- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

on behalf of Sean Hill - postdoctoral position Geneva

by Reinoud Maex

Please reply to sean.hill(a)epfl.ch. Post-doctoral Researcher : Thalamocortical circuit reconstruction and modeling The Hill Lab of the Centre for Brain Simulation in Geneva, Switzerland, led by Prof. Sean Hill, seeks outstanding candidates for the position of Post-doctoral Researcher Thalamocortical circuit reconstruction and modeling The selected candidate will report directly to the Neuroinformatics section manager. Specific responsibilities include: Gather and integrate data about thalamocortical circuitry from literature, whole brain and in vitro studies Leverage the Blue Brain infrastructure to build thalamocortical circuits and design, implement, analyze and explore novel in silico experiments on network structure, dynamical state regimes and network response properties Contribute to the on-going development, refinement and validation of data-driven unifying brain tissue models Interact with wet-lab to validate and confirm model predictions Interact with engineering teams on visualization, high performance computing and brain simulation portal integration of analyses Profile: PhD in neuroscience, computational neuroscience, physics or related field Expert in scientific computing (python, scipy, numpy, hdf5, gsl, Linux, etc.) Familiar with algorithmic/manual reconstruction of neuron morphologies A strong publication record Experience in supervision of students and teaching Strong team player and fluent English in speech and writing Excellent written and spoken English What we offer: An internationally visible and rising project in simulation-based research in neuroscience using supercomputers A young, dynamic, inter-disciplinary, and international working environment A modern working environment, based at the Biotech Campus in Geneva Secheron. Start date: as soon as possible. Deadline for application: position open until filled. Ref: HG1 Activity rate: 100%. Duration of contract: 1 year, renewable. Applicants should submit a cover letter and a detailed CV in PDF format only, with file name “Surname_position applied to _Cover Letter” and “Surname_position applied to _CV” electronically to jobs.bbp(a)epfl.ch. Please use the position title and the reference in the “object” field.

Feb. 19, 2015

Post-Doc Position Opening

by Samir Suweis

Position Title: Postdoctoral Fellow Position location: Padova, Italy, 35131 Subject Area: Statistical Physics/Neuroscience/Complex Systems Position ID: LIPh lab, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padova The LIPh Group of the University of Padua invites applications for a postdoctoral position within the project “Emergence of criticality in the brain” (see Summary below). Appointment duration: 18 months, with possible extension. Start: May 2015 or earlier. Salary will be competitive on European standards, depending on candidate’s experience and qualifications. Profile: strong background on statistical physics. Candidates with both analytical and numerical (e.g. GPU computing / Data Analysis) skills will be favored. Past research experience on brain network modeling / neuroscience is preferable, although not mandatory. The LIPH group, headed by prof. Amos Maritan, is active on a broad spectrum of subjects and it is a vibrant, interdisciplinary research team that benefits greatly from collaboration from all around the world. More information can be found at: http://www.pd.infn.it/~maritan Within the project, the candidate will also work in collaboration with Vassanelli’s ‘NeuroChip’ Lab (www.vassanellilab.eu) where experimental measurements of neuronal network activity will be performed using advanced high-resolution recording techniques. Interested applicants are requested to submit a CV, publication list, a brief cover letter (max 1 pages) and at least two letters of recommendation. All material should be sent to suweis(a)pd.infn.it. For further information please contact A. Maritan (maritan(a)pd.infn.it) The deadline for applications is April 25, 2014. Later applications will also be considered until the positions are filled Summary of the project “Emergence of criticality in the brain”. The project will address the more fundamental question on how and why living systems are often found to be tuned near a critical state. Our approach will try to justify the ubiquitous critical behavior of living systems in terms of its evolutionary advantage. In particular we will expand abstract and general theoretical framework developed in [1] to the context of Boolean networks and by building adaptive evolutionary models on heterogeneous complex networks. In this way we will be able to have a more physical and close description of the particular system under study, i.e. the interaction networks of real neurons. We will then verify and characterize the emergence of criticality in brain networks by analyzing neuronal activity and its propagation as measured in Vassanelli’s lab. Criticality and power law behavior will be assessed by looking at the presence of activity avalanches of firing neurons, taking advantage of the high-resolution and large-scale features of the new recording method. The topological architectures of neural network evolved under different stimuli and the corresponding degree distribution will be also studied. In the first year, we will mainly focus on investigating the spontaneous emergence of criticality in neuronal cultures from the rat cortex. In the second year, networks in slices form the somatosensory barrel cortex will be assessed. [1] Hidalgo, J., Grilli, J., Suweis, S., Muñoz, M. A., Banavar, J. R., & Maritan, A. (2014). Information-based fitness and the emergence of criticality in living systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(28), 10095-10100. ------------------- Samir Suweis, Ph.D. https://impactstory.org/SamirSuweis twitter: @SamirSuweis ------------------- Post-Doc Researcher @ Liph Lab Physics Department, Padova University http://www.pd.infn.it/~maritan/index.html Tel: 049 827 72 51

Feb. 19, 2015

5 year funded Research Fellow post in Psychology (Birmingham City University)

by Eirini Mavritsaki

Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Department of Psychology Research Fellow Fixed purpose post available for five years Ref No: 022015-62 £31,269 - £36,852 per annum You will join the Centre for Applied Psychological Research which is part of the School of Social Sciences as a post-doctoral research fellow to undertake high quality research into the areas of Social, Health, Cognitive and/or Developmental Psychology. You will join an experienced team of researchers and be given the opportunity to lead on some aspects of current research projects. You will receive training and be given the opportunity to establish yourself as an independent researcher by winning bids and building a publication record. For further information please contact Dr Eirini Mavritsaki (eirini.mavritsaki(a)bcu.ac.uk<mailto:eirini.mavritsaki@bcu.ac.uk>) or Dr Matt Tonkin (matthew.tonkin(a)bcu.ac.uk<mailto:matthew.tonkin@bcu.ac.uk> ) Closing Date: 19th March 2015 For details of how to apply please visit https://jobs.bcu.ac.uk Birmingham City University promotes Equality of Opportunity and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Birmingham City University seeks to be a single status employer and benefits include up to 32 days annual holiday, and index linked contributory pension scheme and an employee medical scheme. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eirini Mavritsaki, Ph.D., CPsychol Co-Director of the Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAP Research) Business Development Coordinator for Social Sciences Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology Faculty of Business Law and Social Sciences Birmingham City University D 3.17 Dawson Building City North Campus Perry Bar, Birmingham B42 2SU eirini.mavritsaki(a)bcu.ac.uk<mailto:eirini.mavritsaki@bcu.ac.uk> 0121 331 6361 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feb. 19, 2015

