September 2015 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

CFP: MLINI 2015 - 5th NIPS Workshop on Machine Learning and Interpretation in Neuroimaging: Beyond the Scanner (corrected version)

by Irina Rish

Call for Papers MLINI 2015 - 5th NIPS Workshop on Machine Learning and Interpretation in Neuroimaging: Beyond the Scanner https://sites.google.com/site/mliniworkshop2015/ December 11-12, 2015, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Submission deadline: Monday, October 12th, 2015 Workshop Overview: ----------------------- MLINI workshop focuses on machine learning approaches in neuroscience, neuroimaging, with an extension to behavioral experiments and psychology. This year, our focus is specifically on "Going Beyond the Scanner", which includes making inferences about mental states of a subject from ''cheaper'' (as opposed to fMRI) behavioral data such as subject's speech and/or text, audio, video, EEG and signals collected from various wearable devices. We believe that machine learning has a prominent role in shaping how questions in neuroscience are framed, and that the machine-learning mind set is now entering modern psychology and behavioral studies. It is also equally important that practical applications in these fields motivate a rapidly evolving line or research in the machine learning community. In parallel, there is an intense interest in learning more about brain function in the context of rich naturalistic environments and scenes. Efforts to go beyond highly specific paradigms that pinpoint a single function, towards schemes for measuring the interaction with natural and more varied scene are made. In this context, many controversies and open questions exist. The goal of the workshop is to pinpoint the most pressing issues and common challenges across the fields, and to sketch future directions and open questions in the light of novel methodology. The proposed workshop is aimed at offering a forum that joins machine learning, neuroscience, and psychology community, and should facilitate formulating and discussing the issues at their interface. Motivated by the previous workshops in this series, MLINI ‘11, MLINI’12, and MLINI’13, we will center this workshop around invited talks and a panel discussion. Triggered by the discussions, this year we plan to adapt the workshop topics to a less traditional scope neuroimaging scope and investigate the role of behavioral models and psychology, including topics such as psycholinguistics. Open questions and possible topics for contribution include, but are not limited to, the following: - How can we move towards more naturalistic stimuli, tasks and paradigms in neuroimaging and neuro-signal analysis? - What kind of mental states can be inferred from cheaper and easier to collect data sources (as an alternative to fMRI), such as text, speech, audio, video, EEG, and wearable devices? - How can we leave the lab when acquiring neuroimaging data, towards exploiting mobile acquisition (EEG and NIRS)? - What type of features should be extracted from naturalistic stimuli such as text, voice, etc., to detect specific mental states and/or mental disorders? - How can we combine traditional neuroimaging with naturalistic data collected from a subject or group of subjects? - In general, can we characterize situations when multivariate predictive analysis (MVPA) and inference methods are better suited for brain imaging analysis than more traditional techniques? - Given recent advances of deep learning in image analysis and other applications, a natural question to ask is whether neuroimaging analysis can benefit from such approaches? - How well can functional networks and dynamical models capture the brain activity, and when using network and dynamics information is superior to standard task-based brain activations? Workshop Format: -------------------------- In this two-day workshop we will explore perspectives and novel methodology at the interface of Machine Learning, Inference, Neuroimaging and Neuroscience. We aim to bring researchers from machine learning and neuroscience community together, in order to discuss open questions, identify the core points for a number of the controversial issues, and eventually propose approaches to solving those issues. Each session will be opened by several invited talks, and an in depth discussion. This will be followed by original contributions. Original contributions will also be presented and discussed during a poster session. The workshop will end with a panel discussion, during which we will address specific questions, and invited speakers will open each segment with a brief presentation of their opinion. Paper Submission: -------------------------- We seek for submission of original (previously unpublished) research papers. The length of the submitted papers should not exceed 8 pages in Springer format, excluding the references (LaTeX2e style files are available on the workshop page). Submission of previously published work is possible as well, but the authors are required to mention this explicitly. Previously published work can be presented at the workshop, but will not be included into the workshop proceedings (which are considered peer-reviewed publications of novel contributions). Moreover, the authors are welcome to present their novel work but choose to opt out of the workshop proceedings in case they have alternative publication plans. Important dates: -------------------------- - October 12, 2014 - paper submission - October 26, 2014 - notification of acceptance/rejection - December 11-12, 2014 - Workshop at Montreal, Quebec, Canada , following the NIPS conference Organizing Committee: -------------------------- Guillermo Cecchi (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) Kai-min Kevin Chang (Language Technologies Institute, Carnegie Mellon University) Moritz Grosse-Wentrup (Max Plank Institute for Intelligent Systems) Georg Langs (Medical University of Vienna, CSAIL, MIT) Brian Murphy (Machine Learning Department, Carngie Mellon University) *Irina Rish (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) - main contact Leila Wehbe (University of California, Berkeley)

