Connectionists: 2017 Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop: Call for Participation

[Ralph Etienne-Cummings]

*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
<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 Fermüller (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
<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
<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
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