Friday, May 30, 2014

[Comp-neuro] 2nd Announcement: Bernstein Sparks Workshop and CI2014 conference, 20 June 2014

Dear List,

I would like to invite you to the 3rd Bernstein Sparks Workshop on "Modelling and Signal Processing for Auditory Implants" and to the CI 2014 conference in Munich.

The conference will take place on 18-21 June 2014 and the workshop will be held on Friday, 20 June 2014, in the conference venue. The workshop will feature invited talks by experts in the field which cover the topic from physiological aspects to various models (physiologically inspired and perceptual models) and their application for designing new stimulation strategies for auditory implants.

Attendance to the workshop is free for conference participants and Bernstein members. Conference day tickets will be available. More information can be found at:
http://www.ci2014muc.info/Bernstein-Sparks-Workshop.708.0.html
http://www.ci2014muc.info

Looking forward to meeting you in Munich,

Bernhard Seeber


--
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernhard U. Seeber
Audio Information Processing
Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
Technische Universität München
Arcisstrasse 21
D-80333 Munich, Germany

Office: +49 89 289-28282
Fax: +49 89 289-28211
Mobile: +49 (0)174 928 6338

Visitors: Theresienstrasse 90, building N5, room N6504
Web: www.aip.ei.tum.de
www.bseeber.de


_______________________________________________
Comp-neuro mailing list
Comp-neuro@neuroinf.org
http://www.neuroinf.org/mailman/listinfo/comp-neuro

[Comp-neuro] IEEE SSCI 2014 Doctoral Consortium (deadline June 15, 2014) - Call for Applications

IEEE SSCI 2014 Doctoral Consortium - Call for Applications

The IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI) 2014 will be running a Doctoral Consortium alongside the symposium. The objective of this Doctoral Consortium is to provide an opportunity for Ph.D. students to discuss their dissertation research topics, research plans, and research methodologies in a supportive environment with peers in the community. The feedback, advice, and guidance will be invaluable to Ph.D. students in supporting their current and future research in computational intelligence and their future careers. There are dedicated financial support for selected Ph.D. students to attend this Doctoral Consortium as well as student travel grants for SSCI.

Applications

In order to submit to the Doctoral Consortium, students are required to submit the following items through the same portal as papers for SSCI.

1. Cover sheet that includes:
- Full name
- Affiliation and email address
- Expected graduation date
- Thesis advisor's full name, title, affiliation and email address
- Title of research
- List of up to 5 keywords to help select reviewers for the application
2. A 2-page summary of Ph.D. research that includes:
- Title of research
- Name, affiliation, and email address
- Research question and significance
- Important literature
- Proposed research methodology
- Preliminary results
- Future research plan
- Reference list (maximum one page, not included in 2-page limit)
3. CV
4. Letter of support from Ph.D. supervisor or other faculty member
5. Confirmation letter of Ph.D. student status

Key dates are the same as for the SSCI

Submission June 15, 2014
Notification September 5, 2014
Final Submission October 5, 2014

Full details of the Doctoral Consortium are available from http://ieee-ssci.org/consortium.html

Co-Chairs
Stephen G. Matthews, University of Bristol, UK
Xiaorong Zhang, San Francisco State University, USA
Demetrios G. Eliades, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Thursday, May 29, 2014

[Comp-neuro] CogModel notes: ICCM15/BRIMS14/books/prize/new society/Job

This is the second emailing for ICCM 2015. Please forward if
appropriate to your members, and put appropriate links onto your web
site.

Normally, the ICCM 2015 announcement would drive this email (it will
be in Gronigen, near April 2015, on its regular (15/18 month)
schedule, this should be settled next month). But, there are several
timely announcements that indicate new publication outlets, resources,
and jobs in Cog Sci and in cognitive modeling. I have also included
several unusual items, including an interesting conference and a
Kickstarter campaign! Now in order: meetings, resources, jobs.

If you would like to be removed, please just let me know. I maintain
it by hand to keep it small.

[Hypertext version available at
http://acs.ist.psu.edu/iccm2015/iccm-mailing-may2014.html]

cheers,

Frank Ritter frank.e.ritter@gmail.com http://www.frankritter.com
****************************************************************

1. Intnl. Conf. on Cognitive Modeling, April 2015 in Gronigen, NL

2. WASET International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (!)
[link suppressed]

:::: Other conferences, workshops
3. BRIMS 2014 proceedings online
http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS/archives/2014/

4. Cognitive Science Society annual meeting, 27 june early reg. deadline
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference_future.html

5. Cognitive Science Tutorial Program, 23 July 2014
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/tutorials.html

6. ACT-R Workshop at Cognitive Science 2014
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/workshops.html
[from act-r mailing list]

7. Soar Workshop, week of 16 June
https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/

8. 3rd Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems, May 2015
http://www.cogsys.org/2015

9. BICA 2014 call for papers, due 26 May 2014, but other dates
http://bicasociety.org/meetings/2014/

10. Nengo Summer School, 8-21 June
http://nengo.ca/summerschool

11. Summer School - Web Science & the Mind, 7-18 July, reg. still open
http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/

12. CFP for 2015 iConference in Newport Beach, CA, 24-27 March 2015
http://ischools.org/the-iconference/ papers due 5 sept 2014

13. Intl. Summer School in Cog. Sci., 30 Jun-11 July, Bulgaria
http://nbu.bg/cogs/events/ss2014.html

14. 14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, 21-23 Aug
http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/ncpw14

15. AI for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI), papers due 13 June 14
http://ai-hri.github.io/

:::: Other resources
16. OpenWorm Kickstarter Campaign
http://www.openworm.org

17. Numerous books to review

18. Premodeling / HCI book
FDUCs: What designers need to know about people
http://www.frankritter.com/fducs/

19. New Society: The Society for Affective Science and Conference
http://www.society-for-affective-science.org/conference

20. $10k prize for best paper in Human Factors journal, due 2 June 14
http://www.hfes.org/web/pubpages/hfprize.html

:::: Jobs
21. Post doctoral Scholar in Systems Neuroscience and Connectivity Modeling
http://www.la.psu.edu/facultysearch/

****************************************************************
1. International Conf. on Cognitive Modeling, April 2015 in Gronigen, NL

The International Conference on Cognitive Modeling will take place in
April 2015 (approx. date) at RU/Gronigen, in the Netherlands. The
deadline date for submissions will be in the Fall of 2014. Further
announcements will provide more details.

****************************************************************
2. WASET International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (!)
[link suppressed]

Cognitive modeling has grown, and we don't always know everyone doing
it any more. But, it has also now grown enough that WASET, the
(so-called) World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology has
created a "WASET International Conference on Cognitive Modeling".

WASET has NO RELATION to the ICCM conference folks.

If you have any useful suggestions, please get in touch. I've emailed
a few of their program committee members, where I could find their
addresses, to start a discussion. The program committee appears to be
made up of scholars from other areas, and I have confirmed that with
two of them, who don't know how to be removed.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Academy_of_Science,_Engineering_and_Technology

Google has plenty more information on WASET.

Google: WASET International Conference on Cognitive Modeling 2014
will get you to the interesting conference.

[I now suggest that we put copyright on our web pages, and, realise
that cognitive
modeling is now important enough to be copied (that is a neutral
term) by WASAT.]

****************************************************************
3. BRIMS 2014 proceedings online
http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS/archives/2014/

The Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (BRIMS)
conference (http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS2014/) was held 1-4 April. It
was held with the Social computing, Behavioral-cultural modeling, and
Prediction (SBP) conference (http://sbp-conference.org/) in DC.

Its proceedings are online at
http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS/archives/2014/

The place and time for next year are not yet announced.

****************************************************************
4. Cognitive Science Society annual meeting, 27 june early reg. deadline
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference_future.html

CogSci 2014 - Cognitive Science Meets Artificial Intelligence: Human
and Artificial Agents in Interactive Contexts
Quebec City, CA
23-26 July 2014

Website URL for future conference:
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference_future.html
----
Highlights Include:

Plenary Speakers: Dedre Gentner, Steven Harnad, & Minoru Asada

13th Rumelhart Prize Recipient: Ray Jackendoff

Symposia: "Foundations of Social Cognition", "Moral Cognition and
Computation", "The Future of Human-Agent Interaction"

Cognitive scientists from around the world are invited to attend
CogSci 2014, the world's premiere annual conference on cognitive
science. The conference represents a broad spectrum of disciplines,
topics, and methodologies from across the cognitive sciences.

