[Neuro-2008-committee] update 2

[Rodney Douglas]

OK

After various updates (thanks...)
this is now the situation

Workshops D and E are waiting for approval.
I propose that we wait until 
a deadline of midnight CET for any further input to those two. 

 If nothing significant occurs, then
workshops D and E should please go ahead and invite.

(I attach the email that anders /erik used for their invitations
which you might like to modify and use )

==r



------------------------------

Keynote speakers:  status:  50% acceptance 
Accepted: Kennedy, Ellisman and van Essen
No reply: Kawato, Cerf, and Sejnowski.


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Workshop A:   status: OK
(Anders / Erik)
"Future hardware  challenges to scientific computing" 

The goal of this workshop is summarized as:
The recent move of the computer industry towards multi-core  
technology will cause parallel programming to spread through all  
levels of society. Although many neuroscientific computing  
applications are already parallel they are often not optimized for  
multicore configurations. We will consider these challenges both from  
a computer science, scientific computing, and a neuroinformatics  
perspective. In addition we will consider some of the opportunities  
massive parallelism offer in how we model neuronal networks.

Invited workshop speakers get to speak for 20 min + 5 min  
discussion.  We will have 3 invited speakers, one of whom will be a  
computer scientists who will cover multicore computing from a  
computer science perspective.  In addition two contributions will be  
selected from submitted abstracts for 10 min + 5 min discussion each.  
The session will end with a 15 min panel discussion and you are  
invited to be part of this panel.

Gewaltig and Wittum have accepted.
Erik and Anders wait with third invitation 'till they have heard candidates 
speak in december

-------------------------------------------

Workshop B   status:  NO DESCRIPTION PARAGRAPH / NO PROGRESS REPORT
(Rob)
 Rob's proposal is as follows 
"Neurogenomics meets bioinformatics 
meets neuroinformatics" is a hot topic that I would be willing to 
assign to myself. Rusty Gage would be a contender . He does not know 
much about neuroinformatics per se, but would still be a strong and 
interesting speaker. There are several other contenders for a keynote 
on this topic (Alan Jones from the ABA, Ed Lein of the ABA, Pierre 
Cambon (?), Seth Grant, ....)

--------------------------------------------------

Workshop C  status: NO DESCRIPTION PARAGRAPH / NO PROGRESS REPORT
(Sten)
Political / Policy Workshop
Speakers: Kathy Olsen, David Sainsbury, Floyd Bloom


----------------------------------------------------

Workshop D  status: AWAITING APPROVAL

Extraction of structural and functional information from brain images
(Ulla Ruotsalainen, David Willshaw)
The focus of the workshop will be on imaging at different levels and the 
integration of imaging information, particularly data integration from 
multimodal imaging sources, multi-level data integration between microscopic 
and macroscopic and integration and extraction of data from large data-bases.
Extraction of structural and functional information from brain images

data integration from multimodal imaging sources
multi-level data integration between microscopic and macroscopic imaging
integration and extraction of data from large data-bases

Invited speakers proposal:      
prof. Alan Evans McGill University Montreal (multimodal image data, 
data-bases)
prof. Stephen Smith Oxford University (fMRI and MRI analysis tools (FSL), 
young person but published a lot already)
in addition I would like to have here somebody from the microscopy imaging 
groups like MacKenzie-Graham (LONI) or Atlas groups like Amunts (Juelich) 
RJD proposed also Winfred Denk (serial blockface Electron microscopy)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Workshop E.   status AWAITING APPROVAL
(Andrzej Wrobel, David Willshaw)
Challenges and benefits of multichannel electrophysiology

Advances in techniques for electrophysiological recording as well as in
analytical tools are enabling fascinating conceptual and engineering
developments in present-day electrophysiological studies of the brain.
This workshop will gather together  the scientists contributing to new
experimental, theoretical and engineering approaches to this branch of
systems neuroscience.

(Suggested speakers – two options - to be invited for delivering 
lectures in each subject proposed by the C-tee in Stockholm)

1. Extraction of information from large electrophysiological data sets
Gyorgi Buzsaki (MD,PhD; buzsaki at andromeda.rutgers.edu)
Ehud Ahissar (Prof. Dr.; ehud.ahissar at weizmann.ac.il)

2. Computational theory of information processing by neuronal systems 
(coding)
Michael Shadlen (MD, PhD; shadlen at u.washington.edu)
Alex Pouget (Prof., alex at bcs.rochester.edu)

3. Human machine interface:
Miguel Nicolelis (MD, PhD; nicoleli at neuro.duke.edu)
Niels Birbaumer (Prof. Dr phil; niels.birbaumer at uni-tuebingen.de)



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Demo Track  status:NO DESCRIPTION PARAGRAPH / NO PROGRESS REPORT
(Shiro)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Anders / Erik letter of invitation

Dear XXX


In name of the program committee chaired by Rodney Douglas, I would  
like to invite you to speak at a workshop on "Future hardware  
challenges to scientific computing" which will take place during the  
First World Neuroinformatics Congress,  Stockholm, 6-9 September  
2008, organized by the INCF (www.incf.org).

The goal of this workshop is summarized as:
The recent move of the computer industry towards multi-core  
technology will cause parallel programming to spread through all  
levels of society. Although many neuroscientific computing  
applications are already parallel they are often not optimized for  
multicore configurations. We will consider these challenges both from  
a computer science, scientific computing, and a neuroinformatics  
perspective. In addition we will consider some of the opportunities  
massive parallelism offer in how we model neuronal networks.

Invited workshop speakers get to speak for 20 min + 5 min  
discussion.  We will have 3 invited speakers, one of whom will be a  
computer scientists who will cover multicore computing from a  
computer science perspective.  In addition two contributions will be  
selected from submitted abstracts for 10 min + 5 min discussion each.  
The session will end with a 15 min panel discussion and you are  
invited to be part of this panel.

Besides the general theme of the workshop, we would like you to cover  
two additional challenges in scientific computing, using your  
experience with multigrid computing as context: 1) general-purpose  
versus specialized neural simulator software; 2) is hardware-specific  
optimization of software worthwhile or not? (order is up to you).  As  
we want to foster active discussion you should not hesitate to make  
bold statements.

The INCF will cover your travel, accommodation and registration costs  
for the full congress.

Looking forward to your speedy response as we want to announce a  
preliminary program soon.

Best regards,




________________________________________________________________________
Prof. Rodney Douglas

Institute of Neuroinformatics     Tel : +41 1 635 3051
University/ETH Zurich             Fax : +41 1 635 3025
Winterthurerstrasse 190           rjd (at) ini phys ethz ch 
Zurich 8057, Switzerland          www.ini.unizh.ch
________________________________________________________________________