June 2019 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Calling all python programmers!

by Marina

Check out this unique job opportunity at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and apply to be part of a diverse team of neuroscientists and engineers working to understand how experience influences neural processing. Python fluency and a desire to work as part of a team are key qualifications. Apply here: Job posting on Indeed <https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=964ae8a153d09354&q=allen+institute&l=Seat…> *Software Engineer I – Software tools for behavioral neuroscience * The Allen Institute for Brain Science seeks a Software Engineer to be an essential member of a scientific team investigating how neural circuits represent visual categories and how this coding is modified by experience, expectation, and motivation. The datasets created as part of this project will be publicly released as an open data resource for the community, in line with the Allen Institute’s core principles of big science, open science & team science. The primary role of this Software Engineer will be to work closely with neuroscientists and engineers to develop and maintain software tools for conducting and analyzing experiments designed to measure brain activity during behavior. This will require developing an in depth understanding of the scientific motivation and rationale of these studies in order to effectively translate scientific requirements into code. Accordingly, experience with or interest in neuroscience is highly valued. As part of a highly collaborative environment with an existing software ecosystem, good communication and enthusiasm for working with and learning from others is essential to this role. This position will serve as a bridge between scientific and engineering teams by contributing to early development alongside scientists, then helping to translate that development work into a highly standardized production environment. This will involve making use of existing tools and building extensions that can be used for new avenues of research. Responsibilities of this position include designing and writing stimulus control software, testing and troubleshooting code for running experiments and interacting with experimental hardware, building visualization tools to observe data acquisition in real time, writing tests, validation functions, and documentation to ensure that code is robust and results are accurate, attending meetings to discuss scientific goals and task requirements, and facilitating cross team coordination. *RESPONSIBILITIES* - Collaborate with diverse scientific and technical teams - Contribute to the design and creation of open data resources - Work with scientists and software engineers to transform complex requirements into software - Develop code to control and interact with hardware for running experiments - Implement behavior task logic in code using existing or new codebases - Understand and utilize internal databases for data management - Create and analyze visual stimuli such as images or 3D rendered objects - Write, test and troubleshoot scripts for running behavior experiments - Write unit tests and validation functions to ensure that software is working according to specifications - Write well documented code, refactor and document existing code - Manage scientific analysis codebase, address GitHub issues, maintain documentation - Build visualization tools to evaluate data quality and scientific results - Transfer knowledge of scientific code to the Process Engineering team for production implementation - Enjoys solving problems - Strong communication skills - Desire to work as part of a team in a collaborative environment - Dedicated team player *REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS* - Bachelor’s degree in a relevant technical discipline, such as computer science, computational neuroscience, data science, or biomedical engineering - Proficient in Python - Strong programming ability for scientific computing - Experience with Python tools for scientific computing (numpy, scipy, pandas, scikit-learn, scikit-image, etc) - Working knowledge of Git for version control and collaborative coding - Experience writing unit tests, debugging code, using profiling tools *DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS* - 1+ years of relevant experience in a team oriented software development environment - 1+ years of experience with scientific computing - Experience with systems or behavioral neuroscience - Experience refactoring existing code bases to improve maintainability. - Experience with relational (e.g. postgres, SQL) and/or distributed (e.g. MongoDB) databases - Experience with scientific data visualization - Experience with image or signal processing - Experience with hardware interfaces, graphical user interfaces - Experience meeting aggressive timelines and deliverables - Experience pursuing research projects in collaborative fashion

June 5, 2019

postdoctoral position

by Daniel Ferris

A postdoctoral researcher position studying human locomotion is available in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Ferris ( https://faculty.eng.ufl.edu/human-neuromechanics-laboratory) This position is for an initial one-year appointment, and has the potential to be renewed for an additional three years based on performance and funding availability. Dr. Ferris has a long history of training professionals who have entered and succeeded in both academic and industry positions. The postdoctoral research will work on a currently funded NIH project (U01 AG061389) designed to identify neural correlates of mobility impairments in older adults. Research will involve using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) to track changes in electrocortical dynamics in older adults in a longitudinal study. Subjects will walk on a range of terrain surfaces to determine how they compensate for surfaces that challenge their stability. We will determine whether poorer walking performance is associated with the Compensation Related Utilization of Neural Circuits Hypothesis (CRUNCH). CRUNCH is a well-supported model of brain activity patterns that are seen when older individuals perform tasks of increasing complexity. CRUNCH describes the over-recruitment of frontoparietal brain networks that older adults exhibit in comparison to young adults, even at low levels of task complexity. CRUNCH also describes the limited reserve resources available in the older brain. These factors cause older adults to quickly reach a ceiling in brain resources when performing tasks of increasing complexity. *Attributes of UF and Gainesville*: The BME Department is housed in a state-of-the art building that is located in the medical school and steps from engineering. The University of Florida is one of only a few comprehensive universities, having medical, veterinary, dental, nursing, public health, and engineering disciplines all co-localized on the same, contiguous campus. UF is a highly collaborative environment that provides researchers with many opportunities for learning (e.g., top seminar programs, excellent core research facilities) and research collaborations. Gainesville is located in the northern region of Florida, within 1-1.5 hours of each coast, and just 1.5-2 hours to Orlando and Tampa. It is a small to medium-sized city with a low cost of living, excellent public and private schools, and southern hospitality. While Gainesville is widely recognized as the home of the Gators, it is quickly becoming known as a center for innovation and a place with a lifestyle that’s comfortable for families, yet attractive for young professionals. In 2013 the financial website NerdWallet deemed Gainesville the #1 fastest growing US city ( http://www.eng.ufl.edu/careers/why-gainesville) The J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering is one of only a few departments in the nation to be co-localized with a top-ranked medical school, veterinary school and dental school. The department is housed in a new state-of-the-art building (completed in 2010) that is co-located with the medical school and steps from engineering. Biomedical Engineering at UF partners with many local research centers and institutes including the McKnight Brain Institute, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center. *Minimum Qualifications*: Applicants must have a Ph.D. in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, kinesiology or a related biomedical science area. Applicants must have experience with manuscript preparation and submission. Experience with Matlab, EEGLAB, EEG, and motion analysis is desirable. *Salary:* minimum is $48,000 annually *Days to post:* Position is open until filled. *Special Instructions to applicants:* In addition to applying online to Careers at UF (https://jobs.ufl.edu/) Applicants should send a CV, a brief statement of interest, and contact information for two references to Dr. Ferris at dferris(a)bme.ufl.edu. Review of applications will start immediately and continue until the position is filled. -- Daniel P. Ferris, Ph.D. Editor-In-Chief, IEEE-TNSRE editortnsre(a)gmail.com

June 5, 2019

Two PhDs and two Post-doc positions in Neuro-inspired Deep Learning with T. Serre & R. VanRullen

by Rufin VanRullen

Two PhDs and two Post-doc positions in Neuro-inspired Deep Learning with T. Serre & R. VanRullen [Apologies for cross-postings] We are seeking talented and motivated students and post-docs for a number of open positions, in a collaborative effort between the labs of Thomas Serre (Brown University/Toulouse) and Rufin VanRullen (Toulouse). The positions will be based in Toulouse (France), with numerous opportunities to travel, in particular for visits to and close collaborations with the Serre lab at Brown University (USA). The successful candidates will become involved in a number of projects, depending on their particular interests, and will also have the opportunity to develop independent projects. Applicants for the PhD positions should hold a Masters degree or equivalent. Applicants for the post-doc positions should hold a PhD, or expect to receive their PhD shortly. Candidates must have a strong background in computer vision and/or computational neuroscience and/or machine learning. Excellent python programming skills and Tensorflow/PyTorch experience are required. Additionally, applicants at the post-doc level should ideally have a track record of relevant publications at top venues (e.g., NIPS, ICML, CVPR, ICCV, ICLR, etc.). Exceptional candidates with a primary degree in Neuroscience and strong programming/quantitative abilities will also be considered. The fellows will be located in a state-of-the-art facility within the new ANITI (Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute) research center in Toulouse, France. They will be part of the AI Research Chairs held by Thomas Serre ("Reverse-engineering the brain") and Rufin VanRullen ("Deep Learning with semantic, cognitive and biological constraints"). They will also benefit from a lively local community of Deep Learning researchers: the Toulouse Interdisciplinary Deep Learning "TIdDLe" group (https://tiddle-group.github.io) Perks include: competitive salaries, clement weather, high quality of life, vibrant research environment. To apply, send a CV, a short (<1 page) explanation of research interests, and the name of 3 potential referees to thomas_serre(a)brown.edu and rufin.vanrullen(a)cnrs.fr The positions start in Fall 2019 (later start dates can be negotiated), the application procedure is and will remain open until all positions are filled. For more information about ongoing research projects in our labs, consult: http://serre-lab.clps.brown.edu/ and http://cerco.ups-tlse.fr/~rufin/ Some relevant papers: D. Linsley, J. Kim, & T. Serre. Sample-efficient image segmentation through recurrence. ArXiv 2019. https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.11356 D. Linsley, J. Kim, V. Veerabadran, C. Windolf & T. Serre. Learning long-range spatial dependencies with horizontal gated-recurrent units. Neural Information Processing Systems, 2018. https://neurips.cc/Conferences/2018/Schedule?showEvent=11042 D. Linsley, D. Schiebler, S. Eberhardt & T. Serre. Learning what and where to attend. International Conference on Learning Representations, 2019. https://openreview.net/forum?id=BJgLg3R9KQ VanRullen, R., Reddy, L. (2019). Reconstructing Faces from fMRI Patterns using Deep Generative Neural Networks. Nat Comm Biol. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0438-y VanRullen, R. (2017). Perception Science in the age of Deep Neural Networks. Front. Psychology 8:142. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00142/full McLelland, D. & VanRullen, R. (2016). Theta-Gamma Coding Meets Communication-through-Coherence: Neuronal Oscillatory Multiplexing Theories Reconciled. PLoS Comput Biol 12(10), e1005162. https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005…

June 5, 2019

Post-doctoral position in neural circuitry underlying sensory perception

by Pedro Lagomarsino de Leon Roig

We invite applications for two postdoctoral positions focusing on the application of causal optogenetic approaches to dissect the neural circuits underlying sensory perception. The applicants should have a strong background in neurophysiology, circuit neuroscience, or behavioral neuroscience and be highly independent with a strong propensity for interdisciplinary research. Previous experience with electrophysiological recordings, two-photon GCaMP imaging, optogenetics or behavioral analysis is desirable. Candidates must hold a PhD in neuroscience, physics, bio-engineering or a related discipline and be highly motivated and creative individuals who want to work in a dynamic, multi-disciplinary research environment and who are willing to interact with both experimental and theoretical neuroscientists. Research activities will be carried out in the Optical Approaches to Brain Function Laboratory, supervised by Dr. Fellin. For reference to recent work please see Forli et al. Cell Reports 2018, Zucca et al. eLife 2017; Bovetti and Fellin, J. Neurosci. Methods 2015; Beltramo et al., Nat. Neurosci. 2013. Applications (full CV, two recommendation letters, and statement of research interest) should be sent by email to Dr. Tommaso Fellin ( tommaso.fellin(a)iit.it)

June 5, 2019

Post-doc Position in Open-Ended Deep Reinforcement Learning

by Jochen Triesch

We have an opening for a post-doc position in my lab (http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/en/neuro/triesch) at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) to study Open-Ended Deep Reinforcement Learning in simulated robots. We study systems that effectively learn to control their bodies and their environment by defining their own learning goals, practicing the skills for achieving these goals and setting themselves progressively harder goals. The work will be performed in the context of the European GOAL-Robots project (http://www.goal-robots.eu) For a quick overview of the project, check out this video: https://youtu.be/sordZmyp8u8. The focus of this post-doc position will be on simulated humanoids learning visually guided object interaction. We are seeking an outstanding and highly motivated post-doc for this project. Applicants should have obtained a PhD in Machine Learning, Robotics, or a closely related field. The ideal candidate will have excellent programming and analytic skills and a broad knowledge of machine learning, robotics, and vision. An interest in cognitive development in human infants is a plus. The Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (https://fias.institute/en/) is a research institution dedicated to fundamental theoretical research in various areas of science. The city of Frankfurt is the hub of one of the most vibrant metropolitan areas in Europe. It boasts a rich culture and arts community and repeatedly earns high rankings in worldwide surveys of quality of living. Applications should be sent as a single pdf file to triesch(a)fias.uni-frankfurt.de. Please include a brief statement of research interests, CV, and contact information for at least two references. The position can be filled immediately and applications will be reviewed on a continuing basis. The initial appointment will be for one year. -- Prof. Dr. Jochen Triesch Johanna Quandt Research Professor Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~triesch/ Tel: +49 (0)69 798-47531 Fax: +49 (0)69 798-47611

