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[meetings] [ECCV2014] CfP: Second Workshop on Affordances: Visual Perception of Affordances and Functional Visual Primitives for Scene Analysis (in conjunction with ECCV 2014)

by Karthik Mahesh Varadarajan

========================================================================== *Call for Papers- Second Workshop on Affordances: Visual Perception of Affordances and Functional Visual Primitives for Scene Analysis* (in conjunction with ECCV 2014), September 7, 2014, Zurich, Switzerland http://affordances.info/workshops/ECCV.html ========================================================================== The workshop seeks to address key challenges in computer vision and applications such as robotics with regard to functional form descriptions, which are termed as "affordances". Based on the Gibsonian principle of defining objects by their function, "affordances" have been studied extensively by psychologists and visual perception researchers, resulting in the creation of numerous cognitive models. These models are being increasingly revisited and adapted by computer vision researchers to build visual perception and behavioral algorithms in recent years. This workshop attempts to explore this nascent, yet rapidly emerging field of affordance based cognitive vision (recognition of objects, activities, scenes etc.) while integrating the efforts and language of affordance communities not just in computer vision, but also psychophysics and neurobiology by creating an open affordance research forum, feature framework and ontology called AfNet (theaffordances.net) In particular, the workshop will focus on emerging trends in affordances and other human-centered function/action features that can be used to build computer vision algorithms leading to various intelligent applications. The workshop will also feature contributions from researchers involved in traditional theories to affordances, especially from the point of view of psychophysics and neuro-biology. Avenues to aiding research in these fields using techniques from computer vision and cognitive robotics will also be explored. Primary topics addressed by the workshop include the following among others - Affordances in visual perception models - Affordances as visual primitives, common coding features and symbolic cognitive systems - Affordances for object recognition, search, attention modulation, functional scene understanding and classification - Object functionality analysis - Affordances from appearance and touch based cues - Haptic adjectives - Functional-visual categories for transfer learning - Actions and functions in object perception - Human-object interactions and modeling - Motion-capture data analysis for object categorization - Affordances in human and robot grasping - Affordance learning - Affordance ontologies - Knowledge bases for affordances and affordance modeling Understanding various challenges in the field of affordances and building a common language and framework for communication across the varied affordance communities are the key goals of the proposed workshop. Through the course of the workshop, we also envisage the establishment of a working group for AfNet. *Paper Submissions* Paper contributions to the workshop are solicited in four different formats. This departure from the regular format is intended to promote greater contribution and cater to the needs of affordance communities from various disciplines such as Knowledge Representation, Psychology, Psychophysics, Neuroscience, Kinematics, Ontologies besides traditional audience such as from Cognitive/ Computer Vision and Robotics. - *Conceptual papers* (2 pages): Authors are invited to submit original ideas on approaches to address specific problems in the targeted areas of the workshop. While a clear presentation of the proposed approach and the expected results are essential, specifics of implementation and evaluations are outside the scope of this format. This format is intended at exchange and evaluation of ideas prior to implementation/ experimental work as well as to open up collaboration avenues. - *Design papers* (6 pages): Authors submitting design papers are required to address key issues regarding the problem considered with detailed algorithms and preliminary or proof-of-concept results. Detailed evaluations and analyses are outside the scope of this format. This format is intended at addressing late-breaking and work in progress results as well as fostering collaboration between research and engineering groups. - *Experimental papers* (6 pages): Experimental papers are required to present results of experiments and evaluation of previously published algorithms or design frameworks. Details of implementation and exhaustive test case analyses are key to this format. These papers are geared at benchmarking and standardizing previously known approaches. - *Full papers* (14 pages): Full papers must be self-inclusive contributions with a detailed treatment of the problem statement, related work, design methodology, algorithm, test-bed, evaluation, comparative analysis, results and future scope of work. Submission of original and unpublished work is highly encouraged. Since the goal of this workshop is to bring together the various affordance communities, extended versions/ summary reports of recent research published elsewhere, as adapted to the goals of the workshop, will also be accepted. These papers are required to clearly state the relevance to the workshop and the necessary adaptation. The program will be composed of oral as well as Pecha-Kucha style presentations. Each contribution will be reviewed by three reviewers through a single-blind review process. The paper formatting should follow the ECCV formatting guidelines (Templates: LaTeX <http://eccv2014.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/eccv2014kit.zip>). All contributions are to be submitted via Microsoft Conference Management Tool <https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/A22014/Default.aspx> in PDF. Please adhere to the following strict deadlines. In addition to direct acceptance, early submissions may be conditionally accepted, in which case submission of a revised version of the paper based on reviewer comments, prior to the late submission deadline is necessary. The final decision on acceptance of such conditionally accepted papers will be announced along with the decisions for the late submissions. Hence, while early submissions will have a better chance of acceptance than late submissions, submission to either (or both) rounds is equally encouraged. *Important Dates* - Initial submissions (Early): 23:59:59 PDT *Jun 10*, 2014 - Notification of acceptance (Early submissions): June 20, 2014 - Initial submissions (Late): 23:59:59 PDT June 25, 2014 - Notification of acceptance (Late submissions): July 15, 2014 - Submission of publication-ready version: July 25, 2014 - Workshop date: September 7, 2014 *Organizers* Karthik Mahesh Varadarajan <http://www.karthikmahesh.com> (varadarajan(at) acin.tuwien.ac.at), TU Wien Alireza Fathi <http://ai.stanford.edu/~alireza/> (alireza(at)cs.stanford.edu) Stanford Juergen Gall <http://www.vision.ee.ethz.ch/~gallju/> (gall(at) iai.uni-bonn.de), Univ. Bonn Markus Vincze <http://www.acin.tuwien.ac.at/index.php?id=231&L=1> (vincze(at)tuwien.ac.at), TU Wien *Speakers and Participants* (To be updated) Fei-Fei Li (Affordances in Computer Vision), Stanford University, USA Abhinav Gupta (Affordances in Computer Vision), Carnegie Mellon University, USA Derek Hoiem (Affordance Semantics), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Ashutosh Saxena (Affordances in Cognitive Robotics), Cornell University, USA Aaron Bobick (Affordances in Robotics), GeorgiaTech, USA *Program Committee* Irving Biederman (USC) Aude Oliva (MIT) Martha Teghtsoonian (Smith College) Barbara Caputo (Univ. of Rome, IDIAP) Song-Chun Zhu (UCLA) Antonis Argyros (FORTH) Tamim Asfour (KIT) Trevor Darrell (UC. Berkeley) Michael Beetz (TUM) Norbert Krueger (Univ. of Southern Denmark) Sven Dickinson (Univ. of Toronto) Erhan Oztop (Ozegin Univ.) Diane Pecher (Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam) Jason Corso (UB New York) Juan Carlos Niebles (Universidad del Norte) Tamara Berg (UNC Chapel Hill) Moritz Tenorth (Univ. Bremen) Dejan Pangercic (Robert Bosch) Roozbeh Mottaghi (Stanford) Xiaofeng Ren (Amazon) David Fouhey (CMU) Tucker Hermans (Georgia Tech) Tian Lan (Stanford) Amir Roshan Zamir (UCF) Hamed Pirsiavash (MIT) Walterio Mayol-Cuevas (Univ. of Bristol)

June 2, 2014

Real-life cognition contest (submission deadline Nov 1 2014)

by Michael Hanke

In order to fully understand how the brain works, it is essential to study the complex inter-play of cognitive processes that are characteristic when interacting with a rich natural environment. Going beyond the localization of individual aspects of brain function is pivotal as there are clear limits to what we can learn about the function of the brain as whole via restricting investigation to specialized cognitive sub-systems in feature deprived laboratory settings. We believe that there is need for more publicly available data on real-life cognition, as well as analysis strategies to study complex concurrent neural processes. We invite research groups and individuals to participate in a contest to master these challenges. As a starting point, we have published a large dataset (functional MRI, simultaneous cardiac and respiratory measurements, technical noise estimates, high-res structural images (T1w, T2w, SWI, angiography, DTI), and stimulus annotations) that is available to anyone without restrictions: Hanke, M., Baumgartner, F.J., Ibe, P., Kaule, F.R., Pollmann, S., Speck, O., Zinke, W. & Stadler, J. (2014). A high-resolution 7-Tesla fMRI dataset from complex natural stimulation with an audio movie. Scientific Data, 1. doi:10.1038/sdata.2014.3 Among all submissions that are received until November 1 2014 a jury will determine the best contributions in terms of novelty of the approach, scientific rigor, and potential impact on future research and application. The best three contributions will receive an award (3000, 1500, and 500 Euro respectively) sponsored by the Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany. The jury consists of: Uri Hasson (Princeton University) James Haxby (Dartmouth College) Daniel Margulies (MPI Leipzig) Russ Poldrack (U Texas, Austin) Jean-Baptiste Poline (Neurospin) Stefan Pollmann (CBBS, Magdeburg) Peter Ramadge (Princeton University) For more information, demos, and data access visit: http://studyforrest.org

June 2, 2014

PhD Scholarship in Machine Learning for Neuroscience

by Paolo Avesani

PHD SCHOLARSHIP IN MACHINE LEARNING FOR NEUROSCIENCE The Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI) at the University of Trento and its research partner Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), invites applications for 1 open PhD position covered by scholarship in the area of Machine Learning for Neuroscience. The deadline for applications is June 16, 2014, before 16:00, CET. The PhD research program aims at carrying out research activity on machine learning methodologies for neuroscientific data analysis. The main goal is the design and the deployment of machine learning algorithms for neuroimaging-based neuroscience investigations. The research focuses on three specific tasks: brain decoding, brain mapping and brain connectivity. The challenge is to design effective computational methods for multivariate pattern analysis. The PhD research program will take place at NILab, the Neuroinformatics Laboratory raised as a joint initiative of the Bruno Kessler Foundation and the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC) of the University of Trento. The University of Trento ranks 1st among the Italian Universities in the rankings of Times Higher Education and CIMeC ranks 1st for quality of research in the ranking of the Italian National for the Evaluation of Universities and Research (ANVUR). CIMeC has 6 ERC starting grants and 1 advanced grant. Trento ranks 1st in the annual survey on quality of life in Italian cities conducted by daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Details on the PhD School and a link to the online application are provided below. For further information, please contact info.nilab(a)fbk.eu. Links - PhD School: http://ict.unitn.it/ - DISI: http://disi.unitn.it - FBK: http://www.fbk.eu - NILab: http://nilab.fbk.eu - CIMeC: http://www.cimec.unitn.it

June 1, 2014

Postdoc opening

by Malte Rasch

Our Computational Neuroscience Lab at the Institute for Cognitive & Neuroscience and Learning at the Beijing Normal University (BNU) has an opening for a postdoc working in the field of computational neuroscience. Our lab is interested in neural model building, neural information processing, and data analysis in close collaboration with experimentalist in the areas of neural correlates of perceptual learning in the visual cortex in monkeys, multisensory integration, critical period plasticity in mice, motion integration, group learning in fish, and others. We have very close ties with a number of experimental groups on the campus, including 4 active awake monkey labs, eager to share data. There are thus various possible research projects for a computational postdoc interested in data analysis and model building in close collaboration with experiments. We invite applications from prospective postdocs with background in a computational discipline, such as computational neuroscience, computer science, biophysics, computer vision, or machine learning. Former experience working with neuroscience data is of advantage. The position is open immediately and supported by the Chinese government for 2 years and especially encourages non-Chinese applicants. Eligible candidates must have a recent PhD from a renowned university, strong publication record, fluent English proficiency and have to be younger than 35. Salary is very competitive and adjusted to an international level. Chinese knowledge is no requirement but willingness to learn would help in daily life. The Cognitive & Neuroscience and Learning Institute is a government supported research facility with one of the strongest neuroscience clusters in China. It is located within the urban center of the vibrant city of Beijing with a multitude of attractions and active night life. For more infos on research, see http://www.mjrlab.org and http://brain.bnu.edu.cn/ (English site under construction). If you are interested and qualified, please send a cover letter, CV, transcripts of relevant publications to malte.rasch(a)bnu.edu.cn or wusi(a)bnu.edu.cn. --- Dr. Malte Rasch Associate Professor Neural Data Modelling Group State Key Lab for Cognitive Neuroscience & Learning Beijing Normal University www.mjrlab.org

