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Two postdoctoral positions in Systems/Computational Neuroscience, UPenn
by Nicole Rust March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015

Two postdoctoral positions - one purely computational and another combined experimental and computational - are currently available in the laboratory of Nicole Rust at the University of Pennsylvania. Both positions are focused on understanding object-related processing at higher stages of the primate visual system. Of particular interest are the neural mechanisms responsible for our ability to remember the enormous numbers of objects that we have encountered before, and how the same neural populations can both encode visual memories after a single experience and support perceptually stable object representations. Our research group uses a variety of methods, including awake primate neurophysiology, population decoding, and computational modeling, to arrive at descriptions of the transformations that occur as object-related signals propagate through the brain. More information about the lab can be found here: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/psych/rust-lab. The Rust lab is part of a substantive Systems, Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience community at UPenn and is part of the newly established Penn Computational Neuroscience Initiative: http://cni.upenn.edu/. Candidates should have a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field prior to starting. Essential qualifications include strong quantitative skills. To inquire about this position, please contact Nicole Rust nrust(a)psych.upenn.edu.

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Re: [Comp-neuro] CFP 7th International Conference on Evolutionary Computation Theory and Applications - ECTA 2015
by Calendar Sites March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015

CALL FOR PAPERS 7th International Conference on Evolutionary Computation Theory and Applications ECTA 2015 Website: http://www.ecta.ijcci.org/ November 12 14, 2015 Lisbon, Portugal Regular Papers Paper Submission: June 2, 2015 Authors Notification: September 1, 2015 Camera Ready and Registration: September 30, 2015 Position Papers Paper Submission: July 14, 2015 Authors Notification: September 16, 2015 Camera Ready and Registration: September 30, 2015 Sponsored by: INSTICC-Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication INSTICC is Member of: WfMC Workflow Management Coalition OMG Object Management Group FIPA Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents In Cooperation with: AI*IA Associazione Italiana per l'Intelligenza Artificiale AAAI Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence APPIA Associação Portuguesa Para a Inteligência Artificial Logistics Partner: SCITEVENTS Science and Technology Events Considered a subfield of computational intelligence focused on combinatorial optimisation problems, evolutionary computation is associated with systems that use computational models of evolutionary processes as the key elements in design and implementation, i.e. computational techniques which are based to some degree on the evolution of biological life in the natural world. A number of evolutionary computational models have been proposed, including evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithms, the evolution strategy, evolutionary programming, swarm intelligence and artificial life. This conference intends to be a major forum for scientists, engineers and practitioners interested in the study, analysis, design, modeling and implementation of evolvable systems, both theoretically and in a broad range of application fields. ECTA welcomes both theoretical research and practical applications. The conference also aims to foster hybrid approaches within evolutionary computation and also involving fuzzy computation and neural computation. IJCCI KEYNOTE LECTURES Julian Togelius, New York University, United States Yaochu Jin, University of Surrey, United Kingdom PUBLICATIONS All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, under an ISBN reference, on paper and on CD-ROM support. SCITEPRESS is member of CrossRef ( <http://www.crossref.org/> http://www.crossref.org/) All papers presented at the conference venue will be available at the <http://www.scitepress.org/DigitalLibrary/Default.aspx> SCITEPRESS Digital Library. The proceedings will be submitted for indexation by Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index (ISI), INSPEC, DBLP, EI (Elsevier Index) and Scopus. AWARDS The awards will be announced and bestowed at the conference closing session. IJCCI CONFERENCE CHAIR Joaquim Filipe, Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal / INSTICC, Portugal PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS Agostinho Rosa, IST, Portugal Juan Julian Merelo, University of Granada, Spain CONFERENCE TOPICS: * Genetic Algorithms * Machine Learning * Cognitive Systems * Artificial Life * Representation Techniques * Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization * Game Theory and Applications * Evolution Strategies * Evolutionary Robotics and Intelligent Agents * Society and Cultural Aspects of Evolution * Concurrent Co-operation * Co-evolution and Collective Behavior * Biocomputing and Complex Adaptive Systems * Bio-inspired Hardware and Networks * Swarm/Collective Intelligence * Evolutionary Art and Design * Hybrid Systems * Memetic Algorithms PROGRAM COMMITTEE <http://www.ecta.ijcci.org/ProgramCommittee.aspx> http://www.ecta.ijcci.org/ProgramCommittee.aspx ECTA SECRETARIAT Address: Av. D. Manuel I, 27A, 2º esq. 2910-595 Setúbal - Portugal Tel.: +351 265 100 033 Fax: +44 203 014 8813 e-mail: ecta.secretariat(a)insticc.org Please check further details at the conference website (http://www.ecta.ijcci.org) _____ <http://www.avast.com/> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com <http://www.avast.com/> --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

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ECMLPKDD 2015 : PhD Session
by ECMLPKDD 2015 March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015

The European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECMLPKDD 2015) will take place on September 7 of 2015, in Porto Portugal ( <http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/> http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/) The conference includes a PhD session that provides an environment for students to exchange their ideas and experiences with peers and senior researchers in machine learning, data mining, and related areas. We invite PhD students (PhD in progress or defended not earlier than 31st December 2014) to submit papers on all aspects of machine learning, knowledge discovery and data mining, including real-world applications. Papers submitted to ECML/PKDD 2015 PhD session will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be presented in the special PhD session at ECMLPKDD 2015 and will be published in the session proceedings which will be available through the conference website. Important Dates Paper submission deadline: June 10 2015 Author notification: July 15 2015 Camera-ready: August 5 2015 Doctoral consortium session: September 7 2015 Detailed information about the PhD Session is available on: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/doctoral-consortium For further information please contact the ECMLPKDD 2015 PhD Chairs: Jaakko Hollmen (Aalto University) Panagiotis Papapetrou (Stockholm University) Hope to see you all soon in Porto, Portugal!!! The publicity chairs of the ECMLPKDD 2015, Carlos Abreu Ferreira Ricardo Campos --- Este e-mail foi verificado em termos de vírus pelo software antivírus Avast. http://www.avast.com

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PhD position in Computational neuroscience in social cognition
by Emilija Meier-Faust March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015

PhD position in Computational neuroscience in social cognition, 50% Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-University Berlin A doctoral position in the area Computational neuroscience in social cognition is available from April 1st for three years at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain in the Social Cognition group. The successful candidate will work with Prof. Isabel Dziobek, Ph.D. and Prof. Timothy R. Brick, PhD (Penn State University) as well as other research group members in the collaborative consortium „From emotion model to adaptive learning: Emotion sensitive systems for training social cognition“ (BMBF InterEmotio/EMOTISK). For information on the group visit: http://www.psychology.hu-berlin.de/profship/soccog The project aims at investigating the automatic classification of socio-emotional signals multimodally (facial expressions, gaze direction, brain activation) using computer vision, automatic emotion tracking, eyetracking, and fMRI methods among others. The successful candidate will have strong programming and quantitative research skills, including computer vision, statistical modeling, and machine learning. Interest in social cognitive/computational neuroscience, fMRI, psychophysics, and/or human-machine interaction and prior experience programming on open-source projects is a plus. Requirements: BMA/MSc in e.g. computer science, statistics, cognitive (neuro-)science, psychology (or any other relevant field) Background in statistics, computer vision, or statistical modeling Expertise in Matlab, C/C++, or equivalent programming languages Excellent skills in written and spoken English Strong motivation Terms and conditions for this position: Position is to start 1 April 2015 Position is available for 3 years Salary scale TV-L HU E13 (please contact mb-manager(a)hu-berlin.de) Application: To apply, please e-mail (isabel.dziobek(a)hu-berlin.de) your cover letter and CV (in one pdf file) including names of 2-3 referees and up to 5 reprints (also in pdf format). Files should be named as follows: YOURNAME_letter_cv YOURNAME_reprint_1 YOURNAME_reprint_2 YOURNAME_reprint_3 YOURNAME_reprint_4 YOURNAME_reprint_5 Please note: The max. size for all files sent in one mailing is 6 MB! Deadline: Please check http://www.mind-and-brain.de/people/social-cognition-group/

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Postdoctoral position in Cognitive Neuroscience in Social Cognition
by Emilija Meier-Faust March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015

Postdoctoral position in Cognitive Neuroscience in Social Cognition, 100% Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin A postdoctoral position in the area of Neuroimaging in Social Cognition is available from 1 April 2015 for three years at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain in the Social Cognition group. The successful candidate will work with Prof. Isabel Dziobek, Ph.D. and Prof. Timothy R. Brick, PhD (Penn State University) as well as other research group members in the collaborative consortium „From emotion model to adaptive learning: Emotion sensitive systems for training social cognition“ (BMBF InterEmotio/EMOTISK). For information on the group visit: http://www.psychology.hu-berlin.de/profship/soccog The project aims at investigating the associations between behavioral (e.g., facial expressions, eye movements) and physiological (e.g., neuronal activity, skin conductance response) parameters of social cognition and emotion processing in healthy individuals and those with autism spectrum disorder. Among others emotion induction and mimicry will be investigated using fMRI, eyetracking, and computer vision as well as automatic emotion tracking. A further focus will be on the trainability of socio-emotional processing using computer-based training programs targeting emotion recognition. The successful candidate will have strong quantitative research skills including knowledge about social cognitive/emotion neuroscience in fMRI and preferably also in psychopathology, psychophysics, and/or eyetracking. Interest in human-machine interactions, statistical modeling, and computational neuroscience is furthermore expected. Requirements PhD/doctorate in e.g. psychology, medicine, cognitive (neuro-)science, neurobiology (or any other relevant field) Solid background in statistics, experience with fMRI, psychophysics, or eyetracking Expertise in Matlab or equivalent programming languages Evidence of published peer-reviewed research Excellent skills in written and spoken English Strong motivation Terms and conditions for this position: Position is to start 1 April 2015 Position is available for 3 years Salary scale TV-L HU E13 (please contact mb-manager(a)hu-berlin.de) Application: To apply, please e-mail (isabel.dziobek(a)hu-berlin.de) your cover letter and CV (in one pdf file) including names of 2-3 referees and up to 5 reprints (also in pdf format). Files should be named as follows: YOURNAME_letter_cv YOURNAME_reprint_1 YOURNAME_reprint_2 YOURNAME_reprint_3 YOURNAME_reprint_4 YOURNAME_reprint_5 Please note: The max. size for all files sent in one mailing is 6 MB! Deadline: Please check http://www.mind-and-brain.de/people/social-cognition-group/

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CFP 7th International Joint Conference on Computational Intelligence - IJCCI 2015
by Calendar Sites March 10, 2015

March 10, 2015

CALL FOR PAPERS 7th International Joint Conference on Computational Intelligence IJCCI 2015 Website: http://www.ijcci.org/ November 12 14, 2015 Lisbon, Portugal Regular Papers Paper Submission: June 2, 2015 Authors Notification: September 1, 2015 Camera Ready and Registration: September 30, 2015 <http://www.ic3k.org/Glossary.aspx#PP> Position Papers Paper Submission: July 14, 2015 Authors Notification: September 16, 2015 Camera Ready and Registration: September 30, 2015 Sponsored by: INSTICC-Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication INSTICC is Member of: WfMC Workflow Management Coalition OMG Object Management Group FIPA Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents Logistics Partner: SCITEVENTS Science and Technology Events In Cooperation with: AI*IA Associazione Italiana per l'Intelligenza Artificiale INNS International Neural Network Society AAAI Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence EUSFLAT European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology APPIA Associação Portuguesa Para a Inteligência Artificial The purpose of IJCCI is to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners on the areas of Fuzzy Computation, Evolutionary Computation and Neural Computation. IJCCI is composed of three co-located conferences, each specialized in at least one of the aforementioned main knowledge areas. ECTA 2015 - 7th International Conference on Evolutionary Computation Theory and Applications PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS Agostinho Rosa, IST, Portugal Juan Julian Merelo, University of Granada, Spain CONFERENCE TOPICS * Genetic Algorithms * Machine Learning * Cognitive Systems * Artificial Life * Representation Techniques * Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization * Game Theory and Applications * Evolution Strategies * Evolutionary Robotics and Intelligent Agents * Society and Cultural Aspects of Evolution * Concurrent Co-operation * Co-evolution and Collective Behavior * Biocomputing and Complex Adaptive Systems * Bio-inspired Hardware and Networks * Swarm/Collective Intelligence * Evolutionary Art and Design * Hybrid Systems * Memetic Algorithms FCTA 2015 - 7th International Conference on Fuzzy Computation Theory and Applications PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS António Dourado, University of Coimbra, Portugal José M. Cadenas, University of Murcia, Spain CONFERENCE TOPICS * Fuzzy Hardware, Fuzzy Architectures * Soft Computing and Intelligent Agents * Mathematical Foundations: Fuzzy Set Theory and Fuzzy Logic * Approximate Reasoning and Fuzzy Inference * System Identification and Fault Detection * Fuzzy Information Retrieval and Data Mining * Fuzzy Information Processing, Fusion, Text Mining * Learning and Adaptive Fuzzy Systems * Complex Fuzzy Systems * Pattern Recognition: Fuzzy Clustering and Classifiers * Fuzzy Image, Speech and Signal Processing, Vision and Multimedia * Industrial, Financial and Medical Applications * Type-2 Fuzzy Logic * Neuro-fuzzy Systems * Fuzzy Systems Design, Modeling and Control * Real-time Learning of Fuzzy and Neuro-fuzzy Systems * Fuzzy Control * Fuzzy Systems in Robotics: Sensors, Navigation and Coordination * Software for Fuzzy Systems and Control NCTA 2015 - 7th International Conference on Neural Computation Theory and Applications PROGRAM CHAIR Kurosh Madani, University of Paris-EST Créteil (UPEC), France CONFERENCE TOPICS * Pattern Recognition * Industrial, Financial and Medical Applications * Computational Neuroscience * Neural Network Software and Applications * Neuroinformatics and Bioinformatics * Learning Paradigms and Algorithms * Supervised and Unsupervised Learning * Adaptive Architectures and Mechanisms * Support Vector Machines and Applications * Complex Artificial Neural Network Based Systems and Dynamics * Higher Level Artificial Neural Network Based Intelligent Systems * Bio-inspired and Humanoid Robotics * Image Processing and Artificial Vision Applications * Intelligent Artificial Perception and Neural Sensors * Modular Implementation of Artificial Neural Networks * Neural based Data Mining and Complex Information Processing * Neural Multi-agent Intelligent Systems and Applications * Self-organization and Emergence * Stability and Instability in Artificial Neural Networks * Neural Network Hardware Implementation and Applications * Neural Computation issues in Social Behaviour Emergence IJCCI KEYNOTE LECTURES Julian Togelius, New York University, United States Yaochu Jin, University of Surrey, United Kingdom PUBLICATIONS All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, under an ISBN reference, on paper and on CD-ROM support. SCITEPRESS is member of CrossRef ( <http://www.crossref.org/> http://www.crossref.org/) All papers presented at the conference venue will be available at the <http://www.scitepress.org/DigitalLibrary/Default.aspx> SCITEPRESS Digital Library. The proceedings will be submitted for indexation by Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index (ISI), INSPEC, DBLP, EI (Elsevier Index) and Scopus. AWARDS The awards will be announced and bestowed at the conference closing session. IJCCI CONFERENCE CHAIR Joaquim Filipe, Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal / INSTICC, Portugal Please check further details at the conference website ( <http://www.ijcci.org/> http://www.ijcci.org/) IJCCI SECRETARIAT Address: Av. D. Manuel I, 27A, 2º esq. 2910-595 Setúbal - Portugal Tel.: +351 265 100 033 Fax: +44 203 014 8813 e-mail: ijcci.secretariat(a)insticc.org --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

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CoSMo 2015 - application deadline approaching fast
by Gunnar Blohm March 9, 2015

March 9, 2015

Just a quick reminder that the application deadline for the summer school on Computational Sensory-Motor Neuroscience (CoSMo 2015) is approaching fast: March 15, 2015!!! http://www.compneurosci.com/CoSMo/ Best Gunnar Blohm, Konrad Körding, Paul Schrater -- ------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Gunnar BLOHM Associate Professor in Computational Neuroscience Association for Canadian Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience (CNCN) Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Departments of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics, and Psychology, School of Computing, and Canadian Action and Perception Network (CAPnet) Queen’s University 18, Stuart Street Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6 Tel: (613) 533-3385 Fax: (613) 533-6840 Email: Gunnar.Blohm(a)QueensU.ca Web: http://www.compneurosci.com/

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OCCAM 2015 Deadline Extension
by Frank Jäkel March 9, 2015

March 9, 2015

Dear Colleague, we would like to invite you to register for the 5th +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Osnabrueck Computational Cognition Alliance Meeting (OCCAM 2015) "From Simple Neurons to Large-Scale Models of Cognition" May 6-7, 2015. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ List of invited speakers: Nicolas Brunel Jochen Braun Gustavo Deco Wolfgang Einhäuser Virginia Flanagin Sonja Grün Marc-Oliver Gewaltig Herbert Jaeger Gordon Pipa Terry Stewart Paul Verschure Kai Vogeley The workshop will take place in Osnabrueck, Germany, and will be hosted by the Institute of Cognitive Science (University of Osnabrueck). Details can be found below and on the following webpage: http://www.occam-os.de The registration deadline has been extended to March 16, 2015. The registration fee is 100,- Euros. There will also be a poster session where conference participants will have the opportunity to present their work. The deadline for submitting an abstract for a poster presentation is also March 16. Best regards, Frank Jäkel, Peter König, Gordon Pipa (Organizing committee)

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ICDL-EpiRob 2015 CFP - deadline extended
by Benjamin Rosman March 9, 2015