PhD funded position in Psychology (Birmingham City University) -New insights into ADHD through behavioural and modelling studies

by Eirini Mavritsaki

PhD Student Bursary, School of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology. 3 year funded bursary. REF BLSS PhD PSYCH 1 - New insights into ADHD through behavioral and modelling studies There are many limitations on the behaviour of complex neural systems, but one primary constraint is to filter incoming input in order that actions can be programmed to behaviourally relevant stimuli. This is the limit of ‘attention’. A major challenge for current researchers is to understand how (and why) these limitations arise, especially in conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) where the attentional system is dysfunctional. The projects main aims are to access differences in visual attention between children diagnosed with ADHD and typically functioning children and the role of diet in this. We aim to do this using a novel interdisciplinary approach, behavioral and computational modelling study together with a food diary. The PhD is part of a bigger research project that is in collaboration with The University of Oxford (Prof. Glyn Humphreys) and Russell Hall Hospital (Dr Chrysavgi Tsakona). The successful applicant will join the newly-established Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAP Research) within the Division of Psychology at Birmingham City University. This centre is part of a vibrant and rapidly expanding research community, which offers applicants with an excellent opportunity to develop their research career. This can include the opportunity to gain teaching experience, to participate in research seminars and to co-supervise undergraduate projects. Lead Supervisor - Dr Eirini Mavritsaki (eirini.mavritsaki(a)bcu.ac.uk<mailto:eirini.mavritsaki@bcu.ac.uk>). For further information please visit http://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/social-sciences ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eirini Mavritsaki, Ph.D., CPsychol Co-Director of the Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAP Research) Business Development Coordinator for Social Sciences Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology Faculty of Business Law and Social Sciences Birmingham City University D 3.17 Dawson Building City North Campus Perry Bar, Birmingham B42 2SU eirini.mavritsaki(a)bcu.ac.uk<mailto:eirini.mavritsaki@bcu.ac.uk> 0121 331 6361 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feb. 19, 2015

CfP: Workshop on Symbiotic Interaction 2015 in Berlin

by Matthias Schultze-Kraft

* Call for Participation and Contributions * International Workshop on Symbiotic Interaction Berlin, 7th and 8th of October 2015 Technische Universität Berlin, Germany www.symbiotic2015.org The Symbiotic Workshop presents an overview of the symbiotic relationships between humans and computers as well as novel advancements therein. There will be organized sessions and room for free discussions to shape the concepts, goals, and directions of this new field of research. The idea of symbiotic systems put forward in this workshop capitalises on the computers’ ability to implicitly (even subliminally) detect the users goals and psycho-physiological states and thereby enhancing human-computer interaction (HCI) without subducting control from the human. A special focus of this year’s Symbiotic Workshop will be on physiological computing approaches, e.g. using brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. Call for Contributions include Research Papers (12 pages including references) or Posters and Demos (6 pages) that contribute to an emergent community investigating Symbiotic Interaction as a future paradigm with theories and conceptual frameworks, experimental paradigms and user studies, multi-modal data analysis and design driven research. Submission guidelines are available from www.symbiotic2015.org. The proceedings (including research papers as well as short papers for posters and demos) will be published in LNCS Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Contributions can be submitted at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=symbiotic15. Important dates =============== Submission Deadline: Wednesday, May 25, 2015 Notification of acceptance: Tuesday, July 5, 2015 Submission of final papers: Monday, July 25, 2015 Organization ============ * General Chairs - Benjamin Blankertz, Technische Universität Berlin - Giulio Jacucci, University of Helsinki * Program Chairs - Luciano Gamberini, University of Padova - Anna Spagnolli, University of Padova - Jonathan Freeman, Goldsmiths University * Program Committee (to be completed) - Laura Acqualagna, Technische Universität Berlin - Oswald Barral, University of Helsinki - Benjamin Blankertz, Technische Universität Berlin - Marc Cavazza, Teesside University - Ricardo Chavarriaga, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - Cristina Conati, University of British Columbia - Peter Desain, Radboud University Nijmegen - Manuel Eugster, Aalto University - Stephen Fairclough, Liverpool John Moores University - Siamac Fazli, Korea University - Jonathan Freeman, Goldsmiths University - Luciano Gamberini, University of Padova - Hans Gellersen, Lancaster University - Dorota Glowacka, University of Helsinki - Giulio Jacucci, University of Helsinki - David Kirsh, UC San Diego - Juan C. Moreno, Cajal Institute, CSIC - Anton Nijholt, University of Twente - Andreas Riener, Johannes Kepler University Linz - Tuukka Ruotsalo, Aalto University - Paul Sajda, Columbia University - Erin Solovey, Drexel University - Michiel Sovijärvi-Spapé, Aalto University - Anna Spagnolli, University of Padova - Paul Verschure, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona - Markus Wenzel, Technische Universität Berlin For queries about the conference, please contact: - Benjamin Blankertz <benjamin.blankertz(a)tu-berlin.de> or - Giulio Jacucci <giulio.jacucci(a)helsinki.fi>

