Month: February 2022

Now Accepting IBACS Spring Seed Grant Applications

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The Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences (CT IBACS) is pleased to announce a new call for applications to its seed grant fund. 

 

The seed fund is intended to fund activities in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences (broadly construed) that are likely to lead to applications for external funding, or which otherwise contribute to the mission of the Institute. Note that funding is primarily intended to cover direct research costs such as supplies, participant fees, or per diems, as well as student support. The review criteria promote innovative, novel, and collaborative projects in the field of brain and cognitive sciences that require expertise across laboratories and traditional disciplinary boundaries. Postdocs can also apply, with a faculty mentor as co-PI. We have further expanded this year’s seed grant solicitation to include COVID recovery. This addition in scope is intended to provide funds to recover or restart relevant projects that were interrupted due to COVID-19. Full details on the seed grant program, including applications (letter of intent and full seed app) and allowable costs, please check our website.

Applications for small grants (less than $10,000) can be submitted at any time; applications in excess of $10,000 (but no more than $25,000) should be submitted by April 1st.  

Please submit letters of intent as soon as possible, but at least 2 weeks prior to the seed grant application deadline (by 3/18/22), to allow time for review and feedback. 

The Institute also invites applications for affiliate memberships. 

Any questions should be directed to the Institute Coordinator, Crystal Mills at crystal.mills@uconn.edu.

COGS, IBACS & BIRC Colloquium: Dr. John Hale on 2/18

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Please join us virtually on 2/18 for John Hale’s talk co-sponsored by the Cognitive Science Program. IBACS, and BIRC. Registration in advance is required. Details are below: 

Speaker: John Hale, Department of Linguistics, University of Georgia 

Time: 4pm, Friday, February 18, 2022 

Talk Title: Grammar, Incrementality and fMRI Timecourse 

Abstract: What is the physical basis of human language comprehension? What sort of computation makes a stream of words come together, one after another, to yield a communicative or literary experience? This question sets up a scientific challenge for the brain and cognitive sciences. With functional neuroimaging, it is possible to extract a timecourse of brain activity from particular regions and ask how well alternative (psycho)linguistic theories account for the measured signal. This can be done over prolonged periods of time, for instance during the spoken recitation of a literary text. On the basis of such timecourses, this talk argues that our conceptualization of grammar should go beyond simple word-sequences and naive phrase structure. It presents an incremental parsing strategy that is more consistent with neuroimaging data than the simple ones presented in books like Hale (2014). The overall methodology can serve as a positive example of how brain data, syntactic theory and parsing algorithms may productively co-constrain one another.

 

Bio: John Hale, the Arch Professor of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Georgia, is a professor in the Department of Linguistics at UGA. A computational linguist, he has made significant contributions to the theory of sentence processing over the past two decades and is the author of a valued textbook in the field (Automaton Theories of Human Sentence Comprehension, 2014). Strongly committed to cultivating the vital and also changing character of intellectual pursuit in current times, Professor Hale collaborates with DeepMind and has been active in promoting interaction between industry and academia as a way of getting to the bottom of questions about the nature of mind. 

Zoom Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvfuyrqDItG92U2pqStUoZe77wc0hO4owu 

Meeting opportunities: John will be available during the day of his talk (Feb 18) and also during part of the preceding day for individual or small-group meetings on Zoom. Please contact whitney.tabor@uconn.edu if you are interested in meeting with John. 

Announcing the CogSci Study Abroad Travel Award Program

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The Cognitive Science Program’s mission is to prepare students to tackle global and multicultural challenges. A study abroad experience is vital to this preparation. Yet students majoring in Cognitive Science and related-STEM fields are generally less likely to participate in study abroad programs than other students.

With this in mind, the Cognitive Science Program is excited to launch the Cognitive Science Study Abroad Travel Award Program. We will fund up to three, $2000 awards, to be used towards airfare costs associated with a UConn study abroad program.  Any travel costs in excess of the $2000 allotment would be responsibility of the recipient.

These awards are available to UConn undergraduate students majoring or minoring in Cognitive Science who have been accepted into a study abroad program. Priority will be given to students attending the Interdisciplinary Ethnography Field Summer School in Mauritius or the Neuroscience Study Abroad Summer Program in Salamanca, Spain. (Courses taken through these two summer programs can be counted towards the Cognitive Science degree).

This funding scheme operates with a rolling deadline. Once funds are exhausted, the application will close.

Priority consideration will be given to students who (1) are members of a group that is underrepresented at the University of Connecticut; or (2) have overcome obstacles such as socioeconomic, educational, or other societal disadvantages (arising, for example, through prejudice and/or discrimination); or (3) have worked with such groups to help overcome these or other obstacles.

The Cognitive Science program is willing to review other travel abroad scenarios on a case-by-case basis. Questions regarding the Cognitive Science Study Abroad Travel Award Program may be sent to the Cognitive Science Director, erika.skoe@uconn.edu.

Please visit the Study Abroad Travel Award webpage for more information, including eligibility requirements and how to apply.