- Comp-neuro - lists.cnsorg.org

Postdoctoral research position at the University of Houston

by Kresimir Josic

We are looking for a postdoctoral associate with a background in applied mathematics and/or computational neuroscience. The successful applicant will work with Krešimir Josić at the University of Houston and Zack Kilpatrick at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The goal of the project is to use linear response theory and its extensions to predict how patterns of activity and structure of neuronal networks co-evolve. This is a collaborative project with Brent Doiron (Pitt) and Eric Shea-Brown (UW, Seattle). This position is expected to run September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2018. Interested applicants can apply online at at the University of Houston jobs website: https://jobs.uh.edu/postings/28856 <https://jobs.uh.edu/postings/28856> Please contact Krešimir Josić (josic(a)math.uh.edu <mailto:josic@math.uh.edu>) or Zack Kilpatrick (zpkilpat(a)math.uh.edu <mailto:zpkilpat@math.uh.edu>) if you have any questions. The University of Houston is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution. Minorities, women, veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Additionally, the University prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Jan. 27, 2016

4th Baltic-Nordic Summer School on Neuroinformatics (BNNI 2016)

by Daniel Wójcik

4th Baltic-Nordic Summer School on Neuroinformatics (BNNI 2016) Understanding neurons, cognition and behavior through neuroinformatics Place: Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, and Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw Warsaw, Poland Time: June 15-18, 2016 More information and applications at http://bit.do/bnni2016 Important dates: 21 February 2016 Application deadline 13 March 2016 Acceptance notification 15-18 June 2016 Summer School We invite advanced master students, doctoral students, and postdoctoral researchers to participate in the BNNI 2016 to be held at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology and the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw. The course is interdisciplinary and covers modeling at different levels of organization of the brain, analysis of neural data, brain atlases, and other aspects of neuroinformatics. The course combines lectures, tutorials and computer exercises. This summer school is the fourth in the series of the Baltic-Nordic Courses on Neuroinformatics (BNNI 2013 in Kaunas, BNNI 2014 in Tampere, BNNI 2015 in Tartu). The target audience of the course will be advanced master students, doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in natural and life sciences, from physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, informatics and information technology, to biology, medicine, and psychology, who would like to get an introduction to neuroinformatics and computational neuroscience. Some experience with programming and quantitative reasoning as well as strong interest in computational and mathematical modeling of the brain are required to benefit from the school. Faculty includes Piotr Durka, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland Gaute Einevoll, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway Bruce Graham, University of Stirling, United Kingdom Marja-Leena Linne, Tampere University of Technology, Finland Szymon Łęski, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland Arnd Roth, University College London, UK Ausra Saudargiene, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania Eleni Vasilaki, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom Daniel Wójcik, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland Jarosław Żygierewicz, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland Venue The lectures will be held at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the computer classes in the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw. The two buildings are next to each other, they are located at the center of Ochota campus, encompassing a number of university departments and research institutes. Practical arrangements There is a small tuition fee of 100 euros. The organizers will provide teaching, meals and coffee during the course. The participants are expected to cover their travel and health insurance expenses as well as lodging. Small financial support is available for those without funding. Inexpensive lodging for all the students will be organized. The course is supported by the IBRO-PERC committee, University of Warsaw, and the Nencki Institute We are looking forward to welcome you at the BNNI 2016 in Warsaw, Poland! -- Prof. Daniel K. Wojcik Laboratory of Neuroinformatics, Head PhD Studies, Head Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology 3 Pasteur St, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland tel: (+48 22) 5892348 fax: (+48 22) 8225342 skype: danek8317 http://dwojcik.pl/ http://neuroinflab.wordpress.com/ http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0812-9872

Jan. 27, 2016

Announcement of job opening: Scientist (postdoctoral) position on analysis of Electron Microscopy datasets

by Nuno da Costa

Dear Sir/Madam I would like to announce the following job opening in computational neuroscience mailing list POSITION SUMMARY We are seeking a neuroscientist to lead the effort in image processing , reconstruction and analysis of large scale Electron Microscopy datasets. The scientist will be an essential member of the Neural Coding team studying the relationship between neural circuits and neural dynamics by combining in vivo functional imaging with ex vivo state of the art Electron Microscopy. JOB RESPONSIBILITIES · Collaborate with others to develop a scalable and high throughput image processing pipeline for peta-scale Electron Microscopy datasets. · Collaborate with others to develop a workflow for morphological reconstruction of Electron Microscopy datasets. · Work closely with a team of anatomists, physiologists, theoreticians and modelers to analyze and interpret the relationship between structure and function in cortical networks. · Publish/present findings in peer-reviewed journals/scientific conferences. BASIC QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS · PhD in Computer Science, Neuroscience, Physics, Biology or related scientific field. (Required) · Excellent programming skills (Required) · A strong interest in understanding neuroanatomy and functional connectivity. (Required) · Experience with large scale datasets. (Preferred) · Experience with Electron Microscopy. (Preferred) Many thanks Nuno Nuno Macarico da Costa Assistant Investigator T: 206.548.8437 [cid:5047F5CE-4C9A-45E6-A13D-A46F96F5F6E6] www.alleninstitute.org<http://www.alleninstitute.org/>

Jan. 26, 2016

Sense 2 Synapse Conference, Saturday April 16, The Rockefeller University, New York City

by Christoph Kirst

Dear all, *Sense 2 Synapse* is back and is going to be held on *Saturday, April 16* at *The Rockefeller University,**New York City*, Carson Family Auditorium this year Our confirmed keynote speakers are: *Jeffrey Holt (Harvard University) Vanessa Ruta (Rockefeller University) Anthony Zador (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) Mike Shadlen (Columbia University)* Sense to Synapse is an annual conference for scientists working on the biology of sensory transduction, subsequent neural processing and perception. Primary target audience are scientists from New York-tristate area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut), but the event is open to everyone interested in sensory systems. Please save the date; registration will open soon on sense2synapse.com <http://sense2synapse.com>. Give a short talk, present a poster, or just come to network with other scientists. As usual we will have great food, coffee and science. Information on last years event can be found here: http://sense2synapse.com/html/about.html. We hope to see you there! Christoph Krist Tobias Bartsch Gonzalo Otazu (Organizing committee S2S 2016)

Jan. 26, 2016

Re: [Comp-neuro] Postdoctoral Position using High-Density Electrophysiology in Behaving Primates

by Nicho

*Postdoctoral Position in Multi-Electrode Cortical Recording and Stimulation in Behaving Primates* A postdoctoral position is available in 2016 to investigate the neural basis of visuo-motor behavior.This project involves high density multi-electrode array recordings and stimulation from motor and premotor cortical sites in monkeys performing complex reaching and grasping movements.Experiments seek to investigate spatio-temporal patterning in single unit and local field potential activity that encodes different aspects of these movements.These experiments also seek to develop decoding algorithms for possible application in brain-machine interfaces.Facilities include a fully equipped electrophysiological laboratory with three 128-channel acquisition systems, a two-link exoskeletal robot, and a camera-based, motion capture system.Expertise in multi-electrode, behavioral electrophysiology is preferred.A strong mathematical, computational, or engineering background is also desirable.Applicants should send a CV and names and addresses of two or three references to Dr. Nicholas Hatsopoulos, Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy, University of Chicago, 1027 East 57^th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 or by e-mail to nicho(a)uchicago.edu <mailto:nicho@uchicago.edu>.

Jan. 26, 2016

Postdoc position - human intracranial electrophysiology

by Brett Foster

Postdoctoral position in human intracranial electrophysiology and memory – Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine (Houston). We invite applicants for a postdoctoral research position at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, focused on studying human episodic memory using intracranial recordings. Specifically, the project will focus on tracking cortical dynamics during the encoding and retrieval of visual stimuli by combining human electrocorticography (ECoG) measurements with multivariate statistical techniques (e.g. machine learning). Applicants should have a PhD in cognitive/computational neuroscience with prior training in the recording and analysis of electrophysiological data. The successful applicant will have expertise in programming time series analysis and multivariate statistics (e.g. matlab/python/r). Previous experience with human intracranial data is ideal but not essential. The successful applicant will also have excellent standards of written English, and data presentation, as shown through previously published work. The position is available from June 2016, for an initial appointment of one year, with renewal subject to review. Salary will be consistent with NIH standards and level of experience. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Applicants should send a letter of interest, CV, and 2-3 letters of reference (all pdf) to Dr. Brett Foster: brett.l.foster(a)gmail.com Baylor College of Medicine is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action and Equal Access Employer.

Jan. 25, 2016

Brain Connectivity Workshop 2016, Marseille (France)

by Demian Battaglia

*** Please apologize cross-postings *** Brain Connectivity Workshop 2016, Marseille (France) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ When: 22nd to 24th June, 2016 Link to official website: http://bcw2016.org We are happy to announce the 15th edition of the Brain Connectivity Workshop (BCW) to take place in Marseille from the 22nd to the 24th of June 2016. The Brain Connectivity Workshop (BCW) is a well-established workshop series, which has been held annually in Europe, USA, Australia and Asia for the last 14 years. BCW is an official satellite of the annual meeting of OHBM, which is held in Geneva, Switzerland in 2016. BCW attracts every year a public of 100-200 participants working in cognitive, computational and clinical neurosciences. The discussions are centered on all themes around brain connectivity including structural and functional imaging, modeling, brain function and clinics. BCW is highly influential in the field due to the traditionally high quality of speakers and a long track record of innovation. For instance, both, the Connectome and The Virtual Brain have been born within the BCW community. The typical BCW format —a first educational day of lectures held by international authorities in their fields, followed by two days of shorter talks with ample time for discussion provides a unique forum for creativity, controversy and brainstorming. BCW 2016, introduced by a first day of tutorials by experts in their field, will feature focused sessions on themes such as perturbing the brain, mapping the brain, and brain dynamics in function (cognition) and dysfunction (epilepsy). Registration will open soon. NB!!!!!!! Please note that European Cup of Football will be held in France during this period and hotels are going to be booked fast! Confirmed educational lecturers (day 1) and workshop speakers (days 2-3) include: Fabrice Bartolomei (Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France) Michael Breakspear (QIMR, Brisbane, Australia) Vince Calhoun (University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM) Karl Friston (UCL, London, UK) Jorge Gonzalez-Martinez (Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH) Marc Goodfellow (University of Exeter, Exeter, UK) Charles Gray (Montana State University, Bozeman, MT) Claudius Gros (Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) Sean Hill (EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland) Martin Hoffman-Apitius (Fraunhofer Institute SCAI, St Augustin, Germany) Esther Krook-Magnuson (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN) Pierre Luppi (Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Lyon, France) Randy McIntosh (Baycrest Research Center, Toronto, ON) Lionel Naccache (ICM, Paris, France) Ivan Soltesz (UC Irvine, CA) Olaf Sporns (Indiana University, Bloomington, IN) William Stacey (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI) Gregor Thut (University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK) Stephan Van Gils (University of Twente, Ae Enschede, The Netherlands) Michael Wibral (Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) A special evening lecture will be delivered by Patrick Chauvel (Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France). A detailed program is coming soon. Organizing committee: Viktor Jirsa, Chair (INS, Aix-Marseille University, UMR 1106 INSERM) Demian Battaglia, Christian Bénar, Mireille Bonnard, Monique Esclapez (INS, Aix-Marseille University) Andrea Brovelli (INT, Aix-Marseille University), Maxime Guye (CRMBM, Aix-Marseille University, UMR 7339 CNRS & APHM) Ingo Bojak (University of Reading, UK). An event sponsored by: University Aix-Marseille, Brain Products, Bionics, Springer EPJ Nonlinear Biomedical Physics Journal, Codebox, Institute of System Neuroscience Inserm, Institute of Neuroscience Timone, Center for Magnetic Resonance in Biology and Medicine, Mediterranean Society of Neuroscience (IBRO member)

Jan. 25, 2016

Two fully funded PhD positions in Computational Neuroscience at Georgia State University

by Yaroslav Molkov

Two fully funded doctoral student positions in computational neuroscience for the duration of up to four years with very competitive compensation are available in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Georgia State University. The successful candidates will work with Dr. Yaroslav Molkov and his collaborators on a number of projects including neural control of breathing and locomotion, motor control, body temperature control, etc. For more details, see https://sites.google.com/site/ymolkov/home. The University: http://www.gsu.edu Georgia State University is the Southeast's leading urban research institution. It is on the list of the top 100 public universities for doctoral degrees awarded. More than 250 fields of study are offered through some 55 accredited degree programs at the bachelor's, master’s, specialist and doctoral levels. Our student body is the best qualified and most diverse in our history. More than 40,000 students are seeking degrees at Georgia State, and more than 28,000 of them are on campus each semester. Students come to our campus from every county in Georgia, every state in the nation and 160 countries. The campus is located in the heart of downtown Atlanta. The Department: http://mathstat.gsu.edu Currently, the department has twenty seven tenured or tenure-track faculty members, fourteen lecturers and academic professionals, and about eighty graduate students. The Department’s faculty members are very active in research and publication. They regularly publish in top-ranked journals, more than 1/3 of the research faculty members are supported by various federally funded grants, and several members have been serving on editorial boards of journals. They have been directing PhD dissertations and MS theses within the department, joint with other departments of the College of Arts and Sciences, and in conjunction with other universities. Please apply at http://cas.gsu.edu/graduate-studies/admissions/ For additional information, contact Dr. Molkov or Dr. Florian Enescu, Graduate Director, Tel: (404) 413-6442, Email: fenescu(a)gsu.edu. ================================= Yaroslav Molkov, PhD Associate Professor Department of Mathematics & Statistics Georgia State University 30 Pryor St SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, Room 722 Phone: (404) 413-6422 Email: ymolkov(a)gsu.edu