Feb. 19, 2015

Summer School on Neurorehabilitation - September 13-18, 2015

by Pilar Raya

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this announcement ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 Summer School on Neurorehabilitation El Saler (Valencia), Spain September 13-18 www.ssnr2015.org info(a)ssnr2015.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear colleagues, On behalf of all the organizers it is our pleasure to invite you to the 5th SUMMER SCHOOL ON NEUROREHABILITATION (SSNR2015) that will take place in El Saler (Valencia, Spain) from September 13 to 18 of 2015. SSNR2015 will provide in depth education on advanced procedures for neurorehabilitation of motor dysfunction following stroke, SCI, CP and other neurological conditions, covering practical applications based on neuroprosthetics, robotics interfaces and other combinational and technological approaches. World-class experts in various related disciplines will deliver plenary talks and a set of hands-on workshops will be organized. We are looking forward to welcoming you in Spain September 2015! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Registration - Prospective applicants must fill in the Application Form by May 15, 2015. The admission to the School will be decided upon a selection made by the Steering Committee. Applications received before March 31, 2015 will be given priority. The Steering Committee will select a first group among these early applications. Selected participants will be notified by April 15, 2015 and the registrations must be completed before May 15, 2015. Remaining positions will be allocated among the rest of applications received until May 15, 2015 - Important deadlines - Early Application: March 31, 2015 Early Notification: April 15, 2015 Early Payment: May 15, 2015 Application: May 15, 2015 Notification: June 1, 2015 Payment: July 1, 2015 - Plenary speakers- Metin Akay. University of Houston, USA José Carmena. University of California, Berkeley, USA Gregoire Courtine. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland Volker Dietz. Balgrist University Hospital, Switzerland Bernhard Graimann. Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH, Germany David Guiraud. INRIA research scientist, leader of DEMAR team, France Bin He. University of Minnesota, USA Ilse Jonkers. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Hermano Igo Krebs. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Maryland, USA Silvestro Micera. Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and EPFL Eric Perreault. Northwestern University, USA Dejan Popovic. University of Belgrade, Serbia Zev Rymer. Northwestern University, USA Aiko K. Thompson. Medical University of South Carolina, USA Jonathan Wolpaw. Wadsworth Center. University of New York, USA -Workshops- WS1 - Neural interfaces and Wearable robotics in rehabilitation: a clinical perspective Organizer: Jose L. Pons, CSIC. Co-Organizers: Jose L. Contreras-Vidal, U. Houston, and Gerard E. Francisco, UTHealth WS2 - Muscle synergies: Looking into the CNS Organizer: Diego Torricelli, CSIC WS3 - Workshop on Functional Electrical Stimulation Organizer: Thierry Keller, Tecnalia Research and Innovation WS4 - (TENTATIVE) Workshop on Virtual Rehabilitation Organizer: Belinda Lange, U. Southern California WS5 - Human neuromusculoskeletal modeling Organizers: Massimo Sartori, University Medical Center Goettingen, and Monica Reggiani, University of Padova WS6 - Brain Computer Interfaces: principles and applications in neurorehabilitation Organizer: Arnau Espinosa, Guger Technologies OG WS7 - Operant Conditioning of Spinal Reflexes in Human Subjects Organizers: Aiko Thompson (Medical University of South Carolina) and Jonathan Wolpaw (Univ of New York) For further and up-to-date information, please visit the conference website: www.ssnr2015.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pilar Raya López Neural Rehabilitation Group, Cajal Institute. Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) Avda. Doctor Arce, 37. 28002. Madrid http://www.neuralrehabilitation.org

Feb. 19, 2015

Call for posters/registration: Fifth International Symposium on Biology of Decision-Making (SBDM), 11-13 May 2015 @ Paris, France

by Mehdi Khamassi

[Please accept our apologies if you get multiple copies of this message] Dear colleagues, It is our great pleasure to invite you to the Fifth Symposium on Biology of Decision Making which will take place in Paris, France, on May, 11-13th 2015. Online registration is now open at http://sbdm2015.isir.upmc.fr The deadline for poster submission is: March, 31st. The deadline for registration is: April 30th. Registration fees (150 euros) include lunches, coffee breaks and social event. Please circulate widely and encourage your colleagues and team members to attend. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FIFTH SYMPOSIUM ON BIOLOGY OF DECISION MAKING (SBDM 2015) May 11-13, 2015, Paris, France Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle, Hôpital La Pitié Salpêtrière, Paris, France. & Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France. & Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. http://sbdm2015.isir.upmc.fr ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRESENTATION: The Fifth Symposium on Biology of Decision Making will take place on May 11-13, 2015 at the Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle, Paris, France, with a satellite day at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France. The objective of this three day symposium is to gather people from different research fields with different approaches (economics, ethology, psychiatry, neural and computational approaches) to decision-making. The symposium will be a single-track, will last for 3 days and will include 6 sessions: (#1) Beyond two: Multi-alternative and multi-attribute choices; (#2) Shaky business: Neural sources of choice variability; (#3) Looking for causality: Choice bias following brain manipulation; (#4) The dark side of choice: Delay, effort and punishment; (#5) Choosing the unknown: The route to exploration; (#6) More brains: Choice in social context. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Thomas Boraud (CNRS - Université Bordeaux 2, France) Colin Camerer (California Institute of Technology, USA) Peter Dayan (Gatsby Unit, University College London, UK) Mauricio Delgado (Rutgers University, USA) Jan Drugowitsch (Université de Genève, Switzerland) Sylvie Granon (Université d'Orsay - CNRS, France) Hauke Heekeren (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) Laurence Hunt (University College London, UK) Masud Husain (University of Oxford, UK) Quentin Huys (ETH Zurich - University of Zurich, Switzerland) Brian Knutson (Stanford University, USA) Kenway Louie (New York University, USA) John O'Doherty (California Institute of Technology, USA) Mitsuhiro Okada (Keio University, Japan) Emmanuel Procyk (CNRS - INSERM, France) Christian Ruff (University of Zurich, Switzerland) Aldo Rustichini (University of Minnesota, USA) Liane Schmidt (INSEAD, France) Christopher Summerfield (University of Oxford, UK) Mark Walton (University of Oxford, UK) Melissa Warden (Cornell University, USA) Valentin Wyart (Ecole Normale Supérieure, France) Makiko Yamada (National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Japan) IMPORTANT DATES: March 31, 2015 Deadline for Poster Submission April 30, 2015 Deadline for Registration May 11-13, 2015 Symposium Venue ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Thomas Boraud (CNRS, Bordeaux, France) Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde (La Sorbonne, Paris, France) Kenji Doya (OIST, Okinawa, Japan) Mehdi Khamassi (CNRS - UPMC, Paris, France) Etienne Koechlin (CNRS - ENS, Paris, France) Mathias Pessiglione (ICM - INSERM, Paris, France) CONTACT INFORMATION : Website, registration, poster submission and detailed program: http://sbdm2015.isir.upmc.fr Contact: sbdm2015 [ at ] isir.upmc.fr / sbdm2015-registration(a)isir.upmc.fr -- Mehdi Khamassi, PhD Researcher (CNRS) Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique (UMR7222) CNRS - Université Pierre et Marie Curie Pyramide, Tour 55 - Boîte courrier 173 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France tel: + 33 1 44 27 28 85 fax: +33 1 44 27 51 45 cell: +33 6 50 76 44 92 http://people.isir.upmc.fr/khamassi

Feb. 19, 2015

Radboud Summer School Neural Metrics 2.0 : Connectomics & Large-Scale Methods

by Zeldenrust, Fleur

Neural Metrics 2.0 : Connectomics & Large-Scale Methods The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour/Radboud University is organizing a summer school on neural metrics with the aim to get participants acquainted with the quantitative analysis of neural organisation and function. In Neural Metrics 2.0 we will build on the success from the previous year, focussing on methods for understanding brain networks such as connectomics as well as large scale and Bayesian methods, with world class speakers, hands-on tutorials, student projects and an interactive debate. The topics covered range from cellular connectomics to human functional connectomics. The course is designed for PhD students and starting postdoctoral researchers working at the interface between cognitive neuroscience and the application of advanced methods. Please consult the Radboud Summer school website (http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/) for details on the program, social events and registration. Further details for the Neural Metrics Summer School can be found below and on the website (http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/courses/brain-behaviour/@972443/neural…) Dates : Monday 10 August - Friday 14 August 2015 (1 week) Application Deadline : 15 June 2015 Course leaders : Bernhard Englitz, Marcel van Gerven, Fleur Zeldenrust, Tansu Celikel Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour & Radboud University Participant profile : This course was developed for PhD students and early postdoctoral researchers working at the interface between cellular and cognitive neuroscience requiring advanced methods of analysis. This includes research in the field of Neuroscience with an MSc in Biology, Computer Science, Psychology, Physics, Al, Mathematics, Engineering or a similar major. Admission requirements : As part of the admission procedure, we ask you to send us your CV and a brief motivation letter in which you explain your interest in our course. Course fee : 600 Euros The course fee includes the registration fee, course materials, access to library and IT facilities, coffee/tea, lunch, and a number of social activities. Accommodation is available for the course participants (additional charges apply). For details please see http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/practical-matters/housing/ Discounts : • 15% discount for students and PhD candidates from Radboud University and partner universities, • 10% Early bird discount deadline: 1 April 2015

