October 2020 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Postdoctoral position on the integration of vision and behaviour (Schröder Lab, University of Sussex, UK)
by Sylvia Schröder Oct. 23, 2020

Oct. 23, 2020

The Schröder Lab <https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/labs/schroeder-lab/>(Vision and Behaviour) at the University of Sussex, UK, offers a position for a *Postdoctoral researcher*** to study information processing in the early visual system of mice using two-photon imaging, electrophysiology (Neuropixels probes), and opto- and chemogenetic manipulations. The lab’s goal is to determine how behavioural and internal states like arousal are integrated with visual responses in the retina and superior colliculus. We want to discover the underlying mechanisms and the purpose of this integration in terms of visual processing and the animal’s behavioural demands. This paper describes our previous findings. *Your profile* ·Phd degree in neuroscience or in physics, computer science or engineering with a keen interest in neuroscience ·You will take ownership of the project and drive it forward ·Experience in experimental biology and quantitative data analysis including programming in Python, Matlab or a similar language ·Experience with two-photon imaging and/or extracellular electrophysiology desirable *Our offer to you* The Schröder lab opens its doors in January 2021. The candidate will have the opportunity: ·to make use of the lab’s own two-photon microscopy and Neuropixels recording setups ·to benefit from the PI’s active support in research and her mentoring in career development ·to learn essential skills in organising and setting up a lab ·to shape the research culture of the lab based on the values of scientific excellence, team work, and diversity ·to collaborate with other labs within Sussex Neuroscience <https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/sussex-neuroscience/>with expertise visual and other sensory systems, mouse behaviour, techniques of two-photon imaging and electrophysiology, and computational neuroscience *Start date*: January 2021 or later *Contract*: for 2 years initially, funding available for 5 years (through Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, Wellcome Trust) *Location*: campus is just outside Brighton at the coast of South East England, surrounded by South Downs National Park, 1 h from London See**the ***job advertisement <https://www.sussex.ac.uk/about/jobs/research-fellow-in-neuroscience-4726>* for details on how to apply. Informal enquiries are highly encouraged and should be made to Sylvia Schröder (sylvia.schroeder(a)ucl.ac.uk) **

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Postdoc position in biological intelligence of exploration at CMU & Pitt
by Timothy Verstynen Oct. 23, 2020

Oct. 23, 2020

Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are seeking applications for a joint, NIH-funded postdoc position on the computational neuroscience of exploration, linking computational models to both human behavioral and rodent optogenetic/electrophysiology data. The successful candidate will work with Professors Jonathan Rubin (Pitt) and Timothy Verstynen (CMU), in collaboration with Professors Eric Yttri (Department of Biological Sciences, CMU) and Cati Vich (Department of Applied Mathematics, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Mallorca, Spain). The project specifically focuses on how dynamics of cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic pathways map to cognitive models of adaptive decision-making. The position is funded for several years, with an initial one-year appointment and an expectation of extension to three years, given that performance is satisfactory. Applicants with a PhD in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Computational Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience or a related discipline, and ideally with experience in computing, in dynamical systems, and in computational neuroscience, should apply at: https://cmu.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?job=2015566 Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are both Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employers and value equality of opportunity, human dignity and diversity. Members of all groups under-represented in academia are especially encouraged to apply. Best, Tim Verstynen -- Timothy Verstynen Ph.D. (he/him) Associate Professor Psychology, Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute, & Biomedical Engineering (by courtesy) Co-Director of the CMU-Pitt BRIDGE Center Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Phone: 412-533-AXN1 (412-533-2961) Lab URL: www.cognitiveaxon.com Center URL: www.bridge-center.org CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail (including any attachments) contains information that is confidential, proprietary, and/or legally privileged for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). No confidentiality or privilege is waived. Any review or distribution by an unintended recipient is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please contact the sender immediately and delete all copies, whether electronic or hard copy. Thank you.

