conference announcement: NCST-99

David Horn (horn@neuron.tau.ac.il)
Thu, 26 Nov 1998 17:50:46 +0200 (IST)


The conference's dual focus on neuroscience and technological themes
follows one of the fundamental ideas of the field of Computational
Neuroscience, i.e., the belief that such cross-disciplinary
interactions will be beneficial to researchers of both schools.
Such cross-fertilization of ideas has already manifested itself in
both directions over the last decade: On one hand, thinking about the brain
in computational concepts has given rise to the development of artificial
neural networks as leading computing devices for performing a multitude
of technological tasks, such as classification, function approximation,
prediction and control. On the other hand, basic engineering and
technological methods such as principal component analysis,
blind separation, learning vector quantization and reinforcement learning
have all led to the development of neurally-based realizations. The latter,
in turn, have given rise to many interesting ideas about
the possible central role that such networks may play in the brain in a
multitude of information processing tasks, varying from odor processing
to reward-related action selection to self-organization of cortical maps,
just to name a few. Moreover, new frontiers of neural computation such
as neuromorphic engineering and adaptive autonomous control manifest
even further the growing need for technological-scientific interaction, to
fully exploit the potential promises of neural computation.

The conference will consist of a four day meeting that will include
tutorials, a series of invited and contributed talks, a poster session,
and a discussion panel. An informal atmosphere will be maintained,
encouraging questions and discussions. It will take place in a hotel
that serves also as a conference center in Kibbutz Maale Hachamisha,
located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It has the nice scenery,
and pleasant weather, of the Judean hills.

Currently Confirmed Invited Speakers:
--------------------------------------

D. Amit, Y. Baram, W. Bialek, E. Domany,
R. Douglas, G. Dreyfus, D. Golomb, M. Hasselmo,
J. Hertz, D. Horn, N. Intrator, I. Kanter,
W. Kinzel, H. Oja, E. Ruppin, I. Segev,
T. Sejnowski, H. Sompolinsky, N. Tishby
M. Tsodyks and V. Vapnik.


Call for Papers
------------------

We call herewith for the submission of papers for oral or poster
presentation at the conference. The papers should fit into the
two general categories of the conference. Submitted papers should
be limited to seven pages in length and indicate physical and e-mail
addresses of all authors and the author to whom correspondence should
be addressed. Four copies of the submitted papers should reach the
conference scientific committee by May 15th, 1999. Mail submissions to

Prof. David Horn, NCST-99, School of Physics and Astronomy,
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.


Scientific Organizing Committee
---------------------------------

D. Horn (chairman), H. Abramowicz, A. Agranat, Y. Baram,
I. Kanter, E. Ruppin, N. Tishby, M. Tsodyks, G. Ariely and B. Shimony.


Information and Registration:
-----------------------------

Registration forms and information about the conference are
available at the website
http://neuron.tau.ac.il/NCST-99

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof. David Horn horn@neuron.tau.ac.il
School of Physics and Astronomy http://neuron.tau.ac.il/~horn
Tel Aviv University Tel: ++972-3-642-9305, 640-7377
Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. Fax: ++972-3-640-7932