Jan. 25, 2016

Re: [Comp-neuro] Real World Eye Tracking Course

by Durant, Szonya

Real World Eye Tracking Course<https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/psychology/prospectivestudents/real-world-e…> An introductory course to using eye tracking in real world situations Organized jointly by Acuity Intelligence Ltd. and Dept. of Psychology, Royal Holloway * Compare several remote fixed eye-tracker and mobile eye-tracking glasses systems * A range of manufacturers * Gain hands-on experience in real-world situations * Meet and collaborate with users from academia and industry Systems used in mini-projects: Tobii Glasses 2, TX300, SMI eye tracking glasses Software used: Tobii Studio, Tobii Glasses 2 software, SMI iView, BeGaze Further possible system demonstrations: Ergoners Dikabils, EyeLink Course outline: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/psychology/documents/pdf/course-outline.pdf Further details: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/psychology/documents/pdf/further-details.pdf Course dates: 9.30am 25 April - 5.30pm 26 April 2016 Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom Prices: Industry £800, HEI staff £400, Postgraduate students £80 (note for a postgrad place, email contact below to be placed on waiting list) (participants can be based in any country) Deadline for registration: 1 Feb 2016 Link for registration: http://onlinestore.rhul.ac.uk/browse/category.asp?compid=1&modid=1&catid=643 Contact: sales(a)acuity-intelligence.com<mailto:sales@acuity-intelligence..com>

Jan. 25, 2016

Announcing: Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity summer course, July 2016

by U.S.Bhalla

CAMP@Bangalore 2016 will run from 1 July to 16 July 2016. Please see the course website at http://camp.ncbs.res.in/ CAMP @ Bangalore (Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity at NCBS, Bangalore) is a 16-day summer school on the theory and simulation of learning, memory and plasticity in the brain. There is a special emphasis on multiscale phenomena in learning and memory: How do molecular, electrical, and network levels of computation come together to give memory? The course will start with remedial tutorials on neuroscience / math / programming and then work upwards from sub-cellular electrical and chemical signaling in neurons, and onward to micro-circuits and networks. Students worldwide are encouraged to apply. Accommodation and food will be free for the selected students. There is no registration fee. Students are advised to obtain independent travel grants. Last date for applications: 21 February 2016. Instructors include: Tomoki Fukai, (RIKEN BRAIN SCIENCE INSTITUTE, Japan) Alain Destexhe (CNRS, France) Misha Tsodyks (Weizmann Institute, Israel) Upinder Bhalla (NCBS, Bangalore) Rishikesh Narayanan (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) Arvind Kumar (KTH, Stockholm) Sumantra Chattarji (NCBS, Bangalore) Suhita Nadkarni (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune) Raghav Rajan (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune) Course Organizers: Upinder Bhalla (NCBS, Bangalore) Arvind Kumar (KTH Stockholm) Rishikesh Narayanan (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)

Jan. 25, 2016

Postdoctoral position in computational neuroscience at Harvard

by Jan Drugowitsch

*Postdoctoral position in the Drugowitsch Lab in computational neuroscience* *Location*: Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA *Start*: May 2016 or after We are looking for a highly creative and motivated postdoctoral fellow to work in the field of computational and systems neuroscience in the group of Jan Drugowitsch - Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School ( http://neuro.hms.harvard.edu/people/faculty/jan-drugowitsch) The group works on questions of decision-making and navigation under uncertainty, ranging from the level of neural populations to that of behavior. The candidate is expected to perform research related to these topics. Close interaction and collaboration with other members of the department is anticipated. Candidates should have a strong analytical background (e.g., computational neuroscience, physics, mathematics, engineering, etc.) and feature an interest in the role of computation in neural populations and in theoretical neuroscience in general. Experience or familiarity with related machine-learning fields is also desirable. Previous experience should include sufficient programming skills to run numerical simulations, Bayesian methods, and expertise in the analysis of dynamical systems. The position starts in or after May 2016, and is funded for several years, with an initial one-year appointment and expectation of extension given satisfactory performance. Salary depends on experience and is at levels above the NIH scale. Candidates should send a single pdf file, consisting of a 1-page motivation letter, CV, and publication list to jan_drugowitsch(a)hms.harvard.edu. Furthermore, candidates should organize two letters of reference, to be sent to the same e-mail address. The position is open until filled. Jan Drugowitsch will be available at the Cosyne conference and workshops for question about the position.

Jan. 25, 2016

Fellowships for Image Based Modeling Summer Course in Park City, Utah

by Rob MacLeod

Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to inform you that the fellowship application and registration are now open for the Image Based Biomedical Modeling (IBBM) Summer Course in July, 2016. We encourage you to forward this email to your group and your community. If you have any question please let me know. Fellowship Application Deadline : March 15, 2016 Early Bird Registration Deadline: May 15, 2016 Registration Deadline: June 10, 2016 We look forward to welcoming you to Utah this summer. Best, The IBBM Team Park City Summer Course in Image Based Biomedical Modeling July 11-21, 2016 Newpark Resort in Park City, Utah ibbm.sci.utah.edu <http://ibbm.sci.utah.edu/> Contact: ibbm(a)sci.utah.edu <mailto:ibbm@sci.utah.edu> For Graduate Students, Postdocs, Faculty, and Industry. We invite students underrepresented in health-related sciences to apply. This course creates field-specific expertise and hands-on experience in bioelectric or biomechanical problems that arise in current biomedical research and clinical practice. It provides training in numerical methods, image analysis, and computational tools necessary to carry out end-to-end, image-based, subject-specific simulations in bioelectricity or biomechanics, using freely available software. Organizers: Rob Macleod, Jeff Weiss, and Ross Whitaker Supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

Jan. 25, 2016

MSc program in Neural Systems and Computation - University of Zurich and ETH Zurich

by Michael Pfeiffer

We are inviting applications for the MSc program in Neural Systems and Computation, an interdisciplinary program offered as a Joint Master Program by the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The program offers a theoretical and laboratory training in neural computation and systems neuroscience. It offers hands-on knowledge of data gathering, analysis and scientific presentation. Students join an international and interdisciplinary research community with expertise in neuroinformatics, advanced experimental techniques and neuromorphic engineering. Further information can be found on our homepage http://www.nsc.uzh.ch. We offer a specialized full-time Masters program open to students with a Bachelor’s degree in the following disciplines: neurosciences, information technology, electrical engineering, biology, physics, computer sciences, chemistry, mathematics, and mechanical/chemical/control engineering. The core courses (all offered in English) provide a common foundation for students with different educational backgrounds, and cover the following: 1. Systems Neurosciences 2. Neural Computation and Theoretical Neuroscience 3. Neurotechnologies and Neuromorphic Engineering The application deadline for students starting in Fall Semester 2016 is *February 15th 2016*. Details about the application process and required documents can be found here: http://www.nsc.uzh.ch/?page_id=10 Mentors of the program are Richard Hahnloser, Kevan Martin, Klaas Enno Stephan, Giacomo Indiveri, Jean-Pascal Pfister, Mehmet Fatih Yanik, Bruno Weber, Fritjof Helmchen, Valerio Mante, Ruedi Stoop, Tobi Delbruck, Daniel Kiper, Shih-Chii Liu, Michael Pfeiffer, Matthew Cook, Arko Ghosh, and Wolfger von der Behrens. The program is affiliated with the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Faculty (MNF) at the University of Zurich (UZH) and the Information Technology and Electrical Engineering Department (D-ITET) of the ETH Zurich. All applications are handled by the University of Zurich. Application documents should be sent by email to nsc(a)ini.uzh.ch. Best regards, Michael Pfeiffer -- ========================================= Dr. Michael Pfeiffer Postdoc, Program coordinator NSC Institute of Neuroinformatics University of Zurich and ETH Zurich Winterthurerstrasse 190 CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland Tel. +41 44 635 30 45 Fax +41 44 635 30 53 pfeiffer (at) ini.phys.ethz.ch http://www.ini.uzh.ch/~pfeiffer/ =========================================

Jan. 25, 2016

SSNR2016: Second Announcement

by Jaime Ibánez Pereda

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this announcement ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *This year the Summer School of Neurorehabilitation and the Demove symposium come together !!!* *2016 School and Symposium in Advanced Neurorehabilitation (SSNR2016)* Baiona, Spain June 6-10 http://www.ssnr2016.org info(a)ssnr2016.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear colleagues, On behalf of all the organizers it is our pleasure to invite you to the *2016 School and Symposium in Advanced Neurorehabilitation (SSNR2016)* that will take place in Baiona (Spain) from June 6-10, 2016. SSNR2016 will provide in depth education on advanced procedures for neurorehabilitation of motor dysfunction, covering -at the basic and advanced levels- practical applications based on innovative neuroprosthetic systems, robotic interfaces and other combinational approaches. This year the Summer School of Neurorehabilitation and the Demove Symposium meet in an intense week to offer you exceptional opportunities to increase your skills and knowledge in the astonishing field of Neural Engineering and Rehabilitation. We are looking forward to welcoming you in Baiona (Spain) on June 2016! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *- Registration -* *Prospective applicants to the School* must fill in the Application Form by March 15, 2016. The admission to the School will be decided upon a selection made by the Steering Committee and until the maximum number of registrations is reached. Earlier registrations will be given priority. Notification of the acceptance will be made by April 1, 2016. The School will begin with a welcome cocktail in the evening of the 5th of June (2016) and it will end on Friday, 10th June 2016. *Participants to the Symposium* can send their contributions by March 15, 2016. After a selection process, accepted articles will be announced to authors by April 1, 2016. The Symposium will take place on the 9th and 10th of June (2016). This Symposium is an integral part of the School, thus School applicants are encouraged to submit their contributions. *- Important Deadlines and Registration Fees-* *School deadlines:* Application: 15/3/2016 Notification: 1/4/2016 Payment: 1/5/2016 Fee (School + Symposium + Half-board accommodation + Welcome Reception + Gala dinner + Social program): 1090 € *Symposium deadlines:* Submission: 15/3/2016 Notification: 1/4/2016 Final submission & payment: 1/5/2016 General fee (Symposium + Lunch + Gala dinner + Social program): 450 € Students fee (Symposium + Lunch + Gala dinner + Social program): 300 € *- Confirmed Plenary speakers-* Prof. Thomas Sinkjaer, Aalborg University (Symposium Keynote Speaker) Prof. John Rothwell, University College London (Symposium Keynote Speaker) Prof. José Principe. University of Florida, USA (School Plenary Speaker) Prof. Zev Rymer. Northwestern University, USA(School Plenary Speaker) Prof. Walter Paulus, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany (School Plenary Speaker) Dr. Francesco Lacquaniti, Fondazione Santa Lucia – Rome, Italy (School Plenary Speaker) Prof. David Lloyd, Griffith University – Brisbane, Australia (School Plenary Speaker) Prof. Herman van der Kooij, University of Twente, The Netherlands (School Plenary Speaker) Prof. Eric Perreault, Northwestern University, USA (School Plenary Speaker) Prof. Etienne Burdet, Imperial College, UK (School Plenary Speaker) Prof. Dominique Durand, Case Western University, USA (School Plenary Speaker) *-Confirmed Workshops-* WS1 - Neural interfaces and Wearable robotics in rehabilitation: a clinical perspective Organizer: Jose L. Pons, CSIC. WS2 - Muscle synergies: Looking into the CNS Organizer: Diego Torricelli, CSIC WS3 - Human neuromusculoskeletal modeling Organizers: Massimo Sartori, University Medical Center Goettingen, and Monica Reggiani, University of Padova WS4 - Brain Computer Interfaces: principles and applications in neurorehabilitation Organizer: Arnau Espinosa, Guger Technologies OG WS5 - Virtual Reality and Gaming in Rehabilitation Organizer: A. Gil-Agudo (Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos de Toledo) & Iris Dimbwadyo (La Salle University, Madrid) WS6 – DEMOVE Workshop on ‘Advanced EMG Processing for Man-Machine Interfacing in Neurorehabilitation’ Organizer: Silvia Muceli, Francesco Negro and Utku S. Yavuz. University Medical Center Goettingen, Germany For further and up-to-date information, please visit the conference website: http://www.ssnr2016.org Prof. D. Farina & Prof. José L. Pons Co-Chairs SSNR2016 http://www.ssnr2016.org

Jan. 25, 2016

Postdoctoral Research Associate Position in Infant Brain Mapping at UNC-Chapel Hill

by gangli

A postdoctoral research associate position is available at the Infant Brain Mapping Lab of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill). Our current focuses are to better understand the dynamic and critical early brain development in both health and disease, via multimodal neuroimaging analysis. The successful candidate will support our efforts either in advancing neuroimaging analysis technologies or in neuroscience applications. We are seeking highly motivated individuals who have extensive research experience in neuroimaging analysis (e.g., structural, diffusion or functional MRI) and demonstrated academic excellence, including publications in first-class journals and conferences. The candidate should have a Ph.D. (or equivalent) in Neuroscience, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics/Statistics, Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or related fields. Good command of programming tools including Matlab, C++, Linux, and scripting are necessary to carry out the research work in this group. The successful candidate will be part of a diverse group including neuroscientists, radiologists, psychologists, physicists, biostatistician, and computer scientists, and will build upon the group's extensive foundation on neuroimaging analysis. If interested, please email resume to Dr. Gang Li (gang_li(a)med.unc.edu <https://outlook.unc.edu/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=r-ilRGXKGkv6jOyzGz3FjAPbDG9VNfM…> ). For more information, please visit: http://www.unc.edu/~gangl/contact.html <https://outlook.unc.edu/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=HcVZFV_dUot9RdWseT8XGNDO-UYKJHN…> .

Jan. 24, 2016

ANNPR 2016: Call for Papers

by Dr. Schwenker

**** Please apologize cross-postings. Call for Papers IAPR TC3 International Workshop on Artificial Neural Networks in Pattern Recognition (ANNPR 2016) September 28-30, 2016 Ulm University, Ulm, Germany ANNPR 2016 invites papers that present original work in areas of neural networks, machine learning and pattern recognition, focusing on both theoretical and applied aspects. Topics of interest include, but not limited to: Methodological Issues - Supervised learning - Unsupervised learning - Combination of supervised and unsupervised learning - Feed-forward, recurrent, and competitive neural nets - Kernel machines - Hierarchical modular architectures and hybrid systems - Combination of neural networks and Hidden Markov models - Multiple classifier systems and ensemble methods - Probabilistic graphical models - Kernel methods - Deep architectures Applications in Pattern Recognition - Image processing and segmentation - Handwritten recognition and Document analysis - Sensor-fusion and multi-modal processing - Feature extraction, dimension reduction - Clustering and vector quantization - Speech and speaker recognition - Data, text, and web mining - Bioinformatics/Cheminformatics Important Dates Paper submission: May 4, 2016 Notification of acceptance: June 22, 2016 Camera ready due: July 6, 2016 Workshop: September 28-30, 2016 General Chairs Friedhelm Schwenker, Ulm University, Germany Hazem Abbas, German University of Cairo, Egypt Neamat El Gayar, Cairo University, Egypt Edmondo Trentin, University of Siena, Italy For more information, please visit us: http://neuro.informatik.uni-ulm.de/ANNPR2016/ -- Dr. Friedhelm Schwenker University of Ulm Institute of Neural Information Processing D-89069 Ulm, Germany phone: +49-731-50-24159 fax: +49-731-50-24156 email: friedhelm.schwenker(a)uni-ulm.de www: http://www.uni-ulm.de/in/neuroinformatik/mitarbeiter/f-schwenker.html

Jan. 24, 2016

Postdocs integrated into the Human brain Project – specifically data-driven modeling at the subcellular or network levels, or tool development/support

by Jeanette Hällgren Kotaleski

Dear Colleagues, dear all, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, is currently recruiting postdocs to be working within the Human Brain Project. 1) Postdoc/application expert – specifically development of brain modeling tools: Specifically for the current position software applications providing user-friendly interface to cellular-level modelling tools will be developed, supported and used. These will include an optimization framework (for fitting electrical models of neurons to their observed electrical behaviour) and also a morphology pipeline (the tool used to analyse and validate neuron morphologies). More info and how to apply at: https://intra.kth.se/en/anstallning/karriar/karriar-och-kompetensutveckling… 2) Postdoc in computational systems (neuro)biology – specifically synaptic plasticity and neuromodulation: Specifically for the above position data-driven modeling of receptor induced cascades such as GPCR dependent cascades involved in neuromodulation and synaptic signaling will be done. More info and how to apply at: https://intra.kth.se/en/anstallning/karriar/karriar-och-kompetensutveckling… 3) Postdoc in brain simulations - specifically motor control and selection of behaviour: Specifically for the position, modeling of motor control and learning with basal ganglia as important components will be done. The modeling tools are mainly Nest and Neuron. More info and how to apply at: https://intra.kth.se/en/anstallning/karriar/karriar-och-kompetensutveckling… All the best, Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski Prof, School of Computer Science and Communication, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

Jan. 23, 2016

Intensive summer course at Princeton

by Carlos Brody

Announcing a 4-week Intensive Summer Course at Princeton Neurotechnologies for Analysis of Neural Dynamics Directors: David W. Tank and Michael Berry, Princeton University, Dates: June 12 – July 9, 2016. Application Form and Course Schedule: NAND.princeton.edu <http://nand.princeton.edu/> Application Deadline: Rolling admissions starting February 1, 2016. This course is designed to emphasize the major ways that scientists trained in the physical and information sciences contribute to the advance of neuroscience. It will introduce students with quantitative training in the physical sciences, mathematics or engineering to the concepts and research methodologies of modern neuroscience. Topics covered will range from cellular biophysics to systems neuroscience, including particularly imaging methods for the study of single neurons, networks of neurons and human brain dynamics during execution of behavioral computations. The course will be unique in its focus on neural dynamics at several scales of complexity – cells, circuits, intact brains – and the combination of didactic lectures and laboratory exercises, including cellular biophysics, synaptic interactions and plasticity in neuronal networks, and fMRI imaging of targeted brain regions in human subjects. The course includes substantive instruction in neurotechnologies, ranging from large-scale multi- electrode and optical recording, optogenetic stimulation and mathematical analysis of neural dynamics within the datasets produced by these methods. The capstone of this course will be one-week student-designed research projects integrating concepts and methodologies encountered during the initial formal lectures and laboratory exercises. Women and under-represented minorities are encouraged to apply.

Jan. 22, 2016

CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS: VECPAR 2016 - High Performance Computing for Computational Science

by Carlos Ferreira

As part of the 12th VECPAR International Meeting on High Performance Computing for Computational Science, we are seeking proposals for affiliated workshops. The workshops should be focused in fresh topics related to parallel and distributed computational science, from theory to practice, where new ideas, subjects, open problems and works on progress can be discussed and explored. The accepted workshops will be held on 1st of July 2016 and may be organized as half- or full-day. IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for workshop proposals: February 15th, 2016 Notification of acceptance: February 19th, 2016 Deadline for paper submission: To be defined by the chairs Author notification: To be defined by the chairs Camera-ready version of papers: May 15th, 2016 PROPOSALS GUIDELINES Workshop title and acronym; Workshop description (150-200 words) to be included in the VECPAR website; Name and short bio of the workshop proponents; A list of the tentative program committee. Responsibilities of the Workshop Chairs: Prepare a dedicated call for papers; Maintain the workshop website; Define the workshop program committee; Select the papers by a peer review process. PROCEEDINGS The papers of the workshops will be published under the Springer LNCS series. The authors may be asked to revise the paper after the conference in order to meet the series requirements. BUDGET VECPAR 2016 will not pay for travel or other arrangements for workshop organizers or any of their invited guests. HOW TO SUBMIT The workshop proposals should be sent by email to the Workshops Chair: João Manuel R. S. Tavares Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal tavares(a)fe.up.pt Carlos Ferreira [http://www2.isep.ipp.pt/assinatura_email/EMAIL_ISEP.png] ISEP | Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431 4249-015 Porto - PORTUGAL tel. +351 228 340 500 | fax +351 228 321 159 mail(a)isep.ipp.pt | www.isep.ipp.pt<http://www.isep.ipp.pt>

Jan. 22, 2016

2 comp neuro PhD studentships in the Clopath lab

by Claudia Clopath

We are pleased to advertise 2 PhD studentships at Imperial College London. They are both collaborative and consist of a main computational part and a small experimental part. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/neurotechnology/cdt/projects/computation_for_moto… http://www.imperial.ac.uk/neurotechnology/cdt/projects/hear_with_plasticity/ Application deadline: 29th of January Best, Claudia Clopath http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/c.clopath/ ****** Biologically inspired computation for real-time motor learning Supervisors: Paul Chadderton Claudia Clopath An important area of robotics research is focused on developing machines that can learn and adapt to changing environments as efficiently as animals. Biological principles underlying the acquisition of motor skills are likely to inspire these new technologies. The aim of our project is to characterise computational principles of motor learning in real time using novel neurophysiological data from a uniquely tractable and well-controlled system, the whisker circuitry of the cerebellar cortex. Neural recordings will reveal how the brain adapts during learning, and will then be used to develop and apply a biologically constrained computational model in an actively sensing robot. ****** Learning to hear with plasticity across multiple timescales Supervisors: Dan Goodman Claudia Clopath Paul Chadderton Humans have a remarkable ability to understand speech in noisy environments such as a crowded pub. Despite advances in speech recognition, the question of how we do this remains largely unsolved. This project aims at understanding how the brain adapts and learns to cope with these difficult listening situations, with the goal of developing better technology for speech processing. It will involve (1) developing mathematical and computational models of hearing and neural adaptation and plasticity, (2) experimental testing (including training in animal electrophysiology and human psychoacoustics), and (3) technology development for speech recognition, hearing aids and cochlear implants. The candidate should be willing to learn experimental techniques (animal electrophysiology and/or human psychophysics), but is not required to have any previous experience.

Jan. 21, 2016

PhD positions at NJIT (Fall 2016)

by Victor Matveev

Dear colleagues, The Department of Mathematical Sciences at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is inviting strong candidates to apply to one of our graduate Ph.D. program tracks: (1) Applied Mathematics, or (2) Applied Probability & Statistics. The Department's research areas span Mathematical Biology & Computational Neuroscience, Fluid Dynamics & Materials Science, Wave Propagation, Scientific Computing, and Applied Probability and Statistics, including Biostatistics. Teaching and research assistantships are available, and include a tuition waiver and a competitive stipend. For more information, please email us (math(a)njit.edu, CC to: matveev(a)njit.edu, kondic(a)njit.edu) and visit the following pages: http://catalog.njit.edu/graduate/science-liberal-arts/mathematical-sciences… http://catalog.njit.edu/graduate/admissions-financial-support/admissions/ http://math.njit.edu https://web.njit.edu/~matveev/NJIT_DMS_PhD_flyer.pdf Although the NJIT Admissions site lists December 15 2015 as the deadline, applications for Fall 2016 are still considered; we recommend submitting all application materials by February 8, 2016. Sincerely -- Victor Matveev -- _________________________________________________ Victor Matveev, Associate Professor Applied Math, Biophysics & Computational Neuroscience Department of Mathematical Sciences New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ 07102-1982 Office: Cullimore Hall 616 E-mail:matveev@njit.edu http://web.njit.edu/~matveev/

Jan. 21, 2016

NEURAL COMPUTATION - February 1, 2016

by Terry Sejnowski

Neural Computation - Volume 28, Number 2 - February 1, 2016 Available online for download now: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/neco/28/2 ----- Article Correlational Neural Networks Sarath Chandar, Mitesh M Khapra, Hugo Larochelle, and Balaraman Ravindran Letters Timing of Cortical Events Preceding Voluntary Movement Victor L. Vvedensky, Andrey O. Prokofyev Mutual Information, Fisher Information, and Efficient Coding Xue-Xin Wei, Alan A Stocker Memory Stacking in Hierarchical Networks Johan Westok, Patrick J. C. May, and Hannu Tiitinen Infinite Continuous Feature Model for Psychiatric Comorbidity Analysis Isabel Valera, Francisco J. R. Ruiz, Pablo M. Olmos, Carlos Blanco, and Fernando Perez-Cruz Filtering With State-Observation Examples via Kernel Monte Carlo Filter Motonobu Kanagawa, Yu Nishiyama, Arthur Gretton, and Kenji Fukumizu ------------ ON-LINE -- http://www.mitpressjournals.org/neuralcomp SUBSCRIPTIONS - 2016 - VOLUME 28 - 12 ISSUES Student/Retired $78 Individual $138 Institution $1,108 MIT Press Journals, One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209 Tel: (617) 253-2889 FAX: (617) 577-1545 journals-cs(a)mit.edu ------------

Jan. 21, 2016

ICLR 2016 Workshop Track - Call for Extended Abstracts

by Hugo Larochelle

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4th International Conference on Learning Representations - Workshop Track (ICLR 2016) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Website: http://www.iclr.cc/ Workshop Track - Extended abstract deadline: February 18th, 2016 Location: Caribe Hilton, San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 2-4, 2016 Overview -------- It is well understood that the performance of machine learning methods is heavily dependent on the choice of data representation (or features) on which they are applied. Despite the importance of representation learning to machine learning and to application areas such as vision, speech, audio and NLP, there was no venue for researchers who share a common interest in this topic. The goal of ICLR has been to help fill this void. A non-exhaustive list of relevant topics: - unsupervised, semi-supervised, and supervised representation learning - metric learning and kernel learning - dimensionality expansion - sparse modeling - hierarchical models - optimization for representation learning - learning representations of outputs or states - implementation issues, parallelization, software platforms, hardware - applications in vision, audio, speech, natural language processing, robotics, neuroscience, or any other field ICLR features two tracks: a Conference Track and a Workshop Track. However, this year, conference and workshop submissions are reviewed separately, in two different periods. With the Conference Track already under way, this call for extended abstract is in relation to the Workshop Track. Extended abstracts submitted to the Workshop Track should be 2-3 pages long (excluding references) and describe late-breaking developments. This track is meant to carry on the tradition of the former Snowbird Learning Workshop. These contributions are considered as workshop papers (and can be published elsewhere). They will be lightly reviewed by ICLR reviewers. Note that some of the conference submissions that are not accepted to the Conference Track will also be invited to be presented under the Workshop Track. ICLR Submission Instructions - Workshop Track --------------------------------------------- By February 18th, 2016, 2:00 PM Pacific Standard time, authors must submit the PDF of their extended abstract to openreview. For more information on preparing your extended abstract, including style files and the URL for the openreview ICLR 2016 Workshop Track website, please see http://www.iclr.cc/doku.php?id=iclr2016:main Acceptance decisions of extended abstract will be sent by March 28th. At least one author of each accepted extended abstract will be required to register to the ICLR event and present their work in poster format. Organizers ---------- Yoshua Bengio, Université de Montreal, General Chair Yann LeCun, New York University and Facebook, General Chair Hugo Larochelle, Twitter and Université de Sherbrooke, Senior Program Chair Brian Kingsbury, IBM Watson Group, Program Chair Samy Bengio, Google, Program Chair Contact ------- The organizers can be contacted at iclr2016.programchairs(a)gmail.com

Jan. 21, 2016

Senior software developer position available at the SimLab Neuroscience, Juelich Research Centre

by Abigail Morrison

Dear colleagues, we are looking to recruit a senior scientific software developer at the Simulation Lab Neuroscience at the Juelich Research Centre, Germany. Our focus is on exploiting high performance computing to solve fundamental problems in neuroscience. If you have an interest in leading and participating in projects to develop innovative neuroinformatics applications on Europe's finest supercomputers, we would like to hear from you. For a full description and details of how to apply, please see the announcement on our website: http://www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Stellenangebote/_common/dna/2016-001-EN… All the best, Abigail Morrison -- Prof. Dr. Abigail Morrison IAS-6 / INM-6 / SimLab Neuroscience Jülich Research Center & Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Ruhr-University Bochum http://www.fz-juelich.de/inm/inm-6 http://www.fz-juelich.de/ias/jsc/slns http://www.ikn.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de Office: +49 2461 61-9805 Fax # : +49 2461 61-9460 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDir Dr. Karl Eugen Huthmacher Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Prof. Dr. Sebastian M. Schmidt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jan. 20, 2016

4 Year Lecturer Position at QUT Across Robotics, Neuroscience and Computer Vision - final call for applications

by Michael Milford

We have a 4 year Lecturer Position available at QUT to work closely with my research group at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience and computer vision, developing Frankenstein models of visual and spatial intelligence that combine the best performing and best understood parts of human, animal and insect brains. Here's the ad: http://tinyurl.com/nzdujv3 Some of the highlights: * You'll get to push the boundaries of our understanding of the brain and how we can model it to create new technologies and capabilities for robotics and AI * Minimize that start-up lag: you'll land in the middle of a large research group and have the opportunity to immediately get involved in the supervision of several PhD students working in the area - in fact, your ability to effectively lead and supervise PhD students is critical to this role * Tap into collaborations with some of the world's top roboticists, neuroscientists and computer vision researchers at leading international institutions including David Cox at Harvard University, Michael Hasselmo at Boston University, Andrew Davison at Imperial College London, Barbara Webb at Edinburgh University and many more. * Get access to top local researchers and major projects including the $19,000,000 Australian Centre for Robotic Vision, the $676,000 project this position is associated with, as well as multiple other projects including a $3,000,000 Strategic Investment in Farm Robotics. * You'll have the opportunity to teach into some of the most fun, engaging and fulfilling robotics-related units at our university. Videos of some of the units we teach can be found at https://youtu.be/FBEINbpovBE and https://youtu.be/_2mp98Sk6fQ. * Work in the heart of Brisbane, a modern bustling city of 2 million people, located near to amazing beaches and vast swathes of untouched wilderness. If you love hiking / running / cycling / swimming / surfing / parasailing, you can find it here. Catch a short flight and you're on the Great Barrier Reef or in the Barossa Valley. * Be immersed in a large, very successful and sociable robotics group of more than a hundred academics, postdocs and students, in a brand new building space. Here's the ad again: http://tinyurl.com/nzdujv3 Best regards, Michael Michael Milford Associate Professor | ARC Future Fellow | Microsoft Faculty Fellow | Chief Investigator, Australian Centre for Robotic Vision Australian Centre for Robotic Vision | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science School Science and Engineering Faculty | Queensland University of Technology

Jan. 20, 2016

PhD position at University of Birmingham, UK

by Joseph Galea (School of Psychology)

My name Is Joe Galea and I am a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Birmingham, UK. As part of an ERC starting grant I am looking for a PhD student for Sept/Oct 2016. Details can be found here: http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=46778&LID=148 I am really looking for someone with programming experience (computational modelling and/or programming robotics) who may want to apply this knowledge to the human/motor control domain. Anyone interested can email me: j.galea(a)bham.ac.uk<mailto:j.galea@bham.ac.uk> Many thanks, Joseph Galea School of Psychology University of Birmingham, UK.

Jan. 18, 2016

The International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation (ICNR2016)

by Jaime Ibánez Pereda

------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------- We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this announcement ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------- The International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation (ICNR2016) Segovia, Spain October 18-21 http://www.icnr2016.org info(a)icnr2016.org ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------- Dear colleagues, On behalf of all the organizers, it is our pleasure to invite you to the 3rd International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation (ICNR2016) that will take place in 'La Granja de San Ildefonso', Segovia (Spain) from October 18-21, 2016. Restoring human motor and cognitive function has been a fascinating research area during the last century. Interfacing the human nervous system with mechatronic systems to restore neuromotor abilities is facing its crucial passage between research and actual clinical reality, enhancing the potentialities of therapists, clinicians, and researchers to rehabilitate, diagnose and generate knowledge. The 2016 International Conference on Neurorehabilitation will bring together researchers and students from the fields of Clinical Rehabilitation, Applied Neurophysiology, and Biomedical Engineering to promote, feed and encourage this therapeutic global shift. We are looking forward to welcoming you in Segovia on October 2016! ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------- *- Registration -* Prospective authors will submit extended abstract contributions (2 pages). All contributions will be peer-reviewed. Accepted contributions will appear in the Conference Proceedings, which will be published as a book by Springer. Also, the authors of the best papers of ICNR2016 will be invited to submit a substantially extended version of their papers for their publication in a special issue of the International Journal of Neural Systems (Impact Factor: 6.507). Participants can send their contributions by April 1, 2016, through the following Easychair link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icnr2016 After a selection process, accepted articles will be announced to authors on May 15, 2016. *- Important Deadlines and Registration Fees -* Conference Registration deadlines and fees (including welcome reception and gala dinner): Early student (until August 1): 300€ Early regular (until August 1): 550€ Student (after August 1): 450€ Regular (after August 1): 750€ Regular single day attendance: 300€ Preconference Workshop deadlines and fees: Early Workshop students (until August 1): 100€ Early Workshop regular (until August 1): 150€ Workshop students (after August 1): 150€ Workshop regular (after August 1): 250€ * If you also participate in the Conference, you will receive a 75€ discount in the Conf. Registration Fee. *- Confirmed Plenary speakers -* Prof. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, M.D., Ph.D., Harvard (USA) Marco Molinari, M.D., Ph.D., IRCCS Fondazione S. Lucia (Italy) Dario Farina, Ph.D., University Medical Center Göttingen, Georg-August University (Germany) John B. Troy, Ph.D., Northwestern University, (USA) Hitoshi Hirata, M.D., Nagoya Universtiy, (Japan) Jonathan Wolpaw, M.D., Ph.D., Wadsworth Center (USA) ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------- For further and up-to-date information, please visit the conference website: http://www.icnr2016.org Prof. José L. Pons & Prof. Jose M. Azorín Co-Chairs ICNR2016 http://www.ICNR2016.org <http://www.icnr2016.org/>

Jan. 18, 2016

Interdisciplinary post-doctoral position in cognitive neuroscience

by Schurger Lab

Brain-behavior forecasting: Neural antecedents of spontaneous self-initiated movement and the forecasting of behavior from brain activity Interdisciplinary post-doctoral position in cognitive neuroscience Starting date: Fall 2016 Duration: 2 years (renewable for one additional year) The French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) invites applications for a post-doctoral position in the Cognitive Neuroimaging Group, at the NeuroSpin Research Center near Paris, France, as part of the research team of Dr. Aaron Schurger. The Schurger lab focuses on understanding how decisions are made and actions initiated spontaneously, without an external sensory cue, and how time series of neural activity (now) can be used to forecast behavior (seconds or minutes from now). We pursue this research using a combination of behavioral experiments, neuroimaging, computational modeling, time-series analyses, and machine learning techniques. We are particularly interested in attracting applicants from meteorology, macroeconomics, machine learning, statistics and other disciplines that involve a mastery of time series analysis, statistical learning, forecasting, and/or forecast verification. Applicants should have a obtained a PhD in a relevant discipline prior to the starting date, and should have strong skills in at least some of the following areas: computer programming (MatLab, Python, C, C++), statistics, signal processing, computational, mathematical, and/or neural network modeling, statistical learning / machine learning / mutivariate pattern classification, time series analysis, forecasting. Resources available at NeuroSpin include Siemens 3T and 7T MRI scanners; high-density EEG (EGI Inc.); Elekta NeuroMag 306-channel MEG (allowing for the simultaneous recording of EEG); eye tracking (available for MRI, MEG, and behavioral experiments); an in-house team of experts in signal processing and statistical learning; a dedicated staff handling subject recruitment, scheduling, and payment; various Nespresso devices; and proximity to Paris. Applicants should send a CV, letter of motivation (max 2 pages), and a list of three references via e-mail to aaron.schurger(a)gmail.com. Review of applicants will begin immediately, and will continue until the positions are filled. The NeuroSpin Research Center is located on the campus of the CEA-Saclay, near Orsay, about 18 km southwest of Paris. For more information on the NeuroSpin Research Center and the Cognitive Neuroimaging Group: http://www-centre-saclay.cea.fr/fr/Visite-guidee-de-NeuroSpin http://meg-france.in2p3.fr/_lesCentres/Neurospin_en.php http://www-dsv.cea.fr/en/institutes/institute-of-biomedical-imaging-i2bm/de… http://www.unicog.org/pm/pmwiki.php -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jan. 18, 2016

DENDRITES 2016, June 18-21, Crete: CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

by Yiota Poirazi

Dear Colleagues, You are kindly invited to attend the EMBO Workshop on Dendritic Anatomy, Molecules and Function (DENDRITES 2016) in Crete. Dendrites provide the substrate for inter-neuronal communication, and their nonlinear properties play a key role in information processing. Following a very successful meeting in 2014, Dendrites 2016 aims to bring together scientists from around the world to present their research on dendrites, ranging from the molecular to the anatomical and biophysical levels. With the backdrop of an informal yet spectacular setting on Crete, the meeting has been carefully planned not only to satisfy our scientific curiosity but also to foster discussion and encourage interaction between attendees well beyond traditional presentations. In this spirit, the workshop will also provide a soft skills day for the training of young researchers in subjects such as scientific writing/publication issues, fundraising and gender balance. Abstract submission for poster and oral presentation is open until *February 15, 2016*** On behalf of the organizing committee, Yiota Poirazi ------------------------------------------------------- EMBO Workshop on Dendritic Anatomy, Molecules and Function (DENDRITES 2016) Heraklion, Crete, Greece June 18-21, 2016 http://dendrites2016.gr/ <http://www.dendrites2016.gr/> _Invited speakers (scientific talks): _ Claudia Clopath Daniel Dombeck Casper Hoogenraad Arthur Konnerth Attila Losonczy Judit Makara Rishikesh Narayanan Elly Nedivi Jackie Schiller Erin Schuman Idan Segev Nelson Spruston Greg Stuart _Invited speakers (Career Issues in academia):_ Monica Di Luca, FENS President: "Publication issues: right time for a reality check" Camilla Belone, FENS-Kavli Scholar: "Retention of women in high levels of neuroscience - Perspectives" Emre Yaksi, FENS-Kavli Scholar: "Funding opportunities in Neuroscience: how to write a successful grant proposal" Matthew Larkum: "How to write an influential scientific publication" *CALL FOR ABSTRACTS* We are soliciting abstracts for oral and poster presentations. We welcome both experimental and theoretical contributions addressing novel findings, methods or databases related to dendrites that fall into one or more of the following domains: * morphological and functional characterizations, * dendritic integration and compartmentalization, * dendritic channel distribution and their functional implications, * molecular pathways and signaling networks, * RNA trafficking and local protein synthesis, * functional or structural plasticity and homeostasis, * the role of dendrites in complex processes, including learning/memory, neural computations etc. Please note that places are limited and subject to availability. Attendees are highly encouraged to submit abstracts for presentations, since presenters will be given priority for registration. Instructions for on-line submission can be found at http://www.dendrites2016.gr/call-for-papers *Important dates * * Abstract submission opens: December 15th, 2016 * Abstract submission closes: February 15th, 2016 * Notification of abstract acceptance: February 29th, 2016 * Notification of oral/poster presentation: early March 2016 _Organizing committee:_ Yiota Poirazi, IMBB-FORTH Michael Hausser, UCL * * Matthew Larkum, Humboldt University IMPORTANT NOTE: The Workshop takes place on the island of Crete and is followed by the AREADNE 2016 meeting <http://areadne.org/> (June 22-26th, 2016), focusing on Research in Encoding And Decoding of Neural Ensembles, on the neighboring island of Sandorini. DENDRITES 2016 participants are encouraged to consider attending both meetings. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Please see the conference web site http://dendrites2016.gr/ or send an email to info(a)dendrites2016.gr <mailto:info@dendrites.gr> -- Panayiota Poirazi, Ph.D. Director of Research Computational Biology Laboratory Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) Vassilika Vouton, P.O.Box 1385 GR 711 10 Heraklion, Crete, GREECE Tel: +30 2810 391139 <tel:+30%202810%20391139> Fax: +30 2810 391101 <tel:+30%202810%20391101> Εmail: poirazi(a)imbb.forth.gr <mailto:poirazi@imbb.forth.gr> http://www.dendrites.gr Chair http://www.fens.org/Outreach/FENS-Kavli-Network-of-Excellence/

Jan. 18, 2016

[INNS-BigData 2016] Call for Papers

by Teng Teck Hou

[Apologies for cross-postings] ########################################################### CALL FOR PAPERS The 2nd INNS Conference on Big Data 2016 October 23-25, 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece http://conferences.cwa.gr/inns-big-data2016/ ########################################################### Big data is not just about storage of and access to data. Analytics play a big role in making sense of that data and exploiting its value. But learning from big data has become a significant challenge and requires development of new types of algorithms. Most machine learning algorithms can't easily scale up to big data. Plus there are challenges of high-dimensionality, velocity and variety. The neural network field has historically focused on algorithms that learn in an online, incremental mode without requiring in-memory access to huge amounts of data. This type of learning is not only ideal for streaming data (as in the Industrial Internet or the Internet of Things), but could also be used on stored big data. Neural network technologies thus can become significant components of big data analytics platforms and this second edition of INNS Conference on Big Data will continue on this collaborative adventure with big data and other learning technologies. Thus the aim of this conference is to promote new advances and research directions in efficient and innovative algorithmic approaches to analyzing big data (e.g. deep networks, nature-inspired and brain-inspired algorithms), implementations on different computing platforms (e.g. neuromorphic, GPUs, clouds, clusters) and applications of Big Data Analytics to solve real-world problems (e.g. weather prediction, transportation, energy management). #################### Important dates ##################### - Tutorial and workshops proposals: February 15th, 2016 - Notification of tutorial and workshops proposals: February 20th, 2016 - Paper submission: April 30th, 2016 - Notification of paper acceptance: May 30th, 2016 - Camera-ready submission (AISC): June 11th, 2016 - Early registration: June 20th, 2016 Registration deadline: papers without confirmed registration by June 24th 2016 risk their inclusion in the proceedings ########################################################## #################### Invited speakers #################### - Francesco Bonchi, ISI Foundation, Torino, Italy - Stephen Furber, University of Manchester, UK - Rudolf Kruse, OVG University of Magdeburg, Germany - Piotr Mirowski, Google Deep Mind, London, UK ########################################################## #################### Organizing committees ############### General Chairs - Plamen Angelov, Lancaster University, UK - Yannis Manolopoulos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Program Chairs - Lazaros Iliadis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece - Asim Roy, Arizona State University, Tempe USA - Marley Vellasco, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Advisory Board - Nikola Kasabov, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand - Ali Minai, University of Cincinnati, USA - Danil Prokhorov, Toyota Tech Center, Michigan, USA - Theodore Trafalis University of Oklahoma, USA - G. Kumar Venayagamoorthy, Clemson University, USA Tutorials/Workshop Chairs - Apostolos Papadopoulos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece - Bernardete Ribeiro, Portugal Poster Session Chairs - Yi Lu Murphey, University of Michigan-Dearborn, USA Special Sessions Chairs - Irwin King, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China - Luca Oneto, University of Genoa, Italy Panel Chairs - Leonid Perlovsky, Harvard University, Boston, USA Awards Chair - Araceli Sanchis de Miguel, Carlos III University, Spain Competitions Chairs - Adel Alimi, University of Sfax, Tunisia Publication Chairs - Mariette Awad, American University of Beirut, Lebanon - Danilo Mandic, Imperial College, London, UK Publicity Chairs - Jose Antonio Iglesias Martinez, Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain - Simone Scardapane, The Sapienza University of Rome, Italy - Teck Hou Teng, Singapore Management University, Singapore International Liaison Chairs - Petia Georgieva, University of Aveiro, Portugal - De-Shuang Huang, Tongji University, Shanghai, China Local Organizing Committee: - Anastasios Gounaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece WebMaster - Yannis Karydis, Ionian University, Greece ########################################################## ############# Paper Submission and Publication ########### * Original works submitted as a regular paper limited to a maximum of 14 pages in Springer format will be published in the proceedings to be available electronically as a Springer book in ADVANCES IN INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS AND COMPUTING Series, to download for delegates. * It will be peer-reviewed by at least three PC members on the basis of technical quality, relevance, originality, significance and clarity. * At least one author of an accepted submission to the conference should register with a regular fee to present their work at the conference. ########################################################## #################### Awards ############################## * Best papers will be selected and awarded as follows: - Best regular paper - Best student paper * This will be based on a combination of reviewers' comments, presentations and importance and quality judged by a panel. * Best paper awards (500 Euros) are donated by the sponsor Springer Verlag, Germany and will be commemorated by a certificate. ########################################################## ###### Topics and Areas include, but not limited to ###### * Autonomous, online, incremental learning - theory, algorithms and applications in big data * High dimensional data, feature selection, feature transformation - theory, algorithms and applications for big data * Scalable algorithms for big data * Learning algorithms for high-velocity streaming data * Big data streams analytics * Deep neural network learning * Machine vision and big data * Brain-machine interfaces and big data * Cognitive modeling and big data * Embodied robotics and big data * Fuzzy systems and big data * Evolutionary systems and big data * Evolving systems for big data analytics * Neuromorphic hardware for scalable machine learning * Parallel and distributed computing for big data analytics (cloud, map-reduce, etc.) * Big data and collective intelligence/collaborative learning * Big data and hybrid systems * Big data and self-aware systems * Big Data and infrastructure * Big data analytics and healthcare/medical applications * Big data analytics and energy systems/smart grids * Big data analytics and transportation systems * Big data analytics in large sensor networks * Big data and machine learning in computational biology, bioinformatics * Recommendation systems/collaborative filtering for big data * Big data visualization * Online multimedia/ stream/ text analytics * Link and graph mining * Big data and cloud computing, large scale stream processing on the cloud ########################################################## #################### Co-Sponsors ######################### * International Neural Network Society (INNS) * Springer ##########################################################

Jan. 17, 2016

Postdoctoral position in analyzing and modeling dendritic morphology and growth

by Erik De Schutter

Postdoctoral researcher and staff scientist positions are available in the Computational Neuroscience Unit <https://groups.oist.jp/cnu> of Prof. Erik De Schutter at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University <http://www.oist.jp/>, Japan. We are looking for a postdoc with a (computational) neuroscience background to study the morphology and growth of neuronal dendrites in the olivocerebellar system. We investigate this from the perspective of neuron populations and consider the relations between neighboring dendrites explicitly (Context-aware modeling of neuronal morphologies <http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnana.2014.00092/abstract>). Experience required in either (semi-automated) reconstruction of neural structures or in analysis and modeling of neural morphology. Depending on experience and interest the focus of the research can be analysis of in vivo and EM data and/or modeling the growth of forests of dendrites. You will collaborate with scientists at OIST and abroad in addition to the daily interaction with other researchers and students in the lab who are working on cerebellar modeling projects, analyzing cerebellar recordings or developing software. We offer attractive financial and working conditions in an English language graduate university that emphasizes interdisciplinary research, located on the beautiful subtropical island of Okinawa. Send curriculum vitae, a summary of research interests and experience, and the names of three referees to Prof. Erik De Schutter at erik(a)oist.jp <mailto:erik@oist.jp> Prof. Erik De Schutter Computational Neuroscience Unit Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-Son Okinawa 904-0495 JAPAN phone: +81-98-966-8727 fax: +81-98-966-8718 erik(a)oist.jp <mailto:erik@oist.jp> http://groups.oist.jp/cnu <http://groups.oist.jp/cnu>

Jan. 15, 2016

Postdoctoral postion in development of model description languages

by Erik De Schutter

Postdoctoral researcher or staff scientist positions are available in the Computational Neuroscience Unit <https://groups.oist.jp/cnu> of Prof. Erik De Schutter at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University <http://www.oist.jp/>, Japan. We are looking for a postdoc with a computer science or engineering background who is interested in the development of XML-based methods for model description and simulation. You will collaborate with international colleagues on further development of NIneML (http://nineml.net) and deploy it within the research group, possibly also use it for your own network modeling research. Previous experience related to collaborative projects in computational neuroscience or systems biology preferred. You will interact with other researchers and students in the lab who are working on cerebellar modeling projects or analyzing cerebellar recordings. We offer attractive financial and working conditions in an English language graduate university that emphasizes interdisciplinary research, located on the beautiful subtropical island Okinawa. Send curriculum vitae, a summary of research interests and experience, and the names of three referees to Prof. Erik De Schutter at erik(a)oist.jp <mailto:erik@oist.jp> Prof. Erik De Schutter Computational Neuroscience Unit Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-Son Okinawa 904-0495 JAPAN phone: +81-98-966-8727 fax: +81-98-966-8718 erik(a)oist.jp <mailto:erik@oist.jp> http://groups.oist.jp/cnu <http://groups.oist.jp/cnu>

Jan. 15, 2016

Funding for M.Sc and Ph.D Research Visits in Berkeley for Germans - Integrating Deep Learning and Knowledge Representation

by Manfred Eppe

Dear Community, The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) offers the very attractive 'FITweltweit' program to support German Computer Science and Informatics students who want to carry out M.Sc or Ph.D research abroad, for a period of 1 to 6 months. The AI group of the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) at Berkeley is currently investigating the integration of deep neuronal Machine Learning and Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. Towards this, we are looking for motivated and skilled students who plan to write their thesis in this area, and who are interested in collecting experience in the wonderful city of Berkeley, California, near Silicon Valley in the San Francisco bay area. For details about eligibility and the program in general please consider the following DAAD website (note that, unfortunately, only students who are currently involved in the German academic systems can be funded): https://www.daad.de/ausland/studieren/stipendium/de/19047-internationale-fo… The local supervisor at Berkeley is Manfred Eppe, who primarily has a background in AI, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, and Cognitive Robotics. While there are also Machine Learning Experts at ICSI, it would be useful if the interested student had another supervisor with a background in Machine Learning at the home university in Germany, or if the student already had an exceptionally strong record and research experience in Machine Learning. Possible research topics include, but are not limited to: * Symbol Grounding and Conceptualization in Deep Feature Networks * Representation and Exploitation of Relations between Features in Deep Networks * Semantic and Symbolic Visualization of Deep Networks * Supporting Reinforcement Learning with Classical Action Planning or Formal Reasoning * Semantic Classification and Object Recognition * Evolutionary Linguistics and Emergent Semantics with Neuronal Nets Application domains include, but are not limited to: * Robotics * Multi Agent Systems * Planning and Scheduling * Qualitative Spatial and Temporal Reasoning * Computer Vision * AI in Computer Games * Natural Language Understanding The FITweltweit fellowship is offered by the DAAD, and the prospective student is ultimately responsible himself for preparing the DAAD application. We have no influence on the success of an application, but we offer support in preparing the research plan and other paperwork, such as visa-related issues. It has been reported that the acceptance rate for the FITweltweit program is relatively high. According to the details provided on the DAAD website, research visits can last between 1 and 6 months, with financial support of monthly 925 EUR for Master students and 1350 EUR for doctoral students, plus travel allowance for the flight in both cases. We recommend to stay for at least 3 months (better 6). We offer a comfortable infrastructure within an internationally renowned research institute with office space, help to finding housing and accommodation in the bay area, as well as a very friendly and supportive working atmosphere (with free coffee, too!). We ask the interested student to send us a CV and an extended preliminary abstract about the planned research (max. 1 page). The CV should include relevant courses that you have taken at university. In your email, please also indicate the period in which you plan to come. Herein, please allow for a buffer and be conservative with your planning. Consider that it takes around three months for the DAAD to send you a decision about the application, and around 1-2 months to obtain the visa. Please note that the research visit should happen in 2016. Please send your documents by 1st February 2016 to eppe(a)icsi.berkeley.edu, and please get in touch earlier if you have any questions. Best Regards, Manfred Eppe -- - Dr. Manfred Eppe International Computer Science Institute University of California at Berkeley 1947 Center Street, 6th floor Berkeley, CA 94704 California, USA phone (USA): +1 510 646 3318 phone (Germany): +49 176 2153 2311 web: www.manfred.eppe.eu mail: eppe(a)icsi.berkeley.edu skype: manfred.eppe ************************** ****** Sapere Aude! ****** **************************