March 9, 2015

======================================================== NOTE: DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 23 MARCH. Call for Papers, Tutorials and Thematic Workshops New Conference Feature: BABYBOT CHALLENGE IEEE ICDL-EPIROB 2015 The Fifth Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA August 13-16, 2015 http://www.icdl-epirob.org/ == Conference description The past decade has seen the emergence of a new scientific field that studies how intelligent biological and artificial systems develop sensorimotor, cognitive, emotional and social abilities, over extended periods of time, through dynamic interactions with their physical and social environments. This field lies at the intersection of a number of scientific and engineering disciplines including Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Computational Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics. Various terms have been associated with this new field such as Autonomous Mental Development, Epigenetic Robotics, Developmental Robotics, etc., and several scientific meetings have been established. The two most prominent conference series of this field, the International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) and the International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (EpiRob), are now joining forces for the fifth time and invite submissions for a joint conference in 2015, to explore and extend the interdisciplinary boundaries of this field. == BABYBOT CHALLENGE -- CASH PRIZES FOR THE TOP SUBMISSIONS We are excited to announce a new ICDL-EpiRob conference feature: the BABYBOT CHALLENGE. The goal of the challenge is to use the tools of developmental robotics to replicate and extend the key findings from one of three selected human-infant studies. Please visit www.icdl-epirob.org for the full announcement, including the three target studies, details on the submission process, and a description of how the winning submissions will be judged and selected. == Keynote speakers (confirmed) Prof. Dare Baldwin, Dept. of Psychology, University of Oregon, USA Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn, School of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire, UK Prof. Asif Ghazanfar, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, USA == Call for Submissions We invite submissions for this exciting window into the future of developmental sciences. Submissions which establish novel links between brain, behavior and computation are particularly encouraged. == Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): * the development of perceptual, motor, cognitive, emotional, social, and communication skills in biological systems and robots; * embodiment; * general principles of development and learning; * interaction of nature and nurture; * sensitive/critical periods; * developmental stages; * grounding of knowledge and development of representations; * architectures for cognitive development and open-ended learning; * neural plasticity; * statistical learning; * reward and value systems; * intrinsic motivations, exploration and play; * interaction of development and evolution; * use of robots in applied settings such as autism therapy; * epistemological foundations and philosophical issues. Any of the topics above can be simultaneously studied from the neuroscience, psychology or modeling/robotic point of view. == Submissions will be accepted in several formats: 1. Full six-page paper submissions: Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings and will be selected for either an oral presentation or a featured poster presentation. Featured posters will have a 1 minute "teaser" presentation as part of the main conference session and will be showcased in the poster sessions. Maximum two-extra pages can be acceptable for a publication fee of $100 per page. 2. Two-page poster abstract submissions: To encourage discussion of late-breaking results or for work that is not sufficiently mature for a full paper, we will accept 2-page abstracts. These submissions will NOT be included in the conference proceedings. Accepted abstracts will be presented during poster sessions. 3. Tutorials and workshops: We invite experts in different areas to organize either a tutorial or a workshop to be held on the first day of the conference. Tutorials are meant to provide insights into specific topics as well as overviews that will inform the interdisciplinary audience about the state-of-the-art in child development, neuroscience, robotics, or any of the other disciplines represented at the conference. A workshop is an opportunity to present a topic cumulatively. Workshops can be half- or full-day in duration including oral presentations as well as posters. Submission format: two pages including title, list of speakers, concept and target audience. 4. Babybot challenge (Deadline June 15, 2015): Special submissions are invited for the Babybot challenge, which is for the first time introduced to this conference. For detailed information please visit www.icdl-epirob.org and navigate to “Babybot Challenge.” All submissions will be peer reviewed. Submission website through paperplaza at: http://ras.papercept.net == Important dates March 23, 2015, paper submission deadline May 15, 2015, author notification July 1, 2015, final version (camera ready) due August 13th-16th, 2015, conference == Program committee General Chairs: Matthew Schlesinger (Southern Illinois Univ.) Dima Amso (Brown University) Bridge Chairs: Jeffrey Krichmar (UC Irvine) Bertram Malle (Brown University) Program Chairs: Anne Warlaumont (UC Merced) Clemént Moulin-Frier (INRIA) Publications Chairs: Lisa Meeden (Swarthmore College) Publicity Chairs: Lola Cañamero (Univ. of Hertfordshire) Matthias Rolf (Osaka University) Benjamin Rosman (CSIR) Local chairs: David Sobel (Brown University) Thomas Serre (Brown University) Finance chairs: Clayton Morrison (University of Arizona) -- This message is subject to the CSIR's copyright terms and conditions, e-mail legal notice, and implemented Open Document Format (ODF) standard. The full disclaimer details can be found at http://www.csir.co.za/disclaimer.html. This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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Spatial computation workshop
by Matthew Nolan March 9, 2015

March 9, 2015

[Apologies for cross-posting] Spatial computation: from neural circuits to robot navigation The Informatics Forum, Edinburgh, April 11th, 2015. A workshop focussing on computations underlying navigation from the perspectives of neuroscience and robotics. Confirmed speakers: Kevin Allen (Heidelburg) Neil Burgess (UCL) Margarita Chli (Edinburgh) Michael Hasselmo (Boston) Kate Jeffery (UCL) Jack Mellor (Bristol) Michael Milford (Queensland) Ralph Moeller (Bielefeld) Subramanian (Ram) Ramamoorthy (Edinburgh) Lukas Solanka (Edinburgh) Barbara Webb (Edinburgh) Thomas Wolbers (Magdeburg) Further details and registration here: http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/spatialcomputationworkshop/ <http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/spatialcomputationworkshop/> --------------- Matt Nolan Professor of Neural Circuits and Computation Centre for Integrative Physiology University of Edinburgh Hugh Robson Building George Square Edinburgh EH8 9XD Telephone: (+44) 131 650 9874 Fax: (+44) 131 650 6527 Web: nolanlab.mvm.ed.ac.uk <http://nolanlab.mvm.ed.ac.uk/> Email: mattnolan(a)ed.ac.uk <mailto:mattnolan@ed.ac.uk> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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Computational Vision Summer School, July 28 - Aug 4, 2015
by Judith Lam March 9, 2015

March 9, 2015

The Bernstein Center Tuebingen invites advanced PhD students and postdocs to apply for the... * ************************************************************************** Computational Vision **Summer **School, **July 28 - Aug 4, 2015* *Freudenstadt-Lauterbad, Black Forest* *Application deadline: April 7, 2015 http://www.bccn-tuebingen.de/training/cvss2015/ ***************************************************************************** The Computational Vision Summer School offers a broad perspective on biological vision with a thorough understanding of the theoretical and computational challenges involved. The school is unique in bringing together people from diverse disciplines who all share a computational view of vision. The faculty consists of renowned senior researchers in the field teaching lectures and providing hands-on tutorials on topics ranging from early vision to image understanding. * Confirmed Speakers: *Jim DiCarlo (MIT, USA) Rob Fergus (Facebook, NY, USA) Andrew Fitzgibbon (Microsoft Research, UK)  Laurence T Maloney (NYU, USA)  Anthony J Movshon (NYU, USA) Aude Oliva (MIT, USA)  Bruno Olshausen (UC Berkeley, USA) Cordelia Schmid (INRIA, France)  Eero Simoncelli (NYU, USA) Garrett Stanley (Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University, USA)  Raquel Urtasun (U Toronto, Canada)  Brian A Wandell (Stanford University, USA) Andrew Zisserman (U Oxford, UK) *Program Chairs:* Matthias Bethge, Michael Black, Roland Fleming, Felix Wichmann -- Dr. Judith Lam 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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Increased Impact Factor, Number of Issues & Table of Contents Alert: Cognitive Computation journal (Springer): Vol.7, No.1 / Feb 2015 Issue
by Dr Amir Hussain March 8, 2015

