From g.goodhill at uq.edu.au Sun Mar 2 07:33:31 2008 From: g.goodhill at uq.edu.au (Geoffrey Goodhill) Date: Mon Mar 3 09:52:36 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Network issue 19.1 Message-ID: Issue 19.1 (March 2008) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=g790932537~db=all Editorial Geoffrey Goodhill Daniel Amit (1938-2007) Nicolas Brunel Book Review: Dynamical systems in neuroscience: The geometry of excitability and bursting, by Eugene M. Izhikevich Bard Ermentrout Inferring the capacity of the vector Poisson channel with a Bernoulli model Don H. Johnson and Ilan N. Goodman Inferring input nonlinearities in neural encoding models Misha B. Ahrens, Liam Paninski and Maneesh Sahani (FREE ACCESS until March 16th 2008) Information measure for analyzing specific spiking patterns and applications to LGN bursts Kate S. Gaudry and Pamela Reinagel ------- Geoff Goodhill Editor-in-Chief, Network: Computation in Neural Systems http://www.gbhap.com/journals/titles/0954898X.asp From ted.carnevale at yale.edu Mon Mar 3 21:26:09 2008 From: ted.carnevale at yale.edu (Ted Carnevale) Date: Tue Mar 4 10:56:34 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] NEURON 2008 Summer Course Message-ID: <47CC5EE1.5060402@yale.edu> COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT What: "The NEURON Simulation Environment" (NEURON 2008 Summer Course) http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/nscsd2008/nscsd2008.html When: Saturday, June 21, through Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Where: The Institute for Neural Computation at the University of California, San Diego, CA Organizers: N.T. Carnevale and M.L. Hines Description: This intensive hands-on course covers the design, construction, and use of models in the NEURON simulation environment. It is intended primarily for those who are concerned with models of biological neurons and neural networks that are closely linked to empirical observations, e.g. experimentalists who wish to incorporate modeling in their research plans, and theoreticians who are interested in the principles of biological computation. The course is designed to be useful and informative for registrants at all levels of experience, from those who are just beginning to those who are already quite familiar with NEURON or other simulation tools. Registration is limited to 20, and the deadline for receipt of applications is Monday, June 2, 2008. For more information see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/nscsd2008/nscsd2008.html or contact Ted Carnevale Neurobiology Dept. Yale University School of Medicine PO Box 208001 New Haven, CT 06520-8001. phone 203-494-7381 email ted.carnevale@yale.edu Supported in part by: National Institutes of Health Institute for Neural Computation http://inc.ucsd.edu/ Contractual terms require inclusion of the following statement: This course is not sponsored by the University of California. From ps629 at columbia.edu Tue Mar 4 14:27:12 2008 From: ps629 at columbia.edu (Paul Sajda) Date: Tue Mar 4 14:47:13 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Cortically-coupled Computer Vision Message-ID: <718CFE84-BD2C-4792-80BD-308879A8D45F@columbia.edu> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: liinc_pos.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2957 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080304/865313e8/liinc_pos.jpg -------------- next part -------------- Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Cortically-coupled Computer Vision Columbia University, Department of Biomedical Engineering The Laboratory for Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing (LIINC) at Columbia University has an immediate opening for a Postdoctoral Fellow to participate in our research program in "Cortically-coupled Computer Vision (C3Vision)". The C3Vision program looks to synergistically couple biological and computer vision systems using a combination of brain machine interfaces, machine learning and pattern classification, and image understanding within the context of understanding the advantages and limits of both biological and computer vision. Applicants should have a background in one, and preferably several, of the following: machine vision (especially content based indexing and automated image labeling), machine learning, neural signal processing, neuroimaging (EEG and/or fMRI), real-time systems design and programming. LIINC is in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University and interacts closely with other departments at Columbia, Including Electrical Engineering, Biological Sciences, Computer Science and Neuroscience. In addition, the C3Vision project includes collaborators at other academic institutions as well as in industry, and the project involves both basic and applied research which will ultimately lead to testable systems. Interested candidates should send via email their CV, three representative papers, the names of three references, and cover letter to Prof. Paul Sajda (ps629@columbia.edu). Applications will be considered until April 2008. The position is for one year, with the option to renew for an additional year, given satisfactory performance and available funding. Paul Sajda, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Biomedical Engineering Columbia University 351 Engineering Terrace Building, Mail Code 8904 1210 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10027 tel: (212) 854-5279 fax: (212) 854-8725 email: ps629@columbia.edu http://liinc.bme.columbia.edu From steve at cns.bu.edu Wed Mar 5 18:59:12 2008 From: steve at cns.bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Thu Mar 6 09:33:29 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] temporal dynamics of decision-making during motion perception in the visual cortex Message-ID: The following article is now available at http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossberg : Grossberg, S. and Pilly, P. Temporal dynamics of decision-making during motion perception in the visual cortex. Vision Research, in press. ABSTRACT How does the brain make decisions? Speed and accuracy of perceptual decisions covary with certainty in the input, and correlate with the rate of evidence accumulation in parietal and frontal cortical "decision neurons." A biophysically realistic model of interactions within and between Retina/LGN and cortical areas V1, MT, MST, and LIP, gated by basal ganglia, simulates dynamic properties of decision-making in response to ambiguous visual motion stimuli used by Newsome, Shadlen, and colleagues in their neurophysiological experiments. The model clarifies how brain circuits that solve the aperture problem interact with a recurrent competitive network with self-normalizing choice properties to carry out probabilistic decisions in real time. Some scientists claim that perception and decision-making can be described using Bayesian inference or related general statistical ideas, that estimate the optimal interpretation of the stimulus given priors and likelihoods. However, such concepts do not propose the neocortical mechanisms that enable perception, and make decisions. The present model explains behavioral and neurophysiological decision-making data without an appeal to Bayesian concepts and, unlike other existing models of these data, generates perceptual representations and choice dynamics in response to the experimental visual stimuli. Quantitative model simulations include the time course of LIP neuronal dynamics, as well as behavioral accuracy and reaction time properties, during both correct and error trials at different levels of input ambiguity in both fixed duration and reaction time tasks. Model MT/MST interactions compute the global direction of random dot motion stimuli, while model LIP computes the stochastic perceptual decision that leads to a saccadic eye movement. Key words: motion perception; direction discrimination; decision-making; visual cortex; aperture problem; noise-saturation dilemma; recurrent competitive field; Bayesian inference; MT; MST; LIP From pz at hms.harvard.edu Thu Mar 6 03:36:04 2008 From: pz at hms.harvard.edu (Dr. J. S. Pezaris) Date: Thu Mar 6 09:33:32 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] AREADNE 2008 Second Call for Abstracts Message-ID: <200803060236.m262a4N8011111@pezaris-desktop.mgh.harvard.edu> CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT and SECOND CALL FOR ABSTRACTS AREADNE 2008 Research in Encoding and Decoding of Neural Ensembles June 26 - 29, 2008 Nomikos Conference Center Santorini, Greece http://www.areadne.org info@areadne.org ******** NEWS: Abstract deadline extended to 14 MARCH 2008 ******** INTRODUCTION One of the fundamental problems in neuroscience today is to understand how the activation of large populations of neurons give rise to higher order functions of the brain including learning, memory, cognition, perception, action and ultimately conscious awareness. Electrophysiological recordings in behaving animals over the past forty years have revealed considerable information about what the firing patterns of single neurons encode in isolation, but it remains largely a mystery how collections of neurons interact to perform these functions. Recent technological advances have for the first time provided a glimpse into the global functioning of the brain. These technologies include functional magnetic resonance imaging, optical imaging methods including intrinsic, voltage-sensitive dye, and two-photon imaging, high-density electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography, and multi-microelectrode array electrophysiology. These technologies have expanded our knowledge of brain functioning beyond the single neuron level. At the same time, our understanding of how neuronal ensembles carry information has allowed the development of brain-machine interfaces (BMI) to enhance the capabilities of patients with sensory and motor deficits. Knowledge of how neuronal ensembles encode sensory stimuli has made it possible to develop perceptual BMIs for the hearing and visually impaired. Likewise, research in how neuronal ensembles decode motor intentions has resulted in motor BMIs by which people with severe motor disabilities can control external devices. CONFERENCE MISSION First and foremost, this conference is intended to bring scientific leaders from around the world to present their recent findings on the functioning of neuronal ensembles. Second, the meeting will provide an informal yet spectacular setting on Santorini in which attendees can discuss and share ideas outside of the presentations at the conference center. Third, this conference continues our long term project to form a systems neuroscience research institute within Greece to conduct state-of-the-art research, offer meetings and courses, and provide a center for visiting scientists from around the world to interact with Greek researchers and students. FORMAT AND SPEAKERS The conference will span four days, in morning and early evening sessions. Confirmed speakers include experts in the field of multi-neuron experiment and analysis (in alphabetic order): Larry Abbott, John Dani, John Donoghue, Jennifer Groh, Naoum Issa, Nancy Kopell, George Kostopoulos, Gilles Laurent, Nikos Logothetis, Lee Miller, Jason MacLean, Eve Marder, Tony Movshon, Bill Newsome, Catherine Ojakangas, Tatiana Pasternak, Desmond Patterson, Yiota Poirazi, Alex Pouget, Erin Schuman, Thanos Siapas, Krishna Shenoy, Murray Sherman, and Sara Solla. CALL FOR ABSTRACTS We are currently soliciting abstracts for poster presentation. Submissions will be accepted electronically, and must be received by March 14, 2008. Automated email acknowledgment of submission will be provided, and manual verification will be made a few days after submission. Notification of acceptance will be provided by April 3, 2008. Please see our on-line Call for Abstracts at http://areadne.org/call-for-abstracts.html for additional details. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE John Pezaris, Co-Chair Nicho Hatsopoulos, Co-Chair Dora Angelaki Catherine Ojakangas Thanos Siapas Andreas Tolias SPONSORS The AREADNE 2008 Conference is being sponsored by the Center for Integrative Neuroscience and Neuroengineering Research, University of Chicago and Illinois Institute of Technology. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION For further information please see the conference web site http://www.areadne.org or send email to info@areadne.org. -- Dr. J. S. Pezaris Massachusetts General Hospital 55 Fruit Street Boston, MA 02114, USA john@areadne.org From arjen.van.ooyen at falw.vu.nl Thu Mar 6 10:48:51 2008 From: arjen.van.ooyen at falw.vu.nl (Arjen van Ooyen) Date: Thu Mar 6 11:15:14 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Positions in Computational Neuroscience at CNCR, Amsterdam Message-ID: <47CFBE03.5010201@falw.vu.nl> Applications are invited for two research positions in the Neuroinformatics Group of the Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research (CNCR), VU University Amsterdam. The positions are funded by a EU-FP7 grant for the Collaborative Large-scale Integrating Project Self-Constructing Computing Systems (SECO). Using a combined computational and experimental approach, the SECO project investigates the principles by which populations of real or artificial neurons can grow and assemble themselves into functioning circuits. The first 4-year project, for a postdoctoral researcher, is on the development of dendritic and axonal growth models. The aim is to create models for neuronal morphogenesis in which cells develop through growth cone migration and branching, and formation of synaptic connections in interaction with their environment. A major challenge is to find a balanced level of description of neuronal outgrowth based on local mechanisms and interactions in space and time that will be suitable for an algorithmic implementation. The models will be used to study the development of cortical and thalamic circuitry. The ideal candidate should combine a strong neurobiological interest and knowledge with a solid background in neuro-biophysics and extensive experience in computational modeling and computer programming. The second 4 (or 3)-year project, for a PhD student (or postdoctoral researcher), focuses on the reciprocal interactions between neuronal network structure and activity dynamics in developing neural circuits. Using computational models, we will explore the impact of activity-dependent plasticity rules on the evolution of developing neuronal networks under their own (spontaneous) firing activity. The research will be guided by the hypothesis that networks will evolve towards self-consistent states, in which firing patterns stabilizes