Sept. 6, 2015

Call for Abstracts: NIPS Workshop on Statistical Methods for Understanding Neural Systems

by Jascha Sohl-Dickstein

NIPS WORKSHOP 2015 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Statistical Methods for Understanding Neural Systems Friday, December 11th, 2015 Montreal, Canada -------- Organizers: Allie Fletcher Jakob Macke Ryan Adams Jascha Sohl-Dickstein -------- Overview: Recent advances in neural recording technologies, including calcium imaging and high-density electrode arrays, have made it possible to simultaneously record neural activity from large populations of neurons for extended periods of time. These developments promise unprecedented insights into the collective dynamics of neural populations and thereby the underpinnings of brain-like computation. However, this new large-scale regime for neural data brings significant methodological challenges. This workshop seeks to explore the statistical methods and theoretical tools that will be necessary to study these data, build new models of neural dynamics, and increase our understanding of the underlying computation. We have invited researchers across a range of disciplines in statistics, applied physics, machine learning, and both theoretical and experimental neuroscience, with the goal of fostering interdisciplinary insights. We hope that active discussions among these groups can set in motion new collaborations and facilitate future breakthroughs on fundamental research problems. Call for Papers We invite high quality submissions of extended abstracts on topics including, but not limited to, the following fundamental questions: How can we deal with incomplete data in a principled manner? In most experimental settings, even advanced neural recording methods can only sample a small fraction of all neurons that might be involved in a task, and the observations are often indirect and noisy. As a result, many recordings are from neurons that receive inputs from neurons that are not themselves directly observed, at least not over the same time period. How can we deal with this `missing data' problem in a principled manner? How does this sparsity of recordings influence what we can and cannot infer about neural dynamics and mechanisms? How can we incorporate existing models of neural dynamics into neural data analysis? Theoretical neuroscientists have intensely studied neural population dynamics for decades, resulting in a plethora of models of neural population dynamics. However, most analysis methods for neural data do not directly incorporate any models of neural dynamics, but rather build on generic methods for dimensionality reduction or time-series modelling. How can we incorporate existing models of neural dynamics? Conversely, how can we design neural data analysis methods such that they explicitly constrain models of neural dynamics? What synergies are there between analyzing biological and artificial neural systems? The rise of ‘deep learning’ methods has shown that hard computational problems can be solved by machine learning algorithms that are built by cascading many nonlinear units. Although artificial neural systems are fully observable, it has proven challenging to provide a theoretical understanding of how they solve computational problems and which features of a neural network are critical for its performance. While such ‘deep networks’ differ from biological neural networks in many ways, they provide an interesting testing ground for evaluating strategies for understanding neural processing systems. Are there synergies between analysis methods for analyzing biological and artificial neural systems? Has the resurgence of deep learning resulted in new hypotheses or strategies for trying to understand biological neural networks? Confirmed Speakers: Matthias Bethge Mitya Chklovskii John Cunningham Surya Ganguli Neil Lawrence Guillermo Sapiro Tatyana Sharpee Richard Zemel Workshop Website: h <http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/%7Eafletcher/hdnips2013.html> ttps://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~afletcher/neuralsysnips.html <https://users.soe.ucsc.edu/%7Eafletcher/neuralsysnips.html> Email : smnips2015(a)rctn.org Submission details: Submissions should be in the NIPS_2015 format ( http://nips.cc/Conferences/2015/PaperInformation/StyleFiles) with a maximum of four pages, not including references. Submissions will be considered both for poster and oral presentation. Submit at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/SMN2015/Protected/Author/ or via the link on the workshop website. Important dates: Submission deadline: 10 October, 2015 11:59 PM PDT (UTC -7 hours) Acceptance notification: 24 October, 2015

