July 2025 - Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

BabyBench Competition Announcement
by Jochen Triesch July 2, 2025

July 2, 2025

Dear colleagues, We are thrilled to announce the official start of the first BabyBench Competition featured at the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) 2025! The topic of this first edition will be how infants discover their own bodies. Can you help the multimodal infant model MIMo learn two typical infant behaviors: self touch and hand regard? What is BabyBench? BabyBench is a Multimodal Benchmark of Infant Behaviors for Developmental Artificial Intelligence. The goal of the competition is to devise learning algorithms that allow MIMo to obtain important milestones of cognitive development. We provide the embodiment, the simulation environments, and the evaluation metrics; all you need is to implement your ideas. Are you up for the challenge? Important dates • Submission deadline: September 1, 2025 • Winner announcement at ICDL: September 19, 2025 Why Participate? • Low Entry Barrier: Get started quickly using our pre-defined, user-friendly simulation environment. Whether you're a seasoned researcher or a curious newcomer, the BabyBench platform is designed to let you focus on modeling, not engineering. • The winner will receive a €150 prize sponsored by the IEEE RAS TC Cognitive Robotics. • All finalists will receive a certificate at the IEEE ICDL. • Contribute to the Developmental AI community! For more information visit https://babybench.github.io/2025 Main contact point: Francisco Lopez (fcomlop(a)gmail.com) Feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested! Warm regards, The BabyBench 2025 Organizing Team Francisco M. López (Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies) Valentin Marcel (Czech Technical University in Prague) Xavier Hinaut (INRIA Bordeaux) Jochen Triesch (Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies) Matej Hoffmann (Czech Technical University in Prague)

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[CfP] NeuRobots 2025 @ IROS – Workshop on Neuromorphic Perception (Deadline: Aug 24)
by Sebastian Otte July 2, 2025

July 2, 2025

======================================================================== CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS — NEUROBOTS 2025 Workshop on Neuromorphic Perception for Real-World Robotics In conjunction with IROS 2025 October 24, 2025 – Hangzhou, China Room 102A – Morning Session ======================================================================== Are you developing neuromorphic or event-based vision systems that operate in real-time on physical robotic platforms and are validated in the real world? NeuRobots 2025 is the venue to present your work. We welcome contributions in the following categories: - Full-length conference/journal papers (accepted at IROS or a related venue) - Extended abstracts (2-4 pages, excluding references) - Demos (video + 1-page description) *** Submission Deadline: August 24, 2025 (AoE) *** Submit and find more info here: https://sites.google.com/view/neurobots2025/home ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scope: NeuRobots 2025 focuses on real-world applications of neuromorphic and event-based perception, including: - Event-based vision and data representations - Spiking neural networks and bio-inspired algorithms - Real-time perception pipelines - Hybrid sensing (traditional + neuromorphic) - Hardware implementations (ASIC, FPGA, etc.) We are especially interested in systems that go beyond simulation and demonstrate clear advantages in dynamic, real-world environments. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Confirmed Speakers: - Guido De Croon (TU Delft) - Mina Khoei (SynSense) - Jörg Conradt (KTH) - Luna Gava (Italian Institute of Technology) - Suman Ghosh (TU Berlin) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Organizers: Andreas Ziegler (University of Tübingen) Arren Glover (Italian Institute of Technology) Tobi Delbruck (University and ETH Zürich) Yulia Sandamirskaya (ZHAW) Sebastian Otte (University of Lübeck) Giulia D’Angelo (Czech Technical University in Prague) Luca Peres (University of Manchester) Jingyue Zhao (Qiyuan Lab) We look forward to your submissions! ========================================================================

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Subject: PhD Position – Computational Modeling of Dopamine Dynamics (Ruhr University Bochum)
by Robert Schmidt July 1, 2025

July 1, 2025

Subject: PhD Position – Computational Modeling of Dopamine Dynamics (Ruhr University Bochum) The Neural Data Science Group (PI: Prof. Dr. Robert Schmidt, https://www.ini.rub.de/the_institute/people/robert-schmidt/) located in the Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), invites applications for a 3-year PhD position (75%, TV-L E13) in computational neuroscience, starting as soon as possible. The position is part of a DFG-funded project and embedded in the new research building THINK (Center for Theoretical and Integrative Neuroscience and Cognitive Science). The project develops a biophysical computational model of striatal dopamine signaling, simulating release, diffusion, uptake, and receptor binding to uncover the structure of dopamine “landscapes” in health and disease (e.g. Parkinson’s disease). The aim is to bridge this mechanistic modeling with dopamine’s cognitive functions in action selection, behavioral flexibility, and reinforcement learning. ⸻ Your profile: • Master’s degree in computational neuroscience, computer science, (bio-)physics, or a related field • Strong programming skills (Python, C/C++) • Interest in biophysical models of neural systems and data-driven neuroscience • Team-minded, self-motivated, and fluent in English We offer: • A 3-year position (75%, TV-L E13) with the opportunity to pursue a PhD in Computer Science • An interdisciplinary and collaborative environment within the RUB’s thriving Faculty of Computer Science (https://informatik.rub.de/en/) • Research integration in the Institute for Neural Computation (https://www.ini.rub.de) and the research building THINK (https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/think/) • Access to high-performance computing resources, mentoring, and career development support ⸻ Application: Send a single PDF including your CV, transcript(s), short statement of interest, and contact info for 1–2 referees to: robert.schmidt(a)rub.de The application deadline is the 15th July, 2025. -- Prof. Dr. Robert Schmidt Neural Data Science www.ini.rub.de/the_institute/people/robert-schmidt/ Institute for Neural Computation Faculty of Computer Science Ruhr-Universität Bochum Universitätsstr. 150 44801 Bochum, Germany

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Senior ML Research Engineer (NeuroAI) at Kempner Institute, Harvard University
by Shad, Max July 1, 2025

July 1, 2025

Dear colleagues, We're hiring a Senior ML Research Engineer (NeuroAI) at the Kempner Institute<https://kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/> for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. We're looking for someone at the intersection of machine learning and computational neuroscience to contribute to our NeuroAI research projects. This is a unique opportunity to collaborate closely with leading researchers in neuroscience, AI, and related fields and work on one of the largest academic AI clusters in the US. Position details and application link: Https://careers.harvard.edu/job/senior-ml-research-engineer-in-cambridge-ma…<https://careers.harvard.edu/job/senior-ml-research-engineer-in-cambridge-ma…> Please feel free to share this with anyone who might be interested in the role. Best, Max Max Shad, PhD Senior Director for AI/ML Research Engineering Kempner Institute | Harvard University

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What can you do with 1000 neurons?
by Nicolas P. Rougier (inria) July 1, 2025

July 1, 2025

Dear all, There exists a lot of computational models of decision making that can give account on this or that experimental data. The question is whether we can adapt these models to solve an actual decision task? You'll find at https://github.com/rougier/braincraft the rules of a simple decision making challenge. Roughly, you have have 1000 neurons (leaky rate models), 100 seconds of training time and 10 runs for evaluation. The difficulty comes from the imposed constraints. The first challenge runs from now until August 31 and we'll see if it can be solved (one way or the other). Best, Nicolas Rougier -- Nicolas P. Rougier —— www.labri.fr/perso/nrougier Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bordeaux

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