In addition to the invited presentations, the program will be filled
with reviewed submissions from the following categories: papers,
symposia, presentation-based talks, member abstracts, tutorials, and
workshops. Submissions must be completed electronically through the
conference submissions web site. Submissions may be in any area of the
cognitive sciences, including, but not limited to, anthropology,
artificial intelligence, computational cognitive systems, cognitive
development, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, education,
linguistics, logic, machine learning, neural networks, philosophy,
robotics and social network studies.

Information regarding the submission process, including opening dates
for the submission website will be posted shortly.
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/submissions.html

We look forward to seeing you in Quebec City.

Conference Co-Chairs:
Paul Bello, Marcello Guarini, Marjorie McShane, and Brian Scassellati

***********************************************************
5. Cognitive Science Tutorial Program, 23 July 2014
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/tutorials.html

Growth Curve Analysis: A Hands-On Tutorial on Using Multilevel
Regression to Analyze Time Course Data
Daniel Mirman

Full Day Tutorial on Quantum Models of Cognition and Decision
Zheng Wang, Jerome Busemeyer, Jennifer Trueblood

Probability, programs, and the mind: Building structured Bayesian
models of cognition
Noah Goodman, Josh Tenenbaum

Online Experiments using jsPsych, psiTurk, and Amazon Mechanical Turk
Josh de Leeuw, Anna Coenen, Doug Markant, Jay B. Jay B. Martin,
John McDonnell, Alexander Rich, Todd Gureckis

Types and states: Mixture and hidden Markov models for cognitive science
Ingmar Visser, Maarten Speekenbrink

Practical Advice on How to Run Human Behavioral Studies
Frank Ritter, Jong Kim

***********************************************************
6. ACT-R Workshop at Cognitive Science 2014
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/workshops.html
[from act-r mailing list]

The ACT-R Workshop 2014 will be held as part of the Cognitive Science
annual meeting:
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/workshops.html

The workshop this year will be organized around four themes:
Neuroscience, Metacognition, Applications, and Architecture. We expect
to discuss a wide range of issues that relate to cognitive
architectures and cognitive modeling more generally; anyone interested
in these issues (regardless of familiarity with ACT-R) is invited and
encouraged to attend.

If you have an idea for a short presentation at the workshop, please
email me, salvucci@drexel.edu a possible title and description.

Registration information should be available soon on the Cognitive
Science web site.

****************************************************************
7. Soar Workshop, week of 16 June
https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/

The Center for Cognitive Architecture at the University of Michigan
(http://sitemaker.umich.edu/soarweb/home) and Soar Technology
(http://www.soartech.com/) are pleased to announce that the 34th Soar
Workshop will be held the week of June 16, 2014 at the Computer
Science and Engineering building at the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor.

For those of you not familiar with the Soar Workshop
(https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/), each year, members of
the Soar community -- faculty, scientists, graduate students,
technical staff and developers -- gather together for several days of
intensive interaction and exchange on Soar. The Soar community is
widely distributed geographically, so these workshops
(http://sitemaker.umich.edu/soar/soar_workshop_proceedings) provide an
opportunity to have face-to-face conversations, learn about the
current status of other participants' research and get previews of
what will happen in the future. We will try to give as many members of
the community as possible the opportunity to describe their research
or discuss the Soar issues that are of concern to them. This means the
time available per talk is quite short (typically either 5 or 15
minutes). Since workshop attendees are already entrenched in
the Soar world, brief talks that concentrate on only the essentials
work very well.

The workshop format is presentations only -- no formal papers.
[but slides are often collected]

There is no charge to attend the 33rd Soar Workshop although
registration at https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/manage.php
this link is required. You may sign up to give talks of various
lengths as soon as you're registered. And then please upload a copy of
your presentation(s) by June 4th, 2013 via the
Soar Workshop registration page
(https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/manage.php). Please make
sure to register as soon as possible so that we can plan
the workshop accordingly!

Questions and information regarding the workshop should be directed to
John Laird via (laird@umich.edu) email, mail or phone:

Soar Workshop 33
c/o John Laird
2260 Hayward
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2121 (734) 647-1761

****************************************************************
8. 3rd Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems, May 2015
http://www.cogsys.org/2015

We are currently in the process of organizing the 3rd Conference on
Advances in Cognitive Systems (ACS). We wanted to give you a heads up
that ACS will be moving to a spring conference. The next ACS will be
held at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia USA on May 29-31, 2015. The
paper submission deadline will be in February 2015.

As you may have heard, AAAI has moved to a winter conference to avoid
conflict with IJCAI (which has become an annual event). The ACS
organizing committee felt it best to avoid a collision with AAAI's
paper submission deadlines. We hope that the ACS move to spring will
allow the diverse and dynamic cognitive systems community to grow.

Please be on the look out for the call for papers in the coming months.

Best,
Ashok Goel and Mark Riedl
Co-Chairs, 3rd Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems

[there is also a mailing list that they have added people to:
advances-cognitive-systems@lists.gatech.edu]

****************************************************************
9. BICA 2014 call for papers, due 26 May 2014, but other dates
http://bicasociety.org/meetings/2014/

2014 Annual Intl Conf on Biologically Inspired Cognitive
Architectures (BICA 2014)
Fifth Annual Meeting of the BICA Society

November 7-9 (Friday-Sunday): MIT, Cambridge, MA
(http://bicasociety.org/meetings/2014).
Sponsors: The BICA Society; MIT; Elsevier B.V.

Points of contact: Paul Robertson (paulr@dollabs.com) and
Alexei Samsonovich (alexei@bicasociety.org)

Call for Papers

Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures (BICA) are computational
frameworks for building intelligent agents that are inspired from
biological intelligence. Biological intelligent systems, notably
animals such as humans, have many qualities that are often lacking in
artificially designed systems including robustness, flexibility and
adaptability to environments. At a point in time where visibility
into naturally intelligent systems is exploding, thanks to modern
brain imaging and recording techniques allowing us to map brain
structures and functions, our ability to learn lessons from nature and
to build biologically inspired intelligent systems has never been
greater. At the same time, the growth in computer science and
technology has unleashed enough computational power at sufficiently
low prices, that an explosion of intelligent applications from
driverless vehicles, to augmented reality, to ubiquitous robots, is
now almost certain. The growth in these fields challenges the
computational replication of all essential aspects of the human mind
(the BICA Challenge), an endeavor which is interdisciplinary in nature
and promises to yield bi-directional flow of understanding between all
involved disciplines.

Scope

With the scope of BICA 2014 covering all areas of BICA-related
research listed below, the major thrusts will be Perception,
Attention, and Language. Here the key questions are:

? What can we learn from biological systems about how perception,
attention, decision making, and action work together to produce
intelligent behavior that is robust in natural environments?

? What have we learned about information flow in biological systems
that can aid us in building better artificial systems that combine
perception, action, language, learning, and decision making in robots
and intelligent agents?

? What have we learned recently about information flow in the brain
that can lead to better cognitive models that combine perception,
attention, decision making, action, language, and learning?

? What role is played by emotions in perception, attention, decision
making, language, and learning?

? How have we, or can we incorporate into cognitive architectures new
evolving understandings about flow of information in biological
cognitive systems?

? What mathematical foundations are emerging today that can support
perception and learning?

In addition to these focus topic areas of BICA 2014, we encourage
submission of papers in all areas of BICA research, especially in the
following areas.

Neuroscience: ....
Social, Economic and Educational Sciences: ...
Cognitive Science: ....
Artificial Intelligence: ....
General: ....

