- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

summer undergrad program in computational neuroscience

by Dave Touretzky

Carnegie Mellon - University of Pittsburgh Joint Summer Undergraduate Program in Computational Neuroscience Undergraduates interested in receiving research training in computational neuroscience are encouraged to apply to an NIH-sponsored summer program at the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition in Pittsburgh. The Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition is a joint interdisciplinary program of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. The 2015 program will most likely run from May 26 through July 31, 2015 (pending confirmation on dormitory availability). The final deadline for application is Feb 16, 2015. All participants must be United States citizens or permanent residents, must be enrolled at a 4-year accredited institution, and must be in their sophomore or junior year at the time of application. Any undergraduate may apply, but we are especially interested in attracting students with strong quantitative backgrounds with some experience in calculus, statistics and/or computer programming. Experience in neuroscience is not required. Students from groups underrepresented in the sciences are encouraged to apply. The core of the program is the opportunity to carry out an individual mentored research project working closely with a faculty mentor. Other aspects of the scientific program include: 12 faculty lectures on computational neuroscience at the beginning, followed by student presentations and discussion of articles from the scientific literature, presentations on career options and scientific ethics, and a concluding symposium in which students present their research. Application form is available at: http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/summercompneuro Application can be returned via email or regular mail (see addresses below). In addition to the application, the following items are required for evaluation: * A brief (one page) essay about your interest and experience in neural computation. * Official transcript from the institution you are attending * Two letters from professional references. You should contact your recommenders and ask them to mail or email a letter directly to us. * SAT/ACT scores (do NOT have to be official; photocopies are acceptable) Documents should be mailed to: Computational Neuroscience Summer Program Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Carnegie Mellon University 4400 Fifth Avenue Suite 115 Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2617 CNBC-summer-UG(a)andrew.cmu.edu Brief list of CMU-Pitt CNBC faculty working in computational neuroscience: John Anderson (Carnegie Mellon, Psychology) Aaron Batista (University of Pittsburgh, Bioengineering) Marlene Behrmann (Carnegie Mellon, Psychology) Marlene Cohen (University of Pittsburgh, Neuroscience) Carol Colby (University of Pittsburgh, Neuroscience) Steve Chase (Carnegie Mellon, ECE/Biomedical Engineering) Brent Doiron (University of Pittsburgh, Mathematics) William Eddy (Carnegie Mellon, Statistics) Bard Ermentrout (University of Pittsburgh, Mathematics) Julie Fiez (University of Pittsburgh, Psychology) Raj Gandhi (University of Pittsburgh, Department of Bioengineering) John Horn (University of Pittsburgh, Neurobiology) Robert Kass (Carnegie Mellon, Statistics) Charles Kemp (Carnegie Mellon, Psychology) Sandra Kuhlman (Carnegie Mellon, Biology) Tai Sing Lee (Carnegie Mellon, Computer Science) Tom Mitchell (Carnegie Mellon, Machine Learning) Carl Olson (Carnegie Mellon, Neural Basis of Cognition) Anne-Marie Oswald (University of Pittsburgh, Neuroscience) Monica Perez (University of Pittsburgh, Neurobiology & Rehabilitation) David Plaut (Carnegie Mellon, Psychology) Lynne Reder (Carnegie Mellon, Psychology) Erik Reichle (University of Pittsburgh, Psychology) Johnathan Rubin (University of Pittsburgh, Mathematics) Walt Schneider (University of Pittsburgh, Psychology) Andrew Schwartz (University of Pittsburgh, Bioengineering) Daniel Simons (University of Pittsburgh, Neurobiology) Matthew Smith (University of Pittsburgh, Ophthalmology) Peter Strick (University of Pittsburgh, Psychiatry) Michael Tarr (Carnegie Mellon, Psychology) Dave Touretzky (Carnegie Mellon, Computer Science) Robert Turner (University of Pittsburgh, Neurobiology) Nathan Urban (Carnegie Mellon, Biology) Valerie Ventura (Carnegie Mellon, Statistics) Timothy Verstynen (Carnegie Mellon, Psychology) Douglas Weber (University of Pittsburgh, Physical medicine and Rehabilitation) Byron Yu (Carnegie Mellon, ECE/Biomedical Engineering) A full list can be found at: http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/

Jan. 10, 2015

Post doc/engineer position in direct brain control of muscle stimulators

by Dawn Taylor

We currently have an opening for a postdoc or engineer for the vA-funded neuroprosthetics study described below. If interested, please send a CV to Dr. Dawn Taylor at dxt42(a)case.edu. The long-term goal of this project is to enable paralyzed individuals to use their brain signals to control their upper limb via implanted muscle stimulators. Most labs working on brain-controlled neuroprosthetics decode intended limb kinematics (e.g. velocity, joint angles, etc.) from the recorded brain signals. However, that approach still requires converting those kinematic commands into the appropriate stimulation patterns required to generate the desired limb motion. That conversion process has not been resolved for the upper limb due to the limb's complex dynamical nature and the fact that the limb is subject to unknown external forces during use. We bypass this obstacle by retraining the brain to control muscle stimulators directly. We have come up with some novel, but clinically feasible ways of mapping neural signals directly to muscle stimulators. Our methods can enable the user to have good control over both limb motion and stiffness. To demonstrate and refine our methods, we are training monkeys to control the movements of a realistic musculoskeletal model of a paralyzed limb activated via implanted muscle stimulators. The paralyzed limb simulator (developed by the lab of Robert Krisch) provides real-time visual feedback to the animal of the limb motion that would result from stimulating the paralyzed muscles based on the animal's neural signals decoded in real time. The use of this real-time paralyzed arm simulator allows us to test and refine our process of brain-controlled muscle stimulation in monkeys without actually having to paralyze any animals. -- Dawn M. Taylor, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Cleveland Clinic Researcher Scientist, Cleveland VA Medical Center, Functional Electrical Stimulation Center Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering & of Molecular Medicine, Case Western Reserve University The Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute 9500 Euclid Ave. / NC30 Cleveland, OH 44195 email: dxt42(a)case.edu or taylord8(a)ccf.org Phone: (216) 636-0140 Fax: (216) 778-4259

Jan. 9, 2015

[jobs] Post Doc position in Humanoid Robotics Research

by Patricia Hazel Shaw [phs]

We Apologise for multiple cross postings ========================================================================= Post-Doctoral Research Associate vacancy Three-year fixed-term Robotics Research Group, Department of Computer Science, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK £32,277 – £37,384 Applicants are invited to join the Robotics Laboratory for a new project (entitled Developmental Algorithms for Robotics”). The project is focusing on developmental robotic learning based on an iCub humanoid robot. This is a three year EPSRC funded project running at Aberystwyth University, with the support of an International Scientific Advisory Board containing leading developmental psychologists. We wish to appoint two Post-Doctoral Research Associates who will develop and implement models based on the psychological literature, and conduct experiments on our iCub humanoid robot. One successful applicant will be responsible for understanding psychological literature and generating models based on the literature, whilst the other successful applicant will be responsible for software implementation and experimentation. This invitation is for the Scientific Modelling post, details below. For informal enquiries contact Patricia Shaw: phs(a)aber.ac.uk +44 (0)1970-622432 Ref: IMPACS.14.22  Closing Date: 5 February 2015  Interview Date: Week commencing 16 February 2015 For information and application forms please go to www.aber.ac.uk/en/hr/jobs/vacancies-external/ ========================================================================= The Project: “Developmental Algorithms for Robotics” The project aims to investigate a mechanism for robots, building on top of basic spatial sensorimotor competencies, that drives the autonomous development of new behaviours and self learning about novel events for which they have no prior experience. This will involve (1) expanding existing motor-babbling activity into object play behaviour, (2) formulating play behaviour as a viable mechanism for autonomous learning about unknown environments, (3) establishing an extended schema concept as a mechanism for integrating memory, experience generalization and action generation, (4) exploring action perception from the agent's experience, and (5) close monitoring of the work with psychological data and expert psychologists. The project will closely follow current knowledge on infant development and aim to reproduce behaviour as reported in the psychological literature. In particular the focus will be on three areas of core knowledge: (1) Object understanding, (2) Interaction with animate objects, and (3) Tool use. The work will be supported by collaboration with leading developmental psychologists on the project scientific advisory panel. This will produce models and mechanisms that can be implemented and tested experimentally against psychological benchmarks. The models will be validated with challenging demonstrators based on a single humanoid robotic platform (iCub). As a main outcome, the project will advance the understanding and application of intrinsic motivations in autonomous learning systems and robots. This overall goal will be achieved with the support of an International Scientific Advisory Board, consists of: Kevin O'Regan, Jacqueline Fagard, Merideth Gattis, David Whitebread, Giorgio Metta, QinetiQ and Lego. The Appointment (PDRA) – Scientific modeller Applications are invited for the post of Post-Doctoral Research Associate on this project at Aberystwyth University. The successful applicant will have a relevant background, experience of research (as demonstrated by PhD and/or publications), and proven abilities in mathematical/scientific modelling. The main tasks will involve analysing the psychological literature to develop models and experiments for testing on an iCub humanoid robot. This will be supported by another PDRA, and PhD student, who will have special responsibility for implementing the models whilst maintaining and supporting the robot. Other tasks include writing scientific documents and papers, documenting experiments and writing reports, supervising a PhD student, responsibility for day-to-day management of project needs, and collaborating with the scientific advisory panel and other researchers. Regular European travel will be involved. This post is available on a three-year fixed-term contract, funded by the EPSRC. Salary will be on the IA scale for Research Staff in the range: £32,277 - £37,384 (depending upon qualifications and experience). We expect to appoint for a start date in the first quarter of 2015.

