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2nd Call for Papers - HAI 2014

by Tibor Bosse

[Apologies for multiple copies] Second Call for Papers: * **EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON HUMAN ASPECTS IN AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE* (HAI'14) URL: http://www.few.vu.nl/~tbosse/HAI14/ Warsaw, Poland, August 11, 2014 Workshop at the International Conference on Active Media Technology (AMT'14) (Proceedings will be published by *Springer *in their *LNCS *series) /Background / Recent developments within Ambient Intelligence provide new possibilities to contribute to personal care. For example, our car may monitor us and warn us when we are falling asleep while driving or take measures when we are too drunk to drive. As another example, an elderly person may wear a device that monitors his or her wellbeing and offers support when a dangerous situation is noticed. Such applications can be realised partly because of advances in acquiring sensor information about humans and their functioning. However, their full realisation depends crucially on the availability of adequate knowledge for analysis of such information about human functioning. If such knowledge about human functioning is computationally available within devices in the environment, these systems can show more human-like understanding and contribute to personal care based on this understanding. In recent years, scientific areas focusing on human functioning such as cognitive science, psychology, social sciences, neuroscience and biomedical sciences have made substantial progress in providing an increased insight in the various physical and mental aspects of human functioning. Although much work still remains to be done, models have been developed for a variety of such aspects and the way in which humans (try to) manage or regulate them. Examples of biomedical aspects are (management of) heart functioning, diabetes, eating regulation disorders, and HIV-infection. Examples of psychological and social aspects are emotion regulation, emotion contagion, attention regulation, addiction management, trust management, and stress management. If models of human processes and their management are represented in a formal and computational format, and incorporated in the human environment in systems that monitor the physical and mental state of the human, then such ambient systems are able to perform a more in-depth analysis of the human's functioning. An ambience is created that has a human-like understanding of humans, based on computationally formalised knowledge from the human-directed disciplines, and that may be more effective in assisting humans by offering support in a knowledgeable manner that may improve their wellbeing and/or performance, without reducing them in their freedom. This may concern elderly people, medical patients, but also humans in highly demanding circumstances or tasks. For example, to help coordinate the evacuation of large crowds in case of an emergency, or to optimise the performance of teams in sports or in organisations. The HAI workshop seeks contributions from any area on the intersection of Ambient/Artificial Intelligence and human-directed disciplines such as psychology, social science, neuroscience and biomedical sciences. For more details, see the areas of interest. /Aims / This workshop on Human Aspects in Ambient Intelligence (HAI) is the eighth of a series that began in 2007. The HAI workshop series focuses on applied and theoretical research in the intersection of Ambient and Artificial Intelligence on the one hand and human-directed disciplines (such as psychology, social science, neuroscience and biomedical sciences) on the other hand. The aim is to bring people together from these disciplines, as well as researchers working on cross connections of Artificial and Ambient Intelligence with these disciplines. The emphasis is on the use of knowledge from these disciplines in 'ambient' applications, in order to support humans in their daily living in medical, psychological and social respects. The workshop series plays an important role, for example, to get modellers in the psychological, neurological, social or biomedical disciplines interested in Ambient Intelligence as a high-potential application area for their models, and, for example, get inspiration for problem areas to be addressed for further developments in their disciplines. From the other side, the workshop may make researchers in Ambient Intelligence, Agent Systems, and Artificial Intelligence more aware of the possibilities to incorporate more substantial knowledge from the psychological, neurological, social and biomedical disciplines in Ambient Intelligence applications. /Areas of interest / Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: * human-aware computing * computational modelling of cognitive, neurological, social and biomedical processes for Ambient Intelligence * modelling emotion and mood and their regulation modelling contagion of mental states (e.g., beliefs, intentions, or emotions) * social awareness modelling * collecting and analysing histories of behaviour computational modelling of mindreading, theory of mind building profiles; user modelling in Ambient Intelligence sensoring; e.g., tracking physiological states, gaze, body movements, gestures * sensor information integration methods * analysis of sensor information; e.g., voice and skin analysis with respect to emotional states, gesture analysis, heart rate analysis * environmental modelling * situational awareness * serious gaming and ambient intelligence * virtual reality and virtual humans * model-based reasoning and analysis techniques for Ambient Intelligence * responsive and adaptive systems; machine learning * cognitive agent models * reflective ambient agent architectures * multi-agent system architectures for Ambient Intelligence applications * human interaction with devices wearable devices for ambient health and wellness monitoring brain-computer interfacing * analysis and design of applications to care for humans in need of support for physical and mental health; e.g., elderly or psychiatric care, surveillance, penitentiary care, humans in need of strucural medical or psychological care, support for psychotherapeutical/self-help communities * analysis and design of applications to support humans in demanding circumstances and tasks, such as warfare officers, air traffic controllers, crisis and disaster managers, humans in space missions * evaluation studies * handling aspects of privacy and security * philosophical, ethical, and political aspects of Ambient Intelligence aspects /Submission and Proceedings / Submission should be formatted according to the Springer LNCS template, and should not exceed 10 pages. To submit a paper to the workshop, see: http://wic2014.mimuw.edu.pl/amt/submit-paper-amt-2014-workshop. Accepted workshop papers will be published in the AMT conference proceedings by Springer Verlag, in their LNCS Series. /Registration / For every accepted paper at least one author has to register for the AMT 2014 conference. There is no separate workshop registration fee (i.e., only one conference registration covers everything). /Important Dates / - Submission deadline: March 23, 2014 - Notification: May 11, 2014 - Camera ready papers: May 18, 2014 - Workshop: August 11, 2014 /Coordination Commitee / Juan Carlos Augusto (Middlesex University London, School of Engineering and Information Sciences, UK) Tibor Bosse (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Agent Systems Research Group, Netherlands) Cristiano Castelfranchi (CNR Rome, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italy) Diane Cook (Washington State University, USA) Mark Neerincx (TNO Human Factors; Technical University Delft, Man-Machine Interaction, Netherlands) Fariba Sadri (Imperial College, Department of Computing, UK) /Programme Committee / Juan Carlos Augusto (Middlesex University London, School of Engineering and Information Sciences, UK) Marc Bohlen (State University of New York, USA) Tibor Bosse (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Agent Systems Research Group, Netherlands) Antonio Camurri (University of Genoa, InfoMus Lab, Italy) Cristiano Castelfranchi (CNR Rome, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italy) Diane Cook (Washington State University, USA) Hao-Hua Chu (National Taiwan University, Ubicomp Lab, Taiwan) Rino Falcone (CNR Rome, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italy) Aart van Halteren (Philips Research, Consumer Electronics, Netherlands) Dirk Heylen (University of Twente, Human Media Interaction, Netherlands) Peter Leijdekkers (University of Technology Sydney, Mobile Ubiquitous Services & Technologies Group, Australia) Paul Lukowicz (Austrian University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Austria) Peter-Paul van Maanen (TNO, Department of Perceptual and Cognitive Systems, Netherlands) Stuart Moran (University of Nottingham, School of Computer Science, UK) Neelam Naikar (Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Centre for Cognitive Work and Safety Analysis, Australia) Tatsuo Nakajima (Waseda University, Distributed and Ubiquitous Computing Lab, Japan) Mark Neerincx (TNO Human Factors; Technical University Delft, Man-Machine Interaction, Netherlands) Toyoaki Nishida (Kyoto University, Department of Intelligence Science and Technology, Japan) Pedro A. Nogueira (University of Porto, AI and Computer Science Lab, Portugal) Steffen Pauws (Philips Research Europe, Media Interaction Department, Netherlands) Christian Peter (Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria; Fraunhofer IGD, Rostock, Germany) Nitendra Rajput (IBM Research, Telecom Research Innovation Center, India) Peter Roelofsma (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Ambient Assisted Living Group, Netherlands) Tomasz M. Rutkowski (University of Tsukuba, Japan) Fariba Sadri (Imperial College, Department of Computing, UK) Maarten Sierhuis (NASA Ames Research Center, Human-Centered Computing, USA) Ross T. Smith (University of South Australia Mawson Lakes, Wearable Computer Lab, Australia) WenZhan Song (Georgia State University, Department of Computer Science) Ron Sun (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cognitive Science Department, USA) Jan Treur (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Agent Systems Research Group, Netherlands)

