From: neuron-request@CATTELL.PSYCH.UPENN.EDU ("Neuron-Digest Moderator")
Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets
Subject: Neuron Digest V10 #16 (discussion + jobs + software)
Date: 7 Nov 92 20:06:01 GMT
Reply-To: "Neuron-Request" <neuron-request@cattell.psych.upenn.edu>
Distribution: world
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

Neuron Digest   Saturday,  7 Nov 1992
                Volume 10 : Issue 16

Today's Topics:
                      educational stock market game
     Clinical and Research Positions at the VA GRECC(Salt Lake City)
                        position offer from RIKEN
            "Help!!" - protein structures and fault diagnosis
                    Neural Nets and Visual tracking?
                       faculty positions (U Mass)
                     faculty position (Bristol, UK)
                 Connectionist Models Summer School 1993
         New version of Self-Organizing Maps PD program package


Send submissions, questions, address maintenance, and requests for old
issues to "neuron-request@cattell.psych.upenn.edu". The ftp archives are
available from cattell.psych.upenn.edu (130.91.68.31). Back issues
requested by mail will eventually be sent, but may take a while.

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

Subject: educational stock market game
From:    Lawrence Davenport III <ld37@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu>
Date:    Sat, 24 Oct 92 01:40:27 -0500

Dear "Neuron-Digest:

If you have an interest in the stock market, want to learn about
investment, want to receive some investment newsletters or
want to try out your investment skills, then please read on.
Otherwise, please hit the delete key now.

1. THE EVENT - WALL STREET INVESTMENT CHALLENGE: 

The Wall Street Investment Challenge is a contest in which each
participant manages a fictional account of $1,000,000 in the stock
market. During the 3 months contest, each participants will 
receive various top-rated investment newsletters. The winners of 
the contest will receive a set of prizes ranging from $25,000 to $100.

2. THE EDUCATIONAL ASPECT

In addition to the fun and excitement that are associated with an investment
challenge, the Wall Street Investment Challenge has created a three facet
approach to help the participants to improve their investment skills. 

  A). Learning Of The Investment Principles

  As a participant, you will receive 3 monthly issues of the Wall Street
  Investment Review which reports the latest research findings in the 
  nation's best business schools on the subject of investment approaches 
  that have yielded high profit or low risk. All investment concepts are 
  explained in simple to understand language so that the readers can gain 
  immediate understanding and benefits.

  B). Transforming The Investment Principles To Practical Stock Selection

  You will also receive highly regarded investment newsletters, including 
  6 issues of Dow Theory Forecasts and 6 issues of The Cabot Market Letter. 
  Both of these two investment newsletters have been rated in the top 10, 
  out of hundreds of newsletters, in Hubert's Guide To The Investment 
  Newsletters. You can improve your ability to apply your investment 
  knowledge to actual stock selection by observing the practices of these 
  highly successful investment advisors.

  C). Sharpen The Investment Instincts In The Real-Time Financial World

  Many day to day financial and political developments have real impacts 
  on short term and long term stock investment. Hence, you can sharpen 
  your investment instincts by actively managing one or more portfolios 
  in the Wall Street Investment Challenge.

3. THE PRIZES

National Prizes:

The 20 portfolios with the highest balance at the end of the competition 
will win the following cash prizes:
         1st -  25,000               2nd - 4,000
         3rd -   2,500               4th - 2,000
         5th -   1,500     6th thru 20th - 1,000 each

Division Champion

Each participant is assigned to a division. Each division has 100 
participants. At the end of the competition, the participant with the 
highest portfolio value in the division will win the title of Division 
Champion and will receive a $500 prize. 

League Champion

If you and your friends register together with at least 10 portfolios, 
you can form a league with a name of your choice. The best trader in 
your league will win the title of the League Champion and will receive a 
cash prize of $100. 

4. OTHER INFO

Cost - $49.95 entry fee
Duration of the contest - from 11/1/92 to 1/31/93
Allowable trades - buy, sell and short all NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ (OTC) stocks

To register or for more info, please call 1 (800) 964-6463, 24 hours a day,
7 days a week.