the synaptic connectivity structure that also gives rise to these firing patterns. The ideal candidate should combine a strong neurobiological interest and knowledge with an excellent background in computational neuroscience and neuronal network research. Candidates of both projects will contribute significantly to the collaborative effort of the SECO consortium. For further information about these positions, please contact Dr. Arjen van Ooyen, arjen.van.ooyen@cncr.vu.nl, or Dr. Jaap van Pelt, jaap.van.pelt@cncr.vu.nl. Application letters including a CV, research experience, a short statement of research interests, and contact details of two referees should be sent by email to Dr. Arjen van Ooyen before the 1st of April 2008. -- Dr. Arjen van Ooyen Neuroinformatics Group Department of Experimental Neurophysiology Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research VU University Amsterdam De Boelelaan 1085 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands E-mail: arjen.van.ooyen@cncr.vu.nl Phone: +31.20.5987090 Fax: +31.20.5987112 Room: B-451 Web: http://www.bio.vu.nl/enf/vanooyen From p.juszczak at imperial.ac.uk Thu Mar 6 16:02:29 2008 From: p.juszczak at imperial.ac.uk (Juszczak, Piotr) Date: Thu Mar 6 17:27:59 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Ph.D. Vacancies in Pattern Recognition at Delft University of Technology Message-ID: <8CEECA6FD6736340AB8B3EB87769E09E01596333@icex1.ic.ac.uk> On behalf of prof. Marco Loog and prof. Rober P.W. Duin. Please contact them for details of the post. --------------------------------------------------------------------- At this moment we have three possibilities for a new PhD project : - Similarity Based Pattern Analysis - Multi-feature Image Analysis - Learning in Multi-Scale Image Analysis All projects are fundamental in the sense that there is no main application involved. All of them, however, fit in other, sometimes more applied projects we are currently participating in. A description is available at http://ict.ewi.tudelft.nl/~duin/PR_PhD_projects_TUDelft.pdf . The projects will be supervised by Dr. Robert P.W. Duin and / or Dr. Marco Loog. Promoter will be Prof.Dr. M.J.T. Reinders. For reactions and information (before April 1, 2008) : M.Loog at TUDelft.nl -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080306/c9daa405/attachment.html From acompte at clinic.ub.es Thu Mar 6 18:20:29 2008 From: acompte at clinic.ub.es (Albert Compte) Date: Fri Mar 7 10:23:39 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] POSTDOCTORAL POSITION in THEORETICAL NEUROBIOLOGY in BARCELONA Message-ID: <1204824029.6795.34.camel@laptop> POSTDOCTORAL POSITION AVAILABLE IN THEORETICAL NEUROSCIENCE with Albert Compte, Laboratory for Theoretical Neurobiology of Cortical Circuits, IDIBAPS (Institute for Biomedical Research "August Pi i Sunyer", Barcelona, Spain): http://complab.fcrb.es In the laboratory, we focus our research on the exploration of the mechanisms that operate in the cerebral cortex during perceptual and cognitive processes, using computer and mathematical modelling. Projects cover a range of topics in dynamics of neural networks, and involve close interactions with collaborating experimental laboratories (neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, neuroimaging). The IDIBAPS is the largest biomedical research institute in Spain, and the presence of our lab represents a unique opportunity to bring closer computational approaches to clinical experimental problems. You can find a description of our research and publications in our webpage http://complab.fcrb.es We are currently seeking applicants for a project on the modeling of cognitive function (attention, working memory,...) and dysfunction (schizophrenia,...) with biophysically detailed multiple-area models. The project will involve psychophysical experimentation and, depending on candidate qualifications, fMRI experiments. The project involves close interaction with neuroimaging, neurophysiology and neuropharmacology labs. Candidates should have good analytical mathematical skills (Physics or similar) and simulation experience. Familiarity with neuroscience and neurophysiology is also highly valued. Neuroscientists are also welcome to apply if they have some experience in computer coding. The initial appointment is for 20 months, during which further competitive funding should be secured for further extensions. Salary is around 26.000 euros annually. Send your CV and a statement of goals to -- Albert Compte, PhD Theoretical Cortical Neurobiology Group IDIBAPS C/ Villarroel 170 08036 Barcelona Spain Telf. +34 93 227 5400 (ext. 4151) E-mail: acompte@clinic.ub.es Webpage: http://complab.fcrb.es From nurban at cmu.edu Thu Mar 6 23:08:12 2008 From: nurban at cmu.edu (Nathan Urban) Date: Fri Mar 7 10:23:41 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Summer Undergrad Research in Computational Neuroscience in Pittsburgh Message-ID: <021601c87fd6$91fac9c0$b5f05d40$@edu> The Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint center of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh would like to announce a summer research program for undergraduates interested in computational neuroscience. Details and application information are available at: http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/OtherTrain/pnc_summerprogram.shtml We are especially interested in attracting students with quantitative backgrounds even if they have little formal coursework in neuroscience. The program will run for ten weeks and allows students to work with a wide array of faculty at these two institutions http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/People/guide.php. Stipend, travel funds and housing will be provided. For more information, contact Nathan Urban. ____________________________________________ Nathan Urban, Ph.D. nurban@cmu.edu Associate Professor Department of Biological Sciences and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Carnegie Mellon University 4400 Fifth Ave Pittsburgh PA 15213 ph. 412-268-5122 fax 412-268-8423 http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/nurban/Lab_pages/ From lauferl at ceu.hu Fri Mar 7 00:36:24 2008 From: lauferl at ceu.hu (Laszlo Laufer) Date: Fri Mar 7 10:23:44 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Deadline extension: March 21st, Complex Systems and Social Simulations Summer School, CEU Message-ID: <47D08E080200009D0000AEBC@raffaello.ceu.hu> ******************************************************* Extended Deadline: March 21st - New scholarships - New sponsors ******************************************************* Complex Systems and Social Simulations Summer Course Central European University July 7 - 18, 2008, Budapest, Hungary ******************************************************* Web site: http:// www.sun.ceu.hu/complex-systems/ ******************************************************* - New scholarsihps available covering: Tuition fee Housing Travel allowance (only for a limited number of students) - Application deadline for scholarship applications: March 21st, 2008 - New sponsors: European Social Simulation Association http://www.essa.eu.org/ Wolfram Research http://www.wolfram.com/ Collegium Budapest http://colbud.hu/ Aitia International http://www.aitia.ai - Topics: CSS and Innovation, Social Networks, CSS in Political Science, CSS Tools with a Special Emphasis on Simulation, Bio-Inspired CSS Models, Efficient Studies of CSS: Supercomputers and Grids, Evolutionary Game Theory and Social Systems, CSS in Socio-Economics, CSS in Sociology - Course Directors: Laszlo Gulyas, Collegium Budapest and AITIA Inc., Budapest, Hungary; Gyorgy Kampis, Collegium Budapest and E?tv?s University, Hungary - Course Managers: Laszlo Laufer, Central European University and Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary (lauferl@ceu.hu) Gyorgy Farkas, Eotvos University of Sciences, Hungary (gyfarkas@inf.elte.hu) - Course Faculty: Petra Ahrweiler, National Institute of Technology Management, UCD School of Business Stefano Battiston, Eidgen?ssische Technische Hochschule Z?rich Lars-Erik Cederman, ETH Z?rich Laszlo Gulyas, Collegium Budapest and AITIA Inc, Budapest George Kampis, Collegium Budapest Krzystof Kurowski, Poznanskie Centrum Superkomputerowo Sieciowe, Poznan Scott Page, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Flaminio Squazzoni, University of Brescia, Italy Klaus G. Troitzsch, University of Koblenz - Target group: MA and Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, researchers and professionals. Undergraduates without a university degree will not be considered. - Course Summary: The terms Complex Systems (CSs) denotes an inderdisciplinary research methodology currently successful in the social sciences and elsewhere. CS research originated from phyiscs and nonlinear systems some decades ago but its models have soon permeated distant fields as economy, political science or more recently sociology. As implied by the name, a CS is essentially a system of many complicated interactions. Complex Systems methodology has developed sophisticated yet well understood tools to cope with this challenge. In social systems the essence of CS is the characterization of the distributed dynamics of how the interaction of many actors and variables leads to predictable phenomena, that often involve hierarchy, emergence, dynamic structures and large scale transitions. Each day in the course focuses on one tool of this encompassing methodology. CS methods include various mathematical models (nonlinear systems, networks, statistical approaches), computer simulations (e.g. systems dynamics, agent-based modeling). CS simulations are highly computation intensive and pose problems of supercomputing and parallelization. The CSSS course offers lectures, tutorials and discussions on the whole spectrum of the above. Lectures are from leading experts, specifically focusing on CS concepts, modeling and (social) simulation, followed by discussion. - The language of instruction: English - Tuition fee: The 500 EUR/2 weeks. - Application deadline: For scholarship applicants: March 21, 2008; For fee-paying applicants: May 30, 2008 Online application: https://online.ceu.hu/osun/osun (attachments to be sent via email to summeru@ceu.hu For further information queries can be directed to the SUN offic From gustavo.deco at upf.edu Fri Mar 7 14:21:52 2008 From: gustavo.deco at upf.edu (Gustavo Deco) Date: Fri Mar 7 15:38:56 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] (no subject) Message-ID: <200803071421.53018.gustavo.deco@upf.edu> Please diseminate: PhD position Computational Neuroscience Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona spain (cns.upf.edu) Applications are invited for a PhD position in the field of Theoretical Neuroscience. The successful applicant will join a thriving research environment to study human perception, action production and cognitive neuroscience. The appointed researcher will work as part of a training network that brings together leading researchers in industry and academia from across Europe (France, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK). This offers exciting opportunities for advanced training, collaboration with international centres of excellence, travel, interdisciplinary exchange and industrial secondments. More information about the network can be found here: www.optimaldecisions.org The successful candidate will be based in the Computational Neuroscience Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Candidates should hold (or expect) a good undergraduate degree ?or Masters degree in a relevant discipline (e.g. ?Neuroscience, Bioengineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or Physics). Candidates should be numerate and comfortable learning computer programming. Above all, candidates should be enthusiastic to learn new techniques and to contribute to new experiments. Salaries will be paid at rates set by the European Commission. Applications are welcome from overseas students as well as EU nationals. Positions start on 1st October 2008. Informal enquiries and requests for further details should be addressed to Gustavo Deco: gustavo.deco@upf.edu To apply you will need to send the following by 31st March 2008: (1) A copy of your CV (2) A sample of some recent written work (1000 words or so) (3) A couple of paragraphs outlining: Your research interests What you are looking for in a PhD position Why you would like to study in Barcelona and be part of the CODDE network Your longer term career goals (4) A completed equal opportunities questionnaire (attached) In line with current EC policy, we particularly encourage applicants from women. All applicants will be accorded equal opportunities irrespective of ethnicity or gender. -- Prof. Dr. Gustavo Deco Computational Neuroscience Departament of Technology Universitat Pompeu Fabra Passeig de Circumval?laci?, 8 E-08003 Barcelona, Spain +34 93 542 2977 (voice) +34 93 542 2451 (fax) http://cns.upf.edu/ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Codde_Equal Opportunities.doc Type: application/msword Size: 53248 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080307/9b9c62c4/Codde_EqualOpportunities-0001.doc From steve at cns.bu.edu Sat Mar 8 03:07:44 2008 From: steve at cns.bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Sat Mar 8 09:35:43 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] A Neural System for Natural Scene Classification Message-ID: The following article is now available at http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossberg : Grossberg, S. and Huang, T.