ICTS

This discussion meeting on Neuroscience, Dynamics and Data Science, will be accompanied by Turing lectures on a topic that unites all three themes, viz. the Physics of Birdsong. The Turing lectures will be delivered by Prof. Gabriel Mindlin, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, who is an acknowledged expert in the field and also the winner of the Arthur Taylor Winfree award from the ICTP Trieste for his work on the subject.

The activity of birdsong constitutes an important example of a situation in which a neurophysiological process results in complex audible output. The study of the characteristics of the birdsong, and the identification of a system which can produce a synthetic birdsong of the same characteristics, provides important insights in the ways in which the neural architecture in the brain can co-ordinate with a delicate vocal apparatus. The Turing lectures will provide an overview of the neurophysical mechanisms that lead to the production of birdsong, the acoustic effects that the avian vocal organ generates, and the neural instructions needed to drive it.

As mentioned above, this focus topic draws on analysis and techniques from neuroscience, dynamics and data science. Hence the discussion meeting will draw on speakers from all three domains from both India and abroad.  In addition to the invited speakers, we will invite about 15 researchers, consisting of young faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows with background in the above areas to participate in the activity. We hope that the participants will get sufficiently enthused by the discussion meeting to initiate their own research ideas so that research activity is seeded and active collaborations are started in this new and exciting area.

Eligibility criteria: Registration is open to Ph.D students, postdocs and other researchers/faculties working in related areas.