Connectionists: COSYNE 2018: Call for workshop proposals

[Tomas Hromadka]

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Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2018 (Cosyne)

MAIN MEETING
01 - 04 March 2018
Denver, Colorado

WORKSHOPS
05 - 06 March 2018
Breckenridge, Colorado

www.cosyne.org

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          CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
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PRE-PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 01 October 2017
FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 31 October 2017


PRE-PROPOSALS

In an effort to coordinate submissions, the organizers are *strongly
encouraged* to submit a pre-proposal by *01 October 2017.* Pre-proposals
will be shared among submitters. Pre-proposals are not mandatory but
workshops with a pre-proposal will have priority. The organizers may
submit the full proposal by its deadline.

A series of workshops will be held after the main Cosyne meeting
(www.cosyne.org). The goal is to provide an informal forum for the
discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial
issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and
alternative viewpoints are encouraged.

The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of
empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters
collegial discussion and debate. Preference will be given to proposals
that differ substantially in content, scope, and/or approach from
workshops of recent years (examples available at Cosyne.org -> Workshops).

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing;
motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation,
reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and
plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and
methods in computational or systems neuroscience.

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


WORKSHOP DETAILS

- There will be 4-8 workshops/day, running in parallel.
- Each workshop is expected to draw between 15 and 80 people.
- The workshops will be split into morning (8.00-11.00 AM) and afternoon
(4.30-7.30 PM) sessions.
- Workshops will be held at Breckenridge, CO, a ski resort located 100
miles (approximately two hours) from the Denver International Airport.
Buses from the main conference will be provided.


SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Deadline for pre-proposals: October 1st, 2017
Deadline for proposals: October 31st, 2017

Format: plain text only, please no attachments, email to
cosyne18workshops [at] gmail.com (Laura Busse, Ralf Haefner)


PRE-PROPOSALS should include:

- Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (no more than 2
organizers per session, please). A primary contact should be designated.

- A title.
- A brief description of 1) what the workshop will address and
accomplish, 2) why the topic is of interest, 3) who is the targeted
group of participants.
- Names of potential invitees, with indication of confirmed speakers.
Preference will be given to workshops with the most confirmed speakers.
- Proposed workshop length (1 or 2 days). Most workshops will be limited
to a single day. If you think your workshop needs 2 days, please explain
why.
- A brief resume of the workshop organizer along with a short list of
workshop-relevant publications (about half a page total).


FULL PROPOSALS should include the list of confirmed speakers in addition
to components required for a pre-proposal.

Workshop organizer responsibilities include coordinating workshop
participation and content, scheduling all speakers and submitting a
final schedule for the workshop program, and moderating the discussion.
Organizers can be speakers but need not speak depending on scheduling
constraints.


SUGGESTIONS

Experience has shown that the best discussions during a workshop are
those that arise spontaneously. A good way to foster these is to have
short talks and long question periods (e.g. 30+15 minutes), and have
plenty of breaks. We recommend fewer than 10 talks.


WORKSHOP COSTS

Detailed registration costs, etc, will be available at www.cosyne.org.
Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop
speakers. All workshop speakers are expected to pay for workshop
registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in
order to qualify for discounted registration rates. One complementary
(free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops
with 2 organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the
organizers or split evenly between them.


COSYNE 2018 WORKSHOP CHAIRS

Laura Busse (LMU Munich) and Ralf Haefner (University of Rochester)


QUESTIONS

email: cosyne18workshops [at] gmail.com


COSYNE MAILING LISTS

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