Just a quick post to advertise The Second International Workshop on Guided Self-Organisation (GSO-2009) which I'm planning on attending in August.
A few pertinent clips from the workshop's website:
"... by its very nature, self-organization more often than not has its own way. To be useful in practice, methods of guiding self-organization towards prespecified goals have to be developed. Adding and controlling constraints provides one possibility to this end.
Many properties of self-organisation can be characterised formally (e.g., information-theoretically). However, the lack of agreement of what is meant by complexity, constraints, etc, as well as a common methodology across multiple scales leaves any definition of self-organisation somehow vague, indicating a clear gap. Filling this gap and identifying common principles of guidance are the main themes of GSO-2009. The workshop will put particular emphasis on principles based on information flows through the perception-action loop of embodied systems."
GSO-2008 was a really interesting week, so am hoping for the same level of inspiration this time round.
Registration is open, hope to see you there.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Directed information structure
The good news is that we recently received a notice of acceptance of an abstract we submitted to CNS*2009 (July 18-23) in collaboration with John-Dylan Haynes and Jakob Heinzle from the Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) in Berlin.
Titled "Directed information structure in inter-regional cortical interactions in a visuomotor tracking task", it deals with a method for identifying directed information structure between distinct regions (of variables) in a large multi-variate set. The method identifies an interesting hierarchical structure for the given visuomotor task.
My supervisor will be at CNS to present the poster, and the abstract will be included in a supplement to BMC Neuroscience soon. We're currently working on a more complete journal paper reporting on this experiment.
CNS*2009 should be a good meeting, particularly the Methods of Information Theory in Computational Neuroscience workshop. Wish I was going!
Titled "Directed information structure in inter-regional cortical interactions in a visuomotor tracking task", it deals with a method for identifying directed information structure between distinct regions (of variables) in a large multi-variate set. The method identifies an interesting hierarchical structure for the given visuomotor task.
My supervisor will be at CNS to present the poster, and the abstract will be included in a supplement to BMC Neuroscience soon. We're currently working on a more complete journal paper reporting on this experiment.
CNS*2009 should be a good meeting, particularly the Methods of Information Theory in Computational Neuroscience workshop. Wish I was going!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
ECAL and ECCS calls for papers
Just thought I'd share two calls for papers for conferences that I will be / have submitted to this year.
The European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS09) will be held from 21-25 September 2009, at the University of Warwick, UK. I've never been to ECCS before, but I've heard good things from several people about it. I like the way it appears to be a real melting pot of all areas of complex systems science, so I'm looking forward to seeing some interesting perspectives there. On that note, I think there will be some interesting applications related papers there, e.g. in the Policy, Planning and Infrastructure track. I also like the tiered submission structure, where you can submit 2, 6 or 15 page papers, and (if accepted) get a poster, 20 min or 40 min presentation: it gives you choice, and appropriate relative reward for work. We've submitted a paper on cascading failures in energy networks (more details if we're accepted). The first submission deadline has passed, though they have two more deadlines coming up (19/4 and 3/5): apparently slots will be filled on a "first arrival - frist serve policy".
The 10th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL2009) will be held from September 13-16 2009 in Budapest, Hungary. I was at the last ECAL in Lisbon in 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a good crowd, with a nice mix of biologists and computer scientists. We're currently working on a paper combining some of my work on information dynamics with my PhD colleague Mahendra Piraveenan's work on network topological measures: this is something I had wanted to do for a while, but isn't in the form I thought it would be (nothing wrong with that though). More details if we're accepted. Anyway, ECAL are now following the lead of ALifeXI in allowing abstract only submissions (which I think is fine in principle), and allowing both to have presentation slots (this I'm not sure about - I had the impression that some, not all, of what came through the abstract only channel was under-prepared; I prefer the ECCS approach). Paper submission is by April 30.
Hope to see you there! (assuming we get accepted...)
