Natural and Synthetic NIPS*2012 Post-Conference Workshops
December 7 and 8, 2012 Hotel Harrahs and Harveys
Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA

Following the regular program of the Neural Information Processing Systems 2012 conference, workshops on a variety of current topics in neural information processing will be held on December 7 and 8, 2012, in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA. We invite researchers interested in chairing one of these workshops to submit proposals for workshops. The goal of the workshops is to provide an informal forum for researchers to discuss important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, and comparisons of competing approaches are not only encouraged but preferred as workshop topics. Representation of alternative viewpoints and panel-style discussions are also particularly encouraged.

Potential workshop topics include, but are not limited to: Active Learning, Attention, Audition, Bayesian Networks, Bayesian Statistics, Benchmarking, Biophysics, Brain-Machine Interfaces, Brain Imaging, Cognitive Neuroscience, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Computational Complexity, Control, Graph Theory, Graphical Models, Hippocampus and Memory, Human-Computer Interfaces, Implementations, Kernel Methods, Mean-Field Methods, Music, Natural Language Processing, Network Dynamics, Neural Coding, Neural Plasticity, Neuromorphic Systems, On-Line Learning, Optimization, Perceptual Learning, Robotics, Rule Extraction, Self-Organization, Signal Processing, Social Networks, Spike Timing, Speech, Supervised/Unsupervised Learning, Time Series, Topological Maps, and Vision.

Detailed descriptions of previous workshops may be found at: http://nips.cc/Conferences/2011/Program/schedule.php?Session=Workshops

There will be seven hours of workshop meetings per day, split into morning and afternoon sessions, with free time between the sessions for ongoing individual exchange or outdoor activities.

Workshop organizers have several responsibilities, including: Coordinating workshop participation and content, including arranging short informal presentations by experts, arranging for expert commentators to sit on discussion panels, formulating discussion topics, etc. Providing the program for the workshop in a timely manner for the workshop booklet. The expected deadline for submitting final workshop programs is October 14th, 2012. The publication date for the booklet is November 12, 2012. Moderating the discussion, and reporting its findings and conclusions to the group during the evening plenary sessions. Writing a brief summary and/or coordinating submitted material for post-conference electronic dissemination.

Submission Instructions

A nips.cc account is required to submit the Workshops application. Please follow the url below and check the required format for the application well before the deadline for workshop proposals. You can edit your application online right up until the deadline.

Interested parties must submit a proposal by 23:59 UTC on July 6th, 2012.

Proposals should be submitted electronically at the following URL: https://nips.cc/Workshops/

Preference will be given to workshops that reserve a significant portion of time for open discussion or panel discussion, as opposed to a pure "mini-conference" format, and to workshops with a greater fraction of confirmed speakers.

We suggest that organizers allocate at least 50% of the workshop schedule to questions, discussion, and breaks. Past experience suggests that workshops otherwise degrade into mini-conferences as talks begin to run over. For the same reason, we strongly recommend that each workshop includes no more than 12 talks per day.

We would like to attempt to partially unify the NIPS workshop important dates across all of the workshops. Therefore, please consider using the following date guidelines for your workshop in order to provide program information in time for publication:

• Your workshop call should be publicized on or before August 19th, 2012.
• Submission deadline should be on or before September 16th, 2012.
• Acceptance decisions mailed out on or before October 7th, 2012.

We stress that these dates are not mandatory, rather suggestions. If there are circumstances that would make your workshop difficult using these dates, you may use other dates. Also a call for contributions is not required and is orthogonal to the decision about workshop acceptance.

NIPS does not provide travel funding for workshop speakers. In the past, some workshops have sought and received funding from external sources to bring in outside speakers. In any case, the organizers of each accepted workshop can name two individuals to receive free registration for the workshop program.

Raquel Urtasun and Máté Lengyel
NIPS*2012 Workshops Chairs