RIKEN BSI Retreat 2003
RIKEN BSI Retreat 2003 was held from October 27 (Monday) to 29 (Wednesday) in the green forest setting of the Hotel Heritage of Shinrin Park.
The Retreat provided researchers with the opportunity to interact outside of the laboratory by removing the walls between laboratories and fields of research. In a frank and easy-going atmosphere, participating researchers from different fields can talk freely and exchange constructive comments about research results and research activities. This type of seminar is common in universities and research institutes throughout North America and Europe.
A total of 330 researchers, including those from the RIKEN-MIT Center, attended this year's retreat, which was BSI's sixth. In addition to special lectures and poster sessions, there were active question-and-answer sessions and lively discussions. Many original ideas and newly formed research collaborations have emerged from these Retreats in the past.
RIKEN BSI Retreats help the institute produce integrative, innovative research that contributes to the development of brain science. The Retreat promotes intellectual interaction among different research fields by exploiting RIKEN's particular capacity to carry out far-reaching research involved in "Understanding," "Protecting," "Creating," "Nurturing," the Brain and "Advanced Technology Development."
Dr. Amari Awarded Prestigious C&C Prize
In a ceremony held the 20th of November, 2003, Dr. Shun-ichi Amari was awarded the prestigious C&C Prize for his contributions to neurocomputing and mathematical information sciences of the brain by the C&C Promotion Foundation, which celebrated his "pioneering leadership."
The Foundation, a corporate body established in 1985, encourages and supports development and research activities in the field of computers and communications (C&C), where information-processing and communication technologies are integrated. The Foundation also promotes worldwide development of the electronics industry through public recognition of outstanding achievement and through providing research assistance.
RIKEN BSI and Sweden Joint Symposium on Neuroscience
Brain science continues to be one of the 21st century's most integrative sciences as it works towards increasing our understanding of the human mind. In continuing RIKEN BSI's development of an interdisciplinary and international research environment, RIKEN BSI participated in a three day joint symposium on neuroscience with a delegation from Sweden.
Following a path similar to RIKEN, Sweden is making a great deal of effort to promote research activities related to the "creating the brain" (i.e. computational neuroscience), which is concerned with the integration of experiment-based neuroscience and theoretical brain science. Taking note of a proposal by Prof. Sten Grillner of the Karolinska Institute, renowned worldwide for its contribution in the field of brain science, RIKEN initiated a joint symposium between RIKEN BSI and a delegation from Sweden. The symposium aimed at furthering exchange on research related to "creating the brain".
The symposium was held on the RIKEN Wako Campus from Dec 1-3. Enthusiastic discussions were enjoyed by researchers from both countries, sixresearchers from Sweden, and a number of researchers from BSI, including Dr. Amari, Director of BSI, working on "creating the brain" research.
Presentations by Japanese researchers covered areas ranging from engineering and mathematical science, such as experiment-linked computational neuroscience, to elucidation of brain functions by robots, and signal processing of the brain. Participants from Sweden gave presentations on the construction of theories and simulations based on biological data, including theoretical aspects of informational functions of cells at the microlevel, simulation of motor circuits, memory models, and walking models.
The day after the joint symposium, the RIKEN symposium on "Neuroinformatics of the Visual System" hosted by Dr. Usui, head of the Laboratory for Neuroinformatics, was held and the fortunate timing meant that the Swedish researchers were also able to participate.
With the success of this joint symposium, the Karolinska Institute and RIKEN BSI will continue to deepen their mutual relationship through the exchange of research information and results.
