From mhb0 at lehigh.edu Wed Feb 1 12:11:28 2017 From: mhb0 at lehigh.edu (Mark H. Bickhard) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 12:11:28 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Interactivist Summer Institute 2017 2nd announcement Message-ID: <54556D6B-D214-4F08-AC6A-865178E21292@lehigh.edu> GENERAL INFORMATION Interactivist Summer Institute 2017 July 21 - 24, 2017 Ohrid, Macedonia The Interactivist Summer Institute is dedicated to exploring the frontiers of understanding of life, mind, and cognition. There is a growing recognition - across many disciplines - that phenomena of life and mind, including cognition and representation, are emergents of far-from-equilibrium, interactive, autonomous systems. In such a view, mind and biology, mind and agent, are re-united. The classical treatment of cognition and representation within a formalist framework of encodingist assumptions is increasingly recognized as a fruitless maze of blind alleys. From neurobiology to robotics, from cognitive science to philosophy of mind and language, dynamic and interactive alternatives are being explored. Dynamic systems approaches, enactivist and autonomous agent research join in the effort. The interactivist model offers a theoretical approach to matters of life and mind, ranging from evolutionary- and neuro-biology (including the emergence of biological function) through representation, perception, motivation, memory, learning and development, emotions, consciousness, language, action theory, rationality, sociality, personality and psychopathology, and ethics. This work has developed interfaces with studies of central nervous system functioning, the ontology of process, autonomous agents, philosophy of science, and all areas of psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science that address the person. http://www.lehigh.edu/~interact/index.html Mark H. Bickhard Lehigh University 17 Memorial Drive East Bethlehem, PA 18015 mark at bickhard.name http://bickhard.ws/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rune2earth at gmail.com Wed Feb 1 09:03:11 2017 From: rune2earth at gmail.com (Rune Berg) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 15:03:11 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Summer school on Mathematical Neuroscience June 26th-30th 2017 Message-ID: <8753769F-E0BC-4674-8359-71E53BB5FF26@gmail.com> Dear all, This coming June, we will be hosting a summer school in Svaneke Bornholm (Denmark) on Mathematical Neuroscience. The topics include: ?Dynamics of Neural Networks?, "Neural field models", "Piecewise deterministic Markov processes", "Estimation of spiking rate", "Interaction graph", "Detection of dependence between neurons", "Signal processing of experimental data in neuroscience? and ?Synchronisation?. The course will take place at Hotel Siemsens Gaard June 26th-30th where we have invited 5 international experts to give lectures in the topics mentioned. In addition to the lectures, there will also be practical hands-on sessions were you will have the chance to apply the theory and methods presented in the lectures. If you think this sounds interesting, we urge you to sign up as soon as possible, due to the limited number of available seats. For more information and registration, see http://dsin.ku.dk/calendar/ems-esmtb-summer-school/ where there is also a link to the course webpage with more information on the course contents, lecturers and the venue. Note that there is a fee to cover accommodation of ?260 (DKK 1.900) if you pay before March 1st and ?310 (DKK 2.300) if you pay after March 1st. Payment deadline is April 15th. Note also that if you are a PhD student and wish to obtain credits for this course (2.5 ECTS), you must enroll for the course in addition to signing up and paying the fee. We hope to see you this summer in Svaneke. Regards, Susanne and Rune ---------------------------- Rune W. Berg, PhD, Associate Professor University of Copenhagen Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology (24.3.43) Blegdamsvej 3, DK-2200 Copenhagen N DENMARK Tel: (+45) 26 97 73 94 Email: rune at berg-lab.net, runeb at sund.ku.dk Skype ID: rune2earth www.berg-lab.net www.sund.ku.dk Follow me on Twitter: @rune2earth -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From a.cope at sheffield.ac.uk Wed Feb 1 09:52:21 2017 From: a.cope at sheffield.ac.uk (Alex Cope) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 14:52:21 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Funded PhD positions in Invertebrate Computational Neuroscience and Biomimetic Robotics at the University of Sheffield Message-ID: We are pleased to announce two funded PhD studentships as part of the 5-year ?4.8m ?Brains on Board? EPSRC Programme Grant ( http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/P006094/1), to start in September 2017 at the University of Sheffield. Full details can be found in the link below. http://staffwww.dcs.shef.ac.uk/people/J.Marshall/lab/Join_Us.html -- Alex Cope Research Fellow Behavioural and Evolutionary Theory Lab Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield www.alexcope.co.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From erik at oist.jp Wed Feb 1 02:49:42 2017 From: erik at oist.jp (Erik De Schutter) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 07:49:42 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Applications deadline approaching for Okinawa/OIST Computational Neuroscience Course 2017 Message-ID: <52B17237-BB3F-4B31-BC35-ED7720D5726C@oist.jp> OKINAWA/OIST COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE COURSE 2017 Methods, Neurons, Networks and Behaviors June 26 to July 13, 2017 Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan https://groups.oist.jp/ocnc The aim of the Okinawa/OIST Computational Neuroscience Course is to provide opportunities for young researchers with theoretical backgrounds to learn the latest advances in neuroscience, and for those with experimental backgrounds to have hands-on experience in computational modeling. We invite graduate students and postgraduate researchers to participate in the course, held from June 26th through July 13th, 2017 at an oceanfront seminar house of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. Applications are through the course web page (https://groups.oist.jp/ocnc) only; January 3 - February 5, 2017. Applicants will receive confirmation of acceptance in March. Like in preceding years, OCNC will be a comprehensive three-week course covering single neurons, networks, and behaviors with ample time for student projects. The first week will focus exclusively on methods with hands-on tutorials during the afternoons, while the second and third weeks will have lectures by international experts. The course has a strong hands-on component based on student proposed modeling or data analysis projects, which are further refined with the help of a dedicated tutor. Applicants are required to propose their project at the time of application. There is no tuition fee. The sponsor will provide lodging and meals during the course and may support travel for those without funding. We hope that this course will be a good opportunity for theoretical and experimental neuroscientists to meet each other and to explore the attractive nature and culture of Okinawa, the southernmost island prefecture of Japan. Invited faculty: ? Upinder Bhalla (NCBS, India) ? Erik De Schutter (OIST) ? Kenji Doya (OIST) ? Bard Ermentrout (University of Pittsburgh, USA) ? Ila Fiete (University of Texas Austin, USA) ? Sonja Gr?n (Research Centre J?lich, Germany) ? Shin Ishii (Kyoto University, Japan) ? Jason Kerr (MPI Bonn, Germany) ? Bernd Kuhn (OIST) ? Subkin Lim (NYU Shanghai, China) ? Michele Migliore (Institute of Biophysics, Italy) ? David Redish (University of Minnesota, USA) ? ?Reza Shadmehr (Johns Hopkins University, USA) ? Greg Stephens (OIST) ? Yoko Yazaki-Sugiyama (OIST) ? Charles Wilson (University of Texas San Antonio, USA) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 3682 bytes Desc: not available URL: From kau.subbu at gmail.com Wed Feb 1 11:51:29 2017 From: kau.subbu at gmail.com (Kaushik Subramanian) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 08:51:29 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: *Deadline Extension* Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop at AAMAS2017 (Sao Paulo, Brazil) Message-ID: Hi Everyone, We have extended the submission deadline for the ALA workshop at the AAMAS conference to *February 7th 2017*. We have included details for the call for papers below. We look forward to your submissions. ******************************************************* Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop at AAMAS2017 (Sao Paulo, Brazil) http://ala2017.it.nuigalway.ie/ Submission deadline: *FEBRUARY 7, 2017* ******************************************************* TL;DR: * AAMAS workshop with a long and successful history, now in its ninth edition. * All aspects of adaptive and learning agents and multi-agent systems * Open to original research papers, work-in-progress, and visionary outlook papers, as well as recently published journal papers * ACM proceedings format up to 8 pages for original research, up to 6 pages for work-in-progress and outlook papers (shorter papers are also welcome and will not be judged differently) and 2 pages for recently published journal papers. * Accepted papers are eligible for inclusion in a special issue journal * Submissions through easychair: https://easychair. org/conferences/?conf=ala2017 ******************************************************* IMPORTANT DATES: * Submission Deadline: February 7, 2017 * Notification of acceptance: March 2, 2017 * Camera-ready copies: March 17, 2017 * Workshop: May 8-9, 2017 ******************************************************* OVERVIEW Adaptive and learning agents, particularly those interacting with each other in a multi-agent setting, are becoming increasingly prominent as the size and complexity of real-world systems grows. How to adaptively control, coordinate and optimize such systems is an emerging multidisciplinary research area at the intersection of Computer Science, Control theory, Economics, and Biology. The ALA workshop will focus on agent and multi-agent systems which employ learning or adaptation. The goal of this workshop is to increase awareness and interest in adaptive agent research, encourage collaboration and give a representative overview of current research in the area of adaptive and learning agents and multi-agent systems. It aims at bringing together not only scientists from different areas of computer science but also from different fields studying similar concepts (e.g., game theory, bio-inspired control, mechanism design). This workshop will focus on all aspects of adaptive and learning agents and multi-agent systems with a particular emphasis on how to modify established learning techniques and/or create new learning paradigms to address the many challenges presented by complex real-world problems. The topics of interest include but are not limited to: * Novel combinations of reinforcement and supervised learning approaches * Integrated learning approaches that work with other agent reasoning modules like negotiation, trust models, coordination, etc. * Supervised multi-agent learning * Reinforcement learning (single and multi-agent) * Planning (single and multi-agent) * Reasoning (single and multi-agent) * Distributed learning * Adaptation and learning in dynamic environments * Evolution of agents in complex environments * Co-evolution of agents in a multi-agent setting * Cooperative exploration and learning to cooperate and collaborate * Learning trust and reputation * Communication restrictions and their impact on multi-agent coordination * Design of reward structure and fitness measures for coordination * Scaling learning techniques to large systems of learning and adaptive agents * Emergent behavior in adaptive multi-agent systems * Game theoretical analysis of adaptive multi-agent systems * Neuro-control in multi-agent systems * Bio-inspired multi-agent systems * Applications of adaptive and learning agents and multi-agent systems to real world complex systems ******************************************************* SUBMISSION DETAILS Papers can be submitted through EasyChair: https://easychair. org/conferences/?conf=ala2017 We invite submission of original work, up to 8 pages in length in the ACM proceedings format (i.e. following the AAMAS formatting instructions). This includes work that has been accepted as poster only at AAMAS 2017. Additionally, we welcome submission of preliminary results, i.e. work-in-progress, as well as visionary outlook papers that lay out directions for future research in a specific area, both up to 6 pages in length, although shorter papers are very much welcome, and will not be judged differently. Finally, we also accept recently published journal papers in the form of a 2 page abstract. All submissions will be peer-reviewed (single-blind). The most "visionary? paper will be published by Springer in a book under the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) - Hot Topics series. The book will be a compilation of the most visionary papers of the AAMAS-2017 Workshops, where one paper will be selected from each AAMAS-2017 workshop. Additionally, a "best paper" will be published by Springer in a book under the Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) series. The book will be a compilation of the best papers of the AAMAS-2017 Workshops, where one paper will be selected from each AAMAS-2017 workshop. Authors of the selected most visionary paper and the best paper are expected to provide their latex files promptly upon request. Accepted work will be allocated time for poster and possibly oral presentation during the workshop. Papers accepted at the workshop will also be eligible for inclusion in a special issue published after the workshop. We look forward to your submissions. Organizers: Tim Brys (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE) Anna Harutyunyan (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE) Patrick Mannion (National University of Ireland Galway, IE) Kaushik Subramanian (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) Senior Steering Committee Members: Enda Howley (National University of Ireland Galway, IE) Daniel Kudenko (University of York, UK) Ann Now? (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE) Sandip Sen (University of Tulsa, USA) Peter Stone (University of Texas at Austin, USA) Matthew Taylor (Washington State University, USA) Kagan Tumer (Oregon State University, USA) Karl Tuyls (University of Liverpool, UK) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cruz at informatik.uni-hamburg.de Wed Feb 1 05:37:52 2017 From: cruz at informatik.uni-hamburg.de (Francisco Cruz) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 11:37:52 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Special Issue on Bio-inspired Social Robot Learning in Home Scenarios *deadline extended* Message-ID: Dear All Due to numerous requests, the paper submission deadline has been extended until February 14th Best regards, Francisco Cruz IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems Special Issue on Bio-inspired Social Robot Learning in Home Scenarios http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/SocialRobotsWorkshop2016/CFP_TCDS_SI_SocialRobots.pdf *Call for papers* There has been considerable progress in robotics in the last years allowing robots to successfully contribute to our society. We can find them from industrial environments, where they are nowadays established, to domestic places, where their presence is steadily rising. The proposed special issue intends to explore the following question: ?How well prepared are learning robots to be social actors in daily-life home environments in the near future?. The special issue is therefore not only an opportunity to address this focuses on the latest scientific contributions on bio-inspired learning and social robotics, but also links them with a clear focus to push the presence of robots in people?s daily-life environment. Thus, one main goal of the special issue is offering a common foundation for roboticists from different fields of expertise to contribute beyond the current state-of-the-art of learning methods in robotics especially applied to home scenarios and recent developments in assistive robots. The subjects of the special issue include, but are not limited to: - Interactive reinforcement learning. - Policy and reward shaping. - Neural learning of object affordances and contextual affordances. - Predictive learning from sensorimotor information. - Learning understanding of environment ambiguity. - Learning with hierarchical and deep neural architectures. - Bootstrapping complex action learning in robots. - Learning supported by external trainers, by demonstration and imitation. - Parental scaffolding as a bootstrapping method for learning. *Submissions* The special issue is open for all submissions which will be independently peer-reviewed in accordance with IEEE policy. Manuscripts should be prepared according to the ?Information for Authors? of the journal, found at http://cis.ieee.org/publications.html, and submitted through the IEEE TCDS Manuscript center under the category: "SI: Social Robots": https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tcds-ieee. Papers submitted must not have been published previously, though they may represent significant extensions of prior work. *Important dates* 31 January 2017 (extended until 14 February) - Deadline for manuscript submission. 15 April 2017 - Notification of authors. 15 May 2017 - Deadline for revised manuscripts. 15 June 2017 - Final decisions. For further information, please contact one of the following guest editors in this order: Francisco Cruz Knowledge Technology Institute, University of Hamburg, Germany cruz at informatik.uni-hamburg.de Jimmy Baraglia Emergent Robotics Laboratory, Osaka University, Japan jimmy.baraglia at ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp Yukie Nagai Emergent Robotics Laboratory, Osaka University, Japan yukie at ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp Stefan Wermter Knowledge Technology Institute, University of Hamburg, Germany wermter at informatik.uni-hamburg.de Francisco Cruz Research Associate Knowledge Technology Group Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-K?lln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Office F-217 Phone: +49 40 42883 2524 http://www.knowledge-technology.info From secretary at e-nns.org Wed Feb 1 09:52:00 2017 From: secretary at e-nns.org (ENNS Secretary) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 15:52:00 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [ICANN 2017] CFP -- 26th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, Alghero, Sardinia, Italy Message-ID: First Announcement and Call For Papers [Apologies for cross-postings] =========================================================== www.icann2017.org ICANN 2017 26th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks Alghero, Sardinia, Italy 11th - 15th September 2017 =========================================================== The International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN) is the annual flagship conference of the European Neural Network Society (ENNS). In 2017, the 26th ICANN will be organised from the 11th to the 15th of September 2017 in Alghero, Sardinia, Italy. Conference proceedings will be published in Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. IMPORTANT DATES Special session / workshop proposals: Extended to 28 February 2017 Submission of abstracts and papers: 19 March 2017 Notification of acceptance: 30 April 2017 Camera-ready paper and registration: 15 May 2017 Conference dates: 11 - 15 September 2017 CONFIRMED PLENARY SPEAKERS Moshe Abeles (Bar-Ilan University) Elisabth Andr? (Universit?t Augsburg) Michele Giugliano (University of Antwerp) Marco Gori (Universit? degli Studi di Siena) David R?os Insua (ICMAT-Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Madrid) CONFERENCE TOPICS ICANN 2017 will feature the main tracks Brain Inspired computing and Machine Learning research, with strong cross-disciplinary interactions and applications. All research fields dealing with Neural Networks will be present at the conference. A non-exhaustive list of topics includes: ? Brain Inspired Computing: Cognitive models, Computational Neuroscience, Self-organization, Reinforcement Learning, Neural Control and Planning, Hybrid Neural-Symbolic Architectures, Neural Dynamics, Recurrent Networks, Deep Learning. ? Machine Learning: Neural Network Theory, Neural Network Models, Graphical Models, Bayesian Networks, Kernel Methods, Generative Models, Information Theoretic Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Relational Learning, Dynamical Models. ? Neural Applications for: Intelligent Robotics, Neurorobotics, Language Processing, Image Processing, Sensor Fusion, Pattern Recognition, Data Mining, Neural Agents, Brain-Computer Interaction, Neural Hardware, Evolutionary Neural Networks. CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES - To bring together researchers from two worlds: Information Sciences and Neurosciences - To keep a wide scope, ranging from Machine Learning Algorithms to models of real nervous systems - To facilitate discussions and interactions in the effort towards developing more intelligent computational systems and increasing our understanding of neural and cognitive processes in the brain. - To help researchers to meet, mingle and network with colleagues from all over the world. - To be the meeting point between research and business. - To be a global interdisciplinary meeting encompassing Machine Learning and Neural Computation. - To help young researchers on the job market meet and mingle with potential labs and research groups in an informal setting. BENEFITS OF ATTENDING THE CONFERENCE - A solid cutting-edge scientific programme including talks from the world experts in the field of artificial neural networks. - A conference schedule tailored to encourage interaction between the attendees, with time for networking and discussion. - The publication of all accepted contributions in the peer-reviewed book of conference proceedings, in the Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. - The opportunity to vote and to be considered for the best paper awards, presented during the final ceremony of ICANN. - A top-level conference in the field with a reasonable registration fee, thanks to the not-for-profit policy of the ENNS organisation. Students can apply for ENNS funded travel grants to attend. - An overly attractive conference location in the beautiful setting of the Sardinian coast, with social events to explore the area. http://www.alghero-turismo.it/en/ CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEES Early registration fees have been kept particularly low for this kind of event because ENNS and ICANN aim at full implementation of the academic not-for-profit policy. Undergraduate students (Bachelor and Master level): 100 EUR PhD Students: 240 EUR Regular delegates: 290 EUR ENNS members have a reduction of 40 EUR Students can apply for ENNS funded travel grants to attend (see the conference website for details). CALL FOR CONTRIBUTED SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATIONS All scientific communications presented at ICANN 2017 will be reviewed and scientifically evaluated by a panel of experts. The conference will feature three categories of communications: - oral communications (15'+5') - poster communications (on permanent display and 2 hours presentation) - demonstrations Authors willing to present original contributions for any category must submit a manuscript of maximum 8 pages length that will be refereed to international standards by at least three referees. Accepted papers of contributing authors will be published in Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. Selected papers will be invited after the conference for a full journal paper submission. Authors willing to present a contribution for oral communications and posters without submitting a full manuscript must submit a 1-page abstract that will also be refereed by at least three referees. The abstracts will be published all together in a proceedings section without an author index. In case of program constraints the priority will be given to original contributions accompanied by a full paper submission. CALL FOR WORKSHOPS AND SPECIAL SESSIONS ICANN 2017 invites proposals for workshops and special sessions to be held as satellite events of the conference. For more information, please refer to the website and/or contact the general chair. BEST PAPER AWARDS ENNS will sponsor several best paper awards, in the Brain Inspired Computing track and in the Machine Learning research track. All awardees will be presented during the final ceremony. ORGANISATION General Chair: Alessandro E.P. Villa General Co-chairs: Alessandra Lintas, V?ra K?rkov?, Stefano Rovetta, Paul F.M.J. Verschure Local Co-chairs: Eugenio Lintas, Anna Mura Program and Workshop Committee: Cesare Alippi, J?r?mie Cabessa, Barbara Hammer, Petia Koprinkova-Hristova, Jaako Peltonen, Antonio J. Pons, Yifat Prut, Stefano Rovetta, Igor V. Tetko, Paul F.M.J. Verschure, Alessandro E.P. Villa, Francisco Zamora-Martin?z Communications Chair: Paolo Masulli Organisation Universit? degli Studi di Sassari, Italy University of Lausanne, Switzerland Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain European Neural Network Society, Switzerland -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: alghero.jpeg Type: image/jpg Size: 41530 bytes Desc: not available URL: From S.M.Bohte at cwi.nl Wed Feb 1 06:15:15 2017 From: S.M.Bohte at cwi.nl (Sander Bohte) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 12:15:15 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: machine learning tenure track research position at CWI in Amsterdam Message-ID: *NOTE: **the deadline has been extended to February 14th, but we would need an email indicating interest before February 7th.* ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------------- The Dutch national research institute for mathematics and computer science Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam seeks outstanding candidates to apply for a *Tenure track** research position *in Machine Learning The CWI machine learning group carries out research on the design and analysis of algorithms for learning and inference, with a focus on the interplay between machine learning, traditional statistics and information theory. *Job description* We are looking for an accomplished machine learning researcher with an excellent track record. While we very much welcome application-oriented research, given the group?s emphasis on theoretical analysis, a demonstrable affinity for theory and foundations is important. The candidate is expected to grow a highly visible and successful research program, strengthening existing research lines or establishing new ones that broadly fit within the group?s focus. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Bayesian and information-theoretic learning methods that are robust to misspecification (?models that are wrong, yet useful?) - Analysis and Development of Spiking Neural Networks - Online learning, prediction and optimization - Adaptive Data Analysis - Statistical Learning Theory - Machine Learning in the health domain During the tenure period, the researcher is expected to publish high impact articles in top venues, obtain funding, and recruit and supervise PhD students and junior researchers. Additionally, the candidate is expected to occasionally take part in teaching master-level machine learning (guest) courses at selected universities in The Netherlands. *Requirements* The successful candidate will have an excellent track record of innovative research and publications in machine learning, exemplified by peer reviewed publications in some of the leading ML conferences (such as NIPS, ICML, UAI, COLT, AI&Stats) and journals. The candidate has the ambition and potential to acquire personal research grants such as VENI/VIDI/VICI (NWO) or ERC grants (EU), and/or to acquire external funding for applied research (e.g. from NWO, STW, EU, or industry). The candidate should have excellent communication skills and post-doctoral experience of preferably at least three years. CWI expects its tenured researchers to speak Dutch at the end of the tenure track. *Terms and conditions* The position is for three or five years depending on knowledge and experience. At the end of a successful tenure track term a permanent scientific staff position will be offered. Criteria for evaluation comprise a track record of publications that is well above average, and the ability to acquire funding and to build up an (inter)national network and reputation. The terms of employment are in accordance with the Dutch Collective Labour Agreement for Research Centres ("CAO-onderzoeksinstellingen"). Depending on relevant work experience, the gross monthly starting salary for an employee on a full time basis ranges from ? 3,469 to ? 5,425. Employees are also entitled to a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and a year-end bonus of 8,33%. CWI offers attractive working conditions, including flexible scheduling and help with housing for expat employees. Please visit our website for more information about our terms of employment: www.cwi.nl/terms-of-employment *Application* Applicants should send: - a motivation letter; - a curriculum vitae with a list of publications; - a copy of their three most prominent publications; - the names of at least three prominent scientists who can provide letters of recommendation; - a research statement and a research plan for the coming years, including plans on how to acquire additional funding. We especially invite qualified women to apply. If you intend to apply, please notify us via email (pdg at cwi.nl) before February 7th 2017. Please send in the application itself before 14-2-2017 to: Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica Personnel Department, Ms. A. Schilder, MSc P.O. Box 94079 1090 GB Amsterdam the Netherlands or email the application to: apply at cwi.nl. Additional information can be obtained from: Group leader: Prof. Peter D. Gr?nwald, tel. +31 (0) 20 592 4115 <020%20592%204115>, e-mail: pdg at cwi.nl For more information about CWI, please visit www.cwi.nl or watch our video ?A Fundamental Difference ? about working at CWI. *About Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica* Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) is the Dutch national research institute for mathematics and computer science and linked to the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The mission of CWI is to conduct pioneering research in mathematics and computer science, generating new knowledge in these fields and conveying it to trade, industry, and society at large. CWI is an internationally oriented institute, with 160 scientists from approximately 27 countries. The facilities are first-rate and include excellent IT support, career planning, training, and courses. CWI is located at Science Park Amsterdam that is presently developing into a major location of research in the natural sciences in The Netherlands, housing the sciences of the University of Amsterdam and of the Vrije Universiteit as well as several other national research institutes next to CWI. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alessandro at idsia.ch Wed Feb 1 05:19:42 2017 From: alessandro at idsia.ch (Alessandro Antonucci) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 11:19:42 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [Call for Papers] ECSQARU 2017, July 10-14, 2017, Lugano (Switzerland) Message-ID: The Fourteenth European Conference on Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty (ECSQARU 2017) THIRD CALL FOR PAPERS http://ecsqaru.idsia.ch The biennial ECSQARU conferences constitute a major forum for advances in the theory and practice of reasoning under uncertainty. Contributions come from researchers interested in advancing the scientific knowledge and from practitioners using uncertainty techniques in real-world applications. The scope of the ECSQARU conferences encompasses fundamental issues, representation, inference, learning, and decision making in qualitative and numeric uncertainty paradigms. Previous ECSQARU events have been held in Marseille (1991), Granada (1993), Fribourg (1995), Bonn (1997), London (1999), Toulouse (2001), Aalborg (2003), Barcelona (2005), Hammamet (2007), Verona (2009), Belfast (2011), Utrecht (2013), and Compi?gne (2015). ECSQARU 2017 will be co-located with ISIPTA '17, the Tenth International Symposium on Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications. The joint event will be held in Lugano (Switzerland), on July 10-14, 2017. ::: SCOPE ::: For ECSQARU 2017 we invite submissions of conference papers on topics which include but are not limited to: - Algorithms for uncertain inference - Applications of uncertain systems - Argumentation systems - Automated planning and acting under uncertainty - Belief functions - Belief revision & merging - Classification & clustering - Decision theory & decision graphs - Default reasoning - Description logics with uncertainty - Foundations of reasoning under uncertainty - Fuzzy sets & fuzzy logic - Game theory - Imprecise probabilities - Inconsistency handling - Information fusion - Learning for uncertainty formalisms - Logics for reasoning under uncertainty - Markov decision processes - Possibility theory & possibilistic logic - Preferences - Probabilistic graphical models - Probabilistic logics - Qualitative uncertainty models - Rough sets - Uncertainty & data ::: INVITED SPEAKERS ::: We are delighted of having the following invited speakers: - Leila Amgoud (IRIT, France) - Alessio Benavoli (IDSIA, Switzerland) - Jim Berger (Duke University, USA) - Didier Dubois (IRIT, France) - Eyke H?llermeier (Paderborn University, Germany) ::: PROCEEDINGS AND SUBMISSIONS ::: In accordance with the previous conferences, the proceedings of ECSQARU 2015 will be published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence series. Authors are requested to prepare their conference papers in the LNCS/LNAI format. Submitted papers will be evaluated by peer reviews based on originality, significance, technical soundness, and clarity of exposition. Authors of accepted papers are expected to attend the conference to present their work. The instructions for submission and the author kit are available here: http://ecsqaru.idsia.ch/submissions-ecsqaru/ ::: IMPORTANT DATES ::: - Tuesday, February 21, 2017: Paper submission deadline - Tuesday, April 18, 2017: Author notification - Friday, April 28, 2017: Camera-ready copy due ::: IJAR SPECIAL ISSUE ::: Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version of their work to a special issue of the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning (IJAR, Elsevier). ::: SPRINGER YOUNG RESEARCHER AWARD ::: We also invite applications for the Springer Young Researcher Award. The prize (1000 Euros), granted by Springer, will be awarded to one young researcher for excellent research in fields related to the ECSQARU scope. The award is open to Master students, PhD students and young post-doc researchers who have received their PhD in 2016 (or 2017). Applicants should have submitted a paper (not necessarily as first authors) to ECSQARU 2017. Applications should be received by the paper submission deadline (February 21, 2017). _________________________________ Alessandro Antonucci IDSIA Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Via Cantonale (Galleria 2) CH-6928, Manno-Lugano, CH mail: alessandro at idsia.ch skype: alessandro.antonucci tel: +41 916108515 web: www.idsia.ch/~alessandro _________________________________ From aestuary at gmail.com Thu Feb 2 00:04:29 2017 From: aestuary at gmail.com (Charley C) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2017 00:04:29 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: ACL 2017 - Final Call for Papers Message-ID: The 55th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics ( ACL 2017) Final CALL FOR PAPERS Call for Papers: ACL 2017 The 55th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics Vancouver, Canada July 30-August 4, 2017 http://acl2017.org The Association for Computational Linguistics is pleased to announce that its 55th annual meeting will take place in Vancouver, Canada, July 30-August 4, 2017. The conference invites the submission of long and short papers on substantial, original, and unpublished research in all aspects of automated language processing. As in recent years, some of the presentations at the conference will be of papers accepted for the Transactions of the ACL journal (http://www.transacl.org/). ACL 2017 has the goal of a broad technical program. Relevant topics for the conference include, but are not limited to, the following areas (in alphabetical order): Cognitive modeling and psycholinguistics Dialog and interactive systems Discourse and pragmatics Document analysis including text categorization, topic models, and retrieval Generation Information extraction, text mining, and question answering Machine learning Machine translation Multilinguality Phonology, morphology, and word segmentation Resources and evaluation Semantics Sentiment analysis and opinion mining Social media Speech Summarization Tagging, chunking, syntax, and parsing Vision, robots, and other grounding Dates Research Papers (both long and short) Note that both long and short papers are due on the same date. Deadline for short paper submission: Monday, February 6, 2017 Author Response Period Monday, March 13 -- Wednesday, March 15, 2017 Notification of acceptance: Thursday, March 30, 2017 Camera ready submission due: Saturday, April 22, 2017 Note: All deadlines are 11:59PM GMT -12 (anywhere in the world). Changed from Pacific Standard Time, an extra 4 hours. Submissions Long Papers Long ACL 2017 submissions must describe substantial, original, completed and unpublished work. Wherever appropriate, concrete evaluation and analysis should be included. Review forms will be made available prior to the deadlines. Long papers may consist of up to eight (8) pages of content, plus unlimited references; final versions of long papers will be given one additional page of content (up to 9 pages) so that reviewers' comments can be taken into account. Long papers will be presented orally or as posters as determined by the program committee. The decisions as to which papers will be presented orally and which as poster presentations will be based on the nature rather than the quality of the work. There will be no distinction in the proceedings between long papers presented orally and as posters. Short Papers ACL 2017 also solicits short papers. Short paper submissions must describe original and unpublished work. Please note that a short paper is not a shortened long paper. Instead short papers should have a point that can be made in a few pages. Some kinds of short papers are: - A small, focused contribution - Work in progress - A negative result - An opinion piece - An interesting application nugget Short papers may consist of up to four (4) pages of content, plus unlimited references. Upon acceptance, short papers will be given five (5) content pages in the proceedings. Authors are encouraged to use this additional page to address reviewers comments in their final versions. Short papers will be presented in one or more oral or poster sessions. While short papers will be distinguished from long papers in the proceedings, there will be no distinction in the proceedings between short papers presented orally and as posters. General Notes Papers should not refer, for further detail, to documents that are not available to the reviewers. Papers may be accompanied by a resource (software and/or data) described in the paper. Papers that are submitted with accompanying software/data may receive additional credit toward the overall evaluation score, and the potential impact of the software and data will be taken into account when making the acceptance/rejection decisions. ACL 2017 also encourages the submission of supplementary material to report preprocessing decisions, model parameters, and other details necessary for the replication of the experiments reported in the paper. Seemingly small preprocessing decisions can sometimes make a large difference in performance, so it is crucial to record such decisions to precisely characterize state-of-the-art methods. Nonetheless, supplementary material should be supplementary (rather than central) to the paper. It may include explanations or details of proofs or derivations that do not fit into the paper, lists of features or feature templates, sample inputs and outputs for a system, pseudo-code or source code, and data. The paper should not rely on the supplementary material: while the paper may refer to and cite the supplementary material and the supplementary material will be available to reviewers, they will not be asked to review or even download the supplementary material. Authors should refer to the contents of the supplementary material in the paper submission, so that reviewers interested in these supplementary details will know where to look. As the reviewing will be blind, papers must not include authors' names and affiliations. Furthermore, self-references that reveal the author's identity, e.g., "We previously showed (Smith, 1991) ..." must be avoided. Instead, use citations such as "Smith previously showed (Smith, 1991) ..." Papers that do not conform to these requirements will be rejected without review. Electronic Submission Submission is electronic, using the Softconf START conference management system at https://www.softconf.com/acl2017/papers for long papers https://www.softconf.com/acl2017/shortpapers for short papers. Long paper submissions must follow the two-column format of ACL 2017 proceedings without exceeding eight (8) pages of content. References do not count against this limit. Short paper submissions must also follow the two-column format of ACL 2017 proceedings, and must not exceed four (4) pages. We strongly recommend the use of ACL LaTeX style files tailored for this year's conference. Submissions must conform to the official style guidelines, which are contained in the style files, and they must be in PDF. Style files and other information about paper formatting requirements will be made available on the conference website, http://acl2017.org Multiple Submission Policy Papers that have been or will be submitted to other meetings or publications must indicate this at submission time in an author-blinded cover page, and must be withdrawn from the other venues if accepted by ACL 2017. Authors of papers accepted for presentation at ACL 2017 must notify the program chairs by the camera-ready deadline as to whether the paper will be presented. We will not accept for publication or presentation papers that overlap significantly in content or results with papers that will be (or have been) published elsewhere. Preprint servers such as arXiv.org and workshops that do not have published proceedings are not considered archival for purposes of submission. Authors must state in the online submission form the name of the workshop or preprint server and title of the non-archival version. The version submitted for review should be suitably anonymized and not contain references to the prior non-archival version. Reviewers will be told: ?The author(s) have notified us that there exists a non-archival previous version of this paper with significantly overlapping text. We have approved submission under these circumstances, but to preserve the spirit of blind review, the current submission does not reference the non-archival version.? Reviewers are free to do what they like with this information. Authors submitting more than one paper to ACL 2017 must ensure that submissions do not overlap significantly (>25%) with each other in content or results. Presentation Requirement All accepted papers must be presented at the conference to appear in the proceedings. At least one author of each accepted paper must register for ACL 2017 by the early registration deadline. Contact Information General chair: Chris Callison-Burch (University of Pennsylvania) Program co-chairs: Regina Barzilay (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Min-Yen Kan (National University of Singapore) Email: acl17pcchairs at gmail.com Area Chairs Biomedical: Aur?lie N?v?ol, Karin Verspoor Cognitive Modeling and Psycholinguistics: Roger Levy, Anders S?gaard Dialogue and Interactive Systems: Ron Artstein, Raquel Fernandez, Oliver Lemon Discourse and Pragmatics: Yangfeng Ji, Sujian Li, Bonnie Webber Information Extraction and NLP Applications: Eugene Agichtein, Chia-Hui Chang, Jing Jiang, Sarvnaz Karimi, Zornitsa Kozareva, Kang Liu, Tie-Yan Liu, Mausam, Alessandro Moschitti, Smaranda Muresan Machine Learning: Grzegorz Chrupa?a, Amir Globerson, Tommi Jaakkola, Sujith Ravi, William Yang Wang Machine Translation: Yang Liu, Minh-Thang Luong, Haitao Mi, Graham Neubig, Deyi Xiong Multidisciplinary: Michael Piotrowski, Kar?n Fort Multilinguality: Omri Abend, Mona Diab Phonology, Morphology and Word Segmentation: Jason Eisner, Hinrich Sch?tze Resources and Evaluation: Sophie Rosset, Wajdi Zaghouani Semantics: Manaal Faruqui, Hannaneh Hajishirzi, Anna Korhonen, Preslav Nakov, Mehroosh Sadrzadeh, Aline Villavicencio Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining: Alexandra Balahur, Lun-Wei Ku, Saif M Mohammad Social Media: Zhiyuan Liu, Shimei Pan, Svitlana Volkova Speech: Chiori Hori, Chia-ying Lee Summarization and Generation: Wenjie Li, Alexander M Rush, Verena Dieser Tagging, Chunking, Syntax and Parsing: Emily Pitler, Barbara Plank, Yue Zhang, Hai Zhao Vision, Robotics and Grounding: Mohit Bansal, Nate Kushman For the most up-to-date version of this call for papers, please visit http://acl2017.org/calls/papers/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From malin.sandstrom at incf.org Thu Feb 2 09:14:13 2017 From: malin.sandstrom at incf.org (=?UTF-8?Q?Malin_Sandstr=C3=B6m?=) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2017 15:14:13 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: INCF Call for community proposals for Special Interest Group meeting themes | Deadline Feb 15 Message-ID: Dear all, INCF is calling for community proposals for Special Interest Group meetings to be held in Kuala Lumpur on August 22, 2017, the day after the Neuroinformatics Congress . More information: https://www.incf.org/collaborate/incf-special- interest-groups Please submit your proposals for themes no later than *February 15*. Note that the submitter is assumed to also be the meeting leader, unless otherwise stated. Any questions can be directed to Mathew Abrams ( mathew at incf.org) or to me. Best regards, Malin -- Malin Sandstr?m, PhD Community Engagement Officer malin.sandstrom at incf.org International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Karolinska Institutet Nobels v?g 15 A SE-171 77 Stockholm Sweden http://www.incf.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jeanette at csc.kth.se Thu Feb 2 12:49:59 2017 From: jeanette at csc.kth.se (=?iso-8859-1?Q?Jeanette_H=E4llgren_Kotaleski?=) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2017 17:49:59 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Associate Professor positions at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Message-ID: <1486057854057.82369@csc.kth.se> Dear Colleagues, Associate Prof positions at KTH. The positions are formally in computer science, and include opportunities for researchers with track record in computational neuroscience, brain inspired computing, neuroinformatics, etc. Candidates with such a background will be integrated into the Dept. Computational Science and Technology which conducts research in computational brain science (https://www.kth.se/en/csc/forskning/cst). Apply at https://www.kth.se/en/om/work-at-kth/lediga-jobb/what:job/jobID:96024/where:4/ Best, Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From JAPlatt at northwell.edu Thu Feb 2 15:16:59 2017 From: JAPlatt at northwell.edu (Platt, Jo Ann) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2017 15:16:59 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Hiring Postdocs, Assistant Professors and Electrical Engineers - Bioelectronic Medicine Message-ID: <786DD4B977A6024B9520062297C8A8DFE7572598EB@SYKECHXVS10.nslijhs.net> Bioelectronic Medicine is the new frontier of medicine - challenging and changing the way we diagnose, manage, and treat disease. Today's discoveries and devices are successfully replacing drugs. We aim to treat bleeding, cancer, diabetes, lupus, obesity, paralysis, rheumatoid arthritis, sepsis, and many other diseases and conditions. The Center for Bioelectronic Medicine at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is seeking candidates to fill multiple positions in the fields of machine learning, neural engineering, neural decoding and data analytics, microfabrication, bioelectronics and biosensing, and neurophysiology. Each successful candidate will work as part of a multidisciplinary team to determine the nature of neural control over molecular, cellular and organ functions of the body, the parts of the brain that regulate those nerves, and the signals that the brain receives to monitor cell and organ function. The candidates will work on projects involving development of novel signal processing and machine learning methods to gain insights into decoding and encoding mechanisms of the brain and peripheral nerves, reinforcement learning approaches used to optimize neural stimulation, techniques to directionally transmit or receive neural signals and numerical and biophysical modeling of neural circuits. Submit your resume and desired position (Post Doc, Assistant Professor, or Electrical Engineer) to japlatt at northwell.edu for consideration. Please also include your possible start date. Jo Ann Platt The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research Cell: (415) 265-0441 350 Community Drive Manhasset, NY 11030 The information contained in this electronic e-mail transmission and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to whom or to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this communication is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying or disclosure of this communication and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone and electronic mail, and delete the original communication and any attachment from any computer, server or other electronic recording or storage device or medium. Receipt by anyone other than the intended recipient is not a waiver of any attorney-client, physician-patient or other privilege. From morgado at uma.pt Thu Feb 2 14:23:57 2017 From: morgado at uma.pt (morgado) Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2017 19:23:57 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: [IWOBI 2017]: First Call for Papers Message-ID: <0c37e4cfd4cba783bcda325188570d20@uma.pt> Dear Collegues, Can you please disseminate among the list the following CFP with interest to your members? Thank you, Morgado Call for Papers (Apologies for cross-posting) 5ST IEEE INTERNATIONAL WORK-CONFERENCE ON BIOINSPIRED INTELLIGENCE FUNCHAL, PORTUGAL - JULY 10-13, 2017 http://iwobi.ulpgc.es/2017/ [1] This conference is co-located with ES2DE [2] and IoTGC [3] and participant can follow all the conferences. DATE July 10-13, 2017 VENUE Universidade da Madeira, Funchal, Portugal SPECIAL ISSUES Authors of the best papers presented at IWOBI 2017 will be invited to submit an extended version to highly reputed international journals. PROCEEDINGS Proceedings will be published by IEEE on Xplore IEEE IMPORTANT DATES * Full Paper Submission: February 15, 2017 * Notifications: April 15, 2017 * Final Paper Submission: May 01, 2017 * Conference dates: July 10-13 2017 ORGANIZATION GENERAL CHAIRS * Fernando Morgado Dias. Universidade da Madeira, Portugal * Carlos M. Travieso-Gonz?lez. University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain * Jes?s B. Alonso-Hern?ndez. University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain PROGRAM COMMITTEE * Jianguo Zhang, University of Dundee, UK * Zdenek Smekal, University of Technology Brno, Czech Republic * Karmele L?pez-de-Ipi?a, University of the Basque Country, Spain * Marcos del Pozo, Swansea University, UK * Juan Wachs, Purpue University, USA * Marcos Faundez-Zanuy, Tecnocampus, Spain * Nicolai Petkov, University of Groningen, Netherlands * Pedro G?mez-Vilda, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain * Javier A. Jo, Texas A&M University, USA * Peter Peer, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia * Germ?n Castellanos, National University of Colombia, Colombia * Lucio Tommaso De Paolis - University of Salento, Italy * Rocio Gonz?lez-Diaz, University of Seville, Spain * Morgado Dias, University of Madeira, Portugal * Carlos M. Travieso-Gonz?lez, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain * Ji?? Mekyska, University of Technology Brno, Czech Republic * Mohamed Salah Gouider, Tunis University, Tunisia * Francisco Siles, University of Costa Rica * Malay K. Dutta, Amity University, India * Modesto Castrill?n, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain * Radim Burget, University of Technology Brno, Czech Republic * Francisco Vargas-Bonilla, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia * Paolo Leitao, Polytechnic Institute of Bragan?a, Portugal * Juan Luis Crespo, Technological Institute of Costa Rica * Kamil ??ha, University of Technology Brno, Czech Republic * Luis G?mez-D?niz, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain * Juan Rafael Orozco, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia * Jordi Sol?