July 2016 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Computational Neuroscience workshop Cortona (Italy), September 12-16, 2016

by thierry nieus

Dear colleagues, it is my pleasure to announce the workshop: NeuroMath, Mathematical and Computational Neuroscience: cell, network and data analysis, that will take place in Cortona (Italy), September 12-16, 2016. We have an extensive list of confirmed speakers, experts in their field. These talks will span over several branches of the Neuroscience field with a common focus on the quantitative and mathematical questions lying behind the scientific questions. The workshop will bring together mathematicians, engineers, physicists and biologists and hopefully this will foster discussions across different research fields. The list of confirmed speakers is: http://www.mat.unimi.it/users/naldi/NeuroMath/ISpeakers.html We will allocate some slots for posters (e.g. Tuesday & Friday evening) and oral communications (10-25’, along the days). The accepted abstract will appear in the Springer INdAM series (http://www.springer.com/series/10283) A financial support can be provided for the stay at the meeting upon explicit request together with the submission of an abstract. Conference details: - Registration to the workshop is free but required - Conference registration starts on September 11, 2016 - Early registration deadline: August 31, 2016 - Web page: http://www.mat.unimi.it/users/naldi/NeuroMath/ - Latest news: http://rgs.mat.unimi.it/other-events Hope to see you there! Sincerely The organizing committee: Giovanni Naldi (Dept of Mathemtics, UNIMI, Milano) Thierry Nieus (Istituto Italiano Tecnologia, Genoa) Claudio Canuto (Politecnico of Turin). -- Thierry Nieus, PhD Department of Neuroscience and Brain Technologies Istituto Italiano Tecnologia (IIT) Via Morego 30, 16163 Genoa Italy phone: +39 010 71781749 fax: +39 010 71781230 skype: thierry.nieus

July 31, 2016

Two PhD positions in closed-loop neural information processing

by Pablo Varona

Dear colleagues, Two doctoral positions are available at the Biological Neurocomputation Group, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. The research will focus on novel experimental protocols in neuroscience assessing closed-loop information processing. We seek two highly motivated PhD students with a Master's degree at the time of the formalization of the contracts in one of the following (or related) disciplines: computer science, biology, physics, engineering, prosthetics, etc. The first position is available starting October 1st 2016. This position is focused to develop real-time software for neural close-loop interactions. Advanced programming skills are required for this position. Prior experience in real-time software programming will be valuable. Enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research is required. The second position has a mixed experimental and modeling focus and is available starting January 1st 2017. Prior experience in the fields of /in vitro/ electrophysiological recordings, dynamic clamp, EEG, neuroimaging, or computational neuroscience will be valuable. Enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research is required. How to apply: The application deadline for the two positions is September, 15h 2016. Interested candidates, please send CV and two reference letters (including contact information) to gnbuam(a)gmail.com http://www.ii.uam.es/~pvarona http://www.ii.uam.es/~gnb

July 30, 2016

Postdoctoral positions in model-based fMRI and brain-inspired AI at KAIST

by Sang Wan Lee

July 30, 2016

Postdoctoral Position in Sensory Coding

by Daniel A. Butts

Postdoctoral Position in Sensory Coding Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in the Neuroscience Theory Research Group of Dan Butts at the University of Maryland, in suburban Washington DC. Our lab studies how visual perception is constructed across the visual hierarchy, and involves a diversity of projects at the interface of experiment and computation/theory. The postdoctoral position will focus on a collaboration between our lab and that of Bruce Cumming (NIH), studying how neurons that represent the center-of-gaze (fovea) process visual stimuli, which includes accounting for the effects of eye movements. There will also be opportunities to get involved in several other ongoing projects in the lab, as well as in the Cumming lab at NIH (nearby). See our webpage for more information: http://neurotheory.umd.edu We are seeking a researcher with a strong quantitative training as well as broad knowledge of neuroscience, ideally with past work studying problems linked with neurophysiology. The position is available starting immediately, and we are reviewing applications as they come. Please email Dan Butts with a CV, a brief description of your relevant education and research experience, and a list of colleagues that are willing to submit a letter of recommendation. [Letters will be requested for applications with the best fit.] For more information, please see our webpage (above), and please feel free to write Dan Butts. -------------------------------- Daniel A. Butts, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Biology and Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science University of Maryland, College Park USA http://neurotheory.umd.edu

