[visionlist] COSYNE 2019: Abstract submission is now open; Call for workshop proposals; Cosyne Mentoring Forum

[Tomas Hromadka]

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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

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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


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                       COSYNE
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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


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            CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
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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


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               COSYNE MENTORING FORUM
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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.

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             OTHER COSYNE MAILING LISTS
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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.