From turagas at janelia.hhmi.org Tue Sep 1 14:43:06 2015 From: turagas at janelia.hhmi.org (Turaga, Srinivas C) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2015 18:43:06 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: open positions in machine learning and computational neuroscience Message-ID: The Turaga Lab is looking for exceptional postdoctoral researchers and programmers (and graduate students!) for research at the intersection of machine learning and neuroscience. https://www.janelia.org/lab/turaga-lab With recent technological advances in 3d electron microscopy, optogenetics and large-scale chronic in vivo neural imaging, it is now possible to measure and perturb the activity of large populations of neurons, and to map their connectivity. These new data can be used understand how the structure of a neural circuit gives rise to its function. Our lab develops machine learning algorithms to map neural connectivity, and statistical models to characterize neural activity and to relate activity to connectivity. We have pioneered the use of deep-learning based machine learning algorithms to map neural connectivity from 3d electron microscopic images of brain tissue, and we are now working to improve these methods. This involves solving interesting new problems in structured prediction, active learning and unsupervised learning at an unprecedented scale (imagine working with labeled training datasets with 10^9 examples in a 10^6 dimensional feature space and wanting to achieve accuracies of 99.999%!). We are also developing novel statistical methods to analyze large-scale calcium imaging datasets. This is with an eye towards combining such large-scale activity measurements with structural connectomes in order to relate neural activity to neural connectivity with statistical and mechanistic models. HHMI's Janelia Research Campus is a unique, world-class research community near Washington, D.C. dedicated to understanding the function of neural circuits and developing synergistic imaging technology. Our highly collaborative structure is designed to support interdisciplinary work in small lab groups. We seek candidates who are comfortable with risk and are able to think independently to develop novel approaches. Applicants should have a strong quantitative background with degrees or expertise in machine learning, computational neuroscience, applied mathematics, physics or related discipline. Excellent collaborative programming skills in Python, C/C++, Java or similar languages are essential. To apply, please send a CV and names and addresses of 2-3 references by email to Dr. Srini Turaga, turagas at janelia.hhmi.org. From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Tue Sep 1 11:05:21 2015 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2015 11:05:21 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: SFN 2015 Workshop: high performance computing via Neuroscience Gateway Message-ID: <55E5BEB1.7020905@yale.edu> What: Workshop on the Neuroscience Gateway Portal (NSG, http://www.nsgportal.org) When: 9AM - Noon on Saturday, October 17, 2015. Registration deadline: Friday, October 2, 2015. Where: Downtown Chicago (exact location announced to registrants) Speakers: Amit Majumdar, Subha Sivagnanam, Padraig Gleeson, Simon Rothmeier, Ted Carnevale, Alex Peyser, Hannah Bos. Agenda: Downloadable from http://www.nsgportal.org/workshop.html Why: If you have, or plan to start, a research project that involves computationally intensive modeling or data analysis, you should know about NSG. NSG is being developed with support from NSF to make it easy for neuroscientists to use high performance computing (HPC) resources in their research. Some of NSG's advantages: * Quick and easy account application and approval. * Free computing time. No cost to your account budget! * Simple user interface for uploading data, running simulations or data analysis tasks, and downloading results * Installed software includes MOOSE, GENESIS 3, NEST, NEURON, PyNN, the Freesurfer Software Suite, and the Virtual Brain Empirical Data Pipeline For more information or to sign up, see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/courses/nsg2015/nsg2015.html or contact Ted Carnevale [ted dot carnevale at yale dot edu] or Amit Majumdar [majumdar at sdsc dot edu] From nowozin at gmail.com Tue Sep 1 09:04:25 2015 From: nowozin at gmail.com (Sebastian Nowozin) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2015 14:04:25 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: ICCV 2015 Workshop on Machine Learning for Intelligent Image and Video Processing Message-ID: Dear colleagues, please find the call for papers attached. Kind regards, on behalf of all organizers, Sebastian Nowozin, Microsoft Research -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ICCV Workshop 2015 MACHINE LEARNING FOR INTELLIGENT IMAGE AND VIDEO PROCESSING Santiago, Chile, 17th December 2015 http://ml4ip-iccv2015.is.tuebingen.mpg.de -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Contributions -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image processing methods are highly relevant in a large variety of industrial and consumer applications. Traditionally some of the successful methods have been derived based on a careful consideration of the particular imaging modality and task, or on an adhoc basis by image processing practitioners. More recently statistical machine learning models have been proposed for tasks such as denoising, deblurring, inpainting, etc., often leading to significant gains in image quality. Machine learning methods require training data to learn about the image statistics and the task, and challenges arise in how this data should be collected and how ground truth is obtained. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers from the image processing and machine learning community to discuss all issues related to machine learning models for image processing applications. We invite submission of papers on relevant topics including, but not limited to the following areas: * Statistical modelling of image processing tasks * Runtime and data efficiency * Tractable estimation * Deep learning for image processing applications * Procedures to obtain ground truth data sets In all aspects the ICCV community has been at the forefront of developing new ideas and we hope to continue this development through this workshop. Keynote Speakers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join us for an exciting program including invited talks by: * Peyman Milanfar, Google * Stefan Roth, TU Darmstadt Important Dates: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Submission deadline: Friday, September 25th, 2015 * Author Notification: Friday, October 16th, 2015 * Final version of submission: Friday, October 23rd, 2015 Submission Instructions: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Papers should be in ICCV style * Maximum paper length is 6 pages * Papers will be reviewed in a double blind process * Accepted papers are not published as part of IEEE Proceedings but inofficially on the workshop website Accepted papers will be presented at the poster session with an additional poster spotlight presentation. One author of every accepted paper has to attend the workshop to present poster and spotlight talk. Organizers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sebastian Nowozin, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK Michael Hirsch, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From michel.verleysen at uclouvain.be Wed Sep 2 02:53:34 2015 From: michel.verleysen at uclouvain.be (Michel Verleysen) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 06:53:34 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: ESANN 2016: announcement and call for papers Message-ID: <0960105d2e68425c8d5d18ddd419342a@ucl-mbx04.OASIS.UCLOUVAIN.BE> ESANN 2016 - 24th European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning Bruges, Belgium, 27-28-29 April 2016 http://www.esann.org/ Call for papers The call for papers is available at http://www.esann.org/. The deadline for submitting papers is November 20, 2015. The ESANN conferences cover machine learning, artificial neural networks, statistical information processing and computational intelligence. Mathematical foundations, algorithms and tools, and applications are covered. In addition to regular sessions, 7 special sessions will be organized on the following topics: - Deep Learning - Advances in Learning with Kernels: Theory and Practice in a World of growing Constraints - Physics and Machine Learning: Emerging Paradigms - Indefinite proximity learning - Information Visualisation and Machine Learning: Techniques, Validation and Integration - Incremental learning algorithms and applications - Machine learning for medical applications ESANN 2016 builds upon a successful series of conferences organized each year since 1993. ESANN has become a major scientific event in the machine learning, computational intelligence and artificial neural networks fields over the years. The conference will be organized in Bruges, one of the most beautiful medieval towns in Europe. Designated as the "Venice of the North", the city has preserved all the charms of the medieval heritage. Its centre, which is inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage list, is in itself a real open air museum. We hope to receive your submission to ESANN 2016 and to see you in Bruges next year! ======================================================== 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 tomas.hromadka at gmail.com Wed Sep 2 04:43:31 2015 From: tomas.hromadka at gmail.com (Tomas Hromadka) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 10:43:31 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: COSYNE 2016: Call for workshop proposals Message-ID: <55E6B6B3.80005@gmail.com> ==================================================== Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2016 (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING Feb 25 - Feb 28, 2016 Salt Lake City, Utah WORKSHOPS Feb 29 - Mar 1, 2016 Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah www.cosyne.org ==================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 31 October, 2015. PRE-PROPOSALS: In an effort to coordinate submissions, the organizers are encouraged to submit a pre-proposal by October 1st, 2015. Pre-proposals will be shared among submitters. Pre-proposals are requested but not required. The organizers may submit the full proposal by its deadline. A series of workshops will be held after the main Cosyne meeting (www.cosyne.org). The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged. The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate. Preference will be given to proposals that differ substantially in content, scope, and/or approach from workshops of recent years (examples available at http://www.cosyne.org/c/index.php?title=Workshops). Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation, reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience. Please note that in an effort to reduce the overlap between workshops, speakers are strongly discouraged from presenting talks at more than one workshop. WORKSHOP DETAILS: - There will be 4-8 workshops/day, running in parallel. - Each workshop is expected to draw between 15 and 80 people. - The workshops will be split into morning (8:00-11:00 AM) and afternoon (4:30-7:30 PM) sessions. - Workshops will be held at Snowbird, a ski resort located 30 miles (typically less than an hour) from the Salt Lake City airport. Buses from the main conference will be provided. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Deadline for pre-proposals: 01 October, 2015 Deadline for proposals: 31 October, 2015 Format: plain text only -- please no attachments email to: cosyne16workshops [at] gmail.com (Claudia Clopath, Alfonso Renart) PRE-PROPOSALS should include: - Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (no more than 2 organizers per session, please). A primary contact should be designated. - A title. - A brief description of 1) what the workshop will address and accomplish, 2) why the topic is of interest, 3) who is the targeted group of participants. - Names of potential invitees, with indication of confirmed speakers. Preference will be given to workshops with the most confirmed speakers. - Proposed workshop length (1 or 2 days). Most workshops will be limited to a single day. If you think your workshop needs 2 days, please explain why. - A brief resume of the workshop organizer along with a short list of workshop-relevant publications (about half a page total). PROPOSALS should include the list of confirmed speakers in addition to components required for a pre-proposal. Workshop organizer responsibilities include coordinating workshop participation and content, scheduling all speakers and submitting a final schedule for the workshop program, and moderating the discussion. Organizers can be speakers but need not speak depending on scheduling constraints. SUGGESTIONS: Experience has shown that the best discussions during a workshop are those that arise spontaneously. A good way to foster these is to have short talks and long question periods (e.g. 30+15 minutes), and have plenty of breaks. We recommend fewer than 10 talks. WORKSHOP COSTS: Detailed registration costs, etc, will be available at www.cosyne.org. Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop speakers. All workshop speakers are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in order to qualify for discounted registration rates. One complementary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with 2 organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them. COSYNE 2016 WORKSHOP CHAIRS: Claudia Clopath (Imperial College London) and Alfonso Renart (Champalimaud Center Lisbon). QUESTIONS: email: cosyne16workshops [at] gmail.com From marcel.van.gerven at gmail.com Wed Sep 2 11:16:43 2015 From: marcel.van.gerven at gmail.com (Marcel van Gerven) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 17:16:43 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PhD position at the interface between machine learning (natural language processing/deep learning) and computational cognitive neuroscience Message-ID: DEADLINE OCTOBER 4 HTTPS://WWW.LANGUAGEININTERACTION.NL/THIRDCALLGENERAL.HTML PHD POSITION Encoding and decoding the neural signatures of natural language comprehension Recent computational advances have made it possible to reconstruct (decode) naturalistic stimuli from neural responses. The project will transfer this approach to reconstructing auditory and linguistic features from brain activity measured while subjects listen to narratives. Work by members of the team (advisory members Roel Willems, Stefan Frank, and Marcel van Gerven) shows (a) the feasibility to describe neural responses by means of stimulus characterization with a computational language model, and (b) that conceptual representations can be decoded from brain activity. The current project joins and extends these studies, paving the way for the development of brain-computer interfaces driven by internal speech, and leading to a fuller understanding of the brain basis of language comprehension under naturalistic conditions. This position will be held at the Centre for Language Studies (CLS), Faculty of Arts, at Radboud University, Nijmegen. The mission of CLS is to gain a deeper understanding of the architecture of the language system and its interactions with processes at the individual and the social-cultural level. We study the cognitive processes operative in the production, comprehension and acquisition of language, the historical and social factors determining language variation and change, and the communicative effects of language. We employ a variety of research methods: detailed analyses of linguistic diversity, automated analyses of large scale language and speech corpora, experiments measuring different types of behavior from language users, and computational modeling of language processing. Requirements Candidates should have a Research Master?s degree (or equivalent) in (Computational) Linguistics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, or another relevant field of study. A strong background in machine learning is highly valued. They should be familiar with statistical language modelling, and should have demonstrable programming skills . Affinity with Bayesian modelling is desirable. Previous experience with neuroimaging is desirable, but not mandatory. Applications from excellent candidates with a less than ideal profile will be equally considered. Contact information PhD position 4: Prof. Antal van den Bosch and Dr. Karl-Magnus Petersson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From luca.oneto at unige.it Wed Sep 2 05:09:25 2015 From: luca.oneto at unige.it (Luca Oneto) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 11:09:25 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: SS on Kernel & ML @ ESANN 2016 Message-ID: [Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP] Call for papers: special session on "Advances in Learning with Kernels: Theory and Practice in a World of growing Constraints" at ESANN 2016 European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning (ESANN 2016). 27-29 April 2016, Bruges, Belgium - http://www.esann.org DESCRIPTION: Kernel methods consistently outperformed previous generations of learning techniques. They provide a flexible and expressive learning framework that has been successfully applied to a wide range of real world problems but, recently, novel algorithms, such as Deep Neural Networks and Ensemble Methods, have increased their competitiveness against them. Due to the current data growth in size, heterogeneity and structure, the new generation of algorithms are expected to solve increasingly challenging problems. This must be done under growing constraints such as computational resources, memory budget and energy consumption. For these reasons, new ideas have to come up in the field of kernel learning, such as deeper kernels and novel algorithms, to fill the gap that now exists with the most recent learning paradigms. The purpose of this special session is to highlight recent advances in learning with kernels. In particular, this session welcomes contributions toward the solution of the weaknesses (e.g. scalability, computational efficiency and too shallow kernels) and the improvement of the strengths (e.g. the ability of dealing with structural data) of the state of the art kernel methods. We also encourage the submission of new theoretical results in the Statistical Learning Theory framework and innovative solutions to real world problems. In particular, topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Budget (time, memory, energy) Learning - Structured input and output (e.g. graph/tree kernels) - Structural Features and Sparse Feature Spaces - Feature learning, weighting and ranking - Large Scale Kernel Methods - Statistical analysis and generalization bounds - Multiple Kernel Learning - Mixed Hard/Soft Constraints - Kernel complexity - Deeper Kernels - Novel Kernelized Algorithms (e.g. online learning, preference learning) - Applications to relevant Real-World Problems SUBMISSION: Prospective authors must submit their paper through the ESANN portal following the instructions provided in http://www.elen.ucl.ac.be/esann/index.php?pg=submission. Each paper will undergo a peer reviewing process for its acceptance. Authors should send as soon as possible an e-mail with the tentative title of their contribution to the special session organisers. IMPORTANT DATES: Paper submission deadline : 20 November 2015 Notification of acceptance : 31 January 2016 The ESANN 2016 conference : 27-29 April 2016 SPECIAL SESSION ORGANISERS Luca Oneto , Davide Anguita , University of Genoa (Italy), Fabio Aiolli, Michele Donini , Nicol? Navarin , University of Padua (Italy) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luca Oneto, PhD University of Genoa web: www.lucaoneto.com DITEN Department e-mail: Luca.Oneto at unige.it SmartLab Laboratory e-mail: Luca.Oneto at gmail.com Via Opera Pia 11a Fax: +39-010-3532897 16145 Genoa ITALY Phone: +39-010-3532192 www.smartlab.ws ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From A.Cangelosi at plymouth.ac.uk Wed Sep 2 09:26:17 2015 From: A.Cangelosi at plymouth.ac.uk (Angelo Cangelosi) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 13:26:17 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: =?iso-8859-2?q?Two_Marie_Sk=B3odowska-Curie_Early?= =?iso-8859-2?q?-Stage_Researchers_=28PhD_studentships=29_in_neuroscience_?= =?iso-8859-2?q?and_cognitive_robotics_-_SECURE_project?= Message-ID: Plymouth University (UK) is seeking applicants for two Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Early-Stage Researchers (PhD studentships) as part of the new European doctoral training network SECURE. Position 1: Neurocognitive Embodiment in Human-Robot Interaction This ESR position will be for a PhD student working in the field of cognitive neuroscience of motor knowledge in human-robot interaction. The PhD project will focus on an examination of the processes and representations of object-based action affordances to inform interactive models of human-robot object manipulation. This will be under the supervision of Jeremy Goslin (School of Psychology) http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ALX534/marie-skodowska-curie-early-stage-researcher/ Position 2: Cognitive Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction This ESR position will be for a PhD student working in the field of cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction. The PhD project will investigate the dynamic alignment between robots and humans, specifically for the role of non-verbal behaviours in supporting safe interaction and linguistic communication. The PhD student will be supervised by Angelo Cangelosi (School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics). http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ALX539/studentship-phd-opportunities-marie-skodowska-curie-early-stage-researcher-cognitive-robotics-and-human-robot-interaction/ Deadline for application is 1 October 2015. The start date for the PhD is 1 January 2016. Salary in the range of ?29,000 to ?32,500 GBP per annum. To apply, follow the above links to individual adverts, or go directly to: http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/jobs Additional Info: SECURE is a new Marie Sk?odowska-Curie European Training Network (ETN) with the primary aim to train a new generation of researchers on safe cognitive robot concepts for human work and living spaces on the most advanced humanoid robot platforms available in Europe. The Early-Stage Research (ESR) fellows will be trained for a PhD through an innovative concept of project-based learning and constructivist learning in supervised peer networks where they will gain experience from an intersectoral programme involving universities, research institutes, large and SME companies from public and private sectors. The training domain will integrate multidisciplinary concepts from the fields of cognitive human-robot interaction, computer science and intelligent robotics where a new approach of integrating principles of embodiment, situation and interaction will be pursued to address future challenges for safe human-robot environments. The following mobility conditions apply: Early-stage researchers shall, at the time of recruitment by the host organisation, be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and not yet have been awarded a doctoral degree. Mobility Rule: at the time of recruitment by the host organisation, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organisation (UK) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date. Compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account. As far as international European interest organisations or international organisations are concerned, this rule does not apply to the hosting of eligible researchers. However, the appointed researcher must not have spent more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment at the host organisation. ________________________________ [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif] This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form. From benoit.frenay at unamur.be Tue Sep 1 14:34:38 2015 From: benoit.frenay at unamur.be (Benoit Frenay) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2015 20:34:38 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Infovis & ML CFP at ESANN'16 Message-ID: <55E5EFBE.4060004@unamur.be> [Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP] Call for papers: special session on "Information Visualisation and Machine Learning: Techniques, Validation and Integration" at ESANN 2016 European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning (ESANN 2016). 27-29 April 2016, Bruges, Belgium -http://www.esann.org DESCRIPTION: This special session aims at exploring how information visualisation (infovis) techniques can help researchers and practitioners in machine learning. Example issues that are welcome in this session entail the validation of results of visualisation techniques from machine learning, the use of interactive techniques to help exploration of data, how machine learning techniques can help improve information visualisation, integrated visualisation and mining (VM), etc. Experimental use cases are welcome. This special session aims to provide practitioners from both communities a common forum of discussion where issues at the crossroads of machine learning and information visualisation could be discussed, in the wake of discussions such as [1, 2]. [1] Enrico Bertini and Denis Lalanne. Surveying the complementary role of automatic data analysis and visualization in knowledge discovery. In Proc. VAKD, 2009, 12-20. [2] Keim, Daniel A., Florian Mansmann, and Jim Thomas. Visual analytics: how much visualization and how much analytics ? ACM SIGKDD Explor. Newsl. 