-Casals, Universitat de Vic, Spain * Jan Masek, University of Technology Brno, Czech Republic * Eduardo Marques, University of Madeira * Filipe Quintal, University of Madeira and Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute * Herlander Mata-Lima, U. Federal da Integra??o Latino-Americana * Lucas Pereira, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute * Mary Barreto, University of Madeira and Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute * Tiago Meireles, University of Madeira * Dario Baptista, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute * F?bio Mendon?a, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute * Roham Torabi, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute * Sandy Rodrigues, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute * Sheikh Mostafa, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute * David S?nchez Rodr?guez, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain * Antonio Ravelo-Garc?a, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain * Jose Miguel Canino-Rodr?guez, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain * Miguel A. Quintana, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain * Itziar Alonso, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (list not yet complete) LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE TOPICS See in the web site: IWOBI 2017 topics [4] Morgado Dias Universidade da Madeira Assistant Professor in Electronics and Telecommunications Automation and Instrumentation PhD Director morgado at uma.pt Tel.: 291-705307 Researcher Polo Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico da Madeira 9020-105 FUNCHAL Tel (351) 291 721 006 www.m-iti.org | admin at m-iti.org Links: ------ [1] http://iwobi.ulpgc.es/2017/ [2] http://engconf.uma.pt/es2de/ [3] http://engconf.uma.pt/es2de/ [4] http://iwobi.ulpgc.es/2017/index.php/call-for-papers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From weng at cse.msu.edu Thu Feb 2 20:38:38 2017 From: weng at cse.msu.edu (Juyang Weng) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2017 20:38:38 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Plagiarism and Myopia in the Research Community of Neural Networks In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <06096516-dc1a-246f-f22d-c95a436d07ef@cse.msu.edu> Dear Colleagues: My following post raised two academic issues about the current "popular" trend of deep learning using neural networks. Although it was addressed to Fei-Fei Li at Stanford University, I guess that the raised issues are relevant to many readers of this mailing list. Title: Life is Science (10): Li Fei-Fei, Plagiarism, and Myopia in AI English version: https://www.facebook.com/juyang.weng/posts/10155025045069783 Chinese version: http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-395089-1029639.html Best regards, -Juyang Weng -- Juyang (John) Weng ------------------- Work --------------------- ---- Technology Transfer ---- Professor Founder Department of Computer Science and Engineering GENISAMA LLC MSU Cognitive Science Program Okemos, MI 48864 USA and MSU Neuroscience Program Tel: 517-980-6270 428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115 Web: genisama.com Michigan State University --------- Outreach ---------- East Lansing, MI 48824 USA Founder Tel: 517-353-4388 Brain-Mind Institute Fax: 517-432-1061 Web: brain-mind-institute.org Email: weng at cse.msu.edu Brain-Mind Magazine Web: http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/ Web: brain-mind-magazine.org ---------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- From nicosia at dmi.unict.it Fri Feb 3 04:29:56 2017 From: nicosia at dmi.unict.it (Giuseppe Nicosia) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2017 10:29:56 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 1st CfP: 3rd Int. Workshop on Machine learning, Optimization & big Data - MOD 2017 Call for Papers - Paper submission deadline: February 28, 2017 Message-ID: <1B61D027-9485-4D67-B1A5-29853D4C95D2@dmi.unict.it> _________________________________________________________________ Call for Papers (apologies for multiple copies) Please kindly help forward it to potentially interested attendees _________________________________________________________________ 3rd International Workshop on Machine learning, Optimization and big Data - MOD 2017 An Interdisciplinary Workshop: Machine Learning, Optimization and Data Science without Borders - SIAF Learning Village - Volterra (Pisa) Tuscany, September 14-17, 2017 http://www.taosciences.it/mod/ modworkshop2017 at gmail.com https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mod2017 +++ CALL FOR PAPERS +++ Paper submission deadline: February 28, 2017 http://www.taosciences.it/mod/call-for-papers/ https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mod2017 MOD 2017 Keynote Speakers: + Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Machine Learning Department, School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Director of AI Research at Apple. + Jun Pei, Hefei University of Technology, China Other speakers will be announced soon! The MOD 2017 workshop will consist of four days of workshop sessions and special sessions. We invite submissions of papers, abstracts and posters on all topics related to Machine learning, Optimization and Big Data including real-world applications for the workshop proceedings: http://www.taosciences.it/mod/call-for-papers/ https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mod2017 Please prepare your paper in English using the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) template, which is available http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0 Papers must be submitted in PDF. MOD 2017 Types of Submissions When submitting a paper to MOD 2017, authors are required to select one of the following four types of papers: + Long paper: original novel and unpublished work (max. 12 pages in Springer LNCS format); + Short paper: an extended abstract of novel work (max. 4 pages); + Work for oral presentation only (no page restriction; any format). For example, work already published elsewhere, which is relevant and which may solicit fruitful discussion at the workshop; + Work for poster presentation only. The poster format for the presentation is A0 (118.9 cm high and 84.1 cm wide, respectively 46.8 x 33.1 inch). For research work which is relevant and which may solicit fruitful discussion at the workshop. MOD 2017 Post-Proceedings All accepted long papers will be published in a volume of the series 'Lecture Notes in Computer Science' from Springer *after* the Workshop. Instructions for preparing and submitting the final versions (camera-ready papers) of all accepted papers will be available later on. All the other papers (short papers, abstract of the oral presentations, poster presentations) will be published on the MOD 2017 web site. MOD 2017 Submission System All papers must be submitted using EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mod2017 The deadline is February 28, 2017 MOD 2017 Important Dates + Paper Submission Deadline: February 28, 2017 + Decision Notification to Authors: May 1st, 2017 + Camera Ready Submission Deadline: June 1st, 2017 + Deadline for early Registration as Presenting Author: June 1st, 2017 + Late registration: June 2 ? September 17, 2017 + On-Site registration: September 14-17, 2017 + MOD 2017 Workshop: September 14-17, 2017 We look forward to seeing you in Tuscany! Renato Umeton, Piero Conca, Giovanni Giuffrida, Giuseppe Nicosia & Panos Pardalos - MOD 2017 Chairs. ? http://www.taosciences.it/mod/ modworkshop2017 at gmail.com MOD 2016 Keynote Speakers: Nello Cristianini, University of Bristol, UK George Michailidis, University of Florida, USA Stephen Muggleton, Imperial College London, UK Panos Pardalos, University of Florida, USA http://www.taosciences.it/mod-2016/keynote-speakers/ MOD 2015 Keynote Speakers: Vipin Kumar, University of Minnesota, USA Panos Pardalos, University of Florida, USA Tomaso Poggio, MIT, USA http://www.taosciences.it/mod-2015/MOD 2015 -- Giuseppe Nicosia, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Computer Science Dept of Mathematics & Computer Science University of Catania Viale A. Doria, 6 - 95125 Catania, Italy P +39 095 7383048 nicosia at dmi.unict.it http://www.dmi.unict.it/nicosia ================================================================== 4th International Synthetic & Systems Biology Summer School - SSBSS 2017 * Biology meets Computer Science & Engineering * July 17-21, 2017 - University of Cambridge, Robinson College, UK http://www.taosciences.it/ssbss/ Contact Email: ssbss.school at gmail.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/ssbss.school/ SSBSS - Synthetic & Systems Biology Summer School Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/238417586492061/ Computational Synthetic Biology Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1014624245288596/ ================================================================== 3rd International Workshop on Machine learning, Optimization & big Data - MOD 2017 September 14-17, 2017 - Volterra (Pisa), Tuscany, Italy modworkshop2017 at gmail.com http://www.taosciences.it/mod/ ================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Pavis at iit.it Fri Feb 3 10:11:04 2017 From: Pavis at iit.it (Pavis) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2017 15:11:04 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position in Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning and Computer Vision for the analysis of neuroimaging, biomedical and biological data - [ Postdoc ] In-Reply-To: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B8CAB6@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> References: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B8CAB6@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> Message-ID: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B8CACA@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> Postdoctoral position in Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning and Computer Vision for the analysis of neuroimaging, biomedical and biological data - [ Postdoc ] Workplace: IIT Central Research Lab Genova Added on: 05/12/2016 - Expires on: 16/02/2017 The Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision department (PAVIS) at IIT (http://www.iit.it/pavis.html) is looking for a highly qualified candidate in the field of Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning, and Image Analysis interested and possibly with some experience on Biomedical Data Analysis. PAVIS focuses on the analysis and understanding of multimodal data, like signals, images, videos and patterns in general, having a wide expertise on image and signal processing, computer vision, pattern recognition and machine learning. The attention is on the design of intelligent systems for real applications, especially related, but not limited, to surveillance & security and biomedical imaging. The main mission of PAVIS is to design and develop innovative computational frameworks for advanced image-based and video-based data analysis, characterized by the use of smart sensors and advanced imaging devices. PAVIS plays an active role in supporting other research units at IIT providing scientists in Neuroscience, Nanophysics and other IIT departments/centers with ad hoc solutions. For this reason, previous multidisciplinary experience is an added value which will be properly considered. The biomedical imaging team is involved in activities concerning: ? Biomedical image analysis; ? Analysis of multimodal neuroimaging data (functional and structural connectomics); ? Biological signal/image/video processing; ? Analysis of microscope optical imaging; ? Animal behavior analysis (classification and abstraction). The ideal candidate must be knowledgeable within one or more of the following subjects: probabilistic graphical models, topic models and Bayesian non-parametric, relational learning, deep learning, RBMs, neural networks and auto-encoders, sparse and dictionary learning, kernel methods and manifold learning, graph-based learning and spectral analysis. Candidates to this position have, therefore, a Ph.D. in computer vision, machine learning, pattern recognition or related areas, and research experience and qualification should follow the same lines. Evidence of top quality research on the above specified areas in the form of published papers in top conferences/journals and/or patents is mandatory. A keen interest in biomedical applications is of course necessary. Strong programming skill is required. Experience in the preparation and management of research proposals (EU, US, national) and a few years of postdoc experience, either in academia or industrial lab, will also be duly considered. The scientist is expected to publish his/her research results in leading international journals and conferences. She/he is also expected to contribute to the set-up of new project proposals, participate in funding activities, supervising PhD candidates and collaborate with scientists from different disciplines. The position is offered for a period of 2 years. Salary will be commensurate to qualification and experience and in line with international standard. Further details and informal enquires can be made by email to pavis at iit.it quoting PAVIS-PD 73154 as reference number in the subject. Please send you application both to pavis at iit.it and to applications at iit.it, quoting PAVIS-PD 73154 as reference number, along with a curriculum listing all publications (possibly including pdf of your most representative publications), a research statement describing your previous research experience and outlining its relevance to the above topics and names of 2 referees. This call will remain open and applications will be reviewed until the position is filled, but for full consideration please apply by February 16, 2017. In order to comply with the Italian law (art. 23 of Privacy Law of the Italian Legislative Decree n. 196/03), we have to kindly ask the candidate to give his/her consent to allow IIT to process his/her personal data. We inform you that the information you provide will be used solely for the purpose of assessing your professional profile to meet the requirements of Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. Your data will be processed by Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, with headquarters in Genoa, Via Morego 30, acting as the Data Holder, using computer and paper based means, observing the rules on protection of personal data, including those relating to the security of data. Please also note that, pursuant to art.7 of Legislative Decree 196/2003, you may exercise your rights at any time as a party concerned by contacting the Data Manager. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia is an Equal Opportunity Employer that actively seeks diversity in the workforce From norbert.kopco at upjs.sk Fri Feb 3 12:35:55 2017 From: norbert.kopco at upjs.sk (Norbert Kopco) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2017 12:35:55 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?Kosice_Neuroscience_Workshop=2C_29_?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=93_31_May?= Message-ID: SAVE THE DATE! The 3rd Workshop on */"Cognitive neuroscience of auditory and cross-modal perception"/* 29 - 31 May 2017 Kosice, Slovakia http://pcl.upjs.sk/workshop2017 *Objectives* ?This workshop will include research talks (and introductory lectures) on a range of topics related to the *neural processes of auditory, visual and cross-modal perception*. ?The main focus of this year's workshop will be on *adaptation, learning and training* in hearing, vision and other perceptual and cognitive brain functions. ?The talks will illustrate the *multidisciplinary character of cognitive neuroscience research*, covering behavioral, neuroimaging, and modeling approaches, as well as applications of the research in auditory prosthetic devices. ?The workshop targets *early-stage and advanced students and young researchers*. It will provide ample opportunities for direct interactions between the lecturers and the attendees. The workshop will follow-up on previous two workshops organized in 2014 and 2015 . *Format* 1/2-day sessions, including invited talks, contributed talks, and posters, focusing on the topics of *Adaptation*,*Learning and training*, *Auditory and cross-modal perception (general)*, and *Vision and other topics in computational and cognitive neuroscience*. Non-scientific program (outings to tourist destinations near Kosice) will take place on the day before and day after the workshop. *Venue* Lecture hall 2.17T,Faculty of Science / Technicom building, P. J. ?af?rik University, Jesenn? 5, 04001 Ko?ice Slovakia . *Organizers* Norbert Kopco, P. J. Safarik University in Ko?ice Erick Gallun, National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research, Portland and OHSU Piotr Majdak, Austrian Academy of Science, Vienna Aaron Seitz, University of California, Riverside *Invited Speakers * ?Lauren Calandruccio, Case Western Reserve University : ?Informational masking for speech-on-speech recognition.? ?Lina Reiss, Oregon Health & Science University: ?(Mal?) Adaptation of pitch and binaural integration to abnormal auditory experience.? ?Inyong Choi, University of Iowa : ?Neurofeedback training of complex listening.? ?Mathieu Lavandier, ?cole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l??tat ? Universit? de Lyon : ?A potential effect of vision on sound externalization and distance perception?? ?Micheal Dent, University at Buffalo : ?The perception of auditory scenes by birds.? ??ubica Be?u?kov?, Comenius University, Bratislava : TBA. ?Anita Wagner, University of Groningen : ?From hearing to understanding: automatic and effortful processes in speech perception.? ?Zbyn?k Bure?, Czech Academy of Science, Prague: TBA. ?Petteri Hyv?rinen, University of Helsinki: ?Online ILD training for tinnitus.? ?Virginia Best, Boston University : TBA. ?Istv?n Ulbert, Hungarian Academy of Science : ?Neural responses evoked by auditory stimulation during the sleep-wakefulness cycle in the cat.? ?more TBA. *Travel, accommodation, visitor information* see workshop webpage: http://pcl.upjs.sk/workshop2017/ *Registration* The workshop is open to all interested students/scientists. Registration is free of charge but required. To register, please send an email to kogneuro at gmail.com stating your name and affiliation and the dates on which you are planning to attend. All accepted abstracts will be published on the workshop website and in the abstract book. No proceedings will be published. In case you would like to have a presentation please send us an abstract (up to 200 words; also indicate whether you prefer poster or oral presentation) no later than May 1st 2017. This workshop is supported by theEU H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 project #691229 . -- doc. Norbert Kopco, Ph.D. Assoc Professor / Senior Researcher: Inst of Computer Sci, Faculty of Science, Safarik Univ, Kosice, Slovakia Adjunct: Ctr for Computational Neurosci (CompNet), Boston University & Martinos Ctr for Biomed Imaging, Harvard Med School - Mass Gen Hospital P: +16175759556 F: +14847279884, kopco at bu.edu, http://cns.bu.edu/~kopco -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From JAPlatt at northwell.edu Fri Feb 3 13:23:27 2017 From: JAPlatt at northwell.edu (Platt, Jo Ann) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2017 13:23:27 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Post Docs and Assistant Professors in the lab of Kevin J. Tracey at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research Message-ID: <786DD4B977A6024B9520062297C8A8DFE7572598F0@SYKECHXVS10.nslijhs.net> Postdoctoral and Assistant Professorship opportunities are available immediately in the laboratory of Dr. Kevin J. Tracey at the Center for Biomedical Sciences at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY. We are seeking driven individuals to join a newly funded research program on investigating the role of ascending and descending neural pathways in the control of adaptive immune function. The research focus of the lab is in the field of Bioelectronic Medicine to develop nerve-stimulating technologies to regulate the molecular targets underlying disease. Lab members will interact with a wide range of researchers in a dynamic and productive environment, bridging basic science with clinical research. Interested applicants should send a brief description of research interests and curriculum vitae, including contact information for three references to Jo Ann Platt japlatt at northwell.edu with the subject - Tracey Lab (and include your position of interest - Post Doc or Assistant Professor). Desired skills and experience The successful candidate will hold a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. with electrophysiology skills including electrical and optogenetic modulation of peripheral neural circuitry, neuroanatomical mapping, and single cell neuronal recording. The candidate is expected to have strong skills in major biochemistry and cell biology techniques, animal handling, primary cultures and quantitative data analysis. A strong immunology background, experience with animal models including cre-lox models, animal surgery, molecular biology, and microscopy would be an asset. Jo Ann Platt Center for Bioelectronic Medicine Feinstein Institute for Medical Research japlatt at northwell.edu The information contained in this electronic e-mail transmission and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to whom or to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this communication is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying or disclosure of this communication and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone and electronic mail, and delete the original communication and any attachment from any computer, server or other electronic recording or storage device or medium. Receipt by anyone other than the intended recipient is not a waiver of any attorney-client, physician-patient or other privilege. From ruth.urner at gmail.com Sat Feb 4 01:59:36 2017 From: ruth.urner at gmail.com (Ruth Urner) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2017 22:59:36 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: MLSS 2017 application deadline approaching Message-ID: ************************************************************************** *** APPLICATION PERIOD ENDS SOON *** *** http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2017/application.html *** ************************************************************************** Dear Colleagues, please note that the application deadline for the -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MACHINE LEARNING SUMMER SCHOOL at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in T?bingen, Germany June 19 to 30, 2017 http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2017/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- is approaching. The deadline is this Friday, Feb 10, at 23.59 GMT. Reference letters will be accepted till Friday, Feb 17, 23.59 GMT. Overview -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The machine learning summer school provides graduate students and industry professionals with an intense learning experience on the theory and applications of modern machine learning. Over the course of two weeks, a panel of internationally renowned experts of the field will offer lectures and tutorials covering basic as well as advanced topics. Confirmed Speakers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shai Ben-David (U Waterloo) - Learning Theory Zoubin Ghahramani (Cambridge) - Bayesian Inference Manuel Gomez Rodriguez (MPI for Software Systems) - tutorial on Networks Stefanie Jegelka (MIT) - Submodularity Michael Jordan (UC Berkeley) - Optimization: Distributed, Asynchronous, Accelerated and Non-Convex. Koray Kavukcuoglu (Deepmind) - Deep Learning for Agents Jure Lescovec (Stanford) - Network Analysis Ruslan Salakhutdinov (CMU) - Deep Learning Suvrit Sra (MIT) - Optimization Bernhard Sch?lkopf (MPI for Intelligent Systems) - Causality Bharath Sriperumbudur (PennState) - Kernel Methods Ilya Tolstikhin (MPI for Intelligent Systems) - tutorial on Theory Ruth Urner (MPI for Intelligent Systems) - tutorial on Theory Raquel Urtasun (Toronto) - Deep Structured Models Application process -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Applications are invited from graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and industry professionals looking to use, or already using machine learning methods in their work. This includes researchers in applied fields as well as students of machine learning itself. Prior experience is not strictly required, but helpful. A small number of travel stipends will be available. Applicants will be asked to submit a CV, a cover letter of up to 2000 characters, and a short letter of recommendation from one referee of their choice. We are also seeking to give participants a chance to discuss their own work with their peers and the speakers. Each applicant is thus invited to provide the title of a poster they would like to present at the school. The application system is now open. For more information visit http://mlss.tuebingen.mpg.de/2017/application.html Important Dates -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fri, December 23, 2015 application system opens * Fri, February 10, 2017 DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS * Fri, February 17, 2017 deadline for reference letters * Tue, February 28, 2017 notification of acceptance The school will take place from Monday, June 19 to Friday, June 30, 2017 Organizers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Urner, Michael Hirsch, Ilya Tolstikhin and Bernhard Sch?lkopf inquiries should be directed to ruth.urner at tuebingen.mpg.de ========================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gangluo at cs.wisc.edu Sun Feb 5 12:22:46 2017 From: gangluo at cs.wisc.edu (Gang Luo) Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2017 09:22:46 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position in machine learning at the University of Washington In-Reply-To: <56ED69AA.4020202@cs.wisc.edu> References: <56ED6924.8070202@cs.wisc.edu> <56ED69AA.4020202@cs.wisc.edu> Message-ID: <1811b33c-1ddc-9561-432e-b1d40c9119b4@cs.wisc.edu> The University of Washington has a postdoc position opening in machine learning. The postdoctoral fellow will work on automatic machine learning model selection and automatically explaining machine learning classification / prediction results. Candidates should have a PhD in machine learning from computer science or related areas, be proficient in Java programming, and be familiar with Weka source code. Experience with Spark/Hadoop is a plus. The initial appointment is for one year with the expectation of extension given satisfactory performance. Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled. Applicants should send a CV (listing programming skills, publications, and a list of 3 or so research references) and statement of research interests to Gang Luo (luogang at uw dot edu) in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, School of Medicine. The Luo lab is located near the city center of Seattle. The University of Washington, and the Seattle area in general, has an excellent community and programs in computer science, medical informatics, and related fields. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From a.gruning at surrey.ac.uk Sat Feb 4 05:52:02 2017 From: a.gruning at surrey.ac.uk (a.gruning at surrey.ac.uk) Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2017 10:52:02 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Post-doc position available at the European Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience EITN, Paris Message-ID: % Post-doc position available at the European Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience EITN, Paris. % Dr Andre Gruning, University of Surrey, Guildford, and EITN, Paris (Note: This message is markdown/pandoc formatted, but can also be read as plain text) A 1-year postdoc position is available within the EITN Postdoc Program of the [Human Brain Project HBP][HBP]. The post-holder will join a group of about 8 postdoctoral researchers working at the [European Institute of Theoretical Neuroscience EITN][] located within walking distance from the Bastille on the border of the 11^th^ and 12^th^ arrondissements. All postdoctoral researchers at the EITN work on interdisciplinary topics shared between HBP's Subproject 4 on Theoretical Neuroscience and one of the other subprojects of the HBP. The current post is aimed at crystallising the interactions between [SP4 Theoretical Neuroscience][SP4] and [SP9 Neuromorphic Computing Platform][SP9] where SP4 aims, broadly speaking, at understanding and analysis of functional and computational properties of neural systems whereas SP9 aims to build the next generation of computing hard- and software as simulators and applications of network, neural and synaptic computational processes. In particular, the postdoc is expected to work on the following utilising the [Spinnaker][] neuromorphic computation platform developed within the HBP at the cross-roads of computational/theoretical neuroscience and neuromorphic computation: 1. _Three factor rules:_ Different forms of _third factors_ (such as neuromodulators or activity from neurons that are not post- or presynaptic to the synapse concerned) are required for advancved models of neural and synaptic plasticity. We want to implement, analyse and develop these models within large-scale simulations on the Spinnaker platform, and make the implemented models available to the scientific community. 2. _Multi-compartment neurons:_ Multiple compartments are required to implement many plasticity schemes and also to implement different effects of eg proximal and distal synapses. We want to implement, analyse and develop multi-compartment neuronal models within large-scale simulations on the Spinnaker platform, and make the implemented models available to the scientific community. This post will be supervised scientifically by Dr Andre Gruning , SP4, EITN and University of Surrey, UK, jointly with Prof Steve Furber, SP9 and University of Manchester. The postdoc will be managed locally at the EITN by its director, Prof Alain Destexhe . The postdoc is encouraged and expected to take part in the wider EITN and HBP scientific activities. Close supervision is provided by regular visits of Dr Gruning to the EITN, and the postdoc's regular visits to both Manchester and Surrey in the UK. The successful candidate must hold a PhD in a relevant scientific area (including for example Mathematics, Physics, Neuroscience, Computer Science etc). The candidate must have programming experience in C or C++ and in Python (for use on the Spinnaker Platform). Software design experience is a plus, especially in embedded systems, as well as experience with tools such as `git` and `doxygen` and Linux. The candidate must have a keen interest in neuroscience. Prior experience in neuroscientific modelling is preferred. The candidate shall have a good working knowledge of mathematics such as differential equations and dynamical systems. Qualified individuals interested in the position should contact in the first instance Dr Andre Gruning (scientific questions) and/or Mrs Katherine Fregnac (administrative and contractual details). Payment will be commensurate with experience and subject to relevant regulations for the French civil service. This post is fixed-term in the first instance from 01/04/2017 (or earlier) until 31/03/2018. A one-year or two-year extension is possible, depending on mutual interest and funding availability. We will review all applications (motivation letter, CV, list of publications, contact details of 2 referees, all in a single PDF) received by email to until Fri 24/02/2017; and subsequently until the post has been filled. [EITN]: https://www.eitn.org/ [HBP]: https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/ [SP4]: https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en_GB/sp4 [SP9]: https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en_GB/sp9 [Spinnaker]: https://electronicvisions.github.io/hbp-sp9-guidebook/mc/mc_index.html -- Dr Andre Gruning Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) Department of Computer Science University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH United Kingdom From smartstart at fz-juelich.de Mon Feb 6 03:19:24 2017 From: smartstart at fz-juelich.de (Smart Start Coordination Office) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 09:19:24 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Apply now for Smart Start Training Programm Message-ID: <4758d4b0-0b84-8f41-3bb3-75fff91819d3@fz-juelich.de> Call for applications Ready for a SMARTSTART into Computational Neuroscience? We invite first and second-year Master students with a background in related fields to apply to our joint training program SMARTSTART. The program aims at complementing previous studies with concepts, theories and techniques of Computational Neuroscience. SMARTSTART consists of two programs. Both of them last one year each and take place at numerous locations of the Bernstein Network and further locations throughout Germany. SMARTSTART 1 provides financial support to then second-year Master students, allowing them to attend supplementary courses and training visits at participating institutions. Students will receive an experienced faculty mentor who will advise and guide them at this educational stage. SMARTSTART 2 provides fully funded positions for pre-PhD students. At the start of the program, these students will have already obtained their Master?s degree and are in the process of selecting a PhD project. SMARTSTART 2 allows them to elaborate their own PhD proposal as a collaborative project between two labs. This comprises exchange visits as well as voluntary attendance of lectures and courses offered by participating institutions. Both SMARTSTART programs will commence the second round in the winter term 2017/18. The Deadline for application is Tuesday, February 28, 2017. More information can be found on our website: www.smartstart-compneuro.de Best regards, Kathrin Hebert -- Coordination Office Smart Start - Joint Training Program in Computational Neuroscience Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience | Bernstein Coordination Site (BCOS) Branch Office of the Forschungszentrum J?lich at the University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9A | 79104 Freiburg, Germany phone: (+49) 0761 203 9593 mail: smartstart at fz-juelich.de web: www.nncn.de Twitter: NNCN_Germany YouTube: Bernstein TV Facebook: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany LinkedIn: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 sanjay.ankur at gmail.com Mon Feb 6 04:30:24 2017 From: sanjay.ankur at gmail.com (Ankur Sinha) Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2017 09:30:24 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Two new feed aggregators for neuroscientists Message-ID: <1486373424.2514.1.camel@gmail.com> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Hello everyone, Apologies for the cross post. I've set up two new "planet" instances that may help neuroscientists keep up with literature and related news in general. They are: - - Planet neuroscience https://sanjayankur31.github.io/planet-neuroscience/ Source at: https://github.com/sanjayankur31/planet-neuroscience This collects RSS feeds from various journals - so all the content here is academic. - - Planet neuroscientists https://sanjayankur31.github.io/planet-neuroscientists/ Source at: https://github.com/sanjayankur31/planet-neuroscientists This collects RSS feeds from various research blogs - labs, neuroscience blogs, and that sort. They are both updated every 12 hours. Since they're hosted on Github, they are publicly accessible and should have enough bandwidth for public use. Please use them if you see fit. If there are any other sources or tweaks you'd like to suggest, you can either e-mail me offlist or open an issue/pull request on the Github repositories. - -- Thanks, Regards, Ankur Sinha PhD candidate - UH Biocomputation Visting lecturer - School of computer science University of Hertfordshire http://biocomputation.herts.ac.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJYmEIxAAoJEPjYwL66yJi9ec0IAIRIzR+lIGTPem20Db+Dtjnt qXRJfJmZKRCR0h2kyXhACOHCwQjgzx6xTaJA0ykxDOFwJaw/ENvsZ8JUAx4wv3GX mKzJDLMHYmSWvDO1/gLZ9Ya7I4Tlc9wamG8LD5ElIypypa0Eih7nouJXft6zHrSA ujAh4T0o1Tj58jYCCr5d4jD3P2WpfWqcSp8kIH3Y6zFteBJpoSRsWfxYwcI6rKZL 2ajulZVfY+nnDX1RFhFMoCUIAne0BRBuwFsw+mHPp6W55J8oYlDSeLxtBgjc/fR5 HGemxvz63JKRkpCpUVvT+RtQKG323ySMQjStvyadw7lyu0mBkahz3/ib1Hyxo3g= =MpQU -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From manuel.lopes at tecnico.ulisboa.pt Mon Feb 6 06:41:31 2017 From: manuel.lopes at tecnico.ulisboa.pt (Manuel Lopes) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 11:41:31 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: [jobs] Open faculty search Computer Science and Engineering Department of the Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon, Portugal In-Reply-To: <32C67445-B679-4FAF-8BB1-C6E2193FDA91@tecnico.ulisboa.pt> References: <32C67445-B679-4FAF-8BB1-C6E2193FDA91@tecnico.ulisboa.pt> Message-ID: Open faculty search The Computer Science and Engineering Department of the Instituto Superior T?cnico of the Universidade de Lisboa is carrying out an open search process for possible candidates to future openings for faculty career positions. This open search is targeted at possible candidates who have an interest in enrolling at the base level of the university professional career, in all scientific areas of the Department, namely: ? Architecture and Operating Systems. ? Computer Graphics and Multimedia. ? Artificial Intelligence. ? Programming Methodology and Technology. ? Information Systems. Possible candidates should send to the email address cse-facultysearch at dei.tecnico.ulisboa.pt a zip file containing the following materials: ? Curriculum Vitae ? Teaching and research statement ? Contact (including email address) of three researchers or professionals from the area who can be contacted to provide reference letters, attesting to the scientific, pedagogical, and professional qualities of the possible candidate. These materials should preferably be sent by February 28, 2017, for being considered for the 2017 open search process. For any additional questions please contact the Department at dei at tecnico.ulisboa.pt. From zrinka at nld.ds.mpg.de Mon Feb 6 07:06:30 2017 From: zrinka at nld.ds.mpg.de (Zrinka Gattin) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 13:06:30 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: REMINDER: Call for Workshops - Bernstein Conference 2017 In-Reply-To: <2c609d75-95b6-0289-5199-540f5c0fc41e@fz-juelich.de> References: <2c609d75-95b6-0289-5199-540f5c0fc41e@fz-juelich.de> Message-ID: <589866C6.4020702@nld.ds.mpg.de> The Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience and the Bernstein Center G?ttingen invite proposals for Satellite Workshops. Satellite Workshops will directly precede the Bernstein Conference 2017 in G?ttingen. ************************************************************** *Important Dates:* _Workshops: _September 12 - 13, 2017 _Main Bernstein Conference:_ September 13 - 15, 2017 _Deadline for proposal submission:_ March 01, 2017 _Notification of workshop acceptance:_ March 27, 2017 ************************************************************** Since 2013, the Bernstein Conference hosts pre-conference workshops. They provide a stage to discuss topical research questions, novel scientific approaches and challenges in Computational Neuroscience and related fields. Workshops addressing controversial issues, open problems, and comparisons of competing approaches are encouraged. Workshop formats should be designed to foster debate beyond a mere series of talks. The Bernstein Conference started out as the annual meeting of the Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience and has become the largest annual single-track Computational Neuroscience conference in Europe in recent years. _Workshop time frame:_ September 12, 2017, 13:00 - 18:00 September 13, 2017, 9:00 - 12:30 Workshop proposals are welcome for either half-day or full-day workshops. Workshop costs: NEW THIS YEAR ? FINANCIAL SUPPORT: For all accepted workshops the registration is free of charge for organizers and speakers. Organizers will also receive a waiver for the main conference fee. New this year: From the accepted workshops a maximum of ten workshops will be selected to each receive financial support of up to 1.500,00 ?. For further information about the conference, please visit the conference website http://www.bernstein-conference.de. INSTRUCTIONS FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS PREPARATION Workshop proposals must contain: 1) Workshop Title 2) Concise description of workshop topic 3) List of potential speakers indicating speaker commitment Please use the Workshop Proposal Form that can be downloaded here: http://www.nncn.de/de/bernstein-conference/2017/satellite-workshops *Deadline for submission of Workshop proposals: March 01, 2017* Accommodation and Hotel Reservation: We strongly recommend early room booking. The number of available accommodation is limited due to several concurrent events. We arranged for room contingents in a variety of hotels that you may book by yourself by email or phone. Please follow the instructions at our Accommodations Web-site (http://www.nncn.de/de/bernstein-conference/2017/venue/accommodation). We would like to emphasize that these room contingents will be held open up to different expiration dates depending on the hotel (or until they are filled). The earliest expiration date is already end of May 2017 whereas the majority of offers expire at the 12th of July 2017. We strongly encourage participants to share rooms and to book rooms as a group. Groups of three or four are possible if you book a suite. The room contingent contains a set of suits and apartments. We emphasize that it will be very difficult to book accommodation beyond the expiration dates. Please find a list of the hotels at our Accommodations Web-site. CONTACT: contact(at)bccn-goettingen.de We are looking forward to seeing you in G?ttingen! WORKSHOP SELECTION COMMITTEE: Florentin W?rg?tter (Chair) Marion Silies (co-Chair) Christian Tetzlaff (co-Chair) Matthias Bethge Laura Busse Claudia Clopath Julia Fischer Alexander Gail Richard Hahnloser Claus Hilgetag Peter Jonas Siegrid L?wel Michael Platt Viola Priesemann Nicole Rust Fred Wolf (Conference Chair) -- Dr Zrinka Gattin Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) Goettingen Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology (BFNT) Goettingen PhD Program in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Am Fassberg 17 D-37077 Goettingen Phone: +49 (0)551 5176 418 Fax: +49 (0)551 5176 14418 E-Mail:zrinka at nld.ds.mpg.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From a.storkey at ed.ac.uk Mon Feb 6 09:24:08 2017 From: a.storkey at ed.ac.uk (Amos Storkey) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 14:24:08 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: 4th Edinburgh Deep Learning Workshop. 21 March 2017. Call For Papers. Message-ID: Fourth Edinburgh Deep Learning Workshop http://workshops.inf.ed.ac.uk/deep/deep2017/ You are invited and encouraged to attend and/or submit to the Fourth Edinburgh Deep Learning Workshop on 21 March 2017 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Previous workshops have had a full capacity of approx 200 people. We welcome submissions to the workshop that are either new work or work recently submitted/published elsewhere. Submissions to this workshop will form the basis of informal talks and poster discussions, where accepted. Submissions can simply be a pointer to an arxiv or openreview paper, with a quick cover email, or a short paper / extended abstract describing the work. We operate a fast turnaround for submissions, with a deadline of Feb 21. Papers at the workshop will not constitute publication, and so you are free to also submit them elsewhere. Of course, many delegates will be attending without presenting. Registration is free. Full details, submission instructions and registration are available at http://workshops.inf.ed.ac.uk/deep/deep2017/ The Fourth Edinburgh Deep Learning Workshop is held in conjunction with DataFest 2017: http://www.datafest.global/. -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. From huajin.tang at gmail.com Mon Feb 6 10:44:02 2017 From: huajin.tang at gmail.com (Huajin Tang) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 23:44:02 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: CFP: IEEE Symposium on Neuromorphic Cognitive Computing 2017 Message-ID: IEEE SNCC 2017 IEEE Symposium on Neuromorphic Cognitive Computing 27th Nov - 1st Dec 2017 Honolulu, Hawaii, USA *Call for Papers:* The 2017 IEEE Symposium on Neuromorphic Cognitive Computing (SNCC?17) will be a part of the 2017 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI 2017). The SNCC?17 will provide an important platform for the researchers to exchange the ideas and to bring new theoretical and technical advances in neuromorphic cognitive computing, and in turn to benefit highly demanded application areas across neuromorphic engineering, neuromorphic circuits design, machine learning, BCI, cyborg intelligence, cognitive robotics, etc. The website: *www.ele.uri.edu/ieee-ssci2017/SNCC.htm .* *Call for Special Session Proposals:* Researchers interested in organizing special sessions at SNCC?17 are invited to submit your proposals to SNCC chairs as early as possible. *Publications:* Accepted papers after peer-review will be published in the IEEE SSCI conference proceedings. *Important Dates: * Special Session Proposals: April 2, 2017 Paper Submissions: July 2, 2017 Notification to Authors: August 27, 2017 Final Submission: September 24, 2017 Early Registration: September 24, 2017 *Topics: * The topics include, but are not limited to: ? Neuromorphic computing ? Cognitive computing models ? Spiking neural networks (SNNs) ? Supervised and unsupervised learning ? STDP and spike-timing based learning ? Neuromorphic visual and auditory processing ? Brain-inspired data representation ? Neural coding ? Sparse coding and compressive sensing ? Event based processing ? Deep learning for SNNs ? Neuromorphic systems for machine learning ? Spatiotemporal Spike Pattern Analysis ? Brain inspired model for sound, vision and speech ? Hardware implementation of SNNs ? FPGA or GPU accelerator for SNNs ? Neuromorphic sensors and devices ? Neuromorphic neurons and synapses ? Neuromorphic chips/hardware platforms ? SNN applications in machine learning ? SNN applications in BCI and brain data analysis ? Cyborg intelligence ? Cognitive robotics *SNCC?17 Chairs:* Prof. Huajin Tang, Sichuan University, China htang at scu.edu.cn Prof. Jeff Krichmar, University of California at Irvine, USA jkrichma at uci.edu Prof. Tiejun Huang, Peking University, China tjhuang at pku.edu.cn Dr. Garrick Orchard, National University of Singapore garrickorchard at nus.edu.sg -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From laurenz.wiskott at rub.de Tue Feb 7 03:16:56 2017 From: laurenz.wiskott at rub.de (Laurenz Wiskott) Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2017 09:16:56 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD position in machine learning with Prof. Laurenz Wiskott in Bochum, Germany Message-ID: <20170207081656.GA6160@garlic> Please forward this job advertisement to candidates who might be interested. Thanks, Laurenz Wiskott. ___________________________________________________________________________ Open position for a PhD Student with Prof. Laurenz Wiskott at the Institute for Neural Computation, Bochum, Germany ___________________________________________________________________________ Institute: Institute for Neural Computation Ruhr-University Bochum Universitaetsstr. 150 D-44801 Bochum, Germany, EU The Institute for Neural Computation is a central research institute at the Ruhr-University Bochum, see https://www.ini.rub.de/. It focuses on dynamics and learning of perception and behavior on a functional level but is otherwise very diverse, ranging from neurophysiology and psychophysics over computational neuroscience to machine learning and technical applications. Research group: Prof. Dr. Laurenz Wiskott, see http://www.ini.