Subject:	[neuroscience-technology-network] Fwd: Workshop on Decision Making in Nature
Date:	Tue, 5 Feb 2013 09:55:03 +0000
From:	Simon Schultz <s.schultz@imperial.ac.uk>
Reply-To:	<s.schultz@imperial.ac.uk>
To:	neuroscience-technology-network <neuroscience-technology-network@imperial.ac.uk>

Dear Simon - I don't suppose you could circulate this around both bioengineering and your neurotechnology network?
Thanks
Nick
--
Department of Mathematics - Imperial College London


Dear all,

Imperial College Biomathematics group is organising a meeting on Decision Making in Nature (2-4 May 2013). Biological decisions take place at different levels including single cells (e.g. yeast budding or cell differentiation), populations of cells (e.g. in bacterial biofilms or in developmental biology ), networks of interacting cells (e.g. neural ensembles), by individual complex organisms (e.g. the brain) or by populations of individuals (e.g. group of fish or human society). There has been a recent marked increase in the study of biological decision making in disciplines such as cell biology, developmental biology, neuroscience, psychology, behavioural ecology, robotics and economics. The researchers use a diverse set of theoretical methods including stochastic processes, game theory, dynamical systems, Bayesian statistics, machine learning and control theory. This meeting brings those researchers together to explore the overlap of mathematical formulations and techniques
 employed in these different areas mentioned above that could lead to improved understanding of decision making processes at different levels in Nature.

The confirmed speakers at the workshop grouped loosely based on the level of decision making they focus on are:

Decisions by Cells:
Peter Swain (Edinburgh, UK); Jordi Garcia Ojalvo (Barcelona, Spain); Alfonso Martinez-Arias (Cambridge, UK);  Ido Golding (Houston, US)

Decisions by Neurons:
Mike Shadlen (Seattle, US); Andrew Straw (Vienna, Austria); Alex Pouget (Rochester, US); Bert Kappen (Nijmegen, Netherlands)

Decisions by Individuals:
Alex Kacelnik (Oxford, UK); Daniel Wolpert (Cambridge, UK); Josh Tenenbaum (MIT, US); Paul Glimcher (New York, US); Nick Chater (Warwick, UK)

Decisions by Collectives:
Kevin Foster (Oxford, UK); David Sumpter (Uppsala, Sweden); James Marshall (Shefield, UK); Tobias Galla (Manchester, UK)

Registration deadline is 28th of February. For more information and for registration go to the workshop website at:
https://sites.google.com/site/decisionmakinginnature






-------------------------------------
Vahid Shahrezaei
Lecturer in Biomathematics
Department of Mathematics
Imperial College London
Phone: +44 (0) 2075948516
www.imperial.ac.uk/people/v.shahrezaei<http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/v.shahrezaei>