Jan. 9, 2015

Postdoctoral and PhD positions, Personal Robotics lab, Imperial College London

by Demiris, Yiannis

Dear colleagues, two research positions (either at the postdoctoral or the PhD level) in machine learning for user-modelling and human-robot Interaction are available at the Personal Robotics Laboratory of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. Successful applicants will work under the supervision of Dr Yiannis Demiris (www.demiris.info) in the context of the new EU H2020 project PAL (Personal Assistants for healthy Lifestyle, 2015-2019), which aims to develop personalised robotic systems and avatars to assist diabetic (T1DM) children and their caregivers. The PAL positions are available from 1st of March 2015 until the end of the project at the end of Feb 2019 subject to renewal. Additional PhD positions through the A*STAR-Imperial partnership programme (project “Robot Learning by Demonstration for Heterogeneous Bimanual Collaboration Tasks”), the Chinese Scholarship Council programme, and the Imperial PhD scholarship scheme, among others, are also available. For all positions, applicants should have an excellent background in mathematics, machine learning and software engineering, and should be committed to applying their research to real systems interacting with people in challenging environments. The positions offer an excellent working environment in one of the world's top research universities, in one of the most exciting cities in the world. The Department of Electrical and Electrical Engineering at Imperial was ranked as the top EE department in the UK in the recent REF 2014, while its Personal Robotics Laboratory offers an energetic, friendly intellectual environment with state of the art facilities http://www.imperial.ac.uk/PersonalRobotics For further information and links to application material: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/personalrobotics/join_us With best wishes, Yiannis ---- Dr Yiannis Demiris, FIET, FBCS, FRSS Reader (Associate Professor) in Personal Robotics, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Rm 1014, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2BT, UK Tel: +44-(0)2075946300, FaxL +44-(0)2075946274 Personal webpage: http://www.iis.ee.ic.ac.uk/yiannis Laboratory webpage: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/PersonalRobotics - Visiting Scholar, Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Maxwell Dworkin Building MD-336, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Jan. 8, 2015

Research Topic "Metastable dynamics of neural ensembles"

by Emili Balaguer-Ballester

Research Topic "Metastable dynamics of neural ensembles" http://journal.frontiersin.org/ResearchTopic/1955 A classical view on neural computation is that it can be characterized in terms of deterministic convergence to fixed-point-type attractor states (representing, e.g., memory patterns in Hopfield 1982) or limit-cycle-like sequential transitions among states (representing e.g. motor or syntactical sequences). Is this still a valid model of how brain dynamics implements cognition? The idea that neuro-computational dynamics is more or less deterministically driven by convergence to simple attractor states has recently been challenged both empirically and by computational work. In this Research Topic of Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience we welcome experimental studies and modelling contributions addressing the question of stable vs. transient neural population dynamics, and the potential role of noise and trial-to trial variability in neural computation. Major topics are, but are not restricted to: -Attracting and meta-stable dynamics of neural ensembles, both from empirical and computational modelling perspectives. -Coding by non-stationary and transient states in neural recordings -Spontaneous cortical activity dynamics -Metastable dynamics during cognitive processing -Oscillatory emergent patterns and propagation of waves in an excitable network -Trial-to-trial variability Please see more information in http://journal.frontiersin.org/ResearchTopic/1955. Deadline is on the 31st of March. BU is a Disability Two Ticks Employer and has signed up to the Mindful Employer charter. Information about the accessibility of University buildings can be found on the BU DisabledGo webpages This email is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed and may contain confidential information. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete this email, which must not be copied, distributed or disclosed to any other person. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Bournemouth University or its subsidiary companies. Nor can any contract be formed on behalf of the University or its subsidiary companies via email.

Jan. 6, 2015

Special Session on Transfer Learning - International Work Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, 10-12 June, 2015

by Jorge M. Santos

Please consider to contribute to the Special Session on Transfer Learning International Work Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, 10-12 June, 2015 - http://iwann.ugr.es/2015 Transfer Learning (TL) aims to transfer knowledge acquired in one problem, the source problem, onto another problem, the target problem, dispensing with the bottom-up construction of the target model. The TL approach has gained significant interest in the Machine Learning (ML) community since it paves the way to devise intelligent learning models that can easily be tailored to many different domains of applicability. The following aspects have recently contributed to the emergence of TL: Generalization Theory: TL often produces algorithms with good generalization capability for different problems; Efficient TL algorithms: TL provides learning models that can be applied with far less computational effort than standard ML methods; Unlabeled data: TL can be advantageous since unlabeled data can have severe implications in some fields of research, such as in the biomedical field. Some examples of topics for this special session: Big Data with Deep Neural Networks; Generalization Bounds; Domain Adaptation or Covariate Shift; Algorithms for TL; New advancements in TL; Real-world applications. Deadline: 6 February 2015 Organizers Luís M. Silva, Dep. of Mathematics, University of Aveiro, Portugal - lmas(a)ua.pt Jorge M. Santos, Dep. of Mathematics, School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal - jms(a)isep.ipp.pt

Jan. 6, 2015

CFP (Deadline, 1 Feb 2015): IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine (CIM) Special Issue: “Computational Intelligence for Changing Environments"

