The lecture will take place Nov. 9 at 2pm in the Robert McEwen Auditorium, W141 Seymour Schulich Building, Keele campus. A reception will follow the talk.

Brains need to make quick sense of massive amounts of ambiguous information with minimal energy costs and have evolved an intriguing mixture of analog and digital mechanisms to allow this efficiency. Analog electrical and biochemical signals inside neurons are used for integrating synaptic inputs from other neurons. The digital part is the all-or-none action potential, or spike, that lasts for a millisecond or less and is used to send messages over a long distance.

Terry Sejnowski

"Spike coincidences occur when neurons fire together at nearly the same time," says Sejnowski. "In this lecture I will show how rare spike coincidences can be used efficiently to represent important visual events and how this architecture can be implemented with analog Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) technology to simplify the early stages of visual processing."

Sejnowski is professor and laboratory head of the Computational Neurobiology laboratory. He is considered to be a pioneer in computational neuroscience and his goal is to understand the principles that link brain to behavior. His laboratory uses both experimental and modeling techniques to study the biophysical properties of synapses and neurons and the population dynamics of large networks of neurons.

Among other things, Sejnowski is interested in the hippocampus, believed to play a major role in learning and memory; and the cerebral cortex, which holds our knowledge of the world and how to interact with it. In his lab, Sejnowski's team uses sophisticated electrical and chemical monitoring techniques to measure changes that occur in the connections among nerve cells in the hippocampus during a simple form of learning. They use the results of these studies to instruct large-scale computers to mimic how these nerve cells work. By studying how the resulting computer simulations can perform operations that resemble the activities of the hippocampus, Sejnowski hopes to gain new knowledge of how the human brain is capable of learning and storing memories. This knowledge ultimately may provide medical specialists with critical clues to combating Alzheimer's disease and other disorders that rob people of the critical ability to remember faces, names, places and events.

Sejnowski has published more than 300 scientific papers and 12 books, including The Computational Brain (1992), with Patricia Churchland. He received his PhD in physics from Princeton University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. He was on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University and now holds the Francis Crick Chair at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He is a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he is co-director of the Institute for Neural Computation and co-director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) . Sejnowski is the president of the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) Foundation, which organizes an annual conference attended by over 1000 researchers in machine learning and neural computation and is the founding editor-in-chief of Neural Computation published by the MIT Press.

An investigator with the , he is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He has received many honors, including the NSF Young Investigators Award, the Wright Prize for interdisciplinary research from the Harvey Mudd College, the Neural Network Pioneer Award from the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers and the Hebb Prize from the International Neural Network Society.

Sejnowski was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2008, to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 and to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011. He is one of only 10 living persons to be a member of all three national academies.

The Ian P. Howard Lecture Series in Vision Science provides a venue for world-renowned vision researchers to deliver lectures on their findings.

The series was established in 2006 to celebrate Howard’s enormous contributions to the international reputation of 91��ɫ's Centre for Vision Research. Howard’s own research investigates the fundamental mechanisms that enable humans to orient themselves and perceive the three-dimensional layout of their surroundings.

For further information, contact Teresa Manini, administrative assistant, Centre for Vision Research, at manini@cvr.yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

The post Renowned vision researcher to deliver the next Ian P. Howard Lecture appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Led by Professor Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair in Canadian Cultural Landscapes and professor of Canadian Studies at Glendon College, the project is expected to cast light on the impacts of an earlier period of economic “globalization” as a way of better understanding the challenges of current practices. It is one of eight projects across Canada that has been granted funding in the 2011 Digging into Data Challenge.

Fourteen teams representing Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States have been awarded grants to investigate how computational techniques can be applied to “big data” to change the nature of humanities and social sciences research. Each team represents collaborations among scholars, scientists and librarians from leading universities worldwide.

Coates, who is also the director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at 91��ɫ, is one of the principal investigators on the project titled Trading Consequences, which received $125,000 in funding. The project will examine the economic and environmental consequences of commodity trading during the 19th century and employs information extraction techniques to study large corpora of digitized documents from the 19th century. This innovative digital resource will allow historians to discover novel patterns and to explore new hypotheses through structured query and a variety of visualization tools.

