[visionlist] COSYNE 2020: Meeting announcement and Call for workshop proposals

[Tomas Hromadka]

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Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2020 (Cosyne)

MAIN MEETING
27 February - 01 March 2020
Denver, Colorado

WORKSHOPS
02 March - 03 March 2020
Breckenridge, Colorado

www.cosyne.org

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                MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
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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 basis of behavior,
sensory and motor systems, circuitry, learning, 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.


IMPORTANT DATES

  Workshop pre-proposal deadline: 06 October 2019
  Workshop proposal deadline: 10 November 2019
  Abstract submission opens: 01 October 2019
  Abstract submission deadline: 31 October 2019


COSYNE INVITED SPEAKERS

  Matthew Botvinick (Deepmind/Princeton)
  Megan Carey (Champalimaud)
  John Cunningham (Columbia)
  Gul Dolen (Hopkins)
  Rainer Friedrich (FMI Basel)
  Sam Gershman (Harvard)
  Lisa Giocomo (Stanford)
  Christopher Harvey (Harvard)
  Mehrdad Jazayeri (MIT)
  Wei Ji Ma, (NYU)
  Hendrikje Nienborg (Tuebingen/NIH)
  Linda Wilbrecht (Berkeley)
  Marta Zlatic (Janelia)

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.


ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
  General Chairs: Eugenia Chiappe (Champalimaud) and Christian Machens
(Champalimaud)
  Program Chairs: Anne-Marie Oswald (U Pittsburgh) and Srdjan Ostojic
(Ecole Normale Superieure Paris)
  Workshop Chairs: Catherine Hartley (NYU) and Blake Richards (McGill)
  Undergraduate Travel Chairs: Angela Langdon (Princeton) and Robert
Wilson (U Arizona)
  Diversity Chairs: Eva Dyer (Georgia Tech, Emory) and Eric Shea-Brown
(U Washington)
  Publicity Chair: Adam Calhoun (Princeton)
  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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PRE-PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 06 October 2019
FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE: 10 November 2019


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.

- 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 (8.00-11.00 AM) and afternoon
(4.30-7.30 PM) sessions.
- Workshops will be held in Breckenridge, CO, a ski village 80 miles
west of Denver. Buses from the main conference will be provided.
- Workshop speakers do *not* receive free registration, travel expenses,
or accommodation for either the main meeting or the workshop sessions.
Organizers should let invited speakers know that they are expected to
pay for workshop registration fees

Workshop organizer responsibilities include coordinating workshop
participation and content, scheduling all speakers, submitting a final
schedule for the workshop program, and moderating the discussion.
Organizers can, but need not, be speakers. One complimentary (free)
organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with two
organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers
or split evenly between them.

Any required multimedia resources beyond a projector, screen, and
microphones will be the responsibility of the workshop organizers to
coordinate with Cosyne and Breckenridge staff.


EVALUATION CRITERIA

As stated above, the goal of Cosyne workshops is to provide an
interactive, informal forum for discussions. 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.

Workshop proposals will be evaluated by the Cosyne Workshop Chairs, and
a subset of the proposals will be selected. The proposals will be
evaluated according to the following six metrics (which will be weighted
equally):

  1. Relevance to the Cosyne community
  2. Integration of experimental and theoretical issues
  3. Current interest in the topic in the scientific community
  4. Potential for new research directions and interactions to emerge
  5. Distinctive scope/approach compared to other workshops (including
previous years’)
  6. Diversity and equity in the proposed speakers


PRE-PROPOSALS

In an effort to coordinate submissions, workshop organizers are
*strongly encouraged* to submit a pre-proposal by *06 October 2019.*
Submission instructions for workshop (pre)-proposals are available at
Cosyne.org -> Workshops.

Pre-proposals may be shared among submitters to reduce topical overlap
or facilitate merging of workshops. Pre-proposals are not mandatory, but
workshops with a pre-proposal will have priority.

In order to foster discussion within Workshops and reduce overlap
between workshops, organizers should inform invited speakers that a
speaker can take part in no more than two Workshops.


PRE-PROPOSALS should include:

- Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (no more than 2
organizers per session, please). A primary contact should be designated.
- 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 of potential invitees, with indication of confirmed speakers.
Preference will be given to workshops with confirmed speakers.
- 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.
- A brief resume of the workshop organizer(s) along with a short list of
workshop-relevant publications (about half a page total).

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 keeping the number of talks small (i.e.,
fewer than 10 talks per day).


FULL PROPOSALS should include the list of confirmed speakers in addition
to components required for a pre-proposal.


WORKSHOP COSTS

Detailed registration costs, etc, will be available at www.cosyne.org.
Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop
speakers. Organizers should let invited speakers know that they 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 2020 WORKSHOP CHAIRS

Catherine Hartley (NYU) and Blake Richards (McGill)


QUESTIONS

email: workshops [at] cosyne.org


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.