November 2017 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Job Posting: Computational Neuroscience Applications Engineer

by Christian Rössert

Dear Colleagues, INAIT is seeking a permanent and full-time Computational Neuroscience Applications Engineer INAIT is a spin-off from the Blue Brain Project that will leverage 12 years of experience on brain modeling and simulation to build the next generation AI systems. INAIT has a unique position in knowledge of brain structure and function, advanced software ecosystems, and an advanced team of scientists and engineers. We expect to radically innovate on current AI systems to more easily capture diverse brain-like capabilities. Send your cover letter and CV to contact(a)inait.ai Job description *Major duties and responsibilities:* - Contribute to the development of computational neuroscience applications using state of the art computational neuroscience simulation packages and INAIT applications - Contribute to the development of computational neuroscience models of neurons and neural networks - Perform a technical survey of computational neuroscience algorithms and technology *Essential skills and experience required:* - University degree in computational neuroscience - Professional experience in state of the art computational neuroscience simulation frameworks such as NEST, NEURON, GENESIS, … - Experience in developing computational models of morphologically and/or (preferred) point neuron models - Professional experience in Python code development - Professional experience using UNIX/Linux operating systems - Good team player - Fluent spoken and written English *Preferred:* - Experience in the development of state of the art computational neuroscience simulation frameworks such as NEST, NEURON, GENESIS, … - Experience in the use of computational neuroscience simulation frameworks paradigms on shared and/or distributed parallel machines. - Professional experience in the software development life-cycle including unit testing, continuous integration, version control, debugging and documentation *Profile:* - Master’s degree or PhD (preferred) in computational neuroscience followed by at least 2-years professional experience - Quality-driven work ethics - Successful track record in designing, developing and maintaining software projects Where: Lausanne, Switzerland Start date: As soon as possible Activity rate: 100% Deadline for application: until position is filled Duration of contract: CDI Send your cover letter and CV to contact(a)inait.ai INAIT SA EPFL-Innovation Park - Bat. D 1015 Lausanne Switzerland contact(a)inait.ai

Nov. 13, 2017

Post-doc position in electrophysiology/neural coding at Columbia University

by Qi Wang

A postdoc position is immediately available in the Laboratory for Neural Engineering and Control in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University (http://neclab.bme.columbia.edu/) The project investigates the role of the locus coeruleus – norepinephrine (LC-NE) system in modulating neural coding, perception, and learning. The successful applicant should have a background in in-vivo single-unit recording. Experiences in behavioral training of rodents is a plus. We are looking for highly motivated researchers with a strong technical background, ideally with a PhD or equivalent in Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience, Psychology, or a related discipline. Applicants should demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills, and the ability to work effectively independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team. Start date is flexible. Salary will be commensurate to the candidate's qualifications. Applicants should submit a CV, a brief description of research interests, and a list of three references. All application materials as well as any inquiries should be sent to qi.wang(a)columbia.edu. -- ====================================== Qi Wang, Assistant Professor Department of Biomedical Engineering Columbia University ET 351, 500 W 120th Street New York, NY 10027 Email: qi.wang@columbia.eduhttp://neclab.bme.columbia.edu/ <qw2161(a)columbia.edu>

