Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!HPLMS2.HPL.HP.COM!neuron-request From: neuron-request@HPLMS2.HPL.HP.COM ("Neuron-Digest Moderator Peter Marvit") Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets Subject: Neuron Digest V6 #66 Message-ID: <4387.658522484@hplpm.hpl.hp.com> Date: 13 Nov 90 18:54:44 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: "Neuron-Request" Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Lines: 729 Neuron Digest Tuesday, 13 Nov 1990 Volume 6 : Issue 66 Today's Topics: Re: Transputer Implementations References? Re: Evolution Post-docs at Institute for Advanced Study NIPS update preprint - associative memory in oscillating cortex Post-NIPS workshop on Associative Memory Proceedings -- ConnectFest 1990 Job Openings at CMU Posting: Conf. Announcement Send submissions, questions, address maintenance and requests for old issues to "neuron-request@hplabs.hp.com" or "{any backbone,uunet}!hplabs!neuron-request" Use "ftp" to get old issues from hplpm.hpl.hp.com (15.255.176.205). ------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Re: Transputer Implementations References? From: erik@goofy.llnl.gov (Erik Johannson) Date: Fri, 09 Nov 90 09:39:59 -0800 One of my colleagues, Tony De Groot, has successfully implemented backpropagation networks on Transputers, and has run the code with as many as 64 processors. He has presented a paper at SPIE on the method, but I can't remember the publication details. You can reach him at degroot@icdc.llnl.gov, or at the following address: Tony De Groot Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory PO Box 808, L-156 Livermore, CA 94550 Telephone: (415) 422-5496 You might be interested in a paper I recently completed on backpropagation learning using the conjugate gradient optimization method. You can get a copy via anonymous ftp (described below). If you are unable to retrieve the paper, I will be happy to send you a hard copy. Anonymous ftp instructions: The following commands should give you a copy of the paper; if they don't please let me know: ftp peabody.llnl.gov (or ftp 128.115.53.1) Name (peabody.llnl.gov:(null)): anonymous Password (peabody.llnl.gov:anonymous): anything ftp> cd neural ftp> bin ftp> get paper.Z ftp> quit The password can be anything you want except a carriage return. Also, there is no ls command available, so follow the directions exactly. The file you receive is a post script file in compressed format. To uncompress it, type: uncompress paper.Z The resulting file will be called paper. To print it, type: lpr paper or whatever the print command is for your particular post script printer. The paper is 27 pages long. If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me at the following address: Erik M. Johansson Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory PO Box 808, L-496 Livermore, CA 94550 erik@goofy.llnl.gov erik@adams.llnl.gov johansson@icdc.llnl.gov Sincerely, Erik M. Johansson ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Evolution From: UAP001%DDOHRZ11.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU, UAP001 at DDOHRZ11 Date: Tue, 13 Nov 90 16:12:31 +0700 My guess is that the proposal by Elan Moritz - that evolution is on the threshold of producing a smarter successor to h. sapiens - is wide of the mark. Development of the cortex probably stopped abruptly (after a spurt of remarkable growth) about 100,000 years ago. (Give or take a few months - - I'm easy.) Of course, nervous tissue leaves no fossils, but the major features of the brain cavity, including asymmetries, were in place; and the reasonable assumption is that the wetware hasn't changed much since then. Why should it suddenly begin to change radically now? There's certainly no evolutionary pressure to change: we're certainly not using it to capacity. Think of what (insert name of your favorite intellectual hero here) did with the available circuits. It could of course be argued that such exceptions had exceptional hardware (although there's never been convincing anatomic or histologic evidence for this). My answer would be that not only the exception, but also the average human, is undergoing a dramatic functional development. Most of us are performing intellectual activities that would have been unthinkable a century ago. Even if much of it is wasteful, and even counter- productive, it still represents an impressive achievment; and there's no sign of it levelling off. And I suppose the pessimistic view is that there's a vanishingly small chance that conditions on the earth are going to remain conducive to the evolution of anything but a super cockroach: if, in fact, some of them aren't already occupying congressional chairs. ------------------------------ Subject: Post-docs at Institute for Advanced Study From: Zhaoping Li Date: Fri, 09 Nov 90 13:20:54 -0500 THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY Anticipates the opening of one or more positions in the area of mathematical biology with emphasis on neural systems and computations. The positions are at a postdoctoral level and are for two years beginning academic year 1991-92. Applicants should send a CV and arrange for three letters of recommendations to be sent directly to Dr. Joseph J. Atick, School of Natural Sciences Institute for Advanced Study Princeton, NJ 08540 Applications should be received no later than January 20, 1991. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. ------------------------------ Subject: NIPS update From: jose@learning.siemens.com (Steve Hanson) Date: Mon, 12 Nov 90 06:11:18 -0500 A Friendly Reminder to REGISTER and get a room; its getting late: IEEE Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems -Natural and Synthetic- Monday, November 26 - Thursday, November 29, 1990 Sheraton Denver Tech Center Denver, Colorado Mail Requests For Registration Material To: Kathie Hibbard NIPS*90 Local Committee Engineering Center University of Colorado Campus Box 425 Boulder, CO 80309-0425 hibbard@boulder.colorado.edu ------------------------------ Subject: preprint - associative memory in oscillating cortex From: Bill Baird Date: Mon, 12 Nov 90 11:48:39 -0800 Preprint announcement: available by ftp from neuroprose Learning with Synaptic Nonlinearities in a Coupled Oscillator Model of Olfactory Cortex Bill Baird Depts. Mathematics, and Molecular and Cell Biology, U.C.Berkeley, Berkeley, Ca. 94720 Abstract A simple network model of olfactory cortex, which assumes only minimal coupling justified by known anatomy, can be analytically proven to function as an associative memory for oscillatory patterns. The network has explicit excitatory neurons with local inhibitory interneuron feedback that forms a set of nonlinear oscillators coupled only by long range excitatory connections. Using a local Hebb-like learning rule for primary and higher order synapses at the ends of the long range connections, the system can learn to store the kinds of oscillation amplitude and phase patterns observed in olfactory and visual cortex. Memory capacity is N/2 oscillatory attractors, N/4 chaotic attractors in an N node network. The network can be truely self-organizing because a synapse can modify itself according to it's own pre and postsynaptic activity during stimulation by an input pattern to be learned. The neurons of the neuron pools modeled here can be viewed as operating in the linear region of the usual sigmoidal axonal nonlinearity, and multiple memories are stored instead by the learned {\em synaptic} nonlinearities. Introduction We report recent results of work which seeks to narrow the gap that exists between physiologically detailed network models of real vertebrate cortical memory systems and analytically understood artificial neural networks for associative memory. The secondary olfactory sensory cortex known as prepyriform cortex is thought to be one of the clearest cases of a real biological network with associative memory function. Patterns of 40 to 80 Hz oscillation have been observed in the large scale activity (local field potentials) of olfactory cortex and visual neocortex, and shown to predict the olfactory and visual pattern recognition responses of a trained animal. Similar Observations of 40 Hz oscillation in retina, auditory cortex, motor cortex and in the EMG have been reported. It thus appears that cortical computation in general may occur by dynamical interaction of resonant modes, as has been thought to be the case in the olfactory system. Given the sensitivity of neurons to the location and arrival times of dendritic input, the sucessive volleys of pulses that are generated by the oscillation of a neural net may be ideal for the formation and reliable longe range transmission of the collective activity of one cortical area to another. The oscillation can serve a macroscopic clocking function and entrain or ``bind" the relevant microscopic activity of disparate cortical regions into a well defined phase coherent collective state or ``gestalt". This can overide irrelevant microscopic activity and help produce coordinated motor output. If this view is correct, then oscillatory network modules form the actual cortical substrate of the diverse sensory, motor, and cognitive operations now studied in static networks. It must ultimately be shown how those functions can be accomplished with oscillatory dynamics. ftp proceedure: unix> ftp cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu Name: anonymous Password: neuron ftp> cd pub/neuroprose ftp> binary ftp> get baird.oscmem.ps.Z ftp> quit unix> uncompress baird.oscmem.ps.Z unix> lpr -P(your postscript printer) baird.oscmem.ps For background papers, send