-R. ARTSCENE: A Neural System for Natural Scene Classification. Journal of Vision, in press. ABSTRACT How do humans rapidly recognize a scene? How can neural models capture this biological competence to achieve state-of-the-art scene classification? The ARTSCENE neural system classifies natural scene photographs by using multiple spatial scales to efficiently accumulate evidence for gist and texture. ARTSCENE embodies a coarse-to-fine Texture Size Ranking Principle whereby spatial attention processes multiple scales of scenic information, from global gist to local textures, to learn and recognize scenic properties. The model can incrementally learn and rapidly predict scene identity by gist information alone, and then accumulate learned evidence from scenic textures to refine this hypothesis. The model shows how texture-fitting allocations of spatial attention, called attentional shrouds, can facilitate scene recognition, particularly when they include a border of adjacent textures. Using grid gist plus three shroud textures on a benchmark photograph dataset, ARTSCENE discriminates 4 landscape scene categories (coast, forest, mountain, and countryside) with up to 91.85% correct on a test set, outperforms alternative models in the literature which use biologically implausible computations, and outperforms component systems that use either gist or texture information alone. KEYWORDS: scene classification; gist; texture; spatial attention; coarse-to-fine processing; attentional shroud; multiple-scale processing; ARTMAP From nips2008publicity at gmail.com Sun Mar 9 23:51:56 2008 From: nips2008publicity at gmail.com (Antonio Torralba) Date: Mon Mar 10 08:45:54 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] NIPS'2008 preliminary call for papers Message-ID: NIPS*2008 PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PAPERS Deadline for Paper Submissions: June 6, 2008, 23:59 Universal Standard Time (4:59pm Pacific Daylight Time). Submissions are solicited for the Twenty Second Annual meeting of an interdisciplinary Conference (December 8-11) that brings together researchers interested in all aspects of neural and statistical processing and computation. The Conference will include invited talks as well as oral and poster presentations of refereed papers. It is single track and highly selective. Preceding the main Conference will be one day of Tutorial (December 7), and following will be two days of Workshops at Whistler/Blackcomb ski resort (December 12-13). Submissions: Papers are solicited in all areas of neural information processing and statistical learning, including (but not limited to): * Algorithms and Architectures: statistical learning algorithms, neural networks, kernel methods, graphical models, Gaussian processes, dimensionality reduction and manifold learning, model selection, combinatorial optimization, relational learning. * Applications: innovative applications or fielded systems that use machine learning, including systems for time series prediction, bioinformatics, text/web analysis, multimedia processing, and robotics. * Brain Imaging: neuroimaging, cognitive neuroscience, EEG (electroencephalogram), ERP (event related potentials), MEG (magnetoencephalogram), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), brain mapping, brain segmentation, brain computer interfaces. * Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence: theoretical, computational, or experimental studies of perception, psychophysics, human or animal learning, memory, reasoning, problem solving, natural language processing, and neuropsychology. * Control and Reinforcement Learning: decision and control, exploration, planning, navigation, Markov decision processes, game-playing, multi-agent coordination, computational models of classical and operant conditioning. * Hardware Technologies: analog and digital VLSI, neuromorphic engineering, computational sensors and actuators, microrobotics, bioMEMS, neural prostheses, photonics, molecular and quantum computing. * Learning Theory: generalization, regularization and model selection, Bayesian learning, spaces of functions and kernels, statistical physics of learning, online learning and competitive analysis, hardness of learning and approximations, large deviations and asymptotic analysis, information theory. * Neuroscience: theoretical and experimental studies of processing and transmission of information in biological neurons and networks, including spike train generation, synaptic modulation, plasticity and adaptation. * Speech and Signal Processing: recognition, coding, synthesis, denoising, segmentation, source separation, auditory perception, psychoacoustics, dynamical systems, recurrent networks, Language Models, Dynamic and Temporal models. * Visual Processing: biological and machine vision, image processing and coding, segmentation, object detection and recognition, motion detection and tracking, visual psychophysics, visual scene analysis and interpretation. Evaluation Criteria: Submissions will be refereed on the basis of technical quality, novelty, potential impact, and clarity. Papers that balance new algorithmic contributions with a more applied focus are particularly encouraged. These include papers that contain a substantial evaluation on real-world problems, or papers that combine results on novel applications with analysis of their relevance from a machine learning perspective. We would also like to encourage submissions by authors who are new to NIPS. Submission Instructions: all submissions will be made electronically at http://nips2008.confmaster.net. Submissions must be in PDF format. As in previous years, reviewing will be double-blind: the reviewers will not know the identities of the authors. Papers will be limited to 8 pages, including figures and references, in the NIPS style. Complete submission and formatting instructions, including style files, can be found at the NIPS website: http://nips.cc. Electronic submissions will be accepted until midnight June 6, 2008, Universal Standard Time (5pm Pacific Daylight Time). There will be an opportunity after the meeting to revise accepted manuscripts. Demonstrations: There is a separate Demonstration track at NIPS. Authors wishing to submit to the Demonstration track should consult the Call for Demonstrations (coming soon). Workshops: The workshops will be held at Whistler/Blackcomb ski resort from December 12-13. The upcoming workshop proposal will provide details. Program Committee: Jean-Yves Audibert (Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chauss?es) Francis Bach (INRIA - Ecole Normale Sup?rieure) Yoshua Bengio (Universit? de Montr?al) [Co-Chair] Kristin Bennett (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) Michael Bowling (University of Alberta) Aaron Courville (Universit? de Montr?al) Koby Crammer (University of Pennsylvania) Sanjoy Dasgupta (University of California, San Diego) Nathaniel Daw (New York University) Eleazar Eskin (Univerisity of California, Los Angeles) David Fleet (University of Toronto) Paolo Frasconi (Universit? di Firenze) Arthur Gretton (Max Planck Institute) Tony Jebara (Columbia University) Chris Manning (Stanford University) Ron Meir (Technion) Noboru Murata (Waseda University) Erkki Oja (Helsinki University of Technology) Doina Precup (McGill University) Stefan Schaal (University of Southern California) Dale Schuurmans (University of Alberta) [Co-Chair] Fei Sha (Yahoo! Research) Alan Stocker (New York University) Ingo Steinwart (Los Alamos National Laboratory) Erik Sudderth (University of California, Berkeley) Yee-Whye Teh (University College London) Antonio Torralba (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Larry Wasserman (Carnegie Mellon University) Max Welling (University of California, Irvine) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080309/aea6c482/attachment.html From dancoisne at bccn.uni-freiburg.de Mon Mar 10 15:40:31 2008 From: dancoisne at bccn.uni-freiburg.de (Florence Dancoisne) Date: Mon Mar 10 16:20:53 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] 13th Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience - final announcement Message-ID: <47D5485F.6000706@bccn.uni-freiburg.de> 13th ADVANCED COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE (A Bernstein/Gatsby Neuroscience School) Final Announcement August 4th - 29th, 2008 Freiburg, Germany DIRECTORS: * Israel Nelken (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) * Nicolas Brunel (CNRS Paris) * John Rinzel (NYU, New York, USA) * Peter Latham (University College London, UK) LOCAL ORGANIZER: * Florence Dancoisne (Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Freiburg) After three years in Arcachon (France), the Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience will be held in Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany) this year for its 13th edition, and until 2010. The Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience is for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are interested in learning the essentials of the field. The course has two complementary parts. Mornings are devoted to lectures given by distinguished international faculty on topics across the breadth of experimental and computational neuroscience. During the rest of the day, students are given practical training in the art and practice of neural modelling, by pursuing a project of their choosing under the close supervision of expert tutors. The first week of the course introduces students to essential neurobiological concepts and to the most important techniques in modelling single cells, networks and neural systems. Students learn how to solve their research problems using software packages such as MATLAB, NEST, NEURON, XPP, etc. During the following three weeks the lectures cover specific brain areas and functions. Topics range from modelling single cells and subcellular processes through the simulation of simple circuits, large neuronal networks and system level models of the brain. The course ends with project presentations by the students. The course is designed for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from a variety of disciplines, including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics and psychology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology as well as some computer experience. Students of any nationality can apply. A maximum of 30 students will be accepted. The fee for the course will be EUR 500; this will cover tuition, lodging, breakfast and dinner. There will be a limited number of course fee scholarships, and travel stipends available for students who need financial help for attending the course. We specifically encourage applications from researchers who work in the developing world. These students will be selected according to the normal submission procedure. Applications, including a description of the target project must be submitted electronically (see below) and will need to be accompanied by the names and email details of two referees who have agreed to furnish references. Applicants will need to ensure that their referees have submitted their references. Applications will be assessed by a committee, with selection being based on the following criteria: the scientific quality of the candidate (CV) and of the project, the recommendation letters, and evidence that the course will afford substantial benefit to the candidate. Please apply electronically using a web browser. More information and access to the application database: http://www.neuroinf.org/courses/EUCOURSE/F08/index.shtml Contact address: * Fiona Siegfried Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Freiburg Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg Hansastrasse 9A 79104 Freiburg Germany * mail: siegfried@bccn.uni-freiburg.de Application deadline: March 28th, 2008 Deadline for letters of recommendation: March 28th, 2008 Notification of results: April 25th, 2008 confirmed FACULTY: Ad Aertsen, U. Freiburg, Germany Amos Arieli, Weizmann Institute, Israel Jeff Beck, U. of Rochester, USA Nathaniel Daw, NYU, USA Erik De Schutter, OIST, Japan Alain Destexhe, CNRS Gif, France Wulfram Gerstner, EFPL, Switzerland Marc-Oliver Gewaltig, Honda, Germany Zhaoping Li, UCL, UK David Hansel, CNRS Paris, France Yael Niv, Princeton, USA Stefano Panzeri, U. of Manchester, UK Jonathan Pillow, UCL, UK Yifat Prut, Hebrew U. Israel Yasser Roudi, UCL, UK Idan Segev, Hebrew U., Israel Alex Thomson, UL, UK Mark Van Rossum, U. of Edinburgh, UK confirmed TUTORS Janet Best, Ohio State, USA Hermann Cuntz, UCL, UK Moritz Helias, U. Freiburg, Germany Alex Lerchner, UCL, UK Tim Vogels, Columbia, USA SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR Bernd Wiebelt, U. Freiburg, Germany -- Florence Dancoisne Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Freiburg Administrative Coordinator Hansastr. 9A D-79104 Freiburg http://www.bccn.uni-freiburg.de phone: + 49 761 203 9314 fax: + 49 761 203 9559 From hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de Mon Mar 10 15:25:03 2008 From: hitzler at aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de (Pascal Hitzler) Date: Mon Mar 10 16:20:55 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CfP Journal Special Issue on Recurrent Neural Networks Message-ID: <47D544BF.1040005@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de> Call for Papers: Journal Special Issue on == Perspectives and Challenges for Recurrent Neural Networks == Guest Editors: Marco Gori, Barbara Hammer, Pascal Hitzler, Guenther Palm Special issue of the Elsevier Journal of Algorithms in Cognition, Informatics and Logic http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622851/description = SCOPE = Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) enable flexible machine learning tools which can directly process spatiotemporal and other structured data and which offer a rich dynamic repertoire as time dependent systems. They promise to be efficient signal-processing models which are biologically plausible and optimally suited for a wide range of industrial applications on the one hand, and an explanation of cognitive phenomena of the human brain on the other hand. Despite these facts, however, the design of efficient training methods for RNNs as well as their mathematical investigation with respect to reliable information representation and generalization abilities when dealing with complex data structures is still a challenge. It has led to diverse approaches and architectures including echo and liquid-state-machines, long short term memory, recursive and graph networks, core neuro-symbolic integration, etc. Interestingly, very heterogeneous domains are included, such as logic, chaotic systems, and biological networks. The aim of the special issue is to bring together recent work developed in the field of recurrent information processing, which bridges the gap between different approaches and which sheds some light on canonical solutions or principled problems which occur in the context of recursive information processing when considered across the disciplines. = TOPICS = We particularly encourage submissions connected to the following non-exhaustive list of topics: - new learning paradigms of RNNs such as unsupervised learning or reservoire learning - biologically plausible methods - integration of RNNs and symbolic reasoning - universal approaches for general data structures such as sets or graphs - methods which address the generalization ability of RNNs - challenging applications which have the potential to be benchmark problems - visionary papers concerning the future of RNNs = SUBMISSIONS = Deadline for submissions is 18th of July, 2008. Submissions shall follow the guidelines laid out for the Journal of Algorithms in Cognition, Informatics and Logic, which can be found under . Submissions shall be sent as pdf to Pascal Hitzler, hitzler@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de = EDITORIAL BOARD = Guilherme da Alencar Barreto, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Brasil Monica Bianchini, University of Siena, Italy Howard Blair, Syracuse University, USA Hendrik Blockeel, KU Leuven, Belgium Mikael Boden, University of Queensland, Australia Matthew Cook, ETH Zuerich, Switzerland Artur d'Avila Garcez, City University London, UK Luc de Raedt, KU Leuven, Belgium Steffen Hoelldobler, TU Dresden, Germany Herbert Jaeger, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany Stefan C. Kremer, University of Guleph, Canada Kai-Uwe Kuehnberger, University of Osnabrueck, Germany Alessio Micheli, University of Pisa, Italy Barak Pearlmutter, NUI Maynooth, Ireland Juergen Schmidhuber, TU Munich, Germany Alessandro Sperduti, University of Padova, Italy Jochen Steil, University of Bielefeld, Germany Peter Tino, University of Bermingham, UK Edmondo Trentin, University of Siena, Italy Thomas Wennekers, University of Plymouth, UK This Call for Papers is available online under http://www.neural-symbolic.org/RNN_CfP.txt -- PD Dr. Pascal Hitzler Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe email: hitzler@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de fax: +49 721 608 6580 web: http://www.pascal-hitzler.de phone: +49 721 608 4751 http://www.neural-symbolic.org From M.J.vanSteensel at umcutrecht.nl Tue Mar 11 14:56:31 2008 From: M.J.vanSteensel at umcutrecht.nl (Steensel, M.J. van) Date: Tue Mar 11 15:27:44 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] International Symposium dedicated to Brain-Computer Interfacing Message-ID: Dear Colleague, Please take note of the following symposium on Brain-Computer Interfacing. Yours Sincerely, The Organizing Committee of 'Brain-Computer Interfacing in 2008' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------- 'Brain-Computer Interfacing in 2008' A Symposium on the cutting edge of Applied Neuroscience Brain-Computer Interfacing is a young research arena where leading experts from various fields converge to perform Applied Neuroscience on the cutting edge. Where the goal is to develop Neuroprosthesis systems for people who are paralyzed. What is this? A two-day symposium on Brain-Computer Interfacing When and Where? Utrecht, Netherlands, July 3-4 in 2008 By Whom? RMI Utrecht and the BRAINGAIN Consortium For Whom? Anyone interested in: Human Brain Function Interfacing with the human brain and mind Developing solutions for paralyzed patients What is special? 14 Speakers from US and EU 2 days of cutting edge science Leading experts present their work For more information, please visit www.bci2008.nl ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------ M.J. van Steensel, PhD UMC Utrecht Dept. Neurosurgery Mailing address: BCI, G03.223 Heidelberglaan 100 3584 CX Utrecht Tel. 088-755 5121 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080311/96990767/attachment.html From peter.andras at newcastle.ac.uk Wed Mar 12 12:44:34 2008 From: peter.andras at newcastle.ac.uk (Peter Andras) Date: Wed Mar 12 13:15:39 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD Studentship in computational neuroscience Message-ID: <7DD36077F4007D429A17CF8B03D6AABE0431DB56@moonraker.campus.ncl.ac.uk> PhD studentship in computational neuroscience A 3 year PhD studentship is available (pending approval) at the School of Computing Science of Newcastle University (www.cs.ncl.ac.uk), in the area of computational neuroscience with a focus on the analysis of the activity of the crab stomatogastric ganglion (STG). The project will involve the use of high resolution voltage-sensitive dye imaging of the STG together with simultaneous electrical recording of neurons, and computational analysis of the imaging data. The aim of the project is to identify neurons on the basis of their optically recorded activity profiles and to describe the behaviour of the ganglion in terms of probabilistic transition rules of recorded neural activity patterns. The project may include collaboration with labs from the US and Germany. The project will also be associated with the Newcastle Institute of Neuroscience (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/). The funding for the studentship is provided by the EPSRC. The studentship covers subsistence (about ?12,940 per year) and academic fees. The studentship is normally available for EU citizens who are resident in the UK. Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a First Class BSc, or higher degree, in Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Biology or other related field with a strong interest in computational analysis of biological systems. Deadline for application is 15 April 2008. Applicants should follow the normal electronic admissions procedure: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/. In the application form, where you are asked to indicate the research area/project, please mention that you wish to be considered for a PhD Research Studentship. For further enquiries please email: Dr Peter Andras (www.staf.ncl.ac.uk/peter.andras/) at peter.andras@ncl.ac.uk. From v.steuber at herts.ac.uk Wed Mar 12 14:19:22 2008 From: v.steuber at herts.ac.uk (Volker Steuber) Date: Wed Mar 12 14:54:00 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <47D7D85A.9020006@herts.ac.uk> Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Computational Neuroscience Science and Technology Research Institute University of Hertfordshire ?23,000 - ?25,100 p.a. 3 years fixed term contract in the first instance Closing date: 9 April 2008 Quote Reference: EN8363X Applications are invited for a three year postdoc position in computational neuroscience. The project will focus on information processing in the vestibular cerebellum and involve the construction of a detailed model of the cerebellar cortex in 3D that is based on new physiological and morphological data. The position is funded by a Systems Biology Fellowship from the BBSRC (UK) and the ANR (France) and requires close collaboration with experimental and theoretical neuroscientists at UCL, the Ecole Normale Sup?rieure, Universit? Paris Descartes and Universit? Paris 5. More details about our research interests can be found under http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqvs/ and in these recent publications: Steuber, V., Mittmann, W., Hoebeek, F.E., Silver, R.A., De Zeeuw, C.I., Hausser, M. and De Schutter, E. (2007). Cerebellar LTD and pattern recognition by Purkinje cells. Neuron 54, 121-136. Gleeson, P. Steuber, V. and Silver, R.A. (2007). neuroConstruct: A tool for modeling networks of neurons in 3D space. Neuron 54, 219-235. You should have a PhD in computational neuroscience or a related discipline. Previous experience in biologically realistic modelling and knowledge of simulation tools such as NEURON or GENESIS is not required, but would be an advantage. Good scientific communication and writing skills and the ability to work as part of a team are essential. The UH Science and Technology Research Institute has been rated as 4 (national excellence with evidence of international excellence) at the last UK university research assessment exercise. It is located in Hatfield in Hertfordshire, just north of London. The University offers a range of benefits including a final salary pension scheme, professional development, family friendly policies, child care vouchers, waiving of course fees for the children of staff at UH, discounted memberships at the Hertfordshire Sports Village and generous annual leave. For informal enquiries contact Dr Volker Steuber (v.steuber@herts.ac.uk , Tel +44 1707 284350). Apply online at http://recruitment.herts.ac.uk/recruit or request an application pack from Human Resources on 01707 284802 (24hr voicemail), quoting reference EN8363X. Dr Volker Steuber Senior Lecturer (Research) in Biocomputation School of Computer Science Science and Technology Research Institute University of Hertfordshire College Lane, Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AB UK Tel +44 (0) 1707 284350 v.steuber@herts.ac.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080312/45345448/attachment-0001.html From steve at cns.bu.edu Thu Mar 13 21:05:41 2008 From: steve at cns.bu.edu (Stephen Grossberg) Date: Fri Mar 14 09:35:18 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Laminar cortical dynamics of working memory, sequence learning, and performance Message-ID: The following article is now available at http://www.cns.bu.edu/Profiles/Grossberg : Grossberg, S. and Pearson, L. Laminar cortical dynamics of cognitive and motor working memory, sequence learning, and performance: Toward a unified theory of how the cerebral cortex works Psychological Review, in press ABSTRACT How does the brain carry out working memory storage, categorization, and voluntary performance of event sequences? The LIST PARSE neural model proposes an answer to this question that unifies the explanation of cognitive, neurophysiological, and anatomical data from humans and monkeys. It quantitatively simulates human cognitive data about immediate serial recall and free recall, and monkey neurophysiological data from the prefrontal cortex obtained during sequential sensory-motor imitation and planned performance. The model clarifies why both spatial and non-spatial working memories share the same type of circuit design. It proposes how the laminar circuits of lateral prefrontal cortex carry out working memory storage of event sequences within layers 6 and 4, how these event sequences are unitized through learning into list chunks within layer 2/3, and how these stored sequences can be recalled at variable rates that are under volitional control by the basal ganglia. These laminar prefrontal circuits are variations of laminar circuits in the visual cortex that have been used to explain data about how the brain sees. These examples from visual and prefrontal cortex illustrate how laminar neocortex can represent both spatial and temporal information, and open the way towards understanding how other behaviors may be represented and controlled by variations on a shared laminar neocortical design. Keywords: working memory, competitive queuing, immediate serial recall, immediate free recall, delayed free recall, continuous-distracter free recall, sensory-motor imitation, chunking, sequence learning, prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, position coding, rank order cells, cerebral cortex, laminar computing From Dominique.Martinez at loria.fr Thu Mar 13 23:20:30 2008 From: Dominique.Martinez at loria.fr (Dominique.Martinez@loria.fr) Date: Fri Mar 14 09:35:19 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD position in computational neuroscience, INRA Versailles, France Message-ID: <1205446830.47d9a8ae6ffc9@www.loria.fr> PhD position in computational neuroscience, INRA Versailles, France : Applicants are invited for a PhD position in the field of theoretical neuroscience with a focus on olfaction. The successful applicant will perform research in modelling the insect olfactory system. The aim of the project is to understand the mechanisms of odour coding by means of a multidisciplinary approach combining models and experiments. The candidate will have to interact with other researchers in a mixed team of modellers using mathematical and computational methods and experimentalists performing electrophysiological recordings of neurons in a noctuid moth. Candidates should hold an engineering degree or a master degree in a relevant discipline (Computer Science, Mathematics or Physics). The candidate should have expertise in programming, and should demonstrate a strong interest in biophysics, systems neuroscience, or cognitive neuroscience. The work will be performed at the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in Versailles, at half an hour train from down-town Paris. The project also includes collaboration with the National Institute for Computer Sciences (LORIA-INRIA) in Nancy, France. The position is for three years, starting on Sept. 2008 and is funded by INRA. Applications including a CV, a motivation letter and the names of two references must be sent electronically to Jean-Pierre Rospars (Rospars@versailles.inra.fr) and Dominique Martinez (Dominique.Martinez@loria.fr). The closing date for applications is May 15, 2008. Selected candidates will be interviewed in Paris early in June. From 1c15501 at gmail.com Mon Mar 17 14:15:58 2008 From: 1c15501 at gmail.com (Raymond Chiong) Date: Mon Mar 17 15:15:07 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Call for Book Chapter - a friendly reminder Message-ID: *** Apologies if you have received this more than once. There are only two more weeks left before the March 31 chapter proposal deadline. If you are interested in this publication, please indicate your interest as soon as possible. Thanks. *** *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/20080317/be3ce7c5/attachment-0001.html From franco at dii.unisi.it Mon Mar 17 18:28:07 2008 From: franco at dii.unisi.it (Franco Scarselli) Date: Tue Mar 18 09:33:51 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Deadline extension: KES2008 Special Session on "ADVANCED NEURAL PROCESSING SYSTEMS" Message-ID: <47DEAA27.3050702@dii.unisi.it> ** Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement ** Following requests from prospective authors, the deadline for the paper submission to the KES2008 Special Session on "ADVANCED NEURAL PROCESSING SYSTEMS" has been extended to March 25th, 2008. Please note that no additional extension can be granted. *********************************************************************** 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 25th 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 . Simone Fiori, Politechnic University of Marche, Italy . Barbara Hammer, Clausthal University of Technology, Germany . Simone Marinai - University of Florence, Italy . 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 tobias at nld.ds.mpg.de Tue Mar 18 11:33:56 2008 From: tobias at nld.ds.mpg.de (Tobias Niemann) Date: Tue Mar 18 11:45:49 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Two PostDoctoral or Ph.D. student positions In-Reply-To: <46F11EC5.4050208@nld.ds.mpg.de> References: <46F11EC5.4050208@nld.ds.mpg.de> Message-ID: <47DF9A94.8000309@nld.ds.mpg.de> Job Offer: Two PostDoctoral or Ph.D. student positions The Bernstein Center for Neurotechnology Goettingen (BCNT) invites applications for Two PostDoctoral or Ph.D. student positions in the project ?Magnetic stimulation in cell culture and brain?. In this German-Israeli cooperation between the Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, the Weizmann Institute (Rehovot, Israel) and the Medical School of G?ttingen University, we will combine numerical simulations, experimental work on neuronal cultures and clinical trials to achieve a detailed understanding of the cellular effects of magnetic stimulation (TMS) and direct current stimulation (tDCS). With this background we hope to achieve a rational design of therapeutic treatment paradigms for these brain stimulations. In this context two foci should be covered by the successful applicants: 1. numerical simulations of neurons on various levels of complexity. In addition numerical simulations of electromagnetic fields in space with anisotropic impedance will be performed. 2. experiments with magnetic stimulation in both, clinical trials and in vivo / in vitro model systems. The aim is to test and transfer new stimulation paradigms. The successful applicants will get the opportunity to develop skills is both areas. The successful applicant is interested in tackling problems in an interdisciplinary group and has a degree in neuroscience, physics, applied mathematics or engeneering and experience with numerical simulations. Goettingen is a university town with a long tradition and a vivid student atmosphere ? and it is a center of neuroscience research in Germany. Besides the recently established BCNT and several institutes of the Goettingen University the neuroscience community also includes three Max-Planck-Institutes, the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, the European Neuroscience Institute, the Center for Molecular Physiology of the Brain and the German Primate Center. Goettingen will host the Third International Conference on Transcranial Magnetic and Direct Current Stimulation. The initial appointment will be for two years, with the possibility of extension. Salary for the PhD positions is according to the German TV?D (?Entgeltgruppe? 13 or 14, depending on qualifications) with benefits. We are committed to employing more disabled individuals and especially encourage them to apply. We aim to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and urge them to apply. Applications (including a statement of interest, CV, publication list, certificates, addresses of references) should consist of one pdf-document and sent to Dr. Andreas Neef: aneef@gwdg.de or Prof. Walter Paulus: wpaulus@med.uni-goettingen.de. From bowlby at bu.edu Wed Mar 19 19:50:06 2008 From: bowlby at bu.edu (Brian Bowlby) Date: Thu Mar 20 10:27:15 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] 12th ICCNS: Call for Registration Message-ID: <960D6E19-180D-41CC-8F19-0055E059046B@bu.edu> Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this email. TWELFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS May 14?17, 2008 Boston University 677 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA http://www.cns.bu.edu/meetings/ Sponsored by the Boston University Center for Adaptive Systems, Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (http://www.cns.bu.edu/), and Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (http://cns.bu.edu/CELEST/) with financial support from the National Science Foundation CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS: Workshop on Dynamics of Cortical-Hippocampal Interactions for Memory Guided Behavior: Neil Burgess, Howard Eichenbaum, Michael Hasselmo, David Redish, Trygve Solstad, David Touretzky Workshop on Computing with Neural Interfaces: Theodore Berger, John Donoghue, Donald Eddington, Phil Kennedy, Krishna Shenoy, John Wyatt Keynote Lecturers: Gyorgy Buzsaki and Gail Carpenter Invited Speakers: Cynthia Breazeal, Peter Dayan, Greg DeAngelis, Stephen Grossberg, Joy Hirsch, Ranu Jung, Gordon Logan, Javier Movellan, Charan Ranganath, John Reynolds, and Daniel Salzman Please visit the web site for conference details, including: --the registration form (http://cns-web.bu.edu/cns-meeting/registration.html ) --a presentation schedule (http://cns-web.bu.edu/cns-meeting/schedule.html ) --local lodging options (http://cns-web.bu.edu/cns-meeting/hotels.html) -- Brian Bowlby, PhD 677 Beacon Street Director of Computation Labs Boston, MA 02215 Cognitive and Neural Systems 617-353-7673 Boston University bowlby@bu.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080319/cf745074/attachment-0001.html From s.li.1 at bham.ac.uk Thu Mar 20 01:03:02 2008 From: s.li.1 at bham.ac.uk (Sheng Li) Date: Thu Mar 20 10:27:38 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Research Fellow in Computational Neuroscience Message-ID: <468E635F877FE94BBEFFC0309BCA1954E75B48@psgfs4.adf.bham.ac.uk> Research Fellow in Computational Neuroscience=20 A Research Fellow position is available at the Cognitive NeuroImaging = Lab,=20 School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, UK. The work focuses on = theoretical modelling and advanced computational analyses of=20 electrophysiological and functional imaging data (MRI, EEG, MEG). = Research=20 in the lab examines the neural basis of perceptual decisions and = learning=20 across the lifespan (http://cnil.bham.ac.uk/ = ).=20 The School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham is a top class = 5*=20 department that has a dynamic group in Cognitive Neuroscience with = strong=20 links to Computer Science and Engineering and a state-of-the-art Imaging = Centre (3T scanner), access to a large group of screened = neuropsychological=20 patients, EEG/ERP systems, TMS delivery systems, robot systems for = haptic=20 research, and several systems for eye movement tracking and kinematic=20 analysis.=20 You should have a background and hold a PhD. in Computer Science, = Physics,=20 Applied Mathematics, Engineering, Neuroscience or a related field. = Advanced=20 programming skills (e.g. Matlab, C, OpenGL) are necessary and experience = with behavioural, imaging and signal processing methods is desirable.=20 If you are interested please send a CV and a statement of research = interests=20 to Prof. Zoe Kourtzi: z.kourtzi@bham.ac.uk.=20 best regards=20 Zoe Kourtzi, PhD=20 Chair of Brain Imaging=20 Behavioural and Brain Sciences=20 School of Psychology=20 University of Birmingham=20 Edgbaston, Birmingham=20 B15 2TT UK=20 tel: 121 414 8509=20 fax: 121 414 3342=20 fax: 121 414 4897=20 e-mail: z.kourtzi@bham.ac.uk=20 web: http://cnil.bham.ac.uk/ = =20 From rnitendra at in.ibm.com Tue Mar 18 21:20:32 2008 From: rnitendra at in.ibm.com (Nitendra Rajput) Date: Thu Mar 20 11:04:02 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] CFP: Third Workshop on Speech in Mobile and Pervasive Environments, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 2 (with ACM MobileHCI '08) Message-ID: Call for papers Third Workshop on Speech in Mobile and Pervasive Environments (in conjunction with ACM MobileHCI '08) Amsterdam, The Netherlands September 2, 2008 http://research.ihost.com/SiMPE In the past, voice-based applications have been accessed using unintelligent telephone devices through Voice Browsers that reside on the server. The proliferation of pervasive devices and the increase in their processing capabilities, client-side speech processing has been emerging as a viable alternative. In SiMPE 2008, the third in the series, we will continue to explore the various possibilities and issues that arise while enabling speech processing on resource-constrained, possibly mobile devices. Topics of Interest: All areas that enable, optimise or enhance Speech in mobile and pervasive environments and devices. Possible areas include, but are not restricted to: * Robust Speech Recognition in Noisy and Resource-constrained Environments * Memory/Energy Efficient Algorithms * Multimodal User Interfaces for Mobile Devices * Protocols and Standards for Speech Applications * Distributed Speech Processing * Mobile Application Adaptation and Learning * Prototypical System Architectures * User Modelling * HCI issues in SiMPE applications * Design and cultural issues in SiMPE * Speech interfaces/applications for Developing Regions Submissions: We seek original, unpublished papers in the following three categories: (a) Position papers that describe novel ideas that can lead to interesting research directions, (b) Early results or work-in-progress that has significant promise, or, (c) Full papers. Papers should be of 4-8 pages in length in the MobileHCI publication format. The LaTeX and Microsoft Word templates are available at the workshop website. All submissions should be in the PDF format and should be submitted electronically through the workshop submission web site, http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=simpe08. Since the submission deadlines are dependent on the MobileHCI conference, we will not be able to grant any extensions in any circumstances. For any comments regarding submissions and participation, contact: simpe08@easychair.org Key Dates: * Paper Submission Deadline: May 05, 2008 (11:59 PM CET) * Notification of Acceptance: May 19, 2008 * Early Registration Deadline: June 02, 2008 * Workshop: September 02, 2008. Organising Committee: Amit A. Nanavati, IBM India Research Laboratory. Nitendra Rajput, IBM India Research Laboratory. Alexander I. Rudnicky, Carnegie Mellon University. Markku Turunen, University of Tampere, Finland. Programme Committee: Lou Boves, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands Matt Jones, Swansea University, UK Yoon Kim, Novauris Technologies, USA Lars Bo Larsen, Aalborg University, Denmark Gary Marsden, University of Cape Town, South Africa Michael McTear, University of Ulster, Ireland Shrikanth S. Narayanan, University of Southern California, USA Tim Paek, Microsoft, USA David Pearce, Motorola, UK. Mike Phillips, Vlingo, USA Markku Turunen, University of Tampere, Finland Yaxin Zhang, Motorola, China (More to be updated) Websites: * SiMPE Workshop: http://research.ihost.com/SiMPE * ACM MobileHCI '08: http://www.mobilehci.org/ * SiMPE 2007: http://research.ihost.com/SiMPE/2007 * SiMPE 2006: http://research.ihost.com/SiMPE/2006 From chicoisne.guillaume at uqam.ca Wed Mar 19 21:40:06 2008 From: chicoisne.guillaume at uqam.ca (Guillaume Chicoisne) Date: Thu Mar 20 11:06:56 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Extended deadline - poster session at the social cognition Summer Institute Message-ID: (version fran?aise plus bas) Due to recurrent requests, posters will be accepted up to the end of Easter vacation, Monday March, 31st, midnight. Details available at: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/eteisc/ocs/index.php/eteisc/SS2008/announcement/ view/8 The Cognitive Sciences? Institute organizes in Montreal, Canada, a Summer Institute to which you can register and receive three (3) credits towards your degree. Entitled Minds and Societies, the 2008 Summer Institute will again address an important current topic in cognitive science: social cognition. The Institute is gathering leading researchers on the interface and transition between individual ideas and minds and collective, distributed ones (biosocial psychology, cognitive anthropology, social neuroscience, distributed cognition, extended mind philosophy, etc.). We hope that all will be stimulated by this confluence of perspectives. Confirmed speakers include (alphabetically): Daniel Batson, Paul Bloom, Richard Byrne, Angelo Cangelosi, Rosaria Conte, Daniel Dennett, Terrence Deacon, Merlin Donald, Shimon Edelman, Christian Fellbaum, Rob Goldstone, Philip Jackson, Frank Keil, Andrew Meltzoff, ?lisabeth Pacherie, Jesse Prinz, Deb Roy, Rebbeca Saxe, Barry Wellman, and many more (see our web site: http://www.summer08.isc.uqam.ca/). Our first Summer Institute in Cognitive Science brought together more than 150 local and international participants who met and exchanged ideas on the topic of categorization. It was a great success according to all involved, and has spawned an authoritative 32-chapter text on the matter, the Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science, Cohen and Lefebvre (eds.) (2005), Elsevier. The advantages of a Summer Institute: > ? Classes given by top researchers in their field; > ? Meeting high caliber foreign students who share your interests; > ? Networking; > ? Several related activities which will help develop your knowledge of > related fields (poster session > http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/eteisc/ocs/custom/cfp-socialCognition.pdf, > thematic dinners, etc.); > ? A PhD level course during the summer (which can be rare in some > faculties); > ? Getting 3 credits in ten days (+ a paper at your leisure during the > summer); The registration process contains one or two steps according to whether you want to obtain credits or not. > 1. Anyone wishing to attend the Summer Institute must fill in the form on > our web site and pay the course fee: > http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/eteisc/ocs/index.php/eteisc/SS2008/schedConf/regis > tration > 2. If additionally you wish to receive credits for attendance and: >> ? You are a PhD student from the Universit? du Qu?bec ? Montr?al: See your >> department?s graduate study advisor (or his/her assistant) and register to >> one of these classes: >>> ? DIC938H-01. Cognition Sociale >>> ? PHI9026. Sujets sp?ciaux >>> ? LIN9950. S?minaires th?matiques >>> ? PSY9517. Probl?mes contemporains en psychologie sociale >> ? You are a Master?s level student from the Universit? du Qu?bec ? >> Montr?al: Please write to us (summer08.isc@uqam.ca) or speak with your >> graduate program director. The summer Institute welcomes all graduate >> students and will adjust required coursework to reflect the student?s level. >> ? You are a student from a Canadian university: Please contact our >> registrar?s office: franco-canada@regis.uqam.ca. >> ? You are a student from the US and abroad: You will simply have to >> complete a form upon arrival to be admitted as an independent student. >> Note that, depending of your situation, additional registration costs may be charged by UQAM or your own university in order to get these credits. >> Please visit our web site to consult the latest program and for any additional information concerning the Summer Institute: http://www.summer08.isc.uqam.ca/ The organizing committee. The Minds and Societies Summer Institute in Cognitive Science summer08.isc@uqam.ca ? la suite de demandes r?currentes, la date limite de soumission est d?cal?e ? la fin des cong?s de P?ques, lundi 31 mars ? minuit. Les d?tails sur cette session sont disponibles ? l?adresse suivante: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/eteisc/ocs/index.php/eteisc/SS2008/announcement/ view/8 L?Institut des Sciences Cognitives organise ? Montr?al (Canada) un Institut d??t? auquel vous pouvez vous inscrire et recevoir trois (3) cr?dits. L'Institut d??t? de 2008, intitul? Minds and Societies, traitera cette fois encore d?une question importante et d?actualit? en sciences cognitives?: la cognition sociale. L'institut regroupera les principaux chercheurs ? la fronti?re entre la cognition individuelle et celle de nature collective et distribu?e (psychologie biosociale, anthropologie cognitive, neurosciences sociales, cognition distribu?e, philosophie de l'esprit ?tendu, etc.). Nous esp?rons que tous seront stimul?s par cette convergence de perspectives. Les conf?renciers confirm?s incluent (en ordre alphab?tique) : Daniel Batson, Paul Bloom, Richard Byrne, Angelo Cangelosi, Daniel Dennett, Terrence Deacon, Merlin Donald, Shimon Edelman, Christian Fellbaum, Rob Goldstone, Philip Jackson, Frank Keil, Andrew Meltzoff, ?lisabeth Pacherie, Jesse Prinz, Deb Roy, Rebbeca Saxe, Barry Wellman, et bien d?autres, (voir notre site?: http://www.ete08.isc.uqam.ca/). Notre premier Institut d??t? en sciences cognitives a rassembl? plus de 150 participants locaux et internationaux qui se sont rencontr?s et ont ?chang? autour de la question de la cat?gorisation. De l?avis de tous les participants, ce premier Institut d??t? fut un ?norme succ?s, qui a donn? naissance ? un ouvrage important sur le sujet, le Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science (sous la direction d?Henri Cohen et de Claire Lefebvre, publi? chez Elsevier). Quels sont les avantages de s?inscrire ? l?Institut d??t??? > ? Des cours donn?s par des sommit?s internationales dans le domaine?; > ? La chance de rencontrer des ?tudiants ?trangers de haut calibre > partageant vos int?r?ts?; > ? La possibilit? d??tablir des liens de r?seautage (pour ?tudes > ult?rieures, stages, postdoc)?; > ? Plusieurs activit?s connexes qui vous aideront ? d?velopper vos > connaissances (s?ances de communication par affiche > http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/eteisc/ocs/custom/cfp-socialCognition.pdf, soupers > th?matiques, etc.)?; > ? Un cours durant l??t? (ce qui est quelques fois rare aux ?tudes > sup?rieures)?;? > ? La chance d?obtenir 3 cr?dits en dix jours plus un travail ? compl?ter > pendant l??t?. > La proc?dure d?inscription comporte une ou deux ?tapes selon que vous d?sirez obtenir des cr?dits ou non. > 1. Toute personne d?sirant participer ? l?institut d??t? doit remplir le > formulaire sur notre site web et acquitter les frais d?inscription : > http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/eteisc/ocs/index.php/eteisc/SS2008/schedConf/regis > tration > 2. Si vous d?sirez ?galement obtenir des cr?dits (3) pour cette activit?, > la proc?dure varie selon votre attache universitaire actuelle : >> ? Si vous ?tes ?tudiants au doctorat ? l?UQAM, il s?agit de vous inscrire >> aupr?s de votre d?partement ? l?un ou l?autre de ces cours. >>> ? DIC938H-01. Cognition Sociale >>> ? PHI9026. Sujets sp?ciaux >>> ? LIN9950. S?minaires th?matiques >>> ? PSY9517. Probl?mes contemporains en psychologie sociale >> ? Si vous ?tes ?tudiants ? la ma?trise ou finissant au baccalaur?at, >> veuillez nous ?crire ou consulter la direction des ?tudes sup?rieures de >> votre programme pour discuter de la possibilit? de faire cr?diter un cours de >> ma?trise. L?institut d??t? accueillera favorablement tout ?tudiant de >> ma?trise d?sirant s?inscrire et ajustera les travaux demand?s pour refl?ter >> le cycle des inscrits. >> ? Si vous ?tes inscrits ? une autre universit?, veuillez vous adresser >> directement au bureau du registraire : franco-canada@regis.uqam.ca si vous >> ?tes du Canada ou nous vous remettrons un formulaire ? remplir pour admission >> comme ?tudiant libre si vous ?tes de l??tranger. >> Notez que d?pendamment de votre situation, des frais d?inscription suppl?mentaires pourraient ?tre demand?s par l?UQAM ou votre universit? d?attache. Veuillez visiter notre site web pour consulter le programme et pour toute information au sujet de l?Institut d??t? : http://www.summer08.isc.uqam.ca/ Le comit? organisateur L?Institut d??t? en sciences cognitives Esprits et Soci?t?s -- Guillaume Chicoisne Institut des Sciences Cognitives (+1) 514-987-3000 #4374 Cog. Sci. Institute: http://www.isc.uqam.ca Pers. Page: http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/cogsci2/isc/article.php3?id_article=229 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080319/910a1434/attachment-0001.html From wi-iat at maebashi-it.org Wed Mar 19 03:44:21 2008 From: wi-iat at maebashi-it.org (WI-IAT08) Date: Thu Mar 20 11:07:52 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Call for WI-IAT 2008 Workshop Proposal Message-ID: <200803191144208375811@maebashi-it.org> [Apologies if you receive this more than once] ============================================================== Call for Workshop Proposals 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT'08) Sydney, Australia, December 9-12, 2008. http://datamining.it.uts.edu.au/wi08/html/wi/?index=about http://datamining.it.uts.edu.au/wi08/html/iat/?index=about ******************************************************************* Workshop Proposals Due: ** April 10 **, 2008 All papers accepted for workshops will be included in the Workshop Proceedings published by the IEEE Computer Society Press, which are indexed by EI. =================================================================== The Program Committees of the 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT'08) invite proposals for Workshops. The Workshops will be held within the Conference, December 9-12, 2008 at Sydney, Australia. The workshop organizers will be responsible for advertising the workshop, forming the program committees, reviewing and selecting the papers, and guaranteeing a high quality worthy of the prestige and range of the Conference. All papers accepted for workshops will be included in the Workshop Proceedings published by the IEEE Computer Society Press and will be available at the workshops. The workshop organizers will also have the discretion of editing selected papers (after their expansion and revision) into books or special journal issues. Workshops may be full-day or half-day. A full-day workshop should select 20-25 regular papers, while a half-day workshop should select 10-13 regular papers, from a large number of submissions. The workshop organizers should ensure the presence of authors of accepted papers at the workshops. I. Workshop Topics Each workshop subject will focus on new research challenges and initiatives in Web Intelligence (WI) and Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT). The workshops should provide an informal and vibrant forum for researchers and industry practitioners to share their research results and practical development experiences in these two fields. Suggested, but not limited to, workshop topics include: - Web Intelligence, Brain Informatics and Bio Technology - Intelligent E-Technology (including E-Science, E-Business, E-Learning, E-Finance, E-Government, E-Community) - Intelligent Web Interaction - Knowledge Grids and Grid Intelligence - Semantics and Ontology Engineering - Social Networks and Social Intelligence - Web Agents - Web Information Filtering and Retrieval - Web Mining and Farming - Web Personalization and Recommendations - Web Security, Integrity, Privacy and Trust - Web Services and Grid Services - Web Support Systems - World Wide Wisdom Web (W4) - Agent Systems Modeling and Methodology - Autonomous Knowledge and Information Agents - Autonomous Auctions and Negotiation - Autonomy-Oriented Computing (AOC) - Learning and Self-Adapting Agents - Agents and Data Mining Interaction - Multiagent Systems in E-business II. Workshop Proposal Submission Workshop proposals should include the following elements: - Title of the workshop - The organizers name, affiliation, mailing address and e-mail address - A description of the topic of the workshop (not exceeding 200 words) - Type of the workshop (full-day or half-day) - A description of how the workshop will contribute to the field of Web Intelligence and/or Intelligent Agent Technology - A short description on how the workshop will be advertised so as to ensure a sufficiently wide range of authors and high quality papers After the acceptance of a workshop proposal the organizer(s) should: - Create a "Call for papers/participation" for the workshop - Create a Web page for the workshop, the link of which will be published on the Conference Web site - Create a Board of Reviewers (Program Committee) - Review and select papers - Schedule the workshop activities Those papers selected by the organizer(s) will also be reviewed by the Workshop Co-Chairs for final acceptance. All submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance, and clarity. We will provide an online paper submission and review system to support the workshops. Please submit your Proposals to both Workshop Co-Chairs by emails. III. Important Dates - Workshop proposal submission: April 10, 2008 - Electronic submission of full papers: July 10, 2008 - Workshop paper submission: July 30, 2008 - Notification of paper acceptance: September 3, 2008 - Camera-ready of accepted papers: September 30, 2008 - Workshops: December 9, 2008 - Conference: December 9 - 12, 2008 We look forward to your support in making 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM WI-IAT workshops an exciting event. Workshop Co-Chairs: A/Prof. Yuefeng Li, Queensland University of Technology, Australia E-mail: y2.li@qut.edu.au Prof. Gabriella Pasi, University of Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy E-mail: pasi@disco.unimib.it Note: we will not have a separate workshop registration fee this year (i.e., only one conference registration covers everything). From ale at sissa.it Thu Mar 20 11:19:31 2008 From: ale at sissa.it (Alessandro Treves) Date: Thu Mar 20 11:50:50 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] SISSA Spring faculty search Message-ID: <20080320111931.o6zvs7di8g8sws8w@webmail.sissa.it> The Cognitive Neuroscience Sector at SISSA seeks to recruit independent group leaders. The 3-year Plan approved by SISSA last Fall includes strengthening cognitive neuroscience research and identifies as priorities: - Behavioural Neuroscience, investigated through electrophysiology in awake animals - Cognitive Development and/or Learning - Functional Imaging, in connection with the new fMRI-sharing agreement in Udine - Language and/or Higher Cognitive Function The Sector aims to identify up to 3 suitable candidates already this Spring, although the appointments and so the establishment of new research groups may be scattered over the period 2008-10. The Sector is particularly interested in reaching candidates with no previous history of collaboration with SISSA. If selected, they will be offered positions at a level commensurate with their qualifications, in the expectation that within 5 years they will succeed in obtaining tenure as Associate or Full Professors. Candidates with whose work SISSA is familiar may be offered ad hoc arrangements if selected, but they will first be assessed together with the others. SISSA is one of the three purely postgraduate and postdoctoral institutions within the Italian university system. It operates in English and the Sector is keen to enhance its international character and its intellectual diversity. The Sector currently has 23 PhD students supported on SISSA fellowships, almost half of whom are not Italians. Postdocs, however, are normally supported by individual research funding. Faculty members are required to teach limited PhD mini-courses, and to individually supervise the research of students in their groups. Current faculty members are Mathew Diamond, Jacques Mehler, Raffaella Rumiati, Tim Shallice and Alessandro Treves, with visiting professors Evan Balaban, Luca Bonatti and Marina Nespor. Further information about the Sector can be found on the webpage http://www.sissa.it/cns/ Those interested should write to Alessandro Treves, alessandrotreves@gmail.com, before April 30th, 2008, attaching their curriculum vitae. Receipt of CVs will be acknowledged weekly. ---------------------------------------------------------------- SISSA Webmail https://webmail.sissa.it/ Powered by Horde http://www.horde.org/ From s.schultz at imperial.ac.uk Thu Mar 20 19:23:12 2008 From: s.schultz at imperial.ac.uk (Schultz, Simon R) Date: Fri Mar 21 09:44:53 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD positions Imperial College Message-ID: Imperial College London PhD Studentships Department of Bioengineering Imperial College is ranked among the top five universities in the world (Times Higher Education Awards, 2007). The Department of Bioengineering at Imperial conducts world-leading research and was awarded a 5* rating in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. We have two BBSRC-funded studentships (one standard and one CASE) as well as other project-specific research council studentships and possibly additional department-funded studentships, available to start in October 2008. The BBSRC CASE studentship will be industry supported. Eligibility/Duration BBSRC studentships are open to UK and EU candidates, who have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years and will cover full fees and stipend for 4 years. The same eligibility criteria will apply to project specific studentships but the duration may vary depending on the source of funding. Departmental studentships are open to UK candidates and EU nationals and cover fees and stipend for 3 years. Candidates for all studentships should have, or expect to obtain, at least a good 2.1 in a relevant first degree (or equivalent). Topics Research in the Department is highly interdisciplinary and is best reflected in terms of the following themes: Physiological mechanics Biomedical systems Neurotechnology Candidates should visit the Bioengineering Department website at: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/bioengineering to identify topics of interest within these themes and potential supervisors. For the BBSRC studentships the topic needs to be within the remit of the BBSRC and preferably within areas that the BBSRC is promoting. Please see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/science/index.html for further information. Applicants should contact their potential supervisor before completing their application, to discuss putting a case forward. Relevant email addresses can be found on the Departmental website. The College postgraduate prospectus, entry requirements and application form are available online at www.imperial.ac.uk/ pgprospectus. For assistance with application details please contact Kate Hobson (k.hobson@imperial.ac.uk). Deadline for applications: 30 April 2008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080320/6505137b/attachment-0001.html From lendasse at hut.fi Thu Mar 20 19:02:11 2008 From: lendasse at hut.fi (Amaury Lendasse) Date: Fri Mar 21 09:45:04 