June 1, 2014

2nd Announcement: Bernstein Sparks Workshop and CI2014 conference, 20 June 2014

by Seeber, Bernhard

Dear List, I would like to invite you to the 3rd Bernstein Sparks Workshop on "Modelling and Signal Processing for Auditory Implants" and to the CI 2014 conference in Munich. The conference will take place on 18-21 June 2014 and the workshop will be held on Friday, 20 June 2014, in the conference venue. The workshop will feature invited talks by experts in the field which cover the topic from physiological aspects to various models (physiologically inspired and perceptual models) and their application for designing new stimulation strategies for auditory implants. Attendance to the workshop is free for conference participants and Bernstein members. Conference day tickets will be available. More information can be found at: http://www.ci2014muc.info/Bernstein-Sparks-Workshop.708.0.html http://www.ci2014muc.info Looking forward to meeting you in Munich, Bernhard Seeber -- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernhard U. Seeber Audio Information Processing Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Technische Universität München Arcisstrasse 21 D-80333 Munich, Germany Office: +49 89 289-28282 Fax: +49 89 289-28211 Mobile: +49 (0)174 928 6338 Visitors: Theresienstrasse 90, building N5, room N6504 Web: www.aip.ei.tum.de www.bseeber.de

May 30, 2014

IEEE SSCI 2014 Doctoral Consortium (deadline June 15, 2014) - Call for Applications

by Stephen G Matthews

IEEE SSCI 2014 Doctoral Consortium - Call for Applications The IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI) 2014 will be running a Doctoral Consortium alongside the symposium. The objective of this Doctoral Consortium is to provide an opportunity for Ph.D. students to discuss their dissertation research topics, research plans, and research methodologies in a supportive environment with peers in the community. The feedback, advice, and guidance will be invaluable to Ph.D. students in supporting their current and future research in computational intelligence and their future careers. There are dedicated financial support for selected Ph.D. students to attend this Doctoral Consortium as well as student travel grants for SSCI. Applications In order to submit to the Doctoral Consortium, students are required to submit the following items through the same portal as papers for SSCI. 1. Cover sheet that includes: - Full name - Affiliation and email address - Expected graduation date - Thesis advisor’s full name, title, affiliation and email address - Title of research - List of up to 5 keywords to help select reviewers for the application 2. A 2-page summary of Ph.D. research that includes: - Title of research - Name, affiliation, and email address - Research question and significance - Important literature - Proposed research methodology - Preliminary results - Future research plan - Reference list (maximum one page, not included in 2-page limit) 3. CV 4. Letter of support from Ph.D. supervisor or other faculty member 5. Confirmation letter of Ph.D. student status Key dates are the same as for the SSCI Submission June 15, 2014 Notification September 5, 2014 Final Submission October 5, 2014 Full details of the Doctoral Consortium are available from http://ieee-ssci.org/consortium.html Co-Chairs Stephen G. Matthews, University of Bristol, UK Xiaorong Zhang, San Francisco State University, USA Demetrios G. Eliades, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