11.2, 2010, 5-8. SUBMISSION: Prospective authors must submit their paper through the ESANN portal following the instructions provided inhttp://www.elen.ucl.ac.be/esann/index.php?pg=submission. Each paper will undergo a peer reviewing process for its acceptance. Authors should send as soon as possible an e-mail with the tentative title of their contribution to the special session organisers. IMPORTANT DATES: Paper submission deadline : 20 November 2015 Notification of acceptance : 31 January 2016 The ESANN 2014 conference : 27-29 April 2016 SPECIAL SESSION ORGANISERS: Prof. Beno?t Fr?nay Universit? de Namur, Belgium E-mail: benoit.frenay at unamur.be Website:http://bfrenay.wordpress.com Phone: +32 81 72 49 76 Prof. Bruno Dumas Universit? de Namur, Belgium E-mail: bruno.dumas at unamur.be Website: http://directory.unamur.be/staff/bdumas Phone: +32 81 72 49 75 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From arturoemx at gmail.com Fri Sep 4 13:55:06 2015 From: arturoemx at gmail.com (Arturo Espinosa-Romero) Date: Fri, 04 Sep 2015 17:55:06 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: ISICS-2016. Call for Papers Message-ID: ** Apologies for multiple postings! ** International Symposium on Intelligent Computing Systems - ISICS 2016 March 16-18, 2016 Merida, Mexico Call For Papers =============== We invite you to submit your papers/posters proposals to the First International Symposium on Intelligent Computing Systems 2016 (ISICS 2016) to be held on March 16-18, 2016 in Merida, Mexico. This symposium will focus on the field of artificial intelligence, including computer vision and image processing. The ISICS proceedings will be published by Springer, in the Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) series. The topics of interest covered include, but are not limited to: Neural Networks / Bayesian learning / Bioinformatics / Classification and clustering / Kernel machines / Feedforward models / Natural language and speech processing / Feature extraction and dimension reduction / Deep Learning / Reinforcement Learning / Image processing / Computer Vision / Robotics / Recurrent networks and dynamical systems / Hybrid learning systems / Self-organizing maps / Statistical and mathematical aspects of artificial intelligence / Optimization methods in learning / Data mining / Fuzzy systems / Evolutionary computation / Ontologies Important Dates =============== * Paper submission deadline: October 12, 2015 * Paper decision notification: December 11, 2015 * Camera-ready submission: January 8, 2016 * Main conference: March 16-18, 2016 ISICS website: www.isics-symposium.org Organizing Committees ==================== General Chairs - Anabel Martin-Gonzalez (Universidad Aut?noma de Yucat?n, Mexico) - V?ctor Uc-Cetina (Universidad Aut?noma de Yucat?n, Mexico) Symposium Co-Chairs - Jos? Vidal Alcal? Burgos (Centro de Investigaciones en Matem?ticas, Mexico) - Carlos Brito-Loeza (Universidad Aut?noma de Yucat?n, Mexico) - Nidiyare Hevia-Montiel (Instituto de Investigaciones en Matem?ticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas-UNAM, Mexico) Scientific Advisory Committee - Carlos Coello Coello (CINVESTAV-IPN,Mexico) - Angel Kuri Morales (Instituto Tecnol?gico Aut?nomo de M?xico, Mexico) - Juan Arturo Nolazco Flores (Instituto Tecnol?gico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From qobi at purdue.edu Fri Sep 4 11:17:09 2015 From: qobi at purdue.edu (Jeffrey Mark Siskind) Date: Fri, 04 Sep 2015 11:17:09 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Papers, Senior Member Presentation Track, Thirtieth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence Message-ID: Call for Papers Senior Member Presentation Track Thirtieth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence February 12 - 17, 2016 Phoenix, Arizona, USA Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Computing Community Consortium http://www.cra.org/ccc/visioning/blue-sky Important Dates September 15, 2015: Electronic submissions of talks and papers due October 20, 2015 Notification of acceptance or rejection. December 1, 2015: Camera-ready versions at the AAAI office. Description The Senior Member Presentation Track provides an opportunity for established researchers in the AI community to give a broad talk on a well-developed body of research, an important new research area, or a promising new topic. These presentations should provide a "big picture" view, in contrast to regular papers, which may focus on a specific contribution. Submissions include a proposal for a talk and a paper (in the AAAI format) covering the topic of the talk. Senior members of AI are researchers that are well established in their research area. The track will be run in the same fashion as in AAAI 2015. In particular, the following features will be continued: - Subtracks ("summary talks" and "blue sky ideas talks") - Talks come with a paper in the proceedings - Three grants for the best three proposals in the "blue sky ideas" track, given by the Computing Community Consortium. Eligibility This track is open to researchers who are a significant number of years away from their Ph.D (exceptions will be considered on a per case basis), have acquired an international recognition, and have established a significant publication record of AI-related research in AI conferences and journals. It is important to note that you do not have to be a AAAI Fellow nor hold the official status of "Senior-Member of AAAI" in order to submit to the Senior Member Presentation Track. Subtracks There are two subtracks for submissions of talk proposals for the SMPT: Summary talks: broad talks on a well-developed body of research or an important new research area. They generally will also include results obtained by researchers other than the speaker. "Blue Sky Ideas" talks: These presentations aim at presenting ideas and visions that can stimulate the research community to pursue new directions, e.g., new problems, new application domains, or new methodologies that are likely to stimulate significant new research. The presenter should find the right arguments to convince the audience that the topic is promising, and should relate the talk as much as possible to the existing literature. The Blue Sky Ideas track will be sponsored by the Computing Community Consortium, which will give three awards ($1000, $750 and $500), for the three best submissions in this category, to be used as travel grants for the presenters. See http://www.cra.org/ccc/visioning/blue-sky for more on "blue sky ideas" talks. Proposal / Paper Submission A proposal for the SMPT includes two parts. Part 1: Talk outline and CV. The first part of the proposal should include the title, an abstract and an outline of the suggested talk. All these in 1 page (in any reasonable format). In addition it should also include a short CV (up to 2 pages in any reasonable format) for a total of 3 pages for part 1. The CV should also include evidence that the proposer is qualified to talk about the topic, such as specific contributions of the proposer to the proposed topic (in the case of a summary talk) or contributions of the proposer in related topics (in the case of a blue sky idea talk). To show the broadness of the topic, proposals are required to cite at least 3 papers in the suggested topic which were published by different authors in the last 3 years in a highly competitive venue. (This applies to summary talks only.) Part 2: Summary paper. Researchers who submit talk proposals must also submit a paper. Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings. Papers should cover the same topic as the talk and are intended to give a personal synthetic view of the topic, together with appropriate references. The papers should be self-contained and are intended to be accessible for anyone including people that did not attend the talk. The papers should be formatted as PDF files using the AAAI style. Submissions are not anonymous. They should include the names and affiliations of the authors. The length of the papers depends on the track: between 2 and 6 pages for the "summary talks" track, and between 2 and 4 pages for the "blue sky ideas" track. An additional page for references is also allowed (that is, 6 + 1 and 4 + 1, for each of the tracks, respectively). Submission Process Easychair Senior Member Track Submission site (link) Please note that this is a special site for the Senior Member Track. Do not submit Senior Member Track papers to the main AAAI-15 submission site. In the 'Category' button, please indicate whether your submission is a Summary Talk or a Blue Sky Idea. Please submit the main paper in the "Paper" tab and the Outline of talk and CV" in the "Attachment" tab. It is also OK to submit only one PDF file in the "Paper" tab. In this case include your talk outline and CV before or after the main paper but keep the constraints of the length. That is, no more than 3 pages for the Talk outline+CV and no more than 4 or 6 pages for the Blue Sky Idea or the Summary Talk papers, respectively. Reviewing Process All senior member talk proposals and the corresponding papers will be reviewed by qualified members of the AAAI program committee. The reviewers of the paper will follow the main regulations of regular AAAI submission and will check the quality and clarity of the paper. Final decisions on acceptance will be made by the track cochairs. Senior Member Track CoChairs Sarit Kraus, Bar Ilan University, Israel (sarit at cs.biu.ac.il) Jeffrey Mark Siskind, Purdue University, USA (qobi at purdue.edu) Questions and Suggestions Please contact the SMPT co-chairs for any questions or suggestions. Specific questions are answered below. Q: How can I know whether I am considered 'senior' enough? A: As a general rule this track is designed for researchers that are well established in their research area. They should be a significant number of years away from their Ph.D and have published a significant number of papers in the top AI conferences and journals. However, exceptions are possible and will be considered on a per case basis. Q: Can submissions be coauthored? A: Naturally, the talks include one presenter only. However, the papers submitted might include other authors but the first author must be the talk presenter. Q: Does submitting a 6-page paper increase the chances of my talk being accepted when compared to a shorter paper? A: Not at all. All submissions will be reviewed/considered along the same review criteria. Q: Is there any relation between this track and the status of "Senior Member of AAAI". A: Not at all. Anyone who meets the criteria above can submit. You do not have to hold the status of a Senior Member of AAAI nor be a AAAI Fellow. From jns9 at cornell.edu Fri Sep 4 18:56:13 2015 From: jns9 at cornell.edu (Jascha Sohl-Dickstein) Date: Fri, 04 Sep 2015 22:56:13 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Abstracts: NIPS Workshop on Statistical Methods for Understanding Neural Systems Message-ID: NIPS WORKSHOP 2015 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Statistical Methods for Understanding Neural Systems Friday, December 11th, 2015 Montreal, Canada -------- Organizers: Allie Fletcher Jakob Macke Ryan Adams Jascha Sohl-Dickstein -------- Overview: Recent advances in neural recording technologies, including calcium imaging and high-density electrode arrays, have made it possible to simultaneously record neural activity from large populations of neurons for extended periods of time. These developments promise unprecedented insights into the collective dynamics of neural populations and thereby the underpinnings of brain-like computation. However, this new large-scale regime for neural data brings significant methodological challenges. This workshop seeks to explore the statistical methods and theoretical tools that will be necessary to study these data, build new models of neural dynamics, and increase our understanding of the underlying computation. We have invited researchers across a range of disciplines in statistics, applied physics, machine learning, and both theoretical and experimental neuroscience, with the goal of fostering interdisciplinary insights. We hope that active discussions among these groups can set in motion new collaborations and facilitate future breakthroughs on fundamental research problems. Call for Papers We invite high quality submissions of extended abstracts on topics including, but not limited to, the following fundamental questions: How can we deal with incomplete data in a principled manner? In most experimental settings, even advanced neural recording methods can only sample a small fraction of all neurons that might be involved in a task, and the observations are often indirect and noisy. As a result, many recordings are from neurons that receive inputs from neurons that are not themselves directly observed, at least not over the same time period. How can we deal with this `missing data' problem in a principled manner? How does this sparsity of recordings influence what we can and cannot infer about neural dynamics and mechanisms? How can we incorporate existing models of neural dynamics into neural data analysis? Theoretical neuroscientists have intensely studied neural population dynamics for decades, resulting in a plethora of models of neural population dynamics. However, most analysis methods for neural data do not directly incorporate any models of neural dynamics, but rather build on generic methods for dimensionality reduction or time-series modelling. How can we incorporate existing models of neural dynamics? Conversely, how can we design neural data analysis methods such that they explicitly constrain models of neural dynamics? What synergies are there between analyzing biological and artificial neural systems? The rise of ?deep learning? methods has shown that hard computational problems can be solved by machine learning algorithms that are built by cascading many nonlinear units. Although artificial neural systems are fully observable, it has proven challenging to provide a theoretical understanding of how they solve computational problems and which features of a neural network are critical for its performance. While such ?deep networks? differ from biological neural networks in many ways, they provide an interesting testing ground for evaluating strategies for understanding neural processing systems. Are there synergies between analysis methods for analyzing biological and artificial neural systems? Has the resurgence of deep learning resulted in new hypotheses or strategies for trying to understand biological neural networks? Confirmed Speakers: Matthias Bethge Mitya Chklovskii John Cunningham Surya Ganguli Neil Lawrence Guillermo Sapiro Tatyana Sharpee Richard Zemel Workshop Website: h ttps://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~afletcher/neuralsysnips.html Email : smnips2015 at rctn.org Submission details: Submissions should be in the NIPS_2015 format ( http://nips.cc/Conferences/2015/PaperInformation/StyleFiles) with a maximum of four pages, not including references. Submissions will be considered both for poster and oral presentation. Submit at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/SMN2015/Protected/Author/ or via the link on the workshop website. Important dates: Submission deadline: 10 October, 2015 11:59 PM PDT (UTC -7 hours) Acceptance notification: 24 October, 2015 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bremeseiro at udc.es Fri Sep 4 08:39:34 2015 From: bremeseiro at udc.es (Beatriz Remeseiro =?utf-8?Q?L=C3=B3pez?=) Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2015 14:39:34 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: ML for medical applications at ESANN'16 In-Reply-To: <188967756.8876610.1441370001892.JavaMail.zimbra@udc.es> References: <188967756.8876610.1441370001892.JavaMail.zimbra@udc.es> Message-ID: <1328676849.8877003.1441370374625.JavaMail.zimbra@udc.es> [Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP] Call for papers: special session on "Machine learning for medical applications" at ESANN 2016 European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning (ESANN 2016) 27-29 April 2016, Bruges (Belgium) - http://www.esann.org Machine learning for medical applications Organized by Ver?nica Bol?n-Canedo , Amparo Alonso-Betanzos , Universidade da Coru?a (Spain), Beatriz Remeseiro , INESC Technology and Science, Aur?lio Campilho , Universidade do Porto (Portugal ) Machine learning has been an active research area in the last decades finding success in many different applications, among them in medical problems. Machine learning is capable of automating manual processes carried out by practitioners, which are usually time-consuming and subjective. Therefore, the use of machine learning can save time for practitioners and provide unbiased, repeatable results. Additionally, the large dimensionality of data in medicine together with the common reduced sample size of pathological cases makes indispensable the use of advanced machine learning techniques for clinical interpretation and analysis. This special session is concerned with using different machine learning techniques or approaches in medical applications. Furthermore, it also aims to offer a meeting opportunity for academics and clinical researchers to present their cutting-edge methods to deal with medical problems and to discuss the new challenges that need to be faced. We invite papers on machine learning approaches applied to medical problems. In particular, topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Artificial intelligence in medicine * Clinical interpretation and analysis * Computer-aided detection and diagnosis * Physiological signal analysis * Medical image analysis * Content-based image retrieval * Feature selection and extraction in medicine * Pattern recognition in medicine * Big data in healthcare * Learning in uncertainty labeled data * Bioinformatics and microarray analysis Submitted papers will be reviewed according to the ESANN reviewing process and will be evaluated on their scientific value: originality, correctness, and writing style. IMPORTANT DATES: Paper submission deadline : 20 November 2015 Notification of acceptance : 31 January 2016 ESANN conference : 27-29 April 2016 -- Beatriz Remeseiro, Ph.D. INESC Technology and Science email: bremeseiro(at)fe.up.pt url: http://www.varpa.org/~bearm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Nicolas.Rougier at inria.fr Thu Sep 3 08:57:13 2015 From: Nicolas.Rougier at inria.fr (Nicolas P. Rougier) Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2015 14:57:13 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: The ReScience journal Message-ID: <8BA90C16-171D-4478-811A-C8365EA1D21C@inria.fr> It's our great pleasure to announce the creation of "ReScience" which is a peer-reviewed journal that targets computational research and encourages the explicit replication of already published research, promoting new and open-source implementations in order to ensure that the original research is reproducible. To achieve such a goal, the whole editing chain is radically different from any other traditional scientific journal. ReScience lives on GitHub where each new implementation is made available together with comments, explanations and tests. Each submission takes the form of a pull request that is publicly reviewed and tested in order to guarantee that any researcher can re-use it. Students are strongly encourage to submit to ReScience. Even if the publishing model is a bit different from other academic journals, this will give them a first experience at peer-reviewed publishing where they have to use a rigorous and scientific approach. ? More on the journal website: https://github.com/ReScience/ReScience/wiki ? Current issue: https://github.com/ReScience/ReScience/wiki/Current-Issue ? FAQ: https://github.com/ReScience/ReScience/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions ? Follow us on twitter (@ReScienceEds): https://twitter.com/rescienceeds And if you're familiar with Git and GitHub, you can also become a reviewer: just contact us. Konrad Hinsen & Nicolas Rougier From morency at cs.cmu.edu Fri Sep 4 13:45:37 2015 From: morency at cs.cmu.edu (Louis-Philippe Morency) Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2015 13:45:37 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: CfP - Multimodal Machine Learning Workshop (NIPS 2015) Message-ID: <081339BF5B085646911B69780926302C06D65946661E@EXCH-MB-1.srv.cs.cmu.edu> ===================================================== NIPS 2015 Workshop: Multimodal Machine Learning Montreal, Quebec, Canada https://sites.google.com/site/multiml2015/ ===================================================== IMPORTANT DATES * Submission Deadline: October 9th, 2015 * Author Notification: October 24th, 2015 * Workshop: December 11, 2015 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS * Shih-Fu Chang (Columbia University) * Li Deng (Microsoft Research) * Raymond Mooney (University of Texas, Austin) * Ruslan Salakhutdinov (Carnegie Mellon University) OVERVIEW Multimodal machine learning aims at building models that can process and relate information from multiple modalities. From the early research on audio-visual speech recognition to the recent explosion of interest in models mapping images to natural language, multimodal machine learning is a vibrant multi-disciplinary field of increasing importance and with extraordinary potential. Learning from paired multimodal sources offers the possibility of capturing correspondences between modalities and gain in-depth understanding of natural phenomena. Thus, multimodal data provides a means of reducing our dependence on the more standard supervised learning paradigm that is inherently limited by the availability of labeled examples. This research field brings some unique challenges for machine learning researchers given the heterogeneity of the data and the complementarity often found between modalities. This workshop will facilitate the progress in multimodal machine learning by bringing together researchers from natural language processing, multimedia, computer vision, speech processing and machine learning to discuss the current challenges and identify the research infrastructure needed to enable a stronger multidisciplinary collaboration. TOPICS We are looking for contributed papers that apply machine learning to multimodal data. We are interested in both application-oriented papers as well as more fundamental algorithmic / theoretical works. A non-exhaustive list of relevant topics: * Automatic image and video description * Multimodal signal processing * Audio-visual speech recognition * Multimodal affect recognition * Cross-modal multimedia retrieval * Multi-view multi-task learning * Multimodal representation learning * Multi-sensory computational modeling * Multilingual, multimodal language processing * Multimodal modeling for robotics control * Multimodal human behavior modeling SUBMISSIONS Authors should submit an extended abstract between 4 and 6 pages (including references). We particularly encourage submissions that have been previously published outside the machine learning community (i.e. at NIPS and ICML) to emphasize the multidisciplinary aspect of this research area. We also encourage submission of relevant work in progress. Submitted abstracts may be a shortened version of a longer paper or technical report, in which case the longer paper should be referred from the submission. Reviewers will be asked to judge the submission solely based on the submitted extended abstract. All submissions must be in PDF format, and we encourage authors to follow the style guidelines of NIPS 2015 at: https://nips.cc/Conferences/2015/PaperInformation/AuthorSubmissionInstructions Submissions must be made through: https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/MMML2015/ Submissions will be reviewed for relevance, quality and novelty. They will be presented as posters during the poster session (before the lunch break). A handful of submissions will be given a short talk. ORGANIZERS * Louis-Philippe Morency (morency at cs.cmu.edu) * Tadas Baltru?aitis (tbaltrus at cs.cmu.edu) * Aaron Courville (aaron.courville at umontreal.ca) * KyungHyun Cho (kyunghyun.cho at nyu.edu) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From horacio at njit.edu Fri Sep 4 11:56:47 2015 From: horacio at njit.edu (Horacio G. Rotstein) Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2015 11:56:47 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc - Theoretical & Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: *NIH funded Postdoctoral Fellowship in Theoretical & Computational Neuroscience to explore Axonal Coding at NJIT/Rutgers (NYC metropolitan area) ? Nadim lab* This is an ideal position for a candidate with a PhD and a strong background in the quantitative sciences (Math, Physics, Computer Science, Computational Biology) and a genuine interest in developing and using biophysically plausible mathematical models to explore neuronal coding questions using electrophysiological data. Although performing experimental recordings is not a requirement, it is a potential opportunity depending on the interest of the applicant. Appropriate training will be provided for postdocs interested in exploring this opportunity who do not have previous experimental experience. The applicant should also have a genuine interest in and willingness to interact with other experimentalists and theoreticians. The NJIT/Rutgers Newark campuses have a vibrant interdisciplinary Neuroscience community including the Federated Department of Biological Sciences, the Mathematical Biology group and the Center for Behavioral and Computational Neuroscience (CMBN). The Nadim lab is located in the Federated Department of Biological Science of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey (20 min train ride from New York City). The position is supported by an NIH grant on *The Role of Axons in Neural Coding*. The project makes use of the well-defined temporal patterns of activity in the crustacean stomatogastric nervous system to define neuromodulator- and activity-dependent changes in axonal excitability and their impact on the temporal fidelity of action potential propagation. History-dependence of action potential propagation is an understudied form of neural plasticity that is important for neural coding and has become a recent subject of extensive interest. This position is specifically intended for a computational neuroscientist who will do computational and theoretical exploration of axonal activity and its consequences for neural coding. The potential start date is at any time within the next 6 months. The salary will be based on experience and is competitive with all international standards. The initial appointment is for one year with the possibility of renewal contingent to performance. Required documents include CV, cover letter, names and emails of three references. *Applications must be submitted on the NJIT HR website (* *njit.jobs* * posting number 0602785).* Please contact Farzan Nadim (farzan at njit.edu) with any questions. -- Horacio, NY/NJ area. "Az di bobe volt gehat beytsim volt zi geven mayn zeide" (Yiddish expression) Horacio G. Rotstein Professor Department of Mathematical Sciences New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ, 07102, USA. Graduate Faculty Behavioral Neuroscience Program Rutgers University (NWK) and Federated Department of Biological Sciences Rutgers / NJIT tel: (1-973) 596-5306 e-mail: horacio at njit.edu horacior at andromeda.rutgers.edu http://web.njit.edu/~horacio -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From garrickorchard at gmail.com Mon Sep 7 06:01:59 2015 From: garrickorchard at gmail.com (Garrick Orchard) Date: Mon, 07 Sep 2015 10:01:59 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: RA and Post-Doc positions in Vision and Neural Computing at National University Singapore Message-ID: We have multiple Research Assistant and Post-Doc positions available in Vision, Neural Computing, and Embedded Computing at National University of Singapore (NUS). Project Description: *Bio-inspired vision for unmanned aerial vehicles and remote sensing* We are developing miniaturized bio-inspired vision sensing modules for unmanned vehicles (both ground and air) and remote sensing applications. We make use of bio-inspired spiking silicon retina sensors ( http://www.garrickorchard.com/research) and are developing algorithms and hardware for processing spike-based vision data in real-time with the aim of optimizing power efficiency. NUS is currently ranked 7th worldwide for engineering and technology on the QS world rankings. We offer internationally competitive salaries in a world class city. Required Qualifications: - A degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science or similar - Good communication skills and ability to work in a team - Preference will be given to candidates with experience in: - computer vision - spiking neural networks - neuromorphic engineering - embedded hardware - aerial robotics Contact Garrick Orchard (garrickorchard at gmail.com) for questions and applications. http://www.garrickorchard.com/hiring -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From morrison at fz-juelich.de Mon Sep 7 09:23:17 2015 From: morrison at fz-juelich.de (Abigail Morrison) Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2015 15:23:17 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Workshop announcement: Supercomputing for Neuroscientists (Juelich, 3.11.2015) Message-ID: <55ED8FC5.8050107@fz-juelich.de> Supercomputing for Neuroscientists - How High-Performance Computing can help your neuroscience projects Date: 3 November 2015 Venue: J?lich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum J?lich, J?lich, Germany Registration deadline: 25 October 2015 This workshop aims at bringing neuroscientists interested in using HPC technology for their projects together with experts from the J?lich Supercomputing Centre?s Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience whose main goal is to bridge the gap between Computational Neuroscience and HPC. The workshop is primarily intended for PIs whose affiliation is in Germany and who may therefore apply for computing time on the J?lich supercomputers through the national GCS and NIC calls, it will also touch on how European supercomputing resources, including those of J?lich, may be accessed by PIs from outside of Germany through the European PRACE access schemes. For detailed information on the workshop and registration, please visit: www.fz-juelich.de/ias/jsc/scn Organizer: SimLab Neuroscience (slns at fz-juelich.de) -- Prof. Dr. Abigail Morrison IAS-6 / INM-6 / SimLab Neuroscience J?lich Research Center http://www.fz-juelich.de/inm/inm-6/ http://www.fz-juelich.de/ias/jsc/slns Office: +49 2461 61-9805 Fax # : +49 2461 61-9460 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 thomas.j.palmeri at Vanderbilt.Edu Mon Sep 7 11:42:51 2015 From: thomas.j.palmeri at Vanderbilt.Edu (Thomas Palmeri) Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2015 10:42:51 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cognitive and Neural Modeling of Visual Cognition (Vanderbilt University) Message-ID: <79FB56F3-7F96-46D3-B3FC-52BB47467FD3@vanderbilt.edu> Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cognitive and Neural Modeling of Visual Cognition Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt We are eagerly seeking postdoctoral fellows to join NIH- and NSF-funded projects developing and testing cognitive and neural models of visual cognition. The range of possible projects is broad and varied, with research aimed at developing and testing computational models of perceptual decision making, visual memory and categorization, and face and object recognition. One line of research aims to model how these change with learning and expertise. Another aims to link cognitive models with neural measures and neural models. In addition to working with the lab PI, Thomas Palmeri, fellows can have opportunities to collaborate with Isabel Gauthier, Gordon Logan, Jeffrey Schall, and other faculty at Vanderbilt. Collaborative opportunities are also possible with members of the Perceptual Expertise Network (gauthier.psy.vanderbilt.edu/pen/ ) and the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (tdlc.ucsd.edu ). See the CatLab web site (catlab.psy.vanderbilt.edu ) for descriptions of current projects and links to recent publications. Research facilities include computer workstations, laboratory behavioral testing stations, web-based infrastructure for online experiments, eye trackers, and a shared 6000-core / 500TB compute cluster at Vanderbilt?s ACCRE. Postdoctoral fellows will also take advantage of the facilities and support provided by the Department of Psychology (www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/ ), the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center (my.vanderbilt.edu/vvrc/ ), and the Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience (cicn.vanderbilt.edu ). Candidates can hold a Ph.D. in psychology, neuroscience, computer science, mathematics, engineering, or related disciplines. Candidates should have demonstrated skills in computer programming and statistical analyses; some background in computational modeling is strongly desired, some knowledge of Bayesian approaches is also desired. Start date is negotiable, but preference will be given to candidates who can begin within six months. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis as they arrive. Salary will be based on NIH postdoctoral scale. Applicants should send a cover letter with a brief research statement, a CV, and names and email addresses of three references to thomas.j.palmeri at vanderbilt.edu . Thomas Palmeri Department of Psychology Vanderbilt Vision Research Center Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN 37240 thomas.j.palmeri at vanderbilt.edu catlab.psy.vanderbilt.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From g.goodhill at uq.edu.au Tue Sep 8 20:46:52 2015 From: g.goodhill at uq.edu.au (Geoffrey Goodhill) Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 00:46:52 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: SCiNDU abstract deadline Oct 16th Message-ID: <59b46c13f67449ae88213dbb8c6b8cdf@uq-exmbx1.soe.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. Deadline for abstracts and early registration is Oct 16th 2015. Early bird registration fees: AU$250 (Full), AU$125 (Student). Accommodation is available if required in a residential college at the University of Queensland for AU$85/night. 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. Some abstracts will be selected for short talks. Confirmed 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) The conference will commence mid-afternoon on Dec 15th and finish at 4pm on Dec 17th. On Dec 15th at 10am the main conference will be preceded by a choice of 3-hour tutorials (tutorial registration AU$50): 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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From birgit at ifs.uni-linz.ac.at Tue Sep 8 02:47:13 2015 From: birgit at ifs.uni-linz.ac.at (Birgit Hauer) Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2015 08:47:13 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Open position for a post-graduate research assistant at Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria Message-ID: <55EE8471.9070402@ifs.uni-linz.ac.at> Open position for a post-graduate research assistant In September 2015 the Institute of Bioinformatics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, joins a European Project (Research and Innovation Actions - RIA) ? ?Exascale Compound Activity Prediction Engine? (ExCAPE), which is focused on predicting compound bioactivity for the pharmaceutical industry. The contribution of the Institute of Bioinformatics in the context of this project is concentrated in the area of Deep Learning, Machine Learning, PSVM, and Target and Toxicity Prediction. In order to support this project we are looking for a post-graduate research assistant. During the employment the candidate will have the opportunity of enrolling into a PhD study. The Institute of Bioinformatics has a vacancy for a post-graduate research assistant funded with full employee benefits for a period of 36 months. Applications will be accepted until Sep 30, 2015. Your field of work will be: Research in the domain of Deep Learning, Machine Learning, PSVM, Chemoinformatics, and Statistics. You should have experience in the following areas: Deep Learning, Support Vector Machines, Machine learning, PSVM, Target and Toxicity Prediction, Platt Scaling, and Isotonic Regression. H2020 RIA benefits: The successful candidate will enjoy benefits of full social security, health insurance, pension, parental leave etc. Please submit your application with resume/C.V., certificates, reports and letters of recommendation to: secretary at bioinf.jku.at or by post to: Johannes Kepler University Linz Institute of Bioinformatics Prof. Dr. Sepp Hochreiter Altenbergerstr. 69 A-4040 Linz, Austria For further information please contact: Sepp Hochreiter Phone: +43 732 2468 4521 Email: hochreit at bioinf.jku.at From bobak.shahriari at gmail.com Tue Sep 8 16:00:11 2015 From: bobak.shahriari at gmail.com (Bobak Shahriari) Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2015 20:00:11 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: NIPS 2015 Workshop on Bayesian Optimization Message-ID: NIPS 2015 Workshop on Bayesian Optimization Montreal, QC, Canada, 12 December 2015 bayesopt.github.io Workshop overview: The NIPS Workshop on Bayesian Optimization is calling for contributions on theoretical models, empirical studies, and applications of Bayesian optimization. This year will focus on scaling existing approaches to larger evaluation budgets, higher-dimensional search spaces, and more complex input spaces. While the computational complexity of common probabilistic regression models used in Bayesian optimization have confined it to relatively low-dimensional problems and small evaluation budgets, there have, in recent years, been several advances in scaling these probabilistic models to more demanding application domains. Furthermore, many applications of Bayesian optimization only make sense when considering concurrent evaluations, which departs from the traditional, strictly sequential Bayesian optimization framework. Recent theoretical and practical efforts have addressed the mini-batch, or parallel, evaluation framework. Finally, as always, We also welcome challenge papers on possible applications or datasets. Important dates: Submission deadline: October 23rd, 2015 Notification: November 2nd, 2015 Camera ready: December 4th, 2015 Invited speakers (confirmed): Zoubin Ghahramani (University of Cambridge) Andreas Krause (ETH Zurich) Jeff Schneider (Carnegie Mellon University) Marc Deisenroth (Imperial College London) Further details and instructions: See also the workshop website for more details and submission instructions. Submissions can be made through cmt.research.microsoft.com/BO2015. Organizers: Nando de Freitas (Google DeepMind/Oxford University) Ryan Adams (Harvard University) Bobak Shahriari (University of British Columbia) Roberto Calandra (TU Darmstadt) Amar Shah (University of Cambridge) Best, Bobak -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From neurogirl at hotmail.com Wed Sep 9 08:27:21 2015 From: neurogirl at hotmail.com (neuro girl) Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 08:27:21 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Early Bird Registration Ends Today! Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, Just a reminder that early birds registration ends today!Registration includes breakfast, coffee breaks and lunch. Please note: registration will be limited to encourage open discussion. The Brain States: Characterization and Neuromodulation by DBS will take place on November 11-13, 2015 in Cologne, Germany. This is an interdisciplinary meeting with leading experts in academia and medicine who will present physiological, computational and clinical approaches to the brain dynamics and brain mechanics of complex functional networks in the brain. Transformations of the neurodynamic operations of the brain between the normal to the pathological state will be explored using multivariate data analysis (EEG, MEG, DBS, etc?). Special attention will be given to next-generation approaches which allow the collaboration of clinical practice and science to advance the field from principles of organization to the causal control of function. Brain States: Characterization and Neuromodulation by DBS November 11-13, 2015 Cologne, Germany http://bit.ly/1JVElkf https://dbs.veomed.net/. Confirmed Speakers:Hagai Bergman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Peter Brown (University of Oxford) Stephan Chabardes (University Hospital Grenoble) Alain Destexhe (CNRS) Emad N. Eskandar (Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School) John J. Foxe (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) Marc Goodfellow (University of Exeter) Anthony A. Grace (University of Pittsburgh) Rowshanak Hashemiyoon (University Hospital of Cologne) Jens Haueisen (Technische Universit?t Ilmenau) Viktor Jirsa (Aix-Marseille Universit? /CNRS) Jens Kuhn (University Hospital Cologne) Fernando Lopes da Silva (University of Amsterdam) Andres Lozano (University of Toronto) Cameron McIntyre (Case Western Reserve University) Christoph M. Michel (University of Geneva) Urs Ribary (Simon Fraser University) G?nter Schiepek (Paracelsus Medical University) Wolf Singer (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research) Dimitri van de Ville (University of Geneva) Veerle Visser-Vandewalle (University Hospital of Cologne) J?rgen Voges (Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg) Looking forward to seeing you in Cologne! With kind regards, Row Hashemiyoon Rowshanak Hashemiyoon, PhD Chief, Behavioral Neurophysiology and Computational Neuroscience Klinik f?r Stereotaxie und Funktionelle Neurochirurgie Universit?tsklinikum K?ln Kerpener Str. 62 D - 50937 K?ln Email: row.hashemiyoon at uk-koeln.de http://www.uk-koeln.de/de/stereotaxie -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tomas.hromadka at gmail.com Wed Sep 9 11:03:18 2015 From: tomas.hromadka at gmail.com (Tomas Hromadka) Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 17:03:18 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: COSYNE 2016: Meeting Announcement and Call for Abstracts Message-ID: <55F04A36.6060606@gmail.com> ==================================================== Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2016 (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING Feb 25 - Feb 28, 2016 Salt Lake City, Utah WORKSHOPS Feb 29 - Mar 01, 2016 Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah www.cosyne.org ==================================================== The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function. The MAIN MEETING is single-track. A set of invited talks are selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. The WORKSHOPS feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest, in a small group setting. Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, and computation with spiking networks. This year we would like to foster increased participation from experimental groups as well as computational ones. Please circulate widely and encourage your students and postdocs to apply. IMPORTANT DATES: Abstract submission opens: 05 October 2015 Abstract submission deadline: 13 November 2015 CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Blaise Aguera y Arcas (Google) Marisa Carrasco (NYU) Edward Chang (UCSF) Greg DeAngelis (Rochester) Mark Goldman (UC Davis) Richard Mooney (Duke) Mala Murthy (Princeton) Peggy Series (Edinburgh) Reza Shadmehr (Johns Hopkins) Paul Smolensky (Johns Hopkins) Leslie Vosshall (Rockefeller) When preparing an abstract, authors should be aware that not all abstracts can be accepted for the meeting, due to space constraints. Abstracts will be selected based on the clarity with which they convey the substance, significance, and originality of the work to be presented. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: General Chairs: Maria Geffen (U Penn) and Konrad K?rding (Northwestern) Program Chairs: Megan Carey (Champalimaud) and Emilio Salinas (Wake Forest) Workshop Chairs: Claudia Clopath (Imperial College) and Alfonso Renart (Champalimaud) Publicity Chair: Xaq Pitkow (Rice) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Anne Churchland (CSHL) Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud) Alexandre Pouget (U Geneva) Anthony Zador (CSHL) CONTACT cosyne.meeting [at] gmail.com From escabi at engr.uconn.edu Wed Sep 9 11:54:19 2015 From: escabi at engr.uconn.edu (Escabi, Monty) Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 15:54:19 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Position in Computational and Systems Neuroscience Message-ID: <78AEE3BD-CDAF-4541-BE4E-59DC0A65C260@engr.uconn.edu> Dear Colleagues We have a postdoctoral postion available in computational and systems neuroscience. Details of the position can be found at http://escabilab.uconn.edu/2015/08/13/postdoctoral-position-in-computational-and-systems-neuroscience/ and are also posted below. Please share this information with anyone who may be interested. Thanks very much! Monty _\\|//_ (' O-O ') ---------------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------- Monty A. Escabi, Ph.D. Associate Professor University of Connecticut Electrical & Computer Engineering Biomedical Engineering 371 Fairfield Way, Unit 4157 Storrs, CT 06269-4157 ---------------------------------------------------------- Postdoctoral Position in Computational and Systems Neuroscience Position: The Physiological Acoustics Lab (http://escabilab.uconn.edu) at the University of Connecituct seeks applicants for a postdoctoral position in systems and computational neuroscience. We are seeking applicants that can lead a project on coding of natural sound statistics in the auditory midbrain and cortex of awake animals. The primary appointment will be in Biomedical Engineering, but the work will be conducted in collaboration with Psychology department (Statistical Neuroscience Lab, http://stevenson.lab.uconn.edu; Sensory Perception and Neuroscience Lab, http://read.lab.uconn.edu) and Electrical and Computer Engineering. Qualifications: A PhD in Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computational Neuroscience or related field is required. The ideal candidate will have an interdisciplinary research background in computational and systems neuroscience with prior research experience in awake animal neurophysiology. A strong computational background in neural data analysis is desirable, particularly modeling complex neural systems and analyzing datasets from large-scale multi-channel neural recordings. Background in acoustic signal processing, sound recognition, and machine learning are also desirable. Appointment: The position is funded through an R01 and is available immediately. Salaries follow NIH post-doctoral scale and are based on experience. Applicants should email ?escabi at engr dot uconn dot edu? a single PDF file containing: 1) a resume including past research experience and published work 2) a one page statement of prior research experience 3) a one page statement of future research interests and objectives 4) the names of at least two individuals who can provide reference letters. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From eneftci at uci.edu Wed Sep 9 02:32:59 2015 From: eneftci at uci.edu (Emre Neftci) Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2015 23:32:59 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Scholar Position in the Neuromorphic Machine Intelligence Lab, UC Irvine Message-ID: <1441780379.1782775.378516585.0A4E9306@webmail.messagingengine.com> A Postdoctoral Scholar position is available, contingent upon funding, in the field of Neuromorphic Engineering and Machine Learning within the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. The research involves developing spiking neural network models of neural sampling and on-line learning for digital neuromorphic hardware. The applicant will work closely with neuromorphic engineers and computational neuroscientists. The applicant will be involved in various aspects of research involving neural modeling, machine learning, data analysis, and manuscript preparation. Requirements - The candidate must have a Ph.D. in Cognitive Sciences, Physics, Neuroscience, Computer Science, or Engineering and expertise in computational neuroscience and/or machine learning with strong programming skills. The candidate should have a working knowledge of spiking neural networks, synaptic plasticity and other neurobiological learning rules. Knowledge with the C/C++ and the CUDA programming environment on Linux and Windows systems is desirable and experience in deep learning is a plus. This position is full-time and includes benefits. Salary is commensurate with experience. Application Procedure - Please submit a letter of interest, CV, and the names of two-three references at: https://recruit.ap.uci.edu/apply/JPF03105 The University of California, Irvine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy. Learn More: More information about this recruitment: http://www.cogsci.uci.edu/employment.php Requirements: - Documents: - Cover Letter (Optional) - Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V. - References: - 2-5 references required (contact information only) -- Emre Neftci, PhD (ETH Zurich), Assistant Professor, Neuromorphic Machine Intelligence Lab (http://nmi-lab.org/), Department of Cognitive Sciences, 2308 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway Building, UC Irvine 92697-5100b From antonior at ffclrp.usp.br Wed Sep 9 10:10:20 2015 From: antonior at ffclrp.usp.br (Antonio C. Roque) Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 11:10:20 -0300 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?Postdoc_positions_in_modeling_stochasti?= =?utf-8?q?c_spiking_neural_networks_in_S=C3=A3o_Paulo_State=2C_Bra?= =?utf-8?q?zil?= Message-ID: The Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics (NeuroMat, http://neuromat.numec.prp.usp.br/ ), hosted by the University of S?o Paulo, Brazil, and funded by FAPESP (Sao Paulo Research Foundation, http://www.fapesp.br/en/), is offering several postdoctoral fellowships for recent PhDs with outstanding research potential. The research will involve collaborations with mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists and neuroscientists associated to NeuroMat. We seek candidates capable to develop independent research in mathematical and/or computational modeling of stochastic spiking neural networks. Candidates are required to have at least one of the profiles below: - A strong background in probability theory with emphasis on stochastic processes or alternatively in statistics with emphasis on statistical model selection. Previous knowledge of rigorous statistical mechanics, random graphs or stochastic modeling in biosciences will be favorably considered. - A strong mathematical and/or computational background and experience with computers and programming. Previous experience with development and/or simulation of neural brain models, complex networks and parallel computing will be favorably considered. The initial appointment is for two years, with a possible extension to up to four years, conditional on research progress. Salary is competitive at international level, and fellows benefit from extra funds for travel and research expenses plus limited support for relocation expenses. Application instructions Applicants should complete and submit the application form at http://neuromat.numec.prp.usp.br/postdoc-form. The following documents and information are requested (please see the form for further details): - Summary of the Curriculum vitae. Please follow the FAPESP format; see www.fapesp.br/en/6351 for instructions. - List of publications, with links to those available online. - Pointers to other research related output, such as software, web pages, and so forth. Candidates should be willing to send copies of publications, if requested. - A summary of your research plan for the next 2 years, up to 5 pages length. It should explicitly address its place in the framework of the NeuroMat mission and research program ( http://neuromat.numec.prp.usp.br/scientific_project). - Any further information deemed relevant to the application. In addition to the above, we require at least 2 recommendation letters. Those should be mailed by the recommenders directly to postdoc-appl at numec.prp.usp.br. Candidates are encouraged to apply at their earliest convenience. Two independent evaluation rounds are planned: 1. On October 12, 2015. 2. On November 16, 2015. Appointments are expected to be effective within 2 to 6 months after evaluation date. Remark Approved candidates will be requested to expand their five-page research plan to a full two-year proposal. For the implementation of the fellowships, those proposals, together with all the application material received, will be submitted to FAPESP for final approval. -- Dr. Antonio C. Roque Professor Associado Departamento de Fisica FFCLRP, Universidade de Sao Paulo 14040-901 Ribeirao Preto-SP Brazil - Brasil E-mails: antonior at ffclrp.usp.br aroquesilva at gmail.com URL: www.sisne.org Tels: +55 16 3315-3768 (sala/office); +55 16 3315-3859 (lab) FAX: +55 16 3315-4887 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From skremer at uoguelph.ca Wed Sep 9 16:10:26 2015 From: skremer at uoguelph.ca (Stefan C. Kremer) Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 16:10:26 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Job Opening: Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Computational Sciences Message-ID: <304D2174-C66F-4E5E-A3D9-2A7D06185166@uoguelph.ca> Hi, Readers of this list may be interested in applying for a faculty position at the University of Guelph, School of Computer Science. We are recruiting faculty to participate in undergraduate teaching and a new, interdisciplinary Computational Sciences PhD Program. More information about the positions can be found here: http://www.socs.uoguelph.ca/job-postings/ Kind regards, Stefan Kremer -- Dr. Stefan C. Kremer, Director School of Computer Science skremer at uoguelph.ca * 519-824-4120x58913 From janetw at itee.uq.edu.au Thu Sep 10 07:50:37 2015 From: janetw at itee.uq.edu.au (Janet Wiles) Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2015 11:50:37 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc positions in AI and Social Robotics (Language and technology) at the University of Queensland, Australia (top-100 universities world-wide) Message-ID: <1f6c943f479f45138de6bdaefe341c68@uq-exmbx1.soe.uq.edu.au> The University of Queensland is seeking to recruit 2 postdocs in AI and social robotics with a focus on language and technology. The postdocs will contribute new skills to a social robot project for communication between robots and humans (areas of interest include software, hardware, social, speech or language systems). Platforms of interest include extending the existing Lingodroids (robot-robot communication) and developing an Australian version of UCSD's RUBI (a friendly robot for preschool children). Qualifications: PhD (under review or near submission is ok) in Computer Science, Engineering (Software, Electronic, Mechatronics), Speech & Language, AI, computational linguistics, robotics or other relevant field. More experienced applicants who have a substantial track record of high-quality journal papers and are interested in some teaching can apply for lecturer level B (fixed term for up to 3 years). Applications need to be made online. See the position description and application at http://jobs.uq.edu.au/caw/en/job/497846/postdoctoral-research-fellow-research-fellow Background information: The project follows on from the Lingodroids language-learning robots, and aims to develop a novel social robot as a research platform for language research. The positions are part of the new 7-year ARC Centre of Excellence in the Dynamics of Language (CoEDL) with a large cross-disciplinary team at UQ. Informal enquiries can be made to Prof Janet Wiles (email: j.wiles at uq.edu.au). Closing date: 27th September 2015 Professor Janet Wiles Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language | School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering | The University of Queensland | Cricos Provider: 00025B UQ Researcher: researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/13 Complex and Intelligent Systems research: www.itee.uq.edu.au/cis Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language: www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 1.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 7319 bytes Desc: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 1.jpg URL: From c.lorenz at donders.ru.nl Thu Sep 10 05:31:11 2015 From: c.lorenz at donders.ru.nl (Lorenz, C.M.) Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2015 09:31:11 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Job posting: 5 PhD Positions in the Dutch Research Consortium 'Language in Interaction' In-Reply-To: References: , Message-ID: Job posting: 5 PhD Positions in the Dutch Research Consortium 'Language in Interaction' We are looking for highly motivated PhD candidates to enrich a unique consortium of researchers that aims to unravel the neurocognitive mechanisms of language at multiple levels. The goal is to understand both the universality and the variability of the human language faculty from genes to behaviour. The Netherlands has an outstanding track record in the language sciences. This research consortium sponsored by a large grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific research (NWO) brings together many of the excellent research groups in the Netherlands with a research programme on the foundations of language. The research team consists of 43 Principal Investigators. In addition to the excellence in the domain of language and related relevant fields of cognition, our consortium provides state-of-the-art research facilities and a research team with ample experience in the complex research methods that will be invoked to address the scientific questions at the highest level of methodological sophistication. These include methods from genetics, neuroimaging, computational modelling, and patient-related research. This consortium realizes both quality and critical mass for studying human language at a scale not easily found anywhere else. Currently, the consortium advertises five PhD positions for a period of 4 years. These positions provide the opportunity for conducting world-class research as a member of an interdisciplinary team. Maximum salary: ?2,717 gross/month Closing date for application: 04 October 2015, 23:59 CET For more information on the PhD positions and how to apply:https://www.languageininteraction.nl/ThirdCallGeneral.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vicen.gomez at upf.edu Sat Sep 12 02:31:38 2015 From: vicen.gomez at upf.edu (=?UTF-8?B?VmljZW7DpyBHw7NtZXo=?=) Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2015 08:31:38 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: [1st CFP] NIPS 2015 Workshop on Learning, Inference and Control of Multi-Agent Systems Message-ID: <55F3C6CA.2050404@upf.edu> NIPS 2015 Workshop on Learning, Inference and Control of Multi-Agent Systems 12 December 2015, Montreal, Canada https://malic15.wordpress.com/ Submission deadline: 11 October 2015 1. Call for Papers Authors can submit a 2-6 pages paper that will be reviewed by the organization committee. The papers can present new work or give a summary of recent work of the author(s). All papers will be considered for the poster sessions. Out-standing long papers (4-6 pages) will also be considered for a 20 minutes oral presentation. Submissions should be sent per email to malic.nips at gmail.com. Please use the standard NIPS style-file for the submissions. Your submission should be anonymous, so please do not add the author names to the PDF. 2. Workshop Overview In the next few years, traditional single agent architectures will be more and more replaced by actual multi-agent systems with components that have increasing autonomy and computational power. This transformation has already started with prominent examples such as power networks, where each node is now an active energy generator, robotic swarms of unmaned aerial vehicles, software agents that trade and negotiate on the Internet or robot assistants that need to interact with other robots or humans. The number of agents in these systems can range from a few complex agents up to several hundred if not thousands of typically much simpler entities. Multi-agent systems show many beneficial properties such as robustness, scalability, paralellization and a larger number of tasks that can be achieved in comparison to centralized, single agent architectures. However, the use of multi-agent architectures represents a major paradigm shift for systems design. In order to use such systems efficiently, effective approaches for planning, learning, inference and communication are required. The agents need to plan with their local view on the world and to coordinate at multiple levels. They also need to reason about the knowledge, observations and intentions of other agents, which can in turn be cooperative or adversarial. Multi-agent learning algorithms need to deal inherently with non-stationary environments and find valid policies for interacting with the other agents. Many of these requirements are inherently hard problems and computing their optimal solutions is intractable. Yet, problems can become tractable again by considering approximate solutions that can exploit certain properties of a multi-agent system. Examples of such properties are sparse interactions that only occur between locally neighbored agents or limited information to make decisions (bounded rationality). 3. Goal The fundamental challenges of this paradigm shift span many areas such as machine learning, robotics, game theory and complex networks. This workshop will serve as an inclusive forum for the discussion on ongoing or completed work in both theoretical and practical issues related to the learning, inference and control aspects of multi-agent systems 4. Format The workshop will serve as a platform to bring researchers from the different relevant communities together and foster discussions about the next necessary developments for multi-agent systems. The workshop will consists of five to six invited talks, a few contributed talks and a poster session. 5. Invited Speakers Frans Oliehoek (University of Amsterdam) Christian Blum (University of the Basque Country) Michael Bowling (University of Alberta) Roderich Gross (University of Sheffield) Karl Tuyls (University of Liverpool) Vito Trianni (Italian National Research Council) 6. Topics Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning POMDPs, Dec-POMDPS and Partially Observable Stochastic Games Multi-Agent Robotics, Human-Robot Collaboration, Swarm Robotics Game Theory, Algorithms for Computing Nash Equilibria and other Solution Concepts Swarm Intelligence Evolutionary Dynamics Complex Networks Mechanism Design Ad hoc teamwork 7. Workshop Organizers Vicen? G?mez (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) Gerhard Neumann (Technische Universit?t Darmstadt) Jonathan Yedidia (Disney Research) Peter Stone (University of Texas) From qobi at purdue.edu Fri Sep 11 15:46:22 2015 From: qobi at purdue.edu (Jeffrey Mark Siskind) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 15:46:22 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Call for Papers, Senior Member Presentation Track, Thirtieth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence In-Reply-To: (message from Jeffrey Mark Siskind on Fri, 04 Sep 2015 11:17:09 -0400) References: Message-ID: Please note that the submission website for the Senior Member Presentation Track was inadvertently omitted from the CFP. It is the same as for the main conference https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aaai16 Just select the Senior Member Track. Jeff (http://engineering.purdue.edu/~qobi) From k.wong-lin at ulster.ac.uk Thu Sep 10 11:58:26 2015 From: k.wong-lin at ulster.ac.uk (Wong-Lin, Kongfatt) Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:58:26 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Research Associate in Computational Neuroimaging and Data Analytics Message-ID: Applications are invited for the following post: Research Associate at the University of Ulster A major aim of this one-year research project is to make use of a combination of computational neuroimaging, data analytics and cloud/high-performance computing to analyse heterogeneous data, extract patterns and predict dementia. The types of data include brain imaging, biological, medical and lifestyle datasets. This timely, exciting and high-impact project is available in Ulster University's Computer Science Research Institute and is tenable in the Faculty of Computing and Engineering at the Magee campus. The project is in collaboration with Queen's University Belfast, the Clinical Translational Research and Innovation Centre (C-TRIC), and two computing/tech companies. The successful applicant will utilize knowledge in computational neuroscience/neuroimaging, data analytics, mathematical/statistical modelling and cloud/high-performance computing in the research. The postholder will join a growing multidisciplinary research team, embedded within a wider health analytics network, and will benefit from the expertise of Ulster's computational neuroscience/neuroimaging and intelligence and data analytics. Our Ulster's Intelligent Systems Research Centre has recently upgraded its computing facilities to enable state-of-the-art data analytics research. The postholder will be trained with a unique and highly sought set of skills that combine brain imaging analysis with data analytics. S/he will have the opportunity to interact with other biomedical/translational/clinical researchers in the team, and learn about advanced software development, knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship. In particular, the postholder will interact regularly with the Northern Ireland Integrated Health Analytics Centre. All applicants should hold or about to obtain a Ph.D. degree in Computing, Engineering, Computational Neuroscience, Computational Sciences, Neuroscience, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, or a related discipline. Applicants must be highly motivated and willing to pursue research and develop skills and knowledge across disciplines. The application process for the post is opened with a closing date for applications on the 30th September 2015, and interviews will be held shortly after. The successful applicant is expected to start sometime in October 2015. Further details can be found at: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ALX095/research-associate-in-health-analytics/ We prefer to issue and receive applications via our on-line recruitment website at www.ulster.ac.uk/jobs If you wish to discuss further regarding this post or the research project, please contact: Dr. KongFatt Wong-Lin, tel: +44 028 7167 5320, e-mail: k.wong-lin at ulster.ac.uk ________________________________ This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain information which is covered by legal, professional or other privilege. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager at postmaster at ulster.ac.uk and delete this email immediately. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ulster University. The University's computer systems may be monitored and communications carried out on them may be recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. Ulster University does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of a separate attachment, the text of email is not intended to form a binding contract. Correspondence to and from the University may be subject to requests for disclosure by 3rd parties under relevant legislation. The University of Ulster was founded by Royal Charter in 1984 and is registered with company number RC000726 and VAT registered number GB672390524.The primary contact address for Ulster University in Northern Ireland is Cromore Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1SA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From joerg.luecke at uni-oldenburg.de Fri Sep 11 10:34:57 2015 From: joerg.luecke at uni-oldenburg.de (=?UTF-8?B?SsO2cmcgTMO8Y2tl?=) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 16:34:57 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Machine Learning Position for Pattern Recognition in Sensory Data Message-ID: <55F2E691.7050501@uni-oldenburg.de> The Machine Learning research group at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, is seeking to fill a PhD Research Position (Research Associate; wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in, E13 TV-L, 75%) The PhD position is part of the Machine Learning group which develops learning and inference technology for sensory data. The group is part of the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all and the Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics within the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. We pursue basic research, develop new technology, and apply our approaches to different tasks with a focus on acoustic and visual data. Our research combines modern probabilistic approaches, modern computer technology and insights from the neurosciences. We develop novel methods and improve existing methods for computer hearing, pattern recognition and computer vision. Furthermore, we model biological information processing and use the obtained insights to contribute to the development of artificially intelligent systems. Research will be conducted in close collaboration with leading international and national research labs. Our Machine Learning research can be considered as part of the Data Sciences, Computational Sciences, or Big Data approaches. Salary levels of the positions are based on the TV-L scale of the German public sector (?ffentlicher Dienst). After the deduction of health insurance, pension tax and other taxes, the salary for the PhD positions amounts to approximately 1650 EUR per month (see, e.g., http://oeffentlicher-dienst.info for more information). Depending on the experience and marital status of the candidates, the salary can be higher. But note that the only definite sources for all information on the position including salary, job description and application/selection procedure is the central website of the University of Oldenburg, see: http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/stellen/?stelle=64416 The research focus of the position will be on the development of new probabilistic learning algorithms, their theoretical foundations, and/or their applications to high-dimensional sensory data. The project will emphasize basic research for general purpose learning and pattern recognition in connection with applications to specific tasks (acoustic and other data). At the starting time of the position applicants have to hold an academic university degree (e.g. Master) in Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering or a closely related subject. Strong analytical/mathematical skills, e.g. as obtained in theoretical/mathematical courses of a Physics degree, are required for all candidates. Furthermore, very good programming skills (e.g. python, matlab, C++) are required. Prior experiences with Machine Learning approaches and sensory data processing are a plus but are not strictly required. Very good English language skills are required and German language skills are desirable. The position can be filled immediately and is available for two years with the intention of a further extension. The appointed researcher will be part of a new working environment. The research group has been established in the past year and is currently extended. The group is located in a new building, and the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all is part of the German Excellence Initiative which funds top-tier research in Germany. Numerous established and new research groups within the Cluster and the University provide an attractive scientific and social environment. For more information about the research group visit http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/ml/ For more information about the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all visit http://hearing4all.eu/EN/ The University of Oldenburg is dedicated to increasing the percentage of women in science. Therefore, female candidates are particularly encouraged to apply. According to ? 21 III NHG (legislation governing Higher Education in Lower Saxony) preference will be given to female candidates in cases of equal qualification. Handicapped applicants will be given preference if equally qualified. Please send your application preferably electronically (PDF) to J?rg L?cke or per mail to: Carl von Ossietzky Universit?t Oldenburg, Fakult?t VI, Machine Learning, z. Hd. Frau Jennifer K?llner, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany. The application documents should contain: a short cover letter stating why you are interested in the position, a CV, transcripts of BSc and MSc degrees (a preliminary transcript if applicable), publications if applicable, and two recommendation letters or contact details of two of your past/current advisors). Please use "Research Associate Position, Machine Learning" as subject line. Please send your application until 8 October 2015. -- J?rg L?cke (PhD) Associate Professor Machine Learning Lab and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics School of Medicine and Health Sciences University of Oldenburg 26111 Oldenburg Germany www.uni-oldenburg.de/ml From gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Fri Sep 11 08:06:10 2015 From: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu (Mark Gluck) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 08:06:10 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Seeking part-time computer programmer with Matlab and neural-network simulation experience at Rutgers University-Newark for sleep and learning research Message-ID: We are seeking a part-time (up to 19 hours/week) computer programmer with Matlab and neural-network simulation experience to work at Rutgers University-Newark?s Center for Neuroscience in Newark, NJ (just outside New York City). The goal of this project is to develop a neural network that simulates brain activity, specifically in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, during both sleep and wake periods, and test its capabilities to learn from simulated real-life tasks. This project is part of an international collaborative study?including both behavioral studies of sleep, EEG, functional brain imaging, and computer modeling ? aimed at understanding how sleep facilitates memory, learning and insight, and how this facilitation can be manipulated using external electrical stimulation of the brain during sleep. We seek a skilled and motivated computer programmer interested in neuroscience who will join our team and be responsible for programming and running neural network simulations in Matlab environment. The chosen candidate will join a team lead by Dr. Mark Gluck, the Lab Director, and Dr. Itamar Lerner, the main computational researcher and supervisor of the project. More information on our lab at http://www.gluck.edu/ The candidate will be expected to interact with the team on a regular basis, be able to show independent work on weekly computational goals. Excellent oral and written English-language communication skills are essential. It is also expected that the candidate will show an understanding of the research issues, and suggest network-based computational solutions to challenges encountered during this project. In addition to the main responsibilities of this project, the chosen candidate may be asked to assist in other areas of the lab where programming skills are required. Essential Applicant Skills High-level programming skills in Matlab (knowledge of the neutral network programming toolbox is a plus, although most network simulations in this project will be programmed from scratch without using the toolbox). Expertise in neural network programming, especially networks involving moderate-level abstraction of neuronal activity, such as integrate-and-fire neurons; and brain-inspired learning mechanisms, such as multilayer perceptrons, back propagation, Hebbian learning, Spike-Timing-Dependent-Plasticity (STDP). High-level programming skills in at least one other computer language (e.g., C++, Java, Python) Other Criteria for Applicants: Applicants must be currently based in the US and able and willing to travel to Newark (at their own expense) to interview in person for this position. Foreign applicants are welcome but must have current work permits. To Apply: Please begin by reviewing our web site noted above, especially prior computational modeling papers by Gluck and colleagues, at the publication link from our home web page. Email both gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu and itamar.lerner at gmail.com with a cover letter explaining why this position is relevant to your background and training as well as your future career goals, and additional information on the key skills noted above, your current contact information and position, along with the names, titles, relationship to you, and emails of three potential people who would be willing to write you letters of recommendation (we will contact them as needed). Given that this position is part-time (no more than 19/hours a week), please also indicate what your plans are or would be for the rest of your time if you took this position. Please also attach a single PDF of a resume listing all relevant past employment and educational training. - Mark Gluck & Itamar Lerner ___________________________________ Dr. Mark A. Gluck, Professor Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers University ? Newark 197 University Ave. Newark, New Jersey 07102 Web: http://www.gluck.edu Email: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Ph: ( 973) 353-3298 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From petzschner at biomed.ee.ethz.ch Fri Sep 11 04:59:59 2015 From: petzschner at biomed.ee.ethz.ch (=?utf-8?Q?Frederike=20Petzschner?=) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 08:59:59 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?Computational_Psychiatry_Course=2C_Zuri?= =?utf-8?q?ch?= Message-ID: <88baa34a20b71f6c68e5a0adc45430a8c80.20150911085952@mail185.atl61.mcsv.net> ** COMPUTATIONAL PSYCHIATRY COURSE, ZURICH ------------------------------------------------------------ An international Computational Psychiatry course is launched at Zurich this year (12-15 December 2015). This four-day course is designed to provide students with the necessary toolkit to master challenges in computational psychiatry research. We want this course to be practically useful for students (Master, PhD, Postdoc) who would like to apply modeling techniques to study learning, decision making or brain physiology in patients with psychiatric disorders. The course is structured into three parts: Lectures will be given by an international faculty from UK, USA, France, Germany, and Switzerland. All software code will be made available to the students. Details and registration: http://translationalneuromodeling.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=88baa34a20b71f6c68e5a0adc&id=904d89d814&e=45430a8c80 Course flyer: http://translationalneuromodeling.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=88baa34a20b71f6c68e5a0adc&id=5b9ee86601&e=45430a8c80 Organizer: Frederike Petzschner Klaas Enno Stephan Contact: cpcourse at biomed.ee.ethz.ch ============================================================ Frederike Petzschner, PhD Translational Neuromodeling Unit UZH & ETH Zurich This email was sent to connectionists at cs.cmu.edu (mailto:connectionists at cs.cmu.edu) why did I get this? (http://translationalneuromodeling.us11.list-manage1.com/about?u=88baa34a20b71f6c68e5a0adc&id=51e3a11b33&e=45430a8c80&c=1094991075) unsubscribe from this list (http://translationalneuromodeling.us11.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=88baa34a20b71f6c68e5a0adc&id=51e3a11b33&e=45430a8c80&c=1094991075) update subscription preferences (http://translationalneuromodeling.us11.list-manage.com/profile?u=88baa34a20b71f6c68e5a0adc&id=51e3a11b33&e=45430a8c80) Translational Neuromodeling Unit . Wilfriedstrasse 6 . Zurich 8032 . Switzerland Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monkey_rewards&aid=88baa34a20b71f6c68e5a0adc&afl=1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From m.a.wiering at rug.nl Fri Sep 11 10:54:38 2015 From: m.a.wiering at rug.nl (Wiering, M.A.) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 16:54:38 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CFP Journal of Neurocomputing: Special Issue on Multiobjective Reinforcement Learning: Theory and Applications Message-ID: ** Apologies for multiple postings ** *Journal of Neurocomputing Special Issue on Multiobjective Reinforcement Learning: Theory and Applications* http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neurocomputing/call-for-papers/special-issue-on-multiobjective-reinforcement-learning/ ------------------------------ Many real-life problems involve dealing with multiple objectives. For example, in network routing the criteria consist of energy consumption, latency, and channel capacity, which are in essence conflicting objectives. When system designers want to optimize more than one objective, it is not always clear a priori which objectives are correlated and how they influence each other upon inspecting the problem at hand. As sometimes objectives are conflicting, there usually exists no single optimal solution. In those cases, it is desirable to obtain a set of trade-off solutions between the objectives. This problem has in the last decade also gained the attention of many researchers in the field of Reinforcement Learning (RL). RL addresses sequential decision problems in initially (possibly) unknown stochastic environments. The goal is the maximization of the agent's reward in a potentially unknown environment that is not always completely observable. Until now, there has been no special issue in a journal or a book on reinforcement learning that covered the topic of multiobjective reinforcement learning. *State of the art* We consider the extension of RL to multiobjective (stochastic) rewards (also called utilities in decision theory). Techniques from multi-objective optimization are often used for multi-objective RL in order to improve the exploration-exploitation tradeoff. Multi-objective optimization (MOO), which is a sub-area of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), considers the optimization of more than one objective simultaneously and a decision maker decides either which solutions are important for the user or when to present these solutions to the user for further consideration. Currently, MOO algorithms are seldom used for stochastic optimization, which makes it an unexplored but very promising research area. The resulting algorithms are a hybrid between MCDM and stochastic optimization. The RL algorithms are enriched with the intuition and computational efficiency of MOO in handing multi-objective problems. *Aim and scope* The main goal of this special issue is to solicit research on multi-objective reinforcement learning. We encourage submissions - describing applications of MO methods in RL with a focus on optimization in difficult environments that are possibly dynamic, uncertain and partially observable. - offering theoretical insights in online or offline learning approaches for multi-objective problem domains. *Topics of interests* We enthusiastically solicit papers on relevant topics such as: - Reinforcement learning algorithms for solving multi-objective sequential decision making problems - Dynamic programming techniques and adaptive dynamic programming techniques handling multiple objectives - Theoretical results on the learnability of optimal policies, convergence of algorithms in qualitative settings, etc. - Decision making in dynamic and uncertain multi-objective environments - Applications and benchmark problems for multi-objective reinforcement learning. - Novel frameworks for multi-objective reinforcement learning - Real-world applications in engineering, business, computer science, biological sciences, scientific computation, etc. in dynamic and uncertain environments solved with multi-objective reinforcement learning *Important dates* - Submissions open: December 1st 2015 - Submissions close: January 31st 2016 - Notification of acceptance: April 15th 2016 - Final manuscript due: 1 July 2016 - Expected publication date (online): October 2016 *Guest Editors* Dr Madalina Drugan, Artificial Intelligence Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Dr Marco Wiering, Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Engineering, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Dr. Peter Vamplew, Federation University Australia Dr. Madhu Chetty, Federation University Australia -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From behnke at cs.uni-bonn.de Sun Sep 13 06:34:57 2015 From: behnke at cs.uni-bonn.de (Sven Behnke) Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2015 12:34:57 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: W1-Professorship in Perceiving Systems @ University of Bonn, Germany Message-ID: <55F55151.8010201@cs.uni-bonn.de> The Computer Science Department at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit?t Bonn, Germany invites applications for the following position * W1-Professorship (Juniorprofessur) in Perceiving Systems * to be filled as soon as possible. The department is looking for excellent candidates holding a doctoral degree who are about to establish their own research agenda, complementing our current activities in the areas of Autonomous Intelligent Systems, Robotics, and Computer Vision. Applicants must have demonstrated scientific excellence in at least one of the following areas: - 3D Simultaneous Localization and Mapping - Tracking Deformable or Articulated Objects - Semantic Categorization - Scene or Action Understanding - Interactive Perception - Multimodal Perception or - Machine Learning for Perception The successful candidate is expected to establish his or her own research agenda by actively acquiring grants and through participation in existing collaborations, e.g., in the DFG research unit "Mapping on Demand". Initial teaching duties are four hours per week during lecture periods, e.g., in our English Master Computer Science programme. The professorship will become part of the Computer Science Institute VI. The position is filled in accordance with ?36 of the Higher Education Act of North Rhine-Westphalia (Hochschulgesetz Nordrhein-Westfalen). The initial employment of three years will be extended for three more years after a positive intermediate evaluation. The University of Bonn is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants are asked to electronically submit complete application documents in a single PDF file (curriculum vitae, list of publications, research and teaching statement, transcripts and certificates, preprints of the three most important publications) until October 31st, 2015 to the Head of the Computer Science Department: fachgruppe at cs.uni-bonn.de Further information can be acquired from Prof. Dr. Sven Behnke, University of Bonn, Computer Science Institute VI, Autonomous Intelligent Systems, Friedrich- Ebert-Allee 144, 53113 Bonn, Germany. PDF Version: http://www3.uni-bonn.de/die-universitaet/stellenangebote/dez.