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/PEOPLE/wiskott/ Research topics: The project is in the field of machine learning with an emphasis on unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning. We are particularly interested in expertise on probabilistic modeling and visual processing. The position is part of a team working jointly on a self-organizing agent learning to navigate and behave in a virtual environment. Even though the main focus is machine learning, the group is also involved in collaborative projects in the field of computational neuroscience on modeling hippocampal function for navigation. We largely work with and contribute to the Modular toolkit for Data Processing written in Python. Teaching: There is a teaching load of 3 hours per week during the semester, in particular for a programming course in python. Time: The position is available immediately. The appointment will be for three years and can then be extended for one more years if needed. Requirements: Candidates should have an education in physics, mathematics, electrical engineering or any related field. Required are strong mathematical and programming skills as well as the ability to communicate and work well in a team. Salary: Salary is 75% of salary scale TV-L E13. Inquiries: Informal inquiries can be addressed to Prof. Laurenz Wiskott . Application: Applications should be sent in electronic form to Prof. Laurenz Wiskott . Ruhr-University Bochum is committed to equal opportunity in employment and gender equality in its working environment. We therefore look forward to applications from qualified women. Applications from appropriately qualified handicapped persons are also encouraged. Deadline: Official deadline is February 28., but later applications might still be considered. From Alessandro.Dausilio at iit.it Wed Feb 8 06:52:42 2017 From: Alessandro.Dausilio at iit.it (Alessandro D'Ausilio) Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 11:52:42 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: [jobs] Post-doctoral Position in Brain- and biosignal-based speech recognition @ the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) Message-ID: <8BB164F2-19E3-4C16-96BF-17A6452B4358@iit.it> The IIT Centre for Translational Neurophysiology is hiring 1 post-doc on Brain- and Biosignal-based Automatic Speech Recognition. In the last few years, automatic speech recognition (ASR), where words are recognized from the audio signal, has achieved impressive results. A far more challenging task is the recognition of speech from other (non-acoustic) kinds of signal (e.g., signal describing facial movements related to speech production). Such "biosignals" can be used when the audio is not available (e.g., brain signal from locked-in patients) or can be combined with a weak acoustic signal (as, e.g., in audio-visual speech recognition where the signal-to-noise ratio is very low). Biosignal-based ASR needs to address many more problems than audio-based ASR, ranging from a noisier and less discriminative phonetic content to an infinitely smaller amount of available training data. The main goal of the proposed project is the automatic recognition of continuous speech from (i) ECoG data recorded recorded during awake brain surgery from brain areas devoted to speech production. https://www.iit.it/careers/openings/opening/333-postdoctoral-position-in-brain-and-biosignal-based-speech-recognition -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dorney at cmu.edu Wed Feb 8 09:11:17 2017 From: dorney at cmu.edu (Barbara Dorney) Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 09:11:17 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Statistical Analysis of Neural Data (SAND8) Workshop Registration Message-ID: * ***PLEASE POST TO APPROPRIATE D-LISTS. *** _REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN_ * The eighth international workshop on Statistical Analysis of Neural Data (*SAND8*) will take place May 31-June 2, 2017, in Pittsburgh, PA. /Partial travel support is available. / The 3rd Annual Conference for Statistical Methods in Imaging is also taking place on the same days, in parallel, at a nearby location in Pittsburgh. SAND8 will begin with a morning-long panel discussion on ?Emerging Challenges of Brain Science Data,? and will end with several talks that connect statistical analysis to mathematical modeling. In between there will be keynote talks by senior investigators and shorter presentations by junior investigators, the latter selected on a competitive basis. There will also be a poster session, to which all participants are invited to contribute. Talks and posters may involve new methodology, investigation of existing methods, or application of state-of-the-art analytical techniques. In addition, there will be a lunchtime discussion devoted to opportunities and challenges for women in computational neuroscience. Confirmed keynote lecturers, panelists, and discussants include the following: Genevera Allen, Rice; Marlene Behrmann, CMU; Emery Brown, MIT/Harvard Medical School; Elizabeth Buffalo, U. Washington; Anne Churchland, Cold Spring Harbor; Peter Dayan, Gatsby; Alain Destexhe, CNRS, France; Adrienne Fairhall, U. Washington; Sonja Grun, Julich Institute, Germany; Alon Korngreen, Bar-Ilan, Israel; Mark Kramer, Boston U.; Andrew Leifer, Princeton; Brian Litt, Penn; Katherine Nagal, NYU; Jonathan Pillow, Princeton; Sridevi Sarma, Johns Hopkins; Aarti Singh, CMU; Andreas Tolias, Baylor; Timothy Verstynen, CMU. *Any young investigator interested in presenting their work as a talk should submit an abstract by MARCH 6. Requests for travel support are due MARCH 20.* Please see our website: http://sand.stat.cmu.edu This workshop series is concerned with analysis of neural data of all kinds, ranging from anatomy to electrophysiology, to neuroimaging. It aims to define important problems in neuronal data analysis and useful strategies for attacking them; foster communication between experimental neuroscientists and those trained in statistical and computational methods encourage young researchers, including graduate students, to present their work; and expose young researchers to important challenges and opportunities in this interdisciplinary domain, while providing a small meeting atmosphere to facilitate the interaction of young researchers with senior colleagues. We are especially interested in attracting to this workshop people wishing to learn more about challenges in the analysis of neural data who are females, under-represented minorities, or persons with disabilities. The organizers are Emery Brown, Elizabeth Buffalo, Rob Kass, Liam Paninski, Sri Sarma and Jonathan Victor. ? ........................ Robert E. Kass Maurice Falk Professor of Statistics and Computational Neuroscience Department of Statistics and Machine Learning Department Interim Co-Director, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Carnegie Mellon University http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~kass -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Florian at Helmhold.de Wed Feb 8 09:08:08 2017 From: Florian at Helmhold.de (Florian Helmhold) Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 15:08:08 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Two funded PhD positions on Brain Computer Interfacing (BCI) for communication in Completely Locked-in State at the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology in Tuebingen Message-ID: Two funded PhD positions are available starting from 1st of March in the group of Prof. Dr. Dr. hc mult. Niels Birbaumer at the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tuebingen. The PhD candidates will work towards the development and application of Brain Computer Interface (BCI) for communication in completely locked-in state, vegetative state and minimal conscious state patients. Requirements for PhD Position 1: 1) Skilled in signal processing, 2) Skilled in EEG signal acquisition and analysis. 3) Knowledge of fNIRS ? will be advantageous but not mandatory, 4) Knowledge of Machine Learning, 5) Excellent programming skills, preferably in MATLAB, and 6) Good social and Communication skills. Requirements for PhD Position 2: 1) Excellent social and communication skills, 2) Willing to travel to patients, 3) Must be able to communicate in GERMAN, 4) Preferably of neuroscience background with knowledge of EEG signal acquisition and analysis. Both the candidate should be open to, eventually, travel to patients to perform the BCI studies. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Ujwal Chaudhary directly via email: ujwal.chaudhary at uni-tuebingen.de ------------- Florian Helmhold Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen Silcherstr. 5 - D-72076 Tuebingen Phone: +49 7071 29-74388 Fax: +49 7071 29-5956 E-Mail: florian.helmhold at uni-tuebingen.de From vijay at PHYSICS.UPENN.EDU Wed Feb 8 09:09:17 2017 From: vijay at PHYSICS.UPENN.EDU (Vijay Balasubramanian) Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 09:09:17 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral Fellowships in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania Message-ID: Postdoctoral Fellowships in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania The Computational Neuroscience Initiative (CNI) of the University of Pennsylvania seeks exceptional candidates for a CNI Postdoctoral Fellowship. Candidates with strong quantitative skills from a variety of fields including neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, biophysics, physics, mathematics, systems biology, computer science and engineering will be considered. The selected Fellows will join an inter-disciplinary research environment in historic Philadelphia. CNI Fellows will be encouraged to foster collaborative research between multiple labs, organize a weekly seminar/chalk talk series for the CNI community, and serve as mentors to students. The Fellowship will provide salary and travel support for the fellow over a 3 year term. The CNI supports interdisciplinary and collaborative research at the frontier of knowledge about the brain, behavior, and the mind (see http://cni.upenn.edu/). We focus on systems-level approaches that integrate theory and computation with experiment. Our members include faculty, post-docs, and students from multiple programs and departments including neurobiology, cognitive science, psychology, physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, bioengineering, and computer science. Our research and training spans the three major elements of the field of Computational Neuroscience: 1) Theory ? understanding the brain as an information-processing machine; 2) Experiments ? providing quantitative methods to aid in the design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of empirical studies that probe all levels of brain function, from molecules to behavior; and 3) Applications ? including robotics, brain-machine interfaces, and new clinical tools. Applications should be submitted by email to compneuro at sas.upenn.edu, and should consist of a CV and a cover letter stating the candidate's research experience, reasons for applying to this Fellowship, and research interests. Please arrange for up to three letters of recommendation to be sent to the same email address as well, with the candidate?s name in the subject line. Review of applications will start on March 15, 2017. The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented individuals from diverse backgrounds (http://jobs.hr.upenn.edu). Vijay Balasubramanian, Director David Brainard, Co-Director Joshua Gold, Co-Director From felipe.gerhard at gmx.net Wed Feb 8 13:50:12 2017 From: felipe.gerhard at gmx.net (Felipe Gerhard) Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 19:50:12 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Open Computational Neuroscientist / Data Scientist position at Q-State Biosciences, Cambridge, MA Message-ID: Dear connectionists, I'd like to draw your attention to an open job position at Q-State Biosciences, a company founded by Harvard professors Adam Cohen and Kevin Eggan, located in Cambridge, MA, USA. Please feel free to email me with any informal inquiries or directly apply using the contact information given below. With my best regards, Felipe Gerhard ? http://www.qstatebio.com/careers/data-scientist/ Summary of Position: Q-State Biosciences is seeking a highly skilled Data Scientist to analyze and visualize data from its cutting edge disease modeling and drug screening efforts. The successful candidate will work closely with Q-State?s scientific and management teams to provide solutions in a high quality and scientifically rigorous fashion. Responsibilities and Duties Analyze all-optical electrophysiology recordings from complex cellular cultures Extract and visualize subtle features from multidimensional data Develop classifiers to categorize patients, cell types, and pharmacological responses Implement new and improve existing analysis algorithms Further develop software for automated generation of reports Improve pipelines for handling and analyzing large amounts of data Collaborate with other team members to ensure data are acquired, processed, and stored according to appropriate procedures Solve complex problems in activity-based image segmentation in the presence of high noise (independent components analysis, morphological image processing) Minimum Qualifications Required Experience in MATLAB Ability to write clean and efficient analysis software Must have the ability to analyze complex statistical problems, propose elegant and broadly applicable solutions, and translate to clearly documented algorithms Knowledge of fundamentals of Object-Oriented Programming Ability to work independently and in cross-functional teams Flexibility to work in a startup atmosphere Excellent oral, written and interpersonal communication skills Ph.D. in a relevant discipline or equivalent experience Additional Qualifications Desired Knowledge of electrophysiology, basic elements of neuronal biophysics Algorithms expertise in machine learning, dimensionality reduction, and/or image processing Experience in Python, Windows, Linux, SQL/NoSQL databases, and/or cloud compute (e.g. AWS) Git or other collaborative version control Benefits - Competitive salary - Health care coverage, including medical, prescription drug, vision, dental, and wellness resources - Company paid Life and disability insurance - 401(k) - Commuter Assistance - Generous paid time off, including 3 weeks vacation, 11 paid holidays and liberal sick time - Stock Options CONTACT INFORMATION Please send your cover letter and resume to careers at qstatebio.com --- Felipe Gerhard, PhD Computational Neuroscientist Q-State Biosciences, Inc. 179 Sidney St, Cambridge, MA, 02139 felipe.gerhard at qstatebio.com +1 978 618 1941 www.qstatebio.com From gangluo at cs.wisc.edu Wed Feb 8 14:23:20 2017 From: gangluo at cs.wisc.edu (Gang Luo) Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2017 11:23:20 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: VLDB Workshop on Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare (DMAH 2017) In-Reply-To: <56ED69AA.4020202@cs.wisc.edu> References: <56ED6924.8070202@cs.wisc.edu> <56ED69AA.4020202@cs.wisc.edu> Message-ID: -- Call for Papers -- The Third International Workshop on Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare (DMAH 2017) In Conjunction with VLDB 2017 Munich, Germany, September 1, 2017 http://dmah.info/ Healthcare enterprises are producing large amounts of data through electronic medical records, medical imaging, health insurance claims, surveillance, and others. Such data have high potential to transform current healthcare to improve healthcare quality and prevent diseases, and advance biomedical research. Medical Informatics is an interdisciplinary field that studies and pursues the effective use of medical data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving and decision making, driven by efforts to improve human health and well being. The goal of the workshop is to bring people in the field cross-cutting information management and medical informatics to discuss innovative data management and analytics technologies highlighting end-to-end applications, systems, and methods to address problems in healthcare, public health, and everyday wellness, with clinical, physiological, imaging, behavioral, environmental, and omic- data, and data from social media and the Web. It will provide a unique opportunity for interaction between information management researchers and biomedical researchers for the interdisciplinary field. This workshop welcomes papers that address fundamental research issues for complex medical data environments, data management and analytical methods, systems and applications. Topics of interest include, but not limited to: Big data integration for medical data; Data cleansing for noisy and missing data; Medical data and knowledge management and decision support; Data management technologies for medical data; Semantic Web and ontologies for clinical and biomedical applications; Medical natural language processing and text mining; Data mining and knowledge discovery from medical data; Algorithms to speed up the analysis of big medical data; Innovative visualization techniques for query and analysis of medical data; Medical image mining; Medical information retrieval; Data privacy and security for healthcare data; Hospital readmission analytics; Medical fraud detection; Social media and Web data analytics for public health; Data analytics for pervasive computing for medical care. DMAH 2017 accept two types of papers: 1) Regular research papers reporting original research results or significant case studies (18 pages). 2) Extended abstracts presenting novel research directions or challenging problems (4 pages). Important Dates: Individual Workshop Papers: May 7, 2017 Notification of Acceptance: June 18, 2017 Camera Ready: July 2, 2017 Workshop date: September 1, 2017 All submitted papers will be rigorously reviewed. All accepted papers will be made available as a workshop proceedings to be published by Springer LNCS. Workshop Chairs: Fusheng Wang, Stony Brook University, USA Gang Luo, University of Washington, USA Edmon Begoli, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA From michel.verleysen at uclouvain.be Thu Feb 9 07:51:41 2017 From: michel.verleysen at uclouvain.be (Michel Verleysen) Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2017 12:51:41 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: ESANN 2017 program available Message-ID: We apologize for possible duplicates of this message sent to distribution lists. ESANN 2017: European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning Bruges, Belgium, 26-28 April 2017 http://www.esann.org/ The preliminary program of the ESANN 2017 conference is now available: http://www.esann.org/. For 25 years the ESANN conference has become a major event in the field of neural computation and machine learning. ESANN is a selective conference focusing on fundamental aspects of artificial neural networks, machine learning, statistical information processing and computational intelligence. Mathematical foundations, algorithms and tools, and applications are covered. ESANN 2017 will include the following sessions: - Deep and kernel methods: best of two worlds - Randomized Machine Learning approaches: analysis and developments - Classification - Biomedical data analysis in translational research: integration of expert knowledge and interpretable models - Environmental signal processing: new trends and applications - Kernels, graphs and clustering - Regression, robots and biological systems - Processing, Mining and Visualizing Massive Urban Data - Signal and image processing, collaborative filtering - Algorithmic Challenges in Big Data Analytics - Deep learning The program of the conference can be found at http://www.esann.org/, together with practical information about the conference venue, registration, etc. The conference will be held in Bruges (also called "Venice of the North"), one of the most beautiful medieval towns in Europe. Bruges can be reached by train from Brussels in less than one hour (frequent trains). Designated as the "Venice of the North", the city has preserved all the charms of the medieval heritage. Its centre, which is inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage list, is in itself a real open air museum. ======================================================== 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 carsten.eickhoff at inf.ethz.ch Thu Feb 9 08:13:59 2017 From: carsten.eickhoff at inf.ethz.ch (Carsten Eickhoff) Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2017 14:13:59 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Bio-Medical Image Captioning Dataset and Benchmark at ImageCLEF 2017 Message-ID: Automatic image understanding is one of the key challenges on the way to medical artificial intelligence. Clinical resources such as radiology or biopsy images are traditionally hard to process using state-of-the-art machine learning and computer vision methods. To foster research in this direction, ImageCLEF 2017 is hosting a dedicated task on caption prediction for bio-medical images and provides a dataset of 160,000 pairs of clinical images along with their manually assigned captions. For registration, dataset download and more information, please visit: http://www.imageclef.org/2017/caption Timeline: - 01 Feb. 2017: development data release - 15 Mar. 2017: test data release - 04 May 2017: deadline for submission of runs by the participants - 15 May 2017: release of processed results by the task organizers - 26 May 2017: deadline for submission of working notes papers by the participants - 17 Jun. 2017: notification of acceptance of the working notes papers - 01 Jul. 2017: camera ready working notes papers - 11.-14 Sep. 2017: CLEF 2017 Conference, Dublin, Ireland Organization: - Carsten Eickhoff, ETH Zurich, Switzerland - Immanuel Schwall, ETH Zurich, Switzerland - Alba Garc?a Seco de Herrera, National Library of Medicine (NLM/NIH), USA - Henning M?ller, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Sierre, Switzerland -- Carsten Eickhoff Postdoctoral Researcher ETH Zurich - Data Analytics Lab Universit?tstrasse 6 CAB F61.2 8092 Zurich Switzerland T +41 446 337 017 E ecarsten at inf.ethz.ch W http://www.carsten-eickhoff.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Tingting.Mu at manchester.ac.uk Thu Feb 9 08:13:14 2017 From: Tingting.Mu at manchester.ac.uk (Tingting Mu) Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2017 13:13:14 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Ph.D. studentship, Machine Learning, School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, U. K. Message-ID: <1576E8A0-C197-40E3-8366-AB395FF14DAE@manchester.ac.uk> The School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, U. K. is offering a funded Ph.D. studentship, which covers the full costs of UK/EU tuition and standard living fees. This research work will be within the fields of machine learning, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence. The broad aim will be to develop advanced mathematical modelling and large-scale optimisation techniques, to simulate human intelligence for solving complex tasks, such as matching, recognition, relation extraction, or text/image understanding. The developed techniques will be simulated on real-world tasks, such as generating text description of image/video content, question answering, image understanding, language interpretation, etc. We will consider applicants who have: *Very strong interest in the above research fields. *An excellent undergraduate degree in Computer Science or Mathematics (or related discipline), and preferably, a relevant M.Sc. degree. *Very good experience with computer programming of mathematical models and algorithms (in Matlab, R or Python, or other platforms). *Excellent report writing and presentation skills. *Good ability to communicate with fellow students and colleagues. Please, note that applicants must additionally satisfy the standard requirements for postgraduate studies at the University of Manchester, such as a first-class or high upper-second class (or an equivalent international qualification) and English language qualifications, as stated in the PGR guidelines. Qualified applicants are strongly encouraged to informally contact the supervising academic Dr. Tingting Mu (tingting.mu at manchester.ac.uk) to discuss the application and possible research titles prior to applying. Supervisor's Webpage is http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/tingting.mu Further information about the application can be found at http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/apply/. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gemmar at mit.edu Thu Feb 9 16:49:02 2017 From: gemmar at mit.edu (Gemma Roig) Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2017 21:49:02 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD student/Research Assistant - Singapore University of Technology and Design in collaboration with MIT Message-ID: Hello, We are seeking for PhD students to work on research projects related to computational models of the human visual system, deep learning and their applications to computer vision and artificial intelligence. The expected duration of the PhD program is 4 years. Title: PhD student/Research Assistant Company/Institution: Singapore University of Technology and Design in collaboration with MIT Location: Singapore Department: Information Systems Technology and Design (ISTD) Requirements: strong knowledge in machine learning (deep learning) excellent programming skills strong interest on human vision knowledge of high performance distributed computing Application Instructions: Contact Dr. Gemma Roig, gemmar at mit dot edu. Include CV, one selected publication, grades and email address of at least one reference. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 1845 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dengdehao at gmail.com Thu Feb 9 21:13:53 2017 From: dengdehao at gmail.com (Teng Teck Hou) Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 10:13:53 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: [CYBCONF 2017 - SS] Call for Papers to Special Session on Deep Learning for Prediction and Estimation Message-ID: <001d01d28343$548eae10$fdac0a30$@gmail.com> [Apologies for cross-postings] ################################################## CALL FOR PAPERS 3rd IEEE International Conference on Cybernetics (CYBCONF-2017) Special Session on Deep Learning for Prediction and Estimation (DLPE) June 21- June 23, 2017, Exeter, United Kingdom http://cse.stfx.ca/~CybConf2017/ ################################################## CYBCONF-2017 is organized by University of Exeter, sponsored byIEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMC), and supported by IEEE SMC Technical Committees on Cybernetics for Cyber-enabled Worlds; Awareness Computing; Intelligent Industrial Systems; and Distributed Intelligent Systems. CYBCONF-2017 will be hosted in Exeter, the capital city of Devon and provides the county with a central base for education, medicine, religion, commerce and culture. The city is also home to the magnificent Exeter Cathedral, which dates back to Norman times. Exeter is also ideally placed to base a trip to branch out visiting places such as the famous Dartmoor National Park and the unspoilt beaches of the North and South Devon coastlines. The area of deep learning has been receiving immense attention from researchers and practitioners across the globe. Deep learning techniques have achieved excellent results in pattern recognition with images and speech data. In fact deep learning is the state-of-the-art in the domain of computer vision, speech recognition and natural language processing. However, deep learning techniques are yet to be explored extensively for the task of prediction and estimation. Due to the advancement in sensor technology, many sectors such as energy, environment, and more recently IoT require processing of huge amount of sensor data to develop predictive models. Deep learning, due to its capability of modeling highly non-linear functions and use of very efficient learning algorithms in terms of time and computational unit requirements, seems to be very promising in this field. One of the most attractive properties of deep learning over other machine learning methods is its automatic feature extraction ability. This ability overcomes risk of inefficient and time consuming hand crafted feature extraction that requires lot of hard work and expert knowledge. Through this special session we would like to invite researchers, academicians, and students for dissemination of their research work in the direction of prediction and estimation through deep learning techniques. ##############################Important Dates############################## * Paper Submission February 23, 2017 * Paper Decision Notification April 22, 2017 * Camera-Ready Submission May 15, 2017 * Authors registration May 15, 2017 * Conference June 21 - June 23, 2017 ########################################################################### ############Paper Submission and Publication############ * Authors are invited to submit original previously unpublished research papers written in English, of up to 8 pages (or 10 pages with over length charge) including figures and references using IEEE Computer Society Proceedings Manuscripts style (two columns, single-spaced, 10 fonts). Please find the manuscript templates and submission related information at the CYBCONF 2017 conference webpage. All accepted papers must be presented by one of the authors who must register for the conference and pay the fee. * Presented papers will appear in the conference proceedings, available on IEEE Xplore and submitted to be indexed in CPCI (ISI conferences and part of Web of Science) and Engineering Index (EI). The authors of selected best papers will be invited post conference to extend their contributions for special issues of prestigious journals, such as IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, IEEE SMC Magazine, and Evolving Systems. ######################################################## ##################Topics and Areas of Interest################## Topics of interests include but are not limited to: * Theoretical / experimental results on deep learning models and architectures * Unsupervised, semi supervised, and supervised deep learning * Software/hardware platforms for deep learning, parallelization issues in deep learning * Applications of deep learning in IoT, energy, environment, medical or any other domain ################################################################ ##########################Organizing Committee########################## * Plamen Angelov, Chain in Intelligent Systems at Lancaster University, United Kingdom * Rashmi Dutta Baruah, Assistant Professor at IIT Guwahati, India * Teck-Hou Teng, Research Fellow at SMU, Singapore * Ana Kosarsva, Data Scientist at Technische Universitat Berlin, Germany ######################################################################## -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From eilif.mueller at epfl.ch Fri Feb 10 03:26:31 2017 From: eilif.mueller at epfl.ch (Eilif Muller) Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 09:26:31 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Blue Brain - Post-doc, PhD & Technical Positions in Simulation Neuroscience Message-ID: <20170210092631.122c372a@kimchi> =========================================================== Blue Brain Project - Positions in Simulation Neuroscience =========================================================== http://emploi.epfl.ch/page-142005-en.html A number of positions are immediately available in Simulation Neuroscience in the Blue Brain Project (http://bluebrain.epfl.ch) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland (www.epfl.ch). The selected candidates will work on data-driven modeling projects at specific neuroscience scales: subcellular molecular processes, ion channels, synapses, neurons, and circuits. Technical positions are available for experts in scientific computing with python. PhD and Post-doctoral fellowships are available for applicants with a strong track record of accomplishment in neuroscience, computational neuroscience, computer science, physics or related field, and experience in scientific computing with python and/or the NEURON simulation environment. We are looking for highly motivated individuals to work as members of a highly multidisciplinary group working at the interface of neuroscience, physics and computer science with good writing and communication skills. We are looking for constructive team players who thrive in collaborative environments. Selected candidates will join a prestigious project that is pioneering simulation neuroscience research, composed of a young, dynamic, interdisciplinary, and international team. We offer a state-of-the-art working environment based at the Biotech Campus in Geneva ( http://www.campusbiotech.ch/en/ ) with access to cutting edge simulation, informatic and computing facilties. Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and a detailed CV in PDF format only, with file name ?Surname_position _Cover Letter? and ?Surname_positon _CV? electronically to jobs.bbp at epfl.ch Please use the reference of the position title in the ?subject? field. ------------- Dr. Eilif Muller Section Manager - In Silico Neuroscience - Experimentation EPFL - Blue Brain Project Biotech Campus Chemin des Mines 9 1202 Geneva Switzerland Tel: +41 21 693 0698 Fax: +41 21 693 5350 www: http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/page-77926-en.html www: http://neuralensemble.org/people/eilifmuller From gevang at mit.edu Fri Feb 10 10:30:11 2017 From: gevang at mit.edu (Georgios Evangelopoulos) Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 10:30:11 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Brains, Minds and Machines Summer Course 2017 -- Woods Hole, MA; Applications by Mar. 14, 2017 Message-ID: *Brains, Minds and Machines* A Special Topics Course at MBL Woods Hole, MA *Directors:* Gabriel Kreiman, Children?s Hospital, Harvard Medical School; and Tomaso Poggio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Course Dates:* Aug. 13 - Sept. 3, 2017 ****Application Deadline:* March 14, 2017*** https://cbmm.mit.edu/summer-school/2017 The problem of intelligence ? how the brain produces intelligent behavior and how we may be able to replicate intelligence in machines ? is arguably the greatest problem in science and technology. To solve it we will need to understand how human intelligence emerges from computation in neural circuits, with rigor sufficient to reproduce similar intelligent behavior in machines. Success in this endeavor ultimately will enable us to understand ourselves better, to produce smarter machines, and perhaps even to make ourselves smarter. Today?s AI technologies, such as Watson and Siri, are impressive, but their domain specificity and reliance on vast numbers of labeled examples are obvious limitations; few view this as brain-like or human intelligence. The synergistic combination of cognitive science, neurobiology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science holds the promise to build much more robust and sophisticated algorithms implemented in intelligent machines. Set in the charming town of Woods Hole, there will be lectures and tutorials by leaders in the field. In addition, students will be working on cutting-edge projects with the help of faculty and teaching assistants. This course aims to cross-educate computer engineers and neuroscientists; it is appropriate for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty in computer science and/or neuroscience. Students are expected to have a strong background in one discipline (such as neurobiology, physics, engineering, and mathematics). Our goal is to develop the science and the technology of intelligence and to help train a new generation of scientists that will leverage the progress in neuroscience, cognitive science, and computer science. The Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) [ cbmm.mit.edu] will also be hosting an Evening Lecture Series, including speakers from both industry and academia, in the fields of neuroscience, computer science, and cognitive science. Invited faculty include Larry Abbott, Bill Bialek, Bob Desimone, Jim DiCarlo, Winrich Freiwald, Sam Gershman, Asif Ghazanfar, Nancy Kanwisher, Boris Katz, Gabriel Kreiman, Christof Koch, Jeff Lichtman, Marge Livingstone, Josh McDermott, Tommy Poggio, Marc Raibert, Lorenzo Rosasco, Rebecca Saxe, Haim Sompolinsky, Liz Spelke, Max Tegmark, Josh Tenenbaum, Shimon Ullman, Matt Wilson, Patrick Winston, Jeremy Wolfe, among others. For more information, including the link to the application portal, please visit: https://cbmm.mit.edu/summer-school/2017 -- Georgios Evangelopoulos Research Scientist, MIT http://www.mit.edu/~gevang -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Donald.Adjeroh at mail.wvu.edu Fri Feb 10 12:37:31 2017 From: Donald.Adjeroh at mail.wvu.edu (Donald Adjeroh) Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 17:37:31 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Call for papers: SBP-BRiMS'17 In-Reply-To: References: , , , Message-ID: Apologies if you receive multiple copies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SBP-BRiMS 2017 2017 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (SBP-BRiMS) July 5 (Wed) -- 8 (Sat), 2017, Lehman Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA Conference Website: http://sbp-brims.org All papers are qualified for the Best Paper Award. Papers with student first authors will be considered for the Best Student Paper Award. Those receiving these awards will be invited to publish an extended version in a special issue of the journal Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory. IMPORTANT DATES: Regular Paper Abstract Submission : February 22 (Wed), 2017 Regular Paper Submission : March 1 (Wed), 2017 Author Notification : March 24 (Fri), 2017 Final Version Submission : April 7 (Fri), 2017 Note, all regular papers will be evaluated for: presentation in plenary, presentation in regular session, presentation as poster, or no presentation. All accepted papers will be published in the physical proceedings ? the Springer LNCS volume. This volume is considered archival. Challenge Problem Submission : May 12 (Fri), 2017 Those submitting a response to the challenge are to submit a poster and a short paper by this date. All accepted papers will be published in the online proceedings only and will not be included in the Springer LNCS volume. The online proceedings is not considered archival. Posters & Demos Short Paper Submission : May 12 (Fri), 2017 This short paper submission is intended for late breaking results, technology demos, and those papers from industry, government or the military where constraints prevent the authors from writing a full paper. All short papers (including those describing demos) will be evaluated for: presentation as a poster, or no presentation. All accepted papers will be published in the online proceedings only and will not be included in the Springer LNCS volume. The online proceedings is not considered archival. Tutorial Proposal Submission : March 10 (Fri), 2017 Conference : July 5(Wed) to 8(Sat), 2017, including the following: Pre-conference Tutorial Sessions : July 10, 2017 (first day conference) Poster Session : At Conference Poster Night Technology Demos : Lunch times & Poster Night Challenge Problem Evaluation : At Conference Poster Night ABOUT SBP-BRiMS: SBP-BRiMS is a multidisciplinary conference with a selective single paper track and poster session. The conference also invites a small number of high quality tutorials and nationally recognized keynote speakers. The conference has grown out of two related meetings: SBP and BRiMS, which were co-located in previous years. Social computing harnesses the power of computational methods to study social behavior, such as during team collaboration. Cultural behavioral modeling refers to representing behavior and culture in the abstract, and is a convenient and powerful way to conduct virtual experiments and scenario analysis. Both social computing and cultural behavioral modeling are techniques designed to achieve a better understanding of complex behaviors, patterns, and associated outcomes of interest. Moreover, these approaches are inherently interdisciplinary; subsystems and system components exist at multiple levels of analysis (i.e., ?cells to societies?) and across multiple disciplines, from engineering and the computational sciences to the social and health sciences. The SBP-BRiMS conference invites modeling and simulation papers from academics, research scientists, technical communities and defense researchers across traditional disciplines to share ideas, discuss research results, identify capability gaps, highlight promising technologies, and showcase the state-of-the-art in applications in the areas of cultural behavioral modeling, prediction, and social computing. Please see the SBP-BRiMS17 website for more details. Keynotes and tutorials delivered in the previous SBP and BRiMS meetings are available through the websites http://sbp-brims.org and http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS2015/ . CALL FOR PAPERS: Submissions are solicited on research issues, theories, and applications. Topics of interests include the following: Advances in Sociocultural & Behavioral Processes * Group interaction and collaboration * Group formation and evolution * Group representation and profiling * Collective action and governance * Cultural patterns & representation * Social conventions, social contexts and processes * Influence process and recognition * Public opinion representation, identification and modeling * Information diffusion * Psycho-cultural situation awareness Behavior Modeling * Intelligent agents and avatars/adversarial modeling * Cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction * Models of reasoning and decision making * Model validation & comparison * Socio-cultural M&S: team/group/crowd/behavior * Physical models of human movement * Performance assessment & skill monitoring/tracking * Performance prediction/enhancement/optimization * Intelligent tutoring systems * Knowledge acquisition/engineering * Human behavior issues in model federations Methodological Challenges * Mathematical foundations * Verification and validation * Sensitivity analysis * Matching technique or method to research questions * Metrics and evaluation * Methodological innovation * Model federation and integration * Evolutionary computing * Optimization Information, Systems, & Network Science * Data mining on social media platforms * Diffusion and other dynamic processes over networks * Inference of network topologies and changes over time * Analysis of link formations and link types * Detection of communities and other types of structures in networks * Analysis of high-dimensional networks * Analytics for social and human dynamics Military & Intelligence Applications * Evaluation, modeling and simulation * Group formation and evolution in the political context * Technology and flash crowds * Networks and political influence * Group representation and profiling * Reasoning about terrorist group behaviors and policies towards them Applications for Health and Well-being * Social network analysis to understand health behavior * Modeling of health policy and decision making * Modeling of behavioral aspects of infectious disease spread * Intervention design and modeling for behavioral health Other Applications * Economic applications of behavioral and social prediction * Viral marketing * Reasoning about development aid through social modeling * Reasoning about global educational efforts through cognitive simulation FORMAT AND SUBMISSION: The conference solicits three categories of papers: Regular papers (max. 10 pages) All topics and authors (academic, government, industry) welcome Published in a Springer volume and online. Plenary or poster presentation. Short papers and Late-breaking results (max. 6 pages) All topics and authors welcome. Published online. Typically a poster presentation. Demos (2-page abstract, or max. 6 pages) Published online. Typically a poster or demo presentation. Paper Formatting Guideline The papers must be in English and MUST be formatted according to the Springer-Verlag LNCS/LNAI guidelines. Sample LaTeX2e and WORD files are available at http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6- 793341-0. It is not required to submit a cover page. All regular paper submissions should be submitted as a paper with a maximum of 10 pages using the foregoing format. All submissions for posters, demo-presentations, challenge problem entries and late breaking results should be submitted as a paper with a maximum of 6 pages using the same format as the regular papers. All accepted entries will be posted on the SBP-BRiMS 2017 website. A selection of authors will be invited to contribute journal versions of their papers to one of two planned special issues of the Springer journal ?Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory? and another high- profile journal. The submission website will be available at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sbpbrims2017. To register a paper abstract, use the standard Easychair submission website and submit your title and abstract. Until the final paper deadline, you will be able to update your submission. PUBLICATION For any questions and inquiries concerning submissions, please email the program chairs at sbpbrims2017 at gmail.com. PRE-CONFERENCE TUTORIAL SESSIONS: Several half-day sessions will be offered on the day before the full conference. Sessions will be designed to meet the needs of one of two distinct groups. One group will consist of attendees who have backgrounds in computational science; computer science, engineering, and other mathematically oriented disciplines. Other tutorial sessions will be designed for behavioral and social scientists and others (e.g. those with medical backgrounds or training in public health) who may have limited formal education in the computational sciences. Attendees will gain an understanding of terminology, theories, and general approaches employed by computationally based fields, especially with respect to modeling approaches. Tutorial proposal submission: Tutorial proposals should be submitted online to sbpbrims at andrew.cmu.edu. At minimum, each proposal must contain the following information: * Title of the tutorial. * Description of the tutorial topic and structure. * Expected audience (including the expected backgrounds of the attendees). * Short bio and contact information of the organizers. More details regarding the pre-conference tutorial sessions, including instructors, course content, and registration information will be posted to the conference website (SBP-BRiMS.org) as soon as this information becomes available. For further information, please contact sbpbrims at andrew.cmu.edu. CHALLENGE: The conference expects to announce a computational challenge as in previous years. Additional details will be posted on the conference website. FUNDING PANEL & CROSS-FERTILIZATION ROUNDTABLES: Previous SBP-BRiMS conferences have included a Cross-fertilization Roundtable session or a Funding Panel. The purpose of the cross- fertilization roundtables is to help participants become better acquainted with people outside of their discipline and with whom they might consider partnering on future SBP-BRiMS-related research collaborations. The Funding Panel provides an opportunity for conference participants to interact with program managers from various federal funding agencies. Participants for the previous funding panels have included representatives from federal agencies, such as the NSF, NIH, DoD, ONR, AFOSR, USDA, etc. BEST PAPER AWARDS: SBP-BRiMS17 will feature a Best Paper Award and a Best Student Paper Award. All papers are qualified for the Best Paper Award. Papers with student first authors will be considered for the Best Student Paper Award. HOTEL AND LOGISTICS: Information on hotel and logistics will be provided at the conference website as it becomes available. TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIPS: It is anticipated that a limited number travel scholarships will be available on a competitive basis. Additional information will be provided on the SBP- BRiMS Conference website as it becomes available. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pblouw at uwaterloo.ca Sat Feb 11 02:29:06 2017 From: pblouw at uwaterloo.ca (Peter Blouw) Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2017 02:29:06 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Feb. 15 Application Deadline - 2017 Nengo Summer School Message-ID: [All details about this school can be found online at http://www.nengo.ca/summerschool] The Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo is inviting applications for our 4th annual summer school on large-scale brain modeling. This two-week school will teach participants how to use the Nengo software package to build state-of-the-art cognitive and neural models to run in simulation and on neuromorphic hardware. Nengo has been used to build what is currently the world's largest functional brain model, Spaun [1], and provides users with a versatile and powerful environment for designing cognitive and neural systems to run in simulated and real environments. For a look at last year's summer school, check out this short video: https://goo.gl/EkhWCJ We welcome applications from all interested graduate students, research associates, postdocs, professors, and industry professionals. No specific training in the use of modeling software is required, but we encourage applications from active researchers with a relevant background in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, robotics, neuromorphic engineering, computer science, or a related field. [1] Eliasmith, C., Stewart T. C., Choo X., Bekolay T., DeWolf T., Tang Y., Rasmussen, D. (2012). A large-scale model of the functioning brain. Science. Vol. 338 no. 6111 pp. 1202-1205. DOI: 10.1126/science.1225266. [ http://nengo.ca/publications/spaunsciencepaper] ****Application Deadline: February 15, 2017**** *Format*: A combination of tutorials and project-based work. Participants are encouraged to bring their own ideas for projects, which may focus on testing hypotheses, modeling neural or cognitive data, implementing specific behavioural functions with neurons, expanding past models, or providing a proof-of-concept of various neural mechanisms. Hands-on tutorials, work on individual or group projects, and talks from invited faculty members will make up the bulk of day-to-day activities. A project demonstration event will be held on the last day of the school, with prizes for strong projects! *Topics Covered*: Participants will have the opportunity to learn how to: - build perceptual, motor, and sophisticated cognitive models using spiking neurons - model anatomical, electrophysiological, cognitive, and behavioural data - use a variety of single cell models within a large-scale model - integrate machine learning methods into biologically oriented models - interface Nengo with various kinds of neuromorphic hardware (e.g. SpiNNaker) - interface Nengo with cameras and robotic systems - implement modern nonlinear control methods in neural models - and much more? *Date and Location*: June 4th to June 16th, 2017 at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. *Applications*: Please visit http://www.nengo.ca/summerschool, where you can find more information regarding costs, travel, lodging, along with an application form listing required materials. If you have any questions about the school or the application process, please contact Peter Blouw (pblouw at uwaterloo.ca). We look forward to hearing from you! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From laurenz.wiskott at rub.de Sat Feb 11 03:25:31 2017 From: laurenz.wiskott at rub.de (Laurenz Wiskott) Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2017 09:25:31 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: teaching material on basic math and machine learning available Message-ID: <20170211082531.GR16719@garlic> Dear All, I have put a large part of my teaching material on basic math and machine learning online at https://www.ini.rub.de/PEOPLE/wiskott/Teaching/Material/index.html It contains lecture notes, lecture videos, analytical exercises and solutions, and python programming exercises and solutions on the following topics: Backpropagation Bayesian theory and graphical models Bias-variance dilemma Clustering Differential equations Fisher discriminant analysis Functions Independent component analysis Information theory Kernel trick Linear algebra Linear regression Multiple integrals Nonlinear expansion Optimization - analytical methods Optimization - numerical methods Principal component analysis Reinforcement learning Restricted Boltzmann machines Self-organizing maps Slow feature analysis - applications Support vector machines Vector quantization The level is somewhat mixed and some material is incomplete, but might still be useful. Please feel free to use, share, and modify under the terms of the corresponding license, usually a creative commons license. Best wishes, Laurenz Wiskott. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Laurenz Wiskott, Institut f?r Neuroinformatik, RUB Bochum, Germany, EU +49/234/32-27997, https://www.ini.rub.de/PEOPLE/wiskott/, laurenz.wiskott at rub.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From tomc at cs.ru.nl Sun Feb 12 06:12:04 2017 From: tomc at cs.ru.nl (Tom Claassen) Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2017 12:12:04 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: PhD position in Machine Learning for Ecology (1.0 FTE) Message-ID: =========================================================== PhD position in Machine Learning for Ecology (1.0 FTE, 4yrs.) Institution : Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands Keywords : causal discovery, ecological modelling, machine learning, environmental change Application deadline : 15 March 2017 Website : http://www.ru.nl/werken/details/details_vacature_0/?recid=595580 =========================================================== Summary The project aims to bridge the gap between state-of-the-art causal discovery algorithms and their application to observational ecological data, in order to help predicts factors that drive biodiversity under environmental change. To that end, causal discovery algorithms will be developed that are capable of handling the spatiotemporal dependencies that are common in field monitoring data. After testing, the algorithms will be applied to reveal cause-effect relationships from various ecological monitoring datasets. We are looking for talented, highly motivated candidates: either students from computer science/mathematics with an interest in real-world applications, or students from biology/environmental sciences with a background in modelling and statistical analysis. Description Predicting how species and ecosystems will respond to global environmental change is a central goal in ecology. As controlled experiments cannot fully address this goal, there is a clear need for innovative statistical and machine learning methods to analyse ecological field data. In this PhD project you will be developing and testing novel machine learning algorithms that can be applied to reveal causal relationships from observational ecological data. Ecological monitoring data are typically characterised by multiple spatial and temporal dependencies. For example, due to auto-ecological processes such as reproduction and dispersal, species? distribution patterns are often more clustered than would be expected based on abiotic gradients. A main challenge in this project will be to develop machine learning algorithms able to deal with such dependencies. After testing, you will apply the algorithms to large-scale ecological monitoring data in order to reveal causal relationships between species? occurrence and underlying drivers. The project is a collaboration between the Data Science group of the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences and the Environmental Science group of the Institute for Water and Wetland Research (IWWR). You will be working in both groups, at the interface of ecology and machine learning. The main focus of the Environmental Science group of IWWR is on quantifying, understanding and predicting human impacts on the environment. To that end, we employ a variety of research methods, including process-based modelling, meta-analyses, field studies and lab work. In our research we cover multiple stressors, species and spatial scales, searching for overarching principles that can ultimately be applied to better underpin environmental management and biodiversity conservation. The Data Science group?s research concerns the design and understanding of (probabilistic) machine learning methods, with a keen eye on applications in other scientific domains as well as industry. The Data Science section is part of the vibrant and growing Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS). iCIS is consistently ranked as the top Computer Science department in the Netherlands (National Research Review of Computer Science 2002-2008 and 2009-2014). What we expect from you: You have an MSc degree in natural science, computer science, mathematics, or a related discipline. You are open-minded, with a strong interest in multidisciplinary research, and you are highly motivated to perform scientific research and obtain a PhD degree. As you will be working in two different research groups, you need to be flexible, communicative and able to work in a multidisciplinary team. For more information about this vacancy and details on how to aply, see the website or contact: * Dr. Aafke Schipper, tel: +31 655461524, e-mail: a.schipper at science.ru.nl (IWWR) * Prof. Tom Heskes, tel: +31 24 3652696, e-mail: t.heskes at science.ru.nl (iCIS) * Dr. Tom Claasen, tel: +31 24 3652019, e-mail: tomc at cs.ru.nl (iCIS) =========================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From htlin at csie.ntu.edu.tw Sun Feb 12 08:27:48 2017 From: htlin at csie.ntu.edu.tw (Hsuan-Tien Lin) Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2017 21:27:48 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: ACML 2017 Call for Papers Message-ID: The 9th Asian Conference on Machine Learning (ACML 2017) will take place on November 15 - 17, 2017 at Baekyang Hall of Yonsei University campus, Seoul, Korea. We invite professionals and researchers to discuss research results and ideas in machine learning. We seek original and novel research papers resulting from theory and experiment of machine learning. The conference also solicits proposals focusing on disruptive ideas and paradigms within the scope. We encourage submissions from all parts of the world, not only confined to the Asia-Pacific region. We are running two publication tracks following the last year's practice: authors may submit either to the conference track, for which the proceedings will be published as a volume of Journal of Machine Learning Research: Workshop and Conference Proceedings (JMLR W&CP) series, or to the journal track for which accepted papers will appear in a special issue of the Machine Learning Journal. Please note that submission arrangements for the two tracks are different. Submission guidelines: http://www.acml-conf.org/2017/authors/call-for-papers/ Conference Scope Topics of interest include but are not limited to: - Learning problems Active learning, Bayesian machine learning, Deep learning, latent variable models, Dimensionality reduction, Feature selection, Graphical models, Learning for big data, Learning in graphs, Multiple instance learning, Multi-objective learning, Multi-task learning, Semi-supervised learning, Sparse learning, Structured output learning, Supervised learning, Online learning, Transfer learning, Unsupervised learning - Analysis of learning systems Computational learning theory, Experimental evaluation, Knowledge refinement, Reproducible research, Statistical learning theory - Applications Bioinformatics, Biomedical information, Collaborative filtering, Healthcare, Computer vision, Human activity recognition, Information retrieval, Natural language processing, Social networks, Web search - Learning in knowledge-intensive systems Knowledge refinement and theory revision, Multi-strategy learning, Other systems Important Dates - March 31, 2017 Journal Track Submission Deadline - May 10, 2017 Workshop and Tutorial Proposals - May 10, 2017 Early Submission Deadline - June 20, 2017 Early Notification Date - August 5, 2017 Final Submission Deadline - September 15, 2017 Final Notification Date - October 2, 2017 Final Manuscript Deadline -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hsuan-Tien Lin htlin at csie.ntu.edu.tw http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~htlin ========== Associate Professor Dept. of Computer Science and Information Engineering & Graduate Institute of Networking and Multimedia National Taiwan University -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ACML2017_CFP.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 279368 bytes Desc: not available URL: From kyunghyun.cho at nyu.edu Sun Feb 12 21:55:58 2017 From: kyunghyun.cho at nyu.edu (Kyunghyun Cho) Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2017 21:55:58 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: [2nd CFP] 2nd Workshop on Representation Learning for NLP Message-ID: The 2nd Workshop on Representation Learning for NLP ( https://sites.google.com/site/repl4nlp2017/) invites papers of a theoretical or experimental nature describing recent advances in vector space models of meaning, compositionality, and the application of deep neural networks and spectral methods to NLP. Relevant topics for the workshop include, but are not limited to, the following areas (in alphabetical order): - Analysis of language using eigenvalue, singular value and tensor decompositions - Distributional compositional semantics - Integration of distributional representations with other models - Knowledge base embedding - Language modeling for automatic speech recognition, statistical machine translation, and information retrieval - Language modeling for logical and natural reasoning - Latent-variable and representation learning for language - Multi-modal learning for distributional representations - Neural networks and deep learning in NLP - The role of syntax in compositional models - Spectral learning and the method of moments in NLP - Language embeddings and their applications = Important Dates = - Deadline for submission: 21 April 2017 - Notification of acceptance: 19 May 2017 - Deadline for camera-ready version: 26 May 2017 - Early registration deadline (ACL'17): To be announced - Workshop: 3 or 4 August 2017 = Submissions = We solicit three categories of papers: regular workshop papers, extended abstracts and cross-submissions. Only regular workshop papers will be included in the proceedings as archival publications, and only regular workshop papers will be eligible for best paper prizes. All three categories of papers may be long (maximum 8 pages plus references) or short (maximum 4 pages plus references). All submissions should be in PDF format and made through the Softconf website set up for this workshop (URL to be announced). Regular Workshop Papers Authors should submit a long paper of up to 8 pages, with up to 2 additional pages for references, or a short paper of up to 4 pages, with up to 2 additional pages for references, following the ACL 2017 formatting requirements (see the ACL 2017 Call For Papers for reference: http://acl2017.org/calls/papers/). The reported research should be substantially original. Accepted papers will be presented as posters. Reviewing will be double-blind, and thus no author information should be included in the papers; self-reference that identifies the authors should be avoided or anonymized. Accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings. = Best Paper Prizes = Thanks to generous support from our sponsors: DeepMind, Microsoft Research, and Facebook AI Research, we will be awarding a prize of $300 to the three best regular workshop paper submissions as selected by our program committee, to be presented at the workshop. Both long and short regular submissions will be eligible for prizes. Best papers may be given the opportunity for a brief ?lightning? talk to introduce their work. = Extended Abstracts = Preliminary but interesting ideas or results that have not been published before may be submitted as extended abstracts. Accepted extended abstracts will be presented as posters, and included in the workshop program and handbook, but will not be included in the workshop proceedings (and are not eligible for best paper prizes). Extended abstract submissions are therefore ideal for preliminary work which would benefit from exposure but is not ready for publication. Authors should submit a long extended abstract of up to 8 pages, with up to 2 additional pages for references, or a short extended abstract of up to 4 pages, with up to 2 additional pages for references. Submissions should follow the ACL 2017 formatting requirements (see the ACL 2017 Call For Papers for reference: http://acl2017.org/calls/papers/). Reviewing will be double-blind, and thus no author information should be included in the papers; self-reference that identifies the authors should be avoided or anonymized. = Cross-Submissions = In addition to previously unpublished work, we also solicit papers on relevant topics that have appeared in a non-NLP venue (e.g., workshop or conference papers at NIPS or ICML). Accepted cross-submissions will be presented as posters, with an indication of original venue, but will not be included in the workshop program and handbook, or the workshop proceedings (and are not eligible for best paper prizes). Cross-submissions are ideal for related work which would benefit from exposure to the RepL4NLP audience. Submission length is determined by the original venue. Interested authors should submit their papers in PDF format through the RepL4NLP Softconf website (URL to be announced), with a note on the original venue. Papers in this category do not need to follow the ACL format and selection will be solely determined by the organizing committee. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From boris.gutkin at ens.fr Mon Feb 13 03:50:11 2017 From: boris.gutkin at ens.fr (Boris Gutkin) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 09:50:11 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Advanced Studies Fellow in Computational Neuroscience @ Higher School of Economics, Moscow Message-ID: <0EEBCF08-18B0-48CC-B12F-7AF847807648@ens.fr> Theoretical Neuroscience Group (TNG), Centre for Cognition and Decision Making Higher School of Economics (HSE, Moscow) is pleased to announce a new post-doctoral post at the Theoretical Neuroscience Group (TNG) that applies computational and mathematical approaches to understanding neural function and cognition. Research interests of the TNG at the Centre for Cognition and Decision Making are wide ranging, carried out in collaboration with the experimental labs at the Center. Current research topics include include computational psychiatry, computational neuroeconomics, information processing in neurons and circuits, as well as role of oscillations in cognition. The candidate will have the opportunity to further define and expand the Group?s research programme. We are seeking highly qualified and motivated candidate with backgrounds in quantitative disciplines: applied mathematics, physics, computer science or engineering. Knowledge of biology, neuroscience and ability to work with data is highly desired. Candidates will be trained in model building, analysis and will be offered advanced training in neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Candidates will have an opportunity to develop independent research projects and collaborations under the direction of the group leading scientists. The TNG is a structural part of the HSE?s Centre for Cognition & Decision Making (http://www.hse.ru/en/cdm-centre) with ample collaboration opportunities within the Centre with other research groups, both within Russia and internationally. This new international group is tightly linked with the Group for Neural Theory at the Ecole Normale Superior in Paris (http://iec-lnc.ens.fr/group-for-neural-theory/), where research internships and visiting positions can be made available. The HSE is a young, dynamic and fast-growing research-oriented university providing unique research opportunities (http://hse.ru/en, http://psy.hse.ru/en). The Faculty of Psychology is committed to developing computational and cognitive Neuroscience. Connections with HSE applied mathematics and economics faculties is highly encouraged. Working conditions: - Collaborative access to top-notch research infrastructure (e.g. neuroimaging facilities http://psy.hse.ru/en/res-center) - Internationally competitive salary, 13% flat income tax rate and other benefits - Generous travel support and research grants provided by the University?s Centre for Advanced Studies (www.cas.hse.ru) - limited teaching load, limited administrative service required - Heavy emphasis on high quality research. Requirements: ? PhD in an appropriate area ? Fluent knowledge of English (Russian not required). DEADLINE for applications: 15 Mars 2017 More details on application process can be found here. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Jakob.Macke at caesar.de Mon Feb 13 04:02:26 2017 From: Jakob.Macke at caesar.de (Jakob Macke) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 09:02:26 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: CAJAL COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE 2017 Message-ID: CAJAL COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE 6-26 August 2017, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal http://www.cccn.pt Applications deadline: 20 March 2017 (midnight, CET time) DIRECTORS ? Gilles Laurent (MPI Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany) ? Jakob Macke (Research Center Caesar, an associate of the Max Planck Society, Bonn, Germany) ? Christian Machens (Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Portugal) Computational Neuroscience is a rapidly evolving field whose methods and techniques are critical for understanding and modelling the brain, and also for designing and interpreting experiments. Mathematical modeling is an essential tool to cut through the vast complexity of neurobiological systems and their many interacting elements. This three-weeks school teaches the central ideas, methods, and practice of modern computational neuroscience through a combination of lectures and hands-on project work. Each morning is devoted to lectures given by distinguished international faculty on topics across the breadth of experimental and computational neuroscience. During the rest of the day, students work on research projects in teams of 2-3 people under the close supervision of expert tutors and faculty. Research projects will be proposed by faculty before the course, and will include the modeling of neurons, neural systems, and behavior, the analysis of state-of-the-art neural data (behavioral data, multi-electrode recordings, calcium imaging data, connectomics data, etc.), and the development of theories to explain experimental observations. The course is designed for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from a variety of disciplines, including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics and psychology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology, a solid foundation in mathematics, as well as some computer experience. A four-day pre-school in mathematics and programming is offered for students that want to catch up on their math and programming skills. A maximum of 24 students will be accepted. Students of any nationality can apply. We specifically encourage applications from researchers who work in the developing world. Stipends are available. More information on the course website, http://www.ccn.pt Apply here: http://www.fens.org/Training/CAJAL-programme/CAJAL-Courses-2017/CCCN2017/ Contact address: Simone Zacarias, simone.zacarias at research.fchampalimaud.org Confirmed faculty: Alberto Bernacchia, University of Cambridge, UK Anne Collins, UC Berkeley Claudia Clopath, Imperial College London, UK Sophie Den?ve, Institut d'Etudes de la Cognition (IEC), France David Fitzpatrick, Max-Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, USA Julijana Gjorgjieva, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany Pedro J. Gon?alves, Research Center Caesar, an associate of Max Planck Society, Germany Michael H?usser, Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London, UK Andreas Herz, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich, Germany Matthias Kaschube, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced studies, Germany Simon Laughlin, University of Cambridge, UK M?t? Lengyel, University of Cambridge, UK Zhaoping Li, University College London, UK Jennifer Linden, UCL Ear Institute, UK Thomas Mrsic-Flogel, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, University College London, UK Astrid Prinz, Emory University, USA Maneesh Sahani, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, UK Thanos Siapas, Caltech, USA Tatjana Tchumatchenko, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany Andreas Tolias, Baylor College of Medicine, USA Byron Yu, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Jakob Macke Max Planck Research Group Leader Neural Systems Analysis phone +49/228/9656170 fax +49/228/96569170 e-mail: jakob at caesar.de www.mackelab.org research center caesar an associate of the Max Planck Society Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2 53175 Bonn, Germany www.caesar.de Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience 72076 T?bingen, Germany www.bccn-tuebingen.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr Mon Feb 13 05:24:56 2017 From: pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr (Pierre-Yves Oudeyer) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 11:24:56 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Call for postdoc application in Lifelong Deep Learning for Robotics, at Flowers Lab, Inria (Bordeaux, France) Message-ID: <47951B1F-5BFC-472A-8173-175BBC2AD3D0@inria.fr> [We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this message] Call for postdoc application in Lifelong Deep Learning for Robotics, at Flowers Lab, Inria (Bordeaux, France) Deadline: 30th march Eligibility: candidates should have obtained their PhD diploma after 1st september 2015 https://flowers.inria.fr We are searching outstanding candidates for a postdoc (16 months) who will be working on algorithms for lifelong Deep Learning for robotics, and in particular: - unsupervised or self-supervised deep learning - generative networks such as GANs and/or variational auto-encoders - deep reinforcement learning for robotic control - Intrinsic motivation - multi-task reinforcement learning, auxiliary tasks Selected candidates will have the opportunity to work with one of the robotics platforms of the Flowers lab, including several Poppy Humanoid robots and starting from the experimental setup that was runner up for the NIPS 2016 demonstration award, and showing intrinsically motivated multi-task reinforcement learning in real-time on real robots, with interaction with humans (http://goo.gl/03FW4k), or the Baxter humanoid robot (http://goo.gl/nSS7Yp). Candidates should already have shown very strong experience and achievements, shown by publications in top-tier AI/machine learning conferences and journals (e.g. NIPS, ICML, ICLR) in either: - deep learning (both theory and practical implementations) - Reinforcement learning for policy learning of parameterized skills in robotics How to apply =========== CVs and letters of motivation should be sent to Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr) before 30th march. The successful candidate would begin to work in september 2017. Deadline: 30th march Eligibility: candidates should have obtained their PhD diploma after 1st september 2015 Pierre-Yves Oudeyer Research director, Inria Head of Flowers Lab Inria and Ensta ParisTech http://www.pyoudeyer.com https://flowers.inria.fr More info: The Flowers Lab: developmental robotics and lifelong multitask machine learning =================================================================== The Flowers Lab, headed by Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, gathers a team of ~20 members and has been one of the pioneers of developmental robotics and lifelong machine learning and artificial intelligence in the last decade, in particular through developping models of intrinsically motivated learning of repertoires of skills that have both contributed to advance understanding of human curiosity and development, and to advance incremental online multitask machine learning techniques in difficult high-dimensional robotic spaces. This work in the Flowers lab is conducted in the context of large international projects (e.g. ERC grant, European projects 3rdHand and DREAM, HFSP project Neurocuriosity), with interdisicplinary collaborations with other labs in neuroscience, psychology, machine learning and robotics. The successful candidates would be directly involved in these international collaborations. The Flowers lab has recently spin-off the Pollen Robotics startup company, and is involved in multiple collaborations with industrials through Inria's strong support towards impacting both science and industry. Inria and EnstaParistech =================== The lab is within Inria, which is a prestigious, and also the largest, public European research insitution focused on computer science, mathematics and their applications. Inria's teams and researchers (> 2800 employees) have received prestigious awards, coordinate many international projects, and have created strong innovations now used in many parts of industry. Inria research center in Bordeaux gathers around 300 researchers. The Flowers Lab is also associated to EnstaParisTech, which is a prestigious French engineering school (university). Bordeaux ======== The Flowers lab in Bordeaux is located in a great building on the border of one of the world most famous vineyard, and 10mn by tram from Bordeaux town center (and 2 hours from Paris through high-speed trains): https://www.inria.fr/en/centre/bordeaux Bordeaux has been recently rated by Lonely Planet as the world's best city to visit: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/best-cities-in-the-world-top-10-lonely-planet-bordeaux-cape-town-la-a7379066.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From janla at dtu.dk Mon Feb 13 08:24:16 2017 From: janla at dtu.dk (Jan Larsen) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 13:24:16 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Active Deep Learning for Nano Sensor Systems Message-ID: A PhD project in Active Deep Learning for Nano Sensor Systems is available from April 1st at DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark. Please apply by March 1 via http://www.dtu.dk/english/career/job?id=9f25d4e3-2cd0-463e-b9da-5862b69512da The PhD project is associated with IDUN Sensor research that focuses on development and exploration of nano-mechanical biosensors. Data processing and modelling are indispensable multipurpose tools for sensor development and evaluation and analysis of results in demonstration activities. In sensor development, data modelling tools provide other views and insight into the physical and chemical properties of the sensor as well as sensing principle; hence, improving sensor development in terms of time-use, but also the ability to robustly confirm hypotheses about the sensor's functionality. In relation to sensor demonstration activities, data modelling is important for obtaining robust sensor performance by suppressing of noise caused by undesired physical and chemical properties of the sensor as well as uncontrollable experimental factors. Recent advances within the deep learning field has shown remarkable performance in a great variety of data processing tasks. The PhD project will focus on developing new active learning methods for deep neural network models. Such methods can provide optimal experimental design and hypothesis testing for sensor development, and further reduce the need for user labels in connection with demonstration of detection and predictive sensing capabilities. The methodological research relates to, and will leverage from, current advances in Bayesian optimization; one-shot-learning; generative adversarial networks; and users-in-the-loop models, where the user is the sensor developer and/or an end-user providing labeled information. Requirements Candidates must have a master degree in either machine learning, computational science and engineering, applied mathematics, engineering, or equivalent academic qualifications. Preference will be given to candidates who can document knowledge in machine learning, neural networks, and sensor information processing and in addition have a background and experience with Bayesian statistics, experimental design and sensor systems. Furthermore, good command of the English language is essential. Further Information Further information concerning the project can be obtained from Professor Jan Larsen, +45 4525 3923, janla at dtu.dk and Senior Researcher Tommy S. Alstr?m, +45 4525 3431, tsal at dtu.dk Best regards, Jan Larsen [Picture1] Jan Larsen Professor of Data Science and Complexity, Ph.D. Section for Cognitive Systems Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Richard Petersens Plads, Building 324 Technical University of Denmark DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark Office location: Room 015, Building 321 Direct: (+45) 45 25 39 23 Mobile: (+45) 22 43 00 25 Email: janla at dtu.dk Skype: janflynut Web: http://people.compute.dtu.dk/janla Twitter: https://twitter.com/janflynut @janflynut Linkedin: https://dk.linkedin.com/in/janlarsendtu [DTU 3] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 22255 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2112 bytes Desc: image002.jpg URL: From Roland.Baddeley at bristol.ac.uk Mon Feb 13 09:27:48 2017 From: Roland.Baddeley at bristol.ac.uk (Roland Baddeley) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 14:27:48 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PhD Studentship on Deep neural networks. University of Bristol Message-ID: PhD Studentship: Deep neural networks, investigating what they compute and why they work so well University of Bristol - School of Experimental Psychology Funding amount: Fees and Stipend for 3.5 years Closes: 28th February 2017 The project: A fully funded (EPSRC) PhD studentship is available at the University of Bristol, UK, to study deep neural networks, investigating what they compute and why they work so well. Deep neural networks have proved tremendously powerful methods for solving many pattern recognition problems. They consist of a method for representing a problem, together with techniques for finding good solutions. In the abstract a neural network represents a problem as a (potentially very large) number of transformations, computed by layers of "neurons", that each operate on the output of the previous layer. The final layer consists of a representation, knowledge of which allows the problem to be solved. Training rules then consist of discrete approximations to stochastic differential equations, with these noisy equations being based on large data sets of examples of the desired behaviour. Empirically, we know that these methods work very well and, at least when trained with very large data sets, produce solutions that generalise better than almost all alternative techniques. They have therefore become the basis of many of the advances in artificial intelligence. What is ! far less clear is why. This PhD aims to try to work out: why neural networks work; what all the tuning parameters "mean"; if there are better ways of parameterising these transforms other than the crude but effective methods currently used; and if there are alternative cost functions that result in more robust learning early on in "training". The plan is to use methods from statistical physics and differential geometry to characterise both what each layer/transform does, and what the combined effect of the multiple layers is. The candidate is therefore expected to have a strong mathematical background, and will be expected to have taken courses in either some kind of differential geometry, statistical physics or both. The project will require empirical investigation of the behaviour of deep neural networks, usually using synthetic problems where the characteristics of the problems are well understood. Therefore some experience in programming (any language) would be an advantage, but given that the tools available are so good and easy to learn, not essential. The candidate would be based in the School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, but we have strong connections with other Schools within the University. For more information contact: Roland Baddeley (roland.baddeley at bristol.ac.uk) or Nick Scott-Sammuel (N.E.Scott-Samuel at bristol.ac.uk) How to apply: Please make an online application for this project at http://www.bris.ac.uk/pg-howtoapply. Please select PhD Experimental Psychology on the Programme Choice page. You will be prompted to enter details of the studentship in the Funding and Research Details sections of the form. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rrosenb1 at nd.edu Mon Feb 13 12:09:11 2017 From: rrosenb1 at nd.edu (Robert Rosenbaum) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 12:09:11 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Registration Open: International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience (ICMNS 2017) Message-ID: Registration is open for the 3rd International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience (ICMNS 2017), to be held at the Hotel Boulderado in Boulder, Colorado from May 30 to June 2, 2017. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international-conference-on-mathematical-neuroscience-icmns-2017-tickets-31881894605 Early Registration is possible until March 31, 2017: $270 (students/postdocs) and $360 (faculty), and $60 for tutorials. Fees will increase after that. Looking forward to your registrations! Zachary Kilpatrick (University of Colorado) Julijana Gjorgjieva (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research) Robert Rosenbaum (University of Notre Dame) From stefanos at cs.ntua.gr Mon Feb 13 10:50:24 2017 From: stefanos at cs.ntua.gr (Stefanos Kollias) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 17:50:24 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: ph.d. studentship on deep neural networks in university of lincoln uk Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, I would be grateful if you published the following advertisement on the connectionists network. Thank you very much. Sincerely S. Kollias --------------------------------------- Ph.D. Studentship: Deep neural networks, adaptation and transparency University of Lincoln - School of Computer Science Funding amount: Fees and Stipend for 3+ years. Starting period: currently available Research area: A fully funded (by the CS School)Ph.D. studentship is available at the University of Lincoln, UK, to study deep neural networks in applications related to biomedical signal analysis and/or big data analysis, especially related to adaptation and transparency issues. For more information contact: Professor Stefanos Kollias ( skollias at lincoln.ac.uk ) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From basab.sen.b at googlemail.com Mon Feb 13 17:30:23 2017 From: basab.sen.b at googlemail.com (Basabdatta Sen Bhattacharya) Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2017 22:30:23 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Announcing the publication of "Computational Neurology and Psychiatry" Message-ID: We are pleased to announce the publication of "Computational Neurology and Psychiatry", a compiled edition in the Springer series in Bio-/Neuroinformatics. The chapters are a fantastic collection, sampling state-of-the-art in computational modelling techniques being adopted worldwide in neurology and psychiatric research: http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319499581 You can also find this on Facebook page of Springer Engineering: https://www.facebook.com/SpringerEngineering/ Enjoy the read! and please do remember to share the links. Thoughts and comments on the Facebook page are very welcome. regards, Peter, Basab, Amy --------------------------------------------------------------- Mrs. Basabdatta Sen Bhattacharya, PhD Research Staff, BIMPC project SpiNNaker team, APT Group School of Computer Science University of Manchester http://apt.cs.manchester.ac.uk/people/bsen -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From yifanhu at yahoo.com Tue Feb 14 09:38:26 2017 From: yifanhu at yahoo.com (Yifan Hu) Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2017 14:38:26 +0000 (UTC) Subject: Connectionists: PhD Research Internship In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1414014845.4481651.1487083106025@mail.yahoo.com> The Data Science group at Yahoo Research is looking for outstanding PhD intern research scientists for the Summer 2017. We are looking for candidates with a strong research record and implementation skills in areas such as data mining, applied machine learning and visualization. The candidates will have the opportunity to do research with web-scale data and alongside top scientists, and to publish at top tier conferences. The internships will be based in New York City, in the former New York Times building near Time Square! Requirements: - Currently enrolled in PhD program with focus on data mining, applied machine learning, visualization, computational security or related fields. - Strong publication records. - Strong algorithmic problem solving skills, and the ability to implement solutions in Java, Scala, Python etc. - Senior year PhD students studying in the US preferred. Please send your CV to yifanhu at?yahoo-inc.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk Wed Feb 15 11:13:43 2017 From: thomas.wennekers at plymouth.ac.uk (Thomas Wennekers) Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2017 16:13:43 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Final call: Workshop on Brain dynamics on multiple scales -- MSBDy 2017, 19-23 June, Dresden, Germany Message-ID: <201702151613.43495.thomas.wennekers@plymouth.ac.uk> Dear All Apologies for cross-postings! Please note that the call for the workshop below closes soon. Regards Thomas Call for participation Workshop on Brain dynamics on multiple scales ? paradigms, their relations, and integrated approaches MSBDy 2017, 19-23 June, Dresden, Germany WORKSHOP WEBSITE: http://www.pks.mpg.de/msbdy17/ APPLICATION DEADLINE: 28 Feb 2017 ABSTRACT Previous research paradigms in the brain sciences have often focused on one spatial or temporal scale only, for instance defined by the experimental technique of choice or a specific set of cognitive phenomena. This workshop aims at exploring paradigms and concepts such as complexity, information, or dynamical systems that provide bridges, links, relations, or connections between two, three or more "elements of brain science" and link them to recent developments in mathematics, physics, and neurobiological experimental techniques. Workshop sessions 1. The Brain as a complex system ? complex networks, dynamics and criticality, ?understanding the interplay between structure, dynamics, and function. 2. Information Processing and Coding ?: what is the current state in using information?-theoretic principles like infomax, complexity measures, evidence, or surprise ?as tools to understand the brain? 3. Brain Oscillations, Waves and Synchronisation ?: what are their functional roles? 4. Multiple scales and levels: ? what are proper "building blocks" of the brain or a brain theory? 5. Large? scale cognitive brain systems: ? what are the best approaches to an understanding of high? level cognitive and brain functions including consciousness? DETAILS The workshop takes place on the premises of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex systems in Dresden. Thanks to a generous grant by the MPIPKS participation in the event is free, with the exception of a modest fee of Euro 120 for social dinners, excursions and coffee breaks. The grant otherwise covers food and subsistence in the guest house of the MPIPKS for accepted participants. Posters can be hung for the duration of the meeting. To apply, please follow: http://www.pks.mpg.de/msbdy17/ IMPORTANT DATES: - Application Deadline: 28 Feb 2017 - Notification of acceptance: 31 Mar 2017 - Workshop Date: 19 Jun - 23 Jun 2017 SPEAKERS Bruno Cessac (INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France) Gustavo Deco (UPF Barcelona, Spain) Stanislas Dehaene (INSERM-CEA, College de France) Alain Destexhe (UNIC, CNRS, France) Markus Diesmann (J?lich Research Centre, Germany) Stephen Grossberg (Boston University, USA) Ole Jensen (Donders Institute, Nijmegen, NL) Mark A Kramer (Boston University, USA) Anders Lansner (Stockholm University and KTH, Sweden) Christoph Michel (Universit? de Gen?ve, Switzerland) Juergen Jost (MPI for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany) Guenther Palm (University of Ulm, Germany) Simon Schulz (Imperial College London, UK) Elad Schneidman (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel) Marc Timme (MPI f?r Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, G?ttingen, Germany) Giulio Tononi (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, to be confirmed) Vlad Vyazovskiy (University of Oxford, UK) ORGANIZERS Peter Achermann (University of Zurich, Switzerland) Eckehard Olbrich (MPI for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany) Thomas Wennekers (University of Plymouth, UK) ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This workshop is supported by the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. ________________________________ [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 juergen at idsia.ch Wed Feb 15 13:30:31 2017 From: juergen at idsia.ch (Schmidhuber Juergen) Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2017 19:30:31 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Deep Learning Jobs for PostDocs & PhD Students at the Swiss AI Lab, IDSIA In-Reply-To: <2423969.14eWsBnFuL@michael-computing> References: <31FBB059-0688-48FF-97A1-85CC36CDA4A0@idsia.ch> <2AB523F7-861B-4029-AE35-B745BC4505CA@idsia.ch> <1A9D11E0-0BEE-4D11-9716-6A410C60121E@idsia.ch> <2423969.14eWsBnFuL@michael-computing> Message-ID: <1D3C6B9F-B4BA-4C01-A177-1C7290633719@idsia.ch> New Jobs at IDSIA for PostDocs and PhD Students thanks to Google DeepMind, NVIDIA and SNF Please follow instructions under http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/jobs2017.html Our Very Deep Learning Neural Networks such as LSTM are now available to billions of users through the world?s most valuable public companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Baidu, Amazon. But this is just the beginning of the path towards true AI. Join us to push the frontiers! We specifically invite applications from experienced postdocs. J?rgen Schmidhuber http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/whatsnew.html . From nikunj.c.oza at nasa.gov Wed Feb 15 22:06:45 2017 From: nikunj.c.oza at nasa.gov (Oza, Nikunj C. (ARC-TI)) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 03:06:45 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: NASA Big Data/Machine Learning Early Career Faculty Call for Proposals Message-ID: NASA Funding Opportunity for Early Career Faculty in Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence for NASA Data Challenges Please see http://tinyurl.com/NASA-17ECF for listing of four topics, including "Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Solutions for NASA Data Challenges" (provided below for reference) as well as general program information, eligibility, proposal requirements, and other relevant information. For questions, please e-mail hq-ecf-call at mail.nasa.gov. Due dates: NOIs (strongly encouraged): March 3, 2017 (5PM Eastern) Proposals: March 31, 2017 (5PM Eastern, 2PM Pacific) ----- Topic 4 - Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Solutions for NASA Data Challenges The objective of this topic is to develop and apply advanced data science methodologies, such as predictive analytics and machine learning, to aid domain experts in discovering new insights for NASA science and exploration---called computer-aided insight generation. NASA invests significant resources in collecting and storing two primary types of large, heterogeneous datasets from space exploration and science missions. The first type of data, referred to as science data, are data that directly relate to the science objective of the mission, such as Earth science data collected by satellite instruments. Other science data, as distinct from direct observations, could be predictions of physical phenomena from modeling and simulations. The second type of data, referred to as operations data, are data that represent the operational state and health of the spacecraft systems and instruments that support the collection of the science data. NASA?s science data are designed to provide insight into physical processes and advance scientific disciplines. While traditional analysis approaches such as those focused on physics-based modeling have yielded transformative insights, science data may be under-utilized, particularly as the scale, complexity, and multi-disciplinary nature of the data and phenomena grow. NASA has substantial operations data from science missions that are often critical to perform the science reconstruction and generate science data products, but are even more valuable when they are transformed into useful insights and knowledge that can inform improvements for current and future missions. Manual and multi-disciplinary analyses of these data are becoming increasingly impractical due to the quintessential "Big Data" problem of rapidly growing data volume, variety (in data types, data rates, and other characteristics), and velocity (rate at which data is produced). Veracity of these data---the question of how accurate the data are---is also an important challenge to overcome for any confident insight generation. Modern "Big Data" problems are not unique to NASA. Other organizations, including other government agencies and U.S. industry also have datasets for which manual methods are impractical. Common challenges include: * Understanding the full data lifecycle * Capturing and curating data from repositories that may not be well-architected to enable easy access to distributed, heterogeneous data * Developing novel statistical approaches (or other approaches including physics-based modeling) for data analysis and other mechanisms for identifying and extracting interesting features and patterns * Methodologies for validating results and comparing predictions to measurements, and visualizing massive datasets and results Organizations are increasingly utilizing commercial as well as free or open-source computer software that implement machine learning and data mining algorithms to aid in analyzing large, complex datasets. Many organizations are extending these existing tools for their own needs. Universities are performing research and development to create new algorithms and methods in machine learning and data mining, among others. However, most developments have not been applied to NASA science and operations data nor have they been developed with issues unique to the NASA community in mind. A variety of machine learning and other artificial intelligence technologies such as case-based reasoning and goal-oriented planning can learn from science or operations data and can generate predictions or classifications efficiently, such as for understanding long-term equipment health trends. NASA problems sometimes require combinations of science and operations data to explore trade-offs for current and future mission planning as well as to generate new insights for advancing the science discipline. Additionally, for NASA applications, it is valuable to have technologies that can be utilized by domain experts to discover useful insights. This requires data-driven methods that exhibit transparency, the ability to accept feedback, and utilization of existing domain knowledge in the form of physics-based models. This solicitation topic specifically seeks innovative university research to develop computer-aided insight generation tools that can be applied to science and operational data of NASA science and exploration. Potential research focuses include, but are not limited to, computer-aided tools that: * Produce new insights (as defined below) from NASA science and operations data, or combinations of NASA science and operations data * Fuse physics-based and other traditional scientific modeling approaches with advanced data science methodologies such as predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning approaches New developments of computer-aided tools to generate insights from NASA science and operations data should consider the following features, at a minimum: * Ability to collect and curate datasets (such as providing provenance metadata) through interaction with existing data repositories * Ability to formulate and test hypotheses regarding data quality and anomalies from the combination of science and operations data * Ability to scale analyses to large and heterogeneous datasets * Ability to reveal, in a human-interpretable form, how decisions/insights are derived * Ability to accept user feedback on the results (in the form of corrections and features that constitute the user's rationales for the corrections) * Ability to provide validation, such as comparing models vs. measurements Proposers selected for award are expected to demonstrate their tools on NASA science and operations data during the course of the award. To enable this, NASA domain experts will facilitate access to data and models necessary to pursue the research. Proposers selected for award are also expected to compare the performance of any novel methods developed with relevant existing machine learning and data mining tools, as appropriate. Proposers are encouraged to leverage open-source tools and engage in open-source communities of practice. Please refer to Section 7---Points of Contact for Further Information of this Appendix if you have technical questions pertaining to this topic. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Uwe.Aickelin at nottingham.edu.cn Wed Feb 15 20:30:35 2017 From: Uwe.Aickelin at nottingham.edu.cn (Uwe Aickelin) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 01:30:35 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Li Dak Sum Chair Professor in Computer Science Message-ID: Hello, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China is currently recruiting Li Dak Sum Chair Professor in Computer Science. It will be much appreciated if you can help forward this email to suitable candidates. Li Dak Sum Chair Professor in Computer Science Reference: UNNC475 Closing Date: Open till filled Job Type: Research & Teaching Location: Ningbo China Salary & Benefits: Salary is negotiable depending on skills and experience. In addition, an attractive package including accommodation allowance, travel allowance and insurance will be provided for international appointments Informal enquires and applications shall be addressed to Professor Guoping Qiu, Head of School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. Email: Guoping.Qiu at nottingham.edu.cn. The ideal application will include a cover letter, resume, a full list of research outcomes and a brief working plan with output for the next five years. Interviews will take place in Ningbo, China. Please quote ref. UNNC475 The closing date for an initial review of applicants will be Thursday 23 February 2017. The post will remain open until filled. For more details please access: http://www.nottingham.edu.cn/en/hr/jobs/li-dak-sum-chair-professors/unnc475.aspx This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with The University of Nottingham Ningbo China may be monitored as permitted by UK and Chinese legislation. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From malin.sandstrom at incf.org Thu Feb 16 05:33:40 2017 From: malin.sandstrom at incf.org (=?UTF-8?Q?Malin_Sandstr=C3=B6m?=) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 11:33:40 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Call for seed funding applications | Deadline: March 16 Message-ID: Dear all, INCF* invites applications for seed funding of collaborative brain research projects. The deadline for submission is no later than *March 16, 2017*. Projects and travels must be completed within 2017. We received many great applications last round, and encourage resubmissions. NB however an important change from last round: the project leader must now be based in one of the six *INCF governing member* countries. Seed funding grants should facilitate community work in collaborative brain research, promote the use of neuroinformatics solutions, and accelerate advances in understanding the brain and treating its illnesses, with a strong potential for community support and uptake. There are three types of funding available: project funding, workshop funding and travel grants. *Travel grants* will be used to support collaborative work. One of the collaborators (traveller or host) must be based in one of the six INCF governing member countries. The proposed travel should support one or more of the following: - exchange of information relevant to neuroinformatics between parties based in different countries - progression of work relevant to neuroinformatics requiring the participant to travel to another location, usually another country, for collaboration - participation in training or education as a lecturer or participant (but not general attendance at scientific meetings) *Workshop funding* supports organisation and hosting of scientific meetings and workgroup meetings. The leader of a funded proposal must be based in one of the six INCF governing member countries. *Project funding* supports projects that will deliver tools, data, research, education, training or community development, for example: - driving forward delivery of a product that addresses a neuroscience use case - enable a project to develop to the stage of attracting larger-scale external funding, for example initial consortium meetings or pilot data collection - development of training or educational content The funding could facilitate, for example: initial consortia formation for the creation of a competitive funding proposal; work to demonstrate a proof of concept; tool development or integration; or development of education and training content. The leader of a funded proposal must be based in one of the six INCF governing member countries. *Requirements* All participants of a funded proposal must commit to sharing all reports, data, code, and training/education materials from the final project, subject to any limitations imposed by any subsequent funder. Projects, workshops and travels must be completed during 2017. More information and FAQ: https://www.incf.org/resources/funding-support Abstracts from 2016 funded grants are available on our webpage: https://www.incf.org/resources/funding-support/funded-grants-in-2016 *INCF is an international organization launched in 2005, following a proposal from the Global Science Forum of the OECD to establish international coordination and collaborative informatics infrastructure for neuroscience. The INCF international network currently spans North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. INCF fosters the global digital interconnectivity of data, methods and people engaged in brain research to catalyze insights into brain function in health and disease. -- Malin Sandstr?m, PhD Community Engagement Officer malin.sandstrom at incf.org International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Karolinska Institutet Nobels v?g 15 A SE-171 77 Stockholm Sweden http://www.incf.