=======================================================================
Announcement for the

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ON EMBODIED LANGUAGE GAMES AND CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR

http://www.alear.eu/events/cortona2009/Home.html

Cortona, Italy

29 August - 4 September 2009
========================================================================


Human natural languages are complex adaptive systems, forever emergent and
adapting to the needs of their communities. This insight is currently
revolutionizing many branches of linguistics and this summer school feels the
pulse of these exciting developments.
It brings together typologists and historical linguists studying language
variation and the emergence of new grammatical structure, evolutionary linguists
modeling the origins and evolution of language, cognitive linguists
investigating the cognitive foundations of language usage and learning, complex
systems researchers using methods from statistical physics to study the semiotic
dynamics of evolving languages, and computational linguists and AI researchers
carrying out experiments to achieve open-ended communication with autonomous
robots.
The summer school gives an overview of the state of the art in these various
subfields and compares results obtained from formal research, computer
simulations and robotic experiments with empirical observations how humans
invent and share language-like communication systems. It features a series of
lectures by top researchers in the field, ateliers and master classes providing
opportunities for hands-on experience in setting up and analyzing language game
experiments, and poster sessions where participants present their own work.


===========================
====== MAIN SPEAKERS ======
===========================
Jean-Christophe Baillie (ENSTA/GOSTAI Paris)
Nancy Chang (ICSI Berkeley)
Ewa Dabrowska (University of Sheffield)
Walter Daelemans (University of Antwerp)
Holger Diessel (University of Jena)
Dan Everett (Illinois State University)
Chrisantha Fernando (University of Sussex)
Antoni Gomila (UIB, Palma)
Bernd Heine (University of Cologne)
Manfred Hild (Humboldt University)
Laura Janda (University of Tromso)
Christa König (University of Cologne)
Tania Kuteva (University of Duesseldorf)
Maarten Lemmens (University of Lille)
Max Lungarella (University of Zurich)
Georgio Metta (IIT Genoa)
Toshio Ohori (University of Tokyo)
Luc Steels (Sony CSL Paris and University of Brussels)
Anatol Stefanowitsch (University of Bremen)

===========================
==== TUTORIAL SPEAKERS ====
===========================
Andrea Baronchelli (UPC Barcelona)
Tony Belpaeme (University of Plymouth)
Benjamin Bergen (University of Hawaii)
Pascal Constanza (University of Brussels)
Walter Daelemans (University of Antwerp)
Joachim De Beule (University of Brussels)
Joe Hilferty (University of Barcelona)
Javier Valenzuela (University of Murcia)
Remi van Trijp (Sony CSL Paris)


===========================
===== WHO CAN ATTEND ======
===========================
The school is open to all researchers with sufficient scientific and technical
background to actively participate in the lectures and ateliers. The number of
possible participants is limited and hence a selection procedure is necessary.
Acquaintance and mastery of symbolic programming, computational linguistics, and
artificial intelligence techniques is the ideal background for the ateliers.
Linguistic background is helpful for many lectures in the main school but not a
prerequisite. Participants who do not have computational background are assumed
to prepare themselves by prior study and for them the tutorial program preceding
the school is obligatory. The tutorial program is strongly encouraged also for
those who already have a computational background but are unfamiliar with
language game experiments.


===========================
== REGISTRATION ==
===========================
Registration is now open until April 15, 2009.
Check the web page for application details:
http://www.alear.eu/events/cortona2009/Home.html

Call for papers for a special issue of Interaction Studies on: `Experimental approaches to the emergence and the evolution of human communication'

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 23, 2009

In the last few years researchers of human communication have begun to investigate experimentally the emergence and the evolution of novel human communication systems. Interaction Studies is now calling papers for a first special issue dedicated to this newly developing line of research. The main aims of this special issue are to provide an overview of the state of the art in the field and to identify key research directions for the future. We particularly encourage the submission of papers that report experimental research performed with human dyads or larger social units and focus on one of the following key research issues: 

• Emergence and/or evolution of shared intentions
• Emergence and/or evolution of shared behavioral routines
• Emergence and/or evolution of communicative forms
• Emergence and/or evolution of shared conceptualizations
• Emergence and/or evolution of linguistic structure

Guest editors: Bruno Galantucci & Simon Garrod

Submission instructions and deadlines

Manuscripts should be emailed to Bruno Galantucci (galantuc@...) by February 23, 2009. The manuscript should be no longer than 8000 words and follow the journal's guidelines. Reviews will be completed by April 1, 2009, and final drafts will be accepted no later than July 1, 2009. The special issue will be published in January 2010.

Related and sample papers

De Ruiter, J. P., Noordzij, M., Newman-Norlund, S., Hagoort, P., & Toni, I. (2007). On the origin of intentions. In P. Haggard, Y. Rossetti & M. Kawato (Eds.), Attention and Performance XXII: Sensorimotor foundation of higher cognition (pp. 593-610). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Galantucci, B. (2005). An experimental study of the emergence of human communication systems. Cognitive Science, 29(5), 737-767.

Garrod, S., Fay, N., Lee, J., Oberlander, J., & MacLeod, T. (2007). Foundations of Representation: Where Might Graphical Symbol Systems Come From? Cognitive Science, 31(6), 961-987.

Healey, P. G. T., Swoboda, N., Umata, I., & King, J. (2007). Graphical language games: Interactional constraints on representational form. Cognitive Science, 31(2), 285-309.

Scott-Phillips, T. C., Kirby, S., & Ritchie, G. R. S. (2007). Signalling Signalhood: An Exploratory Study into the Emergence of Communicative Intentions. Paper presented at the ESSLLI 2007 Workshop on Language, Games and Evolution, Bielefeld.

Selten, R., & Warglien, M. (2007). The emergence of simple languages in an experimental coordination game. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(18), 7361-7366.

Call for Papers - Brazilian International Meeting of Cognitive
Science, EBICC 2009

<Cognitive Technologies: Interdisciplinarity and Convergence>

September 2-4, 2009, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

http://ebicc2009.fee.unicamp.br

* Deadline for submissions: April 2, 2009

Why and how does the use of cognitive technologies and artifacts (the
objects we call 'mind tools') change cognition fundamentally? How
these objects affect, and feed back into, cognitive processes? What
can we learn about the evolution of mind by studying how it
externalises itself? How the design of new cognitive technologies can
benefit from these results ? How the many approaches and perspectives
should converge in order to be integrated to explain the distributed
an externalized nature of cognitive processes ? This conference is a
place to explore the theme of cognitive technologies and artifacts, as
well as the use of designed artifacts to maximize cognitive
activities. The conference is a cross-disciplinary forum which brings
together researchers and practitioners to discuss the nature and
future of extended cognitive processes modeling and design.

In professional and disciplinary terms, the Conference traverse a
broad sweep to construct a transdisciplinary dialogue which
encompasses the perspectives of: cognitive science, artificial
intelligence, artificial life, computational neuroscience, cognitive
anthropology, design studies, linguistics, cognitive semiotics,
cognitive aesthetics, arts, psychology, e-learning, neuroengineering,
synthetic neurobiology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of technology.

>  Topics of interest include among others:

•       augmented intelligence
•       human augmentation
•       cognitive prosthesis
•       cognitive neural prosthesis
•       synthetic neurobiology
•       neurotechnology
•       ubiquitous computing
•       human-machine interfaces/interaction
•       immersive spaces
•       distributed cognition
•       embodied, embedded, extended mind
•       cognitive niche and artifacts
•       modeling and mental tools
•       smart environment
•       semiotic landscape
•       technologies and evolution of cognition artifacts,
•       creativity and abduction
•       distributed cognizers and collaborative cognition
•       epistemological and methodological issues

Accepted papers will be made public in the website (abstracts only)
and published in the Proceedings of the EBICC 2009, on CD-ROM (full
papers). Selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version
to be published in a tentative special issue of an international
journal to be announced.

> Submission Instructions

- Full Papers

Papers must be written in English and may have a length of up to 10
pages, including tables, figures, and references. Papers must conform
to the Springer LNCC/LNAI style. It is recommended that authors use
Springer-Verlag template files (see
http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html, section "Proceedings
and Other Multi-author Volumes" for formatting instructions) to
minimize possible conflicts of paper length when preparing the camera
ready.

Papers should be formatted in PDF, and submitted electronically only,
through the EBICC2009 Conference Management System web site at
[http://ebicc2009.fee.unicamp.br] Reviewing for papers will be double
blind, i.e. blind to the identities of the authors and their
institutions and to the identities of the reviewer. Please, EXCLUDE
AUTHORS' NAMES AND INSTITUTIONS from the submitted manuscript, they
will be included in camera ready versions only.

- Panels

Authors should submit an electronic version of an extended abstract
(total word count: approximately 1000 words). The file should also
contain a 300 word abstract that will be used for the conference web
site/booklet. The submission process is the same as for the full
paper, except that instead a full paper, the authors should submit an
abstract in PDF.

- Virtual Presentations

For authors which for some reason will not be able to be physically
present at the conference site, we are opening the possibility of
accepting virtual presentations. This modality of presentation
comprises the same rules as for full papers. The only difference is
that virtual presenters should provide the conference organizers with
an electronic presentation of their papers (an AVI or MPEG file),
which will be projected to the audience during the time slot allocated
for the paper. If possible, we recommend virtual authors to be
available at Skype during their papers time-slot, so we can direct
questions from the audience, just after the virtual presentation. We
will be video-recording all the presentations, and they will be
available for all conference participants after the event.

Any other questions regarding papers submission may be directed to one
of the organizers.

*Chairs
Ricardo Gudwin
rgudwin [AT] dca.fee.unicamp.br, http://www.dca.fee.unicamp.br/~gudwin
Dept. of Computer Eng. and Industrial Automation, FEEC, University of
Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brasil

João Queiroz
queirozj [AT] pq.cnpq.br, www.semiotics.pro.br
Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, BA, Brasil
Graduate Studies Program on History, Philosophy and Science Teaching
(UFBA/UEFS)

Call for papers for a special issue of Interaction Studies on: `Experimental approaches to the emergence and the evolution of human communication'

In the last few years researchers of human communication have begun to investigate experimentally the emergence and the evolution of novel human communication systems. Interaction Studies is now calling papers for a first special issue dedicated to this newly developing line of research. The main aims of this special issue are to provide an overview of the state of the art in the field and to identify key research directions for the future. We particularly encourage the submission of papers that report experimental research performed with human dyads or larger social units and focus on one of the following key research issues:

• Emergence and/or evolution of shared intentions
• Emergence and/or evolution of shared behavioral routines
• Emergence and/or evolution of communicative forms
• Emergence and/or evolution of shared conceptualizations
• Emergence and/or evolution of linguistic structure

Guest Editors: Bruno Galantucci & Simon Garrod 

Submission instructions and deadlines

Manuscripts should be emailed to Bruno Galantucci (galantuc@...) by February 1, 2009. The manuscript should be no longer than 8000 words and follow the journal's guidelines. Reviews will be completed by April 1, 2009, and final drafts will be accepted no later than July 1, 2009. The special issue will be published in January 2010.

Related and sample papers

De Ruiter, J. P., Noordzij, M., Newman-Norlund, S., Hagoort, P., & Toni, I. (2007). On the origin of intentions. In P. Haggard, Y. Rossetti & M. Kawato (Eds.), Attention and Performance XXII: Sensorimotor foundation of higher cognition (pp. 593-610). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Galantucci, B. (2005). An experimental study of the emergence of human communication systems. Cognitive Science, 29(5), 737-767.

Garrod, S., Fay, N., Lee, J., Oberlander, J., & MacLeod, T. (2007). Foundations of Representation: Where Might Graphical Symbol Systems Come From? Cognitive Science, 31(6), 961-987.

Healey, P. G. T., Swoboda, N., Umata, I., & King, J. (2007). Graphical language games: Interactional constraints on representational form. Cognitive Science, 31(2), 285-309.

Scott-Phillips, T. C., Kirby, S., & Ritchie, G. R. S. (2007). Signalling Signalhood: An Exploratory Study into the Emergence of Communicative Intentions. Paper presented at the ESSLLI 2007 Workshop on Language, Games and Evolution, Bielefeld.

Selten, R., & Warglien, M. (2007). The emergence of simple languages in an experimental coordination game. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(18), 7361-7366.

Please distribute the call below to your research groups or as you
find appropriate.
Sorry for multiple copies.

  ----------------------------------------------
  The deadline has been EXTENDED : 06 JULY 2008!

  MODELLING ADAPTIVE AND COGNITIVE SYSTEMS (ADAPCOG 2008)

  www.artificial.eng.br/adapcog08.htm

  Call for Workshop Papers (CFP)

  MODELLING ADAPTIVE AND COGNITIVE SYSTEMS (ADAPCOG 2008)

  at SBIA/SBRN/JRI Joint Conference, www.sbia2008.ufba.br,

  October 26-30, 2008, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

  What are the mechanisms underlining the emergence of cognitive and
  adaptive processes? What kind of theoretical and empirical constraints
  must we consider to model and simulate these processes in artificial
  agents and systems? How can processes and representations be
  meaningful to artificial agents? These are some of the questions that
  building and simulating computational models can help answer.

  Artificial Life, Animats, Synthetic Ethology, Evolutionary Robotics
  and Computational Semiotics are some of the interdisciplinary areas of
  research involved in the synthetic design of artificial cognitive
  systems and creatures. These areas have been designing artificial
  environments that work as experimental labs, where it is possible to
  test the predictions derived from theoretical models, and provide us
  with opportunities to specify theories with computational formalisms.
  Moreover, it provides a new generation of more flexible and robust
  artificial systems able to interact with an unpredictable dynamical
  world, thus ever more 'intelligent' technological artifacts.

  Due to its inherited multi-disciplinarity, this workshop will have a
  diverse audience composed of different communities. This audience
  involves researchers from areas such as: Artificial Intelligence,
  Artificial Life, Cognitive Robotics, Computational Neuroscience,
  Computational Linguistics,  Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Science,
  Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Cognitive Science.

  *Topics
  The workshop seeks contributions in topics within computational models
  and experiments involving adaptive and cognitive systems. Topics of
  interest for this special track on cognitive systems include among
  others:
  -       Adaptive behavior modeling and simulation
  -       Evolution of complex adaptive behavior
  -       Artificial Life, Animats, Robotics and multi-robots models
  -       Agent-based models of biological systems and processes
  -       Artificial systems as models of biological processes
  -       Biosemiotic processes and systems
  -       Modeling of meaning and information processing
  -       Representation and symbol grounding
  -       Emergence, Complexity and Self-organization
  -       Epistemological and Methodological issues

  It is of special interest of this workshop, computer models and
  simulations of cognitive processes inspired by biological/empirical
  motivations. Researchers dealing  with issues related with representation
  in artificial systems (e.g. symbol grounding, language, meaning) are
  particularly encourage to  submit contributions to the workshop.

  *Important Dates

  JULY 06, 2008  - Submission Deadline (EXTENDED)

  October 26-30, 2008  - Joint Conference SBIA/SBRN/JRI 2008
  October 26-30, 2008  - ADAPTCOG 2008

*Program Committee
Fabiana Bertoni (UEFS)
Guilherme Bittencourt (UFSC)
Angelo Cangelosi (University of Plymouth)
Anthony Chemero (Franklin and Marshall College)
Gerd Doeben-Henish (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences)
Charbel El-Hani (UFBA)
James Fetzer (University of Minnesota Duluth)
Maria Eunice Gonzalez (UNESP)
Ricardo Gudwin (UNICAMP)
Pim Haselager (University of Nijmegen)
Bruce MacLennan (University of Tennesee)
Lorenzo Magnani (University of Pavia)
Mihai Nadin (University of Texas)
Frederik Stjernfelt (University of Aarhus)
Jon Umerez (University of the Basque Country)
(to be completed)

  *Chairs
  Angelo Loula
  angelocl  AT ecomp.uefs.br, www.artificial.eng.br
  DEXA, State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), Feira de Santana,BA, Brazil
  DCA/FEEC, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil

  João Queiroz
  queirozj AT ecomp.uefs.br, www.semiotics.pro.br
  Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, BA, Brazil
  Graduate Studies Program on History, Philosophy and Science Teaching
  (UFBA/UEFS)

Please distribute the call below to your research groups or as you
find appropriate.
Sorry for multiple copies.

  ----------------------------------------------

  MODELLING ADAPTIVE AND COGNITIVE SYSTEMS (ADAPCOG 2008)

  www.artificial.eng.br/adapcog08.htm

  Call for Workshop Papers (CFP)

  MODELLING ADAPTIVE AND COGNITIVE SYSTEMS (ADAPCOG 2008)

  at SBIA/SBRN/JRI Joint Conference, www.sbia2008.ufba.br,

  October 26-30, 2008, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

  What are the mechanisms underlining the emergence of cognitive and
  adaptive processes? What kind of theoretical and empirical constraints
  must we consider to model and simulate these processes in artificial
  agents and systems? How can processes and representations be
  meaningful to artificial agents? These are some of the questions that
  building and simulating computational models can help answer.

  Artificial Life, Animats, Synthetic Ethology, Evolutionary Robotics
  and Computational Semiotics are some of the interdisciplinary areas of
  research involved in the synthetic design of artificial cognitive
  systems and creatures. These areas have been designing artificial
  environments that work as experimental labs, where it is possible to
  test the predictions derived from theoretical models, and provide us
  with opportunities to specify theories with computational formalisms.
  Moreover, it provides a new generation of more flexible and robust
  artificial systems able to interact with an unpredictable dynamical
  world, thus ever more 'intelligent' technological artifacts.

  Due to its inherited multi-disciplinarity, this workshop will have a
  diverse audience composed of different communities. This audience
  involves researchers from areas such as: Artificial Intelligence,
  Artificial Life, Cognitive Robotics, Computational Neuroscience,
  Computational Linguistics,  Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Science,
  Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Cognitive Science.

  *Topics
  The workshop seeks contributions in topics within computational models
  and experiments involving adaptive and cognitive systems. Topics of
  interest for this special track on cognitive systems include among
  others:
  -       Adaptive behavior modeling and simulation
  -       Evolution of complex adaptive behavior
  -       Artificial Life, Animats, Robotics and multi-robots models
  -       Agent-based models of biological systems and processes
  -       Artificial systems as models of biological processes
  -       Biosemiotic processes and systems
  -       Modeling of meaning and information processing
  -       Representation and symbol grounding
  -       Emergence, Complexity and Self-organization
  -       Epistemological and Methodological issues

  It is of special interest of this workshop, computer models and
  simulations of cognitive processes inspired by biological/empirical
  motivations. Researchers dealing  with issues related with representation
  in artificial systems (e.g. symbol grounding, language, meaning) are
  particularly encourage to  submit contributions to the workshop.

  *Important Dates

  June 25, 2008  - Submission Deadline
  July 25, 2008  - Notification to authors
  August 15, 2008 - Camera-ready copies of papers
  October 26-30, 2008  - Joint Conference SBIA/SBRN/JRI 2008
  October 26-30, 2008  - ADAPTCOG 2008

*Program Committee
Fabiana Bertoni (UEFS)
Guilherme Bittencourt (UFSC)
Angelo Cangelosi (University of Plymouth)
Anthony Chemero (Franklin and Marshall College)
Gerd Doeben-Henish (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences)
Charbel El-Hani (UFBA)
James Fetzer (University of Minnesota Duluth)
Maria Eunice Gonzalez (UNESP)
Ricardo Gudwin (UNICAMP)
Pim Haselager (University of Nijmegen)
Bruce MacLennan (University of Tennesee)
Lorenzo Magnani (University of Pavia)
Mihai Nadin (University of Texas)
Frederik Stjernfelt (University of Aarhus)
Jon Umerez (University of the Basque Country)
(to be completed)

  *Chairs
  Angelo Loula
  angelocl  AT ecomp.uefs.br, www.artificial.eng.br
  DEXA, State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), Feira de Santana, BA, Brazil
  DCA/FEEC, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil

  João Queiroz
  queirozj AT ecomp.uefs.br, www.semiotics.pro.br
  Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, BA, Brazil
  Graduate Studies Program on History, Philosophy and Science Teaching
  (UFBA/UEFS)

Dear colleagues,

I have a PhD position available at the university of Amsterdam. The
research will be on modeling the function of supralaryngeal air sacs on
vocalization and their potential impact on evolution. The job
announcement is attached as a pdf file. Please forward this message to
anyone who might be interested.

Best regards,
Bart de Boer.

