- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

[IJCNN 2017] Combined Calls

by Teng Teck Hou

[Apologies for cross-postings] ################################################## COMBINED CALLS CALL FOR PAPERS http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-papers CALL FOR SPECIAL SESSIONS http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-special-sessions CALL FOR WORKSHOPS http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-workshops CALL FOR TUTORIALS http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-tutorials CALL FOR COMPETITIONS http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-competition CALL FOR SPONSORS http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-sponsors International Joint Conference on Neural Networks May 14-19, 2017, Anchorage, Alaska, USA http://www.ijcnn.org/ ################################################## IJCNN is the premier international conference in the area of neural network theory, analysis, and applications. Co-sponsored by the International Neural Network Society (INNS) and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE-CIS), over the last three decades this conference and its predecessors has hosted [past, present, and future] leaders of neural network research. IJCNN 2017 will feature invited plenary talks by world-renowned speakers in the areas of neural network theory and applications, computational neuroscience, robotics, and distributed intelligence. In addition to regular technical sessions with oral and poster presentations, the conference program will include special sessions, competitions, tutorials and workshops on topics of current interest. The 2017 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN 2017) will be held at the William A. Egan Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage, Alaska, USA, May 14-19, 2017. "... Only in Anchorage can you meet a moose, walk on a glacier and explore a vast, natural park all in a single day. Between mountains and an inlet, surrounded by national parks and filled with Alaska wildlife, Anchorage combines the best of Alaska in a city that has the comforts of home and the hospitality of the Last Frontier. ..." For the latest updates, follow us on Facebook (https://fb.me/ijcnn2017/) and Twitter (@ijcnn2017). ##############################Important Dates############################## * Special Session, Panel Sesion & Competition Proposals September 15, 2016 * Tutorial and Workshop Proposals October 15, 2016 * Paper Submission November 15, 2016 * Paper Decision Notification January 20, 2017 * Camera-Ready Submission February 20, 2017 ########################################################################### ##########################Plenary Speakers########################## * Christof Koch, Allen Institute for Brain Science, USA * Hava Siegelmann, DARPA, and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA * Jose Principle, University of Florida, USA #################################################################### ##########################Call for Special Sessions########################## The IJCNN 2017 Program Committee solicits proposals for special sessions within the technical scopes of the conference. Special sessions, to be organized by international recognized experts, aim to bring together researchers focused in special, novel, and challenging topics. Fast-developing themes such as Deep Learning, Big Data, or applications to fields like chemistry, biology, computer games, robotics, etc. are examples. Papers submitted for special sessions are to be peer-reviewed with the same criteria used for the regular sessions. Researchers interested in organizing special sessions are invited to submit a formal proposal using the on-line form of the Special Sessions webpage. Due to large expected number of submissions, please do not directly email the information to the special session co-chairs Derong Liu, University of Chicago & Chinese Academy of Sciences. Beijing, and Tatiana Tambouratzis, University of Piraeus, Greece. For further details, please refer to http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-special-sessions Any questions regarding this proposal can be asked to the Special Session Chairs: Derong Liu, University of Chicago, USA. E-mail: derong(a)uic.edu Tatiana Tambouriatzis, University of Piraeus, Greece. E-mail: tatianatambouratzis(a)gmail.com ############################################################################ # ##########################Call for Workshops########################## Post-conference workshops offer a unique opportunity for in-depth discussions of specific topics in neural networks and computational intelligence. The workshops should be moderated by scientists or professionals who has significant expertise and /or whose recent work has had a significant impact within their field. IJCNN 2017 will emphasize emerging and growing areas of computational intelligence. Each workshop has a duration of 3 or 6 hours. The format of each workshop will be up to the moderator, and can include interactive presentations as well as panel discussions among participants. These interactions should highlight exciting new developments and current research trends to facilitate a discussion of ideas that will drive the field forward in the coming years. Workshop organizers can prepare various materials including handouts or electronic resources that can be made available for distribution before or after the meeting. Researchers interested in organizing workshops are invited to submit a formal proposal including the following information as a single file (pdf, doc, etc.) to the workshop chair: Title Organizers and their short bio Brief description of the scope and impact of the workshop Timeliness of the topic Confirmed and/or potential speakers Half day (3 hours) or full day (6 hours) Link to organizer's web page and/or workshop web site (optional) For further details, please refer http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-workshops. Any questions regarding this proposal can be asked to the Workshop Chair: Lazaros Iliadis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. E-mail: liliadis(a)fmenr.duth.gr ###################################################################### ##########################Call for Tutorials########################## IJCNN 2017 will feature pre-conference tutorials addressing fundamental and advanced topics in computational intelligence. Tutorial proposals should be emailed to the Tutorial Chair (see below). A tutorial proposal should include the Title Presenter/organizer name(s) and affiliations Expected enrollment Abstract (less than 300 words) Additional outline if needed Presenter/organizer biography Links to the presenter/organizer web page or the tutorial page (optional) The proposal should not exceed two pages in 1.5 space, Times 12 point font. The tutorial format (preliminary) is 1 hour and 45 minutes with a 10-minute break. Researchers interested in organizing workshops are invited to submit a formal proposal. For further details, please refer to http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-tutorials. Any questions regarding this proposal can be asked to the Tutorials Chair: Asim Roy, Arizona State University, USA. E-mail: ASIM.ROY(a)asu.edu ###################################################################### ##########################Call for Competitions########################## Competition organizers are kindly invited to submit their proposals to IJCNN2017 Competition Chair (TBA) by September 15, 2016. The notifications of acceptance of the competition proposals will be provided by TBA and will be shortly publish in the IJCNN 2017 website. Please note that each accepted competition will be published in a separate web link. The competition proposal should contain the following information (please fill out the form at the bottom of this page, or send the required information in the form as a single pdf file to the competition chair [email below]) The aims and objectives of the competition, The rules of the competition, including which data sets will be used, How the competition will serve the neural networks community/society, How to enter the competitions and how to evaluate them, and Which competition platform (or result submission and validation method) you will use (e.g. similar to Kaggle). Summary of performance results directly reported by the competition participants and not verified by the competition organizers are not acceptable. Please note that you need to select a category for your competition from the following list: Category A: You are planning to organise an associated special session, in which the proposal must be submitted separately to the special session chairs. In addition, you require that each team must submit at least one paper to the special session. Category B: You are planning to organise an associated special session, whose proposal must be also submitted separately to the special session chairs. However, submission of papers to the special session by competition participants is not mandatory. Category C: You have no plan to organize an associated special session. Note: For categories B and C, please also indicate whether or not conference participation is required for each entry. Sponsorship A winning certificate and free registration will be provided to the winner of each competition who attends IJCNN 2017. For further details, please refer to http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-competition. If you need any other information, please do not hesitate to contact the IJCNN2017 Competition Chair: Juyang (John) Weng, Michigan State University. E-mail: weng(a)cse.msu.edu ######################################################################### ##########################Call for Sponsors########################## You are invited to support the 2017 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN 2017), organized by the International Neural Network Society (INNS) and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE-CIS). This is an ideal way to demonstrate your organization's commitment to the field of artificial intelligence including neural networks, biomorphic systems, computational neuroscience, neuroengineering, and many other areas at the frontier of technological innovation and to publicize this support to many leaders and students in the field. Corporate support is typically used to permit a greater number of students to attend IJCNN at reduced fees without increasing the general registration, and to allow student volunteers to receive complimentary registration. Exhibits by sponsors also help inform researchers especially students and postdocs about relevant applications and opportunities. Corporate support can be targeted to a particular event or activity at the Conference. IJCNN 2017 has four sponsorship levels: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Your support is very important to the conference, and the conference committee ensures that these contributions are well recognized. We list the benefits and costs below. PLATINUM (US$10,000 or greater contribution) You will get 4 free registrations to the main conference and tutorials and workshops, 4 banquet tickets, 3 exhibition tables. You will also get second choice at naming events at the conference. For example, there are generally two receptions, several lunches and coffee breaks, plus a student reception. Naming of events will be decided based on the amount of the contribution and the order received. Your company or institution (with logo and URL) will be listed in all conference announcements, on the advance program, and on the conference web pages, at www.ijcnn.org We will specially acknowledge your company's contribution and offer thanks at the opening and closing sessions of the conference You will have the opportunity to include material and giveaways with the conference material for each attendee You will get early notification direct from the Corporate Support Chair of conference news GOLD SPONSORSHIP (US$5,000 or greater contribution) You will get 3 free registrations to the main conference or tutorials and workshops, 3 banquet tickets, 2 exhibition tables. You will also get third choice at naming events at the conference (after the Platinum). For example, there are generally two receptions, several lunches and coffee breaks, plus a student reception. Naming of events will be decided based on the amount of the contribution and the order received. Your company or institution (with logo and URL) will be listed in all conference announcements, on the advance program, and on the conference web pages, at www.ijcnn.org We will acknowledge your company's contribution and offer thanks at the opening and closing sessions of the conference You will have the opportunity to include material and giveaways with the conference material for each attendee You will get early notification direct from the Corporate Support Chair of conference news SILVER SPONSORSHIP (US$3,000 or greater contribution) You will get 2 free registrations to the main conference or tutorials and workshops, 2 banquet tickets, 1 exhibition table. We will name an event after your company, if there are events left after those named for Platinum and Gold Your company or institution (with logo and URL) will be listed in the advance program, and on the conference web pages, at www.ijcnn.org We will acknowledge your company's contribution and offer thanks at the opening and closing sessions of the conference You will get early notification direct from the Corporate Support Chair of conference news BRONZE SPONSORSHIP (US$1,500 or greater contribution) You will get 1 free registration to the main conference or tutorials and workshops and 1 banquet ticket. Your company or institution (with logo and URL) will be listed in the advance program, and on the conference web pages, at www.ijcnn.org We will acknowledge your company's contribution and offer thanks at the opening and closing sessions of the conference You will get early notification direct from the Corporate Support Chair of conference news Sponsorships at lower levels will be considered, with benefits negotiated between the IJCNN 2017 Sponsorship Chair and the Sponsor. For further details, please refer to http://www.ijcnn.org/call-for-sponsors Any questions regarding this proposal can be asked to the Sponsor Chair: Lipo Wang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. E-mail: elpwang(a)ntu.edu.sg ###################################################################### ############Paper Submission and Publication############ * Regular paper can have up to 8 pages in double-column IEEE Conference format * All papers are to be prepared using IEEE-compliant Latex or Word templates on paper of U.S. letter size. * All submitted papers will be checked for plagiarism through the IEEE CrossCheck system. * Papers with significant overlap with the authors own papers or other papers will be rejected without review. ######################################################## ##################Topics and Areas of Interest################## This conference solicits papers addressing original works in topics and areas of interest including, but are not limited to: NEURAL NETWORK MODELS * Feedforward neural networks * Recurrent neural networks * Self-organizing maps * Radial basis function networks * Attractor neural networks and associative memory * Modular networks * Fuzzy neural networks * Spiking neural networks * Reservoir networks (echo-state networks, liquid-state machines, etc.) * Large-scale neural networks * Other topics in artificial neural networks MACHINE LEARNING * Supervised learning * Unsupervised learning and clustering, (including PCA, and ICA) * Reinforcement learning * Probabilistic and information-theoretic methods * Support vector machines and kernel methods * EM algorithms * Mixture models, ensemble learning, and other meta-learning or committee algorithms * Bayesian, belief, causal, and semantic networks * Statistical and pattern recognition algorithms * Visualization of data * Feature selection, extraction, and aggregation * Evolutionary learning * Hybrid learning methods * Computational power of neural networks * Deep learning * Other topics in machine learning NEURODYNAMICS * Dynamical models of spiking neurons * Synchronization and temporal correlation in neural networks * Dynamics of neural systems * Chaotic neural networks * Dynamics of analog networks * Neural oscillators and oscillator networks * Dynamics of attractor networks * Other topics in neurodynamics COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE * Connectomics * Models of large-scale networks in the nervous system * Models of neurons and local circuits * Models of synaptic learning and synaptic dynamics * Models of neuromodulation * Brain imaging * Analysis of neurophysiological and neuroanatomical data * Cognitive neuroscience * Models of neural development * Models of neurochemical processes * Neuroinformatics * Other topics in computational neuroscience NEURAL MODELS OF PERCEPTION, COGNITION AND ACTION * Neurocognitive networks * Cognitive architectures * Models of conditioning, reward and behavior * Cognitive models of decision-making * Embodied cognition * Cognitive agents * Multi-agent models of group cognition * Developmental and evolutionary models of cognition * Visual system * Auditory system * Olfactory system * Other sensory systems * Attention * Learning and memory * Spatial cognition, representation and navigation * Semantic cognition and language * Neural models of symbolic processing * Reasoning and problem-solving * Working memory and cognitive control * Emotion and motivation * Motor control and action * Dynamical models of coordination and behavior * Consciousness and awareness * Models of sleep and diurnal rhythms * Mental disorders * Other topics in neural models of perception, cognition and action NEUROENGINEERING * Brain-machine interfaces * Neural prostheses * Neuromorphic hardware * Embedded neural systems * Other topics in neuroengineering BIO-INSPIRED AND BIOMORPHIC SYSTEMS * Brain-inspired cognitive architectures * Embodied robotics * Evolutionary robotics * Developmental robotics * Computational models of development * Collective intelligence * Swarms * Autonomous complex systems * Self-configuring systems * Self-healing systems * Self-aware systems * Emotional computation * Artificial life * Other topics in bio-inspired and biomorphic systems APPLICATIONS * Bioinformatics * Biomedical engineering * Data analysis and pattern recognition * Speech recognition and speech production * Robotics * Neurocontrol * Approximate dynamic programming, adaptive critics, and Markov decision processes * Neural network approaches to optimization * Signal processing, image processing, and multi-media * Temporal data analysis, prediction, and forecasting; time series analysis * Communications and computer networks * Data mining and knowledge discovery * Power system applications * Financial engineering applications * Applications in multi-agent systems and social computing * Manufacturing and industrial applications * Expert systems * Clinical applications * Big data applications * Smart grid applications * Other applications CROSS-DISCIPLINARY TOPICS * Hybrid intelligent systems * Swarm intelligence * Sensor networks * Quantum computation * Computational biology * Molecular and DNA computation * Computation in tissues and cells * Artificial immune systems * Other cross-disciplinary topics ################################################################ ##########################Organizing Committee########################## General Chair * Yoonsuck Choe, Texas A and M University, USA Program Chair * Christina Jayne, Robert Gordon University, UK Technical Co-Chairs * Irwin King, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China * Barbara Hammer, University of Bielefeld, Germany Plenary Chair * Cesare Alippi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Special Session Co-Chairs * Derong Liu, University of Chicago, USA * Tatiana Tambouriatzis, University of Piraeus, Greece Tutorial Chair * Asim Roy, Arizona State University, USA Workshop Chair * Lazaros Iliadis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece Poster Session Chair * Richard Duro, Universidad Coruna, Spain Competition Chair * Juyang (John) Weng, Michigan State University, USA Panels Chair * Robert Kozma, University of Memphis, USA Awards Chair * Nikola Kasabov, Auckland University of Technology, Australia Web Reviews Chair * Tomasz Cholewo, Lexmark International Inc., USA Sponsors & Exhibits Chair * Lipo Wang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Publication Chair * Bill Howell, Natural Resources Canada (retired), Canada International Liaison * Teresa Ludermir, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil European Liaison * Danilo P. Mandic, Imperial College, UK Asia-Pacific Liaison * Minho Lee, Kyungpook National University, Korea Neuroscience Liaison * Péter Érdi, Kalamazoo College, USA Robotics Liaison * Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, INRIA, France Industry Liaison * Sven F. Crone, Lancaster University, UK Publicity Co-Chairs * Giacomo Boracchi, Politecnico di Milano, Italy * Simone Scardapane, Sapienza University, Italy * Teck-Hou Teng, Singapore Management University, Singapore Local Arrangements Co-Chairs * Frank W. Moore, University of Alaska, USA * Kenrick Mock, University of Alaska, USA Registration Chair * Jaerock Kwon, Kettering University, USA Webmaster * Jaewook Yoo, Texas A & M University, USA ####################################################################### ##################Sponsoring Organizations################## * INNS - International Neural Network Society * IEEE - Computational Intelligence Society ############################################################

Aug. 25, 2016

[Big Data NLP Workshop @ IEEE Big Data 2016] Call For Papers

by Teng Teck Hou

Big Data and Natural Language Processing workshop hosted at IEEE Big Data 2016 http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/bignlp2016/ The modality of textual data has been somewhat under-represented in big data and data science research thus far. This is despite the fact that large amounts of data are stored in unstructured textual format. We intend that this workshop will address this shortcoming and bring together academic and industrial researchers to exchange cutting edge research in the emerging area of extremely large-scale natural language processing (NLP). This topic has emerged in several areas in parallel in recent years: information retrieval and search engines, text mining, machine learning, web-derived corpus/computational linguistics, digital libraries, high performance and parallel computing. Common to all these areas is some or all of the main parts of the NLP pipeline: collection, cleaning, annotation, indexing, storage, retrieval and analysis of voluminous quantities of naturally occurring language data from the web or large-scale national and international digitisation initiatives. By hosting this event at IEEE Big Data 2016, we hope to encourage the communities to come together to consider synergies between NLP and data science. In this context, numerous issues should be considered including those linked to the five Vs of big data: (a) Volume: is having more data for training and testing NLP techniques always better? (b) Variety: are all types of data available on a sufficiently large scale? (c) Velocity: how are parallel methods best applied to carry out NLP on a large scale? (d) Variability: how does inconsistent data impact on the accuracy of NLP techniques? (e) Veracity: how does the accuracy of data affect inferences that can be drawn from it? Research topics: Topics covered by the workshop include, but are not restricted to, the following: Application focused papers e.g. security informatics Crowdsourcing approaches to large-scale language analysis Use of big data to train/test methods for low resource languages where existing NLP approaches do not exist Efficient NLP for analysing large data sets Challenges of scaling the NLP pipeline Big Data Management for NLP Storage and access for large linguistic data sets Language processing via GPGPUs Parallel and distributed computing techniques for language analysis e.g. HPC, MapReduce, Hadoop, Spark and cloud based machine learning Visualisation methods for the analysis of large corpora Dates: Oct 3, 2016: Due date for full workshop papers submission Oct 25, 2016: Notification of paper acceptance to authors Nov 8, 2016: Camera-ready of accepted papers Dec 5-8, 2016: Workshops Program Chairs: Dr Paul Rayson (Lancaster University, UK) Dr Mark Stevenson (Sheffield University, UK) Dr John Mariani (Lancaster University, UK) Dr Laura Irina Rusu (IBM Research Australia) Gandhi Sivakumar (Watson CoC, IBM Australia) Program committee members: Dr Nikos Aletras (Amazon UK) Dr Enrique Alfonseca (Google Zurich) Professor Laurence Anthony (Waseda University, Japan) Dr Piotr Banski (IDS-Mannheim, Germany) Dr Alistair Baron (Lancaster University, UK) Dr Eddie Bell (Lyst, UK) Matt Coole (Lancaster University, UK) Professor John Keane (University of Manchester, UK) Dr Dawn Knight (Cardiff University, UK) Dr Marc Kupietz (IDS-Mannheim, Germany) Dr Jochen Leidner (Thomson Reuters, UK) Dr Diana Maynard (Sheffield University, UK) Dr Rao Muhammad Adeel Nawab (COMSATS, Pakistan) Dr Sebastian Riedel (UCL, UK) Dr Mahsa Salehi (IBM Research, Australia) Dr Irena Spasic (Cardiff University, UK) Dr Stephen Wattam (Lancaster University, UK)

Aug. 24, 2016

Three-year postdoc position at Imperial College London: Computational auditory neuroscience and neurostimulation

by Reichenbach, Johann D T

Applications are invited for a Research Associate (Postdoc) to work on an exciting 3 year project in computational auditory neuroscience and neurostimulation at Imperial College London. The successful candidate will join the group of Dr. Tobias Reichenbach (http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/reichenbach) The project is embedded in The Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/blast-injury) The project's goal is to develop efficient complex transcranial current stimulation techniques that can aid auditory processing. Auditory processing can be impaired due to damage to the neural circuits that are responsible for analysing auditory signals. Such damage to the central nervous system can result from head injury that can, in turn, be caused by secondary and tertiary blast injuries. Recent studies have found that the majority of war veterans that were exposed to at least one blast during their deployment have such auditory processing disorder. In this project we will employ novel computational and experimental insights into the mechanisms of speech processing in the brain to develop efficient types of complex transcranial current stimulation that can aid auditory processing. Applicants should have a PhD in computational neuroscience, engineering, physics or computing with experience in signal processing as well as neurostimulation or -imaging. The salary range is £36,070 - £43,350 per annum. For an informal discussion please contact Dr Tobias Reichenbach (email: reichenbach(a)imperial.ac.uk<mailto:a.kedgley@imperial.ac.uk>; telephone: +44 (0)20 759 46370). Our preferred method of application is online via our website. Please click ‘apply’ below or go to https://www.imperial.ac.uk/job-applicants/ (Select “Job Search” then enter the job title or vacancy reference number into “Keywords”). Please complete and upload an application form as directed quoting reference number EN20160296FH. Further information is also available on the job description. Should you have any queries please contact Ms Mica Jones at mica.jones(a)imperial.ac.uk<mailto:mica.jones@imperial.ac.uk> . The closing date is the 2nd of October 2016.

Aug. 18, 2016

Call for Paper MediTec 2016 (International Conference on Medical Engineering, Health Informatics and Technology)

by MediTec 2016

*(Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CFP)* *Dear Sir/Madam,* This letter is to formally invite you to participate and submit your research works in the “*2016 International Conference on Medical Engineering, Health Informatics and Technology (MediTec 2016)*” themed "*Smart Systems for Healthcare*" from *17-18 December 2016,* which will take place at United International University (UIU), Dhaka, Bangladesh. *MediTec 2016* is technically co-sponsored by IEEE-EMBS Bangladesh Chapter and IEEE Bangladesh Section. This conference aims to bring together researchers, engineers, doctors, medical practitioners and experts in Bio-medical engineering, Healthcare, Intelligent Systems and Knowledge Management to share their experience, ideas and future scopes. Distinguished scientists, experts from both academia and industries will deliver keynote speeches and invited talks on trends and significant advances in the emerging technologies related to the conference topics. For the list of confirmed speakers, please *click here.* <http://meditec.uiu.ac.bd/speakers/> *Major areas of interest include, but not limited to, are:* 1. Biomedical and Health Informatics 2. Biomedical Signal and Image Processing 3. Therapeutic Systems and Clinical Technologies 4. Neuro and Rehabilitation Engineering 5. Biorobotics, Bionanotechnology and Wearable Biomedical Sensors and Systems 6. Computational Biology and Bioinformatics 7. Pharmaceutical Biotechnology 8. ICT, Health and Disabilities Please find the attachment for detailed *Call For Paper* or visit *here* <http://meditec.uiu.ac.bd/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Meditech-2016_A4_Poster…> . *Important Dates:* Paper Submission Deadline 30 August 2016 Acceptance Notification 15 October 2016 Camera Ready Submission 10 November 2016 Registration Early Bird: 15 November 2016 Late: Afterwards All the accepted papers will be included in Conference Proceedings and all the presented papers will be submitted to *IEEE Xplore Digital Library*. Selected papers from the conference proceedings will be invited for possible publication in special issues of some reputed international journals. Paper submission for *MediTec 2016* is now open. *Click here to Submit Your Paper. <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=meditec2016>* For more information, please visit conference website *http://meditec.uiu.ac.bd* <http://meditec.uiu.ac.bd/>*.* Kindly promote *MediTec 2016* to interested individuals, researchers and communities in your vicinity. We look forward to meet you in the conference. Thanking you, Best Regards, Khondaker A. Mamun, *Ph.D.* Conference Chair, MediTec 2016 Email: meditec(a)uiu.ac.bd Cell: +880 1776534220 Director, AIMS Lab (www.aimsl.uiu.ac.bd) Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering ( www.cse.uiu.ac.bd) United International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh (www.uiu.ac.bd) Chair, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Bangladesh Chapter Initiator, Bangladesh Research and Awareness Initiative of Neuroscience (BRAIN) Email: k.mamun(a)ieee.org, mamun(a)cse.uiu.ac.bd, k.mamun(a)utoronto.ca, mamun79bd(a)yahoo.com URL: http://cse.uiu.ac.bd/faculty/kmamun/

Aug. 13, 2016

programmer wanted -- neuroscience and neuroprosthetics lab

by Sliman Bensmaia

Lab at the cutting edge of neuroscience and neurotechnology looking for a programmer to keep us at the cutting edge! The lab has two general pursuits: discover the neural basis of touch and proprioception – how do patterns of activation in the nerve and in the brain mediate our ability to feel objects by touch and sense the position and movements of our limbs in space? – and to develop a somatosensory neuroprosthesis – How can we recreate the sense of touch by stimulating the nerve or the brain. See http://bensmaialab.org for additional information regarding the lab and the exciting work we are doing. Ideally, looking for a motivated, intelligent individual who works well with people, someone who might be able to make a long term commitment to the lab and help us build something special. JOB SUMMARY Responsible for interfacing the various machines in the lab (robots, sensors, data acquisition systems, etc.) with computers and with each other to run neurophysiological and behavioral experiments with human and non-human primates. EDUCATION Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field of engineering required. EXPERIENCE One year of relevant programming experience required. Experience developing, implementing, debugging and maintaining applications required. Two years of professional programming experience preferred. Experience developing applications using C++, Matlab, Python, Java, MySQL, Visual Basic, and/or any other object oriented programming language preferred. Experience building and debugging electronic systems preferred but not required. Knowledge of electromechanical systems preferred but not required. Interest in and/or knowledge of neurophysiology preferred but not required. -- Sliman Bensmaia Associate Professor Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy University of Chicago 773.834.5203

Aug. 12, 2016

Journal of Neural Engineering Special Issue on Open Source Tools in Systems Neuroscience

by Caleb Kemere

We would like to invite you to contribute an article to a Special Issue of the Journal of Neural Engineering on "Open Source Tools in Systems Neuroscience". The last few years have seen an increasing number of community-developed open source projects become instrumental in enabling cutting edge experiments, broadening access to ensemble neural recording techniques in a variety of animal models, and facilitating the adoption of novel technologies (such as optical recording). The goal of this issue is to catalog these projects and provide a curated resource for interested scientists. All open source hardware and software projects which enable neural data acquisition and/or systems neuroscience experiments are welcome. While we are primarily targeting original results which include detailed protocols and technology demonstration, we will also consider submissions which offer updated reviews of previously documented projects. General author guidelines can be found here (https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/jne-iop ) via the 'Instructions, forms and policies' link. At submission, authors should select the 'Special issue article' article type, and then choose the "Open Source Tools in Systems Neuroscience" special issue from the menu at the bottom of the page. The submission deadline is 16 November 2016. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title in advance. Please forward this announcement broadly! Thanks, Caleb Kemere, Guest Editor Andrew Malloy, Editor, IOP Publishing

Aug. 12, 2016

Neuroscience Gateway Workshop at SFN 2016 meeting

by Ted Carnevale

Space is still open in the workshop Using the Neuroscience Gateway Portal for Parallel Simulation which will be held Saturday, Nov. 12 from 9 AM to noon as a satellite to the 2016 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. The Neuroscience Gateway Portal (NSG) is an NSF-supported resource with a simple, convenient user interface, that provides free time on high performance computing hardware for computationally intensive tasks such as large scale simulations and data analysis. Currently installed software includes Brian, GENESIS, MOOSE, NEST, NEURON, PyNN, Freesurfer, and the Virtual Personalized Multimodal Connectome Pipeline. The registration deadline for this workshop is Friday Oct. 28, but it is advisable to sign up early because space is limited. See http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/courses/nsg2016/nsg2016.html for more information and a link to the registration form. --Ted

Aug. 10, 2016

[journals] CFP - Special Issue on "Symbol Emergence and Developmental Systems: Social Symbol Grounding and Embodied Cognition in Humans and Robots" - IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems (TCDS)

by Amir Aly

CALL FOR PAPERS **Apologies for cross posting ** *IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems (TCDS)*Special Issue on "*Symbol Emergence and Developmental Systems: Social Symbol Grounding and Embodied Cognition in Humans and Robots*" *I. Aim and Scope *Exploring human cognitive development constitutes a basic step towards endowing robots with high level human-like cognitive functions. Human embodied cognition follows a seamless process of development, which includes the development of sensorimotor skills, understanding concrete ideas and events, using concepts representing physical entities to describe objects, and coordinating multiple abstractions within complex representations. Investigating these aspects that bootstrap human cognitive development – through appropriate theoretical and computational cognitive modeling – allows for making robots capable of handling objects through the cumulative learning experiences that could develop sensorimotor skills, developing social skills through social learning strategies, grounding abstract concepts in the sensorimotor system, and developing linguistic skills in order to represent situations through language within interaction. A symbol system combines a group of tokens into structures and manipulates them through explicit rules to produce new expressions. The task of assigning a meaning to each meaningless symbol in a structure defines the "Symbol Grounding" problem, which has static physical and social components. The "Physical Symbol Grounding" allows an agent to form an internal explicit representation of an external-world referent so as to interpret symbols semantically. Whereas, the "Social Symbol Grounding" allows for developing a common lexicon of symbols grounded in perception information within a population of agents, which could lead to a gradual emergence of language through social interaction. A recent approach to semantically interpreting a symbol system is "Symbol Emergence", which accounts for the dynamic and self-organized nature of symbols that constitute human cognition. These complementary representations of a symbol system are still considered as real challenges in cognitive developmental robotics, and they require more elaborate theoretical and experimental studies in order to better understand the aspects of human behavior development. *II. Themes *This special issue aims to shed light on cutting-edge research lines in cognitive developmental robotics at the intersection of human cognitive science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, language science, and robotics research. Topics relevant to this special issue include, but are not limited to: - Human symbol systems and symbol emergence in robotics. - Cognitive modeling of human behavior. - Language and action development. - Learning from demonstration. - Action sequence learning. - Conceptual spaces for cognitive robotics. - Fluid and embodied construction grammar for cognitive robotics. *III. Submission * Manuscripts should be prepared according to the journal's “Information for Authors” instructions found at http://cis.ieee.org/publications.html, and submissions should be done through the IEEE TCDS Manuscript center: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tcds-ieee (please select the category “SI: Symbol Emergence”). *IV. Important Dates*15 December 2016 – Deadline for papers submission 31 March 2017 – First notification for authors 15 May 2017 – Deadline for revised papers submission 15 June 2017 – Final notification for authors *V. Guest Editors * 1. *Amir Aly*, Ritsumeikan University, Japan ( amir.aly(a)em.ci.ritsumei.ac.jp) 2. *Sascha Griffiths*, Queen Mary University of London, UK ( sascha.griffiths(a)qmul.ac.uk) 3. *Francesca Stramandinoli*, IIT, Italy (francesca.stramandinoli(a)iit.it) 4. *Tadahiro Taniguchi*, Ritsumeikan University, Japan ( taniguchi(a)em.ci.ritsumei.ac.jp <taniguchi(a)em.ci.ritsumei.ac.jp>) 5. *Paul Vogt*, Tilburg University, The Netherlands (p.a.vogt(a)uvt.nl) More details about the scope of this journal special issue and the guest editors are available on: IEEE_TCDS_SI_CFP.pdf <https://intelligent-robots-ws.ensta-paristech.fr/wp-content/uploads/2016/08…> . ------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Amir Aly Postdoctoral Research Associate Emergent Systems Laboratory College of Information Science and Engineering - Ritsumeikan University 1-1-1 Noji Higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577 Japan

Aug. 9, 2016

2nd CFP (ICDL-EPIROB 2016): WS on Development of Body Representations

by Matej Hoffmann

*Call for participation: Interdisciplinary workshop on the development of body knowledge in humans and machines.* 19^th September 2016, Cergy-Pontoise / Paris http://bodyschemaworkshop.blogspot.it <http://bodyschemaworkshop.blogspot.it/> held in the framework of ICDL-EPIROB 2016 conference (http://icdl-epirob.org/) Following the previous workshops on the development of body representations in humans and robots at ICDL-EPIROB, we have the pleasure to announce a forthcoming workshop in Cergy-Pontoise / Paris on the 19^th September 2016. The aim of this workshop is to spark collaboration between roboticists and developmental psychologists in order to address the origins of the sensorimotor maps that underlie own body representations in both infants and robots. The development of infants’ body knowledge is a primary object of discovery starting before birth. This construction ultimately enables the infant to efficiently interact with the environment. The specific goal of the organizers is to explore the possibility of developing robotic models inspired by the development of human infant body representations. Presentations will consider body knowledge acquisition from sensorimotor, neural and computational perspectives. After the presentations, the discussion will aim at establishing an integrative framework for understanding a) the development of body knowledge in infants, b) the mechanisms that underlie body knowledge acquisition and c) how robots can be used to replicate developmental patterns and progressions that have been found in human infants. On the one hand such robots can become new modeling tools for empirical sciences – expanding the domain of computational modeling by anchoring it to the physical environment and a physical body. On the other hand, robot controllers endowed with multimodal whole-body awareness typical of humans should increase robots’ autonomy. ___________________________________________________________________________ We invite contributions concerning the development of body knowledge in humans and/or machines. Please submit a one-page abstract describing your poster by *the 20th August 2016* to the following address: *icdlbodyworkshop(a)gmail.com* Presenters of a poster will be expected to be present on the 19th of September 2016 for a teasers-session and for the poster session. During the teasers-session each presenter will introduce their poster in a 2-minute oral presentation (with 2-3 pdf slides). During the poster session they will then have the opportunity to explain their poster and to hand out any leaflets or other information materials they have available for viewers of their poster. *___________________________________________________________________________* *Important dates * Abstract submission: August 20, 2016. Notification of acceptance: August 23, 2016. Submission of 2-3 slides (pdf): September 15, 2016. Workshop day: September 19, 2016. ___________________________________________________________________________ *Speakers* * Prof. Jeffrey Lockman, PhD. Department of Psychology, Tulane University, USA. * Kevin O’Regan, PhD. Research scientist, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France. * Matej Hoffmann, PhD. Researcher, iCub Facility, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy. * Prof. Minoru Asada, PhD. Research director, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience Robotics, Institute for Academic Initiatives, Osaka University, Japan. * Andrew Bremner, PhD. Reader in psychology and head of department, Goldsmiths University, London, UK. * Gianluca Baldassare, PhD. Researcher, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy.** *____________________________________________ * ** *Venue* Cergy-Pontoise University: http://www.etis.ensea.fr/neurocyber/ICDL-EPIROB2016/home.php ___________________________________________________________________________ *Website* Please check the website <http://bodyschemaworkshop.blogspot.fr/>http://bodyschemaworkshop.blogspot.fr/for updated information about the workshop! ___________________________________________________________________________ *Organizers* Eszter Somogyi, PhD Postdoc researcher, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Paris Descartes University, France Matej Hoffmann <https://sites.google.com/site/matejhof/home>, PhD Researcher, iCub Facility, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy Lorenzo Jamone <http://lorejam.blogspot.pt/>, PhD Associate researcher, VisLab, Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica, Lisbon, Portugal ___________________________________________________________________________ *Contact information* Eszter Somogyi, PhD Postdoc researcher, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Paris Descartes University, France esomogyi(a)gmail.com <mailto:esomogyi@gmail.com> -- Matej Hoffmann, PhD Postdoctoral Researcher iCub Facility Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Via Morego, 30 16163 Genoa, Italy https://sites.google.com/site/matejhof/home

Aug. 9, 2016

Postdoctoral positions in the Human Brain Project

by Andrew Davison

Two postdoctoral positions are available within the Brain Simulation Platform of the Human Brain Project, to work on systematic model validation and on standards for model representation and sharing. The postdocs will work with Dr Andrew Davison and his group in the CNRS UNIC laboratory, located in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. Both projects will involve extensive collaboration with other groups both within and external to HBP. The positions are available immediately, and are funded until 31st March 2018 with future extensions possible. Salary depends on experience, and will be on the standard French research scale. Qualifications: Applicants should have a PhD in computer science, physics, computational neuroscience, systems biology, electrical engineering, or a related discipline, or be nearing completion of PhD studies. Excellent skills in programming (preferably Python) are essential. Expertise in computational neuroscience would be helpful but is not essential, as many aspects of the projects are transversal across simulation-based science. Knowledge of French would be helpful but is not required, as English is the working language of the project. How to apply: Send your CV, a brief statement of research interests and contact information for two references to andrew.davison(a)unic.cnrs-gif.fr. Informal inquiries are also welcome. Further details: The Human Brain Project (HBP; https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/) is an EU Flagship initiative in which over 100 partner institutions are working together to build a completely new information computing technology infrastructure for neuroscience and for brain-related research in medicine and computing, catalysing a global collaborative effort to understand the human brain and its diseases and ultimately to emulate its computational capabilities. The Brain Simulation Platform is a subproject of HBP which aims to provide community-accessible infrastructure for data-driven neuroscience modelling and simulation and to support community-driven models of specific brain regions. The successful candidates will contribute to two tasks: 1. Validation framework. This task will (i) develop services and tools to facilitate validation of data-driven neuroscience models; (ii) collaborate with modelling communities both within and external to HBP to perform model validation. The brain regions currently being actively modelled within HBP include somatosensory cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus and basal ganglia. 2. Model representation and standards. Performant and standardised model representations and APIs are essential both for efficient HPC simulation workflows and for effective collaboration and sharing in the context of open science. This task will work with community partners and with model developers internal to HBP to adopt and/or develop standards for representing brain models, and for sharing them. The Task will work with the High Performance Computing and Neuromorphic Computing platforms of HBP to ensure that the APIs and model representations are consistent with high performance on both traditional HPC and neuromorphic computing systems. As far as possible the task will use and/or extend existing community standards (e.g. NeuroML, NineML, PyNN). UNIC (Unité de Neurosciences, Information et Complexité; http://www.unic.cnrs-gif.fr/) is a research unit of the CNRS, located on a parkland campus in Gif-sur-Yvette, about 40 minutes from central Paris. UNIC consists of seven research groups, with a shared focus on complexity in the dynamics of neocortical networks during sensory processing and perception, and using a range of experimental, theoretical and informatics approaches.

Aug. 8, 2016