Jan. 14, 2016

Lectureship in "data science"

by Thomas Nowotny

The School of Engineering and Informatics at the University of Sussex is appointing lecturers in computer science, including one lecturership in ³data science² <http://www.sussex.ac.uk/aboutus/jobs/566>. Even though the advert doesn¹t give it justice, this includes the relevant areas of Computational Neuroscience and the new lecturer would be free to join the Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems (EASy) group (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/easy/) at Sussex. The University of Sussex (http://www.sussex.ac.uk) is located on the South Coast of England in the beautiful sea-side town of Brighton. Interested people working in relevant areas of Computational Neuroscience and Neuroinformatics are strongly encouraged to apply. Feel free to contact me for informal enquiries and please circulate in your professional networks. With kind regards, Thomas Nowotny -- Prof. Thomas Nowotny CCNR, Sussex Neuroscience Phone: +44-1273-678593 Engineering and Informatics Fax: +44-1273-877873 University of Sussex Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QJ http://sussex.ac.uk/informatics/tnowotny

Jan. 14, 2016

SISSA encourages young neuroscientists to consider Trieste

by Alessandro Treves

The International Centre for Theoretical Physics has issued an open call for applications to a tenure track position in Quantitative Life Sciences, which could be filled by a neuroscientist. The Cognitive Neuroscience faculty at SISSA would be delighted to welcome such a colleague to Trieste and to interact in research and training activities, and recommends that potential applicants look at the particularly favorable employment terms offered by ICTP, as a UN body. See the post in Quantitative Life Sciences on http://www.ictp.it/about-ictp/personnel-office/employment.aspx Early deadline February 17! -- 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/

Jan. 14, 2016

Job Posting: Research Engineer/Scientist, Brain-Computer Interface, Machine Learning, Computational Neuroscience

by Behnood Gholami

*AreteX Systems, Inc. – New York, NY* AreteX Systems, a medical technology startup company accelerating the use of information technology in healthcare, has an immediate opening for a Research Engineer/Scientist in its office located in New York City. The position involves developing signal processing algorithms for innovative biomedical technologies involving physiological signals. We are looking for a self-motivated, highly talented individual with an excellent background in signal processing, machine learning, and brain-computer interface. The successful candidate will work closely with a team of physicians, nurses, engineers, and scientists in designing new clinical decision support systems. Candidates with experience in the analysis of experimental data derived from---but not limited to---auditory/visual/cross-sensory psychophysical, EEG, ECG, and galvanic-skin conductance, data would be given a higher priority. *Minimum Requirements:* - MS or PhD in electrical engineering, computer science, biomedical engineering, applied mathematics, or a similar discipline. - Knowledge of advanced concepts in signal processing. - Research experience in biosignal analysis or brain-computer interface applications. - Knowledge of methods, theory, and application of machine learning techniques. - Proficient at writing technical papers/reports/presentations. - Experience with Python. *Preferred Qualifications:* - Prior expertise and exposure using non-invasive human physiological measures such as EEG, ECG, galvanic-skin conductance (electrodermal activity), or other categorically similar methodologies. - Prior experience with mechanical ventilation and fluid management technologies in the intensive care units. - Knowledge of control systems design and dynamical systems modeling. - Prior experience in feature extraction from physiological signals. - Experience working with quantitative methods of neural data analysis. Send your cover letter and CV to info(a)aretexeng.com.

Jan. 14, 2016

postdoc and PhD positions Max Planck Research Group Neural Circuits

by Johannes Seelig

The Max Planck Research Group "Neural Circuits" at the center of advanced european studies and research (caesar) in Bonn, Germany, is looking for postdocs (Reference: Postdoc Neural Circuits 2016) and Ph.D. students (Reference: Ph.D. Neural Circuits 2016). The main focus of Johannes Seelig’s lab is to understand adaptive neural circuits underlying sensorimotor integration and the impact of neuromodulators on these circuits. We apply the latest tools and methods in two photon imaging, optogenetics, and electrophysiology to relate the activity of populations of neurons in behaving animals to computational models of neural circuits. We are looking for candidates with a strong quantitative background in neuroscience, biophysics or related fields (physics, chemistry, engineering, molecular biology). A strong expertise in optical imaging, data analysis, programming, instrumentation, and previous work in a genetic model organism (such as fruit fly or mouse) would be ideal. Caesar is part of a cluster for neuroscience in the Bonn-Cologne region, comprising the universities of Bonn and Cologne, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and two Max Planck Institutes. The Institute hosts the International Max Planck Research School for Brain & Behavior and is involved in the Bonn International Graduate School of Neuroscience. More information on the group can be found at http://www.caesar.de/seelig.html. Please send an email to johannes.seelig(a)caesar.de<mailto:johannes.seelig@caesar.de> for informal enquiries and/or submit your application at our job portal: www.caesar.de<http://www.caesar.de> Johannes Seelig research center caesar - center of advanced european studies and research, an associate of the Max Planck Society Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2 53175 Bonn Germany email: johannes.seelig(at)caesar.de <file://localhost/javascript/linkTo_UnCryptMailto('nbjmup+kpibooft:tffmjhAdbftbs:ef')%3B>phone: +49 (0)228 9656-190 fax: +49 (0)228 9656-9190

Jan. 14, 2016

Meeting on Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity

by Mark van Rossum

Discussion meeting at the Royal Society, London, April 19 & 20, 2016 Integrating Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity You are kindly invited to this meeting organized by Kevin Fox and Michael Stryker which will bring together computational and experimental neuroscientists to discuss how interactions between Hebbian plasticity and homeostatic plasticity occur and how they can be detected and interrogated at the systems level. Talks by: John Lisman, Taro Toyozumi, Brent Doiron, Mark van Rossum, Wulfram Gerstner, Gina Turrigano, Philip Haydon, Lu Chen, Hey-Kyoung Lee, Michael Stryker, Kevin Fox, Daniel Feldman, Tara Keck, Frank Sengpiel and Mark Hübener. Register at https://royalsociety.org/events/2016/04/integrating-plasticity/ Poster deadline March 11th. -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

Jan. 14, 2016

study abroad programs in Budapest

by Érdi Péter

Dear All: BSCS-US announces its two programs in Budapest for 2016. 1. Our regular program: BSCS - BUDAPEST SEMESTER IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY TO NEUROSCIENCE will be held in the Fall of 2016, see http://www.bscs-us.org/ . 2. We opened also a new program now in its second year: ***************************************** Systems Neuroscience: a study abroad summer program Program start/end dates June 12th- Aug 5th, 2016 The BSCS Systems Neuroscience Program takes place at and academically supervised by the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University Medical School, Budapest **************************************** For details, see: http://sysneuro-semester.org/ Inquiry: Péter Érdi (SysNeuro Director; BSCS Co-Director) perdi(a)kzoo.edu bscs(a)bscs-us.org, jhegedus(a)kzoo.edu

Jan. 14, 2016

Call for Workshops and Tutorials at Alife

by Izquierdo, Eduardo J.

CALL FOR WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS The ALife XV Organizing Committee invites proposals for Tutorials and Workshops to be held in conjunction with the Fifteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALife XV), which will be held in Cancun, Mexico on July 4th-8th, 2016. http://xva.life<http://xva.life/> If accepted, ALife will provide the onsite logistics (seminar rooms, projectors, coffee breaks, and lunches) and links from the main conference website. All other organizational issues – including separate review process and proceedings publication, if any – are taken care of by the workshop chairs. Therefore, any workshop-specific requests from participants should be exclusively addressed to them, not to the ALife committee. The internal organization of the satellite workshops and tutorials (website, paper submission, invited talks, proceedings, all deadlines except registration) is entirely left up to their respective organizers. Participation in workshops and tutorials requires conference registration. IMPORTANT DATES Submission of Workshop/Tutorial Proposals is open now. We will receive applications until January 15th, 2016. The notification of acceptance will be given within two weeks of receiving the proposal. Workshop/Tutorial Information and/or submission proposal: workshops(a)xva.life<mailto:workshops@xva.life> WORKSHOP PROPOSALS The ALife XV workshops are intended to be forums to present and discuss new approaches, visions, or critical reflections within a research area. They provide an excellent opportunity to meet people with similar interests, to be exposed to cutting-edge research and to exchange ideas in an informal setting. The organizers of an accepted workshop are responsible for its coordination and its publicity (e.g., for sending out call for papers/abstracts), for collecting and reviewing the papers/abstracts, and for maintaining a webpage providing a list of accepted talks. The workshops are typically half day long. The format can be decided by the organizers who are encouraged to plan interactive sessions. TUTORIAL PROCESS ALife XV tutorials will be presented by domain experts to cover current topics relevant to artificial life researchers and practitioners. Each tutorial will be 3 hours long, then we encourage to include into the tutorial also demos and interactive activities. Accepted tutorial’s slide sets will be published on ALife XV website. SUBMISSION PROCESS Each tutorial/workshop proposal should include: 1) title of the workshop/tutorial 2) name(s) and affiliation(s) of the organizer(s)/inspector(s), with relative contact details 3) a short CV of the organizer(s)/instructor(s) 4) a brief description (half-page) of the workshop/tutorial topics Only for workshops: 5) potential target participants and audience 6) roughly approximated number of participants 7) rough estimate of the number of talks All proposals must be sent to: workshops(a)xva.life<mailto:workshops@xva.life> Looking forward to your submissions. Best wishes, Eduardo J. Izquierdo, ALife XV Workshop Chair Assistant Professor, Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University

Jan. 13, 2016

Postdoc positions in Systems Neuroscience at McGill University (Adrien Peyrache)

by Adrien Peyrache

Dear colleagues, We are looking for talented and enthusiastic postdoc candidates to join our team at McGill University (Montreal Neurological Institute). The lab focuses on the neuronal dynamics underlying spatial navigation, sleep and learning and uses cutting-edge techniques combining high density electrophysiological recordings and optogenetics in behaving animals. Starting date: summer 2016. The successful candidate should have either a strong background in neurophysiology or computational neuroscience. Candidates should send a resume, a brief statement of research interests and the names of two references to Dr. Adrien Peyrache ( adrien.peyrache(a)gmail.com) The candidates must hold a PhD for less than 3 years. Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. McGill University is committed to equity in employment and diversity. It welcomes applications from Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender identity, visible minorities, women, and others who may contribute to diversification.

Jan. 13, 2016

2016 QBio, abstract submission Jan 22

by Jesus Cortes

Dear all We are organizing the 2016 Quantitative Biomedicine Workshop One-page abstract (free-format) submission finalizes on Jan 22. Confirmed speakers are: Rafael MOLINA SORIANO (University of Granada) Cesar CABALLERO (BCBL) Iñigo GABILONDO (BioCruces) Banafshe LARIJANI (CSIC-UPV/EHU) Markus DAHLEM (Institut für Theoretische Physik-Technische Universität Berlin) Paolo BONIFAZI (BioCruces) Eugenio IGLESIAS (BCBL) Mauro D’AMATO (BioCruces) Dante CHIALVO (CONICET) Denis DOORLY (Imperial College London) Alessandro VENEZIANI (Emory) Daniela CALVETTI (Case Western University) For further information visit http://www.bcamath.org/en/workshops/qbio2016 Best Greetings Luca Gerardo-Giorda (BCAM), Sebastiano Stramaglia (University of Bari) and Jesus M Cortes (Biocruces Health Research Institute)