Diamond, Arthur S. 1959. History and Origin of Language, Methuen.
I have thought of this old book when I have read your message

----- Mensaje original -----
De: yahganlang <phonosemantics@earthlink.net>
Fecha: Sábado, Febrero 2, 2008 4:16 ombr
Asunto: [langev] Anyone know of programs/programming languages dealing with physics/mechanics?
A: langev@yahoogroups.com

> Hi folks. I'm working with large size ideophone systems from natural
> languages. I'd like to model some of the qualitative and qualitative
> features of these systems to see how true they are to combinatorics.
>
> Some languages have many thousands of these terms- Korean, Japanese,
> Zulu, and Santali (a Munda language from N.E. India) have such high
> numbers.
>
> In many cases the terms are physicomechanical in connotation. For
> instance /l/-initial ideophones in Santali seem usually to connote
> smooth viscoelastic transfer of energy or masses capable of doing
> this. Each phonological feature added to the mix delimits the meanings
> so encoded. Add a terminal /k/ or /k'/ or /ng/, and a
> vibrational/reflective sense is added. And intermediate materials
> nuance the senses further.
>
> The systematicity is diagrammatically iconic in nature, taking its cue
> from the structure of the phonology itself.
>
> In any case, without belaboring the specifics, what I want to know is
> if any of you have used programs or languages that would allow one to
> create a computational model of such relations- on both the
> diagrammatical iconic side as well as the physicomechanical mapping.
>
> Thanks much.
> Jess Tauber
> phonosemantics@earthlink.net
>

Diamond, Arthur S. 1959. History and Origin of Language, Methuen.
I have thought of this old book when I have read your message

----- Mensaje original -----
De: yahganlang <phonosemantics@...>
Fecha: Sábado, Febrero 2, 2008 4:16 ombr
Asunto: [langev] Anyone know of programs/programming languages dealing with
physics/mechanics?
A: langev@yahoogroups.com


> Hi folks. I'm working with large size ideophone systems from natural
>  languages. I'd like to model some of the qualitative and qualitative
>  features of these systems to see how true they are to combinatorics.
>
>  Some languages have many thousands of these terms- Korean, Japanese,
>  Zulu, and Santali (a Munda language from N.E. India) have such high
>  numbers.
>
>  In many cases the terms are physicomechanical in connotation. For
>  instance /l/-initial ideophones in Santali seem usually to connote
>  smooth viscoelastic transfer of energy or masses capable of doing
>  this. Each phonological feature added to the mix delimits the meanings
>  so encoded. Add a terminal /k/ or /k'/ or /ng/, and a
>  vibrational/reflective sense is added. And intermediate materials
>  nuance the senses further.
>
>  The systematicity is diagrammatically iconic in nature, taking its cue
>  from the structure of the phonology itself.
>
>  In any case, without belaboring the specifics, what I want to know is
>  if any of you have used programs or languages that would allow one to
>  create a computational model of such relations- on both the
>  diagrammatical iconic side as well as the physicomechanical mapping.
>
>  Thanks much.
>  Jess Tauber
>  phonosemantics@...
>

Research Associate (postdoctoral) position available in the Department of
Psychology at Yeshiva University, in Manhattan, New York.

Support for experimental research with Prof. Bruno Galantucci into
human communication (to know more about the research project, please
follow this link:
http://www.yu.edu/faculty/Galantucci/page.aspx?id=14330).
This position is for one year, renewable for an additional year, and
offers a competitive salary. Candidate must have a PhD in psychology
or related field and be familiar with experimental procedures.
Experience in computer programming and data analysis is beneficial.

Please send CV and a one-page research statement to galantuc@...

Yeshiva University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

Hi folks. I'm working with large size ideophone systems from natural
languages. I'd like to model some of the qualitative and qualitative
features of these systems to see how true they are to combinatorics.

Some languages have many thousands of these terms- Korean, Japanese,
Zulu, and Santali (a Munda language from N.E. India) have such high
numbers.

In many cases the terms are physicomechanical in connotation. For
instance /l/-initial ideophones in Santali seem usually to connote
smooth viscoelastic transfer of energy or masses capable of doing
this. Each phonological feature added to the mix delimits the meanings
so encoded. Add a terminal /k/ or /k'/ or /ng/, and a
vibrational/reflective sense is added. And intermediate materials
nuance the senses further.

The systematicity is diagrammatically iconic in nature, taking its cue
from the structure of the phonology itself.

In any case, without belaboring the specifics, what I want to know is
if any of you have used programs or languages that would allow one to
create a computational model of such relations- on both the
diagrammatical iconic side as well as the physicomechanical mapping.

Thanks much.
Jess Tauber
phonosemantics@...

Apologies for cross-postings

---------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR PAPERS
---------------------------------------------------

CONNECTION SCIENCE JOURNAL

Special Issue on SOCIAL LEARNING IN EMBODIED AGENTS

full paper submission :: 30 October 2007
review deadline :: 15 December 2007
notification of acceptance :: 21 December 2007
camera ready submission :: 28 February 2008

--

Guest Editors: Alberto Acerbi, Davide Marocco, Paul Vogt

Social learning refers to the process in which agents learn new skills
by interacting with other agents. It is well known that many natural
species have evolved a capacity to use information provided by other
individuals to enhance their individual skills. However, only in the
last decade research in artificial life, adaptive behavior,
evolutionary robotics and, more generally, embodied dynamical systems
started to focus explicitly on the features and outcomes of social
learning dynamics. The artificial modeling of social learning allows
researchers to shed new lights on a wide range of phenomena that play
an important role in the evolution of complex behaviors in natural
organisms and a fundamental role in the evolution of complex behaviors
in humans.

When considering behavior as a complex outcome resulting form the
interactions between different levels such as body, nervous system,
and physical and social environment, an embodied approach to behavior
seems particularly promising for the study of social learning
phenomena as they typically depend on several hierarchical
relationships.

Although a consistent number of successful social learning models have
been realized in the past years, the field is still fragmented. The
aim of the special issue is to point out the shared results and the
common open issues in order to contribute to the definition of the
specificity of the embodied approach to social learning.

Original papers - both tecnical and conceptual - on any aspect of
embodied social learning are welcome. Topics include, but are not
restricted to:

  * Social learning and the evolution of communication
  * Imitation in embodied agents
  * Cultural evolutionary dynamics
  * Interactions between genetic evolution, individual and social learning
  * Relationship between individual behavior and populational dynamics
  * Models of simple mechanisms of social learning
  * Action, perception, and cognition in social interactions
  * Cultural factors that affect social and individual behavior
  * Niche construction in social environment
  * Collective behavior in learning robot
  * Teaching and scaffolding of behavior
  * Dynamic role allocation
  * Self organization in social learning

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

All manuscripts should be emailed to the guest editor (Alberto Acerbi,
alberto.acerbi[at]istc.cnr.it). Instructions for authors are available
from: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/ccosauth.asp.


IMPORTANT DATES

full paper submission :: 30 October 2007

review deadline :: 15 December 2007

notification of acceptance :: 21 December 2007

camera ready submission :: 28 February 2008


GUEST EDITORS

Alberto Acerbi
Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology, Rome, Italy
web: http://laral.istc.cnr.it/acerbi/

Davide Marocco
Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology, Rome, Italy
web: http://laral.istc.cnr.it/marocco/

Paul Vogt
Communication and Information Science, Tilburg University, Tilburg,
The Netherlands
web: http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~paulv/


ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Connection Science is an interdisciplinary scientific journal with a
focus on the mechanisms of adaptation, cognition and intelligent
behaviour in both living and artificial systems. The traditional scope
of the journal has been broadened from connectionist research and
neural computing to encompass work on other adaptive methods (e.g.
evolutionary computing) as well as biologically inspired techniques
and algorithms in applied domains.

Papers submitted to the journal may be practical implementations,
theoretical research or philosophical discussions. The submission of
robotics research papers on issues raised by the interaction of agents
with the environment or with other agents is particularly encouraged.

