Late News: Publication will take the form of a special issue of the International Journal of Neural Systems: Volume 9 Number 5. It's out! We have taken delivery of 50 copies. All delegates will receive a copy of the journal by post, early in the New Year.

Index:

• Overview
• Programme and abstracts
• Publication
• Invited Speakers
• Registration
• Biorobotics session
• How to get to Stirling University

Overview.

Neuromorphic systems are implementations in silicon of systems whose architecture and design are based on neurobiology. This growing area proffers exciting possibilities such as sensory systems which can compete with human senses, pattern recognition systems that can run in real-time and neuron models that can truly emulate living neurons. Neuromorphic systems are at the intersection of neuroscience, computer science and electrical engineering.

We are grateful to the Gatsby Charitable Foundation for their generous support of this workshop.

The meeting builds on the success of the First European Workshop on Neuromorphic Systems (EWNS1), held in Stirling in August 1997. It is being held jointly by the Department of Computer Science at the University of Stirling, and the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. The location is one of the most beautiful campuses in Europe, and is centrally located in Scotland. It is easily reached by plane (to Glasgow or Edinburgh, both 1 hour away) train, bus, or car.

The purpose of this meeting is to bring together active researchers and research students from different areas of this interdisciplinary field. We invite contributions both from engineers who want to implement systems based on neurobiology, and neurobiologists who want to produce engineering implementations of systems, as well as from modellers and theoreticians from all the relevant disciplines.

The meeting is intended both for the reporting of results, and for discussion about the way forward in neuromorphic systems:

• What should the role of neuromorphic systems be? Learning about neurobiological systems by rebuilding them, or engineering new solutions to problems in sensory perception using what we know about animal sensory perception?
• Can biologically-inspired techniques provide the basis for real improvements in auditory/ visual/ olfactory/ sensorimotor systems or prostheses?
• NEW: There will be a special session on biorobotics, organised by Barbara Webb.
• How should neuromorphic systems be implemented? In software or hardware? As dedicated VLSI devices? In analogue or digital hardware? Should particular methodologies or specific transistor characteristics be used?
• Can cognitive science be informed by what neuromorphic systems have to tell us?
• Should biology be the guide for the evolution of silicon technologies, or should their evolution be guided by their own properties?

Programme

Invited Speakers

Publication.

We are producing a special issue of the International Journal of Neural Systems instead of a proceedings. Instructions for authors are now available.

We have now sent the papers (camera-ready) off to Singapore, to World Scientific who are the publishers of IJNS. I am led to understand that the papers will be published as Volume 9 No 5 (Oct 1999). The expected publication date is 20 December. All delegates will be sent a copy of the publication as soon as I receive them (which  is to say, early in Jan 2000).

email: lss@cs.stir.ac.uk
FAX (44) 1786 464551
Tel (44) 1786 467435

Dr. Leslie Smith,
Department of Computing Science and Mathematics,
University of Stirling,
Stirling FK9 4LA,
Scotland

Key Dates

Submission Deadline was April 6^th 1999
Notification of Acceptances have now been sent out.
And the  programme is out as well
...and...
We'd like author's postcript camera-ready copy by 15 October!

Publication date (IJNS 9, 5) is 20 Dec 1999
 

The Biorobotics Session.

A variety of different animal systems are currently being investigated using this methodology. This session  aims to present recent work and to reflect on the promises and challenges facing this field.

Papers for this session should be submitted under the same procedure as other papers for EWNS and marked "Biorobotics". If you would like to contribute to a robot demo/video session please contact Barbara Webb at b.h.webb@stir.ac.uk
 

Meeting format:
 
 

The meeting was a single-track meeting so that all attendees could go to all the meetings. Accepted papers were be presented (we plan for 20 minutes + time for discussion).
 
 

Organising Committee:
 
 

Leslie S. Smith, Department of Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling.
Alister Hamilton, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Edinburgh.
Catherine Breslin, Department of Computing Science and Mathematics, University of Stirling.
Barbara Webb, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling.
 

Registration Fees

	Before 1 July 1999	After 1 July 1999
Academic	£130	£170
Industrial/Commercial	£250	£300
Full-time Ph.D. Student	£30	£50

Full-time Ph.D. students who register at the Ph.D. student rate must enclose letter signed by their supervisor, stating that they are full-time Ph.D. students, They may also be able to claim towards their expenses: please contact the organisers.

Accommodation is available in student residences at £18.77/night.  There is plenty of higher quality accommodation available.

The Registration Form is available.
 

Provisional Programme Committee: