==================================================== Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2019 (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING 28 February - 03 March 2019 Lisbon, Portugal WORKSHOPS 04 March - 05 March 2019 Cascais, Portugal www.cosyne.org ==================================================== IMPORTANT DATES Abstract submission is now open Workshop proposal deadline: 31 October 2018 Cosyne registration opens: 11 November 2018 Abstract submission deadline: 15 November 2018 ---------------------------------------------------- COSYNE ---------------------------------------------------- The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function. The MAIN MEETING is single-track. A set of invited talks is selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. The WORKSHOPS feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest, in a small group setting. For details on workshop proposals please see below or visit Cosyne.org -> Workshops. Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, and computation with spiking networks. This year we would like to foster increased participation from experimental groups as well as computational ones. Please circulate widely and encourage your students and postdocs to apply. When preparing an abstract, authors should be aware that not all abstracts can be accepted for the meeting, due to space constraints. Abstracts will be selected based on the clarity with which they convey the substance, significance, and originality of the work to be presented. For more information and details on submitting abstracts please visit Cosyne.org -> Abstracts. COSYNE SPEAKERS Bruno Averbeck (NIMH) Gwyneth Card (Janelia) Kathleen Cullen (John Hopkins) Kenji Doya (OIST) Ken Harris (UCL) Sonja Hofer (Sainsbury Wellcome Centre) Yann LeCun (NYU) Edvard Moser (NTNU) Yiota Poirazi (IMBB-FORTH) Maneesh Sahani (Gatsby-UCL) Eric Shea-Brown (U Washington) Sara Solla (Northwestern) Karel Svoboda (Janelia) Ilana Witten (Princeton) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE General Chairs: Linda Wilbrecht (Berkeley) and Brent Doiron (U Pittsburgh) Program Chairs: Eugenia Chiappe (Champalimaud) and Christian Machens (Champalimaud) Workshop Chairs: Catherine Hartley (NYU) and Ralf Haefner (U Rochester) Undergraduate Travel Chairs: Angela Langdon (Princeton) and Robert Wilson (U Arizona) Publicity Chair: Il Memming Park (Stony Brook) Development Chair: Michael Long (NYU) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Stephanie Palmer (U Chicago) Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud) Alexandre Pouget (U Geneva) Anthony Zador (CSHL) CONTACT meeting [at] cosyne.org ---------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ---------------------------------------------------- A series of workshops will be held after the main Cosyne meeting. The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged. The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate. Preference will be given to proposals that differ substantially in content, scope, and/or approach from workshops of recent years (examples available at Cosyne.org -> Workshops). Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation, reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience. In order to foster discussion within Workshops and reduce overlap between workshops, organizers should inform invited speakers that a single person should not speak in more than one of the Workshops taking place on the same day. WORKSHOP DETAILS - There will be 4-8 workshops/day, running in parallel. - Each workshop is expected to draw between 15 and 80 people. - The workshops will be split into morning (08.00-11.00a) and afternoon (04.30-07.30p) sessions. - Workshops will be held at Cascais, a coastal village ~34 km west of Lisbon. Buses from the main conference will be provided. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Submission instructions for workshop proposals are available at Cosyne.org -> Workshops. Proposals should include: - Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (no more than 2 organizers per session, please). The first author on the list becomes the contact author for the proposal. - A title. - A brief description of 1) what the workshop will address and accomplish, 2) why the topic is of interest, 3) who is the targeted group of participants. - Names, affiliations, and expected topics of talks of potential invitees, and a list of confirmed speakers. Preference will be given to workshops with the most confirmed speakers. - A brief summary of relevant prior experiences and publications of the organizers (about half a page total). - Proposed workshop length (1 or 2 days). Most workshops will be limited to a single day. If you think your workshop needs two days, please explain why. Workshop organizer responsibilities include coordinating workshop participation and content, scheduling all speakers and submitting a final schedule for the workshop program, and moderating the discussion. Organizers can be speakers but need not speak depending on scheduling constraints. SUGGESTIONS Experience has shown that the best discussions during a workshop are those that arise spontaneously. A good way to foster these is to have short talks and long question periods (e.g. 30+15 minutes), and have plenty of breaks. We recommend fewer than 10 talks. When preparing workshop proposals, the organizers are encouraged to: - address timeliness of workshop in the proposal: what new insights have been generated (new papers, data, techniques, whatever) over the past few years that make now the right time for discussing them and for presenting them to the wider community? - directly describe how speakers address the central topic, e.g. which are the big question(s), which speakers represent different viewpoints on the same question, which experimentalist addresses the theories addressed by which theoretician (and vice versa); - address controversies and bring together speakers from different “camps” in the same field, or from different fields that---according to the organizers---should talk more to each other for whatever reason; WORKSHOP COSTS Detailed registration costs, etc., will be available at www.cosyne.org. Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop speakers. All workshop speakers are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in order to qualify for discounted registration rates. One complimentary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with 2 organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them. COSYNE 2019 WORKSHOP CHAIRS Catherine Hartley (NYU) and Ralf Haefner (University of Rochester) email: workshops [at] cosyne.org ---------------------------------------------------- COSYNE MENTORING FORUM ---------------------------------------------------- Cosyne Mentoring Forum provides a platform for discussions among Cosyne participants, particularly for help with composing abstracts for the meeting and getting feedback before submission. The forum is intended to be a place to connect with other computational and systems neuroscientists. Forum members are encouraged to share advice on everything from writing a great Cosyne abstract to navigating a job search. See Cosyne.org -> Mailing lists for details on how to subscribe and post to the forum. ---------------------------------------------------- OTHER COSYNE MAILING LISTS ---------------------------------------------------- Please consider adding yourself to Cosyne mailing lists (groups) to receive email updates with various Cosyne-related information and join in helpful discussions. See Cosyne.org -> Mailing lists for details.