---------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR PAPERS
---------------------------------------------------

CONNECTION SCIENCE JOURNAL

Special Issue on SOCIAL LEARNING IN EMBODIED AGENTS

Guest Editors: Alberto Acerbi, Davide Marocco, Paul Vogt

Social learning refers to the process in which agents learn new skills by
interacting with other agents. It is well known that many natural species
have evolved a capacity to use information provided by other individuals to
enhance their individual skills. However, only in the last decade research
in artificial life, adaptive behavior, evolutionary robotics and, more
generally, embodied dynamical systems started to focus explicitly on the
features and outcomes of social learning dynamics. The artificial modeling
of social learning allows researchers to shed new lights on a wide range of
phenomena that play an important role in the evolution of complex behaviors
in natural organisms and a fundamental role in the evolution of complex
behaviors in humans.

When considering behavior as a complex outcome resulting form the
interactions between different levels such as body, nervous system, and
physical and social environment, an embodied approach to behavior seems
particularly promising for the study of social learning phenomena as they
typically depend on several hierarchical relationships.

Although a consistent number of successful social learning models have been
realized in the past years, the field is still fragmented. The aim of the
special issue is to point out the shared results and the common open issues
in order to contribute to the definition of the specificity of the embodied
approach to social learning.

Original papers - both tecnical and conceptual - on any aspect of embodied
social learning are welcome. Topics include, but are not restricted to:

* Social learning and the evolution of communication
* Imitation in embodied agents
* Cultural evolutionary dynamics
* Interactions between genetic evolution, individual and social learning
* Relationship between individual behavior and populational dynamics
* Models of simple mechanisms of social learning
* Action, perception, and cognition in social interactions
* Cultural factors that affect social and individual behavior
* Niche construction in social environment
* Collective behavior in learning robot
* Teaching and scaffolding of behavior
* Dynamic role allocation
* Self organization in social learning

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

All manuscripts should be emailed to the guest editor (Alberto Acerbi,
alberto.acerbi[at]istc.cnr.it). Instructions for authors are available from:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/ccosauth.asp.


IMPORTANT DATES

full paper submission :: 30 October 2007

review deadline :: 15 December 2007

notification of acceptance :: 21 December 2007

camera ready submission :: 28 February 2008


GUEST EDITORS

Alberto Acerbi
Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology, Rome, Italy
web: http://laral.istc.cnr.it/acerbi/

Davide Marocco
Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology, Rome, Italy
web: http://laral.istc.cnr.it/marocco/

Paul Vogt
Communication and Information Science, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The
Netherlands
web: http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~paulv/


ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Connection Science is an interdisciplinary scientific journal with a focus
on the mechanisms of adaptation, cognition and intelligent behaviour in both
living and artificial systems. The traditional scope of the journal has been
broadened from connectionist research and neural computing to encompass work
on other adaptive methods (e.g. evolutionary computing) as well as
biologically inspired techniques and algorithms in applied domains.

Papers submitted to the journal may be practical implementations,
theoretical research or philosophical discussions. The submission of
robotics research papers on issues raised by the interaction of agents with
the environment or with other agents is particularly encouraged.

Evolution of Language: Seventh International Conference, 2008 (EVOLANG7)

CosmoCaixa (Museum of Science), Barcelona, Spain.
Tuesday 11th March - Saturday 15th March, 2008
http://complex.ffn.ub.es/~evolang2008/

Call for papers

Papers and Abstracts are now solicited.

Content: The conference welcomes substantive contributions relating to the
evolution of
human language from any relevant discipline, including Anthropology, Genetics,
Population Biology, Linguistics, Psychology, Primatology, Ethology,
Paleontology,
Archeology, Artificial Life, and Mathematical Modelling.  Normal standards of
academic
quality apply. Thus, submitted papers should aim to make clear their own
substantive
claim, relating this to relevant scientific literature, and briefly setting out
the method by
which the claim is substantiated, the nature of the relevant data, and/or the
core of the
theoretical argument concerned.

Deadline: Papers/Abstracts should be submitted by September 1st, 2007


Paper/Abstract Format:

Papers can have a length of between 6 and 8 pages using the World Scientific
Publishing
format.

Abstracts can have a length of maximum 2 pages, using the same format.

All formatting guidelines (including word and latex style files) are available
in the
conference submission webpage: http://complex.ffn.ub.es/~evolang2008/
submission.html

All accepted papers or abstracts accepted will be allotted the same presentation
length
(probably 25 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion).


Submission Method:
1. Email your paper/abstract to evolang7@... as PDF or Word file
2. Include proforma in which you specify the paper/abstract areas (form
available in the
conference submission paper)

Notification of acceptance/rejection will be sent to authors by November 1st,
2007.
All revised, camera-ready papers will have to be sent to evolang7@...
not later
than November 15th, 2007.

Publication:
All accepted papers and abstracts will be published in the Conference
Proceedings that will
be distributed at the conference.

Keynote Speakers
(provisional list)

Derek Bickerton (University of Hawaii)
Steven Pinker (Harvard University)
Francesco d'Errico (University of Bordeaux)
Friedman Pulvermuller (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge)
Susan Goldin-Meadow (University of Chicago)
Rudolf Botha (Stellenbosch University and Utrecht University)
Simon Kirby (University of Edinburgh)
Gary Marcus (New York University)
Juan Uriagereka (University of Maryland)
Camilo Jose Cela Conde (Universitat de les Illes Balears)


Further information

Further information, about plenary speakers, accommodation, conference
fees, etc. will be forthcoming from time to time by email, and by updating of
the web
pages. If you would like to be included in further emailings, please subscribe
to the
EvoLang email list. You can do this by sending an email to
majordomo@... with
the following single-line message (not in the subject header):

subscribe evolang


Conference Organizing Committee:

Angelo Cangelosi (University of Plymouth)
Jean-Louis Dessalles (Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications, Paris)
Tecumseh Fitch (University of St Andrews)
James R Hurford (University of Edinburgh)
Chris Knight (University of East London)
Maggie Tallerman (University of Newcastle upon Tyne)

***Apologies for cross-posting. Please distribute to those who may be
interested***

Call-for-participation:

Masterclass: LANGUAGE EVOLUTION: COMPUTATIONAL MODELS FOR EMPIRICAL DATA

Date: 21 June 2007
Venue: Hotel Mercure, Noordwijk, the Netherlands
Organisers: Bart de Boer and Paul Vogt
URL: http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~paulv/masterclass.html

In the past 15 years an increasing number of computational studies have
been used to investigate the origins and evolution of language. Aim of
such studies is to gain more insights into the mechanisms and
pre-conditions under which animal communication and human language could
have emerged in its present form. Much progress has been made in this
field, but unfortunately many studies fail to be appreciated by
researchers outside the computational disciplines (such as Artificial
Intelligence and Artificial Life), often because the models are too
abstract and/or have no direct link to what is empirically known about
human (or animal) communication.

Empirical (and theoretical) studies from other disciplines have been
around for a much longer period of time. And although languages do not
leave direct fossils and it is impossible to go back in time to observe
the origins of language, much can be inferred from our current day
empirical studies. For instance, we can observe non-human primate
communication for comparison, observe the emergence of new languages
such as Nicaraguan Sign Language, or investigate how children learn
language and speculate whether their development is a blue-print for
language evolution.

The masterclass will be presented by experts on both computer and
empirical studies on language evolution. The aim of the masterclass is
to present ways to bring both approaches closer to each other, such that
computer studies become more useful to the empirical scientist and
empirical studies become more useful to the computer scientist. Lectures
will be (co-)presented by the following researchers:

-Simon Kirby (Univ. of Edinburgh)
-Eors Szathmary (Collegium of Budapest)
-Bart de Boer (Univ. van Amsterdam)
-Tecumseh Fitch (Univ. of St.Andrews)
-Jason Noble (Univ. of Leeds)
-Klaus Zuberbuhler (Univ. of St.Andrews)
-Paul Vogt (Univ. van Tilburg)
-Elena Lieven (Max Planck Institute, Leipzig)
-Kenny Smith (Northumbria Univ.)
-Jaap Murre (Univ. van Amsterdam)
-Jelle Zuidema (Univ. van Amsterdam)
-Arie Verhagen (Univ. Leiden)
-Peter Ford Dominey (CNRS)
-Ivan Toni (FC Dondersinstituut)
-Jan Peter de Ruiter (Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen)
-James Minett (Chin. Univ. of Hong Kong)
-William Croft (Univ. of New Mexico)

The target audience consists of master's students, PhD student and
post-docs interested in interdisciplinary approaches to language
evolution. Note that the number of places is limited, so register early.

For registration and more information, consult
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~paulv/masterclass.html


Sponsored by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)

*Apologies for cross posting. Please forward to those who may be interested*

---------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR PAPERS
---------------------------------------------------

SOCIAL LEARNING IN EMBODIED AGENTS
AN EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON ARTIFICAL LIFE (ECAL 2007) WORKSHOP

LISBON, PORTUGAL, 1Oth SEPTEMBER 2007

web: http://laral.istc.cnr.it/slea/index.html
mail: slea.workshop@...


SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES

Social learning refers to the process in which agents learn new skills
by interacting with other agents. It is well known that many natural
species have evolved a capacity to use information provided by other
individuals to enhance their individual skills. However, only in the
last decade researches in artificial life, adaptive behavior,
evolutionary robotics and, more generally, embodied dynamical systems
started to focus explicitly on the features and outcomes of social
learning dynamics. The artificial modeling of social learning allows
researchers to shed new lights on a wide range of phenomena that play
an important role in the evolution of complex behaviors in natural
organisms and a fundamental role in the evolution of complex behaviors
in humans. The study of social learning, the mechanisms on which it
relies, its outcomes on collective and individual behavioral dynamics
and its relationships with other adaptation processes (e.g. individual
learning, genetic evolution) represent an exciting subfield of
artificial life research.

When considering behavior as a complex outcome resulting form the
interactions between different levels such as body, nervous system,
and physical and social environment, an embodied approach to behavior
seems particularly promising for the study of social learning
phenomena as they typically depend on several hierarchical
relationship. Indeed, empirical observations, laboratory experiments
and "traditional" analytical modeling often experience difficulties in
managing that complexity.

The aim of the workshop will be twofold. A considerate number
of successful social learning models have been realized in the last
years. However, the field is still fragmented. The workshop will try to
highlight shared results and the common open issues in order to
contribute to the definition of the embodied approach to social
learning, as well as its connections with other approaches, within
Artificial Life and beyond. Moreover, the workshop will provide an
opportunity to review the recent advances on a fast developing
field relevant to many attendants of the ECAL conference.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Original papers - both tecnical and conceptual - on any aspect of
embodied social learning are welcome. Topics include, but are not
restricted to:

     * Social learning and the evolution of communication
     * Imitation in embodied agents
     * Cultural evolutionary dynamics
     * Interactions between genetic evolution, individual and social learning
     * Relationship between individual behavior and populational dynamics
     * Models of simple mechanisms of social learning
     * Action, perception, and cognition in social interactions
     * Cultural factors that affect social and individual behavior
     * Niche construction in social environment
     * Collective behavior in learning robot
     * Teaching and scaffolding of behavior
     * Dynamic role allocation
     * Self organization in social learning

All submissions will undergo a peer-review. The format of the papers
should follow the ECAL 2007 style guide and should not exceed 10 pages
in camera ready PDF format. Details of the authors (names, affiliations
and email addresses) should be included in the paper. Please refer to
the ECAL style guide for details (http://www.ecal2007.org/submissions.htm).
Submissions should be send in PDF format to slea.workshop@... by
the end of 30. 4. 07.

There will be a special issue - associated to the workshop - in the
journal "Connection Science" for which a separate call for papers will
be distributed soon. Authors of accepted papers will be particularly
encouraged to submit an extended version of their workshop contribution
to this special issue. More details will come at a later stage.

TIMELINE

     * full paper submission :: 30. 4. 07
     * review deadline :: 26. 5. 07
     * notification of acceptance :: 30. 5. 07
     * camera ready submission :: 15. 6. 07

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Alberto Acerbi - Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technology, CNR,
Rome, Italy
Davide Marocco - Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technology, CNR,
Rome, Italy
Paul Vogt - Language and Information Science, Tilburg University,
Tilburg, The Netherlands

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Tony Belpaeme - University of Plymouth
Aude Billard - Ecoles Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Angelo Cangelosi - University of Plymouth
Kerstin Dautenhahn - University of Hertfordshire
Yiannis Demiris - Imperial College London
Takashi Ikegami - University of Tokio
Chrystopher Nehaniv - University of Hertfordshire
Stefano Nolfi - Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology, Rome
Domenico Parisi - Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology, Rome
Andrew Smith - University of Edinburgh
Elio Tuci - Universitè Libre de Bruxelles




--
Dr. Paul Vogt
ILK / Language and Information Science, Tilburg University
P.O.Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands
Room Y339 (Dante building)
Tel: +31 13 4663578  Fax: +31 13 4662892
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~paulv/

Hi,

Could you please forward the appended ad to the langev list?

Thanks,

Tom.

--
Tom Griffiths
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science
University of California, Berkeley

http://cocosci.berkeley.edu/tom/

--

Joint Tenure-Track Positions in Linguistics and Cognitive Science
   University of California, Berkeley
    
   Pending budgetary approval, the Department of Linguistics at the
University of California, Berkeley has been authorized to make up to
two full-time tenure-track appointments, at the assistant professor
level, in the area of language and cognition.  One of these will be a
joint appointment with the undergraduate program in Cognitive Science. 
Salary will be commensurate with experience; the Ph.D. (in Linguistics
or an allied field) is required by July 1, 2007, the starting date of
the appointment.  Duties will include undergraduate and graduate
teaching (four courses per year) and advising, supervision of student
research, and development of a successful and original research
program.

   Successful candidates will have a broad intellectual engagement with
the fields of Linguistics and Cognitive Science.  Scholars with
interests in the sociocultural aspects of cognition and language,
including (but not limited to) pragmatics, language use, or language
learning, are especially encouraged to apply.

   The tenure home and graduate teaching for both positions will be in
the Department of Linguistics.  One position will entail two
undergraduate courses per year in Cognitive Science, including courses
cross-listed in Linguistics.
   Applications should include a curriculum vitae, copies of
representative work, and evidence of excellence in teaching. 
Applicants should arrange for three letters of recommendation to be
sent.  (Please direct referees to
http://apo.chance.berkeley.edu/evalltr.html for the University’s
statement on confidentiality.)  Preliminary interviews may be
conducted, by invitation, at the Linguistic Society of America meeting
in Anaheim, CA, in January, 2007.
    
   Please send applications and supporting materials to the following
address:
    
   Ling/Cog Sci Search Committee
   University of California
   Department of Linguistics
   1203 Dwinelle Hall  #2650
   Berkeley, CA 94720-2650
    
   Applications must be received by December 1, 2006; late applications
will not be considered.  Questions can be sent by email to:
lingsearch06@....  The University of California is an Equal
Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

***Apologies for cross-posting***
***Please distribute to whom might be interested***

Call-for-Participation

Third Intl. Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic
Communication (EELC III). http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/

Rome, Italy, 30 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2006.

As part of the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB) conference
http://www.sab06.org/

Invited Speakers:
Peter Gardenfors (Lund University, Sweden),
Naoto Iwahashi (ATR, Japan),
Elena Lieven (Max Planck Institute, Germany),
Luc Steels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium),
Deb Roy (MIT Media Lab, USA)

Scope of the Workshop
Language is generally considered as the hallmark of human intelligence.
One important way to study why this is the case, is to investigate how
linguistic communication has evolved. In the past decade, this research
area has received a lot of attention from the scientific community and
could be considered as one of the main areas of Artificial Intelligence
and Cognitive Science. The EELC III workshop will focus on empirical and
modelling research on the emergence of symbol grounding and other
aspects of linguistic communication in language evolution and language
acquisition. The key questions relate to how symbolic communication can
emerge from interactions of individuals with their environment,
including other individuals, and how such communication can become
meaningful to the individual or population. Research methods that are
used to study these issues include experimental and observational
studies on child language acquisition and animal communication;
theoretical and computational modelling; and (robotic) simulations of
adaptive behaviour. The workshop aims to provide leading scientists in
the interdisciplinary area of language evolution and language
acquisition a platform to present their latest results and discuss areas
of further research.

Until about 15 years ago, there was very little productive research in
the study of language evolution. However, with the increased
advancements of computational techniques and other empirical methods,
the field of language evolution has grown to become one of the major
research areas in cognitive science. While the field is largely
interdisciplinary with contributions from linguistics, psychology,
neuroscience, biology, anthropology, philosophy and computer science,
the latter has proven to be among the most influential disciplines. A
reason for this is that empirical evidence on language evolution is
scarce and computer simulations offer a good testbed for investigating
hypotheses. One of the major driving forces for language evolution is
often considered to be language acquisition. Language can be transmitted
over subsequent generations if individuals can learn language.
Moreover, it has been claimed that the stages of children’s language
acquisition mirrors the stages of language evolution. So, the current
EELC will not only look at studies on the evolution of language, but
also at studies on language acquisition.

Although many computer simulations take the emergence of symbol
grounding for granted, recently there has been an increase in studies
that focus on issues relating to the emergence of grounded communication
systems. The EELC III will therefore have 'adaptive approaches to symbol
grounding and beyond' as its central theme, though contributions are not
limited to this theme.


EELC Symposium Series
This workshop is the third edition of the successful workshop on the
Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication. The first one was
held in 2004 in Kanazawa (Japan) under the auspices of the Japanese
Society for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI) and the second one in
Hatfield (United Kingdom) under the auspices of the Society for the
Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB).
Details of the second EELC are found on
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/˜comqcln/EELC05.html. The
Third International Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of
Linguistic Communication will be part of the Simulation of Adaptive
Behavior conference. The coincidence with SAB permits a better exchange
with other researchers working in the simulation of adaptive behaviour
field.

Registration
For details on registration, please visit the EELC III web-site:
http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/

Program Chairs:
Paul Vogt (Tilburg University, The Netherlands), Chair;
Yuuya Sugita (RIKEN BSI, Japan), Co-Chair;
Elio Tuci (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), Co-Chair;
Chrystopher Nehaniv (University of Hertfordshire, UK), Co-Chair



--
Dr. Paul Vogt
ILK / Language and Information Science, Tilburg University
P.O.Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 13 4663578  Fax: +31 13 4662892 Room Y339
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~paulv/

Hi,

I thought this may be of interest to some of you.

Paul

> *Apologies for cross posting. Please help forward to interested people*
>
> First CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
> 1st International Summer School on Collective Intelligence and Evolution
> August 7-11 2006
> Amsterdam, The Netherlands
> http://www.decoi2006.nl/
>
> The First International Summer School on the Design Of Collective
> Intelligence
> (DECOI2006) will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands during August
> 7-11 2006.
> This summer school aims to provide master/graduate students with the
> opportunity to learn techniques and methods for designing collective
> intelligence. The summer school will cover a spectrum of topics within
> this
> field to provide students with knowledge about methods and techniques
> (evolutionary computing, artificial life models, self organizing
> systems) as
> well as related research domains (biology, linguistics). The summer
> school is
> set up as a lecture/workshop environment where students learn about
> theories
> and tools for modeling and analyzing complex systems and get hands-on
> experience
> with the implementation of several models. Participants are also
> encouraged to
> present their own work / projects.
>
> ** SUMMERSCHOOL SETUP
> The workshop consists of a series of lectures (in the mornings)
> focusing on the design of collective intelligence. The lectures will
> cover a large spectrum and different fields dealing with the topic in
> order to provide the students with different views on the subject and
> knowledge of how the subject is used in various disciplines. A
> programming project assigned during the workshop will give the
> participants the opportunity to deepen and reinforce the learned
> topics (in the afternoons). This project will be carried out in
> groups, with the results presented at the end of the workshop. The
> workshop also provides students with the opportunity to present
> projects they are working / have already worked on.
>
> ** TARGET AUDIENCE
> Master/graduate students in computer science, artificial intelligence,
> business
> informatics, bioinformatics and related fields.
>
> ** LECTURE PROGRAMME
> Monday 7 august
> 9:30-10:45  Martijn Schut: Introduction
> 11:15-13:00 Gusz Eiben: "Evolutionary Methods"
>
> Tuesday 8 august
> 9:00-10:45  Edwin de Jong: "Co-evolution"
> 11:15-13:00 Gerald de Jong: "Evolution of 3D morphology"
>
> Wednesday 9th
> 9:00-10:45  Pim Haselager: "Embodied embeddedness of cognition"
> 11:15-13:00 Paul Vogt: "Evolutionary linguistics"
>
> Thursday 10th
> 9:00-10:45 Charlotte Hemelrijk: "Social Organisation"
> 11:15-13:00 William Veerbeek: "Self Organising Urban Planning"
>
> ** IMPORTANT DATES
> 1 May        First Call for Participation, Registration opens
> 9 June       Early registration deadline
> 1 July       Submission deadline of student abstracts
> 7-11 August  DECOI2006 summer school
>
> ** REGISTRATION FEE
> 50 euro - early registration fee (before 9 june)
> 75 euro - late registration fee (after 9 june)
> You can find the registration form on the website.
>
> ** VENUE
> DECOI2006 is hosted by the Department of Computer Science at the Vrije
> Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
>
> ** ACCOMMODATION
> We offer the possibility of accommodation in Amsterdam at the campus
> of the Vrije Universiteit near the site of the summerschool. There is
> a fixed fee of euro 160,- which includes a private room, sheets,
> towels, etc. You can indicate when registering, if you want to make
> use of this.
>
> ** ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
> Martijn Schut, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
> Konrad Diwold, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
> William Veerbeek, Din_arch and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
>
> For more information please contact Martijn Schut (decoi@...
> <mailto:decoi@...>).
>
> Kind regards,
> DECOI2006 organizing committee.