"Our team of environmental historians is excited to be partners with the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews in the Trading Consequences project. Canadian economic development has historically been defined by commodity flows, and it is important to understand the environmental impacts of this commerce in the past, just as it is today. The focus on Canadian data will test the techniques created through this collaborative project for mapping the scope and impact of international trade in the 19th century," said Coates.

“91��ɫ is proud to receive recognition in the 2011 Digging into Data Challenge,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ’s vice-president research & innovation. “These important research projects advance knowledge as researchers work collaboratively and internationally to find new ways to analyze, search for and store data using digital and electronic technologies.”

“The Digging into Data Challenge is an international initiative that enables Canadian researchers to take advantage of the huge digital resources now available and to develop close partnerships with overseas universities,” said Chad Gaffield, president of the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). “These exciting projects cross both disciplines and national borders; they lead to new insights into human thought and behaviour.”

The successful cohort of projects received a total of nearly $5 million in funding from eight international research funding agencies. SSHRC’s contribution of $869,117 will support Canadian researchers from eight of the fourteen teams.  

For more information, visit the ���ɱ�������ٱ�.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Professor Colin Coates to dig into data on international commodity trading appeared first on Research & Innovation.

The summit will bring together education leaders (administrators, superintendents, principals, deans, faculty, teacher-leaders), private and not-for-profit sector leaders for a dialogue and discussion about involving people in the change necessary to achieve new learning cultures that are supported by the effective use of technology.

The one-day summit consists of two sessions in the morning ("Exploring the Leadership Required for New Learning Cultures – A Personal Experience" and "Learning and Leading: A Practical Approach to Engage Change"). Delegates will split into break-out groups in the afternoon to discuss Leading a New Learning Culture – Becoming a Narrative Champion. 

"This summit is a great leadership learning opportunity for 91��ɫ employees involved in the Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) projects that began earlier this academic year," noted Janet Murphy, ABEL program director. The AIF initiative provides support to faculty in order to advance innovation and change at 91��ɫ in the areas of teaching, learning and the student experience.

"This innovation and change on campus perfectly complements the topics that will be discussed at the summit," said Murphy.

Speakers and facilitators for the summit include: Dean Shareski, a digital learning consultant for Prairie South School Division in Saskatchewan; Alec Couros, a professor of educational technology and media and the coordinator of information and communications technology at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina; and George Couros, the division principal of innovative teaching & learning for Parkland School Division in Alberta.

Right: Dean Shareski

In addition to the face-to-face event in February, delegates are also invited to participate in two virtual learning sessions happening in the spring – “Understanding the New Learning Culture and Learner Footprint” and “Celebrating and Planning the Way Forward”.

Left: George Couros

These virtual sessions will be easy to join, and details on how to participate will be provided the day of the summit. The virtual sessions will be hosted by the speakers and facilitators from Feb. 10. Descriptions of the virtual sessions are as follows:

Understanding the New Learning Culture and Learner Footprint 

This session will explore the specifics of citizenship in a digital context. Rather than focusing upon prevention, participants will develop ideas to create and contribute to purposeful, engaged citizenship while learning online. These ideas will be explored and shared within the context of digital literacy, job-embedded learning, and engagement with parents, family and community.

Right: Alec Couros��������

Celebrating and Planning the Way Forward  

This session will provide delegates with an opportunity for “show and tell”, sharing their successes and challenges in implementing new learning cultures. This session is about reflecting upon your own professional growth and learning from fellow participants’ strategies that engaged systems in change and learning more about the road ahead.

To learn more or to register you and/or your team, please visit the website.

As part of the Professional Learning Program, ABEL offers two face-to-face conferences every year – the Leadership Summit in the winter and the ABEL Summer Institute.

Look for information about the ABEL Summer Institute .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post ABEL Leadership Summit to focus on change and creating learning cultures appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Visual arts Professor Anna Hudson is currently researching the circumpolar cultural shift from the visual artwork created by generations past to feed a hungry collectors’ market in the south, to a new generation of artists who are using words, music and digital media to create work for northern audiences.

With support from the , Hudson's research project, “Breaking the Boundaries of Inuit Art: New Contexts for Cultural Influence”, addresses the gap between the established Inuit visual arts and the increasingly relevant time-based media, performance and autobiographical storytelling produced primarily for Inuit audiences.

“While there’s still a market for carvings and prints, and they’re an economic resource for the Inuit, they are also very resource-intensive,” said Hudson, who was the associate curator of Canadian art at the Art Gallery of Ontario prior to joining 91��ɫ. “In the past, many artists had access to these resources through co-ops, but such art centres are now fading away and it seems the next generation isn’t interested in continuing these market-based art practices.

[stream provider=youtube flv=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DzWFZOXZbdUU%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded img=x:/img.youtube.com/vi/zWFZOXZbdUU/0.jpg embed=false share=false width=400 height=300 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high autostart=false /]

“Today, young artists in the north are working with everything from hip hop-influenced music and fashion to performance poetry, beat and throat boxing, and video. They’re disseminating their work by digital means. And they’re looking for opportunities to travel with it, to perform or create their work live – unlike the generations of visual artists whose work was shipped away while they remained at the co-op in their community.”

While the mediums these up-and-coming Inuit artists are exploring are common in the south, there is often a distinctly northern feel to what they create.

“Beat boxing has been combined with throat singing to become throat boxing,” said Hudson. “And the poetry, whether it’s written for spoken word or as lyrics to songs, is deeply connected to the artists’ personal experiences. Often, it’s very dark, reflecting on issues such as the extremely high suicide rate in the north.”

Hudson’s research award has allowed her to make several trips to communities in Nunavik and Nunavut in the Canadian north, and to bring northern artists south to Toronto and Ottawa. Most recently, she organized a four-day artists workshop and a two-day concert, co-produced by in Iqaluit, Nunavut to celebrate both National Aboriginal Day, June 21, and the end of term with School’s Out performances.

Aided by her graduate assistant Jean O'Hara, a doctoral student in theatre studies, Hudson arranged for throat singers and spoken word, rap, beat box, hip hop and folk performers from Nunavut, Greenland and Toronto to lead workshops for each other and the public, creating new collaborations and sharing the results in a free public concert.

Right: Jean O’Hara (left) and Anna Hudson soak up the scenery of the Frobisher Bay coastline

“It was a great experience and I was thoroughly impressed by the talent of all the artists,” said O’Hara. “I think 91��ɫ’s involvement was what made this collaborative approach possible. We created a space for Inuit and non-Inuit artists to inspire each other and create new works while also showcasing their own pieces. For example, we had throat singing combined with spoken word, a harmonica and beat boxing. Fusions like this allow for new imaginings and reflect northern life, which is filled with both traditional and contemporary art and music forms.”

The concert featured Greenland’s Nive Nielsen and the Deer Children, an award-winning Inuk indie band known as the “heirs to Arcade Fire”; Baker Lake rapper Shauna Seeteenak and her cousin, beat boxer Nelson Tagoona; harmonica master Mike Stevens; madeskimo DJ Geronimo Inutiq; and Toronto’s spoken word artist/rapper Ian Kamau.

Left: Harmonica master Mike Stevens (left) and beatboxer Nelson Tagoona collaborated at the “School’s Out” workshops

The entire program was documented by Philip Joamie of Inuit Communications and Jimmie Papatsie of the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, with the intent to share it online.

“While there are similarities between producing a concert and curating an art show, this was my first time working with live performance, and I was very grateful to be collaborating with Jean,” said Hudson. “It was amazing to see the collaborations come together, watching older performers work with younger artists in front of a very intergenerational crowd.”

“Most of the research in the North centres on climate change, social sciences and ecology,” said Hudson. “But there’s also a very exciting arts revolution happening up there. I think one can facilitate positive change in communities that are struggling with massive challenges, but more importantly, non-Inuit can learn a lot from Inuit peoples about being engaged in a globalized world.”

The post Professor Anna Hudson studies the new generation of northern artists appeared first on Research & Innovation.