Sept. 4, 2015

Call for Participation: Bernstein Conference Satellite Workshop "In Vitro Neuronal Networks from 2D to 3D, " Sept. 14, 2015, Heidelberg, Germany

by Tanskanen Jarno

Bernstein Conference Satellite Workshop no. 8 ** In Vitro Neuronal Networks from 2D to 3D ** September 14, 2015, 9:00 - 18:30 Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Neue Universität Universitätsplatz, Grabengasse 3-5, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany More Information and Registration http://www.bernstein-conference.de/ The program and workshop abstract as a pdf: http://goo.gl/D1hwou Welcome! Jari Hyttinen and Jarno Tanskanen Computational Biophysics and Imaging Group Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering Tampere University of Technology, BioMediTech Finland --- P R O G R A M Welcome & Introduction to 3D in Vitro Technologies - Case: 3DNeuroN Jari Hyttinen, Tampere University of Technology * Session 1: 3D and Controlled Culturing of Neuronal Networks 3D Neural Networks in Engineered Hydrogel Matrices Nicolas Broguiere, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Forming Neuron Networks with Controlled Topology in 2D and 3D Janos Vörös, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich * Session 2: Neuronal-astrocytic Networks and their Modeling Role of Astrocytes in Formation of Functional Neuronal Networks in Vitro Susanna Narkilahti, University of Tampere Computational Modeling of Neuronal-astrocytic Networks Kerstin Lenk, Tampere University of Technology * Session 3: Technology Signal Acquisition and Measurement System for Neural Networks in Vitro Peter Husar, Ilmenau University of Technology Technology and Material Developments for 3D Multielectrode Arrays Heike Bartsch, Ilmenau University of Technology Microbioreactor Designs with Integrated 3D MEA Devices for Cultivation of Neuronal Cells Andreas Schober, Ilmenau University of Technology * Session 4: Stimulation, Analysis, and 3D Network Modeling Investigation of Cultured Neuronal Networks and their Dynamics Induced by Novel Stimulation Paradigms Peter Husar, Fraunhofer IDMT Signal Analysis Methods for Neuronal Microelectrode Array Data Jarno Tanskanen, Tampere University of Technology Computational Modeling from 2D to 3D Networks Kerstin Lenk, Tampere University of Technology * Panel Discussion: From 2D to 3D * Closing of the Workshop Jari Hyttinen, Tampere University of Technology ****

Sept. 4, 2015

CFP: MLINI 2015 - 5th NIPS Workshop on Machine Learning and Interpretation in Neuroimaging: Beyond the Scanner