The European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS09) will be held from 21-25 September 2009, at the University of Warwick, UK. I've never been to ECCS before, but I've heard good things from several people about it. I like the way it appears to be a real melting pot of all areas of complex systems science, so I'm looking forward to seeing some interesting perspectives there. On that note, I think there will be some interesting applications related papers there, e.g. in the Policy, Planning and Infrastructure track. I also like the tiered submission structure, where you can submit 2, 6 or 15 page papers, and (if accepted) get a poster, 20 min or 40 min presentation: it gives you choice, and appropriate relative reward for work. We've submitted a paper on cascading failures in energy networks (more details if we're accepted). The first submission deadline has passed, though they have two more deadlines coming up (19/4 and 3/5): apparently slots will be filled on a "first arrival - frist serve policy".
The 10th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL2009) will be held from September 13-16 2009 in Budapest, Hungary. I was at the last ECAL in Lisbon in 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a good crowd, with a nice mix of biologists and computer scientists. We're currently working on a paper combining some of my work on information dynamics with my PhD colleague Mahendra Piraveenan's work on network topological measures: this is something I had wanted to do for a while, but isn't in the form I thought it would be (nothing wrong with that though). More details if we're accepted. Anyway, ECAL are now following the lead of ALifeXI in allowing abstract only submissions (which I think is fine in principle), and allowing both to have presentation slots (this I'm not sure about - I had the impression that some, not all, of what came through the abstract only channel was under-prepared; I prefer the ECCS approach). Paper submission is by April 30.
Hope to see you there! (assuming we get accepted...)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Save the .au internet
The Australian Government is proposing an internet filter for all content coming down Australian people's lines. I don't disagree with the aim of stamping out things like child pornography but anyone with half a brain knows that:
- Anyone wanting access to the sort of stuff this is intended to block will find a way around it. (This reminds me of when I was chatting to my wife's 14 yr old cousin who told me every kid in school knew how to use proxies to get around the school's content filter). More targeted strategies would have better success than a blanket approach like this that only harms the general populous (see point 3).
- Inevitably this sort of BS goes 1984 with the government allowed to block anything they want without public scrutiny (the list of blocked sites won't be made public). Think the great internet wall of China.
- The costs (a big slow-down in speeds, mistaken blockings etc) would be for nothing.
- a recent article ...
- some great commentary ...
- and for how to sign a petition on this, see GetUp's campaign below:
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Redundant!
No, I'm not talking about redundancy in the information sense, but in terms of employment. On Monday I was made redundant from my part-time job, along with a number of other staff members there.
This kind of thing happens from time to time: I think almost everyone in the company had been made redundant from some previous job. Indeed, it's the second time for me after Telstra closed their research laboratories (see 1 and 2) three years ago.
A few things I just want to mention.
Firstly, the law around redundancy entitlements has changed, thanks to our our previous prime minister John Howard, friend of the worker. No severance payments are necessary anymore, just your 1 month's notice and good luck. In this market, you're going to be lucky to get a new job within 1 month - that's what a redundancy payment was designed for.
Also, I was asked to keep working through my notice period with the prospect of continuing on contract once the period ended. Obviously this is good, but without anything in writing I'm a bit concerned that we'll get to the end of the month and there won't be a contract. I'm sure a lot of others have had this dilemma over the years.
All that being said, I know that in the long run I am a very lucky guy, and things here could definitely be worse ...
(Update: the contract did come through before the notice period ended, and I'm still happily working there. Hopefully things pick up, as we're working on some really promising services.)
This kind of thing happens from time to time: I think almost everyone in the company had been made redundant from some previous job. Indeed, it's the second time for me after Telstra closed their research laboratories (see 1 and 2) three years ago.
A few things I just want to mention.
Firstly, the law around redundancy entitlements has changed, thanks to our our previous prime minister John Howard, friend of the worker. No severance payments are necessary anymore, just your 1 month's notice and good luck. In this market, you're going to be lucky to get a new job within 1 month - that's what a redundancy payment was designed for.
Also, I was asked to keep working through my notice period with the prospect of continuing on contract once the period ended. Obviously this is good, but without anything in writing I'm a bit concerned that we'll get to the end of the month and there won't be a contract. I'm sure a lot of others have had this dilemma over the years.
All that being said, I know that in the long run I am a very lucky guy, and things here could definitely be worse ...
(Update: the contract did come through before the notice period ended, and I'm still happily working there. Hopefully things pick up, as we're working on some really promising services.)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Happy New Year
2008 is no more.
It was very much a mixed year, with some great highs and some rather upsetting lows. But that's life.
A few people have told me that felt the same way about 2008; which is interesting. Perhaps there was something in the stars :).
Highlights included some great holidays: a trip to Port Douglas for my 30th, a weekend in the Hunter Valley with friends, what is becoming an almost annual trip to Europe (this year mainly around France, plus a little of Italy, Germany and the UK), and a couple of days at Terrigal across new year's.
On the PhD front, I had the first journal article from my PhD published, and I was really pleased that it was in a good physics journal (PRE). I also had 2 conference papers at ALifeXI in Winchester, another conference paper that I was a minor author on, and the year ends with 2 other journal articles submitted. ALifeXI was a great experience itself, as was GSO-2008 (see previous post), and I enjoyed lab visits at The University of Hertfordshire (UK) and The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (in Berlin). Unfortunately though, a significant amount of my experimental work went nowhere this year, particularly in the second half, which has been quite frustrating. That's the nature of research though: if everything turned out the way you thought/hoped, it would be engineering rather than science.
I enjoyed my part-time engineering job this year, feeling like I made a solid contribution to the team. It was nice to have a large role in our latest client implementation. For most of the year I was doing 2 days/week, but just before Christmas they've accomodated my request to drop down to one day/week. This will allow me to focus properly on my studies and get a decent night's sleep!
On the home front, our renovation work has mostly ground to a halt, although we did undertake one major project: the front garden. There are a couple of items still to complete, but I'm really happy with the results. I also finally built a myth-tv box (a home-brewed hard drive recorder), which was quite satisying from a geek perspective.
Turning 30 wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be, helped by two great parties my wife organised for me.
Speaking of whom, late in the year she was accepted to start her doctorate this year (in Education at The University of Technology, Sydney), which was really exciting. I know she's going to love the experience, and make an excellent contribution to her field.
The downsides were mainly health related.
I broke my ankle the night I arrived home from ALifeXI in August. It was the first time I've broken anything, and to be honest I didn't cope very well (mentally) for the first few weeks on crutches. But I had an awesome physio (Rick Reeve at West Ryde) who was really on the ball, and made a big difference to my mental health as well as physical. It was as simple as a break can be, but a break is a break and some 5 months later it's still not quite back to normal.
There were a couple of other health issues for us, which I don't want to go into here right now, and these really threw us on a number of occasions. For the moment, things seem to be back on track, but only time will tell.
There were some serious health issues for friends and family as well, including cancer, and the outcome there remains uncertain.
If all of this has taught me anything, it's the importance of staying positive.
Finally, it's been a tough year for our families. My in-laws bought a country pub, and it's been a lot of hard work for them settling into it. My parents started the year facing a few challenges, but things seem to be stable now, and importantly they seem happy.
What does 2009 hold? There's only one way to find out ... bring it on.
It was very much a mixed year, with some great highs and some rather upsetting lows. But that's life.
A few people have told me that felt the same way about 2008; which is interesting. Perhaps there was something in the stars :).
Highlights included some great holidays: a trip to Port Douglas for my 30th, a weekend in the Hunter Valley with friends, what is becoming an almost annual trip to Europe (this year mainly around France, plus a little of Italy, Germany and the UK), and a couple of days at Terrigal across new year's.
On the PhD front, I had the first journal article from my PhD published, and I was really pleased that it was in a good physics journal (PRE). I also had 2 conference papers at ALifeXI in Winchester, another conference paper that I was a minor author on, and the year ends with 2 other journal articles submitted. ALifeXI was a great experience itself, as was GSO-2008 (see previous post), and I enjoyed lab visits at The University of Hertfordshire (UK) and The Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (in Berlin). Unfortunately though, a significant amount of my experimental work went nowhere this year, particularly in the second half, which has been quite frustrating. That's the nature of research though: if everything turned out the way you thought/hoped, it would be engineering rather than science.
I enjoyed my part-time engineering job this year, feeling like I made a solid contribution to the team. It was nice to have a large role in our latest client implementation. For most of the year I was doing 2 days/week, but just before Christmas they've accomodated my request to drop down to one day/week. This will allow me to focus properly on my studies and get a decent night's sleep!
On the home front, our renovation work has mostly ground to a halt, although we did undertake one major project: the front garden. There are a couple of items still to complete, but I'm really happy with the results. I also finally built a myth-tv box (a home-brewed hard drive recorder), which was quite satisying from a geek perspective.
Turning 30 wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be, helped by two great parties my wife organised for me.
Speaking of whom, late in the year she was accepted to start her doctorate this year (in Education at The University of Technology, Sydney), which was really exciting. I know she's going to love the experience, and make an excellent contribution to her field.
The downsides were mainly health related.
I broke my ankle the night I arrived home from ALifeXI in August. It was the first time I've broken anything, and to be honest I didn't cope very well (mentally) for the first few weeks on crutches. But I had an awesome physio (Rick Reeve at West Ryde) who was really on the ball, and made a big difference to my mental health as well as physical. It was as simple as a break can be, but a break is a break and some 5 months later it's still not quite back to normal.
There were a couple of other health issues for us, which I don't want to go into here right now, and these really threw us on a number of occasions. For the moment, things seem to be back on track, but only time will tell.
There were some serious health issues for friends and family as well, including cancer, and the outcome there remains uncertain.
If all of this has taught me anything, it's the importance of staying positive.
Finally, it's been a tough year for our families. My in-laws bought a country pub, and it's been a lot of hard work for them settling into it. My parents started the year facing a few challenges, but things seem to be stable now, and importantly they seem happy.
What does 2009 hold? There's only one way to find out ... bring it on.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
GSO - goooone
So, the Guided Self-Organisation (GSO-2008) workshop has come and gone.
It was a really interesting week, with a key focus on information-theoretical aspects of self-organisation, plus particular theme days on computational neuroscience and adaptive hardware and robotics.
We also did some nice socialising, with a couple of BBQs (at my supervisor's place and mine), and a trip to the Blue Mountains (west of Sydney) where we did the Evans Lookout walk (at least I think that's the one we did). I found the bushwalk quite challenging, as I was still recovering from a broken ankle some 3 months earlier (I did it while putting the rubbish bins out, the night I came home from ALifeXI!). I never thought one could get such a sense of accomplishment from walking. It was a really interesting day though: obviously we saw some wonderful scenery and the company was great, but we also had the strange experience of (the briefest amount of) snow in Australia, barely two weeks before summer ...
Anyway, for a few weeks before and after the conference, we had several of the participants as guests at our lab. This was a very stimulating time, and I had the good fortune to spend many productive hours with them discussing information dynamics, causal effect, measures of complexity, etc etc. There are several interesting threads of investigation underway ...
Bring on GSO-2009!
It was a really interesting week, with a key focus on information-theoretical aspects of self-organisation, plus particular theme days on computational neuroscience and adaptive hardware and robotics.
We also did some nice socialising, with a couple of BBQs (at my supervisor's place and mine), and a trip to the Blue Mountains (west of Sydney) where we did the Evans Lookout walk (at least I think that's the one we did). I found the bushwalk quite challenging, as I was still recovering from a broken ankle some 3 months earlier (I did it while putting the rubbish bins out, the night I came home from ALifeXI!). I never thought one could get such a sense of accomplishment from walking. It was a really interesting day though: obviously we saw some wonderful scenery and the company was great, but we also had the strange experience of (the briefest amount of) snow in Australia, barely two weeks before summer ...
Anyway, for a few weeks before and after the conference, we had several of the participants as guests at our lab. This was a very stimulating time, and I had the good fortune to spend many productive hours with them discussing information dynamics, causal effect, measures of complexity, etc etc. There are several interesting threads of investigation underway ...
Bring on GSO-2009!
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