VSS established the Davida Teller Award in 2013. Davida was an exceptional scientist, mentor and colleague, who for decades led the field of visual development. The award is therefore given to an outstanding woman vision scientist with a strong history of mentoring.
Congratulations to Mary Hayhoe, Professor of Psychology at the Center for Perceptual Systems at the University of Texas Austin, who is the fifth recipient of the Davida Teller Award. Mary Hayhoe received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 1980. She was a member of the Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester from 1984 – 2005. In 2006, Mary moved to the Center for Perceptual Systems at the University of Texas Austin. She is the acknowledged leader in developing experimental paradigms for the investigation of natural visually guided behavior in both real and virtual environments. She has particular expertise in human eye movements in natural environments, especially how gaze behavior relates to attention, working memory, and cognitive goals.

The award will be presented at the 2017 VSS Awards Session in St. Pete Beach, Florida on Monday, May 22, at 12:30 pm.

For more information on Mary Hayhoe, please visit the Davida Teller Award page.

This  year’s Public Lecture will be delivered by Nancy Kanwisher, a faculty member in the Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at MIT. The Lecture will be held at the beautiful Museum of Fine Arts, on Saturday, May 20, 2017. Nancy’s talk, “Functional Imaging of the Human Brain as a Window into the Mind” is open to the public and included in the price of museum admission.

Though intended for the public, VSS attendees may attend the Public Lecture.

The museum has graciously offered VSS attendees free admission to the Museum during the meeting dates of May 19 – 24, 2017. For museum entry, simply show your meeting badge.

Functional Imaging of the Human Brain as a Window into the Mind
Saturday, May 20, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida

Twenty-five years ago with the invention fMRI it became possible to image neural activity in the normal human brain. This remarkable tool has given us a striking new picture of the human brain, in which many regions have been shown to carry out highly specific mental functions, like the perception of faces, speech sounds, and music, and even very abstract mental functions like understanding a sentence or thinking about another person’s thoughts. These discoveries show that human minds and brains are not single general-purpose devices, but are instead made up of numerous distinct processors, each carrying out different functions. I’ll discuss some of the evidence for highly specialized brain regions, and what we know about each. I’ll also consider the tantalizing unanswered questions we are trying to tackle now: What other specialized brain regions do we have?  What are the connections between these each of these specialized regions and the rest of the brain? How do these regions develop over infancy and childhood?  How do these regions work together to produce uniquely human intelligence?

Attending the Public Lecture

The lecture is free to the public with admission to the museum. Museum members are free; Adults $17; Seniors 65 and older $15; Military with Id $15; College Students $10; Students 7-18 $10; Children 6 and under are free. VSS attendees will receive free admission to the Museum by showing your meeting badge.

About the VSS Public Lecture

The annual public lecture represents the mission and commitment of the Vision Sciences Society to promote progress in understanding vision, and its relation to cognition, action and the brain. Education is basic to our science, and as scientists we are obliged to communicate the results of our work, not only to our professional colleagues but to the broader public. This lecture is part of our effort to give back to the community that supports us.

Computational and Mathematical Models in Vision (MODVIS)
Wednesday, May 17 – Friday, May 19, Horizons
9:00 am – 6:00 pm, Wednesday
9:00 am – 6:00 pm, Thursday
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Friday

Organizers: Jeff Mulligan, NASA Ames Research Center; Zyg Pizlo, Purdue University; Anne Sereno, U. Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Qasim Zaidi, SUNY College of Optometry

The 6th VSS satellite workshop on Computational and Mathematical Models in Vision (MODVIS) will be held at the VSS conference venue (the TradeWinds Island Resorts in St. Pete Beach, FL) May 17 – May 19. A keynote address will be given by Aude Oliva (MIT).

The early registration fee is $80 for regular participants, $40 for students. More information can be found on the workshop’s website: http://www.conf.purdue.edu/modvis/

Implicit Guidance of Attention: Developing theoretical models
Thursday, May 18
9:00 am – 6:00 pm, Room TBA

Organizers: Rebecca Todd, University of British Columbia and Chelazzi Leonardo, University of Verona

Speakers: Leo Chelazzi, Jane Raymond, Rebecca Todd, Andreas Keil, Clayton Hickey, Sarah Shomstein, Ayelet Landau, Brian Anderson, Jan Theeuwes

Visual selective attention is the process by which we tune ourselves to the world so that, of the millions of bits per second transmitted by the retina, the information that is most important to us reaches awareness and guides action. Recently, new areas of attention research have emerged, making sharp divisions between top-down volitional attention and bottom-up automatic capture by visual features much less clear than previously believed. Challenges to this intuitively appealing dichotomy have arisen as researchers have identified factors that guide attention non-strategically and often implicitly (a quality of bottom-up processes) but also rely on prior knowledge or experience (a quality of top-down systems). As a result, a number of researchers have been developing new theoretical frameworks that move beyond the classic attentional dichotomy. This roundtable discussion will bring together researchers from often-siloized investigative tracks who have been investigating effects of reward, emotion, semantic associations, and statistical learning on attentional guidance, as well as underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. The goal of this roundtable is to discuss these emerging frameworks and outstanding questions that arise from considering a broader range of research findings.

In the Fondest Memory of Bosco Tjan (Memorial Symposium at VSS)
Friday, May 19
9:00 – 11:30 am, Talk Room 2

Organizers: Zhong-lin Lu, The Ohio State University and Susana Chung, University of California, Berkeley

Speakers: Zhong-lin Lu, The Ohio State University, Gordon Legge, University of Minnesota, Irving Biederman, University of Southern California, Anirvan Nandy, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Rachel Millin, University of Washington, Zili Liu, UCLA, and Susana Chung, University of California, Berkeley

Professor Bosco S. Tjan was murdered at the pinnacle of a flourishing academic career on December 2, 2016. The vision science and cognitive neuroscience community lost a brilliant scientist and incisive commentator. I will briefly introduce Bosco’s life and career, and his contributions to vision science and cognitive neuroscience. More…

Bruce Bridgeman Memorial Symposium
Friday, May 19
9:00 – 11:30 am, Pavilion

Organizers: Susana Martinez-Conde, State University of New York

Speakers:
Stephen L. Macknik,  State University of New York; “A Small Piece of Bruce’s Legacy”
Stanley A. Klein, UC Berkeley; “Consciousness and Cognition”
Susana Martinez-Conde, State University of New York; “Bruce Bridgeman’s Pioneering Work on Microsaccades”
Paul Dassonville, University of Oregon; “The Induced Roelofs Effect in Multisensory Perception and Action”
Cathy Reed, Claremont Mckenna College; “Anything I Could Do Bruce Could Do Better”
Laura Thomas, North Dakota State University; “A Legacy of Action”

FoVea (Females of Vision et al) Workshop and Lunch
Saturday, May 20
12:30 – 2:00 pm, Horizons

Organizers: Diane Beck, University of Illinois; Mary A. Peterson, University of Arizona; Karen Schloss, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Allison Sekuler, McMaster University

FoVea is a group founded to advance the visibility, impact, and success of women in vision science. To that end, we plan to host a series of professional issues workshops during lunchtime at VSS. We encourage vision scientists of all genders to participate in the workshops.

The topic of the 2017 workshop is Negotiation: When To Do It and How To Do It Successfully. Two panelists will each give a presentation, and then will take questions and comments from the audience. The remainder of the workshop time will be spent networking with other attendees. The panelists are:

• Marisa Carrasco, Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University who served as the Chair of the Psychology Department for 6 years.
• Allison Sekuler, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour and Strategic Advisor to the President and VPs on Academic Issues, McMaster University; past Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience (2001-2011), Associate VP & Dean, School of Graduate Studies (2008-2016), and interim VP Research (2015-2016).

A buffet lunch will be available. Registration is required so the appropriate amount of food can be on hand. To register, please go to: https://sites.google.com/site/femalesofvisionetal/vss2017. Capacity is limited to 95 attendees.

How Immersive Eye Tracking Tools and VR Analytics Will Impact Vision Science Research
Saturday, May 20
12:30 – 2:00 pm, Jasmine/Palm

Organizers: Courtney Gray, SensoMotoric Instruments, Inc. and Annett Schilling, SensoMotoric Instruments GmbH

Speakers: Stephen Macknik, SUNY Downstate Medical Center; Gabriel Diaz, Rochester Institute of Tech; Mary Hayhoe, University of Texas

This event covers the implications of new immersive HMD technologies and dedicated VR analysis solutions for vision science research. Researchers share their experiences and discuss how they believe VR eye tracking headsets and the ability to analyze data from immersive scenarios will positively impact visual cognition and scene perception research.

Social Hour for Faculty at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs)
Sunday, May 21
12:30 – 2:00 pm, Royal Tern

Organizers: Eriko Self, California State University, Fullerton; Cathy Reed, Claremont McKenna College; and Nestor Matthews, Denison University

Do you work at a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI)? Do you have to find precious time for research and mentoring students among heavy teaching load? If so, bring your lunch or just bring yourself to PUI social and get to know other faculty at PUIs! It will be a great opportunity to share your ideas and concerns.

Vanderbilt-Rochester Vision Centers Party
Sunday, May 21
7:30 – 10:00 pm, Beachside Sun Decks

Organizers: Geoffrey Woodman, Vanderbilt University and Duje Tadin, Rochester University

This event brings back the Vanderbilt-Rochester Party that began at the first VSS meetings. This social event will feature free drinks and snacks for all VSS attendees. It will provide attendees with the opportunity to socialize with members of the Rochester Center for Vision Science and the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center in attendance at VSS. This is a good opportunity to talk to potential mentors for graduate or postdoctoral training in vision science.

Applicational needs reinvent scientific views 
Monday, May 22
2:00 – 3:00 pm, Jasmine/Palm

Organizers: Katharina Rifai, Iliya V. Ivanov, and Siegfried Wahl, Institute of Ophthalmic Research, University of Tuebingen

Speakers: Eli Peli, Schepens Eye Research Institute; Peter Bex, Northeastern University; Susana Chung, UC Berkeley; Markus Lappe, University of Münster; Michele Rucci, Boston University; Jeff Mulligan, NASA Ames Research Center; Arijit Chakraborty, School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo; Ian Erkelens, School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo; Kevin MacKenzie, York University and Oculus VR, LCC

Applicational needs have often reinvented views on scientific problems and thus triggered break-throughs in models and methods. A recent example is augmented/virtual reality which challenges the visual system with reduced or enriched content and thus triggers scientific questions on visual system’s robustness.

Nonetheless, the driving character of applications within VSS research has not received focal attention until now. Therefore, we intend to bring together bright minds in a satellite event promoting the scientific drive created by applicational needs within VSS 2017.

Tutorial in Bayesian modeling
Monday, May 22
2:00 – 4:30 pm, Sabal/Sawgrass

Organizer: Wei Ji Ma, New York University

Bayesian models are widespread in vision science. However, their inner workings are often obscure or intimidating to those without a background in modeling. This tutorial, which does not assume any background knowledge, will start by motivating Bayesian models through visual illusions. Then, you as participants will collectively choose a concrete experimental design to build a model for. We will develop the math of the Bayesian model of that task, and implement it in Matlab. You will take home complete code for a Bayesian model. Please bring pen, paper, and if possible, a laptop with Matlab.

Tutorial is limited to the first 50 people (first come, first-served).

