation and biological Modelling. The well established EASy programme is taught by leading experts and there are many opportunities to interact with the thriving Sussex research community, including the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR), the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, Sussex Neuroscience and the Centre for Cognitive Science (COGS). Students have access to specialist facilities including robotics labs, high-performance computing and neuroscience research facilities. Students take eight taught courses, followed by an individual research project during the summer. The project is supervised by a member of faculty. It is not unusual for dissertation work to be published in international conference proceedings or journals. Of the large number of students who have graduated from the EASY MSc, 50% have later obtained doctorates and some have gone on to glittering careers in research. Others have forged thriving business careers, with several setting up highly successful companies. Grants of up to ?10,000 are available at Sussex (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/money/scholarships/ ). Additionally, due to a generous donation from Andrew Pegge, two Pegge Scholarships are awarded annually to EASy MSc students. The scholarships are open to all, and awarded on merit. How to Apply: To apply to the EASy MSc please go to: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/pg/applying/ and choose the EASy MSc taught programme. Is EASy Right for Me? Are you excited by fundamental questions in adaptive behaviour, biology and technology such as: How are insects so successful despite their tiny brains? Or, can we build machines as intelligent as animals? Are you interested in embodied AI? The origin of consciousness? Complexity? Whatever your background, if you answer ?yes? to any of these questions, our MSc is right for you. More information: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/easy/smsc or email Andy Philippides > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vijay at physics.upenn.edu Tue Feb 10 07:11:59 2015 From: vijay at physics.upenn.edu (Vijay Balasubramanian) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 07:11:59 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Fellowships in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania Message-ID: <54D9F58F.7040301@physics.upenn.edu> Postdoctoral Fellowships in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience University of Pennsylvania The Computational Neuroscience Initiative (CNI, http://cni.upenn.edu) of the University of Pennsylvania seeks exceptional candidates for two CNI Postdoctoral Fellowships. Candidates with strong quantitative skills from a variety of fields including neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, physics, mathematics, and engineering will be considered. The selected Fellows will join an inter-disciplinary research environment in historic Philadelphia. CNI Fellows will be encouraged to foster collaborative research between multiple labs. The CNI supports inter-disciplinary and collaborative research at the frontier of knowledge about the brain, behavior, and the mind. We focus on systems-level approaches that integrate theory and computation with experiment. Our members include faculty, post-docs, and students from multiple programs and departments including neurobiology, cognitive science, psychology, physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science. Our research and training spans the three major elements of the field of Computational Neuroscience: 1) Theory -- understanding the brain as an information-processing machine; 2) Experiments -- providing quantitative methods to aid in the design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of empirical studies that probe all levels of brain function, from molecules to behavior; and 3) Applications -- including robotics, brain-machine interfaces, and new clinical tools. Applications should be submitted by email to compneuro at sas.upenn.edu and should consist of a CV and a cover letter stating the candidate's research experience and reasons for applying to this Fellowship. Please arrange for up two three letters of recommendation to be sent to the same email address with the candidate's name in the subject line. Review of applications will begin on February 30 and continue on a rolling basis until the positions are filled. The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented individuals from diverse backgrounds (http://jobs.hr.upenn.edu ). Vijay Balasubramanian, Director David Brainard, Co-Director Joshua Gold, Co-Director -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From n.lepora at bristol.ac.uk Tue Feb 10 09:32:45 2015 From: n.lepora at bristol.ac.uk (Nathan Lepora) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:32:45 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: MSc in Robotics - University of Bristol and Bristol Robotics Laboratory Message-ID: The MSc in Robotics at the University of Bristol and Bristol Robotics Laboratory is open for applications for 2015-2016. The MSc is unique in drawing on the strengths of two universities, the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England, who are partners in the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) a world leading facility for multi-disciplinary robotics research, and the leading and largest academic centre for robotics research in the UK with over 150 academic staff and 3000 square meters of laboratory space. Why an MSc at Bristol? The MSc in Robotics provides a programme for high quality graduates in Engineering and Science to develop their skills and problem solving abilities beyond the specialisation of their first degree. The programme meets the following aims: - It provides a broad Robotics education at postgraduate level - It allows students on the course to develop their skills in a variety of fields through taught courses, case studies and laboratory work. - It provides the opportunity for a major, industrially or research relevant project to be carried out individually by each student on the course. The MSc also benefits from cross-over with Bristol's new Centre for Doctoral Training in robotics and autonomous systems FARSCOPE (http://farscope.bris.ac.uk/) offering students a route into postgraduate research for a PhD degree. The MSc, then, provides an excellent route into a highly important area of industry and research, at a world-leading centre for robotics. Bristol is also renowned for the standing of its Universities, its historic and beautiful town centre, and is consistently voted the 'best city to live in the UK'. Further information: See the webpages for details of who to contact and how to apply: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/interdisciplinary/robotics/ http://www.brl.ac.uk/studyatbrl/roboticscourses/mscinrobotics.aspx Early application is encouraged, because student numbers are limited to 30 places and will be filled on a first come-first served basis. -- Dr N Lepora Phone: +44 (0) 117 331 5169 Website: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/people/nathan-f-lepora Lecturer and MSc Program Director in Robotics (UoB) Department of Engineering Mathematics University of Bristol BS8 1UB From pblouw at uwaterloo.ca Tue Feb 10 17:23:03 2015 From: pblouw at uwaterloo.ca (Peter Blouw) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 17:23:03 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder - Feb. 15 Application Deadline for 2015 Summer School on Large-Scale Brain Modelling Message-ID: [All details about this school can be found online at http://www.nengo.ca/summerschool] The Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo is inviting applications for our 2nd annual summer school on large-scale brain modelling. This two-week school will teach participants how to use the Nengo simulation package to build state-of-the-art cognitive and neural models. Nengo has been used to build what is currently the world's largest functional brain model, Spaun [1], and provides users with a versatile and powerful environment for simulating cognitive and neural systems. We welcome applications from all interested graduate students, research associates, postdocs, professors, and industry professionals. No specific training in the use of modelling software is required, but we encourage applications from active researchers with a relevant background in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, engineering, computer science, or a related field. For a look at last year's summer school, please see this short video: http://goo.gl/BXJ3x5 [1] Eliasmith, C., Stewart T. C., Choo X., Bekolay T., DeWolf T., Tang Y., Rasmussen, D. (2012). A large-scale model of the functioning brain. Science. Vol. 338 no. 6111 pp. 1202-1205. DOI: 10.1126/science.1225266. [ http://nengo.ca/publications/spaunsciencepaper] ***Application Deadline: February 15, 2015*** Format Participants are encouraged to bring their own ideas for projects, which may focus on testing hypotheses, modelling neural or cognitive data, implementing specific behavioural functions with neurons, expanding past models, or provide a proof-of-concept of various neural mechanisms. More generally, participants will have the opportunity to: - build perceptual, motor, and cognitive models with spiking neurons - model anatomical, electrophysiological, cognitive, and behavioural data - use a variety of single cell models within a large-scale model - integrate machine learning methods into biologically oriented models - use Nengo with your favorite simulator, e.g. Brian, NEST, Neuron, etc. - interface Nengo with various kinds of neuromorphic hardware - interface Nengo with cameras and robotic systems - implement modern nonlinear control methods in neural models - and much more? Hands-on tutorials, work on individual or group projects, and talks from invited faculty members will make up the bulk of day-to-day activities. There will be a weekend break on June 13-14, and fun activities scheduled for evenings throughout. A project demonstration event will be held on the last day of the school, with prizes for strong projects! Date and Location: June 7th to June 19th, 2015 at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Applications: Please visit http://www.nengo.ca/summerschool, where you can find more information regarding costs, travel, lodging, along with an application form listing required materials. If you have any questions about the school or the application process, please contact Peter Blouw (pblouw at uwaterloo.ca) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jteeters at berkeley.edu Tue Feb 10 17:14:46 2015 From: jteeters at berkeley.edu (Jeff Teeters) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:14:46 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Berkeley course in mining and modeling neuroscience data, July 6-17, 2015 Message-ID: Call for applications: We invite applicants to the 2015 summer course in "Mining and modeling of neuroscience data" to be held July 6-17 at UC Berkeley. A description of the course is below and also at: http://crcns.org/course Application deadline is April 6 (or March 1, for MSRI's sponsored students). ----- Berkeley summer course in mining and modeling of neuroscience data July 6-17, 2015 Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, UC Berkeley Organizers: Fritz Sommer, Bruno Olshausen, Jeff Teeters (HWNI, UC Berkeley); Christos Papadimitriou (Simons Institute, Berkeley); Ingrid Daubechies (MSRI, Duke). Scope This course is for students and researchers with backgrounds in mathematics and computational sciences who are interested in applying their skills toward problems in neuroscience. It will introduce the major open questions of neuroscience and teach state-of?the-art techniques for analyzing and modeling neuroscience data sets. The course is designed for students at the graduate level and researchers with background in a quantitative field such as engineering, mathematics, physics or computer science who may or may not have a specific neuroscience background. The goal of this summer course is to help researchers find new exciting research areas and at the same time to strengthen quantitative expertise in the field of neuroscience. The course is sponsored by the National Science Foundation from a grant supporting activities at the data sharing repository CRCNS.org, the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing and the Mathematical Science Research Institute. Format The course is ?hands on? in that it will include exercises in how to use and modify existing software tools and apply them to data sets, such as those available in the CRCNS.org repository. Course Instructors Vitaly Feldman, IBM Almaden Research Center Sonja Gr?n, Juelich Research Center, Germany Robert Kass, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Maneesh Sahani, Gatsby Unit, University College London Odelia Schwartz, University of Miami Eric Shea-Brown, University of Washington Frederic Theunissen, UC Berkeley Course Moderators Fritz Sommer and Jeff Teeters, Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience Speakers To complement the main course instruction there will be lectures in the evenings by local Berkeley and UCSF neuroscientists presenting their research using quantitative approaches. Requirements Applicants should be familiar with linear algebra, probability, differential and integral calculus and have some experience using MatLab and Python. Each student should bring a laptop with the software installed. Cost There is no cost to attend. Assistance for travel, housing and food costs is in general not provided, (except for students who are sponsored by MSRI or the Simons Institute; see below). Potential financial support Support for a limited number of students to attend will be provided through both MSRI and the Simons Institute for the Theory of computing. Applicants who are at a MSRI partner institution can be admitted to the course and receive support for attending through MSRI as described at: http://www.msri.org/web/msri/scientific/workshops/summer-graduate-school Applicants with a Computer Science background are invited to apply for support by the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing and the Computer Community Consortium (CCC). See ?How to Apply? section. Housing There may be some limited dorm housing available. Cost is $742 per person in a shared double room, which includes an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner on evenings that meals are not supplied with the course. We will help coordinate sharing of dorm rooms for those who wish to stay in the dorms. Other housing options include: a hostel near campus ( http://berkeleyhostel.com) which is $32 / night for a bed in shared dorm room; nearby hotels (http://visitberkeley.com/stay); and accommodations advertised through craigslist.org and airbnb.org. We will help students setup groups to search for shared housing together. Food Most meals are not included with the course, although breakfast items, snacks and some dinners will be provided. Food for other meals can be purchased at the dorm cafeteria and local restaurants. How to apply There are two methods of applying. Method 1) Students at a MSRI partner institution can be admitted to the course and receive support for attending through MSRI as described at: http://www.msri.org/web/msri/scientific/workshops/summer-graduate-school Method 2) All non-MSRI applications are submitted via the online form linked from: http://crcns.org/course. A curriculum vitae and a letter of recommendation are required. Those applying using method 1 can also apply using method 2 (in case the MSRI supported positions are all taken). Applicants with a computer science background who wish to apply for support from the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing must apply using method 2 and include additional information as instructed on the application form. The course is limited to 25 students. Deadlines Applications must be received by April 6 (or March 1, for MSRI?s sponsored students). Notifications of acceptance will be given by the end of April. If staying in dorm housing, and not sponsored by MSRI or the Simons Institute, payment for housing and the meal plan must be received one week before the start of the course. Questions Questions about the course can be sent to course [at] crcns.org. Topics covered Basic approaches: - The problem of neural coding - Spike trains, point processes, and firing rate - Statistical thinking in neuroscience - Theory of model fitting / regularization / hypothesis testing - Bayesian methods - Spike sorting - Estimation of stimulus-response functionals: regression methods, spike-triggered covariance - Variance analysis of neural response - Estimation of SNR. Coherence Information theoretic approaches: - Information transmission rates and maximally informative dimensions - Scene statistics approaches and neural modeling Techniques for analyzing multiple-unit recordings: - Cross-correlation and JPSTH - Sparse coding/ICA methods, vanilla and methods including statistical models of nonlinear dependencies - Unitary event analysis - Methods for detection of higher-order correlations - Correlation approaches for massively parallel spike trains - Proper surrogates for spike synchrony analysis - Methods for assessing functional connectivity - Advanced topics in generalized linear models - Low-dimensional latent dynamical structure in network activity?Gaussian process factor analysis/newer methods Towards building a theory of the brain: - Applications of mathematical analysis of dynamical systems in neuroscience - Approaches based on methods from theoretical computer science -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jesus.m.cortes at gmail.com Wed Feb 11 03:26:44 2015 From: jesus.m.cortes at gmail.com (Jesus Cortes) Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 09:26:44 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Ikerbasque Research Fellow ("Tenure"). Methods in Neuroimaging, Bilbao (Spain) Message-ID: Dear researcher, One position for "Ikerbasque Research Fellow" will be host by the new emerging group of Computational Neuroimaging in Biocruces. http://www.biocruces.com/web/biocruces/bc5.08 More information about the position, "Ikerbasque Research Fellow" at http://www.ikerbasque.net/fellows More information about Biocruces http://www.biocruces.com/ Interested researchers must contact me before April 1, 2015. Feel free in contacting me for any further question or comment. Provide a copy of an updated CV remarking best 5 publications. Prof. Jesus M Cortes Ikerbasque Research Professor Head of the Computational Neuroimaging Lab Biocruces Health Research Institute -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From m.reske at fz-juelich.de Wed Feb 11 06:09:24 2015 From: m.reske at fz-juelich.de (Martina Reske) Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 12:09:24 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Open PhD position in MEG/EEG research at Research Center Juelich, Germany Message-ID: <54DB3864.8040300@fz-juelich.de> We have an open PhD student position in our collaborative project entitled ?From spike trains to whole-brain dynamics ? Bottom-up and top-down processing during active vision? to fill. This project addresses the question how visual input is processed in extremely short time cycles of fixations and saccades through interaction of various cortical areas. MEG recordings from human subjects performing free viewing tasks will allow for the simultaneous observation of neuronal activities from different cortical areas during active vision. Analysis of subjects? performance and brain activity on these visual tasks enables us to study the information flow through various cortical areas, and to identify top-down components interacting with bottom-up processes. What we expect from you: * We seek for a highly motivated candidate with curiosity and persistence * A preferable candidate will have background and strong Master degree in physics, neuroscience, electrophysiology, biology, computer science or a closely related field of natural science, preferably in the field of MEG/EEG biophysics, data acquisition and analysis, biostatistics, MEG/EEG biophysics or signal processing * Obligatory: excellent educational records in the related field, good programming and data processing skills, time series analysis and M/EEG source estimation * Substantial expertise in scientific programming (preferable languages: Python, C, C++ ) and substantial knowledge of Linux and Windows * Strong motivation to carry out neuroimaging studies utilizing MEG and to perform source and connectivity analysis * Beneficial: basic knowledge of neuroscience concepts * Ability and willingness to work independently and proactively * Confident appearance and ability to work cooperatively in an interdisciplinary environment * Good interpersonal and communication skills, structured and systematic working style * Fluent in English (spoken and written); beneficial: knowledge of German The candidate will primarily be based at the J?lich Research Center. What we offer: We offer a position in a creative and international team, themes ranging from computational neuroscience, simulation technology and multimodal imaging, see www.csn.fz-juelich.de and http://www.fz-juelich.de/inm/inm-4/EN/Forschung/MEG-Physik/_node.html. The J?lich Research Center is one of the largest research centers in Germany, with excellent scientific equipment, located on a green campus, and near the cultural centers K?ln, D?sseldorf, and Aachen. The PhD position is available for 3 years. Applications, including a letter clearly motivating your application, CV, publication list, copies of university certificates, and one reference letter should be sent as a single PDF email attachment (max. 10MB) mentioning the internal reference code CSC-GID latest until March 31st , 2015, to should be sent to: Dr. Martina Reske (m.reske at fz-juelich.de) ? Scientific Coordinator. Project leaders will be: Prof. Dr. Sonja Gr?n (INM-6/IAS-6), Dr. Junji Ito (INM-6/IAS-6), Dr. J?rgen Dammers (INM-4) Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6, INM-4), Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6), J?lich Research Center and JARA52425 J?lich, Germany, www.csn.fz-juelich.de -- Dr. Martina Reske Scientific Coordinator Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) Computational and Systems Neuroscience & Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) Theoretical Neuroscience J?lich Research Centre and JARA J?lich, Germany Work +49.2461.611916 Work Cell +49.151.26156918 Fax +49.2461.619460 www.csn.fz-juelich.de ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Dr. Karl Eugen Huthmacher Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Prof. Dr. Sebastian M. Schmidt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From j.v.stone at sheffield.ac.uk Wed Feb 11 16:17:49 2015 From: j.v.stone at sheffield.ac.uk (Jim Stone) Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:17:49 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: New Book: Information Theory Message-ID: I'd like to announce the publication of this book: Information Theory: A Tutorial Introduction by JV Stone Reviews, synopsis, and table of contents can be found here: http://jim-stone.staff.shef.ac.uk/BookInfoTheory/InfoTheoryBookMain.html Note that the examples explored in the final chapter are especially relevant to computational neuroscience and biology. regards, Dr Jim Stone University of Sheffield, UK. http://www.jim-stone.staff.shef.ac.uk/ From srdjan.ostojic at ens.fr Wed Feb 11 09:14:52 2015 From: srdjan.ostojic at ens.fr (Srdjan Ostojic) Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 15:14:52 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position at Group for Neural Theory, Paris Message-ID: <54DB63DC.10601@ens.fr> A postdoctoral position is available in Srdjan Ostojic?s team at the Group Neural Theory, Paris, France (see http://iec-lnc.ens.fr/group-for-neural-theory/), to investigate dynamics and computations in spiking neural networks, combining theoretical approaches, simulations and analysis of neurophysiological datasets. The Group for Neural Theory is a highly interactive and dynamic environment situated in central Paris, and embedded within the strong Parisian theoretical neuroscience community. The ideal candidate should have a strong quantitative background, e.g. in computational neuroscience, physics, applied maths, computer science. Previous experience in neuroscience is preferred but not required. Starting dates are flexible. The position is for two years, with a possible extension for a third year. Candidates should send a letter of motivation (2 pages max), the contact information of 2 to 3 referees and their CVs to srdjan.ostojic at ens.fr *BEFORE March 20th, 2015*. I will be available at Cosyne for informal inquiries. Srdjan Ostojic Group for Neural Theory Ecole Normale Superieure Paris 29, rue d'Ulm 75005 Paris, France From simone.scardapane at uniroma1.it Thu Feb 12 07:54:20 2015 From: simone.scardapane at uniroma1.it (Simone Scardapane) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 13:54:20 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: =?iso-8859-15?q?50_Years_of_Deep_Learning_and_Bey?= =?iso-8859-15?q?ond=3A_an_Interview_with_J=FCrgen_Schmidhuber?= Message-ID: <54DCA27C.8090606@uniroma1.it> Dear all, You may be interested in the following interview with Prof. Juergen Schmidhuber: https://innsbigdata.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/interview-with-juergen-schmidhuber/ The interview is part of a series of promotional activities for the first INNS Conference on Big Data (http://www.innsbigdata.org). Prof. Schmidhuber talks about the second neural network renaissance, recurrent neural networks, intelligence and creativity. Any comment is appreciated. Regards, Simone Scardapane -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From c.clopath at imperial.ac.uk Thu Feb 12 11:57:48 2015 From: c.clopath at imperial.ac.uk (Claudia Clopath) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 16:57:48 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position in Computational Neuroscience in the Clopath lab. Message-ID: Postdoc position in Computational Neuroscience in the Clopath lab. ----------------------------------------------------- Computational Neuroscience Laboratory Headed by Dr. Claudia Clopath Department of Bioengineering Imperial College London -----------------Requirements:----------------- The Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, headed by Dr. Claudia Clopath, is looking for a talented Postdoc, interested in working in the field of computational neuroscience, specifically addressing questions of learning and memory. The perfect candidate has a strong mathematical, physical or engineering background (or equivalent), and a keen interest in biological and neural systems. A PhD in the field of computational neuroscience is a plus. -----------------Research topic:----------------- Learning and memory are among the most fascinating topic of neuroscience, yet our understanding of it is only at the beginning. Learning is thought to change the connections between the neurons in the brain, a process called synaptic plasticity. Using mathematical and computational tools, it is possible to model synaptic plasticity across different time scales, which helps understand how different types of memory are formed. The PhD candidate will be working to build those models of synaptic plasticity, and study the functional role of synaptic plasticity in artificial neural networks. ----------------- The lab:----------------------- The Computational Neuroscience Laboratory is very young and dynamic, and publishes in prestigious journals, such as Nature and Science. It is part of the Department of Bioengineering, which conducts state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research in biomechanics, neuroscience and neurotechnology. The lab is at Imperial College London, the 3rd ranked university in Europe, is in the top 10 worldwide, and is located in the city centre of London. More information can be found at: http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/c.clopath/ ----------------- How to apply:----------------- Candidates should send a single pdf file, consisting of a 1-page motivation letter and CV (including publication list) to clopathlab.imperial at gmail.com, with the subject containing 'Postdoc2015'. In addition, candidates should organize two letters of reference to be sent to clopathlab.imperial at gmail.com. The position is open until filled but the earlier applications will be considered first. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From smart at neuralcorrelate.com Thu Feb 12 15:11:30 2015 From: smart at neuralcorrelate.com (Susana Martinez-Conde) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:11:30 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: call for illusion submissions: the 11th Best Illusion of the Year Contest In-Reply-To: <010e01d046ff$cbef0b30$63cd2190$@neuralcorrelate.com> References: <010e01d046ff$cbef0b30$63cd2190$@neuralcorrelate.com> Message-ID: <013001d04700$170cc7b0$45265710$@neuralcorrelate.com> ****CALL FOR ILLUSION SUBMISSIONS: THE WORLD'S 11TH ANNUAL BEST ILLUSION OF THE YEARSM CONTEST**** http://illusionoftheyear.com *** We are happy to announce the 11th edition of world's Best Illusion of the YearSM Contest!!*** Submissions are now welcome! Starting this year, the Best Illusion of the YearSM Contest will bring the creativity of the illusion creator community all around the world. To accomplish this, the Contest will become an annual online event, in which anybody with an internet connection can participate! No matter where you live, you can participate as a contestant, and/or vote for the Top 3 winners yourself! Contestants are invited to submit 1-minute videos featuring novel illusions (unpublished, or published no earlier than 2014) of all sensory modalities (visual, auditory, etc.), in mp4 format. The content of the 1-minute video presenting your illusion is solely up to you, and the only requirement is that it wows all viewers! Some examples include, but are not limited to, a: * Slide presentation, or succession of images, with a voice over (or written text, if you prefer) * Video of yourself describing your illusion * Video of your illusion, expressed in interpretative dance (just kidding -or not-, but you get the idea!) An international panel of impartial judges will rate all the videos and narrow them down to the Top 10. Then, online voters around the world will choose their favorite illusions from the Top 10 finalists. All Top 10 finalists will receive a commemorative plaque. In addition, the Top 3 winners will receive cash prizes: $3,000 for first place; $2,000 for second place, and $1,000 for third place. The Judge Panel will rate illusions according to: * Significance to our understanding of the human mind and brain * Simplicity of the description * Sheer beauty * Counterintuitive quality * Spectacularity Submissions will be held in strict confidence by the Judge Panel and the authors/creators will retain copyright of their works. The Top 10 illusions will be posted online to allow worldwide voting. As with submitting your work to any conference, participating in the Best Illusion of the YearSM Contest does not preclude you from also submitting your work for publication elsewhere. Illusions submitted to previous editions of the Contest can be re-submitted to the 2015 Contest, as long as they meet the above requirements and were not among the Top 10 illusions in previous years. You can send your 1-minute video to Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde via email ( smart at neuralcorrelate.com) until April 1, 2015. On behalf of the Executive Board of the Neural Correlate Society: Jose-Manuel Alonso, Stephen Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, Luis Martinez, Xoana Troncoso, Peter Tse ---------------------------------------------------------------- Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology & Pharmacology Director, Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience Scholar, Empire Innovator Program State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center 450 Clarkson Ave, Brooklyn NY 11203, USA Email: smart at neuralcorrelate.com Phone: +1 718-270-4520 http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcuturi at i.kyoto-u.ac.jp Thu Feb 12 20:34:00 2015 From: mcuturi at i.kyoto-u.ac.jp (marco cuturi) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 10:34:00 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: ICML 2015 - 2nd Call for Workshop Proposals - Deadline: Feb. 27 Message-ID: ICML 2015 Call for Workshop Proposals ### Please consider submitting a workshop proposal for ICML before the deadline (Feb. 27). ### The International Conference on Machine Learning solicits proposals for workshops to be held in conjunction with the ICML 2015 conference in Lille, France. The workshops will be held on Friday, July 10 and Saturday, July 11, 2015. ICML workshops present an excellent opportunity to address a specific machine-learning-related topic of your choice, either to put a spotlight on a nascent topic or consolidate a recently established field. We are looking for full-day or two-day workshop proposals. Important Dates ? Workshop proposal deadline: Feb 27, 2015 ** 23:59 UTC ** ? Acceptance notification: March 20, 2015 ? Workshop submissions due (suggested): May 1st, 2015 ? Workshop author notification (suggested): May 10, 2015 Content and Format Workshops are a great format for active research on new topics. The ideal workshop covers a compelling selection of current and upcoming research, and includes an impressive set of speakers and participants with diverse backgrounds. Research talks, discussion via panels, identification of open problems and poster presentations are all great components to include. Organization The format, style, and content of accepted workshops are under the control of the workshop organizers and largely autonomous from the main conference. Each workshop day can be up to seven hours long, split into morning and afternoon sessions. Workshop organizers are expected to manage the workshop content, invite experts in the domain, specify the workshop format, be present to moderate, and maintain a website for the workshop. Workshop registration will be handled centrally by the main conference. Submission Instructions Proposals should clearly specify the following: ? Workshop title (what is it called?) ? Topic (what is it about?) ? Main organizer?s email (who should we get in touch with?) ? Abstract (can you summarize in a few sentences what will happen?) ? Motivation, impact, and expected outcomes (why this workshop?) ? Bibliographic references (where can we learn more?) ? Format (one-day, two-day?) ? Organizer and co-organizers info and bios (who is making it happen?) ? Invited speakers (who will come give invited talks?) ? Funding status (is funding secured for this event?) ? Tentative schedule (what will be the balance between contributed and invited talks, posters, panel discussions, etc...) ? Tentative Website URL ? Workshop history (is this the first edition of the workshop?) Detailed descriptions of last year?s workshops can be found at: http://icml.cc/2014/index/article/16.htm Submission Process Workshop proposals should be submitted through the following form http://goo.gl/forms/LqLu12u218 by the due date (earlier submissions are encouraged as well). *Acceptance decision* Proposals will be evaluated by the workshop chair and conference organizers, with an eye towards selecting high-quality workshops on a diverse set of topics that will inform and inspire the community. *Contact*: workshops at icml.cc Marco Cuturi, workshop chair ICML 2015 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From simone.seeger at zi-mannheim.de Fri Feb 13 04:47:43 2015 From: simone.seeger at zi-mannheim.de (Seeger, Simone) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 09:47:43 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: =?windows-1252?q?Reminder=3A_Bernstein_Conference?= =?windows-1252?q?_2015_=96_Call_for_Workshops?= Message-ID: <68B5BBF569FEF84891D3AAB4D3141E4561B500A5@ZIMAIL2.Zi.local> The National Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience invites proposals for Satellite Workshops directly preceding the Bernstein Conference 2015 in Heidelberg ********************************************************************************** Call for Workshop proposals: Workshops: September 14, 2015 (Main Bernstein Conference: September 15-17, 2015) Deadline of proposal submission: March 15, 2015 Notification of acceptance: April 20, 2015 Conference Registration starts: April 27, 2015 Early Registration Deadline: July 21, 2015 ********************************************************************************** The Bernstein Conference started out as the annual meeting of the National Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience and has become the largest single-track Computational Neuroscience conference in Europe in recent years. Since 2013, the Bernstein Conference hosts pre-conference workshops, which have developed swiftly into a well-attended event. They supply a stage to debate topical research questions and challenges in Computational Neuroscience and related fields, different points of view and scientific approaches in an informal setting. Workshops addressing controversial issues, open problems, and comparisons of competing approaches are encouraged. SCHEDULE: September 14, 2015, 9:00 ? 18:30. You may apply for either half-day or full-day workshops. Workshop costs: The Bernstein Conference does not provide financial support, but workshop organizers and speakers are offered free workshop registration and reduced fees for the main conference. For further information about the conference, please visit the conference website. DETAILS FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS: The Workshop Proposal form can be downloaded here. Deadline for submission of Workshop Proposals: March 15, 2015 We are looking forward to meeting you in Heidelberg! THE WORKSHOP PROGRAM COMMITTEE Matthias Bethge (Bernstein Center T?bingen) Upinder Bhalla (NCBS, Bangalore) Carlos Brody (Princeton University) Gustavo Deco (University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) Andreas Draguhn (Bernstein Center Heidelberg-Mannheim) Daniel Durstewitz (Bernstein Center Heidelberg-Mannheim) Gaute Einevoll (Norvegian University of Life Sciences, Aas) Andreas Herz (Bernstein Center Munich) Peter Kirsch (Bernstein Center Heidelberg-Mannheim) Sara Solla (Northwestern University, Evanston) *** Simone Seeger, M.A. Administration Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Zentralinstitut f?r Seelische Gesundheit Postfach 12 21 20, 68072 Mannheim J5, 68159 Mannheim Telefon: 0621/1703-1326 oder 06221/54-8310 Fax: 0621/1703-2915 E-Mail: Simone.Seeger at zi-mannheim.de Internet: http://www.bccn-heidelberg-mannheim.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yael at Princeton.EDU Fri Feb 13 10:20:18 2015 From: yael at Princeton.EDU (Yael Niv) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 15:20:18 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Deadline for RLDM2015 *postponed* to 20th Feb, midnight EST In-Reply-To: <74b84f4f-58ba-4a93-a633-ce51840c8c20@googlegroups.com> References: <74b84f4f-58ba-4a93-a633-ce51840c8c20@googlegroups.com> Message-ID: In response to a number of requests, we have, exceptionally, postponed the deadline for submission of abstracts to RLDM2025 by one week, to midnight EST on the 20th Feb 2015. We apologise for the short notice. Do please submit - and we hope to see you in Edmonton in June! -------------------------------- The 2nd Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM2015) www.rldm.org June 7-10, The University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ====================================================== Submissions to RLDM2015 are now being accepted at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/RLDM2015 Deadline: 20th February 2015, midnight EST We invite extended abstracts for contributed poster presentations and oral presentations. We welcome submissions of original research related to ?learning and decision making over time to achieve a goal?, coming from any discipline or disciplines, describing empirical results from human, animal or animat experiments, and/or theoretical work, simulations and modeling. Contributions should be aimed at an interdisciplinary audience, but not at the expense of technical excellence. This is an abstract-based meeting, with no published conference proceedings. As such, work that is intended for, or has been submitted to, other conferences or journals is also welcome, provided that the intent of communication to other disciplines is clear. Submissions should consist of a summary (max 2000 characters; text only), and an extended abstract of between one and four pages (including figures and references). LaTeX and RTF templates, and sample submissions, are available from http://rldm.org/rldm2015/submission-procedure/ Note: Only the summary will be made available in the (electronic) abstract booklets. The extended abstract will be used for reviewing, and will be available online only pending on authors? separate explicit permission. Online availability will have no bearing on the review process and authors are encouraged to include new, unpublished, findings which they do not want to make publicly available. To submit your abstract please go to https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/RLDM2015 Submissions will be reviewed for relevance to the topic and for quality. Exceptional abstracts will be selected for oral presentations and for poster spotlight presentations. IMPORTANT DATES: Submissions close: 20 Feb 2015, 11:59pm EST Notification of acceptance: by March 28, 2015 (expedited reviewing for those needing an international visa can be requested) Early registration: 28 April 2015 (see http://rldm.org/rldm2015/registration/) Meeting: 7-10 June 2015, Edmonton, Alberta (*NEW* this year: Tutorials on the 7th) RLDM2015 Invited speakers: http://rldm.org/rldm2015/invited-speakers2015/ RLDM2015 Tutorials: http://rldm.org/rldm2015/tutorials/ RLDM2015 Programme Committee: http://rldm.org/rldm2015/committees/rldm2015-program-committee/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yoram.burak at elsc.huji.ac.il Fri Feb 13 10:00:21 2015 From: yoram.burak at elsc.huji.ac.il (Yoram Burak) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 17:00:21 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral positions at the Hebrew University: The Gatsby Program in Theoretical Neuroscience Message-ID: The Gatsby Program in Theoretical Neuroscience at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) is inviting applications for postdoctoral fellowships from students who are finishing, or have recently finished, their Ph.D. studies in mathematics, physics, computer science, computational neuroscience, or related fields. Preference will be given to postdocs who perform collaborative research mentored jointly by theorists and experimentalists. A priority area for the Program is sponsoring activities that strengthen the ties between this Program and the two partner centers: the Gatsby Unit for Computational Neuroscience (UCL, London) and the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience (Columbia University, NY). These activities include joint meetings, exchange of students, postdocs and faculty, and collaborative research. Research at ELSC offers a vibrant scientific environment and excellent opportunities for interaction with researchers interested in systems and computational neuroscience. For additional information, see: http://elsc.huji.ac.il. For further information about the Gatsby Program at ELSC, see: http://elsc.huji.ac.il/gatsby. *The Gatsby Fellows Program* In addition to regular postdoctoral fellowships, the program provides special fellowships for outstanding junior researchers at their senior postdoctoral level working on theoretical and computational neuroscience at the Hebrew University. Fellows are admitted to the Program based on their credentials and are free to choose their research agenda and their host lab in the course of their first semester in residence. In addition to upgraded salaries and housing support, Fellows receive modest research funds aimed primarily for travel to other labs or conferences. Fellows are expected to actively participate in initiatives that strengthen Tri-Center interactions. *Applications* Candidates for postdoctoral fellowships and applicants for the Fellows Program are invited to send their CV and research statement, and to arrange for three letters of reference to be sent to Ms. Irit Dagan: irit.dagan1 at mail.huji.ac.il. *Theoretical Neuroscience at the Hebrew University * Haim Sompolinsky, Program Director (Physics, ELSC) Yoram Burak (Physics, ELSC) Amir Globerson (Computer Science) Yonatan Loewenstein (Cognition, Neurobiology, ELSC) Idan Segev (Neurobiology, ELSC) Naftali Tishby (Computer Science, ELSC) Daphna Weinshall (Computer Science) Yair Weiss (Computer Science, ELSC) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From frederic.armetta at univ-lyon1.fr Fri Feb 13 05:48:29 2015 From: frederic.armetta at univ-lyon1.fr (=?UTF-8?B?RnLDqWTDqXJpYyBBcm1ldHRh?=) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 11:48:29 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [CfP SASO'2015] 21-25 September 2015 - Boston Massachusetts Message-ID: <54DDD67D.5080104@univ-lyon1.fr> ****************************************************************************************** CALL FOR PAPERS The Ninth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO 2015) Boston Massachusetts; 21-25 September 2015 https://saso2015.mit.edu/ ****************************************************************************************** Part of FAS* - Foundation and Applications of Self* Computing Conferences Collocated with: The International Conference on Cloud and Autonomic Computing (CAC 2015) The 15th IEEE Peer-to-Peer Computing Conference (P2P 2015) ------------------- Aims and Scope ------------------- The aim of the Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing systems conference series (SASO) is to provide a forum for the foundations of a principled approach to engineering systems, networks and services based on self-adaptation and self-organization. The complexity of current and emerging networks, software and services, especially in dealing with dynamics in the environment and problem domain, has led the software engineering, distributed systems and management communities to look for inspiration in diverse fields (e.g., complex systems, control theory, artificial intelligence, sociology, and biology) to find new ways of designing and managing such computing systems. In this endeavor, self-organization and self-adaptation have emerged as two promising interrelated approaches. They form the basis for many other self-* properties, such as self-configuration, self-healing, or self-optimization. Systems exhibiting such properties are often referred to as self-* systems. The ninth edition of the SASO conference embraces the inter-disciplinarity and the scientific, empirical, and application dimensions of self-* systems and welcomes novel results on both self-adaptive and self-organizing systems research. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Self-* systems theory: theoretical frameworks and models; biologically- and socially-inspired paradigms; inter-operation of self-* mechanisms; - Self-* systems engineering: reusable mechanisms, design patterns, architectures, methodologies; software and middleware development frameworks and methods, platforms and toolkits; hardware; self-* materials; - Self-* system properties: robustness, resilience and stability; emergence; computational awareness and self-awareness; reflection; - Self-* cyber-physical and socio-technical systems: human factors and visualization; self-* social computers; crowdsourcing and collective awareness; human-in-the-loop; - Applications and experiences of self-* systems: cyber security, transportation, computational sustainability, big data and creative commons, power systems; swarm systems and robotics. - Self-* in education: experience reports; curricula; innovative course concepts; methodological aspects of self-* systems education Contributions must present novel theoretical or experimental results; novel design patterns, mechanisms, system architectures, frameworks or tools; or practical approaches and experiences in building or deploying real-world systems and applications. Contributions contrasting different approaches for engineering a given family of systems, or demonstrating the applicability of a certain approach for different systems, are equally encouraged. Likewise, papers describing substantial innovation or insights in the use and communication of self-* systems in the classroom are welcome. Where relevant and appropriate, accepted papers will also be encouraged to participate in the Demo or Poster Sessions. -------------------- Important Dates -------------------- Abstract submission: May 8, 2015 Paper submission: May 22, 2015 (There will be no extensions of this deadline!) Notification: June 30, 2015 Camera ready copy due: July 17, 2015 Conference: September 21-25, 2015 ---------------------------- Submission Instructions ---------------------------- All submissions should be 10 pages and formatted according to the IEEE Computer Society Press proceedings style guide and submitted electronically in PDF format. Please register as authors and submit your papers using the SASO 2015 conference management system that will be announced on the website. The proceedings will be published by IEEE Computer Society Press, and made available as a part of the IEEE Digital Library. Note that a separate Call for Poster Submissions will also be issued. --------------------- Review Criteria --------------------- Papers should present novel ideas in the cross-disciplinary research context described in this call, clearly motivated by problems from current practice or applied research. We expect both theoretical and empirical contributions to be clearly stated, substantiated by formal analysis, simulation, experimental evaluations, comparative studies, and so on. Appropriate reference must be made to related work. Because SASO is a cross-disciplinary conference, papers must be intelligible and relevant to researchers who are not members of the same specialized sub-field. Authors are also encouraged to submit papers describing applications. Application papers are expected to provide an indication of the real world relevance of the problem that is solved, including a description of the deployment domain, and some form of evaluation of performance, usability, or comparison to alternative approaches. Experience papers are also welcome but they must clearly state the insight into any aspect of design, implementation or management of self-* systems which is of benefit to practitioners and the SASO community. ------------------------------- Conference General Chairs ------------------------------- Howard E Shrobe MIT CSAIL, Cambridge, MA, USA Julie A McCann Imperial College London, UK -------------------- Program Chairs -------------------- Emma Hart Edinburgh Napier University Gregory Sullivan BAE Systems AIT Jan-Philipp Stegh?fer University of Gothenburg, Sweden -------------- next part -------------- ****************************************************************************************** CALL FOR PAPERS The Ninth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO 2015) Boston Massachusetts; 21-25 September 2015 https://saso2015.mit.edu/ ****************************************************************************************** Part of FAS* - Foundation and Applications of Self* Computing Conferences Collocated with: The International Conference on Cloud and Autonomic Computing (CAC 2015) The 15th IEEE Peer-to-Peer Computing Conference (P2P 2015) ------------------- Aims and Scope ------------------- The aim of the Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing systems conference series (SASO) is to provide a forum for the foundations of a principled approach to engineering systems, networks and services based on self-adaptation and self-organization. The complexity of current and emerging networks, software and services, especially in dealing with dynamics in the environment and problem domain, has led the software engineering, distributed systems and management communities to look for inspiration in diverse fields (e.g., complex systems, control theory, artificial intelligence, sociology, and biology) to find new ways of designing and managing such computing systems. In this endeavor, self-organization and self-adaptation have emerged as two promising interrelated approaches. They form the basis for many other self-* properties, such as self-configuration, self-healing, or self-optimization. Systems exhibiting such properties are often referred to as self-* systems. The ninth edition of the SASO conference embraces the inter-disciplinarity and the scientific, empirical, and application dimensions of self-* systems and welcomes novel results on both self-adaptive and self-organizing systems research. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Self-* systems theory: theoretical frameworks and models; biologically- and socially-inspired paradigms; inter-operation of self-* mechanisms; - Self-* systems engineering: reusable mechanisms, design patterns, architectures, methodologies; software and middleware development frameworks and methods, platforms and toolkits; hardware; self-* materials; - Self-* system properties: robustness, resilience and stability; emergence; computational awareness and self-awareness; reflection; - Self-* cyber-physical and socio-technical systems: human factors and visualization; self-* social computers; crowdsourcing and collective awareness; human-in-the-loop; - Applications and experiences of self-* systems: cyber security, transportation, computational sustainability, big data and creative commons, power systems; swarm systems and robotics. - Self-* in education: experience reports; curricula; innovative course concepts; methodological aspects of self-* systems education Contributions must present novel theoretical or experimental results; novel design patterns, mechanisms, system architectures, frameworks or tools; or practical approaches and experiences in building or deploying real-world systems and applications. Contributions contrasting different approaches for engineering a given family of systems, or demonstrating the applicability of a certain approach for different systems, are equally encouraged. Likewise, papers describing substantial innovation or insights in the use and communication of self-* systems in the classroom are welcome. Where relevant and appropriate, accepted papers will also be encouraged to participate in the Demo or Poster Sessions. -------------------- Important Dates -------------------- Abstract submission: May 8, 2015 Paper submission: May 22, 2015 (There will be no extensions of this deadline!) Notification: June 30, 2015 Camera ready copy due: July 17, 2015 Conference: September 21-25, 2015 ---------------------------- Submission Instructions ---------------------------- All submissions should be 10 pages and formatted according to the IEEE Computer Society Press proceedings style guide and submitted electronically in PDF format. Please register as authors and submit your papers using the SASO 2015 conference management system that will be announced on the website. The proceedings will be published by IEEE Computer Society Press, and made available as a part of the IEEE Digital Library. Note that a separate Call for Poster Submissions will also be issued. --------------------- Review Criteria --------------------- Papers should present novel ideas in the cross-disciplinary research context described in this call, clearly motivated by problems from current practice or applied research. We expect both theoretical and empirical contributions to be clearly stated, substantiated by formal analysis, simulation, experimental evaluations, comparative studies, and so on. Appropriate reference must be made to related work. Because SASO is a cross-disciplinary conference, papers must be intelligible and relevant to researchers who are not members of the same specialized sub-field. Authors are also encouraged to submit papers describing applications. Application papers are expected to provide an indication of the real world relevance of the problem that is solved, including a description of the deployment domain, and some form of evaluation of performance, usability, or comparison to alternative approaches. Experience papers are also welcome but they must clearly state the insight into any aspect of design, implementation or management of self-* systems which is of benefit to practitioners and the SASO community. ------------------------------- Conference General Chairs ------------------------------- Howard E Shrobe MIT CSAIL, Cambridge, MA, USA Julie A McCann Imperial College London, UK -------------------- Program Chairs -------------------- Emma Hart Edinburgh Napier University Gregory Sullivan BAE Systems AIT Jan-Philipp Stegh?fer University of Gothenburg, Sweden From odelia at cs.miami.edu Fri Feb 13 16:17:51 2015 From: odelia at cs.miami.edu (Odelia Schwartz) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 16:17:51 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position in computational/theoretical neuroscience Message-ID: Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in computational/theoretical neuroscience, in the lab of Odelia Schwartz at the University of Miami. Our lab employs tools of computational and theoretical neuroscience, to study systems from the neural level through to perception and behavior. For example, we develop models of sensory processing based on the hypothesis that images, movies, and sounds have predictable and quantifiable statistical regularities to which the brain is sensitive. The models are constructed through interplay with physiological and psychophysical data. Example projects include but are not limited to: (1) Modeling of how neurons and percepts are affected by contextual information in time dynamically; (2) Modeling of hierarchical cortical processing. For more information about the lab and recent publications, see: http://www.cs.miami.edu/~odelia/ The candidate should have a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline, a strong quantitative background, and an interest in neuroscience. Prior experience would ideally include areas such as computational neuroscience, machine learning, statistics and/or signal processing. University of Miami offers a vibrant interdisciplinary environment, with a growing emphasis on a brain sciences initiative. The position will be in the Department of Computer Science, with opportunities to collaborate with Psychology, Biology and the School of Medicine. The university is located in beautiful Coral Gables, and surrounded by Miami. Initial appointment is for one year with possible yearly renewal for a total period of three years. Salary is competitive and will be commensurate with experience. Please apply online for position # 050932 : UM Careers website http://um.hodesiq.com/job_start.asp Send inquiries; or a CV, a short statement of research interests, and names and contact information of 3 references to: Odelia Schwartz odelia at cs.miami.edu The University of Miami offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package including medical and dental benefits, tuition remission, vacation, paid holidays and much more. The University of Miami is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. The University of Miami is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Females/Minorities/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities are encouraged to apply. Applicants and employees are protected from discrimination based on certain categories protected by Federal law. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From zhaoping at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk Fri Feb 13 17:16:58 2015 From: zhaoping at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk (Dr Zhaoping Li) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 22:16:58 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Connectionists: Video available on a teaching seminar "Introduction to Efficient Coding in Early Vision" Message-ID: A video of a ~51 minute long teaching seminar on "Introduction to Efficient Coding in Early Vision" is available at http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/zhaoping.li/EfficientCodingIntroSeminar.html which also provides additional information. Questions and comments are welcome! Li Zhaoping From bob at email.arizona.edu Fri Feb 13 17:45:50 2015 From: bob at email.arizona.edu (Robert Wilson) Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 15:45:50 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Free dessert at Cosyne! Seeking mentors for Undergraduate Travel Grant Program Message-ID: For those of you attending Cosyne this year who are interested in promoting diversity in our field and free food ... The Cosyne Undergraduate Travel Grant is a new program this year that will bring 12 undergraduates from underrepresented groups to the conference. As part of the program we would like to pair each student with a `conference mentor?, a PhD student or Postdoc who can orient them to the field and guide them through the information overload of a scientific conference. Duties include: meeting the students, taking them to a poster session and attending an exclusive DESSERT RECEPTION with them on Friday (March 6th). If you?re interested please email Robert Wilson at bob at email.arizona.edu for more information or to apply. From michel.verleysen at uclouvain.be Sat Feb 14 09:07:40 2015 From: michel.verleysen at uclouvain.be (Michel Verleysen) Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2015 14:07:40 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: ESANN 2015: program Message-ID: <5617d5df7f514b3388a7adc64fadadd9@ucl-mbx04.OASIS.UCLOUVAIN.BE> We apologize for possible duplicates of this message sent to distribution lists. ESANN 2015: European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning Bruges, Belgium, 22-23-24 April 2015 http://www.esann.org/ Preliminary program The preliminary program of the ESANN 2015 conference is now available on the Web: http://www.esann.org/ For 23 years the ESANN conference has become a major event in the field of neural computation and machine learning. ESANN is a selective conference focusing on fundamental aspects of artificial neural networks, machine learning, statistical information processing and computational intelligence. Mathematical foundations, algorithms and tools, and applications are covered. ESANN 2015 will include the following sessions: - Prototype-based and weightless models - Emerging techniques and applications in multi-objective reinforcement learning - Sequence learning and time series - Regression and prediction - Feature and kernel learning - Graphs in machine learning - Manifold learning and optimization - Feature and model selection, sparse models - Advances in learning analytics and educational data mining - Classification - Image processing and vision systems - Unsupervised nonlinear dimensionality reduction - Unsupervised learning - Kernel methods The program of the conference can be found at http://www.esann.org/, together with practical information about the conference venue, registration, etc. Other information can be obtained by sending an e-mail to esann at uclouvain.be. Venue ------ The conference will be held in Bruges (also called "Venice of the North"), one of the most beautiful medieval towns in Europe. Bruges can be reached by train from Brussels in less than one hour (frequent trains). Designated as the "Venice of the North", the city has preserved all the charms of the medieval heritage. Its center, which is inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage list, is in itself a real open air museum. Steering and local committee ---------------------------- Fran?ois Blayo Ipseite (CH) Gianluca Bontempi Univ. Libre Bruxelles (B) Marie Cottrell Univ. Paris 1 Panth?on-Sorbonne (F) Mia Loccufier Univ. Gent (B) Bernard Manderick Vrije Univ. Brussel (B) Jean-Pierre Peters FUNDP Namur (B) Johan Suykens K.U. Leuven (B) Joos Vandewalle K.U. Leuven (B) Michel Verleysen UCL Louvain-la-Neuve (B) Louis Wehenkel Univ. Li?ge (B) Scientific committee -------------------- Fabio Aiolli Univ. degli Studi di Padova (I) Davide Anguita University of Genoa (I) Cecilio Angulo Univ. Polit. de Catalunya (E) Aluizio Ara?jo Univ. Federal de Pernambuco (Brazil) C?dric Archambeau Amazon.com (D) Miguel Atencia Univ. Malaga (E) Michael Aupetit Qatar Computing Res. Inst. (Qatar) Andreas Backhaus Fraunhofer-Institut (D) Lluis Belanche Univ. Polit. de Catalunya (E) Youn?s Bennani Universit? Paris 13 (F) Michael Biehl University of Groningen (NL) Martin Bogdan Univ. Leipzig (D) Sander Bohte CWI (NL) Herv? Bourlard IDIAP Martigny (CH) Charles Bouveyron Universit? Paris Descartes (F) Antonio Braga Federal Univ. of Minas Gerais (Brazil) Joan Cabestany Univ. Polit. de Catalunya (E) St?phane Canu Inst. Nat. Sciences App. (F) Andreu Catal? Univ. Polit. de Catalunya (E) Sylvain Chevallier University of Versailles (F) Etienne C?me IFSTTAR (F) Nigel Crook Oxford Brookes University (UK) Holk Cruse Universit?t Bielefeld (D) Giovanni Da San Martino Qatar Computing Res. Inst. (Qatar) Bernard De Baets Univ. Gent (B) Kris De Brabanter Iowa State Univ. (USA) Massimo De Gregorio Istituto di Cibernetica-CNR (I) Dante Del Corso Politecnico di Torino (I) Wilson de Oliveira Univ. Fed. Rural Pernambuco (Brazil) Wlodek Duch Nicolaus Copernicus Univ. (PL) Marc Duranton CEA Saclay (F) Richard Duro Univ. Coruna (E) Mark Embrechts Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA) Anibal Figueiras-Vidal Univ. Carlos III Madrid (E) Felipe M. G. Fran?a Univ. Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Leonardo Franco Univ. Malaga (E) Damien Fran?ois Univ. cat. Louvain (B) Beno?t Fr?nay Univ. Namur (B) Manjunath Gandhi Rhodes Univ. (S. Africa) Alexander Gepperth ENSTA ParisTech (F) Pierre Geurts Univ. Li?ge (B) Alessandro Ghio Univ. of Genova (I) Luis Gonzalez Abril University of Sevilla (E) Marco Gori Univ. Siena (I) Bernard Gosselin Univ. Mons (B) Philippe-Henri Gosselin CNRS/UCP/ENSEA (F) Manuel Grana UPV San Sebastian (E) Andr? Gr?ning Univ. Surrey (UK) Anne Gu?rin-Dugu? Univ. Joseph Fourier (F) Barbara Hammer Bielefeld Univ. (D) Verena Heidrich-Meisner CAU Kiel (D) Tom Heskes Univ. Nijmegen (NL) Katerina Hlavackova-Schindler Univ. Vienna (A) Guang-Bin Huang Nanyang Tech. Univ. (Singapore) Jose Jerez Univ. Malaga (E) Gonzalo Joya Univ. Malaga (E) Christian Jutten INPG Grenoble (F) Ata Kaban Univ. Birmingham (UK) Marika Kaden Univ. Applied Sciences Mittweida (D) Juha Karhunen Aalto Univ. (FIN) Nikola Kasabov Auckland University of Technology (NZ) DaeEun Kim Yonsei Univ. (South Korea) Stefanos Kollias National Tech. Univ. Athens (GR) Jouko Lampinen Aalto Univ. (FIN) Petr Lansky Acad. of Science of the Czech Rep. (CZ) Beatrice Lazzerini Univ. Pisa (I) John Lee Univ. cat Louvain (B) Minho Lee Kyungpook National University (KR) Amaury Lendasse Univ. Iowa (USA) Priscila M. V. Lima Univ. Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Paulo Lisboa Liverpool John Moores University (UK) Jos? D. Mart?n-Guerrero Univ. of Valencia (E) Thomas Martinetz Univ. L?beck (D) Erzsebet Merenyi Rice Univ. (USA) Anke Meyer-B?se Florida State University (USA) Yoan Miche Aalto University (FIN) Alessio Micheli Univeristy of Pisa (I) Erkki Oja Aalto University (FIN) Tjeerd olde Scheper Oxford Brookes University (UK) Madalina Olteanu Universit? Paris 1 (France) Luca Oneto Univ. Genova (I) Latifa Oukhellou IFSTTAR (F) Gilles Pag?s Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6) (F) German Parisi Univ. Hamburg (D) Xavier Parra-Llanas Univ. Polit. de Catalunya (E) Kristiaan Pelckmans Uppsala Univ. (SE) Jaakko Peltonen Aalto University (FIN) David Picard ENSEA (F) Alberto Prieto Universitad de Granada (E) Didier Puzenat Univ. Antilles-Guyane (F) Jean-Pierre Rospars INRA Versailles (F) Fabrice Rossi University Paris 1 Panth?on-Sorbonne (F) Ulrich R?ckert Univ. Bielefled (D) David Saad Aston Univ. (UK) Francisco Sandoval Univ.Malaga (E) Jose Santos Reyes Univ. Coruna (E) Frank-Michael Schleif Univ. Birmingham (D) Udo Seiffert Fraunhofer-Institute IFF Magdeburg (D) Alessandro Sperduti Universit? degli Studi di Padova (I) Jochen Steil Univ. Bielefeld (D) Peter Tino University of Birmingham (UK) Claude Touzet Univ. Provence (F) Vanya Van Belle KUL Leuven (B) Marc Van Hulle KUL Leuven (B) Alfredo Vellido Univ. Polit. Catalunya (E) Nathalia Villa-Vialaneix INRA (F) Thomas Villmann Univ. Apllied Sciences Mittweida (D) Heiko Wersing Honda Research Institute Europe (D) Axel Wism?ller Univ. of Rochester, New York (USA) Djamel Zighed Inst. Sciences de l'Homme (F) Dietlind Z?hlke Fraunhofer FIT, St. Augustin (D) ======================================================== ESANN - European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning http://www.esann.org/ * For submissions of papers, reviews, registrations: Michel Verleysen Univ. Cath. de Louvain - Machine Learning Group 3, pl. du Levant - B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve - Belgium tel: +32 10 47 25 51 - fax: + 32 10 47 25 98 mailto:esann at uclouvain.be * Conference secretariat d-side conference services 24 av. L. Mommaerts - B-1140 Evere - Belgium tel: + 32 2 730 06 11 - fax: + 32 2 730 06 00 mailto:esann at uclouvain.be ======================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From liuwfxy at gmail.com Sat Feb 14 19:05:57 2015 From: liuwfxy at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?B?5YiY5Lyf6ZSL?=) Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2015 08:05:57 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: Fwd: CFP: Signal Processing Special Issue on Big Data Meets Multimedia Analytics Message-ID: Dear all, Sorry for the cross posting of this CFP message. CFP: Signal Processing Special Issue on Big Data Meets Multimedia Analytics With the rapid development of computing and sensing technologies, such as the emergence of social networking websites and wearable devices, many new research opportunities and challenges for multimedia content analysis have arisen. Many big data modeling methods, computing algorithms, and signal processing technologies have recently been successfully developed and applied to multimedia content analysis: for example, multi-view learning algorithms have been proposed for exploring the variety of multimedia content; sparse and manifold learning have been developed for high dimensional multimedia data representation; deep learning has produced promising results in large scale multimedia retrieval; and compressive sensing and new sampling schemes have been investigated for big data analytics. Motivated by the inclination to collect a set of recent advances and results in these related topics, provide a platform for researchers to exchange their innovative ideas on big modeling and computing solutions for multimedia content analytics, and introduce interesting utilizations of modeling and computing algorithms for particular social/personal media applications, this special issue will target emergent big modeling and computing methods for multimedia signal processing and understanding (with a special focus on social media and personal data). To summarize, this special issue welcomes a broad range of submissions on the development and use of artificial intelligence and computing techniques for multimedia analytics. We are especially interested in: 1) theoretical advances as well as algorithm developments in big data technology for specific social/personal media analytics problems; 2) reports of practical applications and system innovations in social/personal media analytics; and 3) novel datasets as test beds for new developments, preferably with implemented standard benchmarks. The following list suggests (but is not limited to) possible topics of interest: ? Big Data Technology Specifically for Multimedia Analytics ? Big Data Technology for Multimedia Annotation, Tagging and Classification ? Big Data Technology for Multimedia Abstraction and Summarization ? Big Data Technology for Multimedia Indexing and Retrieval ? Big Data Technology and Computing for Social Media Analytics ? Big Data Technology and Computing for Biological Data ? Big Data Technology and Computing for Personal Data Mining ? Modeling of Wearable Device Sensor Streams ? Personal Data based Social Network Analysis and Web Mining ? Cloud Computing for Social Intelligence and Personal Data ? Deep Learning for Social Media Analytics ? Deep Learning for Security in Social Media Important dates: Manuscript Submission: May 01, 2015 Initial Decision: August 01, 2015 R1 Version: October 01, 2015 Acceptance Notification: November 01, 2015 Final Manuscripts Due: November 15, 2015 Anticipated Publication: January 01, 2016 Submission: Manuscripts (Please follow Signal Processing publishing format, details can be found athttp://www.elsevier.com/ journals/signal-processing/0165-1684/guide-for-authors) should be submitted via the Electronic Editorial System of Elsevier: http://ees.elsevier.com/sigpro/. Please make sure to select the "SI: BDMA" as Article Type during the submission process. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From giacomo.cabri at unimore.it Mon Feb 16 03:48:36 2015 From: giacomo.cabri at unimore.it (Giacomo Cabri) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 09:48:36 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: CfP: 1st Workshop on Distributed Adaptive Systems Message-ID: <54E1AEE4.3010206@unimore.it> Call for Papers 1st Workshop on Distributed Adaptive Systems Tuesday 7th July 2015 @ ICAC 2015, Grenoble, F Paper Submission April 13, 2015 Notification May 15, 2015 Camera Ready May 22, 2015 Workshops July 07, 2015 Workshop website: http://www.agentgroup.unimore.it/DAS2015/ Conference website: http://icac2015.imag.fr On the account of the recent advances in technology, computational systems have to be thought as ever growing distributed artificial environments in which requirements, constituent components and user needs dynamically change in unpredictable ways. Coping with such uncertainties represents an interesting challenge for the designer of these systems, specifically regarding how to guarantee adaptivity towards both functional and non-functional requirements, as well as autonomously handling coordination and collaboration aspects among constituent units that have to act as autonomous and heterogeneous agents. These agents more often rely on incomplete information regarding the whole system in which they are integrated, but yet, in order to foster their Self-* properties, they need to discover, learn and evolve their behavior by taking into account how other agents are performing within the considered environment. The purpose of this workshop is therefore to create an useful forum of discussion on how Self-* properties and design & implementation concepts that are nowadays considered in Autonomic Computing literature can be extended and exploited in case of distributed autonomous systems , hence how to create adaptivity as a whole by starting from single autonomous units. Practitioners and researchers are therefore invited to submit interesting contributions both in theoretical work and real world applications so to create a fruitful discussion regarding the presented challenges and the following related topics: * Distributed learning and experience sharing among agents * Advances in Multi-Agent System coordination * Formal methods and languages for distributed adaptive systems * Modelling distributed adaptive systems * Collectivism in distributed adaptive systems * Optimization in distributed adaptive systems * Framework and design patterns for distributed adaptive systems * Bio-inspired and evolutionary approaches to distributed adaptive systems * Tools and simulation software for distributed adaptive systems * Case studies and real world applications. All papers must represent original and unpublished work that is not currently under review. Papers will be judged on originality, significance, interest, correctness, clarity, and relevance to the broader community. Papers are strongly encouraged to report on experiences, measurements, user studies, and provide an appropriate quantitative evaluation if at all possible. The maximum number of allowed pages is 6. Author Kit/Submission Instructions can be found at: http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html The submission of paper can be done by EasyChair at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dasicac2015 Accepted papers will be included in the ICAC Workshop 2015 Proceedings, which will be published in IEEE Xplore. At least one author of each accepted paper is expected to attend the workshop. Program Chairs Antonio Bucchiarone, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy bucchiarone at fbk.eu Giacomo Cabri, Universit? di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy giacomo.cabri at unimore.it Nicola Capodieci, Universit? di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy nicola.capodieci at unimore.it Haibin Zhu, Nipissing University, Canada haibinz at nipissingu.ca -- |----------------------------------------------------| | Prof. Giacomo Cabri - Ph.D., Associate Professor | Dip. di Scienze Fisiche, Informatiche e Matematiche | Universita' di Modena e Reggio Emilia - Italia | e-mail giacomo.cabri at unimore.it | tel. +39-059-2058320 fax +39-059-2055216 |----------------------------------------------------| From zoubin at eng.cam.ac.uk Mon Feb 16 05:12:28 2015 From: zoubin at eng.cam.ac.uk (Zoubin Ghahramani) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 10:12:28 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral and Senior Postdoctoral Positions in Machine Learning - University of Cambridge Message-ID: UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Postdoctoral and Senior Postdoctoral Research Positions in Machine Learning Machine Learning Group University of Cambridge http://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk DEADLINE: 6 March 2015 We are seeking up to three highly creative and motivated researchers to join the Machine Learning Group (http://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk) in the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK. Positions are available at the Senior Research Associate (SRA), Research Associate, and Research Assistant levels. All positions will involve research in direct collaboration with Professor Zoubin Ghahramani. Research Area 1: Building an Automatic Statistician. This postdoc will be working on developing algorithms for the automated analysis and interpretation of statistical models. Candidates should have extensive experience in probabilistic modelling and scalable approximate inference. See: http://www.automaticstatistician.com/ Research Area 2: Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Nonparametrics. This postdoc will be working with Zoubin Ghahramani in collaboration with MIT and should have research experience in these two areas, ideally to include research on an existing probabilistic programming language and MCMC methods. Research Area 3: Inference in graphical models. This postdoc will be working on novel approaches for inference in graphical models, including message passing and approximations of partition functions. Experience in these two areas is required. The successful applicants will have or be near completing a PhD in computer science, information engineering, statistics or a related area, and will have extensive research experience and a strong publication record in machine learning, including ideally papers in top machine learning conferences such as NIPS, UAI, ICML, and AISTATS. SRA candidates must hold a PhD, and have several years of postdoctoral experience and well as some experience supervising projects, staff and students. All positions are for one year in the first instance, with expectation of renewal subject to good performance and funding. You must apply though the application websites where further details are also available for the RA positions: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/6069/ and for the Senior RA positions: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/6070/ If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Miss Diane Hazell, email: dsu21 at cam.ac.uk, Tel: +44 01223 748529. Please submit your application by midnight on 6 March 2015. Zoubin Ghahramani Professor of Information Engineering University of Cambridge http://learning.eng.cam.ac.uk/zoubin/ From publicity at ecmlpkdd2015.org Mon Feb 16 05:39:49 2015 From: publicity at ecmlpkdd2015.org (ECMLPKDD 2015) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 10:39:49 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: Subject: ECMLPKDD 2015 : Call for Papers, Tutorials and Workshops Message-ID: <003001d049d4$e5a89730$b0f9c590$@ecmlpkdd2015.org> The European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECMLPKDD) will take place in Porto, Portugal, from September 7th to 11th, 2015 (http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org). This event is the leading European scientific event on machine learning and data mining and builds upon a very successful series of 25 ECML and 18 PKDD conferences, which have been jointly organized for the past 14 years. ECMLPKDD 2015 will host three tracks, tutorials and a set of workshops. Therefore, we invite all researchers and practitioners from different communities to submit papers and/or present tutorial and workshop proposals. ************************* CALL FOR PAPERS ************************* JOURNAL TRACK ********************* Articles for this track are submitted all year long directly to either Machine Learning or Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, and are reviewed like regular journal articles. Accepted articles appear in full in the journal and the authors are given a presentation slot at the conference. Articles deemed insufficiently mature for journal publication may be accepted for inclusion in the proceedings. Submissions to the journal track will be managed by the Guest Editorial Board. Paper Submission: Cut-off dates for the bi-weekly batches are 18 Jan, 1 Feb, 15 Fev, 1 Mar, 15 Mar, 29 Mar, 12 Apr, 26 Apr of 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/journal-track RESEARCH PROCEEDINGS TRACK ******************************************* The research proceedings track, which is organized in the traditional way. Accepted papers will be published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) of Springer, after reviewing by the programme committee. Abstract Submission Deadline: March 26, 2015 Paper Submission Deadline: April 2, 2015 Paper Acceptance Notification: June 1, 2015 Paper Camera Ready Submission: June 15, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/research-proceedings-track INDUSTRIAL, GOVERNMENTAL & NON-GOVERNMENTAL PROCEEDINGS TRACK **************************************************************************** ************************** The NEW industrial, governmental & non-governmental (NGO) proceedings track is independent and distinct from the Research Track. Submissions to this track should solve real-world problems and focus on engineering systems, applications, and challenges. Accepted papers will be published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) of Springer, after reviewing by the programme committee. Abstract Submission Deadline: March 26, 2015 Paper Submission Deadline: April 2, 2015 Paper Acceptance Notification: June 1, 2015 Paper Camera Ready Submission: June 15, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/industrial-proceedings-track ***************************************************************** CALL FOR TUTORIAL AND WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ***************************************************************** TUTORIALS ************** The tutorials are intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to established or emerging research topics of interest for the machine learning and the data mining community. These topics include related research fields or applications. The ideal tutorial should attract a wide audience. It should be broad enough to provide a basic introduction to the chosen research area, but it should also cover the most important topics in depth. We welcome half day workshop proposals. Proposal Deadline: March 2, 2015 Proposal Acceptance Notification: March 23, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/call-for-tutorials WORKSHOPS **************** The workshops will be on relevant and current topics in Machine Learning and Data Mining. The scope of the proposal should be consistent with the conference themes as described in the ECMLPKDD 2015 Call for Papers (http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission). Interdisciplinary workshops that bring together researchers and practitioners from different communities are especially welcome. We encourage workshops that bridge the gap between theoretical advances and important and/or innovative applications of machine learning and data mining. We welcome both full and half day workshop proposals. Proposal Deadline: March 2, 2015 Proposal Acceptance Notification: March 23, 2015 Workshop Websites and Call for Papers Online: March 27, 2015 Workshop Proceedings (Camera-ready): August 3, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/call-for-workshop-proposals Hope to see you all soon in Porto, Portugal!!! The publicity chairs of the ECMLPKDD 2015, Carlos Abreu Ferreira Ricardo Campos --- Este e-mail foi verificado em termos de v?rus pelo software antiv?rus Avast. http://www.avast.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gianluca.baldassarre at gmail.com Mon Feb 16 10:16:34 2015 From: gianluca.baldassarre at gmail.com (Gianluca Baldassarre ) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 16:16:34 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Intrinsic motivations: announcement of several works Message-ID: I announce the publication of various collections of papers and activities on intrinsic motivations (IMs). Please find below a list of brief explanations and links to them. Further below I also briefly introduce intrinsic motivations for those who are not familiar with them. *** Collections of papers and activities on IMs *** Lately I co-edited a special issue (`Topic') of Frontiers. The articles of the Topic were published in part with `Frontiers in Psychology - Cognitive Science' (19 articles): http://journal.frontiersin.org/ResearchTopic/1326 and in part with `Frontiers in Neurorobotics' (6 articles): http://journal.frontiersin.org/ResearchTopic/1797 All articles of the Topic, including an editorial that briefly introduces IMs and summarises the contributions, can be downloaded with one click from this web page as a `Frontiers eBook' (1 pdf file of 45 MB): http://www.frontiersin.org/books/Intrinsic_motivations_and_open-ended_development_in_animals_humans_and_robots/430 Before the Topic, we edited a Springer book collecting other 17 papers on IMs: `Baldassarre G., Mirolli M. (eds) (2013). Intrinsically motivated learning in natural and artificial systems. Berlin: Springer.' You can see the titles, abstracts, authors of the book chapters, and other information on the book, here: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-642-32375-1 We also edited a second Springer book collecting further 14 papers: `Baldassarre G., Mirolli M. (eds) (2013). Computational and Robotic Models of the Hierarchical Organisation of Behaviour. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.' Hierarchical architectures represent a key problem for IMs as the knowledge and skills accumulated under the drive of IMs has to be stored in suitable hierarchical systems. You can see the titles, abstracts and authors of the book chapters, and other information on the book, here: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-39875-9 The three collections above were prompted and partially funded by a 4-year EU-funded project, now terminated, called `IM-CLeVeR -- Intrinsically Motivated Cumulative Learning Robots'. The project was funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013), ICT Challenge 2 `Cognitive Systems and Robotics' (grant agreement no. ICT-IP-231722). The web-site of the project is here: http://www.im-clever.eu/ In the project web-site you can find information on the project activities and other material on IMs, for example a summary of main results and publications of the project: http://www.im-clever.eu/project/final-results a final digest of the project insights: http://www.im-clever.eu/project/final-digest/final-digest and a `tool-box' of information for those who are interested in IMs: http://www.im-clever.eu/project/final-toolbox/final-toolbox I hope these works contribute to attract an increasing attention of... clever and strongly intrinsically-motivated researchers from different disciplines on intrinsic motivations, a great topic of investigation so important for humans and for technology. *** Brief introduction to intrinsic motivations (IMs) *** Intrinsic motivations are related to things such as curiosity, the interest for novel stimuli and surprising events, and the motivation to learn new behaviours (think about children at play). It has been proposed that the adaptive value of IMs is to motivate and guide the cumulative acquisition of knowledge and skills that can be later used (e.g., in adulthood) to accomplish goals that enhance biological fitness. IMs continue to operate also during adulthood and indeed in humans they underlie life-long learning and typically human activities such as art and scienti?c discovery. IMs are also at the core of processes that strongly a?ect human well-being, such as the sense of competence, self-determination, and self-esteem. Recent neuroscienti?c research is starting to uncover the basic brain mechanisms underlying IMs, although under research agendas not directly addressing IMs. For example, IM mechanisms have been related to learning signals based on dopamine, novelty detection in hippocampus, and prediction errors in various parts of brain. In the last decade, IMs have also been introduced in machine learning and autonomous robotics as a means for developing arti?cial systems that can autonomously learn several di?erent skills in an open-ended, cumulative fashion. The idea is that intelligent machines and robots could autonomously acquire skills and knowledge under the guidance of IMs, and later exploit such knowledge and skills to accomplish the tasks that are useful for the user in more e?cient and faster ways than if they had to acquire them from scratch. This possibility would especially enhance the utility of intelligent arti?cial systems when operating in real-life environments posing challenges that cannot be foreseen at design time. Although the possible functions and mechanisms of IMs are still debated and seen differently by the different research communities involved, and although the recognition of IMs as a research field per se is only partially accomplished, their link with some of the most sophisticated aspects of human cognition (curiosity, art, science, well-being), and their potential for applications make them an interesting and important research field that deserves additional research efforts. Kind Regards, Gianluca Baldassarre -- .|.CS...|.......|...............|..|......US.|||.|||||.||.||||..|...|....... Gianluca Baldassarre, Ph.D., Laboratory of Computational Embodied Neuroscience, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (LOCEN-ISTC-CNR), Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, I-00185 Roma, Italy E-mail: gianluca.baldassarre at istc.cnr.it Web: http://www.istc.cnr.it/people/gianluca-baldassarre Tel: +39 06 44 595 231 Fax: +39 06 44 595 243 Learn from the past, live in(tensely) the present, dream for the future ...CS.|||.||.|||.||..|.......|........|...US.|.|....||..|..|......|......... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Pavis at iit.it Mon Feb 16 09:27:14 2015 From: Pavis at iit.it (Pavis) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 14:27:14 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: CFP - ICIAP2015: deadline in one month! Message-ID: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8831DCC5E4@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> Apologies for multiple copies ============================================================= 18th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing ICIAP 2015 ============================================================= Genova, Italy 7-11 September, 2015 http://www.iciap2015.eu Main Conference: 9-11 September, 2015 Workshop and Tutorials: 7-8 September, 2015 ======================================================= IMPORTANT DATES Full paper submission: March 16, 2015 Full paper evaluation notification: May 15, 2015 Camera ready submission: June 15, 2015 Author registration: June 22, 2015 Workshop, Tutorial and Special Session proposals: February 16, 2015 ======================================================= INVITED SPEAKERS This year we are proud to announce six very special speakers: * Samy Bengio, Google * Kristen Grauman, University of Texas at Austin * Michal Irani, Weizmann Institute of Science * Bernt Schiele, Max Planck Institute for Informatics * Arnold Smeulders, University of Amsterdam * Xiaogang Wang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong CALL FOR PAPERS ICIAP 2015 is the 18th edition of a series of conferences organized biennially by the Italian Member Society (GIRPR) of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR). The conference covers both classic and most recent trends in computer vision, pattern recognition and image processing, addressing both theoretical and applicative aspects. Specific topic areas have been selected, each one overseen by scientists, among the main experts in their respective areas. Satellite workshops and tutorials are also organized. TOPIC AREAS AND CHAIRS We are soliciting papers on the following topic areas, each one directly managed by the experts below indicated: - Video Analysis & Understanding: R. Cucchiara (U. of Modena - Reggio Emilia), J. Gonzalez (U. Autonoma de Barcelona) - Multiview Geometry and 3D Computer Vision: A. Fusiello (U. of Udine), M. Goesele (TU Darmstadt) - Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning: M. Pelillo (U. of Venezia), T. Caetano (NICTA) - Image Analysis, Detection and Recognition: R. Schettini (U. of Milano-Bicocca), T. Gevers (U. of Amsterdam) - Shape Analysis and Modeling: L. De Floriani (U. of Genova), G. Borgefors (Uppsala U.) - Multimedia: N. Sebe (U. of Trento), C. Snoek (U. of Amsterdam) - Biomedical Applications: S. Dellepiane (U. of Genova), D. Van De Ville (EPFL & U. of Geneve) Papers should be submitted following the SPRINGER LNCS format for a maximum of 10 pages. ORGANIZATION - General Chair: V. Murino (IIT and U. of Verona) - Program Chairs: E. Puppo (U. of Genova), G. Vernazza (U. of Genova) - Workshop Chairs: M. Cristani (U. of Verona), C. Sansone (U. of Napoli Federico II) - Tutorial Chair: A. Del Bue (IIT) - Special Sessions Chairs: G. Boccignone (U. of Milano), G. Giacinto (U. of Cagliari) - US Liason Chair: S. Savarese (Stanford U.) - Asia Liaison Chair: H. Saito (Keio U.) From i.t.nabney at aston.ac.uk Mon Feb 16 13:14:50 2015 From: i.t.nabney at aston.ac.uk (Nabney, Ian T) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 18:14:50 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Machine Vision and Big Data Analyst Message-ID: <7B23B9E42696184FA54979758B81966A0122DD368F@exch-mb-l4-01.campus.aston.ac.uk> Aston University and Wheelright Ltd. This KTP project offers a fantastic opportunity for an ambitious PhD graduate to launch a career in industry with the support of company and academic mentors. There are over 5 billion pneumatic tyres within the global vehicle fleet. Their maintenance is critical to safety and fuel efficiency, yet drivers have to rely on manual inspection for tread depth and tyre condition; the simple gauge for pressure. Automation is absent or limited to tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS). WheelRight's unique technology uses the vehicle's motion to capture data to measure tyre pressure, vehicle weight, tread depth and tyre condition. No equipment is installed on the vehicle. Any vehicle, car, bus or truck can be driven through an installation at up to 15kmh. The data is collected and processed in seconds, identifying faults and automating a safety critical chore for motorists and fleet operators. The first systems are based in the UK but a trial system has been installed in the USA. The market opportunity is global; wherever vehicle tyres are ignored. Aston University has joined forces with WheelRight on this project with the aim of implementing machine-vision techniques to analyse tyre images, identify abnormal tyres and create a data warehouse of tyre information. Their goal is to make the process of tyre inspection, automatic, accurate and easy to use. We are looking for confident, credible and personable candidates with good inter-personal skills to work within WheelRight's small team and with its collaborators and clients. You should be a self-starter with the ability to show high levels of initiative and motivation and the ability to work autonomously to agreed targets and goals. You should be able to articulate ideas, effectively interpret user requirements and have good presentation skills with a strong problem-solving ability. You will need a PhD in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics based subject, involving both Mathematics and Computing. You should have experience of some of the following: statistical data modelling or data mining; machine vision techniques; machine learning algorithms; neural networks. Experience of programming in an appropriate language (Matlab, R or C# preferred), and knowledge of how to write well-engineered code are essential to this role. It would also be advantageous to have experience in the presentation of complex analyses to untrained users, the Netlab toolbox for Matlab, knowledge of object-oriented design using C#, .NET or Java, along with an understanding of the full software development and product lifecycle. Previous experience of data warehouses along with the ability to analyse data domains and create entity relationship diagrams and databases would be useful. As part of this project you will be able to develop your technical skills, including Bayesian methods of model combination, machine learning algorithms for image recognition and regression and software engineering skills (including data modelling of large-scale tasks and 'real world' architectural design of data warehouse). In addition to the KTP Associate Development Programme to develop your management skills, you will have a generous personal development budget for industry standard training, and will be encouraged to join and work towards Chartered status of an appropriate professional body such as the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) or the British Computer Society. You will be employed by Aston University but will be based at the company, WheelRight Limited on Begbroke Science Park in Oxford. Deadline: 1st March 2015 Apply at http://jobs.aston.ac.uk reference 150032 Salary is ?26,000 to ?30,000 plus ?4000 individual training budget Contract is fixed term for 2 years == Prof Ian Nabney Head of Computer Science and Head of Mathematics School of Engineering and Applied Science Aston University http://www.aston.ac.uk/ncrg/ 0121 204 3645 From gevang at mit.edu Mon Feb 16 11:59:09 2015 From: gevang at mit.edu (Georgios Evangelopoulos) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 11:59:09 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Brains, Minds and Machines Summer Course - MBL Woods Hole, MA; Application deadline March 5, 2015 Message-ID: The Center for Brains, Minds and Machines will be hosting the second Brains, Minds and Machines Summer Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory, in Woods Hole, MA. http://cbmm.mit.edu/summer-school/2015 Brains, Minds and Machines ====================== Course Date: August 13 ? September 3, 2015 Application Deadline: March 5, 2015 Online Application Form: http://www.mbl.edu/education/special-topics-courses/brains-minds-and-machines/ Directors: Gabriel Kreiman, Harvard University; and Tomaso Poggio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (L. Mahadevan, Harvard University, honorary director) The problem of intelligence ? how the brain produces intelligent behavior and how we may be able to replicate intelligence in machines ? is arguably the greatest problem in science and technology. To solve it we will need to understand how human intelligence emerges from computation in neural circuits, with rigor sufficient to reproduce similar intelligent behavior in machines. Success in this endeavor ultimately will enable us to understand ourselves better, to produce smarter machines, and perhaps even to make ourselves smarter. Today?s AI technologies, such as Watson and Siri, are impressive, but their domain specificity and reliance on vast numbers of labeled examples are obvious limitations; few view this as brain-like or human intelligence. The synergistic combination of cognitive science, neurobiology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science holds the promise to build much more robust and sophisticated algorithms implemented in intelligent machines. The goal of this course is to help produce a community of leaders that is equally knowledgeable in neuroscience, cognitive science, and computer science. The first half of the course will focus on the intersection between biological and computational aspects of learning and vision. The second half will focus on high-level social cognition and artificial intelligence, as well as audition, speech and language processing. -- Georgios Evangelopoulos, Postdoctoral Fellow Lab. Computational and Statistical Learning Poggio Lab | Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) Massachusetts Institute of Technology http://web.mit.edu/gevang/www/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ralph.etiennecummings at gmail.com Mon Feb 16 21:24:25 2015 From: ralph.etiennecummings at gmail.com (Ralph Etienne-Cummings) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 21:24:25 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: 2015 Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop- Call For Applicants Message-ID: *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop* *2015 Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop* *Telluride, Colorado, June 28th - July 18th, 2015* CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Deadline is April 2nd, 2015 NEUROMORPHIC COGNITION ENGINEERING WORKSHOP www.ine-web.org Sunday June 28th - Saturday July 18th, 2015, Telluride, Colorado ine-web.org/workshops/workshops-overview/index.html and the workshop wiki is at https://neuromorphs.net/ GOALS: Neuromorphic engineers design and fabricate artificial neural systems whose organizing principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. Over the past 18 years, this research community has focused on the understanding of low-level sensory processing and systems infrastructure; efforts are now expanding to apply this knowledge and infrastructure to addressing higher-level problems in perception, cognition, and learning. In this 3-week intensive workshop and through the Institute for Neuromorphic Engineering (INE), the mission is to promote interaction between senior and junior researchers; to educate new members of the community; to introduce new enabling fields and applications to the community; to promote on-going collaborative activities emerging from the Workshop, and to promote a self-sustaining research field. FORMAT: The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems and cognitive neuroscience (in particular sensory processing, learning and memory, motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on emerging hardware design, mobile robots, hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, some of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. In the early afternoon there will be tutorials on a wide spectrum of topics, including analog VLSI, mobile robotics, vision and auditory systems, central-pattern-generators, selective attention mechanisms, cognitive systems, etc. *2015 TOPIC AREAS:* *Human Auditory Cognition: Communicating with EEG and Virtual Reality Links (The Matrix)*: Shihab Shamma (UM-College Park), Malcolm Slaney (Microsoft), Edward Lalor (Trinity College, Dublin), and Alain de Cheveigne (UPMC, France) *Manipulation Actions: Movements, Forces and Affordances: *Cornelia Ferm?ller (UMCP), Michael Pfeiffer (INI-UZH), Ryad Benosman (UPMC, Paris), and Andreas Andreou (JHU) *Neuromorphic Natural Language Processing:* John Harris (UFL, Gainesville) and Chris Huyck (Middlesex University) *Spike-Based Cognitive Computing: Seeing, Hearing, and Thinking with Spikes: *Arindam Basu (NTU, Singapore) and John Arthur (IBM Research Almaden) *Computational Neuroscience (invitational mini-workshop)* : Terry Sejnowski (Salk Institute) LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350 miles). Great Lakes Aviation and America West Express airlines provide daily flights directly into Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Wireless internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We will have a network of PCs running LINUX and Microsoft Windows for the workshop projects. We encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS: Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around the April 15th, 2015. The Workshop covers all your accommodations and facilities costs for the 3 weeks duration. You are responsible for your own travel to the Workshop, however, sponsored fellowships will be available as described below to further subsidize your cost. Registration Fees: For expenses not covered by federal funds, a Workshop registration fee is required. The fee is TBD per participant for the 3-week Workshop. This is expected from all participants at the time of acceptance. Accommodations: The cost of a shared condominium, typically a bedroom in a shared condo for senior participants or a shared room for students, will be covered for all academic participants. Upgrades to a private rooms or condos will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. Fellowships: This year we will offer one Fellowship program to subsidize your costs: The EU-CSNII Fellowship (http://csnetwork.eu/) which is funded by the 7th Research Framework Program FP7-ICT-CSNII-601167. The top 8 EU applicants will be reimbursed for their registration fees ($1250), subsistence/travel subsidy (up to Euro 2000) and accommodations cost ($1500). The registration and accommodation costs will go directly to the INE (the INE will reimburse them). We invite applications for a three-week summer workshop that will be held in Telluride, Colorado. Sunday June 28th - Saturday July 18th, 2015. The application deadline is Wednesday, April 2nd and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. The 2015 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, DARPA, Office of Naval Research, The EU-Collaborative Convergent Science Network (CNS-II), University of Maryland - College Park, Institute for Neuroinformatics ? University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, University of Western Sydney and the Salk Institute. Directors: Cornelia Fermuller, University of Maryland, College Park Ralph Etienne-Cummings, Johns Hopkins University Shih-Chii Liu, Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland Timothy Horiuchi, University of Maryland, College Park Workshop Advisory Board: Andreas Andreou, Johns Hopkins University Andre van Schaik, University Western Sydney, Australia Avis Cohen, University of Maryland Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, Boston University Giacomo Indiveri, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland Jonathan Tapson, University Western Sydney, Australia Malcolm Slaney, Microsoft Research Jennifer Hasler, Georgia Institute of Technology Rodney Douglas, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland Shihab Shamma, University of Maryland Tobi Delbruck, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland Previous year workshop can be found at: participant?s registration fees after receipt from CSNII), while the subsistence/travel reimbursement will be provided directly to the participants by the CSNII at the University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. HOW TO APPLY: Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. Anyone interested in proposing or discussing specific projects should contact the appropriate topic leaders directly. The application website is (after February 23rd, 2015): ine-web.org/telluride-conference-2015/apply-info Application information needed: Contact email address. First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. Curriculum Vitae (a short version, please). One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop, including possible ideas for workshop projects. Please indicate which topic areas you would most likely join. Two letters of recommendation (uploaded directly by references). Applicants will be notified by e-mail. 23rd February, 2015 - Applications accepted on website 2nd April, 2015 - Applications Due 15th April, 2015 - Notification of Acceptance -- Ralph Etienne-Cummings, PhD, FIEEE Professor and Chairman Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Computational Sensor Motor Systems Lab Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics The Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD [image: cid:image001.png at 01CFC064.B58B46A0] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 20171 bytes Desc: not available URL: From g.westermann at lancaster.ac.uk Tue Feb 17 10:24:26 2015 From: g.westermann at lancaster.ac.uk (Gert Westermann) Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 15:24:26 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD studentships in infancy research (including computational modelling) at Lancaster University, UK Message-ID: 5 PhD studentships in interdisciplinary infancy research for entry in October 2015 (Note: This programme takes a cognitive science approach to infant development, and computational modelling is explicitly part of the research methods.) Deadline for applications: 10 April, 2015 The Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme in Interdisciplinary Research on Infant Development is one of 14 Doctoral Programmes funded by the Leverhulme Trust over the next 5 years. The programme is based in the Psychology Department of Lancaster University (UK) which houses one of the largest infancy research groups in Europe, with researchers addressing infants? cognitive, social and language development employing a large range of methods (eye tracking, EEG, computational modelling, NIRS). Links with other departments (Linguistics, Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics) are anticipated. Applications are now open for five fully funded PhD studentships for entry in October 2015. Four of the scholarships will cover UK/EU fees, and the fifth will additionally cover the higher overseas (international) fees. All scholarships provide a living stipend (currently ?13,863) and a training allowance for three years. Studentships will have a strong interdisciplinary focus with the expectation to employ multiple methodologies. Awards will be made on the basis of academic excellence and potential for future achievement as demonstrated by your application and supporting references. In addition, you should consider how the research project you propose is aligned with the research interests of current academic staff involved in the Programme (see www.lancaster.ac.uk/leverhulme-dsp ). You are strongly encouraged to informally contact individual staff members to discuss your specific interests and to develop a research proposal. PhD students will become part of the vibrant environment of the infancy research group and beyond with excellent research facilities and a first class supervision record. You will be encouraged to participate fully, targeting and presenting your work at international conferences, and you will have excellent opportunities to travel to our national and international partner laboratories, receive training in a range of psychological and neurophysiological techniques, participate in research and public engagement meetings, and meet with leading international scientists during an annual conference organized at Lancaster. Lancaster University is in the top 10 under-50-year-old universities internationally (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/one-hundred-under-fifty ), and consistently ranks in the top 10 in the UK. The Psychology Department has a very strong and supportive research atmosphere with a large and active group of graduate students. Students receive their own research support budgets, which can be used to attend national and international conferences. We expect applicants to have excellent undergraduate and Masters degrees in Psychology or a related discipline. You should apply online here: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/ for a PhD in Psychology by the deadline of 10 April 2015. In the application, please state that you are applying for the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme. We ask for a research proposal of up to 1000 words ? note that this is different from standard applications because of the selection process involved. The application should identify an appropriate supervisor(s) and you must ensure that references have been provided by the deadline (otherwise the application may not be considered). After the deadline, applications will be reviewed and shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview, before award decisions are made. For further information concerning the studentships, please contact Prof. Gert Westermann (g.westermann at lancaster.ac.uk ), and about postgraduate study more generally, please contact the Department of Psychology postgraduate office (postgraduate.psychology at lancaster.ac.uk ). See the Lancaster Leverhulme Scholarship Programme website http://www.lancs.ac.uk/leverhulme-dsp for more information. Further information about PhD study at Lancaster can be found here www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/ . -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Gert Westermann Department of Psychology Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YF Phone: +44 (0)1524 592 942 Fax: +44 (0)1524 593 744 g.westermann at lancaster.ac.uk http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/gert-westermann New book: Harris & Westermann: A Student?s Guide to Developmental Psychology. Psychology Press. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Nicolas.Rougier at inria.fr Tue Feb 17 11:23:16 2015 From: Nicolas.Rougier at inria.fr (Nicolas P. Rougier) Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 17:23:16 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: A Long Journey into Reproducible Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: Dear all, We've just published a short commentary on what we think is a recurrent problem in computational science concerning the reproducibility and accessibility of models in the literature. We think the case we report (in full cooperation with original authors) is not an isolated case but we would be interested in knowing how serious the problem is from your point of view. Nicolas Rougier --- Computational neuroscience is a powerful ally in our quest to understand the brain. Even the most simple model can shed light on the role of this or that structure and propose new hypothesis concerning the overall brain organization. However, any model in Science is doomed to be proved wrong or incomplete and replaced by a more accurate one. In the meantime, for such replacement to happen, we have first to make sure that models are actually reproducible such that they can be tested, evaluated, criticized and ultimately modified, replaced or even rejected. This is where the shoe pinches. If we cannot reproduce a model in the first place, we're doomed to re-invent the wheel again and again, preventing us from building an incremental computational knowledge of the brain. Full text at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncom.2015.00028/full From matthias at ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp Tue Feb 17 03:42:44 2015 From: matthias at ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp (Matthias Rolf) Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 17:42:44 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: IEEE ICDL-EPIROB 2015 & Babybot Challenge (Updated CFP) Message-ID: <54E2FF04.6070906@ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp> ======================================================== Call for Papers, Tutorials and Thematic Workshops New Conference Feature: BABYBOT CHALLENGE IEEE ICDL-EPIROB 2015 The Fifth Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA August 13-16, 2015 http://www.icdl-epirob.org/ == Conference description The past decade has seen the emergence of a new scientific field that studies how intelligent biological and artificial systems develop sensorimotor, cognitive, emotional and social abilities, over extended periods of time, through dynamic interactions with their physical and social environments. This field lies at the intersection of a number of scientific and engineering disciplines including Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Computational Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics. Various terms have been associated with this new field such as Autonomous Mental Development, Epigenetic Robotics, Developmental Robotics, etc., and several scientific meetings have been established. The two most prominent conference series of this field, the International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) and the International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (EpiRob), are now joining forces for the fifth time and invite submissions for a joint conference in 2015, to explore and extend the interdisciplinary boundaries of this field. == BABYBOT CHALLENGE -- CASH PRIZES FOR THE TOP SUBMISSIONS We are excited to announce a new ICDL-EpiRob conference feature: the BABYBOT CHALLENGE. The goal of the challenge is to use the tools of developmental robotics to replicate and extend the key findings from one of three selected human-infant studies. Please visit www.icdl-epirob.org for the full announcement, including the three target studies, details on the submission process, and a description of how the winning submissions will be judged and selected. == Keynote speakers (confirmed) Prof. Dare Baldwin, Dept. of Psychology, University of Oregon, USA Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn, School of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire, UK Prof. Asif Ghazanfar, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, USA == Call for Submissions We invite submissions for this exciting window into the future of developmental sciences. Submissions which establish novel links between brain, behavior and computation are particularly encouraged. == Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): * the development of perceptual, motor, cognitive, emotional, social, and communication skills in biological systems and robots * embodiment * general principles of development and learning * interaction of nature and nurture * sensitive/critical periods * developmental stages * grounding of knowledge and development of representations * architectures for cognitive development and open-ended learning * neural plasticity * statistical learning * reward and value systems * intrinsic motivations, exploration and play * interaction of development and evolution * use of robots in applied settings such as autism therapy * epistemological foundations and philosophical issues Any of the topics above can be simultaneously studied from the neuroscience, psychology or modeling/robotic point of view. == Submissions will be accepted in several formats: 1. Full six-page paper submissions: Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings and will be selected for either an oral presentation or a featured poster presentation. Featured posters will have a 1 minute "teaser" presentation as part of the main conference session and will be showcased in the poster sessions. Maximum two-extra pages can be acceptable for a publication fee of $100 per page. 2. Two-page poster abstract submissions: To encourage discussion of late-breaking results or for work that is not sufficiently mature for a full paper, we will accept 2-page abstracts. These submissions will NOT be included in the conference proceedings. Accepted abstracts will be presented during poster sessions. 3. Tutorials and workshops: We invite experts in different areas to organize either a tutorial or a workshop to be held on the first day of the conference. Tutorials are meant to provide insights into specific topics as well as overviews that will inform the interdisciplinary audience about the state-of-the-art in child development, neuroscience, robotics, or any of the other disciplines represented at the conference. A workshop is an opportunity to present a topic cumulatively. Workshops can be half- or full-day in duration including oral presentations as well as posters. Submission format: two pages including title, list of speakers, concept and target audience. 4. Babybot challenge (Deadline June 15, 2015): Special submissions are invited for the Babybot challenge, which is for the first time introduced to this conference. For detailed information please visit www.icdl-epirob.org and navigate to ?Babybot Challenge.? All submissions will be peer reviewed. Submission website through paperplaza at: http://ras.papercept.net == Important dates March 9, 2015, paper submission deadline May 15, 2015, author notification July 1, 2015, final version (camera ready) due August 13th-16th, 2015, conference == Program committee General Chairs: Matthew Schlesinger (Southern Illinois Univ.) Dima Amso (Brown University) Bridge Chairs: Jeffrey Krichmar (UC Irvine) Bertram Malle (Brown University) Program Chairs: Anne Warlaumont (UC Merced) Clem?nt Moulin-Frier (INRIA) Publications Chairs: Lisa Meeden (Swarthmore College) Publicity Chairs: Lola Ca?amero (Univ. of Hertfordshire) Matthias Rolf (Osaka University) Benjamin Rosman (CSIR) Local chairs: David Sobel (Brown University) Thomas Serre (Brown University) Finance chairs: Clayton Morrison (University of Arizona) From martaruizcostajussa at gmail.com Tue Feb 17 10:59:32 2015 From: martaruizcostajussa at gmail.com (Marta Ruiz) Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 09:59:32 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Final CFP: JAIR Special Track on Cross-language Algorithms and Applications Message-ID: JAIR Special Track on Cross-language Algorithms and Applications Track Editor Llu?s M?rquez, Qatar Computing Research Institute Associate Track Editors Marta R. Costa?juss?, Instituto Polit?cnico Nacional Srinivas Bangalore, AT&T Labs-Research Patrik Lambert, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Elena Montiel-Ponsoda, Universidad Polit?cnica de Madrid The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) is pleased to announce the launch of the Special Track on Cross-language Algorithms and Applications. The core Artificial Intelligence technologies of speech and natural language processing need to address the challenges of processing multiple languages. While the first challenge of multilingualism is to bridge the nomenclature gap for the same concepts, the next significant challenge is to develop algorithms and applications that not only scale to multiple languages but also leverage cross-lingual similarities for improved natural language processing. The goal of this special track is to serve as a home for the publication of leading research on Cross-language Algorithms and Applications, focusing on developing unified themes leading to the development of the science of multi- and cross-lingualism. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: efforts in the direction of multilingual transliteration; multilingual document summarization; rapid prototyping of cross language tools for low resource languages; and machine translation. Articles published in the Cross-language Algorithms and Applications track must meet the highest quality standards as measured by originality and significance of the contribution and clarity of presentation. Papers will be coordinated by the track editor and associate editors, and reviewed by peer reviewers drawn from the JAIR Editorial Board and the larger community. All articles should be submitted using the normal JAIR submission process. Please indicate that the submission is intended for the Special Track in the section "Special Information for editors". For more information and submission instructions, please see: http://www.jair.org/specialtrack-claa.html Timetable 1st March 2015 Deadline for Submissions 1st June 2015 Notification of Acceptance/Revision/Rejection 15th July 2015 Deadline for Re-submission of papers requiring revision 15th September 2015 Notification of Final Acceptance 1st November 2015 Final manuscript due Contact: martaruizcostajussa at gmail.com Submission Instructions: Use JAIR conventional submissions instructions available at http://www.jair.org/submission_info.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mark.humphries at manchester.ac.uk Tue Feb 17 12:48:06 2015 From: mark.humphries at manchester.ac.uk (Mark Humphries) Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 17:48:06 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Final call for registration (Feb 27th): Integrated Systems Neuroscience Workshop, March 23-24th, Manchester, UK Message-ID: <7E954275ED82B9468C2C731FB72522F5B926236D@MBXP09.ds.man.ac.uk> [with apologies for cross-posting] A final reminder for registration for the 2-day workshop on "Integrated Systems Neuroscience", at the University of Manchester, March 23-24th 2015. (Organisers: Mark Humphries & Rasmus Petersen) Registration deadline is Friday, February 27th. Register here: http://www.isn2015.ls.manchester.ac.uk/registration/ We have a maximum capacity of 200, so please do register in good time. The programme begins at 12:45 on March 23rd, and ends at 16:45 on March 24th, allowing ample time for travel to and from Manchester, respectively. Numerous inexpensive hotels are located within walking distance of the venue - some suggestions are here: http://www.isn2015.ls.manchester.ac.uk/location/ The goal of this workshop is to showcase the state-of-the-art in integrated systems and computational approaches to key neural circuits. Each session of the programme will comprise a pair of talks presenting complementary experimental and computational work on the same circuit theme. A poster session with wine reception will be held on the first evening. Forty-one posters have been accepted, covering a rich mixture of experimental data and computational approaches; the draft abstract booklet is here: http://www.isn2015.ls.manchester.ac.uk/programme/ Speakers and their themes include: Peter Dayan (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit) & Alex Thiele (University of Newcastle) - Attentional circuits Daniel O'Connor (John Hopkins University) & Srdjan Ostojic (Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris) - Functional cortical networks Peter Magill (MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit) & Rafal Bogacz (Oxford) - Basal ganglia Michael Orger (Champalimaud Institute, Lisbon) & Gasper Tkacik (IST Austria) - Large-scale dynamics Matteo Carandini (UCL) & Ken Harris (UCL) - Cortical circuits The MRC's Programme Manager for the Neuroscience and Mental Health Board (Emily Gale) will be attending both days, and will be discussing the MRC's role in this area at the end of the second day. For more information, please visit the website: http://www.isn2015.ls.manchester.ac.uk/ Sponsors: we gratefully acknowledge the support of the Medical Research Council and Company of Biologists. Dr Mark Humphries MRC Senior non-Clinical Research Fellow AV Hill Building Faculty of Life Sciences University of Manchester http://www.systemsneurophysiologylab.ls.manchester.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pel at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk Wed Feb 18 06:48:09 2015 From: pel at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk (Peter Latham) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 11:48:09 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Connectionists: Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD) August 30 - September 2, 2015 Bilbao, Spain http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/nccd/nccd15/ The goal of this workshop is to bring together experimentalists and theoreticians who seek to understand how circuit dynamics underlies representation and function in the nervous system, and to foster real discussion. This year the workshop will focus on the interplay between excitation (E) and inhibition (I) in cortical circuits. The balance between E and I, an idea proposed twenty years ago to account for the stochastic nature of cortical activity, has been seminal in the understanding of basic principles of neural network dynamics. We are seeking talks that, building on this paradigm, present recent findings on topics such as neuronal variability and stochastic dynamics, the role of the different subtypes of interneurons, plasticity and structure in EI networks, brain state and network dynamics, etc. The workshop will be limited to about 70 people, the hope being to foster real interaction and discussion. Important dates: April 30: Abstracts due (there will be posters and contributed talks) May 31: Early registration due Confirmed invited speakers Dean Buonomano, University of California at Los Angeles Jess Cardin, Yale School of Medicine Brent Doiron, University of Pittsburgh Mike Hausser, UCL Carl Petersen, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Karel Svoboda, Janelia Farm Tim Vogels, University of Oxford Fred Wolf, University of Gottingen Best, Peter Latham Jaime de la Rocha Maneesh Sahani Co-organizers From mehdi.khamassi at isir.upmc.fr Thu Feb 19 06:51:16 2015 From: mehdi.khamassi at isir.upmc.fr (Mehdi Khamassi) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 12:51:16 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Call for posters/registration: Fifth International Symposium on Biology of Decision-Making (SBDM), 11-13 May 2015 @ Paris, France Message-ID: <933f7a08cf73915176d64425284f34c7@mailhost.isir.upmc.fr> [Please accept our apologies if you get multiple copies of this message] Dear colleagues, It is our great pleasure to invite you to the Fifth Symposium on Biology of Decision Making which will take place in Paris, France, on May, 11-13th 2015. Online registration is now open at http://sbdm2015.isir.upmc.fr The deadline for poster submission is: March, 31st. The deadline for registration is: April 30th. Registration fees (150 euros) include lunches, coffee breaks and social event. Please circulate widely and encourage your colleagues and team members to attend. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FIFTH SYMPOSIUM ON BIOLOGY OF DECISION MAKING (SBDM 2015) May 11-13, 2015, Paris, France Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle, H?pital La Piti? Salp?tri?re, Paris, France. & Ecole Normale Sup?rieure, Paris, France. & Universit? Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. http://sbdm2015.isir.upmc.fr ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRESENTATION: The Fifth Symposium on Biology of Decision Making will take place on May 11-13, 2015 at the Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle, Paris, France, with a satellite day at Ecole Normale Sup?rieure, Paris, France. The objective of this three day symposium is to gather people from different research fields with different approaches (economics, ethology, psychiatry, neural and computational approaches) to decision-making. The symposium will be a single-track, will last for 3 days and will include 6 sessions: (#1) Beyond two: Multi-alternative and multi-attribute choices; (#2) Shaky business: Neural sources of choice variability; (#3) Looking for causality: Choice bias following brain manipulation; (#4) The dark side of choice: Delay, effort and punishment; (#5) Choosing the unknown: The route to exploration; (#6) More brains: Choice in social context. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Thomas Boraud (CNRS - Universit? Bordeaux 2, France) Colin Camerer (California Institute of Technology, USA) Peter Dayan (Gatsby Unit, University College London, UK) Mauricio Delgado (Rutgers University, USA) Jan Drugowitsch (Universit? de Gen?ve, Switzerland) Sylvie Granon (Universit? d'Orsay - CNRS, France) Hauke Heekeren (Freie Universit?t Berlin, Germany) Laurence Hunt (University College London, UK) Masud Husain (University of Oxford, UK) Quentin Huys (ETH Zurich - University of Zurich, Switzerland) Brian Knutson (Stanford University, USA) Kenway Louie (New York University, USA) John O'Doherty (California Institute of Technology, USA) Mitsuhiro Okada (Keio University, Japan) Emmanuel Procyk (CNRS - INSERM, France) Christian Ruff (University of Zurich, Switzerland) Aldo Rustichini (University of Minnesota, USA) Liane Schmidt (INSEAD, France) Christopher Summerfield (University of Oxford, UK) Mark Walton (University of Oxford, UK) Melissa Warden (Cornell University, USA) Valentin Wyart (Ecole Normale Sup?rieure, France) Makiko Yamada (National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Japan) IMPORTANT DATES: March 31, 2015 Deadline for Poster Submission April 30, 2015 Deadline for Registration May 11-13, 2015 Symposium Venue ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Thomas Boraud (CNRS, Bordeaux, France) Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde (La Sorbonne, Paris, France) Kenji Doya (OIST, Okinawa, Japan) Mehdi Khamassi (CNRS - UPMC, Paris, France) Etienne Koechlin (CNRS - ENS, Paris, France) Mathias Pessiglione (ICM - INSERM, Paris, France) CONTACT INFORMATION : Website, registration, poster submission and detailed program: http://sbdm2015.isir.upmc.fr Contact: sbdm2015 [ at ] isir.upmc.fr / sbdm2015-registration at isir.upmc.fr -- Mehdi Khamassi, PhD Researcher (CNRS) Institut des Syst?mes Intelligents et de Robotique (UMR7222) CNRS - Universit? Pierre et Marie Curie Pyramide, Tour 55 - Bo?te courrier 173 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France tel: + 33 1 44 27 28 85 fax: +33 1 44 27 51 45 cell: +33 6 50 76 44 92 http://people.isir.upmc.fr/khamassi From Eirini.Mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk Thu Feb 19 08:11:55 2015 From: Eirini.Mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk (Eirini Mavritsaki) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 13:11:55 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD funded position in Psychology (Birmingham City University) -New insights into ADHD through behavioural and modelling studies Message-ID: <3FCD70F47E1E99449079BAD1F20D729C5D4763E9@EXMBX2.staff.uce.ac.uk> PhD Student Bursary, School of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology. 