Nov. 11, 2017

support for Two PhD Fellows in Bilbao, Caixa Fellowship

by Jesus Cortes

Dear colleague La Caixa Foundation has published the call for International PhD fellowships within the program "INPhINIT". This call is providing excellent working conditions for excellent international students. More information at https://obrasociallacaixa.org/el/investigacion-y-becas/progr ama-de-becas-de-posgrado/inphinit/programme-description We will be supporting 2 applicants, one associated to the project “Machine Learning, Neurological Disorders and Brain Networks” supervised by Jesus M Cortes and the other associated to the project "Multi-scale epileptic networks: a longitudinal structural-functional study of human epileptic networks combining deep electrode recordings and MRI" supervised by Paolo Bonifazi. Applicants must have a background in Mathematics, Physics or Engineering. The student will work in the Computational Neuroimaging Lab in Biocruces (Bibao) focused on developing and applying brain connectivity methods in combination with machine learning (such as supervised and unsupervised classification), modeling (neuron or circuit levels) and imaging processing of different imaging modalities (such as magnetic resonance imaging or electroencepaholography). The student will interact with Engineers, Physicists and Clinical Researchers. Further details and readings: To study brain functioning and disfunctioning, the Computational Neuroimaging Laboratory in Biocruces (Bilbao) is focused on brain networks at the macroscale, thus affecting to the large-scale brain organization. While diffusion images provide information about structural connectivity, functional magnetic resonance imaging shed light on resting state functional connectivity. In this project, the student will work with different datasets, some of them publicly available, others acquired in our laboratory, covering different pathologies such as autism, patients in coma, epilepsy, patients with multiorganic failure, neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson and psychiatric disorders. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00215/full http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/NETN_a_00007 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01024/full https://www.nature.com/articles/srep10532 Working conditions: 3-years contract, gross salary of about 26.000 euro - 28.000 euro per year, and an extra travelling and conference budget of about 3.500 euro per year. Applicant requirements: At recruitment date, candidates must have MSc degree and an English certification of minimum B2. In addition, candidates must not have residence in Spain longer than 12 months in the 3 years prior to recruitment date. Interested applicants contact to: Prof. Jesus M Cortes Ikerbasque Research Professor Head of the Laboratory of Computational Neuroimaging, Biocruces, Bilbao (Spain) Coordinator of the Quantitative Biomedicine Unit, Biocruces, Bilbao (Spain) Research Professor at the University of the Basque Country (Spain) http://www.jesuscortes.info jesus.m.cortes(a)gmail.com and/or Dr. Paolo Bonifazi Ikerbasque Tenure Track Professor Computational Neuroimaging Laboratory http://www.ikerbasque.net/es/paolo-bonifazi paol.bonifazi(a)gmail.com -- http://www.jesuscortes.info <http://jesuscortes.info> https://neurokafe.github.io/ https://thesciencebridge.org/

Nov. 10, 2017

Fully funded PhD Studentship in Biomedical Engineering

by Jayawan Wijekoon

Fully funded PhD Studentship in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Manchester (through UK Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership) is now open to UK and EU candidates. The successful candidate who have obtained, or be about to obtain, an undergraduate or Masters qualification in a relevant subject and should meet the minimum entry requirements of the School. The successful PhD student will help to develop a wearable fetal health monitoring vest to reduce stillbirths. The PhD student is expected to carry out electronic engineering or signal processing research. This multidisciplinary project is carried out with the collaboration of St Mary's Hospital, Manchester. For more details, please click the link given below. If you need further details, you can contact me (email: Jayawan.wijekoon(a)manchester.ac.uk<mailto:Jayawan.wijekoon@manchester.ac.uk>) directly. Web link to apply for the studentship<https://www.findaphd.com/search/projectdetails.aspx?PJID=89880>: https://www.findaphd.com/search/projectdetails.aspx?PJID=89880 The deadline for the application is 17th of November 2017. Kind regards, -- Dr. Jayawan Wijekoon Lecturer in VLSI Design & Digital Systems Design D31B, Sackville Street Building, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK Tel. +44 (0)161 306 4736

Nov. 9, 2017

CFP: Special Issue on Crossmodal Learning

by Pablo Barros

CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue on Computational Models for Crossmodal Learning of the Cognitive Systems Research Journal. https://www.journals.elsevier.com/cognitive-systems-research/ I. Aim and Scope The ability of processing crossmodal information is a fundamental feature of the brain that provides a robust perceptual experience for an efficient interaction with the environment. Consequently, the integration of multisensory information plays a crucial role in autonomous systems to create robust and meaningful representations of objects and events. For dealing with real-world information, an autonomous, intelligent system must be capable of processing, integrating, and segregating different modalities for the purpose of coherent perception, decision-making, and cognitive learning. Recent neurophysiological findings in crossmodal learning have inspired novel computational models with the aim to trigger biologically inspired behavioral responses. A rich set of neural mechanisms support the integration and segregation of multimodal stimuli, providing the means to efficiently solve conflicts across modalities. This special issue aims to invite contributors from psychology, computational neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and cognitive robotics to discuss current research on crossmodal learning mechanisms both from the theoretical and modelling perspective. II. Potential Topics Topics include, but are not limited to: - New theories and findings on crossmodal processing - New neuroscientific results on crossmodal learning - Machine learning and neural networks for learning multisensory representations - Computational models of crossmodal attention and perception - Brain-inspired approaches for multisensory integration - Multisensory robot perception III. Submission Authors must use the Evise system to submit their contibutions, more informations can be found here: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/cognitive-systems-research/ *All manuscripts must be submitted to the Special Issue "VSI: Crossmodal Learning"* - Paper submission deadline: 09.02.2018 IV. Guest Editors Pablo Barros, University of Hamburg, Germany German I. Parisi, University of Hamburg, Germany Doreen Jirak, Hamburg University, Germany Bruno Fernandes, Universidade de Pernambuco, Brazil -- Dr.rer.nat. Pablo Barros Research Associate Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Phone: +49 40 42883 2535 Fax: +49 40 42883 2515 barros at informatik.uni-hamburg.de https://www.inf.uni-hamburg.de/en/inst/ab/wtm/people/barros.html www.knowledge-technology.info