Format and Agenda

The format of the conference is a 2.5-day meeting including paper
presentations, panel discussions, invited talks, and demonstration
showcases. Symposia and other mini-events (special sessions, breakout
groups, brainstorms, think-tanks, socials, contests, and more) as part
of the conference will be added as needed (proposals are
solicited). In addition, BICA 2014 will host a special track
"Doctorial Consortium" for which a "best student paper" award will be
presented. We will also host technology demonstrations, for which we
solicit proposals, and a poster session. We solicit additionally
proposals for panel topics. The working language is English. As a part
of our rich social and cultural program included in the registration,
we are planning a Welcome Reception and a boat trip into the Atlantic
on Saturday night, with a banquet on the boat. Detailed program is not
available yet. Please see our separate pages for Confirmed symposia
planned as part of BICA 2014 (we are asking for additional proposals).

Submission and Publication Venues

Publication venues include: (1) the Elsevier journal BICA - papers may
be distributed among several journal issues; and (2) a volume of
Procedia Computer Science, indexed by Web of Science and Scopus. One
EasyChair submission site will be used for all categories of
submissions, including (1), (2) and also (3): stand-alone abstracts
that will be included in the conference program brochure, without
being published. All submissions will undergo one round of
peer-reviews. The category may be changed based on reviews. All
conference materials (including papers and abstracts) will be together
made available locally for conference participants (included in the
registration package) via USB and/or the Internet. Invited speakers
are not required, but are encouraged to submit papers or
abstracts. Other participants can have presentations accepted based on
an abstract only, without a paper submission.

Core Organizing Committee

Paul Robertson (DOLL, Inc.): General Chair
Patrick H. Winston (CSAIL/MIT): Co-Chair
Howard Shrobe (CSAIL/MIT): Co-Chair
Alexei Samsonovich (GMU): Co-Chair, PC Chair
Antonio Chella: OC Member
Christian Lebiere: OC Member
Kamilla R. Johannsdottir: OC Member

Important Dates

Proposals for Sub-Events:
Symposia, Workshops and Socials - March 1
Doctoral Consortium Submit - May 05
Technology Demos - June 13
Panel Session Interest - June 27

Paper and Abstract Submission:
Paper and abstract submission opens - March 1st
Abstract and Paper Submission Due - May 26*
Paper Review Feedback - June 14*
Final Papers Due - August 01
Late-breaking stand-alone abstracts due - August 31

Registration and Conference:
Early-bird registration (opens soon) due: June 17*
Regular author-presenter registration due - June 27*
Guest and non-presenting attendee online registration due - October 1
Sessions of the conference BICA 2014: November 7-9

*Deadlines extended as of April 28

****************************************************************
10. Nengo Summer School, 8-21 June
http://nengo.ca/summerschool

[From Chris Eliasmith, the registration is long past, but it's worth
noting that this is another cognitive architecture summer school,
which might be repeated.]

I thought you might have some acquaintances or students who would be
interested to know that we're hosting a summer school this year. It
will be on all things Nengo & SPA. We're encouraging people to bring
projects and/or data they'd like to turn into a detailed model. We'll
have a very good instructor/student ratio (1:2).

It's more fully described here: http://nengo.ca/summerschool

The application deadline was Feb 15.

****************************************************************
11. Summer School - Web Science & the Mind, 7-18 July, reg. still open
http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/

[This appears to be a standing event that might be useful to modellers]

The Institut des Sciences Cognitives at UQAM (Montreal) is organising
its fifth Summer School, this year on the topic of "Web Science and
the Mind"

* Topic includes social network analysis, semantic web, distributed
cognition, ...
* Scholarships (500$ + registration)
* Call for posters
* Can be worth 3 credits

Please contact us with any questions or comments you may have:
summer14.isc@uqam.ca

Guillaume Chicoisne
Institut des sciences cognitives, Montreal
--------
The Fifth Summer School in Cognitive Sciences : Web Science and the Mind.
Organized by the UQAM Cognitive Science Institute in Montreal
(Canada), from July 7 to 18.

Theme of the Summer Institute: Web Science and the Mind.

This summer school will present a comprehensive overview of the
interactions between the web and cognitive sciences, with topics
ranging from social network analysis to distributed cognition and
semantic web.

The Summer School will feature a poster session.
Information about this poster session is available at:
http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/page/affiche.php
Deadline: April 11th 2014

Registration for the Summer School is open (''Early Bird''
Registration fees until May 9th).

Note that the lowest fee is for students that will attend the Summer
School as a credited activity (worth 3 university credits). Details:
http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/page/inscription.php

Scholarships for travel, accomodation and/or registration will be
available for students registered in a Quebec University (CREPUQ).
http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/page/bourses.php

Want to stay in touch? Follow us on Twitter! @iscUQAM

We hope to see you there in July.

****************************************************************
12. CFP for 2015 iConference in Newport Beach, CA, 24-27 March 2015
http://ischools.org/the-iconference/ papers due 5 sept 2014

[This is a potential outlet, particularly for models applied to
information systems]

[from CHI-announcements]

Call for Participation, iConference 2015

http://ischools.org/the-iconference/

The iConference is an international gathering of scholars and researchers
concerned with critical information issues in contemporary society. iConference
2015 (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/) takes place March 24-27 in
Newport Beach, California. The following submissions are invited:

*Submission Type*
*Deadline*
*Notification*

Papers (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/papers/)
Friday, September 5, 2014, midnight PDT
mid-November

Posters (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/posters/)
Friday, October 10, 2014, midnight PDT
mid-November

Workshops (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/workshops/)
Friday, September 26, 2014, midnight PDT
Monday, October 27, 2014

Interactive Sessions
(http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/sessions-for-interaction-and-engagement/)
Friday, October 10, 2014, midnight PDT
mid-November

Doctoral Colloquium:
http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/doctoral-colloquium/
Friday, September 12, 2014, midnight PDT
Friday, October 24, 2014

Social Media Expo
(http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/social-media-expo/)
Participation commitment letter due October 14, 2014;
submissions due December 15, 2014.
Thursday, January 15, 2015

Dissertation Award:
http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/dissertation-award/
Wednesday, October 15, 2014, midnight PDT
Thursday, January 15, 2015

iConference 2015 is presented by the iSchools organization
(http://ischools.org) and hosted by The Donald Bren School of
Information and Computer Sciences at University of California,
Irvine. All information researchers and scholars are welcome.

Sample topics of past iConferences include the following:

? social computing ? human-computer interaction
? digital youth ? information retrieval
? network science ? digital humanities
? data science ? information economics
? information systems ? information policy
? knowledge infrastructures ? computational social science
? information work and workers ? user experience and design
? data, text and knowledge mining
? digital curation and preservation
? computer-supported cooperative work
? bibliometrics and scholarly communication
? social, cultural, health and community informatics
? information and communication technology for development
--
Gary M. Olson (949) 824-0077
Department of Informatics gary.olson@uci.edu
Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-3440

****************************************************************
13. Intl. Summer School in Cog. Sci., 30 Jun-11 July, Bulgaria
http://nbu.bg/cogs/events/ss2014.html

The 21st edition of the well-known International Summer School in
Cognitive Science will take place during the two weeks from June 30th
until July 11th at the New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria.

The summer school features advanced courses for graduate students and
young researchers in a variety of areas, including embodied cognition and
dynamic field theory, behavioral experimentation from reaction times to
model testing, computational approaches to development, the cognitive
science of social dilemmas, the epistemology of cognitive science and
neuroscience, and a practical course on working with E-prime as a software
tool for experiment design and implementation.

The summer school will also feature a participant symposium (submit your
brief papers to the school email below by June 9). Registration is now
open. For more information, visit the school's website:

http://nbu.bg/cogs/events/ss2014.html

You can contact us at the following email address:
school@cogs.nbu.bg

****************************************************************
14. 14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, 21-23 Aug
http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/ncpw14

NCPW14 Call for Papers - 14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop

We cordially invite you to participate in the 14th Neural Computation
and Psychology Workshop (NCPW14) to be held at Lancaster University,
UK, from August 21-23, 2014:

http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/ncpw14

This well-established and lively workshop aims at bringing together
researchers from different disciplines such as artificial
intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology,
philosophy and psychology to discuss their work on models of cognitive
processes.

Often this workshop has had a theme, and this time it is 'Development
across the lifespan', but also submissions that do not fall under this
theme are welcome. Papers must be about emergent models - frequently,
but not necessarily - of the connectionist/neural network kind,
applied to cognition.

The NCPW workshops have always been characterized by their limited
size, high quality papers, the absence of parallel talk sessions, and
a schedule that is explicitly designed to encourage interaction among
the researchers present in an informal setting. NCPW14 is no
exception.

The scientific program will consist of keynote lectures, oral sessions
and poster sessions.

Furthermore, this workshop will feature a unique set of invited speakers:

James McClelland, Stanford University.
Bob McMurray, University of Iowa.
Michael Thomas, Birkbeck College, London.

Rumelhart Memorial Travel Awards

The Rumelhart Memorial Travel awards, generously funded by Professor
Jay McClelland, will provide funding to support travel costs for
students/post docs presenting at the conference. Awards of US$250 are
available to students or post docs from Western European countries,
and US$750 for students or post docs from elsewhere. Decisions will be
based on the quality of the submission.

Eligibility criteria

The first author of the submission is a PhD student or Post-doctoral
fellow who will attend the meeting and will present the submission if
chosen to receive a travel award.

Location

Lancaster is situated in the north west of England, approximately one
hour from Manchester and Liverpool airports. Lancaster is surrounded
by spectacular scenery, hiking and climbing country. The Yorkshire
Dales national park is 10 miles away. The Lake District national park
is 20 miles away, http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk. The stagecoach 555
bus (http://www.stagecoachbus.com) takes you directly from Lancaster
through the heart of the Lakes. The Trough of Bowland Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty is 2 miles away.

Important dates to remember

Abstract deadline: 15 May
Notification of abstract acceptance: 7 June
Early registration deadline: tbc
Online registration deadline: tbc
Conference dates: 21-23 August, 2014

Looking forward to your participation!

Organizing Committee
Gert Westermann, Lancaster University
Padraic Monaghan, Lancaster University
Katherine E. Twomey, Liverpool University
Alastair C. Smith, MPI Nijmegen

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof. Gert Westermann +44 (0)1524 592-942
Department of Psychology g.westermann@lancaster.ac.uk
Lancaster University http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/gert-westermann
Lancaster LA1 4YF

****************************************************************
15. AI for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI), papers due 13 June 14
http://ai-hri.github.io/

AAAI Fall Symposium:
AI for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI)
Nov 13-15, 2014 -- Arlington, VA

http://ai-hri.github.io/

2 page abstracts due June 13
Email as a pdf to: ai-hri-symposium-submissions@googlegroups.com

This symposium will bring together and strengthen the community of
researchers working on the AI challenges inherent to Human-Robot
Interaction (HRI). Humans and human environments bring with them
inherent uncertainty in dynamics, structure, and interaction. HRI aims
to develop robots that are intelligent, autonomous, and capable of
interacting with, modeling, and learning from humans. These goals are
at the core of AI.

The field of HRI is a broad community encompassing robotics, AI, HCI,
psychology and social science. In this meeting we aim to specifically
bring together the subset of this community that are focused on the AI
problems of HRI. Currently this type of HRI work is seen across such
a variety of venues (HRI, RSS, ICRA, IROS, Ro-Man, RoboCup, and more),
that we lack a cohesive core community. Building this community is
the central purpose of this symposium.

Planned activities:
- Keynote talks "How is HRI an AI problem?": We will have keynotes
giving eight different perspectives about how AI research is
going to bring us closer to the reality of humans interacting
with robots on everyday tasks.

- Breakout groups + panel discussions: these discussions will be
focused on (1) defining a road map of grand challenges for this
research area, and (2) what is the core venue for this community.

- Poster session: This session will highlight state-of-the-art work
and approaches to AI-HRI.

- Team building: Given the diverse set of venues that this type of
research is presented, it is very rare that members of the AI-HRI
community get together in the same room. As such, a large part of this
effort is to bring together a community of researchers, strengthen old
connections and build new ones. Ample time will be provided for
networking and informal discussions.

Confirmed speakers:
- Rodney Brooks - Cynthia Breazeal
- Henrik Christensen - Maja Mataric
- Manuela Veloso

Important dates:

- To have your work featured in the poster session, submit a two-page
abstract by 13 June 14. Email your submission as a pdf to
ai-hri-symposium-submissions@googlegroups.com
- Decisions will be returned by July 11, 2014
- The symposium will be held Nov 13-15, 2014 in Arlington, VA.

Organizing committee:
- Andrea L. Thomaz, Georgia Institute of Technology (chair)
- Kris Hauser, Indiana University
- Chad Jenkins, Brown University
- Maja J. Mataric, University of Southern California
- Manuela Veloso, Carnegie Mellon University
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "HRI-announcement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and
stop receiving emails from it, send an email to
hri-announcement+unsubscribe@cs.byu.edu. For more options, visit
https://groups.google.com/a/cs.byu.edu/d/optout.

****************************************************************
16. OpenWorm Kickstarter Campaign
http://www.openworm.org

[from Comp-neuro@neuroinf.org]
[this is cool and interesting on several levels and ways]

From: Shreejoy Tripathy <stripathy@chibi.ubc.ca>
Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 11:31:07 -0700
To: comp-neuro@neuroinf.org, connectionists@mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu
Subject: [Comp-neuro] OpenWorm Kickstarter Campaign

I'm writing to let you know about the OpenWorm Kickstarter Campaign
(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openworm/openworm-a-digital-organism-in-your-browser).
As
you may know, the goal of the OpenWorm project is to digitally
simulate a C. Elegans organism. By design, the project is organized in
a geographically distributed fashion and all of the work is being done
in the open (on GitHub and Youtube) using entirely open source code
and public data.

Though I'm not a worm researcher, I'm supporting OpenWorm's
Kickstarter because I strongly believe in their overall mission. As a
computational neuroscientist, I see the project as a necessary first
step in the simulation of more complex organisms, including mice and
ultimately humans. Moreover, I see my Kickstarter contribution as a
future investment in the open source tools and methodologies that
OpenWorm develops that I hope to eventually use in my own research.

More philosophically, I think that lately the field of neuroscience
has suffered from some amount of "overhype", especially given the
initially promised outcomes of recent large-scale brain initiatives
(e.g., recording from all neurons in a mammalian brain, simulating an
entire human brain). While these projects have been hugely successful
in catalyzing widespread public support of basic neuroscience
research, many neuroscientists see these promises as perhaps a bridge
too far given the current research state.

Though OpenWorm's goals are itself highly ambitious, the relative
simplicity of the worm (named neurons, stereotyped connectomes and
musculature, the ability to image neuronal activity in vivo) lends
itself well to this attempt. By conducting the project in the open and
basing success on quantifiable goals (i.e., how similar are the
simulated worm's movements and neural activity to experimental
measurements), the project will serve as a roadmap for future
endeavours in multi-scale data integration and organismal simulation.

Lastly, the geographically distributed and highly interdisciplinary
nature of the project makes it challenging to receive funding through
traditional NIH-style mechanisms. For this reason, I'm asking you to
join me in supporting the project's Kickstarter campaign.

More information:

OpenWorm Website: http://www.openworm.org

Kickstarter campaign link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openworm/openworm-a-digital-organism-in-your-browser

Project overview by OpenWorm member and neuroscientist Jim Hokanson:
http://jimandscience.blogspot.ca/2014/05/modeling-worm-thoughts-on-openworm.html

OpenWorm QandA on Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/246dlw/science_ama_series_im_stephen_larson_project/

Sincerely,

Shreejoy Tripathy
Post-doc and Developer of http://neuroelectro.org
University of British Columbia
Centre for High-Throughput Biology

****************************************************************
17. Numerous books to review

If you would like to review a book, there are several books recently
published that their publishers would give you a copy to facilitate a
review in a magazine or journal.

If you are interested, email me and I'll foward you to the publisher.

Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems: What system
designers need to know about people, Frank Ritter, Gordon Baxter, &
Elizabeth Churchill. (2014). Springer.
http://www.frankritter.com/fducs/

Game Analytics: Maximizing the Value of Player Data [Hardcover]
Magy Seif El-Nasr, Anders Drachen, Alessandro Canossa (Eds)
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Analytics-Maximizing-Value-Player/dp/1447147685
http://www.springer.com/computer/hci/book/978-1-4471-4768-8

How to build a brain, A Neural Architecture for Biological Cognition
Chris Eliasmith, OUP.
http://nengo.ca/build-a-brain

Minding Norms: Mechanisms and dynamics of social order in agent societies
Rosaria Conte, Giulia Andrighetto, and Marco Campenni (eds)
http://global.oup.com/academic/product/minding-norms-9780199812677?

Social Emotions in Nature and Artifact
Jonathan Gratch and Stacy Marsella (eds).
http://global.oup.com/academic/product/social-emotions-in-nature-and-artifact-978019538764314

Running Behavioral studies with human participants
Ritter, Kim, Morgan, & Carlson, Sage
http://www.sagepub.com/textbooks/Book237263

****************************************************************
18. Premodeling / HCI book
FDUCs: What designers need to know about people
http://www.frankritter.com/fducs/

We have published book that is in many ways an HCI book, its first use
is as a Human-computer interaction textbook (it has been used in at
least 4 universities), but it is also a modeling book -- It is
designed to create models of users in designers heads.

Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems: What system
designers need to know about people, Frank Ritter, Gordon Baxter, &
Elizabeth Churchill. (2014). Springer.

If your library subscribes to Springer link, you can get a pdf from
there. If you want a desk copy, there are links from the site above
to order one. If all else fails, contact me. I use it to teach HCI,
as have several at other universities and several penn state campuses.

****************************************************************
19. New Society: The Society for Affective Science and Conference
http://www.society-for-affective-science.org/conference

A new society has been formed -- The Society for Affective
Science. Its mission is to foster basic and applied research in the
variety of fields that study affect, broadly defined.

Our inaugural conference will be April 24-26, 2014 in Washington DC.
This conference will be student-friendly, open, and theoretically and
methodologically diverse. It will provide a forum for cross-cutting
work in emotion, stress, and many other topics that fall under the
broad umbrella of affective science.

For more information see the society website:

http://www.society-for-affective-science.org/

Program highlights for the first meeting can be found at:

http://www.society-for-affective-science.org/conference/highlights/

As you will see, the first meeting features an invited program of
talks in addition to a call for posters. We expect the program to
shift to submissions as the society develops. Currently, the meeting
is largely single tracked, and in addition to the invited addresses
and presidential symposium, the program includes methodology lunches,
salons with well-known affective scientists, and a debate to keep
things lively.

Please feel free to send this email to your students, postdocs, and
colleagues. If you have questions, please email us at:

info@society-for-affective-science.org

****************************************************************
20. $10k prize for best paper in Human Factors journal, due 2 June 14
http://www.hfes.org/web/pubpages/hfprize.html

[this appears to becoming an annual prize, modeling papers get
published in HF and there are modellers as editors and reviewers]

Submit your research for the 2014 Human Factors Prize--You could win $10,000!

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) welcomes your
submission for the 2014 Human Factors Prize: Recognizing Excellence in
Human Factors/Ergonomics Research. The best paper will receive:

$10,000 cash award

Publication in the Society's flagship journal,
(http://content.news.sagepub.com/emessageIRS/servlet/IRSL?v=5&a=10050&r=22230&m=4655&l=10&e=2&x=2457051.0)
Human Factors

The 2014 topic is human-automation interaction/autonomy. We seek
articles that describe human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) research that
pertains to effective and satisfying interaction between humans and
automation. Plan to submit your work between April 1 and June 2, 2014.

Eligibility Requirements:

Any researcher is eligible to submit relevant work; membership in HFES
is not required. Submissions must cover original (unpublished)
research in the topical area and comply with the requirements in the
Human Factors
(http://content.news.sagepub.com/emessageIRS/servlet/IRSL?v=5&a=10050&r=22230&m=4655&l=12&e=2&x=2457051.0)
instructions for authors.

Review articles and brief reports are not eligible.

Submissions must not be received prior to April 1 or after June 2, 2014.

To see examples of articles on subject matter similar to the 2014
Prize topic, visit the Human Factors Prize Web page
(http://content.news.sagepub.com/emessageIRS/servlet/IRSL?v=5&a=10050&r=22230&m=4655&l=9&e=2&x=2457051.0)

The award will be formally conferred at a special session at the
HFES International Annual Meeting, where the recipient will present
his or her work
(http://content.news.sagepub.com/emessageIRS/servlet/IRSL?v=5&a=10050&r=22230&m=4655&l=13&e=2&x=2457051.0)

Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
(HFS) is a peer-reviewed journal presenting original works of
scientific merit that contribute to the understanding and advancement
of the systematic consideration of people in relation to machines,
systems, tools, and environments. HFS highlights fundamental human
capabilities, limitations, and tendencies, as well as the basics of
human performance.

Human Factors
Impact Factor: 1.182
Ranked: 7/16 in Ergonomics | 21/44 in Engineering, Industrial |
39/72 in Psychology, Applied | 44/49 in Behavioral Sciences |
51/75 in Psychology
Source: 2012 Journal Citation Reports(R) (Thomson Reuters, 2013)

Questions? Contact HFES Communications Director Lois Smith at
lois@hfes.org. We look forward to receiving your submission.

****************************************************************
21. Post doctoral Scholar in Systems Neuroscience and Connectivity Modeling
http://www.la.psu.edu/facultysearch/

[this was announced in February, but is still up on the web site]

Post doctoral Scholar in Systems Neuroscience and Connectivity Modeling
Job Number: 41202

Affirmative Action Search No. #: 021-320

Department: Psychology

Rank: Post Doc

Announcement: We are seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Scholar
in the area of clinical/cognitive neuroscience, brain imaging, and
network modeling. The successful candidate will work in collaboration
with investigators at The Pennsylvania State University including Dr.
Hillary in Psychology, Dr. Reka Albert in Physics and Dr. Peter
Molenaar in Human Development and Family Studies. The goals of the
research focus on time series analysis, graph theory, and connectivity
modeling of human brain imaging data (high density EEG, BOLD fMRI).
The primary responsibility of this position is to facilitate ongoing
research examining neural plasticity after severe traumatic brain
injury in humans. There is also keen interest for this position to
support the development of novel methods for understanding plasticity
from a systems neuroscience perspective. This includes prospective
data collection as well as analysis of existing data sets. Current lab
goals aim to focus on issues regarding: 1) signal processing (i.e.,
non-stationarity in time series data; cross-frequency coupling), 2)
large scale connectivity analysis (e.g., graph theory), 3) machine
learning, and 4) novel methods isolating regions of interest. A
Doctorate (M.D. and/or Ph.D.) degree is required by the appointment
date. Excellent verbal and written communication skills and a
background in computational modeling (broadly defined) is required and
programming experience is preferred. Review of applications will begin
in February and continue until the position is filled. The appointment
is for two years with a tentative start date flexible. To apply,
submit cover letter,
curriculum vita, and the names and contact information for three
references through http://www.la.psu.edu/facultysearch/
For additional information, contact Frank G. Hillary, fhillary@psu.edu.

Employment will require successful completion of background check(s)
in accordance with University policies.

Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and
the diversity of its workforce.

****************************************************************
-30-
_______________________________________________
Comp-neuro mailing list
Comp-neuro@neuroinf.org
http://www.neuroinf.org/mailman/listinfo/comp-neuro

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Re: [Comp-neuro] Deep Learning Overview - Draft

Dear computational neuroscientists,

thanks a lot for numerous helpful comments!
This was great fun; I learned a lot.

A revised version (now with 850+ references) is here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.7828
PDF: http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/DeepLearning28May2014.pdf
LATEX source: http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/DeepLearning28May2014.tex
The complete BIBTEX file is also public: http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/bib.bib

Please do NOT reply to the entire list (only to juergen@idsia.ch).

