Johns Hopkins University, Electrical & Computer Engineering
*** this workshop has been closed and new applications are no longer accepted. ***
Call for Applications to the 2023 NEUROMORPHIC COGNITION ENGINEERING WORKSHOP
Important Note: This is not a job application but a mechanism to receive applications for the Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Workshop
We are accepting applications to the 2023 Telluride Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop. The Workshop has been running for over 28 years, and has been influential in shaping the field of neuromorphic engineering and serving as a forum connecting across disciplines such as artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive science, machine learning, robotics, computer vision, signal processing, and electrical engineering.
Details of this year’s workshop are at https://sites.google.com/view/telluride-2023/home
IMPORTANT DATES FOR APPLICATION
Application Website Opens - 18. February, 2023
Application Website Closes - 07. April, 2023
Notification of Acceptance - 16. April, 2023
Workshop goals:
Neuromorphic engineers design and fabricate artificial neural systems whose organizing principles are based on those of biological nervous systems. Over the past 28 years, the neuromorphic engineering research community focused on the understanding of low-level sensory processing and systems infrastructure; efforts are now expanding to apply this knowledge and infrastructure to addressing higher-level problems in perception, cognition, and learning. In this 3-week intensive workshop, the mission is to promote interaction between senior and junior researchers; to educate new members of the community; to introduce new enabling fields and applications to the community; to promote ongoing collaborative activities emerging from the Workshop, and to promote a self-sustaining research field.
FORMAT:
The three week summer workshop will include background lectures on systems and cognitive neuroscience (in particular sensory processing, learning and memory, motor systems and attention), practical tutorials on emerging hardware, mobile robots, hands-on projects, and special interest groups. Participants are required to take part and possibly complete at least one of the proposed projects. They are furthermore encouraged to become involved in as many of the other activities proposed as interest and time allow. There will be two lectures in the morning that cover issues that are important to the community in general. Most of these lectures will be tutorial, rather than detailed reports of current research. These lectures will be given by invited speakers. Projects and interest groups meet in the afternoons, and after dinner. The workshop focuses on topics related to perception, action and cognition; and projects this year will focus on developments in robotics, learning, audiomotor processing and computational/experimental aspects of systems that can accomplish goals with limited human intervention.
2023 TOPIC AREAS:
The four topic area proposals for this year's workshop are:
AMC: Audio-motor coupling: the case of speech and music
Organizers: Claire Pelofi (NYU), Vikash Gilja (UCSD)
NC23: Neural Learning for Control
Organizers: Chang Gao (TU Delft), Yulia Sandarsmirskaya (Intel & ZHAW)
OSN: Open-Source Neuromorphic Hardware, Software and Wetware
Organizers: Jason Eshraghian (UCSC), Peng Zhou (Ruoxin)
QNO: Quantum-inspired Neuromorphic Optimizers
Organizers: Gert Cauwenberghs (UCSD), Shantanu Chakrabartty (WUSTL), Andreas Andreou (JHU)
More details on the topic areas can be found at
https://sites.google.com/view/telluride-2023/topic-areas
LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENTS:
The Workshop will take place in the small town of Telluride, 2667m (9000 ft) high in southwest Colorado, about 6 hours drive away from Denver (350 miles). There is a Telluride airport and several small airports (e.g. Montrose) close to Telluride. All facilities within the beautifully renovated public school building are fully accessible to participants with disabilities. Participants will be housed in condominiums, within walking distance of the school. Participants are expected to share condominiums.
The workshop is intended to be very informal and hands-on. Participants are not required to have had previous experience in mixed signal 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 work on specific projects, talk about their own work or bring demonstrations to Telluride (e.g. robots, chips, software). Wireless internet access will be provided. Technical staff present throughout the Workshop will assist with software and hardware issues. We encourage participants to bring along their personal laptop and relevant hardware.
No cars are required. Given the small size of the town, we recommend that you do not rent a car. Telluride is surrounded by beautiful mountains, so we recommend bringing hiking boots, warm clothes, rain gear, and a backpack; the town park has a swimming pool, beach volleyball, and tennis courts.
Unless otherwise arranged with one of the organizers, we expect participants to stay for the entire duration of this three week workshop.
FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS:
Notification of acceptances will be mailed after April 16th, 2023.
Unless otherwise requested, the workshop will cover your accommodations and facilities costs for the 3 weeks duration as part of the registration fees.
RegistrationFees: The registration fee is 2000 USD; it partially covers the workshop cost of lodging and facilities for the 3-week workshop. The fees are expected from all participants at the time of acceptance. Each participant is responsible for their own travel to and from the workshop.
-We will award five scholarships for the registration fees (2000 USD) funded by our NSF grant. Applicants are encouraged to indicate any financial need in their application.
Accommodations: The registration fee covers the cost of a shared condominium, typically a shared room in a condo with other workshop participants and faculty. Upgrades to a private room or condo will cost extra and will be based on availability. Note that Telluride is very expensive and workshop housing is strictly limited to what the workshop has contracted.
The 2023 Workshop on Neuromorphic Engineering is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and is supported by the Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering, University of Maryland - College Park, Institute for Neuroinformatics – University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Johns Hopkins University, Boston
University, University of Western Sydney and the Salk Institute.
Who is eligible to apply?
Applicants should be at the level of graduate (PhD) students or above (i.e. postdoctoral fellows, faculty, research and engineering staff and the equivalent positions in industry and national laboratories). We encourage women and minority candidates to apply.
Anyone interested in proposing or discussing specific projects should contact the appropriate topic leaders directly.
Application information needed:
Contact email address.
First name, Last name, Affiliation, valid e-mail address.
Curriculum Vitae (a short version, please).
Maximum one page (or less greatly preferred) summary of background and interests relevant to the workshop, including possible ideas for workshop projects. Please indicate which topic areas you would most likely join.
Two letters of recommendation (uploaded directly by references).
Selection Criteria:
Applications will be evaluated by the organizing committee according to the merits of the applicant's scientific qualifications and background, the strength of the proposed alignment to one or more topic areas, and the extent to which the applicant contributes a unique voice to a collaborative community committed to diverse viewpoints in all forms, including gender, race, affiliations, seniority, etc. Due to high interest in the workshop, we expect a competitive selection process, so please highlight in your application any information that makes clear how you can uniquely contribute to the success of our workshop and the neuromorphic research community.
Applicants will be notified by e-mail.
Questions can be addressed to the workshop co-chairs Mounya Elhilali (mounya@jhu.edu) or Terry Stewart (terry.stewart@gmail.com)
Application Materials Required:
- Curriculum Vitae
- Summary Statement
- Two reference letters (to be submitted online by the reference writers on this site )
Further Info:
3400 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21218