Because of our busy activities, things have been delayed a bit,
but we now finally hope to start with our weekly series of seminars,
normally in December.
Place and time
Seminars will probably take place from 17-19h in the seminar
room of the Psychology faculty (building C, 3rd floor). However,
there is still a choice of weekday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Ideally, all ECCO members should be able to participate in the
seminars. So, I would ask all of you to indicate which days:
1) are difficult or impossible for you ( indicate with a - minus
sign);
2) are preferable for you (+ sign).
3) I assume that the other days are neither generally good nor
generally bad.
For example, my own preferences are:
Monday:
Tuesday: +
Wednesday: -
Thursday: +
Friday:
I'll then add up all the votes, try to avoid days that have one
or more minuses, choose the one with most pluses, and check
whether that also matches with the availability of the seminar rooms
to make the final choice. From what I have heard from ECCO members
until now, it seems Thursday is a good candidate.
People and topics
Second issue is the actual program. I assume that all local
(living around Brussels) ECCO members will sooner or later want to
present their research to the others, and thus get the chance to get
some in-depth feedback. Moreover, we will of course invite outside
people working on related subjects. So, what I ask of you is:
1) your preferred period to give a seminar;
2) a provisional title or subject;
3) suggestions for other people to invite.
A preliminary list could look as follows, where I have indicated
the general area on which people might lecture (no period means that
people can start in December, ? means that I don't yet know about
their constraints or readiness to give a seminar):
- Andreas Loengarov (has already given an informal
seminar just before leaving for Scotland): network analysis of
food webs
- Francis Heylighen: the origins of organization. A
general introduction to the ECCO theme
- Marko Rodriguez: computer-support systems for
societal decision-making
- Carlos Gershenson: self-organizing traffic
streams: a concrete simulation of mediator evolution
- Klaas Chielens: empirical measurement of memetic
selection criteria
- Frank Van Overwalle (invited): a connectionist
simulation of distributed cognition
- Mixel Kiemen: (after Dec.) harvesting
awareness
- Nathalie Gontier (Jan. or Feb.): A
systems/symbiotic view of the evolution of: 1) language; 2)
knowledge; or 3) organisms (subject still to be chosen: you may
express your preferences ;-)
- Nick Deschacht: (after Jan.) A systems view of
Marxist theory
- Laetitia De Jaegher (after Jan.): The need for
new systems of governance in a complex, changing society
- Julien Libbrecht (?): Application of cybernetic
principles to the organization of health care
- Erden Göktepe (?): Complex systems models of
the emergence of actors in international relations
- Bertin Martens (?): the cognitive mechanics of
economic and institutional development
- Geert Vancronenburg (?): System dynamics and
changing a world view (?)
- Dirk Bollen (?): situated and embodied cognition
- Karl Tuyls (?):
- Gustaaf Geeraerts (?)
- Kurt Laforce (?)
Some other people that seem worth inviting:
Luc Steels
Bernard Manderick
Ann Nowé
Eric Pruyt
Alex Riegler
Jean-Paul Van Bendegem
Kathleen Coessens
Tony Belpaeme
Carlos Holvoet
Eric Myin
Axel Cleeremans (ULB)
Hugues Bersini (ULB)
Jean-Louis Deneubourg (ULB)
Ann Heylighen (KUL) (no relation to Francis ;-)
Johan Braeckman (UG)
...
Also note that some ECCO members (e.g. Francis, Carlos,
Nathalie) have material enough to give more than one seminar on
different subjects. So, it seems we should be able to prepare a
well-filled, interesting program at least until the end of the
academic year!
General organization
We intend to continue our tradition initiated with the seminars
in CLEA two years ago (for those who remember them). This means
that seminars will be typically small (roughly 8-12 participants) and
informal, with the emphasis on discussion rather than on formal
presentation, and a pleasant atmosphere with coffee, tea and cookies.
I expect that some of the core ECCO members (Klaas, Carlos, ...) will
help with the practical arrangements.
While we can expect that the public will mostly consist of ECCO
members, the announcement will also be distributed to other people
that may be interested so that we may get an injection of new
perpectives and perhaps new members. In the case of some of the
better known invited speakers, we may make more publicity so as to
draw a larger public, and so make ECCO better known to the
outside.
However, the core objective of the seminar series is to
stimulate cross-fertilization, collaboration and interdisciplinary
integration between the different individual projects that all of you
are busy with. Therefore, I hope to achieve continuity with more or
less the same group of "regulars" showing up on most
occasions, thus helping us to develop a shared "ECCO
perspective".
--
Francis Heylighen
"Evolution, Complexity and Cognition" research group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
Francis Heylighen
"Evolution, Complexity and Cognition" research group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
