BMI 831, BMI 861 and BMI 871 2015: tuition-free for full-time students

Important dates: 
Course applications (to get admitted so that you can register): by Sunday, May 17, 2015 (extended)
ICBM full papers: by Sunday, May 17, 2015
ICBM abstracts: by Sunday, May 17, 2015
Advance registration: by Sunday, May 24, 2015

Submit your summer school application, just like submitting a paper/abstract but into the Course Track, at the BMI CMT site

Submit a full paper (into the Paper Track) or an abstract (into the Abstract Track) at the BMI CMT site.

International Conference on Brain-Mind 2015
(BMI Workshop on Brain-Mind)
Jointly with IJCNN 2015
1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
July 16, 2015
Killarney, Ireland

Invited Talks

Yoonsuck Choe
Texas A&M University, USA

De-Shuang Huang
Tongji University, China

Asim Roy
Arizona State University, USA

Leonid Perlovsky
Harvard University, USA

Juyang Weng
Michigan State University, USA

Questions for the Discussuon Session
(uncder construsction)

- In what sense is the brain similar and at the same time dissimilar to a computer?

- How can this comparison help us design a new kind of computer?

- Does distributed representation make a neural network a serial processor?

- Is there a doubt that single cells can have “meaning and interpretation?”

- Are aesthetic emotions different from basic emotions?

- What are their functions in cognition?

- How many aesthetic emotions exist?

- How can we measure aesthetic emotions?

- How can Universal Turing Machines help us understand brain operations?

- Are brains super Universal Turing Machines?  If yes, in what senses?

Call for ICBM Papers and Abstracts

BMI Internal Conference on Brain-Mind (ICBM) calls for papers in all subjects related to brain or mind. It is not required that each paper should address a brain-scale or mind-scale problem. The subjects of interest include, but not limited to:

1. Genes: inheritance, evolution, species, environments, nature vs. nurture, and evolution vs. development.
2. Cells: cell models, cell learning, cell signaling, tissues, morphogenesis, and tissue development.
3. Circuits: features, clustering, self-organization, cortical circuits, Brodmann areas, representation, classification, and regression.
4. Streams: pathways, intra-modal attention, vision, audition, touch (including kinesthetics, temperature), smell, and taste.
5. Brain ways: neural networks, brain-mind architecture, inter-modal attention, multisensory integration, and neural modulation (punishment/serotonin/pain, reward/dopamine/pleasure/sex, novelty/acetylcholine/norepinephrine, higher emotion).
6. Experiences/learning: training, learning, development, interaction, performance metrics, and functions of genome.
7. Behaviors: actions, motor development, concept learning, abstraction, languages, decision making, reasoning, and creativity.
8. Societies/multi-agent: joint attention, swarm intelligence, group intelligence, genders, races, science of organization, constitutions, laws, and cultures.
9. Diseases: depression, ADD/ADHD, drug addiction, dyslexia, autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, vision loss, and hearing loss.
10. Applications: image analysis, computer vision, speech recognition, pattern recognition, robotics, artificial intelligence, instrumentation, and prosthetics.

Papers that address issues of multiple disciplines are encouraged. Theoretical and position papers that are of wide interest are also welcome. BMI also strives to tolerate new and controversial perspectives. Participants of BMI courses are especially encouraged to submit papers as their presentations of research results are an integral part of BMI programs.

Papers and abstracts submitted are to be peer-reviewed by the BMI International Program and Conference Committees.

Full papers will be presented orally or as poster at ICBM, according to authors marked preference. Accepted abstracts will be presented orally at ICBM. Each paper will be maximum 8 pages but not all the full papers must be 8-page long. Papers must use the IEEE manuscript templates for conference proceedings (choose US-letter size). Accepted full papers will be published in the ICBM Proceedings available online at the BMI web site.

Abstracts must be no longer than one page including bibliographic citations. You may cut and paste text during the online submission for a brief abstract (like that in a paper) and then submit a formatted extended abstract (1 letter size page) using the IEEE format that ICBM papers use. No figures or tables can be included. You should fill the entire letter-size page fully with text but the number of references is not more than 4. Authors of accepted abstracts will give an oral summary presentation. Abstracts will be published in the conference proceedings on-line at the BMI web site.

Call for BMI Course Applications

BMI summer courses 2015 will have three sessions, as listed in the following table. BMI courses encourage on site participation to interact with the instructors and students. For those who have difficulties to be on site for a total duration for each course, material for course lectures is available in digital form for those who have enrolled to take the distance learning option.

• The BMI courses are designed for anybody who has finished high school (K12 in the U.S.), including faculty, senior researchers, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduate students in any discipline. Exceptional high school students can be considered on a case by case basis.
• Those who do not take a BMI course can also register for only ICBM.

One must apply and get admitted before he can register for a course. To apply, submit the BMI course application form online and attach your detailed curriculum vitae (CV) with sufficient information about the BMI admission criteria. The criteria for BMI course admission include: (a) A doctoral degree, a master degree, a bachelor degree, or a transcript in an ongoing bachelor program. (b) Evidence showing that the applicant has a potential to become a future leader in a related career.

The BMI course application form will ask each applicant to specify the order of preferences for the courses. Offering of a course is subject to a minimum number of advance enrollments. BMI will try to meet the preferences of as many qualified applications as possible.

The members of the sponsoring societies are entitled to pay member rates.

Submit your summer school application (just like submitting a paper/abstract but into the BMI summer school track). Through this summer school application, you apply for admission to BMI. Your will make registration to courses and exams only after your admission. During the online application, you will submit a short abstract about your statement of purpose for BMI admission (maximum 2000 characters), answer the questions for your preferred courses, and submit your detailed CV as an attached file.

Audit BMI Courses

To serve the demands from those who wish to learn the subjects of BMI course but do not wish to consistently do homework, take examinations, and receive a BMI course certificate, BMI has a course category called auditing. A person auditing a BMI course does not need to apply for the BMI admission first and thus can simply register for courses during the registration stage. It is possible for a person in the auditing category to do sufficient homework and take the final exam to pass a course. In this case, he can also receive the corresponding BMI course certificate after applying for the corrresponding exam. However, we expect that such cases are relatively rare, since passing a course requires at least 60% of the composite score.

The registration fees for auditing a course are the same as those for taking the course. Since the number of seats in a classroom is limited (30), the priority for course registration is given to those who have been admitted to BMI. There are only a few seats remaining for each BMI course, registrations for auditing BMI courses are accepted on a first come first serve basis. Paid auditing registrations that do not get the applied seat will receive a full refund.

Applicants from Region A pay the regular registration below. Applicants from region B are qualified for a 50% reduction of registration but not applicable to audition. Region A： North America, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Russia. Region B: all other countries, including South America, China, and all other Asian countries.

Course Packages

Those who prefer to learn at their own pace can get the corresponding course packages. Each package includes one administration (exams) valid for a year after the purcahse. The material for each BMI course is meant for one participant and is protected by copyrights.

Room and Board

• Housing at Owen Graduate Center has single occupancy bedrooms, where to bedrooms share an adjoining bathroom.  They are not air conditioned, and meals can be purchased a la carte from Riverwalk Market, on the first floor of Owen Graduate Center. 0.2 miles (300 meters), 4 minutes of walk to the BMI course site and the ICBM site.

• Super 8 East Lansing / University Area Microwave and Refrigerator. 1.5 miles (2.4 km), 29 minutes of walk to the MSU Chemistry Building.
  
  
• University Quality Inn Complementary breakfast and wireless Internet. Microwave and Refrigerator. 2.3 miles (3.7 km), 45 minutes of walk to the MSU Chemistry Building. The University Quality Inn is offering BMI participants complementary shuttle service to and from the Lansing Airport and to and from the MSU Chemistry Building. As guests call in, they can register for drop off and pick up from the Chemistry Building during their stays.
  
  
• Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center: 1.8mi, 28 minutes of walk to BPSB, complementary shuttle to the Lansing Capital City Airport
  
  
• East Lansing Marriott at University Place: 1.2mi, 23 minutes of walk to BPSB, complementary shuttle to the Lansing Capital City Airport