From christian.machens at ens.fr Fri Feb 1 12:04:31 2008 From: christian.machens at ens.fr (Christian Machens) Date: Fri Feb 1 15:21:08 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoc Positions in Computational/Theoretical Neuroscience Message-ID: Two postdoctoral positions are available in the group of Christian Machens at the Ecole normale superieure in Paris, France. We are looking for motivated and well-qualified postdocs to work in the area of computational neuroscience at the Ecole normale superieure (ENS) in Paris, France. Research in our group focuses on studying the mechanisms that underlie information processing in the brain. We are interested in peripheral sensory systems as well as higher-order brain systems that are involved in working memory and decision-making. More information can be found at http://www.biologie.uni-muenchen.de/ou/compuneuro/index.html The group is part of the recently founded theoretical neuroscience team in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the ENS, which includes the groups of Sophie Deneve, Boris Gutkin, and Misha Tsodyks. Both the ENS and Paris in general provide a strong and interactive environment for computational neuroscience. (See also http://www.gnt.ens.fr) Applicants should have a PhD, an interest in understanding biological systems, and strong quantitative skills, such as come about through a degree in physics, engineering, computer science, quantitative biology, and related disciplines. To apply for a position, please send us a short summary of your research interests (about 1 page), a CV including a list of publications, and the names and contact details of 2 referees. Electronic submissions in pdf-format are preferred and should be send to Christian Machens (christian.machens@ens.fr). Feel free to ask any informal questions about the positions if you are interested. ================================== Christian Machens Assistant Professor Ecole normale sup?rieure 3 Rue d'Ulm 75005 Paris Tel: (++33) 1 44 27 13 55 Fax: (++33) 1 44 27 15 61 From dts at inf.ed.ac.uk Fri Feb 1 15:14:07 2008 From: dts at inf.ed.ac.uk (Don Sannella) Date: Fri Feb 1 16:03:48 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Scholarships for PhD study in Informatics@Edinburgh Message-ID: <18339.10543.177413.575296@gallowridge.inf.ed.ac.uk> FIFTY research scholarships are available for UK, EU and overseas students. Many are full scholarships, paying your tuition fees and a stipend of 12940 pounds to cover living expenses in your first year, rising in second and third years. The rest pay your fees and/or a contribution towards living expenses. Payment of fees for non-EU students is subject to successful competition for an Overseas Research Student award. By making contributions to teaching, for example by leading tutorial groups, you can expect to earn an additional 500-1000 pounds per year. INFORMATICS is the study of information and computation, in both natural and engineered systems. It comprises a vast range of scientific and engineering endeavour and has enormous economic and social impact. The University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics possesses a combination of breadth and strength unparallelled elsewhere in the UK and competitive world-wide. It is the only department to have achieved the top 5*A rating in Computer Science in the UK government's 2001 Research Assessment Exercise round, and it is the UK's biggest research group in this area. We currently have around 270 students studying for PhD, and around 140 for MSc. PHD STUDY is carried out within one of our six research Institutes: ANC: Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation CISA: Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications ICCS: Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems ICSA: Institute for Computing Systems Architecture IPAB: Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour LFCS: Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION and a list of potential PhD research topics see http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd-advert.html APPLY by mid-March or earlier if possible. Applications for an Overseas Research Student award must be completed by mid-February. From hnx at brain.riken.jp Sat Feb 2 07:48:07 2008 From: hnx at brain.riken.jp (hiroyuki nakahara) Date: Mon Feb 4 09:20:50 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] FYI RIKEN BSI Summer School 2008 Message-ID: <20080202154742.ECA1.HNX@brain.riken.jp> Dear colleagues, I forward the following information. - Hiro Nakahara Call for Applications RIKEN Brain Science Institute 2007 Summer Program URL: http://www.brain.riken.jp/en/summer/index.html Application deadline; February 28th, 2007 Lecture Course: July 28 - August 8 Internship: June 25 - August 20 Every summer, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Wako, Japan; nearby Tokyo) organizes the international summer school. The short summary of the summer school this year is attached below. Application guideline, further information of the coming and past summer schools and etc are on the above URL. The summer school program has two types of applications. One ("Lecture Course application") is to attend the lecture course. The other ("Inernship application") is to have a two-months intership in one of laboratories at RIKEN Brain Science Instiute in addition to the attendance at the lecture course. In both types, financial support for travel and accommodation will be considered for those without external funding. For questions, please send any general inquiry not to me but to the adminstration or organizing committee of the summer school shown in the above summer school URL, while you can send inquiry to me if it is specifically about my laboratory (lab URL: http://www.itn.brain.riken.jp). 2008 Summer Program Developmental Foundations of Brain Function and Dysfunction Advances in our understanding of the mechanisms of neural development have made significant impacts on broader areas of brain science. These areas include studies of neural plasticity and neuropsychiatric disorders, and improvement of therapeutic strategies for nervous system damage. This year, the RIKEN Brain Science Institute has organized a series of lectures by leading scientists that emphasize the links between the molecular and cellular bases of neural development, plasticity, dysfunctions and repair. 2008 Summer Program Lecture Schedule [Invited Lecturers] Silvia BUNGE (UC Berkeley) Eric COURCHESNE (UC San Diego) Marie FILBIN (Hunter College, CUNY) Lawrence GOLDSTEIN (UC San Diego) Elizabeth GOULD (Princeton Univ.) Masanobu KANO (Tokyo Univ.) Pat LEVITT (Vanderbilt Univ.) Fumio MATSUZAKI (RIKEN CDB) Randolph NUDO (Kansas Univ.) Hideyuki OKANO (Keio Univ.) Hitoshi SAKANO (Tokyo Univ.) Akira SAWA (Johns Hopkins Univ.) Stephen SMITH (Stanford Univ.) Lawrence ZIPURSKY (UC Los Angeles) [Special lecturer] Sandra BLAKESLEE (Science writer) [BSI Speakers] Teiichi FURUICHI (Lab. for Molecular Neurogenesis) Atsushi IRIKI (Lab. for Symbolic Cognitive Development) Hiroyuki KAMIGUCHI (Lab. for Neuronal Growth Mechanisms) Hitoshi OKAMOTO (Lab. for Developmental Gene Regulation) Keiji TANAKA (Lab. for Cognitive Brain Mapping) Kazuhiro YAMAKAWA (Lab. for Neurogenetics) --------------------------------- Hiro Nakahara Lab for Integrated Theoretical Neuroscience RIKEN Brain Science Institute 2-1 Hirosawa Wako Saitama, 351-0198, Japan Email: hn@brain.riken.jp Lab webpage: http://www.itn.brain.riken.jp/ From terry at salk.edu Tue Feb 5 01:15:41 2008 From: terry at salk.edu (Terry Sejnowski) Date: Tue Feb 5 09:55:38 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] NIPS 2007 Tutorials In-Reply-To: <478BD822.9000409@jhu.edu> Message-ID: NIPS 2007 Tutorials can be downloaded from: http://nips.cc/Conferences/2007/Program/schedule.php?Session=Tutorials Michael Lewicki Sensory Coding and Hierarchical Representations/ Robert Schapire Theory and Applications of Boosting Leon Bottou, Andrew Moore, and Alex Gray Learning Using Many Examples Tomaso Poggio Visual Recognition in Primates and Machines Geoffrey Hinton Deep Belief Nets Ben Taskar Structured Prediction Click the video icons on the right and the slide icons for pdf slides. All the tutorial videos are 2 X one hour except "Structured Prediction" which is a single 2 hour video. Terry ----- From bezer at upatras.gr Tue Feb 5 10:15:43 2008 From: bezer at upatras.gr (Tasos Bezerianos) Date: Tue Feb 5 10:22:35 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Summer School Announcement Message-ID: <004d01c867d7$af514e70$bba78c96@acer> **** Apologies for cross-posting **** 4th International Summer School on Emerging Technologies in Biomedicine June 29th-July 4th 2008, Patras, Greece Patras 2008 Summer School Office Dept. of Medical Physics, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece http://heart.med.upatras.gr/school2008, Email: school2008@heart.med.upatras.gr Phone: +30-2610-969145,6,7 - Fax: +30-2610-969166 FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT Dear Colleagues, Following the success and positive feedback from the Third Summer School on Emerging Technologies in Biomedicine, held two years ago, we are pleased to announce the organization of the 4th International Summer School that will take place between June 29th-July 4th 2008 in Patras, Greece. The field of Biomedicine and its associated techniques is experiencing explosive growth. The aim of our Summer School, which is organized every two years, is to inform young students and future scientists about the latest trends in the field. The organizing committee has decided that, from now on, each installment would specifically focus on a special topic. This year's special topic is "Advanced Methods for the Estimation of Human Brain Activity and Connectivity, Applications to Rehabilitation Engineering". Our event is organized in partnership with NEUROMATH, a European COST Action (BM0601). We are also glad to announce that the COST office will provide several grants to help students covering expenses towards attending the School. Students who wish to apply for grant will have to submit their CV too. Selection will be based on academic merit and research potential. More information will be posted in the website soon. The goal of the Summer School is to present advanced methods for the estimation of the cortical activity and connectivity in the human brain. Emphasis is put on the current trend in advanced neural engineering techniques, that is, to measure brain signals and interpret them for clinical use, in the rehabilitation context. The presentations will consist of a series of invited talks given by experts of major research groups, within -but not limited to- the neuro-engineering and neuro-rehabilitation fields. The lecturers will introduce theory in mathematical methods for the estimation of cortical activity and connectivity in the human brain from non invasive neuro-electric and hemodynamic measurements. Moreover, the talks will address how the utmost techniques in neuro-engineering could meet the challenge of providing better services to disabled people. To complete the picture, the lessons will be combined with hands-on practical tutorials, presenting a Brain Computer Interface (BCI). The summer school lectures will feature topics of emerging technologies in Biomedicine; specifically it will address the question of how to increase the quality of life of paraplegics in a neuro-engineering framework: . Brain Anatomy and Eletrophysiology . Wearable Biosensor Technology . Non Invasive Neuro-Electric and Hemodynamic Measurements . Molecular Brain Imaging . Functional Multimodal Neuro-Imaging Techniques . Advanced Brain Signal Processing Techniques . Methodologies for Brain Activity and Connectivity Analysis . Forward and Inverse Problem Methodology in EEG/MEG . Interfaces between Brain and Computers . Neuro-Engineering . Rehabilitation Technologies in Paraplegics . Hands-on Tutorials The venue of the 4th Summer School will be the Congress Centre of the University of Patras, situated in the middle of the campus, providing easy access to the university buildings and facilities (University library, restaurant, faculties, etc.) being in the same time within walking distance from the Rio city and seaside. The high level of scientific presentations combined with the warm traditional Greek hospitality and the many events organized in Patras will make this Summer School an enriching and pleasant experience for both speakers and students. I am looking forward to seeing you in Patras, Warm regards A. Bezerianos, Chairman Professor Anastasios Bezerianos, BS, MS, PhD Biosignal Processing Lab ( http://biosignal.med.upatras.gr) Dept. of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, University of Patras, GR 26500 PATRAS Phones:+30-2610969145, Lab.: +30-2610969147 fax:+30-2610992496 4th International Summer School on Emerging Technologies in Biomedicine, Patras 29/06- 04/07/08, http://heart.med.upatras.gr/school2008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080205/b85c7cc0/attachment-0001.html From mail at hinnerkf.de Tue Feb 5 11:00:01 2008 From: mail at hinnerkf.de (Hinnerk Feldwisch) Date: Tue Feb 5 12:14:14 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD and Postdoc positions in Freiburg, Germany Message-ID: <00f001c867dd$e27a2c30$a76e8490$@de> Ph.D. and Postdoctoral Positions in the Field of Seizure Prediction in Epilepsy The Epilepsy Group, a cooperation between the Freiburg Center for Data Analysis and Modeling of the Freiburg University, Germany, and the Epilepsy Center of the Freiburg University Hospital, Germany, offers Ph.D. and postdoctoral positions. Applicants should hold a Master or Ph.D. in Physics or a related discipline, with strong interest in interdisciplinary work. Beneficial but not necessary would be a background in the Life Sciences and experience in time series analysis. For a database project we offer a Ph.D. and postdoctoral position. A background in Computer Science or a related discipline (Master, Ph.D.) and interest in building databases is mandatory for this position. Applications containing the usual documents should be addressed to Dr. Bjoern Schelter Freiburg Center for Data Analysis and Modeling Eckerstr. 1 79104 Freiburg Germany schelter@fdm.uni-freiburg.de http://epilepsy.uni-freiburg.de/freiburg-seizure-prediction-project From jeedward at gmail.com Tue Feb 5 17:12:54 2008 From: jeedward at gmail.com (John E. Edward) Date: Tue Feb 5 17:23:49 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] MULTICONF-08 Draft paper submission deadline is extended Message-ID: Dear Colleagues and Friends Kindly share the announcement below with those who may be interested: thank you in advance. Sincerely John Edward MULTICONF-08 Draft paper submission deadline is extended The MULTICONF-08 (website: www.PromoteResearch.org) will be held during July 7-10 2008 in Orlando, FL, USA. We invite draft paper submissions and the deadline for submission is extended until February 19 2008 due to several requests from the authors. The event consists of the following conferences: ? International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-08) ? International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Control Systems (ARCS-08) ? International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics and Chemoinformatics (BCBGC-08) ? International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and Web Technologies (EISWT-08) ? International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking and Communication Systems (HPCNCS-08) ? International Conference on Software Engineering Theory and Practice (SETP-08) ? International Conference on Theoretical and Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (TMFCS-08) Sincerely John Edward -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080205/a8cf7e6c/attachment.html From Ranu.Jung at asu.edu Tue Feb 5 18:15:14 2008 From: Ranu.Jung at asu.edu (Ranu Jung) Date: Tue Feb 5 18:37:34 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] FINAL Call for Papers - CNS*2008 Message-ID: FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS, CNS*2008 SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO: February 15, 2008 SUBMISSION OPEN: January 21, 2008 Seventeenth Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting CNS*2008 July 19 - July 24, 2008 Portland, Oregon http://www.cnsorg.org CNS*2008 will be held in Portland, Oregon July 19-24, 2008. A welcome reception will be held on the evening of July 19th and the scientific program will start Sunday, July 20th in the morning. The main meeting will take place July 20-22 in downtown Portland at The Benson Hotel, currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a Portland landmark. The main meeting will be followed by two days of workshops, July 23-24 at the OHSU Center for Health and Healing, at the foot of the Aerial tram to OHSU. The meeting banquet will be held July 21. Submissions can include experimental, model-based, as well as more abstract theoretical approaches to understanding neurobiological computation. We especially encourage research that mixes experimental and theoretical studies. We also accept papers that describe new technical approaches to theoretical and experimental issues in computational neuroscience or relevant software packages. This year we are having a Special Session on Systems Biology and Molecular Level Modeling in Neuroscience. INVITED SPEAKERS: Upinder Bhalla (National Centre for Biological Sciences, India) Kim (Avrama) Blackwell (George Mason University) John Rinzel (New York University) Thomas Soderling (Oregon Health Sciences University) CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS: We are accepting proposals for workshops (Half-day to two days in length) (http://www.cnsorg.org/cns_meeting_workshops.htm ). If you want to propose a workshop please contact the workshop coordinator, Dieter Jaeger, at workshops@cnsorg.org. An archive of workshops held at last year's meeting is at http://www.cnsorg.org/Archives2007.htm PAPER SUBMISSION: Submissions to the meeting will take the form of a formatted abstract (to be published). Authors wanting an oral presentation are required to also submit a 1-3-page summary (for the CNS reviewers only) describing the nature, scope and main results of the work in more detail. The summaries will be reviewed to construct the oral program. Details regarding formatting of submissions are posted at http://www.cnsorg.org . All submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail. THE REVIEW PROCESS: Submissions will be judged and accepted for the meeting based on clarity, substance and appropriateness for the meeting. It is particularly important that the biological relevance of the research be made clear. CNS strongly believes in the open exchange of ideas and rejections are usually based on absence of biological relevance (e.g., pure machine learning). We will notify authors of meeting acceptance by the first week of April. Submissions to be considered for oral presentation will be reviewed by two independent referees and results of the review process will be used to construct the oral program. In addition to perceived quality and significance, the novelty of the research and the diversity and coherence of the overall program will be considerations for selection as an oral presentation. We particularly encourage women and underrepresented minorities to apply for an oral presentation. To ensure diversity, those who have given talks in the recent past will not be selected and multiple oral presentations from the same lab will be discouraged. Most oral presentations will be 20 minutes in length, but a few papers will be selected for longer "featured oral" presentations. All accepted papers not selected for oral talks may be presented during the poster sessions. Authors will be notified of the presentation format of their papers by the end of April. ABSTRACT PUBLICATION: The formatted abstracts will again be published as a Supplement to the online journal BMC Neuroscience. Last year's abstracts are at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/8?issue=S2 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: The CNS meeting is organized by the Organization for Computational Neuroscience President: Ranu Jung (Arizona State University, USA) Program chair: Bill Holmes (Ohio University, USA) Program co-chair: Don Johnson (Rice University, USA) Local organizer: Patrick Roberts (Oregon Health Sciences University, USA) Workshop coordinator: Dieter Jaeger (Emory University, USA) Program Committee: Victoria Booth (University of Michigan, USA) Sharon Crook (Arizona State University, USA) Markus Diesmann (RIKEN, Japan) Alex Dimitrov (Montana State University, USA) Jeanette Hellgren-Kotaleski (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) Theoden Netoff (University of Minnesota, USA) Hiroshi Okamato (RIKEN, Japan) Astrid Prinz (Emory University, USA) Michelle Rudolph (CNRS, France) Harel Shouval (University of Texas Medical Center, USA) Volker Steuber (University of Herfordshire, UK) ________________________________________________________________________ _____ OCNS - Organization for Computational Neurosciences, Inc. http://www.cnsorg.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080205/db24d0d2/attachment-0001.html From ASIM.ROY at asu.edu Wed Feb 6 08:40:40 2008 From: ASIM.ROY at asu.edu (Asim Roy) Date: Wed Feb 6 09:24:59 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] New Paper: "Connectionism, controllers and a brain theory" - Paper available Message-ID: > (My apologies if you get multiple copies of this.) > > The following paper has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part A. It essentially invalidates significant parts of connectionism. There were numerous public debates over the past decade on connectionism, some at international neural net conferences and some online through various mailing list. Some of the debate summaries are available at the CompNeuro archive site and listed below. > > Here's the link for the paper: > > http://wpcarey.asu.edu/pubs/index.cfm?fct=details&article_cobid=2216410&author_cobid=1039524&journal_cobid=2216411 > > > TITLE: Connectionism, controllers and a brain theory > AUTHOR: Asim Roy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4606, USA > ABSTRACT: > > This paper proposes a new theory for the internal mechanisms of the brain. It postulates that there are controllers in the brain and that there are parts of the brain that control other parts. Thus the theory refutes the connectionist theory that there are no separate controllers in the brain for higher-level functions and that all control is > "> local and distributed> "> at the level of the cells. Connectionist algorithms themselves are used to prove this theory. Plus there is evidence in the neuroscience literature to support this theory. Thus the paper proposes a control theoretic approach to understanding how the brain works and learns. That means that control theoretic principles should be applicable to developing systems similar to the brain. > > =============================================================================================================== > For those interested, summaries of prior debates on the basic ideas of connectionism are available at the CompNeuro archive site. Here is a partial list of the debate summaries that are available > . > > - Some more questions in the search for sources of control in the brain > - BRAINS INTERNAL MECHANISMS - THE NEED FOR A NEW PARADIGM > - COULD THERE BE REAL-TIME, INSTANTANEOUS LEARNING IN THE BRAIN? > - CONNECTIONIST LEARNING: IS IT TIME TO RECONSIDER THE FOUNDATIONS? > - DOES PLASTICITY IMPLY LOCAL LEARNING? AND OTHER QUESTIONS > - Connectionist Learning - Some New Ideas/Questions > =================================================================================================== > From elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org Wed Feb 6 09:43:18 2008 From: elli.chatzopoulou at incf.org (INCF - Elli Chatzopoulou) Date: Wed Feb 6 10:49:36 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] 1st INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics - Registration is open Message-ID: <47A97326.2080007@incf.org> The organizers of Neuroinformatics 2008 are inviting you and your research team to register for the: 1st INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics: *Databasing and Modeling the Brain* /Stockholm, Sweden -September 7-9, 2008 / Neuroinformatics 2008 will focus on dissemination of recent progress and community building in this emerging field. The congress is organized as a single track event, with 6 keynote speakers, 5 workshops, and 2 poster sessions, as well as live demos of neuroinformatics applications. Online registration and abstract submission is now open! *www.neuroinformatics2008.org* /Keynote Speakers:/ -Mark Ellisman -Mitsuo Kawato -Mary Kennedy -Henry Markram -Idan Segev -David Van Essen *Workshops* -Future hardware challenges to scientific computing Erik de Schutter (chair), Gabriel Wittum, Marc-Oliver Gewaltig, John Shalf -Neurogenomics meets bioinformatics meets neuroinformatics in database research Robert Williams (chair), Ed Lein, Seth Grant, Kristen Harris -Extraction if structural and functional information from brain images Ulla Ruotsalainen (chair), Arthur Toga, Alan Evans, Thomas Mrsic-Fl?gel -Challenges and benefits of multichannel electrophysiology Andrzej Wrobel (chair), Gy?rgy Buzsaki, Miguel Nicolelis, Xiaoqin Wang We especially encourage junior researchers to submit abstracts for the poster session. We kindly ask you to spread information about the conference to potentially interested colleagues and target groups. -- Elli Chatzopoulou, Ph.D. Scientific Information and Public Relations Officer International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Secretariat Karolinska Institutet Nobels v?g 15A SE-171 77 Stockholm Sweden Email: elli.chatzopoulou@incf.org Phone: +46 8 524 87491 Mobile: +46 7 614 87491 Fax: +46 8 524 87150 web: www.incf.org From ossadtchi at gmail.com Thu Feb 7 07:32:38 2008 From: ossadtchi at gmail.com (Alex Ossadtchi) Date: Thu Feb 7 09:41:23 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PENS Spring school (deadline is coming soon) Message-ID: Dear colleagues, the deadline for this school is coming soon. Please, accept our apologies for cross-posting. Original announcement: Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce that PENS Neuroscience school "Models in Neuroscience: turning experiments into knowledge" will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia from April, 27 to May, 5 2008. The school will emphasize the role of modeling as a knowledge structuring tool.The lectures will describe the use of mathematical model-based approaches to infer knowledge from the experimental data and statistical models used for establishing significance of findings. An additional goal of the school is to bridge the gap between future cellular and cognitive neuroscientists and to attract the students majoring in physics and math to the field of computational neuroscience. We welcome applications from graduate students and young post-docs with interest in all fields of neuroscience as well as students with physics/math major. A total of 30 students will be accepted. Meals and accommodation are covered for all accepted students, limited number of travel awards is available. Application deadline, February, 15, 2008. Registration fee: 100 Euro (fee can be waived for students with advanced records) Cellular neuroscience: biophysics of ionic channels, synaptic and circumneuronal signal transmission, synaptic plasticity, techniques of imaging and electrophysiology Cognitive neuroscience: memory, attention, language, brain imaging , multi-modal integration in cognitive data analysis, event-related potentials and fields Computational neuroscience: single-neuron and neural population modeling, dynamic causal modeling (DCM), non-parametric statistical analysis of EEG/MEG data For more information, please, visit http://www.neuroscience.spb.ru/school. Ekaterina Volokhonskaya on behalf of the organizing committee P.S. All our apologies for cross-posting -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080207/8011ad18/attachment.html From longlifelee at gmail.com Sun Feb 10 04:58:05 2008 From: longlifelee at gmail.com (Soo-Young Lee) Date: Mon Feb 11 09:24:43 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] IDEAL2008 (Intelligenr Data Engineering and Automated Learning), Nov. 2-5, Daejeon, Korea Message-ID: Call for Papers IDEAL 2008 9th International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning November 2-5, 2008, Daejeon, Korea www.ideal2008.org IDEAL is an annual conference dedicated to emerging and challenging topics in intelligent data analysis and engineering and their associated learning paradigms. After successful recent events in Birmingham (2007), Burgos (2006), Brisbane (2005), Exeter (2004), Hong Kong (2003), and Manchester (2002), IDEAL 2008 will be held at KAIST, Daejeon, at the geographical center of South Korea. IDEAL 2008 will provide a stimulating forum for presenting and discussing the latest theoretical advances and real-world applications in Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning. Topic and Goals We would like to continue the tradition of previous IDEALs with stimulating presentations and in-depth discussions on the latest theoretical advances and technology innovation for real-world applications in Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning. The main themes of the conference are (but are not limited to): -Learning and Information Processing Machine learning, Neural Networks, Emergent Systems, Probablistic Learning, Clustering & Classification, Feature Selection & Extraction, Information Fusion, Evolutionary Computation, Fuzzy Logic, Applications - Data Mining & Information Management Rule-based Systems, Content-based Retrieval Systems, Text & Web Mining, Multivariate Data Visualisation, Internet & Multimedia Databases, Knowledge Discovery & Retrieval, Data Warehouse and E-organisations, Image/Video Analysis and Retrieval, Speech & Signal Processing, Medical Diagnosis & Databases -Bioinformatics & Neuroinformatics Protein Structural Prediction, Gene Expression Data Analysis, Metabolomics & Pathway Analysis, Bioinformatics Tools & Intelligent Decision Making Systems, Molecular Data Management, Novel Bioinformatics Algorithms, Neuroinformatics, Bio-inspired Computing Models, Cognitive Learning & Memory, Brain-computer Interfaces -Agents & Distributed Systems Multi-agents Systems, Autonomous Agents, Agent Architectures & Protocols, Collaborative & Collective Learning, Self-Organising Systems, Reconfiguration Systems, Hybrid Systems & Applications, Fuzzy Neural Systems & Applications, Swarm Intelligence & Systems -Financial Engineering and Modelling Electronic Commerce, Portfolio Management, Risk Analysis & Management, Fraud Detection, Modelling & Forecasting, Volatility & Trading Strategies Important Dates April 1, 2008 Deadline for Special Session Proposals May 16, 2008 Deadline for paper submission June 20, 2008 Acceptance notification August 1, 2008 Camera-ready manuscript due Dates Tutorial: November 2, 2008 (Sunday) Conference: November 3-5, 2008 (Monday-Wednesday) Organizers International Advisory Committee Lei Xu - Chinese University of Hong Kong (Chair) Yaser Abu-Mostafa - CALTECH, USA Shun-ichi Amari - RIKEN BSI, Japan Michael Dempster - University of Cambridge, UK Nick Jennings - University of Southampton, UK Erkki Oja - Helsinki University of Technology, Finland Latit M. Patnaik - Indian Institute of Science, India Burkhard Rost - Columbia University, USA Steering Committee Hujun Yin - University of Manchester, UK (Co-Chair) Laiwan Chan - Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong (Co-Chair) Nigel Allinson - University of Sheffield, UK Yiu-ming Cheung - Hong Kong Baptist University Marc van Hulle - K. U. Leuven, Belgium John Keane - University of Manchester, UK Jimmy Lee - Chinese University of Hong Kong Malik Magdon-Ismail - Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., USA Zheng Rong Yang - University of Exeter, UK Ning Zhong - Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan Honorary Conference Chair Shun-ichi Amari - RIKEN BSI, Japan Conference Co-Chairs Soo-Young Lee - KAIST, Korea Hujun Yin - University of Manchester, UK Program Committee Co-Chairs Colin Fyfe - University of Paisley, UK Dongsup Kim - KAIST, Korea Malik Magdon-Ismail - RPI, USA Organizing Committee Chair Kwang-Hyun Cho - KAIST, Korea Conference Venue The Conference venue is the CMS Building at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea. KAIST is located in Daedeok Science Town, the home to more than 60 government-supported and private research institutes, 4 universities, and numerous venture businesses. The Science Town is situated in the northern part of Daejeon, which has a population of over 1.3 million citizens. Academic Program The Conference will go on three full days, from November 3 (Monday) to 5 (Wednesday), 2008, with oral sessions with invited and contributed presentations, and poster sessions. Several special sessions will also be invited. Before the Conference, there will be tutorials on November 2, 2008 (Sunday), for younger researchers. Cultural Program There will be the Welcoming Reception in the evening of November 2, 2008 (Sunday), and Banquet in the evening of November 4, 2008 (Tuesday). Cultural tours may be organized to visit Kyungju city, the old capital of Shilla dynasty from BC to 9 century, and Puyeo, the old capital of Backje dynasty from BC to 5 century AD. The Bulkuksa temple at Kyungju is listed as a world heritage by UNESCO. Travel Information Citizens of many developed countries may visit Korea without visa as tourists. Daejeon city is located at the geographical center, and is reachable to all major cities in South Korea within 2 hours. Daejeon city is well connected to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, by express trains (KTC) in 53 minutes with about US$25 or express buses in 2 hours with US$15. The Cheongju International Airport is the closest international airport with only 40 minutes distance to Daejeon by car. However, the most convenient and main gateway of Korea is the Incheon (Seoul) Internaional Airport (ICN). There is an airport bus service running directly between the Incheon International Airport and Daejeon. Or, you may go to Seoul Train Station by buses, and take an express train (KTX) to Daejeon Station. Accommodation There are many hotels and motels within 10 minutes distance. The room rates vary between US$130 and US$50 per day per room for single or double occupancy. Conference Proceedings and Special Issues Accepted papers will be included in IDEAL'07 Proceedings, to be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. Several special issues will be pursued with leading international journals. -- Soo-Young Lee Director, Brain Science Research Center, KAIST From J.C.A.Read at ncl.ac.uk Mon Feb 11 12:28:01 2008 From: J.C.A.Read at ncl.ac.uk (Jenny Read) Date: Mon Feb 11 12:57:30 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD in stereo vision / computational neuroscience in Newcastle, UK Message-ID: <47B03141.1050501@ncl.ac.uk> Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in Jenny Read's lab at Newcastle University, UK, starting in September 2008. Dr Read's research combines human psychophysics and computational modelling to address the neuronal basis of stereopsis (see for example Read & Cumming 2007 Nature Neurosci 10:1322). The successful candidate will have a good degree in a science subject, ideally one towards the mathematical end of the spectrum. Newcastle's Institute of Neuroscience forms one of the largest neuroscience communities in the UK. Research within the Institute was awarded the maximum 5* score on the last RAE (UK national Research Assessment Exercise). It is housed in the modern, attractive Henry Wellcome Building, built with an ?8 million Joint Infrastructure Fund award. The historic city of Newcastle on the River Tyne boasts a vibrant cultural, leisure, sporting and nightlife scene, within easy reach of the beautiful Northumbrian countryside and coast. The studentship is funded by Newcastle's Institute of Neuroscience, and is open to students of any nationality. It provides a stipend at the BBSRC rate (currently ?12,600 per annum), plus tuition fees at the EU rate. Non-EU candidates are eligible but will need additional funding. Newcastle provides a limited number of Overseas Research Scholarships to cover the additional fees payable by non-EU candidates, but the closing date for these is end of Feb 2008, so candidates who would require one of these should contact Dr Read as soon as possible. For more information and details on how to apply, visit http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/j.c.a.read/PhD From smart at neuralcorrelate.com Mon Feb 11 23:03:09 2008 From: smart at neuralcorrelate.com (Susana Martinez-Conde) Date: Tue Feb 12 10:21:13 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] FINAL Call for Illusion Submissions: the 4th Annual Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest Message-ID: <00b801c86cf9$e4e7eb80$aeb7c280$@com> **** FINAL CALL FOR ILLUSION SUBMISSIONS: THE FOURTH ANNUAL BEST VISUAL ILLUSION OF THE YEAR CONTEST**** http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com *** We are happy to announce the world's 4th Annual Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest!!*** The deadline for illusion submissions is February 15th, 2008! The 2008 contest will be hosted by Stuart Anstis and held in Naples, Florida (Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, http://www.thephil.org) on Sunday, May 11th, 2008, during the week of the Vision Sciences Society conference (VSS). The Naples Philharmonic Center is an 8-minute walk from the main VSS headquarters hotel in Naples, and is thus central to the VSS conference. The 2007 annual contest, held in Sarasota, Florida, drew numerous accolades from attendees and international media coverage, as well as over *** ONE MILLION*** website hits from viewers all over the world. The First, Second and Third Prize winners were Frederick Kingdom, Ali Yoonessi and Elena Gheorghiu (McGill University, Canada), Pietro Guardini and Luciano Gamberini (University of Padova, Italy), and Arthur Shapiro and Emily Knight (Bucknell University, USA). To see the illusions, photo galleries and other highlights from the 2007 contest, go to http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com Visual Illusion Contestants are invited to submit novel visual or multimodal illusions (unpublished, or published no earlier than 2007) in standard image, movie or html formats. An international panel of impartial judges will rate the submissions and narrow them to the TOP TEN. Then, at the Contest Gala in Naples, the TOP TEN illusionists will present their contributions and the attendees of the event (that means you!) will vote to pick the TOP THREE WINNERS! The renowned sculptor and artist, Guido Moretti, has created three amazing works of art to serve as trophies for the TOP THREE winners! See the trophies at: http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_ user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=98&MMN_position=41:41 Illusions submitted to previous editions of the contest can be re-submitted to the 2008 contest, as long as they meet the above requirements and were not among the top three winners in previous years. Submissions will be held in strict confidence by the panel of judges and the authors/creators will retain full copyright. No illusions will be posted on the illusion contest's website without the creators' explicit permission. As with submitting your work to any scientific conference, participating in the Best Illusion of the Year Contest does not preclude you from also submitting your work for publication elsewhere. Submissions can be made to Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde (Illusion Contest Coordinator, Neural Correlate Society) via email (smart@neuralcorrelate.com) until February 15, 2008. Illusion submissions should come with a (no more than) one-page description of the illusion and its theoretical underpinnings (if known). Illusions will be rated according to: . Significance to our understanding of the visual system . Simplicity of the description . Sheer beauty . Counterintuitive quality . Spectacularity Visit the illusion contest website for further information and to see last year's illusions: http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com Submit your ideas now and take home this prestigious award! On behalf of the Neural Correlate Society: Susana Martinez-Conde (Illusion Contest Coordinator) Neural Correlate Society Executive Committee: Jose-Manuel Alonso, Stephen Macknik, Luis Martinez, Xoana Troncoso, Peter Tse ---------------------------------------------------------------- Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD Director, Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience Division of Neurobiology Barrow Neurological Institute 350 W. Thomas Rd Phoenix AZ 85013, USA Phone: +1 (602) 406-3484 Fax: +1 (602) 406-4172 Email: smart@neuralcorrelate.com http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com From erik at tnb.ua.ac.be Tue Feb 12 13:30:01 2008 From: erik at tnb.ua.ac.be (Erik De Schutter) Date: Tue Feb 12 13:30:21 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course 2008: Application deadline approaching Message-ID: OKINAWA COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE COURSE 2008 Methods, Neurons, Networks and Behaviors June 15 - July 4, 2008. Okinawa, Japan http://www.irp.oist.jp/ocnc/2008 The aim of the Okinawa 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 15th through July 4th, 2008 at an oceanfront seminar house of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Interested students can now apply through the course web page at http://www.irp.oist.jp/ocnc/2008 Applications will close February 17th, Applicants will receive confirmation of acceptance in the 3rd week of March. Like last year, 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. We invite those who are interested in integrating experimental and computational approaches at each level, as well as in bridging different levels of complexity. The sponsor will provide lodging and meals during the course and 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: Arbuthnott, Gordon Bhalla, Upi Butera, Robert De Schutter, Erik Deneve, Sophie Destexhe, Alain Doya, Kenji Fairhall, Adrienne Gew?ltig, Marc-Oliver H?usser, Michael Ishii, Shin Li, Zhaoping Longtin, Andr? Montague, Read Stiefel, Klaus Tsodyks, Misha Wang, Xiao-Jing Wickens, Jeff From jeedward at gmail.com Tue Feb 12 10:52:14 2008 From: jeedward at gmail.com (John E. Edward) Date: Tue Feb 12 15:00:52 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Deadline is just few more days: AIPR-08 Message-ID: Dear Colleagues and Friends Kindly share the announcement below with those who may be interested: thank you in advance. Sincerely John Edward AIPR-08 draft paper submission deadline is just few more days The 2008 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-08) (website: www.PromoteResearch.org) will be held during July 7-10 2008 in Orlando, FL, USA. We invite draft paper submissions and the submission deadline is extended until February 19 2008 due to several requests from the authors. The conference will be held at the same time and place where several major events (please see below) are taking place. The website contains more details. Sincerely John Edward ? International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-08) ? International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Control Systems (ARCS-08) ? International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics and Chemoinformatics (BCBGC-08) ? International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and Web Technologies (EISWT-08) ? International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking and Communication Systems (HPCNCS-08) ? International Conference on Software Engineering Theory and Practice (SETP-08) ? International Conference on Theoretical and Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (TMFCS-08) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080212/a766937d/attachment.html From 1c15501 at gmail.com Wed Feb 13 16:48:31 2008 From: 1c15501 at gmail.com (Raymond Chiong) Date: Thu Feb 14 10:09:06 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Call for Book Chapters Message-ID: *CALL FOR CHAPTERS* Proposals Submission Deadline: 31 MARCH 2008 Full Chapters Due: 30 JUNE 2008 *Nature-Inspired Informatics for Intelligent Applications and Knowledge Discovery: **Implications in Business, Science and Engineering*** A book edited by Raymond Chiong Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak Campus), Malaysia *Introduction* Nature is always a source of inspiration. In recent years, nature has stimulated many successful techniques, algorithms and computational applications. When the complex nature is modelled with computational processes, some conventionally difficult problems could be solved through the design and development of novel computing systems. These systems are often enthused by the metaphorical use of concepts, principles and mechanisms based on natural patterns, behaviours and living organisms. Various disciplines such as Business, Science and Engineering nowadays strive to go beyond their current limits with the adoption of these systems. *Objective of the Book* The main objective of this book is to provide a central source of reference on nature-inspired algorithms and their applications for knowledge discovery in the fields of Business, Science and Engineering. It will contain open-solicited and invited chapters written by leading researchers and well-known academics in relevant fields. All articles will be reviewed by three independent reviewers. The book will cover the state-of-the-art as well as latest research discoveries and applications, thus making it a valuable reference for a large community of audiences. *Target Audience* This book will be an important reference to researchers/academics working in the field of natural computation and its related areas such as artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, machine learning, data mining, etc. It will also be a potential resource for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students. *Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:* ? Artificial life ? Evolutionary computing ? Evolutionary games ? Evolutionary economics ? Neural computing, Bayesian networks, learning algorithms ? Particle swarm optimisation ? Ant colony optimisation ? Artificial immune systems ? Membrane, molecular, cellular and DNA computing ? Hybrid methods with metaheuristics ? Integration of natural computing techniques in intelligent systems ? Implementation issues of natural computing techniques ? Natural computing approaches for multi-objective optimisation ? Natural computing approaches in natural language processing, image processing, pattern recognition, planning and scheduling, information security, software engineering, bioinformatics and data mining, etc ? Successful applications in Business, Science and Engineering problems using natural computing approaches *Submission Procedure* Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit *on or before **March 31, 2008*, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by *April 28, 2008* about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by *June 30, 2008*. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. The book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), http://www.igi-global.com/, publisher of the IGI Publishing (formerly Idea Group Publishing), Information Science Publishing, IRM Press, CyberTech Publishing, Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference), and Medical Information Science Reference imprints. *Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to:* *Raymond Chiong **School** of **Information Technology Swinburne University** of Technology (**Sarawak** Campus) State Complex, 93576 **Kuching Sarawak**, **Malaysia** Tel.: +60 82 416 353 ? Fax: +60 82 423 594 E-mail: rchiong@swinburne.edu.my * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080213/7407c105/attachment-0001.html From d.g.heinke at bham.ac.uk Wed Feb 13 17:52:15 2008 From: d.g.heinke at bham.ac.uk (Dietmar Heinke) Date: Thu Feb 14 10:09:07 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Master in Cognition and Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <47B3203F.1070002@bham.ac.uk> The School of Psychology, University of Birmingham (UK) offers a Master of Research (M.Res) in Cognition and Computational Neuroscience. This master programme is open to graduate students with a good first degree in Biology, Computer Science, or Physics. The course is ideal for people who are thinking of pursuing a PhD in psychology and want to test the water. For further information see http://www.comp-psych.bham.ac.uk/mres_comp.htm. Five tuition-fee only studentships are available. Deadline for applications is end of July. M.Res degrees in other specializations are available as well (http://psg275.bham.ac.uk/prospect_students_03/postgraduate.htm#masters). For any further enquiries, please contact Mrs Parveen Chahal Tel: +44-121-41-44906 email: p.k.chahal@bham.ac.uk From lmate at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk Wed Feb 13 18:30:48 2008 From: lmate at gatsby.ucl.ac.uk (Mate Lengyel) Date: Thu Feb 14 10:09:10 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Call for applications: PGCN 2008 Course on The Hippocampus and Navigation Message-ID: <47B32948.4000408@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk> Call for applications: The Hippocampus and Navigation 31 March - 4 April 2008 Champalimaud Foundation Neuroscience Program Instituto Gulbenkian de Ci?ncia Oerias, Portugal This intensive, week-long course will explore one of the most intensively investigated and fascinating regions of the mammalian brain, the hippocampus. Leading researchers will provide background on classical and contemporary views of this structure, ranging from the microcircuit to the behavioral level. Topics of focus will include the anatomy and physiology of the hippocampal formation, navigation and spatial processing, neural maps and memory, and cortico-hippocampal replay of neural activity. The integration of experimental and theoretical/computational approaches will be emphasized. Tutorials and seminars will be complemented by debates, focus lectures and discussions. A final symposium will address the future of hippocampal research. A list of instructors is below; full schedule information is available at http://pgcn.igc.gulbenkian.pt/doku.php/pgcn:course:navigation_hippocampus:start. Up to 10 places available for students for this course. Applications are especially encouraged from doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows with some general background in neuroscience. There will be no tuition charge but students will be expected to pay their own travel, board and accommodation. The course runs as part of the Gulbenkian-Champalimaud Neuroscience Program (PGCN), an PhD program in the biological bases of behavior. Logistical assistance for local accommodation will be provided. Further logistical information is available at the course web site. Applications should be sent to Miguel Remondes (remondes@MIT.EDU) and include a CV, names and email of 2 references, and a short statement of interest (max 500 words). Application deadline is 24 February, 2008. Course organizers: Miguel Remondes (MIT) Mate Lengyel (U Cambridge) Program director: Zach Mainen (CFNP, IGC) Course instructors: Francesco Battaglia (U Amsterdam) Sue Becker (McMaster U) Verner Bingman (BGSU) Neil Burgess (UCL) J?zsef Csicsv?ri (U Oxford) Anthony Dickinson (U Cambridge) Howard Eichenbaum (BU) Fred Gage (Salk I) Wulfram Gerstner (EPFL) Mike Hasselmo (BU) Stefan Leutgeb (Trondheim) Ole Paulsen (U Oxford) Cosme Salas (U Sevilla) Wendy Suzuki (NYU) Alessandro Treves (SISSA) Nachum Ulanovsky (Weizmann I) Matt Wilson (MIT) Menno Witter (Trondheim) Sponsored by: Champalimaud Foundation Gulbenkian Foundation -- Mate Lengyel, PhD Computational and Biological Learning Lab Cambridge University Engineering Department Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK tel +44 (0)1223 748 532, fax +44 (0)1223 332 662 lmate@gatsby.ucl.ac.uk, gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/~lmate From t.stafford at sheffield.ac.uk Thu Feb 14 09:55:27 2008 From: t.stafford at sheffield.ac.uk (tom stafford) Date: Thu Feb 14 11:27:59 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] White Rose studentships in computational neuroscience Message-ID: <47B401FF.6080308@shef.ac.uk> Applications are now open for three studentships in computational neuroscience as part of the White Rose University Consortium 'Active Vision' network (Universities of Sheffield, York and Leeds) Details of the studentships are available here: http://www.shef.ac.uk/pgresearch/studentships/wrnetwork2.html The network will bring together leading research groups at Sheffield, Leeds and York with overlapping interests and complementary skills in a new multidisciplinary collaboration, spanning experiment and theory from neurobiology, through cognition to bio-inspired software/hardware applications. The network is focussed on modelling aspects of action selection in human vision. Despite extensive experimental and computational investigations, high level visual information processing is still poorly understood. We will combine (1) experimental investigation of the performance of the visual system (2) data analysis and modelling at the neurobiological level and (3) high level modelling in software and hardware. Studentships Available within the Network: 'Neural synchronisation: From vision to image processing and back' http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/gso/gsp/finance/wrose.htm Dr Simon O'Keefe, Computer Science, University of York Dr Netta Cohen, School of Computing, University of Leeds 'Using eye-movements to elucidate architectures of object recognition and selection' http://www.shef.ac.uk/pgresearch/studentships/tstafford.html Dr Tom Stafford, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield Professor Jim Austin, Computer Science, University of York 'Modelling neural architectures for selection' http://www.leeds.ac.uk/rds/postgraduate_scholarships/wrs-infoa.html#Modelling Dr Marc de Kamps, School of Computing, University of Leeds Dr Kevin Gurney, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield -- Tom Stafford Department of Psychology University of Sheffield Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TP, UK t.stafford@shef.ac.uk Tel +44 (0) 114 22 26620 Fax +44 (0) 114 276 6515 http://www.abrg.group.shef.ac.uk/people/tom/ --------------------------------------------------------------- From dorr at inb.uni-luebeck.de Fri Feb 15 14:14:50 2008 From: dorr at inb.uni-luebeck.de (Michael Dorr) Date: Fri Feb 15 14:32:32 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Assistant Professor "Machine Learning in Medicine and Life Sciences", University of Luebeck Message-ID: <200802151414.50614.dorr@inb.uni-luebeck.de> Applications are invited for a position becoming available at the Institute for Neuro- and Bioinformatics, University of Luebeck (Director: Prof. Thomas Martinetz) in the context of the Graduate School "Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences" (http://www.gradschool.uni-luebeck.de) Deadline for applications: March 28, 2008 Starting date: as soon as possible Assistant Professor (Juniorprofessur W1) for Machine Learning in Medicine and Life Sciences The initial appointment will be for 3 years, but can be extended up to 6 years. Responsibilities include conducting independent research, teaching courses relevant to "Machine Learning in Medicine and Life Sciences" (4 hours/week, German and English), and the attraction of extramural funding. The successful candidate is expected to set up their own research group within the Institute for Neuro- and Bioinformatics (http://www.inb.uni-luebeck.de). Applicants must hold a PhD degree and should have experience, as indicated by their academic record, in one or several of the following topics: - machine learning in medical imaging and image processing - machine learning in bioinformatics and biomedical data analysis - theory and novel methods of machine learning The university strongly encourages teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration, in particular with the recently established Research Centre "Computer Imaging and Computer Aided Diagnosis (CICAD)" and with clinical institutes. The university seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. Applications from disabled individuals are especially welcome. Applicants are invited to send their complete resum? (including a list of publications and the names of three possible referees), before March 28, 2008, to: Dekanat der Technisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakult?t Universitaet zu Luebeck Ratzeburger Allee 160 23538 Luebeck Germany or electronically to martinetz@inb.uni-luebeck.de . From smart at neuralcorrelate.com Sat Feb 16 00:20:16 2008 From: smart at neuralcorrelate.com (Susana Martinez-Conde) Date: Sat Feb 16 12:02:18 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Illusion submission EXTENSION: The 4th Annual Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest!! Message-ID: <00db01c87029$544335c0$fcc9a140$@com> ***DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND*** --The deadline for the 4th Annual Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest has been extended. FINAL (no exceptions) submission date is now ***March 1st***! http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com Many of the most outstanding illusion creators in the world have asked us to extend the deadline so as to perfect their contributions for the Contest! The voters at the 4th Annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest, in Naples, Florida, will certainly see the Best and Most Exciting New Illusions of the Year. This award is chosen by the community, and not by a committee, so please come and make your vote! The 2008 contest will be hosted by Stuart Anstis and held in Naples, Florida (Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, http://www.thephil.org) on Sunday, May 11th, 2008, during the week of the Vision Sciences Society conference (VSS). The Naples Philharmonic Center is an 8-minute walk from the main VSS headquarters hotel in Naples, and is thus central to the VSS conference. The 2007 annual contest, held in Sarasota, Florida, drew numerous accolades from attendees and international media coverage, as well as over *** ONE MILLION*** website hits from viewers all over the world. The First, Second and Third Prize winners were Frederick Kingdom, Ali Yoonessi and Elena Gheorghiu (McGill University, Canada), Pietro Guardini and Luciano Gamberini (University of Padova, Italy), and Arthur Shapiro and Emily Knight (Bucknell University, USA). To see the illusions, photo galleries and other highlights from the 2007 contest, go to http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com Visual Illusion Contestants are invited to submit novel visual or multimodal illusions (unpublished, or published no earlier than 2007) in standard image, movie or html formats. An international panel of impartial judges will rate the submissions and narrow them to the TOP TEN. Then, at the Contest Gala in Naples, the TOP TEN illusionists will present their contributions and the attendees of the event (that means you!) will vote to pick the TOP THREE WINNERS! The renowned sculptor and artist, Guido Moretti, has created three amazing works of art to serve as trophies for the TOP THREE winners! See the trophies at: http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_ user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=98&MMN_position=41:41 Illusions submitted to previous editions of the contest can be re-submitted to the 2008 contest, as long as they meet the above requirements and were not among the top three winners in previous years. Submissions will be held in strict confidence by the panel of judges and the authors/creators will retain full copyright. No illusions will be posted on the illusion contest's website without the creators' explicit permission. As with submitting your work to any scientific conference, participating in the Best Illusion of the Year Contest does not preclude you from also submitting your work for publication elsewhere. Submissions can be made to Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde (Illusion Contest Coordinator, Neural Correlate Society) via email (smart@neuralcorrelate.com) until ***March 01, 2008***. Illusion submissions should come with a (no more than) one-page description of the illusion and its theoretical underpinnings (if known). Illusions will be rated according to: . Significance to our understanding of the visual system . Simplicity of the description . Sheer beauty . Counterintuitive quality . Spectacularity Visit the illusion contest website for further information and to see last year's illusions: http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com Submit your ideas now and take home this prestigious award! On behalf of the Neural Correlate Society: Susana Martinez-Conde (Illusion Contest Coordinator) Neural Correlate Society Executive Committee: Jose-Manuel Alonso, Stephen Macknik, Luis Martinez, Xoana Troncoso, Peter Tse ---------------------------------------------------------------- Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD Director, Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience Division of Neurobiology Barrow Neurological Institute 350 W. Thomas Rd Phoenix AZ 85013, USA Phone: +1 (602) 406-3484 Fax: +1 (602) 406-4172 Email: smart@neuralcorrelate.com http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com From ss.dtvcs at gmail.com Sat Feb 16 18:57:18 2008 From: ss.dtvcs at gmail.com (ss DTVCS) Date: Mon Feb 18 09:47:02 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CFP: DTVCS 2008 - Design, Testing and Formal Verification Techniques for Integrated Circuits and Systems In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Apologies for any multiple copies received. We would appreciate it if you could distribute the following call for papers to any relevant mailing lists you know of. CALL FOR PAPERS ============================================================================ Special Session: Design, Testing and Formal Verification Techniques for Integrated Circuits and Systems DTVCS 2008 August 18-20, 2008 (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA) http://digilander.libero.it/systemcfl/dtvcs ============================================================================= Special Session in the IASTED International Conference on Circuits and Systems (CS 2008) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The IASTED International Conference on Circuits and Systems (CS 2008) will take place in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA, August 18-20, 2008. URL: http://www.iasted.org/conferences/cfp-625.html. Aims and Scope ------------------------- The main target of the Special Session DTVCS is to bring together engineering researchers, computer scientists, practitioners and people from industry to exchange theories, ideas, techniques and experiences related to the areas of design, testing and formal verification techniques for integrated circuits and systems. Contributions on UML and formal paradigms based on process algebras, petri-nets, automaton theory and BDDs in the context of design, testing and formal verification techniques for integrated circuits and systems are also encouraged. Topics ---------- Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: * digital, analog, mixed-signal and RF test * built-in self test * ATPG * theory and foundations: model checking, SAT-based methods, use of PSL, compositional methods and probabilistic methods * applications of formal methods: equivalence checking, CSP applications and transaction-level verification * verification through hybrid techniques * verification methods based on hardware description/system-level languages (e.g. VHDL, SystemVerilog and SystemC) * testing and verification applications: tools, industrial experience reports and case studies Industrial Collaborators and Sponsors ------------------------------------------------------ This special session is partnered with: * CEOL: Centre for Efficiency-Oriented Languages "Towards improved software timing", University College Cork, Ireland (http://www.ceol.ucc.ie) * International Software and Productivity Engineering Institute, USA ( http://www.intspei.com) * Intelligent Support Ltd., United Kingdom (http://www.isupport-ltd.co.uk) * Minteos, Italy (http://www.minteos.com) * M.O.S.T., Italy (http://www.most.it) * Electronic Center, Italy (http://www.el-center.com) * Legale Fiscale, Italy (http://www.legalefiscale.it) This special session is sponsored by: * LS Industrial Systems, South Korea (http://eng.lsis.biz) * Solari, Hong Kong (http://www.solari-hk.com/) Technical Program Committee -------------------------------------------- * Prof. Vladimir Hahanov, Kharkov National University of Radio Electronics, Ukraine * Prof. Paolo Prinetto, Politecnico di Torino, Italy * Prof. Alberto Macii, Politecnico di Torino, Italy * Prof. Joongho Choi, University of Seoul, South Korea * Prof. Wei Li, Fudan University, China * Prof. Michel Schellekens, University College Cork, Ireland * Prof. Franco Fummi, University of Verona, Italy * Prof. Jun-Dong Cho, Sung Kyun Kwan University, South Korea * Prof. AHM Zahirul Alam, International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia * Dr. Emanuel Popovici, University College Cork, Ireland * Dr. Jong-Kug Seon, System LSI Lab., LS Industrial Systems Co. Ltd., South Korea * Dr. Umberto Rossi, STMicroelectronics, Italy * Dr. Graziano Pravadelli, University of Verona, Italy * Dr. Vladimir Pavlov, International Software and Productivity Engineering Institute, USA * Dr. Jinfeng Huang, Philips & LiteOn Digital Solutions Netherlands, Advanced Research Centre, The Netherlands * Dr. Thierry Vallee, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA * Dr. Menouer Boubekeur, University College Cork, Ireland * Dr. Ana Sokolova, University of Salzburg, Austria * Dr. Sergio Almerares, STMicroelectronics, Italy * Ajay Patel (Director), Intelligent Support Ltd, United Kingdom * Monica Donno (Director), Minteos, Italy * Alessandro Carlo (Manager), Research and Development Centre of FIAT, Italy * Yui Fai Lam (Manager), Microsystems Packaging Institute, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Important Dates --------------------------- April 1, 2008: Deadline for submission of completed papers May 15, 2008: Notification of acceptance/rejection to authors Please visit our web-site for further information on the hosting conference of DTVCS, submission guidelines, proceedings and publications. Best regards, General Chair of DTVCS: Dr. K.L. Man (University College Cork, Ireland) and Organising Chairs: Miss Maria O'Keeffe (University College Cork, Ireland) and: Mr. Michele Mercaldi (M.O.S.T., Italy) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080216/99cd3baa/attachment-0001.html From friedhelm.schwenker at uni-ulm.de Tue Feb 19 12:43:33 2008 From: friedhelm.schwenker at uni-ulm.de (Friedhelm Schwenker) Date: Tue Feb 19 13:10:10 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Job posting Open position Message-ID: <47BAC0E5.8020302@uni-ulm.de> Job posting Open position --------------------------- The research group in Neural Information Processing (Neuroinformatik) at the Universit?t Ulm invites applications for a position of a Research Scientist (Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in) that is open by March 1, 2008. Salary is according to German scale for research staff personnel (TVL-13). The position is initially for 12 months, starting in March 2008 (or soon after), but a full duration of 3 years funding is expected. The position is funded within the EU research project SEARISE. The overall project pursues a highly interdisciplinary approach to develop neural architecture and mechanisms of visual information processing in an observer to analyse motion and form in scenes, group scenic features and deploy attention to salient locations in surveillance scenarios. The announced position here particularly focuses on the development of neural mechanisms of motion integration, how they enter to build attention maps and the development of fast algorithms to demonstrate their real-time performance. An ideal candidate brings in * a Diploma or Master degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related fields, * extensive programming experience (Matlab, C/C++), * sound knowledge in neural models of vision, image processing and/or computer vision, applied mathematics, knowledge about structure and function of the visual cortical architecture, * basic knowledge in pursuing scientific project work, * English speaking and writing skills. The research within the project is expected to be in collaboration with project partners from several European countries and includes on-site visits in different laboratories. It is expected that the candidate pursues a PhD project related to the research topics of the research project. The University of Ulm is an equal opportunity employer. Women are encouraged to apply. Disabled applicants will receive priority in case they have equal qualifications. Please send applications as soon as possible, preferentially via email (PDF document with all the usual data, such as application letter, CV, transcript of records, letters of reference if available) to heiko.neumann@uni-ulm.de. Alternatively, applications can be sent via regular mail to Prof. Heiko Neumann Institut f?r Neuroinformatik Fakult?t f?r Ingenieurwissenschaften und Informatik Universit?t Ulm D-89069 Ulm Germany From friedhelm.schwenker at uni-ulm.de Tue Feb 19 12:57:58 2008 From: friedhelm.schwenker at uni-ulm.de (Friedhelm Schwenker) Date: Tue Feb 19 13:10:12 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD Studentship Message-ID: <47BAC446.7070108@uni-ulm.de> We invite applications of excellent master students to our Graduate School "Mathematical Analysis of Evolution, Information and Complexity" until March 28, 2008. The detailed announcement can be found here http://www.informatik.uni-ulm.de/ni/stellen/GraduateSchool.pdf Supported Ph.D. work in this call will usually start in May 2008. It may also start at other dates in the periode from April to September 2008. -- Prof. Dr. Guenther Palm Director of the Institute of Neural Information Processing University of Ulm 89069 Ulm Germany phone: ++49 731 50 24150 fax: ++49 731 50 24156 email: guenther.palm@uni-ulm.de From ubi at rmki.kfki.hu Wed Feb 20 09:22:15 2008 From: ubi at rmki.kfki.hu (Ujfalussy Balazs) Date: Wed Feb 20 09:56:08 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Budapest Semester in Cognitive Science Message-ID: Dear colleagues: The BSCS - Budapest Semester in Cognitive Science will start its fifth year in the fall of 2008. It is a study abroad program in English for international students. The Program gives an introduction to the cognitive sciences at an undergraduate level, and also students will gain first-hand experience of living in a European environment. The Program is associated to Eotvos University of Budapest (Hungary). Supervision is provided by and responsibility lies with the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (http://hps.elte.hu). For detailed program description, see http://hps.elte.hu/BSCS/, Inquries from the U.S and Canada should be sent to US Director John Bickle, bicklejw@email.uc.edu, and US coordinator Judit Hegedus, hegedus@kzoo.edu. From other countries please write to Co-Directors George Kampis, kampis.george@gmail.com, and Peter Erdi, perdi@kzoo.edu. We look forward to see students in Budapest. Best regards Peter Erdi http://kzoo.edu/~perdi/ From giovanni.pezzulo at istc.cnr.it Wed Feb 20 12:58:38 2008 From: giovanni.pezzulo at istc.cnr.it (Giovanni Pezzulo) Date: Wed Feb 20 13:26:18 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CFP: ABiALS 2008 - The fourth workshop on Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems Message-ID: Apologies for any multiple copies received. CALL FOR (EXTENDED) ABSTRACTS: ============================================================================ ========== The fourth workshop on Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems ABiALS 2008 26 June 2008, Munich http://www.psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de/ABiALS/ (In collaboration with the euCognition Meeting "The Role of Anticipation in Cognition") Deadline for *four-pages abstract* submission: 14 April 2008 Full papers will be published as post-proceedings in the Springer LNAI series ============================================================================ ========== This year, ABiALS invites submission of four-pages (EXTENDED) ABSTRACTS to be discussed (or shown as posters) during the workshop. Abstract submissions should be sent electronically via email in pdf or ps format to: giovanni.pezzulo@istc.cnr.it, indicating in the subject line "ABiALS2008 submission". Submitted abstracts should have a maximal length of FOUR PAGES in 10pt, one-column format. Please use the LNCS Springer-Verlag style at http://www.springeronline.com/comp/lncs/authors.html. Abstracts will be reviewed for acceptance by the program committee and the organizers. After the workshop, *authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper* (up to 20-pages) for post-proceedings publication in the Springer LNAI series, as has been done in 2002 and 2006. Objectives ---------- ABiALS is an interdisciplinary workshop investigating the influence of anticipations on behavior and learning. ABiALS is designed to help investigate how anticipations can influence, initiate, and guide behavior and learning as well as how anticipatory influences can be implemented in an adaptive learning system. In ABiALS 2008, expertise of researchers from various disciplines including neuroscience, cognitive psychology, machine learning, artificial intelligence, control, and vision research are combined to shed further light on the concept of anticipation. Essentially, it is investigated how knowledge about the future influences actual behavior, including influences on attention, action decision making and control, as well as (behavioral and model) learning. Key interests include: ---------------------- -Anticipatory mechanisms and representations for model learning -Model-predictive, adaptive control architectures -Anticipatory, adaptive systems / agents -Distinctions of anticipatory mechanisms -Anticipatory mechanisms in animals and humans List of Topics -------------- -Behavioral psychological and neuroscientific insights on anticipatory behavior and future-oriented capabilities. -Anticipatory functionalities and neural substrates for anticipatory mechanisms in the brain. -Anticipations in decision making and goal-directed behavior. -Trade-off between simple stimulus-response vs. more complex anticipatory driven behavior. -Exploiting anticipations to direct or speed-up motor learning. -Anticipatory mechanisms in motor learning and motor control. -Anticipatory speed-up of sensory processing. -Curiosity and novelty detection during learning and behavior. -Epistemic actions for directed information search and directing attention. -Modular integration of anticipatory mechanisms in cognitive system architectures. -Suitability of predictive representations for anticipatory mechanisms. -Hierarchical predictive and anticipatory architectures. -Anticipations in interaction with motivations and emotions. -Social anticipatory capabilities. -Evolutionary development from reactive to anticipatory capabilities. Important dates --------------- Deadline for abstract submission: 14 April 2008 Notification of acceptance: 14 May 2008 Final version of abstract due: 1 June 2008 ABiALS 2008 Workshop: 26 June 2008 Full paper submission for post-proceedings publication: mid/end September Venue ----- ABiALS 2008 will be held in collaboration with the Fifth Six-Monthly euCognition Meeting "The Role of Anticipation in Cognition" http://www.eucognition.org/six_monthly_meeting_5.htm Venue: Room K13 Municon - Munich Airport Conference Centre (to be confirmed) Important notice ---------------- We are applying for designing ABiALS 2008 as a "euCognition Official Event". In this way euCognition members would be eligible to have all their travel and accommodation costs reimbursed. Applying for euCognition membership is free and very easy. More information will appear soon in the ABiALS website http://www.psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de/ABiALS/ Program Committee ----------------- We are contacting again the members of the ABiALS 2006 program committee: Christian