e-mail to baird@icsi.berkeley.edu, giving paper or e-mail address for Tex or Postscript output. ------------------------------ Subject: Post-NIPS workshop on Associative Memory From: Jay Buckingham Date: Mon, 12 Nov 90 19:54:23 +0000 There will be a 1-day post-NIPS workshop on Associative Memory this year. This is a short summary of what we plan to do. NEUROBIOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY The 1990 ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY workshop will focus on theoretical issues relevant to the understanding of neurobiologically motivated associative memory models. We are organizing it into a set of discussions on key issues. In these discussions the workshop participants can explain how they have addressed the issue at hand in their work and hopefully improve their understanding via exchange with others. What we want are nuts-and-bolts discussions among people who have wrestled with these topics. Some of the key issues are: - Architectures for associative memories, with emphasis on partially connected, biologically motivated models, including multi-stage or modular architectures. - Synaptic learning rules - Performance measures and capacity - Information theoretic issues such as information efficiency - Thresholding techniques - Biological relevance of these models (Discussing, for example, how David Marr made functional statements about the cerebellum, hippocampus and neocortex with associative memory models.) This list is not exhaustive and the items are interrelated so we expect them to come up in various contexts. We will probably begin each discussion by formulating a few questions that the participants can address. So come with your questions about these topics and your ways of thinking about them. Jay Buckingham Cognitive Neuroscience University of Edinburgh 2 Buccleuch Place Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND Phone: (44 or 0) 31 667 1011 ext 6302 E-mail: jt%ed.cns@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk ------------------------------ Subject: Proceedings -- ConnectFest 1990 From: David Chalmers Date: Tue, 13 Nov 90 02:28:44 -0500 A small connectionist meeting, "ConnectFest 1990", was recently held at Indiana University. Here are selected highlights from the official proceedings. The full proceedings (about 3-4 times the size of this) are available on request from dave@cogsci.indiana.edu. The Frank Rosenblatt Memorial Award for best contribution was taken by Tim van Gelder, who has bravely allowed his name to be attached to his contribution at great risk to his career. For your very own ConnectFest T-shirt (only $8 each), send e-mail to Doug Blank, blank@copper.ucs.indiana.edu. Dave Chalmers (dave@cogsci.indiana.edu) Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition Indiana University. ========================================================================== Proceedings of ConnectFest 1990 -- Indiana University, November 3-4, 1990. Compiled and edited by Doug Blank and Dave Chalmers. (c) 1990, ConnectFest Publications. ---------------------------------------------------- Said the Boltzmann machine to the whore, When his temperature reached sixty-four, "This is such a great feeling I've slowed down my annealing. That way there's more time to explore." -- Mike Gasser ---------------------------------------------------- The folks from the journal Cognition Weren't more than a bad apparition. All's left of Fodor Is just a bad odor, And nobody's missin' Pylyshyn. -- Tim van Gelder ---------------------------------------------------- >From Bloomington there was a network, That tried and tried to write limericks. They didn't really rhyme, And were short one line. (But weren't entirely self-referential.) -- Doug Blank ---------------------------------------------------- A couple with bad information Got into a tight situation. They said, "We don't see --- It just cannot be We only had backpropagation!" -- Mark Weaver ---------------------------------------------------- To these still stuck in the old school, The rule is the ultimate tool. But connectionists know (The others are slow) That the rule is a tool for a fool! -- Tim van Gelder ---------------------------------------------------- These guys Fodor and Pylyshyn Came to town with a mission. But they got in a jam When faced off with RAAM Instead they should just have gone fishin'. -- Dave Chalmers ---------------------------------------------------- Said a network that was rather horny To another, "This might sound too corny, Of all of my mates, You've got the best weights, Let's optimize them until morning." -- Paul Munro ---------------------------------------------------- Once quoted a young naive RAAM "In my 3-2-3 mind I can cram All of human cognition With minor omission" But it's not that much better than SPAM. -- Devin McAuley and Gary McGraw ---------------------------------------------------- In Bloomington, geniuses gather Working a connectionist lather Did they solve the world's woes, Or compound them -- who knows? It's not a decidable matter. -- Dave Touretzky ---------------------------------------------------- "Backprop will usually converge," Rumelhart and Hinton observe. "When some people say `Brains don't work that way' We just smile and flip them the bird!" -- Pete Angeline and Viet-Anh Nguyen ---------------------------------------------------- There once was a recurrent node Who felt he was ready to explode Without stimulation Only self-excitation He swelled up and then shot his load. -- Devin McAuley and Gary McGraw ---------------------------------------------------- Pollack has made this admission Of his neural net's true composition: "I recursively RAAM it With symbols, Goddamnit! So don't pay no mind to Pylyshyn." -- Dave Touretzky ---------------------------------------------------- Minsky and Papert were cruel Which gave the symbolists fuel. Connectionists waited Till they backpropagated And now neural networks are cool. -- Paul Munro ------------------------------ Subject: Job Openings at CMU From: Alex.Waibel@SPEECH2.CS.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 13 Nov 90 02:30:50 -0500 The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University has several immediate positions at the level of Research Associate and Research Programmer. These positions are research positions without teaching obligations aimed at the development and evaluation of neural network based speech understanding systems. We are seeking strongly motivated, outstanding individuals who have a demonstrated background and research experience in at least one of the following areas and an interest and commitment to work in the others: o Speech Recognition and Understanding (Stochastic or Connectionist) o Neural Network Modeling and Connectionist System Design o System design and implementation, development of connectionist systems on fast parallel hardware, including various available supercomputers, signal processors and neural network chips. Applicants for the position of Research Associate should have completed their PhD and have a demonstrated ability to do independent innovative research in an area listed above. Applicants for the position of Research Programmer should have a B.S. or M.S. degree and be interested in performing independent research and in developing innovative system solutions. Carnegie Mellon University is one of the leading institutions in Computer Science and offers an exciting and challenging environment for research in the areas listed above. The connectionist group at CMU, is one of the most active research teams in this area in the US, and provides a stimulating environment for innovative research. It also maintains a lively interaction with other departments, including Psychology, the Center for Machine Translation, and Computational Linguistics. Interested individuals should send a complete curriculum vitae listing three references to: Dr. Alex Waibel School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittburgh, PA 15213 Email: waibel@cs.cmu.edu ------------------------------ Subject: Posting: Conf. Announcement From: WANG@nbivax.nbi.dk Date: Wed, 07 Nov 90 10:53:00 +0100 ------------------------------------------------------------ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NOVEL METHODS IN OPTIMIZATION February 7 - 8, 1991 arranged by NORDITA Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics Copenhagen and DIKU Department of Computer Science University of Copenhagen supported by funding from Nordic Initiative for Neural Computation (NINC) ------------------------------------------------------------ In recent years there has been an increasing interest in using neural networks, simulated annealing, and genetics as modelling frames of reference to construct novel search heuristics for solving hard optimization problems. Algorithms constructed in this way, together with tabu search, constitute promising new approaches to optimization and are the subjects of this conference. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers in classical optimization and researchers working with the novel methods, thus enabling a fruitful exchange of information and results. An important part of the conference will be a tutorial presentation of both classical and new methods to establish a common base for discussion among the participants. Tutorial session. ----------------- The first day of the conference will be devoted to introductory lectures given by invited speakers. The lectures will be on: * Classical Optimization. a) Laurence Wolsey, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics, Universite de Louvain, Belgium: Introduction to Classical Optimization: P-problems and their solution. b) Susan Powell, London School of Economics: Introduction to Classical Optimization: NP-problems and their solution. * Neural Networks. Carsten Peterson, Lund University, Sweden: The use of neural networks and optimization. * Simulated Annealing. (Speaker to be announced later) * Genetic Algorithms. (Speaker to be announced later) * Tabu Search. (Speaker to be announced later) * Statistical Mechanics. Marc Mezard, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris: "Formal statistical mechanical methods in optimization problems." About the speakers: Laurence A. Wolsey is Professor of Applied Mathematics at CORE and is one of the leading researchers in the field of computational mathematical programming. He received the Beale-Orchard-Hays prize for his work in 1988, and is one of the authors of the widely used book "Integer and Combinatorial Optimization". Susan Powell is Lecturer in Operations Research at London School of Economics and is well known for her work on Fortran Codes for linear and integer programs. She has a solid background in prac- tical problem solving through her contacts with industry and British OR companies. Carsten Peterson is Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at Lund University. He is co-inventor of the deterministic Boltzmann learning algorithm for symmetric recurrent networks and a leader in applications of neural networks to optimization problems. Marc Mezard is Lecturer in Physics at the Ecole Nomale Superieure, Paris. Together with his colleagues there and their coworkers at the University of Rome, he pioneered the application of methods from the statistical mechanics of random systems to optimizaation problems. Contributed Papers. ------------------- The second day of the conference will be devoted to selected half-hour contributed presentations. An abstract of each paper submitted for presentation should be mailed or e-mailed to: Prof. Jens Clausen DIKU, Dept. of Computer Science Universitetsparken 1, DK-2100 Copenhagen OE Denmark. e-mail: clausen@diku.dk before December 15, 1990. Authors of accepted papers will be notified before January 15, 1991. (No proceedings will be published). Poster Sessions. ---------------- On both seminar days there will be poster sessions. An abstract of the poster should be mailed or e-mailed to Prof. Jens Clausen DIKU, Dept. of Computer Science Universitetsparken 1, DK-2100 Copenhagen OE Denmark. e-mail: clausen@diku.dk before December 15, 1990. Authors of accepted posters will be notified before January 15, 1991. Registration. ------------- The registration fee is 500 DKK (or equivalent in other covertible currency) and covers coffee/tea and lunch both days as well as an informal conference dinner on the evening of February 7. To register please fill in the form below and mail it together with the registrations fee to the address given on the form. No credit cards accepted. Cheques or Eurocheques should be payable to OPTIMIZATION CONFERENCE. The organizing commitee must receive your registration form January 15, 1991 the latest, and the final program will be mailed by January 22, 1991. Travel support for Nordic participants. --------------------------------------- A limited amount of money from NINC is reserved for paying the travel costs of participants from the Nordic countries, especially younger researchers. If you would like to apply for this support, please indicate on the registration form. Accommodation. -------------- The organizing commitee has reserved a certain number of hotel rooms. Please indicate on the registration form if you would like the conference to book one for you. ------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NOVEL METHODS IN OPTIMIZATION February 7 - 8, 1991 ------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION FORM ------------------------------------------------------------- Name:_______________________________________________ Affiliation:_______________________________________________ Address:_______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Telephone no.:_______________________________________________ e-mail:_______________________________________________ If you want the conference to reserve you a hotel room, please indicate here for which nights: ______________________________________________________________ Nordic participants: If you want to be considered for travel support, please indicate your needs here: ______________________________________________________________ Mail this registration form to: John Hertz NORDITA Blegdamsvej 17 DK-2100 Copenhagen OE, Denmark For further information: e-mail: hertz@nordita.dk FAX: [+45] 31 38 91 57 ------------------------------ End of Neuron Digest [Volume 6 Issue 66] ****************************************