March 7, 2014

Reminder: Brain Connectivity Workshop 2014 - Early registration closes 31 March

by Claus C. Hilgetag

This is a repeat announcement of the Brain Connectivity Workshop 2014 which will take place in Hamburg, Germany, from 4th to 6th June 2014 (welcome reception on the evening of 3rd June). See website (http://sfb936.net/index.php/events/brain-connectivity-workshop-2014) for details. The Brain Connectivity Workshop (http://www.brain-connectivity-workshop.org) is an annual meeting that is dedicated to discussing the latest approaches and findings in the field of brain connectivity studies within a small group of experts. Hence attendance is limited to 140 participants, and the workshop strongly aims to facilitate exchange and discussion of ideas by a number of unique features. Important dates at a glance: * Registration: Now open - early registration until March 31, 2014, http://www.sfb936.net/index.php/events/brain-connectivity-workshop-2014. Because of the limited number of participants, early registration is strongly advised; seats will be allocated on a first come, first served principle. Speakers do not have to register. * The HBM 2014 meeting will take place in Hamburg, from June 8th to 12th (http://www.humanbrainmapping.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3565) right after the Brain Connectivity Workshop. We look forward to seeing you, Prof. Claus C. Hilgetag, PhD  (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Dept. of Computational Neuroscience) Prof. Dr. Klaas E. Stephan  (University of Zurich (UZH) & Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich) Prof. Dr. Andreas K. Engel  (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Dept. of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology) Prof. Dr. Christian Gerloff  (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Clinic and Policlinic of Neurology) Hilke Marina Petersen  (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Dept. of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology) – Management The workshop is supported by DFG Sonderforschungsbereich 936 "Multi-Site Communication in the Brain" (SFB 936), www.sfb936.net. Apologies for cross-posting.

March 7, 2014

14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW14) call for papers

by Gert Westermann

Dear colleague, We cordially invite you to participate in the 14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW14) to be held at Lancaster University, UK, from August 21-23, 2014: http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/ncpw14 This well-established and lively workshop aims at bringing together researchers from different disciplines such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, philosophy and psychology to discuss their work on models of cognitive processes. Often this workshop has had a theme, and this time it is ‘Development across the lifespan’, but also submissions that do not fall under this theme are welcome. Papers must be about emergent models - frequently, but not necessarily - of the connectionist/neural network kind, applied to cognition. The NCPW workshops have always been characterized by their limited size, high quality papers, the absence of parallel talk sessions, and a schedule that is explicitly designed to encourage interaction among the researchers present in an informal setting. NCPW14 is no exception. The scientific program will consist of keynote lectures, oral sessions and poster sessions. Furthermore, this workshop will feature a unique set of invited speakers: James McClelland, Stanford University. Bob McMurray, University of Iowa. Michael Thomas, Birkbeck College, London. Abstract submission Please submit one-page abstracts (pdf) by email to ncpw14conf(a)gmail.com, stating whether you want to present as a talk, poster, or talk/poster. Rumelhart Memorial Travel Awards The Rumelhart Memorial Travel awards, generously funded by Professor Jay McClelland, will provide funding to support travel costs for students/post docs presenting at the conference. Awards of US$250 are available to students or post docs from Western European countries, and US$750 for students or post docs from elsewhere. Decisions will be based on the quality of the submission. Eligibility criteria: The first author of the submission is a PhD student or Post-doctoral fellow who will attend the meeting and will present the submission if chosen to receive a travel award. Location Lancaster is situated in the north west of England, approximately one hour from Manchester and Liverpool airports. Lancaster is surrounded by spectacular scenery, hiking and climbing country. The Yorkshire Dales national park is 10 miles away. The Lake District national park is 20 miles away, http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk. The stagecoach 555 bus (http://www.stagecoachbus.com) takes you directly from Lancaster through the heart of the Lakes. The Trough of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is 2 miles away. Important dates to remember Abstract deadline: 15 May Notification of abstract acceptance: 7 June Early registration deadline: tbc Online registration deadline: tbc Conference dates: 21-23 August, 2014 Looking forward to your participation! Organizing Committee Gert Westermann, Lancaster University Padraic Monaghan, Lancaster University Katherine E. Twomey, Liverpool University Alastair C. Smith, MPI Nijmegen -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Gert Westermann Department of Psychology Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YF Phone: +44 (0)1524 592 942 Fax: +44 (0)1524 593 744 g.westermann(a)lancaster.ac.uk http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/gert-westermann

