- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

post-doc position: information and its relation to causation, emergence, adaptation, evolution, and consciousness (Prof. Giulio Tononi)
by albantakis June 5, 2015

June 5, 2015

A postdoctoral position is available at the center for sleep and consciousness science in the laboratory of Dr. Giulio Tononi (University of Wisconsin, Madison), to study the relation of information and causation within the framework of the integrated information theory of consciousness (Oizumi, Albantakis, Tononi 2014; Scholarpedia: Integrated Information Theory; see http://templeton.3bweb.com/projects/integrated-information-maximally-irredu… for a project description). Immediate funding is available for a range of projects related to foundational questions regarding the ontological status of information, and its relation to causation, emergence, adaptation, evolution, and consciousness. The successful candidate will work in the information integration theory group (http://integratedinformationtheory.org/) at the center for sleep and consciousness science, which is dedicated to a broad range of research problems focused on two neurobiological problems – the mechanisms and functions of sleep and the neural substrates of consciousness. Candidates are expected to have strong training in an analytically rigorous discipline such as theoretical biology/neuroscience, physics, mathematics, computer science, or engineering. We explicitly encourage mathematicians to apply. Experience in information theory, complex systems, and an interest in the philosophy of information/causation are a plus. Programming experience is required (knowledge of MATLAB, Python, and/or C++ is of advantage). Appointments are renewable from year to year for up to 3 years, starting as soon as possible or until the positions are filled. Post-doc salaries correspond to the National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award (NRSA) stipend schedule for postdoc trainees, based on number of years of postdoctoral experience. Candidates should send a CV, brief statement of previous research and future research interests, and email addresses and phone numbers of three references to: Giulio Tononi, gtononi(a)wisc.edu. Tononi G (2015) Integrated Information Theory. /Scholarpedia/. Albantakis L, Hintze A, Koch C, Adami C, Tononi G (2014) Evoluation of Integrated Causal Structures in Animats Exposed to Environments of Increasing Complexity. /PLoS Comput Biol/ 10(12):e1003966 Oizumi M, Albantakis L, Tononi G (2014) From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0. /PLoS Comput Biol/ 10(5):e1003588 Hoel, E. P., Albantakis, L., & Tononi, G. (2013). Quantifying causal emergence shows that macro can beat micro. /PNAS/, /110/(49), 19790–19795. The scope of work will range from: -theoretical development and computational implementation of the notion of intrinsic causal information -causal analysis, including the systematic use of perturbations, counterfactuals, and irreducibility -analysis of complex systems in terms their causal/informational structure -meaning (understanding and control) from the intrinsic perspective of the system -actual causation (causal explanation) -examining similarities and differences between existing notions of information and causation (Shannon information, algorithmic information,…) -defining emergence in terms of the spatio-temporal grain size at which a system of elements achieves a maximum of causal power -evolutionary/adaptive aspects of information/causation including simulations based on small adaptive neural networks (animats), which evolve and adapt to an environment that requires sensitivity to context for survival -- Larissa Albantakis, PhD Department of Psychiatry University of Wisconsin 6001 Research Park Blvd Madison, WI 53719

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Cajal Advanced Neuroscience Training Course: Bioinformatics for the neuroscientist
by Padraig Gleeson June 5, 2015

June 5, 2015

Dear colleagues, Announcing a new neuroscience summer course - “Bioinformatics for the Neuroscientist”. This course is part of the CAJAL Advanced Neuroscience Training Programme sponsored by FENS and IBRO and hosted at the Bordeaux School of Neuroscience in Bordeaux, France. The Cajal Advanced Neuroscience Training “Bioinformatics for the Neuroscientist” will provide students with a practical knowledge of state of the art bioinformatics and modelling methods used to understand the molecular and cellular basis of neuronal function and pathologies. The course will feature introductory lectures about theory and tools, practical hands on sessions, and scientific seminars illustrating how bioinformatics answered specific neurobiological questions. We will cover genomics, epigenetics, functional genomics, biological pathways and models of biochemistry and electrophysiology of single neurons. Date and Location: 21 September – 2 October 2015 Bordeaux, France Course Directors: Nicolas Le Novère (Babraham Institute, UK) Marie-Claude Potier (CNRS-Inserm-UPMC, France) Macha Nikolski (University of Bordeaux, France) - On-site chair Faculty: Julio Banga (Instituto Investigationes Marinas, Spain) Aurélien Barré (Centre Bordelais de Bioinformatique, France) Sven Bergmann (University of Lausanne, Switzerland) Sandrine Caburet (Institut Jacques Monod, France) Claudine Chaouiya (Gulbenkian Insitute of science, Portugual) Benjamin Dartigues (Centre Bordelais de Bioinformatique, France) Laura Furlong (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain) Padraig Gleeson (UCL, UK) Pierre de la Grange (Genosplice, France) Justine Guégan (Institut du Cerveau et de la moëlle) Christophe Junot (CEA, France) Olivier Kirsh (Université Paris Diderot, France) Frédéric Lemoine (Institut du Cerveau et de la moëlle) Ivan Moszer (Institut du Cerveau et de la moëlle) Hayssam Soueidan (Centre Bordelais de Bioinformatique, France) Raluca Uricaru (Centre Bordelais de Bioinformatique, France) Reiner Veitia (Institut Jacques Monod, France) Alejandro Villaverde (Instituto Investigationes Marinas, Spain) Applications: http://www.fens.org/Training/CAJAL-programme/CAJAL-Trainign-Courses-in-2015…. *The application deadline is 12th June.* More information about the CAJAL Training programme: www.fens.org/Training/CAJAL-programme/ ----------------------------------------------------- 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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BIOPHYSICS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
by Roman Poznanski June 5, 2015

June 5, 2015

BEYOND THE FRONTIERS OF ARTIFICIAL CONSCIOUSNESS, 450pp , 25 color plates Pre-order your copy now ! http://www.amazon.com/Biophysics-Consciousness-A-Foundational-Approach/dp/9… The problem of how the brain produces consciousness, subjectivity and "something it is like to be" remains one of the greatest challenges to a complete science of the natural world. While various scientists and philosophers approach the problem from their own unique perspectives and in the terms of their own respective fields, Biophysics of Consciousness: A Foundational Approach attempts a consilience across disparate disciplines to explain how it is possible that an objective brain produces subjective experience. This volume unites the crème de la crème of physicists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists in the attempt to understand consciousness through a foundational approach encompassing ontological, evolutionary, neurobiological, and Freudian interpretations with the focus on conscious phenomena occurring in the brain. By integrating the perspectives of these diverse disciplines with the latest research and theories on the biophysics of the brain, the book tries to explain how consciousness can be an adaptive and causal element in the natural world. Contents: •Preface •Foreword (Searle) •List of Contributors •Neurobiological Naturalism (Feinberg and Mallatt) •The Evolutionary Origins of Consciousness (Feinberg and Mallatt) •How Language Evolution Reshaped Human Consciousness (Arbib) •Consciousness by Surprise: A Neuropsychoanalytic Approach to the Hard Problem (Solms) •Can Qualitative Biophysics Solve the Hard Problem? (Pereira Jr. et al.) •The Causal Roots of Mental and Neural Integration (Manzotti and Chella) •The Two-Brains Hypothesis: Implications for Consciousness (Bercovich et al.) •On the Brain's Electromagnetic Field System as the Origin of Consciousness (Hales) •The Neurophenomenology of Consciousness (Poznanski et al.) •The Holoinformational Foundations of Consciousness (Di Biase) •Neural Transition Dynamics and Conscious Perceptive States (Bernroider) •The 'Quantum Underground': Where Life and Consciousness Originate (Craddock et al.) •Quantum Spin Formalism on Consciousness (Hu and Wu) •Consciousness in the Universe — A Review of the Orch OR Theory (Hameroff and Penrose) •Index Readership: Researchers in neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, biophysics and quantum physics investigating conscious phenomena occurring in the brain ------- Roman R. Poznanski Professor Laboratory of Biological Modeling The Rockefeller University 1230 York Avenue New York, NY 10065-6399 Office: (212) 327-7646 E-mail: rpoznanski(a)rockefeller.edu http://romanpoznanski.blogspot.com and Chief-Editor, Journal of Integrative Neuroscience http://www.worldscinet.com/jin/mkt/editorial.shtml

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Neural Metrics 2.0 : Deadline approaching (June 15th)
by Marcel van Gerven June 5, 2015

June 5, 2015

Neural Metrics 2.0 : Connectomics & Large-Scale Methods The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour/Radboud University is organizing a summer school on neural metrics with the aim to get participants acquainted with the quantitative analysis of neural organisation and function. In Neural Metrics 2.0 we will build on the success from the previous year, focussing on methods for understanding brain networks such as connectomics as well as large scale and Bayesian methods, with world class speakers, hands-on tutorials, student projects and an interactive debate. The topics covered range from cellular connectomics to human functional connectomics. The course is designed for PhD students and starting postdoctoral researchers working at the interface between cognitive neuroscience and the application of advanced methods. Please consult the Radboud Summer school website (http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/ <http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/>) for details on the program, social events and registration. Further details for the Neural Metrics Summer School can be found below and on the website (http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/courses/brain-behaviour/@972443/neural… <http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/courses/brain-behaviour/@972443/neural…>). Dates : Monday 10 August - Friday 14 August 2015 (1 week) Application Deadline : 15 June 2015 Course leaders : Bernhard Englitz, Marcel van Gerven, Fleur Zeldenrust, Tansu Celikel Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour & Radboud University Participant profile : This course was developed for PhD students and early postdoctoral researchers working at the interface between cellular and cognitive neuroscience requiring advanced methods of analysis. This includes research in the field of Neuroscience with an MSc in Biology, Computer Science, Psychology, Physics, Al, Mathematics, Engineering or a similar major. Admission requirements : As part of the admission procedure, we ask you to send us your CV and a brief motivation letter in which you explain your interest in our course. Course fee : 600 Euros The course fee includes the registration fee, course materials, access to library and IT facilities, coffee/tea, lunch, and a number of social activities. Accommodation is available for the course participants (additional charges apply). For details please see http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/practical-matters/housing/ <http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/practical-matters/housing/> Discounts : • 15% discount for students and PhD candidates from Radboud University and partner universities, Confirmed Speakers (alphabetical): > Misha Ahrens (HHMI, Janelia) > Matthias Bethge (University Tübingen) > Vincent Bonin (VIB, Leuven) > Romain Brette (Institut de la Vision, Paris) > Kevin Briggman (NIH, Bethesda) > Tansu Celikel (Donders Institute, Nijmegen) > Moritz Helmstädter (MPI for Brain Research, Frankfurt) > Henry Kennedy (INSERM, Lyon) > Timm Lochmann (TU Berlin) > David Norris (Donders Institute, Nijmegen) > Rémi Proville (Donders Institute, Nijmegen) > Andrew Reid (FZ Jülich) > Jan Schnupp (Oxford University) > Alessandro Treves (SISSA, Trieste) > Fleur Zeldenrust (Univ. Amsterdam)

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[meetings] SECOND CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS- Workshop: Embodied sensorimotor interaction: from locomotion to collective behavior at SWARM2015
by Poramate Manoonpong June 4, 2015

June 4, 2015

SECOND CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS- Workshop: Embodied sensorimotor interaction: from locomotion to collective behavior at SWARM2015 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wednesday, October 28 (full-day), Kyoto University, Japan Deadline for poster abstract submission: June 30, 2015 Notification of acceptance: July 31, 2015 Workshop Overview ------------------ Animals show fascinating adaptive and versatile abilities. For example, they can move around and at the same time avoid obstacles in order to successfully navigate through their complex cluttered environment for finding their food source. While moving, they can also adapt their locomotion to deal with unknown situations. Furthermore, they can interact with each other to form collective behavior for anti-predator, enhanced foraging, and even increased locomotion efficiency. These complex achievements emerge from tightly as well as loosely coupled interactions between many ingredients including biomechanics (i.e., morphology, muscles, and materials), sensory feedback, centralized/decentralized mechanisms, and communication. Developing these key ingredients and implementing them in artificial systems to approach the level of performance of living creatures remains a grand challenge. To address these issues, our workshop at SWARM 2015 (http://www.ohk.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/SWARM2015/) "Embodied sensorimotor interaction: from locomotion to collective behavior" will bring together leading experts, working in the domains of bio-inspired robotics, swarm robotics, modular robotics, embodied AI, evolutionary robotics, and computational neuroscience, to present their recent developments on robot locomotion and collective behavior and discuss future directions to overcome this challenge. The full-day workshop is composed of the following parts: 1) Invited talks by experts from swarm robotics, bio-inspired locomotion control, and embodied AI, 2) poster presentations, 3) Discussion and future steps We are also pleased to invite contributions in the form of 1 page conf. style abstract http://www.ohk.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/SWARM2015/ on (but are not limited to) the following topics. The selected contributions will be presented in a form of a poster during the workshop. We particularly encourage young scientists to contribute and attend, even presenting their research at an early stage an engage in discussions. We also welcome live demonstrations on robot locomotion and collective behavior. Submissions have to be sent to poma(a)mmmi.sdu.dk<mailto:poma@mmmi.sdu.dk> in PDF format. One author per accepted workshop contribution (poster, demo) and attendee are required to register (http://www.ohk.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/SWARM2015/) The Workshop topics include (but are not limited to) the following: ------------------ - Bio-inspired robotics (e.g., walking robots, flying robots, etc.), - Locomotion control, - Collective behavior control, - Swarm and self-organizing systems (e.g., modular robots) ===================== Tentative List of Speakers: · Dario Floreano (Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, EPFL, Switzerland) · John Hallam (Centre for BioRobotics, The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, SDU, Denmark) · Kasper Støy (IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark) · Nora Ayanian (the Automatic Coordination of Teams Lab, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, USA) · Koh Hosoda (Dept. of Adaptive Machine Systems, Grad. school of Engineering, Osaka University, Japan) · Yulia Sandamirskaya (Institute for Neural Computation, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany) · Shinya Aoi (Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan) · Yuichi Ambe (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan) · Poramate Manoonpong (Embodied AI & Neurorobotics Lab, Centre for BioRobotics, The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, SDU, Denmark) ===================== We hope that you will be able to attend and look forward to seeing you in Kyoto, Japan! The workshop organizers: Florentin Wörgötter, Poramate Manoonpong, Yuichi Ambe, Shinya Aoi

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FENS Featured Regional Meeting 2015 - Extended deadlines, preliminary programme and social events
by Dimitrios A. Adamos June 4, 2015

June 4, 2015

Only few months are left for the FENS Featured Regional Meeting , which will be held at Ioannis Vellidis Congress Center , Thessaloniki , from 7 to 10 October 2015!! Online you can find the analytic preliminary program at http://ffrm2015.com/programme/scientific-programme We would like to remind you that abstract submission deadline and early registration fees apply up to 30th of June! Please visit http://ffrm2015.com to register and submit your abstract online. Also , we would like to bring to your attention that during the congress two social events will take place : - Basketball Tournament(/free of charge/) The three organizing nations share a long history in Basketball, with numerous, unforgettable, exciting games conducted between national and associational teams. The city of Thessaloniki itself has a close relationship with basketball, as it has been largely known as the capital of modern Greek basketball. An indoors basketball tournament will be hosted at the Thessaloniki YMCA court. Students and older students are going to participate in the tournament in mixed teams. Medical support to ...older students will be kindly provided by the Aristotle University Medical School. Interested participants will be (almost) randomly allocated to four teams • Brainiacs • Synaptics • Connectomes • Old timers T-shirts will be provided to the players, who are kindly requested to bring their shoes and shorts. Two initial classification games will take place and the small and big finals will follow. The duration of the games will be 15 min each. The winners will have the opportunity to publish their papers in most international journals, under privileged reviewing processes. The Old timers are supposed to win, provided they make it through the tournament. When registering for the FFRM2015, do not forget to mention you wish to participate to the Basketball Tournament! It’s a no-brainer! *-Food Festival (*40€ per person / 30 € for undergraduate student) A Gastronomy Festival will be held at the area of the port, in a Warehouse at Pier A, an alternative and modern location of the city. The main objective of the event is a search of gastronomic identity of Thessaloniki in combination with Balkan flavors, on which so much is said and written. The street food “festival” will be accompanied by Greek and Balkan sounds from a live band. In case you are interesting to participate in one or both these events, please declare it during your registration online. For those who have already register and they decided to participate, please contact Meeting Secretariat at f.kyritsi(a)events.gr.