March 8, 2015

Dear Colleagues: (with advance apologies for any cross-postings) We are delighted to announce the publication of Volume 7, No.1 / Feb 2015 Issue, of Springer's Cognitive Computation journal - www.springer.com/12559 ================================================================ Important News: Increased Impact Factor & Six bi-monthly Journal Issues from 2015! ================================================================ As you will know, Cognitive Computation was selected for coverage in Thomson Reuter’s products and services in 2011. Beginning with V.1 (1) 2009, this publication is now indexed and abstracted in: ♦ Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch®) ♦ Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition ♦ Current Contents®/Engineering Computing and Technology ♦ Neuroscience Citation Index® Cognitive Computation received its first Impact Factor (IF) of 1.0 in 2011. The IF for 2013/2014 increased to 1.1 (with a first 5 year IF of 1.387) (Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports® 2013) Many congratulations to the editors, reviewers and authors of this exciting young journal! Want to be part of the growing success? Visit the journal homepage ( http://springer.com/12559) for instructions on submitting your research. ================================= Quarterly to Bi-monthly Issues, from 2015!! ================================= Due to continuously growing number of high quality submissions, the number of Issues has increased from four (quarterly Issues) to six (bi-monthly Issues) each year, starting Feb 2015! ======================================== The first six papers of the February 2015 Issue comprise a Special Issue on "Neural Signal Processing", Guest Edited by: Jordi Sole´-Casals, Francois-Benoit Vialatte, Justin Dauwels. The Guest Editorial titled: "Alternative Techniques of Neural Signal Processing in Neuroengineering" is available (for free download) here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-015-9317-0 The 6 Special Issue papers are followed by 8 regular papers. The full listing of 14 published articles (Table of Contents) for this inaugural 2015 Issue can be viewed here (and also at the end of this message, followed by an overview of the previous Issues/Archive listings): http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/7/1/ <http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/3/> You may also be interested in the last Special Issue of 2014 (Vol. 6, No.4 / Dec 2014) on "Modeling emotion, behaviour and context in socially believable robots and ICT interfaces", Guest Edited by: Anna Esposito, Leopoldina Fortunati, and Giuseppe Lugano. The Guest Editorial is available (for free download) here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9309-5 and the full listing of 24 articles can be found here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/4/page/1 <http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/2/page/1> This exciting Special Issue was the outcome of a strategic trans-disciplinary Workshop organized by EU COST (http://www.cost.eu/) on ‘‘The future concept and reality of social robotics: challenges, perception and applications. Role of social robotics in current and future society,’’ held in Brussels (Belgium). A list of the journal's most downloaded articles (which can always be read for FREE) can be found here: http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559?hideChart=1#realt… Other 'Online First' published articles not yet in a print issue can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/121361/?Content+Status=Accepted All previous Volumes and Issues of the journal can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/12559 ============================================ Reminder: Cognitive Computation "LinkedIn" Group: ============================================ To further strengthen the bonds amongst the interdisciplinary audience of Cognitive Computation, we have set-up a "Cognitive Computation LinkedIn group", which has nearly 800 members already! We warmly invite you to join us at: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3155048 For further information on the journal and to sign up for electronic "Table of Contents alerts" please visit the Cognitive Computation homepage: http://www.springer.com/12559 or follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/CognComput for the latest On-line First Issues. For any questions with regards to LinkedIn and/or Twitter, please contact Springer's Publishing Editor: Marleen Moore: Marleen.Moore(a)springer.com Finally, we would like to invite you to submit short or regular papers describing original research or timely review of important areas - our aim is to peer review all papers within approximately six-eight weeks of receipt. We also welcome relevant high quality proposals for Special Issues - four are already planned for 2015-16 (for CFPs, see: http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/journal/12559?detailsPage=press ) With our very best wishes to all aspiring readers and authors of Cognitive Computation, Professor Amir Hussain, PhD (Editor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation) E-mail: ahu(a)cs.stir.ac.uk (University of Stirling, Scotland, UK) Professor Igor Aleksander, PhD (Honorary Editor-in-Chief: Cognitive Computation) (Imperial College, London, UK) http://www.springer.com/12559 Also consider your work for related Book Series: SpringerBriefs on Cognitive Computation: http://www.springer.com/series/10374 NEW: Springer Series on Socio-Affective Computing: http://www.springer.com/series/13199 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents Alert -- Cognitive Computation Vol 7 No 1, Feb 2015 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special Issue on "Neural Signal Processing" Issue Editors: Jordi Sole´-Casals, Francois-Benoit Vialatte, Justin Dauwels -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative Techniques of Neural Signal Processing in Neuroengineering Jordi Solé-Casals , François-Benoît Vialatte and Justin Dauwels http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-015-9317-0/fulltext.html Multivariate Synchronization Analysis of Brain Electroencephalography Signals: A Review of Two Methods Mahdi Jalili http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-013-9213-4 EEG Correlates of Voice and Face Emotional Judgments in the Human Brain K. Hiyoshi-Taniguchi, M. Kawasaki, T. Yokota, H. Bakardjian, H. Fukuyama, A. Cichocki and F. B. Vialatte http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-013-9225-0/fulltext.html Biologically Motivated Model for Outdoor Scene Classification Jingjing Zhao, Chun Du, Hao Sun, Xingtong Liu, Jixiang Sun http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-013-9227-y Brain Evoked Potential Latencies Optimization for Spatial Auditory Brain–Computer Interface Zhenyu Cai, Shoji Makino, Tomasz M. Rutkowski http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-013-9228-x On Automatic Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease Based on Spontaneous Speech Analysis and Emotional Temperature K. López-de-Ipiña, J. B. Alonso, J. Solé-Casals, N. Barroso, P. Henriquez, M. Faundez-Zanuy, C. M. Travieso, M. Ecay-Torres, P. Martínez-Lage, H. Eguiraun http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-013-9229-9 Embedded Implementation of Second-Order Blind Identification (SOBI) for Real-Time Applications in Neuroscience Xun Zhang, François-Benoît Vialatte, Chen Chen, Apurva Rathi, Gérard Dreyfus http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9282-z -------REGULAR PAPERS------------------------ Model of the Reticular Formation of the Brainstem Based on Glial–Neuronal Interactions Bernhard J. Mitterauer http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9260-5 A Kernel Clustering-Based Possibilistic Fuzzy Extreme Learning Machine for Class Imbalance Learning Shi-Xiong Xia, Fan-Rong Meng, Bing Liu, Yong Zhou http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9256-1 Improved Jacobian Eigen-Analysis Scheme for Accelerating Learning in Feedforward Neural Networks N. Ampazis, S. J. Perantonis, D. Drivaliaris http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9263-2 A Cognitive Ensemble of Extreme Learning Machines for Steganalysis Based on Risk-Sensitive Hinge Loss Function Vasily Sachnev, Savitha Ramasamy,Suresh Sundaram, Hyoung Joong Kim, Hee Joon Hwang http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9268-x Agent-Based Modeling of Emotion Contagion in Groups Tibor Bosse, Rob Duell, Zulfiqar A. Memon, Jan Treur, C. Natalie van der Wal http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9277-9 Robust and Sparse Linear Programming Twin Support Vector Machines M. Tanveer http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9278-8 Classification of Uncertain Data Streams Based on Extreme Learning Machine Keyan Cao, Guoren Wang, Donghong Han, Jingwei Ning, Xin Zhang http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9279-7 A Cognitively Inspired Approach to Two-Way Cluster Extraction from One-Way Clustered Data Ahsan Abdullah, Amir Hussain http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12559-014-9281-0 --------------------------------------------------------- Previous Issues/Archive: Overview: --------------------------------------------------------- All previous Volumes and Issues can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/12559 Alternatively, the full listing of the Inaugural Vol. 1, No. 1 / March 2009, can be viewed here (which included invited authoritative reviews by leading researchers in their areas - including keynote papers from London University's John Taylor, Igor Aleksander and Stanford University's James McClelland, and invited papers from Ron Sun, Pentti Haikonen, Geoff Underwood, Kevin Gurney, Claudius Gross, Anil Seth and Tom Ziemke): http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/1/ The full listing of Vol. 1, No. 2 / June 2009, can be viewed here (which included invited reviews and original research contributions from leading researchers, including Rodney Douglas, Giacomo Indiveri, Jurgen Schmidhuber, Thomas Wennekers, Pentti Kanerva and Friedemann Pulvermuller): http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/2/ The full listing of Vol.1, No. 3 / Sep 2009, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/3/ The full listing of Vol. 1, No. 4 / Dec 2009, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/1/4/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 1 / March 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/1/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 2 / June 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/2/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 3 / Aug 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/3/ The full listing of Vol.2, No. 4 / Dec 2010, can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/2/4/ The full listing of Vol.3, No.1 / Mar 2011 (Special Issue on: Saliency, Attention, Active Visual Search and Picture Scanning, edited by John Taylor and Vassilis Cutsuridis), can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/1/ The Guest Editorial can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/hu2245056415633l/ The full listing of Vol.3, No.2 / June 2011 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/2/ The full listing of Vol. 3, No. 3 / Sep 2011 (Special Issue on: Cognitive Behavioural Systems, Guest Edited by: Anna Esposito, Alessandro Vinciarelli, Simon Haykin, Amir Hussain and Marcos Faundez-Zanuy), can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/3/ The Guest Editorial for the special issue can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/h4718567520t2h84/ The full listing of Vol. 3, No. 4 / Dec 2011 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/3/4/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.1 / Mar 2012 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/1/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.2 / June 2012 can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/2/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.3 / Sep 2012 (Special Issue on: Computational Creativity, Intelligence and Autonomy, Edited by: J. Mark Bishop and Yasemin J. Erden) can be viewed here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1866-9956/4/3/ The full listing of Vol. 4, No.4 / Dec 2012 (Special Issue titled: "Cognitive & Emotional Information Processing", Edited by: Stefano Squartini, Björn Schuller and Amir Hussain, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/4/4/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.1 / March 2013 Special Issue titled: Computational Intelligence and Applications Guest Editors: Zhigang Zeng & Haibo He, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/1/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.2 / June 2013 Special Issue titled: Advances on Brain Inspired Computing, Guest Editors: Stefano Squartini, Sanqing Hu & Qingshan Liu, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/2/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.3 / Sep 2013 Special Issue titled: In Memory of John G Taylor: A Polymath Scholar, Guest Editors: Vassilis Cutsuridis & Amir Hussain, which is followed by a number of regular papers), can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/3/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 5, No.4 / Dec 2013, which includes regular papers (including an invited paper by Professor Ron Sun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA, titled: Moral Judgment, Human Motivation, and Neural Networks), and a Special Issue titled: Advanced Cognitive Systems Based on Nonlinear Analysis. Guest Editors: Carlos M. Travieso and Jesús B. Alonso, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/5/4/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 6, No.1 / Mar 2014, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/1/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 6, No.2 / June 2014, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/2/page/1 The full listing of Vol. 6, No.3 / Sep 2014, can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/3/page/1 <http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/2/page/1> The full listing of Vol. 6, No.4 / Dec 2014 (Special Issue on Modeling emotion, behaviour and context in socially believable robots and ICT interfaces, Guest Editors: Anna Esposito, Leopoldina Fortunati, and Giuseppe Lugano) can be viewed here: http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/4/page/1 <http://link.springer.com/journal/12559/6/2/page/1> -- The University of Stirling has been ranked in the top 12 of UK universities for graduate employment*. 94% of our 2012 graduates were in work and/or further study within six months of graduation. *The Telegraph The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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Postdoctoral position in computational neuroscience (sensory processing & decision-making)
by Ralf Haefner March 6, 2015

March 6, 2015

A postdoctoral position is available in the group of Ralf Haefner in the department for Brain & Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester (NY). The focus of our group is on understanding the neural basis of perceptual inference. Based on the assumption that the brain performs probabilistic inference using an internal model of the world, we ask questions such as: What is the nature of the internal model? How is it learnt? How are posterior beliefs represented by spiking responses of populations of neurons and what algorithm does the brain use to compute its beliefs? The position requires strong mathematical and good programming skills. The ideal candidate would also be familiar with (or quick to pick up) machine learning techniques, especially relating to probabilistic graphical models and MCMC sampling. Possible research projects range from purely theoretical to data-driven. Our collaborations with electrophysiology labs allow for the testing of theoretical models using state-of-the-art cortical population recordings in behaving animals and, if desired, the opportunity to record your own data. More information about past work is available here: http://tinyurl.com/rmhaefner and manuscripts indicating the group's research directions here http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.0257 and here: http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nn.3309 For details on current and possible future projects, and general information, please contact me directly. The successful candidate with join a highly collaborative department with a strong tradition in probabilistic modeling across a wide range from sensory processing to language learning (https://www.bcs.rochester.edu/research/index.html ). The city of Rochester is located on the shore of Lake Ontario in upstate New York and has a high quality of life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_New_York ). Start date and duration are flexible. Please send applications including a CV and names of 2-3 references by email. I'll be at COSYNE for both conference and workshops and available to meet there in person. Ralf Haefner Assistant Professor Brain & Cognitive Sciences University of Rochester (NY) rhaefner(a)bcs.rochester.edu

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Last Mile: DATA ANALYTICS 2015 || July 19 - 24, 2015 - Nice, France
by Cristina Pascual March 5, 2015

March 5, 2015

INVITATION: ================= The submission deadline is March 18, 2015. Please consider to contribute to and/or forward to the appropriate groups the following opportunity to submit and publish original scientific results to DATA ANALYTICS 2015. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit extended article versions to one of the IARIA Journals: http://www.iariajournals.org ================= ============== DATA ANALYTICS 2015 | Call for Papers =============== CALL FOR PAPERS, TUTORIALS, PANELS DATA ANALYTICS 2015, The Fourth International Conference on Data Analytics July 19 - 24, 2015 - Nice, France General page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/DATAANALYTICS15.html Call for Papers: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/CfPDATAANALYTICS15.html Submission page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/SubmitDATAANALYTICS15.html Contributions: - regular papers [in the proceedings, digital library] - short papers (work in progress) [in the proceedings, digital library] - ideas: two pages [in the proceedings, digital library] - extended abstracts: two pages [in the proceedings, digital library] - posters: two pages [in the proceedings, digital library] - posters: slide only [slide-deck posted at www.iaria.org] - presentations: slide only [slide-deck posted at www.iaria.org] - demos: two pages [posted at www.iaria.org] - doctoral forum submissions: [in the proceedings, digital library] Proposals for: - mini-symposia: see http://www.iaria.org/symposium.html - workshops: see http://www.iaria.org/workshop.html - tutorials: [slide-deck posed on www.iaria.org] - panels: [slide-deck posed on www.iaria.org] Submission deadline: March 18, 2015 Sponsored by IARIA, www.iaria.org Extended versions of selected papers will be published in IARIA Journals: http://www.iariajournals.org Print proceedings will be available via Curran Associates, Inc.: http://www.proceedings.com/9769.html Articles will be archived in the free access ThinkMind Digital Library: http://www.thinkmind.org The topics suggested by the conference can be discussed in term of concepts, state of the art, research, standards, implementations, running experiments, applications, and industrial case studies. Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review in any other conference or journal in the following, but not limited to, topic areas. All tracks are open to both research and industry contributions, in terms of Regular papers, Posters, Work in progress, Technical/marketing/business presentations, Demos, Tutorials, and Panels. Before submission, please check and comply with the editorial rules: http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html DATA ANALYTICS 2015 Topics (topics and submission details: see CfP on the site) Fundamentals for data analytics Tools, frameworks and mechanisms for data analytics; Open API for data analytics; In-database analytics; Pre-built analytics (pattern, time-series, clustering, graph, statistical analysis, etc.); Analytics visualization; Multi-modal support for data analytics; Google/FaceBook/Twitter/etc. analytics; High-performance data analytics Mechanisms and features Scalable data analytics; Big data analytics; Deep data analytics; Mass data analytics; Storing, dropping and filtering data; Relevant/redundant/obsolete data analytics; Volume vs. semantics analytics; Nomad analytics; Predictive analytics; Trust in data analytics; Legal issues analytics; Failure on data analytics Sentiment/opinion analysis Architectures for generic sentiment analysis systems; Sentiment analysis techniques on social media; Document-level analysis; Sentence-level analysis; Aspect-based analysis; Comparative-sentiment analysis; Sentiment lexicon acquisition; Optimizing sentiment analysis algorithms; Applications of sentiment analysis. Application-oriented analytics Statistical applications; Simulation applications; Crawling web services; Cross-database analytics; Forecast analytics; Financial risk management; ROI analytics Target analytics Business analytics; Malware analytics; Cyber-threats analytics; Mining user logs; Reputation analytics; User choice analytics; Branding analytics; Utility proximity-search analytics; Survey-based online asset analytics; Online employment analytics; Geology analytics; Global climate analytics; Remote learning analytics; Homecare analytics; Population growth and migration analytics; Food-borne illness outbreaks analytics Big Data Foundational models for Big Data; Big Data Analytics and Metrics; Big Data processing and management; Big Data search and mining; Big Data platforms; Big Data persistence and preservation; Big Data and social networks; Big Data economics Huge data Knowledge Discovery from Huge Data; Computational Intelligence for Huge Data; Linked Huge Data; Security Intelligence with Huge Data ------------- Committee: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/ComDATAANALYTICS15.html ================================================

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IJCAI’15 Workshop on Sensitivity Analysis and Robustness in Probabilistic Graphical Models (2nd CFP)
by Alessandro Antonucci March 5, 2015

March 5, 2015

IJCAI’15 Workshop on Sensitivity Analysis and Robustness in Probabilistic Graphical Models Buenos Aires, July 25-27, 2015 - http://ipg.idsia.ch/wijcai15/ SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS Probabilistic graphical models are important tools in machine learning and artificial intelligence for reasoning with uncertainty. They provide means to represent large multivariate domains compactly and to perform sophisticated learning and reasoning efficiently. Examples of probabilistic graphical models are Bayesian networks, Markov Random fields, chain and factor graphs, Gaussian graphical models, to name but a few. The quantification of these models usually requires sharp (i.e., precise) assessments of the model local potentials and might be subject to robustness issues. For instance, perturbations of some parameter values may lead to different decisions from those which would be achieved by the unperturbed model, suggesting that decisions are not reliable. Reliability might also be in question because of missing data and assumptions behind the process. The workshop invites submissions of papers on all aspects of sensitivity analysis and robustness in probabilistic graphical models. Contributions may have a theoretical focus and/or an applied focus. A non-exhaustive list of topics follows. - Local and/or global sensitivity analysis. - Parameter-based and/or decision-based sensitivity analysis. - Design of robust learning, inference and/or decision making approaches. - Robust analysis and design of robustness measurements. - Extensions of probabilistic graphical models. - Reliable qualitative learning and reasoning. - Robust treatment of missing data. - Imprecise probability and other theories related to sensitivity analysis. - Computational complexity, exact and approximate algorithms. Each submission will be reviewed by peers using a double-blind process (please use the third person in self citations and take all necessary care not to identify yourselves). Accepted papers will be published electronically in a volume of the JMLR Workshop and Conference Proceedings series. There will be no rebuttal phase, but contributions considered worth publishing and needing substantial revision might be subject to a second round of reviewing/evaluation. All accepted papers will be presented at the workshop. At least one of the paper's authors should register and attend the workshop to present the work. Submissions must be formatted according to style and template files available for the Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR) Workshop and Conference Proceedings - two-column version. The files are available at http://ipg.idsia.ch/wijcai15/sarpgm15.tar.gz. Papers (including figures, tables, references, etc) are expected to have between 6 and 10 pages. IMPORTANT DATES Apr 27, 2015 - Deadline for submissions of contributions May 20, 2015 - Workshop paper acceptance notification May 30, 2015 - Deadline for workshop camera-ready copy (in case of minor revision; contributions needing major revision might need additional time - this will be arranged case by case) PC MEMBERS Alessandro Antonucci*, IDSIA, Switzerland. Alessio Benavoli, IDSIA, Switzerland. Cassio P. de Campos*, Queen's University Belfast, UK. Arthur Choi, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Giorgio Corani*, IDSIA, Switzerland. Fabio Cozman, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Adnan Darwiche, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Sebastien Destercke, Univ. de Technologie de Compiegne, France. Marek Druzdzel, University of Pittsburgh, USA. Johan Kwisthout, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Agnieszka Onisko, Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. Denis Maua, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Serafin Moral, Universidad de Granada, Spain. Silja Renooij, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands. Matthias Troffaes, University of Durham, UK. (*: Workshop organizers.) More details about the submission procedure are available online. http://ipg.idsia.ch/wijcai15/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (We apologize in case you receive multiple copies of this announcement, but yet we hope to reach the greatest possible number of people. Finding a trade-off is not an easy task.) -- _________________________________ Alessandro Antonucci IDSIA Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence Via Cantonale (Galleria 2) CH-6928, Manno-Lugano, CH mail: alessandro(a)idsia.ch skype: alessandro.antonucci tel: +41 916108515 web: www.idsia.ch/~alessandro _________________________________

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Ph.D. Studentship at the University of Ulster - Data Analytics in Mental Health
by Wong-Lin, Kongfatt March 4, 2015

March 4, 2015

Applications are invited for the following DEL CAST studentship (Co-operative Awards in Science and Technology): Title: Extraction and modelling of mental health data: big data analytics approach With the increasing volume of datasets in neuroscience and mental health, data analytics and modelling will become indispensable. This project aims to use data analytics, probabilistic modelling, and high-performance computing to integrate and analyse available open but heterogeneous big data to extract patterns and predict Alzheimer’s disease. This timely, exciting and high-impact project is available in the University of Ulster’ Computer Science Research Institute (in collaboration with Asystec Ltd) and is tenable in the Faculty of Computing and Engineering at the Magee Campus. The successful PhD candidate will join an externally funded multidisciplinary research team, and will benefit from the expertise of Ulster’s computational neuroscience and intelligence, and Asystec’s big data management and analytics. The student will also have the opportunity to interact with other biomedical and translational/clinical researchers in the team. The student will gain valuable knowledge in data analytics, high-performance computing, mathematics/statistics and brain sciences, which are all essential in many areas of science, engineering and biology. This training will provide wide opportunities for finding skilled work, especially in the burgeoning field of data analytics. The student will have the opportunity to learn first-hand about advanced software development, knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship with Asystec. Applicants should hold ordinary UK residence to be eligible for both fees and maintenance. Non UK residents who hold ordinary EU residence may also apply but if successful will receive fees only. All applicants should hold a first or upper second class honours (or equivalent) degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering or a related discipline. Applicants must be highly motivated and willing to pursue research and develop skills across disciplines. Successful candidates will enrol on a full-time research programme, of up to three years subject to satisfactory progress, leading to the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The studentship will comprise tuition fees and a maintenance award (subject to UK residence status) of not less than £15,057 per annum, funded by DEL (the Department for Employment & Learning in NI) and Asystec Ltd. The application process for the Ph.D. studentship is opened with a closing date for applications on the 30th April 2015, and interviews will be held in May 2015. The studentship is expected to start in September 2015. Further details can be found at: http://research.ulster.ac.uk/info/researchopp/DEL%20CAST%20Asystec.html If you wish to discuss your proposal or receive advice on the research project please contact: Dr KongFatt Wong-Lin, tel: +44 028 7167 5320, email: k.wong-lin(a)ulster.ac.uk ----------------------------- KongFatt Wong-Lin University of Ulster ________________________________ This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain information which is covered by legal, professional or other privilege. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager at postmaster(a)ulster.ac.uk and delete this email immediately. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ulster University. The University's computer systems may be monitored and communications carried out on them may be recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. Ulster University does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of a separate attachment, the text of email is not intended to form a binding contract. Correspondence to and from the University may be subject to requests for disclosure by 3rd parties under relevant legislation. The University of Ulster was founded by Royal Charter in 1984 and is registered with company number RC000726 and VAT registered number GB672390524.The primary contact address for Ulster University in Northern Ireland is Cromore Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1SA

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POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE AT BROWN UNIVERSITY
by Wilson Truccolo March 4, 2015

March 4, 2015

POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE AT BROWN UNIVERSITY: Applications for NIH-funded post-doctoral positions are invited for the Laboratory of Dr. Wilson Truccolo in the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. The positions are for the development of data-driven stochastic and biophysical models of multiscale neural dynamics in human epilepsy. Data consist of simultaneous intracortical microelectrode array recordings of ensembles of single neurons and local field potentials, as well as ECoGs, during seizure and non-seizure states in individuals with intractable epilepsy. The project involves a collaboration between the labs of Dr. Truccolo and Dr. Sydney Cash (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston). The ideal candidate will have a strong background in computational/theoretical neuroscience and modeling of stochastic neural dynamics. Related recent publications can be found on the Truccolo lab website ( http://www.truccololab.com/ <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/983891/Truccolo_home.htm>). Inquiries should be addressed to Dr. Truccolo (wilson_truccolo(a)brown.edu) Applications including a CV, statement of research interests, and the names and full contact details of three referees should be sent to wilson_truccolo(a)brown.edu. -- Wilson Truccolo, Ph.D. Pablo J. Salame '88 Goldman Sachs Assistant Professor of Computational Neuroscience Institute for Brain Science & Department of Neuroscience, Brown University Lab website: http://www.truccololab.com/

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Post-doc at UPenn with Johannes Burge
by Johannes Burge March 4, 2015

March 4, 2015

Postdoctoral position: Perception and neural computation with natural stimuli A postdoctoral position is available to study natural scene statistics, computational neuroscience, and behavioral measurements of performance in the laboratory of Johannes Burge at the University of Pennsylvania. In the lab, we use mathematics, computation, and psychophysics to investigate how vision works in natural conditions. We are broadly interested in how normative models of fundamental perceptual tasks and sub-tasks provide insight into behavioral performance and underlying neural mechanisms. Projects will focus on the processing of motion, stereo-disparity, motion-in-depth, defocus blur, and color in images of natural scenes. I am looking for applicants with strong experience in computational modeling, probability theory, numerical optimization, and psychophysical experimentation. The ideal applicant will also have a general interest in natural images, depth perception, and rigorous experimental work. Programming experience in Matlab, C/C++, OpenGL, and Psychtoolbox is strongly desired, as is an inclination to tinker with high-end display equipment. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to work with: i) a recently collected state-of-the-art, stereo-image database with occlusion-free co-registered laser range data, ii) a high-performance computing cluster, iii) a Vpixx ProPixx stereo-projector (1920x1080 resolution at 480Hz; 240Hz per eye). UPenn has a vibrant community of research groups on the leading edge of perception and systems neuroscience research. Additionally, our lab is affiliated with the newly formed Computational Neuroscience Initiative (CNI, http://cni.upenn.edu) so possibilities for collaboration are strong. Philadelphia is a multi-cultural, diverse, affordable city. Applicants should submit a CV, a 1-page research statement, two sample papers (published or in preparation), and the names, email addresses, and phone numbers of three people qualified to recommend you and your work. The position is for one year with a strong possibility of renewal for a second and third year. To apply or ask questions please contact Johannes Burge at the University of Pennsylvania. I will be attending the upcoming COSYNE conference in Salt Lake City, UT from March 5-7. Please contact me, if you would like to set up a meeting. ======================== Johannes Burge, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Psychology Neuroscience Graduate Group University of Pennsylvania http://burgelab.psych.upenn.edu jburge(a)sas.upenn.edu (215) 573 6528

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ECMLPKDD 2015 : Call for Demos
by ECMLPKDD 2015 March 4, 2015

March 4, 2015

http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org For ECML PKDD 2015 in Porto, Portugal, we solicit submissions for demos. Submissions must describe working systems and be based on state-of-the-art machine learning and data mining technology. These systems may be innovative prototype implementations or mature systems that use machine learning techniques and knowledge discovery processes in a real setting. Systems that use basic statistics are not acceptable. Commercial software is not acceptable. The accepted papers for demos will be included in the conference proceedings, to be published by Springer Verlag in the "Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence" (LNAI) Series. The demos will be presented in a special demonstration session. At least one of the demo submitters must register for the conference, and perform the demo on site. Submission Guidelines All aspects of the submission and notification process will be handled online via the CMT conference management toolkit accessible from the conference web. Please choose the right track during the submission. Instructions concerning the submission, camera-ready formatting and copyright transfer for conference papers also hold for demo papers, unless otherwise specified. A demonstration submission must be up to 4 pages long. It must provide adequate information on the systems components and the way the system is operated, including e.g. screenshots. Submitters should keep in mind that the description of a demo has inherently different content than a research paper submitted to the main conference. A successful demonstration paper provides satisfactory answers the following questions: - What are the innovative aspects or in what way/area does it represent the state of the art? - Who are the target users and why is the system interesting/useful for them? - If there are similar/related pieces of software, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the presented one? The formatting guidelines of Springer Verlag for the LNAI series apply, and the author instructions and style files under http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html must be used. For inquiries concerning submissions please contact the Demo Track Chairs; contact data below. Important Dates - Demo submission deadline: 30 April 2015 - Notification of acceptance: 1 June 2015 - Camera-ready paper due: 15 June 2015 (aligned to the deadline of the main conference) Contacts For further information please contact the Demo Track Chairs: - Francesco Bonchi - Jaime Cardoso, INESC TEC and Univ. Porto - Myra Spiliopoulou, Univ. Magdeburg, http://www.kmd.ovgu.de/Team/Academic+Staff/Myra+Spiliopoulou.html Hope to see you all soon in Porto, Portugal!!! The publicity chairs of the ECMLPKDD 2015, Carlos Abreu Ferreira Ricardo Campos --- Este e-mail foi verificado em termos de vírus pelo software antivírus Avast. http://www.avast.com

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Last Mile: SEMAPRO 2015 || July 19 - 24, 2015 - Nice, France
by Cristina Pascual March 4, 2015

March 4, 2015

INVITATION: ================= The submission deadline is March 18, 2015. Please consider to contribute to and/or forward to the appropriate groups the following opportunity to submit and publish original scientific results to SEMAPRO 2015. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit extended article versions to one of the IARIA Journals: http://www.iariajournals.org ================= ============== SEMAPRO 2015 | Call for Papers =============== CALL FOR PAPERS, TUTORIALS, PANELS SEMAPRO 2015, The Ninth International Conference on Advances in Semantic Processing July 19 - 24, 2015 - Nice, France General page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/SEMAPRO15.html Call for Papers: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/CfPSEMAPRO15.html Submission page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/SubmitSEMAPRO15.html Contributions: - regular papers [in the proceedings, digital library] - short papers (work in progress) [in the proceedings, digital library] - ideas: two pages [in the proceedings, digital library] - extended abstracts: two pages [in the proceedings, digital library] - posters: two pages [in the proceedings, digital library] - posters: slide only [slide-deck posted at www.iaria.org] - presentations: slide only [slide-deck posted at www.iaria.org] - demos: two pages [posted at www.iaria.org] - doctoral forum submissions: [in the proceedings, digital library] Proposals for: - mini-symposia: see http://www.iaria.org/symposium.html - workshops: see http://www.iaria.org/workshop.html - tutorials: [slide-deck posed on www.iaria.org] - panels: [slide-deck posed on www.iaria.org] Submission deadline: March 18, 2015 Sponsored by IARIA, www.iaria.org Extended versions of selected papers will be published in IARIA Journals: http://www.iariajournals.org Print proceedings will be available via Curran Associates, Inc.: http://www.proceedings.com/9769.html Articles will be archived in the free access ThinkMind Digital Library: http://www.thinkmind.org The topics suggested by the conference can be discussed in term of concepts, state of the art, research, standards, implementations, running experiments, applications, and industrial case studies. Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review in any other conference or journal in the following, but not limited to, topic areas. All tracks are open to both research and industry contributions, in terms of Regular papers, Posters, Work in progress, Technical/marketing/business presentations, Demos, Tutorials, and Panels. Before submission, please check and comply with the editorial rules: http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html SEMAPRO 2015 Topics (topics and submission details: see CfP on the site) Basics on semantics Fundamental of semantics processing; Semantic-based techniques for feature selection; Semantic-based pruning; Semantic interoperability; Semantics uncertainty; Semantics pre-processing and post-processing; Semantics harmonization; Constraint-based semantics processing; Embedded semantics into the discovery process; Semantics in spatial and spatio-temporal models Ontology fundamentals for semantic processing Ontology learning; Ontology for semantic interoperability; Ontologies and data pre-processing; Ontology-based evaluation and semantic patterns; Global core ontologies; Progressive ontologies; Bridging semantics through ontologies; Ontology mapping and ontology visualization; Ontology in information systems; Ontology-based semantic mediation; Ontology design and maintenance for conceptual model integration; Reverse engineering of ontologies from conceptual model; Ontologies for explanation generation Semantic technologies Basics of Ontology and Semantic Web; Semantic storing, computing, representation, communications; Semantic-driven system design; Syntactic and semantic processing models; Hardware and software support for semantic processing; Microprocessors for semantic processing; Multi-model semantic systems; Semantic annotation of multimedia supports; Semantic multimedia information retrieval; Natural language semantic processing; Context-based semantic processing; Content-based semantic processing; Scalability to the Web level; Performance in semantic processing; Information security in semantic processing; Explaining semantic processing and its results Models and ontology-based design of protocols, architectures and services Fundamentals in theory; Modeling methodologies; Models and Ontology-driven Technologies (for the communications system design); Models and ontology relationships; Multi-models coherence. Models and ontology-based communications services and protocols; Semantics of services and service modeling; Protocol models and semantics; Application and quality of experience semantics; Services and protocols semantics; Models and ontology-based cross-layer services and architectures design; Models and ontology-based software frameworks; Composition of Services and Composability rules; Cross-layering services models, components and implementations Semantic Deep Web Ontology plug-in search; Information extraction from the Deep Web /e-commerce sites/; Semantic Deep Web annotation and indexing; Deep Web-based ontology; Semantic Deep Web crawlers; Semantic browsing and visualization; Semantic Deep Web data fusion; Semiautomatic ontology generation; Metrics for quality of ontology; Similarity measures for ontology alignment; Measurements for quality of search; Tools for semantic Deep Web; Experience extraction from the Web Semantic reasoning Reasoning methods; Reasoning for the Web; Ontology expressiveness; Ontology alignment, mapping and merging; Expressing formal semantics; Languages (RDF, RDF Schema, OWL, etc); Robustness of reasoning on the Web; Patterns on semantic reasoning; Querying and searching; Scalable and tolerant reasoning; Dynamic reasoning for the Semantic Web; Ontologies and problem-solving methods; Computational learning theory; Approximate reasoning/computing; Strategies for abstraction and compression of information; Cognitive semantic reasoning; Attention semantic scoping; Recency-based self-optimizing memory; Cost-benefit trade-off reasoning models; Negotiation in obtaining near-optimal reasoning results under bounded resources; Case-based reasoning Semantic content searching Methodologies for innovative information retrieval technologies; Combinatorial search; Massive search-spaces with heuristics (e.g., based on Monte Carlo simulations); Searching using metadata, semantics, and ontology; Advanced searching in digital libraries; Advanced use of RDF and OWL; Expressiveness of the content ontologies; Inherent inconsistency and incompleteness of data on the Web; Scalability of semantic processing; Specialized search engines (Hakia, Matrixware and seekda) Hypertext and hypermedia semantic Hypertext techniques and semantic applications; Hypertext and ontologies; Hypertext semantic models; Spatial semantic hypertext; Self-organized hypertext; Semantic adaptive hypertext; Web and hypertext link analysis; Hypertexts and semantic Web; Hypertext semantic applications Semantic voice-video-speech (VVS) searching Engines and methods for VVS advanced searching; Patterns in VVS searching; Contextual VVS searching; Rapid VVS searching; Accuracy in VVS searching; Noise in VVS searching; Performance in VVS searching; Metrics for VVS searching; Text and VVS searching; Applications of VVS Semantic multimedia Efficient storage of structured data that scale to a very large size; Automatic generation of multimedia presentations; Advanced process for multimedia information mining; Semantic metadata extraction; Annotation tools and methods for content semantics; Media ontology generation/learning/reasoning; Semantic multimedia streaming; Semantics enabled multimedia applications /annotation/browsing/storage/retrieval/visualization Semantic social media Community detection and evolution in social media; Recommendation and ranking systems; Search in social media; Event detection, trend identification and tracking in social media; Influence, trust and reputation in social media; Opinion/sentiment analysis, polarity identification; Feed distillation and ranking blogs; Mining microblogging and real time data; Folksonomy, tag semantics, clustering and usage; Advertising models for the social web; Indexing social media content, index freshness; Visualizing social network data; Spam detection, social network spam and profile spam Semantics for sentiment/opinion analysis Architectures for generic sentiment analysis systems; Sentiment analysis techniques on social media; Document-level analysis; Sentence-level analysis; Aspect-based analysis; Comparative-sentiment analysis; Sentiment lexicon acquisition; Optimizing sentiment analysis algorithms; Applications of sentiment analysis Semantic networking Semantic-based QoS (Quality of Service) control and scheduling; Semantic QoE (Quality of Experience) evaluation; Semantic-based Internet data streaming and delivery; Semantics enabled networking and middleware; Semantic routing; Semantic interfaces Domain-oriented semantic applications Semantics for managing pharmaceutical data; Semantic processing for biomedical knowledge; Speech, text and picture recognition; Semantic email workflow and content; Semantic blogs and wikis; Semantic email addressing; Semantic web and digital libraries; Semantic processing in e-Health; Semantic-driven tutoring systems Economics and governance of semantics technologies Organizational views; Legal; Business; Regulations; Assessment; Standards; Harmonization; Cross-nation mediation Semantic applications/platforms/tools Market for semantic technologies; Applications, services and systems based on semantic processing; User friendly semantic system integration tools; Ontology-based data transformation and data migration tools; Ontology mapping tools and languages; Ontology-enabled interoperability in e-science, life sciences, e-business, culture; Commercial cost models for semantic applications; Semantic solutions for business intelligence; Semantic processing platforms ; Supporting ontology platforms/tools (Prot�g�, etc); Semantic query languages (SPARQL, etc); Ontology-enabled search engines; Semantic Web search engines; Interoperability of data, systems, and organizations; Experiments and lessons learned; Standard activities ---------------------- Committee: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/ComSEMAPRO15.html ================================================

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Final Program of the Columbia Workshop on Brain Circuits, Memory and Computation
by Aurel A. Lazar March 4, 2015

March 4, 2015

Columbia Workshop on Brain Circuits, Memory and Computation BCMC 2015 Monday and Tuesday, March 16-17, 2015 Center for Neural Engineering and Computation Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 Monday, March 16, 09:00 AM - 05:45 PM 09:00 AM - 09:45 AM Yoshi Aso (HHMI Janelia), Mushroom Body Output Neurons Encode Valence and Guide Memory-based Action Selection 09:45 AM - 10:30 AM Barbara Webb (University of Edinburgh), A Computational Model of the Insect Mushroom Body Applied to Ant Navigation 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM Co↵ee Break 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Wolfgang Maass (Graz University of Technology), A New Perspective of Synaptic Plasticity and Network Rewiring 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM Charles Randy Gallistel (Rutgers University), The Memory Coding Problem 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM Lunch Break 02:00 PM - 02:45 PM Charles D. Gilbert (Rockefeller University), The Dynamic Brain 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM Stefan Mihalas (Allen Institute for Brain Science), Computational Properties of Cortical Columns 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM Afternoon Break 04:00 PM - 04:45 PM Gary F. Marcus (New York University), The Atoms of Neural Computation 04:45 PM - 05:45 PM Panel Discussion: What Would a Good Theory of the Brain Actually Look Like? Tuesday, March 17, 09:00 AM - 05:45 PM 09:00 AM - 09:45 AM Vivek Jayaraman (HHMI Janelia), A Donut that Means the World to the Fly 09:45 AM - 10:30 AM Daniel Coca (University of Sheffield), Fly Photoreceptors Detect Phase Congruency 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM Co↵ee Break 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Damon A. Clark (Yale University), Tuning Neural Nonlinearities for Naturalistic Visual Motion Estimation 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM Aurel A. Lazar (Columbia University), Neurokernel: Building an in Silico Fruit Fly Brain 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM Lunch Break 02:00 PM - 02:45 PM Anthony Leonardo (HHMI Janelia), Neural Circuits Underlying Internal Models in Predictive Motor Control 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM Fabrizio Gabbiani (Baylor College of Medicine), Biophysics and Neural Computations Underlying Visually-Guided Collision Avoidance Behaviors 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM Afternoon Break 04:00 PM - 04:45 PM Dmitri ”Mitya” B. Chklovskii (Simons Foundation), A Biological Neuron as an Online Matrix Factorization Device 04:45 PM - 05:45 PM Panel Discussion: A Neuroscience Esperanto: Building a Better Bridge Between Modeling and Experimental Neurobiology Registration is free but all participants have to register at: https://bcmc15.eventbrite.com/ Workshop Website: http://www.bionet.ee.columbia.edu/workshops/bcmc/2015 Aurel http://www.bionet.ee.columbia.edu

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First Announcement: International Conference on System Level approaches to Neural Engineering
by Alessandro Barardi March 3, 2015

March 3, 2015

--------------------------------------- FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT --------------------------------------- International Conference on System Level approaches to Neural Engineering Dates: September 21st – 23rd , 2015 Venue: Barcelona Biomedical Research Park <http://www.prbb.org/>, Barcelona, Spain Website: http://www.neural-engineering.eu/BarcelonaConference2015/index.html The aim of this interdisciplinary conference is to bring together theoretical and experimental neuroscientists and roboticists to discuss the state of the art in the field of Neural Engineering. This three day long event is part of a series of training events organized by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network NETT (Neural Engineering Transformative Technologies). It will also give young researchers an opportunity to present their work. Theme panels are: * Neural Dynamics - mathematical description of neuronal activity * Brain-on-Chip - engineering of neuronal circuits in-vitro with emphasis on microfluidics * Neural Learning and Control - motion planning, controlling and learning neuro-inspired techniques for robotics * Neural Coding - investigation of neuronal strategies for encoding information * Optical Neurotechnology - imaging and engineering techniques that allow recording of neuronal activity --------------------------------------- CONFIRMED SPEAKERS --------------------------------------- Andre Bastos - The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Boston, MA, USA Romain Brette - Institut de la Vision, Paris, France Sophie Deneve - Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, LNC, Paris, France Dario Farina - Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Göttingen, Germany Albert Folch - Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Amanda Foust - Imperial College London, London, UK Sami Haddadin - Institute of Automatic Control, Hannover, Germany Kenneth Harris - Institute of Neurology and the Department of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience, UCL, London, UK Fritjof Helmchen - Brain Research Institute, Zürich, Switzerland Thibault Honegger - Laboratoire des Technologies de la Microelectronique, CNRS-CEA, Grenoble, France Eugene Izhikevich - Brain Corporation, San Diego, CA, USA Viktor Jirsa - Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Marseille, France David Liley - Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia Benjamin Lindner - Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany Nikos Logothetis - Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany Yoonkey Nam - Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea Adam Packer - University College London, London, UK Stefano Panzeri - Neural Computation Lab, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rovereto, Italy Eftychios Pnevmatikakis - Columbia University, New York, NY, USA Alexandre Pouget - CMU, Geneva, Switzerland Jan Schnupp - Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, Oxford, UK Gregor Schöner - Institut für Neuroinformatik Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany Reza Shadmehr - John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA Patrick van der Smagt - BRML labs, TUM, Germany John Terry - College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, UK International Conference on System Level Approaches to Neural Engineering conference is organised by the Fellows of the Neural Engineering Transformative Technologies <http://www.neural-engineering.eu/> (NETT) consortium. On their behalf we cordially invite you to participate in this meeting that will take place in Barcelona, Spain, on September 21st – 23rd , 2015. The NETT consortium is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network involving neuroscience research laboratories from the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal and industrial partners. The network is coordinated by Professor Stephen Coombes from the University of Nottingham, UK. --------------------------------------- REGISTRATION --------------------------------------- Registration can be done on our registration form <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/international-conference-on-system-level-app…> . Registration opens: 1st March 2015 Registration deadline: 30th May 2015 Conference fee will be 200 euros plus 50 euros for an optional conference dinner. Details about the payment will be posted on the conference website. --- Call for posters --- Posters will be selected from half-page abstracts, which should be submitted by email to nett.barcelona.2015(a)gmail.com. Please specify in the object to which theme panel you are submitting your abstract. Abstract Submission opens: 1st of March 2015 Abstract Submission closes: 30th May 2015 Abstract Acceptance Notification: 30th June 2015 Best regards, On behalf of the 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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postdoctoral position at Rice University/Baylor College of Medicine
by Fabrizio Gabbiani March 3, 2015

March 3, 2015

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE/BIOPHYSICAL MODELING Computational and Applied Mathematics Rice University and Department of Neuroscience Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Texas ----- A postdoctoral position in computational neuroscience is available at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine, in the laboratories of Steven Cox (Rice University) and Fabrizio Gabbiani (Baylor College of Medicine). Our research focuses on understanding the biophysical mechanisms underlying the implementation of non-linear operations by neurons and neuronal circuits. The postdoctoral fellow will model the cellular and network mechanisms underlying collision avoidance behaviors using advanced mathematical techniques and computer simulations. Modeling will be supported by a large data set of experimental data gathered using electrophysiology, pharmacology, calcium imaging, high-speed video imaging and telemetry. We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with a strong background in computational modeling of single neurons and neuronal circuits. Experience with Matlab and NEURON is required. The position is available for one year, with possibility of renewal for a second year, contingent of performance and funding availability. Salary will be commensurate with level of experience, based on an NIH scale. Applications will be accepted until May 15, 2015. Our labs are located at Rice University and in the adjacent Texas Medical Center, close to many of Houston's cultural and outdoor amenities. For further information about Rice University, the Texas Medical Center and Houston please visit http://www.explore.rice.edu/explore/General_Information.asp or https://www.bcm.edu/about-us/life-in-houston For further informal inquiries and to apply, please send CV, the names and full contact information of two to three references, as well as one to two representative publications to cox(a)rice.edu and gabbiani(a)bcm.edu. -- Fabrizio Gabbiani phone: (713) 798 1849 Department of Neuroscience fax: (713) 798 3946 Baylor College of Medicine email: gabbiani(a)bcm.edu One Baylor Plaza, web: glab.bcm.tmc.edu Houston, TX 77030 mail stop: BCM295

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IEEE SMC2015 Special Session: Cognitive Agents and Robotics for Human-Centric Systems: new models and challenges
by Alessandro Di Nuovo March 3, 2015

March 3, 2015

[Apologies for multiple postings of this announcement] =========================== CALL FOR PAPERS ============================ IEEE SMC2015 Special Session Cognitive Agents and Robotics for Human-Centric Systems: new models and challenges Introduction Cognitive Agents are inspired from the human cognitive capabilities to exhibit effective behavior through perception, action, deliberation, communication, and through either individual or social interaction with the environment. These computational agents have the ability to function effectively in circumstances not explicitly planned when the system was designed. This ability makes it especially suited to control complex systems, such as robotics, which are designed to provide services and proactively interact with people and other artificial agents in composite Human-Centric environments. The special session aims to attract new developments in the area of cognitive systems, such as novel engineering principles, models and applications of cybernetic systems capable to autonomously improve their capabilities when interacting with the environment in an open-ended process. As a follow-up, authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit an extended version to a special issue in the journal IEEE Transaction on Cognitive Systems and Development (new name of IEEE Trans. on Autonomous Mental Development.) Indicative Topics/Areas The special session welcomes all the contributions in the area of Artificial Cognitive Systems applied to human-centric environments, with particular interest (but not limited to) the following topics: - Bio-inspired, developmental and Cognitive Robotics - Ambient Assisted Living via Cognitive Agents - Computational models of human cognition and interaction - Engineering applications of Cognitive Systems - Artificial Agent cognitive development - Natural language understanding - Standard tools for the design of Cognitive Systems - Medical Systems and Diagnosis - Evolutionary Cognitive Robotics - Cognitive Systems for human wellbeing Important Dates March 31, 2015: Deadline for submission of full-length papers to special sessions. June 1, 2015: Acceptance/Rejection Notification. July 31, 2015: Final camera-ready papers due in electronic form. Submission Manuscripts for a Special Session should NOT be submitted in duplication to any other regular or special sessions and should be submitted to SMC 2015 main conference online submission system on SMC 2015 conference website. All submitted papers of Special Sessions have to undergo the same review process (three completed reviews per paper). The technical reviewers for each Special Session paper will be members of the SMC 2015 Program Committee and qualified peer-reviewers to be nominated by the Special Session organizers. Special Session organizers Alessandro Di Nuovo, Plymouth University (UK) & University of Enna Kore (Italy) alessandro.dinuovo(a)plymouth.ac.uk<mailto:alessandro.dinuovo@plymouth.ac.uk> Giovanni Acampora, Nottingham Trent University (UK) giovanni.acampora(a)ntu.ac.uk<mailto:giovanni.acampora@ntu.ac.uk> ________________________________ [http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/images/email_footer.gif]<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/worldclass> This email and any files with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient then copying, distribution or other use of the information contained is strictly prohibited and you should not rely on it. If you have received this email in error please let the sender know immediately and delete it from your system(s). Internet emails are not necessarily secure. While we take every care, Plymouth University accepts no responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan emails and their attachments. Plymouth University does not accept responsibility for any changes made after it was sent. Nothing in this email or its attachments constitutes an order for goods or services unless accompanied by an official order form.

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INCF Short Course on Information Processing in Neural Systems
by Frank Jäkel March 3, 2015

March 3, 2015

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INCF Short Course on Information Processing in Neural Systems -- From Single Neurons to Large-Scale Models of Cognition -- May 2-10, 2015 @ Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück, Germany +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ One of the big challenges in neuroinformatics is bridging the gap between our biophysical understanding of single cells and of networks of neurons on the one side, and the cognitive functions that are characterized in terms of information processing on the other side. This INCF Short Course will provide lectures and hands-on tutorials ranging from dynamical systems theory to cognitive modeling. Target Audience: PhD candidates and post-docs with backgrounds in neuroinformatics, theoretical neuroscience, complex systems, machine learning, applied mathematics/statistics or cognitive modeling. Topics: Dynamical systems: attractors, bifurcations, etc. (Herbert Jaeger) Single neuron dynamics, networks, and computation (Nicolas Brunel) Mean-field theory, neurodynamics, and decision-making (Gustavo Deco) Reservoir computing in simple cognitive systems (Gordon Pipa) Learning of sensory representations in neural systems (Peter König) Distributed Adaptive Control (Paul Verschure) Neural networks, kernel methods, and categorization (Frank Jäkel) A tutorial on reservoir computing (Pipa & Jaeger) A tutorial on large-scale simulations in Nengo (Terry Stewart) A tutorial on information processing models with NEST (Marc-Oliver Gewaltig) The yearly, two-day OCCAM workshop (www.occam-os.de) is integrated into the INCF course and participants of the INCF course will also take part in the workshop. Applications will be accepted until March 7, 2015. The registration fee is 250 Euros. We can offer a limited number of travel stipends to support students. More information on the course and on application details can be found on the course webpage: http://www.incf.ni.uos.de/ _______________________________________________ Comp-neuro mailing list Comp-neuro(a)neuroinf.org http://www.neuroinf.org/mailman/listinfo/comp-neuro

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