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

Subject: Clinical and Research Positions at the VA GRECC(Salt Lake City)
From:    soller%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Jerome Soller)
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Date:    25 Oct 92 00:55:44 +0000


I thought the following job posting would be of interest to researchers
in the neural network, biological models of aging, and intelligent
medical computing systems area.  Some examples of research projects
at the VA GRECC in these areas include: applications of neural networks
to large database systems, application of neural networks to prediction
of heart disease(Charles Rosenberg), integrated data collection environments
using pen based computers(Steven Fehlauer), Semantic Networks(Judith
Graves), expert systems, etc..,  to real problems in medicine and
nursing.  Close ties exist between the GRECC and U. of Utah
Departments of Internal Medicine, Bioengineering, Computer Science,
Psychology, Medical Informatics, and Nursing Informatics.  Another
separate VA center in Utah(VA Regional Information Systems Center,
one of 7 in the U.S.) provides access to the VA's DHCP database,
which is a standard database for 172 VA hospitals.

                                        Sincerely,


                                        Jerome Soller
                                        VA GRECC
                                        Ph.D. Candidate, U. of Utah 
                                        Department of Computer Science
                                        soller@cs.utah.edu
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Salt Lake City Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center
(GRECC) and the University of Utah School of Medicine are recruiting
individuals to join the VA/University program in Geriatric Internal
Medicine.  University faculty rank is dependent on qualifications.
Candidates must hold an M.D. and/or Ph.D. and have interest in one or
more of the following:

Clinical Geriatric Internal Medicine
Basic Biological Mechanisms of Aging
Computer-based Strategies for "Real-Time" Assistance in
the Delivery of Health Care

Appointments will be in the SLC VAMC GRECC and in the appropriate
University of Utah academic department.

Send curriculum vitae and bibliography to:

Gerald Rothstein, M.D.
SLC GRECC (182)
500 Foothill Blvd.
SLC, UT  84148

Closing date March 31, 1993 or until suitable candidates are identifie
d.
Please call 801-582-1565 ext 4161 for further information.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the University of Utah are
AA/EEO Employers.


C. Steven Fehlauer, M.D.
GRECC Research Investigator
Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of Utah

Charles Rosenberg, Ph.D.
GRECC Research Investigator

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

Subject: position offer from RIKEN
From:    Takayuki Ito <itot@strl.nhk.or.jp>
Date:    Mon, 26 Oct 92 10:38:11 +0200

I am Ito in NHK(Japan Broadcasting Corporation).  Dr. Tanaka
in RIKEN Institute asked me to post this letter.  

For more details, please contact with him by telephone or fax.

- ------------------------------------
Offer of a position for public subscription

RIKEN Institute, Information Science Laboratory
Researcher
Field: Physiological, anatomical, and psychological studies
       of higher brain functions, and development of related
       methodology.
Available from April 1, 1993
Condition: Ph.D or scheduled by April 1, 1993.  No elder
           than 34 on February 1, 1993.  Any nationality.
Inquires to Dr. Keiji Tanaka, Chief of Information Science
Laboratory,
fax: +81-48-462-4696, tel: +81-48-462-1111 ext.6411
- ------------------------------------

                ----------------------------------------------
                Takayuki Ito (itot@strl.nhk.or.jp)
                NHK Science and Technical Research Labs.
                1-10-11, Kinuta, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 157 Japan
                Tel.+81-3-5494-2369, Fax.+81-3-5494-2371
                ----------------------------------------------


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

Subject: "Help!!" - protein structures and fault diagnosis
From:    VEMURI@icdc.llnl.gov
Date:    Tue, 27 Oct 92 14:35:00 -0800


Help!!

I am getting interested in looking into the applications of neural nets

1. to protein structure problems.

2. to fault diagnosis (in electromechanical systems)

I have seen several times discussion about these two topics in these columns.
At that time I wasn't interested. NOW I AM!!

Can any one help with some bibliography material on these two topics.