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] ESTSP'08 first CFP Message-ID: <027201c88ab4$855efb80$901cf280$@fi> **We apologize for possible duplicates of this message, sent to distributions lists only** FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS ESTSP'08 - European Symposium on Time Series Prediction Following the successful 2007 conference, ESTSP 2008 will be organized in Finland in 17-19 September 2008 at Haikko, Porvoo, 30-40 minutes from Helsinki. More information will be available at http://www.estsp.org/ Conference site: http://www.haikko.fi/kokoukset/en_GB/presentation/ The conference is co-organized with the AKRR'08 - ADAPTIVE KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND REASONING. The second European Symposium on Time Series Prediction (TSP) is a new event in the fields of Neural Networks, Statistics and Econometrics. It will be held in Porvoo, one of the most beautiful towns in Finland. Contributions are welcome. Webpage: http://www.estsp.org/ DEADLINES Submission of papers: 01 May 2008 Notification of acceptance: 01 June 2008 ESTSP conference: 17 - 19 September 2008 PREDICTION COMPETITION A new prediction competition is organized. The goal of the competition is the long-term prediction of 3 Time Series. The dataset will be available on April 1st. The competition deadline is on 01 May 2008, same date as the paper submission deadline. The prediction competition dataset will be published on the beginning of April. The schedule of the competition will favor fast methods. PROCEEDINGS AND JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE The proceedings will include all communications presented to the conference, and will be available on-site. Extended versions of selected papers will be published in the Neurocomputing journal (Elsevier). LOCATION The ESTSP 2008 conference will be held in Haikko Manor in Porvoo. Porvoo is a about 50 kilometers from Helsinki near the southern coast of Finland. The Manor itself is very old and classy place with historically valuable and stimulating atmosphere. The conference facilities have been recently renovated to meet the demands of modern conferences. Helsinki University of Technology is one of the top-level universities in Finland for both education and research. The ESTSP 2008 is organized by the Adaptive Informatics Research Centre from the Department of Information and Computer Science (ICS) of HUT. The Adaptive Informatics Research Centre is a Centre of Excellence of the Academy of Finland. HUT is located in Espoo. Conference location: Hotel Haikko Manor Haikkoontie 114 06400 Porvoo Finland Phone: +358 19 576 01 Fax: +358 19 576 0399 Email: hotelli.haikko@haikko.fi CONTACT AND CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT All questions concerning ESTSP'2008 may be sent by e-mail (preferred) to amaury.lendasse@hut.fi. Contact address: Dr. Amaury Lendasse Helsinki University of Technology Laboratory of Computer and Information Science P.O. Box 5400 FI-02015 HUT FINLAND fax +358-9-451 3277 http://www.estsp.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080320/a44620e0/attachment-0001.html From Sharon.Crook at asu.edu Thu Mar 20 21:26:07 2008 From: Sharon.Crook at asu.edu (Sharon Crook) Date: Fri Mar 21 09:45:06 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoc: Single Neuron Computation Message-ID: <68656C04C7C0AA4883E870908A8577B206BDF897@EX03.asurite.ad.asu.edu> We have an opportunity for postdoctoral research in the area of single neuron computation. This collaborative project in the labs of Sharon Crook (http://math.asu.edu/~crook) and Carsten Duch (http://sols.asu.edu/faculty/cduch.php) involves using computational approaches to investigate the function of the structural and synaptic remodeling of an insect motoneuron for its changing behavioral role. We will also test Cajal?s Neuron Doctrine, which envisions the neuron as the smallest functional entity, by examining the computational and functional independence of dendritic sub-domains. We have a strong interdisciplinary component in neuroscience training and research at Arizona State University (http://neuroscience.asu.edu), and the postdoctoral researcher will also interact with faculty, students and other postdocs in the Center for Adaptive Neural Systems (http://ans.asu.edu). This project will provide experience and training in research design, computational and mathematical approaches, advanced analysis procedures, and possibly experimental techniques. Training in computational neuroscience and programming experience are essential, and experience with NEURON would be beneficial. For more information, contact Sharon Crook at Arizona State University (sharon.crook@asu.edu). From retienne at jhu.edu Fri Mar 21 15:10:43 2008 From: retienne at jhu.edu (Ralph Etienne-Cummings) Date: Fri Mar 21 16:53:58 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] 2008 Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop Application DEADLINE: 23rd of March Message-ID: <47E3C1E3.1090603@jhu.edu> Forgive us if you get this announcement more than once Application DEADLINE: 23rd of March --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEUROMORPHIC COGNITION ENGINEERING WORKSHOP Sunday, JUNE 29th - Saturday, JULY 19th, 2008 Telluride, Colorado Call for Applications Deadline: March 23rd, 2008 Avis COHEN (University of Maryland) Rodney DOUGLAS (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Ralph ETIENNE-CUMMINGS (Johns Hopkins University) Paul HASLER (Georgia Institute of Technology) Timmer HORIUCHI (University of Maryland) Giacomo INDIVERI (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Tobias Delbruck (Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Terrence SEJNOWSKI (Salk Institute and UCSD) Shihab SHAMMA (University of Maryland) Barbara SHINN-CUNNINGHAM (Boston University) Andre van SCHAIK(University of Sydney) We invite applications for a three week summer workshop that will be held in Telluride, Colorado from Sunday, June 29th to Saturday, July 19th, 2008. The application deadline is Friday, March 23rd, and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. The 2008 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Institute for Neuroinformatics - ETHZ, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland - College Park, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, University of Sydney, and the Salk Institute. Last year's workshop was an exciting event and a great success. We strongly encourage interested parties to browse through the previous workshop web pages at: http://ine-web.org/workshops/past-workshops GOALS: Neuromorphic engineers design and fabricate artificial neural systems whose detailed architecture, design, and computational principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. Over the past 12 years, this research community has focused on the understanding of low-level sensory processing and systems infrastructure; efforts are now expanding to apply this knowledge and infrastructure to addressing higher-level problems in perception, cognition, and learning. The annual three-week intensive Workshop (held in Telluride, Colorado) consists of background lectures (from leading researchers in biological, cognitive, computational, engineering and learning sciences), practical tutorials (from state-of-the-art practitioners), hands-on projects (involving established researchers and newcomers/students), and special interest discussion groups (proposed by the workshop participants). In this workshop and through the Institute for Neuromorphic Engineering (INE), the mission is to promote interaction between senior and junior researchers; to educate new members of the community; to introduce new enabling fields and applications to the community; to promote on-going collaborative activities emerging from the Workshop, and to promote a self-sustaining research field. */ /* FORMAT: The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems and cognitive neuroscience (in particular sensory processing, learning and memory, motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on analog VLSI design, mobile robots, hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, many of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Participants will be free to explore and play with whatever they choose in the afternoon. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. In the early afternoon there will be tutorial on a wide spectrum of topics, including analog VLSI, mobile robotics, auditory systems, central-pattern-generators, selective attention mechanisms, cognitive systems, etc. Projects that are carried out during the workshop will be centered in a number of working groups, including: * active vision * audition * motor control and locomotion * robotics * multichip communication * analog VLSI * learning and memory * neuroprosthetic systems * cognitive neuroscience and attention LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in Southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350miles). Great Lakes Aviation and America West Express airlines provide daily flights directly into Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We will have a network of PCs running LINUX and Microsoft Windows for the workshop projects. We also plan to provide wireless internet access and encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT: Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around mid April 2008. The Workshop covers all your accommodations and facilities costs. You are responsible for your own travel to the Workshop. For expenses not covered by federal funds, a Workshop registration fee is required. The fee is $500 per participant, however, due to the difference in travel cost, we offer a discount to the non-US participants. European registration fees will be reduced by $250; non-US/non-European registration fees will be reduced by $400. The cost of a shared condominium will be covered for all academic participants but upgrades to a private room will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. HOW TO APPLY: Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. The application website is (after February 15th, 2008): http://ine-web.org/telluride-conference-2008/apply/ Application will include: * First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. * Curriculum Vitae. * One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop. * Two letters of recommendation (uploaded directly by references). The application deadline is Friday, March 23, 2008. Applicants will be notified by e-mail by the end of April. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Etienne-Cummings Associate Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 105 Barton Hall/3400 N. Charles St. Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD 21218 Email: retienne@jhu.edu E URL: http://etienne.ece.jhu.edu/~etienne Tel: 410 - 516 - 3494 Fax: 410 - 516 - 5566 From kdharris at andromeda.rutgers.edu Fri Mar 21 20:07:02 2008 From: kdharris at andromeda.rutgers.edu (kdharris@andromeda.rutgers.edu) Date: Sat Mar 22 10:57:43 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Axonal backpropagation in real neural circuits Message-ID: <11026.216.165.126.18.1206126422.squirrel@webmail.newark.rutgers.edu> Dear Computational Neuroscientists, The "backprop" algorithm is the most successful neural network algorithm for real-world applications, but is not considered a serious model for neuronal plasticity in the brain. Overwhelming experimental evidence shows that information can flow backward along axons; it just cannot do so fast enough for implementation of the backprop algorithm. In a recent article, I review the experimental evidence on such "retroaxonal" signaling in the nervous system, and suggest how retroaxonal signals propagating at physiologically reasonable speeds could control learning in neuronal networks, based on the hypothesis that strengthening of a neuron's output synapses stabilizes recent changes in the same neuron's inputs. As a consequence, neural representations that provide useful information to their downstream targets, and thus for behavior, are stabilized. A candidate molecular mechanism for this process, involving the activation of CREB by retrograde neurotrophin signals, is proposed. The article may be found in the latest issue of Trends in Neurosciences, or online at: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~kdharris/backprop.pdf "Stability of the fittest: organizing learning with retroaxonal signals", TINS 31:130-136 (2008). Sincerely, Kenneth D. Harris ------------------------ Kenneth D. Harris, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 197 University Avenue Newark NJ 07102, USA phone: 973 353 1080, x3331 fax: 973 353 1272 Visiting Assistant Professor Smilow Neuroscience Program and Dept of Otolaryngology NYU Medical Center 550 1st Avenue, New York NY 10016 phone: 212 263 9295 email: kdharris@andromeda.rutgers.edu web: http://qneuro.rutgers.edu From jbednar at inf.ed.ac.uk Wed Mar 26 13:45:36 2008 From: jbednar at inf.ed.ac.uk (James A. Bednar) Date: Wed Mar 26 14:34:44 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD studentships in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience, Edinburgh Message-ID: <18410.17776.900085.638637@lodestar.inf.ed.ac.uk> UPDATE: Application deadline extended to 15 April 2008! PhD studentships in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience, Edinburgh We invite applications for 12 fully-funded PhD studentships at the University of Edinburgh Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience. The DTC is a world-class centre for research at the interface between neuroscience and the engineering and physical sciences. Our four-year programme is ideal for students with strong computational and analytical skills who want to work on problems in neuroscience and related fields. The first year consists of courses in neuroscience and informatics, as well as lab projects. This is followed by a three-year PhD project done in collaboration with one of the many departments and institutes affiliated with the DTC. The DTC focuses on research into understanding the brain and the nervous system using computational models and experiments, and also includes applying findings from neuroscience to build better software and hardware (robots and microcircuits), and using advanced methods to improve data handling and analysis including clinical diagnosis. PhD topics fall into five main areas: * Computational neuroscience: Using analytical and computational models, potentially supplemented with experiments, to gain quantitative understanding of the nervous system. Current projects focus on the development and function of sensory and motor systems, including neural coding, learning, and