Nov. 9, 2017

Postdoc at Edinburgh - Visual navigation in ants

by Barbara Webb

A research associate position is available in the Insect Robotics group in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh to work on developing experimental and modelling tools as part of the BBSRC funded project “Visual navigation in ants: from visual ecology to brain”, in collaboration with the University of Sussex. Excellent skills in programming are essential and candidates with experience in developing experimental tools such as visual tracking and trackballs, in carrying out advanced analysis of experimental data, in image processing and analysis, will be preferred. Ideally, candidates would also be familiar with invertebrate brain and behaviour research, and/or have expertise in modelling of sensory and neural systems. The post is full time and fixed term for 36 months. The post is available from 1st January 2018. Salary: £32,548 - £38,833 per annum Informal enquiries can be addressed to: Professor Barbara Webb (b.webb(a)ed.ac.uk) Principal Investigator of the project. Further details and the application form can be found at the University of Edinburgh website: https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobsp ec?p_id=041829 Closing Date: Wednesday 6th December 2017 at 5pm (GMT). -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

Nov. 9, 2017

EPFL Simulation Neuroscience I - Enrol now on edX.org!

by Eilif Muller

Dear Colleagues, I would like to bring to your attention a recently launched Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Simulation Neuroscience we are now offering on edX.org, leveraging the HBP Brain Simulation Platform. It is the first of 3 planned MOOCs through which we will teach students to construct and simulate data-driven microcircuits, like the Blue Brain cortical model. More details are below. Many thanks for forwarding to students who may be potentially interested. Best regards, Eilif ===== ANNOUNCEMENT ===== The Center for Digital Education of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland in cooperation with the Blue Brian Project is welcoming students to participate in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled: Simulation Neuroscience I - Reconstruction of a single neuron Faculty: Prof. Henry Markram, Prof. Idan Segev, Prof. Sean Hill, Prof. Felix Schuermann, Samuel Kerrian, Lida Kanari, Werner Van Geit, Dr. Srikanth Ramaswamy, Dr. Eilif Muller Abstract: Simulation Neuroscience is an emerging approach to integrate the knowledge dispersed throughout the field of neuroscience. The aim is to build a unified empirical picture of the brain, to study the biological mechanisms of brain function, behaviour and disease. This is achieved by integrating diverse data sources across the various scales of experimental neuroscience, from molecular to clinical, into computer simulations. In a series of three courses, you will learn to use the state-of-the-art modelling tools of the Human Brain Project Brain Simulation Platform to simulate neurons, build neural networks, and perform your own simulation experiments. This is the first course of the series that will teach you how to digitally reconstruct a single neuron. We invite you to join us and share in our passion to reconstruct, simulate and understand the brain! The course is targeted at senior bachelor, master or PhD students in science or engineering fields looking for an introduction to Simulation Neuroscience. It is a 6 week course, with an estimated course load of 5-7 hours per week. The course is open as of November 2nd, and is self-paced and can be started at any time. For more information: https://www.edx.org/course/simulation-neuroscience-epflx-simneurox ------------- Dr. Eilif Muller Section Manager - Simulation Neuroscience - Cells & Circuits Task Leader - Community Engagement - HBP Brain Simulation SP EPFL - Blue Brain Project Biotech Campus Chemin des Mines 9 1202 Geneva Switzerland Tel: +41 21 693 0698 Fax: +41 21 693 5350 www: http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/page-77926-en.html www: http://neuralensemble.org/people/eilifmuller

Nov. 9, 2017

Postdoc positions available in Alex Pouget's lab

by Berk Gercek

The laboratory of Alexandre Pouget, at the university of Geneva, will have one, possibly two, postdoc positions available in March 2018. Candidates with strong physics or math background, and with prior experience in computational neuroscience, are encouraged to apply. The topic of research will depend on the interest and profile of the candidate though the lab currently works on decision making, neural coding, probabilistic learning and probabilistic inference in neural circuits. One of these positions will be affiliated with the International Brain laboratory (see https://www.internationalbrainlab.com/) Candidates should send their CV to Alexandre Pouget at alexandre.pouget(a)unige.ch. -- ---------------------------------------- Berk Gercek Doctoral student, Pouget lab Université de Genève 1 rue Michel-servet 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

Nov. 9, 2017

RaPID 2018 Workshop @ LREC: Resources and ProcessIng of linguistic, para-linguistic and extra-linguistic Data from people with various forms of cognitive/psychiatric impairments

by Dimitrios Kokkinakis

*[apologies for cross-postings]* *1st Call for Papers* RaPID 2018: "*Resources and ProcessIng of linguistic, para-linguistic and extra-linguistic Data from people with various forms of cognitive/psychiatric impairments*" Half-day workshop at LREC2018 | Miyazaki, Japan | May 8th, 2018 Submission deadline: January 14th, 2018 (see also Important dates below) RaPID website: <https://spraakbanken.gu.se/eng/rapid-2018> The RaPID 2018 Workshop will follow up on the successful RaPID Workshop @ LREC2016 (<https://spraakbanken.gu.se/eng/rapid-2016>) *CALL FOR PAPERS:* RaPID-2018 will be an interdisciplinary forum for researchers to share information, findings, and experience on the creation and processing of data acquired or produced by people with various forms of mental, cognitive, neuropsychiatric, or neurodegenerative impairments, such as aphasia, dementia, autism, Parkinsons or schizophrenia. Particularly, the workshop focus on the creation, annotation, description, processing and analysis of linguistic, paralinguistic and extra-linguistic resources (e.g., spontaneous spoken language; audio-recorded samples and transcripts; eye tracking measurements; wearable and in-situ sensor data etc.) from individuals at various stages of these impairments and with varying degrees of severity in order to identify, extract, process, correlate, evaluate and disseminate various linguistic phenotypes and measurements and thus aid the diagnosis, monitor the progression or predict individuals at risk. A central aim is to facilitate the study of the relationships among various levels of linguistic, paralinguistic and extra-linguistic observations (e.g., acoustic measures; phonological, syntactic and semantic features; eye tracking measurements; sensors, signs and multimodal signals). Submission of papers are invited in all of the aforementioned areas, particularly emphasizing multidisciplinary aspects of processing such data and the interplay between clinical/nursing/medical sciences, language technology, computational linguistics, natural language processing (NLP) and computer science. The workshop will act as a stimulus for the discussion of several ongoing research questions driving current and future research by bringing together researchers from various research communities. *TOPICS OF INTEREST:* The topics of interest for the workshop session include but are not limited to: - Building, adapting and availability of linguistic resources, data sets and tools - Data collection methodologies - Acquisition and combination of novel data samples - Guidelines, annotation schemas, annotation tools - Addressing the challenges of representation, including dealing with data sparsity and dimensionality issues, feature combination from different sources and modalities - Domain adaptation of NLP tools - Acoustic/phonologic/phonetic, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analysis of data; including modeling of perception (e.g. eye-movement measures of reading) and production processes (e.g. recording of the writing process by means of digital pens, keystroke logging etc.); use of gestures accompanying speech and non-linguistic behavior - Modeling and deep / machine learning approaches for early diagnostics, prediction, monitoring, classification etc. of various cognitive and psychiatric impairments - Information fusion - Evaluation of the significance of features in diagnostics - Evaluation of tools, systems, components, metrics, applications and technologies including methodologies making use of NLP - Evaluation, comparison and critical assessment of resources - Involvement of medical/clinical professionals and patients - Ethical and legal questions in research with human data in the domain, and how they can be handled - Deployment - Experiences, lessons learned and the future of NLP/AI in the area *SUBMISSION DETAILS:* Papers are invited in all of the areas outlined in the Topics of interest, particularly emphasizing multidisciplinary aspects of processing such data and the interplay between clinical/nursing/medical sciences, language technology, computational linguistics, NLP, and computer science. We welcome also papers discussing problems derived from the design of relevant data samples and populations, but also the exploitation of results and outcomes as well as legal and ethical questions on how to deal with such data and make it available. The workshop solicits papers describing original research. Papers may preferably describe substantial and completed work, but may also focus on a contribution, a negative result, an interesting application nugget, a software package, a small, focused contribution *or* work in progress. The workshop will act as a stimulus for the discussion of several ongoing research questions driving current and future research and challenges by bringing together researchers from various research communities. RaPID-2018 will be a half-day LREC workshop to be held in the afternoon of Tuesday the 8th of May 2018. The oral presentations will be allocated 10-20 minutes (please see the program for details), possibly, followed by a common poster session (depending on the volume of received submissions). Submitted papers must be formatted according to the camera-ready style for LREC 2018 (style guidelines, templates etc. for the camera-ready papers are provided on LREC's main conference page/Submission), and submitted electronically in PDF format through the START conference manager page [*to be announced soon*]. Authorship does not have to be anonymous and *papers should be 4-8 pages of content*. Additional, unlimited pages containing the list of references and appendices are allowed. We will strive to have all submissions reviewed by at least three, or more, members of the program committee. Depending on the volume of contributions, papers that describe systems or tools will be invited to give a demo of their system during a poster session. *IMPORTANT DATES:* - First call for papers: Monday, 6th of November, 2017 - Submission deadline: Sunday 14th of January, 2018 - Notification of acceptance: Saturday 10th of February, 2018 - Early-bird registration for the main conference *and* workshops is the 15th of February, 2018 - Camera-ready papers: Sunday 10th of March 2018 - RaPID Workshop: Tuesday 8th of May, 2018 *CONTACT:* Dimitrios Kokkinakis: dimitrios _DOT_ kokkinakis _AT_ gu _DOT_ se *ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:* - Dimitrios Kokkinakis, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Kristina Lundholm Fors, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Kathleen Fraser, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Charalambos Themistocleous, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Graeme Hirst, University of Toronto, Canada - Alexandra König, Geriatric Hospital Nice and the University of Côte d'Azur, France - Frank Rudzicz, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the University of Toronto, Canada - Arto Nordlund, the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden *PROGRAMME COMMITTEE**:* - Jan Alexandersson, DFKI GmbH, Germany - Eiji Aramaki, Kyoto University, Japan - Simon Dobnik, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Jens Edlund, KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden - Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Portland State University, USA - Kathleen Fraser, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Peter Garrard, St George's, University of London, UK - Lena Hartelius, the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Graeme Hirst, University of Toronto, Canada - Kristy Hollingshead, Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), USA - Richard Johansson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Masatomo Kobayashi, IBM Research - Tokyo, Japan - Dimitrios Kokkinakis, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Alexandra König, Geriatric Hospital Nice and the University of Côte d'Azur, France - Peter Ljunglöf, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden - Kristina Lundholm Fors, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Arto Nordlund, the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Marcus Nyström, University of Lund, Sweden - Paul Rayson, Lancaster University, UK - Vassiliki Rentoumi, SKEL, NCSR Demokritos, Greece - Fabien Ringeval, Université Grenoble Alpes, France - Frank Rudzicz, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the University of Toronto, Canada - Kairit Sirts, University of Tartu, Estonia - Hironobu Takagi, IBM Research - Tokyo, Japan - Charalambos Themistocleous, University of Gothenburg, Sweden - Athanasios Tsanas, University of Oxford, UK - Spyridoula Varlokosta, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece - Åsa Wengelin, University of Gothenburg, Sweden -

Nov. 8, 2017

Computational Neuroscience of Prediction: Upcoming Brain Conference

by Mihaela Vincze

Dear Colleague, We would like to bring to your attention the upcoming Brain Conference on *Computational Neuroscience of Prediction <http://www.fens.org/Meetings/The-Brain-Conferences/The-Computational-Neuros…> *(Rungstedgaard, Denmark, 15-18 April) organised by *- Peter Dayan* (UCL, UK) and *- Kerstin Preuschoff* (Univ. of Geneva and EPFL, Switzerland) If interested, we would welcome your application. Kindly note the end of early application on *20 January. * The short talk presenters and 15 stipend awardees will be selected following the regular registration deadline (of 14 Feb). For reference, detailed information (speakers, application overview etc.) is available on the Brain Conference page. <http://www.fens.org/Meetings/The-Brain-Conferences/The-Computational-Neuros…> Please also feel free to disseminate information about this Brain Conference among your network. With kind regards, The Brain Conferences team *FENS* - Federation of European Neuroscience Societies 11 Rue d’Egmont, 1000 - Brussels, Belgium T: +32 2 545 04 06 E: mihaela.vincze(a)fens.org http://www.fens.org

Nov. 8, 2017