Extra Colloquium Computer Science, Prof.dr. C.N. Schizas

Date:                         Friday, October 11^th 2013
Speaker:                   Professor Dr. Christos N. Schizas
                                  University of Cyprus
Room:                       5161.0253 (Bernoulliborg)
Time:                         13.00

Title: Studying the Brain from the Computational Intelligence Perspective

Abstract:

This lecture presents part of the work that is currently done in the Computational Intelligence Lab of the Computer Science Department in collaboration with the Experimental Psychology Lab of the Psychology Department of the University of Cyprus.

The main objective of this work is to develop a plausible and biologically realistic computational model of visual selective attention using tools from the field of computational intelligence and use it in engineering and other applications. In recent years, an increased interest in developing cognitive models for a variety of technology and engineering applications has been observed and more specifically, there has been much interest in the development of systems capable of simulating users’ attention and how these systems could be practically and effectively used.

Studying the brain from the computer scientists’ perspective has always being a great challenge, and is usually divided under two main paths within the computational intelligence (CI) field. On one, to understand and mimic in a sense the functionality of the human brain has triggered the design and implementation of artificial intelligent systems such as robotics, expert systems etc. On the other, the understanding of certain brain functions can be facilitated with the implementation of relevant cognitive computational models.

The sources of information that guide the implementation of the model are mainly between the fields of Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. In cognitive/experimental psychology, the primary research methods involve experimentation with human participants. In these experiments, the measurement of behavioral response time to a specific stimuli, can give a lot of information and help to understand how the respective stimuli are processed. In addition, t he direct observations of the detailed mechanisms of the system that create intelligent behavior are equally significant. These observations are closely tied to the field of cognitive neuroscience and usually provide considerable information related to the low level mechanisms and the connectivity between different parts of the brain system.

Colloquium coordinators are Prof.dr. M. Aiello (e-mail : M.Aiello rug.nl ) and Prof.dr. M. Biehl (e-mail: M.Biehl rug.nl )

http://www.rug.nl/research/jbi/news/colloquia/computerscience