CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN A WORKSHOP ON
"NEUROMORPHIC ENGINEERING"
JUNE 25 - JULY 8, 1995
TELLURIDE, COLORADO
Deadline for application is April 24, 1995.
Christof Koch (Caltech) and Terry Sejnowski (Salk Institute/UCSD)
invite applications for one two-week workshop that will be held in
Telluride, Colorado in 1995.
The first Telluride Workshop on Neuromorphic Engineering was held in
July, 1994 and was sponsored by the NSF. A summary of the 94 workshop
and a list of participants is available over MOSAIC:
1994 Summary OR
1994 Summary
GOALS:
Carver Mead introduced the term "Neuromorphic Engineering" for a new
field based on the design and fabrication of artificial neural
systems, such as vision systems, head-eye systems, and roving robots,
whose architecture and design principles are based on those of
biological nervous systems. The goal of this workshop is to bring
together young investigators and more established researchers from
academia with their counterparts in industry and national
laboratories, working on both neurobiological as well as engineering
aspects of sensory systems and sensory-motor integration. The focus of
the workshop will be on ``active" participation, with demonstration
systems and hands-on-experience for all participants.
Neuromorphic engineering has a wide range of applications from
nonlinear adaptive control of complex systems to the design of smart
sensors. Many of the fundamental principles in this field, such as the
use of learning methods and the design of parallel hardware, are
inspired by biological systems. However, existing applications are
modest and the challenge of scaling up from small artificial neural
networks and designing completely autonomous systems at the levels
achieved by biological systems lies ahead. The assumption underlying
this two week workshop is that the next generation of neuromorphic
systems would benefit from closer attention to the principles found
through experimental and theoretical studies of brain systems.
The focus of the first week is on exploring neuromorphic systems
through the medium of analog VLSI and will be organized by Rodney
Douglas (Oxford) and Misha Mahowald (Oxford). Sessions will cover
methods for the design and fabrication of multi-chip neuromorphic
systems. This framework is suitable both for creating analogs of
specific biological systems, which can serve as a modeling environment
for biologists, and as a tool for engineers to create cooperative
circuits based on biological principles. The workshop will provide
the community with a common formal language for describing
neuromorphic systems.
Equipment will be available for participants to evaluate existing
neuromorphic chips (including silicon retina, silicon neurons,
oculomotor system).
The second week of the course will be on vision and human
sensory-motor coordination and will be organized by Dana Ballard and
Mary Hayhoe (Rochester). Sessions will cover issues of sensory-motor
integration in the mammalian brain. Special emphasis will be placed on
understanding neural algorithms used by the brain which can provide
insights into constructing electrical circuits which can accomplish
similar tasks. Issues to be covered will include spatial localization
and constancy, attention, motor planning, eye movements, and the use
of visual motion information for motor control. These researchers
will also be asked to bring their own demonstrations, classroom
experiments, and software for computer models.
Demonstrations will include a robot head active vision system
consisting of a three degree-of-freedom binocular camera system that
is fully programmable. The vision system us based on a DataCube
videopipe which in turn provides drive signals to the three motors of
the head.
FORMAT:
Time will be divided between lectures, practical labs, and interest
group meetings. There will be three lectures in the morning that cover
issues that are important to the community in general. In general,
one lecture will be neurobiological, one computational, and one on
analog VLSI. Because of the diverse range of backgrounds among the
participants, the majority of these lectures will be tutorials, rather
than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be
given by invited speakers. Participants will be free to explore and
play with whatever they choose in the afternoon. Participants are
encouraged to bring their own material to share with others. After
dinner, participants will get together more informally to hear
lectures and demonstrations.
LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS:
The workshop will take place at the "Telluride Summer Research
Center," located in the small town of Telluride, 9000 feet high in
Southwest Colorado, about 6 hours away from Denver (350 miles) and 4
hours from Aspen. Continental and United Airlines provide many daily
flights directly into Telluride. Participants will be housed in shared
condominiums, within walking distance of the Center. Bring hiking
boots and a backpack, since Telluride is surrounded by beautiful
mountains.
The workshop is intended to be very informal and
hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous
experience in analog VLSI circuit design, computational or machine
vision, systems level neurophysiology or modeling the brain at the
systems level. However, we strongly encourage active researchers with
relevant backgrounds from academia, industry and national laboratories
to apply, in particular if they are prepared to talk about their work
or to bring demonstrators to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips,
software).
Internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout
the workshops will assist with software and hardware problems. We will
have a network of SUN workstations running UNIX and PCs running
windows and LINUX.
Up to $500 will be reimbursed for domestic travel and all housing
expenses will be provided. Participants are expected to pay for food
and incidental expenses and are expected to stay for the duration of
this two week workshop.
PARTIAL LIST OF INVITED LECTURERS:
Richard Anderson, Caltech.
Chris Atkeson, Georgia Tech.
Dana Ballard, Rochester.
Kwabena Boahen, Caltech.
Avis Cohen, Maryland.
Tobi Delbruck, Arithmos, Palo Alto.
Steve DeWeerth, Georgia Tech.
Steve Deiss, Applied NeuroDynamics, San Diego.
Chris Dioro, Caltech.
Rodney Douglas, Oxford and Zurich.
John Elias, Delaware University.
Mary Hayhoe, Rochester.
Christof Koch, Caltech.
Steve Lisberger, UC San Francisco: Oculomotor System.
Shih-Chii Liu, Caltech and Rockwell.
Jack Loomis, UC Santa Barbara.
Jonathan Mills, Indiana University.
Misha Mahowald, Oxford and Zurich.
Mark Tilden, Los Alamos: Multi-legged Robots.
Terry Sejnowski, Salk Institute and UCSan Diego.
Mona Zaghoul, George Washington University.
HOW TO APPLY:
The deadline for receipt of applications is April 24, 1995
Applicants should be at the level of graduate students or above (i.e. post-
doctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent
positions in industry and national laboratories). We actively encourage
qualified women and minority candidates to apply.
Application should include:
1. Name, address, telephone, e-mail, FAX, and minority status (optional).
2. Curriculum Vitae.
3. One page summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop.
4. Description of special equipment needed for demonstrations that could be
brought to the workshop.
5. Two letters of recommendation
Complete applications should be sent to:
Prof. Terrence Sejnowski
The Salk Institute
10010 North Torrey Pines Road
San Diego, CA 92037
email: terry@salk.edu
FAX: (619) 587 0417
Applicants will be notified around May 1, 1995.