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Research Staff Member opening at NeuroMentix
by Chad Peck June 4, 2015

June 4, 2015

NeuroMentix is seeking candidates for a Research Staff Member opening. NeuroMentix is an early stage start up dedicated to a new, groundbreaking class of artificial intelligence technologies closely modeled after the brain. The Research Staff Member will initially participate in government funded research to refine, adapt, and demonstrate the technology. As our approach has important implications for understanding and modeling global brain function, we believe a career with NeuroMentix has the potential for a truly transformative, positive impact on science, technology, and our world. Job Description The selected Research Staff Member will participate in the development, demonstration, and application of a new class of biologically-inspired, network-based artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. The responsibilities include requirements analysis; network and component design, implementation, and testing; experimental design and analysis; documentation of inventions and scientific results through patents, technical reports and scientific publications; presentations and demonstrations to customers and other researchers. Required: * A PhD in computational neuroscience, computer science, machine learning, cognitive systems, electrical engineering, physics, or a related field * Two years of development experience with C/C++ * Two years of development experience in a UNIX/Linux environment * Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research * Working knowledge of functional neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, machine learning techniques, non-linear dynamical systems, and neural networks * Preferred availability by August 2015 Desired: * One year of experience with a computational neuroscience simulator (NEST is preferred) * Demonstrated expertise with generative neural networks, such as deep learning systems * Experience with robot control or software automaton design, development and testing * Demonstrated experience with team software development and integration practices * Expertise with key results and methodologies from experimental psychology If you are a highly driven, adaptable, and impactful researcher, please send your resume and contact information to employment(a)neuromentix.com. NeuroMentix is located in Newtown, CT, USA. More information about NeuroMentix can be found at www.neuromentix.com. NeuroMentix is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants must be a US citizen or possess US work authorization. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, national origin, sexual orientation, veteran status, age, or disability. NeuroMentix participates in E-Verify.

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Intelligence for Embedded and Cyber-physical Systems (IntECS 2015) @IEEE SSCI: papers are due in 10 days
by Giacomo Boracchi June 3, 2015

June 3, 2015

**CALL FOR PAPERS** Symposium on "Intelligence for Embedded and Cyber-physical Systems" (IntECS 2015) at IEEE Symposium Series in Computational Intelligence 2015 7 - 10 December 2015, Cape Town, South Africa ( http://ieee-ssci.org.za/) *IntECS 2015 Web site*: http://ies.deib.polimi.it/events/intecs-2015-ieee-ssci/ ********************************************************** *IMPORTANT DATES* Paper submission: June 14, 2015 Author notifications: September 4, 2015 Camera-ready submission: October 4, 2015 Early registration: October 4, 2015 Conference Dates: December 7 - 10, 2015 *********************************************************** In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in designing embedded and cyber-physical systems featuring intelligent skills. Beside addressing the specific tasks they have been designed for, these systems are expected, for example, to autonomously make decisions/activate reactions, perform self-diagnosis, and learn from and interact with the operating environment. This symposium addresses novel and emerging computational-intelligence and machine-learning solutions to provide such an intelligent behavior to embedded and cyberphisical systems. IntECS aspires at providing a forum for researchers who are actively working on intelligent embedded and cyberphisical systems and, more in general, on computational intelligent solutions for real world applications. The symposium will be held within the IEEE 2015 Symposium Series in Computational Intelligence (7 - 10 Dec. 2015, Cape Town, South Africa) **Topics** . Intelligence for embedded systems . Intelligence for cyber-physical systems . Cognitive fault-diagnosis systems . Smart objects and Internet of Things . Intelligent sensor networks . Intelligent sensors and robotics . Intelligent measurement systems . Adaptive solutions to operate in evolving/changing environments . Intelligent systems for real-world applications . Computational intelligence techniques for smart buildings and critical-infrastructure monitoring **Keywords** Embedded systems, cyber-physical systems, fault-diagnosis systems, intelligent applications, intelligent sensors, intelligent sensor networks, Computational Intelligence, Internet of Things. **Symposium Organizers** - Cesare Alippi (Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Italy)cesare.alippi(a)polimi.it - Giacomo Boracchi (Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Italy)giacomo.boracchi(a)polimi.it - Manuel Roveri (Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Italy)manuel.roveri(a)polimi.it **Technical Program Committee** Demetrios Eliadis, KIOS Research Center, Cyprus Stavros Ntalampiras, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Maurizio Bocca, Bosch Research and Technology Center, CA (USA) Michalis Michaelidis, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Huajin Tang, A*STAR, Singapore Joe-Air Jiang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Stefano Squartini, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy Rami Abielmona, Larus Technologies, Canada Dongbin Zhao, University of Chinese Academy of Science, China Guillerme DeSouza, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA Ana-Maria Cretu, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada Vicenç Puig, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain **Paper Submission Procedure** Submissions must contain original, high quality, not submitted or elsewhere published work. Authors must submit their paper through the IEEE SSCI 2015 webpage http://ieee-ssci.org.za/ Accepted papers will be included in the IEEE SSCI 2015 proceedings and indexed through IEEExplore. Further information and Paper submission can be found at the IEEE SSCI 2015 webpage http://ieee-ssci.org.za/ *********************************************************** The call for papers as well as more detailed information can be retrieved from IntECS 2015 webpage http://ies.deib.polimi.it/events/intecs-2015-ieee-ssci/ and from the main SSCI 2015 webpage http://ieee-ssci.org.za/ Please make sure you select: "Intelligence for Cyber-physical and Embedded Systems" (IntECS 2015) during the submission process *********************************************************** -- Giacomo Boracchi, PhD DEIB - Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria Politecnico di Milano Via Ponzio, 34/5 20133 Milano, Italy. Tel. +39 02 2399 3467 http://home.dei.polimi.it/boracchi/

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Brain Connectivity Workshop 2015!
by Jorge Riera Diaz June 3, 2015

June 3, 2015

Day-by-Day Registration Available for the 14th Brain Connectivity Workshop A number of places are available in the upcoming Brain Connectivity Workshop at UCSD (June 10-12) at a day-by-day late registration rate of $75. Those local or otherwise able to attend are welcome. Each day's program begins with a light breakfast at 8:00 am, with the first talks beginning at 8:30 am. Lunch, coffee/tea, and snacks are included. The meetings will be held in the San Diego Supercomputer Center annex on the UCSD campus. This will be the 14th international meeting of the Brain Connectivity Workshop, only the second held in the US and the first to focus on electrophysiological measures of distributed brain dynamics. Twenty-six leading scientific voices in the field will take part. A key feature of the Workshop are the unusually long general discussion periods following each workshop presentation - a chance to hear experts and all in attendance discuss topics of current strong interest to cognitive neuroscience. The Workshop program and other information is available at: http://sccn.ucsd.edu/BrainConnectivityWorkshop2015<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__sccn.ucsd.edu_BrainConn…> To indicate your interest in attending as a day-by-day registrant, please email Rhonda McCoy (rmccoy(a)ucsd.edu<mailto:rmccoy@ucsd.edu>) for detailed information. Scott Makeig (smakeig(a)ucsd.edu<mailto:smakeig@ucsd.edu>) Jorge Riera (Miami) Michael Breakspear (Brisbane) -- Scott Makeig, Research Scientist and Director, Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0961, http://sccn.ucsd.edu/~scott<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__sccn.ucsd.edu_-7Escott&…>

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EvAAL 2015 Call for Competition - only one week left
by Francesco Potortì June 3, 2015

June 3, 2015

ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT FOR REGISTRATION ! EvAAL-ETRI on-site and off-site Indoor Localization Competition <http://evaal.aaloa.org/> In conjunction with IPIN 2015 Banff, Alberta, Canada 13-16 October 2015 ================================================================ We are pleased to announce the EvAAL Indoor Localization Competition, which is to be held during the IPIN 2015 Conference. The competition aims at bringing together academic and industrial research communities to work together on challenging open problems in indoor localization based on mobile devices and sensors, with the purpose of evaluating different approaches and envisioning new research opportunities. Recent years have witnessed increasing interest in location-based services and applications. In most cases, however, location information is limited by the accessibility to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), which is largely unavailable in indoor environments. While the first commercial indoor positioning systems are starting to emerge, no standards exist yet and the field is quickly evolving. The competition will consist of two on-site and one off-site tracks, results will be presented during a dedicated session during the IPIN conference. Prizes will be awarded to the winners. Data collected from competitors' systems during the on-site tracks at the conference location will be published for the purpose of research and comparison. Track 1: Smartphone based positioning Track 2: Foot-mounted pedestrian dead reckoning positioning Track 3: Wi-Fi fingerprinting in large environments (off-site) For Track 1 "Smartphone based positioning", the competitors can use any sensor available on the smartphones used. For Track 2 "Foot-mounted positioning", the candidates can use MEMS sensors (inertial, compass and pressure sensors); electronic devices such as tablet, notebook, etc. can be used for control and monitoring. For Track 3 "Wi-Fi fingerprinting", the competitors will have access to a large Wi-Fi fingerprint database, to which they will apply their algorithms offline. The competition will take place during the IPIN conference and the on-ste tracks will be sponsored by ETRI, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute based in Korea. For the on-site tracks, competitors will be given the time to pre-test and setup their solutions prior to the test day, during which the systems will be measured in real-time. For the off-site track, the ground truth will be disclosed during the conference. Evaluation criteria for the competition, restrictions on the accepted technologies, technical rules to follow and a description of the benchmarks are detailed in the technical annex of this call (to be provided by mid-March). Possible refinements of the annex, also based on participating competitors' comments, will be timely distributed to all participants. The annex will include information such as the site map, the distribution of wireless communication devices and more. A "competitor" can be any individual or group of individuals working as a single team, associated to a single or a number of organizations. Competitors apply for admission to the competition by providing a short (2 to 4 pages) technical description of their system, including details on algorithms and protocols. The Program Committee will accept or refuse the application in a short time, based on technical feasibility and logistic constraints. In case of acceptance, competitors are invited to submit a paper to the conference. The paper will be subjected to peer review: accepted papers will be published in the proceedings of IPIN 2015. Competitors may choose to not submit a paper, but in any case they are required to make an oral presentation of their system during a dedicated session at the IPIN conference. Results from the competition and the raw data from the competitors' systems will be published after the competition. Application by guests, who will have the opportunity to test their systems in the same way as competitors, but whose results will not be disclosed, will be granted on an individual base. One full registration to the conference is required from each competitor or guest system; registration covers the presentation of a paper describing the system. The winners of the competition will be announced during the conference. ETRI will award a 2000$ prize to the best placed teams of tracks 1 and 2, together with a paid invitation to hold a talk at ETRI (KR). The winner of track 3 will receive a prize worth 500$. We encourage submissions from both academia and industry (there are no restrictions on the composition of competing teams) with the aim of seeking innovative solutions based on mobile devices and sensors for indoor applications. Please check the conference web site for more information and regular updates on the progress of the competition. Important Dates --------------------------------------------------------------- Admission request: 10 June 2015 Notification of admission and invitation to submit a paper: shortly after request --------------------------------------------------------------- Related links --------------------------------------------------------------- Submission site: <https://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=20021> Technical annex: soon to be published on <http://evaal.aaloa.org> --------------------------------------------------------------- Organizing Committee -------------------- Competition chair: Francesco Potortì <Potorti(a)isti.cnr.it> Local chair: Kyle O'keefe (CA) On-site software chair: Michele Girolami (CNR-ISTI, IT) Off-site track chair: Joaquín Torres Sospedra (Universitat Castellón, ES) TPC chair (on-site): Paolo Barsocchi (CNR-ISTI, IT) TPC chair (off-site): Raúl Montoliu Colás (Universitat Castellón, ES) -- Francesco Potortì (ricercatore) Voice: +39.050.621.3058 ISTI - Area della ricerca CNR Mobile: +39.348.8283.107 via G. Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa Skype: wnlabisti (entrance 20, 1st floor, room C71) Web: http://fly.isti.cnr.it

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[ICSLANE] Registration deadline extension
by Alessandro Barardi June 3, 2015

June 3, 2015

*Registration deadline has been extended to the 20th of June.* *Fellowships for students presenting posters are available. Check our website <http://www.neural-engineering.eu/BarcelonaConference2015/index.html> for details.* --------------------------------------------------------------- On September 21st – 23rd 2015, the *Neural Engineering Transformative Technologies <http://www.neural-engineering.eu/>* project celebrates the closing event with an *International Conference on System Level Approaches to * *Neural Engineering (ICSLANE*). *Eugene Izhikevich, *co-founder and CEO of Brain Corporation, USA, and *Nikos Logothetis, * Director of Max Planck Institute for Biol Cybernetics inGermany, participate in the event as keynote speakers. The program per day with its* outstanding list of confirmed speakers *is already available* here <http://www.neural-engineering.eu/BarcelonaConference2015/index.html>.* We invite you to *submit poster abstracts* *and apply for **contributed talks. * *Students *who submit posters will have a *fee reduction.* Program <http://www.neural-engineering.eu/BarcelonaConference2015/index.html> Registration <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/international-conference-on-system-level-app…> Abstract submission <nett.barcelona.2015(a)gmail.com> The aim of this interdisciplinary conference is to bring together *theoretical and experimental * *neuroscientists, **roboticists and microfluidics experts* to present and discuss the state of the art in the field of *neural engineering*. It is designed to provide fertile grounds for establishing collaborations between classical neuroscientists and leaders in the up-and-coming robotics and microfluidics fields to develop novel neural engineering techniques and promote the understanding of the brain. *Location:* *Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona* *Dr. Aiguader, 88* *08003, Barcelon**a* --------------------------------------------------------------- On behalf of NETT fellows, Alessandro Barardi, PhD student. Neural Engineering Transformative Technologies <http://www.neural-engineering.eu/> Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Barcelona, Spain

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CFP: Special Issue on Applications of Operations Research in Neuroscience
by Ruben Tikidji-Hamburyan June 2, 2015

June 2, 2015

Dear Colleagues, [We apologize if you have received multiple copies of this message] We would like to draw your attention to the special volume on "Applications of Operations Research for Neuroscience" in the Annals of Operations Research. We cordially invite researchers in neuroscience who use operations research methods and related mathematical fields to contribute to this special issue. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas of neuroscience: * intracellular signaling and regulation * synaptic plasticity * dynamics in heterogeneous neural networks * intelligent systems and control * perceptual, cognitive and behavioral functions * learning and memory * spatio-temporal network analysis * combinatorial optimization * signal and information processing * neuroimaging and functional brain imaging processing * computational modelling and simulation Please note that the use of methods from modern operations research is a prerequisite for any paper submitted to this special issue to be accepted for review. Important Dates: Submission deadline of full papers: August 1, 2015. Submission Details: The format of manuscripts for the Annals of Operations Research as well as guidelines can be found on the web page of Springer, the publisher of the journal: http://www.springer.com/business/operations+research/journal/10479 Authors should submit a cover letter mentioning that the paper is for a special volume, along with and a manuscript via the journal's online submission site: http://www.editorialmanager.com/anor More details can be found in the Call for Paper attached to this e-mail. Please consider sharing this call for papers with any researchers who might be interested. http://rutcor.rutgers.edu/CfP_Annals_of_Operations_Research.pdf On behalf of special volume guest editors, Ruben Tikidji-Hamburyan ------- Ruben Tikidji-Hamburyan,Ph.D. Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy Health Sciences Center Louisiana State University New Orleans, LA, 70112 A.B.Kogan Research Institute for Neurocybernetics Southern Federal University 344090, Russia

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Postdoctoral Research Associate position
by Peter Andras June 2, 2015

June 2, 2015

Research Associate Fixed Term for 2 Years Starting salary: Grade 7 £31,342 Keele University wishes to appoint a Research Associate for the duration of 2 years starting on 1st August 2015 or as soon as possible thereafter, in order to conduct research on the development of novel voltage-sensitive dyes for neuroimaging. You will work in the group led by Professor Peter Andras in the <http://www.keele.ac.uk/scm/research/centreforcomputerscienceresearch/> Computer Science Research Centre and the <http://www.keele.ac.uk/scm/> School of Computing and Mathematics at <http://www.keele.ac.uk/> Keele University and within a Leverhulme Trust funded project. The project runs in collaboration with the group of Professor Andrew Benniston from the School of Chemistry at Newcastle University. The aim of the project is to use rational molecular design to develop novel voltage-sensitive dyes with low toxicity and strong fluorescent signal in order to improve significantly the quality of neuroimaging data. You will work on the testing and evaluation of novel voltage-sensitive dyes for neuroimaging developed by our collaborators from Newcastle University. The novel dyes will be tested and evaluated by imaging neural activity in the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion and brain slices. You will be expected to contribute to the design of the experiments, run the experiments, collect and analyse the data, contribute to the writing of scientific papers and to present the results at conferences. You will be also encouraged to develop your leadership skills. You should have a PhD in a science subject (neuroscience, biology, computer science, physics, mathematics or similar), an interest in working on neuroscience experiments and a demonstrated aptitude for research. Experience in analysis of neuroimaging or similar data is essential and experience in micro-dissection and electrophysiology is highly desirable. For further enquiries please contact Professor Peter Andras at p.andras @keele.ac.uk. For full post details and to apply, please visit: <http://tinyurl.com/RE15-12> http://tinyurl.com/RE15-12 Closing date for applications: 29th June 2015 Interview dates: 6 7 July 2015 (to be confirmed) Interviews may be conducted remotely if needed (via skype or similar technology) --- Professor Peter Andras Professor of Computer Science and Informatics Head of Computing Division School of Computing and Mathematics Keele University Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG UK Tel. +44-1782-733412 Fax. +44-1782-734268 E-mail: <mailto:p.andras@keele.ac.uk> p.andras(a)keele.ac.uk Web: <http://www.scm.keele.ac.uk/staff/p_andras/> www.scm.keele.ac.uk/staff/p_andras/

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Job announcements--Mrsic Flogel lab
by Kelly Clancy June 2, 2015

June 2, 2015

Hi all, the Mrsic-Flogel lab at the University of Basel, Switzerland is looking to fill 2 positions: a data scientist and a research associate. The official announcement is below. Thanks! Kelly *Data scientist position in the Mrsic-Flogel lab* The Mrsic-Flogel lab is seeking a highly motivated data scientist. The main focus of our research <http://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/research/groups-platforms/overview/unit/mrs…> is to understand the visual cortex. The primary responsibilities for this position will be to design data analysis packages for processing large data sets. Our lab uses two-photon imaging of individual neurons, wide field imaging of the entire cortex, and electrophysiology to understand how neural activity relates to sensory perception and behavior. The successful candidate should have extensive experience working with large data sets, be highly organized and detail-oriented, be able to work both independently and within a team, and have a degree in physical or biological sciences (or several years of work experience). Experience with imaging data, and familiarity with sophisticated analysis techniques (e.g. dynamic causality modelling, machine learning, etc.) are ideal. Familiarity with MATLAB and/or LABVIEW a plus. Applications (in electronic form), including CV, a brief description of previous research experience/software projects, and contact information of two references should be addressed to Tom Mrsic-Flogel, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, 4056 Basel, Switzerland ( mrsic-flogel(a)googlegroups.com) Additional info Full-time position, starting immediately or upon agreement. The position is initially for 1-2 years. Salary and benefits according to University of Basel standards. The Biozentrum of the University of Basel is one of the leading institutes worldwide for molecular and biomedical basic research and teaching. It is home to more than 30 research groups with scientists from over 40 countries. Research at the Biozentrum focuses on the areas of Cell Growth & Development, Infection Biology, Neurobiology, Structural Biology & Biophysics and Computational & Systems Biology. With more than 550 employees, the Biozentrum is the largest department at the University of Basel’s Faculty of Science. Basel is an international city with people from 150 nations. Located on the border where three countries meet – Switzerland-Germany-France, it is Europe’s most important life sciences hub. Basel provides a high standard of living and a rich and varied cultural atmosphere. *Research Associate Position in the Mrsic-Flogel lab* The Mrsic-Flogel lab is seeking a highly motivated research associate. The main focus of our research <http://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/research/groups-platforms/overview/unit/mrs…> is to understand the visual cortex. The primary responsibilities for this position will include animal behavioral training, histology, and/or animal surgeries. The ideal candidate should have some research experience in a neuroscience or biology lab. Prior experience with data analysis software and/or imaging software would be advantageous. The successful candidate should be highly organized, detail-oriented and computer literate, have good written and verbal communication skills, be able to work both independently and within a team and have a bachelor's degree or higher in a neuroscience, biology or a related subject. Applications (in electronic form), including CV, a brief description of previous research experience/software projects, and contact information of two references should be addressed to Tom Mrsic-Flogel, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, 4056 Basel, Switzerland ( mrsic-flogel(a)googlegroups.com) Additional info Full-time position, starting immediately or upon agreement. The position is initially for 1-2 years. Salary and benefits according to University of Basel standards. The Biozentrum of the University of Basel is one of the leading institutes worldwide for molecular and biomedical basic research and teaching. It is home to more than 30 research groups with scientists from over 40 countries. Research at the Biozentrum focuses on the areas of Cell Growth & Development, Infection Biology, Neurobiology, Structural Biology & Biophysics and Computational & Systems Biology. With more than 550 employees, the Biozentrum is the largest department at the University of Basel’s Faculty of Science. Basel is an international city with people from 150 nations. Located on the border where three countries meet – Switzerland-Germany-France, it is Europe’s most important life sciences hub. Basel provides a high standard of living and a rich and varied cultural atmosphere.

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Tenth Madrid UPM Advanced Statistics and Data Mining Summer School - Early registration deadline
by asdm＠fi.upm.es June 2, 2015

June 2, 2015

Dear colleagues, We would like to remind you that the early registration period for the tenth Madrid UPM Advanced Statistics and Data Mining Summer School finishes on June 7th. The summer school will be held in Boadilla del Monte, near Madrid, from June 29th to July 10th. As in previous years, the school comprises 12 week-long courses, of 15 lecture hours each, which are given during two weeks (i.e., with six courses given each week). Students are free to choose the courses according to their interests, with the only restriction being that courses which are given in parallel are mutualy exclusive. INOMICS has selected our summer school as one of the world's top ten summer schools in mathematics and statistics. You can read more at https://blog.inomics.com/top-10-summer-schools-in-math-stats/ Extended information on course programmes, price, venue, accommodation and transport is available at the school's website: http://www.dia.fi.upm.es/ASDM Please, send this information to your colleagues, students, and whoever you think may find it interesting. Best regards, Pedro Larranaga, Concha Bielza, Bojan Mihaljevic and Laura Anton-Sanchez. -- School coordinators. *** List of courses and brief description *** * Week 1 (June 29th - July 3rd, 2015) * 1st session: 9:45-12:45 Course 1: Bayesian Networks (15 h) Basics of Bayesian networks. Inference in Bayesian networks. Learning Bayesian networks from data. Real applications. Practical demonstration: GeNIe, Weka, Bayesia, R. Course 2: Time Series(15 h) Basic concepts in time series. Descriptive methods for time series. Linear models for time series. Extensions. Practical demonstration: R. 2nd session: 13:45-16:45 Course 3: Supervised Pattern Recognition (15 h) Introduction. Assessing the performance of supervised classification algorithms. Preprocessing. Classification techniques. Combining multiple classifiers. Comparing supervised classification algorithms. Course 4: Bayesian Inference (15 h) Introduction: Bayesian basics. Conjugate models. MCMC and other simulation methods. Regression and Hierarchical models. Model selection. Practical demonstration: R and WinBugs. 3rd session: 17:00 - 20:00 Course 5: Neural Networks and Deep Learning (15 h) Introduction. Training algorithms. Learning and Optimization. MLPs in practice. Deep Networks. Course 6: Unsupervised Pattern Recognition (15 h) Introduction to clustering. Data exploration and preparation. Prototype-based clustering. Density-based clustering. Graph-based clustering. Cluster evaluation. Miscellanea. Conclusions and final advise. Practical session: R. * Week 2 (July 6th - July 10th, 2015) * 1st session: 9:45-12:45 Course 7: Statistical Inference(15 h) Introduction. Some basic statistical test. Multiple testing. Introduction to bootstrap methods. Introduction to Robust Statistics. Practical demonstration: R. Course 8: Bayesian Classifiers (15 h) Discrete predictors. Gaussian Bayesian networks-based classifiers. Other Bayesian classifiers. Bayesian classifiers for: positive and unlabeled data, semi-supervised learning, data streams, temporal data. Practical session: R. 2nd session: 13:45-16:45 Course 9: Text Mining (15 h) Introduction. Fundamentals. Language Modeling. String Processing. Text Classification. Information Extraction. Practical session: GATE (optionally, python). Course 10: Feature Subset Selection (15 h) Introduction. Filter approaches. Embedded methods. Wrapper methods. Advanced topics. Practical session: R and Weka. 3rd session: 17:00-20:00 Course 11: Support Vector Machines and Convex Optimization (15 h) Introduction. SVM models. SVM learning algorithms. Convex non differentiable optimization. Course 12: Hidden Markov Models (15 h) Introduction. Discrete Hidden Markov Models. Basic algorithms for Hidden Markov Models. Semicontinuous Hidden Markov Models. Continuous Hidden Markov Models. Unit selection and clustering. Speaker and Environment Adaptation for HMMs. Other applications of HMMs. Practical session: HTK.

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PhD position in Computational Neuroscience/Biology in Oslo, Norway
by Gaute Einevoll June 1, 2015

June 1, 2015

PHD-POSITIONS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE/BIOLOGY IN OSLO, NORWAY Several PhD positions are available in the SUURPh (SIMULA-UiO-UCSD) collaboration: https://www.simula.no/education/suurph-collaboration PhD-candidates will expectedly spend about 3 years in Oslo (UiO or SIMULA) and about year at UCSD. Possible PhD-projects include: modeling of interaction between ion channels and psychoactive drugs, modeling of memory processing in hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, modeling of liquid flow in the brain, biophysical modeling of EEG and MEG signals, biomechanical modeling of the human brain. For more info on projects see: https://www.simula.no/suurph-projects Students interested in becoming a SUURPh fellow should consult the Applicant's page: https://www.simula.no/students-page. Here you will find all relevant information and instructions to submit your application. ********************************************** Professor Gaute T. Einevoll Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Aas, Norway; Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Ph. +47-64965433, Mobile: +47-95124536 email: Gaute.Einevoll(a)nmbu.no, web: compneuro.umb.no, cinpla.org

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postdoctoral position in Carmen Canavier's lab
by Canavier, Carmen C. June 1, 2015

June 1, 2015

A two (2) year Postdoctoral Researcher position is available in the lab of Carmen Canavier in the School of Medicine, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. The focus of the lab is computational neuroscience. The main project is to model bursting and tonic firing in midbrain dopamine neurons, in close collaboration with experimentalists. Additional projects focus on oscillations and synchrony in cortical and basal ganglia networks. The primary duties will involve linear and non-linear analyses, writing code, calibrating single neuron models, and generating predictions that lead to additional experiments. Candidates must have a Ph.D. in Engineering, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics, Computer Science or a related field of study. Familiarity with nonlinear dynamics, writing code, running the simulation package NEURON, and modeling single neurons is preferred. Qualified candidates may submit resume along with cover letter and contact information for three references electronically to: SOM-recruits(a)lsuhsc.edu; reference 00049561. This appointment is a two (2) year assigned only. Applications should be received before July 1 to ensure consideration for the position. LSUHSC is an Equal Opportunity Employer for females, minorities, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.

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Reminder: Post-doc fellowship on computational neurosciences and stereoscopic vision
by cottereau＠cerco.ups-tlse.fr June 1, 2015

June 1, 2015

Post-doc fellowship with Benoit Cottereau on computational neurosciences and stereoscopic vision Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Toulouse, France Starting date: September December 2015 A postdoctoral research position is available to work with Benoit Cottereau (CNRS Researcher) in the ECO-3D team of the CerCo laboratory (Toulouse, http://www.cerco.ups-tlse.fr/?lang=en) The aim of the project is to develop new models of stereoscopic vision in primate that automatically become selective to the most frequently occurring 3D properties of their visual environment (e.g. 3D motion direction). These models will possibly be validated through experimental data (psychophysics and brain imaging in both human and non-human primates). The applicant should hold a solid background in computational neurosciences, signal processing as well as skills in programming. Knowledge on vision in primate would be highly appreciated. The city of Toulouse is an attractive city with high quality of life located in the south west of France (close to the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean sea and the Spanish border). The position is for 18 months with standard French salaries. Applications should be sent to benoit.cottereau(a)cerco.ups-tlse.fr including a CV and 2 names of references.

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Reminder: NCCD-2015 registration deadline
by pedro goncalves May 31, 2015

May 31, 2015

New early registration deadline: June 4th. The list of oral and poster presentations can be found at http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/nccd/nccd15/abstracts/ *********************************************************** Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD) August 30 - September 2, 2015 Bilbao, Spain http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/nccd/nccd15/ The goal of this workshop is to bring together experimentalists and theoreticians who seek to understand how circuit dynamics underlies representation and function in the nervous system, and to foster real discussion. This year the workshop will focus on the interplay between excitation (E) and inhibition (I) in cortical circuits. The balance between E and I, an idea proposed twenty years ago to account for the stochastic nature of cortical activity, has been seminal in the understanding of basic principles of neural network dynamics. We are seeking talks that, building on this paradigm, present recent findings on topics such as neuronal variability and stochastic dynamics, the role of the different subtypes of interneurons, plasticity and structure in EI networks, brain state and network dynamics, etc. The workshop will be limited to about 70 people, the hope being to foster real interaction and discussion. Important dates: May 15: Abstracts due (there will be posters and contributed talks) June 4th: Early registration due Confirmed invited speakers: Dean Buonomano, University of California at Los Angeles Jess Cardin, Yale School of Medicine Sophie Denève, ENS Brent Doiron, University of Pittsburgh Andrea Hasenstaub, UCSF Mike Hausser, UCL Carl Petersen, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Karel Svoboda, Janelia Farm Tim Vogels, University of Oxford Fred Wolf, University of Gottingen Best, Peter Latham Jaime de la Rocha Maneesh Sahani Pedro Goncalves Co-organizers

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Machine Learning & Auditory Processing Position at TU Berlin
by Ivo Trowitzsch May 28, 2015