by Dr Amir Hussain

CALL FOR PAPERS (Deadline: 1 Feb 2015) - With advance apologies for any cross postings! IEEE COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE (CIM) (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=10207) SPECIAL ISSUE (Nov 2015) ON "Computational Intelligence for Changing Environments" (http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~ahu/IEEE-CIM-CICE2015.pdf) AIMS AND SCOPE: Over the past decade or so, computational intelligence techniques have been highly successful for solving big data challenges in changing environments. In particular, there has been growing interest in so called biologically inspired learning (BIL), which refers to a wide range of learning techniques, motivated by biology, that try to mimic specific biological functions or behaviors. Examples include the hierarchy of the brain neocortex and neural circuits, which have resulted in biologically-inspired features for encoding, deep neural networks for classification, and spiking neural networks for general modelling. To ensure that these models are generalizable to unseen data, it is common to assume that the training and test data are independently sampled from an identical distribution, known as the sample i.i.d. assumption. In dynamic and non- stationary environments, the distribution of data changes over time, resulting in the phenomenon of ‘concept drift’ (also known as population drift or concept shift), which is a generalization of covariance shift in statistics. Over the last five years, transfer learning and multitask learning have been used to tackle this problem. Fundamental analyses using probably approximately correct (PAC) and Rademacher complexity frameworks have explained why appropriate incorporation of context and concept drift can improve generalizability in changing environments. It is possible to use human-level processing power to tackle concept drift in changing environments. Concept drift is a real-world problem, usually associated with online and concept learning, where the relationships between input data and target variables dynamically change over time. Traditional learning schemes do not adequately address this issue, either because they are offline or because they avoid dynamic learning. However, BIL seems to possess properties that would be helpful for solving concept drift problems in changing environments. Intuitively, the human capacity to deal with concept drift is innate to cognitive processes, and the learning problems susceptible to concept drift seem to share some of the dynamic demands placed on plastic neural areas in the brain. Using improved biological models in neural networks can provide insight into cognitive computational phenomena. However, a main outstanding issue in using computational intelligence for changing environments and domain adaptation is how to build complex networks, or how networks should be connected to the features, samples, and distribution drifts. Manual design and building of these networks are beyond current human capabilities. Recently, computational intelligence methods has been used to address concept drift in changing environments, with promising results. A Hebbian learning model has been used to handle random, as well as correlated, concept drift. Neural networks have been used for concept drift detection, and the influence of latent variables on concept drift in a neural network has been studied. In another study, a timing-dependent synapse model has been applied to concept drift. These works mainly apply biologically-plausible computational models to concept drift problems. Although these results are still in their infancy, they open up new possibilities to achieve brain-like intelligence for solving concept drift problems in changing environments. Taking the current state of research in computational intelligence for changing environments into account, the objective of this special issue is to collate this research to help unify the concepts and terminology of computational intelligence in changing environments, and to survey state-of-the-art computational intelligence methodologies and the key techniques investigated to date. Therefore, this special issue invites submissions on the most recent developments in computational intelligence for changing environments, algorithms and architectures, theoretical foundations, and representations, & their application to real-world problems. We also welcome timely surveys & review papers. TOPICS OF INTEREST include (but are not limited to): • Computational intelligence methodologies and implementation for changing environments •Transfer learning, Multitask learning, Domain adaption •Incremental Learning architectures, Unsupervised and semi-supervised learning architectures •Incremental Knowledge augmentation, Representation learning and disentangling •Incremental Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy systems •Incremental and single-pass data mining •Incremental Neural Clustering & Regression •Incremental Adaptive decision systems •Incremental Feature selection and reduction •Incremental Constructive Learning •Novelty detection in Incremental learning SUBMISSION PROCESS The maximum length for the manuscript is typically 25 pages in single column format with double-spacing, including figures and references. Authors should specify in the first page of their manuscripts the corresponding author’s contact and up to 5 keywords. Submission should be made via: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ieeecimcdbil2015 IMPORTANT (REVISED) DATES (for November 2015 Issue) 1st Feb, 2015: Submission of Manuscripts 15th April, 2015: Notification of Review Results 15th May, 2015: Submission of Revised Manuscripts 15th June, 2015: Submission of Final Manuscripts GUEST EDITORS Professor Amir Hussain, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK Email: ahu(a)cs.stir.ac.uk http://cs.stir.ac.uk/~ahu/ Professor Dacheng Tao, University of Technology, Sydney, 235 Jones Street, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia Email: dacheng.tao(a)uts.edu.au Professor Jonathan Wu University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, ON, Canada Email: jwu(a)uwindsor.ca Professor Dongbin Zhao Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China E-mail: dongbin.zhao(a)gmail.com ----- A PDF copy of the CFP is attached with this email for forwarding to interested colleagues. It is also available for download from: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~ahu/IEEE-CIM-CICE2015.pdf For more information on the IEEE CIM, see: http://cis.ieee.org/ieee-computational-intelligence-magazine.html -- 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.

Jan. 6, 2015

MBL Methods in Computational Neuroscience Course 2015: applications due March 5

by Mark Goldman

Applications are open for the Methods in Computational Neuroscience course at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. The course will run from July 29 to August 26, 2014, and the online application form can be found at: http://ws2.mbl.edu/studentapp/studentapp.asp?CourseID=MCN. The course application deadline is March 5. The course covers a range of topics in computational neuroscience including neuronal biophysics, neural coding & information processing, circuit dynamics, learning & memory, motor control, and cognitive processing & disease. In addition, numerous tutorials and problem sets will cover a broad range of computational and mathematical modeling methods. The course strongly emphasizes the collaboration between theory and experiment in solving neuroscience problems, and lectures will be given by a mixture of theorists and experimentalists. The final weeks of the course are primarily reserved for development and work on projects that students design in collaboration with the resident faculty. Further information can be found on the MCN website: http://www.mbl.edu/mcn/ 2015 Course Directors: Michale Fee, MIT Mark Goldman, UC Davis 2015 Confirmed Faculty: Larry Abbott, Columbia University Steve Baccus, Stanford University William Bialek, Princeton University Dmitri Chklovskii, HHMI Janelia Farm Peter Dayan, University College London Bard Ermentrout, University of Pittsburgh Adrienne Fairhall, University of Washington Ila Fiete, UT Austin Loren Frank, UCSF Michael Frank, Brown University Surya Ganguli, Stanford University John Huguenard, Stanford University David Kleinfeld, UC San Diego Nancy Kopell, Boston University John Lisman, Brandeis University Eve Marder, Brandeis University Bartlett Mel, University of Southern California Jonathan Pillow, Princeton University Terry Sejnowski, Salk Institute Michael Shadlen, Columbia University Josh Shaevitz, Princeton University Sara Solla, Northwestern University Haim Sompolinsky, Hebrew University David Tank, Princeton University Josh Tenenbaum, MIT Xiao-Jing Wang, NYU Daniel Wolpert, Cambridge University Ryohei Yasuda, Duke University

Jan. 6, 2015

CNS*2015 Call for Workshop Proposals - Deadline Approaching

by Farzan Nadim

CNS 2015 Prague July 1823, 2015: Call for Workshops DEADLINE APPROACHING We are requesting proposals for workshops from the international community of computational neuroscientists. Proposals from all levels of faculty as well as advanced postdoctoral fellows are welcome. This is a great opportunity to organize a small meeting with just a few of the headaches of actually organizing it. Workshop proposal submission instructions for CNS 2015 The last two days (July 22-23) of the 24th annual CNS meeting will be devoted to workshops, in which computationally related neuroscience topics can be presented and discussed. Workshops can be anywhere between one half to two days in duration. Usually several speakers are invited to introduce a unifying theme, but ample time for discussion should also be planned. Submit workshop proposals to: workshops(a)cnsorg.org. The Past Meetings page gives access to archives of workshops held at previous CNS meetings. The proposal should be submitted as a Word or pdf file and MUST include the following sections: 1. Workshop Title 2. Organizers (list primary organizer first; include affiliations and emails) 3. One or two days (2 sessions per day) 4. Number of expected speakers 5. Brief Description (~150 words; if possible, say why this is significant or timely) 6. Speakers (mark expected or confirmed) Also please note the following rules which were approved by the OCNS Board on July 15, 2013: Each individual can be the organizer or co-organizer on only one workshop. The number of confirmed speakers is a criterion for accepting the proposal. Overlapping proposals may be asked to be combined. If the organizers do not wish to combine the proposals, only one of the proposals may be accepted. Workshops submitted before January 15, 2015 will be given priority in acceptance. Workshop proposals arriving after January 15, 2015 will be evaluated based on remaining space for additional workshops. No further workshop acceptances will be anticipated after May 15, 2015. Registration: Workshop registration will occur through the OCNS registration web site for CNS 2015. All workshop participants, including speakers must register. Each workshop is eligible to receive registration waivers for 2 speakers. Travel awards: a limited number of Travel Awards will be available for postdoctoral researchers to lead and be included as speakers. Exceptionally starting assistant professors may also be given consideration. These Travel Awards will be variable depending on distance traveled. Please indicate which speakers you would like to be considered for this mechanism but take into account that there will be less travel awards than workshops. Springer Computational Neuroscience Book Series: Some of the workshops may be published by the Springer Series in Computational Neuroscience. Workshop organizers interested in this mechanism should submit a book proposal to Simina Calin (Simina.calin(a)springer.com) and indicate in the workshop proposal their interest in publishing a book. Logistics: Rooms, AV equipment, snacks and beverages during breaks will be provided by OCNS to the workshop organizers.

