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12 - 15 April 2010, Wellington "8th New Zealand Computer Science Research Student Conference (NZCSRSC)"

The 8th New Zealand Computer Science Research Student Conference (NZCSRSC) was held at the University of Victoria, Wellington. Three PhD students from KEDRI were participating in the conference, where Stefan Schliebs and Kshitij Dhoble presented on the poster session and Harya Widiputra presented a full-paper.

Stefan Schliebs has won the best poster award for a paper named "Heterogeneous Probabilistic Models for Optimisation and Modelling of Evolving Spiking Neural Networks"

Stefan Schliebs win the Best Poster Award at the NZCSRSC 2010

23 February 2010 – KEDRI Seminar on ”On the puzzle of the induction/deduction loop Bridging perception and symbolic reasoning” and “Graphical Pattern Recognition: the LSRN Approach”

Speaker: Prof. Marco Gori
Title: On the puzzle of the induction/deduction loop Bridging perception and symbolic reasoning
Venue: AUT Tower, WT-302

Speaker: Prof. Edmondo Trentin
Title: Graphical Pattern Recognition, the LSRN Approach
Venue: AUT Tower, WT-302

Seminar participants

10 December 2009 – AUT Summer Graduation

On the AUT Summer Graduation day, three of KEDRI's PhD students had graduated - Anju Verma, Snjezana Soltic and Peter Hwang and three of KEDRI's Matsers students had also graduated with a First Class - Linda Liang, Sean Gordon and Peter Wang.

In addition to that, one KEDRI’s PhD student, Stefan Schliebs has received the Dean's Award for the Best Postgraduate Study in the School.

6 August 2009 – KEDRI Seminar on Kinetics models and laser photolysis

Title: Analysis of synaptic transmission and its regulation by channel
Venue: WZ 717, 350 Queen Street, Level 7
Presenter: Prof. Hiroshi Kojima, Laboratory for Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Tamagawa University, Tokyo Japan

The presentation will introduce the physiological experiments and techniques which enable us to understand the background of the synaptic transmission. Then it will explain how the rate constants of AMPA receptor channel kinetics model of neural cells which could induce the change in efficacy of synaptic transmission can be predicted with computer simulation.

Excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) were reconstructed by computer calculation. Moreover, electrical responses were measured from neurons by using laser uncaging experiments. It was shown that the properties of the evoked current responses by photolysis and those obtained spontaneous synaptic currents have the similar properties. It is also suggested that the present method based on kinetics models and uncaging method could be used for the investigation of the integration and regulation by neural cells.

On the photo from left to right: Prof. Nikola Kasabov (KEDRI), Prof. Hiroshi Kojima (Tamagawa University), Stefan Schliebs (KEDRI)

20-22 April 2009: New Zealand Wind Energy Conference 2009

“Novel models for wind forecasting in the context of Integrative decision support system framework” was the presentation delivered by Marin Karaivanov, KEDRI PhD student at the annual New Zealand Wind Energy Conference’ 2009 in Wellington. Marin was selected amongst doctoral students from New Zealand universities to give a talk and was awarded a full sponsorship package by Transpower and supported by New Zealand Wind Energy Association.

After the conference Marin spent a day at Transpower’ Head Office with the senior management team of the NZ Energy Grid and visited Wilton Substation in Wellington.

The presented research is under the supervision of Professor Nik Kasabov and Dr. Russel Pears and is inspired by Evolving connectionist systems (ECOS) framework.

http://windenergy.org.nz/events/wind-energy-conference-2009

IJCNN Conference: 13-19 June 2009

Professor Nikola Kasabov – Director of the Knowledge Engineering and Discovery Research Institute (KEDRI) at AUT, is the current President of the International Neural Network Society (INNS), which has members from all over the world (http://www.inns.org). INNS is the premiere organization for individuals interested in a theoretical and computational understanding of the brain and applying that knowledge to develop new and more effective forms of machine intelligence used across all disciplines. Professor Kasabov opened the premier International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), held in Atlanta, USA, 13-19.06.2009 and gave an invited talk. With him was his PhD student Stefan Schliebs who gave a tutorial at the conference. The conference attracted  more than 600 people from 75 countries to discuss the current trends in neural networks, brain study and intelligent systems.