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Postdoctoral position in the Pachitariu Lab at Janelia
by Marius Pachitariu Oct. 22, 2020

Oct. 22, 2020

The Pachitariu Lab at HHMI Janelia is looking for postdoctoral researchers to lead projects that investigate the neural basis of cognition in rodents. The lab uses large-scale neural recordings combined with modern computational and theoretical approaches. Learn more about our work here <https://www.janelia.org/lab/pachitariu-lab>. *Essential Duties and Responsibilities* - Design novel behavioral paradigms in mice - Combine behavior and large-scale neural recordings - Explore and analyze large datasets with machine learning and data science - Participate in collaborative projects with computational researchers. *Required qualifications * - PhD in neuroscience / related discipline - or PhD in a computational field, but interested to start experimental work - Proficiency with Python or Matlab for data analysis *Skills and Abilities (optional)* - Experience with rodent training - Experience with neural recordings (ephys or imaging) - Skills to manage and support interdisciplinary collaborations The Janelia campus, including our lab, is committed to building an inclusive environment for under-represented minorities and women. We strongly encourage applications from all under-represented groups. For more information, reach out directly to pachitarium(a)hhmi.org or apply here <https://hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job/Janelia-Research-Campus/Pos…> .

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PhD and postdoc position in quadruped robotics and machine learning at EPFL, Lausanne Switzerland
by Auke Ijspeert Oct. 21, 2020

Oct. 21, 2020

The Biorobotics laboratory (Biorob, https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/ <https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob>) at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) has one open *PhD student* and one *postdoc position* in *quadruped robotics and machine learning*. The project is at the intersection between robotics, machine learning, and computational neuroscience. Its goal is is to develop a computational architecture that (i) merges spinal-cord-like dynamics with higher-level planning and learning, (ii) allows testing hypotheses about animal motor control at a conceptual level, and (iii) can serve as basis for controlling, planning, and learning rich motor skills in robots. The architecture will be evaluated with a scenario that involves control and learning in a quadruped robot crossing a (simple) parkour. The positions are fully funded for 4 years through a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. EPFL is one of the leading Institutes of Technology in Europe and offers extremely competitive salaries and research infrastructure. *Instructions to apply* can be found here: https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/openings/ *The ideal starting date is early 2021* (with some flexibility). Applications will be considered starting *from November 15 2020*, and then continuously until the positions are filled. Best regards, Auke Ijspeert -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Auke Jan Ijspeert Biorobotics Laboratory EPFL-STI-IBI-BIOROB, ME D1 1226, Station 9 EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Office: ME D1 1226 Tel: +41 21 693 2658 Fax: +41 21 693 3705 www:http://biorob.epfl.ch Email:Auke.Ijspeert@epfl.ch -----------------------------------------------------------------

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Post-doc position in EEG Analysis in Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
by Alberto Mazzoni Oct. 21, 2020

Oct. 21, 2020

A postdoc position is available in the Computational Neuroengineering Laboratory / Translational Neural Engineering Area of The Biorobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa (Italy). The work will focus on the analysis and decoding of neural signals, with particular emphasis on electroencephalographic signals, by means of machine learning algorithms. The aim is to develop prognostic tools to assess the possible evolution of neurodegenerative diseases (as Alzheimer Disease) from early screenings and to identify optimal motor rehabilitation procedures after events such as stroke. The ideal candidate has previous experience in EEG analysis. Previous experience in machine learning is an asset. The ideal candidate has also experience in conducting R&D projects both individually and as a part of a group, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and most important an imaginative and creative mind. The Computational Neuroengineering Laboratory ( www.santannapisa.it/en/computational-neuroengineering-laboratory ) lead by Dr. Alberto Mazzoni (me) focuses on the modeling and analysis of information processing in neural systems for neural disorders diagnosis and the development of novel neurostimulation therapies (from glioma to movement disorders). The laboratory is part of the Transational Neuroengineering Area lead by Prof. Silvestro Micera ( www.santannapisa.it/en/institute/biorobotics/translational-neural-engineeri… ) which is one of the leading neuroengineering groups in Europe, in particular on the development of neurotechnologies able to restore sensorimotor functions in disabled people. The projects involve a network of clinical and research centers between Pisa and Florence. Both cities are Unesco World Heritage sites and are characterized by a high quality of life, but are also hubs of high level research. In particular, the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna was ranked 4th best young university in the world in 2020 (TIME rankings). <#_msocom_1> Start date is flexible, but winter 2021 is preferred. Please send - cover letter, - Curriculum Vitae - 1-3 selected publications To a.mazzoni(a)santannapisa.it . Deadline for application is November 27th. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed December 11th. ------------------------------ -- */////////////////////////////////////////////////////* perché quello del populo è più onesto fine che quello de' grandi, volendo questi opprimere, e quello non essere oppresso N.M.

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INTERNATIONAL NEURAL NETWORK SOCIETY (INNS) - FREE Inaugural Virtual Workshop on Explainable AI on November 6, 2020, Friday, 9 am to 1 pm EST - REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW
by Asim Roy Oct. 21, 2020

Oct. 21, 2020

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce that INNS (the International Neural Network Society) is launching a Virtual Technical Event series that will feature workshops, seminars, tutorials, discussions and so on. These technical events will occur throughout the year for a worldwide audience. We welcome proposals on challenging and controversial research topics and ones that provide new insights on biological learning. Through this series of virtual technical events, we would like to serve the growing need for advanced education in a variety of fields that are linked together such as AI, machine learning, neural networks, cognitive science, robotics and so on. Further details on proposal submission are available at https://www.inns.org/virtual-technical-events. We also welcome proposals from the industry and industry sponsorship of these events. FREE Inaugural Virtual Workshop on Explainable AI on November 6, 2020, Friday, 9 am to 1 pm EST This inaugural workshop focuses on Explainable AI (XAI), a topic that is highly important for us to widely deploy our AI/ML systems. We invited five prominent scholars to present their thoughts in this virtual workshop. Further details are provided below including where to register for the event. WORKSHOP SPEAKERS 1. Stephen Grossberg, Wang Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University, http://sites.bu.edu/steveg/ 2. Juergen Schmidhuber, Scientific Director of IDSIA<http://www.idsia.ch/>, http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/ 3. Jeff Krichmar, Professor of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma 4. Vladimir Cherkassky, Professor of ECE, Univ. of Minnesota, https://ece.umn.edu/directory/cherkassky-vladimir/ 5. Lee Giles, Professor of Information Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, https://clgiles.ist.psu.edu/ MODERATORS: Asim Roy, Professor, Arizona State University (https://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.asim.roy) Daniel Levine, Professor, University of Texas at Arlington (https://www.uta.edu/psychology/people/daniel-levine.php) FORMAT: Each speaker - 35 minute presentation + 10 mins Q&A REGISTRATION - https://www.eventbrite.hk/e/explainable-ai-xai-virtual-workshop-registratio… With regards, Irwin King INNS President, FIEEE, FHKIE, DMACM, BoG APNNS & INNS Chair, Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering o +(852) 3943-8398 The Chinese University of Hong Kong f +(852) 2603-5024 Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/irwin.king<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk_irw…> Asim Roy VP, Industry Relations, INNS Chair, Committee for Virtual Technical Events, INNS Professor, Arizona State University https://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.asim.roy

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Online workshop series - Neural Control: From data to machines
by DPI, plan4act Oct. 20, 2020

Oct. 20, 2020

We are pleased to announce the online workshop series Neural Control: From data to machines with weekly Zoom-sessions starting on November 5th, 2020. Topic: Movement disorders leave individuals unable to control parts of their bodies, creating a disconnect between their brain and the world around them. This workshop series looks at how neural activity can be mapped to control smart systems, producing desired movements on demand. To discuss the implied problems and solutions, we have brought together experts from the different involved scientific fields. Details and registration at: https://alexandria.physik3.uni-goettingen.de/cns-group/projects/webinars/ Confirmed Speakers: * Dario Farina * Silvestro Micera * Tonio Ball * Nick Ramsay * Juan Álvaro Gallego * Florentin Wörgötter * Alexander Gail * Christian Tetzlaff * Michael Fauth * Tomoki Fukai * Petra Ritter * Valerio Mante * Hans Scherberger * Gordon Cheng * Poramate Manoonpong * Jan-Matthias Braun * Eugenio Gaeta * Daniel Durstewitz * Yukie Nagai Please forward to anyone who may be interested. Best, Florentin Wörgötter and Christian Tetzlaff

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Call for papers : Special Issue on Deep Learning Approaches for Brain-Computer Interfaces (Signals - MDPI)
by Panagiotis Petrantonakis Oct. 20, 2020

Oct. 20, 2020

Call For Papers for a Special issue on: *Deep Learning Approaches for Brain-Computer Interfaces* https://www.mdpi.com/journal/signals/special_issues/Brain_Computer_Interfac… *Special Issue Information* Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) decipher and translate brain signals into commands for the surrounding environment. Different types of brain signals, e.g., EEG and fMRI, have been used as a means to decode intended user commands, and various machine learning approaches have been tested in such a task. With the advent of the deep learning (DL) era, new studies have emerged that exploit the advantages of the deep network architectures for BCI systems and depict more efficient and reliable brain signal decoding systems. The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a collection of forefront works investigating the deployment of various deep network types in different BCI applications using a variety of brain signals either of unimodal or multimodal signal processing framework. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following: - Deep network architectures for BCIs; - Transfer learning in BCIs; - Big data for DL-based BCIs; - Fusion of multiple brain signals for BCIs using DL methods. *Guest Editor* Panagiotis Petrantonakis (ppetrant(a)iti.gr) Please do not hesitate to contact me for additional questions. Kind regards, Panagiotis

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PhD position in Insect-Inspired AI at Edinburgh
by Barbara Webb Oct. 19, 2020

Oct. 19, 2020

The Insect Robotics lab at the University of Edinburgh, led by Professor Barbara Webb, has a fully-funded PhD studentship (3 years fees and stipend) available to study 'Insect-Inspired AI'. The position could commence any time from now. The project will develop an alternative architecture for intelligent autonomous systems based on the insect brain. Insects are hugely successful at a number of tasks that are still major challenges for artificial intelligence, including rapid learning from minimal data and sophisticated navigation and robust coordination of behaviour in dynamic environments. The focus of the work will be to obtain a functional understanding of the computations occurring in the insect ‘mushroom body’ (MB) neuropil. Specifically, the PhD topic is to understand how the input and output organisation of the MB support adaptive and context dependent associative learning of complex sensory patterns for the control of behaviour. This will be applied to robot navigation tasks. A suitable candidate would have a strong first degree in computing, maths or engineering; ideally with some background in computational neuroscience, neuromorphic computing, robotics or similar topics; and a strong interest in obtaining biological understanding of brain mechanisms for control of behaviour. Interested candidates should in the first instance contact Professor Barbara Webb <B.Webb(a)ed.ac.uk>. More details about graduate study at the School of Informatics and the formal application process can be found here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/informatics/postgraduate/research-degrees -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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NEURONUS 2020 IBRO Neuroscience Forum (8-11 December 2020, ONLINE)
by Michał Zaręba Oct. 19, 2020

Oct. 19, 2020

*REGISTRATION for NEURONUS 2020 IBRO Neuroscience Forum is open only UNTIL OCTOBER 31! The fee has been lowered to 12€. The number of the participants is limited only to 1000 – hurry up! More information and registration forms can be found on our website: **http://neuronusforum.pl/* <http://neuronusforum.pl/>*.* With prominent speakers and an unique atmosphere of Krakow, one of the oldest and most beautiful Polish cities, NEURONUS IBRO Neuroscience Forums have established themselves in the European calendar of scientific events as a platform for communication between scientists from different fields of neuroscience. Unfortunately, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to move our event to the virtual plane. The program of the conference consists of numerous sessions on biological, cognitive, computational and medical aspects of neuroscience, creating a dynamic environment for sharing knowledge. The schedule of the meeting is further complemented with lectures by invited guests, and we invest a lot of effort to attract as influential neuroscientists as possible. This year’s keynote speakers include: - *Karl Friston *(University College London, the UK) - *Pico Caroni *(University of Basel, Switzerland) - *Karin Roelofs *(Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands) - *Alejandro Schinder *(Leloir Institute, Buenos Aires, Argentina) - *Adam Hampshire *(Imperial College London, the UK) - *Dayu Lin *(New York University School of Medicine, the USA) Furthermore, a special panel concerning the Future of Neuroscience will be held. We have confirmed participation of three pioneering researchers: - *Viktor Jirsa *(Aix-Marseille University, France) - *Panayiota Poirazi* (Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Heraklion, Greece) - *Dominik Paquet *(Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany) During the upcoming 11th edition of the conference, we will traditionally continue to put *emphasis on development of early-career researchers*. The main purpose of this event is to provide means for both young and experienced neuroscientists to share the latest discoveries, knowledge and experience in neuroscience, as well as make valuable contacts with scientists representing various fields of neurobiology. We actively promote young scientists through preferentially allocating oral presentations of their experimental results. We strongly encourage you to join this special initiative, and hope to see you soon! On behalf of the Organising Committee, Michał Zaręba

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