July 29, 2016

Ph.D. Scholarships in “Cognitive Dependable Cyber Physical Systems” -- Brandenburg University of Technology

by Douglas Cunningham

The Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus - Senftenberg will launch new thematic clusters in the Graduate Research School (GRS) as part of the strategy to strengthen the research profile of BTU. Thematic clusters are flexible units that shall contribute to the creation of critical masses in the core research areas of BTU. At the same time they are an important instrument of promoting young researchers. Against this backdrop the BTU will establish in October 2016 the thematic cluster “Cognitive Dependable Cyber Physical Systems“ (CD - CPS). Successful applicants are expected to begin their research in October 2016 and the scholarship will be tenable for 36 months. The amount of the scholarship is 1,200 euros per month. The GRS will also offer child support for Ph.D. students with children. Successful candidates will have access to additional funding of the GRS for their doctoral research (e.g. mobility grants etc.). Doctoral studies may be organized within a program of structured doctoral studies towards a “Ph. D. in Dependable Hardware / Software Systems”. Optionally, doctoral students may work towards a “Dr.-Ing.” or a “Dr. rer. nat” degree. The cluster’s research focuses on technical systems that have the ability to perceive, interpret, think, and act intelligently and reliably. These systems need cognitive abilities, such as extracting and interpreting information from complex, noisy, and possibly incomplete data –- often coming from different types of sensor. This information also must be integrated with existing knowledge in order to make informed decisions which guide the system’s behavior, including about how to interact with humans. One critical system function is to monitor system parameters in order to make decisions regarding dependability, reliability, safety, and security. This can help achieve a high degree of “error resilience”. These systems must be trustworthy, dependable, and reliable, especially since they are increasingly being embedded in many aspects of everyday life. The cluster works closely with the Leibniz Institute for Innovative Micorelectronics (IHP). Additional Information about the cluster and the funding program can found at website of the GRS: <www.b-tu.de/researchschool/> . Applicants should have successfully completed a degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science/Informatics, Cognitive Science or a related field. Although the language of working environment and the dissertation is usually German, English is also possible with the consent of the advisor. In addition to the usual application materials (letter of application, CV or résumé, copies of academic degrees), all applicants should send a letter of motivation and a research proposal. The research proposal should be no more than 5 pages, be based on one of the proposed Ph.D. topics listed on the Cluster’s GRS website, and describe past experience or work in the area. Please note that the cluster only accepts complete applications. The application deadline is August 15, 2016. For further information or to submit your application (preferably via email as one PDF), please contact: Prof. Dr. Douglas W. Cunningham BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg Tel.: +49 (0) 355 69 3816 E-Mail: douglas.cunningham(a)b-tu.de

July 29, 2016

PhD Studentship in Computational Neuroscience - Ulster-Oxford Collaboration

by Wong-Lin, Kongfatt

Applications are invited for a Research Challenge Fund PhD studentship in Computational Neuroscience tenable in the Faculty of Computing and Engineering at Ulster University, UK. This PhD project, based on a recently awarded UK BBSRC project, is a collaboration between Ulster University and Oxford University on the development of an advanced and realistic computational model of neuronal circuit involves in emotional learning. For more information, please refer to: https://www.ulster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/95519/BBSRC-2016-2017-… The computational neuroscience and neural systems research community at the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) at Ulster University focuses on both fundamental brain and behavioural sciences, and their applications, including clinical neuroscience and neural engineering. The successful PhD candidate will benefit from the expertise of Ulster's computational neuroscience and machine learning community, and will interact closely with collaborators at Oxford University. The application process for the Ph.D. studentship is opened with a closing date for applications on the 26th August 2016. All applicants should hold a first or upper second class honours degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Statistics, Neuroscience, Biology, or a cognate area. Applications will be considered on a competitive basis with regard to the candidate's qualifications, skills, experience and interests. Successful candidates will enrol as of 1st October 2016, on a full-time programme of research studies leading to the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The studentships, which are highly competitive, will comprise fees together (Home/EU Rate) with an annual stipend of £14,296 and will be awarded for a period of up to three years' subject to satisfactory progress. Applicants must be highly motivated and willing to pursue research and develop skills across disciplines. If you wish to apply for this studentship, please follow the instructions and procedures at: https://www.ulster.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/phdresearch-degrees/how-to… and https://srssb.ulster.ac.uk/PROD/bwskalog.P_DispChoices Successful students will be based primarily at the ISRC with opportunities to interact with other related ISRC research teams, the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, Centre for Stratified Medicine, and other collaborators. The ISRC is situated in the city of Derry~Londonderry, which received the City of Culture 2013 award. If you wish to discuss your proposal or receive advice on this project, please contact: Dr. KongFatt Wong-Lin (k.wong-lin(a)ulster.ac.uk) ------------------- Dr. KongFatt Wong-Lin Intelligent Systems Research Centre School of Computing and Intelligent Systems Faculty of Computing and Engineering Ulster University http://isrc.ulster.ac.uk/kwonglin/contact.html ________________________________ This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain information which is covered by legal, professional or other privilege. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager at postmaster(a)ulster.ac.uk and delete this email immediately. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ulster University. The University's computer systems may be monitored and communications carried out on them may be recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. Ulster University does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of a separate attachment, the text of email is not intended to form a binding contract. Correspondence to and from the University may be subject to requests for disclosure by 3rd parties under relevant legislation. The University of Ulster was founded by Royal Charter in 1984 and is registered with company number RC000726 and VAT registered number GB672390524.The primary contact address for Ulster University in Northern Ireland is Cromore Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1SA

July 27, 2016

IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo, Cape Town - application deadline.

by Alexander Antrobus

Dear all, this is a quick reminder that the deadline for the isiCNI is approaching quickly! *IBRO SIMONS COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE IMBIZO* 9 - 28 January 2017, Muizenburg Beach Cape Town, South Africa http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk <http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/><http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/> *Applications deadline: 31st July 2016* The #isiCNI2017 is a (southern hemisphere) summer school aiming to promote computational neuroscience in Africa by bringing together international and local students under the tutelage of world-leading experts in the field. Like its international sister courses, this three-week summer school aims to teach central ideas, methods, and practices of modern computational neuroscience through a combination of lectures and hands-on project work. Mornings will be devoted to lectures given by distinguished international faculty on topics across the breadth of experimental and computational neuroscience. The rest of the day will be spent working on research projects in teams of 2-3 people under the close supervision of expert tutors and faculty. Research projects decided with the students and focus on the modeling of neurons, neural systems, behavior, the analysis of state-of-the-art neural data (behavioral data, multi-electrode recordings, calcium imaging data, connectomics data, etc.), and the development of theories to explain experimental observations. The course is aimed at graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from various disciplines, including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics, psychology and biology. Students are expected to have a keen interest and basic background in neurobiology, a solid foundation in mathematics, as well as some computer experience. *Essential details:* * Generous scholarships and travel stipends are available. Successful African applicants will likely be fully subsidised. * Fee (which covers tuition, lodging, and meals): 1000 EUR * Application deadline: 31 July 2016 * Notification of results: September 2016 *Information and application* http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk <http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/><http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/> <http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/ <http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/><http://isicni.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/>> *POSTER DOWNLOAD:* http://tinyurl.com/isiCNI2017 <http://tinyurl.com/isiCNI2017><http://tinyurl.com/isiCNI2017> (please distribute this is you can) *Imbizo* \?m'bi?z?\ | Xhosa - Zulu A gathering of the people to share knowledge. *DIRECTORS* Peter Latham (Gatsby Unit for Computational Neuroscience, University College London, UK) Joseph Raimondo (University of Cape Town, South Africa) Tim Vogels (University of Oxford, UK) *FACULTY* Larry Abbott - Columbia University Emery Brown - Harvard University / MIT Nando deFreitas - Google DeepMind Adrienne Fairhall - Washington University Surya Ganguli - Stanford University Wulfram Gerstner - EPFL Lausanne Peter Latham - University College London Timothy Lillicrap - Google DeepMind Mate Lengyel - University of Cambridge Eve Marder - Brandeis University Joseph Raimondo - University of Cape Town Yiota Poirazi - Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas Srikanth Ramaswamy - EPFL Lausanne Rajnish Ranjan - EPFL Lausanne Tim Vogels - University of Oxford Daniel Wolpert - University of Cambridge Special Guests: Alyssa Piccini Schaffer - Simons Foundation Arthur Wingfield - Brandeis University *Local Organiser:* Alex Antrobus (isicn.imbizo(a)gmail.com<mailto:isicn.imbizo@gmail.com> <mailto:isicn.imbizo@gmail.com><mailto:isicn.imbizo@gmail.com> <mailto:isicn.imbizo@gmail.com <mailto:isicn.imbizo@gmail.com><mailto:isicn.imbizo@gmail.com>>) -- Disclaimer - University of Cape Town This e-mail is subject to UCT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT, it is sent by the sender in an individual capacity. Please report security incidents or abuse via csirt(a)uct.ac.za

