An international​ workshop and paper session on bio inspired modeling and computational neuroscience was organized at the International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI), conducted at Manipal University, Karnataka, India,​ on 14^th September, 2017. The workshop titled “From neurons, circuits to models and devices” (BioCompNeuro’17), was co-affiliated with  Sixth International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI-2017). The workshop was organised by Dr. Shyam Diwakar, Director, Computational Neuroscience and Neurophysiology, Amritapuri, and Associate Professor, School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri.

International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI) provides an international forum for the exchange of ideas among interested researchers, students, developers, and practitioners in the areas of computing, communications, and informatics.

The BioCompNeuro’17 addressed the growing relevance of biologically derived models and architectures with a special focus on biologically realistic neural models, its abstractions and application. The workshop focussed on:

1. Computational Modelling of Apoptosis in Parkinson’s Disease Using Biochemical Systems Theory
2. Classifying Gait Features for Stance and Swing Using Machine Learning
3. Comparing Robotic Control Using a Spiking Model of Cerebellar Network and a Gain Adapting Forward-Inverse Model
4. Implementation of Analog Electrical Neurons as Virtual Labs for Neuroscience Education
5. Computational Neuroscience of Substantia Nigra Circuit and Dopamine Modulation During Parkinson’s Disease
6. Modeling Population Network Activity Using LFPsim, Spiking Neurons and Neural Mass Models
7. An Open-Source Computational Neuroscience Virtual Laboratory Tool for Simulating Spiking Neurons and Circuits
8. Comparing Parallel Simulation of Single and Multi Compartmental Spiking Neuron Models Using GPGPU
9. Information Theoretic Visualization of Spiking Neural Networks
10. Assessing Short-Term Social Media Marketing Outreach of a Healthcare Organization using Machine Learning

Dr. Aditya Murthy, Convenor, Center for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, was the key speaker of the event and he addressed “Brain Mechanisms of Motor Control”. Dr. Srinivasa Chakravarthy, IIT Madras, spoke on “Understanding the Parkinsonian Brain through Computational Modeling” as part of his keynote. Dr. Shyam Diwakar spoke on “Computational Neuroscience of cerebellum and interconnected circuits”. Dr. Bipin Nair,Dean, Amrita School of Biotechnology, gave a conference plenary talk on “Cost-Effective Device and Cloud Enabled Smart Solutions for Diabetes Care”. The plenary talk addressed the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham patents and innovations on glucose meters and insulin pumps.

The students and researchers from Computational Neuroscience & Neurophysiology, presented ten papers at the conference and workshop. Their studies were on cerebellum, basal ganglia and network activity modeling.  The students from Amrita School of Biotechnology and Amrita School of Business also presented papers in this conference. Faculty members Mr. Nidheesh M., Assistant Professor, School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri, and Ms. Asha Vijayan, Assistant Professor, School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri, also presented their papers. The papers will be listed on IEEE Xplore and will be Scopus-listed. The papers of the students are from the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham projects, funded by Cognitive Science Research Initiative of Department of Science and Technology and Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Virtual Labs project.