Juergen Schmidhuber
http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/deeplearning.html


---Revised Table of Contents:---

1 Introduction to Deep Learning (DL) in Neural Networks (NNs)

2 Event-Oriented Notation for Activation Spreading in Feedforward NNs (FNNs) and Recurrent NNs (RNNs)

3 Depth of Credit Assignment Paths (CAPs) and of Problems

4 Recurring Themes of Deep Learning
4.1 Dynamic Programming for Supervised / Reinforcement Learning (SL / RL)
4.2 Unsupervised Learning (UL) Facilitating SL and RL
4.3 Learning Hierarchical Representations Through Deep SL, UL, RL
4.4 Occam's Razor: Compression and Minimum Description Length (MDL)
4.5 Fast Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for DL in NNs

5 Supervised NNs, Some Helped by Unsupervised NNs
5.1 Early NNs Since the 1940s (and the 1800s)
5.2 Around 1960: Visual Cortex Provides Inspiration for DL
5.3 1965: Deep Networks Based on the Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH)
5.4 1979: Convolution + Weight Replication + Subsampling (Neocognitron)
5.5 1960-1981 and Beyond: Development of Backpropagation (BP) for NNs
5.5.1 BP for Weight-Sharing Feedforward NNs (FNNs) and Recurrent NNs (RNNs)
5.6 Late 1980s-2000: Numerous Improvements of NNs
5.6.1 Ideas for Dealing with Long Time Lags and Deep CAPs
5.6.2 Better BP Through Advanced Gradient Descent
5.6.3 Searching For Simple, Low-Complexity, Problem-Solving NNs
5.6.4 Potential Benefits of UL for SL
5.7 1987: UL Through Autoencoder (AE) Hierarchies
5.8 1989: BP for Convolutional NNs (CNNs)
5.9 1991: Fundamental Deep Learning Problem of Gradient Descent
5.10 1991: UL-Based History Compression Through a Deep Hierarchy of RNNs
5.11 1992: Max-Pooling (MP): Towards MPCNNs
5.12 1994: Early Contest-Winning NNs
5.13 1995: Supervised Recurrent Very Deep Learner (LSTM RNN)
5.14 2003: More Contest-Winning/Record-Setting NNs
5.15 2006/7: UL For Deep Belief Networks (DBNs) / AE Stacks Fine-Tuned by BP
5.16 2006/7: Improved CNNs / GPU-CNNs / BP-Trained MPCNNs / LSTM Stacks
5.17 2009: First Official Competitions Won by RNNs, and with MPCNNs
5.18 2010: Plain Backprop (+Distortions) on GPU Yields Excellent Results
5.19 2011: MPCNNs on GPU Achieve Superhuman Vision Performance
5.20 2011: Hessian-Free Optimization for RNNs
5.21 2012: First Contests Won on ImageNet & Object Detection & Segmentation
5.22 2013-: More Contests and Benchmark Records
5.23 Currently Successful Supervised Techniques: LSTM RNNs / GPU-MPCNNs
5.24 Recent Tricks for Improving SL Deep NNs (Compare Sec. 5.6.2, 5.6.3)
5.25 Consequences for Neuroscience
5.26 DL with Spiking Neurons?

6 DL in FNNs and RNNs for Reinforcement Learning (RL)
6.1 RL Through NN World Models Yields RNNs With Deep CAPs
6.2 Deep FNNs for Traditional RL and Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) .
6.3 Deep RL RNNs for Partially Observable MDPs (POMDPs)
6.4 RL Facilitated by Deep UL in FNNs and RNNs
6.5 Deep Hierarchical RL (HRL) and Subgoal Learning with FNNs and RNNs
6.6 Deep RL by Direct NN Search / Policy Gradients / Evolution
6.7 Deep RL by Indirect Policy Search / Compressed NN Search
6.8 Universal RL


On May 15, 2014, at 3:36 PM, Juergen Schmidhuber <juergen@idsia.ch> wrote:

> Dear computational neuroscientists,
>
> here the preliminary draft of an invited Deep Learning overview:
>
> http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/DeepLearning15May2014.pdf
>
> It mostly consists of references (about 800 entries so far). Important citations are still missing though. As a machine learning researcher, I am obsessed with credit assignment. In case you know of references to add or correct, please send them with brief explanations to juergen@idsia.ch (NOT TO THE ENTIRE LIST!), preferably together with URL links to PDFs for verification. Please also do not hesitate to send me additional corrections / improvements / suggestions / Deep Learning success stories with feedforward and recurrent neural networks. I'll post a revised version later. Thanks a lot!
>
> Abstract. In recent years, deep artificial neural networks (including recurrent ones) have won numerous contests in pattern recognition and machine learning. This historical survey compactly summarises relevant work, much of it from the previous millennium. Shallow and deep learners are distinguished by the depth of their credit assignment paths, which are chains of possibly learnable, causal links between actions and effects. I review deep supervised learning (also recapitulating the history of backpropagation), unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning & evolutionary computation, and indirect search for short programs encoding deep and large networks.
>
> Juergen Schmidhuber
> http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/
> http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/whatsnew.html



_______________________________________________
Comp-neuro mailing list
Comp-neuro@neuroinf.org
http://www.neuroinf.org/mailman/listinfo/comp-neuro

[Comp-neuro] Postdoc in Neuromechanics and Optogenetics at Temple University


Dear colleagues, 

We have the following postdoc position available within the Spence Lab, Department of Bioengineering, at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA. See www.spencelab.com for information about the group.

Cheers!
Andrew Spence

Have you ever wondered how legged animals manage to move with dexterity, economy, and robustness over challenging terrain? Or how information from sense organs in different parts of your body is used when you move quickly? Have you heard about some of the new neurogenetic technologies, like optogenetics, that are making it possible for us to switch on and off specific parts of the nervous system with light? Members of the Spence Lab are working to answer these questions, using cutting edge techniques including optogenetics, computer vision, and robotics. We aim to explore and examine, as much as possible, freely behaving animals, with an increasing focus on mice. 

The Spence Lab invites applications from prospective postdocs from a wide range of backgrounds, including neuroscience, biomechanics, physics, physiology, engineering, computer science, and robotics. This postdoc is a three-year Army Research Office funded position that will use optogenetic tools in mice to understand how the structure of the quadrupedal gait controller, and sensory feedback from the limbs, facilitate dynamic locomotion. 

The Department of Bioengineering at Temple University is a brand new department with newly renovated facilities, and the Spence Lab is investing in state of the art equipment. Temple University lies in Philadelphia, a city known for it's restaurants and vibrant culture, housing a large number of universities, and with excellent links to New York City (two hours away) and Washington DC (2.5 hours away).

For further information on the group and it's current activities, please visit www.spencelab.com

If you are interested and qualified, please send a cover letter, CV, transcripts and relevant publications to aspence@temple.edu.
The position is available until filled.


Dr. Andrew Spence
Associate Professor
Department of Bioengineering
Engineering Building Room 814
College of Engineering
Temple University
1947 N. 12th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Phone: 215-204-3056

[Comp-neuro] Bernstein Workshop "Characterizing Natural Scenes": Second Call for Abstracts/Contributed Talks

Second Call for Abstracts/Contributed Talks

You are invited to participate in the pre-conference Bernstein workshop
"Characterizing Natural Scenes: Retinal Coding and Statistical Theory",
taking place in Göttingen, Germany, on September 2-3, 2014. Please find
the preliminary schedule at workshop URL:
https://sites.google.com/site/jiankliu/Meetings/2014bccn_workshop

The workshop chairs will select a couple of abstracts for short oral
presentation at the workshop. All the abstracts will be presented as
posters during the Bernstein conference on September 3-4. However, the
workshop could hold a separate poster session based on the number and
quality of abstracts that we receive.

To participate in the workshop please submit the abstract (an extended
version is preferred) as a PDF attachment via email to Jian Liu
(jian.liu@med.uni-goettingen.de) or Arno Onken (arno.onken@iit.it). The
deadline for submission is August 1.

Please note that abstract submission for the main conference is already
closed while abstract submission for this workshop is still open.


