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SUMMER SCHOOL NN2006

NEURAL NETWORKS in CLASSIFICATION, REGRESSION and DATA MINING

July 3-7, 2006, ISEP - Porto, Portugal
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http://www.nn.isep.ipp.pt  email: nn-2006@isep.ipp.pt

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Summer School will be held at Porto, Portugal, jointly organized by the Polytechnic School of Engineering of Porto (ISEP) and the Faculty of Engineering, Porto University (FEUP).

Following last year experience, this year's edition also includes a WORKSHOP SESSION providing a discussion forum where the participants can obtain peer guidance for their projects.

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE (PROVISIONAL)

• Carlos Soares (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economy, University of Porto, Portugal)

• Christopher Bishop (Microsoft Research, Cambridge, Professor of Computer Science, School of Informatics, Edinburgh University, U.K.)

• Craig Saunders (Senior Lecturer, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, U.K.)

• Danilo Mandic (Senior Lecturer, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College, U.K.)

• Fernando Sereno (Adjunct Professor, School of Education, Porto Polythecnic Institute, Portugal)

• Joaquim Marques de Sá (Associate Professor, Dept. Electr. and Comp. Engineering, Fac. of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal)

• Luís Alexandre (Assistant Professor, Beira Interior University, Portugal)

• Mark Embrecht (Associate Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, RPI Troy, New York, U.S.A.)

• Noelia Sánchez Maroño (Assistant Professor, Coruna University, Spain)

• Paulo Cortez (Assistant Professor, University of Minho, Portugal)

• Robert Legenstein (Assistant Professor, Institute for Theoretical Computer Science, Graz University of Technology, Austria)

COURSE CONTENTS

Neural networks (NN) have become a very important tool in classification and regression tasks. The applications are nowadays abundant, e.g. in the engineering, economy and biology areas. The Summer School on NN is dedicated to explain relevant NN paradigms, namely multilayer perceptrons (MLP), radial basis function networks (RBF) and support vector machines (SVM) used for classification and regression tasks, illustrated with applications to real data. Specific topics are also presented, namely Spiking Neural Networks, Recurrent Neural Networks, Modular Neural Networks and Data Mining using NN.

Classes include practical sessions with appropriate software tools. The trainee has, therefore, the opportunity to apply the taught concepts and become conversant with a broad range of NN topics and applications. A special workshop session will provide a discussion forum where the participants can obtain peer guidance for their projects. Official language is English.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME

A preliminary programme and further information about the classes are available at the school webpage (http://www.nn.isep.ipp.pt)

IMPORTANT DEADLINES

Early Registration: 15 May 2006

Hotel booking: 15 June 2006

Summer School: 3-7 July 2006

All participants are required to register prior to the start of the School - until the June 15 - even if you choose to pay the late registration fee at the registration desk.
Please note that only a LIMITED number of participants can be accepted.

REGISTRATION

In order to attend the School you must fill in the registration form, available at the School web page. Please note that if you have any guests who would like to take part in the social programme, you must register them as well, by filling in the corresponding field in the registration form.

SCHOOL FEES

The registration fee for participants amounts to:

- Early registration fee (paid before the 15th of May)

        * 330 Euro (students, ISEP and FEUP staff)

        * 380 Euro (all other participants)

- Late registration fee (paid after the 15th of May)

        * 380 Euro (students, ISEP and FEUP staff)

        * 430 Euro (all other participants)

The registration fee includes:

* school package (manuscripts, CD)
* coffee breaks
* daily lunch
* welcome reception
* school banquet

NOTE: The registration fee for those who attended previous editions amounts to 25/30 euro per lecture and includes the school package and coffee-breaks. Please, contact the LOC  for further details.

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (LOC)

- Ana Cristina Meira - Assistant, Dept. Mathematics, ISEP, Portugal

- Jorge M. Santos - Assistant, Dept. Mathematics, ISEP, Portugal

- Rui Chibante - Assistant, Dept. Mathematics, ISEP, Portugal

CONTACT ADDRESS

Local Organizing Committee (LOC) - Summer School NN2006
Departamento de Matemática
Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto
Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431
4200-072 PORTO / PORTUGAL
Email: nn-2006@isep.ipp.pt

NN2006 Secretariat

Ms. Gabriela Afonso
Email: gafonso@fe.up.pt

Programme Chair:
Prof. Joaquim Marques de Sá
Tel. 225081828 - Email: jmsa@fe.up.pt

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