Balkenius, Edoardo Datteri, Oliver Herbort, Pier Luca Lanzi, Ralf Moeller, Tony Prescott, Jesse Reichler, Alexander Riegler, Deb Roy, Samarth Swarup, Stewart W. Wilson. Organizers ---------- Giovanni Pezzulo Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC)-CNR, Via S. Martino della Battaglia 44, I-00185 Rome, Italy. Martin V. Butz Dep. of Psychology, University of W?rzburg, R?ntgenring 11, 97070 W?rzburg, Germany Olivier Sigaud AnimatLab, Laboratoire d'Informatique de Paris 6 (Lip6), 104 avenue de Pr?sident Kennedy, 75016 Paris, France Gianluca Baldassarre Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC)-CNR, Via S. Martino della Battaglia 44, I-00185 Rome, Italy. From triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de Wed Feb 20 16:29:41 2008 From: triesch at fias.uni-frankfurt.de (Jochen Triesch) Date: Wed Feb 20 17:07:17 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] FIAS Summer School Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems (2-24 August 2008, Frankfurt, Germany) Message-ID: <47BC4765.2040803@fias.uni-frankfurt.de> Announcement and Call for Applications: The Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) is organizing a PENS-Blackwell Summer School on: Theoretical Neuroscience & Complex Systems Frankfurt, Germany, August 2-24, 2008 We invite applications for this three-week summer school from graduate students and post-docs in experimental and computational neuroscience and theoretical physics. Up to 30 students will be accepted. The school is supported by PENS - the Programme of European Neuroscience Schools, an IBRO-FENS collaboration. Application deadline: Monday, April 7. School: http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/neuro_school/ Application: http://fens.mdc-berlin.de/pens/2008/schools/frankfurt/ Scientific Directors: W. Maass, C. von der Malsburg, G. Pipa, W. Singer, J. Triesch, M. Tsodyks Lecturers and Tutors Include: * Dana Ballard, UT Austin, USA * Emery Brown, Harvard/MIT, Cambridge, USA * Yang Dan, UC Berkeley, USA * Sophie Deneve, CNRS, France * Rodney Douglas, ETH Zurich, Switzerland * Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain * Wulfram Gerstner, EPFL, Switzerland * Ann Graybiel, MIT, USA * Mary Hayhoe, UT Austin, USA * Jurgen Kurths, University of Potsdam, Germany, * Jorg Lucke, FIAS, Germany * Wolfgang Maass, Technische Universitat, Graz, Austria * Christoph von der Malsburg, FIAS, Germany * Sergio Neuenschwander, MPIH, Germany * Danko Nikolic, MPIH, Germany * Gordon Pipa, FIAS and MPIH, Germany * Austra Saudargiene, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania * Kerstin Schmidt, MPIH, Germany * Wolf Singer, MPIH, Germay * Olaf Sporns, Indiana University, USA * Jochen Triesch, FIAS, Germany * Peter Uhlhaas, MPIH, Germany * Raul Vicente, FIAS and MPIH, Germany * Cornelius Weber FIAS, Germany * Michael Wibral, MPIH, Germany * Kai Willadsen, FIAS, Germany * Junmei Zhu, FIAS, Germany Topics: mathematical and biological foundations of theoretical neuroscience; analysis of neural data; modelling of neurons and small networks; plasticity and learning; modelling higher cognitive functions, embodiment Format: - a 3-day pre-school to establish a common foundation and language - daily lectures by renowned international faculty - hands-on work on self-defined projects in interdisciplinary groups - round table discussions - a social and cultural program Registration Fees, Travel Expenses and Waivers: The school covers the expenses for accommodation and the cultural program. Students will have to pay a registration fee of 400 EURO. A small number of grants are available for students who need support for their travel expenses and a waiver for the registration fee. They are primarily intended for students from disadvantaged regions. If you consider applying for financial support, please indicate this in your application. We also need an estimate of your travel expenses (in EUROs). For further information, please contact: Neuro School Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Ruth-Moufang-Str. 1 60438 Frankfurt am Main Germany email: neuro_school@fias.uni-frankfurt.de tel: +49 69 798 47601 fax: +49 69 798 47611 From R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk Wed Feb 20 17:26:19 2008 From: R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk (Roman Borisyuk) Date: Thu Feb 21 09:52:54 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] From Neuron to Behaviour: MSc programme at University of Plymouth, UK Message-ID: <6CD19ED93A7A8F4593955A11621242C20658F68625@ILS133.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> >From Neuron to Behaviour: MSc programme on Neural Systems, Cognitive Neuroscience and Brain Function We are pleased to announce a new MSc programme Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at University of Plymouth, UK. The course is full time for 12 months, and starts in September 2008. This exciting multidisciplinary programme provides you with a comprehensive knowledge of principles and concepts of brain functioning. It covers anatomy and physiology of brain structures; mechanisms controlling dynamics of neural activity, state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques; the relation between neural activity and cognitive functions such as object and sound recognition, attention, memory; and many other intriguing topics related to understanding how the brain makes sense of the world and how it organises behaviour. The programme is unique in Europe in providing training within the quickly evolving cutting-edge discipline of Theoretical Neuroscience. It is especially suitable for students from the experimental sciences (psychology, biology and medicine). Students with engineering, computing, physics, mathematics and similar degrees wishing to broaden their horizons toward applications in the amazing field of brain modelling will find this programme very attractive. Programme highlights * You will participate in an interdisciplinary, new and unique programme studying fundamental principles of information processing in the brain * You will learn how incoming sensory signals become our perception, how we recognise images and sounds, form attention focus on the most important information, memorise events and their sequences, develop behavioural responses, control locomotion etc. * You will develop confidence and competence in the theoretical and practical dimensions of modelling in neuroscience, through taught modules, practical work, exercises and project development * You will become experienced in analysing experimental data of cognitive and neurophysiological experiments; new medical devices and methods to study the brain and treat neurological disorders; brain inspired algorithms and neuromorphic techniques of finding solutions to complex problems * You will be taught by recognised experts with worldwide links to research organisations and projects * You can take advantage of our partnership with centres of computational neuroscience in the UK, Europe, USA and Japan The programme is developed in the Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience (CTCN) ( http://www.research.plymouth.ac.uk/ctcn/ ). The CTCN is one of the leading centres in the field of theoretical neuroscience. The Centre has bought together a range of international experts from various backgrounds. This rich mix of computational, mathematical and neuroscience expertise provides a unique opportunity for students to acquire multidisciplinary training. The programme should provide an excellent training for those wishing to pursue an academic research career. In particular, it provides a broad multidisciplinary foundation for students wishing to undertake further research training at PhD level. Also the programme opens exciting perspectives for students wishing to work for the pharmaceutical and medical industries and apply their knowledge of new and exciting discoveries in brain research. For example, biomedical engineering requires experts in brain functioning to deal with developments of new drugs to treat mental and neurological diseases, develop prosthetic devices etc. This programme will be attractive for medical professionals wishing to continue their professional development. For more information and application see http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/taught/3068/MSc+Theoretical+and+Computational+Neuroscience Contact details Postgraduate Admissions Faculty of Science University of Plymouth Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AA United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1752 233093 E-mail: science@plymouth.ac.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080220/d5611001/attachment-0001.html From Eugene.Izhikevich at nsi.edu Wed Feb 20 18:16:08 2008 From: Eugene.Izhikevich at nsi.edu (Eugene M. Izhikevich) Date: Thu Feb 21 09:52:56 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Workshop "Dynamical Systems in Biology", New York University, April ,12-13, 2008 Message-ID: <47BC6058.3090508@nsi.edu> Workshop: DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS IN BIOLOGY to celebrate 70th birthday of Frank C. Hoppensteadt April 12-13, 2008 New York University, NY Program: http://hoppensteadt.org Organizers: Eugene M. Izhikevich, The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, CA Ying-Cheng Lai, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Fern Hunt, National Institute of Standards and Technology April 12: DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS IN POPULATION BIOLOGY Speakers: S. Antman, B. O'Malley, A. Skorokhod, H. Salehi, B. Stone, A. Hastings, J. Cohen, F. Hunt, J. Burke, W. Jaeger, L. Bunimovich, S. Childress, D. McLaughlin April 13: DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS IN NEUROSCIENCE Speakers: F. Skinner, R. Borisyuk, L.-S. Young, W. Miranker, C. Peskin, H. Carrillo, P. Holmes, J. Rinzel, V. Booth, J. Guckenheimer, Y.-C. Lai, E. Izhikevich, F. C. Hoppensteadt Partial travel support may be available for junior participants, subject to NSF approval. -- Eugene M. Izhikevich, Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology PhD, Mathematics, http://www.nsi.edu/users/izhikevich The Neurosciences Institute, Editor-in-Chief@scholarpedia.org 10640 John J. Hopkins Drive tel:(858) 626-2063 San Diego, CA, 92121, USA fax:(858) 626-2099 From torcini at gmail.com Wed Feb 20 15:44:41 2008 From: torcini at gmail.com (Alessandro Torcini) Date: Thu Feb 21 09:52:58 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Workshop NETWORK SYNCHRONIZATION in Leiden - may 2008 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is to announce the Workshop NETWORK SYNCHRONIZATION: FROM DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS TO NEUROSCIENCE taking place at the LORENTZ CENTER (Leiden, The Netherlands) 19-30 May 2008 the workshop will be held from 19 May (afternoon) until 30 May (morning) http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2008/285/info.php3?wsid=285 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SCIENTIFIC AIMS The aim of the workshop is to strenghten the communication channels between the (overlapping) communities of dynamical systems theorists, computational and experimental neuroscientists, in order to stimulate fruitful interactions and exchanges of ideas. In particular, it aims to put into contact researchers working in nonlinear dynamics and time series and pattern analysis, together with computational neuroscientists involved in the study of realistic neuronal circuits, together with experimentalists that are characterizing, with the help of modern technologies, the nature of interactions in neural networks, and the cellular and molecular basis of synchronization in such networks. The main topics addressed by the workshop include * Synchronization in low and high dimensional systems; * Emergence of collective dynamics in networks; * Nonlinear data analysis: univariate, bivariate and multivariate measures; * Modeling of neuronal networks: dynamical and topological aspects; * Study of the dynamics of neural circuits, in vitro and in vivo approaches; * Control and modelling of brain oscillations and rhythms; * Large scale, inter-structure coherence and synchronization: evidence from human MEG and EEG data INVITED PARTICIPANTS There will be 7 tutorial lectures (about 3h each) about the main topics mentioned abovegiven by P. FRIES (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), P. GRASSBERGER (Calgary, Canada), D. HANSEL (Paris, France), P. JONAS (Heidelberg, Germany), E. OTT (Maryland, USA), A. PIKOVSKY (Postdam, Germany) and M. TSODYKS (Rehovot, Israel) And 23 focused talks (45min each) given by ((*) to be confirmed) P. COLLET (Mallorca, Spain), S. COOMBES (Nottingham, UK), S. GIELEN (Nijmegen,. The Netherlands), B. GUTKIN (Paris, France), V. HAKIM (Paris, France), O. JENSEN (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), T. KREUZ (San Diego USA), A. LONGTIN (Ottawa Canada), M. MEHTA (Brown, USA), S. NEUENSCHWANDER (Frankfurt, Germany), O. PAULSEN (Oxford, UK), A. POLITI (Florence, Italy), R. QUIAN QUIROGA (Leicester, UK), A. RIEHLE (Aix-Marseille, France), P. ROELFSEMA (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), H. ROTSTEIN (Newark, USA), A. SIROTA (Piscataway, NJ, USA), C. TALLON-BAUDRY (Paris, France), P. TASS (Juelich, Germany), M. TIMME (Cornell, USA), R. TRAUB (New York, USA), C.J.TESSONE (ETH, Zuerich), M. ZAKS (Potsdam, Germany) APPLICATION: Persons wishing to partecipate to the Workshop should previously fill the online Form "Interest in Participation" URL: http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2008/285/info.php3?wsid=285 specifying her/his expression of interest and providing a tentative title/abstract of the presentation by March 1st, 2008. Applicants will receive a final notification within March 05, 2008; due to space limitation only (roughly) 20 applications can be accepted. The selected participants will have the possibility of using the offices and the other facilities at the Lorentz Center. NO FEE is required, but no financial support can be given to the applicants due to budgetary limits. IMPORTANT DEADLINES : * March 1st, 2008 - deadline for applications, by filling the online form "Interest in Participation" * March 05, 2008 -- Notification of the final decision to the applicants WEB SITE More information on the workshop is available at the URL http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2008/285/info.php3?wsid=285 SCIENTIFIC COORDINATORS: N. Brunel (University Rene Descartes, Paris, France), F.P. Battaglia (UvA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands), M. Cencini (INFM - CNR, Rome, Italy), A. Torcini (ISC - CNR, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SPONSORS: * Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences - The Netherlands * Dipartimento Materiali e Dispositivi - CNR - Italy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080220/a43b50da/attachment-0001.html From torcini at gmail.com Thu Feb 21 09:48:31 2008 From: torcini at gmail.com (Alessandro Torcini) Date: Thu Feb 21 09:53:05 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Workshop NETWORK SYNCHRONIZATION in Leiden - may 2008 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is to announce the Workshop NETWORK SYNCHRONIZATION: FROM DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS TO NEUROSCIENCE taking place at the LORENTZ CENTER (Leiden, The Netherlands) 19-30 May 2008 the workshop will be held from 19 May (afternoon) until 30 May (morning) http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2008/285/info.php3?wsid=285 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SCIENTIFIC AIMS The aim of the workshop is to strenghten the communication channels between the (overlapping) communities of dynamical systems theorists, computational and experimental neuroscientists, in order to stimulate fruitful interactions and exchanges of ideas. In particular, it aims to put into contact researchers working in nonlinear dynamics and time series and pattern analysis, together with computational neuroscientists involved in the study of realistic neuronal circuits, together with experimentalists that are characterizing, with the help of modern technologies, the nature of interactions in neural networks, and the cellular and molecular basis of synchronization in such networks. The main topics addressed by the workshop include * Synchronization in low and high dimensional systems; * Emergence of collective dynamics in networks; * Nonlinear data analysis: univariate, bivariate and multivariate measures; * Modeling of neuronal networks: dynamical and topological aspects; * Study of the dynamics of neural circuits, in vitro and in vivo approaches; * Control and modelling of brain oscillations and rhythms; * Large scale, inter-structure coherence and synchronization: evidence from human MEG and EEG data INVITED PARTICIPANTS There will be 7 tutorial lectures (about 3h each) about the main topics mentioned abovegiven by P. FRIES (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), P. GRASSBERGER (Calgary, Canada), D. HANSEL (Paris, France), P. JONAS (Heidelberg, Germany), E. OTT (Maryland, USA), A. PIKOVSKY (Postdam, Germany) and M. TSODYKS (Rehovot, Israel) And 23 focused talks (45min each) given by ((*) to be confirmed) P. COLLET (Mallorca, Spain), S. COOMBES (Nottingham, UK), S. GIELEN (Nijmegen,. The Netherlands), B. GUTKIN (Paris, France), V. HAKIM (Paris, France), O. JENSEN (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), T. KREUZ (San Diego USA), A. LONGTIN (Ottawa Canada), M. MEHTA (Brown, USA), S. NEUENSCHWANDER (Frankfurt, Germany), O. PAULSEN (Oxford, UK), A. POLITI (Florence, Italy), R. QUIAN QUIROGA (Leicester, UK), A. RIEHLE (Aix-Marseille, France), P. ROELFSEMA (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), H. ROTSTEIN (Newark, USA), A. SIROTA (Piscataway, NJ, USA), C. TALLON-BAUDRY (Paris, France), P. TASS (Juelich, Germany), M. TIMME (Cornell, USA), R. TRAUB (New York, USA), C.J.TESSONE (ETH, Zuerich), M. ZAKS (Potsdam, Germany) APPLICATION: Persons wishing to partecipate to the Workshop should previously fill the online Form "Interest in Participation" URL: http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2008/285/info.php3?wsid=285 specifying her/his expression of interest and providing a tentative title/abstract of the presentation by March 1st, 2008. Applicants will receive a final notification within March 05, 2008; due to space limitation only (roughly) 20 applications can be accepted. The selected participants will have the possibility of using the offices and the other facilities at the Lorentz Center. NO FEE is required, but no financial support can be given to the applicants due to budgetary limits. IMPORTANT DEADLINES : * March 1st, 2008 - deadline for applications, by filling the online form "Interest in Participation" * March 05, 2008 -- Notification of the final decision to the applicants WEB SITE More information on the workshop is available at the URL http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2008/285/info.php3?wsid=285 SCIENTIFIC COORDINATORS: N. Brunel (University Rene Descartes, Paris, France), F.P. Battaglia (UvA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands), M. Cencini (INFM - CNR, Rome, Italy), A. Torcini (ISC - CNR, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SPONSORS: * Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences - The Netherlands * Dipartimento Materiali e Dispositivi - CNR - Italy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080221/2d998b73/attachment-0001.html From R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk Thu Feb 21 10:47:46 2008 From: R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk (Roman Borisyuk) Date: Fri Feb 22 10:18:31 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] From Neuron to Behaviour: MSc programme at University of Plymouth, UK In-Reply-To: <6CD19ED93A7A8F4593955A11621242C20658F68625@ILS133.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> References: <6CD19ED93A7A8F4593955A11621242C20658F68625@ILS133.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> Message-ID: <6CD19ED93A7A8F4593955A11621242C20658F6862C@ILS133.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> It seems that my advert has arrived as an empty message. Could you please repeat it Sincerely, Roman Roman Borisyuk, DSc, PhD Professor of Computational Neuroscience Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience University of Plymouth A224, Portland Sq Plymouth, PL4 8AA UK Phone: +44 (0) 1752 232619 Fax: +44 (0) 1752 233349 E-mail: RBorisyuk@plymouth.ac.uk From: comp-neuro-bounces@neuroinf.org [mailto:comp-neuro-bounces@neuroinf.org] On Behalf Of Roman Borisyuk Sent: 20 February 2008 16:26 To: 'Comp-neuro@neuroinf.org'; Connectionists@cs.cmu.edu Subject: [Comp-neuro] From Neuron to Behaviour: MSc programme at University of Plymouth, UK -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080221/c8df592a/attachment.html From stiefel at salk.edu Fri Feb 22 01:37:50 2008 From: stiefel at salk.edu (Klaus M. Stiefel) Date: Fri Feb 22 10:18:52 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Post-Doc Position in cellular Neuroscience Message-ID: <47BE195E.30001@salk.edu> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080222/a766174d/attachment-0001.html From emilio.soria at uv.es Fri Feb 22 09:01:03 2008 From: emilio.soria at uv.es (emilio) Date: Fri Feb 22 10:18:55 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Call for papers new book Handbook of Research on Machine Learning Message-ID: <47BE813F.20903@uv.es> On behalf of the editorial committee of the ?Handbook of Research on Machine Learning Applications and Trends: Algorithms, Methods and Techniques?, it would be a pleasure for us if you could contribute to this book The main goal of the handbook is to serve as a tool not only for students but also for research purposes. For your reference, I have attached the Call for Chapters to this e-mail. The Call for Chapters explains, in detail, my objectives for this manuscript as well as suggests some possible topics to which you may wish to contribute. You are, however, not limited to these topics. Please feel free to add any topics that you think are critical issues in maching learning. This book is tentatively scheduled for publishing by IGI Global as part of the Information Science Reference imprint. IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Publishing), www.igi-global.com , is the publisher of the IGI Publishing (formerly Idea Group Publishing), Information Science Publishing, IRM Press, CyberTech Publishing, Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference), and Medical Information Science Reference imprints. Yours faithfully, Editors: E. Soria, J.D. Mart?n, R. Magdalena, M.Mart?nez, A.J. Serrano. IDAL, Intelligent Data Analysis Laboratory, http://idal.uv.es Electronic Engineering Department, ETSE, Valencia Spain. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Call for Chapters_final.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 87805 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080222/ab512e2d/CallforChapters_final-0001.pdf From franco at dii.unisi.it Fri Feb 22 16:21:11 2008 From: franco at dii.unisi.it (Franco Scarselli) Date: Fri Feb 22 16:48:19 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Special Session on "NEURAL NETWORKS IN IMAGE PROCESSING" at KES2008 Message-ID: <47BEE867.3040700@dii.unisi.it> ** Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement ** Special Session "NEURAL NETWORKS IN IMAGE PROCESSING" 12th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems Zagreb, Croatia 3, 4 and 5 September 2008 Call for papers Neural networks and, more generally, machine learning techniques can be widely applied to image processing and computer vision for preprocessing, feature extraction, segmentation, object tracking and recognition. The adopted machine learning tools include associative memories, kernel machines, neural networks, evolutionary computations, and statistical methods. Visual data are difficult to be dealt with, due to noise, such as light and colour changes, occlusion, and cluttered environments. The capability of machine learning techniques to incorporate imprecision and incomplete information, and to model very complex systems makes them a useful tool in image processing. The aim of this session is to provide an international forum for presentation of recent results and advances regarding soft computing methods in image processing. The scope of this session is, but not limited to: - Noise reduction in images - Image compression - Edge detection and segmentation - Feature extraction - Similarity learning in images - Image analysis and classification - Object localization and detection Paper submission Authors are encouraged to submit high quality, original work that has neither appeared in, nor is under consideration by, other conferences/journals. All submissions will be refereed by experts in the field based on originality, significance, and clarity. The conference preceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in Lecture Notes in AI as part of the LNCS/LNAI series. When formatting papers - that must be no more than eight (8) pages long, including figures and bibliography - please refer to the Springer-Verlag site and strictly follow the instructions for LNCS authors (http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html). Important Dates . Deadline for paper submission: March 10th 2008 . Notification of acceptance: April 10th 2008 . Camera-ready papers: May 1st 2008 Organized by: Chairs . Monica Bianchini, Marco Maggini, Franco Scarselli University of Siena, Italy Program Committee (To be completed) . Annamaria Colla - Elsag Datamat, Italy . Fabio Roli, University of Cagliari, Italy . Carlo Sansone - University of Naples "Federico II", Italy . Lorenzo Sarti, University of Siena, Italy . Joost van de Weijer, GRAVIR-INRIA, France . Ming-Hsuan Yang, Honda Research Institute, USA Other details are available at: http://www.dii.unisi.it/~monica/KES2008_SSNNIP/index.html From franco at dii.unisi.it Fri Feb 22 16:23:25 2008 From: franco at dii.unisi.it (Franco Scarselli) Date: Fri Feb 22 16:48:21 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Special Session on "ADVANCED NEURAL PROCESSING SYSTEMS" at KES2008 Message-ID: <47BEE8ED.4060803@dii.unisi.it> ** Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement ** Special Session "ADVANCED NEURAL PROCESSING SYSTEMS" 12th International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems Zagreb, Croatia 3, 4 and 5 September 2008 Call for papers The research in the neural network field has come to its maturity, both from the theoretical and the practical point of view. Nevertheless, some problems still remain unsolved, since classical connectionist models seem unable to cope with difficult applications, involving complex data. Recent studies on statistical pattern recognition and neural networks show possible directions to exploit structural information in problems which are inherently of topological nature. On the other hand, the actual trend for facing difficult applications is that of using hybrid approaches, integrating in a unique framework neural networks, kernel machines, and statistical techniques. This new scenario imposes studying new models, new learning algorithms, and assessing their properties both theoretically and experimentally. The scope of this session is, but not limited to: - Algorithms and Architectures: statistical learning algorithms, neural networks, kernel methods, dimensionality reduction and manifold learning, model selection. - Applications: innovative applications that use machine learning, including systems for time series prediction, bioinformatics, text/web analysis, multimedia processing, and robotics. - Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence: theoretical, computational, or experimental studies of perception, reasoning, problem solving, and natural language processing. - Control and Reinforcement Learning: planning, navigation, Markov decision processes, game-playing. - Learning Theory: generalization, regularization and model selection, new learning paradigms, spaces of functions and kernels, online learning and competitive analysis, hardness of learning and approximations, information theory. - Learning in Graphical Domains: neural network models for graphs, SVMs and kernel methods for graphs, probabilistic models for graphs, statistical relational learning, and pattern recognition applications involving graphical data. Paper submission Authors are encouraged to submit high quality, original work that has neither appeared in, nor is under consideration by, other conferences/journals. All submissions will be refereed by experts in the field based on originality, significance, and clarity. The conference preceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in Lecture Notes in AI as part of the LNCS/LNAI series. When formatting papers - that must be no more than eight (8) pages long, including figures and bibliography - please refer to the Springer-Verlag site and strictly follow the instructions for LNCS authors (http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html). Important Dates . Deadline for paper submission: March 10th 2008 . Notification of acceptance: April 10th 2008 . Camera-ready papers: May 1st 2008 Organized by: Chairs . Monica Bianchini, Marco Maggini, Franco Scarselli University of Siena, Italy Program Committee (To be completed) . Simone Fiori, Politechnic University of Marche, Italy . Barbara Hammer, Clausthal University of Technology, Germany . Alfredo Petrosino, University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy . Friedhelm Schwenker, University of Ulm, Germany . Peter Tino, The University of Birmingham, United Kingdom . Edmondo Trentin, University of Siena, Italy Other details are available at: http://www.dii.unisi.it/~monica/KES2008_SSANPS/index.html From Eugene.Izhikevich at nsi.edu Sat Feb 23 01:44:19 2008 From: Eugene.Izhikevich at nsi.edu (Eugene M. Izhikevich) Date: Sat Feb 23 09:52:56 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Large-scale brain model Message-ID: <47BF6C63.3030306@nsi.edu> A recent paper describes an ambitious large-scale brain model having multicompartmental spiking neurons, dendritic STDP, 6-layer cortical microcircuitry, and human brain anatomy (using DTI fibertracking). The paper is available at the PNAS site http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0712231105v1 or http://www.izhikevich.com which also shows a movie (158MB) of spiking activity of the model. -- Eugene M. Izhikevich, Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology PhD, Mathematics, http://www.nsi.edu/users/izhikevich The Neurosciences Institute, Editor-in-Chief@scholarpedia.org 10640 John J. Hopkins Drive tel:(858) 626-2063 San Diego, CA, 92121, USA fax:(858) 626-2099 From