May 30, 2014

CogModel notes: ICCM15/BRIMS14/books/prize/new society/Job

by Frank Ritter

This is the second emailing for ICCM 2015. Please forward if appropriate to your members, and put appropriate links onto your web site. Normally, the ICCM 2015 announcement would drive this email (it will be in Gronigen, near April 2015, on its regular (15/18 month) schedule, this should be settled next month). But, there are several timely announcements that indicate new publication outlets, resources, and jobs in Cog Sci and in cognitive modeling. I have also included several unusual items, including an interesting conference and a Kickstarter campaign! Now in order: meetings, resources, jobs. If you would like to be removed, please just let me know. I maintain it by hand to keep it small. [Hypertext version available at http://acs.ist.psu.edu/iccm2015/iccm-mailing-may2014.html] cheers, Frank Ritter frank.e.ritter(a)gmail.com http://www.frankritter.com **************************************************************** 1. Intnl. Conf. on Cognitive Modeling, April 2015 in Gronigen, NL 2. WASET International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (!) [link suppressed] :::: Other conferences, workshops 3. BRIMS 2014 proceedings online http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS/archives/2014/ 4. Cognitive Science Society annual meeting, 27 june early reg. deadline http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference_future.html 5. Cognitive Science Tutorial Program, 23 July 2014 http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/tutorials.html 6. ACT-R Workshop at Cognitive Science 2014 http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/workshops.html [from act-r mailing list] 7. Soar Workshop, week of 16 June https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/ 8. 3rd Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems, May 2015 http://www.cogsys.org/2015 9. BICA 2014 call for papers, due 26 May 2014, but other dates http://bicasociety.org/meetings/2014/ 10. Nengo Summer School, 8-21 June http://nengo.ca/summerschool 11. Summer School - Web Science & the Mind, 7-18 July, reg. still open http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/ 12. CFP for 2015 iConference in Newport Beach, CA, 24-27 March 2015 http://ischools.org/the-iconference/ papers due 5 sept 2014 13. Intl. Summer School in Cog. Sci., 30 Jun-11 July, Bulgaria http://nbu.bg/cogs/events/ss2014.html 14. 14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, 21-23 Aug http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/ncpw14 15. AI for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI), papers due 13 June 14 http://ai-hri.github.io/ :::: Other resources 16. OpenWorm Kickstarter Campaign http://www.openworm.org 17. Numerous books to review 18. Premodeling / HCI book FDUCs: What designers need to know about people http://www.frankritter.com/fducs/ 19. New Society: The Society for Affective Science and Conference http://www.society-for-affective-science.org/conference 20. $10k prize for best paper in Human Factors journal, due 2 June 14 http://www.hfes.org/web/pubpages/hfprize.html :::: Jobs 21. Post doctoral Scholar in Systems Neuroscience and Connectivity Modeling http://www.la.psu.edu/facultysearch/ **************************************************************** 1. International Conf. on Cognitive Modeling, April 2015 in Gronigen, NL The International Conference on Cognitive Modeling will take place in April 2015 (approx. date) at RU/Gronigen, in the Netherlands. The deadline date for submissions will be in the Fall of 2014. Further announcements will provide more details. **************************************************************** 2. WASET International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (!) [link suppressed] Cognitive modeling has grown, and we don't always know everyone doing it any more. But, it has also now grown enough that WASET, the (so-called) World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology has created a "WASET International Conference on Cognitive Modeling". WASET has NO RELATION to the ICCM conference folks. If you have any useful suggestions, please get in touch. I've emailed a few of their program committee members, where I could find their addresses, to start a discussion. The program committee appears to be made up of scholars from other areas, and I have confirmed that with two of them, who don't know how to be removed. References https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Academy_of_Science,_Engineering_and_Tec… Google has plenty more information on WASET. Google: WASET International Conference on Cognitive Modeling 2014 will get you to the interesting conference. [I now suggest that we put copyright on our web pages, and, realise that cognitive modeling is now important enough to be copied (that is a neutral term) by WASAT.] **************************************************************** 3. BRIMS 2014 proceedings online http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS/archives/2014/ The Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (BRIMS) conference (http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS2014/) was held 1-4 April. It was held with the Social computing, Behavioral-cultural modeling, and Prediction (SBP) conference (http://sbp-conference.org/) in DC. Its proceedings are online at http://cc.ist.psu.edu/BRIMS/archives/2014/ The place and time for next year are not yet announced. **************************************************************** 4. Cognitive Science Society annual meeting, 27 june early reg. deadline http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference_future.html CogSci 2014 - Cognitive Science Meets Artificial Intelligence: Human and Artificial Agents in Interactive Contexts Quebec City, CA 23-26 July 2014 Website URL for future conference: http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference_future.html ---- Highlights Include: Plenary Speakers: Dedre Gentner, Steven Harnad, & Minoru Asada 13th Rumelhart Prize Recipient: Ray Jackendoff Symposia: "Foundations of Social Cognition", "Moral Cognition and Computation", "The Future of Human-Agent Interaction" Cognitive scientists from around the world are invited to attend CogSci 2014, the world's premiere annual conference on cognitive science. The conference represents a broad spectrum of disciplines, topics, and methodologies from across the cognitive sciences. In addition to the invited presentations, the program will be filled with reviewed submissions from the following categories: papers, symposia, presentation-based talks, member abstracts, tutorials, and workshops. Submissions must be completed electronically through the conference submissions web site. Submissions may be in any area of the cognitive sciences, including, but not limited to, anthropology, artificial intelligence, computational cognitive systems, cognitive development, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, education, linguistics, logic, machine learning, neural networks, philosophy, robotics and social network studies. Information regarding the submission process, including opening dates for the submission website will be posted shortly. http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/submissions.html We look forward to seeing you in Quebec City. Conference Co-Chairs: Paul Bello, Marcello Guarini, Marjorie McShane, and Brian Scassellati *********************************************************** 5. Cognitive Science Tutorial Program, 23 July 2014 http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/tutorials.html Growth Curve Analysis: A Hands-On Tutorial on Using Multilevel Regression to Analyze Time Course Data Daniel Mirman Full Day Tutorial on Quantum Models of Cognition and Decision Zheng Wang, Jerome Busemeyer, Jennifer Trueblood Probability, programs, and the mind: Building structured Bayesian models of cognition Noah Goodman, Josh Tenenbaum Online Experiments using jsPsych, psiTurk, and Amazon Mechanical Turk Josh de Leeuw, Anna Coenen, Doug Markant, Jay B. Jay B. Martin, John McDonnell, Alexander Rich, Todd Gureckis Types and states: Mixture and hidden Markov models for cognitive science Ingmar Visser, Maarten Speekenbrink Practical Advice on How to Run Human Behavioral Studies Frank Ritter, Jong Kim *********************************************************** 6. ACT-R Workshop at Cognitive Science 2014 http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/workshops.html [from act-r mailing list] The ACT-R Workshop 2014 will be held as part of the Cognitive Science annual meeting: http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/conference2014/workshops.html The workshop this year will be organized around four themes: Neuroscience, Metacognition, Applications, and Architecture. We expect to discuss a wide range of issues that relate to cognitive architectures and cognitive modeling more generally; anyone interested in these issues (regardless of familiarity with ACT-R) is invited and encouraged to attend. If you have an idea for a short presentation at the workshop, please email me, salvucci(a)drexel.edu a possible title and description. Registration information should be available soon on the Cognitive Science web site. **************************************************************** 7. Soar Workshop, week of 16 June https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/ The Center for Cognitive Architecture at the University of Michigan (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/soarweb/home) and Soar Technology (http://www.soartech.com/) are pleased to announce that the 34th Soar Workshop will be held the week of June 16, 2014 at the Computer Science and Engineering building at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. For those of you not familiar with the Soar Workshop (https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/) each year, members of the Soar community -- faculty, scientists, graduate students, technical staff and developers -- gather together for several days of intensive interaction and exchange on Soar. The Soar community is widely distributed geographically, so these workshops (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/soar/soar_workshop_proceedings) provide an opportunity to have face-to-face conversations, learn about the current status of other participants' research and get previews of what will happen in the future. We will try to give as many members of the community as possible the opportunity to describe their research or discuss the Soar issues that are of concern to them. This means the time available per talk is quite short (typically either 5 or 15 minutes). Since workshop attendees are already entrenched in the Soar world, brief talks that concentrate on only the essentials work very well. The workshop format is presentations only -- no formal papers. [but slides are often collected] There is no charge to attend the 33rd Soar Workshop although registration at https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/manage.php this link is required. You may sign up to give talks of various lengths as soon as you're registered. And then please upload a copy of your presentation(s) by June 4th, 2013 via the Soar Workshop registration page (https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~soar/workshop/manage.php) Please make sure to register as soon as possible so that we can plan the workshop accordingly! Questions and information regarding the workshop should be directed to John Laird via (laird(a)umich.edu) email, mail or phone: Soar Workshop 33 c/o John Laird 2260 Hayward Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2121 (734) 647-1761 **************************************************************** 8. 3rd Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems, May 2015 http://www.cogsys.org/2015 We are currently in the process of organizing the 3rd Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems (ACS). We wanted to give you a heads up that ACS will be moving to a spring conference. The next ACS will be held at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia USA on May 29-31, 2015. The paper submission deadline will be in February 2015. As you may have heard, AAAI has moved to a winter conference to avoid conflict with IJCAI (which has become an annual event). The ACS organizing committee felt it best to avoid a collision with AAAI's paper submission deadlines. We hope that the ACS move to spring will allow the diverse and dynamic cognitive systems community to grow. Please be on the look out for the call for papers in the coming months. Best, Ashok Goel and Mark Riedl Co-Chairs, 3rd Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems [there is also a mailing list that they have added people to: advances-cognitive-systems(a)lists.gatech.edu] **************************************************************** 9. BICA 2014 call for papers, due 26 May 2014, but other dates http://bicasociety.org/meetings/2014/ 2014 Annual Intl Conf on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures (BICA 2014) Fifth Annual Meeting of the BICA Society November 7-9 (Friday-Sunday): MIT, Cambridge, MA (http://bicasociety.org/meetings/2014) Sponsors: The BICA Society; MIT; Elsevier B.V. Points of contact: Paul Robertson (paulr(a)dollabs.com) and Alexei Samsonovich (alexei(a)bicasociety.org) Call for Papers Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures (BICA) are computational frameworks for building intelligent agents that are inspired from biological intelligence. Biological intelligent systems, notably animals such as humans, have many qualities that are often lacking in artificially designed systems including robustness, flexibility and adaptability to environments. At a point in time where visibility into naturally intelligent systems is exploding, thanks to modern brain imaging and recording techniques allowing us to map brain structures and functions, our ability to learn lessons from nature and to build biologically inspired intelligent systems has never been greater. At the same time, the growth in computer science and technology has unleashed enough computational power at sufficiently low prices, that an explosion of intelligent applications from driverless vehicles, to augmented reality, to ubiquitous robots, is now almost certain. The growth in these fields challenges the computational replication of all essential aspects of the human mind (the BICA Challenge), an endeavor which is interdisciplinary in nature and promises to yield bi-directional flow of understanding between all involved disciplines. Scope With the scope of BICA 2014 covering all areas of BICA-related research listed below, the major thrusts will be Perception, Attention, and Language. Here the key questions are: ? What can we learn from biological systems about how perception, attention, decision making, and action work together to produce intelligent behavior that is robust in natural environments? ? What have we learned about information flow in biological systems that can aid us in building better artificial systems that combine perception, action, language, learning, and decision making in robots and intelligent agents? ? What have we learned recently about information flow in the brain that can lead to better cognitive models that combine perception, attention, decision making, action, language, and learning? ? What role is played by emotions in perception, attention, decision making, language, and learning? ? How have we, or can we incorporate into cognitive architectures new evolving understandings about flow of information in biological cognitive systems? ? What mathematical foundations are emerging today that can support perception and learning? In addition to these focus topic areas of BICA 2014, we encourage submission of papers in all areas of BICA research, especially in the following areas. Neuroscience: .... Social, Economic and Educational Sciences: ... Cognitive Science: .... Artificial Intelligence: .... General: .... Format and Agenda The format of the conference is a 2.5-day meeting including paper presentations, panel discussions, invited talks, and demonstration showcases. Symposia and other mini-events (special sessions, breakout groups, brainstorms, think-tanks, socials, contests, and more) as part of the conference will be added as needed (proposals are solicited). In addition, BICA 2014 will host a special track "Doctorial Consortium" for which a "best student paper" award will be presented. We will also host technology demonstrations, for which we solicit proposals, and a poster session. We solicit additionally proposals for panel topics. The working language is English. As a part of our rich social and cultural program included in the registration, we are planning a Welcome Reception and a boat trip into the Atlantic on Saturday night, with a banquet on the boat. Detailed program is not available yet. Please see our separate pages for Confirmed symposia planned as part of BICA 2014 (we are asking for additional proposals). Submission and Publication Venues Publication venues include: (1) the Elsevier journal BICA - papers may be distributed among several journal issues; and (2) a volume of Procedia Computer Science, indexed by Web of Science and Scopus. One EasyChair submission site will be used for all categories of submissions, including (1), (2) and also (3): stand-alone abstracts that will be included in the conference program brochure, without being published. All submissions will undergo one round of peer-reviews. The category may be changed based on reviews. All conference materials (including papers and abstracts) will be together made available locally for conference participants (included in the registration package) via USB and/or the Internet. Invited speakers are not required, but are encouraged to submit papers or abstracts. Other participants can have presentations accepted based on an abstract only, without a paper submission. Core Organizing Committee Paul Robertson (DOLL, Inc.): General Chair Patrick H. Winston (CSAIL/MIT): Co-Chair Howard Shrobe (CSAIL/MIT): Co-Chair Alexei Samsonovich (GMU): Co-Chair, PC Chair Antonio Chella: OC Member Christian Lebiere: OC Member Kamilla R. Johannsdottir: OC Member Important Dates Proposals for Sub-Events: Symposia, Workshops and Socials - March 1 Doctoral Consortium Submit - May 05 Technology Demos - June 13 Panel Session Interest - June 27 Paper and Abstract Submission: Paper and abstract submission opens - March 1st Abstract and Paper Submission Due - May 26* Paper Review Feedback - June 14* Final Papers Due - August 01 Late-breaking stand-alone abstracts due - August 31 Registration and Conference: Early-bird registration (opens soon) due: June 17* Regular author-presenter registration due - June 27* Guest and non-presenting attendee online registration due - October 1 Sessions of the conference BICA 2014: November 7-9 *Deadlines extended as of April 28 **************************************************************** 10. Nengo Summer School, 8-21 June http://nengo.ca/summerschool [From Chris Eliasmith, the registration is long past, but it's worth noting that this is another cognitive architecture summer school, which might be repeated.] I thought you might have some acquaintances or students who would be interested to know that we're hosting a summer school this year. It will be on all things Nengo & SPA. We're encouraging people to bring projects and/or data they'd like to turn into a detailed model. We'll have a very good instructor/student ratio (1:2). It's more fully described here: http://nengo.ca/summerschool The application deadline was Feb 15. **************************************************************** 11. Summer School - Web Science & the Mind, 7-18 July, reg. still open http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/ [This appears to be a standing event that might be useful to modellers] The Institut des Sciences Cognitives at UQAM (Montreal) is organising its fifth Summer School, this year on the topic of "Web Science and the Mind" * Topic includes social network analysis, semantic web, distributed cognition, ... * Scholarships (500$ + registration) * Call for posters * Can be worth 3 credits Please contact us with any questions or comments you may have: summer14.isc(a)uqam.ca Guillaume Chicoisne Institut des sciences cognitives, Montreal -------- The Fifth Summer School in Cognitive Sciences : Web Science and the Mind. Organized by the UQAM Cognitive Science Institute in Montreal (Canada), from July 7 to 18. Theme of the Summer Institute: Web Science and the Mind. This summer school will present a comprehensive overview of the interactions between the web and cognitive sciences, with topics ranging from social network analysis to distributed cognition and semantic web. The Summer School will feature a poster session. Information about this poster session is available at: http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/page/affiche.php Deadline: April 11th 2014 Registration for the Summer School is open (''Early Bird'' Registration fees until May 9th). Note that the lowest fee is for students that will attend the Summer School as a credited activity (worth 3 university credits). Details: http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/page/inscription.php Scholarships for travel, accomodation and/or registration will be available for students registered in a Quebec University (CREPUQ). http://www.summer14.isc.uqam.ca/page/bourses.php Want to stay in touch? Follow us on Twitter! @iscUQAM We hope to see you there in July. **************************************************************** 12. CFP for 2015 iConference in Newport Beach, CA, 24-27 March 2015 http://ischools.org/the-iconference/ papers due 5 sept 2014 [This is a potential outlet, particularly for models applied to information systems] [from CHI-announcements] Call for Participation, iConference 2015 http://ischools.org/the-iconference/ The iConference is an international gathering of scholars and researchers concerned with critical information issues in contemporary society. iConference 2015 (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/) takes place March 24-27 in Newport Beach, California. The following submissions are invited: *Submission Type* *Deadline* *Notification* Papers (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/papers/) Friday, September 5, 2014, midnight PDT mid-November Posters (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/posters/) Friday, October 10, 2014, midnight PDT mid-November Workshops (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/workshops/) Friday, September 26, 2014, midnight PDT Monday, October 27, 2014 Interactive Sessions (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/sessions-for-interaction-and-en…) Friday, October 10, 2014, midnight PDT mid-November Doctoral Colloquium: http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/doctoral-colloquium/ Friday, September 12, 2014, midnight PDT Friday, October 24, 2014 Social Media Expo (http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/social-media-expo/) Participation commitment letter due October 14, 2014; submissions due December 15, 2014. Thursday, January 15, 2015 Dissertation Award: http://ischools.org/the-iconference/program/dissertation-award/ Wednesday, October 15, 2014, midnight PDT Thursday, January 15, 2015 iConference 2015 is presented by the iSchools organization (http://ischools.org) and hosted by The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at University of California, Irvine. All information researchers and scholars are welcome. Sample topics of past iConferences include the following: ? social computing ? human-computer interaction ? digital youth ? information retrieval ? network science ? digital humanities ? data science ? information economics ? information systems ? information policy ? knowledge infrastructures ? computational social science ? information work and workers ? user experience and design ? data, text and knowledge mining ? digital curation and preservation ? computer-supported cooperative work ? bibliometrics and scholarly communication ? social, cultural, health and community informatics ? information and communication technology for development -- Gary M. Olson (949) 824-0077 Department of Informatics gary.olson(a)uci.edu Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697-3440 **************************************************************** 13. Intl. Summer School in Cog. Sci., 30 Jun-11 July, Bulgaria http://nbu.bg/cogs/events/ss2014.html The 21st edition of the well-known International Summer School in Cognitive Science will take place during the two weeks from June 30th until July 11th at the New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria. The summer school features advanced courses for graduate students and young researchers in a variety of areas, including embodied cognition and dynamic field theory, behavioral experimentation from reaction times to model testing, computational approaches to development, the cognitive science of social dilemmas, the epistemology of cognitive science and neuroscience, and a practical course on working with E-prime as a software tool for experiment design and implementation. The summer school will also feature a participant symposium (submit your brief papers to the school email below by June 9). Registration is now open. For more information, visit the school's website: http://nbu.bg/cogs/events/ss2014.html You can contact us at the following email address: school(a)cogs.nbu.bg **************************************************************** 14. 14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, 21-23 Aug http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/ncpw14 NCPW14 Call for Papers - 14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop We cordially invite you to participate in the 14th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop (NCPW14) to be held at Lancaster University, UK, from August 21-23, 2014: http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/ncpw14 This well-established and lively workshop aims at bringing together researchers from different disciplines such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, neurobiology, philosophy and psychology to discuss their work on models of cognitive processes. Often this workshop has had a theme, and this time it is 'Development across the lifespan', but also submissions that do not fall under this theme are welcome. Papers must be about emergent models - frequently, but not necessarily - of the connectionist/neural network kind, applied to cognition. The NCPW workshops have always been characterized by their limited size, high quality papers, the absence of parallel talk sessions, and a schedule that is explicitly designed to encourage interaction among the researchers present in an informal setting. NCPW14 is no exception. The scientific program will consist of keynote lectures, oral sessions and poster sessions. Furthermore, this workshop will feature a unique set of invited speakers: James McClelland, Stanford University. Bob McMurray, University of Iowa. Michael Thomas, Birkbeck College, London. Rumelhart Memorial Travel Awards The Rumelhart Memorial Travel awards, generously funded by Professor Jay McClelland, will provide funding to support travel costs for students/post docs presenting at the conference. Awards of US$250 are available to students or post docs from Western European countries, and US$750 for students or post docs from elsewhere. Decisions will be based on the quality of the submission. Eligibility criteria The first author of the submission is a PhD student or Post-doctoral fellow who will attend the meeting and will present the submission if chosen to receive a travel award. Location Lancaster is situated in the north west of England, approximately one hour from Manchester and Liverpool airports. Lancaster is surrounded by spectacular scenery, hiking and climbing country. The Yorkshire Dales national park is 10 miles away. The Lake District national park is 20 miles away, http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk. The stagecoach 555 bus (http://www.stagecoachbus.com) takes you directly from Lancaster through the heart of the Lakes. The Trough of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is 2 miles away. Important dates to remember Abstract deadline: 15 May Notification of abstract acceptance: 7 June Early registration deadline: tbc Online registration deadline: tbc Conference dates: 21-23 August, 2014 Looking forward to your participation! Organizing Committee Gert Westermann, Lancaster University Padraic Monaghan, Lancaster University Katherine E. Twomey, Liverpool University Alastair C. Smith, MPI Nijmegen -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Gert Westermann +44 (0)1524 592-942 Department of Psychology g.westermann(a)lancaster.ac.uk Lancaster University http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/people/gert-westermann Lancaster LA1 4YF **************************************************************** 15. AI for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI), papers due 13 June 14 http://ai-hri.github.io/ AAAI Fall Symposium: AI for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) Nov 13-15, 2014 -- Arlington, VA http://ai-hri.github.io/ 2 page abstracts due June 13 Email as a pdf to: ai-hri-symposium-submissions(a)googlegroups.com This symposium will bring together and strengthen the community of researchers working on the AI challenges inherent to Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Humans and human environments bring with them inherent uncertainty in dynamics, structure, and interaction. HRI aims to develop robots that are intelligent, autonomous, and capable of interacting with, modeling, and learning from humans. These goals are at the core of AI. The field of HRI is a broad community encompassing robotics, AI, HCI, psychology and social science. In this meeting we aim to specifically bring together the subset of this community that are focused on the AI problems of HRI. Currently this type of HRI work is seen across such a variety of venues (HRI, RSS, ICRA, IROS, Ro-Man, RoboCup, and more), that we lack a cohesive core community. Building this community is the central purpose of this symposium. Planned activities: - Keynote talks "How is HRI an AI problem?": We will have keynotes giving eight different perspectives about how AI research is going to bring us closer to the reality of humans interacting with robots on everyday tasks. - Breakout groups + panel discussions: these discussions will be focused on (1) defining a road map of grand challenges for this research area, and (2) what is the core venue for this community. - Poster session: This session will highlight state-of-the-art work and approaches to AI-HRI. - Team building: Given the diverse set of venues that this type of research is presented, it is very rare that members of the AI-HRI community get together in the same room. As such, a large part of this effort is to bring together a community of researchers, strengthen old connections and build new ones. Ample time will be provided for networking and informal discussions. Confirmed speakers: - Rodney Brooks - Cynthia Breazeal - Henrik Christensen - Maja Mataric - Manuela Veloso Important dates: - To have your work featured in the poster session, submit a two-page abstract by 13 June 14. Email your submission as a pdf to ai-hri-symposium-submissions(a)googlegroups.com - Decisions will be returned by July 11, 2014 - The symposium will be held Nov 13-15, 2014 in Arlington, VA. Organizing committee: - Andrea L. Thomaz, Georgia Institute of Technology (chair) - Kris Hauser, Indiana University - Chad Jenkins, Brown University - Maja J. Mataric, University of Southern California - Manuela Veloso, Carnegie Mellon University -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "HRI-announcement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hri-announcement+unsubscribe(a)cs.byu.edu. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/cs.byu.edu/d/optout. **************************************************************** 16. OpenWorm Kickstarter Campaign http://www.openworm.org [from Comp-neuro(a)neuroinf.org] [this is cool and interesting on several levels and ways] From: Shreejoy Tripathy <stripathy(a)chibi.ubc.ca> Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 11:31:07 -0700 To: comp-neuro(a)neuroinf.org, connectionists(a)mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu Subject: [Comp-neuro] OpenWorm Kickstarter Campaign I'm writing to let you know about the OpenWorm Kickstarter Campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openworm/openworm-a-digital-organism-i…) As you may know, the goal of the OpenWorm project is to digitally simulate a C. Elegans organism. By design, the project is organized in a geographically distributed fashion and all of the work is being done in the open (on GitHub and Youtube) using entirely open source code and public data. Though I'm not a worm researcher, I'm supporting OpenWorm's Kickstarter because I strongly believe in their overall mission. As a computational neuroscientist, I see the project as a necessary first step in the simulation of more complex organisms, including mice and ultimately humans. Moreover, I see my Kickstarter contribution as a future investment in the open source tools and methodologies that OpenWorm develops that I hope to eventually use in my own research. More philosophically, I think that lately the field of neuroscience has suffered from some amount of "overhype", especially given the initially promised outcomes of recent large-scale brain initiatives (e.g., recording from all neurons in a mammalian brain, simulating an entire human brain). While these projects have been hugely successful in catalyzing widespread public support of basic neuroscience research, many neuroscientists see these promises as perhaps a bridge too far given the current research state. Though OpenWorm's goals are itself highly ambitious, the relative simplicity of the worm (named neurons, stereotyped connectomes and musculature, the ability to image neuronal activity in vivo) lends itself well to this attempt. By conducting the project in the open and basing success on quantifiable goals (i.e., how similar are the simulated worm's movements and neural activity to experimental measurements), the project will serve as a roadmap for future endeavours in multi-scale data integration and organismal simulation. Lastly, the geographically distributed and highly interdisciplinary nature of the project makes it challenging to receive funding through traditional NIH-style mechanisms. For this reason, I'm asking you to join me in supporting the project's Kickstarter campaign. More information: OpenWorm Website: http://www.openworm.org Kickstarter campaign link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openworm/openworm-a-digital-organism-i… Project overview by OpenWorm member and neuroscientist Jim Hokanson: http://jimandscience.blogspot.ca/2014/05/modeling-worm-thoughts-on-openworm… OpenWorm QandA on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/246dlw/science_ama_series_im_steph… Sincerely, Shreejoy Tripathy Post-doc and Developer of http://neuroelectro.org University of British Columbia Centre for High-Throughput Biology **************************************************************** 17. Numerous books to review If you would like to review a book, there are several books recently published that their publishers would give you a copy to facilitate a review in a magazine or journal. If you are interested, email me and I'll foward you to the publisher. Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems: What system designers need to know about people, Frank Ritter, Gordon Baxter, & Elizabeth Churchill. (2014). Springer. http://www.frankritter.com/fducs/ Game Analytics: Maximizing the Value of Player Data [Hardcover] Magy Seif El-Nasr, Anders Drachen, Alessandro Canossa (Eds) http://www.amazon.com/Game-Analytics-Maximizing-Value-Player/dp/1447147685 http://www.springer.com/computer/hci/book/978-1-4471-4768-8 How to build a brain, A Neural Architecture for Biological Cognition Chris Eliasmith, OUP. http://nengo.ca/build-a-brain Minding Norms: Mechanisms and dynamics of social order in agent societies Rosaria Conte, Giulia Andrighetto, and Marco Campenni (eds) http://global.oup.com/academic/product/minding-norms-9780199812677? Social Emotions in Nature and Artifact Jonathan Gratch and Stacy Marsella (eds). http://global.oup.com/academic/product/social-emotions-in-nature-and-artifa… Running Behavioral studies with human participants Ritter, Kim, Morgan, & Carlson, Sage http://www.sagepub.com/textbooks/Book237263 **************************************************************** 18. Premodeling / HCI book FDUCs: What designers need to know about people http://www.frankritter.com/fducs/ We have published book that is in many ways an HCI book, its first use is as a Human-computer interaction textbook (it has been used in at least 4 universities), but it is also a modeling book -- It is designed to create models of users in designers heads. Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems: What system designers need to know about people, Frank Ritter, Gordon Baxter, & Elizabeth Churchill. (2014). Springer. If your library subscribes to Springer link, you can get a pdf from there. If you want a desk copy, there are links from the site above to order one. If all else fails, contact me. I use it to teach HCI, as have several at other universities and several penn state campuses. **************************************************************** 19. New Society: The Society for Affective Science and Conference http://www.society-for-affective-science.org/conference A new society has been formed -- The Society for Affective Science. Its mission is to foster basic and applied research in the variety of fields that study affect, broadly defined. Our inaugural conference will be April 24-26, 2014 in Washington DC. This conference will be student-friendly, open, and theoretically and methodologically diverse. It will provide a forum for cross-cutting work in emotion, stress, and many other topics that fall under the broad umbrella of affective science. For more information see the society website: http://www.society-for-affective-science.org/ Program highlights for the first meeting can be found at: http://www.society-for-affective-science.org/conference/highlights/ As you will see, the first meeting features an invited program of talks in addition to a call for posters. We expect the program to shift to submissions as the society develops. Currently, the meeting is largely single tracked, and in addition to the invited addresses and presidential symposium, the program includes methodology lunches, salons with well-known affective scientists, and a debate to keep things lively. Please feel free to send this email to your students, postdocs, and colleagues. If you have questions, please email us at: info(a)society-for-affective-science.org **************************************************************** 20. $10k prize for best paper in Human Factors journal, due 2 June 14 http://www.hfes.org/web/pubpages/hfprize.html [this appears to becoming an annual prize, modeling papers get published in HF and there are modellers as editors and reviewers] Submit your research for the 2014 Human Factors Prize--You could win $10,000! The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) welcomes your submission for the 2014 Human Factors Prize: Recognizing Excellence in Human Factors/Ergonomics Research. The best paper will receive: $10,000 cash award Publication in the Society's flagship journal, (http://content.news.sagepub.com/emessageIRS/servlet/IRSL?v=5&a=10050&r=2223…) Human Factors The 2014 topic is human-automation interaction/autonomy. We seek articles that describe human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) research that pertains to effective and satisfying interaction between humans and automation. Plan to submit your work between April 1 and June 2, 2014. Eligibility Requirements: Any researcher is eligible to submit relevant work; membership in HFES is not required. Submissions must cover original (unpublished) research in the topical area and comply with the requirements in the Human Factors (http://content.news.sagepub.com/emessageIRS/servlet/IRSL?v=5&a=10050&r=2223…) instructions for authors. Review articles and brief reports are not eligible. Submissions must not be received prior to April 1 or after June 2, 2014. To see examples of articles on subject matter similar to the 2014 Prize topic, visit the Human Factors Prize Web page (http://content.news.sagepub.com/emessageIRS/servlet/IRSL?v=5&a=10050&r=2223…) The award will be formally conferred at a special session at the HFES International Annual Meeting, where the recipient will present his or her work (http://content.news.sagepub.com/emessageIRS/servlet/IRSL?v=5&a=10050&r=2223…) Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFS) is a peer-reviewed journal presenting original works of scientific merit that contribute to the understanding and advancement of the systematic consideration of people in relation to machines, systems, tools, and environments. HFS highlights fundamental human capabilities, limitations, and tendencies, as well as the basics of human performance. Human Factors Impact Factor: 1.182 Ranked: 7/16 in Ergonomics | 21/44 in Engineering, Industrial | 39/72 in Psychology, Applied | 44/49 in Behavioral Sciences | 51/75 in Psychology Source: 2012 Journal Citation Reports(R) (Thomson Reuters, 2013) Questions? Contact HFES Communications Director Lois Smith at lois(a)hfes.org. We look forward to receiving your submission. **************************************************************** 21. Post doctoral Scholar in Systems Neuroscience and Connectivity Modeling http://www.la.psu.edu/facultysearch/ [this was announced in February, but is still up on the web site] Post doctoral Scholar in Systems Neuroscience and Connectivity Modeling Job Number: 41202 Affirmative Action Search No. #: 021-320 Department: Psychology Rank: Post Doc Announcement: We are seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Scholar in the area of clinical/cognitive neuroscience, brain imaging, and network modeling. The successful candidate will work in collaboration with investigators at The Pennsylvania State University including Dr. Hillary in Psychology, Dr. Reka Albert in Physics and Dr. Peter Molenaar in Human Development and Family Studies. The goals of the research focus on time series analysis, graph theory, and connectivity modeling of human brain imaging data (high density EEG, BOLD fMRI). The primary responsibility of this position is to facilitate ongoing research examining neural plasticity after severe traumatic brain injury in humans. There is also keen interest for this position to support the development of novel methods for understanding plasticity from a systems neuroscience perspective. This includes prospective data collection as well as analysis of existing data sets. Current lab goals aim to focus on issues regarding: 1) signal processing (i.e., non-stationarity in time series data; cross-frequency coupling), 2) large scale connectivity analysis (e.g., graph theory), 3) machine learning, and 4) novel methods isolating regions of interest. A Doctorate (M.D. and/or Ph.D.) degree is required by the appointment date. Excellent verbal and written communication skills and a background in computational modeling (broadly defined) is required and programming experience is preferred. Review of applications will begin in February and continue until the position is filled. The appointment is for two years with a tentative start date flexible. To apply, submit cover letter, curriculum vita, and the names and contact information for three references through http://www.la.psu.edu/facultysearch/ For additional information, contact Frank G. Hillary, fhillary(a)psu.edu. Employment will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies. Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce. **************************************************************** -30-

May 29, 2014

Re: [Comp-neuro] Deep Learning Overview - Draft

by Juergen Schmidhuber

Dear computational neuroscientists, thanks a lot for numerous helpful comments! This was great fun; I learned a lot. A revised version (now with 850+ references) is here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.7828 PDF: http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/DeepLearning28May2014.pdf LATEX source: http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/DeepLearning28May2014.tex The complete BIBTEX file is also public: http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/bib.bib Please do NOT reply to the entire list (only to juergen(a)idsia.ch) Juergen Schmidhuber http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/deeplearning.html ---Revised Table of Contents:--- 1 Introduction to Deep Learning (DL) in Neural Networks (NNs) 2 Event-Oriented Notation for Activation Spreading in Feedforward NNs (FNNs) and Recurrent NNs (RNNs) 3 Depth of Credit Assignment Paths (CAPs) and of Problems 4 Recurring Themes of Deep Learning 4.1 Dynamic Programming for Supervised / Reinforcement Learning (SL / RL) 4.2 Unsupervised Learning (UL) Facilitating SL and RL 4.3 Learning Hierarchical Representations Through Deep SL, UL, RL 4.4 Occam’s Razor: Compression and Minimum Description Length (MDL) 4.5 Fast Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for DL in NNs 5 Supervised NNs, Some Helped by Unsupervised NNs 5.1 Early NNs Since the 1940s (and the 1800s) 5.2 Around 1960: Visual Cortex Provides Inspiration for DL 5.3 1965: Deep Networks Based on the Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) 5.4 1979: Convolution + Weight Replication + Subsampling (Neocognitron) 5.5 1960-1981 and Beyond: Development of Backpropagation (BP) for NNs 5.5.1 BP for Weight-Sharing Feedforward NNs (FNNs) and Recurrent NNs (RNNs) 5.6 Late 1980s-2000: Numerous Improvements of NNs 5.6.1 Ideas for Dealing with Long Time Lags and Deep CAPs 5.6.2 Better BP Through Advanced Gradient Descent 5.6.3 Searching For Simple, Low-Complexity, Problem-Solving NNs 5.6.4 Potential Benefits of UL for SL 5.7 1987: UL Through Autoencoder (AE) Hierarchies 5.8 1989: BP for Convolutional NNs (CNNs) 5.9 1991: Fundamental Deep Learning Problem of Gradient Descent 5.10 1991: UL-Based History Compression Through a Deep Hierarchy of RNNs 5.11 1992: Max-Pooling (MP): Towards MPCNNs 5.12 1994: Early Contest-Winning NNs 5.13 1995: Supervised Recurrent Very Deep Learner (LSTM RNN) 5.14 2003: More Contest-Winning/Record-Setting NNs 5.15 2006/7: UL For Deep Belief Networks (DBNs) / AE Stacks Fine-Tuned by BP 5.16 2006/7: Improved CNNs / GPU-CNNs / BP-Trained MPCNNs / LSTM Stacks 5.17 2009: First Official Competitions Won by RNNs, and with MPCNNs 5.18 2010: Plain Backprop (+Distortions) on GPU Yields Excellent Results 5.19 2011: MPCNNs on GPU Achieve Superhuman Vision Performance 5.20 2011: Hessian-Free Optimization for RNNs 5.21 2012: First Contests Won on ImageNet & Object Detection & Segmentation 5.22 2013-: More Contests and Benchmark Records 5.23 Currently Successful Supervised Techniques: LSTM RNNs / GPU-MPCNNs 5.24 Recent Tricks for Improving SL Deep NNs (Compare Sec. 5.6.2, 5.6.3) 5.25 Consequences for Neuroscience 5.26 DL with Spiking Neurons? 6 DL in FNNs and RNNs for Reinforcement Learning (RL) 6.1 RL Through NN World Models Yields RNNs With Deep CAPs 6.2 Deep FNNs for Traditional RL and Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) . 6.3 Deep RL RNNs for Partially Observable MDPs (POMDPs) 6.4 RL Facilitated by Deep UL in FNNs and RNNs 6.5 Deep Hierarchical RL (HRL) and Subgoal Learning with FNNs and RNNs 6.6 Deep RL by Direct NN Search / Policy Gradients / Evolution 6.7 Deep RL by Indirect Policy Search / Compressed NN Search 6.8 Universal RL On May 15, 2014, at 3:36 PM, Juergen Schmidhuber <juergen(a)idsia.ch> wrote: > Dear computational neuroscientists, > > here the preliminary draft of an invited Deep Learning overview: > > http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/DeepLearning15May2014.pdf > > It mostly consists of references (about 800 entries so far). Important citations are still missing though. As a machine learning researcher, I am obsessed with credit assignment. In case you know of references to add or correct, please send them with brief explanations to juergen(a)idsia.ch (NOT TO THE ENTIRE LIST!), preferably together with URL links to PDFs for verification. Please also do not hesitate to send me additional corrections / improvements / suggestions / Deep Learning success stories with feedforward and recurrent neural networks. I'll post a revised version later. Thanks a lot! > > Abstract. In recent years, deep artificial neural networks (including recurrent ones) have won numerous contests in pattern recognition and machine learning. This historical survey compactly summarises relevant work, much of it from the previous millennium. Shallow and deep learners are distinguished by the depth of their credit assignment paths, which are chains of possibly learnable, causal links between actions and effects. I review deep supervised learning (also recapitulating the history of backpropagation), unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning & evolutionary computation, and indirect search for short programs encoding deep and large networks. > > Juergen Schmidhuber > http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/ > http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/whatsnew.html

May 29, 2014

Postdoc in Neuromechanics and Optogenetics at Temple University

by Andrew Spence

Dear colleagues, We have the following postdoc position available within the Spence Lab, Department of Bioengineering, at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA. See www.spencelab.com for information about the group. Cheers! Andrew Spence Have you ever wondered how legged animals manage to move with dexterity, economy, and robustness over challenging terrain? Or how information from sense organs in different parts of your body is used when you move quickly? Have you heard about some of the new neurogenetic technologies, like optogenetics, that are making it possible for us to switch on and off specific parts of the nervous system with light? Members of the Spence Lab are working to answer these questions, using cutting edge techniques including optogenetics, computer vision, and robotics. We aim to explore and examine, as much as possible, freely behaving animals, with an increasing focus on mice. The Spence Lab invites applications from prospective postdocs from a wide range of backgrounds, including neuroscience, biomechanics, physics, physiology, engineering, computer science, and robotics. This postdoc is a three-year Army Research Office funded position that will use optogenetic tools in mice to understand how the structure of the quadrupedal gait controller, and sensory feedback from the limbs, facilitate dynamic locomotion. The Department of Bioengineering at Temple University is a brand new department with newly renovated facilities, and the Spence Lab is investing in state of the art equipment. Temple University lies in Philadelphia, a city known for it's restaurants and vibrant culture, housing a large number of universities, and with excellent links to New York City (two hours away) and Washington DC (2.5 hours away). For further information on the group and it's current activities, please visit www.spencelab.com If you are interested and qualified, please send a cover letter, CV, transcripts and relevant publications to aspence(a)temple.edu. The position is available until filled. Dr. Andrew Spence Associate Professor Department of Bioengineering Engineering Building Room 814 College of Engineering Temple University 1947 N. 12th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122 Phone: 215-204-3056 Email: aspence(a)temple.edu www.spencelab.com <http://www.spencelab.com/>

May 28, 2014

Bernstein Workshop "Characterizing Natural Scenes": Second Call for Abstracts/Contributed Talks

by Arno Onken

Second Call for Abstracts/Contributed Talks You are invited to participate in the pre-conference Bernstein workshop "Characterizing Natural Scenes: Retinal Coding and Statistical Theory", taking place in Göttingen, Germany, on September 2-3, 2014. Please find the preliminary schedule at workshop URL: https://sites.google.com/site/jiankliu/Meetings/2014bccn_workshop The workshop chairs will select a couple of abstracts for short oral presentation at the workshop. All the abstracts will be presented as posters during the Bernstein conference on September 3-4. However, the workshop could hold a separate poster session based on the number and quality of abstracts that we receive. To participate in the workshop please submit the abstract (an extended version is preferred) as a PDF attachment via email to Jian Liu (jian.liu(a)med.uni-goettingen.de) or Arno Onken (arno.onken(a)iit.it) The deadline for submission is August 1. Please note that abstract submission for the main conference is already closed while abstract submission for this workshop is still open. REGISTRATION: Please refer to the Bernstein Conference 2014 for registration and venue information. http://www.bernstein-conference.de/ WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: How does the retina process natural visual inputs? What role do the many types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) play in this? Experiments with specific artificial stimuli have suggested that individual types of RGCs may have specific functional roles in visual processing, yet it is not clear how these simplified functional investigations relate to the processing of natural images and movies. An important ingredient for future analysis will be a better understanding of the complex statistical properties of natural scenes, as revealed by theoreticians. The relationship between natural visual statistics and retinal coding provides a promising direction for improving our understanding of the visual system. But we still lack a systematic framework for understanding the underlying mechanisms of how relevant features of natural scenes are encoded by the retina. In this workshop, we expect mutual benefits for both natural scene statistics and retinal coding. We will bring together experimentalists and theoreticians in order to highlight recent progress, encourage exchange of insights, and stimulate new ideas for future work with the following core questions: 1) How can we develop useful descriptions of the statistics of natural scenes that are relevant for retinal coding? 2) How can we characterize the functional roles of different RGC types in processing natural scenes? 3) Which coding strategies are present at the level of RGC populations? 4) How can we unify the acquired knowledge of natural scenes and neural data to develop better tools for analysis? CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: * Vijay Balasubramanian (University of Pennsylvania) * Philipp Berens (BCCN, Tübingen) * Thomas Euler (University of Tübingen) * Felix Franke (ETH Zurich) * Olivier Marre (Vision Institute, Paris) * Aman Saleem (University College London) * Maneesh Sahani (University College London) * Rava A. da Silveira (ENS, Paris) We are looking forward to seeing you in Göttingen. Workshop organizers: Jian Liu (University Medical Center Göttingen and BCCN Göttingen) Arno Onken (Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems

May 28, 2014

Valentino Braitenberg Award for Computational Neuroscience - Call for Nominations

by Kerstin Schwarzwälder

Dear Colleagues, The Bernstein Association for Computational Neuroscience <http://www.nncn.de/en/bernstein-association> invites nominations for the *V**alentino Braitenberg Award for Computational Neuroscience.* The award is biannually presented by the Bernstein Association to a scientist in recognition of outstanding research that contributes to our understanding of the functioning of the brain. The major criterion for the award is the impact or potential impact of the recipient's research on the field of brain science. In the spirit of Valentino Braitenberg's research, special emphasis is given to theoretical studies elucidating the functional implications of brain structures and their neuronal network dynamics. The awardee receives a €5.000 prize donated by the Autonome Provinz Bozen Südtirol as well as complimentary participation (registration, travel, and hotel accomodation) in the Bernstein Conference 2014. Here, the prize is awarded together with a Golden Neuron pin badge in a special ceremony that includes the Valentino Braitenberg lecture given by the awardee. Nominations may be submitted by scientists working in the field of Computational Neuroscience and should include toe following documents: - One-page laudation, in which the scientific work of the candidate is honored with regard to the award's criteria - CV and list of publications *Deadline for nominations is **June 16, 2014 *by e-mail to info(a)bcos.uni-freiburg.de The call for nominations can be found under the followingn URL: www.nncn.de/en/bernstein-association/valentino-braitenberg-award-for-comput… For inquiries please contact info(a)bcos.uni-freiburg.de Best regards, Andrea Huber Brösamle -- Dr. Andrea Huber Brösamle Head of the Bernstein Coordination Site (BCOS) Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg Hansastr. 9A 79104 Freiburg, Germany phone: +49 761 203 9583 fax: +49 761 203 9585 andrea.huber(a)bcos.uni-freiburg.de www.nncn.de Twitter: NNCN_Germany YouTube: Bernstein TV Facebook: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany LinkedIn: Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, Germany

May 28, 2014

Special Issue on "Underwater Sensor Networks" in (JSAN)

by Sandra Sendra

=================================================== Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks (JSAN) Special Issue "Underwater Sensor Networks" http://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan/special_issues/usn Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2014 ---------------------------------------------------- === SPECIAL ISSUE === New advances in information technologies, circuits, systems and communication protocols have made possible the deployment of underwater sensor networks. These issues have lead researchers to propose new underwater sensor nodes, sensor node placement, protocols for their communication, architectures, and study new ways to communicate with higher bandwidth at higher distances. Moreover, the range of underwater applications is growing fast because of the last research in oceanography, marine science and aquiculture, so there is a need of underwater sensor networks in order to support these disciplines. This special Issue is tries to collect unpublished works on theory and practice on underwater sensor networks, with special interest on real implementations and deployments. We also seek new proposals on wireless communication technologies. === KEYWORDS === The Special Issue "Underwater Sensor Networks" topics include (but are not limited to) the following: - Underwater sensor nodes - Underwater sensor node placement - Routing protocols for underwater sensor networks - Underwater communications - Underwater architectures - Underwater wireless communications - Underwater sensor network deployments === SUBMISSION === Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form (http://www.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload/?journal=jsan) Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI. Please visit the Instructions for Authors page (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan/instructions) before submitting a manuscript. For the first couple of issues the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections. === SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS === Guest Editors Prof. Dr. Jaime Lloret Mauri (jlloret(a)dcom.upv.es) Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Camino de Vera 46022, Valencia, Spain Dr. Sandra Sendra (sansenco(a)posgrado.upv.es) Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Camino de Vera 46022, Valencia, Spain ===================================================

May 28, 2014

NIPS 2014 Call for Workshops

by Chris Hiestand

NIPS*2014 Post-Conference Workshops Friday December 12 and Saturday December 13, 2014 Palais des Congrès de Montréal/Convention and Exhibition Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Following the NIPS*2014 main conference, workshops on a variety of current topics will be held on Friday December 12 and Saturday December 13, 2014, in Montreal, Canada. We invite researchers interested in chairing one of these workshops to submit workshop proposals. The goal of the workshops is to provide an informal forum for researchers to discuss important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, and comparisons of competing approaches are encouraged as workshop topics. There will be seven hours of workshop meetings per day, split into morning and afternoon sessions, with free time between the sessions for individual exchange or outdoor activities. Note that this year, there is no skiing at NIPS; the workshop schedule will thus differ from past NIPS workshops (the morning session will be 8:30am-12pm, and the afternoon session will be 3pm-6:30pm). Francis Bach and Amir Globerson NIPS*2014 Workshops Chairs Web URL: http://nips.cc/Conferences/2014/CallForWorkshops

May 27, 2014

Call for Demonstrations, NIPS 2014

by Hugo Larochelle

The Neural Information Processing Systems Conference 2014 http://nips.cc/Conferences/2014/ has a Demonstration Track running in parallel with some of the evening Poster Sessions, December 8-11, 2014, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Demonstration Proposal Deadline: Monday September 15, 2014, 11pm Universal Time (4pm Pacific Daylight Time). http://nips.cc/Conferences/2014/CallForDemonstrations Demonstrations offer a unique opportunity to showcase: • Hardware technology • Software systems • Neuromorphic and biologically-inspired systems • Robotics or other systems, which are relevant to the technical areas covered by NIPS (see Call for Papers http://nips.cc/Conferences/2014/CallForPapers) Demonstrations must show novel technology and must be run live, preferably with some interactive parts. Unlike poster presentations or slide shows, live action and interaction with the audience are critical elements. Submissions: Submission of demo proposals at the following URL: https://nips.cc/Demonstrators/ You will be asked to fill a questionnaire and describe clearly: • the technology demonstrated • the elements of novelty • the live action part • the interactive part • the equipment brought by the demonstrator • the equipment required at the place of the demo Evaluation Criteria: Submissions will be refereed on the basis of technical quality, novelty, live action, and potential for interaction. Demonstration chair: Hugo Larochelle <demonstration-ch...(a)nips.cc<http://nips.cc/>> http://nips.cc/Conferences/2014/CallForDemonstrations

May 27, 2014

SAB 2014 Early registration: May 31

by Enric Cervera Mateu

Dear Colleagues, This is a friendly reminder that the SAB 2104 registration is open. Early registration deadline is May 31, 2014. Late registration rates will apply starting from June 1, 2014. Please refer to the conference website for details: http://sab2014.org/registration We look forward to seeing you at Castellon, Spain >From the SAB 2014 Organizing Committee

May 27, 2014

FINAL DEADLINES UPDATE - Frontiers Research Topic: Driving innovation in therapeutic brain stimulation with biophysical models

by Dr Julien Modolo

Dear all, Due to the request of several researchers needing more time to finalize their manuscript, and also who missed the abstract submission deadline, we are offering a *final* deadline extension to offer a last opportunity of abstract submission and also allow more time for manuscript finalization. Therefore, our Research Topic organized with Frontiers in Neuroscience (Host Specialty: Frontiers in Computional Neuroscience) is still open, and has now an extended deadline for abstract submission and full manuscript submission. As a reminder, our Research Topic is entitled: "Driving Innovation in Therapeutic Brain Stimulation With Biophysical Models" Topic Editors: Julien Modolo, Alexandre Legros and Alex W Thomas - Lawson Health Research and Western University, London, Ontario (Canada). Abstract Submission Deadline: June 30 2014 Full Article Submission Deadline: September 1st, 2014 Research Topic Description: Electric and magnetic stimulation of the brain have become increasingly used for therapy in numerous neurological disorders over the last 20 years. The domain of therapeutic brain stimulation is complex and dynamic, since it involves many different diseases (e.g., Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy), stimulation devices and protocols (from completely non-invasive stimulation to the chronic implantation of stimulation electrodes in the brain). Despite its use by hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide, it seems paradoxical that, in most cases, the biological mechanisms by which therapeutic brain stimulation can provide symptom relief are unknown. Our limited knowledge in terms of interaction mechanisms dramatically slows down the development of novel brain stimulation techniques, which rely mainly on empiric observations. Fortunately, a paradigm change has begun, and biophysical modeling has emerged as an alternative tool not only allowing ot understand therapeutic brain stimulation, but also to foster innovation. Realistic models of neurons and neural networks are now routinely used in neuroscience research to better understand the outcome of experimental data, and also to help in experiment design. These models can simulate the activity of single cells (e.g., with the Hodgkin-Huxley model), or, at the other extreme, of the entire brain (Blue Brain project). One especially appealing use of these models is to simulate in silico how electric and magnetic fields modulate neuronal activity at different spatial and temporal scales, to ultimately have an impact on behaviour. This application of biophysical models of brain activity is currently the focus of intense research efforts, with the hope of groundbreaking clinical translations on the horizon. The objective of this Research Topic is to offer a comprehensive overview of the most recent biophysical models and their contribution in the development of innovative therapeutic brain stimulation techniques, in various neurological disorders. An emphasis should be made on the critical role of biophysical modeling in the rational and effective design of novel brain stimulation techniques, and also in providing key insights into fundamental interaction mechanisms that can be exploited to ends of therapy. About Frontiers Research Topics: Frontiers Research Topics are designed to be an organized, encyclopedic coverage of a particular research area, and a forum for discussion and debate. Contributions can be of different article types (Original Research, Methods, Hypothesis & Theory, and others). Our Research Topic has a dedicated homepage on the Frontiers website, where contributing articles are accumulated and discussions can be easily held. Once all articles are published, the topic will be compiled into an e-book, which can be sent to foundations that fund your research, to journalists and press agencies, and to any number of other organizations. As the ultimate reference source from leading scientists, Frontiers Research Topic articles become highly cited. Frontiers is a Swiss-based, open access publisher. As such an article accepted for publication incurs a publishing fee, which varies depending on the article type. The publishing fee for accepted articles is below average compared to most other open access journals - and lower than subscription-based journals that apply page and color figure charges. Moreover, for Research Topic articles, the publishing fee is discounted quite steeply thanks to the support of the Frontiers Research Foundation. Details on Frontiers’ fees can be found at http://www.frontiersin.org/about/PublishingFees. When published, your article will be freely available to visitors to the Frontiers site, and will be indexed in PubMed and other academic archives. As an author in Frontiers, you will retain the copyright to your own paper and all figures. The details regarding this Research Topic for Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience can be found at the following URL: http://www.frontiersin.org/computational_neuroscience/researchtopics/drivin… Should you choose to participate, please confirm by sending a quick email and then your abstract using the following link: http://www.frontiersin.org/submissioninfo Thanks in advance for your interest! Julien Modolo, Alexandre Legros and Alex W Thomas -- Julien Modolo, PhD Scientist, Human Threshold Research Group, Lawson Health Research Institute Assistant Professor, Departments of Medical Biophysics and Medical Imaging, Western University Room E4-141 268 Grosvenor Street London, ON, N6A4V2 Canada Phone: (+001) 519-646-6100 ext 64192 Fax: 519-646-6100

May 26, 2014

Computer science lecturerships at Bristol University.

by Conor Houghton

The department of computer science at the University of Bristol is seeking to appoint two lecturers or senior lecturers in computer science. One is an open ended post and the other is a fixed term post for 3 years in the first instance. Both posts are full time. http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIU651/lecturers-or-senior-lecturers-in-computer-… These jobs are open across all areas of computer science; this includes computational neuroscience. Computational neuroscience is listed in the job advert as an established research interest of the department and, for example, the department is involved in the Wellcome Trust Neural Dynamics PhD program. The University as a whole has a particular strength in neuroscience, both basic and clinical, and, because of the Neural Dynamics PhD program, the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute, the Centre for Decision Making and the Bristol Center for Complexity Sciences there is a tradition of interaction between experimental and computational neuroscientists.

May 26, 2014

Open doctoral position: sound processing, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Zurich, CH

by Jörg Conradt

Applications are invited for a doctoral student position to implement in software and hardware, computational methods for sound processing inspired by biological principles. The goal is to develop a robust real-time sound processing system which recognizes sounds and uses novel front-end sensor pre-processors such as the silicon cochlea. We are seeking a motivated student with a strong background in physics and / or computer science or electrical engineering. The position is available immediately for individuals with a degree in related fields. Other requirements: Programming knowledge of Matlab/JAVA, worked with DSPs/ FPGAs, comfortable with hardware. Salary is according to the guidelines of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Interested applicants, please send your CV, grades, statement of interest, and the names of at least 1 reference to shih-at-ini-dot-uzh-dot-ch. Deadline for application is May 30, 2014 or until position is filled. This work will be done in conjunction with the groups of Shih-Chii Liu and Richard Hahnloser at the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Zurich. On behalf of Dr. Shih-Chii Liu, INI, http://sensors.ini.uzh.ch/

May 25, 2014

CfP: 2014 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in healthcare and e-health (IEEE CICARE 2014)

by Mufti Mahmud

Dear all, Apologies for cross-posting of this cfp. -------------------------------------------------------- 2014 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in healthcare and e-health (IEEE CICARE 2014) IEEE CICARE 2014 is the first Symposium of its kind, and will bring together leading research and clinical scientists, engineers, practitioners, technology and solution providers in healthcare and e-health from around the world to discuss latest advances in the field of computational intelligence applied to solving the growing scale and complexity of problems in these inter-disciplinary domains. This symposium will provide a forum for the presentation of recent results in the theory and practice of computational intelligence in healthcare and e-health systems and services, and there will also be Panel discussions to outline future research directions and challenges. IEEE CICARE 2014 is being held as part of the IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI'2014), Florida, 09-12 December 2014. IEEE SSCI 2014 is one of the two flagship biennial international events sponsored by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (IEEE CIS) promoting all aspects of the theory and applications of computational intelligence. The IEEE SSCI co-locates several technical meetings at one location. This event attracts top researchers, professionals, and students from around the world. More details on: http://www.ieee-ssci.org/index.html Call for Papers can be found here: http://www.ieee-ssci.org/data/IEEESSCI_2014_CFP.pdf IEEE is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community through IEEE's highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities. www.ieee.org Call for Papers: IEEE CICARE 2014 Special Sessions in 2014 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in healthcare and e-health Special Session 1: Computationally Intelligent Methods for CNS Research & Its Disorders (Organizers: Mufti Mahmud, Pawel Raif, Amir Hussain) Special Session 2: Computational Intelligence in Health Assessment and Monitoring (Organizers: Erik Cambria, Amir Hussain, Newton Howard) Special Session 3: Prospects and Applications of Computational Intelligence in e-Health (Organizers: Pawel Raif, Mufti Mahmud, Henrique Martins) IEEE CICARE2014 Topics: IEEE CICARE 2014 related topics include but are not limited to: · Ontology Driven Knowledge Management · Decision Support Systems · Telemedicine · Medical research using Grids · Interoperability · Medical and Nursing Informatics · Confidentiality and Data Security · Wearable Health Informatics · Semantic Interoperability · Therapeutic Systems and Technologies · Cognitive Informatics · Affective Computing · Human-Machine Interfaces · ICT, Ageing and Disability · Design and development methodologies for Healthcare IT · Mobile technologies for Healthcare applications (m-Health) · Evaluation and use of Healthcare IT · Health Knowledge Management · Healthcare Management and Information Systems · Electronic Health Records and Standards · Software Systems in Medicine · Pervasive Health Systems and Services · Clinical problems and applications · Data Mining and Visualization · Consumer Health Informatics · Virtual Healthcare Teams · Pattern recognition and Machine Learning · Practice-based Research Methods for Healthcare Informatics/IT · e-Health for Public Health · Integrating genetics with e-health Keynote, Tutorial and Panel Sessions: Please forward your proposals with detailed abstract and bio-sketches of the speakers to Symposium Co-Chairs and SSCI Keynote-Tutorial, Chair, Dr S Das. Special Sessions: Please forward your special session proposals to the Symposium Chair, Prof. Amir Hussain. Symposium Chairs: Chair: Professor Amir Hussain, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Scotland, E-mail: ahu(a)cs.stir.ac.uk Co-Chair: Professor Calum MacRae, Harvard Medical School, Boston Co-Chair: Professor Jonathan Wu, University of Windsor, Canada Honorary Chair: Professor Warner Slack, Clinical Informatics Division, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA Symposium Organiser: Kamran Farooq, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK International Programme Committee: · Adnan Masood Siddiqui, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Cancer Centre. · Aman Shams, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, UK · Amir Atiya, Cairo University, Egypt · Amir Shah, University Hospital Crosshouse, Kilmarnock, Scotland · Aneel Zaheer, Kings College London Hospital, UK · Anna Esposito, Second University of Naples and IIASS - Vietri sul Mare (SA), Italy · Aziz Sheikh, Centre of Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh · Azzam Taktak, The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, UK · Campbell Grant, Sitekit Solutions Ltd. · Chris Eckl, Sitekit Solutions Ltd. · Eric Chang, Microsoft Asia, Beijing · Erik Cambria, NUS, Singapore · Fabio Augusto Gonzalez Osorio, National University of Colombia · Frances Mair, University of Glasgow · Hicham Attasi, Brno University of Technology, Czech Repulibic · Hollis Kowaloff, Beth Israel Clinical Informatics, USA · Igor Aleksander, Imperial College, London, UK · Irfan Faridoon, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh · Jozsef Farkas, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK · Junichi Tsujii, Microsoft Asia, Beijing · Kaizhu Huang, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China · Kang Li, Queen's University, Belfast · Keshav Dahal, University of Bradford, UK · M.A. Rajak, Ucare Foundation, Glasgow · Marcos Faundez-Zanuy, Escola University-Politecnic Mataro, Spain · Maria Aftab, Sir Syed Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan · Marjorie Skubic, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA · Matthew Bailey, BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh · Mohamed Chetouani, University of Pierre Marie-Curie, France · Muaz Niazi, Bahria University, Pakistan · Ricardo Imbert, University of Madrid, Spain · Sophia Ananiadou University of Manchester, UK · Stefano Squartini, Ancona University, Italy · Stephen Leslie, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, Scotland · Tingwen Huang, Texas A&M University at Qatar · Usman Bashir, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh · Vassilis Cutsuridis, King's College, London, UK · Vladimir Bajic, KAUST, Saudi Arabia · Wajeeha Aneel, University of Bedfordshire, UK · William Buchanan, Napier University · Zdenek Smekal, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic · Zubair Khan, Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University Hospitals NHS Lothian (Edinburgh) Important Dates Paper submission: 15 June 2014, Midnight GMT Decision: 05 Sept 2014 Final submission: 05 Oct 2014 Early Registration: 05 Oct 2014 Paper Submission: Please submit your paper via the IEEE SSCI 2014 on-line submission link accessed from: http://www.ieee-ssci.org/instructions.html -- Mufti Mahmud, PhD Marie Curie Research Fellow Theoretical Neurobiology & Neuroengineering Lab University of Antwerp T6.63, Universiteitsplein 1 2610 - Wilrijk, Belgium Lab: +32 3 265 2610 http://www.muftimahmud.co.nr/ & Assistant Professor (on leave) Institute of Information Technology Jahangirnagar University Savar, 1342 - Dhaka, Bangladesh

May 24, 2014

Postdoc positions: Matt Nolan/Upi Bhalla

by U.S.Bhalla

We offer two Postdoctoral positions in computational and experimental neuroscience, as part of a a collaboration between Matt Nolan (University of Edinburgh) and Upi Bhalla (National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore). The projects are to examine representations, connectivity and plasticity in the Hippocampal-Entorhinal circuitry. One position is for a computational analysis of representations, sequence formation and plasticity. The other position is more experimental, and will involve patch, tetrode, and 2-photon recordings in mice as they learn representations and associations. Interested individuals are encouraged to visit the CBDR (http://instem.res.in/wadhwani-center/center-for-brain-development-and-repair) website for more information and to contact Upi Bhalla (bhalla(a)ncbs.res.in) or Matt Nolan(mattnolan(a)ed.ac.uk) directly for more information. A 2-page CV, 1-page statement of future work and how it fits in with the aims of CBDR and the names of three referees should be sent to the Centre Administrator, Claudia Pisani (cpisani(a)staffmail.ed.ac.uk) Thank you, Upi Bhalla

May 23, 2014

CFP 2nd International Conference on Bioimaging

by Calendar Sites

CALL FOR PAPERS 2nd International Conference on Bioimaging Website: www.bioimaging.biostec.org January 12 15, 2015 Lisbon, Portugal <http://www.bioimaging.biostec.org/Glossary.aspx#RP> Regular Papers Paper Submission: July 29, 2014 Authors Notification: November 3, 2014 Camera Ready and Registration: November 17, 2014 <http://www.bioimaging.biostec.org/Glossary.aspx#PP> Position Papers Paper Submission: September 30, 2014 Authors Notification: November 6, 2014 Camera Ready and Registration: November 17, 2014 Sponsored by: INSTICC-Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication INSTICC is Member of: WfMC- Workflow Management Coalition OMG - Object Management Group FIPA Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents Logistics Partner: SCITEVENTS Science and Technology Events Media Partner: BMC - Medical Informatics and Decision Making Technical Co-sponsorship by: BMES Biomedical Engineering Society ESEM - European Society for Engineering and Medicine In Cooperation with: EUROMICRO ISfTeH International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth AAAI - The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Bioimaging is a term that collectively refers to tools used to create structural or functional images of living objects or systems. Examples are many, including: PET and HRRT PET, MRI and fMRI, MEG, SPECT and so on. Medical imaging is an important case of bioimaging referring to the technique and process used to create images of the human body, anatomical areas, tissue, and so on, down to the molecular level, for clinical purposes, seeking to reveal,diagnose, or examine diseases, or medical science, including the study of normal anatomy and physiology. Another field closely related to bioimaging is structural biology, a branch of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics concerned with the spatial and temporal arrangement of biological macromolecules. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS <http://www.biostec.org/KeynoteSpeakers.aspx#1> Erik Meijering, Erasmus University Medical Center, Netherlands <http://www.biostec.org/KeynoteSpeakers.aspx#2> Lionel Pazart, CHU, France PUBLICATIONS All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, under an ISBN reference, on paper and on CD-ROM support. SCITEPRESS is a member of CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/) All papers presented at the conference venue will be available at the SCITEPRESS Digital Library. It is planned to publish a short list of revised and extended versions of presented papers with Springer in a CCIS Series book (final approval pending). The proceedings will be submitted for indexation by Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index (ISI), INSPEC, DBLP, EI (Elsevier Index) and Scopus. AWARDS The awards will be announced and bestowed at the conference closing session. Please check the website for further information: http://www.bioimaging.biostec.org/BestPaperAward.aspx CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS Ana Fred, Instituto de Telecomunicações / IST, Portugal Hugo Gamboa, CEFITEC / FCT - New University of Lisbon, Portugal Dirk Elias, University of Porto / Fraunhofer, Portugal PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS Mário Forjaz Secca, CEFITEC, Departamento de Fisica, FCT/UNL, Portugal Jan Schier, Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the ASCR, Czech Republic CONFERENCE TOPICS: · Medical Imaging and Diagnosis · Biomechanical Imaging · Image Archiving and Communication · Telemedicine and Virtual Environments · Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) · Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Fmri) · Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) · Positron Emission Tomography (PET) · High Resolution Research Tomography (HRRT) · Magnetoencephalography (MEG) · Ultrasound and Optical Imaging · Optical Elastography · X-ray Microscopy · Biophotonics · Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transferv (FRET) · Fluorescent Microscopy · Quantitative Bioimaging · Structural Biology · Brain Function Analysis · Hemodynamics Imaging · Histology and Tissue Imaging PROGRAM COMMITTEE http://www.bioimaging.biostec.org/ProgramCommittee.aspx Please check further details at the conference website (http://www.bioimaging.biostec.org)

May 22, 2014

CFP 8th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - BIOSTEC 2015

by Calendar Sites

CALL FOR PAPERS 8th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - BIOSTEC 2015 Website: www.biostec.org January 12 15, 2015 Lisbon, Portugal <http://www.biostec.org/Glossary.aspx#RP> Regular Papers Paper Submission: July 29, 2014 Authors Notification: November 3, 2014 Camera Ready and Registration: November 17, 2014 <http://www.biostec.org/Glossary.aspx#PP> Position Papers Paper Submission: September 30, 2014 Authors Notification: November 6, 2014 Camera Ready and Registration: November 17, 2014 Doctoral Consortium Paper Submission: November 5, 2014 Authors Notification: November 18, 2014 Camera Ready and Registration: November 28, 2014 Special Sessions Paper Submission: November 7, 2014 Authors Notification: November 24, 2014 Camera Ready and Registration: December 3, 2014 Sponsored by: INSTICC - Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication INSTICC is Member of: WfMC- Workflow Management Coalition OMG - Object Management Group FIPA Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents Logistics Partner: SCITEVENTS Science and Technology Events Media Partner: BMC - Medical Informatics and Decision Making Technical Co-sponsorship by: BMES Biomedical Engineering Society ESEM - European Society for Engineering and Medicine In Cooperation with: EUROMICRO ISfTeH International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth AAAI - The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence EURASIP The European Association for Signal Processing The purpose of BIOSTEC is to bring together researchers and practitioners, including engineers, biologists, health professionals and informatics/computer scientists, interested in both theoretical advances and applications of information systems, artificial intelligence, signal processing, electronics and other engineering tools in knowledge areas related to biology and medicine. BIOSTEC is composed of five co-located conferences, each specialized in at least one of the aforementioned main knowledge areas. International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices BIODEVICES 2015 Program Chair Alberto Cliquet Jr., University of São Paulo & University of Campinas, Brazil Url: http://www.biodevices.biostec.org/ CONFERENCE TOPICS: · Emerging Technologies · Biomedical Instrumentation · Biomedical Equipment · Biomedical Sensors · Biomedical Metrology · Microelectronics · Health Monitoring Devices · Embedded Signal Processing · Low-Power Design · Electrical Bio-Impedance · Bio-Electromagnetism · Biorobotics · Biocomputing and Biochips · Implantable Electronics · Biotelemetry · Wireless Systems · Biomaterials · MEMS · Nanotechnologies · Biomechanical Devices · Artificial Limbs · Technologies Evaluation · Cardiovascular Biomechanics · Electrocardiography and Heart Monitoring · Computational Physiology (virtual organs) · Brain-Computer Interfaces · Spectroscopic Applications · Imaging and Visualization Devices · Computer-aided Detection and Diagnosis · Rehabilitation Technology International Conference on Bioimaging BIOIMAGING 2015 Program Co-chairs Mário Forjaz Secca, CEFITEC, Departamento de Fisica, FCT/UNL, Portugal Jan Schier, Institute of Information Theory and Automation of the ASCR, Czech Republic Url: http://www.bioimaging.biostec.org/ CONFERENCE TOPICS: · Medical Imaging and Diagnosis · Biomechanical Imaging · Image Archiving and Communication · Telemedicine and Virtual Environments · Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) · Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Fmri) · Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) · Positron Emission Tomography (PET) · High Resolution Research Tomography (HRRT) · Magnetoencephalography (MEG) · Ultrasound and Optical Imaging · Optical Elastography · X-ray Microscopy · Biophotonics · Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transferv (FRET) · Fluorescent Microscopy · Quantitative Bioimaging · Structural Biology · Brain Function Analysis · Hemodynamics Imaging · Histology and Tissue Imaging International Conference on Bioinformatics Models, Methods and Algorithms BIOINFORMATICS 2015 Program Co-chairs Oscar Pastor, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain Christine Sinoquet, University of Nantes, France Url: http://www.bioinformatics.biostec.org/ CONFERENCE TOPICS: · Simulation · Computational Intelligence · Genomics and Proteomics · Sequence Analysis · Structural Bioinformatics · Image Analysis · Visualization · Databases and Data Management · Data mining and Machine Learning · Biostatistics and Stochastic Models · Pharmaceutical Applications · Systems Biology · Algorithms and Software Tools · Web Services in Bioinformatics · Computational Molecular Systems · Immuno- and chemo-informatics · Pattern recognition, clustering and classification · Structure prediction · Model design and evaluation · Transcriptomics · Next Generation Sequencing · Structural Variations International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing BIOSIGNALS 2015 Program Chair Harald Loose, Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany Url: http://www.biosignals.biostec.org/ CONFERENCE TOPICS: · Speech Recognition · Neural Networks · Biometrics · Pattern Recognition · Medical Signal Acquisition, Analysis and Processing · Wearable Sensors and Systems · Real-Time Systems · Evolutionary Systems · Acoustic Signal Processing · Time and Frequency Response · Wavelet Transform · Medical Image Detection, Acquisition, Analysis and Processing · Physiological Processes and Bio-signal Modeling, Non-linear dynamics · Cybernetics and User Interface Technologies · Electromagnetic fields in biology and medicine · Fuzzy Systems and Signals · Monitoring and Telemetry · Cardiovascular Signals · Image Analysis and Processing · Detection and Identification · Motion Control International Conference on Health Informatics HEALTHINF 2015 Program Co-chairs Marta Bienkiewicz, TUM, Technische Universitat Munchen, Germany Christine Verdier, LIG - University Joseph Fourier Grenoble, France Url: http://www.healthinf.biostec.org/ CONFERENCE TOPICS: · Datamining · Knowledge Management · Decision Support Systems · Interoperability · Telemedicine · Medical and Nursing Informatics · Confidentiality and Data Security · Wearable Health Informatics · Semantic Interoperability · Therapeutic Systems and Technologies · Physiological Modeling · Databases and Datawarehousing · Cognitive Informatics · Affective Computing · Human-Machine Interfaces for Disabled Persons · ICT, Ageing and Disability · Design and development methodologies for Healthcare IT · Mobile technologies for Healthcare applications · Evaluation and use of Healthcare IT · Healthcare Management Systems · E-Health · Development of Assistive Technology · Electronic Health Records and Standards · Software Systems in Medicine · Pervasive Health Systems and Services · e-Health for Public Health · Clinical problems and applications · Data Visualization · Pattern recognition and Machine Learning · Practice-based Research Methods for Healthcare IT KEYNOTE SPEAKERS <http://www.biostec.org/KeynoteSpeakers.aspx#1> Erik Meijering, Erasmus University Medical Center, Netherlands <http://www.biostec.org/KeynoteSpeakers.aspx#2> Lionel Pazart, CHU, France PUBLICATIONS All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, under an ISBN reference, on paper and on CD-ROM support. SCITEPRESS is a member of CrossRef ( <http://www.crossref.org/> http://www.crossref.org/) All papers presented at the conference venue will be available at the <http://www.scitepress.org/DigitalLibrary/Default.aspx> SCITEPRESS Digital Library. It is planned to publish a short list of revised and extended versions of presented papers with Springer in a <http://www.springer.com/series/7899> CCIS Series book (final approval pending). The proceedings will be submitted for indexation by Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index (ISI), INSPEC, DBLP, EI (Elsevier Index) and Scopus. AWARDS The awards will be announced and bestowed at the conference closing session. BIOSTEC CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS Ana Fred, Instituto de Telecomunicações / IST, Portugal Hugo Gamboa, CEFITEC / FCT - New University of Lisbon, Portugal Dirk Elias, University of Porto / Fraunhofer, Portugal Please check further details at the conference website (http://www.biostec.org)

May 22, 2014

Postdoc on EEG data analysis in Cleveland (immediately available)

by Roberto Fernández Galán

A postdoctoral position on the statistical analysis of EEG data from children with autism and epilepsy is immediately available at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA. The position is funded by The Hartwell Foundation for a period of up to two years. The selected candidate will work under the supervision of Dr. Roberto F. Galán <http://neurosciences.case.edu/faculty/galan/index> in the department of neurosciences at CWRU. The project involves a collaboration with the department of pediatric neurology at University Hospitals on the same campus. The successful candidate must be a US citizen, have a PhD in biomedical engineering, computational neuroscience, or related discipline. Previous experience with the analysis of EEG, MEG, or MEA data is required. Proficiency in Matlab programming will be considered an asset. To apply for this position please send a cover letter, a CV including a list of publications and the names and contact information of two referees for recommendations to rfgalan(a)case.edu. Related Publications: J. L. Pérez Velázquez and R. F. Galán (2013). Information Gain in the Brain's Resting State: A New Perspective on Autism. *Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 7(37):1 <http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fninf.2013.00037/abstract>*. A. R. Antony, A. V. Alexopoulos, J. A. González-Martínez, J. C. Mosher, L. Jehi, R. C. Burgess, N. K. So and R. F. Galán (2013). Functional Connectivity Estimated from Intracranial EEG Predicts Surgical Outcome in Intractable Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. *PLoS One, 8(10): e77916 <http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0077916>* . L. G. Domínguez, J. L. Pérez Velázquez and R. F. Galán (2013). A Model of Functional Brain Connectivity and Background Noise as a Biomarker for Cognitive Phenotypes: Application to Autism. *PLoS One, 8(4): e61493 <http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0061493>* . -- Roberto Fernández Galán, PhD Assistant Professor of Neurosciences Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Robbins E-725 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland OH, 44106-4975, USA Phone: (001) 216 368 0811 Email: rfgalan(a)case.edu http://www.case.edu/med/galanlab

May 22, 2014

ICTP Winter School on Systems Neuroscience in Trieste, Dec 2014

by Alessandro Treves

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics is organizing a Winter School on Quantitative Systems Biology with a focus on System Neuroscience, from 1 to 12 December 2014, in Trieste, Italy. New experimental techniques are opening windows on biological mechanisms inside the cell and in the brain, making these systems accessible to quantitative investigation and calling for an understanding of brain functions at the systemic level. The school is targeted to young researchers, especially at the Ph.D and postdoc level who either work in this area or hope to do so. Lecturers include: Winfried Denk (Max Planck Inst., Germany) Stefano Fusi (Columbia, USA) Kate Jeffery (UCL, UK) Etienne Koechlin (ENS Paris, France) Venkatesh Murthy (Harvard, USA) Israel Nelken (Hebrew Univ., Israel) Botond Roska (FMI, Switzerland) Wolfram Schultz (Univ. Cambridge, UK) Tatyana Sharpee (Salk Institute, USA) Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute, Israel) Fred Wolf (Univ. Göttingen, Germany) There is no participation fee for selected participants. DEADLINE for applications June 1st, 2014 Details on http://cdsagenda5.ictp.trieste.it/full_display.php?ida=a13235 -- Alessandro Treves http://people.sissa.it/~ale/limbo.html SISSA - Cognitive Neuroscience, via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy and Master in Complex Actions http://www.mca.sissa.it/

May 21, 2014

PhD student positions in naturalistic visuomotor behavior

by Constantin Rothkopf

Applications are invited for two PhD student positions in the lab of Constantin Rothkopf at the Technical University Darmstadt. The lab focuses on experimental and computational approaches to further the understanding of naturalistic, sequential visuomotor behavior in humans. Current topics include: - statistics of visuomotor behavior in naturalistic tasks, - image statistics in natural visuomotor behavior, - inverse-optimal-control models of human locomotion behavior, - optimal control models of interception behavior, - credit assignment in modular reinforcement learning models, - eye-movements in naturalistic tasks. For further information refer to the website: http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~rothkopf/ Ph.D. position applicants need to have a Master's degree in cognitive science, computer science, psychology or related fields. In addition to a general interest in experimental psychology, cognitive science, computational science, and interdisciplinary research, the ideal candidate has a background in eye-tracking or virtual reality technology. Experience with programming (e.g. Matlab, Python, C++) is inevitable. Analytical aptitude as well as awareness of experimental literature is expected. Informal inquiries may be made to Constantin Rothkopf at rothkopf(a)psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de. In your application please include a brief (max. 2 pages) cover letter explaining your research interests, what you are looking for in a PhD, why you would like to study in the lab, your longer term career goals, and contact information for 2-3 references. Applications may be submitted to the Dean of the Department of Human Sciences of the Technical University Darmstadt, Alexanderstraße 10, 64283 Darmstadt, in electronic form as a single pdf document via e-mail at: dekanat(a)humanw.tu-darmstadt.de. More details are available at: PhD position (ref.-no. 170) https://www.intern.tu-darmstadt.de/dez_vii/stellen/stellen_details_128192.d… The Technical University Darmstadt strives for an increase in the number of women in academic employment. Women are therefore especially encouraged to apply and will be preferentially considered under the condition of equal qualification. Disabled candidates are given preference under the provision of equal qualification. -- Prof. Constantin A. Rothkopf, PhD Technical University Darmstadt & FIAS phone: +49 6151 16-76084 mailto:rothkopf@psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de fax: +49 6151 16-6943 http://www.pip.tu-darmstadt.de/

May 21, 2014