Feb. 19, 2015

postdoc position ad

by Evelina Fedorenko

Please post. Thanks, Ev POSITION OPENING: We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher for a 1-year position (possibly extendable by another year), to work in an interdisciplinary project investigating the representation of semantic information in the brain and how it is used during sentence comprehension. The project is a collaborative effort across the labs of Ev Fedorenko (MGH/MIT) and Nancy Kanwisher (MIT), within a team in the IARPA Knowledge Representation in Neural Systems program, led by Francisco Pereira (Siemens). The ultimate goal of the team is to build a computational model of the process of language comprehension at the sentence and/or text level, and validate it with behavioral and brain imaging data. Target start date is as soon as possible. RESPONSIBILITIES: Leading one or more components of the project, including designing experiments, collecting and analyzing data (plus overseeing data collection / analyses carried out by graduate students / lab tech working on this project), presenting the results at conferences, and writing up the results for publication. The interdisciplinary nature of the project means that we will be carrying out experiments to inform the building of models of semantic representation of words and sentences from text corpora and curated resources. These will, in turn, be used to help design more informative experiments or carry out other analyses. This presents a unique opportunity for a postdoc to acquire new skills; for example, if the postdoc has a cognitive neuroscience background s/he will be expected to interact closely with the model developers in the team and learn about and leverage the techniques that they use. REQUIREMENTS: We are looking for individuals with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Computer Science, Psychology, Cognitive Science, or related fields. Strong quantitative skills are a must. Other desirable knowledge / skills include: i) machine learning, ii) natural language processing, and iii) collection, preprocessing and analysis of brain imaging data (using SPM, FSL or AFNI). SEND APPLICATIONS TO: Ev Fedorenko (evelina9(a)mit.edu) Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled.

Feb. 18, 2015

Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD)

by Peter Latham

Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD) August 30 - September 2, 2015 Bilbao, Spain http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/nccd/nccd15/ The goal of this workshop is to bring together experimentalists and theoreticians who seek to understand how circuit dynamics underlies representation and function in the nervous system, and to foster real discussion. This year the workshop will focus on the interplay between excitation (E) and inhibition (I) in cortical circuits. The balance between E and I, an idea proposed twenty years ago to account for the stochastic nature of cortical activity, has been seminal in the understanding of basic principles of neural network dynamics. We are seeking talks that, building on this paradigm, present recent findings on topics such as neuronal variability and stochastic dynamics, the role of the different subtypes of interneurons, plasticity and structure in EI networks, brain state and network dynamics, etc. The workshop will be limited to about 70 people, the hope being to foster real interaction and discussion. Important dates: April 30: Abstracts due (there will be posters and contributed talks) May 31: Early registration due Confirmed invited speakers Dean Buonomano, University of California at Los Angeles Jess Cardin, Yale School of Medicine Brent Doiron, University of Pittsburgh Mike Hausser, UCL Carl Petersen, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Karel Svoboda, Janelia Farm Tim Vogels, University of Oxford Fred Wolf, University of Gottingen Best, Peter Latham Jaime de la Rocha Maneesh Sahani Co-organizers

Feb. 18, 2015

Application Deadline Thursday, February 26, 2015, NIMH Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Research Program Chief

by Dennis Glanzman

Please see the following job announcement published on the USA Jobs website: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/394555400 Note that this is a blanket announcement, listing about 75 different positions, Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience is one of them. -- Dennis Glanzman

Feb. 18, 2015

PhD and Postdoc positions at the Kavli Institute in Trondheim

by Yasser Roudi

Postdoctoral and PhD positions are available at the Kavli Institute/Centre for Neural Computation, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway. We ware interested in developing and studying statistical models of high-dimensional data, network inference and reconstruction techniques. We study both the statistical and computational aspects of the learning problem as well as the applications to biological networks for which the successful candidate will have access to a wealth of experimental data collected at the Kavli Institute. The group enjoys close ties with NORDITA- The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, ICTP and the Department of Statistics at the City University of New York (group of Kamiar Rahnama Rad). Travel funds are available for collaborations and visits. Our work is highly quantitative and interdisciplinary; applicants should have a strong background in Statistics/Machine Learning, Physics, Electrical Engineering, Computational Neuroscience or similar fields. Interested applicants should send a CV, a short description of past experiences/achievements and future research interests, and arrange for two letters of recommendation to be emailed directly to <yasser.roudi at ntnu dot no>. Questions about the position should also be sent to the same email address.

Feb. 17, 2015

joint postdoctoral position at the Kavli Institute & Nordita

by Yasser Roudi

A postdoctoral position jointly funded by NORDITA- The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Stockholm and the Kavli Institue for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim is available for studying neural mechanisms of spatial navigation and space memory, and in particular the mechanisms of grid cell and place cell formation. Our work is highly quantitative and interdisciplinary; applicants should have a strong background in statistical/condensed matter physics, computational neuroscience or related fields. Interested applicants should send a CV, a short description of past experiences/achievements and future research interests, and arrange for two letters of recommendation to be emailed directly to Prof. Yasser Roudi < yasser.roudi at ntnu dot no > or Prof. Alexander Balatsky < balatsky at kth dot se >. Please also contact the same email addresses if you have any questions about the position.

Feb. 17, 2015

A Long Journey into Reproducible Computational Neuroscience

by Nicolas P. Rougier

Dear all, We've just published a short commentary on what we think is a recurrent problem in computational science concerning the reproducibility and accessibility of models in the literature. We think the case we report (in full cooperation with original authors) is not an isolated case but we would be interested in knowing how serious the problem is from your point of view. Nicolas Rougier --- Computational neuroscience is a powerful ally in our quest to understand the brain. Even the most simple model can shed light on the role of this or that structure and propose new hypothesis concerning the overall brain organization. However, any model in Science is doomed to be proved wrong or incomplete and replaced by a more accurate one. In the meantime, for such replacement to happen, we have first to make sure that models are actually reproducible such that they can be tested, evaluated, criticized and ultimately modified, replaced or even rejected. This is where the shoe pinches. If we cannot reproduce a model in the first place, we're doomed to re-invent the wheel again and again, preventing us from building an incremental computational knowledge of the brain. Full text at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncom.2015.00028/full

Feb. 17, 2015

Final call for registration (Feb 27th): Integrated Systems Neuroscience Workshop, March 23-24th, Manchester, UK

by Mark Humphries

[with apologies for cross-posting] A final reminder for registration for the 2-day workshop on "Integrated Systems Neuroscience", at the University of Manchester, March 23-24th 2015. (Organisers: Mark Humphries & Rasmus Petersen) Registration deadline is Friday, February 27th. Register here: http://www.isn2015.ls.manchester.ac.uk/registration/ We have a maximum capacity of 200, so please do register in good time. The programme begins at 12:45 on March 23rd, and ends at 16:45 on March 24th, allowing ample time for travel to and from Manchester, respectively. Numerous inexpensive hotels are located within walking distance of the venue - some suggestions are here: http://www.isn2015.ls.manchester.ac.uk/location/ The goal of this workshop is to showcase the state-of-the-art in integrated systems and computational approaches to key neural circuits. Each session of the programme will comprise a pair of talks presenting complementary experimental and computational work on the same circuit theme. A poster session with wine reception will be held on the first evening. Forty-one posters have been accepted, covering a rich mixture of experimental data and computational approaches; the draft abstract booklet is here: http://www.isn2015.ls.manchester.ac.uk/programme/ Speakers and their themes include: Peter Dayan (Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit) & Alex Thiele (University of Newcastle) - Attentional circuits Daniel O'Connor (John Hopkins University) & Srdjan Ostojic (Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris) - Functional cortical networks Peter Magill (MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit) & Rafal Bogacz (Oxford) - Basal ganglia Michael Orger (Champalimaud Institute, Lisbon) & Gasper Tkacik (IST Austria) - Large-scale dynamics Matteo Carandini (UCL) & Ken Harris (UCL) - Cortical circuits The MRC's Programme Manager for the Neuroscience and Mental Health Board (Emily Gale) will be attending both days, and will be discussing the MRC's role in this area at the end of the second day. For more information, please visit the website: http://www.isn2015.ls.manchester.ac.uk/ Sponsors: we gratefully acknowledge the support of the Medical Research Council and Company of Biologists. Dr Mark Humphries MRC Senior non-Clinical Research Fellow AV Hill Building Faculty of Life Sciences University of Manchester http://www.systemsneurophysiologylab.ls.manchester.ac.uk/

Feb. 17, 2015

PhD studentships in infancy research (including computational modelling) at Lancaster University, UK

by Gert Westermann

5 PhD studentships in interdisciplinary infancy research for entry in October 2015 (Note: This programme takes a cognitive science approach to infant development, and computational modelling is explicitly part of the research methods.) Deadline for applications: 10 April, 2015 The Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme in Interdisciplinary Research on Infant Development is one of 14 Doctoral Programmes funded by the Leverhulme Trust over the next 5 years. The programme is based in the Psychology Department of Lancaster University (UK) which houses one of the largest infancy research groups in Europe, with researchers addressing infants’ cognitive, social and language development employing a large range of methods (eye tracking, EEG, computational modelling, NIRS). Links with other departments (Linguistics, Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics) are anticipated. Applications are now open for five fully funded PhD studentships for entry in October 2015. Four of the scholarships will cover UK/EU fees, and the fifth will additionally cover the higher overseas (international) fees. All scholarships provide a living stipend (currently £13,863) and a training allowance for three years. Studentships will have a strong interdisciplinary focus with the expectation to employ multiple methodologies. Awards will be made on the basis of academic excellence and potential for future achievement as demonstrated by your application and supporting references. In addition, you should consider how the research project you propose is aligned with the research interests of current academic staff involved in the Programme (see www.lancaster.ac.uk/leverhulme-dsp <http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/leverhulme-dsp>). You are strongly encouraged to informally contact individual staff members to discuss your specific interests and to develop a research proposal. PhD students will become part of the vibrant environment of the infancy research group and beyond with excellent research facilities and a first class supervision record. You will be encouraged to participate fully, targeting and presenting your work at international conferences, and you will have excellent opportunities to travel to our national and international partner laboratories, receive training in a range of psychological and neurophysiological techniques, participate in research and public engagement meetings, and meet with leading international scientists during an annual conference organized at Lancaster. Lancaster University is in the top 10 under-50-year-old universities internationally (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/one-hu… <http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/one-hu…>), and consistently ranks in the top 10 in the UK. The Psychology Department has a very strong and supportive research atmosphere with a large and active group of graduate students. Students receive their own research support budgets, which can be used to attend national and international conferences. We expect applicants to have excellent undergraduate and Masters degrees in Psychology or a related discipline. You should apply online here: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/ <http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/> for a PhD in Psychology by the deadline of 10 April 2015. In the application, please state that you are applying for the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme. We ask for a research proposal of up to 1000 words – note that this is different from standard applications because of the selection process involved. The application should identify an appropriate supervisor(s) and you must ensure that references have been provided by the deadline (otherwise the application may not be considered). After the deadline, applications will be reviewed and shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview, before award decisions are made. For further information concerning the studentships, please contact Prof. Gert Westermann (g.westermann(a)lancaster.ac.uk <mailto:g.westermann@lancaster.ac.uk>), and about postgraduate study more generally, please contact the Department of Psychology postgraduate office (postgraduate.psychology(a)lancaster.ac.uk <mailto:postgraduate.psychology@lancaster.ac.uk>). See the Lancaster Leverhulme Scholarship Programme website http://www.lancs.ac.uk/leverhulme-dsp <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/leverhulme-dsp> for more information. Further information about PhD study at Lancaster can be found here www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/ <http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/postgraduate/phd/>. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Gert Westermann Department of Psychology Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YF Phone: +44 (0)1524 592 942 Fax: +44 (0)1524 593 744 g.westermann(a)lancaster.ac.uk <mailto:g.westermann@lancaster.ac.uk> http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/gert-westermann <http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/gert-westermann> New book: Harris & Westermann: A Student’s Guide to Developmental Psychology. Psychology Press. <http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781848720169/>

Feb. 17, 2015

ICDL-EpiRob 2015 CFP

by Benjamin Rosman

======================================================== 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 9, 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.

Feb. 17, 2015

2015 Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop- Call For Applicants

by Ralph Etienne-Cummings

*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop* *2015 Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop* *Telluride, Colorado, June 28th - July 18th, 2015* CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Deadline is April 2nd, 2015 NEUROMORPHIC COGNITION ENGINEERING WORKSHOP www.ine-web.org Sunday June 28th - Saturday July 18th, 2015, Telluride, Colorado ine-web.org/workshops/workshops-overview/index.html and the workshop wiki is at https://neuromorphs.net/ GOALS: Neuromorphic engineers design and fabricate artificial neural systems whose organizing principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. Over the past 18 years, this research community has focused on the understanding of low-level sensory processing and systems infrastructure; efforts are now expanding to apply this knowledge and infrastructure to addressing higher-level problems in perception, cognition, and learning. In this 3-week intensive workshop and through the Institute for Neuromorphic Engineering (INE), the mission is to promote interaction between senior and junior researchers; to educate new members of the community; to introduce new enabling fields and applications to the community; to promote on-going collaborative activities emerging from the Workshop, and to promote a self-sustaining research field. FORMAT: The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems and cognitive neuroscience (in particular sensory processing, learning and memory, motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on emerging hardware design, mobile robots, hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the projects proposed. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the participants, some of these lectures will be tutorials, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Projects and interest groups meet in the late afternoons, and after dinner. In the early afternoon there will be tutorials on a wide spectrum of topics, including analog VLSI, mobile robotics, vision and auditory systems, central-pattern-generators, selective attention mechanisms, cognitive systems, etc. *2015 TOPIC AREAS:* *Human Auditory Cognition: Communicating with EEG and Virtual Reality Links (The Matrix)*: Shihab Shamma (UM-College Park), Malcolm Slaney (Microsoft), Edward Lalor (Trinity College, Dublin), and Alain de Cheveigne (UPMC, France) *Manipulation Actions: Movements, Forces and Affordances: *Cornelia Fermüller (UMCP), Michael Pfeiffer (INI-UZH), Ryad Benosman (UPMC, Paris), and Andreas Andreou (JHU) *Neuromorphic Natural Language Processing:* John Harris (UFL, Gainesville) and Chris Huyck (Middlesex University) *Spike-Based Cognitive Computing: Seeing, Hearing, and Thinking with Spikes: *Arindam Basu (NTU, Singapore) and John Arthur (IBM Research Almaden) *Computational Neuroscience (invitational mini-workshop)* : Terry Sejnowski (Salk Institute) LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS: The summer school will take place in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350 miles). Great Lakes Aviation and America West Express airlines provide daily flights directly into Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in ski condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums. The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories to apply, in particular if they are prepared to work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Wireless internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the workshops will assist with software and hardware issues. We will have a network of PCs running LINUX and Microsoft Windows for the workshop projects. We encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop. No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Bring hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS: Notification of acceptances will be mailed out around the April 15th, 2015. The Workshop covers all your accommodations and facilities costs for the 3 weeks duration. You are responsible for your own travel to the Workshop, however, sponsored fellowships will be available as described below to further subsidize your cost. Registration Fees: For expenses not covered by federal funds, a Workshop registration fee is required. The fee is TBD per participant for the 3-week Workshop. This is expected from all participants at the time of acceptance. Accommodations: The cost of a shared condominium, typically a bedroom in a shared condo for senior participants or a shared room for students, will be covered for all academic participants. Upgrades to a private rooms or condos will cost extra. Participants from National Laboratories and Industry are expected to pay for these condominiums. Fellowships: This year we will offer one Fellowship program to subsidize your costs: The EU-CSNII Fellowship (http://csnetwork.eu/) which is funded by the 7th Research Framework Program FP7-ICT-CSNII-601167. The top 8 EU applicants will be reimbursed for their registration fees ($1250), subsistence/travel subsidy (up to Euro 2000) and accommodations cost ($1500). The registration and accommodation costs will go directly to the INE (the INE will reimburse them). We invite applications for a three-week summer workshop that will be held in Telluride, Colorado. Sunday June 28th - Saturday July 18th, 2015. The application deadline is Wednesday, April 2nd and application instructions are described at the bottom of this document. The 2015 Workshop and Summer School on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, DARPA, Office of Naval Research, The EU-Collaborative Convergent Science Network (CNS-II), University of Maryland - College Park, Institute for Neuroinformatics – University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, University of Western Sydney and the Salk Institute. Directors: Cornelia Fermuller, University of Maryland, College Park Ralph Etienne-Cummings, Johns Hopkins University Shih-Chii Liu, Institute of Neuroinformatics, UNI/ETH Zurich, Switzerland Timothy Horiuchi, University of Maryland, College Park Workshop Advisory Board: Andreas Andreou, Johns Hopkins University Andre van Schaik, University Western Sydney, Australia Avis Cohen, University of Maryland Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, Boston University Giacomo Indiveri, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland Jonathan Tapson, University Western Sydney, Australia Malcolm Slaney, Microsoft Research Jennifer Hasler, Georgia Institute of Technology Rodney Douglas, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland Shihab Shamma, University of Maryland Tobi Delbruck, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Uni/Eth Zurich, Switzerland Previous year workshop can be found at: <http://ine-web.org/workshops/workshops-overview/index.html> participant’s registration fees after receipt from CSNII), while the subsistence/travel reimbursement will be provided directly to the participants by the CSNII at the University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. HOW TO APPLY: Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage women and minority candidates to apply. Anyone interested in proposing or discussing specific projects should contact the appropriate topic leaders directly. The application website is (after February 23rd, 2015): ine-web.org/telluride-conference-2015/apply-info Application information needed: Contact email address. First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address. Curriculum Vitae (a short version, please). One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop, including possible ideas for workshop projects. Please indicate which topic areas you would most likely join. Two letters of recommendation (uploaded directly by references). Applicants will be notified by e-mail. 23rd February, 2015 - Applications accepted on website 2nd April, 2015 - Applications Due 15th April, 2015 - Notification of Acceptance -- Ralph Etienne-Cummings, PhD, FIEEE Professor and Chairman Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Computational Sensor Motor Systems Lab Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics The Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD [image: cid:image001.png@01CFC064.B58B46A0]

Feb. 17, 2015

Intrinsic motivations: announcement of several works

by Gianluca Baldassarre <gianluca.baldassarre＠istc.cnr.it>

I announce the publication of various collections of papers and activities on intrinsic motivations (IMs). Please find below a list of brief explanations and links to them. Further below I also briefly introduce intrinsic motivations for those who are not familiar with them. *** Collections of papers and activities on IMs *** Lately I co-edited a special issue (`Topic') of Frontiers. The articles of the Topic were published in part with `Frontiers in Psychology - Cognitive Science' (19 articles): http://journal.frontiersin.org/ResearchTopic/1326 and in part with `Frontiers in Neurorobotics' (6 articles): http://journal.frontiersin.org/ResearchTopic/1797 All articles of the Topic, including an editorial that briefly introduces IMs and summarises the contributions, can be downloaded with one click from this web page as a `Frontiers eBook' (1 pdf file of 45 MB): http://www.frontiersin.org/books/Intrinsic_motivations_and_open-ended_devel… Before the Topic, we edited a Springer book collecting other 17 papers on IMs: `Baldassarre G., Mirolli M. (eds) (2013). Intrinsically motivated learning in natural and artificial systems. Berlin: Springer.' You can see the titles, abstracts, authors of the book chapters, and other information on the book, here: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-642-32375-1 We also edited a second Springer book collecting further 14 papers: `Baldassarre G., Mirolli M. (eds) (2013). Computational and Robotic Models of the Hierarchical Organisation of Behaviour. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.' Hierarchical architectures represent a key problem for IMs as the knowledge and skills accumulated under the drive of IMs has to be stored in suitable hierarchical systems. You can see the titles, abstracts and authors of the book chapters, and other information on the book, here: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-39875-9 The three collections above were prompted and partially funded by a 4-year EU-funded project, now terminated, called `IM-CLeVeR -- Intrinsically Motivated Cumulative Learning Robots'. The project was funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013), ICT Challenge 2 `Cognitive Systems and Robotics' (grant agreement no. ICT-IP-231722). The web-site of the project is here: http://www.im-clever.eu/ In the project web-site you can find information on the project activities and other material on IMs, for example a summary of main results and publications of the project: http://www.im-clever.eu/project/final-results a final digest of the project insights: http://www.im-clever.eu/project/final-digest/final-digest and a `tool-box' of information for those who are interested in IMs: http://www.im-clever.eu/project/final-toolbox/final-toolbox I hope these works contribute to attract an increasing attention of... clever and strongly intrinsically-motivated researchers from different disciplines on intrinsic motivations, a great topic of investigation so important for humans and for technology. *** Brief introduction to intrinsic motivations (IMs) *** Intrinsic motivations are related to things such as curiosity, the interest for novel stimuli and surprising events, and the motivation to learn new behaviours (think about children at play). It has been proposed that the adaptive value of IMs is to motivate and guide the cumulative acquisition of knowledge and skills that can be later used (e.g., in adulthood) to accomplish goals that enhance biological fitness. IMs continue to operate also during adulthood and indeed in humans they underlie life-long learning and typically human activities such as art and scientiﬁc discovery. IMs are also at the core of processes that strongly aﬀect human well-being, such as the sense of competence, self-determination, and self-esteem. Recent neuroscientiﬁc research is starting to uncover the basic brain mechanisms underlying IMs, although under research agendas not directly addressing IMs. For example, IM mechanisms have been related to learning signals based on dopamine, novelty detection in hippocampus, and prediction errors in various parts of brain. In the last decade, IMs have also been introduced in machine learning and autonomous robotics as a means for developing artiﬁcial systems that can autonomously learn several diﬀerent skills in an open-ended, cumulative fashion. The idea is that intelligent machines and robots could autonomously acquire skills and knowledge under the guidance of IMs, and later exploit such knowledge and skills to accomplish the tasks that are useful for the user in more eﬃcient and faster ways than if they had to acquire them from scratch. This possibility would especially enhance the utility of intelligent artiﬁcial systems when operating in real-life environments posing challenges that cannot be foreseen at design time. Although the possible functions and mechanisms of IMs are still debated and seen differently by the different research communities involved, and although the recognition of IMs as a research field per se is only partially accomplished, their link with some of the most sophisticated aspects of human cognition (curiosity, art, science, well-being), and their potential for applications make them an interesting and important research field that deserves additional research efforts. Kind Regards, Gianluca Baldassarre -- .|.CS...|.......|...............|..|......US.|||.|||||.||.||||..|...|....... Gianluca Baldassarre, Ph.D., Laboratory of Computational Embodied Neuroscience, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (LOCEN-ISTC-CNR), Via San Martino della Battaglia 44, I-00185 Roma, Italy E-mail: gianluca.baldassarre(a)istc.cnr.it Web: http://www.istc.cnr.it/people/gianluca-baldassarre Tel: +39 06 44 595 231 Fax: +39 06 44 595 243 Learn from the past, live in(tensely) the present, dream for the future ...CS.|||.||.|||.||..|.......|........|...US.|.|....||..|..|......|.........

Feb. 16, 2015

Subject: ECMLPKDD 2015 : Call for Papers, Tutorials and Workshops

by ECMLPKDD 2015

The European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECMLPKDD) will take place in Porto, Portugal, from September 7th to 11th, 2015 (http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org) This event is the leading European scientific event on machine learning and data mining and builds upon a very successful series of 25 ECML and 18 PKDD conferences, which have been jointly organized for the past 14 years. ECMLPKDD 2015 will host three tracks, tutorials and a set of workshops. Therefore, we invite all researchers and practitioners from different communities to submit papers and/or present tutorial and workshop proposals. ************************* CALL FOR PAPERS ************************* JOURNAL TRACK ********************* Articles for this track are submitted all year long directly to either Machine Learning or Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, and are reviewed like regular journal articles. Accepted articles appear in full in the journal and the authors are given a presentation slot at the conference. Articles deemed insufficiently mature for journal publication may be accepted for inclusion in the proceedings. Submissions to the journal track will be managed by the Guest Editorial Board. Paper Submission: Cut-off dates for the bi-weekly batches are 18 Jan, 1 Feb, 15 Fev, 1 Mar, 15 Mar, 29 Mar, 12 Apr, 26 Apr of 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/journal-track RESEARCH PROCEEDINGS TRACK ******************************************* The research proceedings track, which is organized in the traditional way. Accepted papers will be published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) of Springer, after reviewing by the programme committee. Abstract Submission Deadline: March 26, 2015 Paper Submission Deadline: April 2, 2015 Paper Acceptance Notification: June 1, 2015 Paper Camera Ready Submission: June 15, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/research-proceedings-track INDUSTRIAL, GOVERNMENTAL & NON-GOVERNMENTAL PROCEEDINGS TRACK **************************************************************************** ************************** The NEW industrial, governmental & non-governmental (NGO) proceedings track is independent and distinct from the Research Track. Submissions to this track should solve real-world problems and focus on engineering systems, applications, and challenges. Accepted papers will be published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) of Springer, after reviewing by the programme committee. Abstract Submission Deadline: March 26, 2015 Paper Submission Deadline: April 2, 2015 Paper Acceptance Notification: June 1, 2015 Paper Camera Ready Submission: June 15, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/industrial-proceedings-track ***************************************************************** CALL FOR TUTORIAL AND WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ***************************************************************** TUTORIALS ************** The tutorials are intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to established or emerging research topics of interest for the machine learning and the data mining community. These topics include related research fields or applications. The ideal tutorial should attract a wide audience. It should be broad enough to provide a basic introduction to the chosen research area, but it should also cover the most important topics in depth. We welcome half day workshop proposals. Proposal Deadline: March 2, 2015 Proposal Acceptance Notification: March 23, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/call-for-tutorials WORKSHOPS **************** The workshops will be on relevant and current topics in Machine Learning and Data Mining. The scope of the proposal should be consistent with the conference themes as described in the ECMLPKDD 2015 Call for Papers (http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission) Interdisciplinary workshops that bring together researchers and practitioners from different communities are especially welcome. We encourage workshops that bridge the gap between theoretical advances and important and/or innovative applications of machine learning and data mining. We welcome both full and half day workshop proposals. Proposal Deadline: March 2, 2015 Proposal Acceptance Notification: March 23, 2015 Workshop Websites and Call for Papers Online: March 27, 2015 Workshop Proceedings (Camera-ready): August 3, 2015 Web Page: http://www.ecmlpkdd2015.org/submission/call-for-workshop-proposals 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

Feb. 16, 2015

Subject:SAMSI CCNS Computational Neuroscience Summer School:July 27-31, 2015

by Zhu, Hongtu

> > > >Dear colleagues, > >It is my pleasure to announce the 2015 CCNS Summer School on Computational >Neuroscience. This week-long program will be held on July 27-31,2015 as >part of the 2015-16 program on Challenges in Computational Neuroscience >(CCNS) at the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute >(SAMSI) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA. >( http://www.samsi.info/CCNS ) > > >The school will include courses on five major research topics in >computational neuroscience by the following instructors: > >* Neural Spike Train Analysis > Mark A. Kramer, Boston University > Uri Eden, Boston University >* Compressed Sensing for Signal Processing > Justin Romberg, Georgia Tech >* Functional Data Analysis for Medical Imaging Data > Hans-Georg Muller, University of California, Davis > Jane-Ling Wang, University of California, Davis >* Big-biomedical Data Integration and Analysis > Jeffrey S. Morris, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas > Hongtu Zhu, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill > Yu-Ping Wang, Tulane University >* Shape Analysis and Diffeomorphisms for Medical Imaging Data > Laurent Younes, Johns Hopkins University > >The instructors will give an in-depth overview of each topic followed by >problem/discussion sessions. Software packages will be introduced to >students with datasets to carry out some simple data analysis. This summer >school is targeted for graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty >from neuroscience, biomedical engineering, radiology, statistics, >and applied mathematics. We may consider a limited number of applications >from senior faculty. > >The application deadline is Monday, June 1, 2015 > >For further information and to apply, see: > http://www.samsi.info/ccns-summer > >or email questions to CCNS(a)samsi.info

Feb. 14, 2015

Postdoctoral Fellowships in in System and Computational Neuroscience

by Majid Mohajerani

Postdoctoral Fellowships in System and Computational Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge A position as Postdoctoral Fellow is now open for an outstanding postdoctoral associate to conduct research in the field of neural network functions at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, in Lethbridge, Canada. Our goal is to understand cellular and brain system mechanisms of memory and memory disorders associated with aging and brain damage. Brain regions to be investigated include frontal, parietal cortex and hippocampus, with a view to achieving a whole picture of how these brain structures work together dynamically to process, store, and transfer information to one another. The project is a collaborative effort between the research groups of Majid Mohajerani and Bruce McNaughton. Applicants are welcome to contact one of the investigators for more information. Successful candidates will join the highly collaborative and interdisciplinary Brain Dynamics group (http://lethbridgebraindynamics.com/) which has outstanding research strengths in the areas of learning and memory, decision making, information coding and related diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, addiction and stroke. Salary scales will be competitive with NIH standards for postdoctoral researchers. Post-doctoral fellow with experience in in-vivo imaging techniques and two-photon imaging, in particular, will be an ideal candidate. Good communication skills are a must. Experience in MATLAB will be an asset. Candidates should be prepared to learn and use cutting-edge physiological, anatomical, and computational techniques, such as virtual reality-based rodent behavioral systems, optogenetic manipulations, and statistical methods for the analysis and modeling of data. This research will be supported by state-of-the-art facilities in the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, including advanced two-photon imaging, voltage sensitive dye imaging, and high density multi-unit electrophysiological recording and optogenetic techniques. Interested applicants must send an email to Dr. Mohajerani ( <mailto:mohajerani@uleth.ca> mohajerani(a)uleth.ca) and include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, a brief statement of research interests, and contact information of three references. Majid H. Mohajerani, PhD. Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience The University of Lethbridge 4401 University Dr W Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4 Canada Office: +1(403)394-3950 Lab: +1(403)394-3951 Fax: +1(403)329-2775

Feb. 14, 2015

Job Announcement: Chief, Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Research Program, NIH

by Dennis Glanzman

Dear Colleagues, After 23 years running this program I retired from the NIH effective December 31, 2014. The position is expected to be filled soon, and the announcement should be posted on the NIH Jobs website next week. *"NIH anticipates a recruitment announcement for health science administrators (program officers) in the following areas of science: neurosciences, computational neuroscience, computational biology, neurocircuits, cognitive neuroscience. Please check http://www.jobs.nih.gov/globalrecruitment/ <http://www.jobs.nih.gov/globalrecruitment/> for the additional information and upcoming announcements."* It's been a great pleasure working with all of you in the Computational Neuroscience community! -- Dennis Glanzman

Feb. 14, 2015

Video available on a teaching seminar "Introduction to Efficient Coding in Early Vision"

by Zhaoping Li

A video of a ~51 minute long teaching seminar on "Introduction to Efficient Coding in Early Vision" is available at http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/zhaoping.li/EfficientCodingIntroSeminar.html which also provides additional information. Questions and comments are welcome! Li Zhaoping

Feb. 13, 2015

NIH recruiting program officers in computational neuroscience

by Giancarlo La Camera

(Posted on behalf of Janine Simmons @ NIMH, details below) NIH anticipates recruitment announcement for health science administrator (program officers) in the following areas of science: neurosciences, computational neuroscience, computational biology, neurocircuits, cognitive neuroscience. Please check http://www.jobs.nih.gov/globalrecruitment/ for additional information and upcoming announcements. Please note that the potential position will be included in an HHS-wide announcement to be open *Feb 17-26, 2015* (note the brief time window). Please share this information widely with any PhD-level scientists with appropriate expertise who may be interested in joining an extramural funding team. I am also happy to provide additional information to interested potential applicants. Thanks, Janine -- Janine M. Simmons, M.D., Ph.D. Affect, Social Behavior & Social Cognition Program National Institute of Mental Health (301) 443-1576

Feb. 13, 2015