Connectionists: COSYNE 2016: Call for workshop proposals

[Tomas Hromadka]

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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

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           CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
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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