Siegelmann Named 2022 International Neural Network Society Fellow
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Provost Professor Hava Siegelmann of the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) at UMass Amherst was recently inducted as a fellow by the International Neural Network Society (INNS).
INNS Fellows, elected by the society’s Board of Governors, are recognized for their scientific accomplishments and service to society. Siegelmann joins INNS Fellows Professor Emeritus Andrew Barto and former Visiting Professor Robert Kozma with her induction this year as the first woman fellow of the society.
Siegelmann, a recognized expert in neural networks, serves as a core member of the UMass Neuroscience and Behavior Program and director of the Biologically Inspired Neural and Dynamical Systems (BINDS) Laboratory, where she conducts highly interdisciplinary research in next-generation lifelong learning AI, neural networks, intelligent machine-human collaboration, and computational studies of the brain. She is a co-inventor of the Support Vector Clustering algorithm, which is widely used in industry and government. Her recent publications include “Biological Underpinnings for Lifelong Learning Machines” in Nature Machine Intelligence, along with two articles detailing methods to achieve lifelong learning AI, “Brain-Inspired Replay for Continual Learning With Artificial Neural Networks” in Nature Communications and “A Modeling Framework for Adaptive Lifelong Learning With Transfer and Savings Through Gating in the Prefrontal Cortex” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her recent neuroscience studies include “Unique Scales Preserve Self-Similar Integrate-and-Fire Functionality of Neuronal Clusters” in Nature Scientific Reports, which describes a dual fractal structure and function of the human brain, and another publication in the same journal that identifies a previously unknown brain connectome mechanism enabling cognitive abstraction.
Siegelmann’s long list of awards includes the Obama Presidential BRAIN Initiative award, the ALON fellowship, and the INNS Donald O. Hebb Award, along with DARPA’s Meritorious Public Service medal. As a leader in increasing awareness of ethical issues in AI and in efforts to support people from historically marginalized populations and women in STEM fields, Siegelmann serves on the IEEE Task Force on Ethical and Social Implications of Computational Intelligence, as the founding chair of the INNS women’s chapter, and as a co-chair of the Status of Diversity Council of the faculty senate of UMass Amherst.