Jan. 5, 2015

[publication and call for dialog] IEEE CIS Newsletter on Autonomous Mental Development, Fall 2014

by Pierre-Yves Oudeyer

Dear colleagues, For this new year, I am happy to announce the release of the Fall 2014 issue of the IEEE CIS Newsletter on Autonomous Mental Development. This is the biannual newsletter of the computational developmental sciences and developmental robotics community, studying mechanisms of lifelong learning and development in machines and humans. It is available at: http://www.cse.msu.edu/amdtc/amdnl/AMDNL-V11-N2.pdf Featuring: === “Trained on everything" === Dialog Initiated by Katharina Rohlfing, Britta Wrede and Gerhard Sagerer, with responses from Giulio Sandino and David Vernon, Franck Ramus and Thérèse Collins, Maha Salem, Juyang Weng, Thomas Schultz, and Christina Bergmann: In the years to come, one very important challenge in developmental sciences is education. Taking an integrated and interdisciplinary approach requires to handle with dexterity concepts and methods from diverse scientific fields ranging from psychology, neuroscience, biology, robotics, computer science or mathematics. How can we grow a community of young researchers mastering the latest advances? How can we teach them to establish cross-disciplinary collaboration and impact? === "Will social robots need to be consciously aware?” === New dialog initiated by Janet Wiles A large research community is today working towards the objective of building robots capable of believable, relevant and useful social interaction with humans. We are far from understanding what “consciousness” is, but intuition tells us that it would be very difficult for an “unconscious” human to enter into a social interaction. So what about robots? At least can we identify levels of awareness (of the self, of others) which constitute a necessary basis on which to build social competence? Those of you interested in reacting to this dialog initiation are welcome to submit a response by March 30th, 2015. The length of each response must be between 600 and 800 words including references (contact pierre- yves.oudeyer(a)inria.fr) Let me remind you that previous issues of the newsletter are all open-access and available at: http://www.cse.msu.edu/amdtc/amdnl/ I wish you a stimulating reading! Best regards, Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, Editor of the IEEE CIS Newsletter on Autonomous Mental Development Research director, Inria Head of Flower project-team Inria and Ensta ParisTech, France http://www.pyoudeyer.com https://flowers.inria.fr

Jan. 5, 2015

Postdoc Opportunity at Stanford in the Modulation of Neural Circuitry for Cognitive and Emotional Control

by Wei Wu

The Laboratory of Amit Etkin, MD PhD at Stanford Universityis currently accepting applications for a postdoctoral research fellowship focused on understanding and modulating the neural systems underlying cognitive and emotional control in both healthy individuals and patients with a range of psychiatric conditions. Special emphasis is put on use of causal circuit manipulation tools (eg TMS and concurrent TMS and fMRI) as well as a range of cognitive neuroscience paradigms at the behavioral, physiological and neural levels. The successful applicant will have a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience, Neurophysiology, Psychology, Computer Science, Statistics or related fields. Experience with analysis of fMRI data and/or TMS is required. Additional experience with psychophysiology or programming is a plus. A US Citizenship is also required. Duties will also include manuscript preparation, presentation of findings at conferences, management of research assistants and contribution to the preparation of grants. Laboratory and Stanford resources include research-dedicated 3T and 7T MRI scanners, concurrent TMS/fMRI setups and concurrent TMS/EEG setups. Salary commensurate with experience. More information about our ongoing studies can be found at: http://etkinlab.stanford.edu. To apply, please send a curriculum vitae, a statement describing research interests and relevant background and three letters of recommendations, as well as relevant reprints/preprints of research articles to: Amit Etkin, MD, PhD Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Stanford University amitetkin(a)stanford.edu

Jan. 5, 2015

Last Mile: BIOTECHNO 2015 and BIOCOMPUTATION 2015 || May 24 - 29, 2015 - Rome, Italy

by Cristina Pascual

INVITATION: ================= Please consider to contribute to and/or forward to the appropriate groups the following opportunity to submit and publish original scientific results to: - BIOTECHNO 2015, The Seventh International Conference on Bioinformatics, Biocomputational Systems and Biotechnologies - BIOCOMPUTATION 2015, The International Symposium on Big Data and BioComputation The submission deadline is extended to January 23, 2015. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit extended article versions to one of the IARIA Journals: http://www.iariajournals.org ================= ============== BIOTECHNO 2015 | BIOCOMPUTATION 2015 | Call for Papers =============== CALL FOR PAPERS, TUTORIALS, PANELS BIOTECHNO 2015, The Seventh International Conference on Bioinformatics, Biocomputational Systems and Biotechnologies General page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/BIOTECHNO15.html Submission page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/SubmitBIOTECHNO15.html BIOCOMPUTATION 2015, The International Symposium on Big Data and BioComputation General page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/BIOCOMPUTATION.html Submission page: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/BIOCOMPUTATION.html#SubmitAPaper Events schedule: May 24 - 29, 2015 - Rome, Italy 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: January 23, 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 BIOTECHNO 2015 Topics (for topics and submission details: see CfP on the site) Call for Papers: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/CfPBIOTECHNO15.html ============================================================ A. Bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, neuroinformatics and applications Bioinformatics (Bioinformatics modeling; Bioinformatics databases; Epidemic models; Informatics and statistics in bio-pharmaceutical research; Machine learning and artificial intelligence in molecular design; Systems biology and metabolic networks; Medical informatics; Genomics informatics; Biostatistics; Structural and functional genomics; Identifying molecular sequence and structure databases; Mechanisms for specifying molecular interactions and structure predictions; Formalisms for gene regulation and expression databases; Algorithms for gene identification and pattern discovery; Techniques for gene expression analysis; Modeling and simulation of biomarkers) Advanced biocomputation technologies (Stochastic modeling; Computational drug discovery; Graph theory and bioinformatics; Biological databases and information retrieval; Experimental studies and results; Application of computational intelligence in medicine and biological sciences (artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary computing, and simulated annealing); High-performance computing as applied to natural and medical sciences; Hardware computing accelerators; Computer-based medical systems (automation in medicine, etc.); Other aspects and applications relating to technological advancements in medicine and biological sciences; Novel applications) Chemoinformatics (Computer-aided drug design; Concepts, methods, and tools for drug discovery; Virtual screening of chemical libraries; ADMET - absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity; QSAR - quantitative structure-activity relationships; Protein-ligand docking and scoring functions; Chemical similarity and diversity; Chemogenomics in drug discovery; QSPR - quantitative structure-property relationships; Theoretical models in chemical reactivity; Mathematical chemistry and chemical graphs; In silico environmental toxicology; Computer-assisted chemical engineering; Combinatorial chemistry; Graph theory in chemistry; Prediction of drug toxicity; Property prediction; Molecular mechanics and quantum chemical calculations; Modeling and measurements of solid-liquid and vapor-liquid equilibria; Blood-brain barrier penetration; Comparison of the similarity(diversity of chemo-data libraries; Chemoinformatics applications) Bioimaging ( Image processing in medicine and biological sciences; Measurements techniques; Mass spectrometry; Numerical(mathematical approaches; Biological data integration and visualization) Neuroinformatics (Neurosciences; Neurocomputing) B. Computational systems (genetics, biology, and microbiology) Bio-ontologies and semantics (Software environments for bio-computation, bio-informatics, and biomedical applications; Medical informatics; Epidemic models; Biological data mining; Biomedical knowledge discovery; Pattern classification and recognition; Mathematical biology; Graph theory and bio-informatics; Stochastic modeling; Biological databases and information retrieval; Processing mutation information; Archiving of mutation specific information) Biocomputing (Computational biology; Bioengineering; Biomedical image computing and informatics; Biomedical automation and control; Image-based diagnosis and therapy; Modeling and simulation of systems biology; Applications of large-scale bio-systems) Genetics (Gene regulation; Gene expression databases; Gene pattern discovery and identification; Genetic network modeling and inference; Gene expression analysis; RNA and DNA structure and sequencing; Evolution of regulatory genomic sequences; Biological data mining and knowledge discovery; Bio-pattern classification and recognition; Bio-sequence analysis and alignment; Comparative genomics; Structural and functional genomics; Amino acid sequencing) Molecular and Cellular Biology (Protein modeling; Molecular interactions; Metabolic modeling and pathways; Evolution and phylogenetics; Macromolecular structure prediction; Proteomics; Protein folding and fold recognition; Molecular sequence and structure databases; Molecular dynamics and simulation; Molecular sequence classification, alignment and assembly) Microbiology (Bio-nanotechnologies; Self-assembly and self-replication; Global regulatory networks and mechanisms; Microbial propagation and immunity; Microbial therapies; Microbial life under extreme energy limitation; Cellular microbiology and contact systems; Phylogenetics; Genome dynamics; Transmission dynamics and evolution of emerging diseases; Metagenomics and drug resistance; Microbes and alternative energies) C. Biotechnologies and biomanufacturing Fundamentals in biotechnologies (Bioengineering; Bioelectronics; Biomaterials; Bio-films in ecology and medicine; Biometric screening techniques; Biorobotics) Biodevices (Biosensors; Biomechanical devices; Biochips; Biocomputing; Biometrics devices; Specialized biodevices; Nanotechnology for biosystems) Biomedical technologies (Biomedical engineering; Biomedical instrumentation; Biomedical metrology and certification; Biomedical sensors; Biomedical monitoring devices; Biomedical devices with embedded computers; Biomedical integrated systems) Biological technologies (Biological data integration; Image processing in medicine and biological sciences; Biological data visualization; Synthetic biological systems) Biomanufacturing (Manufacturing platforms; Biopharmaceutical industry; Generic biopharmaceuticals; Bioprocess management; Clinical trials; Disposables and product changeover; Upstream and downstream bioprocessing; Technology benchmarks; International regulations) BIOCOMPUTATION 2015 Topics (for topics and submission details: see CfP on the site) CfP: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/BIOCOMPUTATION.html#CallForPapers ========================== Big Data and Context-sensitive Computation Big Data and Cloud Technology and Services in BioComputation Big Data, Cloud computing and GPU (Graphical Process Units) for BioComputation Scale-up and high-performance techniques for data-centric BioComputation Big Data and Prediction Computational Models Big Data Computation Applications Big Data and Evolution Models Big Data and BioStatistics Big Data and Personalized Healthcare Computation Big Data in Genome Analytics Big Data and Computation on Illness Patterns/Variations (cancer, diabetes, etc.) Big Data and Donor Information Big Data and Drugs-related Computation Big Data and Health/eHealth/Telemedicine Computation Big Data and Computation in Clinical Context Big Data and BioImage Computation Big Data and Molecular Modeling Big Data and Computational Physics Big Data and Biological Systems Big Data and Scalability of BioComputation Tools Big Data and Trusted Bio-Datasets Big Data BioComputation and Regulator Borders ------------------------ BIOTECHNO 2015 Committee: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/ComBIOTECHNO15.html BIOCOMPUTATION 2015 Committee: http://www.iaria.org/conferences2015/BIOCOMPUTATION.html#Committees ===============

Jan. 5, 2015

Okinawa/OIST Computational Neuroscience Course 2015: applications open

by Erik De Schutter

OKINAWA/OIST COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE COURSE 2015 Methods, Neurons, Networks and Behaviors June 8 - June 25, 2015 Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan https://groups.oist.jp/ocnc The aim of the Okinawa/OIST Computational Neuroscience Course is to provide opportunities for young researchers with theoretical backgrounds to learn the latest advances in neuroscience, and for those with experimental backgrounds to have hands-on experience in computational modeling. We invite graduate students and postgraduate researchers to participate in the course, held from June 8th through June 25th, 2015 at an oceanfront seminar house of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. Applications are through the course web page (https://groups.oist.jp/ocnc) only; they will close February 8th, 2015. Applicants will receive confirmation of acceptance in March. The course has a strong hands-on component based on student proposed modeling or data analysis projects, which are further refined with the help of a dedicated tutor. Applicants are required to propose their project at the time of application. Like in preceding years, OCNC will be a comprehensive three-week course covering single neurons, networks, and behaviors with ample time for student projects. The first week will focus exclusively on methods with hands-on tutorials during the afternoons, while the second and third weeks will have lectures by international experts. We invite those who are interested in integrating experimental and computational approaches at each level, as well as in bridging different levels of complexity. There is no tuition fee. The sponsor will provide lodging and meals during the course and may support travel for those without funding. We hope that this course will be a good opportunity for theoretical and experimental neuroscientists to meet each other and to explore the attractive nature and culture of Okinawa, the southernmost island prefecture of Japan. Invited faculty: • Gordon Arbuthnott (OIST) • Axel Borst (MPI, Münich, Germany) • Erik De Schutter (OIST) • Kenji Doya (OIST) • Eugene Izihikevich (Brain Corporation, USA) • Bernd Kuhn (OIST) • Peter Latham (Gatsby Unit, UCL, UK) • Miguel Nicolelis (Duke University, USA) • Steve Prescott (University of Toronto, Canada) • John Rinzel (New York University, USA) • Jackie Schiller (Technion, Israel) • Greg Stephens (OIST) • Jeff Wickens (OIST) • Taro Toyoizumi (RIKEN BSI, Japan) • Xiao-Jing Wang (New York University, USA) • Wako Yoshida (ATR, Japan)

Jan. 5, 2015

Neural-Inspired Computational Elements workshop and student competition

by Aimone, James Bradley

The 3rd Neural-Inspired Computational Elements (NICE) workshop will be held in Bernalillo, New Mexico between February 23rd and February 25th. This year's meeting will focus on the value proposition of neural inspired computing, with speakers discussing topics in neuroscience, neural-inspired algorithms, neural-inspired hardware, and application drivers. NICE is organized by scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and is co-sponsored by the Department of Energy Office of Science, DAPRA, and IARPA. For an updated speaker list and registration info, please go to http://nice.sandia.gov. STUDENT COMPETITION For this first time this year, we are having a student competition. Go to Student Thesis Competition<https://nm.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/jss/ApplyForThesisAward> (https://nm.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/jss/ApplyForThesisAward) to submit a student thesis abstract and advisor recommendation on a Neuro-inspired Computation related topic. Submissions must be in by January 16th, winners will be announced by January 30th. Three selected students will receive travel support to attend the workshop and have the opportunity to present a 10 minute 'snap overview'. Runner-up notable submissions will be considered for poster presentations during the workshop.

Jan. 4, 2015

postdoctoral position: olfactory coding and holographic optogentics

by Rinberg, Dmitry

Postdoctoral position in the Rinberg (NYU) – Shoham (Technion) labs to study olfactory coding using holographic optogenetics We are seeking a talented postdoctoral researcher for our collaborative BRAIN Initiative project to study behavioral readouts of spatiotemporal codes using holographic optogenetics. The project will advance and apply a new technology for spatiotemporal patterned control of multiple neurons in the peripheral olfactory system and use behavioral responses to test how these patterns are being read. An ideal candidate should have a background in neuroscience, physics and math. Knowledge and experience in computer-generated holography, mutliphoton imaging and/or nonlinear optics are a big plus. The work will be carried out at the NYU Neuroscience Institute with possible visits to the Technion; the candidate will gain both from NYU’s thriving neuroscience community and from the Technion’s excellence in advanced technology development. Interested applicants should send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and arrange for reference letters to be sent to Dr. Dmitry Rinberg (rinberg(a)nyu.edu<mailto:rinberg@nyu.edu>).

