Neural Computation Laboratory
Graduate School of Information Science
Nara Institute of Science and Technology

We are also managing a Master/Ph.D. program as a guest laboratory in Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST). For the first half year in this program, the students are supposed to take lectures at NAIST and enhance their groundings in computational neuroscience, statistical learning theory, system control, robotics, etc. After obtaining the credits required for the completion of the program, the students move to Okinawa and study on their own research topic under the supervision and support of researchers in Neural Computation Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. The research topics studied in this program are roughly classified into:

1. Computational theory on plasticity and learning mechanisms in the brain.
2. Experimental validation of theoretical models about neural circuits and neuromodulators.
3. Learning and evolution in robot's behaviors.

More detail information about them can be seen from here.

• Faculty
  • Kenji Doya (Visiting Professor)
  • Junichiro Yoshimoto (Visiting Associate Professor)
• Students
  • Makoto Otsuka
  • Takashi Nakano
  • Takehiko Yoshida
  • Alan Rodorigues
  • Viktor Zhumatiy
  • Shinji Kimura
• OB
  • Mikihiro Kobayashi (completed his Master course in March, 2009; then moved to Theoretical Life-Science Lab., NAIST in January, 2009)
  • Takumi Kamioka (completed his Ph.D. course in March, 2009)
  • Tetsuro Morimura (completed his Ph.D. course in March, 2008)

• Ph.D. Dissertation
  • Takumi Kamioka. (2009). Evolving Architecture of Neural Controller and Reinforcement Learning for Multiple Rewards Based on Modular Structures.
  • Tetsuro Morimura. (2008). Efficient Task-independent Reinforcement Learning Methods based on Policy Gradient.
• Master Dissertations
  • Mikihiro Kobayashi. (2009). Reinforcement learning through the active low-dimensional sensory information.
  • Alan de Souza Rodrigues. (2008). Model-Free and Model-Based Reinforcement Learning Strategies in the Acquisition of Sequential Behaviors.
  • Takehiko Yoshida. (2008). A Study on Behavior and Brain Function for Delayed and Probabilistic Reward.
  • Makoto Otsuka. (2007). Action-Oriented State Coding by Neighbourhood Component Analysis.
  • Takashi Nakano. (2007). A Kinetic Model for Molecular Mechanisms of Striatal Synaptic Plasticity.

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