The Experiential Learning Laboratory
Monday, May 22
2:15 – 3:15 pm, Citrus/Glades

Organizers: Ken Nakayama, Na Li, and Jeremy Wilmer; Harvard University and Wellesley College

Psychology is one of most popular subjects with some the highest enrollments and at the undergraduate level. Psychology is also a science. Yet, the exposure of the undergraduate population to the actual “hands-on” practice doing such science is limited. It is rare in an undergraduate curriculum to see the kind of undergraduate laboratories that have been a longstanding tradition in the natural sciences and engineering. It is our premise that well conceived laboratory experiences by Psychology students have the potential to bring some important STEM practices and values to Psychology. This could increase the number of students who will have the sophistication to understand science at a deeper level, who will have the ability to create new knowledge through empirical investigation and who will develop the critical skills to evaluate scientific studies and claims. Critically important here is to supply conditions to engage students more fully by encouraging student initiated projects and to use this opportunity for them to gain mastery. TELLab with its ease of use and its ability to allow students to create their own experiments is what distinguishes it from other currently available systems. We invite teachers to try our system for their classes.

WorldViz VR Workshop
Tuesday, May 23
1:00 – 2:30 pm, Sabal/Sawgrass

Organizer: Matthias Pusch, WorldViz

Virtual Reality is getting a lot of attention and press lately, but ‘hands on’ experiences with real use cases for this new technology are rare. This session will show what WorldViz has found to work for collaborative VR, and we will set up and try out an interactive VR experience together with the audience.

Honoring Al Ahumada – Al-apalooza! Talks
Wednesday, May 24
3:00 – 5:00 pm, Horizons

Organizers: Jeff Mulligan, NASA Ames Research Center and Beau Watson, Apple

A celebration of the life, work, and play of Albert Jil Ahumada, Jr., a whimsical exploration of network learning for spatial and color vision, noise methods, models of photoreceptor positioning, etc. An afternoon session of informal talks will be open to all free of charge, followed by an evening banquet (payment required).

Full details will be posted as they are available at http://visionscience.com/alapalooza/.

Honoring Al Ahumada – Al-apalooza! Dinner
Wednesday, May 24
7:00 – 10:00 pm, Beachside Sun Decks

Organizers: Jeff Mulligan, NASA Ames Research Center and Beau Watson, Apple

Full details will be posted as they are available at http://visionscience.com/alapalooza/. 

VSS is pleased to welcome Katherine J. Kuchenbecker as the VSS 2017 Keynote Speaker. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker is Director of the new Haptic Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany. She is currently on leave from her appointment as Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania, where she held the Class of 1940 Bicentennial Endowed Term Chair and a secondary appointment in Computer and Information Science.

Katherine J. Kuchenbecker will discuss her work on capturing how objects and surfaces feel to the sense of touch in her talk, “Haptography: Capturing and Displaying Touch” which will be held on Saturday, May 20 at 7:15 pm in Talk Room 1-2.

The Vision Sciences Society is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the “Ken Nakayama Medal for Excellence in Vision Science.” 

The Ken Nakayama Medal is in honor of Professor Ken Nakayama’s contributions to the Vision Sciences Society, as well as his innovations and excellence to the domain of the vision sciences. The winner of the Ken Nakayama Medal receives this honor for high-impact work that has made a lasting contribution in vision science in the broadest sense. The nature of this work can be fundamental, clinical or applied. The Medal is not a lifetime career award and is open to all career stages.

Nominations can be made by all regular members of the Vision Sciences Society, or those who hold emeritus status. The nominee does not have to be a member of the Vision Sciences Society. Nominations must be submitted by March 13, 2017. The winner will be announced in early April. The recipient will be recognized at the VSS 2017 Meeting in St. Pete Beach.

The nomination package should include the following:

1. The nomination letter, outlining in detail the excellent contributions and innovations of the nominee. Clear indicators of the impact should be discussed.
2. A Curriculum Vitae, and an up-to-date publication list of the nominee.
3. Letters of support by four vision scientists, of which two should be regular VSS members (or hold emeritus status).

The award committee, consisting of the five most recent past-presidents of the Vision Sciences Society, will nominate one candidate to the current board of the Vision Sciences Society. Members of the Award Committee and of the VSS Board of Directors cannot serve as nominators.

Nominations for the Ken Nakayama Medal should be submitted by email to Shauney Wilson.

Deadline for nominations is March 13, 2017.

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