Jan. 4, 2015

CFP: Special Issue on Neurobiologically Inspired Robotics: Enhanced Autonomy Through Neuromorphic Cognition

by Jeff Krichmar

Dear Computational Neuroscientists, I hope some of you will consider submitting to this special issue of Neural Networks (http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neural-networks/call-for-papers/special-is…) Neurobiologically inspired robotics goes by many names: brain-based devices, cognitive robots, neurorobots, and neuromorphic robots, to name a few. The field has grown into an exciting area of research and engineering. The common goal is twofold: Firstly, developing a system that demonstrates some level of cognitive ability can lead to a better understanding of the neural machinery that realizes cognitive function. The often used phrase, “understanding through building”, implies that one can get a deep understanding of a system by constructing physical artifacts that can operate in the real-world. In building and studying neurobiologically inspired robots, scientists must address theories of neuroscience that couple brain, body, and behavior. Secondly, the deep theoretical understanding of cognition, neurobiology and behavior obtained by constructing physical systems, could lead to a system that demonstrates capabilities commonly found in the animal kingdom, but rarely found in artificial systems, most notably their adaptive and flexible autonomous behavior. There have already been some successes that meet these goals. For example, navigation models based on the hippocampus are now deploy! ed on robots that autonomously explore their environment. Machine image processing systems based on visual cortex have been used in a number of unsupervised recognition and perception applications. Robots designed to address impairments due to disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, and attentional deficit disorders, are being used as therapeutic and diagnostic tools without the need for constant caretaker supervision. Despite these successes, the field is still in its infancy and basic research is needed. In particular, we are interested in papers that describe: 1) How models of cognitive functions, such as attention, decision-making, learning and memory, perception, and social cognition can be constructed on physical robots. 2) How the neuromorphic devices, which are designed to run neural algorithms with low-power, can advance the construction of autonomous robotics. 3) How the theoretical and engineering lessons learned from constructing neurobiologically inspired robots can transfer to autonomous robots carrying out practical applications. This Special Issue invites papers that address the three broad topics described above. Topics of interest • Adaptive behavior • Active sensing • Artificial empathy • Cortical computing • Developmental robotics • Embodied Cognition • Neuromorphic Engineering • On-line learning and memory systems • Prediction and planning • Socially assistive robotics Guest Editors Jeffrey Krichmar, University of California, Irvine Minoru Asada, Osaka University Jorg Conradt, Technische Universitat München Important Dates Submission due: 1 Feb 2015 Acceptance notification: 1 Aug 2015 Expected publication: 1 Nov 2015 Submission instructions Each paper for submission should be formatted according to the style and length limit of Neural Networks. Please refer complete Author Guidelines at http://www.elsevier.com/journals/neural-networks/0893-6080/guide-for-authors. Note that published papers and those currently under review by other journals or conferences are prohibited. A separate cover letter should be submitted that includes the paper title, the list of all authors and their affiliations, and information of the contact author. Each paper will be reviewed rigorously, and possibly in two rounds, i.e., minor/major revisions will undergo another round of review. Prospective authors are invited to submit their papers directly via the online submission system at http://ees.elsevier.com/neunet/. To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly included into the special issue described, it is important that all authors select “SI: Neurobiological Robotics” when they reach the "Article Type" step in the submission process. Jeff Krichmar Department of Cognitive Sciences 2328 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697-5100 jkrichma(a)uci.edu http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma

Jan. 2, 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 in the coming weeks 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 == 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. 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 Univ.) Bridge Chairs: Jeffrey Krichmar (UC Irvine) Bertram Malle (Brown University) Program Chairs: Anne Warlaumount (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 (Univ. of the Witwatersrand) 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.

Jan. 2, 2015

NEURAL COMPUTATION - January 1, 2015

by Terry Sejnowski

Editorial Neural Computation was founded with the goal of providing a home for the best research in computational approaches to understanding brain function. With this issue Neural Computation is now all electronic (color illustrations are free) and also has a broader scope. The goal of the BRAIN Initiative, announced by President Obama on April 2, 2013, is to accelerate progress in understanding basic principles of brain function by developing innovative neurotechnologies. The BRAIN 2025 report on the BRAIN Initiative highlighted Theory, Modeling, Computation and Statistics (TMCS) as essential to this goal (http://www.braininitiative.nih.gov/2025/index.htm) The neurotechniques developed by the BRAIN Initiative will scale up the acquisition of data by three orders of magnitude in the next decade. Every area of neuroscience, from molecular to systems, can benefit from advanced computational techniques to analyze, model, and interpret these data, serving as the foundation for conceptual advances in brain theories. Neural Computation is uniquely positioned at the crossroads between Neuroscience and TMCS and welcomes the submission of original papers from all areas of TMCS, including: * Advanced experimental design * Analysis of chemical sensor data * Connectomic reconstructions * Analysis of multielectrode and optical recordings * Genetic data for cell identity * Analysis of behavioral data * Multiscale models * Analysis of molecular mechanisms * Neuroinformatics * Analysis of brain imaging data * Neuromorphic engineering * Principles of neural coding, computation, circuit dynamics, and plasticity * Theories of brain function An expanded editorial board will guide Neural Computation in this broader arena: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/page/editorial/neco As the US BRAIN Initiative and the European Human Brain Project continue to expand, and as other countries launch new brain programs, Neural Computation will be central in integrating these international efforts. Terry Sejnowski ----- Neural Computation - Volume 27, Number 1 - January 1, 2015 Available online for download now: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/neco/27/1 ----- Article Spike Train SIMilarity Space (SSIMS): A Framework for Single Neuron and Ensemble Data Analysis Carlos E. Vargas-Irwin, David M. Brandman, Jonas B. Zimmermann, John P. Donoghue, Michael J. Black Note Optimizing the Representation of Orientation Preference Maps in Visual Cortex Nicholas J. Hughes, Geoffrey J. Goodhill Letters Topological Sparse Learning of Dynamic Form Patterns T. Guthier, V. Willert, J. Eggert Dynamics of Gamma Bursts in Local Field Potentials Priscilla E. Greenwood, Mark D. McDonnell, Lawrence M. Ward Spatiotemporal Conditional Inference and Hypothesis Tests for Neural Ensemble Spiking Precision Matthew T. Harrison, Asohan Amarasingham, Wilson Truccolo Toward a Multisubject Analysis of Neural Connectivity C. J. Oates, L. Costa, T. E. Nichols Using Multilayer Perceptron Computation to Discover Ideal Insect Olfactory Receptor Combinations in the Mosquito and Fruit Fly for an Efficient Electronic Nose Luqman R. Bachtiar, Charles P. Unsworth, Richard D. Newcomb Graph Degree Sequence Solely Determines the Expected Hopfield Network Pattern Stability Daniel Berend, Shlomi Dolev, Ariel Hanemann Efficient Training of Convolutional Deep Belief Networks in the Frequency Domain for Application to High-Resolution 2D and 3D Images Tom Brosch, Roger Tam Conditional Density Estimation with Dimensionality Reduction via Squared-Loss Conditional Entropy Minimization Voot Tangkaratt, Ning Xie, Masashi Sugiyama ------------ ON-LINE -- http://www.mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2015 - VOLUME 27 - 12 ISSUES Student/Retired $75 Individual $134 Institution $1,075 MIT Press Journals, One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209 Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-cs(a)mit.edu ------------

Dec. 30, 2014

Call for Papers: IEEE IJCNN'2015 Special Session on: "Emerging Methodologies for Big Data Integration"

by Dr Amir Hussain

CALL FOR PAPERS IEEE IJCNN 2015 Special Session on *"*Emerging Methodologies for Big Data Integration*"* July 12 - 17, 2015, Killarney, Ireland ( http://www.ijcnn.org/ ) ********************************************************** IMPORTANT DATES Paper submission: January 15th, 2015 Paper Decision notification: March 15th, 2015 Camera-ready submission: April 15th, 2015 Conference Dates: July 12 - 17th, 2015 *********************************************************** Over the years, huge quantities of data have been generated by large-scale scientific experiments (biomedical, “omic”, imaging, astronomical, etc.), big industrial companies and on the web. One of the main characteristics of such Big Data is that they are multi-view, i.e. there are multiple sources (in the “omics” sciences, experiments related to mRNA, miRNA etc.), relate the same patterns (in this case patients) or multi-domain (in biomedical applications for examples, “omics, imaging and clinical data). As a consequence, new methodologies based on neural networks, machine and statistical learning, computation Intelligence and others, have been proposed to integrate these kinds of big data and to elicit relevant information to infer novel models and correlations. The aim of the special session is to solicit new approaches to real world scientific and industrial big data integration, as well as applications of above mentioned Big Data methodologies. *Topics** Papers must present original work or review the state-of-the-art in the following non-exhaustive list of topics: Multi-view learning Multi-view clustering data fusion data integration multi-view data applications multi domain data applications THE DEADLINE FOR THE PAPER SUBMISSION TO THE SPECIAL SESSION IS THE SAME OF IJCNN 2015, January 15th 2015. All the submissions will be peer-reviewed with the same criteria used for other contributed papers. Perspective authors will submit their papers through the IJCNN2015 conference submission system at http://www.ijcnn.org/ Please make sure to select the Special Session "Emerging Methodologies for Big Data Integration " from the "S. SPECIAL SESSION TOPICS" name in the "Main Research topic" dropdown list; Templates and instructions for authors will be provided on the IJCNN webpage http://www.ijcnn.org/ All papers submitted to the special sessions will be subject to the same peer-review procedure as regular papers, accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings. Further information about IJCNN 2015 can be fond at http://www.ijcnn.org/ and about the special session at http://neuronelab.unisa.it/emerging-methodologies-for-big-data-integration/ *********************************************************** **Organizers** - Amir Hussain Professor of Computing Science and founding Director of the Cognitive Signal-Image Processing and Control Systems Research (COSIPRA) Laboratory, University of Stirling, UK (E-mail: ahu(a)cs.stir.ac.uk http://cs.stir.ac.uk/~ahu) - Giovanni Montana Professor and Chair in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Biomedical Engineering Department, King’s College, London, UK - Francesco Carlo Morabito Professor and Chair of the Neurolab, Dipartimento DICEAM, Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Italy - Roberto TAGLIAFERRI Professor and Chair of the Neuronelab, Dipartimento di Informatica, Università di Salerno, Italy **Technical Program Committee (being continuously updated)** Elia Mario Biganzoli, Università di Milano, Italy Erik Cambria, NTU, Singapore Ciro Donalek, Caltech, CA, USA Anna Esposito, Seconda Università di Napoli, Italy Marcos Faundez-Zanuy, Escola Universitaria Politecnica de Mataro (Tecnocampus), Spain Alexander Gelbukh, National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico Dario Greco, FIOH, Finland Newton Howard, MIT Media Lab, USA Pietro Liò, University of Cambridge, UK Bin Luo, Anhui University, China Mufti Mahmud, Antwerp University, Belgium Riccardo Rizzo, CNR, Italy Jingpeng Li, University of Stirling, UK Domenico Ursino, Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Italy Alfredo Vellido, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Spain Pierangelo Veltri, Università "Magna Graecia" di Catanzaro, Italy Jonathan Wu, University of Windsor, Canada Yunqing Xia, Tsinghua University, China Kang Li, Queen's University, Belfast, UK Dongbing Gu, Essex University, UK Vincent C. Müller, Anatolia College/ACT, Greece & Oxford University, UK Dongbin Zhao, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China *********************************************************** -- 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.

Dec. 28, 2014

Teaching Computational Neuroscience

by Érdi Péter

A multiple book review: http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.5909 Péter Érdi http://people.kzoo.edu/~perdi/

Dec. 28, 2014

UC Santa Barbara Postdoc fellowship announcement

by John Hajda

SAGE JUNIOR FELLOW PROGRAM, SAGE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF MIND, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA Job number JPF00417 Four postdoctoral positions will be available beginning on September 1, 2015. This is a three-year fellowship, and the competition is open to all qualified candidates regardless of institutional affiliation. The SAGE Center Junior Fellowship Program, established in 2011, fosters interdisciplinary research in the study of brain-mind interaction at the postdoctoral level. We are seeking a group of highly collaborative, interacting fellows who are willing to take different approaches to shared conceptual challenges. Qualified applicants should be able and will be encouraged to utilize the UCSB Brain Imaging Center (http://www.bic.ucsb.edu/) The Center supports the new PRISMA (3T) Siemens magnet as well as MRI compatible high density electroencephalography hardware. Center funding will be available for imaging studies. In addition to developing research programs in close collaboration with individual faculty, Junior Fellows will enjoy special privileges, including access to visiting SAGE Scholars and attendance at regular group meetings to collaborate and share information about the role of psychology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, political science, anthropology, biology, physics, engineering, the arts, philosophy and other disciplines on the study of brain, mind and behavior. To be eligible for the Junior Fellows program, a candidate must have been awarded a doctoral degree or foreign equivalent within the past five years. Proposed research topics must be related to brain-mind interaction. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. We will strive to create a team based on common interests of the top applicants. To apply, please submit: 1. A complete CV, published article and three letters of recommendation 2. A statement of your research interests and a description of how those interests complement the goals of the SAGE Center. For primary consideration, apply by February 1, 2015, although we will accept applications until the positions are filled. Please submit your application at https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/apply/JPF00417. Inquiries about your application may be directed to juniorfellows(a)sagecenter.ucsb.edu; include your last name in the subject line of all correspondence. Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D. Director, SAGE Center for the Study of Mind University of California, Santa Barbara http://www.sagecenter.ucsb.edu/ http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/~gazzanig/ The department is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching and service. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by law including protected Veterans and individuals with disabilities. -- John Hajda, Ph.D. Associate Director Sage Center for the Study of the Mind Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660 Phone 805-893-4460 Fax 805-893-3228 hajda(a)sagecenter.ucsb.edu http://www.sagecenter.ucsb.edu/

Dec. 23, 2014

New Brain Computation Paper

by MICHAEL FORREST

A new paper that some may find interesting: Forrest MD (2014) The sodium-potassium pump is an information processing element in brain computation. Frontiers in Physiology. 5:472. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2014.00472 FREELY available at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2014.00472/full

Dec. 23, 2014

[Call for applications] *Graduate Programs in Computational Neuroscience* in Berlin; MSc and PhD; 7 PhD scholarships; deadline March 15, 2015

by Robert Martin

[Apologies for cross-posting] *Doctoral* and *Master Program* "Computational Neuroscience" at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin in Berlin, Germany Application deadline: *March 15, 2015* Begin of courses: October 2015 Internet: www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de _Doctoral Program_ The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin and the TU Berlin invite applications for *7 fellowships* of the Research Training Group "Sensory Computation in Neural Systems" (GRK 1589/2, https://www.eecs.tu-berlin.de/grk_15891/menue/sensory_computation_in_neural…) The *scientific program* of the research training group combines techniques and concepts from machine learning, computational neuroscience, and systems neurobiology in order to specifically address sensory computation. Doctoral candidates will work on interdisciplinary projects investigating the mechanisms of neural computation, address the processes underlying perception on different scales and different levels of abstraction, and develop new theories of computation hand in hand with well-controlled experiments in order to put functional hypotheses to the test. The training group offers structured supervision complemented by a teaching and training program. Each student will be supervised by two investigators with complementary expertise and will be associated with the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin (https://www.bccn-berlin.de/) a leading research center dedicated to the theoretical study of neural processing. Candidates are expected to hold a Masters degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject (e.g., neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, physics, mathematics, etc.) and have the required advanced mathematical background. Candidates selected in the first application step will be invited for lab visits and an interview, expected to take place in June 2015. The *fellowships of 1468 €/month* - with additional children allowances if applicable---will be granted for up to three years. _Master's Program_ The tuition-free Master program in Computational Neuroscience offers *15 places* per year, has a duration of 2 years and is fully taught in English. The *curriculum* is subdivided into ten modules, whose content includes theoretical neuroscience, programming, machine learning, cognitive neuroscience, acquisition, modelling, and computational analysis of neural data, with a strong focus on a complementary theoretical and experimental training. Three lab rotations and a Master's thesis are accomplished in the second year. The aim of the program is to provide the students with an interdisciplinary education and an early contact to the neurocomputational research environment. *Requirements* BSc or equivalent degree in a relevant subject (typically in the natural sciences, in an engineering discipline, in cognitive science, or in mathematics), certificate of English proficiency, proof of sufficient mathematical knowledge (at least 24 ECTS credit points). ~~~ _For more information_ ... ... come and visit us on our *information day* on January 14, 2015, at 3 PM (sharp) at the BCCN Berlin: https://www.bccn-berlin.de/Calendar/Events/event/?contentId=3667 ... or browse: www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de ... or e-mail: graduateprograms(a)bccn-berlin.de . Best regards, Robert Martin -- Robert Martin, PhD Teaching Coordinator Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin Philippstr. 13 House 6; 10115 Berlin; Germany Phone/Fax +49 (0)30 2093 6773/6771 http://www.computational-neuroscience-berlin.de GRK 1589/1, Sensory Computation in Neural Systems Technische Universitaet Berlin Sekretariat MAR 5-6; Marchstr. 23; 10587 Berlin Phone/Fax +49 (0)30 314 72006/73121 http://www.eecs.tu-berlin.de/grk_15891/

Dec. 19, 2014

Advanced Scientific Programming in Python Summer School

by Emanuele Olivetti

Advanced Scientific Programming in Python ========================================= a Summer School by the G-Node, the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich and the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences Scientists spend more and more time writing, maintaining, and debugging software. While techniques for doing this efficiently have evolved, only few scientists have been trained to use them. As a result, instead of doing their research, they spend far too much time writing deficient code and reinventing the wheel. In this course we will present a selection of advanced programming techniques, incorporating theoretical lectures and practical exercises tailored to the needs of a programming scientist. New skills will be tested in a real programming project: we will team up to develop an entertaining scientific computer game. We use the Python programming language for the entire course. Python works as a simple programming language for beginners, but more importantly, it also works great in scientific simulations and data analysis. We show how clean language design, ease of extensibility, and the great wealth of open source libraries for scientific computing and data visualization are driving Python to become a standard tool for the programming scientist. This school is targeted at Master or PhD students and Post-docs from all areas of science. Competence in Python or in another language such as Java, C/C++, MATLAB, or Mathematica is absolutely required. Basic knowledge of Python is assumed. Participants without any prior experience with Python should work through the proposed introductory materials before the course. Date and Location ================= August 31—September 5, 2015. Munich, Germany. Preliminary Program =================== Day 0 (Mon Aug 31) — Best Programming Practices • Best Practices for Scientific Computing • Version control with git and how to contribute to Open Source with github • Object-oriented programming & design patterns Day 1 (Tue Sept 1) — Software Carpentry • Test-driven development, unit testing & quality assurance • Debugging, profiling and benchmarking techniques • Advanced Python: generators, decorators, and context managers Day 2 (Wed Sept 2) — Scientific Tools for Python • Advanced NumPy • The Quest for Speed (intro): Interfacing to C with Cython • Contributing to Open Source Software/Programming in teams Day 3 (Thu Sept 3) — The Quest for Speed • Writing parallel applications in Python • Python 3: why should I care • Programming project Day 4 (Fri Sept 4) — Efficient Memory Management • When parallelization does not help: the starving CPUs problem • Programming project Day 5 (Sat Sept 5) — Practical Software Development • Programming project • The Pelita Tournament Every evening we will have the tutors' consultation hour: Tutors will answer your questions and give suggestions for your own projects. Applications ============ You can apply on-line athttps://python.g-node.org Applications must be submitted before 23:59 UTC, March 31, 2015. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by May 1, 2015. No fee is charged but participants should take care of travel, living, and accommodation expenses. Candidates will be selected on the basis of their profile. Places are limited: acceptance rate is usually around 20%. Prerequisites: You are supposed to know the basics of Python to participate in the lectures Preliminary Faculty =================== • Francesc Alted, freelance developer, author of PyTables, Spain • Pietro Berkes, Enthought Inc., UK • Kathryn D. Huff, Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California - Berkeley, USA • Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek, Krasnow Institute, George Mason University, USA • Eilif Muller, Blue Brain Project, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland • Rike-Benjamin Schuppner, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany • Nelle Varoquaux, Centre for Computational Biology Mines ParisTech, Institut Curie, U900 INSERM, Paris, France • Stéfan van der Walt, Applied Mathematics, Stellenbosch University, South Africa • Niko Wilbert, TNG Technology Consulting GmbH, Germany • Tiziano Zito, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany Organized by Tiziano Zito (head) and Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek for the German Neuroinformatics Node of the INCF Germany, Christopher Roppelt for the German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders (DSGZ) and the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN) of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich Germany, Christoph Hartmann for the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Neural Circuits, Frankfurt Germany, and Jakob Jordan for the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6) and Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6), Jülich Research Centre and JARA. Additional funding provided by the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) Munich. Website:https://python.g-node.org Contact:python-info@g-node.org

Dec. 19, 2014

Mathematical post-doc position on the relation of information and causation (Prof. Giulio Tononi)

by albantakis

A postdoctoral position is available at the center for sleep and consciousness science in the laboratory of Dr. Giulio Tononi (University of Wisconsin, Madison), to study the relation of information and causation within the framework of the integrated information theory of consciousness (Balduzzi & Tononi, 2008; Tononi, 2012). Immediate funding is available for a range of projects related to foundational questions regarding the ontological status of information, and its relation to causation, emergence, adaptation, evolution, and consciousness (see detailed scope of work below). The successful candidate will work in the information integration theory group at the center for sleep and consciousness science, which is dedicated to a broad range of research problems focused on two neurobiological problems -- the mechanisms and functions of sleep and the neural substrates of consciousness. Candidates are expected to have strong training in an analytically rigorous discipline such as theoretical biology/neuroscience, physics, mathematics, computer science, or engineering. We explicitly encourage mathematicians to apply. Experience in information theory, complex systems, and an interest in the philosophy of information/causation are a plus. Programming experience is required (knowledge of MATLAB, Python, and/or C++ is of advantage). Appointments are renewable from year to year for up to 3 years, starting as soon as possible or until the positions are filled. Post-doc salaries correspond to the National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award (NRSA) stipend schedule for postdoc trainees, based on number of years of postdoctoral experience. Candidates should send a CV, brief statement of previous research and future research interests, and email addresses and phone numbers of three references to: Giulio Tononi, gtononi(a)wisc.edu. Oizumi M, Albantakis L, Tononi G (2014) From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0. /PLoS Comput Biol/ 10:e1003588 Hoel, E. P., Albantakis, L., & Tononi, G. (2013). Quantifying causal emergence shows that macro can beat micro. /PNAS/, /110/(49), 19790--19795. Tononi G (2012) Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness: An Updated Account. /Arch Ital Biol/ 150:56--90. The scope of work will range from: -theoretical development and computational implementation of the notion of intrinsic causal information -causal analysis, including the systematic use of perturbations, counterfactuals, and irreducibility -analysis of complex systems in terms their causal/informational structure -meaning (understanding and control) from the intrinsic perspective of the system -actual causation (causal explanation) -examining similarities and differences between existing notions of information and causation (Shannon information, algorithmic information,...) -defining emergence in terms of the spatio-temporal grain size at which a system of elements achieves a maximum of causal power -evolutionary/adaptive aspects of information/causation including simulations based on small adaptive neural networks (animats), which evolve and adapt to an environment that requires sensitivity to context for survival -- Larissa Albantakis, PhD Department of Psychiatry University of Wisconsin 6001 Research Park Blvd Madison, WI 53719

Dec. 17, 2014