REGISTRATION:
Please refer to the Bernstein Conference 2014 for registration and venue
information.
http://www.bernstein-conference.de/


WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
How does the retina process natural visual inputs? What role do the many
types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) play in this? Experiments with
specific artificial stimuli have suggested that individual types of RGCs
may have specific functional roles in visual processing, yet it is not
clear how these simplified functional investigations relate to the
processing of natural images and movies. An important ingredient for
future analysis will be a better understanding of the complex
statistical properties of natural scenes, as revealed by theoreticians.

The relationship between natural visual statistics and retinal coding
provides a promising direction for improving our understanding of the
visual system. But we still lack a systematic framework for
understanding the underlying mechanisms of how relevant features of
natural scenes are encoded by the retina.

In this workshop, we expect mutual benefits for both natural scene
statistics and retinal coding. We will bring together experimentalists
and theoreticians in order to highlight recent progress, encourage
exchange of insights, and stimulate new ideas for future work with the
following core questions:

1) How can we develop useful descriptions of the statistics of natural
scenes that are relevant for retinal coding?
2) How can we characterize the functional roles of different RGC types
in processing natural scenes?
3) Which coding strategies are present at the level of RGC populations?
4) How can we unify the acquired knowledge of natural scenes and neural
data to develop better tools for analysis?

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
* Vijay Balasubramanian (University of Pennsylvania)
* Philipp Berens (BCCN, Tübingen)
* Thomas Euler (University of Tübingen)
* Felix Franke (ETH Zurich)
* Olivier Marre (Vision Institute, Paris)
* Aman Saleem (University College London)
* Maneesh Sahani (University College London)
* Rava A. da Silveira (ENS, Paris)

We are looking forward to seeing you in Göttingen.

Workshop organizers:
Jian Liu (University Medical Center Göttingen and BCCN Göttingen)
Arno Onken (Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems
_______________________________________________
Comp-neuro mailing list
Comp-neuro@neuroinf.org
http://www.neuroinf.org/mailman/listinfo/comp-neuro

[visionlist] Bernstein Workshop "Characterizing Natural Scenes": Second Call for Abstracts/Contributed Talks

Second Call for Abstracts/Contributed Talks

You are invited to participate in the pre-conference Bernstein workshop
"Characterizing Natural Scenes: Retinal Coding and Statistical Theory",
taking place in Göttingen, Germany, on September 2-3, 2014. Please find
the preliminary schedule at workshop URL:
https://sites.google.com/site/jiankliu/Meetings/2014bccn_workshop

The workshop chairs will select a couple of abstracts for short oral
presentation at the workshop. All the abstracts will be presented as
posters during the Bernstein conference on September 3-4. However, the
workshop could hold a separate poster session based on the number and
quality of abstracts that we receive.

To participate in the workshop please submit the abstract (an extended
version is preferred) as a PDF attachment via email to Jian Liu
(jian.liu@med.uni-goettingen.de) or Arno Onken (arno.onken@iit.it). The
deadline for submission is August 1.

Please note that abstract submission for the main conference is already
closed while abstract submission for this workshop is still open.


REGISTRATION:
Please refer to the Bernstein Conference 2014 for registration and venue
information.
http://www.bernstein-conference.de/


WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
How does the retina process natural visual inputs? What role do the many
types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) play in this? Experiments with
specific artificial stimuli have suggested that individual types of RGCs
may have specific functional roles in visual processing, yet it is not
clear how these simplified functional investigations relate to the
processing of natural images and movies. An important ingredient for
future analysis will be a better understanding of the complex
statistical properties of natural scenes, as revealed by theoreticians.

The relationship between natural visual statistics and retinal coding
provides a promising direction for improving our understanding of the
visual system. But we still lack a systematic framework for
understanding the underlying mechanisms of how relevant features of
natural scenes are encoded by the retina.

In this workshop, we expect mutual benefits for both natural scene
statistics and retinal coding. We will bring together experimentalists
and theoreticians in order to highlight recent progress, encourage
exchange of insights, and stimulate new ideas for future work with the
following core questions:

1) How can we develop useful descriptions of the statistics of natural
scenes that are relevant for retinal coding?
2) How can we characterize the functional roles of different RGC types
in processing natural scenes?
3) Which coding strategies are present at the level of RGC populations?
4) How can we unify the acquired knowledge of natural scenes and neural
data to develop better tools for analysis?

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
* Vijay Balasubramanian (University of Pennsylvania)
* Philipp Berens (BCCN, Tübingen)
* Thomas Euler (University of Tübingen)
* Felix Franke (ETH Zurich)
* Olivier Marre (Vision Institute, Paris)
* Aman Saleem (University College London)
* Maneesh Sahani (University College London)
* Rava A. da Silveira (ENS, Paris)

We are looking forward to seeing you in Göttingen.

Workshop organizers:
Jian Liu (University Medical Center Göttingen and BCCN Göttingen)
Arno Onken (Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems
_______________________________________________
visionlist mailing list
visionlist@visionscience.com
http://visionscience.com/mailman/listinfo/visionlist

[Comp-neuro] Valentino Braitenberg Award for Computational Neuroscience - Call for Nominations

Dear Colleagues,

The Bernstein Association for Computational Neuroscience invites nominations for the Valentino Braitenberg Award for Computational Neuroscience.

The award is biannually presented by the Bernstein Association to a scientist in recognition of outstanding research that contributes to our understanding of the functioning of the brain. The major criterion for the award is the impact or potential impact of the recipient's research on the field of brain science. In the spirit of Valentino Braitenberg's research, special emphasis is given to theoretical studies elucidating the functional implications of brain structures and their neuronal network dynamics.

The awardee receives a €5.000 prize donated by the Autonome Provinz Bozen Südtirol as well as complimentary participation (registration, travel, and hotel accomodation) in the Bernstein Conference 2014. Here, the prize is awarded together with a Golden Neuron pin badge in a special ceremony that includes the Valentino Braitenberg lecture given by the awardee.

Nominations may be submitted by scientists working in the field of Computational Neuroscience and should include toe following documents:
- One-page laudation, in which the scientific work of the candidate is honored with regard to the award's criteria
- CV and list of publications

Deadline for nominations is June 16, 2014 by e-mail to info@bcos.uni-freiburg.de

The call for nominations can be found under the followingn URL:
www.nncn.de/en/bernstein-association/valentino-braitenberg-award-for-computational-neuroscience

For inquiries please contact info@bcos.uni-freiburg.de

Best regards,
Andrea Huber Brösamle
--   Dr. Andrea Huber Brösamle  Head of the Bernstein Coordination Site (BCOS)  Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience  Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg  Hansastr. 9A  79104 Freiburg, Germany    phone: +49 761 203 9583  fax: +49 761 203 9585  andrea.huber@bcos.uni-freiburg.de  www.nncn.de    Twitter: NNCN_Germany  YouTube: Bernstein TV  Facebook: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany  LinkedIn: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany 

[Comp-neuro] Special Issue on "Underwater Sensor Networks" in (JSAN)

===================================================

Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks (JSAN)

Special Issue "Underwater Sensor Networks"

http://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan/special_issues/usn

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2014

----------------------------------------------------


=== SPECIAL ISSUE ===

New advances in information technologies, circuits, systems and communication protocols have made possible the deployment of underwater sensor networks. These issues have lead researchers to propose new underwater sensor nodes, sensor node placement, protocols for their communication, architectures, and study new ways to communicate with higher bandwidth at higher distances. Moreover, the range of underwater applications is growing fast because of the last research in oceanography, marine science and aquiculture, so there is a need of underwater sensor networks in order to support these disciplines.

This special Issue is tries to collect unpublished works on theory and practice on underwater sensor networks, with special interest on real implementations and deployments. We also seek new proposals on wireless communication technologies.


=== KEYWORDS ===

The Special Issue "Underwater Sensor Networks" topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

- Underwater sensor nodes
- Underwater sensor node placement
- Routing protocols for underwater sensor networks
- Underwater communications
- Underwater architectures
- Underwater wireless communications
- Underwater sensor network deployments


=== SUBMISSION ===

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form (http://www.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload/?journal=jsan). Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan/instructions) before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.


=== SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS ===

Guest Editors

Prof. Dr. Jaime Lloret Mauri (jlloret@dcom.upv.es)
Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Camino de Vera 46022, Valencia, Spain

Dr. Sandra Sendra (sansenco@posgrado.upv.es)
Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Camino de Vera 46022, Valencia, Spain


===================================================
_______________________________________________
Comp-neuro mailing list
Comp-neuro@neuroinf.org
http://www.neuroinf.org/mailman/listinfo/comp-neuro

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

[Comp-neuro] NIPS 2014 Call for Workshops

NIPS*2014 Post-Conference Workshops
Friday December 12 and Saturday December 13, 2014
Palais des Congrès de Montréal/Convention and Exhibition Center,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Following the NIPS*2014 main conference, workshops on a variety of current
topics will be held on Friday December 12 and Saturday December 13, 2014, in
Montreal, Canada. We invite researchers interested in chairing one of these
workshops to submit workshop proposals. The goal of the workshops is to
provide an informal forum for researchers to discuss important research
questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, and
comparisons of competing approaches are encouraged as workshop topics. There
will be seven hours of workshop meetings per day, split into morning and
afternoon sessions, with free time between the sessions for individual
exchange or outdoor activities. Note that this year, there is no skiing at
NIPS; the workshop schedule will thus differ from past NIPS workshops (the
morning session will be 8:30am-12pm, and the afternoon session will be
3pm-6:30pm).

Francis Bach and Amir Globerson
NIPS*2014 Workshops Chairs

Web URL: http://nips.cc/Conferences/2014/CallForWorkshops
_______________________________________________
Comp-neuro mailing list
Comp-neuro@neuroinf.org
http://www.neuroinf.org/mailman/listinfo/comp-neuro

[Comp-neuro] Call for Demonstrations, NIPS 2014

The Neural Information Processing Systems Conference 2014 http://nips.cc/Conferences/2014/ has a Demonstration Track running in parallel with some of the evening Poster Sessions, December 8-11, 2014, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Demonstration Proposal Deadline: Monday September 15, 2014, 11pm Universal Time (4pm Pacific Daylight Time).


Demonstrations offer a unique opportunity to showcase:

• Hardware technology
• Software systems
• Neuromorphic and biologically-inspired systems
• Robotics

or other systems, which are relevant to the technical areas covered by NIPS (see Call for Papers http://nips.cc/Conferences/2014/CallForPapers).

Demonstrations must show novel technology and must be run live, preferably with some interactive parts. Unlike poster presentations or slide shows, live action and interaction with the audience are critical elements.

Submissions:

Submission of demo proposals at the following URL:

You will be asked to fill a questionnaire and describe clearly:

• the technology demonstrated
• the elements of novelty
• the live action part
• the interactive part
• the equipment brought by the demonstrator
• the equipment required at the place of the demo

Evaluation Criteria: 

Submissions will be refereed on the basis of technical quality, novelty, live action, and potential for interaction.

Demonstration chair: Hugo Larochelle <demonstration-ch...@nips.cc>


[Comp-neuro] SAB 2014 Early registration: May 31

Dear Colleagues,

This is a friendly reminder that the SAB 2104 registration is open.

Early registration deadline is May 31, 2014.
Late registration rates will apply starting from June 1, 2014.

Please refer to the conference website for details:
http://sab2014.org/registration

We look forward to seeing you at Castellon, Spain

From the SAB 2014 Organizing Committee

Monday, May 26, 2014

[Comp-neuro] FINAL DEADLINES UPDATE - Frontiers Research Topic: Driving innovation in therapeutic brain stimulation with biophysical models

Dear all,

Due to the request of several researchers needing more time to finalize their manuscript, and also who missed the abstract submission deadline, we are offering a *final* deadline extension to offer a last opportunity of abstract submission and also allow more time for manuscript finalization.

Therefore, our Research Topic organized with Frontiers in Neuroscience (Host Specialty: Frontiers in Computional Neuroscience) is still open, and has now an extended deadline for abstract submission and full manuscript submission. As a reminder, our Research Topic is entitled:

"Driving Innovation in Therapeutic Brain Stimulation With Biophysical Models"

Topic Editors: Julien Modolo, Alexandre Legros and Alex W Thomas - Lawson Health Research and Western University, London, Ontario (Canada).

Abstract Submission Deadline: June 30 2014

Full Article Submission Deadline: September 1st, 2014


Research Topic Description: 

Electric and magnetic stimulation of the brain have become increasingly used for therapy in numerous neurological disorders over the last 20 years. The domain of therapeutic brain stimulation is complex and dynamic, since it involves many different diseases (e.g., Parkinson's disease, epilepsy), stimulation devices and protocols (from completely non-invasive stimulation to the chronic implantation of stimulation electrodes in the brain). Despite its use by hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide, it seems paradoxical that, in most cases, the biological mechanisms by which therapeutic brain stimulation can provide symptom relief are unknown. Our limited knowledge in terms of interaction mechanisms dramatically slows down the development of novel brain stimulation techniques, which rely mainly on empiric observations. 

Fortunately, a paradigm change has begun, and biophysical modeling has emerged as an alternative tool not only allowing ot understand therapeutic brain stimulation, but also to foster innovation. Realistic models of neurons and neural networks are now routinely used in neuroscience research to better understand the outcome of experimental data, and also to help in experiment design. These models can simulate the activity of single cells (e.g., with the Hodgkin-Huxley model), or, at the other extreme, of the entire brain (Blue Brain project). One especially appealing use of these models is to simulate in silico how electric and magnetic fields modulate neuronal activity at different spatial and temporal scales, to ultimately have an impact on behaviour. This application of biophysical models of brain activity is currently the focus of intense research efforts, with the hope of groundbreaking clinical translations on the horizon. 

The objective of this Research Topic is to offer a comprehensive overview of the most recent biophysical models and their contribution in the development of innovative therapeutic brain stimulation techniques, in various neurological disorders. An emphasis should be made on the critical role of biophysical modeling in the rational and effective design of novel brain stimulation techniques, and also in providing key insights into fundamental interaction mechanisms that can be exploited to ends of therapy.


About Frontiers Research Topics:

Frontiers Research Topics are designed to be an organized, encyclopedic coverage of a particular research area, and a forum for discussion and debate. Contributions can be of different article types (Original Research, Methods, Hypothesis & Theory, and others).

Our Research Topic has a dedicated homepage on the Frontiers website, where contributing articles are accumulated and discussions can be easily held. Once all articles are published, the topic will be compiled into an e-book, which can be sent to foundations that fund your research, to journalists and press agencies, and to any number of other organizations. As the ultimate reference source from leading scientists, Frontiers Research Topic articles become highly cited.

Frontiers is a Swiss-based, open access publisher. As such an article accepted for publication incurs a publishing fee, which varies depending on the article type. The publishing fee for accepted articles is below average compared to most other open access journals - and lower than subscription-based journals that apply page and color figure charges. Moreover, for Research Topic articles, the publishing fee is discounted quite steeply thanks to the support of the Frontiers Research Foundation.
Details on Frontiers' fees can be found at http://www.frontiersin.org/about/PublishingFees.

When published, your article will be freely available to visitors to the Frontiers site, and will be indexed in PubMed and other academic archives. As an author in Frontiers, you will retain the copyright to your own paper and all figures.

The details regarding this Research Topic for Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience can be found at the following URL: http://www.frontiersin.org/computational_neuroscience/researchtopics/driving_innovation_in_therapeu/1443

Should you choose to participate, please confirm by sending a quick email and then your abstract using the following link: http://www.frontiersin.org/submissioninfo


Thanks in advance for your interest!


Julien Modolo, Alexandre Legros and Alex W Thomas

--

Julien Modolo, PhD
Scientist, Human Threshold Research Group, Lawson Health Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Departments of Medical Biophysics and Medical Imaging, Western University
Room E4-141
268 Grosvenor Street
London, ON, N6A4V2
Canada
Phone: (+001) 519-646-6100 ext 64192
Fax: 519-646-6100