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[COSYNE2015] Abstract submission is open, Workshop pre-proposals deadline on Oct 31
by Tomas Hromadka Oct. 10, 2014

Oct. 10, 2014

================================================= Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING Mar 5 - Mar 8, 2015 Salt Lake City, Utah WORKSHOPS Mar 9 - Mar 10, 2015 Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah http://www.cosyne.org ================================================= IMPORTANT DATES: Abstract submission is now open! Abstract submission deadline: 26 Nov 2014 Workshop pre-proposal deadline: 31 Oct 2014 Workshop proposal deadline: 21 Nov 2014 The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function. MAIN MEETING The main meeting is single-track. A set of invited talks are selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, and computation with spiking networks. This year we would like to foster increased participation from experimental groups as well as computational ones. Please circulate widely and encourage your students and postdocs to apply. Please note that the main Cosyne 2015 meeting will take place in a different venue (Hilton Salt Lake City Center) one week later than usual, see www.cosyne.org for details. WORKSHOPS The workshops feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest, in a small group setting. The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged. PRE-PROPOSALS: In an effort to coordinate submissions, the organizers are encouraged to submit a pre-proposal by 31 Oct 2014. Pre-proposals will be shared among submitters. Pre-proposals are requested but not required. The organizers may submit the full proposal by its deadline (21 Nov 2014). The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate. Preference will be given to proposals that differ substantially in content, scope, and/or approach from workshops of recent years (examples available at www.cosyne.org) Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation, reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience. For details on submitting (pre-)proposals please visit www.cosyne.org (Workshops). CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Amy Bastian (Johns Hopkins) Matteo Carandini (UCL) Sophie Deneve (ENS) Florian Engert (Harvard) Marla Feller (UC Berkeley) Wulfram Gerstner (EPFL) Shawn Lockery (U Oregon) Liam Paninski (Columbia) Nicole Rust (U Penn) Tatyana Sharpee (Salk) Mariano Sigman (UBA) Emo Todorov (U Washington) When preparing an abstract, authors should be aware that not all abstracts can be accepted for the meeting, due to space constraints. Abstracts will be selected based on the clarity with which they convey the substance, significance, and originality of the work to be presented. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: General Chairs: Michael Long (NYU) and Stephanie Palmer (U Chicago) Program Chairs: Maria Geffen (U Penn) and Konrad Kording (Northwestern) Workshop Chairs: Robert Froemke (NYU) and Claudia Clopath (Imperial College) Publicity Chair: Xaq Pitkow (Rice) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Anne Churchland (CSHL) Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud) Alexandre Pouget (U Geneva) Anthony Zador (CSHL) CONTACT cosyne.meeting [at] gmail.com

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Postdoctoral / Research Specialist position in Drosophila visual neurophysiology
by Reiser, Michael Oct. 10, 2014

Oct. 10, 2014

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Faculty position in Computational Neuroscience / Cognitive Science, Cambridge
by Máté Lengyel Oct. 9, 2014

Oct. 9, 2014

Faculty position in Computational Neuroscience / Cognitive Science Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK Applications are invited for a University Lectureship / Senior Lectureship (~ US Assistant / Associate Professor equivalent) in the broad area of Computational Neuroscience, including Computational Cognitive Science in the Computational and Biological Learning Lab (cbl.eng.cam.ac.uk). CBL combines expertise in computational neuroscience and cognitive science (Daniel Wolpert, Mate Lengyel, Rich Turner) and machine learning (Zoubin Ghahramani, Carl Rasmussen). We particularly encourage applicants who would complement our current research activities. The successful applicant’s research should use computational or theoretical approaches, and may combine these approaches with behavioural experiments. Informal enquiries are welcome to: Daniel Wolpert (wolpert(a)eng.cam.ac.uk) Mate Lengyel (m.lengyel(a)eng.cam.ac.uk) Richard Turner (ret26(a)cam.ac.uk) Timeline: - Closing date of applications: Friday November 28th - Interviews: February, 2015 Further information and details of the application process can be found at http://cbl.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/VacancyFaculty2014

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PostDoc Openings - New techniques for vision-assisted speech processing
by Chiara Bartolozzi Oct. 9, 2014

Oct. 9, 2014

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (http://www.iit.it<http://www.iit.it/undefined/>) is a private Foundation with the objective of promoting Italy's technological development and higher education in science and technology. Research at IIT is carried out in highly innovative scientific fields with state-of-the-art technology. http://www.iit.it/ iCub Facility (http://www.iit.it/icub) and Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences (http://www.iit.it/rbcs) Departments are looking for 2 post-docs to be involved in the H2020 project EcoMode funded by the European Commission under the H2020-ICT-2014-1 call (topic ICT-22-2014 - Multimodal and natural computer interaction). Job Description: Robust automatic speech recognition in realistic environments for human-robot interaction, where speech is noisy and distant, is still a challenging task. Vision can be used to increase speech recognition robustness by adding complementary speech-production related information. In this project visual information will be provided by an event-driven (ED) camera. ED vision sensors transmit information as soon as a change occurs in their visual field, achieving incredibly high temporal resolution, coupled with extremely low data rate and automatic segmentation of significant events. In an audio-visual speech recognition setting ED vision can not only provide new additional visual information to the speech recognizer, but also drive the temporal processing of speech by locating (in the temporal dimension) visual events related to speech production landmarks. The goal of the proposed research is the exploitation of highly dynamical information from ED vision sensors for robust speech processing. The temporal information provided by EDC sensors will allow to experiment with new models of speech temporal dynamics based on events as opposed to the typical fixed-length segments (i.e. frames). In this context, we are looking for 2 highly motivated Post-docs, respectively tackling vision (Research Challenge 1) and speech processing (Research Challenge 2), as oulined herebelow: Research Challenge 1 (vision @ iCub facility - BC 69721): the post-doc will mostly work on the detection of features from event-driven cameras instrumental for improving speech recognition (e.g. lips closure, protrusion, shape, etc…). The temporal features extracted from the visual signal will be used for crossmodal event-driven speech segmentation that will drive the processing of speech. In the attempt to increase the robustness to acoustic noise and atypical speech, acoustic and visual features will be combined to recover phonetic gestures of the inner vocal tract (articulatory features). Research Challenge 2 (speech processing @ RBCS - BC 69724): the post-doc will mainly develop a novel speech recognition system based on visual, acoustic and (recovered) articulatory features, that will be targeted for users with mild speech impairments. The temporal information provided by EDC sensors will allow to experiment with new strategies to model the temporal dynamics of normal and atypical speech. The main outcome of the project will be an audio-visual speech recognition system that robustly recognizes the most relevant commands (key phrases) delivered by users to devices in real-word usage scenarios. The resulting methods for improving speech recognition will be exploited for the implementation of a tablet with robust speech processing. Given the automatic adaptation of the speech processing to the speech production rhythm, the speech recognition system will target speakers with mild speech impairments, specifically subjects with atypical speech flow and rhythm, typical of some disabilities and of the ageing population. The same approach will then be applied to the humanoid robot iCub to improve its interaction with humans in cooperative tasks. Skills: We are looking for highly motivated people and inquisitive minds with the curiosity to use a new and challenging technology that requires a rethinking of visual and speech processing to achieve a high payoff in terms of speed, efficiency and robustness. The candidates we are looking for should also have the following additional skills: * PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering (or equivalent) with a background in machine learning, signal processing or related areas; * ability to analyze, improve and propose new algorithms; * Good knowledge of C, C++ programming languages with proven experience. Team-work, PhD tutoring and general lab-related activities are expected An internationally competitive salary depending on experience will be offered. Please note that these positions are pending the signature of the grant agreement with the European Commission (expected start date in early 2015) How to apply: Challenge 1: Send applications and informal enquires to jobpost.69721(a)icub.iit.it<mailto:jobpost.69721@icub.iit.it> Challenge 2: Send applications and informal enquires to jobpost.69724(a)rbcs.iit.it<mailto:jobpost.69724@rbcs.iit.it> The application should include a curriculum vitae listing all publications and pdf files of the most representative publications (maximum 2) If possible, please also indicate three independent reference persons. Presumed Starting Date: Challenge 1: January 2015 (but later starts are also possible). Challenge 2: June 2015 (but later starts are also possible). Evaluation of the candidates starts immediately and officially closes on November 10th, 2014. References: Lichtsteiner, P., Posch, C., & Delbruck, T. (2008). A 128×128 120 dB 15 μs latency asynchronous temporal contrast vision sensor. Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of, 43(2), 566-576. Rea, F., Metta, G., & Bartolozzi, C. (2013). Event-driven visual attention for the humanoid robot iCub. Frontiers in neuroscience, 7. Benosman, R.; Clercq, C.; Lagorce, X.; Sio-Hoi Ieng; Bartolozzi, C., "Event-Based Visual Flow," Neural Networks and Learning Systems, IEEE Transactions on , vol.25, no.2, pp.407,417, Feb. 2014, doi: 10.1109/TNNLS.2013.2273537 Potamianos, G. Neti, C. Gravier, G. Garg, A. and Senior, A.W. (2003) “Recent Advances in the Automatic Recognition of Audiovisual Speech” in Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 91 pp. 1306-1326 Glass, J. (2003)“A probabilistic framework for segment-based speech recognition”, Computer Speech and Language, vol. 17, pp. 137-152. Badino, L., Canevari, C., Fadiga, L., Metta, G. "Deep-Level Acoustic-to-Articulatory Mapping for DBN-HMM Based Phone Recognition", in IEEE SLT 2012, Miami, Florida, 2012 In order to comply with Italian law (art. 23 of Privacy Law of the Italian Legislative Decree n. 196/03), the candidate is kindly asked to give his/her consent to allow IIT to process his/her personal data. We inform you that the information you provide will be solely used for the purpose of assessing your professional profile to meet the requirements of IIT. Your data will be processed by IIT, with its headquarters in Genoa, Via Morego, 30, acting as the Data Holder, using computer and paper-based means, observing the rules on the protection of personal data, including those relating to the security of data. Please also note that, pursuant to art. 7 of Legislative Decree 196/2003, you may exercise your rights at any time as a party concerned by contacting the Data Manager. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia is an Equal Opportunity Employer that actively seeks diversity in the workforce. Chiara Bartolozzi Researcher Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Via Morego, 30 16163 Genoa, Italy Ph: +39 010 7178-1474

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Physics of Neural Systems focus topic at the 2015 American Physical Society March Meeting, March 2-6, San Antonio, TX
by Ilya Nemenman Oct. 8, 2014

Oct. 8, 2014

Dear Colleagues: The 2015 American Physical Society (APS) March meeting (March 2-6, 2015; San Antonio, TX) will emphasize “Physics of Neural Systems” as one of the focus topics supported by the Division of Biological Physics. We expect multiple sessions resulting from this focus topic, addressing recent advances in understanding of the structure and the dynamics of neural circuits responsible for sensing, memory, and motor output. Arguably, in the last few years, we have found out more about the dynamics of neural circuits than we have in all of the previous decades combined. Thus we solicit submissions of contributed presentations to the March meeting, focusing on a broad range of topics on the intersection of physics and neuroscience, such as quantitative experimental protocols, modeling of neural dynamics, analysis of collective computation in neural circuits, and others. The neural focus at the meeting will be anchored by talks by Tatyana Sharpee (Salk Institute) and Christopher Fang-Yen (University of Pennsylvania), among others. March meeting abstract submission website: http://www.aps.org/meetings/march/scientific/index.cfm Abstract submission deadline: November 14, 2014, 5:00pm EST While the actual timing of the neuro sessions at the meeting will not be known until December and will depend on the number of qualified submissions, the sessions will be scheduled not to conflict with other computational neuroscience meetings, such as COSYNE. APS March meeting is the largest physics meeting in the world, attracting about 10,000 physicists. At the meeting, the APS Division of Biological Physics supports one of the largest and scientifically diverse programs on the interface of physics and biology, from molecular and cellular biophysics, to computational neuroscience and population dynamics, featuring typically more than 500 talks every year. We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts. If you have any questions about neuroscience at the March Meeting, please don’t hesitate to contact Ilya Nemenman (ilya.nemenman(a)emory.edu) Sincerely, Ilya Nemenman Associate Professor of Physics and Biology Emory University, Atlanta, GA and Vice-Chair, Division of Biological Physics (DBIO) American Physical Society (APS) http://nemenmanlab.org Biophysicist? Join APS/DBIO and come to the March Meeting! Ilya Nemenman Associate Professor of Physics and Biology Emory University, Atlanta, GA and Vice-Chair, Division of Biological Physics (DBIO) American Physical Society (APS) http://nemenmanlab.org Biophysicist? Join APS/DBIO and come to the March Meeting!

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Open Access Journal with a free publication - Call for papers
by subbotin Oct. 7, 2014

Oct. 7, 2014

Dear Сolleagues, I invite you to send your articles to the journal "Radio Electronics, Computer Science, Control", published by Zaporizhzhya National Technical University (Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine) since 1999. The articles are published and peer-reviewed free of charge. The journal provides free on-line access to full text publications. The articles given a unique digital object identifier (DOI). The journal is abstracted in leading international and national abstractig journals and scientometric databases, and also placed to the digital archives and libraries with free on-line access (INSPEC, DOI, ISSN, EBSCO, eLibrary.ru, Іndex Copernicus, Ulrich’s Periodical Directory, WorldCat, Google Scholar, DOAJ, Academic Keys, ADAT, DRJI, JournalTOCs, MIAR, SHERPA/RoMEO, BASE, CiteFactor, EZB, Impactfactor.pl, Journalindex.net, OAIster, OAJI, Research Bible, SIS, UIF, ZDB, VINITI, Ukrainica Naukova, Djerelo, URAN et al.). The journal is included in the list of the scientific specialized periodicals of Ukraine where the results of dissertations for Ph. D and D. Sc. in Technical Sciences, Physics and Mathematics сan be published. Printed versions of of the journal are distributed among leading libraries, as well as by subscription. The formatting rules and templates of articles, as well as accompanying documents to them are presented on the journal website http://ric.zntu.edu.ua/. Sincerely yours, Sergey Subbotin, Deputy Chief Editor, Dr. hab. Sc., Professor of Department of software tools of Zaporizhzhya National Technical University. E-mail: subbotin(a)zntu.edu.ua, subbotin.csit(a)gmail.com

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Postdoctoral position in machine learning and computer vision for biomedical data analysis
by Diego Sona Oct. 7, 2014

Oct. 7, 2014

The Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision department (PAVIS - http://www.iit.it/pavis.html) at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia is looking for a highly qualified researcher in the field of Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning, Image Analysis with applications to Biomedical Data Analysis The position is available immediately and until filled. Evidence of top quality research on the specified areas in the form of published papers is mandatory. The salary will be commensurate to qualification and experience and in line to that of the research institutes in the rest of Europe. Further info can be found at http://iit.it/en/openings/research-departments/pattern-analysis-a-computer-… --------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Diego Sona Pattern Analysis & Computer Vision (PAVIS) Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) Via Morego 30, 16163, Genova, Italy Phone: +39 010 71781 819 E-mail: diego.sona(a)iit.it www.iit.it/pavis.html ---------------------------------------------------------

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Workshop on Networks
by Ermentrout, G Bard Oct. 6, 2014

Oct. 6, 2014

Dear Colleagues, It is our pleasure to call your attention to a workshop "Advances in Discrete Networks" that we have organized, to be held at the University of Pittsburgh on December 12-14, 2014. This three-day workshop will provide a forum for the exchange of ideas relating to quantitative research about networks, pursued with a variety of perspectives and approaches. The event will bring together leading researchers in the field, with backgrounds in areas such as applied mathematics, mathematical biology, statistical physics, and computational methods, along with a diverse pool of graduate students, postdocs, and other scientists who are early in their careers. Indeed, one of the goals of the meeting is to promote the development and continuation of interdisciplinary collaborations in these areas, as well as the exchange of ideas between participants from a variety of backgrounds and career stages. More information about the meeting, including a list of speakers, is available at: http://www.math.pitt.edu/~lewicka/Semester_DiscrNetw_14/adv_disc_netw_works…<http://www.math.pitt.edu/%7Elewicka/Semester_DiscrNetw_14/adv_disc_netw_wor…> The meeting will include a poster session, and funds are available (under the NSF grant DMS-1446452) to support student and postdoc travel. If you or someone from your group is interested in attending, as we hope you will be, then please complete an application form, available at the above website or at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11lUhx_sWxe4F135goptKkh-Qu3ioEJwktfSU32M35J… Space is limited, so we encourage early applications. Thanks for your attention, Brent Doiron (brent.doiron(a)gmail.com<mailto:brent.doiron@gmail.com>) Bard Ermentrout (bard(a)pitt.edu<mailto:bard@pitt.edu>) Marta Lewicka (lewicka(a)pitt.edu<mailto:lewicka@pitt.edu>) Jon Rubin (jonrubin(a)pitt.edu<mailto:jonrubin@pitt.edu>)

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Postdoctoral position in theoretical neuroscience at the Hebrew University
by Yoram Burak Oct. 6, 2014

Oct. 6, 2014

Yoram Burak's research group at the Hebrew University is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral research fellow in theoretical neuroscience. The initial appointment will be for one year, with a possibility of extension. The group has a broad range of interests in theoretical and computational neuroscience, including: - Dynamics of short term memory in stochastic neural networks. - Sequence generation and learning in the brain. - Invariant perception in sensory processing. - Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex: spatial computation and coding in the brain. - Plasticity in neural networks. The group is part of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), and of the Racah Institute of Physics. Both are located in the beautiful Safra campus of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The Hebrew University is ranked first among Israel's research universities in the Shanghai ranking of world universities (the ARWU ranking), 70th in the world, and 47th in the natural sciences. Research at ELSC offers a vibrant scientific environment and excellent opportunities for interaction with researchers interested in systems and computational neuroscience. For more information, see: http://elsc.huji.ac.il. An international graduate program in computational neuroscience at ELSC (formerly the ICNC program) is entering its 23rd year this fall. Applicants must have an excellent research record in theoretical neuroscience, theoretical physics, mathematics, or a related field, and a keen interest in computational neuroscience. *To apply*: please send a CV and list of publications, a brief statement of research interests, and the names of three references to yoram.burak(a)elsc.huji.ac.il. Please ask your references to send letters of recommendation to the same email address. For full consideration please apply by November 15, 2014. Regards, Yoram Burak -- Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) Racah Institute of Physics Hebrew University of Jerusalem Safra Campus, Givat Ram Jerusalem 91904 http://elsc.huji.ac.il/burak

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New release of NeuroML 2 and LEMS and two recent publications
by Padraig Gleeson Oct. 6, 2014

Oct. 6, 2014

Dear colleagues, We are happy to announce a new stable release (version 2, beta 3) of the NeuroML language for model specification in computational neuroscience. http://www.neuroml.org/getneuroml NeuroML allows specification of models of systems from integrate and fire cells up to complex 3D networks of multicompartmental neurons. NeuroML version 2 has been extensively redesigned to be built on a new language, LEMS, which allows machine readable definitions of model structure and dynamics. This facilitates model transparency, portability and code generation. LEMS and NeuroML 2 are described in detail in: Robert C. Cannon, Padraig Gleeson, Sharon Crook, Gautham Ganapathy, Boris Marin, Eugenio Piasini and R. Angus Silver, *LEMS: A language for expressing complex biological models in concise and hierarchical form and its use in underpinning NeuroML 2*, Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 2014, doi: 10.3389/fninf.2014.00079 There are libraries for reading, writing and simulating NeuroML models in Java (https://github.com/NeuroML/jNeuroML) and Python. The Python APIs for NeuroML and LEMS have recently been described in: Michael Vella, Robert C. Cannon, Sharon Crook, Andrew P. Davison, Gautham Ganapathy, Hugh P. C. Robinson, R. Angus Silver and Padraig Gleeson, *libNeuroML and PyLEMS: using Python to combine procedural and declarative modeling approaches in computational neuroscience*, Frontiers in Neuroinformatics 2014, doi: 10.3389/fninf.2014.00038 The growing number (30+) of tools, libraries and databases supporting NeuroML v1 and/or NeuroML v2 are listed here: http://www.neuroml.org/tool_support Open Source Brain is a repository of models in computational neuroscience which actively supports open, collaborative development of models, as well as conversion to simulator independent formats including NeuroML (over 500 valid NeuroML 2 cells/channels/synapses on OSB at last count). An overview of the models currently present and the formats/simulators supported can be found here: http://www.opensourcebrain.org/status Regards, The NeuroML development community ----------------------------------------------------- Padraig Gleeson Room 321, Anatomy Building Department of Neuroscience, Physiology& Pharmacology University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom +44 207 679 3214 p.gleeson(a)ucl.ac.uk -----------------------------------------------------

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