--
Dr. Paul Vogt
Researcher in Language Evolution and Computation
ILK / Computational Linguistics, Tilburg University
P.O.Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 13 4663578  Fax: +31 13 4663110 Room Y339
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~paulv/

***Apologies for cross-posting***
***Please distribute to whom might be interested***

EXTENDED DEADLINE: 7 MAY 2006

Third Intl. Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic
Communication (EELC III). http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/

Rome, Italy, 30 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2006.

As part of the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB) conference
http://www.sab06.org/

Invited Speakers:
Peter Gardenfors (Lund University, Sweden),
Naoto Iwahashi (ATR, Japan),
Elena Lieven (Max Planck Institute, Germany),
Luc Steels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium),
Eörs Szathmáry (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary)

Scope of the Workshop
Language is generally considered as the hallmark of human intelligence. One
important way to study why this is the case, is to investigate how
linguistic communication has evolved. In the past decade, this research area
has received a lot of attention from the scientific community and could be
considered as one of the main areas of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive
Science. The EELC III workshop will focus on empirical and modelling
research on the emergence of symbol grounding and other aspects of
linguistic communication in language evolution and language acquisition. The
key questions relate to how symbolic communication can emerge from
interactions of individuals with their environment, including other
individuals, and how such communication can become meaningful to the
individual or population. Research methods that are used to study these
issues include experimental and observational studies on child language
acquisition and animal communication; theoretical and computational
modelling; and (robotic) simulations of adaptive behaviour. The workshop
aims to provide leading scientists in the interdisciplinary area of language
evolution and language acquisition a platform to present their latest
results and discuss areas of further research.

Until about 15 years ago, there was very little productive research in the
study of language evolution. However, with the increased advancements of
computational techniques and other empirical methods, the field of language
evolution has grown to become one of the major research areas in cognitive
science. While the field is largely interdisciplinary with contributions
from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, biology, anthropology,
philosophy and computer science, the latter has proven to be among the most
influential disciplines. A reason for this is that empirical evidence on
language evolution is scarce and computer simulations offer a good testbed
for investigating hypotheses. One of the major driving forces for language
evolution is often considered to be language acquisition. Language can be
transmitted over subsequent generations if individuals can learn language.
Moreover, it has been claimed that the stages of children’s language
acquisition mirrors the stages of language evolution. So, the current EELC
will not only look at studies on the evolution of language, but also at
studies on language acquisition.

Although many computer simulations take the emergence of symbol grounding
for granted, recently there has been an increase in studies that focus on
issues relating to the emergence of grounded communication systems. The EELC
III will therefore have 'adaptive approaches to symbol grounding and beyond'
as its central theme, though contributions are not limited to this theme.


EELC Symposium Series
This workshop is the third edition of the successful workshop on the
Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication. The first one was held
in 2004 in Kanazawa (Japan) under the auspices of the Japanese Society for
Artificial Intelligence (JSAI) and the second one in Hatfield (United
Kingdom) under the auspices of the Society for the Study of Artificial
Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB). Details of the second EELC
are found on http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/˜comqcln/EELC05.html. The
Third International Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic
Communication will be part of the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior
conference. The coincidence with SAB permits a better exchange with other
researchers working in the simulation of adaptive behaviour field.

Submission of Papers
We invite papers of maximum 12 A4 pages that fit within the scope of the
workshop. All papers should be submitted electronically in PDF to
paulv@... and formatted according to the instructions given at
http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/. All submissions will be acknowledged
and refereed by the international scientific programme committee. The
proceedings will be published as a LNCS/LNAI series by Springer.

Important Dates
Extended deadline for submissions: 7 May 2006
Notification of acceptance: 2 Jun. 2006
Camera ready copies: 30 Jun. 2006
Workshop (1st day): 30 Sep. 2006
Workshop (2nd day): 1 Oct. 2006

Program Chairs:
Paul Vogt (Tilburg University, The Netherlands), Chair;
Yuuya Sugita (RIKEN BSI, Japan), Co-Chair;
Elio Tuci (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), Co-Chair;
Chrystopher Nehaniv (University of Hertfordshire, UK), Co-Chair

Program Committee:
Takaya Arita (University of Nagoya, Japan),
Tony Belpaeme (University of Plymouth, UK),
Bart de Boer (University of Groningen, The Netherlands),
Angelo Cangelosi (University of Plymouth, UK),
Tecumseh Fitch (University of St. Andrews, UK),
Takashi Hashimoto (JAIST, Japan),
Jim Hurford (University of Edinburgh, UK),
Takashi Ikegami (University of Tokyo, Japan),
Simon Kirby (University of Edinburgh),
Caroline Lyon (University of Hertfordshire, UK),
Davide Marocco (ISTC, National Research Council, Italy),
Chrystopher Nehaniv (University of Hertfordshire, UK),
Stefano Nolfi (ISTC, National Research Council, Italy),
Kazuo Okanoya (RIKEN BSI, Japan),
Tetsuo Ono (Future University Hakodate, Japan),
Domenico Parisi (ISTC, National Research Council, Italy),
Akito Sakurai (Keio University, Japan),
Andrew Smith (University of Edinburgh, UK),
Kenny Smith (University of Edinburgh, UK),
Luc Steels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium),
Yuuya Sugita (RIKEN BSI, Japan),
Jun Tani (RIKEN BSI, Japan),
Satoshi Tojo (JAIST, Japan),
Elio Tuci (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium),
Paul Vogt (Tilburg University, The Netherlands)

From: Ehlert-Abler <ehlert-abler@...>
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 15:37:23 -0800
To: <langev@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: book: Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind

    I am pleased to announce the publications of my new book, "Structure of
Matter, Structure of Mind", which shows the foundations of UG universal
grammar in the shared source of sentences and equations.   Where equations
are symmetrical about the "equals", sentences of language are formed by
warping equations out-of-symmetry, thus.

    Equation -> NounPhrase­1 + Verb("equals") + NounPhrase­2
    Sentence -> NounPhrase­1 + VerbPhrase
                VerbPhrase -> Verb + NounPhrase­2

    Equations and sentences thus share a common source in nature.  Since
selective advantage is expressed by an equation, the evolution of a math
sense is a matter of finding the equation that shows why people can do
equations, which is circular.  Equations and sentences have their
foundations in something pre-biological, closer to foundations of physics.
It is really neat.  You can look up blurbs and a review on Amazon.com.

Abler, William L. 20045.
Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind.
Sofia: Pensoft ISBN 954­642­232-0 (outside USA).
www.pensoft.net
Philadelphia:  Bainbridge ISBN 1-891696­19­X (USA only).
www.transatlanticpub.com

Thank you for looking.
Bill Abler
Department of Geology
Field Museum
Chicago, Illinois 60605, USA
ehlert-abler@...