memory. * Cognitive science: Studying human cognitive processes and analysing them in computational terms. * Biomedical imaging algorithms and tools: Using advanced data analysis techniques, such as machine learning and Bayesian approaches, for imaging-based diagnosis and research. * Software systems and applications: Using discoveries from neuroscience to develop intelligent computer interfaces and software that can handle real-life data. * Neurorobotics and VLSI: Using insights from neuroscience to help build better hardware, such as neuromorphic VLSI circuits and robots that perform robustly under natural conditions. Edinburgh has a world-class research community in these areas and leads the UK in creating a coherent programme in neuroinformatics and computational neuroscience. Edinburgh has been voted 'best place to live in Britain', and has many exciting cultural and student activities. Students with a strong background in computer science, mathematics, physics, or engineering are particularly welcome to apply. Motivated students with other backgrounds will also be considered. Up to 12 full studentships (?12,600-?14,000 pa) are available to UK students and a small number of EU students. Non-EU/non-UK applicants will need to provide their own funding and evidence thereof. Further information and application forms can be obtained from: http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/dtc The application deadline is 15 April 2008 for entry September 2008. From pshoemaker at gmail.com Sun Mar 23 01:06:24 2008 From: pshoemaker at gmail.com (Phillip Shoemaker) Date: Wed Mar 26 14:35:31 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Hierarchical Temporal Memory Message-ID: On June 23rd and 24th, Numenta is holding a workshop to teach and discuss the concepts around Hierarchical Temporal Memory, and the Numenta Platform for Intelligent Computing. I've posted the blurb about the workshop below. === The Numenta HTM Workshop is targeted at a technical audience, principally software developers who are developing HTM networks, or people who are interested in learning to work with HTMs. The Workshop will kick off with an evening reception on Monday, June 23, and then will run from 8:00am until 9:00pm on June 24. The agenda will include a keynote by Jeff Hawkins, seminars by Numenta engineers, presentations by Numenta partners, poster sessions, birds-of-a-feather gatherings, and open lab time. Since the Workshop will presume basic knowledge of HTM theory and of the NuPIC Platform, we are offering a jumpstart program on June 23rd at no additional charge. We welcome your participation in this developer program. We have room for a few student volunteers, and we invite developers working in the field to present a poster, or to propose a "lightning round" talk. Information on signing up for the Workshop, as well as how to participate, is included here: http://www.htmworkshop.com . We have limited capacity, so be sure to sign up early! === -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.neuroinf.org/pipermail/comp-neuro/attachments/20080322/10782d87/attachment-0001.html From rish at us.ibm.com Wed Mar 26 17:39:51 2008 From: rish at us.ibm.com (Irina Rish) Date: Wed Mar 26 17:48:02 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] =?iso-8859-1?q?CFP=3A__ICML/UAI/COLT_2008_workshop_?= =?iso-8859-1?q?on_Sparse=A0Optimization_and_Variable_Selection?= Message-ID: Call for Papers: ICML/UAI/COLT 2008 workshop on Sparse?Optimization and Variable Selection July 9, 2008, Helsinki, Finland http://irina.rish.googlepages.com/icml08sparse Submission deadline: May 5 ------------------------ Overview: Variable selection is an important issue in many applications of machine learning and statistics where the main objective is discovering predictive patterns in data that would enhance our understanding of underlying physical, biological and other natural processes, beyond just building accurate 'black-box' predictors. Common examples include biomarker selection in biological applications [1], finding brain areas predictive about 'brain states' based on fMRI data [2], and identifying network bottlenecks best explaining end-to-end performance [3,4], just to name a few. Recent years have witnessed a flurry of research on algorithms and theory for variable selection and estimation involving sparsity constraints. Various types of convex relaxation, particularly L1-regularization, have proven very effective: examples include the LASSO [5], boosted LASSO [6], Elastic Net [1], L1-regularized GLMs [7], sparse classifiers such as sparse (1-norm) SVM [8,9], as well as sparse dimensionality reduction methods (e.g. sparse component analysis [10], and particularly sparse PCA [11,12] and sparse NMF [13,14]). Applications of these methods are wide-ranging, including computational biology, neuroscience, graphical model selection [15], and the rapidly growing area of compressed sensing [16-19]. Theoretical work has provided some conditions when various relaxation methods are capable of recovering an underlying sparse signal, provided bounds on sample complexity, and investigated trade-offs between different choices of design matrix properties that guarantee good performance. We would like to invite researchers working on the methodology, theory and applications of sparse models and selection methods to share their experiences and insights into both the basic properties of the methods, and the properties of the application domains that make particular methods more (or less) suitable. We hope to further explore connections between variable selection and related areas such as dimensionality reduction, optimization and compressed sensing. Suggested Topics: We would welcome submissions on various aspects of sparsity in machine-learning,from theoretical results to novel algorithms and interesting applications. Questions of interest include, but are not limited to: - Does variable selection provide a meaningful interpretation of interest to domain experts? - What type of method (e.g., combination of regularizers) is best-suited for a particular application and why? - How robust is the method with respect to various type of noise in the data? - What are the theoretical guarantees on the reconstruction ability of the method? consistency? sample complexity? Comparison of different variable selection and dimensionality reduction methods with respect to their accuracy, robustness, and interpretability is encouraged. Paper Submission Please submit an extended abstract (1 to 3 pages in two-column ICML format) to the workshop email address sparse.ws@gmail.com. The abstract should include author names, affiliations, and contact information. Papers will be reviewed by at least 3 members of the program committee., Format: We are planning on having one tutorial, 4-5 invited talks (30-40 min each) and shorter contributed talks (15-20 min) from researches in industry and academia, followed by 10 min discussion, as well as a panel discussion at the end of the workshop. The workshop is intended to be accessible to the broader ICML-COLT-UAI community and to encourage communication between different fields. Workshop Organizers/Program Committee: Irina Rish? (primary contact), Guillermo Cecchi?, Rajarshi Das?, Tony Jebara*, Gerald Tesauro?, Martin Wainwright? {rish,gcecchi,rajarshi, gtesauro}@us.ibm.com ? IBM Watson Research jebara@cs.columbia.edu * Columbia U. wainwrig@eecs.berkeley.edu ? UC Berekeley Past related workshops: NIPS 2006 workshop on Causality and Feature Selection NIPS 2003 workshop on feature extraction and feature selection challenge NIPS 2001 workshop on Variable and Feature Selection Related Work [1] H. Zou and T. Hastie. Regularization and Variable Selection via the Elastic Net (pdf). JRSSB (2005) 67(2) 301-320. [2] G. Cecchi, I. Rish, R. Rao, R. Garg. Prediction of Brain Activity based on Elastic Net Algorithm, in PBAIC workshop at Human Brain Mapping 2007 conference. Extended version is under submittion. [3] G. Chandalia and I. Rish. Blind Source Separation Approach to Performance Diagnosis and Dependency Discovery, to appear in Internet Measurement Conference (IMC-07). [4] A. Beygelzimer, J. Kephart and I. Rish. Evaluation of Optimization Methods for Network Bottleneck Diagnosis, in ICAC 2007. [5] R. Tibshirani(1996). Regression shrinkage and selection via the lasso. J. Royal. Statist. Soc B., Vol. 58, No. 1, pages 267-288. [6] Zhao, P. & Yu, B. (2004), Boosted lasso, Technical report, University of California, Berkeley, USA. [7] M. Park and T. Hastie. An L1 Regularization-path Algorithm for Generalized Linear Models. Stanford Technical Report; to appear in JRSSB. [8] J. Zhu, S. Rosset, T. Hastie and R. Tibshirani. 1-Norm Support Vector Machines, NIPS 2003. [9] A. Chan, N. Vasconcelos and G. Lanckriet. (2007). Direct Convex Relaxations of Sparse SVM. ICML-07. [10] Y. Li, A. Cichocki, S. Amari, S. Shishkin, J. Cao, and F. Gu. Sparse representation and its applications in blind source separation. NIPS-03. [11] H. Zou, T. Hastie, and R. Tibshirani. Sparse Principal Component Analysis. JCGS 2006 15(2): 262-286. [12] d'Aspremont, A., El Ghaoui, L., Jordan, M.I., Lanckriet, G.R.G. (2004). A Direct Formulation for Sparse PCA using Semidefinite Programming. NIPS-04. [13] P. O. Hoyer. Non-negative Matrix Factorization with sparseness constraints. JMLR 5:1457-1469, 2004. [14] H. Kim and H. Park. Sparse non-negative matrix factorizations via alternating non-negativity-constrained least squares for microarray data analysis. Bioinformatics, 23(12), 1495-1502, 2007 [15] M. Wainwright, P. Ravikumar and J. Lafferty.High-Dimensional Graphical Model Selection Using l1-Regularized Logistic Regression. NIPS-06 [16] D. Donoho. Compressed sensing. (EEE Trans. on Information Theory, 52 (4), pp. 1289 - 1306, 2006. [17] E. Cand?s, Compressive sampling. Proc. International Congress of Mathematics, 3, pp. 1433-1452, Madrid, Spain, 2006 [18] R. Baraniuk, A Lecture on Compressive Sensing. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, July 2007. [19] S. Ji and L. Carin, Bayesian Compressive Sensing and Projection Optimization. ICML 2007 [20] T. Jebara. "Multi-Task Feature and Kernel Selection for SVMs". International Conference on Machine Learning, ICML, July 2004. [21] T. Jebara and T. Jaakkola. "Feature Selection and Dualities in Maximum Entropy Discrimination". In 16th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, UAI 2000. July 2000. From m.kaiser at newcastle.ac.uk Wed Mar 26 19:10:43 2008 From: m.kaiser at newcastle.ac.uk (Marcus Kaiser) Date: Thu Mar 27 11:21:08 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] PhD studentship in Computational Neurology: Network robustness after lesions Message-ID: <6942EE35B530F84EAD432959F5E4DAB50765DE1E@largo.campus.ncl.ac.uk> Dear all, The following 3-year PhD studentship is currently available (pending approval) in my lab: Identifying mechanisms for cortical network robustness Why are neural systems often robust towards large-scale damage whereas technical systems often crash after failures of individual components? This project will investigate how the global network architecture of the brain (Sporns, Chialvo, Kaiser, Hilgetag, Trends Cogn. Sci., 2004) enables network robustness. Earlier studies have shown that cortical networks are robust to random removal of nodes (Kaiser et al., Eur. J. Neurosci., 2007) or edges (Kaiser & Hilgetag, Biol. Cybern., 2004) due to their scale-free and modular network topology. Comparing computational models of recovery based on brain connectivity with clinical results from stroke patients, the link between cortical network topology and recovery mechanisms after lesions will be investigated. The project might also involve external collaborations with Oxford University and M.I.T. The project is associated with the Institute of Neuroscience which consists of about 100 principal investigators in the fields of cellular, systems, behavioural, clinical, and computational neuroscience (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/). Furthermore, Newcastle hosts the UK Stroke Research Network co-ordinating Centre and has a track-record in brain network analysis (Young, Nature, 1992). The funding for the studentship is provided by EPSRC and covers a stipend (about ?12,940 tax-free per year) and academic fees for EU citizens. Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a First Class MSc in Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Biology, Medicine or other related field with a strong interest in computational analysis of biological systems. Programming experience with Java, C or Matlab as well as statistical knowledge is always welcome. The deadline for the application is 15 April 2008. Applicants should follow the normal electronic admissions procedure at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/ including a CV and contact details for two persons who can provide references. In the section of the application form, where you are asked to provide your research proposal, you should also state that you wish to be considered for the School of Computing Science EPSRC PhD Studentship and quote the reference number CS002. For more information please e-mail Dr Marcus Kaiser (m.kaiser@ncl.ac.uk ) or look at http://www.biological-networks.org/ . -- Marcus Kaiser, Ph.D. School of Computing Science Newcastle University Claremont Tower Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, U.K. Phone: +44 191 222 8161 Fax: +44 191 222 8232 http://www.biological-networks.org/ From frederic.alexandre at loria.fr Thu Mar 27 15:14:13 2008 From: frederic.alexandre at loria.fr (Frederic Alexandre) Date: Thu Mar 27 15:26:29 2008 Subject: [Comp-neuro] Postdoc position on Learning and Emotions Message-ID: <47EBABB5.5010808@loria.fr> A postdoc position is available in the CORTEX group, INRIA-Nancy, France, in the domain of Learning and Emotions to begin by end of 2008. Candidates should apply on-line (see address below) but can also directly contact me for any question. alexandre http://www.inria.fr/travailler/mrted/en/postdoc/details.html?id=PNGFK026203F3VBQB6G68LOE1&LOV5=4508&LOV2=4490&LOV6=4513&LG=EN&Resultsperpage=20&nPostingID=1896&nPostingTargetID=4868&option=52&sort=DESC&nDepartmentID=19 Learning and Emotions Position type: Post-doctoral Fellow Functional area: Nancy Research theme: Cognitive systems Project: CORTEX Environnement http://cortex.loria.fr/ Missions In the domain of machine learning, learning is traditionally considered as an optimisation process, where one tries to appromimate as accurately and as quickly as possible a function to get the best performances with regard to a global criterion. As studies from biology and psychology about the role of emotions in learning are considered, it appears that learning is no