Important dates:
Monday March 14, 2016: recommendation of learning engines
Monday April 11, 2016: deadline for application for admission and application for BMI fellowship (extended to May 2, 2016)
Monday April 25, 2016: deadline for advance registration of BMI courses and AIML Contest entries (extended to May 9, 2016)
May 30 - June 17, 2016: distance learning course for the first three weeks
June 20 - July 8, 2016: distance learning course for the second three weeks
July 11 - July 29, 2016: distance learning course for the third three weeks
Aug. 1 - Aug. 14, 2016: workshops (free for one person of each AIML Contest entry, distance or on site)
Sept. 5, 2016: Performance run by contest entries due by noon
May 16, 2017: AIML Contest Panel: Contest announcements, sponsor awards, contest presentations, and AIML 2017 kick-off

The AIML Contest:
Full Automation of Machine Learning 

You may be familiar with the phrase "machine learning", but you probably are not familiar with the phrase "full automation of machine learning." Some may think that traditional reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms are fully automatic machine learning, but they are not. This is because they are task-specific: In those algorithms, the programmer must inject task-specific representations. We think that both the poor performance and the high brittleness of traditional machine learning algorithms have to do with the lack of full automation in the machine learning community.  The full automation does not mean without-any-teacher. The fully automation is inside the "skull of brain" from infancy to adulthood, while the teachers are in its external environment. The new AIML Contest promotes full automation of machine learning, like a brain --- a hall mark of Autonomous Mental Development (AMD).

Brain-Mind Talk 1: How Brains Work. Youtube site. Youku site.

Contest web

BMI Summer School and ICBM 2016 

2016 is the 5th year of BMI summer school. It is also the first time that the summer school is run with the AIML Contest.

Preliminary Schedule of BMI Summer 2016

Dates and Venues	Program	Explanation
Mon. May 30, 2016 - Fri. June 17, 2016 (3 weeks) East Lansing, MI USA	BMI 831 Cognitive Science for Brain-Mind Research Instructor: Juyang Weng Distance learning only Full time students: tuition-free	BMI 831 certificate is issued for those who pass the course. Exam results are private and confidential. Auditing (without taking exam and certificate) also requires a full registration.
Mon. June 20, 2016 - Fri. July 8, 2016 (3 weeks) East Lansing, MI USA	BMI 861 Brain Automata Instructor: Juyang Weng Distance learning only Full time students: tuition-free	BMI 831 certificate is issued for those who pass the course. Exam results are private and confidential. Auditing (without taking exam and certificate) also requires a full registration.
Mon. July 11, 2016 - Fri. July 29, 2016 (3 weeks) East Lansing, MI USA	BMI 871 Computational Brain-Mind Instructor: Juyang Weng Distance learning only Full time students: tuition-free	BMI 871 certificate is issued for those who pass the course. Exam results are private and confidential. Auditing (without taking exam and certificate) also requires a full registration.
Mon. Aug. 1 2016 - Sunday Aug. 14, 2016 East Lansing, MI USA	Workshops for the AIML Contest On-site or distance learning Free to all registered Contest participants	They are organized by some engine providers.  Participants learn how to use the learning engines to construct their own machine leaners.  While you are learning through the workshop, you interactively improve your contest entry.
Noon Sept. 5, 2016 (EDT)	AIML Contest results due through email only	You finish your modification of the supplied program for each of three modalities and its data, image, language, and speech.
May 16, 2017 Anchorage, Alaska USA	The AIML Contest Panel and the International Conference on Brain-Mind 9:20am - 10:40am: AIML Contest Panel (1): Awards and Contest Presentations 11:00am - 12:20pm: AIML Contest Panel (2): AIML Contest 2017 Engine Download and Introductions	Contest result announcements, sponsor awards, AIML Contest Engine hand-on download (yes, bring your laptop with you) and introduction, questions and ansawers   Video is also available so travel is not absolutely necessary.

Regardless whether one is a contest participant or not, to take BMI courses he 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 organizations are entitled to pay member rates. Sponsor organizations to be determined.

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 corresponding 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.

Regions: 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.

Registration Fees

Registration Types	By May 9, 2016	After May 9, 2016
3-course (Region A)	$2740	$2944
2-course (Region A)	$2040	$2244
1-course (Region A)	$1168	$1372
3-course (Region B)	$1370	$1472
2-course (Region B)	$1020	$1122
1-course (Region B)	$584	$686
3-course (Full-Time Student)	$270	$300
2-course (Full-Time Student)	$180	$200
1-course (Full-Time Student)	$90	$100
AIML Contest (per entry)	$270	$300
ICDL only	$270	$300

Room and Board
(for those who like to attend Workshop and ICBM Conference onsite)

• 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.

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