Connectionists: COSYNE 2017: Call for workshop proposals

[Tomas Hromadka]

====================================================

Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2017 (Cosyne)

MAIN MEETING
23 - 26 February 2017
Salt Lake City, Utah

WORKSHOPS
27 - 28 February 2017
Snowbird, Utah

www.cosyne.org

====================================================

----------------------------------------------------
           CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
----------------------------------------------------


PRE-PROPOSAL DEADLINE:  01 October 2016
FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 31 October 2016


PRE-PROPOSALS

In an effort to coordinate submissions, the organizers are *strongly 
encouraged* to submit a pre-proposal by *01 October 2016.* Pre-proposals 
will be shared among submitters. Pre-proposals are not mandatory but 
workshops with a pre-proposal will have priority. The organizers may 
submit the full proposal by its deadline.

In order to foster discussion within Workshops, organizers should inform 
invited speakers that a single person should not speak in more than one 
of the Workshops taking place on the same day.

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 Cosyne.org -> 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

Format: plain text only, please no attachments, email to 
cosyne17workshops [at] gmail.com (Alfonso Renart, Laura Busse)


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).


FULL 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. 15+30 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 2017 WORKSHOP CHAIRS

Alfonso Renart (Champalimaud Center, Lisbon) and Laura Busse (LMU, Munich)


QUESTIONS

email: cosyne17workshops [at] gmail.com


COSYNE MAILING LISTS

Please consider adding yourself to Cosyne mailing lists (groups) to 
receive email updates with various Cosyne-related information and join 
in helpful discussions. See Cosyne.org -> Mailing lists for details.