by Irina Rish

Call for Papers MLINI 2015 - 5th NIPS Workshop on Machine Learning and Interpretation in Neuroimaging: Beyond the Scanner https://sites.google.com/site/mliniworkshop2015/ December 11-12, 2015, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Submission deadline: Monday, October 12th, 2015 Workshop Overview: ----------------------- MLINI workshop focuses on machine learning approaches in neuroscience, neuroimaging, with an extension to behavioral experiments and psychology. This year, our focus is specifically on "Going Beyond the Scanner", which includes making inferences about mental states of a subject from ''cheaper'' (as opposed to fMRI) behavioral data such as subject's speech and/or text, audio, video, EEG and signals collected from various wearable devices. We believe that machine learning has a prominent role in shaping how questions in neuroscience are framed, and that the machine-learning mind set is now entering modern psychology and behavioral studies. It is also equally important that practical applications in these fields motivate a rapidly evolving line or research in the machine learning community. In parallel, there is an intense interest in learning more about brain function in the context of rich naturalistic environments and scenes. Efforts to go beyond highly specific paradigms that pinpoint a single function, towards schemes for measuring the interaction with natural and more varied scene are made. In this context, many controversies and open questions exist. The goal of the workshop is to pinpoint the most pressing issues and common challenges across the fields, and to sketch future directions and open questions in the light of novel methodology. The proposed workshop is aimed at offering a forum that joins machine learning, neuroscience, and psychology community, and should facilitate formulating and discussing the issues at their interface. Motivated by the previous workshops in this series, MLINI ‘11, MLINI’12, and MLINI’13, we will center this workshop around invited talks and a panel discussion. Triggered by the discussions, this year we plan to adapt the workshop topics to a less traditional scope neuroimaging scope and investigate the role of behavioral models and psychology, including topics such as psycholinguistics. Open questions and possible topics for contribution include, but are not limited to, the following: - How can we move towards more naturalistic stimuli, tasks and paradigms in neuroimaging and neuro-signal analysis? - What kind of mental states can be inferred from cheaper and easier to collect data sources (as an alternative to fMRI), such as text, speech, audio, video, EEG, and wearable devices? - How can we leave the lab when acquiring neuroimaging data, towards exploiting mobile acquisition (EEG and NIRS)? - What type of features should be extracted from naturalistic stimuli such as text, voice, etc., to detect specific mental states and/or mental disorders? - How can we combine traditional neuroimaging with naturalistic data collected from a subject or group of subjects? - In general, can we characterize situations when multivariate predictive analysis (MVPA) and inference methods are better suited for brain imaging analysis than more traditional techniques? - Given recent advances of deep learning in image analysis and other applications, a natural question to ask is whether neuroimaging analysis can benefit from such approaches? - How well can functional networks and dynamical models capture the brain activity, and when using network and dynamics information is superior to standard task-based brain activations? Workshop Format: -------------------------- In this two-day workshop we will explore perspectives and novel methodology at the interface of Machine Learning, Inference, Neuroimaging and Neuroscience. We aim to bring researchers from machine learning and neuroscience community together, in order to discuss open questions, identify the core points for a number of the controversial issues, and eventually propose approaches to solving those issues. Each session will be opened by several invited talks, and an in depth discussion. This will be followed by original contributions. Original contributions will also be presented and discussed during a poster session. The workshop will end with a panel discussion, during which we will address specific questions, and invited speakers will open each segment with a brief presentation of their opinion. Paper Submission: -------------------------- We seek for submission of original (previously unpublished) research papers. The length of the submitted papers should not exceed 8 pages in Springer format, excluding the references (LaTeX2e style files are available on the workshop page). Submission of previously published work is possible as well, but the authors are required to mention this explicitly. Previously published work can be presented at the workshop, but will not be included into the workshop proceedings (which are considered peer-reviewed publications of novel contributions). Moreover, the authors are welcome to present their novel work but choose to opt out of the workshop proceedings in case they have alternative publication plans. Important dates: -------------------------- - October 12, 2014 - paper submission - October 26, 2014 - notification of acceptance/rejection - December 11-12, 2014 - Workshop at Montreal, Quebec, Canada , following the NIPS conference Organizing Committee: -------------------------- Guillermo Cecchi (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) Kai-min Kevin Chang (Language Technologies Institute, Carnegie Mellon University) Georg Langs (Medical University of Vienna, CSAIL, MIT) Brian Murphy (Machine Learning Department, Carngie Mellon University) *Irina Rish (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) - main contact Leila Wehbe (University of California, Berkeley)

Sept. 4, 2015

The ReScience journal

by Nicolas P. Rougier

Following our "Long journey into reproducible computational neuroscience" (http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncom.2015.00030/full) it's our great pleasure to announce the creation of "ReScience" which is a peer-reviewed journal that targets computational research and encourages the explicit replication of already published research, promoting new and open-source implementations in order to ensure that the original research is reproducible. To achieve such a goal, the whole editing chain is radically different from any other traditional scientific journal. ReScience lives on GitHub where each new implementation is made available together with comments, explanations and tests. Each submission takes the form of a pull request that is publicly reviewed and tested in order to guarantee that any researcher can re-use it. Students are strongly encourage to submit to ReScience. Even if the publishing model is a bit different from other academic journals, this will give them a first experience at peer-reviewed publishing where they have to use a rigorous and scientific approach. • More on the journal website: https://github.com/ReScience/ReScience/wiki • Current issue: https://github.com/ReScience/ReScience/wiki/Current-Issue • FAQ: https://github.com/ReScience/ReScience/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions • Follow us on twitter (@ReScienceEds): https://twitter.com/rescienceeds And if you're familiar with Git and GitHub, you can also become a reviewer: just contact us. Konrad Hinsen & Nicolas Rougier

