The Summer School will be held on the University of Iowa campus from June 8, 2009 to June 12, 2009. There will be two main session each day: a morning session with lectures and presentations and an afternoon session with hands-on simulation work. Sessions will be held in the information arcade - a computer-equipped teaching facility in the Main Library at the University of Iowa with workstations at each seat.

Monday: Foundations of dynamical systems theory including overview of linear systems, stability, attractors, bifurcations, normal forms. Afternoon session will include some mathematical analysis of simple linear systems, plus simulation work that provides an introduction to use of Matlab and numerical integration.

Tuesday: Introduction to systems of coupled neurons, neural thresholding, neural oscillation, hysteresis, and bi-stability. Afternoon session will include work with a model of infant habituation, moving toward continuous DNFs.

Wednesday: Introduction to DNF models, instabilities, memory traces/Hebbian learning, and metric interactions among neurons. Afternoon session will involve hands-on simulation work with one-layer DNFs, probing instabilities and attractor states of the model, response to inputs, variation in neural interaction parameters, and metric effects. Students will also make proposals for their own simulation projects to be completed by Friday afternoon.

Thursday: Overview of specific DNF models that have been used in developmental science to capture specific empirical phenomena, including the DFT of the Piagetian A-not-B task proposed by Thelen and colleagues and the model of spatial working memory proposed by Spencer and colleagues. Students will work on individual projects during the afternoon session in conjunction with tutors.

Friday: More presentations on specific DNF models used in developmental science including discussion of multi-layers models used to probe the development of visual working memory and the robotic implementation of DFT. Students will complete work on their individual projects during the afternoon session. The summer school will end with a show-and-tell at a concluding reception Friday evening.