-3/w1_perceiving_systems From yousefizenouz at gmail.com Mon Sep 14 16:56:26 2015 From: yousefizenouz at gmail.com (Bahram YoosefiZonooz) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 22:56:26 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: PhD candidate on the development of novel machine learning methods for genetics Message-ID: Dear All, I would like to bring to your attention an opening for a Ph.D. candidate position in Machine Learning group led by Prof. dr. H.J. (Bert) Kappen at the Donders institute of the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. For more details: see below, and http://www.ru.nl/donders/jobs/vm/phd-position/ http://www.snn.ru.nl/v2/ SNN Machine Learning group at the Donders institute of the Radboud University, is looking for a PhD candidate for the project titled 'GenoMiX: Utilizing crossbred information to accelerate genetic progress'. The project is implemented jointly with the The Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre of Wageningen UR, and is part of the STW Breed4Food partnership program (www.wageningenur.nl/vacancies-breed4food ). The SNN Machine learning group of Prof. Kappen, where the PhD candidate will be hosted, focuses on algorithmic developments in machine learning and Bayesian statistics. See www.snn.ru.nl and *www.snn.ru.nl/~bertk *. The project is co-supervised by Dr. Kees Albers of the Dept. of Human Genetics, RadboudUMC and Dept. of Molecular Development Biology, also at the Radboud University. The research group of Dr. Kees Albers combines Bayesian statistical modelling with experimental cellular models to identify disease-causing mutations from DNA sequencing data and functional genomics data. *Requirements* Candidates are expected to cooperate in a multidisciplinary team and should be keen on mobility, between the research groups and Breed4Food partners. Good communication skills and fluency in English is expected from all candidates. *Conditions of employment* We offer challenging position in an inspiring multidisciplinary and international environment. You will be part of a research team involving multiple universities. You are expected to spend time at different locations to ensure that you benefit from the partners involved in your project. You will actively engage in meetings organised by the Breed4Food consortium. The proposed start is in the autumn of 2015. As a PhD candidate, you will be offered a fulltime position for 4 years, after which you should have completed your PhD thesis and individual training plan. The salary for a PhD candidate starts at ? 2.125,- gross per month in the first year and extends to a maximum of ? 2.717,- gross per month in the fourth year (in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities). *Contract type*: Temporary, Onbekend Additional information about the vacancy can be obtained from: Prof. Dr Bert Kappen (+31 24 36414241, b.kappen at science.ru.nl) or Dr Kees Albers (+31 24 36 67325;kees.albers at radboudumc.nl). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From s.gruen at fz-juelich.de Mon Sep 14 08:47:45 2015 From: s.gruen at fz-juelich.de (Prof Sonja Gruen) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 14:47:45 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Open Postdoc Position in Computational Neuroscience/ Data Analytics Message-ID: <55F6C1F1.3050107@fz-juelich.de> The Statistical Neuroscience lab of Prof. Sonja Gr?n at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (INM-6) and the Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6), Research Centre Juelich, invites applications for a postdoctoral positions for research in computational neuroscience / data analytics. The lab works on concepts to understand network processing in the cortex based on models and experimental functional data. The approaches range from development of statistical methods, analysis of electrophysiological data, integration of data into network models, and the development of neuroinformatics tools. The group interacts intensely with other groups in the INM and the Supercomputing Center, but is also pursuing intense collaborations with external, experimental groups that record functional data in relation to complex behavior. The group contributes its expertise in advanced data analysis and neuroinformatics to the European Human Brain Project (HBP). For more details and online application see http://www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Stellenangebote/_common/dna/2015-194-EN-INM-6.html?nn=363560, Reference number: 2015-194 -- Prof. Dr. Sonja Gruen Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) Computational and Systems Neuroscience Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) Theoretical Neuroscience Juelich Research Centre and JARA Juelich, Germany and Theoretical Systems Neurobiology RWTH Aachen University Aachen, Germany tel. +49-(0)2461-61-4748 (secr), -9302, -9460 (fax) mob. +49-(0)175-2972436 s.gruen at fz-juelich.de 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 ted.carnevale at yale.edu Mon Sep 14 11:39:54 2015 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 11:39:54 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NEURON course at SFN 2015 meeting Message-ID: <55F6EA4A.6070704@yale.edu> A few seats remain available for the NEURON course at this year's meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, but you'll have to act quickly because the registration deadline is Friday, Oct. 2. If you're a lab director trying to decide whether to add computational modeling to your research program, a grad student or postdoc who is just getting started in modeling, or an established NEURON user who wants to find out what the latest advances are, this one-day course is for you! It starts with a practical introduction that reviews basic concepts and presents a workflow for building and using models of cells and networks, and moves on to topics that include how to speed up simulations, using Python with NEURON, and modeling reactive diffusion with the RxD class. For more information and the registration form, see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/courses/chi2015/chi2015.html --Ted From neurogirl at hotmail.com Mon Sep 14 10:47:37 2015 From: neurogirl at hotmail.com (neuro girl) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 16:47:37 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Abstract submission is now open References: <3BA2561E3F46314F8774E91D73C2F61AF16F60C6@UKK089.ADS.UK-KOELN.DE> Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, Just a reminder that the deadline for abstract submission for the upcoming Brain States meeting is September 27, 2015 at midnight EST. Information for submission and registration can be found at http://bit.ly/1JVElkf and https://dbs.veomed.net/. Registration includes breakfast, coffee breaks and lunch. The Brain States: Characterization and Neuromodulation by DBS will take place on November 11-13, 2015 in Cologne, Germany. This is an interdisciplinary meeting with leading experts in academia and medicine who will present physiological, computational and clinical approaches to the brain dynamics and brain mechanics of complex functional networks in the brain. Transformations of the neurodynamic operations of the brain between the normal to the pathological state will be explored using multivariate data analysis (EEG, MEG, DBS, etc?). Special attention will be given to next-generation approaches which allow the collaboration of clinical practice and science to advance the field from principles of organization to the causal control of function. Please note: registration will be limited to encourage open discussion. Brain States: Characterization and Neuromodulation by DBS November 11-13, 2015 Cologne, Germany Confirmed Speakers: Hagai Bergman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Peter Brown (University of Oxford) Stephan Chabardes (University Hospital Grenoble) Alain Destexhe (CNRS) Emad N. Eskandar (Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School) John J. Foxe (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) Marc Goodfellow (University of Exeter) Anthony A. Grace (University of Pittsburgh) Rowshanak Hashemiyoon (University Hospital of Cologne) Jens Haueisen (Technische Universit?t Ilmenau) Viktor Jirsa (Aix-Marseille Universit? /CNRS) Jens Kuhn (University Hospital Cologne) Fernando Lopes da Silva (University of Amsterdam) Andres Lozano (University of Toronto) Cameron McIntyre (Case Western Reserve University) Christoph M. Michel (University of Geneva) Urs Ribary (Simon Fraser University) G?nter Schiepek (Paracelsus Medical University) Wolf Singer (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research) Dimitri van de Ville (University of Geneva) Veerle Visser-Vandewalle (University Hospital of Cologne) J?rgen Voges (Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg) Looking forward to seeing you in Cologne! With kind regards, Row Hashemiyoon Rowshanak Hashemiyoon, PhD Chief, Behavioral Neurophysiology and Computational Neuroscience Klinik f?r Stereotaxie und Funktionelle Neurochirurgie Universit?tsklinikum K?ln Kerpener Str. 62 D - 50937 K?ln Email: row.hashemiyoon at uk-koeln.de http://www.uk-koeln.de/de/stereotaxie -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From M.Loog at tudelft.nl Sun Sep 13 12:31:16 2015 From: M.Loog at tudelft.nl (Marco Loog - EWI) Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2015 16:31:16 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: SIMBAD 2015 : final call for participation Message-ID: <1B7FB132C5F56E428E697512485E82325F86A8C7@SRV364.tudelft.net> Interested in dissimilarity-based and similarity-based learning? Interested in going beyond kernels and Euclidean spaces? Interested in applications to graphs, trees, bags, brains, and other structures? Interested in an informal meeting and ample time for scientific discussion? JOIN SIMBAD 2015! When : October 12 to 14, 2015 Where : Copenhagen, Denmark URL : http://www.dsi.unive.it/~simbad/2015/ We have an engaging and lively program with three excellent keynote speakers. You can find the full program through the webpage at http://www.dsi.unive.it/~simbad/2015/index.php/pages/program Hope to see you there! Aasa Feragen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Marcello Pelillo, University of Venice, Italy Marco Loog, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Mon Sep 14 17:29:54 2015 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 17:29:54 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: SFN 2015 Meeting Workshop: Parallel computing resource Message-ID: <55F73C52.6050002@yale.edu> Find out how to use the Neuroscience Gateway Portal (NSG, http://www.nsgportal.org/) to gain free and easy access to parallel computers for your modeling and data analysis projects. NSG, an NSF-supported resource, already has GENESIS, MOOSE, NEST, NEURON, PyNN, and the Freesurfer software suite already installed and ready for use. The workshop will be held from 9 AM to noon on Saturday, October 17, at a location in downtown Chicago that will be announced to workshop registrants. It will include a hands-on exercise that shows how easy it is to use NSG in your own research. The course agenda is available from http://www.nsgportal.org/workshop.html For more information or to sign up, see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/courses/nsg2015/nsg2015.html or contact Ted Carnevale [ted dot carnevale at yale dot edu] or Amit Majumdar [majumdar at sdsc dot edu] From gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Tue Sep 15 11:50:29 2015 From: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu (Mark Gluck) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 11:50:29 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Seeking Students interested in Learning and Memory to Apply to the Behavioral & Neural Sciences Ph.D. Program at Rutgers University-Newark Message-ID: <25FB1379-D704-4B0D-9D27-18F37DCBC468@pavlov.rutgers.edu> Re: Seeking Students interested in Cognitive, Clinical, and Computational Neuroscience of Learning and Memory to Apply to the Behavioral & Neural Sciences Ph.D. Program at Rutgers University-Newark (Deadline: December 15th, 2015) Dear Colleagues: If you know of bright, well trained, and highly motivated graduating seniors or research assistants at your institution who are interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in cognitive and/or systems neuroscience, I would be obliged if you would pass this email on to them. I am especially interested in students interested in working with me on the cognitive, clinical, and computational neuroscience of learning, memory, and decision making. More information on our lab--including information on current lab members, a research overview, lecture videos, and PDFs of all past publications--can be found at: http://www.gluck.edu/ Current projects in our lab include: (1) neuroimaging, computational, and behavioral studies of sleep and its impact on emotional cognition and insight learning, (2) studies of psychiatric patients with clinical depression or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how learning and generalization in these patents is affected by pharmacological and behavioral interventions, (3) the effects of aerobic exercise and physical activity on brain function and cognition in older adults, (4) community-based participatory research on African-American brain health and health disparities (through our African-American Brain Health Initiative - http://www.brainhealth.rutgers.edu/ ), (5) genetic influences on medial temporal lobe and striatal function in aging, (6) cognitive changes in Parkinson?s disease and how these are affected by clinical treatments and individual differences in motor symptoms. For additional details, lecture videos, an overview of current lab members, and downloadable publications and research summaries, see The Graduate Program in Behavioral and Neural Sciences (BNS) at Rutgers University-Newark prepares students for neuroscience careers in academia, industry, public administration, and scientific publishing by providing both general instruction across all areas of neuroscience as well as focused training within one area of specialization. BNS Students are supported financially by the graduate program (not by individual faculty) for five years; they receive full tuition remission and benefit from a comprehensive health insurance. A NIH Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) training grant provides additional support services for students from under-represented minority groups or from disadvantaged backgrounds. The BNS curriculum offers a wide range of courses that provide a broad and in depth knowledge in neuroscience, including an intensive neuroscience ?Bootcamp? in the fall of their first year, and a comprehensive series of four core courses taught by all our faculty. Students in our graduate program are trained primarily to conduct independent research and to present and discuss their results orally and in written form. Students also gain experience in undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring. The integration of Rutgers University-Newark with our medical school (known now as Rutgers Behavioral and Health Sciences), provides our students with additional clinically-relevant training and research opportunities. The research interests of BNS faculty are diverse and span all levels of analysis in the neurosciences, from genes and molecules to microcircuits and complex systems. Their research methods are similarly varied as they combine electrophysiological, neurochemical, anatomical, imaging, behavioral, and neuropsychological methods to analyze how the brain works, develops, interacts with the environment, and is modified by experience in health and disease. The campus of the BNS program is located in Newark, New Jersey, 13 miles from Manhattan, New York City, with extensive public transportation links between the two (many faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students live in New York City). Key web links are: Faculty profiles and Rutgers-Newark info: http://www.neuroscience.newark.rutgers.edu Rutgers University Brain Imaging Center: http://rubic.rutgers.edu BNS Admissions (to apply online): http://www.bns.rutgers.edu The deadline for applications is December 15, 2015. Formal interviews and visits by the top US candidates will take place at Rutgers-Newark from February 4 to 6th, 2015 (international candidates may be interviewed via Skype or phone). Late applications may be considered on a case-by-case basis. In addition, I welcome promising applicants who are interested in working in my lab to contact me to arrange an informal visit sometime during the fall to meet with my lab members and join us for lab meetings and research activities. The best day for this is usually a Wednesday when we have most of our meetings (Mondays sometimes also). Regards, Mark Gluck, Professor of Neuroscience ___________________________________ Dr. Mark A. Gluck, Professor Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers University ? Newark 197 University Ave. Newark, New Jersey 07102 Web: http://www.gluck.edu Email: gluck at pavlov.rutgers.edu Ph: ( 973) 353-3298 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pul8 at psu.edu Mon Sep 14 23:11:08 2015 From: pul8 at psu.edu (Ping Li) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 23:11:08 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Position in Language/Reading @ Penn State Message-ID: Postdoc Scholar/Neuroscience of Language and Reading Department of Psychology Qualified individuals are invited to apply for a postdoctoral scholar position in the area of cognitive neuroscience and language/reading comprehension. The fellowship is supported by the NSF?s Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems Program as part of the White House BRAIN initiative (see https://goo.gl/vYqstc). For an abstract of the research project, see http://goo.gl/IG2FJi. The initial appointment will be for one year, with the possibility of renewal for second and third years. Salary and benefits are based on NSF guidelines, commensurate with experience and qualifications. A qualified candidate must hold a Ph.D. degree or have completed all of the requirements for a Ph.D. by the time of appointment with a desired area of study in cognitive neuroscience. Experience in functional MRI studies of language and/or literacy and technical experiences with MatLab, Unix/Linux, Python and MRI-related data processing skills are also desirable. The successful candidate will join the PI`s research team to work on an integrative project in the neurocognitive study of language representation and processing, with particular reference to reading comprehension in first and second languages by children and adults. The project will be carried out in the Brain, Language, and Computation (BLC) Lab (http://blclab.org/) of the Department of Psychology at the Pennsylvania State University. The postdoc fellow will have ample opportunities to interact with several vibrant research communities at Penn State with which the BLC lab is closely associated, including the Center for Brain, Behavior, and Cognition (http://cbbc.psu.edu/), the Center for Language Science (http://cls.psu.edu), the Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center ( http://www.imaging.psu.edu/), the Institute of the Neurosciences ( https://goo.gl/kyw45O), and the Institute for CyberScience ( http://ics.psu.edu/). Applicants should submit a CV, a cover letter with a brief statement of research experience and interests, and 2-3 recent publications(in PDF). Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. The start date of the position is flexible although an early 2016 date is preferable. Apply online at https://psu.jobs/job/59675 CAMPUS SECURITY CRIME STATISTICS: For more about safety at Penn State, and to review the Annual Security Report which contains information about crime statistics and other safety and security matters, please go to http://www.police.psu.edu/clery/, which will also provide you with detail on how to request a hard copy of the Annual Security Report. Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From manish.saggar at gmail.com Wed Sep 16 01:29:04 2015 From: manish.saggar at gmail.com (Manish Saggar) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 22:29:04 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: Job posting - Research Assistant/Data Analyst | Stanford University School of Medicine Message-ID: [Apologies for cross-posting] The Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research (CIBSR) in the department of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine is seeking a full-time Research Assistant (Non-Clinical) to help with analyzing large-scale neuroimaging (fMRI/NIRS/EEG) and behavioral datasets from both healthy and patient populations. Responsibilities will include:-Developing software/scripts to implement algorithms for data control, data preprocessing/analysis, database management and coordinating data-sharing initiatives-Developing/running machine learning algorithms to better understand high-dimensional datasets-Assisting in analyzing research data using specific fMRI Neuroimaging programs and/or software (e.g., FSL, AFNI). -Helping with designing and developing novel neuroimaging paradigms for data collection-Collecting new neuroimaging/behavioral data Applicants should have:-B.S. (or higher) in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, computer science, or other related scientific fields-Strong programming skills in Python, Matlab, or similar languages.-Experience with data science related projects-Prior research experience (preferred)-Experience with UNIX Operating systems (e.g., Linux, Mac OSX) and shell scripting (preferred) General Info: -The applicant will work closely with the team of faculty, post-docs, and research coordinators to track project progress, meet deadlines, anticipate project needs and communicate with project collaborators outside of the lab, train and supervise undergraduate students to assist with data processing, and train other staff as needed. -May require extended or unusual work hours based on research requirements and business needs. Salary and Anticipated Start Date: -Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience/educational qualifications. Anticipated Start Date is immediate. Application details: - Please email Manish Saggar (saggar at stanford.edu) to apply, please include a CV including the names of 3 references with your inquiry. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naotsu at gmail.com Tue Sep 15 01:41:26 2015 From: naotsu at gmail.com (Naotsugu Tsuchiya) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 15:41:26 +1000 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd Monash Brain Function Workshop --- Multi-modal approaches to understand brain functions Message-ID: 2nd Monash Brain Function Workshop --- Multi-modal approaches to understand brain functions Date: Dec 14 (Mon) 2015, 8:50 to 17:00 Venue: Monash Biomedical Imaging facility Overview The goal of this workshop is to offer an opportunity for neuroscientists from different backgrounds to interact and exchange ideas. Specifically, we encourage participation of neuroscientists who are interested in understanding neural systems involved in perception and behaviour, and those who combine multiple methodologies, such as electrophysiology, advanced signal processing, computational modelling and cognitive neuroscience. Note that from Tuesday (Dec 15) the SCiNDU workshop will take place in Brisbane; the Monday workshop will end in time to catch flights from Melbourne to Brisbane. Registration: $50 AUD ($25 AUD for students & postdocs or those who are affiliated with ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function) - Deadline for poster abstracts and early registration: To be announced - Registration - [to be opened soon!] Organizers: Nao Tsuchiya, Nic Price, Alex Fornito, Jeroen van Boxtel, Gary Egan (Monash University) Contact: for questions about this event, please contact Nao Tsuchiya ( naotsugu.tsuchiya at monash.edu) Keynote Speakers: Peter Dayan (computational neuroscience, - UCL, UK) Zhaoping Li (computational neuroscience, psychophysics - UCL, UK) Speakers: 1. Lucy Palmer (Florey Institute, Neurophysiology) 2. Andrew Zalesky (University of Melbourne, Neuroimaging/Connectome) 3. Masafumi Oizumi (RIKEN BSI, Japan & Monash University, Computational Neuroscience) 4. Peter Bossarts (University of Melbourne, Neuroeconomics) 5. Pascal Molenberghs (Monash University, Social Neuroscience) 6. Jennifer Windt (Monash University, Philosophy/Cognitive Neuroscience) or 7. Maureen Hagan (Monash University, physiology, Neurophysiology) Supported by Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nao (Naotsugu) Tsuchiya, Ph.D. 1. Associate Professor - School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Biomedical and Psychological Sciences, Monash University - Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University 2. ARC Future Fellow homepage: http://users.monash.edu.au/~naotsugt/Tsuchiya_Labs_Homepage -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gustau.camps at uv.es Wed Sep 16 12:10:48 2015 From: gustau.camps at uv.es (Gustau Camps-Valls) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2015 18:10:48 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: 4 PhD and Postdoc positions in Machine Learning for Geosciences Message-ID: <55F99488.3010805@uv.es> ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2 PhD and 2 Postdoc positions in Machine Learning for Geosciences ----------------------------------------------------------------- We are searching for outstanding candidates with a strong interest in machine learning and geosciences to cover 2 PhD and 2 postdoctoral positions to join the Image and Signal Processing (ISP) group in the Universitat de Valencia, Spain, http://isp.uv.es. The positions are funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant 2015-2020 entitled "Statistical Learning for Earth Observation Data Analysis" (SEDAL) under the direction of Prof. Gustau Camps-Valls. More info about the openings in http://isp.uv.es/sedal.pdf *** The project and job description We aim to develop the next generation of statistical inference methods to analyze Earth Observation (EO) data. Machine learning models have helped to monitor land, oceans, and atmosphere through the analysis and estimation of climate and biophysical parameters. Current approaches, however, cannot deal efficiently with the particular characteristics of remote sensing data. We will develop advanced regression (retrieval, model inversion) methods to improve efficiency, prediction accuracy and uncertainties, encode physical knowledge about the problem, attain self-explanatory models, learn graphical causal models to explain the complex interactions between essential climate variables and observations, and discover hidden essential drivers and confounding factors in Climate/Geo Sciences. Highly motivated researchers with a degree/PhD in computer science, statistics, machine learning, electrical engineering, physics, or mathematics are encouraged to apply. All candidates should have a solid understanding and knowledge of machine learning and statistics, and being particularly interested in remote sensing and geoscience problems. Positions will cover two different profiles: (1) Expertise in remote sensing and geosciences: model inversion, radiative transfer models, biogeochemistry, climate science, detection and attribution, global carbon/heat/water fluxes, in-situ datasets for land/vegetation monitoring; and (2) Expertise in machine learning, statistics and signal processing: regression and time series analysis, change and anomaly detection, structured/relational/transfer learning, graphical models and causal inference. In both cases, good programming skills (Matlab/Python/R/C++), a critical and organized sense for data analysis, as well as maturity and commitment, strong communication, presentation and writing skills are a big plus. *** Application details - How? Send me: 2-pages CV, motivation letter, 3 best papers, 3 recommendation letters or contacts - When? Preferred starting dates: January or May 2016 - How long? 1 year contract (extendable upon mutual satisfaction and qualifications to 3-4 years) - How much? Salary according to UV scales including social security, health insurance benefits, and travel money - Where? Valencia, Spain, Mediterranean, nice weather, hike and beach. Excellent cost-of-living index = 55 *** Contact - Before applying: Informal inquiries may be addressed to Prof. Dr. Gustau Camps-Valls, gustau.camps at uv.es - Ready to apply? Send your dossier in one single PDF to gustau.camps at uv.es, subject: SEDAL application ------------------------------------------- Prof. Gustau Camps-Valls Image and Signal Processing Group (ISP) Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) Office: 3.2.4 Parc Cient?fic - Campus de Paterna Universitat de Val?ncia C/ Catedr?tico Jos? Beltr?n, 2 46980 Paterna, Val?ncia. Spain. Tlf: +34 963 544 064 Fax: +34 963 543 261 http://isp.uv.es http://www.uv.es/gcamps ------------------------------------------- From andren at uj.ac.za Thu Sep 17 00:22:27 2015 From: andren at uj.ac.za (Nel, Andre) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 04:22:27 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Position in Feature Detection at University of Johannesburg (South Africa) Message-ID: <295fbd61efda4dbe86523747fa8b3027@apk-dagmbx13-02.ad.uj.ac.za> Postdoctoral Research Fellow Qualified individuals are invited to apply for a postdoctoral research fellow position in the area of image processing. The initial appointment will be for one year, with the possibility of renewal for second and third years. Salary and benefits are based on South African NRF guidelines. A qualified candidate must hold a Ph.D. degree or have completed all of the requirements for a Ph.D. by the time of appointment in fields of image processing, biological simulation or broader areas in cognitive neuroscience. Experience in Mathematica, MatLab, Unix/Linux, Python and related data processing skills is also desirable. The successful candidate will join a team of 3 researchers working on advancing low level feature detection in various areas - including (but not limited to) design of advanced, biologically inspired feature detectors, implementation of such feature detectors in both algorithmic as well as biologically realistic hardware / software. The postdoc fellow will have ample opportunities to interact with other research groups at UJ in related areas within the Faculties of Health and Sciences. Applicants should submit a CV, a cover letter with a brief statement of research experience and interests, and 2-3 recent publications(in PDF). Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. The start date of the position is flexible although an early 2016 date is preferable. Applications must be sent to andren at uj.ac.za UJ is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or other identifying characteristic status. ________________________________ This email and all contents are subject to the following disclaimer: http://disclaimer.uj.ac.za -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From viktor.jirsa at univ-amu.fr Fri Sep 18 14:00:58 2015 From: viktor.jirsa at univ-amu.fr (Viktor Jirsa) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2015 20:00:58 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: The Virtual Brain Node #3 at the Society for Neuroscience Meeting in Chicago 2015 References: Message-ID: <9F66352B-F6C4-456D-8990-4DE4BD4E9457@univ-amu.fr> -- Note: This is a Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2015 conference official satellite event -- ? NODE#3 : Training Workshop, Chicago IL October 16, 2015 www.thevirtualbrain.org/node3 In this workshop we will explain the fundamental principles of full brain network modelling using the open source neuroinformatics platform The Virtual Brain (TVB). This simulation environment enables the biologically realistic modelling of network dynamics using Connectome-based approaches across different brain scales. Configurable brain network models generate macroscopic neuroimaging signals including functional MRI (fMRI), intracranial and stereotactic EEG, surface EEG and MEG for single subjects. Researchers from different backgrounds can benefit from an integrative software platform including a supporting framework for data management (generation, organization, storage, integration and sharing) and a simulation core written in Python. The architecture of TVB supports interaction with MATLAB packages, for example, the well-known Brain Connectivity Toolbox. Workshop Goals: to create a conceptual and technical understanding of the various network modelling approaches in TVB; familiarization with TVB graphical user interface, Python and Matlab programming environment and data formats. Workshop Format: lectures and hands-on tutorials - space is limited* ================================================================== For more details and registration, please visit our website : http://www.thevirtualbrain.org/node3 ================================================================== Important Dates: August 10, 2015 ? Registration Open - space is limited* October 9, 2015 ? Registration Closed October 16, 2015 ? TVB NODE#3 Training Workshop Location: Hyatt Regency Chicago Downtown Hotel 151 East Wacker Drive Chicago, IL, 60601, USA Note: This is a Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2015 conference official satellite event. With our best regards, The?TVB?Team -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: tvb_node3_mailbanner.png Type: image/png Size: 9973 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rossia at mail.nih.gov Fri Sep 18 15:55:44 2015 From: rossia at mail.nih.gov (Rossi, Andrew (NIH/NIMH) [E]) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2015 19:55:44 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Job Opening: Computational Neuroscience Program, National Institute of Mental Health Message-ID: <3316D5381B2B3D42BF3EF6CDD4FACFA534660D9D@msgb08.nih.gov> Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Program The National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Health, Department of Human and Health Services, anticipates an opening for a Health Science Administrator (Program Officer) at its Rockville, MD site to guide Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Program in the Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science. This program promotes extramurally-funded research employing computational and mathematical approaches to modeling non-stationary neuronal processes, functional imaging of dynamical processes, and the modeling of all levels of neuronal processing, from single cell activity to complex behaviors. Topic areas within this program include empirical and theoretical studies of self-organizing behavior in neuronal systems. The program also supports collaborative activities among federal agencies to foster multi-disciplinary projects with a goal to develop new principles, models, and methods for acquisition, analysis and interpretation of neural data. The Health Science Administrator in charge of this program will be responsible for maintaining and further developing innovative scientific directions that include computational and systems neuroscience approaches that align with Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative as part of a new Presidential focus aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. Responsibilities will include administering and managing an extramural portfolio of research awards, interacting and collaborating with researchers and program officers at NIMH, NIH and other federal agencies and developing new funding opportunities. Candidates must be U.S. citizens and have a Ph.D., M.D., or equivalent degree. Prior research experience spanning the field of systems levels neuroscience and computational neuroscience is preferred. At a minimum, candidates should be able to demonstrate their willingness and capacity to expand their current area of expertise to cover this broad domain of research. The position required working both independently and collaboratively. Strong scientific background, organizational, oral and written communication skills are required. Salary will be commensurate with experience. Send a letter of interest and CV by email to Aleksandra Vicentic, Ph.D. at vicentica at mail.nih.gov (tel # 301-443-1576). HHS and NIH are equal opportunity employers. Andrew F. Rossi, Ph.D. Chief, Executive Functions Program and Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Program Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science, NIMH ph 301-443-1576 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From qobi at purdue.edu Thu Sep 17 16:03:13 2015 From: qobi at purdue.edu (Jeffrey Mark Siskind) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 16:03:13 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: RA positions in mobile robot navigation guided by natural language Message-ID: Seeking applicants for one or more potential research assistantships (RA) for people interested in pursuing a PhD at the intersection of computer vision, robotics, natural language processing, machine learning, and AI. These positions are funded by a NSF NRI (National Robotics Initiative) grant to study grounding the semantics of natural language in the navigation of mobile robots. Recent manuscripts describing the project include: http://upplysingaoflun.ecn.purdue.edu/~dpbarret/tro2015.pdf http://upplysingaoflun.ecn.purdue.edu/~dpbarret/ralicra2016.pdf (Please note that these manuscipts are under review and are posted only for the purpose of recruiting graduate students.) Interested parties can send an informal application to qobi at purdue.edu including a cover letter expressing what aspects of the project you are interested in and what particular experience and qualifications you bring that are relevant to the project, a CV, your GRE scores (and TOEFL scores if applicable), your undergraduate transcripts, (and your transcripts from a masters degree if applicable). Please include URLs for any prior publications you have in refereed venues. Formal application must be done through the official Purdue University application process for graduate school. Jeff (http://engineering.purdue.edu/~qobi) From Peter.Elmer at cern.ch Sat Sep 19 13:02:21 2015 From: Peter.Elmer at cern.ch (Peter Elmer) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 19:02:21 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Computational Physicist and/or Scientific Application Developer positions - Princeton University Message-ID: <20150919170221.GF8806@Peters-MacBook.local> Associate Professional Specialists(s)/Professional Specialist(s) Computational Physicist and/or Scientific Application Developer Position Summary: Princeton University is seeking two Professional Specialists to work with the High Energy Experiment group in the Physics Department. High Energy Physics (HEP) focuses on understanding the elementary particles that are the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions. Obtaining scientific results from these high energy physics experiments requires complex software and computing systems, developed by international teams of researchers over the course of decades. The scientific data sets obtained by these experiments are among the largest in the world. Successful candidates will play a leadership role in developing the software and computing systems to meet the challenges of high energy physics experiments. Successful candidates will be members of the DIANA/HEP project team (http://diana-hep.org) and the CMS experiment (http://cms.web.cern.ch) at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. The DIANA/HEP project aims to develop state-of-the-art data analysis tools for experiments which acquire, reduce, and analyze petabytes of data. DIANA/HEP focuses on improving performance, increasing interoperability between HEP software tools and the scientific python software ecosystem and on the development of collaborative tools. The CMS experiment, one of two general purpose detectors at the LHC, is currently investigating upgrades to its computing system to support an ambitious research plan extending through the 2020's. Applicants from multiple backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Candidates from both a traditional HEP background (and a strong software focus) as well as those from the machine learning, data science and/or scientific python communities (with an interest in HEP research topics) will be considered. The position(s) will have a functional title of "Computational Physicist" or "Scientific Application Developer" depending on the specific background of the successful candidate(s). Appointments will be made at either the Associate Professional Specialist or Professional Specialist rank, depending on the candidate's credentials. These positions will likely be based at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland, or at Fermilab, near Chicago, subject to negotiation with the principal investigator. Occasional travel to conferences and workshops will be required. The initial appointment will be for one year, with the possibility of renewal subject to satisfactory performance and availability of funding. For additional information, please contact Dr. Peter Elmer (Peter.Elmer at cern.ch). Essential Qualifications: - Academic preparation: - Ph.D. in Experimental Particle Physics or a closely related field, or - Advanced degree in Computer Science with 5 years or more experience with scientific software applications - Strong programming skills, in particular with C++ and Python - Experience developing large-scale scientific software applications, in particular involving or contributing to one or more of the following: - Analysis of large datasets - Open source machine learning or data mining software toolkits, and/or the scientific python ecosystem - Monte Carlo detector simulations - Pattern recognition techniques relevant for high energy and nuclear physics detectors - Strong interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills. Preferred Qualifications: - Ability to direct efforts of others within teams of various sizes - Experience working in large, international scientific or open-source software collaborations and delivering software in such contexts To apply online please visit http://physics.princeton.edu/jobs and submit a cover letter, CV and contact information for three references. These positions are subject to the University?s background check policy. Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Elmer E-mail: Peter.Elmer at cern.ch Phone: +41 (22) 767-4644 Address: CERN PH-UCM, Bldg. 32 2C-14 CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From bhammer at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de Sun Sep 20 07:04:27 2015 From: bhammer at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de (Barbara Hammer) Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2015 13:04:27 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: special session on icremental learning at ESANN'2016 Message-ID: <55FE92BB.7050008@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de> *CALL FOR PAPERS* We encourage submissions to the special session *Incremental learning algorithms and applications* organized by Alexander Gepperth, ENSTA ParisTech (France), Barbara Hammer, Univ. Bielefeld (Germany) at ESANN 16 - European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks and Machine Learning https://www.elen.ucl.ac.be/esann/ which will take place from 27-29 April in beautiful Bruges, Belgium. This special sessions invites contributions from researchers in machine learning who develop incremental learning algorithms, as well as from researchers in applied fields, particularly robotics, who apply such algorithms to obtain superior performance or usability. The definition of incremental learning algorithms is notoriously unclear: It may include, but is not restricted to, algorithms that: ? avoid catastrophic forgetting when retrained ? can deal with non-stationary statistics: concept drift or concept shift ? can treat "streaming" data and see each example only one ? try to emulate biological architectures of life-long learning A particular focus lies on algorithms that rest efficient (w.r.t. time and memory) when faced with huge amounts of data, or data with large dimensionality, or both. The deadline for submissions is November 20, 2015 via the conference portal https://www.elen.ucl.ac.be/esann/ -- Prof. Dr. Barbara Hammer CITEC centre of excellence Bielefeld University D-33594 Bielefeld Phone: +49 521 / 106 12115 Fax: +49 521 / 106 12181 From mpavone at dmi.unict.it Mon Sep 21 05:01:39 2015 From: mpavone at dmi.unict.it (Mario Pavone) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2015 11:01:39 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: CfP HM 2016 - 10th International Workshop on Hybrid Metaheuristics, 8-10 June 2016, Plymouth, UK Message-ID: <20150921110139.Horde.AgkpZOph4B9V-8dz6uOTlGA@mbox.dmi.unict.it> CALL FOR PAPERS ** Apologies for cross-posting ** ** Please forward to anybody who might be interested. ** HM 2016 - 10th International Workshop on Hybrid Metaheuristics June 8-10, 2016 - Plymouth, United Kingdom http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/ https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hm2016 hm2016 at dmi.unict.it *** You are invited to submit papers to this exciting event! *** -- **** PLENARY SPEAKERS: Carlos A. Coello Coello & Jin-Kao Hao More speakers to be announced **** SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 18th January 2016 http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/dates.html -- ** General Information ** The HM Workshops are intended to be an international forum for researchers in the area of design, analysis, and experimental evaluation of metaheuristics. Metaheuristics, such as simulated annealing, evolutionary algorithms, tabu search, ant colony optimization, scatter search and iterated local search, are considered state-of-the-art methods for many problems. In recent years, however, it has become evident that the concentration on a sole metaheuristic is rather restrictive. A skilled combination of concepts from different optimization techniques can provide a more efficient behavior and a higher flexibility when dealing with real-world and large-scale problems. Hybrid Metaheuristics are such techniques for optimization that combine different metaheuristics or integrate AI/OR techniques into metaheuristics. HM 2016 is organized as a non-profit event. ** Paper Submission ** http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/call.html Authors are encouraged to submit novel and unpublished original contributions in one of the topics of the Workshop, and explain how their work sheds light on the fundamental properties of hybrid metaheuristics field, and makes progress on the important open questions. Please prepare your paper in English using the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) template. HM 2016 includes two different types of submission: 1) *regular paper*: 15 pages maximum length in Springer LNCS format, including figures, table & references, and should report on new and unpublished work; 2) *work for oral or poster presentation only* (no page restriction; any format): It should discuss works in progress; new research ideas; works previously published elsewhere (it is essential that a reference to the previous article is clearly cited); and all that may be relevant and fruitful for soliciting discussions at the workshop. All submissions will be subject to peer review by the program committee, and all accepted submissions are allocated either an oral presentation slot or a poster slot with no distinction being made between the submission options. ** Important Dates ** - Paper submission deadline: January 18th, 2016 - Paper Notification: February 18th, 2016 - Camer-ready papers deadline: March 18th, 2016 - Early registration: March 18th, 2016 ** Proceedings ** All accepted *regular* papers will be published in a volume of the series on LNCS - Lecture Notes in Computer Science - from Springer. All the other kind of submissions (short papers, abstract of the oral presentations, poster presentations) will be published in an electronic book on the HM 2016 web site. Significantly extended versions of selected papers from the LNCS proceedings of HM 2016 will be considered for a special issue of an indexed international journal (TBA). ** Program Committee ** http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/committee.html ** Organizing Team ** - General Chairs: Angelo Cangelosi & Vincenzo Cutello - Program Chairs: Christian Blum, Mario Pavone & El-Ghazali Talbi - Publication Chair: Maria J. Blesa - Local Chair: Alessandro Di Nuovo ----- http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/ hm2016 at dmi.unict.it Looking forward to welcoming you to Plymouth in June 2016. -- Dr. Mario Pavone (PhD) Assistant Professor Department of Mathematics and Computer Science University of Catania V.le A. Doria 6 - 95125 Catania, Italy tel: 0039 095 7383038 fax: 0039 095 330094 Email: mpavone at dmi.unict.it http://www.dmi.unict.it/mpavone/ =========================================================================== HM 2016 - 10th International Workshop on Hybrid Metaheuristics June 8-10, 2016 - Plymouth, UK http://www.dmi.unict.it/hm2016/ =========================================================================== SSBSS - International Synthetic & Systems Biology Summer School * Biology meets Engineering and Computer Science * =========================================================================== ICSI^3 - International Congress on Systems Immunology & ImmunoInformatics * Immunology without Borders * =========================================================================== 12th European Conference on Artificial Life - ECAL 2013 http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/advances-artificial-life-ecal-2013 =========================================================================== From emmanuel.vincent at inria.fr Mon Sep 21 09:31:15 2015 From: emmanuel.vincent at inria.fr (Emmanuel Vincent) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2015 15:31:15 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position on recurrent neural networks for music improvisation Message-ID: <560006A3.6060006@inria.fr> LAB: MULTISPEECH team, Inria Nancy, France PI: Emmanuel Vincent (emmanuel.vincent at inria.fr) START: December 2015 to March 2016 DURATION: 16 months TO APPLY: send a CV, a motivation letter, a list of publications, and one or more recommendation letters to emmanuel.vincent at inria.fr by October 9, 2015 Automatic music improvisation aims to enable a machine to listen to other musicians and improvise with them in real time. While recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have shown their benefit for the generation of pitch sequences [1] and polyphonic music [2,3], current improvisation systems still rely on variable-order N-grams of pitch sequences, which can be learned in real time [4]. The goal of this postdoc position is to introduce the use of (potentially deep) RNNs in the context of automatic music improvisation. One or more of the following challenges shall be investigated: - learn the RNN from a small amount of data using musically-motivated network architectures and parameter tying strategies - update the RNN and generate meaningful music in real time given input by the other musicians - jointly model heterogeneous musical dimensions (pitch, rhythm, harmony...) in the line of [5] - jointly account for multiple time scales (tatum, beat, bar, structural block...) To do so, we will leverage recent advances both in deep learning and in music modeling, e.g., [6,7]. This position is part of a funded project with Ircam. The successful candidate will collaborate with a PhD student and participate in project meetings at Ircam. Salary: 2600 ?/month gross, plus free health insurance and additional benefits Ideal profile: Prospective candidates should hold or be about to obtain a PhD in the area of machine learning or speech and music processing. Knowledge about RNNs and RNN programming practice (e.g., Theano) are necessary. Previous experience with music is not required but would be an asset. [1] D. Eck and J. Schmidhuber, "Finding temporal structure in music: Blues improvisation with LSTM recurrent networks", in Proc. NNSP, 2002. [2] N. Boulanger-Lewandowski, Y. Bengio, and P. Vincent, "Modeling temporal dependencies in high-dimensional sequences: Application to polyphonic music generation and transcription", in Proc. ICML, 2012. [3] I.-T. Liu and B. Ramakrishnan, "Bach in 2014: Music composition with recurrent neural network", arXiv:1412.3191, 2014. [4] G. Assayag and S. Dubnov. Using factor oracles for machine improvisation. Soft Computing, 2004. [5] G. Bickerman, S. Bosley, P. Swire, and R. M. Keller, "Learning to create jazz melodies using deep belief nets", in Proc. ICCC, 2010. [6] C. Szegedy, W. Liu, Y. Jia, P. Sermanet, S. Reed, D. Anguelov, D. Erhan, V. Vanhoucke, and A. Rabinovich, "Going deeper with convolutions", in Proc. CVPR, 2015. [7] F. Bimbot, G. Sargent, E. Deruty, C. Guichaoua, and E. Vincent. Semiotic description of music structure: An introduction to the Quaero/Metiss structural annotations. In Proc. AES 53rd Int. Conf. on Semantic Audio, 2014. -- Emmanuel Vincent Multispeech Project-Team Inria Nancy - Grand Est 615 rue du Jardin Botanique, 54600 Villers-l?s-Nancy, France Phone: +33 3 8359 3083 - Fax: +33 3 8327 8319 Web: http://www.loria.fr/~evincent/ From fmschleif at googlemail.com Mon Sep 21 03:47:58 2015 From: fmschleif at googlemail.com (Frank-Michael Schleif) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2015 09:47:58 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Special Session on Indefinite proximity learning (ESANN'16) Message-ID: Call for Papers Special Session on 'Indefinite proximity learning' 27-29 April 2016, Bruges, Belgium http://www.dice.ucl.ac.be/esann AIMS AND SCOPE Today real life data are often not given as vectorial data, but by means of proximities (similarities or dissimilarities) only, calculated by an appropriate proximity function. The pairwise proximity matrix may be a symmetric positive semidefinite matrix - and hence a kernel matrix but can be much more generic. Often the underlying data may not exist in a vector space and the proximity function violates metric properties, leading to indefinite, potentially asymmetric proximity matrices, which can not directly be processed by classical machine learning algorithms - like kernel machines. We can find these settings in various domains like the analysis of text documents - using e.g. the compression distance, the comparison of biological sequence data - with domain specific alignment measures, shape retrieval problems in robotics using the inner distance, the representation of structured data like graphs or trees and many other applications. The recent technological developments, also in the context of big data, allow the generation of very large data sets. If the data are represented by non-metric proximities the processing becomes particular challenging, because many classical mathematical models require metric properties. Dedicated processing strategies for non-metric proximity data (indefinite proximities, non-positive kernels, dissimilarity data) are of wide interest and the subject of this special session. TOPICS We encourage submission of papers on novel methods for (pre-) processing of non-metric kernels, structured data or in the field of non-metric dissimilarity learning by means of computational intelligence and machine learning approaches, including but not limited to: - data analysis and pattern recognition approaches for (indefinite) proximity data, structured data and dissimilarity learning - clustering, classification, regression, embedding approaches for indefinite data - approaches in the line of matrix completion, collaborative filtering, reduction techniques for non-standard data - low rank matrix approaches - valid for indefinite proximities - vector space embedding - metric nearness and correction approaches - large scale proximity matrix analysis and handling - quality and error measures for indefinite data representations - applications with indefinite proximity data IMPORTANT DATES Paper submission deadline : 20 November 2015 Notification of acceptance : 31 January 2016 The ESANN 2014 conference : 27-29 April 2016 SPECIAL SESSION ORGANIZERS: Frank-Michael Schleif, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK and University of Appl. Sc. Mittweida, Germany Peter Tino, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK Yingyu Liang, Princeton University, USA -- ------------------------------------------------------- PD Dr. rer. nat. habil. Frank-Michael Schleif School of Computer Science The University of Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT United Kingdom - email: fschleif at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de http://promos-science.blogspot.de/ ------------------------------------------------------- From poirazi at imbb.forth.gr Tue Sep 22 04:17:10 2015 From: poirazi at imbb.forth.gr (Yiota Poirazi) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2015 11:17:10 +0300 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral positions in Computational Neuroscience --- Poirazi lab, Crete Message-ID: <56010E86.9040207@imbb.forth.gr> Could you please advertise these postdoctoral positions in my lab through the connectionist mailing list*?* Thank you very much in advance, Yiota Poirazi ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Description:* We are looking for highly motivated candidates to fill 1-2 postdoctoral positions in the laboratory of Panayiota Poirazi at IMBB-FORTH in Crete, Greece. The positions are funded by the ERC starting grant dEMORY, whose goal is to characterize the role of dendrites in learning and memory processes so as to formulate a unifying theory regarding their contribution in memory formation across brain regions and abstraction levels. This will be achieved via the development of computational models at different abstraction levels in the hippocampus the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. By manipulating the biophysical, anatomical and plasticity properties of dendrites and tracking the effect on memory, the project aims to infer the key rules by which these thin structures shape mnemonic processes. These rules will then form the basis for deducing theoretical abstractions of trainable neurons with dendrites.The project has been running since 2012 and has already produced a number of outcomes, which can be found at the following web sites: www.demory.gr , www.dendrites.gr *Qualifications:* The ideal candidate should have expertise in computational neuroscience, preferably but not necessarily in biophysical modelling, and a deep interest in neural/dendritic computations, learning and memory. *To apply: **_ Application deadline: October 20^th , 2015 (applications will be continuously screened until the positions are filled)._* The position(s) will be available for 2 years, as of November 1st, 2015.*_ _*Salary: 28,000-36,000 Euro (including benefits), depending on experience and career stage. Candidates should send a *resume and two (2) reference letters* to *poirazi[at]imbb.forth.gr*. If possible, recommendations should be sent by the referees. *__* *__* *THE POIRAZI LAB* The Computational Biology Laboratory at IMBB-FORTH performs research that is at the forefront of Computational Neuroscience and places special emphasis on understanding the role of dendrites in information processing and storage. Outcomes of the lab have significantly influenced the field of dendritic computations by providing key predictions that were later verified experimentally. For her contributions to Neuroscience Dr. Poirazi received several awards including the EMBO Young Investigator award, two Marie Curie fellowships, a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC), membership to the Young Academy of Europe and the Young Scientist Community of the World Economic Forum etc. Yiota Poirazi is currently the Chair of FENS-Kavli Network of excellence, a prestigious network of 30 outstanding Neuroscientists whose goal is to shape the future of Neuroscience in Europe and beyond. -- Panayiota Poirazi, Ph.D. Director of Research Computational Biology Laboratory Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) Vassilika Vouton, P.O.Box 1385 GR 711 10 Heraklion, Crete, GREECE Tel: +30 2810 391139 Fax: +30 2810 391101 ?mail: poirazi at imbb.forth.gr http://www.dendrites.gr Chair, FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence http://www.fens.org/Outreach/FENS-Kavli-Network-of-Excellence/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From terry at salk.edu Mon Sep 21 13:11:02 2015 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2015 10:11:02 -0700 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - October 1, 2015 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Volume 27, Number 10 - October 1, 2015 Available online for download now: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/neco/27/10 ----- Review Indefinite Proximity Learning - a Review Frank-Michael Schleif, Peter Tino Article Understanding Emergent Dynamics: Using a Collective Activity Coordinate of a Neural Network to Recognize Time-varying Patterns John Hopfield Note A Note on Entropy Estimation Thomas Schuermann Letters Recurrent Neural Network Approach Based on the Integral Representation of the Drazin Inverse Predrag S. Stanimirovic, Ivan S. Zivkovic, and Yimin Wei Visual Categorization With Random Projection Rosa Arriaga, David Rutter, Maya Cakmak, and Santosh Vempala Accuracy and Efficiency in Fixed-point Neural ODE Solvers Michael Hopkins, Steve Furber A Simple Label Switching Algorithm for Semi-supervised Structural SVMs P. Balamurugan , Shirish Shevade, and S. Sundararajan Multi-View Bayesian Correlated Component Analysis Simon Kamronn, Andreas Trier Poulsen, and Lars Kai Hansen Linear Methods for Efficient and Fast Separation of Two Sources Recorded With a Single Microphone Saurabh Bhargava, Florian Blaettler, Sepp Kollmorgen, Shih-Chii Liu, and Richard H.R. Hahnloser ------------ 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 tbrown at research.baycrest.org Tue Sep 22 11:20:16 2015 From: tbrown at research.baycrest.org (Tanya Brown) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:20:16 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: TVB Node #3 - Registration Deadline Oct 9 Message-ID: *-- Note: This workshop is an official SfN Satellite Event --* *REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS APPROACHING - RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW! SPACE IS LIMITED.* *?* *NODE#3* : Training Workshop Chicago, IL - SfN 2015 Conference *October 16, 2015* www.thevirtualbrain.org/node3 In this workshop we will explain the fundamental principles of full brain network modelling using the open source neuroinformatics platform *The Virtual Brain (TVB)*. This simulation environment enables the biologically realistic modelling of network dynamics using Connectome-based approaches across different brain scales. Configurable brain network models generate macroscopic neuroimaging signals including functional MRI (fMRI), intracranial and stereotactic EEG, surface EEG and MEG for single subjects. Researchers from different backgrounds can benefit from an integrative software platform including a supporting framework for data management (generation, organization, storage, integration and sharing) and a simulation core written in Python. The architecture of TVB supports interaction with MATLAB packages, for example, the well-known Brain Connectivity Toolbox. *Workshop Goals:* to create a conceptual and technical understanding of the various network modelling approaches in TVB; familiarization with TVB graphical user interface, Python and Matlab programming environment and data formats. *Workshop Format: * lectures and hands-on tutorials - *space is limited** ================================================================== *For more details and registration, please visit our website : * *http://www.thevirtualbrain.org/node3 * ================================================================== *Important Dates:* - August 10, 2015 ? Registration Open - *space is limited** - October 9, 2015 ? Registration Closed - October 16, 2015 ? TVB NODE#2 Training Workshop *Location:* Hyatt Regency Chicago Downtown Hotel 151 East Wacker Drive Chicago, IL, 60601, USA *Note: This is a Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2015 conference official satellite event.* With our best regards, *The TVB Team * -- *PLEASE NOTE: I am currently working from our Berlin, Germany office and as such, I am in Central European Time Zone (UTC +01:00). Similarly, I am not contactable by my below listed phone number at the moment. My european phone number is: +49 174 6669674. * *Tanya Brown* Program Manager - The Virtual Brain Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest 416-785-2500 x 2782 tbrown at research.baycrest.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: tvb_node3_mailbanner.png Type: image/png Size: 9973 bytes Desc: not available URL: From j.eppler at fz-juelich.de Wed Sep 23 10:25:51 2015 From: j.eppler at fz-juelich.de (Jochen Martin Eppler) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 16:25:51 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Announcing the first NESTML community workshop Message-ID: <5602B66F.8030502@fz-juelich.de> Announcing the first community workshop on NESTML, the novel modelling language to create neuron models for the NEST simulator for spiking neuronal networks (nest-simulator.org). Abstract ^^^^^^^^ Currently, neuron and synapse models in NEST are written as C++ classes. These classes implement the simulator API for updating the neuronal dynamics, sending and receiving events, and auxiliary tasks such as initialization, recording of internal variables, calibration and handling of parameters. As the model code is hand-written and often created by copy and paste, this method is prone to errors and hinders the programmatic re-use of components such as neuronal dynamics, post-synaptic responses and synaptic plasticity mechanisms. Moreover, as many neuroscientists are not experts in C++, the process of creating models is often seen as complicated and in many cases the resulting model implementations are not optimal with respect to performance, consistency and testability. To ease writing models for NEST and improve the general quality of the code, we have created the NEST Modelling Language. NESTML comprises a language specification to describe neuron models in terms of neuroscience concepts and a set of tools to generate efficient C++ code for NEST from this description. During the workshop, we will give a general introduction to model creation for NEST and an in-depth introduction to the concepts and application of NESTML. In hands-on sessions the participants have the opportunity to write their own models in NESTML with the assistance of experienced tutors. The feedback collected in a dedicated session will be used to shape the future design and development of NESTML. Target Audience ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The workshop aims at students and researchers in computational neuroscience who want to create their own neuron models in NEST. Some understanding of programming and experience with one of the simulators NEST, NEURON, or Brian will be helpful, but are not strictly required. Location and date ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The workshop will take place at the Chair of Software Engineering (se-rwth.de) of RWTH Aachen University from Monday, December 7 to Wednesday, December 9, 2015. Details and registration Workshop attendance is possible free of charge. However, in order to be able to plan rooms, lunches and coffee breaks, we require registration. For details and enrolment, visit www.fz-juelich.de/ias/jsc/nestml-ws. With best regards, Jochen! -- Dr. Jochen Martin Eppler Phone: +49 2461 61-9471 ---------------------------------- Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience J?lich Supercomputing Centre Institute for Advanced Simulation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From dsontag at cs.nyu.edu Tue Sep 22 22:45:24 2015 From: dsontag at cs.nyu.edu (David Sontag) Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2015 22:45:24 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NIPS 2015 Workshop on Machine Learning in Healthcare Message-ID: CALL FOR PARTICIPATION NIPS 2015 WORKSHOP ON MACHINE LEARNING IN HEALTHCARE Friday, December 11, 2015 Palais des Congr?s in Montreal https://sites.google.com/site/nipsmlhc15/home We are pleased to announce our workshop on Machine Learning in Healthcare to take place at this year?s Neural Information Processing Systems conference at the Palais des Congr?s in Montreal on Friday, Dec. 11th. The objective of this workshop is to present problems of growing relevance in healthcare and discuss how machine learning techniques can be used to address them through collaborations between clinicians and ML-researchers. INVITED SPEAKERS Isaac Kohane, MD PhD -- Director of Dept. for Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School Anmol Madan, PhD -- CEO of ginger.io Steven Horng, MD MMSc -- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Emergency Medicine Nigam Shah, MBBS, PhD -- Assistant Professor of Medicine, Stanford Center for Biomedical Research Finale Doshi-Velez, PhD -- Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Harvard Ambuj Tewari, PhD -- Assistant Professor Statistics & EECS, University Of Michigan, Ann Arbor ABSTRACT SUBMISSION We invite submissions of 2-page abstracts for poster contributions to the workshops and for short contributed talks. Topics of interest include all areas of machine learning in healthcare such as disease modeling and detection, knowledge discovery from electronic health records, electronic phenotyping, temporal models of disease progression, Markov decision processes for decision support, dealing with missing data and irregularly sampled data, uncertainty and its role in medical statistics, calibration, model criticism, and causal inference. Submitted papers should be up two pages long excluding references and in NIPS-2015 format. Submissions should be sent by email to by October 23, 2015. We additionally invite submissions of ?Healthcare Challenges? by healthcare scientists and clinicians, which are short summaries of clinical problems that they would like to see solved (or are trying to solve). Accepted submissions will be invited to be presented in a 5 minute pitch followed by 5 minutes of discussion, with the aim being to spark discussion on new problems and foster new collaborations between clinicians and machine learning researchers. For more details see: https://sites.google.com/site/nipsmlhc15/call-for-healthcare-challenges Presenters may be eligible for travel assistance to attend the meeting. IMPORTANT DATES Submission deadline: October 23, 2015 Acceptance notification: November 5, 2015 Workshop: December 11, 2015 ORGANIZERS Theofanis Karaletsos, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Rajesh Ranganath, Princeton University Suchi Saria, Johns Hopkins David Sontag, New York University SENIOR PROGRAM COMMITTEE Noemie Elhadad, Columbia University Joydeep Ghosh, University of Texas at Austin John Holmes, University of Pennsylvania Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research Yan Liu, University of Southern California Ben Marlin, UMass Amherst Christian Shelton, UC Riverside Jimeng Sun, Georgia Tech Chris Williams, University of Edinburgh From twaldron at Princeton.EDU Thu Sep 24 12:44:59 2015 From: twaldron at Princeton.EDU (Timothy P. Waldron) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 16:44:59 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Faculty Search: Princeton Neuroscience Institute Message-ID: <565CB0B8EFE92946A689DC622A64ABE61D9F4B36@CSGMBX201W.pu.win.princeton.edu> [Final_PNI_horiz_logo] Princeton University is committed to the continued expansion and development of its new Neuroscience Institute. In addition to other outstanding resources, a newly constructed 248,000 square foot building opened in 2014, housing state-of-the-art facilities for the full range of neuroscientific methods, including human brain imaging, cellular and circuit level imaging in non-human species, studies of non-human primates and computation modeling. We are now seeking qualified individuals working at all levels of neuroscience who study development, learning, memory, perception, attention and higher level cognitive functions in humans and non-human species to join our faculty. Assistant, Associate or Full Professor The Princeton Neuroscience Institute invites applications for an appointment at either the assistant professor level (tenure track) or at the associate or full professor level (tenured) to begin in 2016. Key selection criteria will be research excellence, originality of science, future impact on the field of neuroscience and related disciplines, and leadership capabilities. Applicants must have an excellent record of research productivity and demonstrate the ability to develop a rigorous research program. We seek applicants pursuing research directions with significant conceptual and/or empirical integration across traditional disciplinary boundaries. The successful candidate will join the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and may also join a department appropriate to the individual's background and interests, with possibilities including (but not limited to) Psychology, Molecular Biology, Mathematics, Physics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Applicants should be prepared to teach courses both at the undergraduate and graduate levels in neuroscience. Please submit a curriculum vitae, a brief research description, and contact information for three references at http://jobs.princeton.edu, requisition #1500784. The application deadline is November 21, 2015. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 7053 bytes Desc: image003.jpg URL: From n.lepora at bristol.ac.uk Thu Sep 24 09:10:48 2015 From: n.lepora at bristol.ac.uk (Nathan Lepora) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 14:10:48 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [jobs] 1 RA position and 1 PhD studentship in Tactile Robotics (Bristol Robotics Lab) Message-ID: A one year Research Assistant position (UK/international applicants) and a 3.5 year fully funded PhD scholarship (UK applicants only) are available in Tactile Robotics at the University of Bristol. An informal meeting relating to either post can be arranged at IROS 2015. Based in the Bristol Robotic Laboratory, the largest centre for multi-disciplinary robotics research in the UK, and the Department of Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol, this is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic team working on Tactile Robotics led by Dr Lepora. You will support the activities of the University of Bristol on the EPSRC Research Grant on Tactile Superresolution Sensing (EP/M02993X/1). Superresolution encompasses a range of techniques for transcending the resolution limit of a sensor and earned the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (for superresolved microscopy). The success of this research will enable the widespread uptake of superresolution techniques in the domain of artificial tactile sensing, potentially impacting multiple application areas across robotics from autonomous quality control in manufacturing to sensorized grippers for autonomous manipulation to sensorized prosthetic hands and medical probes in healthcare. RA position details (closing date 25 October) You will be expected to support the activities of the Tactile Robotics Research Group at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, including attending and presenting at International Conferences on Robotics, and writing Research Papers on the outcomes of your research. For the RA position, you will hold (or will be expected to obtain soon) a strong PhD in a discipline relevant to the project. In addition to a strong research track record you will also have excellent communication and presentation skills. Full time salary is at the Research Assistant grade (?31,342 - ?35,256 per year). PhD studentship details (available until filled) Funding is available for outstanding UK candidates, at a tax-free stipend of ?14,057 (2015-2016) per year. For the PhD studentship, please contact Dr. N Lepora directly (details below). Adverts will also be posted on UK postgraduate job sites soon. *** Please note: The PhD studentship is available to UK students only **** Applications Informal enquiries can be made to: N.Lepora at bristol.ac.uk You can also talk informally with Dr N. Lepora at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) from 28 Sep to 2 Oct 2015. Details of the RA position are available here (REF # ACAD101673) http://www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/details.html?nPostingID=3765&nPostingTargetID=13782&option=28&sort=DESC&respnr=1&ID=Q50FK026203F3VBQBV7V77V83&keywords=tactile&Resultsperpage=10&lg=UK&mask=uobext Details of the PhD studentship are available here: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/graduate/pg-open/funding/epsrcdta.h -- Dr N Lepora Phone: +44 (0) 117 331 5169 Website: http://www.lepora.com Lecturer in Engineering Mathematics http://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/people/nathan-f-lepora Program Director (UoB) for the MSc in Robotics http://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/interdisciplinary/robotics/ Department of Engineering Mathematics Merchant Venturers School of Engineering University of Bristol BS8 1UB From kkuehnbe at uos.de Fri Sep 25 06:18:26 2015 From: kkuehnbe at uos.de (Kai-Uwe Kuehnberger) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 12:18:26 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Research Assistant in Artificial Intelligence at the Institute of Cognitive Science in Osnabrueck In-Reply-To: <56051ECA.1020604@uos.de> References: <56051ECA.1020604@uos.de> Message-ID: <56051F72.80809@uos.de> --- The Artificial Intelligence Research Group (Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe K?hnberger) of the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabr?ck invites applications for 1 Research Assistant (Salary level E 13 TV-L, 100 %) to be filled as soon as possible until September 30, 2016. Description of Responsibilities: The position involves participation in the research activities of the European Union funded project ?COINVENT: Concept Invention Theory? (http://www.coinvent-project.eu/en/home.html). The Artificial Intelligence Group in Osnabr?ck is involved in this project in the areas of knowledge representation and cognitive foundations for computational creativity applications, specifically focusing on the two domains mathematics and music. Methodologically, the project uses psychological frameworks of analogical reasoning and concept blending for concept invention. Required Qualifications: Applicants are expected to have an excellent academic degree (Master/ Diploma/ PhD), experience and interest in the topic of the project, basic knowledge in at least two of the following areas: formal logic and reasoning, development of algorithms, theory of neural networks, or practical knowledge in programming languages (for example, Prolog, Java, ML/Scheme). Additionally, a good command of the English language is mandatory. The position may be held full or part-time. As a certified family-friendly institution, Osnabr?ck University is committed to furthering the compatibility between work/studies and family life. As an employer, Osnabr?ck University is committed to creating equal opportunities for women and men. Therefore, it aims to increase the proportion of the under-represented gender in the respective area. Furthermore, qualified applicants with disabilities will be favored. Applications with the usual documentation should be submitted by e-mail in a single PDF-file to Prof. Dr. K.-U. K?hnberger (kkuehnbe at uni-osnabrueck.de) with a cc to office at ikw.uni-osnabrueck.de no later than October 7th, 2015. Further information can be obtained from Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe K?hnerger (kkuehnbe at uni-osnabrueck.de). --- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dayan at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk Thu Sep 24 04:10:07 2015 From: dayan at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk (Peter Dayan) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 09:10:07 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Sainsbury Wellcome Centre Fellowships In-Reply-To: <20141023073200.GA16457@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> References: <20140429130531.GE24277@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> <20141023073200.GA16457@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> Message-ID: <20150924081007.GA6852@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> Under the Directorship of Professor John O?Keefe, the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (SWC) will bring together world-leading scientists to investigate how brain circuits process information to create the neural representations that guide behaviour. Developed through the vision and partnership of the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, and with substantial investment from these partners, the mission of SWC is to transform understanding of brain function. The Centre, located within UCL and close to its main campus in central London, is being structured to foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, enquiry and excellence. SWC scientists will use the latest advances in molecular and cellular biology, imaging, electrophysiology and behavioural techniques and enjoy an unparalleled research environment offering state-of-the-art research laboratories, cutting-edge scientific equipment, technologically-advanced prototyping and fabrication laboratories and custom in-house high-performance computing facilities. Commencing research operations in early 2016, SWC will comprise 12 highly interdisciplinary experimental research groups accommodated in a new, purpose-designed, seven-storey building. The Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit has relocated to the new building, facilitating broad and deep collaborations in data analysis and computational modelling. Scientists joining SWC will become part of UCL Neuroscience which brings together over 450 principal investigators offering extensive opportunities for interaction and collaboration. Formal teaching commitments will be minimal allowing scientists to focus on research. The Centre invites applications for SWC Senior and Principal Research Fellowships from outstanding, innovative, highly-motivated collaborative scientists with backgrounds in neuroscience as well as related physical and biological sciences. It is particularly interested in scientists wishing to extend the boundaries of technological development in areas such as high- density electrophysiological probes, telemetry, optical recording, molecular and genetic tools, new anatomical mapping techniques, and the use of virtual reality and other novel behavioural approaches such as video image analysis. Competitive salaries, tailored research space and generous relocation and recruitment packages, including research support, will be offered. Shortlisted fellowship candidates will be invited to a residential recruitment symposium scheduled for 18-20 November 2015. For further details, please visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/swc/opportunities Expressions of interest in senior academic positions are also welcome and may be addressed to the Centre Director or Centre Manager. Contact details are available on the web pages. From rhaefner at bcs.rochester.edu Tue Sep 29 12:33:09 2015 From: rhaefner at bcs.rochester.edu (Ralf Haefner) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 12:33:09 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Tenure Track Faculty Position in Biological Physics Message-ID: The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in Biological Physics. Applicants in both theoretical and experimental areas will be considered. Applicants should have a Ph.D., an outstanding record of research, and a commitment to excellence in teaching at both the undergraduate and the graduate level. The position is anticipated to be at the Assistant Professor level, however applicants at a more senior level will also be considered. We are especially interested in candidates whose research interests might leverage the University's recent strategic initiative in Interdisciplinary Data Science. However strong applications in any area of biological physics are encouraged. Each candidate should submit a letter of application, a curriculum vita including a list of publications, and a description of research and teaching plans. The candidate should arrange for four letters of recommendation to be sent in support of their application. Further instructions for applying to this search may be found at: https://www.rochester.edu/faculty-recruiting To receive the fullest consideration, applicants are encouraged to apply by November 15. Review of applications will continue until the position is filled. The University of Rochester has a strong commitment to diversity and actively encourages applications from candidates from groups underrepresented in higher education. The University of Rochester is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and encourages applicants from members of minority groups and women. All applications are considered without regard to race, sex, religious or national origin. Salary will be competitive. EOE Minorities / Females / Protected Veterans / Disabled -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mozer at colorado.edu Tue Sep 29 15:56:55 2015 From: mozer at colorado.edu (Michael Mozer) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 13:56:55 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: Advanced Asst. or Associate Professor in Cognitive Science and Computational Modeling at University of Colorado Boulder Message-ID: The Institute of Cognitive Science at the University Colorado Boulder is seeking to hire a tenure-track professor at the advanced Assistant or Associate level. We are particularly interested in applicants with expertise in the analysis, modeling, and interpretation of complex data sets using advanced computational techniques from fields such as machine learning, statistics, signal processing, and network analysis. The internet and the availability of massive data repositories (e.g., language corpora, large-scale neuroimaging studies, educational data logs) are changing research paradigms in the allied fields of cognitive science. We seek an individual who leverages these resources and/or their own data collection efforts to advance our understanding of a substantive topic within cognitive science, and/or to develop techniques and systems that boost human cognitive potential. The Institute brings together researchers from seven departments: Computer Science; Education; Integrative Physiology; Linguistics; Philosophy; Psychology & Neuroscience; and Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. We offer a Joint PhD in Cognitive Science with each of these departments, and we teach highly interdisciplinary courses. Institute research is presently focused in three strategic areas: Human Learning and Education, Language Processing, and Cognitive Neuroscience, broadly defined. Our ideal candidate will have an outstanding track record in one or more of these areas, a strong funding history, and a commitment to interdisciplinary research. For best consideration, applications should be completed by November 1, 2015, but will continue to be accepted until the position is filled. Applications should include a current curriculum vitae, list of at least 3 professional references, statement of teaching philosophy, statement of research philosophy, publications demonstrating the characteristics described above, and a cover letter addressing the applicant?s match to the Institute. Applications are not considered complete until all letters of recommendation have been received. For more information and a link to the application, go to http://tinyurl.com/BoulderCogSci The University of Colorado is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to building a diverse workforce. We encourage applications from women, racial and ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities and veterans. Alternative formats of this ad can be provided upon request for individuals with disabilities by contacting the ADA Coordinator at hr-ada at colorado.edu. The University of Colorado Boulder conducts background checks on all final applicants being considered for employment. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wachtler at biologie.uni-muenchen.de Sat Sep 26 11:53:03 2015 From: wachtler at biologie.uni-muenchen.de (Thomas Wachtler) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2015 17:53:03 +0200 (CEST) Subject: Connectionists: Open position: Software Developer in Neuroinformatics Message-ID: At the German Neuroinformatics Node (G-Node, http://www.g-node.org), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t M?nchen, a full-time position is available to join the G-Node team in developing neuroinformatics solutions for data management in neurophysiology. Variety and complexity of data in this field challenge large-scale data access, consistent storage and efficient data analysis. G-Node is interacting closely with research labs to address these challenges with state of the art neuroinformatics methods, including tools and formats for data annotation, management, and sharing. G-Node is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and is part of the Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience (http://nncn.de) and national node of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF, http://incf.org). The position involves working in a small team of developers within a lively neuroscience environment, with ample opportunities for bridging between neuroscience research and neuroinformatics. Tasks include contributing to the development and enhancement of G-Node formats, tools and services (http://www.g-node.org/tools-and-services, https://github.com/G-Node), working closely with neuroscience laboratories that use, or plan to use, neuroinformatics solutions. Candidates should have excellent programming skills, preferably in Python and C++ or Java, the ability to work in a team, and a strong interest in the development of novel open-source solutions for neuroscience. Experience in fields of relevance, such as semantic web technologies, relational databases, web development, scientific software and analysis, experimental or computational neuroscience, would be beneficial. The position is available immediately, salary level is according to TV-L, duration is one year with possibility of extension. Individuals with disabilities will be given preference in case of equal qualification. Applications by women are specifically encouraged. Applications should include CV, statement of experience and motivation, and names of referees. Informal inquiries prior to application are welcome. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Applications should be sent, preferably as single pdf file by email, to Thomas Wachtler -- Dr. Thomas Wachtler Scientific Director German Neuroinformatics Node Department Biology II Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t M?nchen Grosshaderner Str. 2 82152 Planegg-Martinsried Germany From kanair at araya.org Tue Sep 29 11:54:56 2015 From: kanair at araya.org (Ryota Kanai) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:54:56 +0900 Subject: Connectionists: Multiple Postdoctoral and Research Assistant Positions on artificial consciousness based on the integrated information theory (IIT) Message-ID: Job Advertisement 4 Postdoctoral and/or RA positions at Araya Brain Imaging, Tokyo, Japan. Four postdoctoral positions (or RA positions) are available to work on a JST (Japan Science and Technology) funded research CREST project on ?Towards constructing artificial consciousness based on the integrated information theory (IIT)? (PIs: Kanai, Kawanabe and Maekawa, Co-PIs: Tsuchiya and Oizumi), which will run for 5.5 years from Oct 2015. The initial appointment will be for one year, with renewal based upon satisfactory performance and evaluation. Salary will be commensurate with experience. We are looking for young researchers (e.g., RA, late-stage candidates for MSc or PhD degree, or postdoctoral fellows) whose main research interest is the neuronal basis of consciousness, artificial intelligence, and/or the integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness. There are 4 pillars in the project: 1. Evolving artificial intelligent systems in complex game environments 2. Constructing systems with flexible sensory, cognitive and motor capability using deep neural networks (DNN) 3. Evaluation of integrated information in artificial systems 4. Empirical tests of IIT in real neural systems You will be employed at Araya Brain Imaging (CEO: Kanai) in Japan for all projects, but the actual work location depends on the project. Projects 1 and 2 will mainly take place within Araya Brain Imaging in Central Tokyo, Japan, and Projects 3 and 4 at Monash University, Australia. All projects will be supervised by Ryota Kanai (Araya), Naotsugu Tsuchiya (Monash) and Masafumi Oizumi (Monash and RIKEN, Japan). The researchers in all projects are expected to travel between Japan and Australia frequently (at least twice a year). For each project, the requirements for experience and skills differ, but excellent programming and mathematical skills (especially familiarity in advanced statistics, machine learning and information theory) will be essential in all projects. Research Assistants are expected to learn those skills upon appointment. Excellence in written and oral English communication skills, as supported by objective publication recorded, is essential for postdoctoral applicants. Most importantly the enthusiasm to solve consciousness is mandatory. Araya Brain Imaging is a rapidly expanding start-up located in Tokyo. While being a private company, our priority is quality in research that makes changes to the world. Many of the members have been trained abroad (UK and US) and we have a very international atmosphere. www.araya.org/eng Monash University, one of the eight top universities in Australia (G8), is forming a strong cluster of consciousness researchers, ranging from philosophers, neurophysiologists, and psychologists with excellent cognitive neuroscience tools available (simultaneous EEG & fMRI experiments and EEG/TMS & fMRI experiments at Monash Brain Imaging facility, which hosts a research-only MRI scanner, EEG, TMS and eye tracking. http://mbi.monash.edu.au/) Interested candidates are encouraged to send a CV, statement of research accomplishments and interests, PDF copies of representative publications, and contact information for 2 reference letters to: Contact Yoshiko Tan (postdoc at araya.org) for questions and applications Application review will begin immediately and continue until the positions are filled. Sincerely, Dr. Ryota Kanai CEO of Araya Brain Imaging -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Tue Sep 29 19:09:24 2015 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 19:09:24 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NEURON course at SFN 2015 meeting Message-ID: <560B1A24.8050507@yale.edu> A very few seats are still open in the NEURON course at this year's SFN meeting, and one of them can be yours if you sign up by Friday, Oct. 2--just a couple of days from now. This year's course will cover a range of material that is relevant for anyone from beginning modelers to experienced computational neuroscientists. Even if you're NOT a NEURON user, you'll want to hear about the latest advances in ModelDB, especially ModelDB's new "Model View" feature which allows you to use a web browser to explore and gain a much better understanding of NEURON models than would be possible by just reading their source code. This is just one of the many useful things that are covered in this course. For more information and the registration form, see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/courses/chi2015/chi2015.html --Ted From morency at cs.cmu.edu Sat Sep 26 15:31:22 2015 From: morency at cs.cmu.edu (Louis-Philippe Morency) Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2015 15:31:22 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: 2nd CfP - Multimodal Machine Learning Workshop (NIPS 2015) Message-ID: <081339BF5B085646911B69780926302C06DDF22F4BCE@EXCH-MB-1.srv.cs.cmu.edu> ===================================================== NIPS 2015 Workshop: Multimodal Machine Learning Montreal, Quebec, Canada https://sites.google.com/site/multiml2015/ ===================================================== IMPORTANT DATES * Submission Deadline: October 9th, 2015, 11:59pm PDT * Author Notification: October 24th, 2015 * Workshop: Friday, December 11, 2015 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS * Dhruv Batra (Virginia Tech) * Shih-Fu Chang (Columbia University) * Li Deng (Microsoft Research) * Raymond Mooney (University of Texas, Austin) * Ruslan Salakhutdinov (Carnegie Mellon University) OVERVIEW Multimodal machine learning aims at building models that can process and relate information from multiple modalities. From the early research on audio-visual speech recognition to the recent explosion of interest in models mapping images to natural language, multimodal machine learning is a vibrant multi-disciplinary field of increasing importance and with extraordinary potential. Learning from paired multimodal sources offers the possibility of capturing correspondences between modalities and gain in-depth understanding of natural phenomena. Thus, multimodal data provides a means of reducing our dependence on the more standard supervised learning paradigm that is inherently limited by the availability of labeled examples. This research field brings some unique challenges for machine learning researchers given the heterogeneity of the data and the complementarity often found between modalities. This workshop will facilitate the progress in multimodal machine learning by bringing together researchers from natural language processing, multimedia, computer vision, speech processing and machine learning to discuss the current challenges and identify the research infrastructure needed to enable a stronger multidisciplinary collaboration. TOPICS We are looking for contributed papers that apply machine learning to multimodal data. We are interested in both application-oriented papers as well as more fundamental algorithmic / theoretical works. A non-exhaustive list of relevant topics: * Automatic image and video description * Multimodal signal processing * Audio-visual speech recognition * Multimodal affect recognition * Cross-modal multimedia retrieval * Multi-view multi-task learning * Multimodal representation learning * Multi-sensory computational modeling * Multilingual, multimodal language processing * Multimodal modeling for robotics control * Multimodal human behavior modeling SUBMISSIONS Authors should submit an extended abstract between 4 and 6 pages (including references). We encourage submissions that have been previously published outside the machine learning community (i.e. at NIPS and ICML) to emphasize the multidisciplinary aspect of this research area. We also encourage submission of relevant work in progress. Submitted abstracts may be a shortened version of a longer paper or technical report, in which case the longer paper should be referred from the submission. Reviewers will be asked to judge the submission solely based on the submitted extended abstract. All submissions must be in PDF format, and we encourage authors to follow the style guidelines of NIPS 2015 at: https://nips.cc/Conferences/2015/PaperInformation/AuthorSubmissionInstructions Submissions must be made through: https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/MMML2015/ Submissions will be reviewed for relevance, quality and novelty. They will be presented as posters during the poster session (before the lunch break). A handful of submissions will be given a short talk. ORGANIZERS * Louis-Philippe Morency (morency at cs.cmu.edu) * Tadas Baltru?aitis (tbaltrus at cs.cmu.edu) * Aaron Courville (aaron.courville at umontreal.ca) * KyungHyun Cho (kyunghyun.cho at nyu.edu) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mdhamala at phy-astr.gsu.edu Tue Sep 29 14:54:46 2015 From: mdhamala at phy-astr.gsu.edu (Mukesh Dhamala) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 14:54:46 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: Registration to BrainModes 2015 is open! In-Reply-To: <560ADC0D.50800@phy-astr.gsu.edu> References: <560ADC0D.50800@phy-astr.gsu.edu> Message-ID: <560ADE76.2090408@phy-astr.gsu.edu> *Registration to BrainModes 2015: Course and Workshop (**http://brainmodes.gsu.edu*) is open! *----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * *The BrainModes (**http://www.brainmodes.org**) is an annual meeting that** **brings together experts fr**om various disciplines from all over the world and seeks to explore innovative means of understanding complex brain activity and multimodal neuroscience data sets. * *BrainModes 2015 will be held atGeorgia State University (http://www.gsu.edu/) in Atlanta on December 8 and 9 (course), and on December 10 and 11 (workshop), 2015. The workshop will focus on brain oscillatory processes and large-scale networks in brain functions and dysfunctions.* *For more information about BrainModes 2015 and registration to these** **events, please visit this website:** **http://brainmodes.gsu.edu **,** **http://kxserver.gsu.edu/Registration/bmw2015**.** * *The BrainModes 2015 workshop speakers are: * Anton Arkhipov, Allen Institute, USA Maxim Bazhenov, Riverside, USA Steven Bressler, FAU, USA Mingzhou Ding, UF, USA Andrew James, Arkansas, USA Viktor Jirsa, Aix-Marseille, France Sabine Kastner, Princeton, USA Nancy Kopell, Boston, USA Zonghua Liu, East China Normal University Daniele Marinazzo, Ghent, Belgium Randy McIntosh, Toronto, Canada Srikantan Nagarajan, UCSF, USA Gijs Plomp, Fribourg, Switzerland Petra Ritter, Charit?, Germany Dipanjan Roy, Hyderabad, India Sridevi Sarma, Johns Hopkins, USA Larry Snyder, Washington University, USA Wilson Truccolo, Brown, USA Lukas Volz, Santa Barbara, USA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From j.eppler at fz-juelich.de Sun Sep 27 16:09:52 2015 From: j.eppler at fz-juelich.de (Jochen Martin Eppler) Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2015 22:09:52 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Release of NEST 2.8.0 Message-ID: <56084D10.80203@fz-juelich.de> Dear NEST users, NEST 2.8.0 is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (or later). This version marks the completion of our development efforts during the HBP ramp up phase and consists of 290 repository checkins by 25 developers since 2.6.0. The most notable changes are: * The new connection framework introduced in NEST 2.6.0 can now handle parameter arrays for the 'all-to-all' and 'one-to-one' rules. * A new propagator for integrate-and-fire neurons correctly handles the case where membrane and synapse time constants are similar or the same. * Better documentation and much extended examples for PyNEST improve the discoverability of NEST's features. All users are encouraged to upgrade and adapt their simulation scripts to the changes in the user interface at this point in time to benefit from the improvements in the new version. For a full list of changes and download links, see https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/releases/tag/v2.8.0 IMPORTANT: some of the defaults in NEST changed. You might have to adapt your scripts accordingly. See the release notes for details. Best regards, Jochen! -- Dr. Jochen Martin Eppler Phone: +49 2461 61-9471 ---------------------------------- Simulation Laboratory Neuroscience J?lich Supercomputing Centre Institute for Advanced Simulation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From cookie at ucsd.edu Mon Sep 28 11:20:48 2015 From: cookie at ucsd.edu (Santamaria, Cookie) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2015 15:20:48 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: 4th Winter Q-Bio Mtg in HAWAII Feb. 2016 ***Abstract submission deadline NOV. 10, 2015*** In-Reply-To: <2A1F78B7-F7A4-435C-BA4D-C1DB88145A8F@ucsd.edu> References: <2A1F78B7-F7A4-435C-BA4D-C1DB88145A8F@ucsd.edu> Message-ID: THE FOURTH ANNUAL WINTER Q-BIO MEETING Quantitative Biology on the Hawaiian Islands February 15-18, 2016 http://w-qbio.org/ The Winter q-bio meeting brings together scientists and engineers who are interested in all areas of q-bio. Technology is driving revolutionary changes in biology. Systems Biology has arisen as the deduction of interaction networks from -omics data generated in the wake of remarkable technological achievements. Likewise, DNA synthesis technologies are driving the development of Synthetic Biology, whereby engineered circuitry and even entire genomes can be reconstituted from chemical building blocks. These two emerging areas have catalyzed the growth of Quantitative Biology, whereby the central goal is the deduction of quantitative principles that can be used to construct predictive models for biological phenomena. The venue for 2016 is the Sheraton Waikiki, which is located in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. The resort is known for its breathtaking oceanfront views, a first-of-its-kind recently opened "Superpool" and many award-winning dining venues. This year we will select contributed talks from the submitted abstracts to be presented with the invited talks during the plenary sessions. Contributed talks will also be selected for parallel breakout sessions that commence in the late afternoon. 2016 CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Nathalie Balaban ? Hebrew University Karen Carniol ? Cell Hana El-Samad ? UCSF James Ferrell ? Stanford Justin Gallivan ? DARPA Susan Golden ? UCSD Jeff Hasty ? UCSD Evonne Kaplan-Liss ? Stony Brook Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz ? NIH X. Shirley Liu ? Harvard Katie Pollard ? UCSF Bryan Ray ? Science Jonathan Weissman ? UCSF Lingchong You ? Duke CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS: Jeff Hasty, University of California, San Diego Galit Lahav, Harvard University Wendell Lim, University of California, San Francisco Gurol Suel, University of California, San Diego Olga Troyanskaya, Princeton & Simons Center for Data Analysis Lev Tsimring, University of California, San Diego ***REGISTRATION OPENS SOON! *** Registration fee covers conference venue, registration reception, banquet, coffee & snacks. EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION ($700 / $475 Student) DEADLINE: Sunday, December 20, 2015 REGULAR REGISTRATION ($800 / $575 Student) DEADLINE: Sunday, January 31, 2016 LATE REGISTRATION ($875 / $650 Student) After Sunday, January 31, 2016 REGISTRATION WILL BE AVAILABLE AT: http://w-qbio.org/ HOTEL: A block of rooms has been reserved for registered conference participants at the Sheraton Waikiki at a negotiated rate starting at $229 per night plus tax. We have also reserved a block of rooms at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani (just one block east and across the street from the Sheraton Waikiki) at a negotiated rate starting at $160 per night plus tax. The rooms will be available soon on a first-come, first-served basis, so book early! CONTRIBUTED TALKS: If you wish to present your work at the conference, either as an oral talk or a poster, you must submit an abstract through the conference website by the November 10th deadline. Abstract guidelines and submission information at: http://www.w-qbio.org/submit-abstract/ ABSTRACT DEADLINE: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 Abstract guidelines and submission information at: http://www.w-qbio.org/submit-abstract/ We encourage you to forward this message to any colleagues who may be interested in taking part in this exciting event. Questions should be emailed to: coordinator at w-qbio.org SPONSORED BY: ACS Synthetic Biology UC San Diego BioCircuits Institute and the San Diego Center for Systems Biology UC San Diego Divisions of Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, q-bio, and Engineering -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dwang at cse.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 30 15:20:37 2015 From: dwang at cse.ohio-state.edu (DeLiang Wang) Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:20:37 -0400 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL NETWORKS, Oct. 2015 Message-ID: <560C3605.30708@cse.ohio-state.edu> Neural Networks - Volume 70, Oct. 2015 http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neural-networks Non-parametric temporal modeling of the hemodynamic response function via a liquid state machine Paolo Avesani, Hananel Hazan, Ester Koilis, Larry M. Manevitz, Diego Sona Discriminative clustering via extreme learning machine Gao Huang, Tianchi Liu, Yan Yang, Zhiping Lin, Shiji Song, Cheng Wu Real-time, adaptive machine learning for non-stationary, near chaotic gasoline engine combustion time series Adam Vaughan, Stanislav V. Bohac Near-Bayesian Support Vector Machines for imbalanced data classification with equal or unequal misclassification costs Shounak Datta, Swagatam Das Maximum margin semi-supervised learning with irrelevant data Haiqin Yang, Kaizhu Huang, Irwin King, Michael R. Lyu Realization problem of multi-layer cellular neural networks Jung-Chao Ban, Chih-Hung Chang Impulsive synchronization of Markovian jumping randomly coupled neural networks with partly unknown transition probabilities via multiple integral approach A. Chandrasekar, R. Rakkiyappan, Jinde Cao Robustness analysis of uncertain dynamical neural networks with multiple time delays Sibel Senan Finite time stabilization of delayed neural networks Leimin Wang, Yi Shen, Zhixia Ding Matrix measure method for global exponential stability of complex-valued recurrent neural networks with time-varying delays Weiqiang Gong, Jinling Liang, Jinde Cao