March 6, 2014

Decision Making Bristol 2014: Call for Abstracts

by DMB 2014 Mailbox

The Decision-making Group at Bristol University invites you to attend our second conference 'Decision Making Bristol 2014<http://www.bris.ac.uk/decisions-research/conference2014/>' on 9-12 September 2014. Following the success of the 2012 conference, this conference aims to embrace a breadth of research, appealing to those interested in all aspects of decision making. We are pleased to announce that the following Key Note speakers have been secured Gerd Gigerenzer<http://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/en/staff/gerd-gigerenzer> , Tom Griffiths <http://psychology.berkeley.edu/people/tom-griffiths>, Antonio Rangel <http://www.rnl.caltech.edu/index.html> and Jeffrey D. Schall<http://www.vanderbilt.edu/psychological_sciences/bio/jeffrey-schall>. These will be accompanied by invited talks from Nick Chater<http://www.wbs.ac.uk/about/person/nick-chater/> , Eric-Jan Wagenmakers <http://www.ejwagenmakers.com/> and Daniel Wolpert<http://learning.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/Wolpert/Wolpert> . Held in the beautiful city of Bristol, at one of the UK's leading science and discovery centres, At-Bristol <http://www.at-bristol.org.uk/>, the conference will promote interdisciplinary collaborations and welcomes attendance from both theoreticians and experimentalists. For further information and how to register please see http://www.bris.ac.uk/decisions-research/conference2014/. Registration will close on 30 June 2014. The *call for short abstracts *(500 words) is now *open *and we invite you to submit your abstract to the following email address: DMB-2014(a)bristol.ac.uk. The closing date for receipt is *31 March 2014. * Please feel free to share this email with your colleagues and research students. We look forward to seeing you in September. Best wishes Sally-Ann Parry *on behalf of the Decision-making Group* e: DMB-2014(a)bristol.ac.uk w: http://www.bris.ac.uk/decisions-research/ w: http://www.bris.ac.uk/decisions-research/conference2014/ a: University of Bristol, 5 Priory Road, Bristol, BS8 1TZ

March 6, 2014

Google Summer of Code: Open Source models of cortical networks

by Padraig Gleeson

Google Summer of Code is an initiative to encourage students to contribute to open source software projects. Generous stipends are provided for successful applicants to work on these projects for a number of months over the summer. The INCF <http://incf.org/> has been a GSoC mentoring organisation for the past number of years, and has helped link up students with mentors to advance various projects in the wider neuroinformatics and computational neuroscience areas. The Open Source Brain initiative <http://www.opensourcebrain.org> is encouraging students to apply to be part of this. The successful candidate will take models of cells and networks from the cortex and convert them into open, standardised formats (e.g. NeuroML and PyNN) and place them in public repositories as a resource for the wider community. These can be published models available in simulator specific formats on ModelDB, or classic models from the literature which would benefit from curating/updating/documenting. Making models available in these formats will allow them to be used & tested across multiple simulators, make the physiological properties of the models more accessible and facilitate reuse of model components. *This opportunity is particularly relevant for Masters & PhD students currently working in model development in computational neuroscience. Many students **are already converting/updating existing models as part of their work and this is a great opportunity to get paid extra to do this! *** Closing date for student applications: *21st March 2014* Period of working on projects: *19 May - 18 August* Full information on this can be found here: http://incf.org/gsoc/2014/proposals/#open-source--cross-simulator--large-sc… ----------------------------------------------------- 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 -----------------------------------------------------

March 6, 2014

Deadline Approaching: Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop

by Ralph Etienne-Cummings

Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop 2014 Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop: The 20th Anniversary Edition Telluride, Colorado, June 29th - July 19th, 2014CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Deadline is April 2nd, 2014 NEUROMORPHIC COGNITION ENGINEERING WORKSHOP www.ine-web.org Sunday June 29th - Saturday July 19th, 2014, Telluride, Colorado We invite applications for a three-week summer workshop that will be held in Telluride, Colorado. Sunday June 29th - Saturday July 19th, 2014. The application deadline is Wednesday, April 2nd and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. This is the 20th Anniversary of the Workshop, and ~25 years since the conception of the "Meadian" version of Neuromorphic Engineering. Hence, we plan a celebratory Workshop, where some of the originators and benefactors of the field will participate in discussions of the successes and challenges over the past 25 years and prognosticate the potential contributions for the next 25 years. The 2014 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, Qualcomm Corporation, The EU-Collaborative Convergent Science Network (CNS-II), University of Maryland - College Park, Institute for Neuroinformatics - University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, University of Western Sydney and the Salk Institute. Directors: - Cornelia Fermuller, University of Maryland, College Park - Ralph Etienne-Cummings, Johns Hopkins University - Shih-Chii Liu, Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland - Timothy Horiuchi, University of Maryland, College Park Workshop Advisory Board: - Andreas Andreou, Johns Hopkins University - Andre van Schaik, University Western Sydney, Australia - Avis Cohen, University of Maryland - Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, Boston University - Giacomo Indiveri, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland - Jonathan Tapson, University Western Sydney, Australia - Malcolm Slaney, Microsoft Research - Jennifer Hasler, Georgia Institute of Technology - Rodney Douglas, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland - Shihab Shamma, University of Maryland - Tobi Delbruck, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland Previous year workshop can be found at: http://ine-web.org/workshops/workshops-overview/index.html and the workshop wiki is athttps://neuromorphs.net/ GOALS: Neuromorphic engineers design and fabricate artificial neural systems whose organizing principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. Over the past 18 years, this research community has focused on the understanding of low-level sensory processing and systems infrastructure; efforts are now expanding to apply this knowledge and infrastructure to addressing higher-level problems in perception, cognition, and learning. In this 3-week intensive workshop and through the Institute for Neuromorphic Engineering (INE), the mission is to promote interaction between senior and junior researchers; to educate new members of the community; to introduce new enabling fields and applications to the community; to promote on-going collaborative activities emerging from the Workshop, and to promote a self-sustaining research field. FORMAT: The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems and cognitive neuroscience (in particular sensory processing, learning and memory, motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on emerging hardware design, mobile robots, hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, some of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. In the early afternoon there will be tutorials on a wide spectrum of topics, including analog VLSI, mobile robotics, vision and auditory systems, central-pattern-generators, selective attention mechanisms, cognitive systems, etc. *2014 TOPIC AREAS:* 1. *Human Auditory Cognition: Acoustic Priming, Imagination and Attention.* Project Leaders: Shihab Shamma (UM-College Park), Malcolm Slaney (Microsoft), Edward Lalor (Trinity College, Dublin), Barbara Shinn-Cunningham (Boston U) 2. *Motion and Action Processing on Wearable Devices* Project Leaders: Michael Pfeiffer (INI-UZH), Ryad Benosman (UPMC, Paris), Garrick Orchard (NUS, Singapore), and Cornelia Fermüller (UMCP) 3. *Planning with Dynamic Neural Fields: from Sensorimotor Dynamics to Large-Scale behavioral Search* Project Leaders: Yulia Sandamirskaya (RUB, Bochum) and Erik Billing (U. Skovde) 4. *Neuromorphic Olympics* Project Leaders: Jorg Conradt (TUM, Munich) and Terry Stewart (U. Waterloo) 5. *Embodied Neuromorphic Real-World Architectures of Perception, Cognition and Action* Project Leaders: Andreas Andreou (JHU) and Paul Verschure (UPF, Barcelona) 6. *Terry Sejnowski (Salk Institute) - Computational Neuroscience (invitational mini-workshop)* LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350 miles). Great Lakes Aviation and America West Express airlines provide daily flights directly into Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Wireless internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We will have a network of PCs running LINUX and Microsoft Windows for the workshop projects. We encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS: Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around the April 15th, 2014. The Workshop covers all your accommodations and facilities costs for the 3 weeks duration. You are responsible for your own travel to the Workshop, however, sponsored fellowships will be available as described below to further subsidize your cost. Registration Fees: For expenses not covered by federal funds, a Workshop registration fee is required. The fee is $1250 per participant for the 3-week Workshop. This is expected from all participants at the time of acceptance. Accommodations: The cost of a shared condominium, typically a bedroom in a shared condo for senior participants or a shared room for students, will be covered for all academic participants. Upgrades to a private rooms or condos will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. Fellowships: This year we will offer two Fellowships to subsidize your costs: 1. Qualcomm Corporation Fellowship: Three non-corporate participants will have their accommodation and registration fees ($2750) directly covered by Qualcomm, and will be reimbursed for travel costs up to $500. Additional generous funding from Qualcomm will provide $5000 to help organize and stage the Workshop. 2. EU-CSNII Fellowship (http://csnetwork.eu/) which is funded by the 7th Research Framework Program FP7-ICT-CSNII-601167: The top 8 EU applicants will be reimbursed for their registration fees ($1250), subsistence/travel subsidy (up to Euro 2000) and accommodations cost ($1500). The registration and accommodation costs will go directly to the INE (the INE will reimburse the participant's registration fees after receipt from CSNII), while the subsistence/travel reimbursement will be provided directly to the participants by the CSNII at the University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. HOW TO APPLY: Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. Anyone interested in proposing or discussing specific projects should contact the appropriate topic leaders directly. The application website is (after February 7th, 2014): ine-web.org/telluride-conference-2014/apply-info Application information needed: - Contact email address. - First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. - Curriculum Vitae (a short version, please). - One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop, including possible ideas for workshop projects. Please indicate which topic areas you would most likely join. - Two letters of recommendation (uploaded directly by references). *Applicants will be notified by e-mail.* 7th February, 2014 - Applications accepted on website 2nd April, 2014 - Applications Due 15th April, 2014 - Notification of Acceptance ------------------------- -- Ralph Etienne-Cummings, PhD, FIEEE Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Computational Sensor Motor Systems Lab

March 6, 2014

Computational Neuroscience: Vision summer course

by Horwitz Lab

*Summer course* COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE: VISION July 11 - July 24, 2014 COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY *Application Deadline: March 31, 2013* Arranged by Geoff Boynton, Greg Horwitz, Jonathan Pillow and Stefan Treue, this course is offered every two years and gives 24 graduate students and postdocs switching into this field of research the chance for intensive interchange with a diverse faculty in an intellectually stimulating environment. The goal of the course is to introduce students (usually in the middle of their thesis project) to the processing of visual information as a model for general issues in systems neuroscience. The emphasis is on approaches with strong theoretical bases. In addition to talks by an international faculty, the course offers ample opportunity to interact with the speakers and to apply the knowledge gained in the course through hands-on projects. Please see http://meetings.cshl.edu/courses/2014/c-visi14.shtml for more information about the course, the faculty, and the application procedure. Please see http://www.cns.nyu.edu/csh/csh12/alumni.html for a list of previous course participants.

March 6, 2014

Postdoc- Computational Neuroscience - University of Arizona

by Fellous

Computational Neuroscience Postdoctoral Fellow position at the University of Arizona: Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Position to utilize computational tools to study the neural mechanisms and processing that give rise to *a) memory acquisition and consolidation, ** **b) spatial navigation (grid & place cells), and ** **c) neural coding.* Prospective candidates should have a) a strong background in research (e.g., publications), b) a strong quantitative background with computational skills and experience including statistics or information theory, and c) an aptitude and motivation for innovative research. Positions are expected to start Fall 2014. Highly competitive salary and benefits are available and will be commensurate with experience. The candidate will work together with Jean-Marc Fellous and O. Ozan Koyluoglu, and will be affiliated with both the Department of Psychology and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. To apply, please email a CV including a list of publications, a letter of motivation, and the names of three referees to: fellous(a)email.arizona.edu and ozan(a)email.arizona.edu. *The university*: The University of Arizona (UA) is one of the largest universities in the US with its 40,000 students. UA, having excellent Science, Engineering, and Medical programs, is one of the top ranked research universities in the US. University-wide, a total of 26 academic programs rank in the top 20 of their U.S. peers in public and private universities according to U.S. News & World Report. Research expenditures of UA is more than $625 million, and UA is ranked #19 among all public universities in US by the National Science Foundation. *The city*: UA is located in Tucson, Arizona - the real southwest and the Grand Canyon state! Tucson has mild winters and lots of sunshine. From hiking and biking to bird watching, no matter what you love to do in the great outdoors, Tucson is the place to do it. The city has been rated as one of the most affordable and cleanest cities in the US.

March 5, 2014

Frontiers Research Topic: Memory Processes in Medial Temporal Lobe: Experimental, Theoretical and Computational Approaches

by Vassilis Cutsuridis

Dear colleagues, we would like to inform you that our Research Topic organized with Frontiers in Neuroscience (Host Specialty: Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience) is still open and it will be accepting abstracts till April 1st, 2014. Our Research Topic is entitled: "Memory Processes in Medial Temporal Lobe: Experimental, Theoretical and Computational Approaches" Topic Editors: Motoharu Yoshida (University of Bochum) and Vassilis Cutsuridis (Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)) Important deadlines ---------------------------- Abstract Submission Deadline: April 1st 2014 Article Submission Deadline: August 1st, 2014 Research Topic Description ---------------------------------------- The medial temporal lobe (MTL) includes the hippocampus, amygdala and parahippocampal regions, and is crucial for episodic and spatial memory. MTL memory function consists of distinct processes such as encoding, consolidation and retrieval. Encoding is the process by which perceived information is transformed into a memory trace. After encoding, memory traces are stabilized by consolidation. Memory retrieval (recall) refers to the process by which memory traces are reactivated to access information previously encoded and stored in the brain. Although underlying neural mechanisms supporting these distinct functional stages remain largely unknown, recent studies have indicated that distinct oscillatory dynamics, specific neuron types, synaptic plasticity and neuromodulation, play a central role. The theta rhythm is believed to be crucial in the encoding and retrieval of memories. Experimental and computational studies indicate that precise timing of principal cell firing in the hippocampus, relative to the theta rhythm, underlies encoding and retrieval processes. On the other hand, sharp-wave ripples have been implicated in the consolidation through the "replay" of memories in compressed time scales. The neural circuits and cell types supporting memory processes in the MTL areas have only recently been delineated using experimental approaches such as optogenetics, juxtacellular recordings and optical imaging. Principal (excitatory) cells are crucial for encoding, storing and retrieving memories at the cellular level, whereas inhibitory interneurons provide the temporal structures for orchestrating the activities of neuronal populations of principal cells by regulating synaptic integration and timing of action potential generation of principal cells as well as the generation and maintenance of network oscillations (rhythms). In addition, neuromodulators such as acetylcholine alter dynamical properties of neurons and synapses, and modulate oscillatory state and rules of synaptic plasticity and their levels might tune MTL to specific memory processes. The goal of the research topic is to offer a snapshot of the current stateof-the-art on how memories are encoded, consolidated, stored and retrieved in MTL structures. Particularly welcome will be studies (experimental or computational) focusing on the structure and function of neural circuits, their cellular components (principal cell and inhibitory interneurons), synaptic plasticity rules involved in these memory processes, network oscillations such as theta and sharp-wave ripples, and role of neuromodulators. Possible questions are: (1) Which areas or pathways within the MTL support encoding/consolidation/retrieval? (2) What neural activity defines specific memory processes? (3) What are the roles of neuromodulators in defining/switching these memory processes? (4) Could the role of synaptic plasticity be different in different memory processes? (5) What functional roles do the various inhibitory interneurons support during the encoding/consolidation/retrieval processes? About Frontiers Research Topics ------------------------------------------------ Frontiers Research Topics are designed to be an organized, encyclopedic coverage of a particular research area, and a forum for discussion and debate. Contributions can be of different article types (Original Research, Methods, Hypothesis & Theory, and others). Our Research Topic has a dedicated homepage on the Frontiers website, where contributing articles are accumulated and discussions can be easily held. Once all articles are published, the topic will be compiled into an e-book, which can be sent to foundations that fund your research, to journalists and press agencies, and to any number of other organizations. As the ultimate reference source from leading scientists, Frontiers Research Topic articles become highly cited. Frontiers is a Swiss-based, open access publisher. As such an article accepted for publication incurs a publishing fee, which varies depending on the article type. The publishing fee for accepted articles is below average compared to most other open access journals - and lower than subscription-based journals that apply page and color figure charges. Moreover, for Research Topic articles, the publishing fee is discounted quite steeply thanks to the support of the Frontiers Research Foundation. Details on Frontiers' fees can be found at http://www.frontiersin.org/about/PublishingFees. When published, your article will be freely available to visitors to the Frontiers site, and will be indexed in PubMed and other academic archives. As an author in Frontiers, you will retain the copyright to your own paper and all figures. The details regarding this Research Topic for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience can be found at the following URL: http://www.frontiersin.org/systems_neuroscience/researchtopics/memory_proce… Should you choose to participate, please confirm by sending a quick email and then your abstract using the following link: http://www.frontiersin.org/submissioninfo Thanks in advance for your interest! Vassilis Cutsuridis and Motoharu Yoshida --- Vassilis Cutsuridis, PhD IMBB - FORTH Heraklion, Crete Greece

March 5, 2014

PhD opportunities at the Queensland Brain Institute

by Geoffrey Goodhill

The Queensland Brain Institute (QBI - http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au<http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/>) is seeking exceptional and highly motivated PhD students to undertake neuroscience research at its state-of-the-art facility located on The University of Queensland’s (UQ) St Lucia campus, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Established in 2003, the QBI's multidisciplinary environment is home to more than 300 staff and approximately 100 PhD students. Key areas of interest include computation and neuronal circuits, cognition and behaviour, neurogenesis and neuronal survival, genetics and epigenetics, neuronal development and connectivity, sensory systems, and synaptic function. QBI researchers have published almost 500 papers in the past two years, including 2 in Science, 4 in Nature, 2 in Neuron, 3 in Nature Neuroscience, 8 in Nature Genetics, 8 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and 18 in Journal of Neuroscience. Scholarships and Remuneration QBI offers full-time PhD scholarships for outstanding Australian and International students (living allowance AUD$25,392 per annum, indexed annually, tax exempt) for 3 years with a possible 6 month extension. In addition, QBI supports high quality domestic and international applicants in their nomination to The University of Queensland’s competitive scholarship rounds (three rounds per year). A QBI top-up scholarship of $5,000 per annum may also be available to successful candidates. The Candidate Both Australian and International applicants are welcome to apply. Candidates should have a First Class Honours degree (or equivalent) in neuroscience, molecular biology, bioscience, psychology, genetics, the physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, computer science, or a related discipline. Strong academic performance, the commitment to conduct high quality neuroscience research, and published output are highly desirable. For further information on the Basis of Admission to a UQ research higher degree, please visit http://www.uq.edu.au/grad-school/our-research-degrees. Successful applicants must accept and commence within 6 months of receiving an award. Enquiries and Applications Please review the research interests of QBI Group Leaders at http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/group-leaders and make direct contact with a Group Leader working in an area of greatest interest to you, providing your detailed academic resume and complete academic records (including GPA scores/grades, and grading scale details). The Group Leader will work with you to develop your application for submission to QBI. APPLICATIONS CLOSE ON 30 APRIL, 2014 Professor Geoffrey J Goodhill Queensland Brain Institute and School of Mathematics & Physics University of Queensland St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia Phone: +61 7 3346 6431 Fax: +61 7 3346 6301 Email: g.goodhill(a)uq.edu.au<mailto:g.goodhill@uq.edu.au> http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/professor-geoffrey-goodhill

March 5, 2014