Neural Information Processing Systems
Encyclopedia
The Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) is a machine learning
and computational neuroscience
conference
held every December. The conference is a single track meeting that includes invited talks as well as oral and poster presentations of refereed papers. It began in 1987 as a computational cognitive science conference, and was held in Denver, Colorado
until 2000. From 2001 until 2010 the conference was held in Vancouver, Canada. In 2011, the conference will be held in Granada, Spain. Beginning in 2013, the conference will move to Lake Tahoe
for an extended period.
Papers in early NIPS proceedings tended to use neural networks
as a tool for understanding how the human brain
works, which attracted researchers with interests in biological learning systems as well as those interested in artificial learning systems. Since then, the biological and artificial systems research streams have diverged, and recent NIPS proceedings are dominated by papers on machine learning
, artificial intelligence
and statistics
, although computational neuroscience remains an aspect of the conference.
Besides machine learning and neuroscience, other fields represented at NIPS include cognitive science
, psychology
, computer vision
, statistical linguistics
, and information theory
. Neural networks are now rarely seen at NIPS, having declined in popularity compared to tools such as support vector machines and Bayes nets. As a result, the 'Neural' in the NIPS acronym is now something of a historical relic, and the conference spans a wide range of topics.
The proceedings
from the conferences have been published in book form by MIT Press
and Morgan Kaufmann under the name Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems.
The meeting is related to the COSYNE meetings held in Salt Lake City, Utah
.
Machine learning
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...
and computational neuroscience
Computational neuroscience
Computational neuroscience is the study of brain function in terms of the information processing properties of the structures that make up the nervous system...
conference
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
held every December. The conference is a single track meeting that includes invited talks as well as oral and poster presentations of refereed papers. It began in 1987 as a computational cognitive science conference, and was held in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
until 2000. From 2001 until 2010 the conference was held in Vancouver, Canada. In 2011, the conference will be held in Granada, Spain. Beginning in 2013, the conference will move to Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of , it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is , making it the USA's second-deepest...
for an extended period.
Papers in early NIPS proceedings tended to use neural networks
Neural Networks
Neural Networks is the official journal of the three oldest societies dedicated to research in neural networks: International Neural Network Society, European Neural Network Society and Japanese Neural Network Society, published by Elsevier...
as a tool for understanding how the human brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
works, which attracted researchers with interests in biological learning systems as well as those interested in artificial learning systems. Since then, the biological and artificial systems research streams have diverged, and recent NIPS proceedings are dominated by papers on machine learning
Machine learning
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...
, artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
, although computational neuroscience remains an aspect of the conference.
Besides machine learning and neuroscience, other fields represented at NIPS include cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, computer vision
Computer vision
Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...
, statistical linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, and information theory
Information theory
Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...
. Neural networks are now rarely seen at NIPS, having declined in popularity compared to tools such as support vector machines and Bayes nets. As a result, the 'Neural' in the NIPS acronym is now something of a historical relic, and the conference spans a wide range of topics.
The proceedings
Proceedings
In academia, proceedings are the collection of academic papers that are published in the context of an academic conference. They are usually distributed as printed books either before the conference opens or after the conference has closed. Proceedings contain the contributions made by researchers...
from the conferences have been published in book form by MIT Press
MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
and Morgan Kaufmann under the name Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems.
The meeting is related to the COSYNE meetings held in Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
.