FENS-SfN Summer school: Artificial and natural computations for sensory perception: what is the link?

External Event - 7th to 13th Jun 2020

Deadline for application: 3 February 2020 (Midnight, Brussels time/CET)

• Fee: FENS Members: 520 EUR
           FENS Non-members: 640 EUR
• Registration fee covers tuition, accommodation and meals.
• FENS offers 4 stipends (covering the registration fee) available for candidates from disadvantaged countries. Any applicant in need of a grant should however first try to request it from the lab, institution or government if possible. You can apply for a stipend inside the application form. 
• Please note that if you already benefited from a FENS training grant in 2020, you are not eligible to receive a stipend.

Venue

Bertinoro, Training Center of the University of Bologna, Italy

Recent advances in machine learning have yielded deep neural network models with impressive performance in artificial perception, based in part on principles established by experimental studies of sensory neuroscience. This is an exciting time for research in this field, as such models provide quantitative theories for the key computations that give rise to perception in biological sensory systems. However, unlike brains, current deep neural network models are often brittle and do not generalize well to new situations. At the same time, many structural and functional aspects of real sensory systems appear to be incompatible with the very simple design of neural networks used in artificial intelligence (AI).

In this school, we will discuss analogies and discrepancies between sensory system computations and artificial intelligence models and how the two fields can interact more to advance each other. A set of international lectures will provide an overview of modern algorithms in artificial intelligence and recent breakthroughs in the neural mechanisms of sensory perception.

The students will also learn how to practically implement machine learning tools from recent AI technologies, such as deep neural networks, and to apply them in concrete example relevant for neuroscience experimental or theoretical research.

Please note that this school will require pre-school preparations in programmes such as Python. More information will be provided after the selected students have been invited to attend.