IBM Visit

Preceding the conference, Professor Kasabov was invited to visit the IBM Brain research Centre at Almaden, California. He and Dr Dharmendra Modha – Director of the Centre, agreed to jointly develop a large scale simulator of about 10 mln neurons and several billions of connections, based on the probabilistic model by Prof. Kasabov and implemented on the IBM in-house Blue Gene supercomputer. Such model, the first of this scale, can be further used for the study of brain diseases and also for solving complex engineering problems. 

At the IJCNN 2009 conference, Atlanta, 13-19.06.2009. From left: Prof. Kasabov – INNS President; Prof. Kumar (Missouri) – Program Chair; Dr D.Fogel (San Diego) – President of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society; Dr. Richard Vouge (San Diego) – Director IEEE, section 10.

23 March 2009 - Prof. Kasabov and Dr Pang's Visit to NiCT and NAIST in Japan
 
Prof. N.Kasabov and Dr Paul Pang visited the collaborating organisations NiCT (National Institute of Communication and Information Technologies) in Tokyo and NAIST (Nara Institute of Science and Technology) to present the KEDRI 2008 report on a joint project and to plan a new project in the future in the area of novel computational intelligence techniques for cyber- security.

On the photo from left to right: Dr T.Ban (NICT), Gregory (PhD student at NAIST), Prof. Y.Kadobayashi (Director, NICT and NAIST laboratories) , Prof. N.Kasabov (Director KEDRI), Dr Paul Pang (KEDRI), Prof. Xu (China) and Dr. Zonghua Zhang (NICT).

11th December 2008 - KEDRI seminar on "Progress and challenges in vision-based driver assistant systems"

DATE: 11th December 2008
Time: 1 p.m.
Venue: WZ 717, 350 Queen Street, Level 7
Presenter: Professor Reinhard Klette, Computer Science Department, University of Auckland

The talk will discuss computer vision challenges in the context of vision-based driver assistant systems, certainly one of the most difficult areas of current 3D image analysis due to (1) the expectation of being "legally soundproof" at night or in the rain, at 120km/h, in Queen Street at rush hour, and so forth, also due to (2) the real time request, and (3) expectations to look about 3 seconds ahead - what may happen next in front of the car, at the location where the ego-vehicle is expected to be? Actually, car companies have started in 1995 to add vision solutions into their top-end models. What can we add to this in New Zealand, without having any car production line in the country? The talk will suggest collaboration between KEDRI/AUT an the .enpeda.. team.

28th February 2008 - Korean delegation from Seoul National University of Technology, visits KEDRI

Prof. Jaesoo Kim, Head of Dept, Dept. of Computer Sciecne & Engineering, Seoul National University of Technology visited KEDRI on 28th Feb along with Dr. Seong Yong Park, Director of Technopreneurship and Dr. Jong Ho Ok, Vice-Director of Technopreneurship.

21st and 28th February 2008 - KEDRI seminars on Technical characteristics and programming of the mobile robot "WITH"

There will be 2 KEDRI seminars on 21st and 28th Feb 08 at 1 p.m. in PA421, James Fletcher House Building, AUT Tech Park.
 
Topic: Technical characteristics and programming of the mobile robot "WITH"
Presenter: Mr. Ryota Nishioka PhD student, Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT), Japan
Supervisor: Prof. Takeshi Yamakawa

The speaker will present some technical characteristics, programming, details and instructions as to how to develop applications for the robot "WITH" built at the KIT. The robot is now available at KEDRI for joint projects based on the collaboration agreement between KEDRI/AUT and KIT.

Suggestions for new projects based on this robot should be sent to Dr. Paul (Shaoning) Pang: spang@aut.ac.nz

13th January 2008 - Bulgarian Professor visits KEDRI

Prof. Hristo Hristov from Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria, visited KEDRI.

24th January 2008 - Japanese delegation from Kyushu Institute of Technology, visits KEDRI

A Japanese delegation from Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan visited KEDRI for collaboration on 24th January. The delegation comprised of Professors from the Faculty of Computer Science and Systems Engineering,

• Prof. Kazuhiro Tanaka, (Dean)
• Prof. Eitaku Nobuyama
• Prof. Hiroyuki Narahara
• Prof. Seiji Kajihar

30th November 2007 - Bayer Innovators Award

Prof. Nikola Kasabov received the prestigious Bayer Innovators Award in the 'Science' category where he was recognised for his innovative excellence and outstanding achievement.

The write-up which appeared in the National Business Review is available here for your information.

27th October 2007 - KEDRI’s PhD student, Peter Hwang, among the first ten in an international Artificial Neural Networks & Computational Intelligence Forecasting Competition

Peter Hwang, a second year PhD student at KEDRI, working on Intelligent Modelling and Prediction Systems was ranked amongst the first ten in a world competition in time series prediction. The closely contested competition (www.neural-forecasting-competition.com) was held at the IJCNN07 conference in Orlando and organised by the International Neural Network Society (www.inns.org).

There were 11 time series of unknown origin given for the competition and about 100 submissions were sent to a jury. Participants had to predict time steps ahead in each time series. Peter applied a model which is called Dynamic Evolving Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System developed and published by Dr. Qun Song and Prof. Nikola Kasabov who are both Peter’s supervisors. Prof. Kasabov commented on Peter’s achievement as a very good mark in his PhD study and he expects new algorithms to be developed by Peter in the future, for successful time series prediction, data mining and knowledge discovery.

30th September 2007 - Bio-informatics post-graduate student among New Zealand’s best

Press Release
AUT University PhD student Yingjie Hu has been recognised as among the top ten per cent of doctoral students in New Zealand, winning a prestigious Top Achiever Doctorate Scholarship.

The scholarship, which supports a doctoral candidate over three years, was awarded by the Tertiary Education Commission.

He is one of 28 top doctoral students in the country to be awarded the scholarships for the next three years.

Hu has been granted $94,000 for research on evolving intelligent methods and systems for bioinformatics data analysis. His findings will be applied on problems of cancer diagnosis and prognosis and drug target discovery.

He is currently a PhD student at AUT’s Knowledge Engineering and Discovery Research Institute (KEDRI) under the supervision of Professor Nikola Kasabov. He is the fourth PhD student to have received the Top Achiever Doctorate Scholarship in the intitute.

The purpose of his research is to investigate and develop new information methods for integrated data analysis, modelling and knowledge discovery from bioinformatics data and more specifically from cancer related data. This includes gene expression data, protein data, and clinical data.

Hu says the developed methods will be adaptive, evolving through incremental learning from new data.

Hu received his Master of Computer and Information Sciences degree with honours (first class) from AUT University in 2006.

The aim of the Top Achiever Doctorate Scholarship is to increase the supply of highly trained researchers and highly skilled graduates and give doctoral scholars the choice of studying in New Zealand or at overseas universities.

TEC chief executive Janice Shiner says the scholarships are a real investment in not only the future of these very talented individuals, but also New Zealand’s knowledge economy.

For more information contact:

Yingjie (Raphael) Hu
09 9219578 or rhu@aut.ac.nz

Professor Nikola Kasabov
09 9219506 or nkasabov@aut.ac.nz

2-5th August 2007 - Prof. Kasabov at the International Conference on Soft Computing and Human Sciences 2007

Prof. Nikola Kasabov gave a special lecture on “Ontology-based Personalised Biomedical Decision Support Systems“ at BMFSA 2007, International Conference on Soft Computing and Human Sciences.

The lecture slides are available here.

9th August 2007 - KEDRI Seminar

Speaker: Professor Ajit Narayanan,Head of School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, AUT
Topic: Intelligent bioinformatics and cancer systems biology: The computational search for killer genes
Date & Time: Thursday 9th August 2007 at 11.30 a.m.
Venue: AUT Technology Park, James Fletcher House, Level 4 (PA421), 581-585 Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland

The presentation will deal with a systems level view of cancer. Science goes through three interacting phases: measurement/observation, understanding, and control. Systems biology is the application of computational, mathematical and engineering concepts and techniques for understanding and, ultimately, controlling biological processes. The focus of the talk is on the following questions: (a) What are the basic structures and properties of a cancer biological network? (b) How does a cancer biological system behave over time under various conditions? (c) How does a cancer biological system maintain its robustness and stability? (d) How can we modify or construct cancer biological systems to achieve desired properties? The talk will start with an introduction to the 'standard' model of cancer before examining recent research from a cancer systems biology perspective that questions some aspects of the standard model, leading to new hypotheses of what causes cancer.
 
No previous knowledge of cancer or biology is assumed.

12th July 2007 - KEDRI OPEN DAY

Date & Time: 1-4pm Thursday 12th July 2007
Venue: AUT Technology Park, (PA421) James Fletcher House, 581 Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland

KEDRI is organising an 'Open Day' to celebrate its achievements over the last five years, in the areas of research and postgraduate teaching.

Programme
General presentations:

• Introduction to KEDRI
• The KEDRI Brain-gene Ontology and Simulation System
• The KEDRI Computational Intelligence Repository

Centre presentations starting 1:30pm, in parallel, in KEDRI labs
 
Centre for Neurocomputing and Computational Intelligence

1. Evolving Spiking Neural Networks
2. Quantum inspired neurocomputing
3. Evolving ontology-based machine learning environment

Centre for Neuroinformatics and Brain Study

1. Computational neurogenetic modelling and case studies of learning, memory and epilepsy
2. Integrated neuroinformatics--bioinformatics environment for research and discovery

Centre for Bioinformatics

1. Gene expression profiling – SIFTWARE
2. Gene regulatory network modelling – GeneNetXP
3. Micro RNA discovery based on 2D image data analysis

Centre for Data Mining and Decision Support Systems

1. NeuCom - Neuro-computing Decision Support Environment
2. Renal function personalised medical decision support systems: GFR- ECOS and DOPPS
3. Ontology- based personalised decision support system for chronic disease risk evaluation

Centre for Adaptive Pattern Recognition

1. Aggregating Intelligence for person authentication
2. Evolving connectionist systems for robot control
3. Modelling human motion and intelligent coaching systems for tennis and golf 

Laboratory for English and Maori translation

1. English and Maori on-line word translator

Contact Person: Prof. Nikola Kasabov, Email: nkasabov@aut.ac.nz

KEDRI Open-Day booklet is available for download as PDF here. 

18th of April 2007 - Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies Research Forum Presentation by Prof. Nik Kasabov

Prof. Nik Kasabov presented a seminar at the faculty of design and creative technologies research forum. The topic was "The World of Information - where Science, Art and Technology Meet".

Click here to download the presentation as a PDF file. 

19th of October 2006 - KEDRI Seminar by Prof. Nik Kasabov

Topic: brain, gene and quantum inspired computational intelligence: challenges and opportunities
Presenter: Prof. N. Kasabov, FRSNZ, FNZCS, Director & Chief Scientist of KEDRI
Date & Time: 19th October 2006 from 2-3 p.m.
Venue: aut technology park, james fletcher house, level 4, (pa421), 581-585 great south road, penrose, auckland

The PDF version of the presentation can be downloaded here

28th of September 2006 - KEDRI Efforts and Professionalism Award Presentation

Dr. Qun Son received the KEDRI Efforts and Professionalism Award for the year 2005 and 2006 from Prof. Nik Kasabov.

24th of August 2006 - KEDRI Seminar by Dr. Petr Pancoska

Topic: Genes, graphs and proteins – lessons for novel methods of data analysis
Date: 24th of August 2006 at 1 p.m.
Venue: AUT Technology Park, James Fletcher House, Level 4, (PA421), 581-585 Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland

Short Biography
Dr. Petr Pancoska studied chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the Charles University Prague while working simultaneously on research projects at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences at Prague. He did his PhD. in experimental physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University Prague. After postdoctoral work at the Bochum University (Germany) he was faculty at the Department of Chemical Physics of the Charles University Prague. He is also founding and board member of the International Centre for Discrete Mathematics, Theoretical Computer Science and Applications (DIMATIA) at the Charles University. From 1994-2003 he was faculty at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Currently he is faculty at the Stony Brook University. Research interests cover applications of advanced data analysis methods, novel applications of mathematics in bioinformatics, cancer research, bio-nanotechnology, molecular biology, virology, drug design and disease diagnostics, optical spectroscopy of biomolecules, experimental and theoretical studies of primary processes of photosynthesis.

Abstract
The evolutionary history of nucleotide and protein sequences is usually inferred from multiple sequence alignments. We show in the first part of the presentation that – using an innovative graph-theoretical approach – it is possible to extract evolutionary constraints within single sequences. This novel approach has firm physico-chemical basis: The multiplicity of realizations of the “wild type” thermodynamic state of any gene position is calculated via representation of gene sequence via Eulerian graph. This innovative descriptor reveals previously unseen dimension of information content within genomes. The multiplicity technique is entirely model-free, there is no need to do multiple sequence alignments or parameterize evolutionary rates or distributions. A direct observation of the sequence via thermodynamic “tolerance” reveals where evolution has happened and how important mutations in each particular position are in comparison to other positions (even if they have the same local sequence). No other technique (alignment entropy, codon bias, Ka/Ks ratio) has a similar potential. We show practical applications of this novel analysis in drug design, prediction of emergence of mutations of influenza viruses that induce drug resistance, in quantitative prognostics of treatment of HIV patients and for identification of “barcode” segments of pathogens for microarray-based bio-defense applications.

In the second part we will use the insight gained from the above biological applications for more general analysis of large graphs and networks. First we will exploit the unique topological structure of any Eulerian graph E. We show that a (weighted) graph g can be converted into an (oriented) multigraph G. Then : i) Each E-subgraph of G can be decomposed into a (small)“basis”of independent cycles and encoded digitally in a vector; ii) E-subgraph of a network is deterministically associated with a linear sequence of events. Moreover, the multiplicity of this sequence of events provide a measure of its uniqueness; iii) Topology of any E-subgraph defines the “command structure” of interacting blocks, which govern the events sequence. iv) The results of i)-iii) can be used for direct design of networks with pre-defined properties and interactions between its components.

Next we will exploit the broader consequences of the fact that all biological “information media” are chiral. We will show some results of the theoretical analyses of this natural phenomenon for chiral subgraphs C of g. i) Ruch’s theory associates the topology of C (via characters of its symmetry and permutation groups) with a unique chirality function that describes the mode of interactions between the C components. ii) The existence of parity-odd and parity even observables can represent two different responses of a network to a stimulus. We will demonstrate on a simple conceptual example, that the magnitude of the differential response depends on a level of interaction between the components of C.

10th of August 2006 - KEDRI Distinguished Scientist Awards

Prof. Mario Fedrizzi from the University of Trento, Italy was presented with the KEDRI Distinguished Scientist Awards in recognition of his excellence in research.

3rd of August 2006 - KEDRI Seminar by Prof. Mario Fedrizzi

Time & Location: Thursday 3rd August 06 at 1 p.m. at the James Fletcher House Level 4 meeting room. 
Topic: Modelling Consensual Dynamics in Group Decision Making in the Framework of Fuzzy Preferences

Short Biography
Prof. Mario Fedrizzi is a Professor and Chair of Mathematics for Decisions, Faculty of Ecomomics, and the Deputy Rector, University of Trento, Italy. His current research focuses on: utility and risk theory; stochastic dominance; group decision analysis; decision support systems; fuzzy decision analysis; fuzzy mathematical programming; fuzzy regression analysis; consensus modeling in uncertain environments. Prof. Fedrizzi is also involved in consulting activities for information systems and DSS design and implementation; office automation; process quality control; project management; expert systems and neural nets in financial planning; ERP systems design and implementation.

Abstract
One of the central issues to address when we are faced with the preference aggregation task in social choice theory is that of modelling consensus. The notion of consensus plays an important role whenever the social choice scheme is based on a strategy of gradually combining the various individual preferences into some form of collective preference structure.

In the development of fuzzy approaches to group decision making the notion of consensus has evolved from a binary index of unanimous agreement to a graded (soft) measure of collective agreement among the individual decision makers whose preferences are represented by fuzzy binary relations.

Here we propose some extensions of the fuzzy approaches to consensus reaching processes combining a soft measure of collective dissensus with an inertial mechanism of opinion changing aversion. The collective consensual trend corresponds to a process of anisotropic diffusion among the individual preferences structure. The anisotropy is designed so as to outline and enhance the natural group segmentation into homogeneous subgroups. The individual inertial mechanism, on the other hand, opposes changes from the original preferences and provides an appropriate framework to deal with preference outliers.

1st of August 2006 - KEDRI Open Lecture Series X

Topic: Theories of decision making under risk and uncertainty: a selected survey of mathematically-based approaches in the second half of the 20th century
Time: Tuesday, 1st August 2006, from 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Venue: At AUT University, Wellesley Campus, WA 220 Lecture Theatre, Level 2, 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland

Short Biography
Prof. Mario Fedrizzi is a Professor and Chair of Mathematics for Decisions, Faculty of Ecomomics, and the Deputy Rector, University of Trento, Italy. His current research focuses on: utility and risk theory; stochastic dominance; group decision analysis; decision support systems; fuzzy decision analysis; fuzzy mathematical programming; fuzzy regression analysis; consensus modeling in uncertain environments. Prof. Fedrizzi is also involved in consulting activities for information systems and DSS design and implementation; office automation; process quality control; project management; expert systems and neural nets in financial planning; ERP systems design and implementation.

Abstract
The monumental treatise on rational choice and the theory of games of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, published in 1947, have profoundly influenced mathematical research in decision making modelling through the rest of the 20th century. K. Arrow’s approach on social choice theory, L. Savage’s axiomatic foundations for subjective utility theory, G. Debreu’s theory of value and R. Keeney and H. Raiffa’s work on preferences and value tradeoffs have been directly derived from the seminal work of von Neumann and Morgenstern. The decision making framework introduced by the two authors, usually referred to as the expected utility model, have come under increasing fire due the weakness of its explanatory power for real world decision processes. P. Fishburn, D. Kahneman and A Tversky, M. Machina, D. Schmeidler and others introduced generalizations accommodating reasonable behaviours of decision makers that were considered inconsistent with the axiomatic framework of the original expected utility model. 

The main scope of the lecture is to provide an historical overview of the basic normative decision making models based on the representation of preference structures. Strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches will be enlightened in the perspective of the impact of the models on the ways in which decisions are made. Some basic problems related to the representation and management of risk, vagueness and imprecision will be addressed.

The PowerPoint presentation of the lecture can be downloaded here.

8th of June 2006 - KEDRI Seminar by Dr. Svetlana Shevenko

Dr. Svetlana Shevenko, linguist from the Russian Academy of Sciences will be giving a presentation at the KEDRI Seminar on Thursday 8th June '06 at 1 p.m. The presentation will be held at the AUT Technology Park, PA 421, James Fletcher House, 581-585 Great South Road,Penrose.

Dr. Shevenko will be speaking on Automatic processing Japanese texts, Automatic recognition Chinese characters and Application of the research results for developing accelerated language courses."

4th of May 2006 - KEDRI Open Lecture Series IX

Topic: The Comparison of the Spatio-temporal learning rule and the Hebbian learning rule
Speaker: Prof. Minoru Tsukada,
Time: Thursday 4th May 2006, from 1 p.m. – 2p.m.
Venue: AUT Technology Park, James Fletcher House, Level 4 (PA421), 581-585 Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland

Short Biography
Prof. Minoru Tsukada is a Professor in the Department of Intelligent Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering, Tamagawa University and he is also the General Manager of Research Institute, Tamagawa University

Mailing address: 6-1-1, Tamagawa-gakuen, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8160, Japan,
Web: Professor Tsukada Minoru profile
E-mail: tsukada@eng.tamagawa.ac.jp
Phone/Fax: +81-(0)42-739-8430

Field of specialisation: Computational Neuroscience and Modeling of neural networks, Intelligent Informatics

Research topics
A spatio-temporal learning rule and information representation in memory networks; Self-organisation of information representation; A dynamic aspect of neural coding.

Research activities: To experimentally investigate self-organization of information representation in the neural memory system, and to design a theoretical model of the hippocampal-cortical memory system of storing and retrieving information.

The following kinds of information representation are identified in experiment and model study: Dynamic cell assembly; Information integration by temporal correlation among events; A spatio-temporal learning rule; A dynamic non-linear process of storing and retrieving information

Abstract
The Hebbian synaptic learning rule requires coactivity of presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons. However, under some conditions, information regarding the postsynaptic action potentials, carried by backpropagating action potentials, can be strongly degraded before it reaches the distal dendritic synapse of the hippocampal CA1 (Spruston, et al.,1995; Andreasen and Ross,1995; Callaway and Ross,1995; Stuart, et al.,1997; Golding et al., 2001). Yet, recent results (Golding et al., 2002) have shown that LTP can indeed occur at synapses on distal dendrites of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons, even in the absence of a postsynaptic somatic spike.

Based on results observed in hippocampal LTP, induced by various spatiotemporal pattern stimuli (Tsukada et al.,1990,1994), the spatiotemporal learning rule (STLR) was proposed by Tsukada et al. (1996,1998). The novel point of this learning rule was “Cooperative plasticity without a postsynaptic spike”, which we tested physiologically in the CA1 hippocampal network (Yamazaki et al.,2006), and its temporal summation.

The learning rule incorporated two dynamic process: fast (10 to 30ms) and slow (150 to 250ms). The fast process works as a time window to detect a spatial coincidence among various inputs projected to a weight space of the hippocampal CA1 dendrites, while the slow process works as a temporal integrator of a sequence of events.

In a previous paper (T.Aihara et al.,2000) the decay constant of fast dynamics was identified as 17ms by parameter fitting to the physiological data of LTP, Cell assemblies were synchronized at this time scale, while matches the period of the hippocampal gamma oscillation, and that of the slow is 169ms, which corresponds to a theta rhythm. We (Tsukada and Pan, 2005) systematically examine the functional difference between STLR and Hebbian learning rules in a single–layered neural network, computing their ability to differentiate spatiotemporal sequence. In this paper, we tested physiologically the cooperative plasticity without a postsynaptic spike in the CA1 hippocampal network. 

March 2006 - Prof. Nik Kasabov elected as Vice President of International Neural Network Society

Prof. Nik Kasabov was elected as a Vice President of the International Neural Network Society. INNS is a society that promotes fundamental and applied research and education in the areas of neurocomputing and neuro information processing, brain study, computational intelligence, and applications in all areas of science, technology, business, engineering, medicine and social sciences (http://www.inns.org/). 

12 - 24th of December 2005 - Prof. Nik Kasabov Presents Keynote Speech in AI2005

Professor Nikola Kasabov, FRSNZ, FNZCS has been invited to present the technical keynote speech at the annual conference of the British Computer Society, AI2005, to be held in December 12-14, 2005 in the Peterhouse College in Cambridge. His talk is titled: "Computational Intelligence for Bioinformatics: A Knowledge Engineering Approach".

Details can be seen at the Web site: http://www.bcs-sgai.org/ai2005/

17th of November 2005 - KEDRI Open Lecture Series VIII

Speaker: Prof. L. T. Koczy
Seminar: Recent advances in Fuzzy Model Identification
Date & Time: Thursday 17th November 2005 from 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Venue: At AUT Technology Park, James Fletcher House, Level 4 (PA421), 581-585 Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland

Biography
Laszlo T. Koczy M. Sc. E. E. (1975); M. Phil. Control E. (1976); Ph.D. (1977), Technical University of Budapest, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Science, (1998, the highest earnable postdoctoral degree in Hungary) Visiting positions: Australian National University (Canberra); Murdoch University (Perth, Australia), University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia); J. Kepler Universitat Linz (Austria); University of Trento (Italy); Tokyo Institute of Technology (Yokohama, Japan; Chair Professor in 1993/94); Pohang Institute of Science and Technology (Korea). Summer University lecturing: Helsinki University of Economics, University of Helsinki (Finland), University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Dalian Maritime University (China). Research interests: Telecommunication systems, Intelligent models and systems, Very large and complex systems and networks. Professional Societies: International Fuzzy Systems Association: Past President 2003-2001; President 2001-2003; President Elect, 1999-2001; Vice President, 1995-99. IEEE: Senior Member, 1999-; NNS Regional Activities Chair 2001-2002; Chapters Chair 2002-2003, Administrative Committee member, 2004- .EURO WG on Fuzzy Sets (currently EUSFLAT): Founding Member, 1975-. Hungarian Fuzzy Society: Founding President 1990-1999, now Life Honorary President. He has published 326 papers including some textbooks.

Abstract
Automatic fuzzy rule based model identification started with Sugeno and Yasukawa's paper in 1992. The first approaches were based on clustering, especially fuzzy c-means clustering. Later several essential improvements have been added and alternative learning techniques were applied (with T. Gedeon and A. Chong). Bacterial algorithms introduced by Furuhashi could be used for slow but global model optimisation (with J. Botzheim and B. Hamori), while the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm successfully used for neural network optimisation could be extended to more complex fuzzy models as a fast but locally converging technique (with A. Ruano, C. Cabrita and J. Botzheim). Our most recent results combine the advantages of these two, in the form of a Bacterial Memetic Algorithm, where fast and global optimum could be reached. Some benchmark problems will illustrate the power of the new approach

10th of November 2005 - KEDRI Efforts and Professionalism Award Presentation

Dr. Qun Son received the KEDRI Efforts and Professionalism Award for the year 2004 and 2005 from Prof. Nik Kasabov.

September 2005 - Asia Pacific Neural Network Assembly (APNNA) Excellence Award

Prof. Nikola Kasabov, FRSNZ, was awarded the Asia Pacific Neural Network Assembly (APNNA) Excellence Award for his overall contribution in the area of Neuroinformation Processing and Intelligent Systems, in the Asia Pacific region.

APNNA was established in 1993 and Prof. Kasabov was one of its co-founders. He was the APNNA President in 1997-98 and has been on its governing board since its establishment. 

The award was announced at the annual APNNA conference (ICONIP 05) in Tapei. last month. In 1997, the ICONIP conference was held successfully in Dunedin and Prof. Kasabov is now aiming to bring the ICONIP to New Zealand once again but this time to Auckland.  

21st of July 2005 - KEDRI Best Researcher Award Presentation

Dr. Zeke S.H. Chan received the KEDRI Best Researcher Award for the year 2005 from Prof. Nik Kasabov.

30th of June 2005 - KEDRI Open Lecture Series VII 

Speaker: Prof. J.J. Wright
Seminar: Dynamics and organization of the cerebral cortex
Date & Time: Thursday 30th June 2005 from 1 - 2 p.m.
Venue: AUT Technology Park, Level 4, James Fletcher House, (PA 421), 581 Great South Road, Penrose

Biography: Jim Wright is a psychiatrist, and an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. He took his medical degree at the University of Otago, and was subsequently educated at the California Institute of Technology and the University of London, before returning to Auckland. His primary research interest is, and has always been, the dynamics of the brain. He was at one time head of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science at the Medical School, and more recently held a personal chair at the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria. In 2003 he shared the Royal Societies of Australia Prize for Interdisciplinary Research, with physicists and physiologists of Sydney University. He currently is engaged in ongoing research in Brain Dynamics, with colleagues in Auckland, Hamilton, Sydney and Melbourne.

For further details please see flyer attached.

4th of April 2005 - KEDRI Student Awarded Top Scholarship

Nisha Mohan, Master student of KEDRI, was awarded the Eagle Technology Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to AUT's top postgraduate student in Computer and Information Sciences, progressing to complete an MCIS degree. 

13th December 2004 - KEDRI Open Lecture Series VI

“A neurobiological Theory on the Meaning of Information” by Prof. Walter Freeman.

Monday 13th December 2004 from 5 p.m. – 6 p.m. Followed by Cocktails from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. At The Conference Centre, AUT Technology Park, 581-585 Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland

Prof. Walter J Freeman is currently a professor of the Graduate School, U.C. Berkeley from 1994. From 1967 to 1994, he was a professor of Physiology, University of California, Berkeley. He was a president of International Neural Network Society and a president of the Pavlovian Society. He was awarded; Francis Perkins Prize for first place in basic science (1952), Oliver P. Douglas Award (1958), A.E. Bennett Award (1964), John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship Award (1965), MERIT Award (1991), Pioneer Award of Neural Networks Council, IEEE (1992), and so on. He is a Fellow of IEEE.

26th March 2004 - KEDRI Open Lecture Series V

Miklos N. Szilagyi, is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona. His major research interests are in: Computer Simulation, Neural Networks, Artificial Intelligence, Particle Beams and Optics, Physical Electronics, Electromagnetics, Computer-Aided Design, Biomedical Engineering, Applied Physics, Applied Mathematics, Science and Education Policy, Management and Administration.

The seminar will include the following topics:
Various approaches (mathematics, AI, neural networks, genetic algorithms) What is agent-based simulation? How to build a model? How to implement it? Example 1. Sugarscape, Example 2. Dilemma Resources for further study.