May 28, 2015

Technische Universitaet Berlin, department of Neural Information Processing, offers a position in an international collaborative project set in auditory processing and modeling, robotics and machine learning. The successful candidate will develop and apply machine learning and signal processing techniques in an active computational model of auditory perception in order to detect and annotate acoustic events in an auditory scene analysis and an quality of experience setting. Project and position are part of the TWO!EARS project which is funded through the EU FET Open scheme (see brief description below). Starting date: Immediate Salary level: E-13 TV-L The position is until the end of 2016. Candidates should hold a recent PhD-degree or Diplom-/Master- degree, should have excellent programming skills in an object-oriented language (MATLAB will be used) and good knowledge in the machine learning field. Research experience in machine learning or applications to auditory processing is an asset. Application material (CV, list of publications, abstract of PhD thesis (if applicable), abstract of Diplom-/Master/Thesis, copies of certificates and two letters of reference -- but those can also be handed in later) should be sent to: Prof. Dr. Klaus Obermayer MAR 5-6, Technische Universitaet Berlin, Marchstrasse 23 10587 Berlin, Germany http://www.ni.tu-berlin.de/ email: oby(a)cs.tu-berlin.de preferably by email. TUB seeks to increase the proportion of women and particularly encourages women to apply. Women will be preferred given equal qualification. Disabled persons will be preferred given equal qualification. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Consortium Summary: TWO!EARS replaces current thinking about auditory modeling by a systemic approach in which human listeners are regarded as multi-modal agents that develop their concept of the world by exploratory interaction. The goal of the project is to develop an intelligent, active computational model of auditory perception and experience in a multi-modal context. Our novel approach is based on a structural link from binaural perception to judgment and action, realized by interleaved signal-driven (bottom-up) and hypothesis-driven (top-down) processing within an innovative expert system architecture. The system achieves object formation based on Gestalt principles, meaning assignment, knowledge acquisition and representation, learning, logic-based reasoning and reference-based judgment. More specifically, the system assigns meaning to acoustic events by combining signal- and symbol-based processing in a joint model structure, integrated with proprioceptive and visual percepts. It is therefore able to describe an acoustic scene in much the same way that a human listener can, in terms of the sensations that sounds evoke (e.g. loudness, timbre, spatial extent) and their semantics (e.g. whether the sound is unexpected or a familiar voice). Our system will be implemented on a robotic platform, which will actively parse its physical environment, orientate itself and move its sensors in a humanoid manner. The system has an open architecture, so that it can easily be modified or extended. This is crucial, since the cognitive functions to be modeled are domain and application specific. TWO!EARS will have significant impact on future development of ICT wherever knowledge and control of aural experience is relevant. It will also benefit research in related areas such as biology, medicine and sensory and cognitive psychology. -- Ivo Trowitzsch Research Assistant @ Neural Information Processing Group, TU Berlin

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CFP EUCOG 2015
by Prof. Dr. Jordi Vallverdú May 28, 2015

May 28, 2015

*Call for Papers* EUCOG2015 Annual Meeting of the European Society of Cognitive Systems (Meeting of the EUCognition Network) 25-26.09.2015 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ORGANISERS: Jordi Vallverdú & Vincent C. Müller http://www.eucognition.org/index.php?page=eacs-barcelona-2015-gen-info Program Commitee: Varol Akman, Bilkent University, Ankara Istvan Berkeley The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ron Chrisley Sussex University David Casacuberta Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Mark Coeckelbergh University of Twente Eric Dietrich Binghamton University James Fetzer University of Minnesota, Duluth Stefano Franchi Texas A&M University Antoni Gomila Universitat Illes Balears Claudius Gros Institute for Theoretical Physics Lorenzo Magnani University of Pavia, Italy Klaus Mainzer Technische Universität München Gualtiero Piccinini University of Missouri - St. Louis Oron Shagrir Hebrew University Mark Sprevak University of Edinburgh Ioannis Votsis Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf Tom Ziemke University of Skövde Max Talanov Kazan Federal University Manuel Bedia Universidad de Zaragoza Bruno Lara Universidad de Cuernavaca ========================================= ABSTRACTS We request anonymous abstracts of 600-1000 words (plus references) in plain text or PDF, plus a short abstract of up to 120 words. Accepted papers will be presented at the conference (orally or as posters) and published in the proceedings. (We plan to provide a copy of the proceedings to the corresponding author.) We foresee slots of at least 20 minutes per talk. All submissions will be reviewed double-blind by at least two members of the programme committee. Submission online at EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=eucog2015 Technical note: The EasyChair system will ask you for an "abstract" and a "paper". For us, "abstract" refers to the short abstract (up to 120 words) in plain text, while "paper" refers to the long abstract (600-1000 words), which can be submitted as a PDF or plain text. Accordingly, please do not use the check-box "Abstract Only". (The abbreviation "Corr. Auth." stands for "corresponding author".) *Send to:* https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=eucog2015 ========================================= DATES & DEADLINES May 10th, 2015 Call For Papers, abstract submission opens June 1st, 2015 Congress registration opens July 1st, 2015 Deadline for submission of abstracts July 15th, 2015 Notifications of acceptance August 30th, 2015 Deadline for early registrations September 25th-26th EUCOG2015 ========================================= THEMES "Cognitive systems" is to be broadly understood as an interlinked research of natural and artificial cognitive systems. We welcome participants from all disciplines that are relevant for fundamental issues of present and future robotics and AI, especially cognitive science, computer science, neuroscience and philosophy. We are especially interested in bioinspired techniques, models and methods. • AI and cognitive science • autonomous vehicles • cognitive systems in industry • communication (verbal and non-verbal) • dynamical systems • embedded, situated, distributed cognition • embodiment, enaction, morphology • social impact of AI and robotics • goals, emotions, values, free will • grounded cognition • hybrid systems, cyborgs • interactive systems • learning, evolution • neuroscience and cognitive systems • multi-agent systems • perception, sensing • performance and intelligence testing • real-world systems • robotics • robustness and adaptability • ... ========================================= PUBLICATION Details on the publication for 2015 are not yet finalized but we will publish a volume of proceedings to include all accepted papers, planned to be published within 6 months of the event. Submission and presentation at the conference do not entail an obligation of the author(s) to publish in the conference proceedings. ========================================= Prof. Dr. Jordi Vallverdú, B. Phil, B. Mus, M.Sci, Ph.D. Room B7/104, Philosophy Dept. UAB 08193 Bellaterra (BCN) CATALONIA ------------------- FULL CV/Publications: https://uab.academia.edu/JordiVallverdu <https://uab.academia.edu/JordiVallverd%C3%BA> ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9975-7780 ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/K-5536-2014 Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jordi_Vallverdu

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Save the date! Next GDR Multielectrode/NeuralNet Conference and Minischool: Jan 5-8, 2016
by Blaise Yvert May 28, 2015

May 28, 2015

Dear colleagues, This is the first announcement that the next conference of the GDR Multielectrode - becoming soon (hopefully) GDR NeuralNet - will be held in Grenoble on January 6-8, 2016. We chose to delay a bit this edition in order to organize the conference in the Vercors mountain (http://www.escandille.com/) The conference will start on Jan 6 late afternoon and end on Jan 8 afternoon. Not sure there will be snow at this period, but we hope the calm of Vercors will foster creative thinking and interactions! Because lodging will be provided on site, a (reasonable) registration fee will be asked to cover the corresponding cost and secure the organization. The minischool preceding the conference will take place in downtown Grenoble on January 5-6 (lodging not provided). The program and registration organization is under preparation, but please save already these dates to make this new event as rich as possible ! Looking forward welcoming you all, Kind regards, Blaise on behalf of the organizing committee: Tetiana AKSENOVA Julien BASTIN Florent BOCQUELET Olivier DAVID Cécile DELACOUR Antoine DEPAULIS Samuel GARCIA Philippe KAHANE Sandrine MAUBERT Gaëlle OFFRANC PIRET Christophe POUZAT Anne QUESNEL-HELLMANN Blaise YVERT -- Blaise Yvert. Inserm Research Director Clinatec Laboratory UA01 Biomedical Research Center Edmond J Safra CEA-INSERM-UJF-CHU Grenoble Minatec Campus 17 rue des Martyrs 38054 Grenoble cedex 09 Tel. +33 4 38 78 91 38 / +33 6 32 88 75 90 Fax. +33 4 38 78 53 55 http://www.clinatec.fr (under construction)

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postdoctoral position in human connectomics
by Olaf Sporns May 27, 2015

May 27, 2015

*Postdoctoral/Assistant Research Scientist Position in Human Connectomics* Indiana University is making a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment to create and expand the infrastructure for research and training in network science through the establishment of the Indiana University Network Science Institute (IUNI – http://iuni.iu.edu ). IUNI seeks applicants for a postdoctoral position as Assistant Research Scientist in the area of Human Connectomics. This position will be appointed for a two-year term with the possibility of renewal based on exemplary performance and continued funding. The position involves close collaboration with the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory (www.indiana.edu/~cortex <http://www.indiana.edu/%7Ecortex> – Head: Olaf Sporns) and the Indiana University Center for Neuroimaging (http://neuroimaging.medicine.iu.edu/ - Director: Andrew J. Saykin). Research goals focus on the application of sophisticated network analysis and modeling methods to multimodal human neuroimaging data sets, including advanced diffusion imaging, structural MRI and resting-state fMRI, in both healthy and clinical populations. A major application focus is on prodromal stages of Alzheimer’s disease and many other clinical populations, including TBI, non-CNS cancer and psychosis, are also being investigated.In addition to close collaboration with Drs. Sporns, Saykin and colleagues, the successful candidate will be encouraged to interact with IU’s growing community of network scientists. A full position description and instructions for how to apply can be found at: https://indiana.peopleadmin.com/hr/postings/1490 For informal inquiries please contact Olaf Sporns at osporns(a)indiana.edu <mailto:osporns@indiana.edu> -- Olaf Sporns -- @spornslab Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Programs in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405

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20 scholarships: TIM-Telecom Italia and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna - Master in Digital Life & Smart Living
by Calogero Oddo May 27, 2015

May 27, 2015

Call for scholarship applications within the Master "Digital Life & Smart Living (SMART)" 2015-2016 (www.sssup.it/smart) 20 scholarships are offered to European citizens by TIM-Telecom Italia in partnership with Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa. 2 scholarships are reserved for non European Union citizens. All admitted students will receive a total gross amount of € 12.000 scholarship payment to cover transportation and accommodation expenses. All Master tuition fees are covered by TIM-Telecom Italia. This Master is a post-graduate university programme designed for students that own a Master of Science degree. It trains students for a potential hiring in one of the most innovative new-technology multinationals in the world, TIM-Telecom Italia. 80% of participants to the first edition of the Master have been employed by TIM. Application is on-line: www.sssup.it/smart/application Submission deadline: June 18, 2015 The main goal of the Master is to train young graduate talented students who will acquire the competence to design, develop and manage communication systems and "Smart" innovative technologies. The graduated will have the capacity to manage and control advanced technologies in ICT, Robotics and Biorobotics, Software Engineering and Telecommunication Engineering, for the design and management of Smart Solutions. The 20 Master students will attend intensive and exciting series of lessons taught in English, alternating with laboratory experiments, company case-study experiences and seminars (600 hours). In the final stage, an internship at TIM-Telecom Italia will be provided in order to gain direct experience in the fields of business and technologies (750 hours). Total time commitment: Sept. 7, 2015 - Sept. 5, 2016 The Master Degree programme has been developed by TIM-Telecom Italia and faculty members of The BioRobotics Institute, the Institute of Management, and The Institute of Communication, Information and Perception Technologies of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy. For more information: www.sssup.it/smart www.santannaschool.eu Secretariat contacts: Federica Faldella Mail: master-smart(a)sssup.it Phone: +39 050 88 2671 Best regards, Calogero Oddo and Paolo Dario -- Calogero M. Oddo Assistant Professor of Biomedical Robotics Head of the Human Machine Nexus Laboratory, Neuro-robotics Area The BioRobotics Institute Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Polo Sant'Anna Valdera Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34 56025 Pontedera (Pisa) - Italy email: calogero.oddo(a)sssup.it http://sssa.bioroboticsinstitute.it/user/102 -- Paolo Dario Professor of Biomedical Robotics IEEE Fellow Director, The BioRobotics Institute Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Polo Sant'Anna Valdera Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34 56025 Pontedera (Pisa) - Italy email: paolo.dario(a)sssup.it http://sssa.bioroboticsinstitute.it/

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Available Slot for Intensive Talks at CNS 2015 Workshop on "Rate vs. Temporal Coding"
by Milad Lankarany May 26, 2015

May 26, 2015

The workshop on "Rate vs. Temporal Coding: Mutually Exclusive or Cooperatively Co-existing <https://sites.google.com/site/cnsworkshop2015ratevstime/>" will be held at CNS 2015 (Prague), on July 22nd. Our workshop hosts 8 prestigious speakers, presenting their recent researches in 30 minutes, as well as a few number of intensive talks, each lasting 10-12 minutes. Honestly speaking, this is a new schedule for our workshop that we want to try, for the first time, a workshop comprising larger talks (30 mins) + short intensive talks (10-12 mins). As the intensive talks are short, we would like to invite more speakers. So, any scientist that participates in CNS 2015 and is interested in our workshop can send me his/her request and the title of the presentation. Email: milad.lankarany(a)sickkids.ca. Many thanks, Milad Lankarany, Ph.D. <https://sites.google.com/site/miladlankarani/> Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Prescott Lab, Neuroscience & Mental Health, Peter Gilgan Center for Research & Learning, Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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open PhD position at INT-Marseille, France: Predicting and selecting sensory events: inference for smooth eye movements
by Laurent Perrinet May 25, 2015

May 25, 2015

Dear colleagues, Applications are welcome immediately and until the end of May for a PhD position at INT-Marseille, France: Predicting and selecting sensory events: inference for smooth eye movements In everyday life, we constantly need to track relevant moving targets in complex environments with our eyes such as, for instance, when we try to catch someone running in the crowd. However, this seemingly simple task demands to deal with several dynamic sources of uncertainty, related to intrinsic, target-related properties or to external, environment-related factors. In addition, one single object has to be selected at a time for accurate visual processing and ocular tracking in presence of a multitude of competing signals. The PhD project aims at understanding the /dynamic inference and decision processes underlying smooth eye movements/. The PhD fellow will conduct psychophysics and oculomotor recordings on healthy subjects, as well as modeling work, in order to elucidate the effects of sensory uncertainty on the accuracy and the dynamics of visuomotor decisions. Bayesian Inference will provide a general and solid framework for behavioral models. Oculomotor decision times, such as those characterizing the dynamic switch between smooth pursuit and saccades during motion tracking, or transitions between two alternative tracking solutions, will be modeled and benchmarked against the predictions of current models of choice reaction times ("accumulation-to-threshold" models). A potential development of the project, through the PACE European network’s collaborations and secondments (http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/-ITN-Marie-Curie-network-PACE) is to compare dynamic inference for smooth eye movements with other types of movements such as reaching, hitting or manual tracking.To obtain further information or send applications (including a full CV, a letter of motivation, 2 reference names), please contact: Anna.Montagnini(a)univ-amu.fr, Laurent.Perrinet(a)univ-amu.fr or Guillaume.Masson(a)univ-amu.fr. Applications are welcome immediately and until the end of May 2015. Site: InVIBE Team (Inference in Vision and Behavior) - Institut de Neuroscience de la Timone, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille FRANCE – http://www.int.univ-amu.fr/ PhD Supervisors: Guillaume Masson, Anna Montagnini and Laurent Perrinet Position details: This position is funded by the Marie Skodowska-Curie program of the H2020 European Union program, as part of the Innovative Training Network PACE (Perception and Action in Complex Environments). Eligibility : Applicants must hold a Master Degree in Neurosciences or Psychology, or equivalent. Application from students with a background in Physics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Sciences and willing to shift towards neurosciences are encouraged. Under-graduate students from Medicine are also encouraged to apply. Applicants must not have carried out Research activities for more than 4 years after their Master degree (or equivalent) and must not already hold a PhD degree. *EU Conditions of Mobility of Early-Stage Researchers:* Applicants can be of any nationality. They must comply with the rule for trans-national mobility: at the time of recruitment by the host organization, students must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc) in the country of their host organization for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date. Microsoft Word - ESR1_Description_new.doc Thanks for distributing this announcement to potential candidates, Laurent -- Laurent Perrinet - INT (UMR 7289)/CNRS http://invibe.net/LaurentPerrinet

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Postdoctoral Position in Human Intracranial Physiology at the National Institutes of Health
by Zaghloul, Kareem (NIH/NINDS) [E] May 25, 2015

May 25, 2015

A full-time post-doctoral position focused on understanding the neural correlates of human cognitive function is available in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the NIH. This position involves studies focused on analyzing and manipulating human intracranial electrophysiological signals, including single-unit activity, local field potentials, and electro corticography (ECoG), captured from patients with medically refractory epilepsy and from patients receiving deep brain stimulation surgery. Manipulations of cortical signals include the use of electrical stimulation and real-time closed-loop feedback. Post-doctoral fellows will join a laboratory aimed at understanding the neural mechanisms that underlie human memory and decision making and at developing novel and innovative techniques to directly communicate with those circuits. We are seeking candidates that are highly creative, motivated, and independent with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, or a related field. Candidates must have a strong research background, with a record of relevant publications. Candidates will be encouraged and expected to participate in independent laboratory research, and will be expected to write scholarly manuscripts. Candidates must be able to lead and work well in a team. Candidates should have strong computational, quantitative, and/or engineering skills, with proficiency in developing custom code (Matlab, Python, etc.) for data analysis preferred. Past medical research is not required, but candidates must be willing to perform experiments in a clinical setting. Candidates will interact with clinical staff, graduate students, research fellows, and must have excellent spoken and written English skills. Applicants should submit a brief statement of research activities and interests, a current CV, and names and contact information of at least three references. Salary will be commensurate with experience and accomplishments. To arrange a meeting with the PI and to send materials required for consideration for this appointment please contact Dr. Zaghloul at: zaghloulka(a)mail.nih.gov<mailto:zaghloulka@mail.nih.gov> NIH, an agency of DHHS, is an equal opportunity employer.

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JNNS2015 Call for Papers
by Yoichi Miyawaki May 25, 2015

May 25, 2015

25th Annual Conference of Japanese Neural Network Society (JNNS 2015) Call for Papers Date: September 2(Wed) – 4(Fri), 2015 Place: The University of Electro-Communications (Chofu, Tokyo) Web site:　https://jnns2015.im.uec.ac.jp/en/ Details of call for papers: https://jnns2015.im.uec.ac.jp/en/cfp/ 25th Annual Conference of Japanese Neural Network Society (JNNS 2015) will be held at The University of Electro-Communications (Chofu, Tokyo) during September 2 (Wed) – 4 (Fri), 2015. This is an annual conference of Japanese Neural Network Society (JNNS). In this year, the conference is jointly held with Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics (SOFT). === Plenary Lecture === Title: Neuromorphic Computing in IBM Speaker: Koichi Kajitani (IBM Research-Tokyo) === Invited Lecture === Title: TBA Speaker: Kunihiko Fukushima (Fuzzy Logic Systems Institute) === Symposium === 1. Present status and problems of brain and mathematical models, and future prediction Speakers: Shinya Nishida (NTT CS Lab), Shinji Nishimoto (CiNet/Osaka Univ.), Hiroshi Yamakawa (dwango) 2. High-performance computing technology accelerates neural network simulation Speakers: Jun Igarashi (OIST), Tetsuya Asai (Hokkaido Univ.), Hirotsugu Okuno (Osaka Univ.), Tadashi Yamazaki (The Univ. of Electro-Communications) 3. Approach of deep learning: from JNNS’s point of view Speakers: Hideki Aso (AIST), Masato Okada (The Univ. of Tokyo), Izumi Ohzawa (Osaka Univ.), Koichi Shinoda (Tokyo Inst. of Technology) === Call of Papers === Submissions are solicited for JNNS 2015 from wide areas of research topics with respect to neural systems, including physiology, psychology, brain imaging, sensation/perception, recognition, motor, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, robotics, mathematical models, learning theory, signal processing, data measurement/analysis technology, machine learning, hardware/software technology, high-performance computing, and algorithm. Members in JNNS or assent societies are eligible to be a presenter. Those who are joining in JNNS 2015 from abroad are welcome to be a presenter if they are non-members. Applicants can be a presenter for only one presentation, but can be listed as coauthors for multiple presentations. JNNS 2015 very welcomes active submissions from private companies as well as academic institutes. See https://jnns2015.im.uec.ac.jp/en/cfp/ for more details. === Schedule === Registration/submission start: May 8 (Friday), 2015 Registration/submission close: June 8 (Monday), 2015 Notice of acceptance (incl. results of talk selection): July 17 (Friday), 2015 Early registration deadline: July 31 (Friday), 2015 (for presenters) August 14 (Friday), 2015 (for others) === Organizing committee === Yutaka Sakaguchi (Chair, The Univ. of Electro-Communications) Shunji Sato (The Univ. of Electro-Communications) Hayaru Shouno (The Univ. of Electro-Communications) Yoichi Miyawaki (The Univ. of Electro-Communications) Tadashi Yamazaki (The Univ. of Electro-Communications) === Sponsor === Japanese Neural Network Society === Cosponsor === Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics (SOFT) === Contact address === E-mail： contact(a)jnns2015.im.uec.ac.jp

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BIH'15 @ Imperial College London: Bring the Human Brain Projects of the world to one place
by Caroline Li May 22, 2015

May 22, 2015

Call for Abstracts Co-Chaired by Prof Karl Friston & Prof Yike Guo @ Imperial College London (Aug 30 - Sep2, 2015), BIH'15 crosses the disciplines of neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, signal processing, and neuroimaging. It also draws special attention to informatics for brain science, human behaviour and health. International Conference on Brain Informatics and Health (BIH'15) Venue: Imperial College London, London, UK, Time: Aug 30-Sep 2, 2015 www.braininformatics.london<http://www.braininformatics.london> Abstract Submission Deadline: June 16, 2015 ***************** Conference Theme: Brain informatics has emerged as a distinct field of research. It crosses the disciplines of neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, signal processing, and neuroimaging technologies. The data driven nature of brain research made brain informatics an important field of data science. Following the success of past conferences in this series, BIH'15 will take place at Imperial College London, in UK. For the first time, BIH gathers the researchers from major international brain research projects to form a forum for reviewing the progress of brain informatics research and its applications to human health and building up international collaboration. The conference will also organise an exhibition from industrial and research community. BIH'15 draws special attention to informatics for brain science, human behaviour and health. BIH'15 will address informatics approaches to both the brain and behaviour research with a strong emphasis on emerging trends of big data analysis and management technology for brain research, behaviour learning, and real-world applications of brain science in human health and wellbeing. The distinguished speakers include: Keynote Speakers Allan Jones, CEO, Allen Institute for Brain Science, USA; Henry Markram, Director, Blue Brain Project; Coordinator, Human Brain Project, EPFL, Switzerland; David Van Essen, PI, Human Connectome Project, Washington University School of Medicine, USA; Feature Speakers Giorgio Ascoli, (Founding Director, Center for Neural Informatics, George Mason University, USA); Henry Kennedy, (Director of Research, Stem-cell and Brain Research Institute, France); Barbara Sahakian, (University of Cambridge, UK); Nelson Spruston, (Scientific Program Director, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), USA); Paul Verschure, (Director, the Lab of SPECS at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Spain); BIH'15 welcomes paper submissions (full paper and abstract submissions). Both research and application papers are solicited. All submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance and clarity. Accepted full papers will be included in the proceedings by Springer LNCS/LNAI. ================================= ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS & PUBLICATIONS: Submission Deadline: June 16, 2015 Each abstract is limited to 500 words. Experimental research is particularly welcome. Accepted abstract submissions will be included in the conference program, and will be published as a single, collective proceedings volume. Title: Include in the title of the abstract all words critical for a subject index. Write your title in sentence case (first letter is capitalized; remaining letters are lower case). Do not bold or italicize your full title. Author: List all authors who contributed to the work discussed in the abstract. The presenting author must be listed in the first author slot of the list. Be prepared to submit contact information as well as conflict of interest information for each author listed. Abstract: Enter the body of the abstract and attach any applicable graphic files or tables here. Do not re-enter the title, author, support, or other information that is collected in other steps of the submission form. Presentation Preference: Authors may select from three presentation formats when submitting an abstract: "poster only,", "talk preferred" or "no preference." The "talk preferred" selection indicates that you would like to give a talk, but will accept a poster format if necessary. Marking "poster only" indicates that you would not like to be considered for an oral-presentation session. Selecting "no preference" indicates the author's willingness to be placed in the best format for the program. Each abstract requires one sponsoring attendee (i.e. someone who registered and is attending the conference). A single attendee can not sponsor more than two abstracts or papers. Oral presentations will be selected from both full length papers and abstracts. *** Contact Information *** BrainInformatics2015(a)gmail.com<mailto:BrainInformatics2015@gmail.com>

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PhD grant on Computational Methods for Brain Connectivity Analysis
by Diego Sona May 22, 2015

May 22, 2015

The Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI) at the University of Trento and its research partners Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), will invite applications for an open PhD position covered by scholarship in the area of “Computational Methods for Brain Connectivity Analysis”. The deadline for applications is May 27, 2015, before 14:00, CET. The PhD aims at carrying out research activity on machine learning methodologies for brain connectivity data analysis. The main goal is to design and to deploy machine learning algorithms for open challenges such as the detection of the main structural and functional pathways of the brain, the characterisation of the differences with respect to altered brain connections, the inter-individuals analysis of brain connectivity structures. The PhD grant is jointly supported by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). The research activity will take place at the Neuroinformatics Laboratory (NILab) in Trento and the Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision department (PAVIS) in Genova. NILab is an interdisciplinary laboratory raised as joint initiative between the Centre for Information Technology of FBK and the Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences of University of Trento (CIMeC). PAVIS is a computer vision department recently created in IIT. The University of Trento ranks 1st among the Italian Universities in the rankings of Times Higher Education and CIMeC ranks 1st for quality of research in the ranking of the Italian National for the Evaluation of Universities and Research (ANVUR). CIMeC has 6 ERC starting grants and 1 advanced grant. Trento ranks 1st in the annual survey on quality of life in Italian cities conducted by daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Details on the PhD School and a link to the online application are provided below. If you are interested, you may contact us in advance at the following address: info.nilab(a)fbk.eu <mailto:info.nilab@fbk.eu> & pavis(a)iit.it <mailto:info.nilab@fbk.eu> Links - PhD School: http://ict.unitn.it <http://ict.unitn.it/> - FBK: http://www.fbk.eu <http://www.fbk.eu/> - CIMeC: http://www.cimec.unitn.it <http://www.cimec.unitn.it/> - NILab: http://nilab.fbk.eu <http://nilab.fbk.eu/> - PAVIS: http://iit.it/pavis <http://iit.it/pavis> 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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computational neuroscience PhD projects
by Andre Van Schaik May 21, 2015

May 21, 2015

I am looking for highly qualified PhD students for two computational neuroscience projects in the MARCS Institute at the University of Western Sydney, Australia to start in early 2016. The first project is on Bayesian Inference in Spiking Neural Networks in which we aim to build a computer model of how Bayesian Inference can be implemented in a network of spiking neurons. The second project aims to map a functional behaviour (such as pattern learning and inference) onto a model of cortex, and implement this on our FPGA based simulator, which is able to simulate many million of neurons in real-time. More details on the projects, and a host of other available projects can be found at: http://www.uws.edu.au/bioelectronics_neuroscience/bens/postgraduate/phd_opp…. The student would need to be self funded, or successfully obtain funding through one of two funding opportunities we currently have available: The University of Western Sydney offers scholarships and fee waivers to top local and international applicants. This scheme opens on June 10 and closes on June 26, 2015. (There will be a second round in October) http://www.uws.edu.au/graduate_research_school/grs/scholarships. The Australian government offers Endeavour Scholarships. This scheme is now open and closes on June 30, 2015. https://internationaleducation.gov.au/Endeavour%20program/Scholarships-and-…. These scholarships are competitive. Applicants should have at least an Honours 1 undergraduate degree, or equivalent, excellent English language skills. Having published in peer reviewed journals and conferences, and/or being about to finish, or having finished a Masters degree with a more than 50% research component will be a significant plus for these applications. If you are interested, please contact me at a.vanschaik(a)uws.edu.au. Andre van Schaik

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Postdoc position in Sleep and Cognition lab (EEG/ERP)
by Sara C. Mednick May 20, 2015

May 20, 2015

We are seeking a postdoc researcher in Sara Mednick’s Sleep and Cognition (SaC) Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. This researcher will be investigating mechanisms of memory formation during waking and sleep. Successful candidates may have any of the following skills: experience in memory or sleep research (human or animal), EEG/ERP methodologies, programming skills, applying signal processing and non-linear analysis techniques to EEG recordings. Position is available in the fall of 2015. Researchers must possess a doctoral degree. The University of California offers excellent benefits. Salary is based on research experience. The initial appointment is for 1 year with a possibility of extension. Please send your CV, statement of research interests and the names of three references or make inquires to Sara C. Mednick smednick(a)ucr.edu. -- Assistant Professor University of California, Riverside Department of Psychology Sleep and Cognition (SaC) Lab www.saramednick.com www.sleepandcognitionlab.org TEDx Talk <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MklZJprP5F0> Amandla awethu!

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PhD Positions on Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics
by Giulio Sandini May 20, 2015

May 20, 2015

9 PhD Positions (if you are truly interested in contributing to an interdisciplinary environment) Within the doctoral School on Bioengineering and Robotics the curriculum "Cognitive Robotics, Interaction and Rehabilitation Technologies" offers interdisciplinary training at the interface between robotics and neuroscience. The general objective of the program is to form scientists and research technologists capable of dealing with multidisciplinary projects involving aspects of engineering, technology and life-sciences. The PhD themes offered this year by the "Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences" (RBCS) department of IIT (www.iit.it/rbcs<http://www.iit.it/rbcs>) are focusing on the SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF ACTION AND INTERACTION by addressing the study of the embodied and cognitive interaction between humans and machines and its technological and social outcomes. In RBCS we are merging top-level neuroscience research and top-level robotics research by sharing fundamental scientific objectives arising from the study of: * goal-directed action * speech recognition and language * the foundations of physical and social interaction * the exploitation of sensory and motor rehabilitation. RBCS is where the iCub humanoid robot is used to investigate the language of embodied, human-human and human-robot communication and it is also the place where studies of how visual, haptic and tactile integration develops in normal as well as sensory-impaired children. RBCS is where technologies for robotic rehabilitation devices are developed and tested in joint labs established in clinical environments such as the "Giannina Galsini" pediatric hospital, and the "Istituto Chiossone" for blind and low vision children in Genova, and the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL) in Volterra. The ideal candidates are students with a higher level university degree willing to invest extra time and effort in blending into a multidisciplinary team composed of neuroscientists, engineers, psychologists, physicists working together to investigate brain functions and realize intelligent machines, rehabilitation protocols and advanced prosthesis. Some of the themes proposed offer the students the possibility of participating in international collaborations through EU supported exchange of researchers within dedicated Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. Application deadline: 10 June 2015, 12pm Italian time General Scientific Information: giulio.sandini(a)iit.it<mailto:giulio.sandini@iit.it> Administrative Information: Ilaria.dallorto(a)iit.it<mailto:Ilaria.dallorto@iit.it> See below the information about individual themes. HOW TO APPLY Applications must be submitted online, instructions for applicants are available here: http://phd.dibris.unige.it/biorob/index.php/how-to-apply (Cognitive Sciences, Interactive and Rehabilitation Technologies) The full description of the individual themes is available here: http://www.iit.it/images/phd-xxxi/RES.THEMES.COGNIROB.INTER.pdf) LIST OF THEMES PROPOSED BY IIT-RBCS (of the 13 themes only 9 will be assigned to the 9 best applicants) 1. ASSESSMENT OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES TO ENHANCE RESIDUAL SENSORY ABILITIES (Contacts: luca.brayda(a)iit.it<mailto:luca.brayda@iit.it> , fabrizio.leo(a)iit.it<mailto:fabrizio.leo@iit.it> ) 2. SIMULTANEOUS MULTIMODAL FORCE AND MOTION ESTIMATION (Contacts: francesco.nori(a)iit.it<mailto:francesco.nori@iit.it> ) 3. FAST AND ROBUST WHOLE-BODY MOTION WITH VARIABLE STIFFNESS ACTUATORS (Contacts: francesco.nori(a)iit.i<mailto:francesco.nori@iit.i> t, luca.fiorio(a)iit.it<mailto:luca.fiorio@iit.it> ) 4. SECOND-PERSON MOTOR COGNITION: HANDS IN INTERACTION (Contacts: cristina.becchio(a)unito.it<mailto:cristina.becchio@unito.it> ) 5. NEURAL AND MOTOR BASES OF SOCIAL INTERACTION (Contacts: thierry.pozzo@iit<mailto:thierry.pozzo@iit> ; alberto.inuggi(a)ii.it<mailto:alberto.inuggi@ii.it> ; alessandro.dausilio(a)iit.it<mailto:alessandro.dausilio@iit.it> ) 6. MULTISENSORY INTEGRATION AND CROSS-MODAL COMMUNICATION (Contacts: monica.gori(a)iit.it<mailto:monica.gori@iit.it> ) 7. AUGMENTED SENSORIMOTOR INTERACTION Contacts: alessandro.dausilio(a)iit.it<mailto:alessandro.dausilio@iit.it> ; leonardo.badino(a)iit.it<mailto:leonardo.badino@iit.it> ; luciano.fadiga(a)iit.it<mailto:luciano.fadiga@iit.it> ) 8. MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION (Contact: alessandra.sciutti(a)iit.it<mailto:alessandra.sciutti@iit.it> ) 9. SPEAKING IN CONCERT (Contacts: leonardo.badino(a)iit.it<mailto:leonardo.badino@iit.it> , alessandro.dausilio(a)iit.it<mailto:alessandro.dausilio@iit.it> , luciano.fadiga(a)iit.it<mailto:luciano.fadiga@iit.it> ) 10. THE CONTROL AND REPRESENTATION OF ARTICULATED OBJECTS: INSIGHTS FROM ROBOTS (Contacts: gabriel.baud-bovy(a)iit.it<mailto:gabriel.baud-bovy@iit.it> , francesco.nori(a)iit.it<mailto:francesco.nori@iit.it> ) 11. CONTROL AND REPRESENTATION OF ARTICULATED OBJECTS: HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN SIGHTED AND BLIND ADULTS AND CHILDREN (Contacts: gabriel.baud-bovy(a)iit.it<mailto:gabriel.baud-bovy@iit.it> , monica.gori(a)iit.it<mailto:monica.gori@iit.it> ) 12. MODELING OF THE MECHANISMS UNDERLYING PROPRIOCEPTION FOR REHABILITATION (Contacts: valentina.squeri(a)iit.it<mailto:valentina.squeri@iit.it> , jacopo.zenzeri(a)iit.it<mailto:jacopo.zenzeri@iit.it> ) 13. DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORTING DATA SCIENCE IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ENVIRONMENT (Contacts: marco.jacono(a)iit.it<mailto:marco.jacono@iit.it> , elisa.molinari(a)iit.it<mailto:elisa.molinari@iit.it> , alessandro.bruchi(a)iit.it<mailto:alessandro.bruchi@iit.it> ) -- Prof. Giulio Sandini Director Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Via Morego, 30 - 16163 Genova Italy http://www.iit.it/rbcs

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PhD position, University of Genoa, Italy – "Multidimensional peripersonal space sensing"
by Silvio P. Sabatini May 20, 2015

May 20, 2015

Applications are invited for one full-time PhD studentship (with scholarship) for a period of 3 years, at the PSPC-lab of the Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics, and System Engineering (DIBRIS), University of Genoa, Italy. * RESEARCH THEME "Integration of motion-in-depth multi-sensory information flows in the peripersonal space". Description: While there is a growing evidence that the space immediately around the body (i.e., the peripersonal space) is coded in a distributed way across several coexisting reference frames, our knowledge of how different representations are aligned, adapt, and interact is still in its infancy. Where, when, and how does the brain implement the internal models underlying the sensorimotor transformations that guide both our actions and perceptions? Is the encoding of sensory information static, or does it change dynamically as the action unfolds? Looking for answers to these questions should help understanding how an agent should use sensing and proprioception-like signals dynamically to build sensorimotor representations of peripersonal space and self-calibrate. Within the research framework developed in the PSPC lab at DIBRIS, the goal of the project is to investigate how different cross-modal information can enable arm and hand-related actions in the peripersonal space. Specifically, the focus will be on the development of a neuromorphic cognitive system for detecting/encoding motion-in-depth multimodal information flows relative to body parts. The underlying models, besides advancing experimental predictions about neuronal activity, are expected to drive learning of meaningful interactions with the environment thus achieving fluid multi-dimensional motor control in the presence of multiple sensory channels, and with minimal a priori knowledge. Requirements: background in bioengineering, computer science, physics or related disciplines, strong interest in computational and theoretical neuroscience. The project will provide the opportunity to work on neural modeling, visual psychophysics, robotics, or a combination of them. Experimental, modeling, and theoretical approaches might be pursued with a different accent according to personal attitude. Ongoing cooperation, at international level, with research groups of different disciplines, will ensure a highly interdisciplinary and stimulating environment. The position will start on Nov 1st 2015. * HOW TO APPLY Candidates must have: - a University degree at Master level (or expect to obtain it by 31 October 2015) in Engineering, Computer Science, Physics or related disciplines - strong interest in computational neuroscience, and an open mind for interdisciplinary research. Online application is available till June 10, 2015 at 12.00 noon (Italian time). Full details on the call and the application procedure will soon be available at: http://www.studenti.unige.it/postlaurea/dottorati/XXXI/ENG/ and http://phd.dibris.unige.it/biorob/index.php/how-to-apply Applicants are strongly requested to contact me (silvio.sabatini(a)unige.it) providing CV and qualifications, and a description of the research interests. * WHERE DIBRIS is a unique inter-school department of the University of Genoa, bridging together researchers from the former Science and Engineering Faculties. It offers an excellent multidisciplinary, interactive and collaborative research environment combining expertise in computer vision, computational neuroscience, neuromorphic computing, robotics and mechatronics. PSPC-Lab (www.pspc.unige.it) has a long-standing expertise in visual coding and multidimensional signal representation, robot perception and computer vision. In the last five years, the lab’s research activity focused on the analysis of the structural mechanisms of visuo-spatial cognition, responsible for orienting and interacting in the 3D space. Regards, -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Silvio P. SABATINI, PhD [PSPC Research Group] Professor of Bioengineering DIBRIS - University of Genova | e_mail:silvio.sabatini@unige.it Via Opera Pia, 11A | phone: +39 010 3532092/3532794 I-16145 Genova (ITALY) | fax: +39 010 3532289/3536533 URL:http://pspc.unige.it --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Imagination is more important than knowledge..." [Albert Einstein]

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Post-doctoral position at the University of Pennsylvania
by Joshua Gold May 19, 2015

May 19, 2015

The Gold lab (http://www.med.upenn.edu/goldlab <http://www.med.upenn.edu/goldlab>) at the University of Pennsylvania is looking for an energetic and talented post-doc to participate in funded studies of learning and decision-making in non-human primates. The work will combine psychophysics, single-unit electrophysiology, and computational modeling. A strong background in systems neuroscience is preferred. Anyone interested should contact Joshua Gold directly via e-mail (jigold(a)mail.med.upenn.edu <mailto:jigold@mail.med.upenn.edu>). Please include a CV and cover letter stating your research experience and reasons for applying to this position. Also please be prepared to provide contact information for up to three references upon request. Penn has a rich and interactive environment for both systems and computational neuroscience, with journal clubs, lab meetings, retreats, and other joint activities, many of which are organized by our new Computational Neuroscience Initiative (CNI: http://cni.upenn.edu <http://cni.upenn.edu/>). We also value diversity and seek talented individuals from diverse backgrounds (http://jobs.hr.upenn.edu <http://jobs.hr.upenn.edu/>).

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Strasbourg workshop 7-9 December 2015
by Stephen Eglen May 19, 2015

May 19, 2015

---------------------------------------------------------------------- From Maps to Circuits: Models and Mechanisms for Generating Neural Connections http://maps2015.org 7-9 December 2015 Strasbourg, France Understanding the development of the nervous system is a key challenge that has been approached by both experimental and theoretical neuroscientists. In recent years there has been a gradual move towards the two groups working more with each other. The idea of this workshop is to bring key people together who have shown an interest at combining theoretical and experimental techniques to discuss current problems in neuronal development, and plan future collaborative efforts. Time at the end of each day will be devoted to a group discussion about questions that have been raised during the day to identify possible research directions and people willing to pursue them. This meeting follows on from our first meeting on this theme held in Edinburgh, July 2014 (details at http://maps2014.org) a special issue of Developmental Neurobiology was devoted to papers related to work presented at this meeting, see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dneu.v75.6/issuetoc Confirmed speakers Jianhua Cang (Northwestern University) Claudia Clopath (Imperial College London), Robert Datta (Harvard Medical School) Stephen Eglen (University of Cambridge) Marla Feller (University California Berkeley) Patricia Gaspar (École des Neurosciences de Paris) David Holcman (École Normale Supérieure Paris) Andrew Huberman (University California San Diego) Siegrid Löwel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) Christian Lohmann (Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience) Till Marquardt (European Neuroscience Institute, Göttingen) Filippo Rijli (Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel) Jennifer Rodger (University of Western Australia) Charles Stevens (Salk Institute) ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Bernstein Conference: Extended deadline for abstract submission
by Seeger, Simone May 19, 2015

May 19, 2015

***Deadline for abstract submission extended to May 29, 2015*** Call for Abstracts: Bernstein Conference 2015 ************************************************************** Satellite Workshops September 14, 2015 Main Conference September 15-17, 2015 ************************************************************** The Bernstein Conference has become the largest annual Computational Neuroscience Conference in Europe and now regularly attracts more than 500 international participants. This year, the Conference is organized by the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Heidelberg-Mannheim and will take place on September 15-17, 2015, in Heidelberg. In addition, there will be a series of pre-conference satellite workshops on September 14, 2015. The Bernstein Conference is a single-track conference, covering all aspects of Computational Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, and sessions for poster presentations are an integral part of the conference. We now invite the submission of abstracts for poster presentations from all relevant areas. Accepted abstracts will be published online and will be citable via Digital Object Identifiers (DOI). Additionally, a small number of abstracts will be selected for contributed talks. DETAILS FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: For abstract submission visit: http://www.nncn.de/de/bernstein-conference/2015/abstracts Please note that the submission of an abstract does not replace the conference registration! Conference registration is possible here<http://www.nncn.de/en/bernstein-conference/2015/registration>. Abstract submission deadline extended to May 29, 2015! CONFERENCE DETAILS: Venue: Satellite Workshops and Main Conference, "Neue Universität", Grabengasse 3-5 ("Universitätsplatz"), 69117 Heidelberg, Germany Registration: Conference Registration started on April 27, 2015 Early registration deadline: July 24, 2015 For registration and for more information on the conference, please visit the website: http://www.bernstein-conference.de PUBLIC PHD STUDENT EVENT: September 17-18, 2015 PUBLIC LECTURE: September 15, 2015 FOR THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Peter Bastian We look forward to seeing you in Heidelberg in September! *** Simone Seeger, M.A. Administration Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit Postfach 12 21 20, 68072 Mannheim J5, 68159 Mannheim Telefon: 0621/1703-1326 oder 06221/54-8310 Fax: 0621/1703-2915 E-Mail: Simone.Seeger(a)zi-mannheim.de<mailto:Simone.Seeger@zi-mannheim.de> Internet: http://www.bccn-heidelberg-mannheim.de<http://www.bccn-heidelberg-mannheim.de/>

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[WI-IAT 2015] Final extension of IAT'15 Paper Submission Deadline to Sunday, 31st May.
by Teng Teck Hou May 19, 2015

May 19, 2015

[Apologies if you receive this more than once] ####################################################################### FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS 2015 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT'15) Big Data in Global Brain and Social Networks December 6-9, 2015 / Singapore Homepage: http://wi-iat15.ntulily.org Sponsored By: IEEE Computer Society Web Intelligence Consortium (WIC) Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Memetic Computing Society (MC) (EXTENDED FULL PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE: *** May 31, 2015 ***) ####################################################################### ++++++++++++++++ KEYNOTE SPEAKERS ++++++++++++++++ * Joseph Sifakis (Turing Award 2007) Professor at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) Director, Centre de Recherche Integrative (CRI) in Grenoble, France * Francis Heylighen Director, Global Brain Institute Professor at Free University of Brussels, Belgium * Steven E. Koonin Director, Center for Urban Science and Progress New York University, USA * Gee-Wah Ng Programme Director, DSO National Laboratories, Singapore * Sarit Kraus (AAAI, ECCAI and ACM Fellow) Professor of Computer Science, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland, USA * Dominik Slezak Professor at University of Warsaw, Poland Chief Scientist, Infobright Inc. The 2015 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT'15) will be held in Singapore on December 6-9, 2015, hosted by the Joint NTU-UBC Research Centre of Excellence in Active Living for the Elderly (LILY) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Living Analytics Research Centre at Singapore Management University (SMU). Co-located with the 2015 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI'15), IAT'15 is sponsored by IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Intelligent Informatics (TCII), Web Intelligence Consortium (WIC), ACM-SIGAI, and Memetic Computing Society. IAT'15 will feature special thematic workshops, technical sessions, tutorials and panels. Conference programme will further include a welcome reception, keynotes, demos, poster sessions, and a banquet. Attendees only need one registration to attend all technical events. TOPICS AND AREAS (INCLUDE, BUT NOT LIMITED TO) * Autonomy-Oriented Computing * Agent and Multi-Agent Systems Engineering * Agent and Multi-Agent Systems Modeling * Knowledge and Information Agents * Autonomous Auction and Negotiation * Distributed Problem Solving * Cooperation & Coordination * Agent Systems Applications ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PAPER SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ IAT'15 solicits original work submitted as a regular paper (limited to 8 pages) or as short paper (limited to 4 pages) in IEEE 2-column format. Each paper will be peer-reviewed by at least three PC members on the basis of technical quality, relevance, originality, significance and clarity. Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings by the IEEE Computer Society Press and indexed by EI. Selected IAT'15 papers will be further invited for expansion and publication in Web Intelligence and Agent Systems and other international Journals. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ CALL FOR TUTORIALS/PANELS +++++++++++++++++++++++++ IAT'15 solicits proposals for tutorials and panels on specific topics of interests, which will form an integral part of the conference program. Inquiries and submission of proposals should be addressed to the respective chairs. ++++++ AWARDS ++++++ Best Paper awards will be conferred at the conference on the authors of (1) the best research paper, (2) the best student paper. Application-oriented submissions will be considered for the best application paper award. +++++++++++++++ IMPORTANT DATES +++++++++++++++ Electronic Submission of Regular/Special Session Papers *** May 31, 2015 *** Tutorial Proposal Submission June 1, 2015 Workshop Paper Submission June 1, 2015 Demos and Posters Submission July 1, 2015 Notification on Conference Paper Acceptance *** July 15, 2015 *** Notification on Workshop Paper Acceptance July 15, 2015 Notification on Demo and Poster Acceptance August 1, 2015 ++++++++++++++++++++ ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ++++++++++++++++++++ General Chairs * Ah-Hwee Tan, Singapore * Yuefeng Li, Australia Program Chair * Ee-Peng Lim, Singapore Program Vice-Chairs * Atsuhiro Takasu, Japan * Hoong-Chuin Lau, Singapore * Chunyan Miao, Singapore IAT Technical PC Chairs * Sarvapali Ramchurn, UK * Anita Raja, USA * Bo An, Singapore Local Organizing Chair * Meng-Hiot Lim, Singapore * Sufen Cheong, Singapore * Di Wang, Singapore Finance Chair and CyberChair-Master * Juzhen Dong, Japan Industry and Sponsorship Chairs * Xiaoli Li, Singapore * Richi Nayak, Australia * Saurav Karmakar, India Workshop Chairs * Bryan Kian-Hsiang Low, Singapore * Einoshin Suzuki, Japan * Jason Watson, Australia Tutorial Chairs * Pradeep Reddy Varakantham, Singapore * Yue Xu, Australia Demo/Poster Chair * Zhiqi Shen, Singapore * Yiqiang Chen, China Publicity Chairs * Xiaohui Tao, Australia * Teck-Hou Teng, Singapore Panel Chairs * Hady Lauw, Singapore * Neil Yorke-Smith, Lebanon Award Chairs * Ee-Peng Lim, Singapore * Raj Sunderraman, USA Webmaster * Jun Lin, Singapore * Yilin Kang, Singapore

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NEURON course registration deadline is May 29!
by Ted Carnevale May 18, 2015

May 18, 2015

Massive apologies for my previous erroneous email! The registration deadline for "NEURON Fundamentals" is Friday, _May_ 29. A few seats do remain open, so if you are interested see http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/static/courses/nscsd2015/nscsd2015.html --Ted

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TOP 10 illusions of 2015
by Susana Martinez-Conde May 18, 2015

May 18, 2015

The Best Illusion of the Year Contest <http://illusionoftheyear.com/> is happy to announce the TOP TEN illusions of 2015! The Best Illusion of the Year Contest is now an annual online event, in which anybody with an internet connection can participate! No matter where you live, you will be able to vote for the TOP THREE winners from the current TOP TEN list! Worldwide voting will take place in June - stay tuned for further information about the voting date and instructions! All TOP TEN finalists will receive a commemorative plaque. In addition, the TOP THREE winners will receive a $3,000 award for first place; a $2,000 award for second place, and a $1,000 award for third place. 2015 TOP TEN ILLUSION CONTESTANTS (alphabetical order by first author): Masashi Atarashi: "Snow Blind Illusion". Physics teacher at Aichi Prefectural Gojo Senior High School (Japan) Luke Bashford and Carsten Mehring: "The third hand illusion". Bernstein Center Freiburg, University of Freiburg (Germany) Marco Bertamini and Nicola Bruno: "The Honeycomb Illusion". University of Liverpool (UK) Christopher Blair, Lars Strother, and Gideon Caplovitz: "The Wandering Circles". University of Nevada, Reno (USA) Nicolas Davidenko: "Motion Pareidolia". University of California, Santa Cruz (USA) Rosa Lafer-Sousa: "Disambiguating #theDress". Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) Michael Pickard: "The Day it Rained on Lowry". VisuallyDirectedDesign.com (UK) Arthur Shapiro: "The Star Wars Scroll Illusion". American University (USA) Kokichi Sugihara" "Ambiguous Garage Roof". Meiji University (Japan) Mark Vergeer: "Splitting Colors". KU Leuven (Belgium) On behalf of the Executive Board of the Neural Correlate Society: Jose-Manuel Alonso, Stephen Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, Luis Martinez, Xoana Troncoso, Peter Tse The Neural Correlate Society is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 non-profit organization, whose mission is to promote the public awareness of neuroscience research. ----------------------------------- Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology & Pharmacology Director, Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience Scholar, Empire Innovator Program State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center 450 Clarkson Ave, Brooklyn NY 11203, USA Email: smart(a)neuralcorrelate.com <mailto:smart@neuralcorrelate.com> Phone: +1 718-270-4520 http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com <http://smc.neuralcorrelate.com/>

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Theory-Experiment postdoctoral position in Paris with Shihab Shamma and Srdjan Ostojic
by Chait, Maria May 18, 2015

May 18, 2015

====================== Theory-Experiment postdoctoral position in Paris with Shihab Shamma and Srdjan Ostojic A theory-experiment postdoctoral position is available at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, on a collaborative project between the Shamma and Ostojic labs. The aim of the project is to investigate the neural bases of auditory discrimination in awake behaving ferrets by combining computational modeling, data-analysis and experimental recordings. The successful applicant will be based at the Group for Neural Theory, a highly interactive and dynamic environment situated in central Paris (see http://iec-lnc.ens.fr/group-for-neural-theory/) The Shamma lab is located right next doors (http://www.iec-lsp.ens.fr/spip.php?rubrique30) The ideal candidate would be a computational neuroscientist with strong interest in experimental neuroscience, or the other way round. Starting dates are flexible. The position is for two years. Candidates should send a letter of motivation (2 pages max), the contact information of 2 to 3 referees and their CVs to srdjan.ostojic at ens.fr * Maria Chait PhD m.chait(a)ucl.ac.uk Reader in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience Lab site: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ear/research/chaitlab/ UCL Ear Institute 332 Gray's Inn Road London WC1X 8EE

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5th Bernstein Sparks Workshop in Tübingen
by Stefanie Wanner May 18, 2015

May 18, 2015

Dear all, I would like to draw your attention to the upcoming… *********************************************************************************************************************************** *5th Bernstein Sparks Workshop: Neural models of decision making in natural inference tasks - from theory to experiment* *********************************************************************************************************************************** taking place in *Tübingen, June 11-12, 2015.* Abstract submission and registration deadline: *May 20, 2015 *(first come, first serve) Please find further information under the following link: http://www.bccn-tuebingen.de/events/5th-bernstein-sparks-workshop-2015.html Best, Stefanie Wanner -- Stefanie Wanner Executive Coordinator Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Tübingen Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics http://www.bccn-tuebingen.de/about-bccn/contact.html Otfried-Müller-Str. 25, 72076 Tübingen Tel: +49 7071 29 89019 Fax: +49 7071 29 25015

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PhD Scholarship on Computational Methods for Brain Connectivity Analysis
by Paolo Avesani May 18, 2015

May 18, 2015

PHD SCHOLARSHIP ON COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR BRAIN CONNECTIVITY ANALYSIS The Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI) at the University of Trento and its research partners Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), will invite applications for an open PhD position covered by scholarship in the area of "Computational Methods for Brain Connectivity Analysis". The deadline for applications is May 27, 2015, before 14:00, CET. The PhD aims at carrying out research activity on machine learning methodologies for brain connectivity data analysis. The main goal is to design and to deploy machine learning algorithms for open challenges such as the detection of the main structural and functional pathways of the brain, the characterisation of the differences with respect to altered brain connections, the inter-individuals analysis of brain connectivity structures. The PhD grant is jointly supported by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). The research activity will take place at the Neuroinformatics Laboratory (NILab) and the Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision Laboratory (PAVIS). NILab is an interdisciplinary laboratory raised as joint initiative between the Centre for Information Technology of FBK and the Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences of University of Trento (CIMeC). The University of Trento ranks 1st among the Italian Universities in the rankings of Times Higher Education and CIMeC ranks 1st for quality of research in the ranking of the Italian National for the Evaluation of Universities and Research (ANVUR). CIMeC has 6 ERC starting grants and 1 advanced grant. Trento ranks 1st in the annual survey on quality of life in Italian cities conducted by daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Details on the PhD School and a link to the online application are provided below. If you are interested, you may contact us in advance at the following address: info.nilab(a)fbk.eu . Links - PhD School: http://ict.unitn.it - FBK: http://www.fbk.eu - CIMeC: http://www.cimec.unitn.it - NILab: http://nilab.fbk.eu - PAVIS: http://iit.it/pavis

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Call for TYPE-II papers - Brain Informatics and Health (BIH'15)
by Yi Zeng May 18, 2015

May 18, 2015

[Apologies for cross-postings] Call for TYPE-II papers (Abstract Submissions) Submission Deadline: June 16, 2015 ************************************************************* 2015 International Conference on Brain Informatics and Health (BIH'15) Venue: Imperial College London, London, UK, Time: Aug 30-Sep 2, 2015 www.braininformatics.london Submission Deadline: June 16, 2015 ************************************************************* Conference Theme: Brain informatics has emerged as a distinct field of research. It crosses the disciplines of neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, signal processing, and neuroimaging technologies. The data driven nature of brain research made brain informatics an important field of data science. Following the success of past conferences in this series, BIH'15 will take place at Imperial College London, in UK. For the first time, BIH gathers the researchers from major international brain research projects to form a forum for reviewing the progress of brain informatics research and its applications to human health and building up international collaboration. The conference will also organise an exhibition from industrial and research community. BIH'15 draws special attention to informatics for brain science, human behaviour and health. BIH'15 will address informatics approaches to both the brain and behaviour research with a strong emphasis on emerging trends of big data analysis and management technology for brain research, behaviour learning, and real-world applications of brain science in human health and wellbeing. The distinguished speakers include: Keynote Speakers ---------------- Allan Jones, CEO, Allen Institute for Brain Science, USA; Henry Markram, Director, Blue Brain Project; Coordinator, Human Brain Project, EPFL, Switzerland; David Van Essen, PI, Human Connectome Project, Washington University School of Medicine, USA; Feature Speakers ---------------- Giorgio Ascoli, (Founding Director, Center for Neural Informatics, George Mason University, USA); Henry Kennedy, (Director of Research, Stem-cell and Brain Research Institute, France); Barbara Sahakian, (University of Cambridge, UK); Nelson Spruston, (Scientific Program Director, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), USA); Paul Verschure, (Director, the Lab of SPECS at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Spain); BIH'15 welcomes paper submissions (full paper and abstract submissions). Both research and application papers are solicited. All submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance and clarity. Accepted full papers will be included in the proceedings by Springer LNCS/LNAI. Tutorial, Satellite symposium (workshop) and Special-Session proposals and Industry/Demo-Track papers are also welcome. ================================= PAPER SUBMISSIONS & PUBLICATIONS: TYPE-II (Abstract Submissions; Submission Deadline: June 16, 2015): Each abstract is limited to 500 words. Experimental research is particularly welcome. Accepted abstract submissions will be included in the conference program, and will be published as a single, collective proceedings volume. Title: Include in the title of the abstract all words critical for a subject index. Write your title in sentence case (first letter is capitalized; remaining letters are lower case). Do not bold or italicize your full title. Author: List all authors who contributed to the work discussed in the abstract. The presenting author must be listed in the first author slot of the list. Be prepared to submit contact information as well as conflict of interest information for each author listed. Abstract: Enter the body of the abstract. Do not re-enter the title, author, support, or other information that is collected in other steps of the submission form. Presentation Preference: Authors may select from three presentation formats when submitting an abstract: "poster only,”, “talk preferred" or "no preference." The “talk preferred" selection indicates that you would like to give a talk, but will accept a poster format if necessary. Marking "poster only" indicates that you would not like to be considered for an oral-presentation session. Selecting "no preference" indicates the author's willingness to be placed in the best format for the program. Each paper or abstract requires one sponsoring attendee (i.e. someone who registered and is attending the conference). A single attendee can not sponsor more than two abstracts or papers. Oral presentations will be selected from both full length papers and abstracts. *** Post-Conference Journal Publication *** Selected submissions will be considered for publication in special issues of international journals after their papers are extended to a full-length paper and pass a review process. More information can be found athttp://www.bih-amt.com/publications/ *** Topics and Areas *** Please find the topics and areas of interest of the 2015 International Conference on Brain Informatics and Health (BIH'15) athttp://www.bih-amt.com/call-for-papers/topics/ *** AMT'15 Session *** The advance of wearable sensor technology makes the monitoring of human behavior and life style becomes feasible. This development gives the active media technology a new dimension which is more closely related to the healthcare and cognitive studies. Following the success of past conferences in this series, AMT'15 will be jointly held with BIH’15 as a special session. *** Contact Information *** Chao Wu, Imperial College London, UK<c.wu09(a)imperial.ac.uk> Aldo Faisal, Imperial College London, UK<a.faisal(a)imperial.ac.uk> Conference Organisation: General Chairs: Karl Friston, (Scientific Director, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, UK) Yike Guo, (Director of Data Science Institute, Imperial College London, UK) Program Chairs: Aldo Faisal, Imperial College London & MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, UK Sean Hill, EPFL, Switzerland Hanchuan Peng, Allen Institute for Brain Science, USA Workshop/Special-Session Chairs: Andreas Holzinger, Medical University Graz & Graz University of Technology, Austria Zhisheng Huang, Vrije University of Amsterdam, Netherlands David Powers, Flinders University of South Australia, Australia Publicity Chairs: Jessica Turner, Georgia State University, USA; Juan D. Velasquez, University of Chile, Chile Yi Zeng, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Local Organizing Chairs: Thomas Heinis, Imperial College London, UK Kai Sun, Imperial College London, UK Chao Wu, Imperial College London, UK Exhibition/Sponsorship Chair: Caroline Li, University of Kent, UK Steering Committee Co-Chairs: Ning Zhong, Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan Jiming Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

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LASCON 2016 - VI Latin American School on Computational Neuroscience (Call for applications)
by Antonio C. Roque May 14, 2015

May 14, 2015

**** Apologies for cross-posting **** VI Latin American School on Computational Neuroscience - LASCON 2016 January 3 - 29, 2016, Sao Paulo, Brazil http://sisne.org/lascon APPLICATION DEADLINE: September 6 2015 FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT Dear Colleagues, Following the success of the previous editions of LASCON (Latin American School on Computational Neuroscience), I am pleased to announce the 6th LASCON, which will take place between January 3 - 29 2016 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. LASCON aims at introducing young researchers and graduate and advanced undergraduate students to the use of computational and mathematical methods for modeling neurons and neural networks. These models will be taught via a combination of theoretical lectures and hands-on tutorials with the use of the programs like neuroConstruct, NEURON, NEST, Brian, the Virtual Brain and Matlab. Students will have to work on small research projects (to be done in groups of two), which they will present orally at the end of the school. The following lecturers will be in charge of theoretical classes and tutorials: Arnd Roth, University College, London, UK Benjamin Lindner, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany Boris Marin, University College, London, UK Christophe Pouzat, Universite Paris Descartes, Paris, France Demian Battaglia, Aix-Marseille Universite, Marseille, France German Mato, Centro Atomico Bariloche, San Carlos de Bariloche, RN, Argentina Hannah Bos, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Juelich, Germany Jannis Schuecker, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Juelich, Germany John Murray, New York University, New York, NY, USA Marco Huertas, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX, USA Sam Neymotin, State University of New York, New York, NY, USA Volker Steuber, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK William Lytton, State University of New York, New York, NY, USA There will also be some invited lectures. The current list of invited lecturers is: Andre Kohn, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Antonio Galves, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Cesar Renno-Costa, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil Hilda Cerdeira, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Julian Tejada, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Aracaju, SE, Brazil Leonardo Maia, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Carlos, SC, Brazil Marco Idiart, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil Marcelo Reyes, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo Andre, SP, Brazil Mauro Copelli, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, The number of students is limited to 20 and applications should be made electronically via the application form in the school's web page ( http://sisne.org/?page_id=253&lang=en) Applicants are also requested to submit a detailed CV (in English) and to provide two letters of recommendation. The application deadline is September 6 2015 (until midnight, US Pacific time). There is no registration fee for the school. Costs for accommodation will be covered by the school organization. Travel costs have to be covered by the students. Sao Paulo is the major transportation hub in South America, so it is possible to fly from basically anywhere in the world to it. In the selection procedure, priority will be given to Latin-American students, but students from other parts of the world are encouraged to apply as well. LASCON 2016 is an activity of the FAPESP Center for Neuromathematics (NeuroMat -http://neuromat.numec.prp.usp.br) and is jointly organized by the University of Sao Paulo and the Federal University of ABC. I am looking forward to see you in Sao Paulo. Best regards, A. Roque LASCON Director -- Dr. Antonio C. Roque Professor Associado Departamento de Fisica FFCLRP, Universidade de Sao Paulo 14040-901 Ribeirao Preto-SP Brazil - Brasil E-mails: antonior(a)ffclrp.usp.br aroquesilva(a)gmail.com URL: www.sisne.org Tels: +55 16 3315-3768 (sala/office); +55 16 3315-3859 (lab) FAX: +55 16 3315-4887

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Scientist I - Network Analysis Position
by Stefan Mihalas May 13, 2015

May 13, 2015

Dear Colleague, The Allen Institute for Brain Science is embarking on a multiyear project to study neural computation and coding in the mouse cortex. We presently have an opening for a scientist to study structural connectivity of the mouse brain as well as its relation to cell types and mesoscopic measurements of neural activity. For more information or to apply please visit: http://alleninstitute.hrmdirect.com/employment/job-opening.php?req=251378&&… Sincerely, Stefan Mihalas Assistant Investigator T: 206.548.7192 M: 626.376.2414 [cid:image001.png@01D08D7F.230445F0] www.alleninstitute.org<http://www.alleninstitute.org/> Scientist I - Network Analysis This computational neuroscientist will study the organization of structural connectivity networks of the mouse brain. The primary project will focus on network analysis of structural connectivity data, including Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas. Additional projects will focus on the relation between the structural connectivity and measurements in different modalities. These may include comparisons with cell type characterizations and mesoscopic measurements of neural activity in behaving mice, with the long term goal of uncovering structure-function relation of cortical circuits. RESPONSIBILITES Perform graph theoretical analyses of mouse connectome data for detailed and specific descriptions of network architecture (e.g. hubs, modules, rich club organization) Perform analyses using mouse connectome data to classify connectivity patterns and characterize anatomical rules of cortico-cortical connectivity in mouse brain. Compare organization of mouse cortex with hierarchies described in other species. Perform comparative analyses, computing statistical differences between connectivity data and network architecture collected using different methods, different ages, or in disease models. Compare the connectivity patterns of similar cell types in different structures. Analyze the relation between structural connectivity and other mesocopic brain-wide measurements. Publish/present findings in peer-reviewed journals/scientific conferences. Present a periodic summary of progress to the research community within the organization. QUALIFICATIONS Ph.D. in applied mathematics, computational neuroscience or a related field. Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail. Ability to meet aggressive timelines in a collaborative environment. Strong verbal and written communication skills. Ability to work independently and as a part of a team. Strong publication record.

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Post-doc at Edinburgh
by Matthias Hennig May 13, 2015

May 13, 2015

Dear all We have a vacancy for post-doctoral research on machine learning models applied to neural data. The post is suited to applicants with a machine learning/computational statistics background and an interest in biological applications of statistical modelling. The project is an EPSRC award to develop statistical modelling methodologies for high density neural multi-electrode arrays (HD-MEAs). We will use recordings from a 4,096 channel array to get new insights on the interactions in large populations of neurons. It is led by Guido Sanguinetti and Matthias Hennig. Please get in touch with us for further information and informal inquiries; closing date is 08 June 2015. Details: https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobs… Best, Matthias -- Matthias H Hennig http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mhennig/ The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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Multiple open engineering positions in the open-source 3D printed Poppy Robotics project applied to education, at Inria Flowers Lab (Bordeaux, France)
by Pierre-Yves Oudeyer May 13, 2015

May 13, 2015

[Call for application] Multiple open engineering positions in the open-source 3D printed Poppy Robotics project applied to education, at Inria Flowers Lab (Bordeaux, France) Poppy is an open-source platform for the creation, use and sharing of interactive 3D printed robots. It addresses both beginners and experts in the fields of education, science, art, more generally makers. The Poppy platform is based on robust, flexible, easy-to-use and reproduce hardware and software. In particular, the use of 3D printing and rapid prototyping technologies is a central aspect of this project, and makes it easy and fast not only to reproduce the platform, but also to explore morphological variants. The platform, designed at Flowers robotics Lab at Inria and Ensta (France), allows creation and modification of robots of various morphologies, in particular humanoid robot morphologies such as for the robots Poppy Humanoid and Poppy Torso. The platform is also used to create simpler robots with variable morphologies, such as the Poppy Ergo robots, which aim to be at the same time reconfigurable, and easy to construct, plug and play. Web: http://www.poppy-project.org Forum: https://forum.poppy-project.org/categories (600 registered members) Inria Flowers Lab, Bordeaux, France: https://flowers.inria.fr Inria Flowers lab at Inria is now searching for excellent and highly motivated engineers to join the project and develop it towards educational applications, in the context of the project Poppy Education jointly funded by Inria, Région Aquitaine, and European Feder funds. The project Poppy Education targets the application of the Poppy platform to the world of education, both within schools/universities and outside school in networks of FabLabs. As detailed below, we have open positions in software development, web development, as well as design and experimentation of educational content/pedagogical kits, with Scratch-like visual programming tools. Poppy will constitute a major innovative pedagogical platform allowing to cultivate the understanding and creativity of students (and the wider public) to catch up with the current revolution of 3D printing and its integration with computer science, electronics and integrated design methodologies that are now thriving in industry. Within Poppy Education, both the platform, pedagogical content and its use cases will be developed in constant interaction with its end users within schools, universities, FabLabs and other structures acting to educate the wide public to science and technology, within an open-source methodology. Several open positions, described below, are available and will be located within Inria Flowers Lab in Bordeaux, France. Inria Flowers Lab is internationally reknown for its contribution to developmental robotics, on topics such as curiosity-driven learning in robots, imitation learning, robot acquisition of language, cognitive modelling, and applications to education and assistance. Inria: Public science and technology institution established in 1967, Inria is the only public research body fully dedicated to computational sciences. Combining computer sciences with mathematics, Inria’s 3,449 researchers strive to invent the digital technologies of the future. Educated at leading international universities, they creatively integrate basic research with applied research and dedicate themselves to solving real problems, collaborating with the main players in public and private research in France and abroad and transferring the fruits of their work to innovative companies. The researchers at Inria published over 4,500 articles in 2013. They are behind over 270 active patents and 110 start-ups. In 2013, Inria’s budget came to 235 million euros, 25% of which represented its own resources. Flowers Lab is located at the Inria Bordeaux site: http://www.inria.fr/en/centre/bordeaux/overview/discover-our-centre How to apply: send an email with your CV AND letter of motivation to poppy-jobs(a)inria.fr indicating the CODE of the mission for which you apply (see codes below). Detailed information and documents on projects realized by candidates will be appreciated. Code: Poppy Education 1 Job title: Engineer in software development for integrated development platform Experience: up to 8 years after engineering diploma (plutôt 2 à 8 ans d'experience ? je suis pas sûr qu'on veuille un IJD) Duration: 12 to 24 months Mission Develop and integrate software programming tools that allow users in education to discover and learn programming and robotics Job description: Extend and maintain the pypot python programming library (https://github.com/poppy-project/pypot) Extend and maintain the integration of pypot with Ipython and Jupyter Extend and maintain the integration of programming tools with physical Poppy robots and a simulator Develop installation tools allowing rapid "one-click" installation of programming tools on several platforms including Raspberry Pi, Windows, Mac Os, Linux Document developped tools Participate to animating the users community, both online through the forum and web site and through participating to live educational robotics events Candidate profile: Extended python programming experience Experience in embedded programming (e.g. Rasberry Pi, Arduino, Embedded Linux) Rich programming skills including javascript, C++ Multiplatform software installers technologies (Windows/MacOS/Linux) Experience of programming robots User-centered methodology for code development Experience in open-source projects Strong experience with versionning tool (Git) Excellent programming practices Code: Poppy Education 2 Job title: Engineer in web software technologies Experience: Up to 2 years after engineering diploma Duration: 12 to 24 months Mission Integration and development of web software technologies for the Poppy web sites Job description: Develop Wordpress plugins for http://www.poppy-project.org Develop plugins and personalization of Discourse-based Poppy forum: https://forum.poppy-project.org Integrate a wiki technology for Poppy Documentation Unify graphical design of web sites Setup maintainance methods for Poppy web sites (including update of supporting softwares) Document developped tools Daily update of web site content and animation of the community in the forum Candidate profile: Excellent javascript skills Experience in developping plugins for Wordpress Experience in web design and web site development Experience in open-source projects Strong experience with versionning tool (Git) Excellent programming practices Code: Poppy Education 3 Job title: Engineer in software development for web-based applications Experience: Up to 2 years after engineering diploma (+0 to +2 experience) Duration: 12 to 24 months Mission Develop web applications for educational robotics Job description: Develop web applications allowing the configuration of robots and checking the state of motors, sensors and electronics (accessible from browsers on computers and tablets) Extend and maintain a REST API for the pypot python programming library Develop a web applications allowing basic control of Poppy robots (launching behaviours, teleguiding robots) Extend and develop visual programming tools based on Snap! language (including developping extensions to Snap!) Develop compatibility with Scratch programming language Develop an app store allowing easy community sharing of programs written in python or visual programming languages Participate to animating the users community, both online through the forum and web site and through participating to live educational robotics events Candidate profile: Excellent programming skills in javascript and python Experience in web app architecture design Experience in interface design and user-centered methodology Experience in web communication technologies and APIs Experience in responsive and mobile friendly web design Strong experience with versionning tool (Git) Excellent programming practices Code: Poppy Education 4 Job title: Engineer for pedagogical design and experimentation of educational activities in robotics Experience: up to 8 years after engineering/university diploma (pareil +2, autant pas avoir un IJD) Duration: 12 to 24 months Mission Design, experiment and disseminate educational activities based on the Poppy robotic platform Job description: Analyze the educational needs of several populations of users (high-school students, university students, FafLab members, ...) Design pedagogical sequences and scenarios of activities targeted to different populations of students, based on visual programming and python programming tools Initiate contacts with users for experimentation Evaluate pedagogical activities in real contexts of use (in schools, universities and FabLabs) Produce integrated polished multimedia documents embedding "ready to use" pedagogical content Produce multimedia content to publicize educational uses of the platform Participate to events to promote educational uses of the platform Candidate profile: Experience in teaching computer science and technology Experience in user-centered methodologies Experience in python programming language (or other scripting languages) Familiarity with Scratch like visual, drag-and-drop programming language Interest in interdiciplinary collaborations (education, science, art, makers) Creative thinking to design motivating learning scenarios Code: Poppy Education 5 Job title: Engineer for coordination of pedagocial activities and events in Poppy Project Experience: senior level pedagogical expert Mission Coordinate the design and dissemination of pedagogical activitives, organization of educational dissemination events Job description: Build a focus group of pedagogical experts to design the specification of educational robotics activities Build a network of educational partner institutions to welcome experimentation of educational activities Coordinate the organization of experimentation and dissemination of pedagogical activities Design pedagogical sequences and scenarios of activities targeted to different populations of students, based on visual programming and python programming tools Candidate profile: Extended experience of teaching with/about digital technologies/ICT Extended experience of collaboration with educational institutions Experience in designing pedagocical content for various age ranges Knowledge of French education programs at high-school levels Pierre-Yves Oudeyer Research director, Inria Head of Flowers Laboratory Inria and Ensta Paris-Tech http://www.pyoudeyer.com https://flowers.inria.fr

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International Brain Connectivity Workshop, June 10-12, 2015 - last call
by Scott Makeig May 13, 2015

May 13, 2015

*14th International Workshop on Brain Connectivity* The international Workshop on Brain Connectivity (WBC), to be held at the University of California San Diego (June 10-12, 2015), will focus for the first time primarily on the role of electrophysiological data in understanding the fine temporal scale underlying brain network dynamics as well as the mechanisms by which emergent dynamics originate from multi-scale interactions between brain areas, brain activity frequencies and timescales, and between brain activity and behavior. This focus reflects the growing realization that to understand how the brain supports behavior and experience requires imaging of distributed brain activity with fine temporal resolution. The first day of the Workshop will be dedicated to lectures, followed by two days of half-day workshop sessions. The WBC will bring together leading investigators in the fields of neuroimaging, cognitive and computational neuroscience to discuss current and forthcoming challenges for brain connectivity research based on electrophysiological data. Speakers include Klaas Stephen (Zurich), Carsten Wolters (Muenster), Eugene Izhekevich (San Diego), Stephan Kiebel (Leipzig), Matias Palva (Helsinki), Alain Destexhe (France), Charles Schroeder (Columbia U), Ryan Canolty (U Houston), Stefan Haufe (New York), M. Muthuram (Germany), Kathleen Poston (Stanford) and others. Its goals are to stimulate research students and scientists from diverse backgrounds for research in topics related to electrophysiology and brain connectivity, to promote larger international collaborations in these fields, and to inform the neuroscience community about emerging methods, and comprehensive theory and models for brain connectivity analysis, in particular from electrophysiological recordings. - for the organizers, Scott Makeig, Swartz Center, UCSD Registration (USD) Postdocs, Academics, Others 400 Students (Graduate and Undergraduate) 260 For more information and registration, visit *http://sccn.ucsd.edu/BrainConnectivityWorkshop2015 <http://sccn.ucsd.edu/BrainConnectivityWorkshop2015>* -- Scott Makeig, Research Scientist and Director, Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0961, http://sccn.ucsd.edu/~scott -- Scott Makeig, Research Scientist and Director, Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0961, http://sccn.ucsd.edu/~scott -- Scott Makeig, Research Scientist and Director, Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0961, http://sccn.ucsd.edu/~scott -- Scott Makeig, Research Scientist and Director, Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0961, http://sccn.ucsd.edu/~scott

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[journals] CFP: IEEE ToH Issue on Active Touch Sensing
by yon May 13, 2015

May 13, 2015

A reminder of the June 1 deadline for the forthcoming special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Haptics on “Active Touch Sensing in Robots, Humans, and Other Animals". We hope you will consider contributing. Please share this announcement with your colleagues. Thank you! Yon Visell Call for Papers IEEE Transactions on Haptics Special Issue on Active Touch Sensing in Robots, Humans, and Other Animals Submission deadline (EXTENDED): June 1 2015 First decision to authors: August 1 2015 Complete Details: http://re-touch-lab.com/ieee-toh-issue <http://re-touch-lab.com/ieee-toh-issue> Guest Editors: Yon Visell, Drexel University Vincent Hayward, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Mitra Hartmann, Northwestern University Nathan Lepora, University of Bristol Topical Summary: This special issue addresses the challenges posed by actively sensing and interacting with the world through the sense of touch, whether the latter is implemented through a technological or biological system. Active touch sensing is recovering information about the world by ‘touching’ rather than ‘being touched’ – by interpreting signals from sensors whose motion is deliberately controlled to facilitate information gain. The scope of this issue includes both biological and technological systems for active touch sensing, and implications for haptics. This issue will consider electronic systems for active touch sensing that are biologically inspired systems, in addition to other inherently active approaches to touch sensing. Biological systems for active touch sensing are highly capable, and, by comparison, the field of robotic touch sensing is in its infancy. The former demonstrate many valuable concepts for active touch sensing that are being intensively investigated. They have also illustrated ways that active touch sensing is enabled through specialized sensory transduction channels, biomechanics, structural morphology, behavioral, and control strategies that are implemented by biological systems, and through other advantages that they achieve, including robustness, adaptability, and power efficiency. Similar challenges must be overcome if technological systems are to one day achieve comparable levels of sensorimotor performance to biological systems. Specific topics of interest include: - The design of electronic or biological systems for active touch sensing, their principles of operation (electronic, biological, mechanical) and performance. - Biomechanical aspects of active touch sensing. - Relations between active touch sensing and behavior, especially motor activity. - Sensory information processing and sensorimotor control strategies in humans, animals, or robots related to active touch sensing, including behavioral, physiological or neuroscience investigations, and neural control. - Learning by active touch. - Applications to the design of haptic interfaces. Authors should specifically include a discussion of how their results shed light on fundamental aspects of active touch sensing rather than assuming that this can be inferred from context. Submission process: Visit http://www.computer.org/toh <http://www.computer.org/toh> to view formatting requirements, and submit your paper at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/th-cs <https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/th-cs>. When uploading your paper please select the appropriate special issue title under the category “Manuscript Type.” Further detail: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6901353 <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6901353> _________________________________________________________ Yon Visell, PhD Assistant Professor Drexel University | Electrical and Computer Engineering Philadelphia, USA www.re-touch-lab.com <http://www.re-touch-lab.com/> Office: +1 215 571 4507 Mobile: +1 267 800 8960 _________________________________________________________

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