July 27, 2016

Postdoctoral positions in model-based fMRI and brain-inspired AI at KAIST

by Sang Wan Lee

July 26, 2016

Workshop on brain stimulation for neuro-prosthetic applications

by David Rotermund

We would like to invite you to participate in our excellence workshop "Naturalistic integration of information from external stimulation into ongoing neuronal activities of the brain". It will take place October 20-23, 2016 at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst (near Bremen), Germany. The invited main speakers are Costas Anastassiou, Sliman Bensmaia, Anythony N. Burkitt, Ilka Diester, Jannis Hildebrandt, Eduardo Fernandez Jover, Andreas Kreiter, Kristine Krug, Walter Lang, Mikhail A. Lebedev, Thomas Lenarz, Hubert H Lim, Tobias Moser, Klaus Obermayer, Ramesh Rajan, Christopher J. Rozell, Mohamad Sawan, Alessandro Vato, Günther Zeck, Eberhart Zrenner. A preliminary program can be found under http://www.nncn.de/en/news/events/11th-bernstein-sparks-workshop As you might know quite well from your own experience, it is a huge problem to interface with the brain and to successfully introduce artificial, meaningful signals into on-going neural information processing. On the other hand, exciting possibilities in medical and fundamental research are waiting to be explored and to be realized. This workshop will address major challenges in this field: * Ideas and technologies for improving functional neuro-prostheses. Besides presenting general advances, we will specifically focus on artificial vision and hearing, and on building better prosthetic limbs providing touch sensation feedback * Using causal interference with neural processing as a tool for understanding how the brain works and processes information * Establishing stimulation protocols and designing algorithms for providing external information with dynamics matching spatio-temporal activation patterns observed under 'normal' conditions, encoded in a format that the brain can 'understand'. Our workshop will bring together experimentalists, technologists, medical scientists, and theoreticians who are the experts in getting meaningful signals into neuronal circuits actively engaged in information processing. The workshop will provide a platform allowing you to present your work and to have discussions with other researchers (especially from other disciplines, who use different methods or work on other areas of the brain) about putative solutions for solving this puzzle. Besides the talks of the main speakers with plenty of time for discussions there will be a poster session. Participation in the workshop will be limited to about 60 attendees (20 main speakers, 40 postdocs + PhD students) on a first come first serve basis. In case you are interested in participating, we would ask you to send your reply to _<mailto:ajanssen@neuro.uni-bremen.de>ajanssen(a)neuro.uni-bremen.de_. In order to cover all costs, may we ask for a registration fee in the amount of € 60,00 (€ 40,00 for Bernstein members) for PhD students and € 120,00 (€ 80,00 for Bernstein members) for postdocs/professors. You will understand that we cannot cover your costs for accommodation and travelling. The meeting is part of the "Bernstein Sparks Workshops series" and will be supported and partly financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Bernstein Coordination Site (BCOS) of the Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience. Further support and financing is provided by the "Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study" ( http://www.h-w-k.de/index.php?id=2213 ). Yours sincerely Udo Ernst and David Rotermund

July 25, 2016

Registrations open for Neuromechanics 2016, Oct. 4-6, Heidelberg, Germany

by Manish Sreenivasa

*International Symposium on the Neuromechanics of Human Movement* 4-6 October 2016, Heidelberg, Germany Online Registration: http://orb.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/neuromechanics2016/register/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Neuromechanics 2016 symposium is targeted at researchers working in the field of computational neuroscience, biomechanics, clinical gait analysis and rehabilitation robotics. An interesting cross-section of researchers from these fields will present talks and posters at this event: http://orb.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/neuromechanics2016/speakers/ Some of the topics related to this symposium are: - Neuromechanics and its role in motor control - Modeling of efferent and afferent pathways - Neural and muscular synergies - Neural control of multi-muscle, multi-joint movements - Neuromuscular human-machine interfaces - Neural control for robotics applications - Translational research: From models/experiments to clinical applications The symposium is planned as a 2.5 day single-track event with a focused gathering of researchers and ample time for discussions in formal and informal settings. Total number of participants is limited to about 60, due to the venue facilities. Interested participants are requested to register soon due to the possibility of running out of available spaces! -- Dr. Manish Sreenivasa Optimization in Robotics & Biomechanics Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing University of Heidelberg Berlinerstr. 45 | 69120 Heidelberg | Germany Tel: +49-6221-54-14874 Web: orb.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/people/manish

July 25, 2016