R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk Sat Feb 23 15:46:18 2008 From: R.Borisyuk at plymouth.ac.uk (Roman Borisyuk) Date: Sat Feb 23 15:57:05 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] From Neuron to Behaviour: MSc programme at University of Plymouth, UK Message-ID: <6CD19ED93A7A8F4593955A11621242C20658F68646@ILS133.uopnet.plymouth.ac.uk> >From Neuron to Behaviour: MSc programme on Neural Systems, Cognitive Neuroscience and Brain Function We are pleased to announce a new MSc programme Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at University of Plymouth, UK. The course is full time for 12 months, and starts in September 2008. This exciting multidisciplinary programme provides you with a comprehensive knowledge of principles and concepts of brain functioning. It covers anatomy and physiology of brain structures; mechanisms controlling dynamics of neural activity, state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques; the relation between neural activity and cognitive functions such as object and sound recognition, attention, memory; and many other intriguing topics related to understanding how the brain makes sense of the world and how it organises behaviour. The programme is unique in Europe in providing training within the quickly evolving cutting-edge discipline of Theoretical Neuroscience. It is especially suitable for students from the experimental sciences (psychology, biology and medicine). Students with engineering, computing, physics, mathematics and similar degrees wishing to broaden their horizons toward applications in the amazing field of brain modelling will find this programme very attractive. Programme highlights * You will participate in an interdisciplinary, new and unique programme studying fundamental principles of information processing in the brain * You will learn how incoming sensory signals become our perception, how we recognise images and sounds, form attention focus on the most important information, memorise events and their sequences, develop behavioural responses, control locomotion etc. * You will develop confidence and competence in the theoretical and practical dimensions of modelling in neuroscience, through taught modules, practical work, exercises and project development * You will become experienced in analysing experimental data of cognitive and neurophysiological experiments; new medical devices and methods to study the brain and treat neurological disorders; brain inspired algorithms and neuromorphic techniques of finding solutions to complex problems * You will be taught by recognised experts with worldwide links to research organisations and projects * You can take advantage of our partnership with centres of computational neuroscience in the UK, Europe, USA and Japan The programme is developed in the Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience (CTCN) ( http://www.research.plymouth.ac.uk/ctcn/ ). The CTCN is one of the leading centres in the field of theoretical neuroscience. The Centre has bought together a range of international experts from various backgrounds. This rich mix of computational, mathematical and neuroscience expertise provides a unique opportunity for students to acquire multidisciplinary training. The programme should provide an excellent training for those wishing to pursue an academic research career. In particular, it provides a broad multidisciplinary foundation for students wishing to undertake further research training at PhD level. Also the programme opens exciting perspectives for students wishing to work for the pharmaceutical and medical industries and apply their knowledge of new and exciting discoveries in brain research. For example, biomedical engineering requires experts in brain functioning to deal with developments of new drugs to treat mental and neurological diseases, develop prosthetic devices etc. This programme will be attractive for medical professionals wishing to continue their professional development. For more information and application see http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/taught/3068/MSc+Theoretical+and+Computational+Neuroscience Contact details Postgraduate Admissions Faculty of Science University of Plymouth Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AA United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1752 233093 E-mail: science@plymouth.ac.uk Roman Borisyuk, DSc, PhD Professor of Computational Neuroscience Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience University of Plymouth A224, Portland Sq Plymouth, PL4 8AA UK Phone: +44 (0) 1752 232619 Fax: +44 (0) 1752 233349 E-mail: RBorisyuk@plymouth.ac.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080223/ec1760c3/attachment-0001.html From jordi.vallverdu at uab.cat Sun Feb 24 10:48:16 2008 From: jordi.vallverdu at uab.cat (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jordi_Vallverd=FA?=) Date: Mon Feb 25 09:45:55 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] NEW Call for Chapters: Handbook of Research on Synthetic Emotions and Sociable Robotics: New Applications in Affective Computing and Artificial Intelligence Message-ID: <47C13D60.4040007@uab.cat> Call for Chapter Proposals Handbook of Research on Synthetic Emotions and Sociable Robotics: New Applications in Affective Computing and Artificial Intelligence Editors: J. Vallverd?, Ph.D. & D. Casacuberta, Ph.D. Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Proposal Submission Deadline: March 15, 2008 *Introduction:* Emotions are not only a basic part of rational processes, but are also a necessary and efficient way to establish a good communication and work atmosphere between humans and machines. Our attitudes towards machines are similar to our attitudes toward human beings, but, unlike humans, machines do not automatically give us emotional feedback. Therefore, the first attempts to embed emotions into machines were focused on creating machines which could simulate human emotional states. Today, a second wave of research is being developed as researchers try to create true synthetic emotions: artificial systems with emotional regulatory systems. In this book, we aim to cover several different ways to integrate emotions into artificial environments (computers and robotics), from robotics to artificial intelligence or ambient intelligence. This book will cover the efforts of the project to integrate emotions into artificial systems, as well as emotion simulations and synthetic emotion developments. Beyond the technical aspects of this research, we will include the philosophical thoughts of several specialists about the nature of synthetic emotions. We will also review how synthetic emotions can and are being used in art projects, will analyze how robots can become part of an intelligent installation, and will explore how algorithmic systems to produce artwork can benefit from an emotional implementation. *Coverage:* The */Handbook of Research on Synthetic Emotions and Sociable Robotics: New Applications in Affective Computing and Artificial Intelligence/* will be most helpful as it provides comprehensive coverage and definitions of the most important issues, concepts, trends and technologies in artificial emotions and related topics. This important new publication will be distributed worldwide among academic and professional institutions and will be instrumental in providing researchers, scholars, students and professionals related to the fields of AI, robotics, cognitive sciences, computer science, philosophy of computing, and electronic art access to the latest knowledge related to artificial emotions. Contributions to this important publication will be made by scholars throughout the world with notable research portfolios and expertise on AI, cognition, computer sciences, robotics or philosophy of science and computing. *Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:* - Emotions. - Affective Computing. - Sociable Robots. - Synthetic Emotions. - AI's Emotions. - Artificial Emotions. - Digital arts and emotions. - Art and AI. - Emotional interfaces. *Invited Submissions:* Individuals interested in submitting chapters (8,000-10,000 words) on the above-suggested topics or other related topics in their area of interest should submit via e-mail a 2-3 page manuscript proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of the proposed chapter by March 15, 2008. We strongly encourage other topics that have not been listed in our suggestions above, particularly if the topic is related to the research area in which you have expertise. Upon acceptance of your proposal (communication on March 20, 2008), you will have until May 20, 2008, to prepare your chapter of 8,000-10,000 words and 7-10 related terms and their appropriate definitions. Guidelines for preparing your paper and terms and definitions will be sent to you upon acceptance of your proposal. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. This book is tentatively scheduled for publishing by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), www.igi-global.com , publisher of the IGI Publishing (formerly Idea Group Publishing), Information Science Publishing, IRM Press, CyberTech Publishing, Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference), and Medical Information Science Reference imprints as part of the Information Science Reference imprint, http://www.idea-group-ref.com/ in 2010. Please forward your proposal including your name and affiliation to the editors: Jordi Vallverd? jordi.vallverdu@uab.cat David Casacuberta david.casacuberta@uab.cat -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080224/0200209f/attachment.html From Eugene.Izhikevich at nsi.edu Mon Feb 25 22:29:56 2008 From: Eugene.Izhikevich at nsi.edu (Eugene M. Izhikevich) Date: Tue Feb 26 09:39:28 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Scholarpedia: Results of election of authors Message-ID: <47C33354.6070705@nsi.edu> Scholarpedia - the free peer-reviewed encyclopedia - is conducting election of authors for certain articles with the goal to identify the best living expert to invite to write the articles. The results of recent election are: Miguel Nicolelis elected for "Brain-machine interface". Nancy Kopell elected for "Relaxation oscillator". John Lisman elected for "Synaptic plasticity". Stevan Harnad elected for "Turing test". Daniel Wolpert elected for "Motor control". John Searle elected for "Chinese room argument". All these experts have already agreed to write their corresponding articles. The lists of nominees (in the chronological order of nomination by the public) are provided below. ==Brain-machine interface== 1. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis* 2. Andrew B. Schwartz 3. John Donoghue 4. Richard Andersen ==Relaxation oscillator== 1. Nancy Kopell* 2. David Terman 3. Jonathan Rubin ==Synaptic plasticity== 1. Robert C. Malenka 2. John Lisman* 3. Niraj S. Desai 4. Tim Bliss ==Turing test== 1. Christof Teuscher 2. Raymond Kurzweil 3. James H. Moor 4. Stevan Harnad* ==Motor control== 1. Daniel Wolpert* 2. Mitsuo Kawato 3. Stefan Schaal 4. Reza Shadmehr 5. Emilio Bizzi 6. Ferdinando A. Mussa-Ivaldi 7. Michael S A Graziano ==Chinese room argument== 1. Dr. J.M.Bishop 2. John Searle* 3. Stevan Harnad Scholarpedia statistics is at http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Special:Statistics -- Eugene M. Izhikevich, Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology PhD, Mathematics, http://www.nsi.edu/users/izhikevich The Neurosciences Institute, Editor-in-Chief@scholarpedia.org 10640 John J. Hopkins Drive tel:(858) 626-2063 San Diego, CA, 92121, USA fax:(858) 626-2099 From cardoso at bcos.uni-freiburg.de Thu Feb 28 11:17:19 2008 From: cardoso at bcos.uni-freiburg.de (Simone Cardoso de Oliveira) Date: Thu Feb 28 11:27:38 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Announcement of an attractive grant for a computational neuroscience research group in Germany Message-ID: <47C68A2F.9090307@bcos.uni-freiburg.de> Dear computational neuroscientists, for the 3rd time, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) announced a call for 'Independent Junior Research Groups in Computational Neuroscience'. The call is posted under: http://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmbf.de/de/1834.php (unfortunately, in German only) In short, the grant allows the successful applicant to establish his/her own research group at a German University or Research Institution. The grant contains finances for the applicant's own position, further scientific and technical personnell, investments and running expenses for up to 5 years, with a total amount of up to 1,25 M?. Applicants must hold a PhD. Deadline for the first project sketch is June 2nd, 2008. Contact person is Dr. Loose: Phone: +49-(0)228 3821-200 Best regards, Simone Cardoso -- Dr. Simone Cardoso de Oliveira Bernstein Coordination Site of the National Network Computational Neuroscience Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg Hansastr. 9A 79104 Freiburg, Germany phone: +49-761-203-9583 fax: +49-761-203-9585 cardoso@bcos.uni-freiburg.de From sethu.vijayakumar at ed.ac.uk Thu Feb 28 14:54:53 2008 From: sethu.vijayakumar at ed.ac.uk (Sethu Vijayakumar) Date: Thu Feb 28 17:30:28 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CfP: 2008 ECSIS Symposium on Learning and Adaptive Behaviour in Robotic Systems, Edinburgh, Scotland (Aug 6-8, 2008) Message-ID: <47C6BD2D.2070800@ed.ac.uk> First call for papers ************************************************************************************ ECSIS Symposium on Learning and Adaptive Behavior in Robotic Systems (LAB-RS 2008) Edinburgh, Scotland Aug 6-8, 2008. (http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/labrs08 ) ************************************************************************************ Scope: Learning and adaptive behaviors are key to robotics system operation in real world environments. While there have been important developments at the theoretical level and in simulations or laboratory environments, the transfer of these methods onto real-world platforms has been limited. This symposium will bring together researchers from academia and industry to report on new concepts, laboratory demonstrations, and fielded robotic systems that exhibit learning and adaptive behaviors. The goal of the symposium is to roadmap future directions for development of robotic systems with capabilities comparable to those of biological systems. The Proceedings will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. This Symposium is being held in conjunction with the ECSIS Symposium on Bio-inspired Learning and Intelligent Systems for Security (BLISS-2008) to be held in Edinburgh on Aug 4-6, 2008. The schedule is: Deadline for abstracts/papers: March 31, 2008 Author notification: April 18, 2008 Camera ready: May 4, 2008 Author/Early registration: June 30, 2008 More details about suggested paper topics and the paper submission link which is now open can be found on the website for the Symposium: http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/labrs08 Symposium Chair: Terry Huntsberger (JPL, USA) Symposium Co-Chairs: Tughrul Arsian (Univ. Edinburgh, UK) and Sethu Vijayakumar (Univ. Edinburgh, UK) -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sethu Vijayakumar, Ph.D. Reader (Associate Professor) Director, IPAB, School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh 2107F JCMB, The Kings Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3J