Jan. 13, 2016

ICMNS 2016: Deadline Extended to Feb. 7, 2016

by Zachary Kilpatrick

*Abstract deadline extended to February 7, 2016* https://icmns2016.inria.fr/call-for-contributions/ <https://icmns2016.inria.fr/call-for-contributions/> There will also be a prize for best papers. International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience (ICMNS 2016) at the Congress Center in Juan-les-Pins on the French Riviera May 29 to June 1, 2016 Tutorials: May 29 Main Conference: May 30 - June 1 https://icmns2016.inria.fr/ <https://icmns2016.inria.fr/> CONFIRMED SPEAKERS Wulfram Gerstner (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) John Rinzel (New York University) Antoine Triller (École Normale Supérieure de Paris) Rachel Kuske (U British Columbia) Jonathan Rubin (U Pittsburgh) Hinke Osinga (U Aukland) Carina Curto (Penn State University) Ruben Moreno-Bote (Foundation Sant Joan de Deu) Hiroya Nakao (Tokyo Institute of Technology) Eric Shea-Brown (U Washington) Si Wu (Beijing Normal University) Alex Roxin (Centre de Recerca Matematica) PROGRAM COMMITTEE Toni Guillamon (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) Roland Potthast (U Reading) Gregory Faye (Université Paul Sabatier ) Wilhelm Stannat (TU Berlin) Jonathan Touboul (College de France) Gilles Wainrib (Ecole Normale Supérieure) Suzanne Ditlevsen (University of Copenhagen) Boris Gutkin (Ecole Normale Supérieure) Martin Wechselberger (U Sydney) Jonathan Rubin (U Pittsburgh) Martin Krupa (INRIA Sophia Antipoilis) Carlo Laing (Massey University) Andre Longtin (U Ottawa) Daniele Avitabile (U Nottingham) Jose Carrillo (Imperial College) Pascal Chossat (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis) Carson Chow (National Institutes of Health) Steve Zucker (Yale University) Eric Shea-Brown (U Washington) Rachel Kuske (U British Columbia) Laura Sacerdote (Universita di Torino) Reinhard Hopfner (Johannes-Gutenberg Universitat) Olivier Faugeras (INRIA - Sophia Antipolis) Paul Bressloff (U Utah) Steve Coombes (U Nottingham) CONFERENCE CHAIRS Romain Veltz (INRIA - Sophia Anitpolis) Zachary Kilpatrick (U Houston) Evelyn Buckwar (Johannes Kepler Universitat Linz)

Jan. 13, 2016

CFP: Special Issue "Wireless Sensor Networks for Measuring the Impact of Human Activities over Different Environments" in (IJDSN)

by Sandra Sendra

=================================================== International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks (IJDSN) Special Issue "Wireless Sensor Networks for Measuring the Impact of Human Activities over Different Environments" http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijdsn/si/567042/cfp/ Deadline for manuscript submissions: January 29, 2016 ---------------------------------------------------- === SPECIAL ISSUE - CALL FOR PAPERS === Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are nowadays used in a wide variety of applications, such as military surveillance, scientific exploration, structural monitoring, and environmental monitoring applications, among others. These sorts of networks are complex systems whose correct operation mainly depends on the integration of physical sensors, computation processes, and communication between devices. Advances in smart device and sensor networks will drive innovation in important sectors such as energy efficiency, city/building design, healthcare, agriculture, transportation, and manufacturing. Moreover, human actions motivated by achieving various purposes cause side effects on our environment. While the intended effects are usually positive, at least for those who promote action, side effects can be positive but very often are negative. Some most basic actions of how we do our day-to-day routines are the following: the way people move around the city, how people get rid of your waste, excessive cultivation or exploitation of natural resources, misuse of electrical appliances, or celebrating holidays with music and pyrotechnics, among others, which can have a significant impact on our environment, whether natural, social environments, or on our heritage. For these reasons and taking into account the advantages that WSNs offer, this special issue aims to focus on new proposals and developments of WSNs for monitoring and evaluating the impact of human activity on the environments that surround us. Authors are invited to submit their original and unpublished research contributions to this special issue in relevant areas of WSNs, proposing new design concepts, architectures, and applications versus resource constraints and energy conservation. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: - WSN issues and technologies for monitoring the effects of human behaviors on the environment - Design of energy-efficient WSNs, hardware, software, and systems for monitoring sensitive environments - Real-world case studies of WSNs where the effects of human behaviors are analyzed - WSNs data management - Prototyping of experimental WSNs and its test bench - Evaluation of WSNs in sensitive scenarios - WSNs for emergency response in natural/man-made disasters - New proposals of WSNs architectures - Efficient communication for WSNs architectures - WSN for sustainable human behaviors - Sustainable WSN for environmental sustainability Authors can submit their manuscripts via the Manuscript Tracking System at: http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ijdsn/miha/ === IMPORTANT DATES === Manuscript Due: Friday, 29 January 2016 First Round of Reviews: Friday, 22 April 2016 Publication Date: Friday, 17 June 2016 === SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS === Lead Guest Editor Prof. Dr. Jaime Lloret Mauri (jlloret(a)dcom.upv.es) Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain Guest Editors Dr. Sandra Sendra (sansenco(a)posgrado.upv.es) Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain Dr. Danda B. Rawat (db.rawat(a)ieee.org) Georgia Southern University, Georgia, USA Dr. Kayhan Z. Ghafoor (kayhan(a)ieee.org) Salahaddin University, College of Engineering, Kirkuk Road Erbil, Kurdistan Region-Iraq ===================================================

Jan. 13, 2016

call for participation Frontiers Research Topic "Burst coding: from cell to cognition”

by Zeldenrust, Fleur

Dear colleagues, This is a call for participation in a Frontiers Research Topic titled "Burst coding: from cell to cognition” (for a description, see below). We, the editors, would highly value your participation. If you would like to contribute, please follow the following link: http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/4374/burst-coding-from-cell-to… Abstract deadline: 1 February 2016 Manuscript deadline: 30 June 2016 Please note that reviews at Frontiers allow and encourage a discussion between the authors and the reviewers. As editors we would like to further encourage you to use this opportunity, while guaranteeing from our side that a constructive discussion with the reviewers will have a positive influence on the evaluation of your work. Let us know if you have any questions about the Research Topic. We look forward to hearing from you soon. With kind regards, Fleur Zeldenrust Bernhard Englitz Wytse J. Wadman Guest Associate Editors, Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience BURST CODING: FROM CELL TO COGNITION Bursting is a firing mode of neurons in which they respond to and input with a group of high frequency action potentials, followed by a period of relative silence. These bursts can be generated intrinsically in neurons themselves, or they can be the result of network activity. Many different systems show a burst-firing mode next to a tonic-firing mode. Despite the ubiquity of bursting, the question of the functional properties of bursts remains unknown: why do some systems rely on bursts for their information transmission and what do bursts code for? We encourage authors to contribute their expertise, both from experimental and from computational backgrounds, on this question on the fundamental properties of burst coding. Papers should address one or more of the following issues: 1. Burst generation. How can different systems generate bursts? This includes both the single neuron level (active dendritic calcium, sodium dynamics, ‘ping-pong’ mechanisms) and the network level (synchronization, inhibition). 2. Differences between systems. In what brain areas of what animals do bursts occur (region CA3 of the rodent hippocampus, mammalian thalamus, weakly electric fish, insect auditory receptors), and what are the similarities/differences in the properties of these systems? 3. Detection and analysis of bursts. The detection of bursts is mostly done using inter-spike interval distributions or return maps; these give a typical inter-spike interval. Often, inter-spike intervals and spike amplitudes change over the course of a burst, making the last spikes in a burst hard to detect. This makes the analysis of burst challenging. Moreover, many traditional tools for the analysis of spike trains cannot be used to analyse spike trains that include bursts without some form of correction for it (reverse correlation techniques, Spike Coincidence Factor). 4. Information processing (burst coding). What are the functional information processing effects of bursts? These include decoding (resonance coding or inter-spike interval coding, burst duration coding), encoding (what stimulus features trigger bursts?), and other coding properties (reliability at unreliable synapses, feature detection for bursts versus stimulus estimation for single spikes, ‘wake-up call’ function of bursts). 5. Relation between bursts and pathology. The burst-firing mode of the thalamus has been associated with sleep and anaesthesia, and therefore with pathological conditions, before evidence showed that bursts also occur in awake states. Bursting in the subthalamic nucleus and globus pallidus is associated with Parkinson’s disease; high-frequency cortical oscillations are thought to be a hallmark of epilepsy, but their origins have been disputed. Are there more relations between the burst-firing mode and pathological conditions? 6. Relation between bursts and behaviour. Bursts of complex spike cells play an important functional role in hippocampal place cells. In the oculomotor system bursts play an important role in generating saccades. In weakly electric fish, bursts are a response to ‘communication-like’ stimuli, but not to ‘prey-like’ stimuli. Thalamic bursts have a much stronger effect on their cortical targets than single spikes. These results suggest that bursts can have a different signalling function then single spikes, often associated with different behaviour. ABOUT FRONTIERS RESEARCH TOPICS Founded by scientists in 2007, Frontiers is a community-rooted open-access publisher, driving innovations in peer review, article-level metrics and research networking. The "Frontiers in" journal series hosts 54 journals covering more than 350 academic specialties, with a network of over 200,000 leading researchers worldwide. Frontiers is a registered member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (http://www.oaspa.org/member/Frontiers) and was recognized by the ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing in 2014. The idea behind a Frontiers Research Topic is to create a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed articles that address a specific theme of research, as well as a forum for discussion and debate. Contributions can be articles describing original research, methods, hypothesis & theory, opinions, and more. Please see the relevant journal for a full list of accepted article types. Frontiers will also compile an e-book, as soon as all contributing articles are published, that can be used as educational material, be sent to foundations that fund your research, to journalists and press agencies, or to your professional network. E-books are free to read and download. Once published, your articles will be free to access for all readers, indexed in relevant repositories, and as an author in Frontiers, you retain the copyright to your own papers and figures. FRONTIERS PUBLISHING FEES Manuscripts accepted for publication are subject to publishing fees, which vary depending on the article type. All Research Topic manuscripts receive a discount on publishing fees; please see here for a full fee table, and further relevant FAQs: http://www.frontiersin.org/about/PublishingFees. http://www.frontiersin.org/Mail/IbarMail.aspx?op=4&msgid=10350094&msg=In

Jan. 12, 2016

Application Deadline Approaching: School on Neurotechniques 2016, Padova, Italy

by Mufti Mahmud

Dear All, Sorry for the cross posting. I am glad to communicate that the NeuroChip Laboratory of University of Padova, Italy is organizing a School on Neurotechniques with special emphasis on "Tools for Investigating the Function of Neural Circuits". The school will be held from February 15 – 19, 2016 and the deadline for application is January 20, 2016. The following topics will be covered in the school: 1. Multi-electrode and multi-transistor arrays 2. Implantable brain probes for acute and chronic recording 3. Transcranic magnetic stimulation 4. Mixed electrophysiology, genetics and behavior approaches 5. Closed-loop electrophysiology and neuromorphic systems 6. Genetically encoded fluorecent probes 7. Signal Analysis 8. Calcium imaging 9. Neuron cultures techniques 10. In vivo electrophysiology Thank you for your attention. Best regards, Mufti Mahmud, PhD Call for participation School on Neurotechniques 2016: The toolbox for investigating the function of neural circuits 15-19 February 2016 NeuroChip Lab, University of Padova, Italy Website: http://www.vassanellilab.eu/school-neurotechniques/ OBJECTIVE Investigating information processing and identifying operational rules of brain neural circuits relies on the capability to selectively record and stimulate multiple neurons within a network. The toolbox of available techniques conceived to meet this need is rapidly expanding. The CSN School on Neurotechniques 2015 will offer an overview on advanced electrical- and light-based recording methods of neuronal excitability, focusing on those that are most relevant for the investigation of neural networks ‘in vitro’ and ‘in vivo’ and for application in neuroprosthetics. Techniques derived from information theory for the analysis of neuronal population signals will be presented and practical demonstrations of experimental recording sessions provided. The school targets doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers, scientists working in the related fields. Since the school's topics are interdisciplinary covering neurobiology, neuronal biophysics, microscopy, and electronics, preliminary knowledge in these fields is highly recommended. SPEAKERS Luca Berdondini Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, IT Stefano Ferraina University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, IT Michele Giugliano University of Antwerp, BE Giacomo Indiveri INI, Zurich , CH Jonathan Mapelli University of Modena, IT Marcello Massimini University of Milan , IT Nurmikko Arto Brown University, Providence, USA Tullio Pozzan CNR Rome, IT Themis Prodromakis University of Southampton, UK Roland Thewes University of Berlin, DE Paul Verschure ICREA at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, ES Guenther Zeck NMI at the University of Tuebingen, Reutlingen, DE Ralf Zeitler Venneos, Stuttgart, DE Davide Zoccolan SISSA, Trieste, IT REGISTRATION To apply, please register at ( http://www.vassanellilab.eu/school-neurotechniques/school-neurotechniques-2…) on or before January 20, 2016. If you have any further questions, please contact silviamaria.lattanzio(a)unipd.it or stefano.vassanelli(a)unipd.it The registration is FREE, however, the number of places are limited. The registration is sponsored by the European Commission, Project CSNII csnetwork.eu (GA No 601167, FP7, FET Proactive, Neuro-Bio-Inspired Systems). Travel and accommodation costs are not funded. LOCATION The school will be hosted by the NeuroChip Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Via f. Marzolo 3, 35131 - Padova, Italy. The location is very close the city centre and is easily reachable from the railway or bus station of Padova. WHEN February 15-19, 2016. Target audience (N = ~25 active full-time): PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, scientists, members of associated EC CSNII consortia. -- Mufti Mahmud, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow NeuroChip Lab <http://www.vassanellilab.eu/> - Dept. of Biomedical Sciences <http://www.biomed.unipd.it/?L=1> University of Padova Via f. Marzolo 3 35131 - Padova, Italy Lab: +39 049 827 5308 Fax: +39 049 827 5301 https://sites.google.com/site/muftimahmud/

Jan. 12, 2016

Workshop on Hearing and Speech Processing at the KITP in Santa Barbara, summer 2017

by Reichenbach, Johann D T

Dear colleagues, I am writing to announce the multi-disciplinary workshop entitled "Physics of Hearing: From Neurobiology to Information Theory and Back”. Organized by Hervé Boulard, Maria Neimark Geffen, Jim Hudspeth as well as myself, and sponsored by the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP, http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu) this event will take place in Santa Barbara, California, for the eight weeks from Tuesday 30 May through Friday 21 July 2017 (note that this means 2017, not 2016!). The program's emphasis is on the development of a deeper theoretical understanding both of the biophysical constraints of the nervous system and of the mathematical structure of natural sounds, their modeling, and their processing. We plan to cover the following topics: Biophysics and active sensing in the inner ear, Neuronal mechanisms of dynamic auditory coding, Oral communication in nonhuman species, Learning in the auditory pathway and language development, Psychoacoustics and human auditory modeling, Mathematical structure of natural sounds, Mathematical structure of speech and speech-recognition technology, Compressed sensing and sparse recovery modeling, and Deep neural networks for speech recognition. The main goal of the program is to stimulate new research directions and collaborations between program participants. We expect this to yield significant progress both in the neurobiology of hearing as well as in speech-recognition technology. Our Scientific Advisors are Dolores Bozović (UCLA), Judit Gervain (Univ. Paris Decartes), Hynek Hermansky (John Hopkins Univ.), Josh McDermott (MIT), Cynthia F. Moss (John Hopkins Univ.), Mari Ostendorf (Univ. Washington), Shihab Shamma (Univ. Maryland), Malcolm Slaney (Google), and Ruedi Stoop (ETH Zurich). Other long-term participants include Richard Aslin (Univ. Rochester), Alain de Cheveigne (Univ. Paris Decartes), Stephen David (Oregon H&S Univ.), Philip Garner (IDIAP), Andrea Hasenstaub (UCSF), Dick Lyon (Google), Fanny Meunier (UCL), Paris Smaragdis (Univ. Illinois), Lynne Werner (Univ. Washington), and Sarah Woolley (Columbia Univ.). The program will run for eight weeks, with around 30 simultaneous participants, speakers, and students present at any time, and around 100 participants in total over the eight weeks of the workshop. The KITP provides shared offices and computing infrastructure for all program attendants such that participants can work efficiently during their stay. The KITP will also provide free accommodation in its newly constructed Residence on the edge of the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Institute will further provide support for living expenses. Funding for travel to and from Santa Barbara is available if these costs cannot be covered otherwise; and financial assistance for bringing family members can be provided. More information on available funding as well as on the program can be found online at http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/dbdetails?acro=hearing17. My colleagues and I would be delighted if you would join us in this remarkable opportunity for a broad synthesis of multi-disciplinary research on hearing and speech processing. If you wish to participate, please set up an account and apply online on the above website. It will help us with our planning if you apply early, including your proposed length of stay and any financial requirements. Please note that participants need to stay for at least three weeks to qualify for support from the KITP. With best wishes, Tobias Reichenbach ------------------------------------------- Tobias Reichenbach Lecturer, Biophysics of Hearing Editor, Heliyon Department of Bioengineering Imperial College London South Kensington Campus SW7 2AZ London, UK http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/reichenbach/

Jan. 12, 2016

research assistant position available

by Dominik Endres

A research assistant position (salary commensurate with 65% TV-H E13) for a highly motivated individual is available in the group of theoretical Neuroscience headed by Prof. Dr. Dominik Endres. The Group is located in the Department of Psychology at the Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany. The position is initially for one year, extensible given satisfactory performance. The position is intended to facilitate a scientific qualification, specifically a German doctorate (PhD equivalent). The position is embedded in the Collaborative Research Center SFB 135, http://www.forschungsallianz-gi-mr.de/projekte/sfb/wahrnehmung. Duties include active, self-motivated participation in the research and teaching activities of the group, in particular a) the development of quantifiable theoretical models about movement perception based on movement primitives, and b) the experimental testing of such models using the new virtual-reality facility of the department. Prerequisites are a Master's degree or German Diplom in one of the following areas: theoretical Neuroscience, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, Cognitive Science or Psychology with a minor in one of the aforementioned fields. Programming experience in Python, C++ or similar are advantageous. Applications with experience in machine learning, computer graphics or behavioral experimentation will be preferred. Applicants' skills in these areas will be tested as a part of the recruitment procedure. The academic environment is a vibrant scientific community at the Research Alliance Giessen/Marburg comprising the IRTG 1901 International Research Training Group investigating The Brain in Action (http://www.irtg-brainact.de/) and a Collaborative Research Center (SFB 135, http://www.forschungsallianz-gi-mr.de/projekte/sfb/wahrnehmung) on the Cardinal Mechanisms of Perception, thus offering an excellent environment for cutting edge research on the intersections between different disciplines ranging from experimental psychology and human movement science to computational modeling, machine learning, psycholinguistics and the neurobiology of action. Applications should include a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae and Master's transcripts or similar records, and the addresses of 2 referees. The initial application should be sent by email to Prof. Dr. D. Endres (dominik.endres(a)uni-marburg.de) no later than Jan. 26th, 2016 (earlier applications preferred). Please do not sent originals by mail, because we will not be able to return them to you. We will not cover travel costs to/from Marburg for job interviews. The Philipps-University of Marburg is an equal opportunity employer. Relevant paper: Endres, D., Chiovetto, E. & Giese, M. A. (2013). Model selection for the extraction of movement primitives. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 7(185) -- Prof. Dr. Dominik Endres AE Theoretische Neurowissenschaft Allgemeine und Biologische Psychologie FB Psychologie, Gutenbergstr 18, 35032 Marburg, Germany Tel. +49-(0)6421-28-23818

Jan. 12, 2016

[meetings] Living Machines V: Second Call for Papers, Satellite Events and Sponsors

by Nathan F Lepora

Second Call for Papers, Satellite Events and Sponsors Living Machines V: The 5th International Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems 18th to 22nd July 2016 http://csnetwork.eu/livingmachines/conf2016 To be hosted at the Dynamic Earth Edinburgh, Scotland In association with the Heriot Watt University and University of Edinburgh Accepted papers will be published in Springer Lecturer Notes in Artificial Intelligence Submission deadline March 11th, 2016 ___________________________________________________________ ABOUT LIVING MACHINES 2016 The development of future real-world technologies will depend strongly on our understanding and harnessing of the principles underlying living systems and the flow of communication signals between living and artificial systems. Biomimetics is the development of novel technologies through the distillation of principles from the study of biological systems. The investigation of biomimetic systems can serve two complementary goals. First, a suitably designed and configured biomimetic artefact can be used to test theories about the natural system of interest. Second, biomimetic technologies can provide useful, elegant and efficient solutions to unsolved challenges in science and engineering. Biohybrid systems are formed by combining at least one biological component—an existing living system—and at least one artificial, newly-engineered component. By passing information in one or both directions, such a system forms a new hybrid bio-artificial entity. The theme of the conference also encompasses biomimetic methods for manufacture, repair and recycling inspired by natural processes such as reproduction, digestion, morphogenesis and metamorphosis. The following are some examples of “Living Machines” as featured at past conferences: • Biomimetic robots and their component technologies (sensors, actuators, processors) that can intelligently interact with their environments. • Active biomimetic materials and structures that self-organize and self-repair. • Nature-inspired designs and manufacturing processes. • Biomimetic computers—neuromimetic emulations of the physiological basis for intelligent behaviour. • Biohybrid brain-machine interfaces and neural implants. • Artificial organs and body-parts including sensory organ-chip hybrids and intelligent prostheses. • Organism-level biohybrids such as robot-animal or robot-human systems. ACTIVITIES The main conference will take the form of a three-day single-track oral and poster presentation programme, 20th to 22nd July 2016, hosted at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, Scotland. The conference programme will include five plenary lectures from leading international researchers in biomimetic and biohybrid systems, and the demonstrations of state-of-the-art living machine technologies. Agreed speakers are: *Antonio Bicchi*, University of Pisa (robotics, haptics and control systems) *Frank Hirth*, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry (evolutionary neuroscience) *Yoshihiko Nakamura*, University of Tokyo (biomimetics in humanoids) *Thomas Speck*, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (plants and animals as concept generators for biomimetic materials and technologies) *Barbara Webb*, University of Edinburgh (perceptual systems; control of behaviour in insects and robots) The full conference will be preceded by up to two days of Satellite Events hosted by the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. SUBMITTING TO LIVING MACHINES 2016 We invite both full papers and extended abstracts in areas related to the conference themes. All contributions will be refereed and accepted papers will appear in the Living Machines 2016 proceedings which we expect to be published in the Springer-Verlag LNAI Series. Full papers (minimum 8 pages, up to 12 pages) are invited from researchers at any stage in their career and should present significant findings and advances in biomimetic or biohybid research. More preliminary work would be better suited for short papers submission (minimum 4 pages, with a maximum of ten references and no more than three self-citations). Full papers will be accepted for either oral presentation (single track) or poster presentation. Extended abstracts will be accepted for poster presentation only. Authors of the best full papers will be invited to submitted extended versions of their paper for publication in a special issue of the Taylor & Francis journal Connection Science. Satellite events Active researchers in biomimetic and biohybrid systems are invited to propose topics for 1-day or 2-day tutorials, symposia or workshops on related themes to be held 18-19th July at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. Events can be scheduled on either the 18th or the 19th or across both days. Attendance at satellite events will attract a small fee intended to cover the costs of the meeting. There is a lot of flexibility about the content, organisation, and budgeting for these events. Please contact us if you are interested in organising a satellite event! EXPECTED DEADLINES March 11th, 2016 Paper submission deadline April 29th, 2016 Notification of acceptance May 16th, 2016 Camera ready copy July 18-22 2016 Conference SPONSORSHIP Living Machines 2016 is part-sponsored by the Convergent Science Network (CSN) for Biomimetics and Neurotechnology. CSN is an EU FP7 Future Emerging Technologies Co-ordination Activity that also organises two highly successful workshop series: the Barcelona Summer School on Brain, Technology and Cognition (https://bcbt.upf.edu/bcbt15) and the Capocaccia Neuromorphic Cognitive Engineering Workshop ( https://capocaccia.ethz.ch/capo/wiki/2015) The 2016 Living Machines conference will also be hosted and co-sponsored by Heriot Watt University. Call for Sponsors. Other organisations wishing to sponsor the conference in any way and gain the corresponding benefits by promoting themselves and their products to through conference publications, the conference web-site, and conference publicity are encouraged to contact the conference organisers to discuss the terms of sponsorship and necessary arrangements. We offer a number of attractive and good-value packages to potential sponsors. ABOUT THE VENUE Living Machines 2016 will be hosted at Dynamic Earth ( http://www.dynamicearth.co.uk) a 5 star visitor attraction in the heart of Edinburgh’s historic old town, next door the Scottish Parliament and Holyrood Palace. Dynamic Earth is a visitor experience that invites you to take a journey through time to witness the story of planet Earth. Through a series of interactive exhibits, state of the art technology and even a 4D encounter you will feel the heat of a bubbling volcano, face the chill of polar ice, fly across the globe before crash landing in a tropical rainforest. Attendees at the conference will receive a discount voucher to visit the Dynamic Earth exhibit. Workshops will be held at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics in George Square, a short walk from Edinburgh city centre. Organising Committee: Mark Desmulliez, Heriot Watt University (Co-chair) Tony Prescott, University of Sheffield (Co-chair) Nathan Lepora, University of Bristol (Programme Chair) Michael Mangar, University of Edinburgh (Satellite Events Chair) Anna Mura, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Communications) Paul Verschure, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (International Steering Committee)

Jan. 11, 2016

PhD Studentship available on Computational Intelligence for Artificial Agents Cognition and Interaction

by Di Nuovo, Alessandro

Dear all, This is to announce a PhD Studentship available on Computational Intelligence for Artificial Agents Cognition and Interaction The project explores the use of Computational Intelligence techniques to simulate the human-like cognition abilities and use them to address complex real-world problems in which artificial agents should autonomously learn and interact with human beings. In particular, it investigates the novel deep learning paradigm offers a highly biologically plausible way to train neural network architectures with many layers, inspired by the hierarchical organization of the human brain. Impressive results have been obtained in several areas, where deep learning architectures have outperformed state-of-the-art algorithms on various tasks, such as computer vision, automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and human action recognition. the position advertised within the SHU VC & ACES Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) PhD Scholarship Schemes 2016 (Project n. 6 in Computing and Informatics). Deadline for the application is 29th of January 2016. Please follow the link below for more information. http://www.shu.ac.uk/ad/studentships/ which has general information on the types of scholarships available, eligibility criteria and profiles of 2015 VC scholars (the landing page can also be found by clicking on the featured link on the SHU website home page). From the landing page, applicants can then click through to more detailed application information, according to discipline. Note that students are chosen in competition with students who choose projects in other fields, which means that we would particularly encourage strong applicants with very good academic marks and previous research experience to apply. All applicants are encouraged to contact a prospective supervisor before submitting an application. If you are interested on the project, please contact the project lead: Dr Alessandro Di Nuovo (a.dinuovo(a)shu.ac.uk)

Jan. 11, 2016