Sept. 4, 2015

CFP: 1st International Workshop on Big Data Analytics for Healthcare and Well-being

by Youssef Iraqi

Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message. ________________________________________________________________ CALL FOR PAPERS 1st International Workshop on Big Data Analytics for Healthcare and Well-being 2016 January 18, 2016, Hong Kong, China http://kecidev.kaist.ac.kr/bigcomp2016/workshop/ In conjunction with the 3rd International Conference on Big Data and Smart Computing (BigComp) 2016 http://conf2016.bigcomputing.org/main/ Purpose and Scope Healthcare and well-being is an important area of research in many countries as one of the emerging application domains for both big data and smart computing. This workshop aims to create opportunities to share on-going works and enhance collaboration among healthcare researchers related to big data or data science, and to foster new innovations of big data and smart computing in the areas of mobile healthcare, smart homes, digital cities, innovations in healthcare and sensing devices, and other related areas. Prospective authors are cordially invited to submit their original contributions covering completed or ongoing work related to the area of big data analytics for healthcare and well-being. The topics include but are not limited to: - Smart health and big data - Data mining, graph mining and data science for healthcare - Big data analytics and social media for healthcare - Smart devices and hardware for healthcare - Smart location-based services for healthcare - Models and tools for smart computing in healthcare - Innovations in healthcare and sensing devices - Security and privacy for big data in healthcare - Cloud and grid computing for healthcare - Standards for big data in healthcare PAPER SUBMISSION Perspective authors are invited to submit their papers, up to 8 pages each, in the IEEE paper template. Papers must be formatted in PDF according to the IEEE two-column format for conference proceedings and submitted through EasyChair, http://www.easychair.org/. The direct link for paper submission is https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bigdata4healthcare IMPORTANT DATES Paper Submission Due: September 30, 2015 (23:59, HKT) Notification of Acceptance: November 15, 2015 Camera ready Papers: December 13, 2015 Workshop: January 18, 2016 ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE Workshop Chairs: Youssef Iraqi, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Khalifa University, UAE Ho-Jin Choi, School of Computing, KAIST, Korea Min Song, Dept. of Library & Information, Yonsei University, Korea TPC Members: Ae Ran Kim, College of Nursing, Seoul National University, Korea Amjad Gawanmeh, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Khalifa University, UAE Byeong-Soo Jeong, Dept. of Computer Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Korea Changseok Bae, SW.Content Research Laboratory, ETRI, Korea Ahsan Khandoker, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, UAE Hani Saleh, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Khalifa University, UAE Gwan-Su Yi, Dept. of Bio & Brain Engineering, KAIST, Korea Harish Bhaskar, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Khalifa University, UAE Hyeoun-Ae Park, College of Nursing, Seoul National University, Korea Kyuchang Kang, SW.Content Research Laboratory, ETRI, Korea Tae-Min Song, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Korea Yong-Ik Yoon, Dept. of Multimedia Science, SookMyung Women’s University, Korea Yu-Chae Jung, Dept. of Multimedia Science, SookMyung Women’s University, Korea Nan Xiang, Dept. of Computer Science, Chongqing University of Technology, China Lingyun Zhu, Dept. of Internet of Things, Chongqing University of Technology, China Yong Wang, Dept. of Network Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, China Dr. Youssef Iraqi Associate Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering Department [cid:logo.gif] PO Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, UAE T +971 (0)2 501 8323 F +971 (0)2 447 2441 Youssef.Iraqi(a)kustar.ac.ae [cid:twitter.jpg]<https://twitter.com/KhalifaUni> [cid:fb.jpg] <https://www.facebook.com/KhalifaUniversity> [cid:youtube.jpg] <http://www.youtube.com/user/KhalifaUniversity> [cid:instagram.jpg] <http://instagram.com/khalifauni> [cid:linkedin.jpg] <https://www.linkedin.com/company/khalifa-university-?trk=biz-companies-cym> [cid:slogan.png]

Sept. 3, 2015

Job posting: 5 PhD Positions in the Dutch Research Consortium 'Language in Interaction'

by Lorenz, C.M.

Job posting: 5 PhD Positions in the Dutch Research Consortium 'Language in Interaction' We are looking for highly motivated PhD candidates to enrich a unique consortium of researchers that aims to unravel the neurocognitive mechanisms of language at multiple levels. The goal is to understand both the universality and the variability of the human language faculty from genes to behaviour. The Netherlands has an outstanding track record in the language sciences. This research consortium sponsored by a large grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific research (NWO) brings together many of the excellent research groups in the Netherlands with a research programme on the foundations of language. The research team consists of 43 Principal Investigators. In addition to the excellence in the domain of language and related relevant fields of cognition, our consortium provides state-of-the-art research facilities and a research team with ample experience in the complex research methods that will be invoked to address the scientific questions at the highest level of methodological sophistication. These include methods from genetics, neuroimaging, computational modelling, and patient-related research. This consortium realizes both quality and critical mass for studying human language at a scale not easily found anywhere else. Currently, the consortium advertises five PhD positions for a period of 4 years. These positions provide the opportunity for conducting world-class research as a member of an interdisciplinary team. Maximum salary: €2,717 gross/month Closing date for application: 04 October 2015, 23:59 CET For more information on the PhD positions and how to apply:https://www.languageininteraction.nl/ThirdCallGeneral.html

Sept. 3, 2015

SAC2016 - NeuroComputing Track - Paper submission DEADLINE EXTEDED

by Falotico Egidio

Dear Community, The paper submission deadline of SAC2016 conference has been extended to September 21. Please consider to submit a contribution to the NeuroComputing track. ============================== NeuroComputing Track - Call For Papers ============================== The NeuroComputing Track has been proposed as a track of the Symposium on applied Computing (SAC2016) that will be held in Pisa from 4 to 8 April 2016. The ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC) has been a primary gathering forum for applied computer scientists, computer engineers, software engineers, and application developers from around the world. SAC 2016 is sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Applied Computing (SIGAPP). ============================== TRACK AIM The development of computation models of the nervous system and neural processes has risen at a rapid pace. Developing neuro-inspired computing paradigms that mimic nervous system function fosters our model understanding of the biological system and targets technical applications in artificial systems. Today, combined efforts in the fields of the neuroscience and computer science in interdisciplinary research projects like the Human Brain Project enable the simulation of spiking biological neural networks with millions of neurons. In order to deal with the complexity and scaling of such networks a new generation of appropriate tool is needed to simulate the neural network in real-time. Neuromorphic hardware and supercomputers are the ideal candidates on the hardware side, and on the software side tools should ease the development and support the researcher during the evaluation by offering a toolchain for the implementation and simulation. The aim of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC) Track on NeuroComputing is to gather innovative works related to the application of computational techniques for the brain simulation, as well as the system software, middleware, interactive computational steering and visualization support necessary to create and simulate multi-scale brain models and to address the hard-scaling challenges of whole brain modelling. ============================== TRACK WEBSITE http://sssa.bioroboticsinstitute.it/tracks/sac2016 ============================== TOPICS OF INTEREST - Neuromorphic hardware - Large scale simulation of NN - Brain visualization tools - Neuro imaging software - Spiking neural networks - Bio-inspired learning mechanisms - Software applications for real-time neural network simulation - Software applications for real-time brain-body simulation - High performance computing for neural simulation - Neural simulators ============================== IMPORTANT DATES September 21, 2015 : Paper submission extended November 13, 2015 : Acceptance notification December 11, 2015 : Camera-ready submission ============================== TRACK CHAIRS Cecilia Laschi, The BioRobotics Institut,e Scuola Superiore SantAnna Pisa, Italy Egidio Falotico, The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore SantAnna Pisa, Italy Florian Röhrbein, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany Marc-Oliver Gewaltig, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland Paul Levi, Research Center for Information Technology,Karlsruhe, Germany Stefan Ulbrich Research Center for Information Technology,Karlsruhe, Germany -- Egidio Falotico Computer Scientist PhD in BioRobotics PhD in Cognitive Science The BioRobotics Institute Polo Sant'Anna Valdera - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Viale Rinaldo Piaggio, 34 - 56025 - Pontedera (PI) - Italy Phone: +39 050 883 457 e-mail: e.falotico(a)sssup.it