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gunnar.blohm at gmail.com Thu Feb 16 10:05:20 2017 From: gunnar.blohm at gmail.com (Gunnar Blohm) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 10:05:20 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: CoSMo 2017: call for applications Message-ID: *7th Annual Computational Sensory-Motor Neuroscience Summer School (CoSMo 2017)* University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA July 30 - August 13, 2017 We would like to invite applications for the 7th annual Computational Sensory-Motor Neuroscience Summer School. The course is about experimental, computational and medical aspects of sensory-motor neuroscience with a focus on active learning. Covered topics include multi-sensory integration, motor learning & control (also clinical), computational methods, sensory-motor transformations and neural coding / decoding. An important focus is on doing research as opposed to just hearing about it. Each teaching module will take up two days, combining lectures with hands-on Matlab programming, simulation and data-analysis. Newly acquired computational tools can also be applied in 2-week evening group research projects. The course is aimed at graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from diverse backgrounds including Life Sciences, Psychology, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics and Engineering. Basic knowledge in calculus, linear algebra and Matlab is expected. Enrollment will be limited to 40 trainees. *Application deadline: Apr 11, 2017* For more information and to apply, please go to http://www.compneurosci.com/CoSMo/ Scholarship information and the application form can be found here: http://www.compneurosci.com/CoSMo/application.html The school is co-organized by Drs Gunnar Blohm, Paul Schrater, and Konrad K?rding. This year, it receives funding from the NIH through a Brain Initiative R25 grant and from The Brain Canada Foundation. -- ------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Gunnar BLOHM Associate Professor in Computational Neuroscience Association for Canadian Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience (CNCN) Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Departments of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics, and Psychology, School of Computing, and Canadian Action and Perception Network (CAPnet) Queen?s University 18, Stuart Street Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6 Tel: (613) 533-3385 Fax: (613) 533-6840 Email: Gunnar.Blohm at QueensU.ca Web: http://www.compneurosci.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ralph.etiennecummings at gmail.com Thu Feb 16 13:38:31 2017 From: ralph.etiennecummings at gmail.com (Ralph Etienne-Cummings) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 13:38:31 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: 2017 Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop: Call for Participation Message-ID: *Call for Applications to the 2017 NEUROMORPHIC COGNITION ENGINEERING WORKSHOP* *Sunday June 25th - Saturday July 16th, 2017, Telluride, Colorado* *Application Website: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/8908 * Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering Webpages: http://ine-web.org/ Past workshop wiki is at http://telluride.iniforum.ch/ *IMPORTANT DATES FOR APPLICATION* (Instructions are at the bottom of the page) Application Website Open - 16th February, 2017 Applications Due - 2nd April, 2017 Notification of Acceptance - 15th April, 2017 *GOALS:* Neuromorphic engineers design and fabricate artificial neural systems whose organizing principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. Over the past 18 years, this research community has focused on the understanding of low-level sensory processing and systems infrastructure; efforts are now expanding to apply this knowledge and infrastructure to addressing higher-level problems in perception, cognition, and learning. In this 3-week intensive workshop and through the Institute for Neuromorphic Engineering (INE), the mission is to promote interaction between senior and junior researchers; to educate new members of the community; to introduce new enabling fields and applications to the community; to promote on-going collaborative activities emerging from the Workshop, and to promote a self-sustaining research field. *The 2017 workshop will be focused on the theme of Neuromorphic Autonomous Agents.* *FORMAT:* The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems and cognitive neuroscience (in particular sensory processing, learning and memory, motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on emerging hardware design, mobile robots, hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, some of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. Following the theme of the 2017 workshop, the projects this year will focus on developments in robotics, learning, control, sensors, language and reasoning, and computational/experimental aspects of systems that can accomplish goals with limited human intervention. *2017 TOPIC AREAS:* Tracking Auditory Attention with Science and Robots: Edmund Lalor (University of Rochester/Trinity College Dublin), Alain de Cheveigne (ENS/CNRS/UCL) Neuromorphic Approaches to Drone Autonomy: Kwabena Boahen (Stanford University), Chris Eliasmith (University of Waterloo) Neuromorphic Event-based Compound Eyes and Vision: Ryad Benjamin Benosman (UPMC, Paris), Elisabetta Chicca (University of Bielefeld) Neuromorphic Autonomous Agents for Exploration and Navigation of Unknown Environments : Emre Neftci (University of California, Irvine) and Scott Koziol (Baylor University) Computational Neuroscience (invitational mini-workshop) : Terry Sejnowski (Salk Institute) *LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS:* The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350 miles). There are several small airports (e.g. Montrose) close to Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Wireless internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. *FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS:* Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around the April 15th, 2017. The Workshop covers all your accommodations and facilities costs for the 3 weeks duration. You are responsible for your own travel to the Workshop. Registration Fees: For expenses not covered by federal funds, a Workshop registration fee is required. The fee is 1500 USD per participant for the 3-week Workshop. This is expected from all participants at the time of acceptance. Accommodations: The cost of a shared condominium, typically a bedroom in a shared condo for senior participants or a shared room for students, will be covered for all academic participants. Upgrades to a private rooms or condos will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. The 2017 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, The EU-Collaborative Convergent Science Network (CNS-II), University of Maryland - College Park, Institute for Neuroinformatics ? University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, University of Western Sydney and the Salk Institute. *Workshop Directors:* Cornelia Ferm?ller (University of Maryland) Ralph Etienne-Cummings (Johns Hopkins University) Shih-Chii Liu (University of Zurich and ETH Zurich) Timmer Horiuchi (University of Maryland) Katalin Gothard (University of Arizona) Michael Pfeiffer (University of Zurich and ETH Zurich) Francisco Barranco (University of Granada) *Former 2007-2013 Workshop Director:* Tobi Delbruck (University of Zurich and ETH Zurich) *Workshop Advisory Board:* Andreas Andreou (Johns Hopkins University) Andre van Schaik (University Western Sydney, Australia) Avis Cohen (University of Maryland) Barbara Shinn-Cunningham (Boston University) Giacomo Indiveri (Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich) Jonathan Tapson (University Western Sydney, Australia) Malcolm Slaney (Google) Jennifer Hasler (Georgia Institute of Technology) Rodney Douglas (Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich) Ryad Benosman (Institut de la Vision, France) Shihab Shamma (University of Maryland) Tobi Delbruck (Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich) *HOW TO APPLY:* Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. Anyone interested in proposing or discussing specific projects should contact the appropriate topic leaders directly. The application website is: *https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/8908 * Important Note: This is not a job application but a mechanism to receive applications for the Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Workshop *Application information needed:* Contact email address. First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. Curriculum Vitae (a short version, please). One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop, including possible ideas for workshop projects. Please indicate which topic areas you would most likely join. Two letters of recommendation (uploaded directly by references). *Applicants will be notified by e-mail.* 16th February, 2017 - Applications Accepted on Website 2nd April, 2017 - Applications Due 15th April, 2017 - Notification of Acceptance *Direct all questions to : Ms. Pamela White at tellurideworkshop at gmail.com * -- Ralph Etienne-Cummings, PhD, FIEEE Professor and Chairman Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Computational Sensor Motor Systems Lab Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics The Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD [image: cid:image001.png at 01CFC064.B58B46A0] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 20171 bytes Desc: not available URL: From m.hausser at ucl.ac.uk Thu Feb 16 18:33:50 2017 From: m.hausser at ucl.ac.uk (Hausser, Michael) Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 23:33:50 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Neuropixels postdoctoral position at UCL Message-ID: <6CAE59CE-4685-47AA-A37E-3421AB376419@ucl.ac.uk> A postdoctoral position is available in the Neural Computation lab at UCL (http://www.dendrites.org/) The project will involve making recordings using revolutionary new high-density silicon probes, known as "Neuropixels" (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/neuropixels) to investigate computation in neural circuits during behaviour. These recordings will be integrated with other techniques being used in the lab such as two-photon microscopy, two-photon optogenetics, and behavioral paradigms in virtual reality. Opportunities exist for collaborations with colleagues in computational neuroscience, engineering, computer science and other fields. UCL is based in central London, with the highest concentration of neuroscience research in the world. The ideal candidate will have a background in systems, computational or cellular neuroscience. Experience with in vivo electrophysiology and/or two-photon microscopy would be an asset, as would strong programming ability in MATLAB or Python. The post is funded for 1 year in the first instance and the start date is flexible. You should apply for this post (Ref #: 1623610) through UCL's online recruitment website, www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/jobs. Closing date for applications is 20 February 2017. For informal inquiries please contact Dr. Michael Hausser (m.hausser at ucl.ac.uk). ---------------------------------------------------------- Michael Hausser Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT UK tel +44-20-7679-6756 email m.hausser at ucl.ac.uk http://www.dendrites.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr Fri Feb 17 04:44:10 2017 From: pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr (Pierre-Yves Oudeyer) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2017 10:44:10 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [publication and call for dialog] IEEE CIS Newsletter on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, Fall 2016 Message-ID: Dear colleagues, I am happy to announce the release of the latest issue of the IEEE CIS Newsletter on Cognitive and Developmental Systems (open access). This is a biannual newsletter addressing the sciences of developmental and cognitive processes in natural and artificial organisms, from humans to robots, at the crossroads of cognitive science, developmental psychology, machine intelligence and neuroscience. It is available at: http://goo.gl/MLijbn Featuring dialog: === "What is Computational Reproducibility?" == Dialog initiated by Olivia Guest and Nicolas Rougier with responses from: Konrad Hinsen, Sharon Crooke, Ga?l Varoquaux, Todd Gureckis and Alexander Rich, Robert French and Caspar Addyman, and Celeste Kidd. == Topic: Computational models of cognitive and developmental living systems need to address several major challenges in order to achieve scientific impact: reproducibility, replicability, but also reusability in an interdisciplinary community. Indeed, one needs to ensure that models? implementations and experimentations match their high-level specifications. ?%nIt is also key to conduct alternative implementations and experimentations to distinguish which aspects of these models are key concepts, and which others are tools for experimenting these concepts. Last but not least, models should be understandable and reusable by other researchers who are not always themselves computational experts, which is facilitated when they are delivered in a way that allows non-experts to directly ?play? with these models. Call for new dialog: === "Exploring Robotic Minds by Predictive Coding Principle" == Dialog initiated by Jun Tani == In a new dialog initiation, Jun Tani, who has been studying recurrent neural networks models of sensorimotor development for the last 20 years, asks which ingredients are needed to enable neural architectures with capabilities of infant-like learning and development. In particular, he observes that recent deep learning advances are still lacking infant-like capabilities for learning incrementally from very little data, and asks whether computational models of staged development could enable progress towards infant-like lifelong deep learning. He also discusses the potential role of the predictive coding principle in development. Those of you interested in reacting to this dialog initiation are welcome to submit a response by May 30th, 2017. The length of each response must be between 600 and 800 words including references (contact pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr). Let me remind you that all issues of the newsletter are all open-access and available at: http://icdl-epirob.org/cdsnl I wish you a stimulating reading! Best regards, Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, Editor of the IEEE CIS Newsletter on Cognitive and Developmental Systems Research director, Inria Head of Flower project-team Inria and Ensta ParisTech, France http://www.pyoudeyer.com https://flowers.inria.fr http://www.poppy-project.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/pyoudeyer and Fabien Benureau Assistand Editor Inria Mnemosyne team Inria, France -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ncasan at sg.uji.es Fri Feb 17 06:08:51 2017 From: ncasan at sg.uji.es (=?UTF-8?B?R3VzdGF2byBBZG9sZm8gQ2FzYcOxIE7DusOxZXo=?=) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2017 12:08:51 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: CFP IJCNN 2017 Workshop on 'Developmental Plasticity and Evolutionary Robotics', Anchorage, May 19, 2017 (Half day) Message-ID: **** Call for Papers **** IJCNN 2017 Workshop on 'Developmental Plasticity and Evolutionary Robotics', Anchorage, May 19, 2017 (Half day) You are kindly invited to contribute to the IJCNN 2017 Half day Workshop on 'Developmental Plasticity and Evolutionary Robotics' which will be held in Anchorage, on May 29, 2017 in conjunction with the 2017 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks: http://www.ijcnn.org/workshops This workshop will address the impact that developmental plasticity can have on evolutionary robotics from a multidisciplinary perspective. Given its fundamental role in driving diversification and speciation, this emerging and growing area of research can possibly contribute to a new paradigm in developmental and evolutionary robotics. We will discuss how developmental (phenotypic) plasticity can play a major role in emerging paradigms in evolutionary robotics. Recent progress in evolutionary biology suggests that the interplay between robotics research and the current understanding of the plasticity mechanisms underlying the development of living organisms is a very promising track to be followed. Interaction between the two fields is useful for both evolutionary robotics, which can take inspiration from biological solutions to engineering problems, and evolutionary biology, that can benefit from artificial emulation of biological mechanisms which can prove the validity of research hypothesis. Read more here: http://robinlab.uji.es/worshop-developmental-plasticity-and- evolutionary-robotics **** Submission information **** Please send your abstracts to , as an attached PDF file. Please include [IJCNN_WS] in the subject Important Dates: March 12th : Abstract Submission Deadline March 20th, 2017: Notification of Acceptance Abstract Format: 1 to 2 pages, plus references, in two-column regular IJCNN paper format. Accepted contributions will be presented at the workshop (15-min oral presentations) More details at the website above (it will be kept updated) **** Workshop format **** The workshop will be organized in such a way as to generate fruitful discussions, it will consist of invited presentations (30 min. each) and regular presentations (15 min. each) with a significant amount of additional time for a panel discussion. **** Proceedings **** Proceedings will consist of accepted and invited contributions in final form, the conclusions resulting from the discussions, along with other relevant materials. We look forward to your active participation All the best Angel and Fumiya ****************** Angel P. del Pobil Department of Engineering and Computer Science Robotic Intelligence Laboratory Jaume-I University, Castellon, Spain pobil at uji.es Fumiya Iida Department of Engineering Bio-Inspired Robotics Laboratory University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK fi224 at cam.ac.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From iccv17publicity at gmail.com Fri Feb 17 11:16:00 2017 From: iccv17publicity at gmail.com (Ali Shokoufandeh) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2017 08:16:00 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: [CfP]:: International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV 2017) Message-ID: *Call for Papers* *ICCV 2017* International Conference on Computer Vision October 22-29, 2017 *Venice, Italy* http://iccv2017.thecvf.com/ Deadline for paper submission: Friday, March 17, 2017 Submissions are solicited for the 16th International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV 2017), to be held in Venice, Italy, in October 2017. Papers in the main technical program must describe high-quality, original research. Topics of interest include all aspects of computer vision and pattern recognition including, but not limited to ? 3D Computer Vision ? Action Recognition ? Big data and Large Scale Methods ? Biometrics, face and gesture ? Biomedical image analysis ? Computational photography, photometry, shape from X ? Deep Learning ? Low-level vision and Image Processing ? Motion and Tracking ? Optimization methods ? Recognition: detection, categorization, indexing and matching ? Robot Vision ? Segmentation, grouping and shape representation ? Statistical learning ? Video: events, activities and surveillance ? Vision for X All submissions will be handled electronically. In addition to the main technical program, the conference will include Tutorials, Workshops, Demonstrations, and Exhibits. Submit proposals to the appropriate chair. Please refer to the conference website http://iccv2017.thecvf.com/ for submission instructions. *Important dates:* ? Paper registration deadline: March 10, 2017 (23:59 GMT) ? Paper submission deadline: March 17, 2017 (23:59 GMT) ? Supplementary material submission: March 27, 2017 (23:59 GMT) ? Final decision notification: July 17, 2017 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From digitalesbad at gmail.com Fri Feb 17 11:27:36 2017 From: digitalesbad at gmail.com (Axel Hutt) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2017 17:27:36 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Conference on Neural Fields and Data Assimilation 2017: Deadline March 15 2017 Message-ID: ==== 4th International Conference on Neural Field Theory (ICNFT) - The Interplay of Models and Data Assimilation ==== Dear Colleague, we are pleased to re-announce that the 4th International Conference on Neural Field Theory (ICNFT) will be held ** July 3 to 5, 2017 at the University of Reading, UK. ** The event is following a highly successful series of conferences which took place in Reading in 2010, 2012, and 2014, see for instance http://www.inverseproblems.info/icnft2014 The ICNFT community includes researchers from medicine, psychology, physics, mathematics and engineering. The International Conferences on Neural Field Theory at the University of Reading contribute to the further development and shaping of this community by bringing together well-known and young researchers. Ideas from the different fields meet here in a truly interdisciplinary and inspiring environment. The scientific program this year will focus on the interplay of models and data assimilation: Model Hierarchy & Numerics, Measurement Data & QC, Observation Operators, Analysis Technique and Uncertainty Estimation, Data Assimilation Cycle, Prediction, Verifikation Invited Speakers include John Spencer (East Anglia U), Wilhelm Stannat (TU Berlin), Timothy Sauer (George Mason University), Rosalyn Moran (U Bristol), David Grayden (U Melbourne), Estela Bicho Erlhagen (U of Minho), Dietmar Heinke (U Birmingham); Tutorials will be given by Stephen Coombes, Ingo Bojak, Roland Potthast and Axel Hutt. For further information and to register see http://inverseproblems.info/icnft2017 http://www.inverseproblems.info/_media/icnft2017.pdf ** Deadline for Abstracts: March 15 ** \\ ** Deadline for Registration and Posters April 15 ** Your Organizing Team Roland Potthast, Axel Hutt, Stephen Coombes, Ingo Bojak, Peter beim Graben, Douglas Saddy and Ingeborg Lasser. -- Axel Hutt Directeur de Recherche Deutscher Wetterdienst - German Meteorological Service Research and Development, Department FE 12 (Data Assimilation) Frankfurter Strasse 135, 63067 Offenbach, Germany Tel.: +49 69 8062 2750 http://www.geocities.ws/digitalbath/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From navlakha at salk.edu Fri Feb 17 19:46:07 2017 From: navlakha at salk.edu (Saket Navlakha) Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2017 16:46:07 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA) 2017 Message-ID: <01133FE2-D4FC-4408-833F-D992AF0D4204@salk.edu> ======================================================= The 5th Workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA 2017) July 28, 2017 in Washington, DC, USA. Co-located with PODC 2017 http://www.snl.salk.edu/~navlakha/BDA2017/ ======================================================= We are excited to announce the 5th workshop on Biological Distributed Algorithms (BDA). The aim of the workshop is to foster collaborative research between biologists and distributed computing theory researchers, with the hope of producing better understanding of the behavior of distributed biological systems, as well as new ideas for design of algorithms for engineered or computational networks. BDA 2017 will include presentations on distributed algorithms related to a variety of biological systems, with special attention to communication and coordination in insect colonies (e.g. foraging, navigation, task allocation, construction) and networks in the brain (e.g. learning, decision-making, attention). This is a one-day workshop. =========== SUBMISSIONS =========== We solicit submissions of extended abstracts describing recent results relevant to biological distributed computing. We especially welcome extended abstracts describing new insights and / or case studies regarding the relationship between distributed computing and biological systems even if these are not fully formed. Since a major goal of the workshop is to explore new directions and approaches, we especially encourage the submission of ongoing work. Selected contributors would be asked to present, discuss and defend their work at the workshop. By default, the submissions will be evaluated for either oral or poster presentation, though authors may indicate in their submission if it should be only considered for one of the presentation types. Submissions should be in PDF and include title, author information, and a 4-page extended abstract. Shorter submissions are also welcome, particularly for poster presentation. Please use the following EasyChair submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bda17 Note: The workshop will not include published proceedings. In particular, we welcome submissions of extended abstracts describing work that has appeared or is expected to appear in other venues. =============== IMPORTANT DATES =============== April 28, 2017 ? Extended abstract submission deadline May 28, 2017 ? Decision notifications July 28, 2017 ? Workshop ================ INVITED SPEAKERS ================ To be announced soon ================= PROGRAM COMMITTEE ================= Ziv Bar-Joseph - CMU Anna Dornhaus - University of Arizona Yuval Emek - Technion (co-chair) Amos Korman - CNRS and University of Paris Diderot Nancy Lynch - MIT Melanie Moses, University of New Mexico Saket Navlakha - Salk Institute (co-chair) Merav Parter, MIT Andrea Richa, Arizona State University Nir Shavit, MIT From arokem at gmail.com Sat Feb 18 13:03:03 2017 From: arokem at gmail.com (Ariel Rokem) Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2017 10:03:03 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: Neurohackweek 2017: a summer school in human neuroscience and data science, September 4th-8th Message-ID: We are happy to announce a call for applications to participate in the Neurohackweek summer school for neuroimaging and data science. This 5 day hands-on workshop, held at the University of Washington eScience Institute in Seattle, will focus on technologies used to analyze human neuroscience data, on methods used to extract information from large datasets of publicly available data (such as the Human Connectome Project, OpenfMRI, etc.), and on tools for making human neuroscience research open and reproducible. Morning sessions will be devoted to lectures and tutorials, and afternoon sessions will be devoted to participant-directed activities: guided work on team projects, hackathon sessions, and breakout sessions on topics of interest. For more details, see: http://neurohackweek.github.io/ We are now accepting applications from trainees and researchers in different stages of their career (graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and research staff) to participate at: https://form.jotformeu.com/70342294106348 Some experience in human neuroscience and at least basic knowledge in programming is desired, but we welcome applications from participants with a variety of relevant backgrounds. Accepted applicants will be asked to pay a fee of $200 upon final registration. This fee will include participation in the course, accommodation in the UW dorms, and two meals a day (breakfast and lunch), for the duration of the course. A limited number of fee waivers and travel grants will be available. We encourage students with financial need and students from groups that are underrepresented in neuroimaging and data science to apply for these grants (see application form for details). Important dates: April 18th: Deadline for applications to participate May 6th: Notification of acceptance June 1st: Final registration deadline On behalf of the instructors, Ariel Rokem, UW eScience Tal Yarkoni, UT Austin -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From roland.memisevic at twentybn.com Sun Feb 19 16:38:25 2017 From: roland.memisevic at twentybn.com (Roland Memisevic) Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2017 16:38:25 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Deep Learning for video, Toronto Message-ID: Deep Learning Research Scientist (Toronto) Twenty Billion Neurons (www.twentybn.com) is a deep learning startup based in Berlin (Germany) and Toronto (Canada). Our mission it is to let machines perceive and understand the world. We train neural networks on videos to make fine-grained predictions about actions, objects and the state of the world. This allows us to solve video analysis use-cases, while improving the understanding of scenes and situations and providing visual grounding for AI. We created our own video crowdsourcing platform to collect very large real-world datasets for learning both generic and task-specific video features. We will have several research openings in our Toronto lab. Tasks - Explore neural network architectures for video understanding and making detailed predictions about visual scenes. - Perform research on recurrent networks, attention policies, transfer learning and scaling up training. - Participate in the development of real-time inference methods. - Publicise your work through blog-posts and/or conferences or journals such as ICLR, NIPS, CVPR, PAMI. We also occasionally co-supervise thesis and project work associated with university programs (MSc/PhD/Postdoc). If interested, please send us an informal inquiry at the email address below. Requirements - PhD or MSc in computer science or a related area with a strong focus on Deep Learning. - Very good knowledge of Python, and experience with Tensorflow, Theano or a similar DL framework. - Strong programming skills and knowledge of (or at least interest in) software engineering practices for working in teams. To apply, send your resume or CV, transcripts, and any other information you consider relevant (ideally in a single pdf-file) to: careers at twentybn.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From laurenz.wiskott at rub.de Sat Feb 18 02:30:02 2017 From: laurenz.wiskott at rub.de (Laurenz Wiskott) Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2017 08:30:02 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: 315 references on Slow Feature Analysis (SFA) Message-ID: <20170218073002.5b6v5fzz6ovlcmlp@garlic> Dear Connectionists, I have compiled a bibliography with 315 references on Slow Feature Analysis (SFA): https://www.ini.rub.de/PEOPLE/wiskott/References/SFA-index.html This list contains references to publications about Slow Feature Analysis, including those that build on and extend SFA or that compare such publications to others conceptionally, analytically in terms of mathematics or experimentally in terms of performance. Most of the references have abstracts and most have a link to a full paper. I hope this is useful for those interested in this algorithm. Please let me know corrections or missing references. Best regards, Laurenz Wiskott. From james4424 at gmail.com Mon Feb 20 01:57:57 2017 From: james4424 at gmail.com (Yansong Chua) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 14:57:57 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc positions in Neuromorphic computing in Singapore Message-ID: Multiple scientist and research engineer positions are available in Singapore, at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), A*STAR, Singapore. This project is part of a large multidisciplinary grant in neuromorphic technologies involving multiple universities and research institutions in Singapore (NUS, NTU, IME, IHPC, I2R). The project is focused on building a new neuromorphic chip using RRAM that enables on-chip learning, together with a suite of learning algorithms that would then be deployed in applications in the advanced manufacturing domain. The primary scope of our research is to develop spike-based computing and learning algorithms for deep spiking neural networks on a neuromorphic chip. Specifically, we are interested in employing spikes in information processing and learning. To this end, successful candidates will conduct research in one or more of the following areas: - Neuronal coding. What coding and readout strategy underlie spike-based representation. How to encode external stimuli into spike based representations and how to readout information from spike activities. - Learning. How does neurons adapt their synaptic weights to perform a given task under cases of supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement signals. What are the underlying mechanisms for deep-structured network learning. - System integration and applications. How to integrate different computational principles into a system and apply it to solve different practical tasks. Preference will be given to candidates who can document knowledge in machine learning, neural networks, information processing, system design or hardware implementation with VLSI and FPGA. Candidates must have a PhD (for scientists) or MS/BS (for engineers) in computer science, computational neuroscience or related fields. Strong programming and quantitative skills are highly desired. Candidates should be proficient in spoken and written English. The appointments will be for 2 years, and extended for another 2 years, after review. Salaries are commensurate with internationally-competitive salaries and benefits. For comparison, in 2013, Singapore's per capita GDP is US$55,000 and US's per capita GDP is US$53,000. Other benefits include: - Funding for international conferences and training courses - Collaboration opportunities with an excellent network of international scientists Candidates please send your curriculum vitae, a statement of research interests and three references to Dr. Yansong Chua (chuays at i2r.a-star.edu.sg) or Dr. Qiang Yu (yuqiang at i2r.a-star.edu.sg). More information: - Institute for Infocomm Research: http://www.i2r.a-star.edu.sg/ - Working in Singapore: http://www.contactsingapore.sg/professionals/why_singapore/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alessandro at idsia.ch Mon Feb 20 04:35:59 2017 From: alessandro at idsia.ch (Alessandro Antonucci) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 10:35:59 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [ISIPTA '17] Call for Papers - Deadline Extended Message-ID: Due to several requests, ISIPTA '17 is extending the paper submission deadline to Friday, March 3, 2017. ::: CALL FOR PAPERS ::: http://isipta.idsia.ch The Tenth International Symposium on Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications (ISIPTA '17). The ISIPTA conference is the primary international forum about theory and applications of imprecise probability. Imprecise probability is a generic term for the many mathematical and statistical models and methods, allowing us to measure chance or uncertainty without the restriction of sharp probabilities. The symposium is open to contributions on all aspects of imprecise probability. ISIPTA '17 will be co-located with ECSQARU 2017, the Fourteenth European Conference on Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty. The joint event will be held in Lugano (Switzerland), on July 10-14, 2017. ::: INVITED SPEAKERS ::: We are delighted of having the following invited speakers: - Leila Amgoud (IRIT, France) - Alessio Benavoli (IDSIA, Switzerland) - Jim Berger (Duke University, USA) - Didier Dubois (IRIT, France) - Eyke H?llermeier (Paderborn University, Germany) More information about the speakers available here: http://isipta.idsia.ch/invited-speakers ::: JMLR PROCEEDINGS AND SUBMISSIONS ::: For the first time, the ISIPTA '17 proceedings will be published in the Workshop and Conference proceedings series (http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/proceedings) of the Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR). Instructions for submission and author's kit available here: http://isipta.idsia.ch/submissions-isipta ::: IMPORTANT DATES ::: Tuesday, March 3, 2017: Paper submission Tuesday, April 18, 2017: Author notification Friday, April 28, 2017: Camera-ready copy due ::: IJAR SPECIAL ISSUE AND YOUNG RESEARCHER AWARD ::: Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version of their work to a special issue of the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning (IJAR). We also invite applications for the IJAR Young Researcher Award. The prize (1000 Euros), granted by IJAR, will be awarded to one young researcher for excellent research in the area of imprecise probability. Applicants should have submitted a paper (not necessarily as first authors) to ISIPTA ?17. Applications should be received by the paper submission deadline (March 3, 2017). More information about the award available here: http://isipta.idsia.ch/young-researcher-award-ecsqaru _________________________________ Alessandro Antonucci IDSIA Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Via Cantonale (Galleria 2) CH-6928, Manno-Lugano, CH mail: alessandro at idsia.ch skype: alessandro.antonucci tel: +41 916108515 web: www.idsia.ch/~alessandro _________________________________ From alessandro at idsia.ch Mon Feb 20 04:33:12 2017 From: alessandro at idsia.ch (Alessandro Antonucci) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 10:33:12 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [ECSQARU 2017] Call for Papers - Deadline Extended (March 3, 2017) Message-ID: Due to several requests, ECSQARU 2017 is extending the paper submission deadline to Friday, March 3, 2017. ::: CALL FOR PAPERS ::: http://ecsqaru.idsia.ch The Fourteenth European Conference on Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning with Uncertainty (ECSQARU 2017). The biennial ECSQARU conferences constitute a major forum for advances in the theory and practice of reasoning under uncertainty. Contributions come from researchers interested in advancing the scientific knowledge and from practitioners using uncertainty techniques in real-world applications. The scope of the ECSQARU conferences encompasses fundamental issues, representation, inference, learning, and decision making in qualitative and numeric uncertainty paradigms. Previous ECSQARU events have been held in Marseille (1991), Granada (1993), Fribourg (1995), Bonn (1997), London (1999), Toulouse (2001), Aalborg (2003), Barcelona (2005), Hammamet (2007), Verona (2009), Belfast (2011), Utrecht (2013), and Compi?gne (2015). ECSQARU 2017 will be co-located with ISIPTA '17, the Tenth International Symposium on Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications. The joint event will be held in Lugano (Switzerland), on July 10-14, 2017. ::: SCOPE ::: For ECSQARU 2017 we invite submissions of conference papers on topics which include but are not limited to: - Algorithms for uncertain inference - Applications of uncertain systems - Argumentation systems - Automated planning and acting under uncertainty - Belief functions - Belief revision & merging - Classification & clustering - Decision theory & decision graphs - Default reasoning - Description logics with uncertainty - Foundations of reasoning under uncertainty - Fuzzy sets & fuzzy logic - Game theory - Imprecise probabilities - Inconsistency handling - Information fusion - Learning for uncertainty formalisms - Logics for reasoning under uncertainty - Markov decision processes - Possibility theory & possibilistic logic - Preferences - Probabilistic graphical models - Probabilistic logics - Qualitative uncertainty models - Rough sets - Uncertainty & data ::: INVITED SPEAKERS ::: We are delighted of having the following invited speakers: - Leila Amgoud (IRIT, France) - Alessio Benavoli (IDSIA, Switzerland) - Jim Berger (Duke University, USA) - Didier Dubois (IRIT, France) - Eyke H?llermeier (Paderborn University, Germany) More information about the speakers available here: http://ecsqaru.idsia.ch/invited-speakers ::: PROCEEDINGS AND SUBMISSIONS ::: In accordance with the previous conferences, the proceedings of ECSQARU 2017 will be published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence series. Authors are requested to prepare their conference papers in the LNCS/LNAI format. Submitted papers will be evaluated by peer reviews based on originality, significance, technical soundness, and clarity of exposition. Authors of accepted papers are expected to attend the conference to present their work. Instructions for submission and author's kit available here: http://ecsqaru.idsia.ch/submissions-ecsqaru ::: IMPORTANT DATES ::: - Friday, March 3, 2017: Paper submission - Tuesday, April 18, 2017: Author notification - Friday, April 28, 2017: Camera-ready copy due ::: IJAR SPECIAL ISSUE ::: Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version of their work to a special issue of the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning (IJAR, Elsevier). ::: SPRINGER YOUNG RESEARCHER AWARD ::: We also invite applications for the Springer Young Researcher Award. The prize (1000 Euros), granted by Springer, will be awarded to one young researcher for excellent research in fields related to the ECSQARU scope. Applicants should have submitted a paper (not necessarily as first authors) to ECSQARU 2017. Applications should be received by the paper submission deadline (March 3, 2017). More information about the award available here: http://ecsqaru.idsia.ch/young-researcher-award-ecsqaru _________________________________ Alessandro Antonucci IDSIA Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Via Cantonale (Galleria 2) CH-6928, Manno-Lugano, CH mail: alessandro at idsia.ch skype: alessandro.antonucci tel: +41 916108515 web: www.idsia.ch/~alessandro _________________________________ From dorney at cmu.edu Mon Feb 20 12:21:16 2017 From: dorney at cmu.edu (Barbara Dorney) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 12:21:16 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: REMINDER: Statistical Analysis of Neural Data (SAND8) Workshop Registration Message-ID: <12034364-25d7-b7b0-473c-ae0333b74703@cmu.edu> * * ****PLEASE POST TO APPROPRIATE D-LISTS. **** * _REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN_ * The eighth international workshop on Statistical Analysis of Neural Data (*SAND8*) will take place May 31-June 2, 2017, in Pittsburgh, PA. /Partial travel support is available. / SAND8 will begin with a morning-long panel discussion on ?Emerging Challenges of Brain Science Data,? and will end with several talks that connect statistical analysis to mathematical modeling. In between there will be keynote talks by senior investigators and shorter presentations by junior investigators, the latter selected on a competitive basis. There will also be a poster session, to which all participants are invited to contribute. Talks and posters may involve new methodology, investigation of existing methods, or application of state-of-the-art analytical techniques. In addition, there will be a lunchtime discussion devoted to opportunities and challenges for women in computational neuroscience. Confirmed keynote lecturers, panelists, and discussants include the following: Genevera Allen, Rice; Marlene Behrmann, CMU; Emery Brown, MIT/Harvard Medical School; Elizabeth Buffalo, U. Washington; Anne Churchland, Cold Spring Harbor; Peter Dayan, Gatsby; Alain Destexhe, CNRS, France; Adrienne Fairhall, U. Washington; Sonja Grun, Julich Institute, Germany; Alon Korngreen, Bar-Ilan, Israel; Mark Kramer, Boston U.; Andrew Leifer, Princeton; Brian Litt, Penn; Katherine Nagal, NYU; Jonathan Pillow, Princeton; Sridevi Sarma, Johns Hopkins; Aarti Singh, CMU; Andreas Tolias, Baylor; Timothy Verstynen, CMU. *Any young investigator interested in presenting their work as a talk should submit an abstract by MARCH 6. Requests for travel support are due MARCH 20.* Please see our website: http://sand.stat.cmu.edu This workshop series is concerned with analysis of neural data of all kinds, ranging from anatomy to electrophysiology, to neuroimaging. It aims to define important problems in neuronal data analysis and useful strategies for attacking them; foster communication between experimental neuroscientists and those trained in statistical and computational methods encourage young researchers, including graduate students, to present their work; and expose young researchers to important challenges and opportunities in this interdisciplinary domain, while providing a small meeting atmosphere to facilitate the interaction of young researchers with senior colleagues. We are especially interested in attracting to this workshop people wishing to learn more about challenges in the analysis of neural data who are females, under-represented minorities, or persons with disabilities. The organizers are Emery Brown, Elizabeth Buffalo, Rob Kass, Liam Paninski, Sri Sarma and Jonathan Victor. ? ........................ Robert E. Kass Maurice Falk Professor of Statistics and Computational Neuroscience Department of Statistics and Machine Learning Department Interim Co-Director, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Carnegie Mellon University http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~kass -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From melahi at kth.se Mon Feb 20 14:47:01 2017 From: melahi at kth.se (Mehdi Elahi) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 19:47:01 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: ACM RecSys Challenge 2017 In-Reply-To: References: <087F5EA5-58AA-4A65-8E46-79B7C63B36CD@polimi.it> Message-ID: <8CC6E54E-F52F-451A-A2E0-278205297FDD@kth.se> ** Please forward to anyone who might be interested ** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ 2017 RecSys Challenge ------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Colleague, We are pleased to announce the 2017 RecSys Challenge in conjunction with ACM RecSys 2017. The RecSys Challenge 2017 is organized by XING, Politecnico Milano and Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. XING is a social network for business. People use XING, for example, to find a job and recruiters use XING to find the right candidate for a job. At the moment, XING has more than 18 million users and typically around 1 million active job postings on the platform. This year's edition of the RecSys Challenge aims to better connect job seekers and recruiters via job recommendations. The challenge focuses on a cold-start scenario: given a new job posting, the goal is to identify those users that (a) may be interested in receiving the job posting as a push recommendation and (b) that are also appropriate candidates for the given job. The RecSys Challenge will consist of two phases: (1) offline evaluation and (2) online evaluation. A detailed description of the challenge can be found on the website of the RecSys Challenge 2017 (recsyschallenge.com). Accepted contributions will be presented during the RecSys Challenge 2017 Workshop. We encourage all, industry and academia members, to participate in the challenge and submit solutions. Cash prizes are set and publication of selected and winning solutions is guaranteed. -------------------- Prizes ----------------------- First Prize: 3000 ? Second Prize: 1500 ? Third Prize: 500 ? -------------------- Timeline -------------------- RecSys challenge starts: beginning of March, 2017 Offline evaluation ends: April 16th, 2017 Online evaluation starts: May 1st, 2017 Online evaluation ends: June 4th, 2017 Official results will be announced: June 12th, 2017 Paper submission deadline: June 18th, 2017 Notifications of paper acceptance: July 3rd, 2017 Deadline for camera-ready papers: July 17th, 2017 Workshop will take place: August 27th-31st, 2017 We are looking forward to seeing your team's score in the leaderboard. Fabian Abel, XING AG, Germany Yashar Deldjoo, Politecnico Milano, Italy Mehdi Elahi, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy Daniel Kohlsdorf, XING AG, Germany More info: https://recsys.acm.org/recsys17/challenge/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Pavis at iit.it Tue Feb 21 11:48:20 2017 From: Pavis at iit.it (Pavis) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 16:48:20 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position in 3D scene understanding from video - [ Postdoc ] 73196 In-Reply-To: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B9C61D@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> References: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B9C61D@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> Message-ID: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B9C630@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> Postdoctoral position in 3D scene understanding from video - [ Postdoc ] Workplace: IIT Added on: 02/12/2016 - Expires on: 01/03/2017 The Visual Geometry and Modelling (VGM) Lab of the Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision Research Line (PAVIS) is offering a Postdoc position. This call aims at consolidating VGM expertise in dynamic scene understanding from video towards the creation of autonomous vision systems working in real environments. The specific topics of research are related, but not limited to, the following areas: 3D scene understanding from video and RGBD sensors; Dense large scale 3D reconstruction from multiple views; Motion segmentation/clustering from video; Deep learning for 3D object detection and pose estimation; Visual question answering. Candidates to this position have a Ph.D. in Computer Vision and preferably 1-2 years of postdoc experience in computer vision, machine learning, signal processing, applied math or related areas. Evidence of top quality research on the above areas in the form of published papers in top computer vision conferences (CVPR, ECCV, ICCV) and/or journals (TPAMI, IJCV, CVIU, IVC, etc.) is required. Experience on optimization methods, component analysis and strong programming skills in Matlab and C/C++ will be highly considered. Salary will be commensurate to qualification and experience and in line with European standards. Complete application forms along with a CV listing all publications (with a google scholar profile), a pdf of your most representative publications and a research statement describing your previous research experience and outlining its relevance to the above topics should be sent by email to applications at iit.it quoting ?IIT Post doc position BC 73196? in the email subject. Please provide two reference letters. Please apply before March 1st, 2017. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) was established by the Italian government with the objective of promoting technological development and higher education in science and technology. In this framework, IIT is implementing a detailed scientific program based on integration across fundamental research and application. IIT's research endeavour focuses on high-tech and innovation, representing the forefront of technology with possible application from medicine to industry, computer science, robotics, life sciences and nanobiotechnologies. In order to comply with Italian law (art.23 of Privacy Law of the Italian Legislative Decree n.196/03), the candidate is kindly asked to give his/her consent to allow IIT to process his/her personal data. We inform you that the information you provide will be solely used for the purpose of assessing your professional profile to meet the requirements of Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. Your data will be processed by Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, with its headquarters in Genoa, Via Morego 30, acting as the Data Holder, using computer and paper-based means, observing the rules on the protection of personal data, including those relating to the security of data. Please also note that, pursuant to art.7 of Legislative Decree 196/2003, you may exercise your rights at any time as a party concerned by contacting the Data Manager. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia is an Equal Opportunity Employer that actively seeks diversity in the workforce. From Pavis at iit.it Tue Feb 21 11:43:01 2017 From: Pavis at iit.it (Pavis) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 16:43:01 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position in Computer Vision for 3D mapping and scene understanding - [ Postdoc ] 72847 In-Reply-To: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B9C584@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> References: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B9C584@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> Message-ID: <0E09F354EB71FC40A4D51EE54D8A9C8878B9C59B@IITMXWGE015.iit.local> Postdoc position in Computer Vision for 3D mapping and scene understanding - [ Postdoc ] Workplace: IIT The Visual Geometry and Modelling (VGM) Lab at IIT invites qualified applicants to submit their CV?s for a Postdoc position in Genoa under the supervision of Dr. Alessio Del Bue. The VGM Lab mission is to provide computational tools for the large-scale understanding of data, this being sensed at the nano and up to the macro scale level. With a privileged focus on image and video data, the main lab goal is to research and apply methods to boost the advances of life scientists and engineers in untangling and modelling the (big) data as provided by modern sensors (e.g. high-resolution cameras, time-lapse microscopy, 3D scanners). The scientific core of the lab is related to the research fields of Computer Vision, Signal Processing and Numerical Optimization with the primary goal to provide algorithms for: Reality Capture: 3D reconstruction from images, sound and range data; Dynamic scene understanding from sensor networks (video and audio); Large scale data clustering and modelling for Life Science and Engineering. Expertise in these research fields is applied to several practical problems in the industry with ongoing collaboration with world-leading companies in machine vision, automation, avionics and photonics. VGM is opening a postdoc position to work on 3D mapping and structure from motion with RGBD sensors. The aim is to create an autonomous 3D reconstruction system for indoor environments by using an active camera attached to a robotic arm. The system will be working in challenging scenarios dealing with severe occlusions and sensor noise in a fully autonomous way. Candidates should have strong programming skills in C/C++ and a general knowledge of ROS software libraries. Proven scientific track record on major computer vision and robotics conferences/journals is also a relevant criteria for the selection. This project will be managed in collaboration with an international industrial partner delivering state-of-the-art machine vision applications. The candidate will be also involved in project meeting, and submission of papers at top-tier computer vision and robotics conferences. At the time of the application eligible candidates have a Ph.D. degree in Computer Vision, Engineering, Robotics and related fields. Please send the application, including a CV with publication list, brief description of research interests and main accomplishments and names of 2 referees both to pavis at iit.it and to applications at iit.it, quoting ?Postdoc VGM position BC 72847 ? in the email subject. The call will remain open until the position is filled but a first deadline for evaluation of candidates will be March 7th, 2017. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) was established in 2003 and successfully created a large-scale infrastructure in Genova, a network of 10 state-of-the-art laboratories countrywide, recruited an international staff of about 1100 people from more than 50 countries. IIT's research endeavor focuses on high-tech and innovation, representing the forefront of technology with possible applications from medicine to industry, computer science, robotics, life sciences and nanobiotechnologies. In order to comply with Italian law (art. 23 of Privacy Law of the Italian Legislative Decree n. 196/03), the candidate is kindly asked to give his/her consent to allow IIT to process his/her personal data. We inform you that the information you provide will be solely used for the purpose of assessing your professional profile to meet the requirements of Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. Your data will be processed by Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, with its headquarters in Genoa, Via Morego 30, acting as the Data Holder, using computer and paper-based means, observing the rules on the protection of personal data, including those relating to the security of data. Please also note that, pursuant to art.7 of Legislative Decree 196/2003, you may exercise your rights at any time as a party concerned by contacting the Data Manager. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia is an Equal Opportunity Employer that actively seeks diversity in the workforce. From aurel at ee.columbia.edu Tue Feb 21 12:10:07 2017 From: aurel at ee.columbia.edu (Aurel A. Lazar) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 12:10:07 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?Special_Issue_on_Biological_Application?= =?utf-8?q?s_of_Information_Theory_in_Honor_of_Claude_Shannon=E2=80=99s_Ce?= =?utf-8?q?ntennial_-_Part_2?= Message-ID: IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications is proud to announce that our Special Issue on Biological Applications of Information Theory in Honor of Claude Shannon?s Centennial?Part 2 is now live on IEEE Xplore . Within the issue, you'll find the following 9 papers: Information Theory of Molecular Communication: Directions and Challenges (Invited Paper; Gohari, Mirmohseni, and Nasiri-Kenari) On Palimpsests in Neural Memory: An Information Theory Viewpoint (Invited Paper; Varshney, Kusuma, and Goyal) Neural Computation from First Principles: Using the Maximum Entropy Method to Obtain an Optimal Bits-Per-Joule Neuron (Invited Paper; Berger, Levy and Sungkar) Mutual Information and Parameter Estimation in the Generalized Inverse Gaussian Diffusion Model of Cortical Neurons (Invited Paper; Sungkar, Berger, and Levy) Identifying Multisensory Dendritic Stimulus Processors (Invited Paper; Lazar and Zhou) Fundamental Limits of Genome Assembly under an Adversarial Erasure Model (Shomorony, Courtade, and Tse) Inscribed Matter Communication: Part I (Rose and Mian) Inscribed Matter Communication: Part II (Rose and Mian) Process Information and Evolution (Chastain and Smith) Special Issue Guest Editors Prof. Alexander G. Dimitrov Department of Mathematics and Statistics Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience Washington State University, Vancouver, Washington, USA Prof. Faramarz Fekri Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Prof. Aurel Lazar Department of Electrical Engineering Columbia University, New York, New York, USA Prof. Stefan M. Moser Signal and Information Processing Lab (ISI) ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Hsinchu, Taiwan Prof. Peter J. Thomas* Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Statistics Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of Biology Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA *corresponding guest editor Aurel http://www.bionet.ee.columbia.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Donald.Adjeroh at mail.wvu.edu Tue Feb 21 12:48:11 2017 From: Donald.Adjeroh at mail.wvu.edu (Donald Adjeroh) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 17:48:11 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: SBP-BRiMS 2017: Grand Interdisciplinary Data-Science Challenge. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Apologies if you receive multiple copies ... SBP-BRiMS 2017 Grand Interdisciplinary Data-Science Challenge. George Washington University,Washington DC, USA (as part of the SBP-BRiMS 2017 conference - July 5-July 8, 2017) Social networking websites let users post and share opinions on the web ?freely?. The authors of the posts are not required to verify the authenticity of the content created. This has lead to the issue of spreading misinformation. False or misleading information that has not been verified and could not be substantiated by facts are sometimes virally circulated on social media giving an impression of authenticity, and sometimes leads to undesirable consequences. In this year?s SBP-BRiMS challenge problem, we ask participants to consider the issue of circulation of fake news and propaganda on online media for personal or political gains. Using at least one of the suggested datasets (discussed later), and any other relevant publicly accessible dataset, this year?s challenge problem asks participants to address any issue of interest to you (or your team). The issue should relate to any of the following topics: Fake News and/or Propaganda. The broad questions of interest are: * How can we use openly available data to find fake news? * How is propaganda used on online social media and news outlets? * How are bots used to propagate fake news or propaganda? * What interventions might slow the spread of fake news or propaganda? These questions are only intended to give a rough idea of what might be an interesting topic to explore for this challenge problem, and by no means the only questions of interest. All entries must have both a strong social theory, political theory or policy perspective and a strong methodology perspective. Rules ? Participants may work individually or in teams. ? Participants must use at least one of the suggested databases described later. ? Participants should address a social science theory or policy relevant issue and should employ one or more methodologies appropriate for the empirical assessment of big data (e.g., computational algorithms, machine learning, computer simulation, social network analysis, text mining). ? Each participating team may prepare only one entry. ? Entries must represent original work that has not been previously published or submitted to other challenges. ? Each participating team must send at least one member to the SBP-BRiMS 2017 conference to present a poster describing their entry. At least one team member must register and attend the conference. ? Participants are encouraged to use a second data set. This data set must be either publicly available data or the participants must make it publicly available by submitting it along with their challenge paper. ? At the conference, all entries will be judged by the community using a participant voting system. ? The individual or group that submits the winning entry will be invited to present a talk at the conference in 2018, and will contribute a full length paper describing their challenge solution to an SBP-BRiMS special issue of the journal Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory. Guidelines A strong entry will have one or more of these components: ? Employ multiple data sets. ? Include at least one high quality visualization (note that participants will be allowed to display dynamic visualizations via some form of electronic media e.g., by hanging a tablet from the poster. However, please note that tables will not be provided). ? Account for biases in the data across time, space, topics and sources. ? Provide a new metric, simulation or algorithm development such as: 1. A new spatial, temporal, or network analytic methodology or algorithm, or a simulation model, that can cope with the vast scale of open source data (e.g.Twitter data) and support answering a key social or policy issue. 2. A new spatial analytic methodology that can better take into account change over time and non-spatial distances (such as co-occurrences and semantic similarity between locations). 3. A new network methodology that better incorporate the diversity of actor and relationship types in the data, spatio-temporal information, or for constructing edges from the data and for distributing actor and edge attributes onto the graph. 4. A novel simulation that that supports reasoning about the spread of fake news or propaganda that uses empirical data to either instantiate the model or to confirm some of the results. ? Generate a new empirical finding that challenges or provides novel support for existing social or political theory, or provides information of policy relevance. Note, the results of computer simulation are viewed as empirical findings/. In addition, a strong entry should be well-written and provide some level of creativity in its use of or combination of data. Submitting and Entry What to Submit You need to submit 3 things - An extended abstract, A PDF of your poster, and A powerpoint promotion slide. All three of these will go in the on-line proceedings. Extended Abstract: A 2-page abstract describing the project. This should define: ? What social/policy question was asked or challenge addressed? ? Why is this question important or the challenge critical in the context of fake news and/.or propaganda? ? What data sets were used? ? What is the novel contribution? ? What is the key methodology or methodologies used? ? What is the key policy issue or theory being addressed? 1. Who is the team? Provide names, email and institution. A pdf of the poster. This will be put on line. You are, however, responsible for printing and bringing your own poster to the conference. An easel will be provided, but not posterboard. The poster should be either 4?x3? or 3?x4?. Promotion Slide This is a single powerpoint slide. The purpose of this slide is to excite people to come to your poster. This slide will also be put on line. You will be given one minute to present this slide at the conference to encourage people to come and see your poster. This slide should contain: * Title of project * Names of all team members This slide may contain * Any word or image or idea that you think will promote your poster * Logos for your group, company or organization When to Submit This abstract is due on: June 12, 2017. The Poster PDF is due on July 5, 2017. The one page promo slide is due on July 5, 2017. How to Submit All abstracts should be submitted through the EasyChair link at at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sbpbrims2017 for the challenge on the SBP-BRiMS 2017 website. Please be sure to select the Challenge track. The poster pdf and the one page slide in powerpoint is to be sent to sbp-brims at andrew.cmu.edu. What to present All entries will send at least one team member to SBP-BRiMS 2017 who will be registered for the conference by the <> to present their poster in the poster-session on July 6. The poster will be 4?x3? or 3?x4?. Participants may bring in additional props to enhance their presentation. In addition, the team spokesperson should be ready to present a 1 minute talk using the slide, to encourage people to come to their poster. How entries will be judged Entries will be judged by community voting at the poster session. Who is eligible Anyone with an interest in using this data to address a social or policy issue. Entries are accepted from single individuals or teams. Winning Entry The winning entry will be invited to send a team member to present the project at SBP-BRiMS 2018. In addition, winning entry and selected other entries will submit a full paper to a special issue of Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory. Data Sets We invite participants to explore one or more of these data sets: Kaggle Fake News, Kaggle Propaganda, ClickBait, Wikipedia or GDELT in conjunction with a second data set which may or may not be from this list. The datasets below consists of records of individual politically-relevant events, from statements of support to military attacks. Each record includes information on the source and target of each action, its date and location, and information about the event itself, machine-coded from media reports. It is important to note that the sites listed as ?fake? are those that appear fake to the coding algorithm or human coder, and may or may not actually be fake news sites. Kaggle Fake News: Source: https://www.kaggle.com/mrisdal/fake-news Kaggle has a dataset on fake news. The dataset was added by Megan Risdal and shares data collected by ?BS Detector? chrome extension that was created by Daniel Sieradski. The data contains text and metadata information from 244 different websites and contains 12,999 posts. Please check the website https://www.kaggle.com/mrisdal/fake-news for more information. Kaggle Propaganda: Source: https://www.kaggle.com/kzaman/how-isis-uses-twitter Kaggle also has a dataset on how ISIS uses Twitter. The dataset contains over 17,000 pro ISIS tweets since Nov 2015 Paris attack. For more information, please check this website http://blog.kaggle.com/2016/06/03/dataset-spotlight-how-isis-uses-twitter/ . ClickBait[1] : This dataset contains four categories of news sources: a) fake b) misleading c) clickbait-y d) satirical. Check this link http://theduran.com/updated-list-of-false-misleading-clickbait-y-andor-satirical-news-sources/ for more information. Wikipedia Fake News https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites GDELT: The GDELT database (http://www.gdeltproject.org/) is divided into three core data streams, capturing physical activity, counts of key incidents like death, and a graph structure capturing the latent and physical aspects of the global news into a single computable network. GDELT?s event data consists of a quarter-billion geo-referenced dyadic ?event records? covering all countries in the world 1979 to present, capturing who did what to whom, when, and where in the CAMEO taxonomy. GDELT?s count data (2013-present) records mentions of counts of things with respect to a set of predefined categories such as a number of protesters, a number killed, or a number displaced or sickened. GDELT?s Global Knowledge Graph (2013-present) is an attempt to connect the people, organizations, locations, counts, themes, news sources, and events appearing in the news media across the globe each day into a single massive network that captures what?s happening around the world, what its context is and who?s involved, and how the world is feeling about it, each day. Challenge Committee Kathleen M. Carley Sumeet Kumar Brandon Oselio Justin Sampson Submit Questions Regarding Challenge All questions and concerns can be sent to sbp-brims at andrew.cmu.edu Some useful references: SOCIAL MEDIA AND FAKE NEWS IN THE 2016 ELECTION http://www.nber.org/papers/w23089.pdf When facts and news diverge http://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1464&context=law_pubs_blogs How to spot fake news http://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/ ________________________________ The list appears to be very subjective (author's personal opinion). The author has marked BBC as 'click-bait' and Yahoo News as 'Fake'. You should definitely check the website once. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From josic at math.uh.edu Tue Feb 21 22:07:33 2017 From: josic at math.uh.edu (Kresimir Josic) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 21:07:33 -0600 Subject: Connectionists: 2017 SIAM Network Science (NS17) workshop: abstracts due 27 Feb Message-ID: <3629BD90-338E-412F-B474-5231B8E32FF7@math.uh.edu> Abstracts for the 2017 SIAM Workshop on Network Science (NS17) are due on 27 Feb (i.e., in 6 days). Please submit abstracts for contributed talks, short contributed talks, and posters. For information about the conference, go to this website: http://www.siam.org/meetings/ns17/ Invited Speakers: Stefano Allesina, Mark Newman The workshop will take place in Pittsburgh, PA, USA on 13-14 July 2017, and it is co-located with the SIAM Annual Meeting. We hope to see you there! On behalf of Mason & Michelle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From eros.pasero at polito.it Wed Feb 22 02:54:58 2017 From: eros.pasero at polito.it (PASERO EROS GIAN ALESSANDRO) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2017 08:54:58 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: WIRN 2017 call for paper Message-ID: <5d748bbdcbe1f640a8698f1b77d87a69@polito.it> WIRN 2017 - First Call for Papers 27th Italian Workshop on Neural Networks June 14-16, Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy Chair: Eros Pasero Co-Chair: Francesco Carlo Morabito WIRN 2017 - PRELIMINAY CALL FOR PAPERS The Italian Workshop on Neural Networks (WIRN) is the annual conference of the Italian Society of Neural Networks (SIREN). The conference is organized, since 1989, in co-operation with the International Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies (IIASS) of Vietri S/M (Italy), and is a traditional event devoted to the discussion of novelties and innovations related to field of Artificial Neural Networks. In recent years, it also became a multidisciplinary forum on psychological and cognitive theories for modelling human behaviours. The 27th Edition of the Italian Workshop on Neural Networks (WIRN 2017) will be held at the IIASS of Vietri sul Mare, near Salerno, Italy. CALL FOR PAPERS, SPECIAL SESSIONS PROPOSALS: Prospective authors are invited to contribute high quality papers in the topic areas listed below and proposals for special sessions. Special sessions aim to bring together researchers in special focused topics. Each special session should include at least 3 contributing papers. A proposal for a special session should include a summary statement (1 page long) describing the motivation and relevance of the proposed special session, together with the article titles and author names of the papers that will be included in the track. Contributions should be high quality, original and not published elsewhere or submitted for publication during the review period. Please visit the web site for further details of the required paper format. Papers will be reviewed by the Program Committee, and may be accepted for oral or poster presentation. All accepted contributions will be published in a special volume printed by Springer and indexed by SCOPUS. Authors will be limited to one paper per registration. Manuscripts should not exceed the limit of 8 pages. The description of the submission procedure will appear soon on the SIREN Website www.associazionesiren.org Key note speakers To be defined. TOPIC AREAS: Suggested topics for the conference include, but are not limited to, the following research and application areas: General Topics of Interest about Computational Intelligence: Neural Networks, Fuzzy Systems, Evolutionary Computation and Swarm Intelligence, Support Vector Machines, Complex Networks, Bayesian and Kernel Networks, Consciousness and Models of Emotion Cognitive and Psychological Models of Human Behavior Algorithms & Architectures: Among others: Opportunist Networks, Metabolic Networks, ICA and BSS, Deep Neural Networks, Bio-inspired Neural Networks, Wavelet Neural Networks, Intelligent Algorithms for Signal (Speech, Faces, Gestures, Gaze, etc) Processing and Recognition Implementations: Among others: Hardware Implementations and Embedded Systems, Neuromorphic Circuits and Hardware, Spike-based VLSI NNs, Intelligent Interactive Dialogue Systems, Embodied Conversational Agents Applications: Among others: Finance and Economics, Big Data Analysis, Neuroinformatics and Bioinformatics, Brain-Computer Interface and Systems, Data Fusion, Time Series Modelling and Prediction, Intelligent Infrastructure and Transportation Systems, Sensors and Network of Sensors, Smart Grid, Process Monitoring and Diagnosis, Intelligent and Adaptive Systems for Human-Machine Interaction. PAPER SUBMISSION: Important Dates (Preliminary) Special Session/Workshop proposals: March 16, 2017 Paper Submission deadline: April 16, 2017 Notification of acceptance: May 16, 2017 Camera-ready copy: on site, June 1, 2017 Conference Dates: June 14-16, 2017 More detailed instructions will follow soon on the SIREN home page http://www.iiassvietri.it/down/Wirn2017_CFP_1pagepreliminary.pdf or in wirn2017.polito.it . Prof. Eros Pasero SIREN President Laboratorio di Neuronica Dip. Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni - Politecnico di Torino c.so Duca d. Abruzzi 24 10129 Torino - Italy ______________________________________ ' Tel +39 011 0904043, +393316796014 6 Fax 0+39 011 0904216 *e-mail eros.pasero at polito.it WEB: www.neuronica.polito.it P THINK BEFORE YOU PRINT: before printing this e-mail think whether it is really necessary ______________________________________________ "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility" ______________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.emz Type: application/octet-stream Size: 4847 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.png Type: image/png Size: 16639 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.gif Type: image/gif Size: 201 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dorien.herremans at gmail.com Wed Feb 22 00:31:43 2017 From: dorien.herremans at gmail.com (Dorien Herremans) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2017 13:31:43 +0800 Subject: Connectionists: Deadline approaching - Workshop on Deep Learning for Music - Anchorage Message-ID: [apologies for cross-posting] International Workshop on Deep Learning for Music In conjunction with the 2017 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN 2017)) 18-19 May, Anchorage More info There has been tremendous interest in deep learning across many fields of study. Recently, these techniques have gained popularity in the field of music. Projects such as Magenta (Google's Brain Team's music generation project), Jukedeck and others testify to their potential. While humans can rely on their intuitive understanding of musical patterns and the relationships between them, it remains a challenging task for computers to capture and quantify musical structures. Recently, researchers have attempted to use deep learning models to learn features and relationships that allow us to accomplish tasks in music transcription, audio feature extraction, emotion recognition, music recommendation, and automated music generation. With this workshop we aim to advance the state-of-the-art in machine intelligence for music by bringing together researchers in the field of music and deep learning. This will enable us to critically review and discuss cutting-edge-research so as to identify grand challenges, effective methodologies, and potential new applications. Topics Papers and abstracts on the application of deep learning techniques on music are welcomed, including but not limited to: - Deep learning applications for computational music research - Modeling hierarchical and long term music structures using deep learning - Modeling ambiguity and preference in music - Software frameworks and tools for deep learning in music More info Invited speakers Invited speakers include Dr. Oriol Nieto (*Pandora*), Prof. Dr. Douglas Eck (the Head of the *Google* Magenta team) (tentatively confirmed), and Dr. Kat Agres (*A*STAR* Institute of High Performance Computing). Submissions of Papers Papers of up to 5 pages using the following template are welcomed for a talk. Submissions will be evaluated according to their originality, technical soundness, and relevance to the workshop. The guidelines outlined in the workshop?s latex template should be followed. Contributions should be in PDF format and submitted to d.herremans at qmul.ac.uk with the subject line: [DLM17 paper submission]. Submissions do not need to be anonymised. Papers will be peer-reviewed and published in the proceedings of the workshop. Submissions of Abstracts Structured abstracts of max 2 pages can be submitted for a shorter talk. The abstracts should follow the same template as the papers and will be included in the proceedings. Abstracts should be in PDF format and submitted to d.herremans at qmul.ac.uk with the subject line: [DLM17 abstract submission]. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and included in the proceedings of the workshop. Special Issue in Journal Authors will be invited to submit a full paper version of their extended abstract for a special issue in an indexed journal (such as Journal of New Music Research or IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks (tbc)). More details on this will be available soon. Important Dates Paper Submission Deadline: February 28th Acceptance Notification: March 12th Final versions due: March 23, 2017 Workshop Date: one day during conference May 14-19, 2017 Registration Workshop registration will be handled by the main conference, please check IJCNN for more details. Organizers Dorien Herremans (Queen Mary University of London, UK) Ching-Hua Chuan (University of North-Florida, US) Programme Committee Dorien Herremans (Queen Mary University of London, UK) Ching-Hua Chuan (University of North-Florida, US) Louis Bigo (Universit? Lille 3, France) Maarten Grachten (Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Austria) Sebastian Stober (University of Potsdam, Germany) More info -- Dorien Herremans, PhD Marie-Curie Fellow http://dorienherremans.com Queen Mary University of London School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science C4DM - Centre for Digital Music, London Workshop on Deep Learning and Music , May'17 Anchorage, Alaska. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From annalisa at informatik.uni-mannheim.de Wed Feb 22 05:06:15 2017 From: annalisa at informatik.uni-mannheim.de (Anna Lisa Gentile) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2017 11:06:15 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [CFP] ISWC 2017 - call for papers and proposals Message-ID: * First Call for papers & proposals ** 16th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2017) Vienna, Austria, October 21-25, 2017 Website: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113652365383847 Twitter: @iswc2017 (https://twitter.com/ISWC2017) Overview calls: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/ In this announcement: 1. Call for Papers 2. HTML Submission Guide 3. Call for Workshop and Tutorial proposals 4. Important dates 1. Call for Papers ========================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Research Track Papers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The International Semantic Web Conference is the premier venue for presenting fundamental research, innovative technology, and applications concerning semantics, data, and the Web. In this track of ISWC 2017, we are looking for novel and significant research contributions addressing theoretical, analytical and empirical aspects of the Semantic Web. While we welcome work that relates to the W3C Semantic Web recommendations (e.g., RDF, OWL, SPARQL, etc.), we also encourage contributions to research at the intersection of Semantic Web and other scientific disciplines. Submissions to the research track should describe original, significant research on the Semantic Web, and are expected to provide some principled means of evaluation. Specifically, all papers should include evaluations of the approaches described in the paper. We strongly encourage evaluations that are repeatable. We also strongly encourage papers that provide links to: the data sets, source code, queries used to evaluate their approach, live deployment.All papers will be assessed by a program committee. Each paper will be reviewed by at least four committee members, including one senior member. The review criteria is specified in the call. Before submitting, authors are asked to consult the calls of the other tracks featured at ISWC 2017 and to choose the track that best suits their contribution. The submission of the same work to multiple tracks is not allowed and may result in a rejection of the work across all tracks without a review. Detailed info: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/call-for-research-track-papers/ Program Chairs * Claudia d?Amato, University of Bari, Bari, Italy * Miriam Fernandez, KMi, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for In-Use Track Papers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Semantic technologies are reaching maturity on and off the web, through ontology based data integration, the increase in their use to publish, structure, store and make sense of web data, whether they are in the form of linked data, through schema.org, or even with semantics included in other data formats than RDF (CSV, JSON, etc). The In-Use track at ISWC 2017 provides a forum for the community to explore the benefits and challenges of applying semantic technologies in concrete, practical applications, in contexts ranging from industry to government and science. We are especially interested in applications that use the emerging knowledge graphs or semantic annotations on the web together with data mining, machine learning, or natural language processing techniques to the benefit of concrete, real-life scenarios. We are also looking for descriptions of applied and validated industry solutions as software tools, systems or architecture that benefit from the adoption of semantic technologies. Importantly, papers presenting applications in use of semantic technologies should provide evidence that there is use of the proposed application or tool by the target user group, preferably outside the group that conducted the development. A main focus of the submission should be on the way semantics and semantic technologies are impacting this development, through benefiting the intended use case, as well as, if relevant, through the added challenges they introduce. Detailed info: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/call-for-in-use-track-papers/ Program Chairs * Philippe Cudre-Maroux, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland * Juan Sequeda, Capsenta, Austin, TX, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Resources Track Papers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many of the research efforts in in the areas of the Semantic Web and Linked Data focus on publishing scientific papers that prove a hypothesis. However, scientific advancement is often reliant good quality resources, that are the necessary scaffolding to support the scientific publications, even though these are not usually equally recognised. Sharing these resources and the best practices that have lead to their development with the research community is crucial to consolidate research material, ensure reproducibility of results and in general gain new scientific insights.The ISWC 2017 Resources Track aims to promote the sharing of resources including, but not restricted to, datasets, ontologies, vocabularies, workflows, evaluation benchmarks or methods, replication studies, services, APIs and software that have contributed to the generation of novel scientific work. In particular, we encourage the sharing of such resources following best and well established practices within the Semantic Web community. This track calls for contributions that provide a concise and clear description of a resource and its usage. We also encourage submissions that illustrate new types of resources such as ontology design patterns, crowdsourcing task designs, workflows, methodologies, protocols and measures, etc. Detailed info: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/call-for-resources-track-papers/ Program Chairs * Valentina Tamma, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK * Freddy Lecue, Accenture/INRIA, Dublin, Ireland, Sophia Antipolis, France -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Posters and Demos Papers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ISWC 2017 Posters and Demonstrations complement the paper tracks of the conference and offer an opportunity for presenting late-breaking research results, on-going research projects, and speculative or innovative work in progress. The informal setting of the Posters and Demonstrations encourages presenters and participants to engage in discussions about the work. Such discussions can be invaluable inputs for the future work of the presenters, while offering participants an effective way to broaden their knowledge of the emerging research trends and to network with other researchers. We invite submissions relevant to the area of the Semantic Web and which address, but are not limited to, the topics of the Research Track; the In-Use Track; and the Resources Track. Technical posters, reports on Semantic Web software systems (free or commercial), descriptions of completed work, and work in progress are all welcome. Demonstrations are intended to showcase innovative Semantic Web related implementations and technologies, both in academia and in industry. We explicitly welcome entries from the industry. However, submissions for posters and demos should go beyond pure advertisements of commercial software packages and convey a minimal scientific contribution. Authors of full papers accepted for the Research Track; the In-Use Track; and the Resources Track are explicitly invited to submit a demonstration. Detailed info: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/call-for-posters-and-demos/ Program Chairs * Nadeschda Nikitina, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK * Dezhao Song, Thomson Reuters, Eagan, MN, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Industry Track Papers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Industry Track seeks to present the state of adoption of semantic technologies in industrial applications. These technologies may be used in specific industries (e.g., media, financials, telecommunications, healthcare, life sciences, government, intelligence, etc.) or as a horizontal technology, and in different application areas (e.g., business intelligence, analytics, search, content management, knowledge management, recommendation systems, data integration, etc.). We welcome contributions about success stories as well as experiences and discussions of obstacles that stand in the way of large scale adoption of certain technologies. Particular emphasis should be put on the demonstration of business value created by using the semantic technologies. Come and join us at the ISWC 2017 industry track to share your experience! Detailed info: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/call-for-contributions-industry-track-iswc-2017/ Program Chairs * Achille Fokoue, IBM Yorktown, NY, USA * Peter Haase, metaphacts, Walldorf, Germany -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Doctoral Consortium papers -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Consortium aims to broaden the perspectives and to improve the research and communication skills of these students. The Doctoral Consortium is intended for students who have a specific research proposal and some preliminary results, but who have sufficient time prior to completing their dissertation to benefit from the consortium experience. Generally, students at the end of their first year, in their second or at the beginning of their third year of PhD will benefit the most from the Doctoral Consortium. In the Consortium, the students will present their proposals, get specific feedback and advice on how to improve their research plan and discuss other students? proposals. All proposals submitted to the Doctoral Consortium will undergo a thorough reviewing process with a view to providing detailed and constructive feedback. The international program committee will select the best submissions for presentation at the Doctoral Consortium. We anticipate that students with accepted submissions at the Doctoral Consortium will receive travel fellowships to offset some of the travel costs but they will be asked to attend the whole day of the Doctoral Consortium. Detailed info: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/doctoral-consortium/ Program Chairs * Lora Aroyo, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands * Fabien Gandon, INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, France 2. HTML Submission Guide ========================================== As for the previous ISWC edition, we allow for the submission of articles formatted using HTML. Authors choosing to submit using HTML still need to comply with the page limit and layout requirements of the conference. It?s the author?s responsibility to ensure that reviewers can easily access their submission. Detailed info on HTML submission and link to helpful tools can be found at: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/html-submission-guide/ 3. Call for Workshop and Tutorial proposals ========================================== In addition to the regular research program, ISWC 2017 will feature a workshop and tutorial program addressing the diverse interests of its audience. We hereby invite you to submit a tutorial proposal on a topic relevant to the ISWC 2017 audience. Detailed info: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/call-for-tutorial-proposals/ Besides tutorials, ISWC will host a number of workshops on topics related to the general theme of the conference. The role of the workshops is to provide a context for a focused and intensive scientific exchange among researchers interested in a particular topic. As such, workshops are the primary venues for the exploration of emerging ideas as well as for the discussion of novel aspects of established research topics. We invite you to submit a proposal for workshops on a topic of interest to ISWC attendees. Detailed info: http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/calls/call-for-workshop-proposals/ Workshops & Tutorials Chairs * Aidan Hogan, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Santiago, Chile * Valentina Presutti, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Rome, Italy 4. Important Dates ========================================== Workshop & Tutorial proposals dueMarch 17, 2017 Workshop & Tutorial proposals notifications sentApril 7, 2017 Abstracts due (Research, In-Use, Resources tracks)May 8, 2017 Submissions due (Research, In-Use, Resources tracks)May 15, 2017 Doctoral Consortium submissions dueMay 25, 2017 Registration startsJune 1, 2017 Doctoral Consortium notifications sentJune 30, 2017 Author rebuttal period (Research, In-Use, Resources tracks)June 23-27, 2017 Submissions due (Industry track)July 10, 2017 Notifications sent (Research, In-Use, Resources tracks)July 14, 2017 Camera-ready papers for Doctoral Consortium dueJuly 18, 2017 Workshop paper submissions dueJuly 21, 2017 Poster & Demo submissions dueJuly 27, 2017 Camera-ready papers due (Research, In-Use, Resources tracks)July 28, 2017 Notifications sent (Industry track)July 31, 3017 Workshop paper notifications sentAugust 24, 2017 Poster & Demo notifications sentAugust 24, 2017 Student activity applications dueAugust 31, 2017 Final version industry track papers due August 31, 2017 Camera-ready copies for Poster & Demo dueSeptember 4, 2017 The last day for early registrationsSeptember 8, 2017 Workshops & TutorialsOctober 21 & 22, 2017 ConferenceOctober 23, 24 & 25, 2017 The ISWC Organising Committee (http://iswc2017.semanticweb.org/organization/) * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lydia.fischer at honda-ri.de Wed Feb 22 03:01:00 2017 From: lydia.fischer at honda-ri.de (lydia.fischer at honda-ri.de) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2017 09:01:00 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: CFP SS: Self-assessment in advanced machine learning models ICANN 2017 Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From anagpinho at gmail.com Wed Feb 22 05:28:27 2017 From: anagpinho at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Ana_Lu=C3=ADsa_Pinho?=) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2017 11:28:27 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Post-doc proposal: Charting the human brain with fMRI Message-ID: Please find enclosed a post-doc proposal for an original "exhaustive cognitive mapping" performed in the framework of the Human Brain Project. *Duration & salary*: 12 months renewable up to 3 years, about 2100 enet monthly *Research teams*: Parietal (INRIA Saclay) and Unicog (INSERM), located at Neurospin, Saclay,France. *Responsible:* Bertrand Thirion. Contact: bertrand.thirion at inria.fr *Application*: Interested candidate should send CV and motivation letter. The post-doc will be in charge of setting a set of protocols up and running to pass them on the existing pool of 12 subjects of the Individual Brain Charting project. These protocols will be provided by the community (potentially from in-house developments) are meant to cover a large array of sensory, motor and cognitive processes. The post-doc will take part to the set of acquisitions performed on Neurospin 3T scanner at high resolution (1.5mm) and analyze the data by using a pipeline provided by the lab. Detailed reports will be provided to assess the quality of the data, motivate the participants and document the content of the database. These reports will provide extensive information on the functional organization of the brain in each individual, which will furthermore be confronted to other imaging modalities, e.g. anatomical and functional connectivity. Complex alignment procedures will then be carried out to obtain a population-level mapping that will lead to the first data-based cognitive atlas of the human brain. The data and atlas and analysis material will be released publicly. See https://team.inria.fr/parietal/files/2011/07/post-doc_ibc-1.pdf for details. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Doug.Leith at tcd.ie Wed Feb 22 07:45:21 2017 From: Doug.Leith at tcd.ie (Douglas Leith) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2017 12:45:21 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Assistant Professor post at Trinity College Dublin Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, The School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland is recruiting to fill an Assistant Prof position ? this is a permanent position (not tenure track), brief details below. Doug -------------- The School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor in Statistics and Optimisation. The successful candidate will be an outstanding researcher who can demonstrate an excellent international research track record and the potential to become a research leader. A strong commitment to research excellence, developing research partnerships, and the ability to establish a dynamic, high impact, world-class research programme are essential. Exceptional candidates in all areas of statistics and optimisation will be considered. Applications are particularly encouraged from candidates working in areas that complement existing activity such as complex data modelling, statistical computation, Bayesian methods, stochastic optimisation, decision theory, risk and reliability. The post holder will join a vibrant School, top ranked in Ireland, and have the opportunity to be affiliated with the Insight Research Centre for! Data Analytics. Further details: jobs.tcd.ie and www.scss.tcd.ie Candidates wishing to discuss the post informally should contact: Professor Simon Wilson E-mail: simon.wilson at tcd.ie From he at ele.uri.edu Wed Feb 22 22:15:26 2017 From: he at ele.uri.edu (Haibo He) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2017 22:15:26 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: IEEE TNNLS Special Issue on "Deep Reinforcement Learning and Adaptive Dynamic Programming" Message-ID: IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems Special Issue on "Deep Reinforcement Learning and Adaptive Dynamic Programming? Call for Papers: In the first issue of Nature 2015, Google DeepMind published a paper ?Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning?. Furthermore, in the first issue of Nature 2016, it published a cover paper ?Mastering the game of Go with deep neural networks and tree search? again and proposed the computer Go program, AlphaGo. In March 2016, AlphaGo beat the world?s top Go player Lee Sedol by 4:1. This becomes a new milestone in artificial intelligence history, the core of which is the algorithm of deep reinforcement learning. Deep reinforcement learning is able to output control signal directly based on input images, which incorporates both the advantages of the perception of deep learning and the decision making of reinforcement learning (RL) or adaptive dynamic programming (ADP). This mechanism makes the artificial intelligence much closer to human thinking modes. Deep RL or ADP has achieved remarkable success in terms of theory and application since it is proposed. Successful applications cover video games, Go, robotics, smart driving, healthcare, and so on. However, it is still an open problem of the theoretical analysis on deep RL or ADP, e. g., the convergence, stability, and optimality. The learning efficiency needs to be improved by proposing new algorithms or combined with other methods. More practical demonstrations are encouraged to be presented. Therefore, the aim of this special issue is to call for the most advanced research and state-of-the-art works in the field of deep RL or ADP. All the original papers related are welcome. Specific topics of interest include but are not limited to: ? New algorithms of deep RL or ADP; ? Theory of deep RL or ADP; ? Deep RL or ADP with transfer learning; ? Deep RL or ADP with advanced search algorithms; ? Multi-agent RL or ADP; ? Hierarchical RL or ADP; ? Event-driven RL or ADP; ? Theoretical foundation of RL or ADP in convergence, stability, robustness, and etc. ; ? Data-driven learning and control; ? Control with advanced machine learning; ? Optimal decision and control of cyber-physical systems; ? Autonomous decision and control using neural structures; ? Brain-like control design and applications; ? New neural network topologies from neurocognitive psychology studies; ? Neurocomputing structures for fast decision and control in dynamic environments; ? Applications in realistic and complicated systems. IMPORTANT DATES 30 March 2017 ? Deadline for manuscript submission 30 June 2017 ? Notification of authors 30 July 2017 ? Deadline for submission of revised manuscripts 30 September 2017 ? Final decision of acceptance November 2017- tentative publication date GUEST EDITORS D. Zhao, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. D. Liu, Universtiy of Science and Technology, China. F. L. Lewis, University of Texas at Arlington, USA. J. Principe, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. R. Babuska, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS 1. Read the information for Authors at http://cis.ieee.org/tnnls. 2. Submit your manuscript at the TNNLS webpage (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tnnls) and follow the submission procedure. Please, clearly indicate on the first page of the manuscript and in the cover letter that the manuscript is submitted to the special issue on Deep Reinforcement Learning and Adaptive Dynamic Programming. Send an email to guest editor D. Zhao (dongbin.zhao at ia.ac.cn) with subject ?TNNLS special issue submission? to notify about your submission. 3. Early submissions are welcome. We will start the review process as soon as we receive your contributions. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From SWILSON at tcd.ie Thu Feb 23 04:34:02 2017 From: SWILSON at tcd.ie (Simon Wilson) Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2017 09:34:02 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: JOB: Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Data Science at Trinity College Dublin References: <78100F54-2C50-4940-A2F4-E867118DEB4A@tcd.ie> Message-ID: The School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, is seeking to appoint an assistant professor in statistics and optimisation. This is a permanent position. Details of the post may be found at jobs.tcd.ie (a search with the keyword "statistics" will find the job description). Applications must be made through jobs.tcd.ie by 23rd March 2017. Please contact me at simon.wilson at tcd.ie if you have any questions about the post. Simon Wilson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tarek.besold at googlemail.com Thu Feb 23 09:26:08 2017 From: tarek.besold at googlemail.com (Tarek R. Besold) Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2017 15:26:08 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: NeSy'17: 12th International Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning (July 17/18, 2017; London, UK) - Announcement & CfP Message-ID: <006901d28de0$c6f213f0$54d63bd0$@gmail.com> === NeSy'17: 12th International Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning === Date: July 17 & 18, 2017. Venue: City, University of London, UK. = WEBSITE = http://www.neural-symbolic.org/NeSy17/ = KEYNOTE SPEAKERS = Zoubin Ghahramani, University of Cambridge & Uber AI Labs. Alex Graves, Google DeepMind. Pascal Hitzler, Wrights State University. Murray Shanahan, Imperial College London. = INDUSTRY TRACK ADDED = For the first time, the 2017 edition of NeSy will feature an industry track on the second day of the workshop, July 18, 2017. The track will cover industry applications of neural-symbolic methods (including knowledge extraction from statistical data, neural-symbolic methods integrating data and knowledge for the semantic web, etc.), with the program featuring contributions from industry and academia alike. Also, there will be time to mix and mingle, exchange experiences from practitioners on both sides, and develop joint ideas and projects for the future. = REGISTRATION = The registration for NeSy'17 has become available from the City, University of London eStore: http://estore.city.ac.uk/product-catalogue/conference-events/school-specific -events/12th-international-workshop-on-neuralsymbolic-learning-and-reasoning -nesy17 = CALL FOR PAPERS = Artificial Intelligence researchers continue to face huge challenges in their quest to develop truly intelligent systems. The recent developments in the field of neural-symbolic integration bring an opportunity to integrate well-founded symbolic artificial intelligence with robust neural computing machinery to help tackle some of these challenges. The Workshop on Neural-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning is intended to create an atmosphere of exchange of ideas, providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of the key topics related to neural-symbolic integration. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: - The representation of symbolic knowledge by connectionist systems; - Neural Learning theory; - Integration of logic and probabilities, e.g., in neural networks, but also more generally; - Structured learning and relational learning in neural networks; - Logical reasoning carried out by neural networks; - Integrated neural-symbolic approaches; - Extraction of symbolic knowledge from trained neural networks; - Integrated neural-symbolic reasoning; - Neural-symbolic cognitive models; - Biologically-inspired neural-symbolic integration; - Applications in robotics, simulation, fraud prevention, natural language processing, semantic web, software engineering, fault diagnosis, bioinformatics, visual intelligence, etc. ** Submission ** Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit original papers that have not been submitted for review or published elsewhere: - Submitted papers must be written in English, must be formatted according to the Springer LNCS style (templates and sample files are available from https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gui delines), and should not exceed 10 pages (excluding references/bibliography) in the case of research and experience papers, and 6 pages (excluding references/bibliography) in the case of position papers or technical notes. - All submitted papers will be judged based on their relevance, originality, significance, technical quality, and organisation. - Papers must be submitted through EasyChair at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nesy17. - Additionally, presentations based on extended abstracts will be considered. These shall allow to report on latest results which had not been available at the time of paper submission. Therefore, the abstract deadline is significantly closer to the workshop date. Extended abstracts may not exceed 3 pages (including references/bibliography) and should aim to give a good impression of the type of work conducted, the achieved results and their importance for the field. ** Presentation ** Selected papers will be presented during the workshop. The workshop will include extra time for discussion of the presentations allowing the group to have a better understanding of the issues, challenges, and ideas being presented. ** Publication ** Accepted papers will be published in official workshop proceedings within the CEUR-WS.org series. Accepted abstracts will also be included in the official workshop proceedings. = IMPORTANT DATES = Deadline for paper submission: May 7, 2017 Notification of paper acceptance/rejection: June 4, 2017 Deadline for abstract submission: June 18, 2017 Notification of abstract acceptance/rejection: June 25, 2017 Camera-ready paper due: July 2, 2017 Workshop date: July 17-18, 2017 = WORKSHOP ORGANISERS = General Chairs: - Tarek R. Besold (University of Bremen, Germany) - Artur d'Avila Garcez (City, University of London, UK) - Isaac Noble (Playground Global, U.S.A.) Local Chair at City, University of London: Simon Odense = PROGRAMME COMMITTEE = - Raquel Alhama, University of Amsterdam - James Davidson, Google Brain - Richard Evans, Google DeepMind - Barbara Hammer, Bielefeld University - Thomas Icard, Stanford University - Kai-Uwe Kuehnberger, University of Osnabrueck - Luis Lamb, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - Thomas Lukasiewicz, University of Oxford - Edjard Mota, Federal University of Amazonas - Terrence C. Stewart, University of Waterloo - Serge Thill, University of Skoevde - Son Tran, CSIRO Australia - Stefan Wermter, University of Hamburg -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From smartstart at fz-juelich.de Fri Feb 24 05:09:02 2017 From: smartstart at fz-juelich.de (Smart Start Coordination Office) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 11:09:02 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Deadline approaching for SMARTSTART Application Message-ID: <0a4a6a44-167d-880f-1323-e4c9f1f0241b@fz-juelich.de> Call for applications Ready for a SMARTSTART into Computational Neuroscience? We invite first and second-year Master students with a background in related fields to apply to our joint training program SMARTSTART. The program aims at complementing previous studies with concepts, theories and techniques of Computational Neuroscience. SMARTSTART consists of two programs. Both of them last one year each and take place at numerous locations of the Bernstein Network and further locations throughout Germany. SMARTSTART provides financial support to then second-year Master students, allowing them to attend supplementary courses and training visits at participating institutions. Students will receive an experienced faculty mentor who will advise and guide them at this educational stage. SMARTSTART 2 provides fully funded positions for pre-PhD students. At the start of the program, these students will have already obtained their Master?s degree and are in the process of selecting a PhD project. SMARTSTART 2 allows them to elaborate their own PhD proposal as a collaborative project between two labs. This comprises exchange visits as well as voluntary attendance of lectures and courses offered by participating institutions. Both SMARTSTART programs will commence the second round in the winter term 2017/18. The Deadline for application is Tuesday, February 28, 2017. More information can be found on our website: www.smartstart-compneuro.de Best regards, Kathrin Hebert -- Coordination Office Smart Start - Joint Training Program in Computational Neuroscience Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience | Bernstein Coordination Site (BCOS) Branch Office of the Forschungszentrum J?lich at the University of Freiburg Hansastr. 9A | 79104 Freiburg, Germany phone: (+49) 0761 203 9593 mail: smartstart at fz-juelich.de web: www.nncn.de Twitter: NNCN_Germany YouTube: Bernstein TV Facebook: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany LinkedIn: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 hans.opdebeeck at kuleuven.be Fri Feb 24 04:12:13 2017 From: hans.opdebeeck at kuleuven.be (Hans Op de Beeck) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 09:12:13 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc and PhD student for project on deep learning in artificial, human, and rodent brains Message-ID: <614ed8d6cb3c4f3c9e2a076accd7cb8b@ICTS-S-EXMBX19.luna.kuleuven.be> Postdoc and PhD student for project on deep learning in artificial, human, and rodent brains For a project combining the domains of human functional neuroimaging, computational modelling, and rodent physiology, we are looking for two new collaborators. Hirings can be at the level of postdoc as well as PhD student. First, we look for a scientist to implement and further develop deep neural network modelling. The aim is to compare the representations in these artificial networks over the course of training with neural responses in human and rodent cortex. Here we build upon earlier work such as Kubilius et al. (2016, PLOS Comput. Biology). Candidates should have a background in computational neuroscience, computer vision, artificial intelligence, or related fields. Second, we look for a scientist to study the cortical basis of visual learning in awake rodents through extracellular recordings using electrode arrays. Relevant earlier studies from our lab in this domain are Vinken et al. (2014, J. Neurosci.) and Vinken et al. (2016, Cerebral Cortex). Candidates should have a background in Neurobiology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Biomedical sciences, Bioengineering or a related field. Independent of career stage (so also for incoming PhD students), only candidates will be considered that have a quantitative and computational background including expertise with Matlab, good social skills and team spirit, and good communication skills in English (oral and written). For PhD students, we expect a competitive study record putting the student among the top students in an internationally competitive program. For postdocs, we expect a relevant and competitive publication record (e.g., in computational and systems neuroscience) including first-author peer-reviewed publications. The research will be implemented in the research group of Hans Op de Beeck in the Laboratory of Biological Psychology at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium). The research group focuses upon multidisciplinary work, including human neuroscience research with functional magnetic resonance imaging, rodent behaviour & electrophysiology, and computational modelling. Many members of the group come from countries outside Belgium (e.g., Canada, Brasil, South-Korea, Italy, Belarus), and the professional language is English. The city of Leuven is an old, medieval city which is very lively thanks to a large population of students and researchers. Leuven is at 25 km from Brussels, with frequent direct train connections, also to the international airport of Brussels (20 minutes by train). The university is one of the oldest in the Low Countries (founded in 1425) and is ranked in the top 50 of universities worldwide (THE ranking). It is home to a large community of systems/cognitive/visual/computational neuroscientists. Applications should be submitted before March 8th 2017. Funding is available for up to 3 (postdoc) or 4 (PhD student) years. The starting date is flexible between May and October 2017. Informal queries for further information can be sent to hans.opdebeeck at kuleuven.be . For the formal application, applicants should go to https://icts.kuleuven.be/apps/jobsite/vacatures/54073261. The site will ask for a motivation letter (please include contact information for 2 references) and a CV (please include a list of publications if applicable). --- Prof. Dr. Hans P. Op de Beeck Professor in Brain & Cognition Program Director of KU Leuven Bachelor Psychology Laboratory of Biological Psychology University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, Belgium Email: hans.opdebeeck at kuleuven.be Website: http://ppw.kuleuven.be/home/english/research/lbp/lbpMembers/00029058 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ASIM.ROY at asu.edu Thu Feb 23 14:36:59 2017 From: ASIM.ROY at asu.edu (Asim Roy) Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2017 19:36:59 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: On the existence of a purely abstract cognitive system in the brain that is based on single cells Message-ID: The following paper was published recently in Frontiers in Psychology, Cognition: ?The theory of localist representation and of a purely abstract cognitive system: The evidence from cortical columns, category cells and multisensory neurons? http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00186/full On the extensive use of abstract multisensory neurons in the brain There is now substantial neurophysiological evidence for a purely abstract cognitive system in the brain that is based on single cells. The evidence primarily comes from abstract category cells and multisensory neurons. Multisensory neurons provide a remarkable insight to the brain. Ghazanfar & Schroeder (2006) claim that multisensory integration extend into early sensory processing areas of the brain and that neocortex is essentially multisensory. Saleem, Ayaz, Jeffery, Harris & Carandini, M. (2013) report finding nearly half of V1 neurons in mice to be multimodal integrating visual motion and locomotion during navigation. And Klemen & Chambers (2012) notes that there is now ?broad consensus that most, if not all, higher, as well as lower level neural processes are in some form multisensory.? So abstractions are used extensively in the brain. And these abstraction are layered, sometimes integrating information from two modalities, sometimes three and so on. Much more evidence is discussed in the paper. On the absence of evidence for distributed representation It is also argued in the paper that there is no evidence for distributed representation in the brain, since, as per McClelland, the dense form (not the sparse form) is the only form that counts. And there is absolutely no evidence for the dense form (Panzeri et al. 2015). On the compatibility of grounded cognition and an abstract cognitive system It is also argued in the paper that such an abstract cognitive system is fully compatible with grounded and embodied cognition. And Barsalou?s (2008, p. 618) statement is very consistent with the claims made in this paper: ?From the perspective of grounded cognition, it is unlikely that the brain contains amodal symbols; if it does, they work together with modal representations to create cognition.? One of Barsalou?s questions was (p. 631): ?Can empirical evidence be found for the amodal symbols still believed by many to lie at the heart of cognition?? I think there is extensive evidence now that there indeed are amodal symbols in the brain and in the brains of many species. The discovery of this purely abstract cognitive system in the brain has the potential to resolve deep theoretical conflicts in cognitive science that?s almost four decades old. Asim Roy Professor, Information Systems Arizona State University www.lifeboat.com/ex/bios.asim.roy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From laurenz.wiskott at rub.de Fri Feb 24 04:42:10 2017 From: laurenz.wiskott at rub.de (Laurenz Wiskott) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 10:42:10 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [Jobs] Postdoc position in machine learning with Prof. Laurenz Wiskott in Bochum, Germany Message-ID: <20170224094210.32qukejlblvk54ep@garlic> Please forward this job advertisement to candidates who might be interested. Thanks, Laurenz Wiskott. ___________________________________________________________________________ Open position for a Postdoc with Prof. Laurenz Wiskott at the Institute for Neural Computation, Bochum, Germany ___________________________________________________________________________ Institute: Institute for Neural Computation Ruhr-University Bochum Universitaetsstr. 150 D-44801 Bochum, Germany, EU The Institute for Neural Computation is a central research institute at the Ruhr-University Bochum, see https://www.ini.rub.de/. It focuses on dynamics and learning of perception and behavior on a functional level but is otherwise very diverse, ranging from neurophysiology and psychophysics over computational neuroscience to machine learning and technical applications. Research group: Prof. Dr. Laurenz Wiskott, see http://www.ini.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/PEOPLE/wiskott/ Research topics: We are looking for an outstanding candidate who will be working on algorithms for continual (life long) learning with an emphasis on the interplay between unsupervised feature learning and memory-based reinforcement learning. The position is part of a team working jointly on developing a self-organizing vision-based agent that learns to navigate and adapt to changes in its environment. Interested candidates have also the opportunity to be involved with our related ongoing collaborative projects in the field of computational neuroscience on modeling hippocampal function and navigation. The group largely works with and contributes to the Modular toolkit for Data Processing (MDP toolkit) written in Python. Teaching: There is a teaching load of 4 hours per week during the semester, in particular for a programming course in python. Time: The position is available immediately. The appointment will initially be for two years. Requirements: Candidates should have a PhD in computer science, physics, mathematics, electrical engineering or any related field. Required are strong mathematical and programming skills as well as the ability to communicate and work well in a team. Salary: Salary is 100% of salary scale TV-L E13. Inquiries: Informal inquiries can be addressed to Prof. Laurenz Wiskott . Application: Applications should be sent in electronic form to Prof. Laurenz Wiskott . Ruhr-University Bochum is committed to equal opportunity in employment and gender equality in its working environment. We therefore look forward to applications from qualified women. Applications from appropriately qualified handicapped persons are also encouraged. From lciti at essex.ac.uk Fri Feb 24 06:40:13 2017 From: lciti at essex.ac.uk (Luca Citi) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 11:40:13 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: JOB: Postdoc in Brain-Computer Interfaces/Neural Engineering - UK - Closes: 3rd March 2017 Message-ID: The Essex Brain-Computer Interfaces and Neural Engineering (BCI-NE) laboratory (University of Essex, UK) is happy to announce a postdoctoral position in the newly funded project ?Brain-computer-interface-assisted confidence estimation for group decision making, group selection and personnel training". Applicants are expected to hold a PhD (or be very close to submitting their PhD thesis) in Biomedical Engineering, Brain-computer Interfaces, Neural Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Computer Science or a closely related discipline. The ideal candidate will have significant experience in signal processing, machine learning and brain-computer interfaces. This post is initially fixed-term for 2 years from the end of March 2017 (subject to possible minor delays). Full information at http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AXA206/postdoctoral-research-associate-brain-computer-interfaces-neural-engineering/ From georg.martius at tuebingen.mpg.de Fri Feb 24 07:29:25 2017 From: georg.martius at tuebingen.mpg.de (Georg Martius) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 13:29:25 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: Open positions: PhD and Postdoc in Autonomous Learning Group at MPI for Intelligent Systems, Germany Message-ID: <4499451.QnuEY8X8cF@jeeves> Please forward this job advertisement to candidates who might be interested. Thanks, Georg Martius ___________________________________________________________________________ Open positions for PhD Students and Postdocs in Autonomous Learning Group with Dr. Georg Martius Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, T?bingen, Germany Details: http://georg.playfulmachines.com/#section-182 ___________________________________________________________________________ *Institute:* Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, T?bingen http://is.tuebingen.mpg.de The Max Planck Institutes are world class research institutions. The goal of the Institute for Intelligent Systems is to understand the principles of perception, learning and action in autonomous systems that successfully interact with complex environments and to use this understanding to design future systems. *Research group and topics:* New research group with focus on autonomous learning and developmental robotics, led by *Georg Martius*, see http://georg.playfulmachines.com *We develop new algorithms and theory for making robots curious and to give them the ability to autonomously learn how to act.* We apply our methods to *real robots, in particular, soft and tendon driven systems which we partly build in the lab*. Research topics include and combine reinforcement learning, information theory, self-organization, dynamical systems, deep learning, and also soft robotics, mechanical engineering and 3D printing. We largely work with and Python, C++ and Mathematica. *Time and funding:* The positions are available from May 2017. The appointment for PhD students will be for three years and for Post-docs for one or two years and can then be extended if needed. Fully funded with competitive salary and full social security. *Requirements:* Candidates should have an education in computer science, physics, mathematics, electrical engineering or any related field. Required are strong mathematical and programming skills as well as the ability to communicate and work well in a team. *Application details and instructions:* http://georg.playfulmachines.com/#section-182 The Max-Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals. Furthermore, we seeks to increase the number of women and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. *Deadline:* Official deadline is March 18., but later applications might still be considered. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Georg Martius Autonomous Learning Group Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems EMail: georg.martius at tuebingen.mpg.de Spemannstr. 34, 72076 T?bingen, Germany From srivas at gmail.com Fri Feb 24 16:17:23 2017 From: srivas at gmail.com (Srivas Chennu) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 21:17:23 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Fwd: Funded PhD studentship in computational cognitive neuroscience In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Applications are invited for a funded PhD studentship with Dr Srivas Chennu in the School of Computing at the University of Kent (UK) to be based in our Medway Campus, to begin in September 2017 or shortly thereafter. The PhD project will focus on the research topics below, spanning computational and translational neuroscience. ==Neurodynamics of consciousness== Understanding how neural dynamics generate human consciousness is a grand challenge for neuroscience. We develop computational frameworks that use neuroscientific data (EEG/MEG/fMRI) to study the brain network correlates of consciousness during normal wakefulness, and in altered states like sleep, sedation and meditation. We also apply this science to build computational tools for improving diagnostics and prognostics during emergence from coma, and in prolonged disorders of consciousness (including the so-called vegetative and minimally conscious states). These tools could eventually be deployed right at the patients' bedside to visualise, quantify and track how their brains are recovering after injury. ==Deep neural network models of cognition== The idea that the brain is a hierarchical neural network designed for predictive cognition is persuasive one. In this view, the cortex implements Bayesian inference to maintain a successively complex hierarchy of predictive models of sensory causation. Alongside, deep learning can enable us to build dense neural networks based on complex neuroimaging datasets. We combine EEG/MEG with these modelling frameworks to describe how recurrent neural information processing realises predictive cognition in the brain. The successful applicant will be able to capitalise on Dr. Chennu?s strong research links with empirical and clinical collaborators at the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, Li?ge (Belgium), and Western Ontario (Canada). They will be embedded within the Data Science research group within the school, which brings together academics with expertise in signal processing, brain-computer interfacing, machine learning and computational intelligence. More information is available is available at Dr Chennu?s academic website: www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/sc785/ ==The School of Computing, University of Kent== The School of Computing has a reputation for high-quality research, with over 40 current PhD students. Our research activity is wide ranging and takes place within focused Research Groups which provide a vibrant research community for all members, staff or student. The School of Computing was ranked highly in the recent government run Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise. Our research intensity was ranked 12th out of 89, with superb impact ? 100% of our research impact ranked world leading or internationally excellent. The University of Kent is a leading university with a commitment to excellence in teaching and research. As the UK's European university, it is committed to creating a global student and staff community that advances knowledge and stimulates intellectual creativity, and performs at the highest levels. Kent is ranked 21st in the Times Higher Education (THE) ?Table of Tables? 2017 and it has twice been awarded the highly prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. The School is committed to the Athena Swan Scheme. This is a national scheme whereby Universities commit to advancing and promoting the careers of female scientists. Details can be seen on our website at http://www.kent.ac.uk/human-resources/athenaswan/. Kent?s Medway campus in Chatham Maritime is a 45-minute journey south-east from London?s St. Pancras International station. ==Funding== A scholarship award will cover the successful applicant?s fees at the home/EU rate (?4,121 in 2016/17) plus a maintenance bursary (?14,296 in 2016/17). The award will be for three years, subject to satisfactory progression through each year of study. They are awarded on a competitive basis and interview performance will be taken into account. Support for research students includes regular supervision meetings, a research training programme, computer equipment, a desk in an office and funds for conference travel. ==Applicant Qualifications== You should: Essential- Hold a good undergraduate degree (UK First or 2:1 or equivalent) in a numerate discipline (computing, engineering, physics, etc.). Students with a background in biology and psychology are also welcome to apply, as long as they have the requisite technical and quantitative skills. Be able to program independently in high-level scientific programming languages like MATLAB, Python and R. Desirable- Have prior experience or evidenced interest in computational neuroscience. Able to work with complex time-series data, including EEG. ==How to Apply== Please get in touch with Dr Chennu by email (sc785 at kent.ac.uk) in the first instance, with a Curriculum Vitae and a brief outline of your research proposal. Applications need to be submitted by Monday 3 April 2017. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From terry at salk.edu Fri Feb 24 17:17:02 2017 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 14:17:02 -0800 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL COMPUTATION - March 1, 2017 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Neural Computation - Volume 29, Number 3 - March 1, 2017 Available online for download now: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/neco/29/3 ----- Article STDP as Presynaptic Activity Times Rate of Change of Postsynaptic Activity Approximates Back-propagation Yoshua Bengio, Thomas Mesnard, Asja Fischer, Saizheng Zhang, and Yuhuai Wu Letters Deep Learning With Dynamic Spiking Neurons and Fixed Feedback Weights Arash Samadi, Timothy P. Lillicrap, and Douglas Blair Tweed Interpretation of the Precision Matrix and Its Application in Estimating Sparse Brain Connectivity During Sleep Spindles From Human Electrocorticography (ECoG) Recordings Anup Das, Aaron Sampson, Claudia Lainscsek, Lyle Muller, Wutu Lin, John Doyle, Sydney Cash, Eric Halgren, and Terrence J Sejnowski Selective Interareal Synchronization Through Gamma Frequency Differences and Slower-Rhythm Gamma Phase Reset Thomas Burwick, Alexandros Bouras Effects of Small-World Rewiring Probability and Noisy Synaptic Conductivity on Slow Waves: Cortical Network Ramazan Tekin, Mehmet Emin Tagluk On Decoding Grid-cell Population Codes Using Approximate Belief Propagation Yongseok Yoo, Woori Kim Multisensory Bayesian Inference Depends on Synapse Maturation During Training: Theoretical Analysis and Neural Modelling Implementation Mauro Ursino, Cristiano Cuppini, and Elisa Magosso Spike-Centered Jitter Can Mistake Temporal Structure Jonathan Platkiewicz, Eran Stark, and Asohan Amarasingham Spike-Centered Jitter Can Mistake Temporal Structure Jonathan Platkiewicz, Eran Stark, and Asohan Amarasingham Multiple Diffusion Models to Compare Saccadic and Manual Responses for Inhibition of Return William Joseph MacInnes Analysis of Online Composite Mirror Descent Algorithm Yunwen Lei, Ding-Xuan Zhou Solving Nonlinearly Separable Classifications in a Single-layer Neural Network Nolan Conaway, Kenneth Kurtz ------------ ON-LINE -- http://www.mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2017 - VOLUME 29 - 12 ISSUES Student/Retired $80 Individual $142 Institution $1,141 MIT Press Journals, One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209 Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-cs at mit.edu ------------ ~h From Donald.Adjeroh at MAIL.WVU.EDU Fri Feb 24 22:05:07 2017 From: Donald.Adjeroh at MAIL.WVU.EDU (Donald Adjeroh) Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2017 03:05:07 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: SBP-BRiMS'17 -- paper deadline extended In-Reply-To: References: , , , , Message-ID: Apologies if you receive multiple copies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Given numerous requests, we have extended the paper submission deadline for the conference. Please see below for the new deadline. SBP-BRiMS 2017 2017 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (SBP-BRiMS) July 5 (Wed) -- 8 (Sat), 2017, Lehman Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA Conference Website: http://sbp-brims.org All papers are qualified for the Best Paper Award. Papers with student first authors will be considered for the Best Student Paper Award. Those receiving these awards will be invited to publish an extended version in a special issue of the journal Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory. IMPORTANT DATES: Regular Paper Abstract Submission : Mar 1 (Wed), 2017 Regular Paper Submission : Mar 8 (Wed), 2017 Author Notification : Mar 27 (Mon), 2017 Final Version Submission : Apr 10 (Mon), 2017 Note, all regular papers will be evaluated for: presentation in plenary, presentation in regular session, presentation as poster, or no presentation. All accepted papers will be published in the physical proceedings ? the Springer LNCS volume. This volume is considered archival. Challenge Problem Submission : May 12 (Fri), 2017 Those submitting a response to the challenge are to submit a poster and a short paper by this date. All accepted papers will be published in the online proceedings only and will not be included in the Springer LNCS volume. The online proceedings is not considered archival. Posters & Demos Short Paper Submission : May 12 (Fri), 2017 This short paper submission is intended for late breaking results, technology demos, and those papers from industry, government or the military where constraints prevent the authors from writing a full paper. All short papers (including those describing demos) will be evaluated for: presentation as a poster, or no presentation. All accepted papers will be published in the online proceedings only and will not be included in the Springer LNCS volume. The online proceedings is not considered archival. Tutorial Proposal Submission : March 10 (Fri), 2017 Conference : July 5(Wed) to 8(Sat), 2017, including the following: Pre-conference Tutorial Sessions : July 10, 2017 (first day conference) Poster Session : At Conference Poster Night Technology Demos : Lunch times & Poster Night Challenge Problem Evaluation : At Conference Poster Night ABOUT SBP-BRiMS: SBP-BRiMS is a multidisciplinary conference with a selective single paper track and poster session. The conference also invites a small number of high quality tutorials and nationally recognized keynote speakers. The conference has grown out of two related meetings: SBP and BRiMS, which were co-located in previous years. Social computing harnesses the power of computational methods to study social behavior, such as during team collaboration. Cultural behavioral modeling refers to representing behavior and culture in the abstract, and is a convenient and powerful way to conduct virtual experiments and scenario analysis. Both social computing and cultural behavioral modeling are techniques designed to achieve a better understanding of complex behaviors, patterns, and associated outcomes of interest. Moreover, these approaches are inherently interdisciplinary; subsystems and system components exist at multiple levels of analysis (i.e., ?cells to societies?) and across multiple disciplines, from engineering and the computational sciences to the social and health sciences. The SBP-BRiMS conference invites modeling and simulation papers from academics, research scientists, technical communities and defense researchers across traditional disciplines to share ideas, discuss research results, identify capability gaps, highlight promising technologies, and showcase the state-of-the-art in applications in the areas of cultural behavioral modeling, prediction, and social computing. Please see the SBP-BRiMS17 website for more details. Keynotes and tutorials delivered in the previous SBP and BRiMS meetings are available through the websites http://sbp-brims.org and http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS2015/ . CALL FOR PAPERS: Submissions are solicited on research issues, theories, and applications. Topics of interests include the following: Advances in Sociocultural & Behavioral Processes * Group interaction and collaboration * Group formation and evolution * Group representation and profiling * Collective action and governance * Cultural patterns & representation * Social conventions, social contexts and processes * Influence process and recognition * Public opinion representation, identification and modeling * Information diffusion * Psycho-cultural situation awareness Behavior Modeling * Intelligent agents and avatars/adversarial modeling * Cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction * Models of reasoning and decision making * Model validation & comparison * Socio-cultural M&S: team/group/crowd/behavior * Physical models of human movement * Performance assessment & skill monitoring/tracking * Performance prediction/enhancement/optimization * Intelligent tutoring systems * Knowledge acquisition/engineering * Human behavior issues in model federations Methodological Challenges * Mathematical foundations * Verification and validation * Sensitivity analysis * Matching technique or method to research questions * Metrics and evaluation * Methodological innovation * Model federation and integration * Evolutionary computing * Optimization Information, Systems, & Network Science * Data mining on social media platforms * Diffusion and other dynamic processes over networks * Inference of network topologies and changes over time * Analysis of link formations and link types * Detection of communities and other types of structures in networks * Analysis of high-dimensional networks * Analytics for social and human dynamics Military & Intelligence Applications * Evaluation, modeling and simulation * Group formation and evolution in the political context * Technology and flash crowds * Networks and political influence * Group representation and profiling * Reasoning about terrorist group behaviors and policies towards them Applications for Health and Well-being * Social network analysis to understand health behavior * Modeling of health policy and decision making * Modeling of behavioral aspects of infectious disease spread * Intervention design and modeling for behavioral health Other Applications * Economic applications of behavioral and social prediction * Viral marketing * Reasoning about development aid through social modeling * Reasoning about global educational efforts through cognitive simulation FORMAT AND SUBMISSION: The conference solicits three categories of papers: Regular papers (max. 10 pages) All topics and authors (academic, government, industry) welcome Published in a Springer volume and online. Plenary or poster presentation. Short papers and Late-breaking results (max. 6 pages) All topics and authors welcome. Published online. Typically a poster presentation. Demos (2-page abstract, or max. 6 pages) Published online. Typically a poster or demo presentation. Paper Formatting Guideline The papers must be in English and MUST be formatted according to the Springer-Verlag LNCS/LNAI guidelines. Sample LaTeX2e and WORD files are available at http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6- 793341-0. It is not required to submit a cover page. All regular paper submissions should be submitted as a paper with a maximum of 10 pages using the foregoing format. All submissions for posters, demo-presentations, challenge problem entries and late breaking results should be submitted as a paper with a maximum of 6 pages using the same format as the regular papers. All accepted entries will be posted on the SBP-BRiMS 2017 website. A selection of authors will be invited to contribute journal versions of their papers to one of two planned special issues of the Springer journal ?Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory? and another high- profile journal. The submission website will be available at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sbpbrims2017. To register a paper abstract, use the standard Easychair submission website and submit your title and abstract. Until the final paper deadline, you will be able to update your submission. PUBLICATION For any questions and inquiries concerning submissions, please email the program chairs at sbpbrims2017 at gmail.com. PRE-CONFERENCE TUTORIAL SESSIONS: Several half-day sessions will be offered on the day before the full conference. Sessions will be designed to meet the needs of one of two distinct groups. One group will consist of attendees who have backgrounds in computational science; computer science, engineering, and other mathematically oriented disciplines. Other tutorial sessions will be designed for behavioral and social scientists and others (e.g. those with medical backgrounds or training in public health) who may have limited formal education in the computational sciences. Attendees will gain an understanding of terminology, theories, and general approaches employed by computationally based fields, especially with respect to modeling approaches. Tutorial proposal submission: Tutorial proposals should be submitted online to sbpbrims at andrew.cmu.edu. At minimum, each proposal must contain the following information: * Title of the tutorial. * Description of the tutorial topic and structure. * Expected audience (including the expected backgrounds of the attendees). * Short bio and contact information of the organizers. More details regarding the pre-conference tutorial sessions, including instructors, course content, and registration information will be posted to the conference website (SBP-BRiMS.org) as soon as this information becomes available. For further information, please contact sbpbrims at andrew.cmu.edu. CHALLENGE: The conference expects to announce a computational challenge as in previous years. Additional details will be posted on the conference website. FUNDING PANEL & CROSS-FERTILIZATION ROUNDTABLES: Previous SBP-BRiMS conferences have included a Cross-fertilization Roundtable session or a Funding Panel. The purpose of the cross- fertilization roundtables is to help participants become better acquainted with people outside of their discipline and with whom they might consider partnering on future SBP-BRiMS-related research collaborations. The Funding Panel provides an opportunity for conference participants to interact with program managers from various federal funding agencies. Participants for the previous funding panels have included representatives from federal agencies, such as the NSF, NIH, DoD, ONR, AFOSR, USDA, etc. BEST PAPER AWARDS: SBP-BRiMS17 will feature a Best Paper Award and a Best Student Paper Award. All papers are qualified for the Best Paper Award. Papers with student first authors will be considered for the Best Student Paper Award. HOTEL AND LOGISTICS: Information on hotel and logistics will be provided at the conference website as it becomes available. TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIPS: It is anticipated that a limited number travel scholarships will be available on a competitive basis. Additional information will be provided on the SBP- BRiMS Conference website as it becomes available. ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the STATLER-SBP-BRIMS list, click the following link: https://listserv.wvu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?TICKET=NzM2NDE0IGNvbm5lY3Rpb25pc3RzQENTLkNNVS5FRFUgU1RBVExFUi1TQlAtQlJJTVMgIF9THx3wln7a&c=SIGNOFF -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From zfalomir at gmail.com Sat Feb 25 12:57:36 2017 From: zfalomir at gmail.com (Zoe Falomir) Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2017 18:57:36 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [CFP] ProSocrates'17 Message-ID: Dear all, attached is the information about a symposium we are organizing on Problem Solving, Spatial Reasoning and Creativity in Cognitive Systems. We hope it is interesting for you. Please share it with your networks! -- Kind regards, Dr.-Ing. Zoe Falomir ------------------------------------------------------------ Dr.-Ing. Zoe Falomir Llansola https://sites.google.com/site/zfalomir/home Twitter @zfalomir CogQDA project Twitter @CogQDA Spatial Cognition Research Centre Universit?t Bremen B?ro: Cartesium 3.54 Enrique-Schmidt-Str. 5 28359 Bremen Phone + 49 (0) 421-218-64282 <+49%20421%2021864282> Fax + 49 (0) 421-218-64239 <+49%20421%2021864239> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: #ProSocrates17.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 141008 bytes Desc: not available URL: From zfalomir at gmail.com Sat Feb 25 12:51:52 2017 From: zfalomir at gmail.com (Zoe Falomir) Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2017 18:51:52 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: [CFP] ProSocrates'17 Message-ID: Dear all, attached is the information about a symposium we are organizing on Problem Solving, Spatial Reasoning and Creativity in Cognitive Systems. We hope it is interesting for you. Please share it with your networks! -- Kind regards, Dr.-Ing. Zoe Falomir ------------------------------------------------------------ Dr.-Ing. Zoe Falomir Llansola https://sites.google.com/site/zfalomir/home Twitter @zfalomir E-mail zfalomir at uni-bremen.de CogQDA project Twitter @CogQDA Spatial Cognition Research Centre Universit?t Bremen B?ro: Cartesium 3.54 Enrique-Schmidt-Str. 5 28359 Bremen Phone + 49 (0) 421-218-64282 Fax + 49 (0) 421-218-64239 ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: #ProSocrates17.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 141008 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ndaw at princeton.edu Sat Feb 25 08:35:54 2017 From: ndaw at princeton.edu (Nathaniel Daw) Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2017 13:35:54 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making deadline in one week Message-ID: Dear colleagues The abstract deadline for RLDM 2017 is Saturday, March 4. We welcome contributions on learning and decision making, both biological and artificial. See original call for papers below. Best Nathaniel Daw Emma Brunskill --- The 3rd Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM2017) www.rldm.org June 11-14 2017, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A. ====================================================== Submissions to RLDM2017 are now being accepted at https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/RLDM2017 Deadline: 4 March 2017, 11:59PM PST We invite extended abstracts for contributed poster presentations and oral presentations. We welcome submissions of original research related to ?learning and decision making over time to achieve a goal?, coming from any discipline or disciplines, describing empirical results from human, animal or animat experiments, and/or theoretical work, simulations and modeling. Contributions should be aimed at an interdisciplinary audience, but not at the expense of technical excellence. This is an abstract-based meeting, with no published conference proceedings. As such, work that is intended for, or has been submitted to, other conferences or journals is also welcome, provided that the intent of communication to other disciplines is clear. Submissions should consist of a summary (max 2000 characters; text only), and an extended abstract of between one and four pages (including figures and references). LaTeX and RTF templates, and sample submissions, are available from http://rldm.org/rldm2017/submission-procedure/ Note: Only the summary will be made available in the (electronic) abstract booklets. The extended abstract will be used for reviewing, and will be available online only pending on authors? separate explicit permission. Online availability will have no bearing on the review process and authors are encouraged to include new, unpublished, findings which they do not want to make publicly available. To submit your abstract please go to https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/RLDM2017 Submissions will be reviewed for relevance to the topic and for quality. Exceptional abstracts will be selected for oral presentations and for poster spotlight presentations. IMPORTANT DATES: Submissions open: now Submissions close: 4 March 2017, 11:59pm PST Notification of acceptance: 3 April 2017 Early registration: 28 April 2017 Meeting: 11-14 June 2017, Ann Arbor, Michigan RLDM2017 Invited speakers: http://rldm.org/rldm2017/invited-speakers/ To ensure that you receive future announcements about RLDM2017 please join our mailing list at http://tinyurl.com/RLDMlist (you must log in to google to see the ?join list? button, and choose ?all email? from the options at the bottom). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sahidullahmd at gmail.com Sun Feb 26 04:53:44 2017 From: sahidullahmd at gmail.com (Md Sahidullah) Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2017 11:53:44 +0200 Subject: Connectionists: Speech/audio post-doc opening at UEF / Finland Message-ID: ***** Postdoctoral Researcher (Speech/Audio Processing) The University of Eastern Finland, UEF, is one of the largest multidisciplinary universities in Finland. We offer education in nearly one hundred major subjects, and are home to approximately 15,000 students and 2,800 members of staff. We operate on three campuses in Joensuu, Kuopio and Savonlinna. In international rankings, we are ranked among the leading 300 universities in the world. The Faculty of Science and Forestry operates on the Kuopio and Joensuu campuses of the University of Eastern Finland. The mission of the faculty is to carry out internationally recognised scientific research and to offer research-education in the fields of natural sciences and forest sciences. The faculty invests in all of the strategic research areas of the university. The faculty?s environments for research and learning are international, modern and multidisciplinary. The faculty has approximately 3,800 Bachelor?s and Master?s degree students and some 490 postgraduate students. The number of staff amounts to 560. http://www.uef.fi/en/lume t/etusivu We are now inviting applications for *a Postdoctoral Researcher (Speech/Audio Processing), School of Computing, Joensuu Campus * The Machine Learning research group of the School of Computing at the University of Eastern Finland (http://www.uef.fi/en/web/cs) is looking for a highly motivated researcher to work in the group. The current research topics in the group include speaker and language recognition, voice conversion, spoofing and countermeasures for speaker recognition, robust feature extraction, and analysis of environmental sounds. Prior experience in these topics is a plus, though we invite candidates widely from general speech/audio/language processing, machine learning or signal processing background. We expect the new Postdoctoral Researcher to bring in complementary skills and expertise. The recruited Postdoctoral Researcher will take a major role in advancing research in one of the above-listed (or closely related) topics. He or she will also have a significant role in the supervision of students and certain administrative duties, and he or she will work closely with Associate Professor Kinnunen and the other members of the group. The position is strongly research-focused. The School of Computing, located in Joensuu Science Park, provides modern research facilities with access to high-performance computing services. Our research group hosted the Odyssey 2014 conference ( http://cs.uef.fi/odyssey2014/), is a partner in the ongoing H2020 funded OCTAVE project (https://www.octave-project.eu/) focused on voice biometrics, is a co-founder of the Automatic Speaker Verification and Countermeasures (ASVspoof) challenge series (http://www.spoofingchallenge. org/) and has hosted international summer schools. We take actively part in international benchmarking and other collaboration activities. We follow a multidisciplinary research perspective that targets at understanding the speech signal, as well as applying the acquired knowledge to new application areas. A person to be appointed as a postdoctoral researcher shall hold a suitable doctoral degree that has been awarded less than five years ago. The doctoral degree should be in spoken language technology, electrical engineering, computer science, machine learning or a closely related field. He/she should be comfortable with Unix/Linux, Matlab/Octave and/or Python, processing of large datasets and with strong hands-on experience and creative out-of-the-box problem solving attitude. The position will be filled from May 1, 2017 until December 31, 2018. The continuation of the position will be agreed separately. The positions of postdoctoral researcher shall always be filled for a fixed term (UEF University Regulations 31 ?). The salary of the position is determined in accordance with the salary system of Finnish universities and is based on level 5 of the job requirement level chart for teaching and research staff (?2.865,30/ month). In addition to the job requirement component, the salary includes a personal performance component, which may be a maximum of 46.3% of the job requirement component. *For further information on the position, please contact:* Associate Professor Tomi Kinnunen, email: tkinnu at cs.uef.fi <%20tkinnu at cs.uef.fi>, tel. +358 50 442 2647 <+358%2050%204422647>. *For further information on the application procedure, please contact:* Executive Head of Administration Arja Hirvonen, tel. +358 44 716 3422 <+358%2044%207163422>, email: arja.hirvonen at uef.fi . A probationary period is applied to all new members of the staff. The electronic application should contain the following appendices: - a cover letter indicating the position to be applied for and a free-worded motivation letter - a r?sum? or CV - a list of publications - copies of the applicant's academic degree certificates/ diplomas, and copies of certificates / diplomas relating to the applicant?s language proficiency, if not indicated in the academic degree certificates/diplomas - the names and contact information of at least two referees The application needs to be submitted no later than March 24, 2017 (by 24:00 EET) by using the electronic application form: Apply for the job The job ad and the application form can also be located under http://www.uef.fi/en/uef/en-open-positions (seek for the position "Postdoctoral Researcher (Speech/Audio Processing)"). -- Dr. Md Sahidullah Post-doctoral researcher School of Computing University of Eastern Finland Joensuu, P.O. Box 111 Finland- 80101 tel. +358-466250731 website: http://cs.joensuu.fi/~sahid/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From erik at oist.jp Mon Feb 27 03:02:01 2017 From: erik at oist.jp (Erik De Schutter) Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2017 08:02:01 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoctoral position in modeling dendritic morphology and growth Message-ID: A postdoctoral researcher position is available in the Computational Neuroscience Unit of Prof. Erik De Schutter at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan. The project studies morphology and growth of neuronal dendrites in the olivocerebellar system from the perspective of neuron populations and considers the relations between neighboring dendrites explicitly. We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with a computational neuroscience or computer science background to model neural morphology and expand necessary software. Experience in modeling neurons with dendrites or in modeling growth in other systems is required. Successful candidates will collaborate with scientists at OIST in addition to the daily interaction with other researchers and students in the lab who are working on cerebellar modeling projects, analyzing cerebellar recordings or developing software. We offer attractive financial and working conditions in an English language graduate university that emphasizes interdisciplinary research, located on the beautiful subtropical island of Okinawa. Send curriculum vitae, a summary of research interests and experience, and the names of three referees to Prof. Erik De Schutter at erik at oist.jp Prof. Erik De Schutter Computational Neuroscience Unit Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-Son Okinawa 904-0495 JAPAN phone: +81-98-966-8727 fax: +81-98-966-8718 erik at oist.jp http://groups.oist.jp/cnu -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 3698 bytes Desc: not available URL: From Sharon.Crook at asu.edu Mon Feb 27 16:04:11 2017 From: Sharon.Crook at asu.edu (Sharon Crook) Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2017 21:04:11 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Reminder: CNS*2017 Abstract Deadline March 5 Message-ID: CNS*2017 Call for Abstracts Organization for Computational Neurosciences (OCNS) 26th Annual Meeting Antwerp, Belgium July 15-20, 2017 The main meeting (July 16-18) will be preceded by a day of tutorials (July 15) and followed by two days of workshops (July 19-20). Invited Keynote Speakers: Erik De Schutter, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan Panayiota Poirazi, IMBB-Forth, Greece Karl Friston, University College London, UK Sue Denham, University of Plymouth, UK A preliminary program for the workshops is available at: http://www.cnsorg.org/cns-2017-workshops Registration and abstract submission are open. Abstract submission deadline: March 5th, 2017 Note that one of the authors has to register as sponsoring author for the main meeting before abstract submission is possible. In case the abstract is not accepted for presentation, the registration fee will be refunded. For up-to-date conference information, please visit: http://www.cnsorg.org/meetings From JAPlatt at northwell.edu Mon Feb 27 16:43:22 2017 From: JAPlatt at northwell.edu (Platt, Jo Ann) Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2017 16:43:22 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Immediate Postdoc and Asst. Prof. openings in the lab of Dr. Kevin Tracey at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research Message-ID: <786DD4B977A6024B9520062297C8A8DFFE4ADE2784@SYKECHXVS10.nslijhs.net> Job description Postdoctoral and Assistant Professor opportunities are available immediately in the laboratory of Dr. Kevin J. Tracey at the Center for Biomedical Sciences at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY. We are seeking driven individuals to join a newly funded research program on investigating the role of ascending and descending neural pathways in the control of adaptive immune function. The research focus of the lab is in the field of Bioelectronic Medicine to develop nerve-stimulating technologies to regulate the molecular targets underlying disease. The fellow will interact with a wide range of researchers in a dynamic and productive environment, bridging basic science with clinical research. Interested applicants should send a brief description of research interests and curriculum vitae, including contact information for three references to Jo Jo Platt, Center for Bioelectronic Medicine japlatt at northwell.edu Desired skills and experience The successful candidate will hold a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. with electrophysiology skills including electrical and optogenetic modulation of peripheral neural circuitry, neuroanatomical mapping, and single cell neuronal recording. The candidate is expected to have strong skills in major biochemistry and cell biology techniques, animal handling, primary cultures and quantitative data analysis. A strong immunology background, experience with animal models including cre-lox models, animal surgery, molecular biology, and microscopy would be an asset. The information contained in this electronic e-mail transmission and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to whom or to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this communication is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying or disclosure of this communication and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone and electronic mail, and delete the original communication and any attachment from any computer, server or other electronic recording or storage device or medium. Receipt by anyone other than the intended recipient is not a waiver of any attorney-client, physician-patient or other privilege. From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Mon Feb 27 19:53:50 2017 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr Amir Hussain) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 00:53:50 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: (Increased ISI Impact Factor & now PubMed indexed!) Table of Contents: Cognitive Computation journal (Springer Nature)-Vol.8, No.6/Dec 2016 & Vol.8, No.1/Feb 2017 Issues Message-ID: Dear Colleagues: (with advance apologies for any cross-postings) We are delighted to announce the publication of Volume 8, No.6 / Dec 2016 and Volume 9, No.1 / Feb 2017 Issues, of (Springer Nature's) Cognitive Computation journal - www.springer.com/12559 ================================= Important News: Increased ISI SCI Impact Factor, Six bi-monthly Journal Issues (since 2015) & Now indexed in PubMed (since 2016) ================================= As you will know, Cognitive Computation was selected for coverage in Thomson Reuter?s products and services in 2011. Beginning with V.1 (1) 2009, this publication is now indexed and abstracted in: ? Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch?) ? Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition ? Current Contents?/Engineering Computing and Technology ? PubMed (since 2016) ? Neuroscience Citation Index? Cognitive Computation received its first Impact Factor (IF) in 2011 The ISI IF for 2015/16 has increased to 1.933 (from 1.44 in 2014/15) - Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports? 2015 Many congratulations to the editors, reviewers and authors! Want to be part of the growing success? Visit the journal homepage ( http://springer.com/12559) for instructions on submitting your research. ================================= Quarterly to Bi-monthly Issues, since 2015!! ================================= Due to continuously growing number of high quality submissions, the number of Issues has increased from four (quarterly Issues) to six (bi-monthly Issues) each year, since Feb 2015! ================================= The December 2016 and February 2017 Issues each comprise a selection of 10 papers. The full listings of published articles (Table of Contents) for these Issues can be viewed here (and also at the end of this message, followed by an overview of the previous Issues/Archive listings): http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/8/6/ and http://link.springer.com/ journal/12559/9/1/ A list of the journal's Open Access articles can be found here: http://link.springer.com/search?query=&search-within= Journal&facet-journal-id=12559&package=openaccessarticles Other 'Online First' published articles not yet in a print issue can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/121361/?Content+Status=Accepted All previous Volumes and Issues of the journal can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/12559 ======================================== Reminder: Cognitive Computation "LinkedIn" Group: ======================================== To further strengthen the bonds amongst the interdisciplinary audience of Cognitive Computation, we have set-up a "Cognitive Computation LinkedIn group", which has nearly 900 members already! We warmly invite you to join us at: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3155048 For further information on the journal and to sign up for electronic "Table of Contents alerts" please visit the Cognitive Computation homepage: http://www.springer.com/12559 or follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/CognComput for the latest On-line First Issues. For any questions with regards to LinkedIn and/or Twitter, please contact Springer's Publishing Editor: Marleen Moore: Marleen.Moore at springer.com Finally, we would like to invite you to submit short or regular papers describing original research or timely review of important areas - our aim is to peer review all papers within approximately six weeks of receipt. We also welcome relevant high quality multi-disciplinary proposals for Special Issues - three are already planned for 2016/17! (including an exciting forthcoming one, titled: "Advances in Biologically Inspired Reservoir Computing" : http://static.springer.com/sgw/documents/1570471/ application/pdf/Advances+in+Biologically+Inspired+Reservoir+Computing.pdf - submissions are now closed!) With our very best wishes to all aspiring readers and authors of Cognitive Computation. Professor Amir Hussain, PhD (Editor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation) E-mail: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (University of Stirling, Scotland, UK) Professor Igor Aleksander, PhD (Honorary Editor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation) (Imperial College, London, UK) http://www.springer.com/12559 NEW: Open Access Springer Nature/BioMed Central (BMC) journal: Big Data Analytics (http://www.bdataanalytics.com/) - Now accepting submissions! NEW: Springer Series on Socio-Affective Computing: http://www.springer.com/series/13199 NEW: Book Series: Cognitive Computation Trends http://www.springer.com/series/15648 ============================= Table of Contents -- Cognitive Computation Vol 8 No 6, December 2016 ============================== *A Biologically Inspired Framework for Visual Information Processing and an Application on Modeling Bottom-Up Visual Attention* Ala Aboudib, Vincent Gripon, Gilles Coppin http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9430-8 *Contour Detection in Colour Images Using a Neurophysiologically Inspired Model* Qi Wang, M. W. Spratling http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9432-6 *Multi-criteria Group Decision-Making Based on Interval Neutrosophic Uncertain Linguistic Variables and Choquet Integral* Peide Liu, Guolin Tang http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9428-2 *A Computational Approach of the French Flag Model to Connect Growth and Specification in Developmental Biology* Maria Teresa Signes Pont, Higinio Mora Mora, Juan Manuel Garc?a Chamizo http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9426-4 *Weight Uncertainty in Boltzmann Machine* Jian Zhang, Shifei Ding, Nan Zhang, Yu Xue http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9429-1 *Towards GPU-Based Common-Sense Reasoning: Using Fast Subgraph Matching* Ha-Nguyen Tran, Erik Cambria, Amir Hussain http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9418-4 *Probabilistic Belief Embedding for Large-Scale Knowledge Population* Miao Fan, Qiang Zhou, Andrew Abel, Thomas Fang Zheng, Ralph Grishman http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9425-5 *Bifurcation Analysis of Two-Neuron Networks with Discrete and Distributed Delays* Changjin Xu, Qiming Zhang, Yusen Wu http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9422-8 *Group Decision Making with Dual Hesitant Fuzzy Preference Relations* Na Zhao, Zeshui Xu, Fengjun Liu http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9419-3 *An Extended Outranking Approach to Rough Stochastic Multi-criteria Decision-Making Problems* Jian-qiang Wang, Jin-jue Kuang, Jing Wang, Hong-yu Zhang http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9417-5 ============================= Table of Contents -- Cognitive Computation Vol 9 No 1, February 2017 ============================== *Anatomy of the Mind: a Quick Overview* Ron Sun http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9444-2 *On Global Smooth Path Planning for Mobile Robots using a Novel Multimodal Delayed PSO Algorithm* Baoye Song, Zidong Wang, Lei Zou http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9442-4 *Semi-supervised Learning for Affective Common-Sense Reasoning* Luca Oneto, Federica Bisio, Erik Cambria, Davide Anguit http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9433-5 *A Digital Communication Analysis of Gene Expression of Proteins in Biological Systems: A Layered Network Model View* Yesenia Cevallos, Lorena Molina, Alex Santill?n, Floriano De Rango, Ahmad Rushdi, Jes?s B. Alonso http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9434-4 *H-MRST: A Novel Framework For Supporting Probability Degree Range Query Using Extreme Learning Machine* Bin Wang, Rui Zhu, Shiying Luo, Xiaochun Yang, Guoren Wang http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9435-3 *Distance and Aggregation-Based Methodologies for Hesitant Fuzzy Decision Making* B. Farhadinia, Zeshui Xu http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9436-2 *Learning Tone Mapping Function for Dehazing* Xuhang Lian, Yanwei Pang, Yuqing He, Xuelong Li, Aiping Yang http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9437-1 *A Semi-Supervised Predictive Sparse Decomposition Based on Task-Driven Dictionary Learning* Le Lv, Dongbin Zhao, Qingqiong Deng http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9438-0 *Semi-supervised Echo State Networks for Audio Classification* Simone Scardapane, Aurelio Uncini http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9439-z *Human Brain Function in Path Planning: a Task Study* Yeganeh M. Marghi, Farzad Towhidkhah, Shahriar Gharibzadeh http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9443-3 ----------------------------------------------- Previous Issues/Archive: Overview: ----------------------------------------------- All previous Volumes and Issues can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/12559 Alternatively, the full listing of the Inaugural Vol. 1, No. 1 / March 2009, can be viewed here (which included invited authoritative reviews by leading researchers in their areas - including keynote papers from London University's John Taylor, Igor Aleksander and Stanford University's James McClelland, and invited papers from Ron Sun, Pentti Haikonen, Geoff Underwood, Kevin Gurney, Claudius Gross, Anil Seth and Tom Ziemke): http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/1/ The full listing of Vol. 1, No. 2 / June 2009, can be viewed here (which included invited reviews and original research contributions from leading researchers, including Rodney Douglas, Giacomo Indiveri, Jurgen Schmidhuber, Thomas Wennekers, Pentti Kanerva and Friedemann Pulvermuller): http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/2/ The full listing of Vol.1, No. 3 / Sep 2009, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/3/ The full listing of Vol. 1, No. 4 / Dec 2009, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/4/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 1 / March 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/1/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 2 / June 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/2/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 3 / Aug 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/3/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 4 / Dec 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/4/ The full listing of Vol.3, No.1 / Mar 2011 (Special Issue on: Saliency, Attention, Active Visual Search and Picture Scanning, edited by John Taylor and Vassilis Cutsuridis), can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/1/ The Guest Editorial can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/hu2245056415633l/ The full listing of Vol.3, No.2 / June 2011 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/2/ The full listing of Vol. 3, No. 3 / Sep 2011 (Special Issue on: Cognitive Behavioural Systems, Guest Edited by: Anna Esposito, Alessandro Vinciarelli, Simon Haykin, Amir Hussain and Marcos Faundez-Zanuy), can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/3/ The Guest Editorial for the special issue can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/h4718567520t2h84/ The full listing of Vol. 3, No. 4 / Dec 2011 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/4/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.1 / Mar 2012 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/1/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.2 / June 2012 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/2/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.3 / Sep 2012 (Special Issue on: Computational Creativity, Intelligence and Autonomy, Edited by: J. Mark Bishop and Yasemin J. Erden) can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/3/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.4 / Dec 2012 (Special Issue titled: "Cognitive & Emotional Information Processing", Edited by: Stefano Squartini, Bj?rn Schuller and Amir Hussain, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/4/4/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.1 / March 2013 Special Issue titled: Computational Intelligence and Applications Guest Editors: Zhigang Zeng & Haibo He, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/1/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.2 / June 2013 Special Issue titled: Advances on Brain Inspired Computing, Guest Editors: Stefano Squartini, Sanqing Hu & Qingshan Liu, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/2/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.3 / Sep 2013 Special Issue titled: In Memory of John G Taylor: A Polymath Scholar, Guest Editors: Vassilis Cutsuridis & Amir Hussain, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/3/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.4 / Dec 2013, which includes regular papers (including an invited paper by Professor Ron Sun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA, titled: Moral Judgment, Human Motivation, and Neural Networks), and a Special Issue titled: Advanced Cognitive Systems Based on Nonlinear Analysis. Guest Editors: Carlos M. Travieso and Jes?s B. Alonso, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/4/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 6, No.1 / Mar 2014, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/1/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 6, No.2 / June 2014, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/2/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 6, No.3 / Sep 2014, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/3/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 6, No.4 / Dec 2014 (Special Issue on Modeling emotion, behaviour and context in socially believable robots and ICT interfaces, Guest Editors: Anna Esposito, Leopoldina Fortunati, and Giuseppe Lugano) can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journ al/12559/6/4/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 7, No.1 / Feb 2015 can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/7/1/ (with the first six papers part of a Special Issue on "Neural Signal Processing", Guest Edited by: Jordi Sole?-Casals, Francois-Benoit Vialatte, Justin Dauwels. The Guest Editorial titled: "Alternative Techniques of Neural Signal Processing in Neuroengineering" is available (for free download) here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-015-9317-0) The full listing of Vol. 7, No. 2 / April 2015, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/7/2/ This comprises a Special Issue on "Sentic Computing", Guest Edited by: E. Cambria and A. Hussain. The Guest Editorial titled: "Sentic Computing" is available (for free download) here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-015-9325-0 The full listing of Vol. 7, No. 3 / June 2015, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/7/3/ The full listing of Vol. 7, No. 4 / August 2015, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/7/4/ This comprises an invited paper by A. Vinciarelli and A. Esposito, et al. titled: Open Challenges in Modelling, Analysis and Synthesis of Human Behaviour in Human?Human and Human?Machine Interactions, which is followed by six regular papers. The full listing of Vol. 7, No. 5 / October 2015, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/7/5/ The full listing of Vol. 7, No.6 / December 2015, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/7/6/ This comprises a Special Issue titled: "Dealing with Big Data-Lessons from Cognitive Computing" (the Guest Editorial is available for free download here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-015-9364-6). This is followed by seven regular papers, including an invited paper by Hojjat Adeli et al. titled: "Nature Inspired Computing: An Overview and Some Future Directions" (free download available here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-015-9370-8) The full listing of Vol. 8, No.1 / February 2016, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/8/1/ This comprises an invited paper by Ron Sun et al. titled: "Emotion: A Unified Mechanistic Interpretation from a Cognitive Architecture" (this is available for free download here: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs12559-015-93 74-4.pdf). This is followed by eight regular papers. The full listing of Vol. 8, No. 2 / April 2016, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/8/2/ This comprises two invited papers, the first by Yew-Soon Ong et al. (titled: Evolutionary Multitasking: A Computer Science View of Cognitive Multitasking) and the second by Zidong Wang et al. (titled: A Novel Switching Delayed PSO Algorithm for Estimating Unknown Parameters of Lateral Flow Immunoassay). These are followed by 10 regular papers, and finally a Special Issue titled: "Cognitively-Inspired Computing for Gerontechnology" (comprising five manuscripts, with the Guest Editorial available for free download here: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs12559-016-9392-x.pdf). The full listing of Vol. 8, No.3 / June 2016, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/8/3/ This Issue comprises two Open Access invited papers, the first by Hussein Abbass et al. (titled: "Trusted Autonomy and Cognitive Cyber Symbiosis: Open Challenges", available for free download from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-015- 9365-5), and the second by Kevin Warwick et al. (titled: "Passing the Turing Test Does Not Mean the End of Humanity", available for free download from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-015-9372-6). These are followed by 10 regular papers. The full listing of Vol. 8 No.4 / Aug 2016 can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/8/4/ This Issue comprises an OPEN ACCESS invited paper, by Yiyu Yao (titled: Three-Way Decisions and Cognitive Computing, available for free download from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-016-9397-5?view=classic ). This is followed by 16 regular papers. The full listing of Vol. 8 No. 5 / Oct 2016 can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/8/5/ This Issue comprises a Special Issue on: Advances in Brain-Inspired Cognitive Systems (BICS), including a selection of 18 papers. The Guest Editorial (by Bin Luo, Amir Hussain, Mufti Mahmud and Jin Tang) is available for free download from: http://link.springer.com/ article/10.1007/s12559-016-9431-7 -- The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2015 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nicosia at dmi.unict.it Tue Feb 28 04:16:34 2017 From: nicosia at dmi.unict.it (Giuseppe Nicosia) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 10:16:34 +0100 Subject: Connectionists: MOD 2017 Call for Papers - Paper submission deadline: March 31, 2017 Message-ID: MOD 2017: The 3rd International Conference on Machine learning, Optimization & big Data An Interdisciplinary Conference: Machine Learning, Optimization and Data Science without Borders ======================================================= September 14 - 17, 2017 Volterra (Pisa) Tuscany, Italy http://www.taosciences.it/mod/ Important dates =============== * Full Paper Submissions: March 31, 2017 * Full Paper Notifications: May 1, 2017 * Special Session Proposals: March 31, 2017 * Special Session Notifications: April 15, 2017 * Workshop Proposals: March 31, 2017 * Workshop Notifications: April 15, 2017 * Conference: September 14 - 17, 2017 The International Conference on Machine learning, Optimization, and big Data (MOD) has established itself as a premier interdisciplinary conference in machine learning, computational optimization and data science. It provides an international forum for presentation of original multidisciplinary research results, as well as exchange and dissemination of innovative and practical development experiences. The MOD 2017 conference will consist of four days of conference sessions, tutorials, demo and special sessions. We invite submissions of papers, abstracts and posters on all topics related to Machine learning, Optimization and Big Data including real-world applications. Topics of Interest =============== Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Foundations, algorithms, models and theory of data science, including big data mining. * Machine learning and statistical methods for big data. * Multi-objective optimization. * Big data Mining from heterogeneous data sources, including text, semi-structured, spatio-temporal, streaming, graph, web, and multimedia data. * Big Data mining systems and platforms, and their efficiency, scalability, security and privacy. * Computational optimization. * Optimization algorithms for Real World Applications. * Optimization in Big Data. * Optimization and Machine Learning. * Big Data mining for modeling, visualization, personalization, and recommendation. * Big Data mining for cyber-physical systems and complex, time-evolving networks. * Applications in social sciences, physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, web, marketing, finance, precision medicine, health informatics, medicine and other domains. * Industrial applications of Machine Learning, Optimization and Big Data. We particularly encourage submissions in emerging topics of high importance such as data quality, deep learning, time-evolving networks, large multi-objective optimization, quantum optimization, big data mining and analytics, cyber-physical systems, and heterogeneous data integration and mining. Submission Guidelines =============== Paper submissions should be limited to a maximum of 12 pages, in the Springer LNCS format: http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0 including the bibliography and any possible appendices. All submissions will be 6-blind reviewed by the Program Committee on the basis of technical quality, significance, multidisciplinary, relevance to scope of the conference, originality and clarity. https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mod2017 Types of Submissions =============== When submitting a paper to MOD 2017, authors are required to select one of the following four types of papers: + Long paper: original novel and unpublished work (max. 12 pages in Springer LNCS format); + Short paper: an extended abstract of novel work (max. 4 pages); + Work for oral presentation only (no page restriction; any format). For example, work already published elsewhere, which is relevant and which may solicit fruitful discussion at the conference; + Abstract for poster presentation only (max. 2 pages). The poster format for the presentation is A0 (118.9 cm high and 84.1 cm wide, respectively 46.8 x 33.1 inch). For research work which is relevant and which may solicit fruitful discussion at the conference. Post-Proceedings =============== All accepted long papers will be published in a volume of the series 'Lecture Notes in Computer Science' from Springer *after* the conference. Instructions for preparing and submitting the final versions (camera-ready papers) of all accepted papers will be available later on. All the other papers (short papers, abstracts of the oral presentations, abstracts for the poster presentations) will be published on the MOD 2017 web site. Presentation =============== MOD uses the single session formula of 30 minutes presentations for fruitful exchanges between authors and participants. Best Paper Awards =============== Springer sponsors the MOD 2017 Best Paper Award with a cash prize of EUR 1,000. The Award will be conferred at the conference on the authors of the best paper award. Attendance =============== MOD is a premier forum for presenting and discussing current research in machine learning, optimization and big data. Therefore, at least one author of each accepted paper must complete the conference registration and present the paper at the conference, in order for the paper to be included in the proceedings and conference program. Keynote Speakers =============== + Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Machine Learning Department, School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Director of AI Research at Apple. + Jun Pei, Hefei University of Technology, China Other speakers will be announced soon! Organization =============== General Chair: Renato Umeton, Harvard University, USA Program Co-Chairs: Giovanni Giuffrida, University of Catania, Italy & Neodata Group Giuseppe Nicosia, University of Catania, Italy Panos Pardalos, University of Florida, USA Special Session Co-Chairs: Giuseppe Narzisi, New York University Tandon School of Engineering & New York Genome Center, New York, USA Workshop Co-Chair: Piero Conca, CNR, Italy Industrial Panel Chairs: Ilaria Bordino, Marco Firrincieli, Fabio Fumarola, and Francesco Gullo, UniCredit R&D Publicity Chair: Giovanni Murabito, DiGi Apps Inc. Giulia Santarelli, DiGi TaoSc W: http://www.taosciences.it/mod/ E: modworkshop2017 at gmail.com -- Giuseppe Nicosia, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Computer Science Dept of Mathematics & Computer Science University of Catania Viale A. Doria, 6 - 95125 Catania, Italy P +39 095 7383048 nicosia at dmi.unict.it http://www.dmi.unict.it/nicosia ================================================================== 4th International Synthetic & Systems Biology Summer School - SSBSS 2017 * Biology meets Computer Science & Engineering * July 17-21, 2017 - University of Cambridge, Robinson College, UK http://www.taosciences.it/ssbss/ Contact Email: ssbss.school at gmail.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/ssbss.school/ SSBSS - Synthetic & Systems Biology Summer School Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/238417586492061/ Computational Synthetic Biology Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1014624245288596/ ================================================================== 3rd International Conference on Machine learning, Optimization & big Data - MOD 2017 September 14-17, 2017 - Volterra (Pisa), Tuscany, Italy modworkshop2017 at gmail.com http://www.taosciences.it/mod/ ================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From J.Verhoef at donders.ru.nl Tue Feb 28 07:12:13 2017 From: J.Verhoef at donders.ru.nl (Verhoef, J.P. (Julia)) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 12:12:13 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: PI 'Neural basis of Language' in Dutch Consortium Language in Interaction (1, 0 fte) Message-ID: <11E9E0B371DBAE4EB859A9CC30606A04023C9484@exprd04.hosting.ru.nl> PI 'Neural basis of Language' in Dutch Consortium Language in Interaction (1,0 fte) Language in Interaction Consortium Maximum salary: ? 5.523,65 gross/month Application deadline: April 17, 2017, 23:59 CET [LiI_logo_manvrouw_heading_small.jpg][Logo NWO] Responsibilities The NWO Gravitation consortium 'Language in Interaction' invites applications for a PI position. We are looking for a highly motivated, creative and talented researcher who is able to establish a PI group on 'the neural basis of language'. You and your group will 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. You will be given the opportunity to establish your own independent research group, and you will have free access to the scanning facilities at Donders Institute. You will be expected to conduct research in one or more research areas relevant to the position applied for. Supervision of BSc, MSc and PhD projects will be part of your responsibilities. Administrative duties will include local and/or national and international committee memberships. You will be provided with budgetary resources for a PhD candidate or technician, materials and travelling. You will be eligible to apply for further funding both internally and externally. Work environment The Netherlands has an outstanding track record in the language sciences. The research consortium 'Language in Interaction', 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. Excellence in the domain of language and related relevant fields of cognition is combined with state-of-the-art research facilities and a research team with ample experience in complex research methods and utilization. This consortium achieves both quality and critical mass for studying human language at a scale not easily found anywhere else in the world. The position will be embedded in the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour at Radboud University. Both institutes conduct research in an international setting. English is the lingua franca. Your primary working environment is the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. What we expect from you You should have in-depth expertise in the application of advanced MEG and/or MR techniques (network analysis, diffusion weighted imaging, cortical thickness imaging, resting state measurement, voxel based morphometry, etc.) to the study of the 'language networks' in the brain. You should also have a solid neuroanatomical knowledge. The selection criteria include: - a PhD degree in any relevant field; - an interest in and focus on the language system; - relevant structural imaging expertise; - relevant neurophysiological expertise; - solid neuroanatomical knowledge; - leadership potential and experience with successfully applying for external funding; - an excellent scientific track record; - excellent organizational and communicative skills; - excellent skills in written and spoken English. What we offer We offer you: - employment: 1,0 fte (39-hour working week); - starting salary will be based on Tarifvertrag im ?ffentlichen Dienst (TV?D Bund), Entgeltgruppe 13; - the starting salary depends on qualifications and experience; - in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance; - budget for a PhD position as a start-up for your research group; - you will be appointed for a period of 48 months with a trial period of 12 months; - after four years, there will be good prospects for continuation if your performance is evaluated positively - the Max Planck Institute involved has a number of regulations that make it possible for employees to create a good work-life balance. Other Information The two institutes involved are equal opportunity employers, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourage applications from women and minorities. Would you like to know more? Further information on: Language in Interaction Consortium Further information on: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Further information on: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Prof. dr. Peter Hagoort, programme director Language in Interaction and director of MPI Telephone: +31 24 3610648, +31 24 3521301 E-mail: peter.hagoort at mpi.nl Prof. dr. David Norris, director of the Donders Institute, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging Telephone: +31 24 3610649 E-mail: d.norris at donders.ru.nl Applications Are you interested? You should send your application (attn. of Prof. dr. Peter Hagoort) to Julia Verhoef (j.verhoef at donders.ru.nl). Your application should include (and be limited to) the following attachments: ? a cover letter; ? your curriculum vitae, including a list of publications and the names of at least two people who can provide references; ? a research statement. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 20464 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2461 bytes Desc: image002.jpg URL: From aurel at ee.columbia.edu Tue Feb 28 07:36:53 2017 From: aurel at ee.columbia.edu (Aurel A. Lazar) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 07:36:53 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: Final Program of the Columbia Workshop on Brain Circuits, Memory and Computation, March 13-14, 2017 Message-ID: <0A9AB13A-D6C6-4BC8-9AD8-AD8AE0DE0C9B@ee.columbia.edu> Columbia University j Center for Neural Engineering and Computation Columbia Workshop on Brain Circuits, Memory and Computation Monday and Tuesday, March 13-14, 2017 | Davis Auditorium, CEPSR Organizer and Program Chair: Aurel A. Lazar (Columbia University) The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers interested in developing executable models of neural computation/ processing of the brain of model organisms. Of interest are models of computation that consist of elementary units of processing using brain circuits and memory elements. Elementary units of computation/processing include population encoding/ decoding circuits with biophysically-grounded neuron models, non-linear dendritic processors for motion detection/direction selectivity, spike processing and pattern recognition neural circuits, movement control and decision-making circuits, etc. Memory units include models of spatio-temporal memory circuits, circuit models for memory access and storage, etc. A major aim of the workshop is to explore the integration of various sensory and control circuits in higher brain centers. Program Overview Monday 09:00 AM - 05:30 PM 09:00 AM - 09:45 AM Gerald M. Rubin (HHMI Janelia), Circuits for Learning and Memory in the Adult Drosophila Mushroom Body 09:45 AM - 10:30 AM Ann-Shyn Chiang (National Tsing Hua U.), Long-Term Memory Requires Sequential Protein Synthesis in Discrete Mushroom Body Output Neurons in Drosophila 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM Coee Break 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Albert Cardona (HHMI Janelia), Brain Circuit Maps of Larval Drosophila 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM Andreas S. Thum (University of Konstanz), The Larval Standard Brain of Drosophila: The Mushroom Body Learning and Memory Network 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM Lunch Break 02:00 PM - 02:45 PM Silke Sachse (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology), Parallel Olfactory Coding Mechanisms in the Drosophila Brain 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM Dinu Florin Albeanu (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Understanding the Function and Specicity of Feedforward and Feedback Signals in Olfaction 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM Afternoon Break 04:00 PM - 04:45 PM Vijay Balasubramanian (University of Pennsylvania), Cracking the Olfactory Code 04:45 PM - 05:30 PM Konrad P. Kording (Northwestern University), Deep Learning and the Unknown Unknowns of Neuroscience Tuesday 09:00 AM - 05:30 PM 09:00 AM - 09:45 AM Barry J. Dickson (HHMI Janelia), Mating Circuits in the Drosophila Brain 09:45 AM - 10:30 AM Adam H. Marblestone (MIT), How Improvements in Neuroanatomy Could Shed Light on Cognitive Architecture 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM Coee Break 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Jonathan B. Demb (Yale University), Synaptic Mechanisms for Visual Computation in the Retina 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM Marion Silies (European Neuroscience Institute, Gottingen), Motion Vision: From Behavior to Cellular and Circuit Function 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM Lunch Break 02:00 PM - 02:45 PM Anmo J. Kim (Rockefeller University), Quantitative Predictions in a Drosophila Visuomotor Network 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM M. Eugenia Chiappe (Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown), An Internal Representation of Walking Movements in a Visual Area of the Drosophila Brain 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM Afternoon Break 04:00 PM - 04:45 PM Katherine I. Nagel (New York University), Neural Circuits Encoding Wind Direction in Drosophila 04:45 PM - 05:30 PM Tim P. Vogels (University of Oxford), TBA Registration is free but all participants have to register at: https://bcmc17.eventbrite.com/ Workshop Website: http://www.bionet.ee.columbia.edu/workshops/bcmc/2017 Aurel http://www.bionet.ee.columbia.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dwang at cse.ohio-state.edu Tue Feb 28 10:42:51 2017 From: dwang at cse.ohio-state.edu (DeLiang Wang) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 10:42:51 -0500 Subject: Connectionists: NEURAL NETWORKS, March 2017 Message-ID: <8c87e74b-9a79-5bf6-30da-a35d91f23e2d@cse.ohio-state.edu> Neural Networks - Volume 87, March 2017 http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neural-networks Towards solving the hard problem of consciousness: The varieties of brain resonances and the conscious experiences that they support Stephen Grossberg On global exponential stability of positive neural networks with time-varying delay Le Van Hien Reaction times in visual search can be explained by a simple model of neural synchronization Yakov Kazanovich, Roman Borisyuk Cognitive memory and mapping in a brain-like system for robotic navigation Huajin Tang, Weiwei Huang, Aditya Narayanamoorthy, Rui Yan An empirical model of activity in macaque inferior temporal cortex Salman Khan, Bryan Tripp A computational model of conditioning inspired by Drosophila olfactory system Faramarz Faghihi, Ahmed A. Moustafa, Ralf Heinrich, Florentin Worgotter Constructing a meta-tracker using Dropout to imitate the behavior of an arbitrary black-box tracker Kourosh Meshgi, Shin-ichi Maeda, Shigeyuki Oba, Shin Ishii Controller design for global fixed-time synchronization of delayed neural networks with discontinuous activations Leimin Wang, Zhigang Zeng, Junhao Hu, Xiaoping Wang Global exponential stability and dissipativity of generalized neural networks with time-varying delay signals R. Manivannan, R. Samidurai, Jinde Cao, Ahmed Alsaedi, Fuad E. Alsaadi Fast learning method for convolutional neural networks using extreme learning machine and its application to lane detection Jihun Kim, Jonghong Kim, Gil-Jin Jang, Minho Lee From ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Tue Feb 28 11:10:55 2017 From: ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk (Dr Amir Hussain) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 16:10:55 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: =?utf-8?q?1st_Call_for_Papers=3A_IEEE_Transaction?= =?utf-8?q?s_on_Systems=2C_Man=2C_and_Cybernetics_=28Systems=29_Spe?= =?utf-8?q?cial_Issue_on_=E2=80=9CAutonomous_Cognitive_Robotics_and?= =?utf-8?b?IFN5c3RlbXPigJ0=?= Message-ID: Call for Papers: Special Issue on ?Autonomous Cognitive Robotics and Systems? IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems (For full details see: http://www.ieeesmc.org/images/publications/smc-systems/2018-Special-Issue-Autonomous-Cognitive-Robotics-and-Systems.pdf ) Introduction: Cognitive systems are natural (i.e. animal and human) or artificial (such as software and robotic) information processing systems that can perform ?cognitive-like? functions such as: perception, attention, action, socio-affective and cognitive learning, memory, decision-making and control, language processing and communication, reasoning, problem solving and consciousness. Autonomous Cognitive Systems is an emerging discipline, fusing ideas across several traditional fields and seeks to further our understanding in two problem domains. First, by instantiating brain models into a virtual, simulated or embodied form, it supplies a strong test of those models, thereby furthering our understanding of neurobiology and cognitive psychology. Second, by harnessing the insights we have about cognition, it is a potentially fruitful source of engineering solutions to problems in autonomous systems, including those in: robotics, autonomous vehicles, planetary rovers, artificial social companions and assistive technology. It therefore promises next-generation solutions in the design and study of autonomous cognitive robotics and systems, including those organized in teams, swarms or as individual robots or agents, and controlled through varying degrees of human interaction and autonomy. The aim of this exciting Special Issue is to bring together leading scientists, engineers and industry researchers, to submit original pioneering contributions in autonomous cognitive robotics and systems research. Articles will be solicited on theoretical, computational, experimental and integrative aspects of autonomous cognitive systems, or core modules of such systems. Application environments of interest include real-world industrial, indoor, outdoor, everyday life, emergency, hostile and outer space where brain-inspired cognitive technologies are required for autonomous robots and systems to accomplish challenging real-time goals, to at least some degree of self-sufficiency. Timely review papers identifying future R&D challenges and opportunities will also be welcome. Topics of interest: Below is an indicative but not exhaustive list of topics/areas that would be of interest. All applied, theoretical, computational, experimental and integrative aspects of autonomous cognitive robotics and systems research, including (but not limited to): ? perception ? action ? socio-affective and cognitive learning and memory ? attention ? autonomous decision making and control ? social cognition ? natural language processing and communication, ? reasoning ? problem solving ? consciousness ? cognitive system architectures, implementations and real-world applications (e.g. for robotics, autonomous vehicles, healthcare and assistive technology, big data and social media analytics etc.) Manuscript Submission: Preparation of manuscripts should refer to the guidelines in the ?Information for Authors? on the IEEE Transaction on System, Man Cybernetics: System website: http://www.ieeesmc.org/publications/transactions-on-smc-systems/information-for-authors Submission for the special issue goes through the normal process. Special Issue papers are designated in the submission process as ?Regular Paper - Special Issue? and ?Correspondence - Special Issue?. Manuscripts for the special issue should be submitted through the Manuscript Central web site: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/systems In the Cover Letter to Editor-in-Chief Section, authors should explicitly include the following statement: This manuscript is submitted for the Special Issue on ?Autonomous Cognitive Robotics and Systems (Guest Editor: Amir Hussain).? Further questions about the special issue may be directed to the Guest Editors below. Important Dates: Manuscript Submission Deadline: May 31, 2017 Notification of Paper Decision: August 15, 2017 Revised Paper Submission Deadline: October 15, 2017 Final Paper Submission Decision: December 15, 2017 Publication Date: March, 2018 Guest Editors Amir Hussain (University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK), ahu at cs.stir.ac.uk Kevin Gurney (University of Sheffield, UK), k.gurney at sheffield.ac.uk Xuelong Li (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), xuelong_li at opt.ac.cn -- The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2015 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nschuck at Princeton.EDU Tue Feb 28 14:32:31 2017 From: nschuck at Princeton.EDU (Nicolas W. Schuck) Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 19:32:31 +0000 Subject: Connectionists: Postdoc position in computational cognitive neuroscience at Max Planck Institute in Berlin Message-ID: The Max Planck Research Group NeuroCode, under the direction of Nicolas Schuck, seeks applicants for one postdoctoral researcher. The lab studies the neural and computational basis of learning, memory and decision making in humans using fMRI, behavioral and computational techniques and is part of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany. The position will last for up to 3 years and is available from October 2017 onwards, but later start dates are possible. The successful candidate will focus on studying the neural representations underlying decision making and learning. Applicants need to hold (or expect to hold by September 2017) a doctorate in Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science or related disciplines, and should have experience with using behavioral, functional neuroimaging, computational, advanced statistical and/or machine learning methods to study the neural basis of learning and decision making. Expertise with any one of these methodologies is desirable but not required. In addition, the ability to work independently and high proficiency of the English language are essential. For further inquiries about the position, please contact Dr. Nicolas Schuck (nschuck at princeton.edu). The official job posting can be found at https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/sites/default/files/download/jobs/07-2017_stellenanzeige_mpfg_neurocode-i-e_0.pdf The Max Planck Institute for Human Development (www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de) offers excellent infrastructure including a research dedicated fMRI scanner as well as support staff and equipment for conducting experiments (e.g., behavioral laboratory, fMRI, EEG, Eye-tracking). It provides an international research environment, with English being the working language. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability status. The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals. Furthermore, the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. Applicants should submit a cover letter describing research interests, a curriculum vitae, one or two representative papers (published), and two letters of recommendation. Please send all materials preferentially as a single PDF file to nschuck at princeton.edu. Applications for the positions should be submitted by April 15th, 2017, to ensure consideration. However, review of applications will continue until the available positions are filled. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: