NSF's Science of Learning Centers program (SLC) funds six Centers across the United States. These Centers harness knowledge and tools across a wide range of disciplines to build a new integrative science that will deepen humanity's understanding of learning. In the process, the program is training a large number of transdisciplinary scientists. Each year, these young scientists come together at the annual inter-Science of Learning Center Conference (iSLC) to share their knowledge with each other in their quest to develop a transdisciplinary science of learning. The Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC) hosted the fifth annual iSLC at UC San Diego on April 21-23. Representatives from each of the SLC's helped organize the meeting, with TDLC Fellow Christopher Kanan serving as General Chair.

More than 100 researchers attended iSLC 2012, which had the theme "Time, Mind, and Education Intertwined." The conference emphasized the vital role time plays in the science of learning, ranging from the temporal characteristics of communication, longitudinal educational intervention studies, technologies for processing video data, and more. Two days of talks and posters enabled researchers from linguistics, computer science, neuroscience, psychology, education science, and other fields to share their discoveries.

There were three workshops held at iSLC. A workshop on Morality in Science helped familiarize the participants with the ethical challenges faced in each field. Another workshop had participants form small groups to develop collaborative interdisciplinary projects to pursue after the meeting. The last workshop discussed the joys and benefits of interdisciplinary work, along with strategies to overcome barriers to multidisciplinary work when working in a more traditional research group or department.

The meeting also featured moments of downtime to facilitate collaborative discussions between researchers, including a trip to Birch Aquarium, where SLC alumni shared their thoughts on how to obtain professorships and postdoctoral jobs.