Sept. 2, 2015

Call for abstracts: Bounded optimality and rational metareasoning workshop @ NIPS

by Sam Gershman

We are pleased to announce a NIPS workshop on bounded optimality and rational metareasoning, which will take place in Montreal, Canada on December 11, 2015. This workshop brings together computer scientists working on bounded optimality and metareasoning with psychologists and neuroscientists reverse-engineering the computational principles that make the human brain incredibly resource-efficient. The goal of this workshop is to synthesize these different perspectives on bounded optimality, to promote interdisciplinary interactions and cross-fertilization, and to identify directions for future research. We invite abstract submissions, due October 28: https://sites.google.com/site/boundedoptimalityworkshop/call-for-abstracts Tentative schedule: https://sites.google.com/site/boundedoptimalityworkshop/home Sam Gershman Assistant Professor Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science Harvard University http://gershmanlab.webfactional.com/index.html

Sept. 2, 2015

COSYNE 2016: Call for workshop proposals

by Tomas Hromadka

==================================================== Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2016 (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING Feb 25 - Feb 28, 2016 Salt Lake City, Utah WORKSHOPS Feb 29 - Mar 1, 2016 Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah www.cosyne.org ==================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 31 October, 2015. PRE-PROPOSALS: In an effort to coordinate submissions, the organizers are encouraged to submit a pre-proposal by October 1st, 2015. Pre-proposals will be shared among submitters. Pre-proposals are requested but not required. The organizers may submit the full proposal by its deadline. A series of workshops will be held after the main Cosyne meeting (www.cosyne.org) The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged. The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate. Preference will be given to proposals that differ substantially in content, scope, and/or approach from workshops of recent years (examples available at http://www.cosyne.org/c/index.php?title=Workshops) Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation, reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience. Please note that in an effort to reduce the overlap between workshops, speakers are strongly discouraged from presenting talks at more than one workshop. WORKSHOP DETAILS: - There will be 4-8 workshops/day, running in parallel. - Each workshop is expected to draw between 15 and 80 people. - The workshops will be split into morning (8:00-11:00 AM) and afternoon (4:30-7:30 PM) sessions. - Workshops will be held at Snowbird, a ski resort located 30 miles (typically less than an hour) from the Salt Lake City airport. Buses from the main conference will be provided. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Deadline for pre-proposals: 01 October, 2015 Deadline for proposals: 31 October, 2015 Format: plain text only -- please no attachments email to: cosyne16workshops(a)gmail.com (Claudia Clopath, Alfonso Renart) PRE-PROPOSALS should include: - Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (no more than 2 organizers per session, please). A primary contact should be designated. - A title. - A brief description of 1) what the workshop will address and accomplish, 2) why the topic is of interest, 3) who is the targeted group of participants. - Names of potential invitees, with indication of confirmed speakers. Preference will be given to workshops with the most confirmed speakers. - Proposed workshop length (1 or 2 days). Most workshops will be limited to a single day. If you think your workshop needs 2 days, please explain why. - A brief resume of the workshop organizer along with a short list of workshop-relevant publications (about half a page total). PROPOSALS should include the list of confirmed speakers in addition to components required for a pre-proposal. Workshop organizer responsibilities include coordinating workshop participation and content, scheduling all speakers and submitting a final schedule for the workshop program, and moderating the discussion. Organizers can be speakers but need not speak depending on scheduling constraints. SUGGESTIONS: Experience has shown that the best discussions during a workshop are those that arise spontaneously. A good way to foster these is to have short talks and long question periods (e.g. 30+15 minutes), and have plenty of breaks. We recommend fewer than 10 talks. WORKSHOP COSTS: Detailed registration costs, etc, will be available at www.cosyne.org. Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop speakers. All workshop speakers are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in order to qualify for discounted registration rates. One complementary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with 2 organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them. COSYNE 2016 WORKSHOP CHAIRS: Claudia Clopath (Imperial College London) and Alfonso Renart (Champalimaud Center Lisbon). QUESTIONS: email: cosyne16workshops(a)gmail.com

Sept. 2, 2015