Thanks you

V. Vemuri
Dept. of Applied Science
University of California
Livermore, CA 94550
"Vemuri@icdc.llnl.gov"



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

Subject: Neural Nets and Visual tracking?
From:    Denis Mareschal <maresch@ox.ac.uk>
Date:    Wed, 28 Oct 92 15:20:47 +0000

Hi,
        I'm looking for references on the application of Neural-networks
to visual-tracking. In particular, the ability to predict or anticipate
futur positions based on information about the current history of the 
trajectory as well as THE DEVELOPMENT of this ability.
        I'm not very familiar with the vision literature but a preliminary
search hasn't turned anything up. I am aware of NN applications to
time-series analysis but I would prefer to find work dealing more 
explicitly with vision.
        Any help would be greatly appreciated and of course a list of
references will be compiled  and posted if sufficient requests are made.
        Thanks a lot

                                Cheers,
                                        Denis Mareschal
                                        Department of Psychology
                                        Oxford
                                        maresch@ox.ac.uk


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

Subject: faculty positions (U Mass)
From:    Andy Barto <barto@cs.umass.edu>
Date:    Fri, 30 Oct 92 18:53:42 -0500


                UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
                         AMHERST

         Faculty and Research Scientist Positions

The Department of Computer Science invites applications for one-three
tenure-track faculty positions at the assistant and associate levels and several
research-track faculty and postdoctoral positions at all levels, in all areas of
computer science.  Applicants should have a Ph.D. in computer science or related
area and should show evidence of exceptional research promise. Senior level
candidates should have a record of distinguished research. Salary is
commensurate with education and experience. Our Department has grown
substantially over the past five years and currently has 30 tenure-track faculty
and 8 research faculty, approximately 10 postdoctoral research scientists, and
160 graduate students. Continued growth is expected over the next five years.
We have ongoing research projects in robotics, vision, natural language
processing, expert systems, distributed problem solving, machine learning,
artificial neural networks, person-machine interfaces,
distributed processing, database systems, information retrieval, operating
systems, object-oriented systems, persistent object management, real-time
systems, real-time software development and analysis, programming languages,
computer networks, theory of computation, office automation, parallel
computation, computer architecture, and medical informatics (with the UMass
Medical School). Send vita, along with the names of four references to Chair of
Faculty Recruiting, Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts,
Lederle Graduate Research Center, Amherst, MA 01003 by February 1, 1993 (or
Email inquiries can be sent to facrec@cs.umass.edu).


        An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer



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

Subject: faculty position (Bristol, UK)
From:    I C G Campbell <C.Campbell@bristol.ac.uk>
Date:    02 Nov 92 15:04:01 +0000

FACULTY POSITION
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM
Department of Computer Science

Applications are invited for a Lectureship in Computer Science now
tenable.

FURTHER PARTICULARS

The Department is part of the Faculty of Engineering.   It  has  a
complement  of  eighteen  full-time  UFC-funded   staff   members,
together with a further twelve full-time outside-funded staff, and
two  Visiting  Industrial  Professors:  Professor  J.  M.   Taylor
(Director, Hewlett-Packard  Research  Laboratories,  Bristol)  and
Professor I.  M.  Barron.   There  are  three  Professors  in  the
Department: Professor M. H. Rogers, who is Head of Department, and
Professors J. W. Lloyd and D. H. D. Warren.

The Department has substantial research funding from ESPRIT, SERC,
industry and government.

The Department concentrates its research in three main areas:

Logic Programming
Parallel Computing
Machine  Intelligence

although a number of other topics are also being pursued.

For this appointment, we are looking for a strong candidate in any
area of Computer Science, although preference  will  be  given  to
candidates  with  research  interests  in  Parallel  Computing  or
Machine Intelligence.   We are particularly looking for candidates
whose interests will broaden and complement our  current  work  in
these areas.

Current work in  Parallel  Computing  covers  a  range  of  areas,
including parallel logic programming systems and languages, memory
organisation for multiprocessor architectures, shared data  models
for transputer-based systems, and parallel applications especially
for engineering problems and computer graphics.  We are seeking to
broaden and strengthen this research.  Candidates  with  a  strong
background in computer architecture would be particularly welcome.

Current work in Machine Intelligence centres  mainly  on  Computer
Vision and Speech  Processing.   One  major  project  in  Computer
Vision is the development of an autonomous road vehicle, based  on
real-time image analysis.  Other  research  projects  in  Computer
Vision include vehicle  number  plate  decoding,  aircraft  engine
inspection, and visual flow monitoring.  Current  work  on  Speech
Processing within the Department concentrates on speech synthesis,
but the Faculty supports  a  Centre  for  Communications  Research
within which  there  is  a  Speech  Research  Group  incorporating
researchers in most aspects of speech technology, including speech
recognition, speech coding, speech perception, and the  design  of
speech interfaces. There is an interest in neural  network  theory
and neural computing elsewhere in the Faculty and we would welcome
applications  from  candidates  in  this  area.