3 year funded bursary. REF BLSS PhD PSYCH 1 - New insights into ADHD through behavioral and modelling studies There are many limitations on the behaviour of complex neural systems, but one primary constraint is to filter incoming input in order that actions can be programmed to behaviourally relevant stimuli. This is the limit of ?attention?. A major challenge for current researchers is to understand how (and why) these limitations arise, especially in conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) where the attentional system is dysfunctional. The projects main aims are to access differences in visual attention between children diagnosed with ADHD and typically functioning children and the role of diet in this. We aim to do this using a novel interdisciplinary approach, behavioral and computational modelling study together with a food diary. The PhD is part of a bigger research project that is in collaboration with The University of Oxford (Prof. Glyn Humphreys) and Russell Hall Hospital (Dr Chrysavgi Tsakona). The successful applicant will join the newly-established Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAP Research) within the Division of Psychology at Birmingham City University. This centre is part of a vibrant and rapidly expanding research community, which offers applicants with an excellent opportunity to develop their research career. This can include the opportunity to gain teaching experience, to participate in research seminars and to co-supervise undergraduate projects. Lead Supervisor - Dr Eirini Mavritsaki (eirini.mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk). For further information please visit http://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/social-sciences ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eirini Mavritsaki, Ph.D., CPsychol Co-Director of the Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAP Research) Business Development Coordinator for Social Sciences Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology Faculty of Business Law and Social Sciences Birmingham City University D 3.17 Dawson Building City North Campus Perry Bar, Birmingham B42 2SU eirini.mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk 0121 331 6361 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lpulina at uniss.it Thu Feb 19 03:40:34 2015 From: lpulina at uniss.it (Luca Pulina) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 09:40:34 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: RR 2015 -- 2nd CALL FOR PAPERS Message-ID: <54E5A182.2080805@uniss.it> [apologies for any cross-posting] ****************************************************************** 2nd CALL FOR PAPERS The 9th International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems (RR 2015) Berlin, Germany, August 4-6, 2015 http://www.csw.inf.fu-berlin.de/RR2015/ ****************************************************************** The International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems (RR) is a major forum for discussion and dissemination of new results concerning Web Reasoning and Rule Systems. RR 2015 is colocated with the following events: - 11th Reasoning Web Summer School (RW 2015) Berlin, Germany, July 31 - August 4, 2015. http://www.csw.inf.fu-berlin.de/rw2015/ - The 25th International Conference on Automated Deduction (CADE 2015). Berlin, Germany, August 1 - August 7, 2015. http://conference.mi.fu-berlin.de/cade-25/home - The 9th International Web Rule Symposium (RuleML 2015). Berlin, Germany, August 3-5, 2015 http://2015.ruleml.org RR 2015 also hosts a doctoral consortium, which will provide PhD students with an opportunity to present and discuss their research directions, to be involved in discussions on the state-of-the-art research, and to establish fruitful collaborations. In particular, the doctoral consortium will include a mentoring lunch and a poster session, organized jointly with the 9th International Web Rule Symposium (RuleML 2015). Further details on the RR doctoral consortium will be communicated by means of a separate Call for Papers, as well as on the RR 2015 website. == TOPICS AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS == The scale and the heterogenous nature of web data poses many challenges, and turns basic tasks such as query answering and data transformations into complex reasoning problems. Rule-based systems have found many applications in this area. The RR conference welcomes original research from all areas of Web Reasoning and Rule Systems. Topics of particular interest are: - Rule-based languages for intelligent information access and for the semantic web - Ontology-based data access - Data management, and data interoperability for web data - Distributed agent-based systems for the web - Scalability and expressive power of logics for the semantic web - Reasoning with incomplete, inconsistenct and uncertain data - Non-monotonic, commonsense, and closed-world reasoning for web data - Constraint programming, inductive logic programming for web data - Streaming data and complex event processing - Rule-based approaches to machine learning, knowledge extraction and information retrieval - Rule-based approaches to natural language processing - System descriptions, applications and experiences There are two submission formats: - Full papers (up to 15 pages in LNCS style) - Technical Communications (up to 6 pages in LNCS style) Submitted full papers should present original and significant research results. They must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or a conference/workshop with formal proceedings. Double submission to a workshop with informal proceedings is allowed, like for instance the DL 2014 workshop. Technical communications are intended for promising but possibly preliminary work, position papers, system descriptions, and applications descriptions (which may be accompanied by a demo). The conference proceedings will be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series (LNCS), and all submissions must be prepared in Springer's LaTeX style llncs (http://www.springer.com/comp/lncs/Authors.html). Submissions are now open via EasyChair: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rr2015 == IMPORTANT DATES == - Title and Abstract submission: March 3, 2015 - Full papers submission: March 10, 2015 - Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2015 - Camera-ready submission: May 15, 2015 For each of these deadlines, a cut-off point of 23:59 AOE (anywhere on earth) applies. == BEST PAPER AND BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARDS == Awards for Best Paper and Best Student Paper will be presented to the corresponding author(s) at the conference. The best student paper will be selected among the ones mainly only by students (i.e., authors a PhD as of the paper submission deadline). To qualify for the Best Student Paper award, the authors must indicate their eligibility upon submission at easychair. The program committee reserves the right to not give out a Best Student Paper award, or to split the award among multiple submissions. == INVITED SPEAKERS == - Michael Genesereth (Stanford University) - Benny Kimelfeld (Technion & LogicBlox) - Lora Aroyo (Free University of Amsterdam) == ORGANIZATION == General Chair: - Wolfgang Faber (University of Huddersfield) Doctoral Consortium Chair: - Marco Montali (Free Universiy of Bozen-Bolzano) Local Organization Chair: - Adrian Paschke (Free University of Berlin) Sponsorship Chair: - Marco Maratea (University of Genova) Publicity Chair: - Luca Pulina (University of Sassari) Web Chair: - Ralph Schaefermeier (Free University of Berlin) Program Committee: - Balder ten Cate (LogicBlox, USA) - co-chair - Alessandra Mileo (DERI, Ireland) - co-chair - Darko Anicic (Siemens AG, Germany) - Marcelo Arenas (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile) - Marcello Balduccini (Drexel University, USA) - Leopoldo Bertossi (Carleton University, Canada) - Meghyn Bienvenu (Universite Paris Sud, France) - Fernando Bobillo (University of Zaragoza, Spain) - Daniel Deutsch (Tel Aviv, Israel) - Agostino Dovier (Universit? degli Studi di Udine, Italy) - Thomas Eiter (TU Vienna, Austria) - Sergio Flesca (University of Calabria, Italy) - Paul Fodor (Stony Brook University, USA) - Andres Freitas (INSIGHT NUI Galway, Ireland) - Andre Hernich (Liverpool, UK) - Stijn Heymans (SRI, USA) - Aidan Hogan (National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland) - Benny Kimelfeld (Technion, Israel & LogicBlox, Inc) - Roman Kontchakov (Birkbeck College, UK) - Markus Kr?tzsch (University of Oxford, UK) - Georg Lausen (Universitaet Freiburg, Germany) - Joohyung Lee (Arizona State University, USA) - Domenico Lembo (Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy) - Carsten Lutz (Universit?t Bremen, Germany) - Thomas Meyer (CSIR Meraka Institute, South Africa) - Boris Motik (Oxford University, UK) - Marco Montali (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy) - Marie-Laure Mugnier (LIRMM/INRIA, Montpellier, France) - Matthias Nickels (NUI Galway, Ireland) - Magdalena Ortiz (TU Vienna, Austria) - Giorgio Orsi (University of Oxford, UK) - Jeff Z. Pan (University of Aberdeen) - Adrian Paschke (Freie Universit?t Berlin, Germany) - Axel Polleres (WU-Vienna, Austria) - Lucian Popa (IBM Almaden, USA) - Francesco Ricca (University of Calabria, Italy) - Riccardo Rosati (Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy) - Sebastian Rudolph (TU Dresden, Germany) - Luciano Serafini (FBK Trento, Italy) - Evgeny Sherkhonov (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) - Steffen Staab (University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany) - Umberto Straccia (ISTI-CNR, Pisa, Italy) -- Luca Pulina, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Computer Science POLCOMING - Department of Political Science, Communication, Engineering and Information Technologies University of Sassari e-mail lpulina at uniss.it http://sites.google.com/site/lpulina -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Eirini.Mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk Thu Feb 19 08:15:05 2015 From: Eirini.Mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk (Eirini Mavritsaki) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 13:15:05 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: 5 year funded Research Fellow post in Psychology (Birmingham City University) Message-ID: <3FCD70F47E1E99449079BAD1F20D729C5D476417@EXMBX2.staff.uce.ac.uk> Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Department of Psychology Research Fellow Fixed purpose post available for five years Ref No: 022015-62 ?31,269 - ?36,852 per annum You will join the Centre for Applied Psychological Research which is part of the School of Social Sciences as a post-doctoral research fellow to undertake high quality research into the areas of Social, Health, Cognitive and/or Developmental Psychology. You will join an experienced team of researchers and be given the opportunity to lead on some aspects of current research projects. You will receive training and be given the opportunity to establish yourself as an independent researcher by winning bids and building a publication record. For further information please contact Dr Eirini Mavritsaki (eirini.mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk) or Dr Matt Tonkin (matthew.tonkin at bcu.ac.uk ) Closing Date: 19th March 2015 For details of how to apply please visit https://jobs.bcu.ac.uk Birmingham City University promotes Equality of Opportunity and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Birmingham City University seeks to be a single status employer and benefits include up to 32 days annual holiday, and index linked contributory pension scheme and an employee medical scheme. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eirini Mavritsaki, Ph.D., CPsychol Co-Director of the Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAP Research) Business Development Coordinator for Social Sciences Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology Faculty of Business Law and Social Sciences Birmingham City University D 3.17 Dawson Building City North Campus Perry Bar, Birmingham B42 2SU eirini.mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk 0121 331 6361 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Toomas.Kirt at mail.ee Thu Feb 19 09:57:10 2015 From: Toomas.Kirt at mail.ee (Toomas Kirt) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 16:57:10 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Summer School on Neuroinformatics (BNNI 2015) Message-ID: <54E5F9C6.2449.1044E3F9@Toomas.Kirt.mail.ee> Last call: 3rd Baltic-Nordic Summer School on Neuroinformatics (BNNI 2015) Multiscale computational neuroscience: Neurons, networks and systems Place: University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia Time: June 15-18, 2015 More information and registration at http://neuro.cs.ut.ee/bnni2015/ Important dates: (extended 28 February 2015) 21 February 2015 Application deadline 13 March 2015 Acceptance notification 15-18 June 2015 Summer School The BNNI 2015 is focused on computational multiscale modelling of brain functions at the cellular, network and systems levels. The course will also cover data sources, measurements and analysis of neural activity. Target audience Advanced master students, doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers, both theoreticians and experimentalists, who would like to get an introduction to neuroinformatics and computational neuroscience. Faculty includes Gaute Einevoll, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway Bruce Graham, University of Stirling, United Kingdom Sean Hill, the ?cole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, Switzerland Henrik Lind?n, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Marja-Leena Linne, Tampere University of Technology, Finland, Claudio Mirasso, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain Arnd Roth, University College London, UK Ausra Saudargiene, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania Raul Vicente, University of Tartu, Estonia Michael Wibral, Brain Imaging Center, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany Daniel W?jcik, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland and others to be named. Venue The course will be held in the University of Tartu, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science - Juhan Liivi 2, Tartu 50409, Estonia. Practical arrangements There is a small tuition fee of 100 euros. The sponsor will provide teaching, meals and coffee during the course. The participants are expected to cover their travel and health insurance expenses (small financial support is available for those without funding). The course is supported by International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility and University of Tartu. We are looking forward to welcome you at the BNNI 2015 in Tartu, Estonia! From christos.dimitrakakis at gmail.com Thu Feb 19 10:47:49 2015 From: christos.dimitrakakis at gmail.com (Christos Dimitrakakis) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 16:47:49 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Machine Learning Summer School at Chalmers university, Gothenburg, Sweden Message-ID: <54E605A5.9090902@gmail.com> A machine learning summer school will be held at Chalmers, Gothenburg, the second largest Swedish city, in the period 14-16 April. Information and registration: http://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/cse/organisation/CS/Pages/machine-learning-summer-school.aspx Topics Machine learning has increasing importance in today's society, with ever-wider application of autonomous learning systems in areas ranging from advertising to energy and finance. It also has many scientific applications, as evidence by the growth of data science as a discipline. This summer school will give thorough introductions to a number of techniques and application areas in machine learning, including. On the theory side, topics covered will include Bayesian inference, Deep learning, Gaussian processes, Markov decision processes, Monte-Carlo methods and Reinforcement learning. The applications will include Computational Biology, Computer vision, Energy and Smart Grids, Medicine and Robotics. Travel grants are available for students. Speakers Marc Deisenroth, Imperial College, UK. Mattias Villani, Link?ping University, Sweden. Tomas Schon, Uppsala University, Sweden. Josephine Sullivan, KTH, Sweden Tom Heskes, Radbound University, Nimejgen, Netherlands. Devdatt Dubhashi, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Lars Carlsson, Astra Zeneca, Sweden Christos Dimitrakakis, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Damien Ernst, University of Liege, Belgium. Ronald Ortner, University of Loeben, Austria Sponsors: - Chalmers (Computing Science Division, Energy Area of Advance, ICT Area of Advance) - Swedish AI Society Contact Christos Dimitrakakis or Devdatt Dubhashi for further information. -- Christos Dimitrakakis http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~chrdimi/ From marcel.van.gerven at gmail.com Thu Feb 19 15:24:50 2015 From: marcel.van.gerven at gmail.com (Marcel van Gerven) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 21:24:50 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Donders summer school on neural metrics Message-ID: <657624D4-D702-44AA-9D38-D0CA186FCFB3@gmail.com> Neural Metrics 2.0 : Connectomics & Large-Scale Methods The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour/Radboud University is organizing a summer school on neural metrics with the aim to get participants acquainted with the quantitative analysis of neural organisation and function. In Neural Metrics 2.0 we will build on the success from the previous year, focussing on methods for understanding brain networks such as connectomics as well as large scale and Bayesian methods, with world class speakers, hands-on tutorials, student projects and an interactive debate. The topics covered range from cellular connectomics to human functional connectomics. The course is designed for PhD students and starting postdoctoral researchers working at the interface between cognitive neuroscience and the application of advanced methods. Please consult the Radboud Summer school website (http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/) for details on the program, social events and registration. Further details for the Neural Metrics Summer School can be found below and on the website (http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/courses/brain-behaviour/@972443/neural-metrics-2-0-0/). Dates : Monday 10 August - Friday 14 August 2015 (1 week) Application Deadline : 15 June 2015 Course leaders : Bernhard Englitz, Marcel van Gerven, Fleur Zeldenrust, Tansu Celikel Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour & Radboud University Participant profile : This course was developed for PhD students and early postdoctoral researchers working at the interface between cellular and cognitive neuroscience requiring advanced methods of analysis. This includes research in the field of Neuroscience with an MSc in Biology, Computer Science, Psychology, Physics, Al, Mathematics, Engineering or a similar major. Admission requirements : As part of the admission procedure, we ask you to send us your CV and a brief motivation letter in which you explain your interest in our course. Course fee : 600 Euros The course fee includes the registration fee, course materials, access to library and IT facilities, coffee/tea, lunch, and a number of social activities. Accommodation is available for the course participants (additional charges apply). For details please see http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/practical-matters/housing/ Discounts : ? 15% discount for students and PhD candidates from Radboud University and partner universities, ? 10% Early bird discount deadline: 1 April 2015 Confirmed Speakers (alphabetical): > Misha Ahrens (HHMI, Janelia) > Matthias Bethge (University T?bingen) > Romain Brette (Institut de la Vision, Paris) > Kevin Briggman (NIH, Bethesda) > Tansu Celikel (Donders Institute, Nijmegen) > Moritz Helmst?dter (MPI for Brain Research, Frankfurt) > Henry Kennedy (INSERM, Lyon) > Alessandro Treves > Timm Lochmann (TU Berlin) > Fleur Zeldenrust (Univ. Amsterdam) Pending Speakers: > Vincent Bonin (VIB, Leuven) > David van Essen (WUSTL) > Raoul Memmesheimer (Donders Institute, Nijmegen) > Jan Schnupp (Oxford University) > Alessandro Treves (SISSA, Trieste) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mhb0 at lehigh.edu Thu Feb 19 15:50:42 2015 From: mhb0 at lehigh.edu (Mark H. Bickhard) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:50:42 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Interactivist Summer Institute 2nd CFP Message-ID: <67A93E91-7DE3-4359-9CAE-88D23F3603DB@lehigh.edu> GENERAL INFORMATION Interactivist Summer Institute 2015 June 20 - 23, 2015 Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey The Interactivist Summer Institute is dedicated to exploring the frontiers of understanding of life, mind, and cognition. There is a growing recognition - across many disciplines - that phenomena of life and mind, including cognition and representation, are emergents of far-from-equilibrium, interactive, autonomous systems. In such a view, mind and biology, mind and agent, are re-united. The classical treatment of cognition and representation within a formalist framework of encodingist assumptions is increasingly recognized as a fruitless maze of blind alleys. From neurobiology to robotics, from cognitive science to philosophy of mind and language, dynamic and interactive alternatives are being explored. Dynamic systems approaches, enactivist and autonomous agent research join in the effort. The interactivist model offers a theoretical approach to matters of life and mind, ranging from evolutionary- and neuro-biology (including the emergence of biological function) through representation, perception, motivation, memory, learning and development, emotions, consciousness, language, action theory, rationality, sociality, personality and psychopathology, and ethics. This work has developed interfaces with studies of central nervous system functioning, the ontology of process, autonomous agents, philosophy of science, and all areas of psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science that address the person. The conference will involve both tutorials addressing central parts and aspects of the interactive model, and papers addressing current work of relevance to this general approach. This will be our eighth Summer Institute: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 2001 IT University, Copenhagen, Denmark 2003 Clemson University, South Carolina 2005 The American University in Paris, Paris 2007 Simon Fraser University, Vancouver 2009 University of the Aegean, Syros, Greece 2011 University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Fl 2013 The Summer Institute is a biennial meeting where those sharing the core interests and ideas of interactivism will meet and discuss their work, try to reconstruct its historical roots, put forward current research in different fields that fits the interactivist framework, and define research topics for prospective graduate students. People working in philosophy of mind, linguistics, social sciences, artificial intelligence, cognitive robotics, theoretical biology, and other fields related to the sciences of mind are invited to send their paper submission or statement of interest for participation to the organizers. http://www.lehigh.edu/~interact/isi2015/index.htm Mark H. Bickhard Lehigh University 17 Memorial Drive East Bethlehem, PA 18015 mark at bickhard.name http://bickhard.ws/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yulei.frank.wu at gmail.com Thu Feb 19 17:12:37 2015 From: yulei.frank.wu at gmail.com (yulei.frank.wu at gmail.com) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 22:12:37 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: The 5th International Conference on Big Data and Cloud Computing (BDCloud 2015), Dalian, China, August 26-28, 2015 Message-ID: <201502192212365989941@gmail.com> Please accept our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP. *********************** BDCloud 2015 CFP ************************* ============================================================== The 5th International Conference on Big Data and Cloud Computing (BDCloud 2015) http://ncc.dlut.edu.cn/~bdcloud2015/index.html Dalian, China, August 26-28, 2015 ============================================================= Around 30 accepted and presented papers will be published directly by SCI or EI journals, other accepted and presented papers will be published in conference proceedings (IEEE CPS) ----------------- Important Dates ----------------- Workshop proposal submission deadline: April 15th, 2015 Workshop proposal decision to organizers: May 15th, 2015 Paper submission deadline: April 15th, 2015 Paper decision to authors: June 15th, 2015 Camera ready deadline: June 30th, 2015 Registration deadline: June 30th, 2015 --------------------------------- Paper Submission and Publication --------------------------------- Submissions must include an abstract, keywords, the e-mail address of the corresponding author and should not exceed 8 pages for main conference, including tables and figures in IEEE CS format. The template files for LATEX or WORD can be downloaded from the follwing link: http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html All paper submissions must represent original and unpublished work. Each submission will be peer reviewed by at least three program committee members. Submission of a paper should be regarded as an undertaking that, should the paper be accepted, at least one of the authors will register for the conference and present the work. Submit your paper(s) at the submission site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bdcloud2015 Around 30 accepted and presented papers will be published directly by SCI indexed or EI indexed journals. Other accepted and presented papers will be published in conference proceedings by IEEE CPS (EI indexed). ============================================================== --------------------------------- Introduction --------------------------------- Big data is an emerging paradigm applied to datasets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Such datasets are often from various sources (Variety) yet unstructured such as social media, sensors, scientific applications, surveillance, video and image archives, Internet texts and documents, Internet search indexing, medical records, business transactions and web logs; and are of large size (Volume) with fast data in/out (Velocity). More importantly, big data has to be of high value (Value) and establish trust in it for business decision making (Veracity). Cloud computing is positioning itself as an emerging platform for delivering information infrastructures and resources as IT services. Customers (enterprises or individuals) can provision and deploy Cloud services via pay-as-you-go pricing models saving huge capital investments in their own IT infrastructures. As estimated by IDC, by 2020, about 40% data globally would be touched with Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing provides strong storage, computation and distributed capability in support of Big Data processing. BDCloud (Big Data and Cloud Computing) was created to provide a prime international forum for researchers, industry practitioners and domain experts to exchange the latest advances in Big Data and Cloud Computing as well as their synergy. ------------------- Topics ------------------- Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to: ? Fundamentals of cloud computing ? Architectural cloud models ? Programming cloud models ? Provisioning/pricing cloud models ? Data storage and computation in cloud computing ? Resource and large-scale job scheduling in cloud computing ? Security, privacy, trust, risk in cloud and big data ? Fault tolerance and reliability in cloud computing ? Access control to cloud computing ? Resource virtualisation ? Monitoring and auditing in cloud ? Scalable and elastic cloud services ? Social computing and impacts on the cloud ? Innovative HCI and touch-screen models and technologies to cloud ? Mobile commerce, handheld commerce and e-markets on cloud ? Intelligent/agent-based cloud computing ? Migration of business applications to cloud ? Energy efficient cloud architecture ? Energy aware data storage and computation in cloud computing ? Energy aware scheduling, monitoring, auditing in cloud ? Green Cloud ? Cloud use case studies ? Big Data theory, applications and challenges ? Big Data mining and analytics on Cloud ? Big Data Infrastructure, MapReduce and Cloud Computing ? Big Data visualization ? Large data stream, incremental datasets on cloud ? Distributed and federated datasets ? NoSQL data stores and DB scalability ? Big Data sharing, security, privacy and trust ? Big Data placement, scheduling, and optimization ? Distributed file systems for Big Data ? Big Data processing, resource scheduling and SLA on Cloud ? Performance characterization, evaluation and optimization ? Simulation and debugging of Big Data systems ? Volume, Velocity, Variety, Value and Veracity of Big Data ? Storage and computation management of Big Data ? Large-scale workflow management in Big Data ? Data management and distributed data systems ? Big data applications --------------------- Organizing Committee --------------------- == General Chairs== Jean-Luc Gaudiot, University of California Irvine, USA Keqiu Li, Dalian University of Technology, China == Program Chairs == Hongyi Wu, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA Kuan Ching Li, Providence University, Taiwan == Workshop Chairs == Massimo Cafaro, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy == Publicity Chairs == Jaime Lloret Mauri, Polytechnic University, Valencia, Spain Yulei Wu, University of Exeter, UK Deze Zeng, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China == Organizing Chair == Heng Qi, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China == Finance Chair == Rui Kou, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China == Registration Chair == Zhiyang Li, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China == Web Chair == Pengfei Lu, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China == Program Committee == See BDCloud-2015 web site: http://ncc.dlut.edu.cn/~bdcloud2015/ -------------------- Contact Information -------------------- If you have any question about the CFP and paper submission, please email to bdcloud2015 at gmail.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From D.J.Walker at exeter.ac.uk Fri Feb 20 10:30:48 2015 From: D.J.Walker at exeter.ac.uk (David Walker) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2015 15:30:48 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: UKCI 2015: Call for Papers In-Reply-To: <548ED2A1.4070209@exeter.ac.uk> References: <548ED2A1.4070209@exeter.ac.uk> Message-ID: <54E75328.6010802@exeter.ac.uk> 2015 UK WORKSHOP ON COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE (UKCI 2015) September 7-9, Exeter, UK Sponsored by IEEE Computational Intelligence Society http://www.ukci2015.ex.ac.uk/ CALL FOR PAPERS ##################################################################### Deadline for Special Session Proposals: 28th February 2015 ##################################################################### We are pleased to invite you to submit your original contributions to the 15th UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence, which will take place at the University of Exeter, UK, on 7th-9th September 2015. UKCI is the premier UK event for presenting leading research on all aspects of computational intelligence. The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for the academic community and industry to share ideas about developing and using computational intelligence techniques. PAPERS All submissions will be peer-reviewed; accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings and indexed in IEEEXplore. Selected papers will be considered for publication, following substantial extension, in a Special Issue of the Soft Computing Journal (Springer). Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): * Machine learning, learning systems, biologically-inspired computing, neural networks; * Evolutionary computation, swarm intelligence, artificial immune systems, memetic computing; * Computational intelligence for big data; * Knowledge representation; * Fuzzy logic, fuzzy systems, approximate reasoning; * Software agents and multi-agent systems, intelligent control; * Intelligent signal, image and video processing; * New and emerging computational intelligence approaches from hybrid learning and systems, molecular and quantum computing; * Applications of computational intelligence techniques in engineering, healthcare, finances, (cyber)security. SPECIAL SESSIONS The workshop will be held in conjunction with the Natural Computing Applications Forum (NCAF). Proposals for further Special Sessions within the UKCI2015 single track programme, particularly in the areas of future directions for research, and novel applications of Computational Intelligence research, are also invited. Please submit applications to ukci2015 at exeter.ac.uk including details of special session chair(s), topic and an outline of why the topic is of particular relevance or timeliness. IMPORTANT DATES * Special session proposals: 28th February 2015 * Paper submission: 18th May 2015 * Notification of paper acceptance: 6th July 2015 * Camera ready submission: 3rd August 2015 SUBMISSION Submission will be via EasyChair; details are available from the workshop website (http://www.ukci2015.ex.ac.uk/). The workshop will take place at the Innovation Centre, located on the University of Exeter's Streatham Campus, a short walk from the city of Exeter. The city offers excellent transport links, with easy access to the M5, two mainline railway stations, an international airport and nearby continental ferry links. Beyond the array of activities within the city, Exeter is close to the Jurassic Coast, the English Riviera, as well as Dartmoor and Exmoor National Parks. We look forward to welcoming you to Devon in 2015. General Chair: Prof. Richard Everson (University of Exeter) Email: ukci2015 at exeter.ac.uk Web: http://www.ukci2015.ex.ac.uk/ From nicosia at dmi.unict.it Fri Feb 20 12:15:03 2015 From: nicosia at dmi.unict.it (Giuseppe Nicosia) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2015 18:15:03 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Int. Workshop on Machine learning, Optimization & big Data - MOD 2015 Call for Papers Message-ID: <95BE68A9-EDC1-4AF6-AAE9-88BC2471B9DD@dmi.unict.it> [Please kindly help forward it to potentially interested attendees] International Workshop on Machine learning, Optimization and big Data - MOD 2015 An Interdisciplinary Workshop: Machine Learning, Optimization and Data Science without Borders Taormina - Sicily, Italy, from July 21 to 24, 2015 http://www.taosciences.it/mod-2015/ modworkshop2015 at gmail.com ************************* CALL FOR PAPERS ************************* Paper submission deadline: February 28, 2015 http://www.taosciences.it/mod-2015/call-for-papers/ KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Vipin Kumar, University of Minnesota, USA Panos Pardalos, University of Florida, USA Tomaso Poggio, MIT, USA TUTORIAL SPEAKERS "Science SQL", Peter Baumann, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany "Feature Selection for Supervised Classification", Mario Guarracino, Italian National Research Council, Italy "Statistical inferences in Graphical Models with applications to Market Networks", Valeriy Kalyagin, National Research University - Higher School of Economics, Russia "Kernel Methods with Imbalanced Data", Theodore B. Trafalis, University of Oklahoma, USA More Tutorial Speakers will be announced after March 1st, 2015. Each tutorial will be in the program of MOD 2015 as a half day tutorial (3 hours and half) the first day of the workshop, July 21, 2015. The MOD 2015 workshop will consist of one day of tutorials, followed by three days of main workshop sessions. We invite submissions of papers, abstracts and demos on all topics related to Machine learning, Optimization and Big Data including real-world applications for the workshop proceedings (http://www.taosciences.it/mod-2015/call-for-papers/) and proposals for tutorials (http://www.taosciences.it/mod-2015/call-for-tutorials/). MOD 2015 Paper Format Please prepare your paper in English using the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) template, which is available http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0 Papers must be submitted in PDF. MOD 2015 Types of Submissions When submitting a paper to MOD 2015, authors are required to select one of the following four types of papers: * Long paper: original novel and unpublished work (max. 12 pages in Springer LNCS format); * Short paper: an extended abstract of novel work (max. 4 pages); * Work for oral presentation only (no page restriction; any format). For example, work already published elsewhere, which is relevant and which may solicit fruitful discussion at the workshop; * Work for poster presentation only. The poster format for the presentation is A0 (118.9 cm high and 84.1 cm wide, respectively 46.8 x 33.1 inch). For research work which is relevant and which may solicit fruitful discussion at the workshop. MOD 2015 Proceedings All accepted long papers will be published in a volume of the series 'Lecture Notes in Computer Science' from Springer after the Workshop. Instructions for preparing and submitting the final versions (camera-ready papers) of all accepted papers will be available later on. All the other papers (short papers, abstract of the oral presentations, poster presentations) will be published on the MOD 2015 web site. MOD 2015 Submission System All papers must be submitted using EasyChair. The link to submit papers is the following: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mod2015 The deadline for ALL the types of submissions is February 28, 2015. MOD 2015 Important Dates Paper Submission Deadline: February 28, 2015 Decision Notification to Authors: April 30, 2015 Late Breaking Papers/Abstracts Deadline: April 15, 2015 Author Notification: April 30, 2015 Late Breaking Posters/Demos Deadline: May 15, 2015 Author Notification: May 30, 2015 Camera Ready Submission Deadline: May 15, 2015 Deadline for early Registration as Presenting Author: May 15, 2015 Late registration: May 16 - July 24, 2015 On-Site registration: July 21-24, 2015 Workshop: July 21-24, 2015 MOD 2015 Program Committee The current MOD 2015 Program Committee includes more than 200 confirmed members: http://www.taosciences.it/mod-2015/program-committee/ Any questions regarding the submission process can be sent to workshop organizers: modworkshop2015 at gmail.com We look forward to seeing you in Taormina, Italy!!! MOD 2015 Organizing Committee. From heidi at stat.cmu.edu Fri Feb 20 14:22:19 2015 From: heidi at stat.cmu.edu (Heidi Rhodes Sestrich) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2015 19:22:19 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: SAND7 DEADLINE REMINDER Message-ID: The seventh international workshop on Statistical Analysis of Neural Data (SAND7) will take place May 27-29, 2015, in Pittsburgh, PA. DEADLINE MARCH 1: Any young investigator interested in presenting their work as a talk should submit an abstract by MARCH 1. Talks by young investigators (graduate students or postdocs/faculty members within 5 years of Ph.D.) will be selected on a competitive basis. DEADLINE MARCH 15: Partial travel support is available! Requests for financial support should be made by MARCH 15. Please see our website: http://sand.stat.cmu.edu There will also be a poster session, to which all participants are invited to contribute. Talks and posters may involve new methodology, investigation of existing methods, or application of state-of-the-art analytical techniques. The organizers are Emery Brown, Elizabeth Buffalo, Rob Kass, Liam Paninski, Sri Sarma and Jonathan Victor. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Thomas_Serre at brown.edu Sat Feb 21 04:21:00 2015 From: Thomas_Serre at brown.edu (Thomas Serre) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 04:21:00 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?RA_position_=E2=80=93_Computer_vision_a?= =?utf-8?q?nd_automated_behavioral_analysis_=E2=80=93_Brown_Univers?= =?utf-8?q?ity_=28Providence=2C_RI=29?= Message-ID: RA position ? Computer vision and automated behavioral analysis ? Brown University (Providence, RI) Computational (Thomas Serre) and developmental (Dima Amso) labs in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, & Psychological Sciences at Brown university are seeking an NIH-funded research assistant to work on the development of machine learning and computer vision tools, appropriate to examining naturalistic interactions in typical and atypical development. Candidates are expected to have some knowledge of computer vision and/or machine learning methods. The initial appointment is for 12 months, renewable for another year, and potentially longer depending on funding. The start date is negotiable though an early start is strongly preferred. Salary is commensurate with experience and is competitive. Research groups: Our research groups are located within the Department of Cognitive Linguistic & Psychological sciences at Brown University. We maintain strong ties with the computer science, engineering and applied math departments as part of the Brain Institute. Through Brown?s Center for Computation and Visualization (https://www.ccv.brown.edu), our groups have access to a state-of-the-art computing facility with includes over 300K GPU cores and over 500 Teraflops of GPU computing power. Information about Dr. Serre and his research group can be found at http://serre-lab.clps.brown.edu. Information about Dr. Amso and her research group can be found at http://research.clps.brown.edu/dcnl. Requirements: Applicants are expected to have finished, or be about to finish a BS or MSc in computer science or related discipline. They must have some background in computer vision and/or machine learning. Excellent programming skills are required (C/C++/Matlab/Python). Application: Please send your applications by email to dima_amso at correct_university_name.edu where correct_university_name should be replaced by ?brown'. Please include a brief statement of interests, a curriculum vita and contact details for 2-3 letters of reference (no letters required at this stage). There is no deadline for the application but applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible as the position will be filled as soon as a suitable applicant is found. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Sat Feb 21 13:34:11 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 13:34:11 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto In-Reply-To: <54E8CB3A.5090901@cse.msu.edu> References: <54E8CB3A.5090901@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54E8CFA3.60001@cse.msu.edu> Dear Colleagues: The BMI mailing list has started a discussion on this manifesto. If you are interested in this subject, you can subscribe to the BMI mailing list at: http://lists.cse.msu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bmi Please feel free to forward this message to your colleagues and friends. ----- draft version 5 ------ The Brain Principles Manifesto (Draft) Feb. 21, 2015 Historically, public acceptance of science was slow. For example, Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction. It took about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the debate on evolution still goes on today. Is the public acceptance of science faster in modern days? Not necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to communicate. The primary reason is still the same but much more severe --- the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any single person. For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry. Kunihiko Fukushima introduced Convolutional deep networks by at least 1980. Weng, Ahuja and Huang published Max-pooling in deep fully automatic learning networks by 1992. However, Apple, Baidu, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show considerable interest till after 2012. That is a delay of about 20 years. The two techniques above are not very difficult to understand. However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already been proved obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working principles of the brain. Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which companies are involved. However, the newly known brain principles have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Do our industry and public need another 20 years? Or more? Oct. 2011 a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good science, or work on robots and do good engineering. But if they try to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good engineering.? How long does it take for the industry and public to accept that that pessimistic view of the brain was no longer true even then? The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another. The following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural sciences do not address politics. Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky are among exceptions. The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the known brain principles. Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such shortsightedness in his book ?The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion?, although not in terms of brain computation. In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain self-wire beautifully according to your real-time experience (the genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for abstraction also largely depend on experience. Serotonin (e.g., caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like that, including the politicians in the questions below. Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires sophisticated automata theory in computer science (J. Weng, Brain as an Emergent Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems, IJIS, 2015). This automata brain model proposes that each brain is an automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic automata because it programs itself --- emergent. No traditional automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a brain automaton does. The automata brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, Cerebral Cortex, 1991). In particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of all categories? (J. Gallant et al. Nature Neuroscience, 2013) and that human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. Nature, 2010). The model raised questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both place and top-down attention context reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. and theoretically predicted by the automata brain model. Unfortunately, the automata brain model implies that all neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, Physica D, 1990). Automata theory deals with such capabilities. Understanding brain?s automata would enables us to see answers to a wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions. The automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire the brain. How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great opportunity that has opened up for them? How can they see the economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright minds for the new brain age? Has our government been prompt to properly respond to this modern call from the nature? How should our young generation act for to this new opportunity that is unfolding before their eyes? Is a currently narrowly defined academic degree sufficient for their career? Is it consistent with the U.S. people?s interest for the respected Mr. Barack Obama to have authorized the bombing of ISIS, sanctioned Russia because of what happened in Ukraine, rejected conversations with North Korea for what Mr. Kim Jong-un did, increased extra tax on Americans who create many jobs, and planed to tax Americans? overseas ventures which encourages them to drop U.S. Citizenship? Shortsighted? The same ISIS bombing question goes to the respected Mr. Fran?ois Hollande. What is the relationship between the armed attacks on the weekly Charllie Hebdo and the French ISIS bombing that killed many more innocent civilians as well as racial discrimination existing in France? Is it consistent with the Chinese people?s interest for the respected Mr. Jinping Xi to conduct anti-graft struggle using the Communist Party rules without the due process of the Chinese legal system and to bicker about islands with China?s neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, and Philippines that negatively affected economy and tourists? safety? Is it consistent with the Israelis people?s interest for the respected Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu to take his current approach to Israel?s Arab neighbors? How should all government officials take advantage of the new knowledge about their own brains? Should people in every country require them to learn brain theory and correct their feel-normal mistakes? We are from all walks of life and from all regions of the world. At present, we do not understand the scientific underpinnings of the material in this Manifesto, just like the public of Darwin?s time. However, these issues are relevant to the future of our nations and our lives. We declare to form the Brain Principles Society, in order to promote human communication and understanding of brain principles and their implications to human societies so as to improve the quality of life for all human beings on this planet. There is a lack of society that regards social sciences as part of brain science and considers automata theory to be relevant to brain science and social sciences. However, we are all governed by the same set of brain principles. --- end --- -John -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email: weng at cse.msu.edu URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yulei.frank.wu at gmail.com Sat Feb 21 10:32:23 2015 From: yulei.frank.wu at gmail.com (yulei.frank.wu at gmail.com) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 15:32:23 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: CFP : 15th International Conference on Algorithms and Architectures for Parallel Processing (ICA3PP 2015), Zhangjiajie, China, November 18-20, 2015 Message-ID: <201502211532232489792@gmail.com> [Please accept our apologies if you are receiving multiple copies of this Call for Papers.] Call for Papers & Call for Workshop Papers/Proposals for the 15th International Conference on Algorithms and Architectures for Parallel Processing (ICA3PP 2015) Organizers: Central South University, China Hunan University, China National University of Defense Technology, China Jishou University, China Technical Co-Sponsorship: National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Deakin University, Australia Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science School of Information Science and Engineering, Central South University, China School of Software, Central South University, China Venue & Dates: Zhangjiajie, China, November 18-20, 2015 Conference Website: http://trust.csu.edu.cn/conference/ICA3PP2015/ Co-Located Conference: The 21st IEEE Pacific Rim International Symposium on Dependable Computing (PRDC 2015) http://prdc.dependability.org/PRDC2015/ Introduction ICA3PP 2015 is the 15th event in the series of conferences started in 1995 that are devoted to algorithms and architectures for parallel processing. ICA3PP is now recognized as the main regular event of the world that is covering many dimensions of parallel algorithms and architectures, encompassing fundamental theoretical approaches, practical experimental projects, and commercial components and systems. As applications of computing systems have permeated in every aspect of our daily life, the power of computing system has become increasingly critical. This conference provides a forum for academics and practitioners from countries around the world to exchange ideas for improving the efficiency, performance, reliability, security and interoperability of computing systems and applications. Following the traditions of the previous successful ICA3PP conferences held in Hangzhou, Brisbane, Singapore, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Beijing, Cyprus, Taipei, Busan, Melbourne, Fukuoka, Vietri sul Mare and Dalian, ICA3PP 2015 will be held in Zhangjiajie, China. The objective of ICA3PP 2015 is to bring together researchers and practitioners from academia, industry and governments to advance the theories and technologies in parallel and distributed computing. ICA3PP 2015 will focus on two broad areas of parallel and distributed computing, i.e. architectures, algorithms and networks, and systems and applications. The conference of ICA3PP 2015 will be hosted by Central South University, China. Scope and Interests Track 1: Parallel and Distributed Architectures Chairs: Xiaofei Liao, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China Haikun Liu, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Stefano Giordano, Italian National Interuniversity Consortium for Telecommunications, Italy (1) Parallel Architectures (2) Parallel Programming Paradigms (3) Heterogeneous Systems (4) Service-Oriented Architectures Track 2: Software Systems and Programming Models Chairs: Xinjun Mao, National University of Defense Technology, China Sanaa Sharafeddine, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon Marco Vanneschi, University of Pisa, Italy (1) Cluster, Distributed & Parallel Operating Systems and Middleware (2) Multi-core Programming and Software Tools (3) Parallel I/O Systems and Storage Systems (4) Parallel and Distributed Databases Track 3: Distributed and Network-based Computing Chairs: Casimer DeCusatis, Marist College, US Qi Wang, University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom (1) Mobile and Wireless Computing (2) Cloud, Grid, and Services Computing (3) Web and Internet Computing (4) Interconnection Networks (5) Network Simulations Track 4: Big Data and its Applications Chairs: Shui Yu, Deakin University, Australia Jose M. Alcaraz Calero, University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom (1) Architecture, Networks and Systems of Big Data (2) Big Data Applications, Algorithms and Data Structures (3) Research and Development Trends of Big Data (4) Big Data Benchmarking, Interoperability, Monitoring, Security, Privacy and Management (5) Distributed Data Analytics and Feature Extraction (6) Big Data Interoperability and Orchestration (7) Parallel Processing for Big Data Track 5: Parallel and Distributed Algorithms Chairs: Dimitris A. Pados, The State University of New York at Buffalo, US Baoliu Ye, Nanjing University, China (1) Reliability and Fault-tolerant Computing (2) High-performance Scientific Computing (3) Parallel Algorithms (4) Resource Management and Scheduling Track 6: Applications of Parallel and Distributed Computing Chairs: Yu Chen, Binghamton University, State University of New York, US Michal Wozniak, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland (1) Multimedia in Parallel Computing (2) Parallel Computing in Bioinformatics (3) Parallel Machine Learning Algorithms (4) Industrial Applications (5) Industrial Applications Track 7: Service Dependability and Security in Distributed and Parallel Systems Chairs: Jun Zhang, Deakin University, Australia Antonio Ruiz Mart??nez, University of Murcia, Spain (1) Dependability Issues in Computer Networks and Communications (2)Dependability Issues in Distributed and Parallel Systems (3) Dependability of Software Defined Networks (4) Self- healing, Self-protecting and Fault-tolerant Systems (5) Network and Information Security (6) Trust, Security and Privacy in Cloud computing, Social Networks, and Internet of Things Track 8: Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical-Social Computing Chairs: Daqiang Zhang, Tongji University, China Huansheng Ning, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China (1) Social Computing and Analytics on Cyber-Physical Data (2) Smart Communities with Cyber-Physical Systems (3) Ubiquitous Sensing in Social Networks (4) Building Social Life Networks (5) Pervasive/Ubiquitous Control, Computing and Networking (6) Cyber-Physical Systems and Networks (7) Cyber-Physical Social Applications and Case Studies Track 9: Performance Modeling and Evaluation Chairs: Deze Zeng, China University of Geosciences, China Bofeng Zhang, Shanghai University, China (1) Performance of Parallel & Distributed Computing Systems (2) Software and Hardware Reliability, Testing, Verification and Validation (3) Tools and Environments for Parallel & Distributed Software Development (4) Optimization, Modeling and Simulation (5) Stochastic Analysis, Statistical Analysis and Simulation (6) Data Collection and Analysis (7) Planning, Scheduling and Quality-of-Service (8) Game theory, Economics and Control Theory Submission and Publication Information All papers need to be submitted electronically through the conference website (http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ica3pp2015) with PDF format. Submitted papers must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or a conference with proceedings. Papers must be clearly presented in English, must not exceed 14 pages or 20 pages with the over length charge in LNCS format, including tables, figures, references and appendixes. Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance, relevance, and clarity of presentation assessed by at least three reviewers. Submission of a paper should be regarded as a commitment that, should the paper be accepted, at least one of the authors will register and attend the conference to present the work. ICA3PP 2015 reserves the right to exclude a paper from distribution after the conference (e.g., removal from the digital library and index service), if the paper is not presented at the conference. All accepted papers will be published by Springer LNCS (EI Indexed). Two outstanding papers will be selected to receive the Best Paper Award. Distinguished papers, after further revisions, will be published in several SCI & EI indexed special issues (Pending). Important Dates (1) Workshop Proposal Deadline: March 1, 2015 (2) Paper Submission Deadline: May 15, 2015 (3) Author Notification: July 15, 2015 (4) Camera-ready Papers Due: September 15, 2015 (5) Conference Dates: November 18-20, 2015 General Co-Chairs Guojun Wang, Central South University, China Peter Mueller, IBM Zurich Research, Switzerland Qingping Zhou, Jishou University, China Program Co-Chairs Albert Zomaya, University of Sydney, Australia Gregorio Martinez, University of Murcia, Spain Kenli Li, Hunan University, China Program Vice Co-Chairs Xiaofei Liao, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China Haikun Liu, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Stefano Giordano, Italian National Interuniversity Consortium for Telecommunications, Italy Xinjun Mao, National University of Defense Technology, China Sanaa Sharafeddine, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon Marco Vanneschi, University of Pisa, Italy Casimer DeCusatis, Marist College, US Qi Wang, University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom Shui Yu, Deakin University, Australia Jose M. Alcaraz Calero, University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom Dimitris A. Pados, The State University of New York at Buffalo, US Baoliu Ye, Nanjing University, China Yu Chen, Binghamton University, State University of New York, US Michal Wozniak, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland Jun Zhang, Deakin University, Australia Antonio Ruiz Mart??nez, University of Murcia, Spain Daqiang Zhang, Tongji University, China Huansheng Ning, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China Deze Zeng, China University of Geosciences, China Bofeng Zhang, Shanghai University, China Program Committee Please check the conference website for detail. Steering Co-Chairs Andrzej Goscinski, Deakin University, Australia Yi Pan, Georgia State University, USA Yang Xiang, Deakin University, Australia Workshop Co-Chairs Mianxiong Dong, Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan Ryan K. L. Ko, The University of Waikato, New Zealand Md. Zakirul Alam Bhuiyan, Central South University, China Publicity Co-Chairs Carlos Becker Westphall, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil Yulei Wu, The University of Exeter, UK Christian Callegari, University of Pisa, Italy Kuan-Ching Li, Providence University, Taiwan James J. (Jong Hyuk) Park, SeoulTech, Korea Publication Co-Chairs Jin Zheng, Central South University, China Wenjun Jiang, Hunan University, China Finance Co-Chairs Pin Liu, Central South University, China Wang Yang, Central South University, China Local Arrangement Co-Chairs Fang Qi, Central South University, China Qin Liu, Hunan University, China Hongzhi Xu, Jishou University, China Secretariats Zhe Tang, Central South University, China Feng Wang, Central South University, China Webmaster Xiangdong Lee, Central South University, China ---- P.S. ---- Call for Workshop Papers in conjunction with ICA3PP 2015 (More Workshops to be added later...) (1) The Sixth International Workshop on Trust, Security and Privacy for Big Data (TrustData 2015) http://trust.csu.edu.cn/conference/TrustData2015/ (2) The Fifth International Symposium on Trust, Security and Privacy for Emerging Applications (TSP 2015) http://trust.csu.edu.cn/conference/tsp2015/ (3) The Third International Workshop on Network Optimization and Performance Evaluation - (NOPE 2015) http://trust.csu.edu.cn/conference/NOPE2015/ (4) The Second International Symposium on Sensor-Cloud Systems (SCS 2015) http://trust.csu.edu.cn/conference/SCS2015/ (5) The First International Symposium on Dependability in Sensor, Cloud, and Big Data Systems and Applications (DependSys 2015) http://trust.csu.edu.cn/conference/DependSys2015/ (6) The 2015 International Workshop on Security and Privacy Protection in Computer and Network Systems (SPPCN 2015) ---- Call for Workshop Proposals for the 15th International Conference on Algorithms and Architectures for Parallel Processing (ICA3PP 2015) The ICA3PP 2015 workshops provide vibrant opportunities for researchers and industry practitioners to share their research experience, original research results and practical development experiences on specific new challenges and emerging issues. The organizers and chairs of the workshop shall have responsibility of the call for papers, forming program committee, review and selection of papers as well as planning the workshop program. The registration fee for workshops will be determined by the conference (not the workshop itself). The fees will be paid to the conference, and the conference will provide workshop facilities including the working notes printing, the meeting room, coffee break, lunch, proceedings, etc. The proceedings of the ICA3PP 2015 workshops will be published by Springer LNCS series (Indexed by EI). Prospective workshop organizers should send a proposal containing the following information to ICA3PP 2015 Workshop Co-Chairs: - Title of the workshop (Full name and Abbreviation) - Objectives, scope, and contribution to the main conference (up to 1 page) - Short bio of the key organizers and their experience on conference/workshop organization - Procedure for selecting papers, plans for dissemination (for example, how to advertise and special issues of journals), and the expected number of participants - A tentative list of program committee members - The workshop website URL address Approved workshops should strictly follow the important dates, particularly the paper status notification and camera-ready dates. The submission deadline could be later than that of the main conference. But a workshop should have sufficient time, say 5-7 weeks, for generating peer reviews. Generally, each paper should receive 3 peer reviews. We look forward to your stimulating proposals and contributions to ICA3PP 2015 workshops. A workshop proposal should be submitted to workshops co-chairs via email by March 1, 2015: { mx DOT dong AT ieee DOT org; ryan AT waikato DOT ac DOT nz; zakirulalam AT gmail DOT com } Contact Please email inquiries concerning ICA3PP 2015 to: Prof. Guojun Wang: csgjwang AT gmail DOT com and the conference organizers (ICA3PP2015 AT gmail DOT com). Homepage: http://trust.csu.edu.cn/faculty/~csgjwang/ Copyright @ Trusted Computing Institute, CSU -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mdhamala at phy-astr.gsu.edu Sat Feb 21 14:13:24 2015 From: mdhamala at phy-astr.gsu.edu (Mukesh Dhamala) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 14:13:24 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: tenure-track assistant professor position in neuroscience at Georgia State University Message-ID: A neuroscience faculty position at Georgia State University ------------------------------------------------------ The Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University (GSU) invites applications for a tenure track position at the rank of Assistant Professor pending budgetary approval. The ideal candidate will establish a research program that synergizes with existing key strengths in the Neuroscience Institute in behavioral neuroscience, computational neuroscience, neuroendocrinology, and neuroplasticity. Preference will be given to researchers with expertise and a publication record using state-of-the art methodologies. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. or M.D. in a discipline related to neuroscience and should demonstrate the ability to establish a vigorous, externally funded research program and to mentor Ph.D. graduate students. Excellence in teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels is also expected. Candidates should have an outstanding record of accomplishment and a strong desire for research collaboration. The successful candidate would become a core member of the Neuroscience Institute, which is a thriving department housed in the Petit Science Center that provides world-class facilities and an interdisciplinary and collaborative research environment (see http://neuroscience.gsu.edu). A highly competitive salary, start-up funds and laboratory space will be provided. Applications should include a full curriculum vita, names and contact information for three references, and statements of research interests and teaching philosophy. Applications can be submitted either electronically in PDF format to ni-selection-committee at gsu.edu or in hard copy to: Chair of the Neuroscience Institute Faculty Search Committee, Neuroscience Institute, PO Box 5030, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-50310. Application processing will begin immediately and the search will remain open until the positions are filled. Georgia State University, a Research University of the University System of Georgia, is an EEO/AA employer and encourages applications from women and underrepresented minority groups. Offers of employment will be conditional upon background verification. ------------------------------------------------ Mukesh Dhamala, Ph. D. Associate Professor Department of Physics and Astronomy Georgia State, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA Phone: (404) 413-6043 Fax: (404) 413-6025 mdhamala at gsu.edu http://www.phy-astr.gsu.edu/dhamala/dhamala.html ------------------------------------------------ From weng at cse.msu.edu Sat Feb 21 15:26:26 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 15:26:26 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto; with links In-Reply-To: <54E8CFA3.60001@cse.msu.edu> References: <54E8CFA3.60001@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54E8E9F2.1080601@cse.msu.edu> Dear Colleagues: The BMI mailing list has started a discussion on this manifesto. If you are interested in this subject, you can subscribe to the BMI mailing list at: http://lists.cse.msu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bmi Please feel free to forward this message to your colleagues and friends. ----- draft version 5 ------ The Brain Principles Manifesto (Draft) Feb. 21, 2015 Historically, public acceptance of science was slow. For example, Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction. It took about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the debate on evolution still goes on today. Is the public acceptance of science faster in modern days? Not necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to communicate. The primary reason is still the same but much more severe --- the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any single person. For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry. Kunihiko Fukushima introduced Convolutional deep networks by at least 1980. Weng, Ahuja and Huang published Max-pooling in deep fully automatic learning networks by 1992. However, Apple, Baidu, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show considerable interest till after 2012. That is a delay of about 20 years. The two techniques above are not very difficult to understand. However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already been proved obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working principles of the brain. Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which companies are involved. However, the newly known brain principles have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Do our industry and public need another 20 years? Or more? Oct. 2011 a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good science, or work on robots and do good engineering. But if they try to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good engineering.? How long does it take for the industry and public to accept that that pessimistic view of the brain was no longer true even then? The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another. The following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural sciences do not address politics. Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky are among exceptions. The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the known brain principles. Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such shortsightedness in his book ?The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion ?, although not in terms of brain computation. In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain self-wire beautifully according to your real-time experience (the genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for abstraction also largely depend on experience. Serotonin (e.g., caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like that, including the politicians in the questions below. Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires sophisticated automata theory in computer science (J. Weng, Brain as an Emergent Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems , IJIS, 2015). This automata brain model proposes that each brain is an automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic automata because it programs itself --- emergent. No traditional automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a brain automaton does. The automata brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, Cerebral Cortex, 1991). In particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of all categories? (J. Gallant et al. Nature Neuroscience, 2013) and that human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. Nature, 2010). The model raised questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both place and top-down attention context reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. and theoretically predicted by the automata brain model. Unfortunately, the automata brain model implies that all neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, Physica D, 1990). Automata theory deals with such capabilities. Understanding brain?s automata would enables us to see answers to a wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions. The automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire the brain. How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great opportunity that has opened up for them? How can they see the economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright minds for the new brain age? Has our government been prompt to properly respond to this modern call from the nature? How should our young generation act for to this new opportunity that is unfolding before their eyes? Is a currently narrowly defined academic degree sufficient for their career? Is it consistent with the U.S. people?s interest for the respected Mr. Barack Obama to have authorized the bombing of ISIS, sanctioned Russia because of what happened in Ukraine, rejected conversations with North Korea for what Mr. Kim Jong-un did, increased extra tax on Americans who create many jobs, and planed to tax Americans? overseas ventures which encourages them to drop U.S. Citizenship? Shortsighted? The same ISIS bombing question goes to the respected Mr. Fran?ois Hollande. What is the relationship between the armed attacks on the weekly Charllie Hebdo and the French ISIS bombing that killed many more innocent civilians as well as racial discrimination existing in France? Is it consistent with the Chinese people?s interest for the respected Mr. Jinping Xi to conduct anti-graft struggle using the Communist Party rules without the due process of the Chinese legal system and to bicker about islands with China?s neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, and Philippines that negatively affected economy and tourists? safety? Is it consistent with the Israelis people?s interest for the respected Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu to take his current approach to Israel?s Arab neighbors? How should all government officials take advantage of the new knowledge about their own brains? Should people in every country require them to learn brain theory and correct their feel-normal mistakes? We are from all walks of life and from all regions of the world. At present, we do not understand the scientific underpinnings of the material in this Manifesto, just like the public of Darwin?s time. However, these issues are relevant to the future of our nations and our lives. We declare to form the Brain Principles Society, in order to promote human communication and understanding of brain principles and their implications to human societies so as to improve the quality of life for all human beings on this planet. There is a lack of society that regards social sciences as part of brain science and considers automata theory to be relevant to brain science and social sciences. However, we are all governed by the same set of brain principles. --- end --- -John -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email: weng at cse.msu.edu URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From grlmc at urv.cat Sat Feb 21 16:24:50 2015 From: grlmc at urv.cat (GRLMC) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 22:24:50 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: InfoSec 2015: registration deadline 3 March Message-ID: <1D0837562BFD4224970C422AD562A183@Carlos1> *To be removed from our mailing list, please respond to this message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line* ********************************************************************** INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL ON INFORMATION SECURITY InfoSec 2015 Bilbao, Spain (please notice the change of location) July 6-10, 2015 Organized by Deusto University Rovira i Virgili University http://grammars.grlmc.com/InfoSec2015/ ********************************************************************** --- 3rd registration deadline: March 3, 2015 --- ********************************************************************** AIM: InfoSec 2015 will be a major research training event addressed to graduates and postgraduates in the first steps of their academic career. With a global scope, it aims at updating them about the most recent advances in the critical and fast developing area of information security, which covers a large spectrum of current exciting academic research and industrial innovation. It refers to procedures to defend information from unauthorized access, use, modification, recording or destruction, with a critical role to play in order to avoid or minimize risks in the digital world. Renowned academics and industry pioneers will lecture and share their views with the audience. Most information security subareas will be displayed, namely: computer security, cryptography, privacy, cyber security, mobile security, network security, world wide web security, fraud prevention, data protection, etc. Main challenges of information security will be identified through 4 keynote lectures, 33 six-hour courses, and 1 round table, which will tackle the most active and promising topics. The organizers believe outstanding speakers will attract the brightest and most motivated students. Interaction will be a main component of the event. ADDRESSED TO: Graduates and postgraduates from around the world. There are no formal pre-requisites in terms of academic degrees. However, since there will be differences in the course levels, specific background knowledge may be required for some of them. InfoSec 2015 is also appropriate for more senior people who want to keep themselves updated on recent developments and future trends. They will surely find it fruitful to listen and discuss with major researchers, industry leaders and innovators. REGIME: In addition to keynotes, 4 courses will run in parallel during the whole event. Participants will be able to freely choose the courses they will be willing to attend as well as to move from one to another. VENUE: InfoSec 2015 will take place in Bilbao, the capital of the Basque Country region, famous for its gastronomy and the seat of the Guggenheim Museum. The venue will be: DeustoTech, School of Engineering Deusto University Avda. Universidades, 24 48014 Bilbao KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Jan Camenisch (IBM Research, Zurich), Privacy in a Digital World: a Lost Cause? Hao Chen (University of California, Davis), (In)security of Mobile Apps in Untrusted Networks Jennifer Seberry (University of Wollongong), The Global Village: the Beginning of the Need for Computer Security [via videoconference] Gene Tsudik (University of California, Irvine), Off-line Proximity-based Social Networking PROFESSORS AND COURSES: N. Asokan (Aalto University), [intermediate] Mobile Security: Overview of Hardware Platform Security and Considerations of Usability Jan Camenisch (IBM Research, Zurich), [introductory/intermediate] Technologies to Protect Online Privacy Hao Chen (University of California, Davis), [intermediate/advanced] Security of the Mobile App Ecosystem Nicolas T. Courtois (University College London), [introductory/intermediate] Security of ECDSA in Bitcoin and Crypto Currency Claude Cr?peau (McGill University, Montr?al), [introductory/intermediate] Quantum Computation, Cryptography and Cryptanalysis Joan Daemen (ST Microelectronics Belgium, Diegem), [introductory/intermediate] Sponge Functions, Keccak and SHA-3 Sajal K. Das (Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla), [intermediate/advanced] Securing Cyber-Physical Systems: Challenges and Opportunities Sabrina De Capitani di Vimercati (University of Milan), [introductory/intermediate] Security and Privacy in the Cloud Herv? Debar (T?l?com SudParis), [introductory/intermediate] Detection and Reaction to Attacks: from Intrusion Detection to Cyber-Defense David Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), [introductory/intermediate] Secure Multiparty Computation: Techniques, Theory, and Tools for Building Privacy-Preserving Applications Rosario Gennaro (City University of New York), [intermediate/advanced] A Survey of Verifiable Delegation of Computation Trent Jaeger (Pennsylvania State University, University Park), [intermediate/advanced] How to Add Security Enforcement to Legacy Programs Somesh Jha (University of Wisconsin, Madison), [intermediate/advanced] Analysis Techniques in Information Security Antoine Joux (Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris), [introductory/intermediate] Discrete Logarithms in Finite Fields Marc Joye (Technicolor R&I, Los Altos), [introductory/intermediate] Secure Public-Key Cryptosystems Lars R. Knudsen (Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby), [introductory/intermediate] Block Ciphers: the Workhorses in Cryptography Songwu Lu (University of California, Los Angeles), [introductory/intermediate] Cellular Network Security: Issues and Defenses Catherine Meadows (Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC), [introductory/intermediate] Formal Analysis of Cryptographic Protocols Nasir Memon (New York University), [introductory/intermediate] User Authentication Ethan L. Miller (University of California, Santa Cruz), [intermediate/advanced] Securing Stored Data in a Connected World Stefano Paraboschi (University of Bergamo), [introductory/intermediate] Data Protection in Network-enabled Systems Bart Preneel (KU Leuven), [introductory/intermediate] Cryptology: State of the Art and Research Challenges Jean-Jacques Quisquater (Catholic University of Louvain), [introductory/intermediate] The History of RSA: from Babylon to Smart Cards Shantanu Rane (Palo Alto Research Center), [introductory/intermediate] Privacy-preserving Data Analytics: Problems, Solutions and Challenges Mark Ryan (University of Birmingham), [introductory/intermediate] Designing Security Protocols: Electronic Voting, and Electronic Mail Rei Safavi-Naini (University of Calgary), [introductory/intermediate] Information-theoretically Secure Communication Stefan Saroiu (Microsoft Research, Redmond), [advanced] Protecting Data on Smartphones and Tablets Using Trusted Computing Milind Tambe (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), [introductory/intermediate] Introduction to the Emerging Science of Security Games Gene Tsudik (University of California, Irvine), [intermediate/advanced] Security and Privacy in Candidate Future Internet Architectures Yang Xiao (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa), [introductory/advanced] Security in Smart Grids Wenyuan Xu (University of South Carolina, Columbia), [intermediate] Security and Privacy Analysis of Embedded Systems Yuliang Zheng (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), [introductory] Cryptography and the Future of Money ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Adrian Horia Dediu Carlos Mart?n-Vide (co-chair) Borja Sanz (co-chair) Florentina Lilica Voicu REGISTRATION: The registration form can be found at: http://grammars.grlmc.com/InfoSec2015/registration.php The selection of up to 8 courses requested in the registration template is only tentative and non-binding. For the sake of organization, it will be helpful to have an approximation of the respective demand for each course. Since the capacity of the venue is limited, registration requests will be processed on a first come first served basis. The registration period will be closed and the on-line registration facility disabled when the capacity of the venue will be complete. It is much recommended to register prior to the event. FEES: Fees are a flat rate covering the attendance to all courses during the week. There are several early registration deadlines. Fees depend on the registration deadline. ACCOMMODATION: Suggestions of accommodation will be provided in due time. CERTIFICATE: Participants will be delivered a certificate of attendance. QUESTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION: florentinalilica.voicu at urv.cat ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Deusto University Rovira i Virgili University --- Este mensaje no contiene virus ni malware porque la protecci?n de avast! Antivirus est? activa. http://www.avast.com From weng at cse.msu.edu Sat Feb 21 18:30:07 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 18:30:07 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto Message-ID: <54E914FF.6000501@cse.msu.edu> Is the following material too ahead of time for this connectionist community? Please feel free to reply to all with your comments. Some of us like to get your inputs to shape the text. ------ Version 5 ----- The Brain Principles Manifesto (Draft) Historically, public acceptance of science was slow. For example, Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction. It took about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the debate on evolution still goes on today. Is the public acceptance of science faster in modern days? Not necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to communicate. The primary reason is still the same but much more severe --- the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any single person. For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry. Kunihiko Fukushima introduced Convolutional deep networks by at least 1980. Weng, Ahuja and Huang published Max-pooling in deep fully automatic learning networks by 1992. However, Apple, Baidu, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show considerable interest till after 2012. That is a delay of about 20 years. The two techniques above are not very difficult to understand. However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already been proved obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working principles of the brain. Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which companies are involved. However, the newly known brain principles have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Do our industry and public need another 20 years? Or more? Oct. 2011 a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good science, or work on robots and do good engineering. But if they try to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good engineering.? How long does it take for the industry and public to accept that that pessimistic view of the brain was no longer true even then? The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another. The following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural sciences do not address politics. Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky are among exceptions. The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the known brain principles. Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such shortsightedness in his book ?The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion ?, although not in terms of brain computation. In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain self-wire beautifully according to your real-time experience (the genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for abstraction also largely depend on experience. Serotonin (e.g., caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like that, including the politicians in the questions below. Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires sophisticated automata theory in computer science (J. Weng, Brain as an Emergent Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems , IJIS, 2015). This automata brain model proposes that each brain is an automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic automata because it programs itself --- emergent. No traditional automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a brain automaton does. The automata brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, Cerebral Cortex, 1991). In particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of all categories? (J. Gallant et al. Nature Neuroscience, 2013) and that human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. Nature, 2010). The model raised questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both place and top-down attention context reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. and theoretically predicted by the automata brain model. Unfortunately, the automata brain model implies that all neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, Physica D, 1990). Automata theory deals with such capabilities. Understanding brain?s automata would enables us to see answers to a wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions. The automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire the brain. How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great opportunity that has opened up for them? How can they see the economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright minds for the new brain age? Has our government been prompt to properly respond to this modern call from the nature? How should our young generation act for to this new opportunity that is unfolding before their eyes? Is a currently narrowly defined academic degree sufficient for their career? Is it consistent with the U.S. people?s interest for the respected Mr. Barack Obama to have authorized the bombing of ISIS, sanctioned Russia because of what happened in Ukraine, rejected conversations with North Korea for what Mr. Kim Jong-un did, increased extra tax on Americans who create many jobs, and planed to tax Americans? overseas ventures which encourages them to drop U.S. Citizenship? Shortsighted? The same ISIS bombing question goes to the respected Mr. Fran?ois Hollande. What is the relationship between the armed attacks on the weekly Charllie Hebdo and the French ISIS bombing that killed many more innocent civilians as well as racial discrimination existing in France? Is it consistent with the Chinese people?s interest for the respected Mr. Jinping Xi to conduct anti-graft struggle using the Communist Party rules without the due process of the Chinese legal system and to bicker about islands with China?s neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, and Philippines that negatively affected economy and tourists? safety? Is it consistent with the Israelis people?s interest for the respected Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu to take his current approach to Israel?s Arab neighbors? How should all government officials take advantage of the new knowledge about their own brains? Should people in every country require them to learn brain theory and correct their feel-normal mistakes? We are from all walks of life and from all regions of the world. At present, we do not understand the scientific underpinnings of the material in this Manifesto, just like the public of Darwin?s time. However, these issues are relevant to the future of our nations and our lives. We declare to form the Brain Principles Society, in order to promote human communication and understanding of brain principles and their implications to human societies so as to improve the quality of life for all human beings on this planet. There is a lack of society that regards social sciences as part of brain science and considers automata theory to be relevant to brain science and social sciences. However, we are all governed by the same set of brain principles. --- end --- -John -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email: weng at cse.msu.edu URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Sat Feb 21 19:26:37 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:26:37 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto In-Reply-To: References: <54E914FF.6000501@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54E9223D.8000400@cse.msu.edu> Dear Shimon, thank you so much for the careful reading. As you suggested, I was about to add "respected" before Mr. Kim Jong-un, but I felt a little awkward :) as honestly he lacks knowledge. Yes, I will add "respected" and resubmit. -John On 2/21/15 6:42 PM, Shimon Edelman wrote: >> On Feb 21, 2015, at 6:30 PM, Juyang Weng wrote: >> >> Is the following material too ahead of time for this connectionist community? Please feel free to reply to all with your comments. Some of us like to get your inputs to shape the text. > Interpolating from the rest of the text, it looks like there?s a missing attribute word (?respected?, just in front of "Mr. Kim Jong-un?) in this version. > > ?Shimon > > Shimon Edelman > Professor, Department of Psychology, 232 Uris Hall > Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-7601 > http://kybele.psych.cornell.edu/~edelman > @shimonedelman > -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email: weng at cse.msu.edu URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- From weng at cse.msu.edu Sat Feb 21 19:31:57 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:31:57 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto In-Reply-To: <54E914FF.6000501@cse.msu.edu> References: <54E914FF.6000501@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54E9237D.8030003@cse.msu.edu> Dear Colleagues, Is the following material too ahead of time for this connectionist community? Please feel free to reply to all with your comments. Some of us like to get your inputs to shape the text. ------ Version 5 ----- The Brain Principles Manifesto (Draft) Historically, public acceptance of science was slow. For example, Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction. It took about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the debate on evolution still goes on today. Is the public acceptance of science faster in modern days? Not necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to communicate. The primary reason is still the same but much more severe --- the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any single person. For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry. Kunihiko Fukushima introduced Convolutional deep networks by at least 1980. Weng, Ahuja and Huang published Max-pooling in deep fully automatic learning networks by 1992. However, Apple, Baidu, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show considerable interest till after 2012. That is a delay of about 20 years. The two techniques above are not very difficult to understand. However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already been proved obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working principles of the brain. Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which companies are involved. However, the newly known brain principles have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Do our industry and public need another 20 years? Or more? Oct. 2011 a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good science, or work on robots and do good engineering. But if they try to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good engineering.? How long does it take for the industry and public to accept that that pessimistic view of the brain was no longer true even then? The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another. The following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural sciences do not address politics. Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky are among exceptions. The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the known brain principles. Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such shortsightedness in his book ?The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion ?, although not in terms of brain computation. In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain self-wire beautifully according to your real-time experience (the genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for abstraction also largely depend on experience. Serotonin (e.g., caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like that, including the politicians in the questions below. Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires sophisticated automata theory in computer science (J. Weng, Brain as an Emergent Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems , IJIS, 2015). This automata brain model proposes that each brain is an automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic automata because it programs itself --- emergent. No traditional automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a brain automaton does. The automata brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, Cerebral Cortex, 1991). In particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of all categories? (J. Gallant et al. Nature Neuroscience, 2013) and that human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. Nature, 2010). The model raised questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both place and top-down attention context reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. and theoretically predicted by the automata brain model. Unfortunately, the automata brain model implies that all neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, Physica D, 1990). Automata theory deals with such capabilities. Understanding brain?s automata would enables us to see answers to a wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions. The automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire the brain. How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great opportunity that has opened up for them? How can they see the economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright minds for the new brain age? Has our government been prompt to properly respond to this modern call from the nature? How should our young generation act for to this new opportunity that is unfolding before their eyes? Is a currently narrowly defined academic degree sufficient for their career? Is it consistent with the U.S. people?s interest for the respected Mr. Barack Obama to have authorized the bombing of ISIS, sanctioned Russia because of what happened in Ukraine, rejected conversations with North Korea for what the respected Mr. Kim Jong-un did, increased extra tax on Americans who create many jobs, and planed to tax Americans? overseas ventures which encourages them to drop U.S. Citizenship? Shortsighted? The same ISIS bombing question goes to the respected Mr. Fran?ois Hollande. What is the relationship between the armed attacks on the weekly Charllie Hebdo and the French ISIS bombing that killed many more innocent civilians as well as racial discrimination existing in France? Is it consistent with the Chinese people?s interest for the respected Mr. Jinping Xi to conduct anti-graft struggle using the Communist Party rules without the due process of the Chinese legal system and to bicker about islands with China?s neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, and Philippines that negatively affected economy and tourists? safety? Is it consistent with the Israelis people?s interest for the respected Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu to take his current approach to Israel?s Arab neighbors? How should all government officials take advantage of the new knowledge about their own brains? Should people in every country require them to learn brain theory and correct their feel-normal mistakes? We are from all walks of life and from all regions of the world. At present, we do not understand the scientific underpinnings of the material in this Manifesto, just like the public of Darwin?s time. However, these issues are relevant to the future of our nations and our lives. We declare to form the Brain Principles Society, in order to promote human communication and understanding of brain principles and their implications to human societies so as to improve the quality of life for all human beings on this planet. There is a lack of society that regards social sciences as part of brain science and considers automata theory to be relevant to brain science and social sciences. However, we are all governed by the same set of brain principles. --- end --- -John -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email:weng at cse.msu.edu URL:http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Sat Feb 21 19:46:13 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:46:13 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto In-Reply-To: <54E9237D.8030003@cse.msu.edu> References: <54E914FF.6000501@cse.msu.edu> <54E9237D.8030003@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54E926D5.6010809@cse.msu.edu> Sorry, please use the following version. -John On 2/21/15 7:31 PM, Juyang Weng wrote: > > Dear Colleagues, > > Is the following material too ahead of time for this connectionist > community? Please feel free to reply to all with your comments. > Some of us like to get your inputs to shape the text. > > ------ Version 5 ----- > The Brain Principles Manifesto > (Draft) > > Historically, public acceptance of science was slow. For example, > Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to > publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction. It took > about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the > general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the > debate on evolution still goes on today. > > Is the public acceptance of science faster in modern days? Not > necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to > communicate. The primary reason is still the same but much more > severe --- the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and > the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any > single person. > > For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist > computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry. > Kunihiko Fukushima introduced Convolutional deep networks by at least > 1980. Weng, Ahuja and Huang published Max-pooling in deep fully > automatic learning networks by 1992. However, Apple, Baidu, Google, > Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show > considerable interest till after 2012. That is a delay of about 20 > years. The two techniques above are not very difficult to > understand. However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already > been proved obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working > principles of the brain. > > Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of > two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which > companies are involved. However, the newly known brain principles > have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only > vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, > regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and > how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Do our industry and public > need another 20 years? Or more? > > Oct. 2011 a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly > wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good > science, or work on robots and do good engineering. But if they try > to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good > engineering.? How long does it take for the industry and public to > accept that that pessimistic view of the brain was no longer true even > then? > > The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring > fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and > societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another. The > following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that > benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural > sciences do not address politics. Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky > are among exceptions. > > The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is > fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the > known brain principles. Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such > shortsightedness in his book ?The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are > Divided by Politics and Religion > ?, > although not in terms of brain computation. > > In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain > self-wire beautifully according to your real-time experience (the > genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for > abstraction also largely depend on experience. Serotonin (e.g., > caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural > transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but > you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make > mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like > that, including the politicians in the questions below. > > Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires sophisticated > automata theory in computer science (J. Weng, Brain as an Emergent > Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems > , > IJIS, 2015). This automata brain model proposes that each brain is an > automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic > automata because it programs itself --- emergent. No traditional > automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a > brain automaton does. > > The automata brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely > record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural > anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, Cerebral Cortex, 1991). In > particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between > `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of > all categories? (J. Gallant et al. Nature Neuroscience, 2013) and that > human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the > medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. Nature, 2010). The model raised > questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory > information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in > Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both place and > top-down attention context reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. > and theoretically predicted by the automata brain model. > > Unfortunately, the automata brain model implies that all > neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to > understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in > automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems > and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the > capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining > and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, Physica D, 1990). Automata theory > deals with such capabilities. > > Understanding brain?s automata would enables us to see answers to a > wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. > We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions. The > automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or > wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire > the brain. > > How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great > opportunity that has opened up for them? How can they see the > economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? > > How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright > minds for the new brain age? Has our government been prompt to > properly respond to this modern call from the nature? > > How should our young generation act for to this new opportunity that > is unfolding before their eyes? Is a currently narrowly defined > academic degree sufficient for their career? > > Is it consistent with the U.S. people?s interest for the respected Mr. > Barack Obama to have authorized the bombing of ISIS, sanctioned Russia > because of what happened in Ukraine, rejected conversations with North > Korea for what the respected Mr. Kim Jong-un did, increased extra tax > on Americans who create many jobs, and planed to tax Americans? > overseas ventures which encourages them to drop U.S. Citizenship? > Shortsighted? > > The same ISIS bombing question goes to the respected Mr. Fran?ois > Hollande. What is the relationship between the armed attacks on the > weekly Charllie Hebdo and the French ISIS bombing that killed many > more innocent civilians as well as racial discrimination existing in > France? > > Is it consistent with the Chinese people?s interest for the respected > Mr. Jinping Xi to conduct anti-graft struggle using the Communist > Party rules without the due process of the Chinese legal system and to > bicker about islands with China?s neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, and > Philippines that negatively affected economy and tourists? safety? > > Is it consistent with the Israelis people?s interest for the respected > Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu to take his current approach to Israel?s Arab > neighbors? > > How should all government officials take advantage of the new > knowledge about their own brains? Should people in every country > require them to learn brain theory and correct their feel-normal mistakes? > > We are from all walks of life and from all regions of the world. At > present, we do not understand the scientific underpinnings of the > material in this Manifesto, just like the public of Darwin?s time. > However, these issues are relevant to the future of our nations and > our lives. We declare to form the Brain Principles Society, in order > to promote human communication and understanding of brain principles > and their implications to human societies so as to improve the quality > of life for all human beings on this planet. There is a lack of > society that regards social sciences as part of brain science and > considers automata theory to be relevant to brain science and social > sciences. However, we are all governed by the same set of brain > principles. > > --- end --- > > -John > -- > -- > Juyang (John) Weng, Professor > Department of Computer Science and Engineering > MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program > 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 > Michigan State University > East Lansing, MI 48824 USA > Tel: 517-353-4388 > Fax: 517-432-1061 > Email:weng at cse.msu.edu > URL:http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ > ---------------------------------------------- > > > -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email: weng at cse.msu.edu URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Sat Feb 21 19:52:23 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:52:23 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto In-Reply-To: <54E9237D.8030003@cse.msu.edu> References: <54E9237D.8030003@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54E92847.4070208@cse.msu.edu> Dear Colleagues, Is the following material too ahead of time for this connectionist community? Please feel free to reply to all with your comments. Some of us like to get your inputs to shape the text. I hope that this email discussion is informative to all those who subscribe to this mailing list. ------ Version 5 ----- The Brain Principles Manifesto (Draft) Historically, public acceptance of science was slow. For example, Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction. It took about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the debate on evolution still goes on today. Is the public acceptance of science faster in modern days? Not necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to communicate. The primary reason is still the same but much more severe --- the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any single person. For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry. Kunihiko Fukushima introduced Convolutional deep networks by at least 1980. Weng, Ahuja and Huang published Max-pooling in deep fully automatic learning networks by 1992. However, Apple, Baidu, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show considerable interest till after 2012. That is a delay of about 20 years. The two techniques above are not very difficult to understand. However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already been proved obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working principles of the brain. Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which companies are involved. However, the newly known brain principles have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Why? This is because all these static training sets misled the participants by making it impractical to conduct serious autonomous object segmentation that our human babies learn to perform through interaction with the real physical world. Do our industry and public need another 20 years? Or more? Oct. 2011 a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good science, or work on robots and do good engineering. But if they try to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good engineering.? How long does it take for the industry and public to accept that that pessimistic view of the brain was no longer true even then? The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another. The following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural sciences do not address politics. Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky are among exceptions. The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the known brain principles. Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such shortsightedness in his book ?The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion ?, although not in terms of brain computation. In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain self-wire beautifully according to your real-time experience (the genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for abstraction also largely depend on experience. Serotonin (e.g., caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like that, including the politicians in the questions below. Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires sophisticated automata theory in computer science (J. Weng, Brain as an Emergent Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems , IJIS, 2015). This automata brain model proposes that each brain is an automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic automata because it programs itself --- emergent. No traditional automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a brain automaton does. The automata brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, Cerebral Cortex, 1991). In particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of all categories? (J. Gallant et al. Nature Neuroscience, 2013) and that human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. Nature, 2010). The model raised questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both place and top-down attention context reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. and theoretically predicted by the automata brain model. Unfortunately, the automata brain model implies that all neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, Physica D, 1990). Automata theory deals with such capabilities. Understanding brain?s automata would enables us to see answers to a wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions. The automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire the brain. How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great opportunity that has opened up for them? How can they see the economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright minds for the new brain age? Has our government been prompt to properly respond to this modern call from the nature? How should our young generation act for to this new opportunity that is unfolding before their eyes? Is a currently narrowly defined academic degree sufficient for their career? Is it consistent with the U.S. people?s interest for the respected Mr. Barack Obama to have authorized the bombing of ISIS, sanctioned Russia because of what happened in Ukraine, rejected conversations with North Korea for what the respected Mr. Kim Jong-un did, increased extra tax on Americans who create many jobs, and planed to tax Americans? overseas ventures which encourages them to drop U.S. Citizenship? Shortsighted? The same ISIS bombing question goes to the respected Mr. Fran?ois Hollande. What is the relationship between the armed attacks on the weekly Charllie Hebdo and the French ISIS bombing that killed many more innocent civilians as well as racial discrimination existing in France? Is it consistent with the Chinese people?s interest for the respected Mr. Jinping Xi to conduct anti-graft struggle using the Communist Party rules without the due process of the Chinese legal system and to bicker about islands with China?s neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, and Philippines that negatively affected economy and tourists? safety? Is it consistent with the Israelis people?s interest for the respected Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu to take his current approach to Israel?s Arab neighbors? How should all government officials take advantage of the new knowledge about their own brains? Should people in every country require them to learn brain theory and correct their feel-normal mistakes? We are from all walks of life and from all regions of the world. At present, we do not understand the scientific underpinnings of the material in this Manifesto, just like the public of Darwin?s time. However, these issues are relevant to the future of our nations and our lives. We declare to form the Brain Principles Society, in order to promote human communication and understanding of brain principles and their implications to human societies so as to improve the quality of life for all human beings on this planet. There is a lack of society that regards social sciences as part of brain science and considers automata theory to be relevant to brain science and social sciences. However, we are all governed by the same set of brain principles. --- end --- -John -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email:weng at cse.msu.edu URL:http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Sat Feb 21 21:48:39 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 21:48:39 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto In-Reply-To: <54E92847.4070208@cse.msu.edu> References: <54E9237D.8030003@cse.msu.edu> <54E92847.4070208@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54E94387.1040407@cse.msu.edu> Dear Colleagues, Sorry, I did not have "respected" before Mr. Kim Jong-un in my earlier submission to the list. But the note from the moderator of the mailing list prompted me to think twice and I reluctantly added "respected" too just to see the responses from this community. We can delete "respected" before Mr. Kim Jong-un if this is the consensus of this community. Let us think about this hypothesis: If you were born and raised in the same environment as Mr. Kim Jong-un, what can your brain figure out to do? Mr. Kim Jong-un's brain is normal. This is the issue of brain science. There are two sides, more knowledgeable side A and less knowledgeable side B. Shall the side A just act on brain's reflexes? What strategies are more productive for side A to encourage side B to be more knowledgeable? How wars happen in the past and why? We cannot demand too much on side B, but we can ask side A to be more scientific. Just something for us to think and discuss. -John On 2/21/15 7:52 PM, Juyang Weng wrote: > > Dear Colleagues, > > Is the following material too ahead of time for this connectionist > community? Please feel free to reply to all with your comments. > Some of us like to get your inputs to shape the text. I hope that > this email discussion is informative to all those who subscribe to > this mailing list. > > ------ Version 5 ----- > The Brain Principles Manifesto > (Draft) > > Historically, public acceptance of science was slow. For example, > Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to > publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction. It took > about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the > general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the > debate on evolution still goes on today. > > Is the public acceptance of science faster in modern days? Not > necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to > communicate. The primary reason is still the same but much more > severe --- the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and > the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any > single person. > > For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist > computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry. > Kunihiko Fukushima introduced Convolutional deep networks by at least > 1980. Weng, Ahuja and Huang published Max-pooling in deep fully > automatic learning networks by 1992. However, Apple, Baidu, Google, > Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show > considerable interest till after 2012. That is a delay of about 20 > years. The two techniques above are not very difficult to understand. > However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already been proved > obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working principles of > the brain. > > Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of > two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which > companies are involved. However, the newly known brain principles > have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only > vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, > regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and > how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Why? This is because all these > static training sets misled the participants by making it impractical > to conduct serious autonomous object segmentation that our human > babies learn to perform through interaction with the real physical > world. Do our industry and public need another 20 years? Or more? > > Oct. 2011 a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly > wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good > science, or work on robots and do good engineering. But if they try > to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good > engineering.? How long does it take for the industry and public to > accept that that pessimistic view of the brain was no longer true even > then? > > The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring > fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and > societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another. The > following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that > benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural > sciences do not address politics. Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky > are among exceptions. > > The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is > fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the > known brain principles. Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such > shortsightedness in his book ?The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are > Divided by Politics and Religion > ?, > although not in terms of brain computation. > > In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain > self-wire beautifully according to your real-time experience (the > genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for > abstraction also largely depend on experience. Serotonin (e.g., > caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural > transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but > you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make > mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like > that, including the politicians in the questions below. > > Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires sophisticated > automata theory in computer science (J. Weng, Brain as an Emergent > Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems > , > IJIS, 2015). This automata brain model proposes that each brain is an > automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic > automata because it programs itself --- emergent. No traditional > automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a > brain automaton does. > > The automata brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely > record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural > anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, Cerebral Cortex, 1991). In > particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between > `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of > all categories? (J. Gallant et al. Nature Neuroscience, 2013) and that > human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the > medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. Nature, 2010). The model raised > questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory > information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in > Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both place and > top-down attention context reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. > and theoretically predicted by the automata brain model. > > Unfortunately, the automata brain model implies that all > neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to > understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in > automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems > and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the > capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining > and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, Physica D, 1990). Automata theory > deals with such capabilities. > > Understanding brain?s automata would enables us to see answers to a > wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. > We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions. The > automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or > wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire > the brain. > > How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great > opportunity that has opened up for them? How can they see the > economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? > > How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright > minds for the new brain age? Has our government been prompt to > properly respond to this modern call from the nature? > > How should our young generation act for to this new opportunity that > is unfolding before their eyes? Is a currently narrowly defined > academic degree sufficient for their career? > > Is it consistent with the U.S. people?s interest for the respected Mr. > Barack Obama to have authorized the bombing of ISIS, sanctioned Russia > because of what happened in Ukraine, rejected conversations with North > Korea for what the respected Mr. Kim Jong-un did, increased extra tax > on Americans who create many jobs, and planed to tax Americans? > overseas ventures which encourages them to drop U.S. Citizenship? > Shortsighted? > > The same ISIS bombing question goes to the respected Mr. Fran?ois > Hollande. What is the relationship between the armed attacks on the > weekly Charllie Hebdo and the French ISIS bombing that killed many > more innocent civilians as well as racial discrimination existing in > France? > > Is it consistent with the Chinese people?s interest for the respected > Mr. Jinping Xi to conduct anti-graft struggle using the Communist > Party rules without the due process of the Chinese legal system and to > bicker about islands with China?s neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, and > Philippines that negatively affected economy and tourists? safety? > > Is it consistent with the Israelis people?s interest for the respected > Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu to take his current approach to Israel?s Arab > neighbors? > > How should all government officials take advantage of the new > knowledge about their own brains? Should people in every country > require them to learn brain theory and correct their feel-normal mistakes? > > We are from all walks of life and from all regions of the world. At > present, we do not understand the scientific underpinnings of the > material in this Manifesto, just like the public of Darwin?s time. > However, these issues are relevant to the future of our nations and > our lives. We declare to form the Brain Principles Society, in order > to promote human communication and understanding of brain principles > and their implications to human societies so as to improve the quality > of life for all human beings on this planet. There is a lack of > society that regards social sciences as part of brain science and > considers automata theory to be relevant to brain science and social > sciences. However, we are all governed by the same set of brain > principles. > > --- end --- > > -John > -- > -- > Juyang (John) Weng, Professor > Department of Computer Science and Engineering > MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program > 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 > Michigan State University > East Lansing, MI 48824 USA > Tel: 517-353-4388 > Fax: 517-432-1061 > Email:weng at cse.msu.edu > URL:http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ > ---------------------------------------------- > > > > > -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email: weng at cse.msu.edu URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Sun Feb 22 11:56:29 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2015 11:56:29 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: [Bmi] The Brain Principles Manifesto: with links In-Reply-To: <54EA06F5.3030707@cse.msu.edu> References: <54EA06F5.3030707@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54EA0A3D.1090209@cse.msu.edu> On 2/22/15 6:54 AM, Jont Allen wrote to BMI mailing list: > 100% yes, the brain operates on classical principles. Does anyone > disagree? > If this were not the case, then there would be no point of > neuro-science studies of the brain. > > Perhaps we have not yet discovered the basic principle of how the > brain operates. > > Here is my proposal: Each neuron is a low-pass filter, due to the > membrane's RC properties. > > If you want a reference to this fact, read George Campbell's famous > papers on wave filters: > ,title={Physical Theory of the Electric Wave Filter} > ,journal=BSTJ ,year=1922 ,month=Nov ,volume={1} ,number={2} ,pages={1-32} > > The inputs are, of course, large numbers of spikes at the synaptic > inputs. Thus > the low-pass filtered sum of the inputs leads to an output spike, when > the lowpass voltage > crosses a threshold. > > One key to this computation is the incredibly low noise of the > neuron's low-pass filter, which > is given by sqrt{kT/C} where C is the membrane capacitance. > > This very low noise results in reliable computation: Same input, same > output. > > Jont Jont, your proposal looks like what an electrical engineering student would see in a neural net course. Prof. Shun-Ichi Amari at RIKEN in Japan and Prof. Jun Zhang at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor seem to take a similar physics based approach. But I think the approach is way too limited. Many respected neural net modelers had PhD degrees in physics which give them an intuition in modeling events of physics. However, I think that this physics background is also a trap, in the sense that the researchers trapped into a wish that physics-based mechanisms plus a weak mechanism (e.g., information theory) are sufficient for them to model brain-like neural networks. This wish is an illusion. The brain operates on MUCH MORE PRINCIPLES THAN classical principles. If they have taken a course in automata theory, a course in Artificial Intelligence, and the BMI 871 course on brain-mind modeling, they will see how limited their tools are. They should also take courses in biology, neuroscience, and psychology that BMI 2015 plan to offer. In particular, a low-pass filter is not sufficient to characterize what each neuron does. For example, where does each neuron get inputs from? The automata brain model tells you where: Not just sensory source, but also motor source. It is also very different from classical control theory too, not just feedback control. -John From M.Loog at tudelft.nl Sun Feb 22 12:08:52 2015 From: M.Loog at tudelft.nl (Marco Loog - EWI) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2015 17:08:52 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Fully funded Ph.D. position "New Perspectives on Semi-Supervised Learning" Message-ID: <1B7FB132C5F56E428E697512485E82324E447397@SRV363.tudelft.net> "New Perspectives on Semi-Supervised Learning" Fully funded Ph.D. position Delft University of Technology Learning methods are at the heart of almost any modern computer application. Supervised learning algorithms [e.g. classifiers and decision rules] are able to generalize from examples and predict the desired output to unseen input. A major obstacle in their successful use is the need for sufficient expert-labeled examples to learn from. Semi-supervised learning [SSL] promises to improve radically upon this situation by exploiting both labeled and unlabeled data. To this date, however, SSL has not lived up to this promise, often even deteriorating instead of improving performance. Current methods can be difficult to handle, especially by the non-expert, and they are not as widely used as their supervised counterparts. We therefore need SSL methods that are reliable and can be readily substituted for the supervised classifiers that are en vogue in the different research domains and application areas. The prospective PhD student will work on the necessary concepts and methodologies to design semi-supervised learners that can guarantee performance improvements. Of prime importance in this is developing insight into the mechanism underlying SSL. More than being interested in the best performing learner, we aim to understand the learning problem as such. To start with, the research would focus on the use of projection estimators -- considering the link between divergence measures and loss functions -- and their use in SSL. The project allows for a highly personal interpretation of any subsequent investigations. For more information, please visit http://recruitment2.tudelft.nl/vacatures/index.php?lang=en&id=544901&type=a Marco Loog Pattern Recognition Laboratory Delft University of Technology -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Sun Feb 22 12:47:58 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:47:58 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: [Bmi] The Brain Principles Manifesto In-Reply-To: <54EA153C.1080308@cse.msu.edu> References: <54EA153C.1080308@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54EA164E.9090702@cse.msu.edu> On 2/22/15 8:21 AM, Yoonsuck Choe wrote from BMI mailing list: > > Hi John, > > Whether you put "respected" or not does not seem to be important at > all, and I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of it. All > these exchanges involving this minor matter seems to be diluting your > more important message. Consider this: I think Shimon was just joking > when he emailed you with his suggestion and I think you took it too > seriously. ... > Yoonsuck > choe at tamu.edu > > Yoonsuck Choe, Ph.D. Dept. of Comp. Sci. & Engineering > Professor Texas A&M University > Director, Brain Networks Laboratory 3112 TAMU > Email: choe at tamu.edu, choe at cs.tamu.edu College Station, TX 77843-3112 > WWW: http://faculty.cse.tamu.edu/choe Phone: +1-979-845-5466 > Lab: http://research.cse.tamu.edu/bnl Fax: +1-979-847-8578 Seeing the Manifesto that talks also about politics, some people in this community are "disturbed" as a well known professor put it but explicitly asked me not to forward his message to the BMI mailing list. Some people said that we are not experts on politics. I guess he also meant that I am not a recognized expert on politics. This is true. Was Albert Einstein an expert on politics? Is Noam Chomsky an expert on politics? If people working on how the brain works do not talk about politics, our politicians would never understand their brains' mistakes. For example, if we do not think that Mr. Kim Jong-un is worth respecting, we would be very reluctant to think that his issue is also a brain science issue. He has been trying to reform, but other high-level officials in North Korea are probably resisting. The top group in North Korea has too much power but with few people. In such a case, a coop could happen any time, either with reform or without. If Mr. Kim Jong-un had not purged his uncle Jang Sung-taek and other high-level officials that his father handpicked to groom him, he could have been killed by them when he wanted to be different from his father. A similar situation is happening in China, but fortunately, China has at least a term limit for the paramount leader Mr. Xi Jinping. Otherwise, China could have had a moderate scale Cultural Revolution by now because Xi has to consider how he steps down. Currently, the anti-graft struggle is like a small scale Cultural Revolution. Mr. Xi wants to be seen as on a par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Unfortunately, he did not have enough brain knowledge and social knowledge for his position, although his "do deeds" motive was well intended. I predict that the power transition from Mr. Xi Jinping to the next successor would be very violent, much more violent than the intense power struggles that accompanied with his own power take over from Hu Jintao. Chinese economy and people life will suffer backlashes and so will the world economy. Let us read the history to understand the limitation of all brains, although we are not experts in a traditional sense of expert. -John -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email:weng at cse.msu.edu URL:http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From se37 at cornell.edu Sat Feb 21 18:42:59 2015 From: se37 at cornell.edu (Shimon Edelman) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 23:42:59 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: The Brain Principles Manifesto In-Reply-To: <54E914FF.6000501@cse.msu.edu> References: <54E914FF.6000501@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: > On Feb 21, 2015, at 6:30 PM, Juyang Weng wrote: > > Is the following material too ahead of time for this connectionist community? Please feel free to reply to all with your comments. Some of us like to get your inputs to shape the text. Interpolating from the rest of the text, it looks like there?s a missing attribute word (?respected?, just in front of "Mr. Kim Jong-un?) in this version. ?Shimon Shimon Edelman Professor, Department of Psychology, 232 Uris Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-7601 http://kybele.psych.cornell.edu/~edelman @shimonedelman From j.v.stone at sheffield.ac.uk Sun Feb 22 10:12:32 2015 From: j.v.stone at sheffield.ac.uk (Jim Stone) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2015 15:12:32 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: New Book: Information Theory Message-ID: <17A5CD7B-A7E1-4287-B5C2-42771CD319EA@shefffield.ac.uk> I'd like to announce the publication of this book: Information Theory: A Tutorial Introduction by JV Stone Reviews, synopsis, and table of contents can be found here: http://jim-stone.staff.shef.ac.uk/BookInfoTheory/InfoTheoryBookMain.html Note that the examples explored in the final chapter are especially relevant to computational neuroscience and biology. regards, Dr Jim Stone University of Sheffield, UK. http://www.jim-stone.staff.shef.ac.uk/ From graduateprograms at bccn-berlin.de Sun Feb 22 16:43:18 2015 From: graduateprograms at bccn-berlin.de (Robert Martin) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2015 22:43:18 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?=5BCall_for_applications=5D_*Graduate_P?= =?utf-8?q?rograms_=C3=ADn_Computational_Neuroscience*_in_Berlin=3B_MSc_an?= =?utf-8?q?d_PhD=3B_7_PhD_scholarships=3B_*Three_weeks_until_deadline*?= Message-ID: <54EA4D76.5080007@bccn-berlin.de> [Apologies for cross-posting] *Doctoral* and *Master Program* "Computational Neuroscience" at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin in Berlin, Germany Application deadline: *March 15, 2015* *THREE WEEKS TO GO* Begin of courses: October 2015 Internet: www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de _Doctoral Program_ The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and the TU Berlin invite applications for *7 fellowships* of the Research Training Group "Sensory Computation in Neural Systems" (GRK 1589/2, https://www.eecs.tu-berlin.de/grk_15891/menue/sensory_computation_in_neural_systems/). The *scientific program* of the research training group combines techniques and concepts from machine learning, computational neuroscience, and systems neurobiology in order to specifically address sensory computation. Doctoral candidates will work on interdisciplinary projects investigating the mechanisms of neural computation, address the processes underlying perception on different scales and different levels of abstraction, and develop new theories of computation hand in hand with well-controlled experiments in order to put functional hypotheses to the test. The training group offers 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 (https://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, mathematics, 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 2015. The *fellowships of 1468 ?/month* - with additional children allowances if applicable---will be granted for up to three years. _Master's Program_ The tuition-free Master program in Computational Neuroscience offers *15 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, programming, machine learning, cognitive neuroscience, acquisition, modelling, and computational analysis of neural data, with a strong focus on a complementary theoretical and experimental training. Three lab rotations and a Master's thesis are accomplished in the second year. The aim of the program is to provide the students with an interdisciplinary education and an early contact to the neurocomputational research environment. *Requirements* BSc or equivalent degree in a relevant subject (typically in the natural sciences, in an engineering discipline, in cognitive science, or in mathematics), certificate of English proficiency, proof of sufficient mathematical knowledge (at least 24 ECTS credit points). ~~~ _For more information_ ... ... see: www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de ... or e-mail: graduateprograms at bccn-berlin.de . Best regards, Robert Martin -- Robert Martin, PhD Teaching Coordinator Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin Philippstr. 13 House 6; 10115 Berlin; Germany Phone/Fax +49 (0)30 2093 6773/6771 http://www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de GRK 1589/1, Sensory Computation in Neural Systems Technische Universitaet Berlin Sekretariat MAR 5-6; Marchstr. 23; 10587 Berlin Phone/Fax +49 (0)30 314 72006/73121 http://www.eecs.tu-berlin.de/grk_15891/ From Nicoladie.Tam at unt.edu Sun Feb 22 16:08:26 2015 From: Nicoladie.Tam at unt.edu (Tam, Nicoladie) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2015 21:08:26 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: CNS 2015 Abstract submission deadline extended to March 1, 2015 Message-ID: <365D6BAC-FD98-4BB2-BA24-0A88BEB81E60@unt.edu> CNS 2015 Abstract Submission Deadline extended to March 1, 2015. Organization for Computational Neurosciences (OCNS) 24th Annual Meeting Prague, Czech Republic July 18-23, 2015 The main meeting (July 19-21) will be preceded by a day of tutorials (July 18) and followed by two days of workshops (July 22-23). Invited Keynote Speakers: Jack Cowan, University of Chicago, USA Gustavo Deco, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Adrienne Fairhall, University of Washington, USA Wulfram Gerstner, EPFL, Switzerland Registration will open on January 14, 2015. Abstract submission will open on January 15, 2015 and close on extended deadline on March 1, 2015. (This will be the last extension of deadline.) Workshop proposals are now being accepted. Note that one of the authors has to register as sponsoring author for the main meeting before abstract submission is possible. In case the abstract is not accepted for presentation, the registration fee will be refunded. For up-to-date conference information, please visit http://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2015-prague -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From navlakha at salk.edu Mon Feb 23 00:57:30 2015 From: navlakha at salk.edu (Saket Navlakha) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 05:57:30 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Distributed Algorithms 2015 Message-ID: <92C03BDB-4128-4008-BB7E-17F82A1F2A3C@salk.edu> ======================================================= The 3rd Workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA 2015) August 18-19, 2015 in Boston, MA USA http://www.snl.salk.edu/~navlakha/BDA2015/ ======================================================= We are excited to announce the third workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA). BDA is focused on the relationships between distributed computing and distributed biological systems and in particular, on analysis and case studies that combine the two. Such research can lead to better understanding of the behavior of the biological systems while at the same time developing novel computational algorithms that can be used to solve distributed computing problems. BDA 2015 will include talks on distributed algorithms related to a variety of biological systems, with special attention to communication and coordination in insect colonies (e.g. foraging, navigation, task allocation, construction) and networks in the brain (e.g. learning, decision-making, attention). =========== SUBMISSIONS =========== We solicit submissions of extended abstracts describing recent results relevant to biological distributed computing. We especially welcome extended abstracts describing new insights and / or case studies regarding the relationship between distributed computing and biological systems even if these are not fully formed. Since a major goal of the workshop is to explore new directions and approaches, we especially encourage the submission of ongoing work. Selected contributors would be asked to present, discuss and defend their work at the workshop. Submissions should be in PDF and include title, author information, and a 4-page extended abstract. Please use the following EasyChair submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bda20150 Note: The workshop will not include published proceedings. In particular, we welcome submissions of papers describing work that has appeared or is expected to appear in other venues. =============== IMPORTANT DATES =============== May 15, 2015 ? Extended abstract submission deadline June 15, 2015 ? Decision notifications August 18-19, 2015 ? Workshop ================ INVITED SPEAKERS [PRELIMINARY; MORE TO COME!] ================ Yehuda Afek - Tel Aviv University Ziv Bar-Joseph - CMU Nir Shavit - MIT Les Valiant - Harvard ================= PROGRAM COMMITTEE ================= Ziv Bar-Joseph - CMU Anna Dornhaus - University of Arizona Yuval Emek - Technion Amos Korman - CNRS and University of Paris Diderot Nancy Lynch - MIT Saket Navlakha - Salk Institute -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mail at jan-peters.net Mon Feb 23 10:48:15 2015 From: mail at jan-peters.net (Jan Peters) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:48:15 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [jobs] Robotics & Machine Learning Positions @ TU Darmstadt In-Reply-To: <875F92E5-8E55-479D-A552-38A345B6E9C7@jan-peters.net> References: <875F92E5-8E55-479D-A552-38A345B6E9C7@jan-peters.net> Message-ID: <3884EF0E-518E-4DAD-90DB-303E8974C9E3@jan-peters.net> Robotics & Machine Learning Positions =============================== The Autonomous Systems Labs (CLAS and IAS) at the Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) is seeking for several highly qualified postdoctoral researchers with strong interests in one or more of the following research topics: * Machine Learning for Robotics (especially Reinforcement Learning, Imitation, and Model Learning) * Robot Grasping and Manipulation * Robot Control, Learning for Control * Robot Table Tennis Please relate clearly to these topic in your Research Statement. Outstanding students and researchers from the areas of robotics and robotics-related areas including machine learning, control engineering or computer vision are welcome to apply. The candidates are expected to conduct independent research and at the same time contribute to ongoing projects in the areas listed above. Successful candidates can furthermore be given the opportunity to work with undergraduate, M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. Due to our strong ties to the Max Planck Institutes for Intelligent Systems and Biological Cybernetics, the University of Southern California, as well as to the Honda Research Institute, there will be ample opportunities of collaboration with these institutes. ABOUT THE APPLICANT A successful Post-doc applicant should have a strong robotics and/or machine learning background with a track record of top-tier research publications, including relevant conferences (e.g., RSS, ICRA, IROS or ICML, IJCAI, AAAI, NIPS, AISTATS) and journals (e.g., AURO, TRo, IJRR or JMLR, MLJ, Neural Computation) . A Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering (or another field clearly related to robotics and/or machine learning) as well as strong organizational and coordination skills are a must. Expertise in working with real robot systems is a big plus for all applicants. THE POSITIONS The positions are started with a 24 months contract and may be extendable up to 48 months. Payment will be according to the German TVL E-13 or E-14 payment scheme, depending on the candidates experience and qualifications. HOW TO APPLY? All complete applications submitted through our online application system found at http://www.ias.tu-darmstadt.de/Jobs/Application will be considered. There is no fixed deadline: the positions will be filled as soon as possible. PostDoc applicants require three references and, in addition, should provide their top three publications. Please ensure to include a link to your research web-site as well as your date of availability. ABOUT CLAS AND IAS The Autonomous Systems Labs CLAS and IAS aim at endowing robots with the ability to learn new tasks and adapt their behavior to their environment. To accomplish this goal, IAS focuses on the intersection between Machine Learning, Robotics and Biomimetic Systems. Resulting research topics range from algorithm development in machine learning over robot grasping/manipulation and robot table tennis to biomimetic motor control/learning and brain-robot interfaces. Members of CLAS and IAS have been highly successful, as exhibited by recent awards, which include a Daimler Benz Fellowship, several Best Cognitive Robotics Paper Awards, the Georges Giralt Best 2013 Robotics PhD Thesis Award, an IEEE RAS Early Career Award, etc. The lab collaborates with numerous universities in Germany, Europe, the USA and Japan. CLAS and IAS are partners in several European projects with many top institutes in ML and Robotics.. The CLAS and IAS lab is located in the Robert Piloty Building in the beautiful Herrngarten park. It is less than fifty meters from a beer garden frequently used for lab meetings and after successful paper submissions. ABOUT TU DARMSTADT The TU Darmstadt is one of the top technical universities in Germany, and is well known for its research and teaching. It was one of the first universities in the world to introduce programs in electrical engineering. our chemical elements were discovered at Darmstadt, most prominently, the element darmstadtium, and it is Germany's first fully autonomous university. More information can be found on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmstadt_University_of_Technology ABOUT DARMSTADT Darmstadt is well known high-tech center with important activities in space craft operations (e.g., through the European Space Operations Centre, the European Organization for Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), chemistry, pharmacy, information technology, biotechnology, telecommunications and mechatronics, and consistently ranked among the top high-tech regions in Germany. Darmstadt's important centers for arts, music and theatre allow for versatile cultural activities, while the proximity of the Odenwald forest and the Rhine valley allows for many outdoor sports. The 33,547 students of Darmstadt's three universities constitute a major part of Darmstadt's 140,000 inhabitants. Darmstadt's immigrant population is among the most diverse in Germany, such that the knowledge of German language is rarely ever needed (and many IAS members do not speak any German). Darmstadt is located close to the center of Europe. With just 17 Minutes driving distance to the Frankfurt airport (closer than Frankfurt itself), it is one of best connected cities in Europe. Most major European cities can be reached within less than 2.5h from Darmstadt. From cl at cmu.edu Mon Feb 23 11:39:49 2015 From: cl at cmu.edu (Christian Lebiere) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 11:39:49 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Post Doctoral Position at Carnegie Mellon Message-ID: [Posted on behalf of John Anderson] I am looking for a postdoctoral researcher. The work in our laboratory involves developing ACT-R models of the learning of complex skills and relating these models to the temporal structure of fMRI, EEG, and MEG data. An appropriate candidate would have relevant background in some aspects of such work and an interest in learning other aspects. Interested candidates should email their CV to me (ja at cmu.edu) and contact me with any questions about the position. -- John R. Anderson Richard King Mellon Professor of Psychology and Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Office: Baker Hall 345D Phone: 412-417-7008 Fax: 412-268-2844 email: ja at cmu.edu URL: http://act.psy.cmu.edu/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From C.Campbell at bristol.ac.uk Mon Feb 23 13:35:48 2015 From: C.Campbell at bristol.ac.uk (C Campbell) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 18:35:48 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Research Associate in Bioinformatics and Machine Learning Message-ID: Research Associate in Bioinformatics and Machine Learning The University of Bristol offers a position of post-doctoral Research Associate in a project focused on the development and use of methods from machine learning and bioinformatics, to devise improved predictors for estimating the functional impact of genetic variation in human disease. Rapid developments in next-generation sequencing technologies have led to a substantial increase in identified genetic variants, which may be implicated in human disease. The core application focus of the project is to construct and use algorithmically-based methods for predicting the functional consequences of genetic variation. A recent publication, H.A. Shihab et al. Bioinformatics doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btv009 (2015) gives an impression of the project. This paper is a successor to earlier published projects centred on FATHMM, a widely used tool, embedded in various external packages and which is used to predict pathogenic sequence variants. We expect to extend this study in many directions including devising disease-specific predictors and devising predictors for other types of genetic variation. In addition to this application core, the Research Associate should be interested in the development of improved machine-learning based methodology for handling problems specific to the application domain. This includes new methods for handling label noise, improved methods for data integration, handling missing values and a range of other issues. The Research Associate should therefore have a strong background in machine learning, statistics or bioinformatics. He or she should be capable of developing novel methodology in addition to having a keen interdisciplinary interest in the given medical application domain. The appointee will work with Dr. Colin Campbell, Director of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory, University of Bristol and Dr. Tom Gaunt who heads bioinformatics in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) of the University of Bristol, in addition to other researchers. The Research Assistant will be hosted within the Intelligent Systems Laboratory (http://intelligentsystems.bristol.ac.uk/) of the University of Bristol. The ISL has 17 staff members and about 50 postdoctoral researchers and research students and pursues a broad programme of research across machine learning, bioinformatics and related disciplines. The Research Associate will also collaborate closely with researchers in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit which houses more than 70 researchers from a wide range of disciplines. The broad programme of research in the IEU spans genetics, epigenetics, epidemiology, bioinformatics and biostatistics in the context of human health. The position requires a PhD degree and excellent skills in programming (e.g. Python, C++, R, MATLAB) and mathematics. This post is offered on a full time, fixed term for 36 months with a desired start date of 1st June 2015, by arrangement. The deadline for applications is 5pm (UK time), on ***Friday 3rd April 2015***. Informal enquiries can be made to Dr. Colin Campbell C.Campbell at bristol.ac.uk or Dr. Tom Gaunt Tom.Gaunt at bristol.ac.uk Further details are available at: www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs with job reference code ACAD101293. Appointment may be either on a fixed term or a permanent contract depending on the extent of previous relevant research experience, in line with the University's Fixed Term Contract Agreement. Further information can be found at www.bristol.ac.uk/hr/ftc/ -- Colin Campbell Intelligent Systems Laboratory Merchant Venturer's Building, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UB, United Kingdom *Tel:* +44 (0) 117-33-15620 *E-mail:* C.Campbell at bristol.ac.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From byronyu at cmu.edu Mon Feb 23 18:23:54 2015 From: byronyu at cmu.edu (Byron Yu) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 18:23:54 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: For Students-2015 GEM4 Summer Institute on Mechanobiology of the Brain Message-ID: [posted on behalf of Phil LeDuc] Hope you are well. GEM4 has been holding a series of Schools since the first one at MIT, each year with a different theme involving linking biology and mechanics. This year is the 10 year anniversary of GEM4 and we are thrilled to announce the: - 2015 GEM4 Summer Institute on Mechanobiology of the Brain will be held on June 22-July 3, 2015 at Carnegie Mellon University. The format will be a two-week course with lectures in the morning and labs most afternoons. A number of fellowships will be available to students. For additional information on the Carnegie Mellon University GEM4 Summer School and instructions for applying, please go to the website: http://www.ices.cmu.edu/gem4 (and attached). The deadline for applications is April 15th, 2015. Best wishes. Sincerely, Philip LeDuc Jimmy Hsia Subra Suresh -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: GEM4-Flyer-2015[3].pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 962756 bytes Desc: not available URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Tue Feb 24 12:27:03 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 12:27:03 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Brain Principles Manifesto (Version 2.0) In-Reply-To: <54ECAE2A.40606@cse.msu.edu> References: <54ECAE2A.40606@cse.msu.edu> Message-ID: <54ECB467.5070002@cse.msu.edu> Dear Colleagues: I would like to thank all those who gave comments, some giving multiple times. This is a version 2.0 as it explicitly includes some brain mechanisms although it should not include those mechanisms that laymen do not understand from just reading this document. Some people said that he needs to read multiple times. Each time gains more understanding. The information is very dense in this short document. Those who are not on the BMI mailing list please subscribe to the list to get further information. Simply do an internet search to get the list site. ---- The Brain Principles Manifesto (Draft Version 2.0) Feb. 24, 2015 Historically, public acceptance of science was slow.For example, Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction.It took about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the debate on evolution still goes on today. Is the public acceptance of sciencefaster in modern days?Not necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to communicate.The primary reason is still the same but much more severe --- the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any single person. For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry.Kunihiko Fukushima introduced /Convolutional deep/ networks by at least 1980.Weng, Ahuja and Huang published /Max-pooling/ in deep fully automatic learning networks by 1992.However, Apple, Baidu, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show considerable interest till after 2012.That is a delay of about 20 years.The two techniques above are not very difficult to understand. However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already been proved obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working principles of the brain. Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which companies are involved.However, the newly known brain principles have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Why?This is because all these static training sets misled the participants by making it impractical to conduct serious autonomous object segmentation that our human babies learn to perform through interaction with the real physical world.Do our industry and public need another 20 years?Or more? Oct. 2011a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good science, or work on robots and do good engineering.But if they try to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good engineering.?How long does it take for the industry and public to accept that that pessimisticview of the brain was no longer true even then? The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another.The following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural sciences do not address politics.Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky are among exceptions. The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the known brain principles.Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such shortsightedness in his book ?/The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion/ ?, although not in terms of brain computation. In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain self-wire beautifullyaccording to your real-time experience (the genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for abstraction also largely depend on experience.Serotonin (e.g., caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like that, including the politicians in the questions below. Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires a sophisticated automata theory in computer science. See J. Weng, /Brain //as//an Emergent Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems/ , /IJIS/, 2015, which proposed the following brain principles: 1.The developmental (genome-like) program uses fully emergent, task-nonspecific internal representations of the brain-like Network (DN) and therefore, the DN is of general-purpose --- can learn any body-capable tasks, at least in principle. 2.The sensory area allows naturally sensed images of cluttered scenes in which many objects mix, instead of an encoding that fits only what a Turing Machine can work with. A teacher does not segment objects as how children learn. 3.The motor area allows subareas where each subarea represents either declarative knowledge (e.g., abstract concepts such as location, type, scale, etc.) or non-declarative knowledge (e.g., driving a car or riding a bicycle). 4.Every area in the ?brain? DN emerges (not statically exist) uses a unified area function that does not have local minima in its high dimensional, nonlinear, and non-iterative approximation in its feature development and adaptation. 5.The ?brain? DN learns incrementally?taking one-pair of sensory pattern and motor pattern at a time to update the network and discarding the pair immediately after. E.g., the real brain has only one pair of retina. 6.The ?brain? DN is always optimal --- every update of DN realizes the maximum likelihood estimate of the ?brain?, conditioned on the limited computational resources in the ?brain? and the limited learning experience in its ?life time?. The logic completeness of the brain DN is (partially, not all) understood by a universal Turing Machine which is like our modern-day computer, in principle.This automaton brain model proposes that each brain is an automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic automata because it programs itself --- emergent.No traditional automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a brain automaton does. The automaton brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, /Cerebral Cortex/, 1991). In particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of all categories? (J. Gallant et al. /Nature Neuroscience/, 2013) and that human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. /Nature/, 2010).The model raised questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both bottom-up (e.g., place) and top-down context (e.g., goal) as reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. and theoretically predicted by the automaton brain model. Unfortunately, the automaton brain model implies that all neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, /Physica D,/ 1990).Automata theory deals with such capabilities. Does this new knowledge stun our students and researchers or guide them so their time is better spent? Understanding brain automata would enable us to see answers to a wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions.The automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire the brain. In each of the following social science questions, we have two sides, Side A with more knowledge due to the more open political and ideological environment and Side B with less knowledge due to less open political and ideological environment, but all have normal human brains that should be respected.Is it more scientifically productive for Side A to approach Side B friendly with caring heart so that Side B is not threatened and not listening?We want them to rewire for good instead of for bad, do we? How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great opportunity that has opened up for them?How can they see the economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright minds for the new brain age?Has our government been prompt to properly respond to this modern call from the nature? How should our young generationact for to this new opportunity that is unfolding before their eyes?Is a currently narrowly defined academic degree sufficient for their career? Is it consistent with the U.S. people?s interest for the respected Mr. Barack Obama to have authorized the bombing of ISIS, sanctioned Russia because of what happened in Ukraine, rejected conversations with North Korea for what the respected Mr. Kim Jong-un did, increased extra tax on Americans who create many jobs, and planed to tax Americans? overseas ventures which encourages them to drop U.S. Citizenship? Shortsighted? The same ISIS bombing question goes to the respected Mr. Fran?ois Hollande.What is the relationship between the armed attacks on the weekly Charllie Hebdo and the French ISIS bombing that killed many more innocent civilians as well as racial discrimination existing in France? Is it consistent with the Chinese people?s interest for the respected Mr. Jinping Xi to conduct anti-graft struggle using the Communist Party rules without the due process of the Chinese legal system and to bicker about islands with China?s neighbors like Japan, Vietnam, and Philippines that negatively affected economy and Chinese visitors? overseas safety? Is it consistent with the Israelis people?s interest for the respected Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu to take his current approach to Israel?s Arab neighbors? How should all government officials take advantage of the new knowledge about their own brains?Should people in every country require them to learn brain theory and correct their feel-normal mistakes? We are from all walks of life and from all regions of the world.At present, we do not understand the scientific underpinnings of the material in this Manifesto, just like the public of Darwin?s time.However, these issues are relevant to the future of our nations and our lives.We declare to form the Brain Principles Society, in order to promote human communication and understanding of brain principles and their implications to human societies so as to improve the quality of life for all human beings on this planet.There is a lack of society that regards social sciences as part of brain science and considers automata theory to be relevant to brain science and social sciences. However, we are all governed by the same set of brain principles. ---- Please give your future comments, to the entire list or to me individually. All past comments have helped shaping this document. Best regards, -John -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email: weng at cse.msu.edu URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From terry at salk.edu Tue Feb 24 14:04:01 2015 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 11:04:01 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - March 1, 2015 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Volume 27, Number 3 - March 1, 2015 Available online for download now: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/neco/27/3 ----- Article Spontaneous Motion on Two-dimensional Continuous Attractors C. C. Alan Fung, Shun-ichi Amari Letters Oscillator-Interference Models of Path Integration Do Not Require Theta Oscillations Jeff Orchard What Can Neuromorphic Event-driven Precise Timing Add to Spike-based Pattern Recognition? Himanshu Akolkar, Cedric Meyer, Xavier Clady, Olivier Marre, Chiara Bartolozzi, Stefano Panzeri, and Ryad Benosman Delay Differential Analysis of Time Series Claudia Lainscsek, Terrence J Sejnowski Delay Differential Analysis of Electroencephalographic Data Claudia Lainscsek, Manuel E. Hernandez, Howard Poizner, and Terrence J Sejnowski Range-Based ICA Using a Nonsmooth Quasi-Newton Optimizer for Electroencephalographic Source Localization in Focal Epilepsy S. Easter Selvan, S.Thomas George, and R. Balakrishnan Two-trace Model for Spike-timing-dependent Synaptic Plasticity Rodrigo Echeveste, Claudius Gros On Firing Rate Estimation for Dependent Interspike Intervals Laura Sacerdote, Elisa Benedetto, and Federico Polito Memristor Models for Machine Learning Juan Pablo Carbajal, Joni Dambre, Michiel Hermans, and Benjamin Schrauwen On Resolving Simultaneous Congruences Using Belief Propagation Yongseok Yoo, Sriram Vishwanath Structural Intervention Distance (SID) for Evaluating Causal Graphs Jonas Peters, Peter Buhlmann ------------ ON-LINE -- http://www.mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2015 - VOLUME 27 - 12 ISSUES Student/Retired $75 Individual $134 Institution $1,075 MIT Press Journals, One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209 Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-cs at mit.edu ------------ From weng at cse.msu.edu Tue Feb 24 17:35:27 2015 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 17:35:27 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: IWOR 2015 late inquiry from Prof. John Weng Message-ID: <54ECFCAF.9020301@cse.msu.edu> Dear Profs. Sira Alonso and Oscar Vera-Perez, I am afraid that this inquiry is too late for IWOR 2015, as I guess that your IWOR program has been almost fixed. A colleague just mentioned to me that there is a workshop on operation research and a special track on computer vision and graphics to be held in Havana, Cuba. I am very interested in visiting your country with my wife. However, I am not sure whether you are interested in how the brain works, including decision making and vision as two special cases, just like special cases for a mathematical theorem. I am attaching the Brain Principles Manifesto that is being discussed in several research communities, including the Brain-Mind Institute at http://www.brain-mind-institute.org/ and the connectionist mailing list For those who like to participate in the email discussion on this manifesto, they can subscribe to the BMI mailing list. Simply do an internet search to get the list site. I am attaching my CV and two papers for your information. If you are still interested in my giving a talk, a tutorial or both, and can kindly pay my cost of travel from Lansing, Michigan United States, I will be greatly honored. I do not need any publication in the proceedings of IWOR 2015. If it is indeed too late for me to serve your workshop, I can fully understand and I would like to further express my sincere apology for my late contact. ---- The Brain Principles Manifesto (Draft Version 2.0) Feb. 24, 2015 Historically, public acceptance of science was slow.For example, Charles Darwin waited about 20 years (from the 1830s to 1858) to publish his theory of evolution for fear of public reaction.It took about 20 years (by the 1870s) the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Of course, the debate on evolution still goes on today. Is the public acceptance of sciencefaster in modern days?Not necessarily so, even though we have now better and faster means to communicate.The primary reason is still the same but much more severe?the remaining open scientific problems are more complex and the required knowledge to convincingly understand goes beyond any single person. For instance, network-like brain computation --- connectionist computation --- has been long doubted and ignored by industry.Kunihiko Fukushima introduced /Convolutional deep/ networks by at least 1980.Weng, Ahuja and Huang published /Max-pooling/ in deep fully automatic learning networks by 1992.However, Apple, Baidu, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and other major related companies did not show considerable interest till after 2012.That is a delay of about 20 years.The two techniques above are not very difficult to understand. However, these two suddenly hot techniques have already been proved obsolete by the discoveries of more fundamental working principles of the brain. Industrial and academic interests have been keen on a combination of two things --- easily understandable but superficial tests and which companies are involved.However, the newly known brain principles have told us that the ways to conduct such tests will give only vanishing gains that do not lead to a realistic zero error rate, regardless how many more images can be added to the training sets and how long the Moore?s Law can continue. Why?This is because all these static training sets misled the participants by making it impractical to conduct serious autonomous object segmentation that our human babies learn to perform through interaction with the real physical world.Do our industry and public need another 20 years?Or more? Oct. 2011a highly respected multi-disciplinary professor kindly wrote: ?I tell these students that they can work on brains and do good science, or work on robots and do good engineering.But if they try to do both at once, the result will be neither good science nor good engineering.?How long does it take for the industry and public to accept that that pessimisticview of the brain was no longer true even then? The brain principles that have already been discovered would bring fundamental changes in the way humans live, human countries and societies are organized, and the way humans treat one another.The following questions point to some concrete fundamental changes that benefit all humans. However, conventionally, scientists in natural sciences do not address politics.Albert Einstein and Norm Chomsky are among exceptions. The brain of anybody, regardless of his education and experience, is fundamentally short sighted, in both space and time, determined by the known brain principles.Prof. Jonathan Haidt documented well such shortsightedness in his book ?/The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion/ ?, although not in terms of brain computation. In terms of brain computation, the precise circuits in your brain self-wire beautifullyaccording to your real-time experience (the genome only regulates) and their various invariance properties for abstraction also largely depend on experience.Serotonin (e.g., caused by threats), dopamine (e.g., caused praises) and other neural transmitters quickly change the way these delicate circuits work but you feel everything inside the brain is normal. Therefore, you make mistakes but you still feel normal in the brain. Everybody is like that, including the politicians in the questions below. Surprisingly, to understand how the brain works requires a sophisticated automata theory in computer science. See J. Weng, /Brain //as//an Emergent Finite Automaton: A Theory and Three Theorems/ , /IJIS/, 2015, which proposed the following brain principles: 1.The developmental (genome-like) program uses fully emergent, task-nonspecific internal representations of the brain-like Network (DN) and therefore, the DN is of general-purpose?can learn any body-capable tasks, at least in principle. 2.The sensory area allows naturally sensed images of cluttered scenes in which many objects mix, instead of an encoding that fits only what a Turing Machine can work with.A teacher does not segment objects as how children learn. 3.The motor area allows subareas where each subarea represents either declarative knowledge (e.g., abstract concepts such as location, type, scale, etc.) or non-declarative knowledge (e.g., driving a car or riding a bicycle). 4.Every area in the ?brain? DN emerges (not statically exist) uses a unified area function that does not have local minima in its high dimensional, nonlinear, and non-iterative approximation in its feature development and adaptation. 5.The ?brain? DN learns incrementally?taking one-pair of sensory pattern and motor pattern at a time to update the network and discarding the pair immediately after. E.g., the real brain has only one pair of retina. 6.The ?brain? DN is always optimal?every update of DN realizes the maximum likelihood estimate of the ?brain?, conditioned on the limited computational resources in the ?brain? and the limited learning experience in its ?life time?. The logic completeness of the brain DN is (partially, not all) understood by a universal Turing Machine which is like our modern-day computer, in principle.This automaton brain model proposes that each brain is an automaton, but also very different from all traditional symbolic automata because it programs itself?emergent.No traditional automata can program themselves in the sense of Turing Machine but a brain automaton does. The automaton brain model predicted that neural circuits precisely record the statistics of experience, roughly consistent with neural anatomy (e.g., Felleman & Van Essen, /Cerebral Cortex/, 1991). In particular, the model predicted that ?shifting attention between `humans? and `vehicles? dramatically changes brain representation of all categories? (J. Gallant et al. /Nature Neuroscience/, 2013) and that human attention ?can regulate the activity of their neurons in the medial temporal lobe? (C. Koch et al. /Nature/, 2010).The model raised questions to claims that neurons encode exclusively sensory information like the ?place? cells in the work of 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine instead of a combination of both bottom-up (e.g., place) and top-down context (e.g., goal) as reported by Koch et al. and Gallant et al. and theoretically predicted by the automaton brain model. Unfortunately, the automaton brain model implies that all neuroscientists and neural network researchers are unable to understand the brain of their studies without a rigorous training in automata theory. For example, traditional models for nervous systems and neural networks focus on pattern recognition and do not have the capabilities of a grounded symbol system (e.g., ?rulefully combining and recombining,? Stevan Harnad, /Physica D,/ 1990).Automata theory deals with such capabilities. Does this new knowledge stun our students and researchers or guide them so their time is better spent? Understanding brain automata would enable us to see answers to a wide variety of important questions, some of which are raised below. We do not provide yes/no answers here, only raise questions.The automaton brain model predicts that there is no absolute right or wrong in any brain but its environmental experiences wire and rewire the brain. In each of the following social science questions, we have two sides, Side A with more knowledge due to the more open political and ideological environment and Side B with less knowledge due to less open political and ideological environment, but all have normal human brains that should be respected.Is it more scientifically productive for Side A to approach Side B friendly with caring heart so that Side B is not threatened and not listening?We want them to rewire for good instead of for bad, do we? How can our industry and pubic understand that the door for a great opportunity that has opened up for them?How can they see the economical outlooks that this opportunity brings with it? How should our educational system change to prepare our many bright minds for the new brain age?Has our government been prompt to properly respond to this modern call from the nature? How should our young generationact for to this new opportunity that is unfolding before their eyes?Is a currently narrowly defined academic degree sufficient for their career? ---- Best regards, -John Weng -- -- Juyang (John) Weng, Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Tel: 517-353-4388 Fax: 517-432-1061 Email: weng at cse.msu.edu URL: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ ---------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: resume.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 203315 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Weng-ConceptNet-IEEEIntelSyWeb-2014.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 907666 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: BrainTheory3Thms-Weng-IJIS-2015.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 800983 bytes Desc: not available URL: From mcuturi at i.kyoto-u.ac.jp Wed Feb 25 03:27:33 2015 From: mcuturi at i.kyoto-u.ac.jp (marco cuturi) Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 17:27:33 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: ICML 2015 - Last call for Workshop Proposals - Deadline: Feb. 27 23:59 UTC. Message-ID: ICML 2015 Call for Workshop Proposals *==== This is a reminder that the deadline to submit a workshop proposal for ICML is quickly approaching. Please consider submitting a workshop proposal for ICML before Friday Feb. 27, 23:59 UTC **==== * The International Conference on Machine Learning solicits proposals for workshops to be held in conjunction with the ICML 2015 conference in Lille, France. The workshops will be held on Friday, July 10 and Saturday, July 11, 2015. ICML workshops present an excellent opportunity to address a specific machine-learning-related topic of your choice, either to put a spotlight on a nascent topic or consolidate a recently established field. We are looking for full-day or two-day workshop proposals. Important Dates ? Workshop proposal deadline: Feb 27, 2015 ** 23:59 UTC ** ? Acceptance notification: March 20, 2015 ? Workshop submissions due (suggested): May 1st, 2015 ? Workshop author notification (suggested): May 10, 2015 Content and Format Workshops are a great format for active research on new topics. The ideal workshop covers a compelling selection of current and upcoming research, and includes an impressive set of speakers and participants with diverse backgrounds. Research talks, discussion via panels, identification of open problems and poster presentations are all great components to include. Organization The format, style, and content of accepted workshops are under the control of the workshop organizers and largely autonomous from the main conference. Each workshop day can be up to seven hours long, split into morning and afternoon sessions. Workshop organizers are expected to manage the workshop content, invite experts in the domain, specify the workshop format, be present to moderate, and maintain a website for the workshop. Workshop registration will be handled centrally by the main conference. Submission Instructions Proposals should clearly specify the following: ? Workshop title (what is it called?) ? Topic (what is it about?) ? Main organizer?s email (who should we get in touch with?) ? Abstract (can you summarize in a few sentences what will happen?) ? Motivation, impact, and expected outcomes (why this workshop?) ? Bibliographic references (where can we learn more?) ? Format (one-day, two-day?) ? Organizer and co-organizers info and bios (who is making it happen?) ? Invited speakers (who will come give invited talks?) ? Funding status (is funding secured for this event?) ? Tentative schedule (what will be the balance between contributed and invited talks, posters, panel discussions, etc...) ? Tentative Website URL ? Workshop history (is this the first edition of the workshop?) Detailed descriptions of last year?s workshops can be found at: http://icml.cc/2014/index/article/16.htm Submission Process Workshop proposals should be submitted through the following form http://goo.gl/forms/LqLu12u218 or by email, in an attached pdf document providing answers to the points summarized above, to the address: workshops at icml.cc Submissions, either through the form or by mail, must be sent before Feb 27, 2015, 23:59 UTC. === Submissions will be acknowledged by a confirmation email. === *Acceptance decision* Proposals will be evaluated by the workshop chair and conference organizers, with an eye towards selecting high-quality workshops on a diverse set of topics that will inform and inspire the community. *Contact*: workshops at icml.cc Marco Cuturi, workshop chair ICML 2015 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sahil.moza at gmail.com Wed Feb 25 07:54:53 2015 From: sahil.moza at gmail.com (Sahil Moza) Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 18:24:53 +0530 Subject: Connectionists: Fwd: Summer CAMP@Bangalore: Short course in Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear All, A gentle reminder about the course, deadline shifted to March 1st. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sahil Moza Date: Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 11:45 PM Subject: Summer CAMP at Bangalore: Short course in Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity To: connectionists at cs.cmu.edu We would like to announce CAMP at Bangalore 2015 from 27 June 2015 to 12 July 2015. Please see the course website at http://camp.ncbs.res.in/ CAMP @ Bangalore (Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity at NCBS, Bangalore) is a 16-day summer school on the theory and simulation of learning, memory and plasticity in the brain. The course will start with remedial tutorials on neuroscience / math / programming and then work upwards from sub-cellular electrical and chemical signaling in neurons, onward to micro-circuits and networks, all with an emphasis on learning, memory and plasticity. Students worldwide are encouraged to apply. Accommodation and food will be free for the selected students. There is no registration fee. Students are advised to obtain independent travel grants. Instructors include: Ad Aertsen (Bernstein Center, Freiburg) Dan Johnston (UT-Austin) Sumantra Chattarji (NCBS, Bangalore) Suhita Nadkarni (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune) Michael Hausser (University College, London) Stefano Fusi (Columbia University, New York) Raghav Rajan (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune) Eric DeWitt (Champalimaud, Lisbon) Mohan Raghavan (Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad) Course Organizers: Upinder Bhalla (NCBS, Bangalore) Arvind Kumar (KTH Stockholm) Rishikesh Narayanan (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) Thank you, Sahil Moza -- Sahil Moza National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore, India -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From zoe at kourtzi.com Wed Feb 25 05:31:30 2015 From: zoe at kourtzi.com (Zoe Kourtzi) Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:31:30 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Lab manager position at Cambridge, UK Message-ID: <8B34B464-F600-40F9-872F-06C7038F3964@kourtzi.com> Lab manager position at Cambridge, UK A lab manager position is available to work at the Adaptive Brain Lab (http://www.abg.psychol.cam.ac.uk) at the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK. The lab focuses on understanding the neural basis of human perception and adaptive behaviours using a combination of behavioral, computational and brain imaging techniques (fMRI, TMS, EEG). The team consists of an international and interdisciplinary mix of students and post-docs who use specialist equipment (display devices, eye trackers, brain imaging equipment). The successful candidate will provide hardware (i.e. configuring computer equipment and experimental hardware) and software support (i.e. developing software for stimulus generation and data analysis) as well as some administrative support (e.g. ordering equipment, organizing databases and data storage, writing reports). The lab manager will be involved in all aspects of the lab life (i.e. conducting research projects in collaboration with lab members, organizing conferences and workshops, attending seminars and lab meetings). A bachelor's (or higher) degree in computer science, engineering, math, physics, neuroscience, psychology, or other related field is required. Strong computer programming skills (especially MATLAB, C++, OpenGL) and organizational skills are required. Research experience in cognitive and/or computational neuroscience would be preferable, but not required. For informal inquiries, please send CV and a brief statement of background skills and interests to zk240 at cam.ac.uk Zoe Kourtzi, PhD Professor of Experimental Psychology Department of Psychology University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EB emal: zk240 at cam.ac.uk tel: 0044 1223 766558 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Eirini.Mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk Wed Feb 25 19:28:45 2015 From: Eirini.Mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk (Eirini Mavritsaki) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2015 00:28:45 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Papers ( Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience): Special Issue on Neuropsychology through the lenses of Computational Modelling In-Reply-To: <3FCD70F47E1E99449079BAD1F20D729C43F44277@EXMBX1.staff.uce.ac.uk> References: <3FCD70F47E1E99449079BAD1F20D729C43F44277@EXMBX1.staff.uce.ac.uk> Message-ID: <3FCD70F47E1E99449079BAD1F20D729C5D482E9C@EXMBX2.staff.uce.ac.uk> Call for Papers Special Issue in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience 'Neuropsychology through the lenses of Computational Modelling' Extended Deadline 16th of March Computational modelling may provide an increasingly important tool for furthering neuropsychology and understanding brain impairments ? but there remain many issues: how can different types of lesion be best modelled? What are the differences between damage to grey matter and to fibre tracts? What the effects of learning within damaged systems or systems where there is an imbalance in neurotransmitters? For this reason a special issue that brings together state-of-the-art papers on the computational modelling of neuropsychological disorders, with papers covering different levels of modelling (from spiking neurons to higher-level connectionist modelling), using imaging as well as behavioural data, and addressing a number of different disorders (attention, language, memory etc.) is expended to contribute significantly to the field of Neuropsychology and Computational Neuroscience. In collaboration with Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, we are organizing a Research Topic titled "Neuropsychology through the lenses of computational modelling?, hosted by Eirini Mavritsaki, Glyn Humphreys. As host editor, I would like to encourage you to contribute to this topic. Frontiers, a Swiss open-access publisher, recently partnered with Nature Publishing Group to expand its researcher-driven Open Science platform. Frontiers articles are rigorously peer-reviewed, can be disseminated freely and are widely read by your colleagues and by the broader scientific and medical research communities. The idea behind a research topic is to create an organized, comprehensive collection of several contributions, as well as a forum for discussion and debate. Contributions can be articles describing original research, methods, hypothesis & theory, opinions, etc. We have created a homepage on the Frontiers website (Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience) where all articles will appear after peer-review and where participants in the topic will be able to hold relevant discussions: http://www.frontiersin.org/Computational_Neuroscience/researchtopics/Neuropsychology_through_the_le/3580. Frontiers will also compile an e-book, as soon as all contributing articles are published, that can be used in classes, be sent to foundations that fund your research, to journalists and press agencies, or to any number of other organizations. As such, a manuscript accepted for publication incurs a publishing fee, which varies depending on the article type. Research Topic manuscripts receive a significant discount on publishing fees. Please take a look at this fee table: http://www.frontiersin.org/about/PublishingFees. Once published, your articles will remain free to access for all readers, and will be indexed in PubMed and other academic archives. As an author in Frontiers, you retain the copyright to your own papers and figures. I would be delighted if you considered participating in this Research Topic. Should you choose to participate, please confirm by sending me a quick email and then your abstract no later than Feb 16, 2015 using the following link: http://www.frontiersin.org/Computational_Neuroscience/researchtopics/Neuropsychology_through_the_le/3580 Please note that the deadline for manuscript submission is on: Jun 30, 2015 Since I am using the Frontiers system to manage this topic, I would really appreciate if you could also please indicate your decision by clicking on one of the links below. <> With best regards, Eirini Mavritsaki Guest Associate Editor, Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience www.frontiersin.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eirini Mavritsaki, Ph.D., CPsychol Co-Director of the Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAP Research) Business Development Coordinator for Social Sciences Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology Faculty of Business Law and Social Sciences Birmingham City University D 3.17 Dawson Building City North Campus Perry Bar, Birmingham B42 2SU eirini.mavritsaki at bcu.ac.uk 0121 331 6361 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hosengbeng at gmail.com Thu Feb 26 02:45:14 2015 From: hosengbeng at gmail.com (sengbeng ho) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2015 15:45:14 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: Scientist Positions for the Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore Message-ID: *Scientist Positions for the Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore* The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) - http://www.a-star.edu.sg/ - is a Singapore government funded group of research institutions which receives multi-billion (U.S.) dollar funding from the Singapore government - http://www.nrf.gov.sg/research/r-d-ecosystem/overview. The Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) - http://www.ihpc.a-star.edu.sg/ - is a member institute of A*STAR that was established in 1998 to provide leadership in high performance computing as a strategic resource for scientific inquiry and industry development. We are seeking highly self-motivated individuals capable of working independently yet cohesively as a team in the pursuit of scientific work with high demands on technical flair and a knack for innovative solutions to various problems. Successful candidates will become part of a multidisciplinary research team in building algorithms for computational and artificial intelligence, processing, analysing and interpreting social media data, language processing, computer vision, behaviour understanding, and commonsense reasoning. If you share our interests in solving challenging scientific problems, we welcome you to apply for the following positions: *1. Scientist (Artificial Intelligence)* *Job Description:* You will contribute towards capability development in some of the following areas: computational and artificial intelligence systems, cognitively-inspired systems, intelligent processing, analysis and interpretation of social media data, data and video analytics, behaviour understanding systems, and probabilistic and commonsense inference systems. *Requirements:* 1. A PhD degree in Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Information Systems / Cognitive Science / Psychology / Physics, or equivalent. 2. A good scientific research track record and practical experience in some of the following disciplines: computational and artificial intelligence, cognitive systems, modelling and simulation, data and video analytics, and social media data analysis. 3. Interest and experience with commonsense reasoning systems will be advantageous. 4. Able to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team. 5. Strong potential for producing impactful scholarly publications. 6. Demonstrates strong interest and ability in research. *2. Scientist (Linguistics/Computational Linguistics)* *Job Description:* You will contribute towards capability development in the following area: design and development of computational and artificial intelligence systems, specifically language understanding and generation systems. *Requirements:* 1. A PhD degree in Linguistics / Computational Linguistics / Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering / Information Systems / Cognitive Science, or equivalent. 2. A good scientific research track record in one or more than one of the following areas: linguistics, computational linguistics, natural language processing systems, etc. 3. Interest and experience with cognitive linguistics will be advantageous. 4. Able to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team. 5. Strong potential for producing impactful scholarly publications. 6. Demonstrates strong interest and ability in research. Please submit CV by email to Dr. Seng-Beng Ho at hosb at ihpc.a-star.edu.sg. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From martaruizcostajussa at gmail.com Thu Feb 26 11:25:46 2015 From: martaruizcostajussa at gmail.com (Marta Ruiz) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2015 10:25:46 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: EXTENDED DEADLINE: JAIR Special Track on Cross-language Algorithms and Applications Message-ID: JAIR Special Track on Cross-language Algorithms and Applications Track Editor Llu?s M?rquez, Qatar Computing Research Institute Associate Track Editors Marta R. Costa-?juss?, Instituto Polit?cnico Nacional Srinivas Bangalore, AT&T Labs-Research Patrik Lambert, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Elena Montiel-Ponsoda, Universidad Polit?cnica de Madrid The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) is pleased to announce the launch of the Special Track on Cross-language Algorithms and Applications. The core Artificial Intelligence technologies of speech and natural language processing need to address the challenges of processing multiple languages. While the first challenge of multilingualism is to bridge the nomenclature gap for the same concepts, the next significant challenge is to develop algorithms and applications that not only scale to multiple languages but also leverage cross-lingual similarities for improved natural language processing. The goal of this special track is to serve as a home for the publication of leading research on Cross-language Algorithms and Applications, focusing on developing unified themes leading to the development of the science of multi- and cross-lingualism. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: efforts in the direction of multilingual transliteration; multilingual document summarization; rapid prototyping of cross language tools for low resource languages; and machine translation. Articles published in the Cross-language Algorithms and Applications track must meet the highest quality standards as measured by originality and significance of the contribution and clarity of presentation. Papers will be coordinated by the track editor and associate editors, and reviewed by peer reviewers drawn from the JAIR Editorial Board and the larger community. All articles should be submitted using the normal JAIR submission process. Please indicate that the submission is intended for the Special Track in the section "Special Information for editors". For more information and submission instructions, please see: http://www.jair.org/specialtrack-claa.html Timetable 24th March 2015 *EXTENDED* Deadline for Submissions 24th June 2015 Notification of Acceptance/Revision/Rejection 5th August 2015 Deadline for Re-submission of papers requiring revision 5th October 2015 Notification of Final Acceptance 24th November 2015 Final manuscript due Contact: martaruizcostajussa at gmail.com Submission Instructions: Use JAIR conventional submissions instructions available at http://www.jair.org/submission_info.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sophie.deneve at ens.fr Thu Feb 26 13:21:39 2015 From: sophie.deneve at ens.fr (Sophie Deneve) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2015 19:21:39 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?Postdoctoral_positions_available_in_Sop?= =?utf-8?q?hie_Deneve=27s_Team=2C_Ecole_Normale_Sup=C3=A9rieure=2C_?= =?utf-8?q?Paris?= Message-ID: Two postdoctoral positions are available in the group of Sophie Deneve, Ecole Normale sup?rieure Paris. Positions are for one year, renewable one year, and comes with competitive salary and generous equipment and travel funds. The team is part of the ?Group for neural theory? ( http://iec-lnc.ens.fr/group-for-neural-theory/) and surrounded by top-level theoretical and experimental labs. Candidates are expected to have a solid training in the field of computational neuroscience, proven quantitative and programming skills and a strong interest in integrative/cognitive neuroscience. Starting dates are flexible, but should preferentially occur before September 2015. Possible projects include: Starting from the hypothesis that biological networks are optimally tuned to maximize coding efficiency and robustness, we will design new tools to analyze their dynamics and function. We will identify functionally relevant, low-dimensional structures in large neural datasets (spontaneous and stimulus-driven multi-unit activity in retina, visual cortex, and/or in Zebrafish whole brain recordings). Sensory neurons are often described in terms by their receptive fields. On the other hand, ?generative models? (and more generally, efficient coding) assume that neurons collectively try to predict their stimuli. In such scenarios, prior assumptions, metabolic constrains and context deeply reshape neural selectivity. We will consider implications for learning, attentional modulation and/or hierarchical neural processing. Candidates should send their application to sophie.deneve at ens.fr by *March 31, 2015*. Please mention ?postdoctoral candidate? in the subject of the email. Application should take the form of a single PDF file, containing a CV, motivation letter, names and email addresses of 2 to 3 referees. No official letter of recommendations are required, as the referee will be contacted directly. Best wishes, -- Dr Sophie Deneve Group for Neural Theory Laboratoire de Neurosciences cognitives ENS-INSERM 29, rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France Tel. (+33) (0)1 44 32 26 35 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From g.goodhill at uq.edu.au Fri Feb 27 04:39:45 2015 From: g.goodhill at uq.edu.au (Geoffrey Goodhill) Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 09:39:45 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: SCiNDU Conference Announcement Message-ID: <236357C7-E9BD-4464-8A70-1164707FDF00@uq.edu.au> SCiNDU: SYSTEMS AND COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE DOWN UNDER qbi.uq.edu.au/scindu December 15-17th, 2015, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia This conference will bring together international leaders in understanding the computational principles underlying how neural circuits decode sensory information, make decisions, and learn from experience. Abstract submissions for poster presentation are welcome. Deadline for abstracts and early registration is Oct 16th 2015. Some abstracts will be selected for short talks. Confirmed invited speakers include: Ehsan Arabzadeh (ANU) Mark Bear (MIT) Michael Breakspear (QIMR) Allen Cheung (QBI) Yang Dan (UC Berkeley) Peter Dayan (UCL) Geoffrey Goodhill (QBI) Zach Mainen (Champalimaud) Jason Mattingley (QBI) Linda Richards (QBI) Peter Robinson (Sydney) Marcello Rosa (Monash) Pankaj Sah (QBI) Mandyam Srinivasan (QBI) Greg Stuart (ANU) Stephen Williams (QBI) Li Zhaoping (UCL) On December 15th the conference will be preceded by tutorials including: Mark Bear: Experience-dependent synaptic plasticity Peter Dayan: Neural reinforcement learning Jason Mattingley: Brain stimulation, attention and plasticity Li Zhaoping: Vision, efficient coding and salience We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Queensland Brain Institute and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. Professor Geoffrey J Goodhill Queensland Brain Institute and School of Mathematics & Physics University of Queensland St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia Email: g.goodhill at uq.edu.au http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/professor-geoffrey-goodhill From steve at cns.bu.edu Fri Feb 27 13:39:04 2015 From: steve at cns.bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 13:39:04 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: =?windows-1252?q?a_neural_architecture_for_autono?= =?windows-1252?q?mous_spatial_and_object_attention=2C_invariant_object_ca?= =?windows-1252?q?tegory_learning_and_recognition=2C_and_Where=92s_Waldo_s?= =?windows-1252?q?earch_with_freely_moving_eyes?= Message-ID: The following series of articles progressively develop a neural architecture for autonomous spatial and object attention, invariant object category learning and recognition, and Where?s Waldo search with freely moving eyes: ARTSCAN View-invariant object category learning and recognition with freely moving eyes in a 2D scene Fazl, A., Grossberg, S., and Mingolla, E. (2009). View-invariant object category learning, recognition, and search: How spatial and object attention are coordinated using surface-based attentional shrouds. Cognitive Psychology, 58, 1-48. http://cns.bu.edu/~steve/FazGroMin2008.pdf pARTSCAN View-, position-, and size-invariant object category learning and recognition with freely moving eyes in a 2D scene Cao, Y., Grossberg, S., and Markowitz, J. (2011). How does the brain rapidly learn and reorganize view- and positionally-invariant object representations in inferior temporal cortex? Neural Networks, 24, 1050-1061. http://cns.bu.edu/~steve/NN2853.pdf dARTSCAN ARTSCAN with transient and sustained distributed attention and prefrontal priming in a 2D scene Foley, N.C., Grossberg, S. and Mingolla, E. (2012). Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: Object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding. Cognitive Psychology, 65, 77-117. http://cns.bu.edu/~steve/FolGroMin2012.pdf ARTSCAN SEARCH Solution of Where?s Waldo Problem: finding a valued object in a 2D scene Chang, H.-C., Grossberg, S., and Cao, Y. (2014) Where's Waldo? How perceptual cognitive, and emotional brain processes cooperate during learning to categorize and find desired objects in a cluttered scene. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, doi: 10.3389/fnint.2014.0043. http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnint.2014.00043/full 3D ARTSCAN ARTSCAN of a 3D scene whose 3D perceptual representations remain stable as the eyes move Grossberg, S., Srinivasan, K., and Yazdanbakhsh, A. (2014). Binocular fusion and invariant category learning due to predictive remapping during scanning of a depthful scene with eye movements. Frontiers in Psychology: Perception Science, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01457. http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01457/full Stephen Grossberg Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems Professor of Mathematics, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering Director, Center for Adaptive Systems http://www.cns.bu.edu/about/cas.html http://cns.bu.edu/~steve steve at bu.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ASIM.ROY at asu.edu Fri Feb 27 15:32:44 2015 From: ASIM.ROY at asu.edu (Asim Roy) Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 20:32:44 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: INNS (International Neural Network Society) BigData 2015 San Francisco, Aug. 8-10, 2015 - $2000 Best Paper Award - Papers submission deadline is March 22nd. Message-ID: <4AD8F84F0AA4E1448BD8131BA7E55EB423CF2540@exmbw02.asurite.ad.asu.edu> Dear Colleagues, Please forward this announcement to others who might be interested in this conference. Note that the deadline for paper submission is March 22nd. There is a $2000 Elsevier Best Paper Award. Both theoretical and application papers will be considered for the award. This should be a great inaugural big data conference for INNS. We have great plenary speakers, tutorials and workshops. Hope to see you in San Francisco. Best regards, Asim Roy Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287, USA www.lifeboat.com/ex/bios.asim.roy INNS Big Data Section: http://www.inns.org/big-data-section. [http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/banner.jpg] INNS Conference on Big Data 2015 New approaches to solving hard Big Data problems! 8 - 10 August 2015, San Francisco www.innsbigdata.org IMPORTANT: The Paper Submission Deadline (March 22, 2015) is only one month away! Please submit your papers, and note that as our schedule is already compressed, there is little room for extensions after that date. The aim of the INNS BigData conference is to promote new advances and research directions in efficient and innovative algorithmic approaches to analyzing big data (e.g. deep networks, nature-inspired and brain-inspired algorithms), implementations on different computing platforms (e.g. neuromorphic, GPUs, clouds, clusters) and applications of Big Data Analytics to solve real-world problems (e.g. weather prediction, transportation, energy management). Please refer to our website for a more detailed list of topics. Being INNS' inaugural conference on the theme of big data, we are especially motivated to synthesize ideas, promote activities and generate broad interest in areas where neural networks have many unique advantages. We also have Twitter, Facebook and Google+ pages! Important Dates: * Paper Submission: March 22, 2015 * Paper Decision Notification: May 22, 2015 * Camera Ready Submission of papers: June 8, 2015 [http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/new.gif]The Elsevier USD 2000 Big Data Best Paper Award: This award recognizes the best paper presented at the INNS Big Data conference. Both application and theoretical papers will be considered. It will be awarded by the Big Data Analytics Section of the International Neural Network Society and is sponsored by Elsevier. The Award consists of a plaque and a $2000 honorarium. ________________________________ PLENARY SPEAKERS: [http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/juergen.jpg] [http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/new.gif]DEEP LEARNING Prof. J?rgen Schmidhuber, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Lugano, and the Swiss AI Lab IDSIA. Since age 15 or so, Prof. J?rgen Schmidhuber?s main scientific ambition has been to build an optimal scientist through self-improving Artificial Intelligence (AI), then retire. He has pioneered self-improving general problem solvers since 1987, and Deep Learning Neural Networks (NNs) since 1991. The Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) recurrent NNs (RNNs), developed by his research groups at the Swiss AI Lab IDSIA & USI & SUPSI & TU Munich, were the first RNNs to win official international contests. LSTM recently helped to improve connected handwriting recognition, speech recognition, machine translation, optical character recognition, image caption generation, and are now in use at Google, Microsoft, IBM, and many other companies. IDSIA?s Deep Learners were also the first to win object detection and image segmentation contests, and achieved the world?s first superhuman visual classification results, winning nine international competitions in machine learning & pattern recognition (more than any other team). Since 2009 he has been member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, earned seven best paper/best video awards, and is recipient of the 2013 Helmholtz Award of the International Neural Networks Society. 50 Years of Deep Learning and Beyond: an Interview with J?rgen Schmidhuber. [http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Bin-Yu.jpg] Prof. Bin Yu, Chancellor?s Professor, University of California, Berkeley. Bin Yu is Chancellor?s Professor in the Departments of Statistics and of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley. She held faculty positions at UW-Madison and Yale University and was a Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Bell Labs. She was Chair of Department of Statistics at Berkeley from 2009 to 2012, and is a founding co-director of the Microsoft Joint Lab on Statistics and Information Technology at Peking University where she is also Chair of the scientific advisory committee of the Center for Statistical Sciences. She has published over 80 scientific papers in premier journals in statistics, machine learning, information theory, signal processing, remote sensing, neuroscience, network analysis, and bioinformatics. She is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/brenda.jpg] Prof. Brenda Dietrich, IBM Fellow and VP, Leads the Emerging Technologies Team for IBM Watson, IBM Brenda Dietrich is an IBM Fellow and Vice President. She joined IBM in 1984 and has worked in the area now called analytics for her entire career, applying data and computation to business decision processes throughout IBM. For over a decade she led the Mathematical Sciences function in the IBM Research division where she was responsible for both basic research on computational mathematics and for the development of novel applications of mathematics for both IBM and its clients. She has been the president of INFORMS, has served on the Board of Trustees of SIAM, and is a member of several university advisory boards. She holds more than a dozen patents, has co-authored numerous publications, and frequently speaks on analytics at conferences. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2014. She holds a BS in Mathematics from UNC and an MS and Ph.D. in OR/IE from Cornell. Her personal research includes manufacturing scheduling, services resource management, transportation logistics, integer programming, and combinatorial duality. She currently leads the emerging technologies team for IBM Watson, extending and applying IBM?s cognitive computing technology. [http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Raghu.jpg] Prof. Raghu Ramakrishnan, Head of Cloud and Information Services Lab (CISL) and big data team, Microsoft Raghu Ramakrishnan heads the Cloud and Information Services Lab (CISL) in the Data Platforms Group at Microsoft, and leads development for the Big Data team. From 1987 to 2006, he was a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he wrote the widely-used text ?Database Management Systems? and led a wide range of research projects in database systems (e.g., the CORAL deductive database, the DEVise data visualization tool, SQL extensions to handle sequence data) and data mining (scalable clustering, mining over data streams). In 1999, he founded QUIQ, a company that introduced a cloud-based question-answering service. He joined Yahoo! in 2006 as a Yahoo! Fellow, and over the next six years served as Chief Scientist for the Audience (portal), Cloud and Search divisions, driving content recommendation algorithms (CORE), cloud data stores (PNUTS), and semantic search (?Web of Things?). Ramakrishnan has received several awards, including the ACM SIGKDD Innovations Award, the SIGMOD 10-year Test-of-Time Award, the IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering. Dr. Fen Zhao Talk[http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/new.gif] Dr. Fen Zhao, a Staff Associate at the Office of the Assistant Director (OAD) for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) at the National Science Foundation, will give a talk on national big data R&D initiative and on building public-private partnerships around CISE's Big Data, next generation internet, and cybersecurity R&D portfolios. ________________________________ TUTORIALS & WORKSHOPS: TUTORIALS * Deep Learning - Profs. Juergen Schmidhuber (University of Lugano, and the Swiss AI Lab IDSIA) and Dong Yu (Microsoft Research)[http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/new.gif] * Platforms and Algorithms for Big Data Analytics - Prof. Chandan K. Reddy (Wayne State University) * Online Learning for Big Data Analytics - Prof. Irwin King (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) * Introduction to How Brain Deals with Big Data - Juyang Weng (Michigan State University) * Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning Cognitive Algorithms and the Mind - Prof. Leonid I. Perlovsky (Northeastern University) * A Perspective on Emerging Neuromemristive Hardware Architectures - Profs. Manan Suri (IIT - Delhi) and Dhireesha Kudithipudi (RIT) * Spiking Neural Networks and Neuromorphic Spatio-Temporal Data Machines - Prof. Nikola Kasabov (Auckland University of Technology) * Neural networks and wearable devices - Prof. Danilo P. Mandic (Imperial College) WORKSHOPS * Deep Learning - Profs. Juergen Schmidhuber and Dong Yu[http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/new.gif] * Neuromorphic Spatio-Temporal Big Data Machines - Prof. Nikola Kasabov * Neural networks and wearable devices - Prof. Danilo Mandic * Big Data and Power Systems - Profs. Dejan Sobajic and Kumar Venayagamoorthy * Crowd Behaviour and Big Data - Profs. Chrisina Jayne and Mehmed Kantardzic * Automatic Machine Learning - Prof. Isabelle Guyon Big Data Analytics Section @ INNS: Considering the growing interest to process and analyse big data, the International Neural Network Society (INNS) has a new Section on Big Data Analytics (BDA) to help the neural network field position itself as a leading technology contributor to big data analytics. Anyone who is interested to know more is encouraged to visit the homepage of the INNS-BDA Section. ________________________________ We have an enthusiastic team working hard on the conference program and events. Start thinking about your paper submissions. Our Chairs for the [Special Sessions, Tutorials, and Workshops] are expecting your proposals soon - email them to discuss your ideas. Come to San Francisco next summer to take part in the future of BigData, and to have fun!! ________________________________ GENERAL CHAIRS: [http://lifeboat.com/board/asim.roy.jpg] Asim Roy (email) INNS BigData General Co-Chair Arizona State University, USA INNS Board of Governors Plamen Angelov (email) INNS BigData General Co-Chair Lancaster University, UK Chair in Intelligent Systems [http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/files/5444143/Plamen_Madeira_pass_size.jpg] ________________________________ Many thanks to our Sponsors: [http://www.inns.org/assets/site/neural.png] [http://innsbigdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/elsevier-logo-300x300-150x150.jpg] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From publicity at ecmlpkdd2015.org Fri Feb 27 10:27:58 2015 From: publicity at ecmlpkdd2015.org (ECMLPKDD 2015) Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 15:27:58 -0000 Subject: Connectionists: ECMLPKDD 2015 : Call for Papers, Tutorials and Workshops Message-ID: <04f301d052a1$f9b9cca0$ed2d65e0$@ecmlpkdd2015.org> The European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECMLPKDD) will take place in Porto, Portugal, from September 7th to 11th, 2015 (http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org). This event is the leading European scientific event on machine learning and data mining and builds upon a very successful series of 25 ECML and 18 PKDD conferences, which have been jointly organized for the past 14 years. ECMLPKDD 2015 will host three tracks, tutorials and a set of workshops. Therefore, we invite all researchers and practitioners from different communities to submit papers and/or present tutorial and workshop proposals. ************************* CALL FOR PAPERS ************************* JOURNAL TRACK ********************* Articles for this track are submitted all year long directly to either Machine Learning or Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, and are reviewed like regular journal articles. Accepted articles appear in full in the journal and the authors are given a presentation slot at the conference. Articles deemed insufficiently mature for journal publication may be accepted for inclusion in the proceedings. Submissions to the journal track will be managed by the Guest Editorial Board. Paper Submission: Cut-off dates for the bi-weekly batches are 18 Jan, 1 Feb, 15 Fev, 1 Mar, 15 Mar, 29 Mar, 12 Apr, 26 Apr of 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/journal-track RESEARCH PROCEEDINGS TRACK ******************************************* The research proceedings track, which is organized in the traditional way. Accepted papers will be published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) of Springer, after reviewing by the programme committee. Abstract Submission Deadline: March 26, 2015 Paper Submission Deadline: April 2, 2015 Paper Acceptance Notification: June 1, 2015 Paper Camera Ready Submission: June 15, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/research-proceedings-track INDUSTRIAL, GOVERNMENTAL & NON-GOVERNMENTAL PROCEEDINGS TRACK **************************************************************************** ************************** The NEW industrial, governmental & non-governmental (NGO) proceedings track is independent and distinct from the Research Track. Submissions to this track should solve real-world problems and focus on engineering systems, applications, and challenges. Accepted papers will be published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) of Springer, after reviewing by the programme committee. Abstract Submission Deadline: March 26, 2015 Paper Submission Deadline: April 2, 2015 Paper Acceptance Notification: June 1, 2015 Paper Camera Ready Submission: June 15, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/industrial-proceedings-track ***************************************************************** CALL FOR TUTORIAL AND WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ***************************************************************** TUTORIALS ************** The tutorials are intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to established or emerging research topics of interest for the machine learning and the data mining community. These topics include related research fields or applications. The ideal tutorial should attract a wide audience. It should be broad enough to provide a basic introduction to the chosen research area, but it should also cover the most important topics in depth. We welcome half day workshop proposals. Proposal Deadline: March 2, 2015 Proposal Acceptance Notification: March 23, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/call-for-tutorials WORKSHOPS **************** The workshops will be on relevant and current topics in Machine Learning and Data Mining. The scope of the proposal should be consistent with the conference themes as described in the ECMLPKDD 2015 Call for Papers (http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission). Interdisciplinary workshops that bring together researchers and practitioners from different communities are especially welcome. We encourage workshops that bridge the gap between theoretical advances and important and/or innovative applications of machine learning and data mining. We welcome both full and half day workshop proposals. Proposal Deadline: March 2, 2015 Proposal Acceptance Notification: March 23, 2015 Workshop Websites and Call for Papers Online: March 27, 2015 Workshop Proceedings (Camera-ready): August 3, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/call-for-workshop-proposals Hope to see you all soon in Porto, Portugal!!! The publicity chairs of the ECMLPKDD 2015, Carlos Abreu Ferreira Ricardo Campos --- Este e-mail foi verificado em termos de v?rus pelo software antiv?rus Avast. http://www.avast.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From grlmc at urv.cat Sat Feb 28 11:26:04 2015 From: grlmc at urv.cat (GRLMC) Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2015 17:26:04 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: AlCoB 2015: extended submission deadline 9 March Message-ID: <816DA7E4E4EF4E8293E3BD989FAE0593@Carlos1> *To be removed from our mailing list, please respond to this message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line* ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED: March 9 ***** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- **************************************************************************** ****** 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ALGORITHMS FOR COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AlCoB 2015 Mexico City, Mexico August 4-6, 2015 Organized by: Centre for Complexity Sciences (C3) School of Sciences Institute for Research in Applied Mathematics and Systems (IIMAS) Graduate Program in Computing Science and Engineering National Autonomous University of Mexico Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics (GRLMC) Rovira i Virgili University http://grammars.grlmc.com/alcob2015/ **************************************************************************** ****** AIMS: AlCoB aims at promoting and displaying excellent research using string and graph algorithms and combinatorial optimization to deal with problems in biological sequence analysis, genome rearrangement, evolutionary trees, and structure prediction. The conference will address several of the current challenges in computational biology by investigating algorithms aimed at: 1) assembling sequence reads into a complete genome, 2) identifying gene structures in the genome, 3) recognizing regulatory motifs, 4) aligning nucleotides and comparing genomes, 5) reconstructing regulatory networks of genes, and 6) inferring the evolutionary phylogeny of species. Particular focus will be put on methodology and significant room will be reserved to young scholars at the beginning of their career. VENUE: AlCoB 2015 will take place in Mexico City, the oldest capital city in the Americas and the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world. The venue will be the main campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. SCOPE: Topics of either theoretical or applied interest include, but are not limited to: Exact sequence analysis Approximate sequence analysis Pairwise sequence alignment Multiple sequence alignment Sequence assembly Genome rearrangement Regulatory motif finding Phylogeny reconstruction Phylogeny comparison Structure prediction Compressive genomics Proteomics: molecular pathways, interaction networks ... Transcriptomics: splicing variants, isoform inference and quantification, differential analysis Next-generation sequencing: population genomics, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics ... Microbiome analysis Systems biology STRUCTURE: AlCoB 2015 will consist of: invited lectures peer-reviewed contributions INVITED SPEAKERS: Julio Collado-Vides (National Autonomous University of Mexico, Cuernavaca), >From Curation of Information to Knowledge Encoding Gaston Gonnet (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich), Human-Dog-Mouse, Probably and Provable Non-trivial Evolution Close to the Root of the Mammalian Clade Peter D. Karp (SRI International, Menlo Park), Algorithms for Metabolic Route Search and Determination of Reaction Atom Mappings PROGRAMME COMMITTEE: Stephen Altschul (National Center for Biotechnology Information, Bethesda, USA) Yurii Aulchenko (Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia) Pierre Baldi (University of California, Irvine, USA) Daniel G. Brown (University of Waterloo, Canada) Yuehui Chen (University of Jinan, China) Keith A. Crandall (George Washington University, Washington, USA) Joseph Felsenstein (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) Michael Galperin (National Center for Biotechnology Information, Bethesda, USA) Susumu Goto (Kyoto University, Japan) Igor Grigoriev (DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, USA) Martien Groenen (Wageningen University, The Netherlands) Yike Guo (Imperial College, London, UK) Javier Herrero (University College London, UK) Karsten Hokamp (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) Hsuan-Cheng Huang (National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan) Ian Korf (University of California, Davis, USA) Nikos Kyrpides (DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, USA) Mingyao Li (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA) Yun Li (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA) Jun Liu (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA) Rodrigo L?pez (European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK) Andrei N. Lupas (Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, T?bingen, Germany) B.S. Manjunath (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) Carlos Mart?n-Vide (chair, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain) Tarjei Mikkelsen (Broad Institute, Cambridge, USA) Henrik Nielsen (Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark) Zemin Ning (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK) Christine Orengo (University College London, UK) Modesto Orozco (Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona, Spain) Christos A. Ouzounis (Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece) Manuel Peitsch (Philip Morris International R&D, Neuch?tel, Switzerland) David A. Rosenblueth (National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico) Julio Rozas (University of Barcelona, Spain) Alessandro Sette (La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, USA) Peter F. Stadler (University of Leipzig, Germany) Guy Theraulaz (Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France) Alfonso Valencia (Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, Madrid, Spain) Kai Wang (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA) Lusheng Wang (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Zidong Wang (Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK) Harel Weinstein (Cornell University, New York, USA) Jennifer Wortman (Broad Institute, Cambridge, USA) Jun Yu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China) Mohammed J. Zaki (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, USA) Louxin Zhang (National University of Singapore, Singapore) Hongyu Zhao (Yale University, New Haven, USA) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Adrian Horia Dediu (Tarragona) Francisco Hern?ndez-Quiroz (Mexico City) Carlos Mart?n-Vide (Tarragona, co-chair) David A. Rosenblueth (Mexico City, co-chair) Florentina Lilica Voicu (Tarragona) SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit non-anonymized papers in English presenting original and unpublished research. Papers should not exceed 12 single-spaced pages (including eventual appendices, references, proofs, etc.) and should be prepared according to the standard format for Springer Verlag's LNCS series (see http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0). Submissions have to be uploaded to: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=alcob2015 PUBLICATIONS: A volume of proceedings published by Springer in the LNCS/LNBI series will be available by the time of the conference. A special issue of the Journal of Computational Biology (Thomson Reuters 2013 impact factor: 1.670) will be later published containing peer-reviewed substantially extended versions of some of the papers contributed to the conference. Submissions to it will be by invitation. REGISTRATION: The registration form can be found at: http://grammars.grlmc.com/alcob2015/Registration.php DEADLINES: Paper submission: March 9, 2015 (23:59 CET) ? EXTENDED ? Notification of paper acceptance or rejection: April 10, 2015 Final version of the paper for the LNCS/LNBI proceedings: April 19, 2015 Early registration: April 19, 2015 Late registration: July 21, 2015 Submission to the journal special issue: November 6, 2015 QUESTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION: florentinalilica.voicu at urv.cat POSTAL ADDRESS: AlCoB 2015 Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics (GRLMC) Rovira i Virgili University Av. Catalunya, 35 43002 Tarragona, Spain Phone: +34 977 559 543 Fax: +34 977 558 386 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: National Autonomous University of Mexico Rovira i Virgili University --- Este mensaje no contiene virus ni malware porque la protecci?n de avast! Antivirus est? activa. http://www.avast.com From aurel at ee.columbia.edu Sat Feb 28 23:37:43 2015 From: aurel at ee.columbia.edu (Aurel A. Lazar) Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2015 23:37:43 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Final Program of the Columbia Workshop on Brain Circuits, Memory and Computation Message-ID: Columbia Workshop on Brain Circuits, Memory and Computation BCMC 2015 Monday and Tuesday, March 16-17, 2015 Center for Neural Engineering and Computation Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 Aurel http://www.bionet.ee.columbia.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: BCMC workshop poster.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 61350 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: