editorial 3by Nicola Lettieri

work in progress

Studying Cognitive Science in Italy 4

Human Brain Project: the New Era del Cogito 5

let’s talk about it with… gavriella pravettoni

Learning to decide 6

europroject - the new frontiers of learning 8T3, When the gaming gets serious

what’s up? - associational life of the aisc

Codisco: Where Basic Research Begins 10

news 11

Year 1 – Issue 2

AISC - Editorial Boars:ChairmanOrazio Miglino - Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"

Vice Chairman Alberto Greco - Università degli Studi di Genova

TreasurerFederico Cecconi - Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologiedella Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Roma)

SecretaryNicola Lettieri - Università degli Studi del Sannio

MembersBruno Bara - Università degli Studi di TorinoCesare Bianchi Rosaria Conte - Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie dellaCognizione CNR (Roma)Marco Cruciani - Università degli Studi di TrentoRoberto Cubelli - Università degli Studi di TrentoMarcello Frixione - Università degli Studi di GenovaFrancesco Gagliardi - Università degli Studi diNapoli "Federico II"Pietro Terna - Università degli Studi di Torino

Members of the editorial staffLilia BiscagliaAdele Brunetti

Cristian FuschettoIlaria Merciai

Made by:

CodiCS, Agency for Scientific Communication andDivulgation. Publishing, journalism, research, training,art, CodiCS projects and develops the best tools tospread every aspect of scientific research throughappropriate and innovative channels.Visit www.codics.it

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of theauthor, and theCommission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the

information contained therein.

www.aisc-net.it

UpDate is NewsLetter of AISC. Publishedquarterly, it reports on joint actions of the AISCpartners, and aims to reflect the contributionmade by AISC to the European Community inCognitive Sciences. To advertise conferences,events or a projects, please send an email to:

segreteria@aisc-net.it

3

editorialby Nicola Lettieri

Ithink that looking at Cognitive Science from the outside can be a useful approach for our association. Inorder to fully develop its potential, any research field also needs to be explored from the perspective of otherdisciplines. The exchange of ideas, as well as the investigation of topics and problems that are typical ofother scientific areas can lead to better theoretical and methodological development. For example, the“homo economicus” paradigm has been outdated thanks to the interaction between Economics, Psychology

and Cognitive Science. This example leads me to highlight the important role that the Law field could play in thecontext of Cognitive Science and within the AISC too, by offering many interesting suggestions. Interaction bet-ween Cognitive Science and Law has been long in existence, as it is confirmed by the large number of workspublished in recent years on this subject.

Moreover, a recent issue of the review “Sistemi Intelligenti” has been devoted to the interaction between Cognitionand Law. However, the dialogue between these two disciplines has been episodic and limited to very specializedareas, while it could be of great interest to expand it to many more investigation topics. This is a favorable timeto do it, and for many reasons. The capacity of Law to help govern economic and social dynamics is currentlyimpaired. This impairment, undoubtedly resulting from multiple factors, is also due to a limited understanding ofthe phenomena that Law itself intends to govern, as well as to a legal science too often forced into the narrowbounds of a technical-bureaucratic approach, based on the mere writing, interpretation and application of therules. I think this is a wrong approach, as the translation of political choices into efficient rules depends on a clearunderstanding of reality which, in turn, can’t be developed without the support of other scientific disciplines, in-cluding those dealing with the explanation of the mental processes underlying human individual and group be-havior. The same goes for the application of the existing legal rules and categories: one can imagine the potentialimpact of Neuroscience on the grading of criminal liability, as well as on the identification of new and fairer stra-tegies of criminal policy. Therefore, we absolutely need to build up a closer relationship between Law and non-legal disciplines. And, in this perspective, I Think that Cognitive Science can play a significant role both in theunderstanding of the legal phenomenon and in the legal regulation of social life.

This interaction would provide an interesting range of methodological scenarios. For example, Agent Based Si-mulations, which are making a significant contribution to the progress of Social Science – and which developedthanks to Cognitive Science – offer many interesting opportunities to create new instruments to support the de-velopment of regulation policies. The FuturICT Project, outlined by Rosaria Conte in the first issue of this New-sletter, is a significant example of cooperation between scientific studies and the disciplines managing “complex,global, socially interactive systems”. In the light of this, I think that the AISC - which is already used to having aninterdisciplinary approach - should begin to promote new opportunities of contact and discussion with Law Scho-ols and Institutions involved in regulation, policy and decision making processes. This could help find new rese-arch paths, as well as interesting practical applications. Building up a mutually advantageous dialogue is a difficultand time-demanding process, especially when it involves disciplines such as Law, which are sometimes reluctantto interact with different branches of knowledge. However, it is worthwhile to venture on this path: long journeysalways start with small steps

Nicola Lettieri

AISC Secretary

University of Sannio Law School - Legal Informatics

Laboratory of Agent Based Social Simulation ISTC CNR

in Italy “LM55” is the code of the Second Level (Master’s) Degree Course in CognitiveScience, aimed at the acquisition of advanced theoretical and methodological knowl-edge, through an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Mind-Brain System

and the man-machine interaction.

In Italy these Degree Courses have already started in three Universities: the Universityof Messina, Milan and Trieste. They’re all at the leading edge in their field and share acommon goal to improve the understanding of human behavior.The Degree Course in Cognitive Science is a recently established university program,which is currently drawing a large number of students. It allows students to specialize inthis field in the context of a Master’s Degree, instead of having to attend post-graduateprograms. The Course includes a large number of disciplines, combined in a dynamicinteraction: from Psychology to Linguistics, from Genetics to Ethology, from Neuroscience to Mathematics, from Anthropologyto Physics and Biology, from Philosophy to Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. «Cognitive Science – explains Pietro Perconti, Coordinator of the Degree Course at the University of Messina – tries to in-vestigate, describe and explain the amazing complexity of mental life. The new interdisciplinary approach to the study ofbehavior and mental life allows to get a wider perspective in the investigation of the human knowledge process, that in pastyears has been the object of an isolated, very specialized discipline. Crossing the boundaries between the different disciplinesgives the promising opportunity to understand and clarify mental functioning through a combination of both theoretical andempirical investigation methods. Investigations and descriptions relating to the functioning of cognitive processes will becomemore and more precise, and the possibility to artificially reproduce these processes will increasingly be within our reach.Moreover, knowledge and the ability to reproduce knowledge processes will allow us to develop therapeutic models and in-formation systems to be used in the rehabilitation of any compromised function, whatever is the cause of the damage».«The integrated study of the mind-brain system has been taking a more and more prominent role in individual and organi-zational life, with a strong impact on science and technology - says Marta Cazzanelli, Teaching Assistant in Cognitive Scienceat the University of Trieste. Through our Degree Course in Cognitive Science (held in English) we intend to educate andtrain Cognitivists, Artificial Intelligence specialists and Decision Process experts. In order to put into practice the skills ac-quired during the course, students will be offered internships and participation in research projects, both in the field of brain-imaging and in the area of multimodal interaction (cognitive interfaces, multimedia)».Though statistics regarding the employment rate of the Italian Cognitive Science Graduates are not available yet - thecourses having only recently started – market surveys show that the acquisition of integrated, multidisciplinary skills is keyto find a place in the labor market. On one hand, students with a Bachelor’s Degree in Humanities can acquire the scientific and technical skills they are lacking.On the other, students with a Bachelor’s Degree in a Scientific discipline can acquire a different kind of knowledge, allowingthem to better structure their basic skills. If your curriculum includes the development of both theoretical and practical knowl-edge about Cognitive Science, you will be able to perform a wide range of jobs, for example in the research and developmentfield, in the information technology industry as well as providing services to people and businesses. Research and Development, Information Technology Industry and Services to People and Businesses are the main em-ployment sectors for Graduates in Cognitive Science. However – adds Perconti – we must not underestimate the potential of the cognitive approach to rehabilitation and to de-velopment of therapeutic models and information systems operating in the field of Language and Cognitive Neuroscience.Our task is also to help make the employers aware of these new professional roles, which could act as linking pins betweendifferent areas, even though the market labor is still not very receptive at present. And we must not forget the cultural interestsof our students and their inclination to research: they are fascinated by the possibility of a “journey through the Mind” allowingthem to understand how and where concepts and beliefs come and come from, and revealing something more about humannature».

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workP R O G R E S S

in

Studying CognitiveScience in Italy

Pietro Perconti

by Ilaria Merciai

An overview of the activity of the Institutes and Research

by Cristian Fuschetto

Human Brain Project:the New Era of the Cogito

5

the neurologist Antonio Damasio, with his usual intuitiveness, hasalready aroused our suspicion but, if this daring experimentworks, we will have the final proof: Descartes was absolutely

wrong. Brute matter and thinking substance are just the same thing, orrather, the res cogitans arises from the res extensa, and those who con-tinue to believe that thought belongs to an ethereal spiritual dimension,will be disappointed. Reproducing the “thinking organ” means this andmuch more. This Promethean goal is expected to be achieved by the endof 2023. The stake of the project is - if it is not obvious yet - creating an artificial brain. “This is undoubt-edly an ambitious, but not impossible project, if we consider how fast the power of calculation has beengrowing in the last years”, explains Enrico Macii, coordinator of the first Italian Research Group involvedin the early stages of project planning and design, Professor of Electronic Circuits at the Politecnico diTorino and member of the “Human Brain project”, together with a team including the most specializedEuropean experts in Information, Neuroscience, Robotics, Medicine and Bioethics. The project is coor-dinated by Henry Markram, Professor at the Brain Mind Institute of the École Polytechinque Fédéralede Lausanne and author of a series of experiments aimed at converting into programming languagethe functioning of a tiny slice of rat cerebral cortex containing 10,000 neurons. “Of course – admits Macii– the gap between these 10,000 neurons and the 100 billions neurons composing our brain seems topreclude any chance of success, and yet it does not”.

New generation computers are the key to success. “We will not use a single computer, but a super-computer cluster, that is, a group of supercomputers connected together”. The Human Brain Project isa candidate for an enormous grant: through the Fet Program (Future and Emerging Technologies), Flag-ships Initiative, the EU will allocate 1 billion euro over 10 years to the two most important and far-sighedEuropean projects. The choice will be announced next summer and the suspense is growing in the sci-entific community. Indeed, it’s since the Manhattan Project and the conquest of space that we haven’thad such an ambitious scientific project. Understanding and reproducing the brain functioning wouldbring a radical change in information technology, through the designing of new computers, robots andsensors whose intelligence will greatly surpass that of our current machines. “We will be able to createmachines capable of interacting with people and they will be used in learning contexts or in the treatmentand care of disabled and elderly people – adds Macii”. But first of all, reproducing the brain means tohave a perfect model to understand the causes of neurological and psychiatric disorders and thereforebe able to experiment new treatments. Let’s not imagine it as a sort of Blade Runner world: the HumanBrain Project is rather intended to support our everyday life. For example, it will make medical researcheasier, by restricting animal and human experiments through simulations. However, the Project alsoincludes applications on neural network computers, a special kind of supercomputer characterized bylow energy consume, flexibility, robustness, new storage techniques and, to cap it all, adaptive prob-lem-solving and self-repairing systems. Italy will play a key role. Along with the Politecnico di Torino,primarily involved in the development of digital, neural network circuits, several other Institutions are in-volved: the Lens (European laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy) and the University of Florence,specialized in the field of Biophotonics and Optical Microscopy applied to Neuroscience and led byFrancesco Pavone; the Brain Connectivity Center of the University of Pavia, whose team, under theguidance of Egidio D’Angelo, will have to role to develop the first realistic computational model of thecerebellum; The Institute of Biophysics, Palermo, directed by Michele Migliore, whose role will be toprovide the neural network models and the simulations of the synaptic connections; a joint researchgroup between the CNR Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology (coordinator, Stefano Nolfi) andthe University of Naples “Federico II” (coordinator, Orazio Miglino) responsible to develop the neuroboticmodels; and finally the CNR Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, led by FernandoFerri, that will use the artificial brain to develop a complex simulation of a “human-like” perception ofdata. So, let’s keep our finger crossed and hope that the European Union will decide to be the protag-onist of the “new era of the cogito”.

workP R O G R E S S

in

From top to bottom:Enrico Macii; FrancescoPavone; Fernando Ferri;Egidio D'Angelo; MicheleMIgliore; Orazio Miglino

An overview of the activity of the Institutes and Research

let’s talk about it with…

How do we decide? This question deals with thecognitive processes involved in everyday life.However, the mechanisms underlying decision

making can affect the fortunes of wider organizationsand play a key role in consumers, savers, doctors andmanagers’ choices.

Becoming an expert in decision making is the aim of thealmost 240 students registered in the Interfaculty Sec-ond level Degree Course (Master’s Degree) in CognitiveScience and Decision Processes of the University ofMilan. This Course offers a multidisciplinary, advancedapproach to the study of mind and decision. That is whythe two year’s Course is structured as a comprehensivetraining project including disciplines as varied as PoliticalScience, Medicine and Surgery, Literature and Philoso-

phy, with modules in Psychology, Economy, Philosophy,Sociology and Medicine: a range of disciplines studyingthe relationship between mind-brain and the mecha-nisms underlying the decision processes. This Course,started in 2008 with about 120 enrolments, has almostdoubled the number of its students this year. Let’s talkabout it with Gabriella Pravettoni, Professor in CognitiveScience and President of this Degree Course.

Which Faculty do the students attending the Cogni-tive Science and Decision Processes Course comefrom?Most students come from the Faculties of Economy andPhilosophy, but we also have many students from Med-icine and Surgery. Actually, the Course offers two spe-cialized curricula, the first focused on decision makingin a socio-economic context, the second on decisionmaking in a medical context. The latter includes manystudents with a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine or other-wise specialized in the medical field.

What do you teach your students? We offer a Degree Course in Cognitive Science and De-cision Processes. Our project is to propose an interdis-ciplinary study of the mind, especially focused ondecision making. While other Degree Courses in Cogni-tive Science are characterized by an information, tech-nological or philosophical approach, we are morefocused on the decision process. Therefore every singlemodule is designed to investigate thoroughly this spe-cific kind of cognitive process. For example, in the fieldof research applied to decision making, we have mod-ules in Neuroeconomics and Neuromarketing, and weanalyze the decisional processes in the context of Med-ical Science. We investigate Conflict Resolution in dif-ferent contexts and our students learn to encouragedecisional processes within their working groups.

Why should students choose a Second Level (Mas-ter’s) Degree instead of a Post-graduation training? Our Degree Course integrates different cultural fields,such as psychology, philosophy and economics, whilefocusing on the aspects relating to decision making: ourstudents will not be graduated in Psychology or Philos-ophy, they will be Cognitive Scientists. The Course offersa specialist training program which has no equal, be-cause it is founded upon the firm belief that, in a job con-text, one of the most in demand characteristics for aCognitive Scientist is his/her multidisciplinary training.

Learning to decideOptimizing decision processes to encourage individual and organizational change

interview by Lilia Biscaglia

Gabriella Pravettoni

6

So, a student completing this study cycle can have awider outlook on the decision making process.Quite so! In Italy there are other Degree Courses in Cog-nitive Science, but the specialized curricula they offer arevery different from our Program. Our Degree Course in-cludes internships as an integral part of its education pro-gram. Thanks to the University of Milan VocationalGuidance Centre, our students are given the chance toparticipate in internships both during their study courseand later, after their graduation. Moreover, they have the opportunity to get a double de-gree with the University of Maastricht. Our students en-rolled in Cognitive Science and the Dutch students canspend a whole academic year in Maastricht or Milan, re-spectively, and obtain, at the end of these two years, adouble qualification, that is a Degree in Cognitive Scienceand Decision Processes in Italy, and a Postgraduate Cer-tificate in Decisions Processes related to Psychoeconom-ics in Maastricht.

Is there a special reason why this Course was insti-tuted in Milan? Of course, there are contextual reasons for this choice.For example, Lombardy Healthcare has a much largernumber of users compared to other Regions. This is oneof the reasons why in Lombardy there is a strong need toencourage decision processes: more and more qualifiedpeople are required to optimize individual and organiza-tional decision processes in the Healthcare context. The same applies to the second specialized curriculum inEconomics, focused on a series of Psychoeconomics top-ics. So, our educational offer meets the strong demandfrom the regional context. However, this does not meanthat our students come from just Lombardy. We have en-rolments from every part of the country, but the contexthas also contributed to the success of the Course. Justimagine: within the whole University of Milan, it is our De-gree Course to draw the largest number of students fromother Universities, which means that its great success isalso due to its being unique in Italy. People who want tostudy Decision Processes, and especially their applicationto the field of Medical Decision Making, can not find sucha specialized course anywhere else. Through its specificfocus, this Course responds to a strong demand: under-standing how to encourage decisional processes within acomplex organization.

So, the ability to understand the processes underly-ing decision can be a key factor when selecting man-

agers for Local Health Centers?Yes, of course. Every healthcare professional is con-stantly faced with decision management. Medical Deci-sion Making and Human Error Prevention are keyresearch areas. On one hand, you have to develop theability to prevent medical errors and make the right deci-sion. On the other, you have to consider the patient’s re-sponse in the context of personalized medicine: patientsmust be helped in their choices through decision sup-ports. With regard to patients’ decisions, one of the appli-cation areas is “food choice”: the ability to choose healthyfood to prevent chronic disease. For example, sound ex-perimental evidence shows that obese women with a his-tory of breast cancer are significantly more likely to havea relapse. In this case you must help patients to choosethe proper food to improve their well-being. An expert in Cognitive Science can also provide alterna-tive approaches to communication in the context of PublicHealthcare. If your role is to improve decision processes,you need to have the ability to work in a team, and espe-cially with people coming from very different disciplinarybackgrounds. If you are a Cognitive Scientist, a multidis-ciplinary approach is key, as well as the ability to encour-age team working. This allows you to apply your skills toa variety of fields, always focusing on decision processesas your starting point.

And is the Italian labor market ready to absorb Cog-nitive Science graduates specialized in decisionprocess? We’ve just had a “career day” attended by 120 large com-panies, all very interested in our graduates’ skills. Ofcourse, we work very hard but, as I’ve already said, wealso work in a favorable context.

A favorable context, of course, but maybe also a par-ticular historical juncture…I’m deeply convinced that Mind is plural. Which meansthat Mind needs to get used to managing complexity. Like-wise, within a group, someone is required who can man-age complexity and then encourage good decisionprocesses. In our society and in a variety of organizationsfounded on complexity, this role can be played by a cog-nitive scientist specialized in decision processes. It’s veryimportant to have qualified people capable to interpret theplural mind, and this is what we try to teach in our DegreeCourse. The ability to manage the complexity of mind isthe real agent of change, both at an individual and orga-nizational level.

7

technology will become man’s best

friend, a sort of virtual training

ground to get the most out of our po-

tential. Actually, even though state-of-the-art

computers, smartphones, videogames and

web applications are taking up more and

more of our time, we rarely wonder how

could we use them to become more intelli-

gent and active, to handle emergency si-

tuations, face natural disasters or resolve

relational conflicts. The “Intelligent Techno-

logy” will determine our future, and we will

be obliged to go beyond the passive appro-

ach imposed by commercial strategies and

the latest market trends. And didactics will

be the instrument of this revolution. This is

the opinion of the “T3 - Teaching to Teach

with Technology” organizers. This project is

funded by the European Education, Audio-

visual and Culture Executive Agency

(EACEA) and is led by the Advanced Lear-

ning Technology Research Group from the

CNR Institute of Cognitive Science and Te-

chnologies (alt.istc.cnr.it) and the Nac – Na-

tural and Artificial Cognition Laboratory - from the

University of Naples “Federico II” (www.nac.unina.it). Its

goal: to understand and suggest how the most innovative

technologies can revolutionize the traditional teaching me-

thods and help develop modern and effective learning stra-

tegies (www.t3.unina.it). We’re talking about serious

games, augmented reality systems, educational robotics

and PC simulations. These are the astonishing outcomes

of the projects this team has been working on for five years,

in order to develop and test new media at the service of

education. We will learn through displays, keyboards, vir-

tual worlds and automata capable of interacting with our

everyday life and to improve it. But what will we actually

learn? As for the strictly scientific disciplines, the T3 Project

includes some interesting cyber-reproductions of biological

and physical processes. For example, a large number of

experiments can be performed through “Avida”, a 3D labo-

ratory allowing to determine and observe the life cycle of

artificial organisms at different stages of evolutionary com-

plexity. Indeed, there are countless opportunities to take

advantage of the educational potential of technology, espe-

cially in the investigation of psycho-social phenomena. The

development of soft skills, the negotiation and manage-

ment of conflicts, the ability to listen to other people’s

views, the possibility to think out of the box and to improve

relational skills: this is the scope of the “Eutopia” platform,

which allows to “dramatize” in progress teaching scenarios,

characterized by different stimuli. Then we have "Dread-

ed", another creation of the T3 team, a game intended to

develop the ability to make decisions in difficult situations,

particularly useful in management training, to improve the

organizational skills of the future business leaders and

overcome shyness and uncertainty. And there is more: the

software programs for younger people, such as “Diego

Pizza Adventure", which includes a set of games based on

the developmental theory of the Swiss psychologist Jean

Piaget. The games are intended to stimulate the cognitive

potential of children from five to nine years old, through a

series of challenges aimed at the development of space-

time frameworks, the acquisition of the concept of velocity,

the improving of the object arrangement ability and the sti-

mulation of the capacity to establish relationships between

The new frontiers of learningTeaching with Technology, When the gaming gets serious

by Adele Brunetti

8

Italy and Cognitive Science in the European contextE U R OPR

OJECT

different elements. An adven-ture that can be explored bysimply clicking onwww.nac.unina. i t /p iaget ,where young people will havethe opportunity to enjoy thesemultimedia educational re-sources. In the context of theinnovating T3 project, specialattention is paid to robotics,with the two brilliant robots de-veloped through the joined ef-forts of Nac and Alt teams: thefirst one - "Bestbot" – can beused to learn how to take ad-vantage of the natural evolu-tion principles, while thesecond - "Wandbot" – is an in-genious object hunter. Fromrepresentation of the surroun-ding world and environment tomedical procedures and flightsimulations, the applicationfields of educational techno-logy are countless, but Italianschools and universities seemto be slow to recognize thehigh potential of this appro-ach. Unfortunately, in our country the use of e-learning isconfined to laboratories, which are still mainly based onvideo lessons. This situation is not likely to change, unlesswe remove its causes, that our research team identified as- among others - a lack of funds to buy the suitable equip-ment and tools, and the long time needed to equip teacherswith the appropriate skills.

Italy and Cognitive Science in the European contextE U R O

PR

OJECT

Roberto Vardisio is consultantorganizational development andPresident of Entropy KnowledgeEntropy Nework S.R.L KN; he is apartner T3 of the project.

Roberto Vardisio

Partner

Coordinators Partner

He is a lecturer and Head of the MPhil/PhDProgramme within the Department ofEducational Studies at Goldsmiths CollegeUniversity of London; he is a partner of T3project.

M. Luisa Nigrelli works in ISTC CNR, managing European funded projects andtaking care of knowledge and technical transfer from the research context to thebusiness environment. Her background is in foreing languages and educationalpsychology, she took her master degree at University of Pavia in newtechnologies for teaching and knowledge management strategy. She was visitingscholar at Indiana University Bloomington, in Education PSychology Department.Previuosly she worked in KPMG and in Telecom Italia, with a special focus oninternational business development, EU funded programs and CSR.

M. Luisa Nigrelli John Jessel

9

Cristina Botella

Professor of Clinical Psychologyand director of the EmotionalDisorders Clinic at the UniversityJaume I of Castellón (Spain); She isa partner of T3 project.

Associational life of the AISCW A T H ’ S up

codisco is the “Coordinating Group for Italian PhDs in Cognitive Science”. This initiativehas been created by Prof. Antonino Pennisi and Pietro Perconti - from the University ofMessina - in order to provide a constant and direct interaction between the researchers

involved in this field. Its main goal is to create a network involving the entire scientific community– in the first place, PhDs – so as to provide a constant update about the state of the art of the Ita-lian research.

Basic research is key to scientific development, and Doctoral Degrees are the highest point oflearning and the first stage of specialized training. So, coordinating Doctoral Degrees is essentialto encourage the development of scientific research in such a multidisciplinary field as CognitiveScience.

Given the multidisciplinary approach involved in the study programs in this discipline, it was essential to build up an open networkwhich would encourage the exchange of ideas and discussion and give researchers the opportunity to meet each other andestablish cooperation and information sharing, therefore bridging the gap between different specialized areas. This project in-volves all the Italian Doctoral Programs dealing with disciplines related to Cognitive Science: from Psychology to Neuroscience;from Linguistics to Artificial Intelligence; from Philosophy to Social Science. Since 2007, Codisco has been organizing annuallya National Congress of the Italian Doctorates involved in the field of Cognitive Science. This meeting, each time devoted to dif-ferent key topics, is aimed at regularly providing an overall picture of the Italian Basic Research, as well as an opportunity formutual exchange and updating. This year, during the annual congress, a science prize will be awarded to the “Best First Publi-

cation”. The call is open to all Italian researchers who wereless than 40 years old at the expiration of the call and publi-shed their first book, obviously in the field of Cognitive Science.«Cognitive Science is a model of scientific cooperation – ex-plain the organizers of Codisco. Instead of the traditional di-chotomy between Natural Science and Human Science, thenew Science of the Mind provides a concrete and profitablemodel, that we can use to develop an integrated, comprehen-sive vision of human nature, by trying first of all to understandthe process of knowledge. Understanding knowledge proces-ses, being able to reproduce them and to rehabilitate themwhen they are compromised, is a scientific challenge whichcan also have a great impact on social structures. If CognitiveScience succeeds, we will acquire a better understanding ofthe human being and his relationship with the surrounding na-ture».

Codisco: Where Basic Research BeginsBy Ilaria Merciai

10

Pictures of the fifth conference organized by Codisco, The languages of science, cognitiveheld from 27 to 29 September 2011

1111

The University of Catania will organize the ECAL 2013 –the 21th European Conference on Artificial Life. This is abiennial event of international interest, non to be missed bythe researchers in this field. It will be held in Taormina, from2 to 6 September 2013. Special attention will be paid toComplex Systems, Bioelectronics, Synthetic Biology, Bio-Inspired Engineering and Cognitive Science.

Pietro Liò, Orazio Miglino, Giuseppe Nicosia, Stefano Nolfiand Mario Pavone, who represent the Italian scientificcommunity around the world, will be the General Chairs ofthe Conference.

For further information: www.dmi.unict.it/ecal2013/

For further information:

www.online-educa.com

The University of Catania chosen to host theprestigious ECAL (European Conference on Ar-

NEWS FROM ITALIAN SCIENCE COGNITE SCIENCES

TAORMINA (CATANIA) 2 - 6 SEPTEMBER 2013 GENOVA - 26 OCTOBER 2011

The Science Festival of Genoa hosted a special sessionon Cognitive Science. This years’ Festival was dedicated tothe 150th Anniversary of Italian Unification and hosted in-ternational guests, such as Erik Hollnagel, a leading experton Resilience Engineering and the author of a large num-ber of publications on Resilience, that is, the analysis of thereactive/adaptive strategies undertaken by systems to copewith traumatic events. This seminar, held on the 26th of Oc-tober at the Ducal Palace of Genoa, in the “Sala del MinorConsiglio”, was moderated by Alberto Greco, PsychologyProfessor and Director of the Master’s Program in Cogni-tive Science at the University of Genoa.

Cognitive Science at the ScienceFestival of Genoa

Berlin 30/11 – 02/12 2011

EDUCA ONLINE

Educa Online is the largest global e-learning conference for corporate,education and public service sectors.Every year Educa Online attractsover 2000 participants from morethan 100 countries world-wide, pro-

ving to be the most comprehensiveannual meeting for ICT-enhanced le-arning experts and training profes-sionals. The topic of this year’sconference is “Empowering Educa-tors for Creative Learning: A Euro-pean View”. Educa Online will alsopropose a prestigious seminar chai-red by Brian Holmes, responsible forthe “Lifelong Learning Programme”,and presented by Pierre Mairesse,Policy Director for Lifelong Learning.Prof. Pierre Dillenbourg from the

Ecole Polytecnique Fédérale de Lau-sanne, Prof. Mario Barajas from theUniversity of Barcelona and Maria-luisa Nigrelli, ALT-ISTC CNR, willalso be lecturing at this event.

news

the main goal of AISC (Associazione

Italiana di Scienze Cognitive) is to

promote Cognitive Science in Italy in

research and its applications. Cognitive

Science is an interdisciplinary approach to

the studies of behavior and cognition which

recognizes the added value of going beyond

the boundaries of the individual disciplines

dedicated to the studies of behavior and co-

gnitive capacities. By doing so, various ap-

proaches, theories, methods and empirical

data from each discipline are compared and

converged. The disciplines comprising the

field of Cognitive Science include Psycho-

logy, Linguistics, Social Sciences, Neuro-

science, Biology, Computer Science and

Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics, Physics,

and Philosophy.

Moreover, Cognitive Science creates a bond

between the studies of behavior and cogni-

tion as they are expressed in humans and

their society and how they are reproduced in

artificial systems which have the aim of bet-

ter understanding natural and social pheno-

mena and creating novel technologies. The

Italian Association of Cognitive Science pur-

sues its objective by organizing annual

scientific conferences as well as more spe-

cific workshops, interest groups and training

activities, establishing a network between

Cognitive Science in Italy and the rest of the

world.

www.aisc-net.it