June 4, 2019

one postdoc position on testing models of mood and meta-cognition through large scale mobile platform - UPF & Telefonica Alpha (Barcelona)

by Alexandre Hyafil

One fully funded postdoc position is available under the supervision of Rubén Moreno Bote and Alexandre Hyafil jointly between University Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and the innovation facility Alpha powered by Telefonica, both in Barcelona, Spain. The position involves part time at the Theoretical and Cognitive Neuroscience group at the *Center for Brain and Cognition* (UPF)( https://www.upf.edu/web/ruben-moreno-bote) and at Alpha (www.alpha.company/) Alpha was established by Telefonica in January 2016 to address some of the biggest problems in society by conceiving and delivering radical solutions and breakthrough technology. The candidate will use psychophysics tasks on a large-scale mobile platform with >5k users to track the dynamics of meta-cognition and mood across various days. Candidates should have a PhD and expertise in Computational Neuroscience, Cognitive neuroscience or Cognitive psychology. Ideally he/she should have ample experience with psychophysics and sophisticated data analysis / machine learning techniques. The candidate will benefit from the stimulating environment of Barcelona area in Theoretical and Systems Neuroscience. Our lab forms part of a larger network of neuroscience labs in Barcelona. Candidates, please send a CV, letter of motivation and contact emails for references to alexandre.hyafil(a)upf.edu. Informal enquiries are recommended. Gross salary: 36 k€/year. Deadline: until the position is filled. Starting date: as soon as possible. Initial appointment is for one year.

June 4, 2019

Independent Research Fellow in Neural Data Science (UK)

by Mark Humphries

The University of Nottingham is investing in a major new research capacity in computational neuroscience. As part of this investment, we seek applications for a 2-year independent fellowship in Neural Data Science. The position is ideal for researchers with a clear vision to start their own research programme in a supportive, multi-disciplinary environment. We seek candidates positioned to join us in advancing the field of neural data science. This newly emerging discipline develops and uses the full gamut of modern computational techniques on neural data, to answer scientific questions about the brain. Candidates should be able to demonstrate a track record of quality research, and be able to independently manage their research. The Fellow will be attached to the Humphries's lab (https://www.humphries-lab.org/) for mentoring and scientific guidance, but work independently. For more on neural data science, see our guide: https://medium.com/the-spike/a-neural-data-science-how-and-why-d7e3969086f2 For full details of the role and to apply: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ref/SCI168019 Please send informal enquiries to Professor Mark Humphries: mark.humphries(a)nottingham.ac.uk This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.

June 3, 2019

Full-Time Research Assistant (RA)/ Lab Manager at Max Planck Institute, Research Group of Lucia Melloni

by Lucia Melloni

We are hiring! Come join us as a Research Assistant/Lab Manager We are looking for a passionate and talented Lab Manager to join the research group of Lucia Melloni at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (Frankfurt am Main, Germany). Our lab is interested in understanding why we perceive and remember the way we do, and specifically why we are conscious. To tackle those questions we use a range of methods including psychophysics, magnetoencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and invasive recordings in epilepsy patients. The lab manager is expected to provide support for research activities carried out in the lab but also to pursue research projects of his/her own. The position is particularly suited for a recent graduate from a Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Computer Science or related program who is seeking to work in an innovative research environment in preparation for graduate school. A two-year commitment is expected; the anticipated start date is August 2019 or soon after. Interested applicants are welcome to email Lucia Melloni directly for enquiries regarding the position (lucia.melloni(a)ae.mpg <mailto:lucia.melloni@ae.mpg>.de). Please submit your application, including a CV and a cover letter describing your background, experience and motivation - preferably in pdf format, and the names of two references that have previously agreed to be contacted no later than June 24, 2019, to: job(a)ae.mpg.de <mailto:job@ae.mpg.de> and lucia.melloni(a)ae.mpg.de <mailto:lucia.melloni@ae.mpg.de> with the subject Lab Manager L.Melloni For the full job description please see here <https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/institut/jobs/lab-manager-neuroscience-fmd.ht…>: https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/institut/jobs/lab-manager-neuroscience-fmd.ht… <https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/institut/jobs/lab-manager-neuroscience-fmd.ht…>

June 1, 2019