The Department has a flourishing undergraduate  and  post-graduate
teaching programme and participates in degree  programmes  in  the
Engineering, Science and Arts Faculties.   These  programmes  lead
to B.Sc. degrees in Computer Science, and  Computer  Science  with
Mathematics, a B.Eng. in Computer Systems Engineering, a  B.A.  in
Computer Science and a  Modern  Language,  and  M.Sc.  degrees  in
Computer Science,  Foundations  of  Artificial  Intelligence,  and
Information Engineering.

The salary will be within  the  Lecturer  Scale  and  the  initial
placement will depend on age, qualifications and experience.

The closing date for applications is 27th November 1992.

Further particulars may be obtained from the Head of the  Computer
Science    Department    (tel:     0272-303584;     or     e-mail:
barbara@bristol.uk.ac.compsci).





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

Subject: Connectionist Models Summer School 1993
From:    "Michael C. Mozer" <mozer@dendrite.cs.colorado.edu>
Date:    Mon, 02 Nov 92 14:35:14 -0700

                           CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

                    CONNECTIONIST MODELS SUMMER SCHOOL

                          University of Colorado
                             Boulder, Colorado

                          June 21 - July 3, 1993

     The University of  Colorado  will  host  the  1993  Connectionist
     Models  Summer  School from June 21 to July 3, 1993.  The purpose
     of the summer school is to provide training  to  promising  young
     researchers  in connectionism (neural networks) by leaders of the
     field and to foster interdisciplinary collaboration.   This  will
     be  the  fourth  such  program  in  a  series  that  was  held at
     Carnegie-Mellon in 1986 and 1988 and at UC  San  Diego  in  1990.
     Previous  summer  schools  have  been extremely successful and we
     look forward to the 1993 session  with  anticipation  of  another
     exciting event.

     The  summer  school  will  offer  courses  in   many   areas   of
     connectionist modeling, with emphasis on artificial intelligence,
     cognitive   science,    cognitive    neuroscience,    theoretical
     foundations,  and  computational  methods.  Visiting faculty (see
     list of invited faculty below) will present  daily  lectures  and
     tutorials,   coordinate   informal   workshops,  and  lead  small
     discussion groups.  The summer school  schedule  is  designed  to
     allow  for significant interaction among students and faculty. As
     in previous years, a proceedings of the  summer  school  will  be
     published.

     Applications will  be  considered  only  from  graduate  students
     currently  enrolled in Ph.D. programs.  About 50 students will be
     accepted.  Admission is on a competitive basis.  Tuition will  be
     covered  for  all  students,  and  we expect to have scholarships
     available to subsidize housing and meal  costs,  which  will  run
     approximately $300.

     Applications should include the following materials:

     *  a one-page statement of purpose,  explaining  major  areas  of
     interest  and  prior  background  in  connectionist  modeling and
     neural networks;

     *  a vita, including academic history, publications (if any), and
     a  list  of  relevant  courses  taken with instructors' names and
     grades received;

     *  two letters of recommendation from individuals  familiar  with
     the applicants' work; and

     *  if room and board support is requested, a statement  from  the
     applicant  describing  potential  sources  of  financial  support
     available (department, advisor, etc.) and the estimated extent of
     need.   We hope to have sufficient scholarship funds available to
     provide room and board to all  accepted  students  regardless  of
     financial need.

     Applications should be sent to:

             Connectionist Models Summer School
             c/o Institute of Cognitive Science
             Campus Box 344
             University of Colorado
             Boulder, CO 80309

     All application materials must be  received  by  March  1,  1993.
     Decisions   about  acceptance  and  scholarship  awards  will  be
     announced April 15.  If you  have  additional  questions,  please
     write    to    the    address    above    or   send   e-mail   to
     "cmss@cs.colorado.edu".


     Organizing Committee

     Jeff Elman (UC San Diego)
     Mike Mozer (University of Colorado)
     Paul Smolensky (University of Colorado)
     Dave Touretzky (Carnegie-Mellon)
     Andreas Weigend (Xerox PARC and University of Colorado)

     Additional faculty will include:

     Andy Barto (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
     Gail Carpenter (Boston University)
     Jack Cowan (University of Chicago)
     David Haussler (UC Santa Cruz)
     Geoff Hinton (University of Toronto)
     Mike Jordan (MIT)
     John Kruschke (Indiana University)
     Jay McClelland (Carnegie-Mellon)
     Steve Nowlan (Salk Institute)
     Dave Plaut (Carnegie-Mellon)
     Jordan Pollack (Ohio State)
     Dave Rumelhart (Stanford)
     Terry Sejnowski (UC San Diego and Salk Institute)


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

Subject: New version of Self-Organizing Maps PD program package
From:    lvq@cochlea.hut.fi (LVQ_PAK)
Date:    Tue, 03 Nov 92 12:30:27 +0700

************************************************************************
*                                                                      *
*                              SOM_PAK                                 *
*                                                                      *
*                                The                                   *
*                                                                      *
*                        Self-Organizing Map                           *
*                                                                      *
*                          Program  Package                            *
*                                                                      *
*                   Version 1.2 (November 2, 1992)                     *
*                                                                      *
*                          Prepared by the                             *
*                    SOM Programming Team of the                       *
*                 Helsinki University of Technology                    *
*           Laboratory of Computer and Information Science             *
*                Rakentajanaukio 2 C, SF-02150 Espoo                   *
*                              FINLAND                                 *
*                                                                      *
*                         Copyright (c) 1992                           *
*                                                                      *
************************************************************************

Some time ago we released the software package "LVQ_PAK" for
the easy application of Learning Vector Quantization algorithms.
Corresponding public-domain programs for the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) 
algorithms are now available via anonymous FTP on the Internet. 

"What does the Self-Organizing Map mean?", you may ask --- See the
following reference, then: Teuvo Kohonen. The self-organizing map.
Proceedings of the IEEE,  78(9):1464-1480, 1990.

In short, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) defines a 'non-linear projection'
of the probability density function of the high-dimensional input data
onto the two-dimensional display. SOM places a number of reference
vectors into an input data space to approximate to its data set in an
ordered fashion.

This package contains all the programs necessary for the application
of Self-Organizing Map algorithms in an arbitrary complex data
visualization task.  

This code is distributed without charge on an "as is" basis.
There is no warranty of any kind by the authors or by Helsinki
University of Technology.

In the implementation of the SOM programs we have tried to use as
simple code as possible. Therefore the programs are supposed to
compile in various machines without any specific modifications made on
the code. All programs have been written in ANSI C. The programs are 
available in two archive formats, one for the UNIX-environment, the
other for MS-DOS. Both archives contain exactly the same files. 

These files can be accessed via FTP as follows:

1. Create an FTP connection from wherever you are to machine
   "cochlea.hut.fi". The internet address of this machine is 
   130.233.168.48, for those who need it.

2. Log in as user "anonymous" with your own e-mail address as password.  

3. Change remote directory to "/pub/som_pak". 

4. At this point FTP should be able to get a listing of files in this
   directory with DIR and fetch the ones you want with GET. (The exact 
   FTP commands you use depend on your local FTP program.) Remember 
   to use the binary transfer mode for compressed files.

The som_pak program package includes the following files:

  - Documentation:
      README             short description of the package 
                         and installation instructions
      som_doc.ps         documentation in (c) PostScript format
      som_doc.ps.Z       same as above but compressed
      som_doc.txt        documentation in ASCII format

  - Source file archives (which contain the documentation, too):
      som_p1r2.exe       Self-extracting MS-DOS archive file
      som_pak-1.2.tar    UNIX tape archive file
      som_pak-1.2.tar.Z  same as above but compressed


An example of FTP access is given below

unix> ftp cochlea.hut.fi (or 130.233.168.48)
Name: anonymous
Password: <your email address>
ftp> cd /pub/som_pak
ftp> binary
ftp> get som_pak-1.2.tar.Z
ftp> quit
unix> uncompress som_pak-1.2.tar.Z
unix> tar xvfo som_pak-1.2.tar

See file README for further installation instructions.

All comments concerning this package should be
addressed to som@cochlea.hut.fi.

************************************************************************




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

End of Neuron Digest [Volume 10 Issue 16]
*****************************************
Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets