Dr. Terrence Sejnowski Receives Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) awarded the Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience to TDLC Co-Director Dr. Terrence Sejnowski. The award recognizes an individual who has "produced a significant cumulative contribution to theoretical models or computational methods in neuroscience." More

RUBI Project
Goes International!

In August 2015, the RUBI Project team at the Machine Perception Lab (MP Lab) at UC San Diego hosted researchers from Australia and Israel to roll out the Global RUBI-PAL (Perception, Action and Learning) effort. The team in Australia, led by TDLC Investigator Dr. Janet Wiles, already kicked off RUBI-Oz on July 1st, and is interested in the social dynamics of learning, asking similar questions with their other robot project iRat (intelligent Rat animat technology). iRat research is in collaboration with TDLC Co-Director Dr. Andrea Chiba. The team in Israel, located at ABC Robotics at the Ben-Gurion Univ. of the Negev, is interested in developing a RUBI-PAL platform to study assistive robotics/physiotherapy. MP Lab’s RUBI-5 is also currently in the Seattle lab of Dr. Patricia Khul, Director of the University of Washington's NSF Science of Learning Center (LIFE). Such multidisciplinary collaboration is invaluable: The RUBI-PAL framework provides rich collaborative opportunities for robotic labs that are interested in development of robotic platforms, and also for research labs where RUBI prototypes can be deployed in learning studies. "This creates a richer conversation," explains Deborah Forster, who currently leads the RUBI Project at UC San Diego, while RUBI’s founder and TDLC Investigator Dr. Javier Movellan is at Emotient. Currently RUBI & iRat project are also collaborating with the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab, led by Dr. Michael T. Tolley from MEA Department, to explore the integration of soft robotic components to augment interactivity in these platforms. (Logo by Scott Blair at Calit2; RUBI labels by Theresa Lee, TDLC REU Student)

TDLC's Boot Camp 2015 recently wrapped up!

Boot Camp 2015 was a full-time, two-week program with lectures and lab training the first week, and an intensive weeklong research project the second week.

This year, nineteen students participated -- five undergrads, eleven graduate students, one post doc, and two visiting scholars. The participants came from a wide range of backgrounds, with nine students from the field of psychology or cognitive science, eight with a background in engineering or computer science, one in neuro/imaging, and one in computational neuroscience. Participants were also geographically diverse - traveling from as far away as Israel and Australia. More

UCSD to lead study of 10,000 adolescents (SD U-T, 9/30/15)

TDLC's Dr. Terry Jernigan will help coordinate the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development project
The study is one of the largest ever done on the brains of adolescents, hoping to figure out why some youngsters lead healthy lives while others develop substance abuse problems and mental health disorders. More Additional article

Dr. John Iversen to Present TEDx Talk
TDLC's Dr. Iversen will present a TEDx talk on October 17, 2015, at Symphony Hall in San Diego. He will discuss the SIMPHONY project, an "ambitious collaborative longitudinal study of the impact of music training on brain and behavioral development." To learn more, click here

Dr. Cottrell Interviewed During IBRO 2015
The 9th International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) World Congress on Neuroscience was held from July 7-11, 2015, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. TDLC's Dr. Gary Cottrell was interviewed by IBRO TV 2015 about the Mini-Symposium he organized on Music as a window into the brain. Click here to watch the interview! More about IBRO 2015

Exciting Recent Events!

• Neurogaming on the Mesa" meeting - 9/18/15
  a day devoted to the field of Neurogaming; Sponsors: Calit2, Qualcomm Institute, and TDLC. 
• Mozart & The Mind - Sept. 25-27, 2015
  Three days packed with cutting-edge scientific exploration, music and fun! Dr. Tim Mullen was creative director, while TDLC's Dr. John Iversen and Dr. Alex Khalil presented. More
• Evolving Research on Music in Health, and Education - 9/25/15
  A panel discussion (Dr. Iversen included) as part of Mozart & the Mind.
  

Former TDLC Trainee Sophie Lebrecht, Ph.D., and TDLC investigator Michael Tarr, Ph.D., in the news: 

Neon Awarded as Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum 
Neon, founded in 2012, offers proprietary technology that combines "neuroscience and machine learning to understand how the human brain responds to images and how that response translates to increased audience engagement." The company was selected as a 2016 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. Dr. Lebrecht is CEO of Neon, while Dr. Tarr is co-founder of the company. More

Dr. Andrea Chiba featured in a recent National Science Foundation Tweet:

NSF SBC wrote: Andrea Chiba: study of adolescent learning has made enormous recent progress. (5/5) @UCSanDiego #learning #brain

Dr. Chiba: "Five years ago, we didn't know what normal development was. What we've seen is enormous variation." She explains, "We have a one-size-fits-all educational system in the face of an extremely varied course of development."

Ken Denman and Dr. Marni Bartlett Interviewed on KUSI News (6/30/15)

Ken Denman (President and CEO of Emotient) and Dr. Marni Bartlett (Founder and Lead Scientist at Emotient) were interviewed on KUSI News!
Click here to view more photos (video not available) In addition, Dr. Marian Bartlett presented a TEDx talk on Emotion Aware Machines, which is now posted!

A New Test for Individual Differences Research in Face Recognition
Researchers in the NSF-sponsored Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center have developed a new task for measuring individual differences in holistic face processing, The Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test (VHPT-F). More(NSF Highlight 2014-2015)

Brain Research Shows Different Pathways Are Responsible for Person and Movement Recognition
Researchers from University College London (UCL), Carnegie Mellon University and UC San Diego have found that the ability to understand different movements, such as walking and jumping, engages different brain mechanisms from those that are used to recognize who is initiating the action (Gilaie-Dotan, S., Saygin, A.P., Lorenzi, L.J., Rees,G. and Behrmann, M). More(NSF Highlight 2014-2015)

Cortical Thickness in Fusiform Face Area Predicts Face and Object Recognition Performance
New research from a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University, part of the Temporal Dynamics Learning Center supported by NSF, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the structural correlates of face and object recognition ability. More (NSF Highlight 2014-2015)

TDLC's First MOOC Yields a Staggering Number of Students on Coursera!
TDLC's Dr. Terry Sejnowski and Visiting Scholar Dr. Barbara Oakley have put together a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) for Coursera on "Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects." More (NSF Highlight 2014-2015)