Messages From the Chairs

The mind is what the brain does. Therefore, mapping a mind model to the corresponding brain seems to not only deepen our understanding of brain and mind, but also unveil computational underpinnings and principles. That is why the words “Brain-Mind” are hyphenated in the name of the Brain-Mind Institute (BMI)

Collectively, the human race seems ready to unveil one of its last mysteries — how its brain-mind works at computational depth. The term computational depth here means not only qualitative mechanisms, but also quantitative mechanisms that are sufficient to give rise to major brain-mind functions, from earlier animals, to humans, to machines, and to group intelligence thereof, through computation. From the knowledge required for a recently synthesized grand computational picture of the brain-mind and many other partial computational pictures, it seems that the research community urgently needs a large number of researchers who have sufficient knowledge in at least six disciplines conjunctively — Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Mathematics (6 disciplines). Such 6-discipline knowledge is needed for understanding brain-mind, either natural or artificial, in many scales that the Institute is interested in — genes, cells, circuits, streams, brain ways, experiences, behaviors, societies, and diseases. Traditional multidisciplinary projects are useful but insufficient.

While increasingly more researchers are converging to this high-impact brain-mind subject, they face great challenges: The existing educational and research infrastructure was not meant for this brain-mind scale. The BMI intends to provide an integrated 6-discipline academic and research infrastructure for researchers of brain-mind research. The BMI is a new kind of institute, not limited by boundaries of disciplines, organizations, and geographic locations.

Run by the BMI, the International Conference on Brain-Mind (ICBM) provides a multi-disciplinary communication platform for exchanging latest research ideas and results. This environment is an integrated part of the BMI program. This is the first year for BMI and ICBM. BMI 2012 has received course registrations from 20 applicants. ICBM 2012 has received 39 registrations. Each submission has been reviewed by two or more reviewers. ICBM 2012 includes keynote talks, invited talks, talks from submitted papers, and talks from submitted abstracts. The brain-mind subjects are highly multidisciplinary. We hope that our review system can continue to improve to catch up the demands of new research.

Welcome to East Lansing!

Jiaguo Qi, ICBM Program Co-Chair

George Stockman, ICBM Program Co-Chair

Yang Wang, ICBM Program Co-Chair

Juyang Weng, ICBM General Chair