Keynotes & Tutorials

We invite team submissions for CCN 2023 Keynote & Tutorial speakers. This innovative format began in 2021, and we are excited to continue this series. Each keynote talk will be accompanied by a data/code tutorial to give attendees a hands-on look at the results. The goal of these tutorials is to give the audience a look “under the hood”, highlighting scientific assumptions, interpretations, open questions, analysis tricks, etc. The tutorial should be hands-on and enable the audience to carry out new analyses. In order to democratize the speaker selection process, we are inviting research teams to submit proposals via an open call.

CCN is a forum for discussion among cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence researchers dedicated to understanding the computations that underlie complex behavior. We encourage research group leaders with work relevant to these areas to apply, along with the collaborator(s) who will lead the tutorial. For more details on the event format, see our FAQs.

FAQs

• What is the format of the event and how long will it be?
  • The event should consist of a 45-minutes keynote talk, including a short Q&A, followed by a two-hour tutorial.
  • Based on feedback from last year’s conference, we are requiring all presenters to attend in person.
• Who should present?
  • Typically, a faculty member or research group leader gives the Keynote talk, and the collaborator(s)/co-author(s) (e.g., a postdoc or graduate student) leads the tutorial.
• What are the tutorial requirements?
  • The coding platform and data should be open source / open access and require minimal or no prior installations. (Google Colab is a nice tool for this.) The tutorial should also be accessible to a range of ability levels, and go at a pace that allows the audience to follow along. The tutorial should not simply be a demo, but instead have a hands-on component where participants have to think about and implement code themselves.
  • Target audience should be MS & PhD students + postdocs with coding background, but you should not expect everybody to be intimately familiar with the packages you are using.
  • Often, tutorials tend to overestimate the volume of material that can be covered. It’s better to have the tutorial be too short than too packed!

Application details

Applications should be a single pdf submission with a 2-page limit that includes:

• Talk title
  • If selected, this is the title that will be announced in the program. Please consider this in selecting a title and aim to avoid titles that are too vague or too niche.
• Talk abstract (1-2 paragraphs)
  • If selected, this abstract will be used to announce your talk. Please keep this in mind as you prepare your abstract, as not everyone at CCN will be an expert in your field. A succinct abstract that clearly states the research problems and approach can help get the CCN community excited about your talk.
• Tutorial outline (1-3 paragraphs), in narrative form, including
  • What are the learning goals for the tutorial?
  • For whom will this tutorial be most useful? What background knowledge or skills will help audience members get the most out of the tutorial?
  • A description of the tutorial plans (including hands-on exercises) and rough schedule
  • Tutorial programming language and suggested platform/environment
  • Please also include details about how you plan to ensure it is accessible to a broad CCN audience.
• A list of people involved, their roles, and confirmation that each person will attend CCN 2023 in person. Describe the background of people involved and their expertise in the relevant area. Include a reference to relevant publications.
• A link to previously given tutorials or similar teaching presentations or recordings if available.

Submission Method

Create a single PDF file which contains the information listed in the Application Content section, click the Start a new Proposal button below, fill in the listed fields and attach your PDF proposal application document.

You will need to have the email addresses of all of the co-applicants that are part of the proposal. By typing their names you confirm that everyone is willingly part of this proposal application, and we will email confirmation to all of these co-applicants.