[visionlist] COSYNE 2022: Call for workshop proposals

[Tomas Hromadka]

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Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2022 (Cosyne)



MAIN MEETING

17 - 20 March 2022

Lisbon, Portugal



WORKSHOPS

21 - 22 March 2022

Cascais, Portugal



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.



All abstract submissions will be reviewed double blind. The deadline for Abstract submission will be 20 November 2021.



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, neuromodulation, and computation with spiking networks.



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



   Abstract submission opens:      15 October 2021

   Workshop pre-proposal deadline: 15 October 2021

   Travel grant submission opens:  01 November 2021

   Workshop proposal deadline:     12 November 2021

   Abstract submission deadline:   20 November 2021





When preparing an abstract, authors should be aware that not all abstracts can be accepted for the meeting. 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: Anne-Marie Oswald (U Pittsburgh) and Srdjan Ostojic (Ecole Normale Superieure Paris)

   Program Chairs: Laura Busse (LMU Munich) and Tim Vogels (IST Austria)

   Workshop Chairs: Anna Schapiro (U Penn) and Blake Richards (McGill)

   Tutorial Chair: Kanaka Rajan (Mount Sinai)

   DEIA Committee: Bianca Jones Martin (Columbia), Gabrielle Gutierrez (Columbia), and Stefano Recanatesi (U Washington)

   Undergraduate Travel Chairs: Angela Langdon (Princeton) and Bob Wilson (U Arizona)

   Fundraising Chair: Michael Long (NYU)

   Social Media Chair: Grace Lindsay (Columbia)

   Poster Design: Maja Bialon



PROGRAM COMMITTEE

   Laura Busse (U Munich)

   Tim Vogels (IST Austria)

   Athena Akrami (UCL)

   Omri Barak (Technion)

   Brice Bathellier (Paris)

   Bing Brunton (U Washington)

   Yoram Burak (Hebrew University)

   SueYeon Chung (Columbia)

   Christine Constantinople (NYU)

   Victor de Lafuente (UNAM Mexico)

   Jan Drugowitsch (Harvard)

   Alexander Ecker (Göttingen)

   Tatiana Engel (Cold Spring Harbor)

   Annegret Falkner (Princeton)

   Kevin Franks (Duke)

   Jens Kremkow (Berlin)

   Andrew Leifer (Princeton)

   Sukbin Lim (Shanghai)

   Scott Linderman (Stanford)

   Emilie Mace (MPI Neurobiology)

   Mackenzie Mathis (EPFL Lausanne)

   Ida Momennejad (Microsoft)

   Jill O'Reilly (Oxford)

   Il Memming Park (Stony Brook)

   Adrien Peyrache (McGill Montréal)

   Yiota Porazi (FORCE)

   Nathalie Rochefort (Edinburgh)

   Christina Savin (NYU)

   Daniela Vallentin (MPI Ornithology)

   Brad Wyble (Penn State)



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.



- There will be 6-10 workshops/day, running in parallel.

- Each workshop is expected to draw between 20 and 100 people.

- The workshops will be split into morning (9.30am-12.30pm) and afternoon (3.30pm-6.30pm) sessions.

- Workshops will be held at the Hotel Cascais Miragem.

- 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 Hotel 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 - Deadline 15 October 2021



In an effort to coordinate submissions, workshop organizers are *strongly encouraged* to submit a pre-proposal by *15 October 2021* 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.





The 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 - Deadline 12 November 2021



The full proposals should include the list of confirmed speakers in addition to all of the 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 two organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them.





COSYNE 2022 WORKSHOP CHAIRS



Anna Schapiro (U Penn) and Blake Richards (McGill)





COSYNE WORKSHOPS CONTACT

   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.