This meeting will explore how connectomes can be best utilized by bringing together experts spanning the range of expertise required to make use of connectomics, including systems neuroscientists, computational modelers, and theoreticians. Recent successes in the field of connectomics will be covered as well as computational methods for modeling connectomes, ranging from statistical modeling of graphs and networks to dynamical neural network modeling. The format will combine short talks and posters with ample time for formal and informal discussions.

By assembling experts from around the world in the field of sensorimotor control and motor learning, this workshop aims to 1) highlight recent advances in sensorimotor behavior, neural circuits, and neuronal coding, 2) bridge the gap between research in different model systems by defining behavioral paradigms, sharing technical advances, and exploring different conceptual models, and 3) expose or highlight key outstanding questions in the field.

Application deadline: January 5, 2018 (11:59 p.m. ET)

The goal of this meeting is to synthesize the fundamental insights gleaned from classic studies of the VNC, and to identify outstanding questions that can be answered as these new tools begin to be applied to VNC circuits. The major themes will be: 1) motor control of walking and flight, 2) mechanosensory processing of touch and proprioception, and 3) descending and ascending communication with the central brain. Presentations and discussions will cover current approaches for studying the VNC using electrophysiology, functional imaging, behavior, and anatomy.

This conference will bring together experimental and computational researchers from neurobiology, distributed computing, animal collective behavior, machine learning, and bio-inspired swarm robotics, with the goal of identifying common challenges and inspiring new solution methods. All of these fields aim to understand systems in which data is processed in distributed form by harnessing efficient, parallel, learnable and scalable operation of simple, locally informed, units.

Topics will cover aspects of modern protein engineering, particularly as it pertains to making tools for biology. Examples include genetically encoded sensors for molecules or cellular states; light-, temperature-, or ligand-gated effectors of cell state; fluorescent proteins; labels for light or electron microscopy; tools for improving the performance and/or analysis of next-generation sequencing; viruses or other transgene delivery agents, etc.