Upcoming Events
Future Tech Week: research on consciousness by Luminous
Date: Friday 27/09/2019, at 16:00. Venue: Starlab, Barcelona.
How thin is the line that separates conscious from unconscious? Where and how arises consciousness in the brain? Can we measure it? Come to an event at Starlab and right thereafter to the “La Nit Jove de la Recerca“, at nearby Cosmocaixa. Join us during a day (and night) where science and research will be given the frontlines, and the spotlight will face them straight on. Come to see our project Luminous and you will have the chance to grasp the cutting edge of consciousness research… from a close distance.
Join the Luminous team for a rollercoaster of short talks about consciousness, AI in health, and brain science and research. Have some food and drinks while listening to the words at play during our poetry slam. Get into the mind of a researchers and perhaps indulge in some play while trying the game of bias in research.
Enjoy the event and find a moment to casually talk with our researchers, with your cup close at hand. While we are at it, we will tell you about (the need of) funding for European research. And if you are brave enough… we will dare you to have your brainwaves measured by our mobile electroencephalogram station! Come and join us at Starlab.
This event will be featured in the “Future Tech week”: also keep an eye open for other developments during that week at the “Future Board” powered by the FETFX project. For those willing, there will be lots of cutting-edge technoleogies to be learned about, and mind-blowing advances explained by the same people who strive to make them realities for the future.
Preliminary program 16-19h:
Venue location: Av Tibidabo 47 Bis, Starlab (maps) .
First block (16:00 – 16:45):
·Talk: Electroencephalography and the electrical brain
·Talk: Brain and emotions
Second block (16:45 – 17:30):
· Talk : Artificial intelligence and health applications
· Talk : Studying, Measuring and Altering Consciousness through information theory in the electrical brain
Third block (17:45 – 19:00):
· Social activity: The game of science bias
·Party and community building: Enjoy music and drinks !
We aim at creating at space for debate and interaction for this purpose we have planned to play music and offer some drinks during the pauses between the blocks and talks to encourage community building. Come to learn about consciousness, share and enjoy!
At 19:00 we will take a short walk to Cosmocaixa, where we will join the activities of the “Nit Jove de la Recerca” till 00:00.·
Workshop: “Studying, Measuring and Altering Consciousness”
Dates: 20-21/11/2019; Venue: Merton College, University of Oxford.
Are you a researcher in the field of consciousness? Wait no more and join us at the workshop “Studying, Measuring and Altering Consciousness”! We will discuss current theories of consciousness and learn about the latest computational modelling approaches. We will also present recent advances in the experimental monitoring and alteration of consciousness. Finally, there will be room to discuss the interesting ethical aspects related to this growing field of knowledge.
To join the event, REGISTER HERE! For more information, go to the main event page.
If you wish to contribute with your work, bear in mind that the deadline for abstract submission is October 15th, 2019. You can find more details regarding abstract submission here.
Past Events
ICT 2018, Vienna: Exhibition & Networking Session
Exhibition: 04-06/12/2018, Area: Creating Networks & Technology (Hall X4), Stand number: C11
In our booth you will experience how science can be transformed into technologies with positive social impact. We will show the concept of modifying perception via interactive cognitive tasks and real-time experiments from LUMINOUS. You will play in demo/games with multi-site brain stimulation, and its relation to consciousness.
For more information, click here.
Networking session: 06/12/2018 (11:30-12:15), Room L4
AI meets Human Consciousness – Is there Machine Consciousness?
The networking session aims to provoke a cross disciplinary discussion on consciousness. Specifically, it targets to tackle the fundamental question on whether and how artificial intelligence and machine consciousness share some commonalities with human consciousness.
Briefly, our vision in LUMINOUS is that consciousness will someday be electromagnetically measured and altered, and that the associated needed insights will prove crucial to the development of cognitive sciences. Inspired by recent developments in neuroscience and the potential role of fundamental concepts we study, model, quantify, and alter observable aspects of consciousness in humans.
Given the relationship of these goals with the broad concepts of information and complexity we expect the achievement of these goals to affect the understanding of consciousness within other disciplines. Indeed there are plenty definitions on consciousness, which closely depend on the generating discipline. This networking session will bring those differences together, aiming to create a transdisciplinary consensus document on consciousness, the “Vienna Declaration on Artificial and Human Consciousness”.
Confirmed speakers:
Prof. Joanna Bryson, University of Bath, Dept. of Computer Science
Prof. Antonio Chella, University of Palermo, Head of Robotics Lab and the Dept. of Computer Engineering
Dr. Aureli Soria-Frisch, Starlab, Director of Neuroscience Division
For more information, click here.
Consciousness in the electrical brain
Start: 15/03/2018 End: 16/03/2018
What is consciousness after all? This question has been one of the greatest mysteries of the universe, puzzling psychologists, philosophers, neuroscientists, physicists, medical doctors, monks, and artists over centuries.
In the context of the Brain Awareness Week (BAW) 2018, the Centre for Genomic Regulation and Starlab have organized a variety of activities for the general public to reflect and explore the fascinating and still puzzling concept of consciousness. Understanding consciousness is one of the last frontiers in science and we would like to advance towards this aim sharing our passion with you.
Come and join us at CaixaForum on March 15th and 16th from 18:30 h to 21:00 h to discover the latest insights about consciousness! Learn through a wide range of activities including examples and experiments how we can move through various states of consciousness, and share your views on this amazing scientific topic:
- Blitz-talk: The Ghost in the Brain. What is consciousness? How does the brain reflect our inner experience?
- Luminous Lectures: “Luminous”: Measuring and altering consciousness in the electrical brain. Unravelling the black box of consciousness in healthy and diseased brains. Can we measure consciousness? Can it be altered through electromagnetic brain stimulation? Luminous, a European research project coordinated by Starlab, focuses on these questions by studying, modelling, quantifying, and altering observable aspects of consciousness.
- Fishbowl conversations: Join the debate with specialists from a variety of disciplines on consciousness related topics.
- Consciousness Wall: Help us create a collective view of consciousness through your paintings and writings about consciousness.
- Dive into the world of movies and documentaries on consciousness.
- Your brain tricks you! Try consciousness experiments by using electroencephalography signals and binaural bits, as well as conscious vs. subliminal perception.
- Campfire sessions: Share your experiences or point of view about different consciousness related topics in small groups.
When: 15th and 16th March 2018 from 18:30h to 21:00h
Where: CaixaForum, Av. de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 6-8, 08038 Barcelona
Organising Committee:
Mara Dierssen, Centre for Genomic Regulation
Aureli Soria-Frisch, Starlab
Eleni Kroupi, Starlab
Collaborators:
María Martínez de Lagrán, Centre for Genomic Regulation
Marcos Quevedo, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques
David Ibañez, Starlab
Marta Castellano, Starlab
Isil Tekeli, Starlab
Organised by:
Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)
Starlab
With the support of:
Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS)
Luminous (European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme)