Ben Lansdell

Ben Lansdell

Machine Learning Engineer & Applied Mathematician

You can see my Google Scholar page here, and a complete CV can be found here.

Articles

(+ equal first author)

  1. Ogg C, Franks H, Lansdell B, Hughes A, Lee J, Shirinifard A, Schwarz L, “Locus Coeruleus Facilitates Cognitive Map Remodeling and Behavioral Flexibility in Orbitofrontal Cortex” (submitted)
  2. Lansdell B, Shirinifard A, “Ethome: tools for machine learning of animal behavior” Journal of Open Source Software 2024 (link)
  3. Lansdell B, Kording K, “Neural spiking for causal inference and learning”, PLOS Computational Biology 2023, 19 (4), (link)
  4. Baker B, Lansdell B, Kording K, “Three aspects of representation in neuroscience”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2022, (link, news article)
  5. Davenport C, Teubner B, Han S, Patton M, Eom T, Garic D, Lansdell B, Shirinifard A, Chang T, Klein J, Pruett-Miller S, Blundon J, Zakharenko S, “Innate Frequency-discrimination hyperacuity in Williams-Beuren syndrome mice”, Cell 2022 (doi, news article)
  6. Yang S, Wang J, Gao T, Hu Z, Deng B, Lansdell B, Linares-Barranco B, “Efficient Neuromorphic Learning with Dendritic Event-driven Processing” Front. Neurosci. 2021, 15, 1-15
  7. Lansdell B, Prakash P, Kording K, “Learning to solve the credit assignment problem”, ICLR 2020 (arXiv)
  8. Lansdell B+, Milovanovic I+, Mellema C, Fairhall A, Fetz E, Moritz C, “Reconfiguring motor circuits for a joint manual and BCI task”, IEEE Trans NSRE 2020 (arXiv)
  9. Lansdell B, Kording K, “Towards learning-to-learn”, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (29) 2019 (arXiv)
  10. Farhoodi R+, Lansdell B+, Kording K, “Quantifying how staining methods bias measurements of neuron morphologies”, Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 2019
  11. Pang R, Lansdell B, Fairhall A, “Dimensionality Reduction in Neuroscience”, Current Biology 2016, 26: R1-R5
  12. Aljadeff J, Lansdell B, Fairhall A, Kleinfeld D, “Analysis of Neuronal Spike Trains, Deconstructed”, Neuron 2016, (doi, pdf) (F1000 Prime recommended article)
  13. Lansdell B, Ford K, Jutz JN, “A reaction-diffusion model of cholinergic retinal waves”, PLoS Computational Biology 2014 (pdf)
  14. Garsed DW, Marshall OJ, Corbin VDA, Hsu A, Stefano LD, Schroder J, Li J, Feng Z, Kim BW, Kowarsky M, Lansdell B, Brookwell R, Myklebost O, Meza-Zepeda L, Holloway AJ, Pedeutour F, Choo KH, Damore MA, Deans AJ, Papenfuss AT, Thomas DM, “The Architecture and Evolution of Cancer Neochromosomes”, Cancer Cell 2014 (pdf) (ABC news report)
  15. Renfree MB, Papenfuss AT, Deakin JE, Lindsay J, Heider T, Belov K, Rens W, Waters PD, Pharo EA, Shaw G, Wong ES, Lefèvre CM, Nicholas KR, Kuroki Y, Wakefield MJ, Zenger R, Wang C, Ferguson-Smith M, Nicholas FW, Hickford D, Yu H, Short KR, Siddle HV, Frankenberg SR, Chew KY, Menzies BR, Stringer JM, Suzuki S, Hore TA, Delbridge ML, Mohammadi A, Schneider NY, Hu Y, O’Hara W, Al Nadaf S, Wu C, Feng ZP, Cocks BG, Wang J, Flicek P, Searle SM, Fairley S, Beal K, Herrero J, Carone DM, Suzuki Y, Sugano S, Toyoda A, Sakaki Y, Kondo S, Nishida Y, Tatsumoto S, Mandiou I, Hsu A, McColl KA, Lansdell B, Weinstock G, Kuczek E, McGrath A, Wilson P, Men A, Hazar-Rethinam M, Hall A, Davis J, Wood D, Williams S, Sundaravadanam Y, Muzny DM, Jhangiani SN, Lewis LR, Morgan MB, Okwuonu GO, Ruiz SJ, Santibanez J, Nazareth L, Cree A, Fowler G, Kovar CL, Dinh HH, Joshi V, Jing C, Lara F, Thornton R, Chen L, Deng J, Liu Y, Shen JY, Song XZ, Edson J, Troon C, Thomas D, Stephens A, Yapa L, Levchenko T, Gibbs RA, Cooper DW, Speed TP, Fujiyama A, Graves JA, O’Neill RJ, Pask AJ, Forrest SM, Worley KC, “Genome sequence of an Australian kangaroo, Macropus eugenii, provides insight into the evolution of mammalian reproduction and development.”, Genome Biology 2011, 12:R81. (pdf)

Select conference presentations and proceedings

  1. Ogg C, Franks H, Nolen H, Lansdell B, Shirinifard A, Schwarz L, “Defining the role of a locus coeruleus-orbitofrontal cortex circuit in behavioral flexibility”, Cosyne 2022, Lisbon, Portugal
  2. Lansdell B, “Towards intervention-centric causal reasoning in learning agents”, Workshop Causal Learning for Decision Making, ICLR 2020 (pdf)
  3. Lansdell B, Prakash P, Kording K, “Learning to solve the credit assignment problem”, NeurIPS Neuro+AI workshop 2019, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  4. Cheng J, Benjamin A, Lansdell B, Kording K, “Augmenting Supervised Learning by Meta-learning Unsupervised Local Rules”, NeurIPS Neuro+AI workshop 2019, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  5. Lansdell B, Prakash P, Kording K, “Do neurons learn how to learn?”, Cosyne meeting 2019, Lisbon, Portugal
  6. Farhoodi R, Lansdell B, Kording K, “Quantifying the effect of staining methods on extracted neuron morphology”, CCN Meeting 2018, PA, USA.
  7. Lansdell B, Kording K, “Spiking allows neurons to estimate their causal effect”, Cosyne 2018, CO, USA.
  8. Lansdell B, Milovanovic I, Fairhall A, Fetz E, Moritz C, “Neural activity in a simultaneous BCI and manual task”, BCI Society Meeting 2016, CA, USA. doi:10.3217/978-3-85125-467-9-118
  9. Lansdell B, Kutz JN (September, 2013), “The spatio-temporal dynamics of spontaneous activity in the developing retina”, BMES 2013, Seattle, USA.
  10. Lansdell B, Kutz JN (September, 2013), “A computational model of Bcl-2 regulated apoptosis: bistability revisited”, BMES 2013, Seattle, USA. (pdf)
  11. Lansdell B, Kutz JN (July, 2013), “Cholinergic Retinal Waves and Self-Organized Criticality”, CNS 2013, Paris, France. (pdf)
  12. Lansdell B, Kutz JN, Ford K (Sept 10, 2012), “Modeling Retinal Waves in Starburst Amacrine Cells”, Neuroinformatics 2012, Munich, Germany. (pdf)
  13. Lansdell B, Papenfuss AT, Speed TP (Dec 8 2008), “Incorporating Tiling Array Expression Data into a Gene Predictor”, Genome Informatics Workshop 2008, Gold Coast, Australia. (abstract)

Select talks

  1. Lansdell B (February 27, 2020), “Causal considerations in deep and reinforcement learning”, Applied mathematics seminar, Drexel University. (Invited)
  2. Lansdell B (February 13, 2020), “Is the brain a computer?”, Physics undergraduate seminar, Western University, London, ON.
  3. Lansdell B (February 13, 2020), “The neuronal credit assignment problem as causal inference”, Physics colloquium, Western University, London, ON. (Invited)
  4. Lansdell B (February 6, 2020), “The neuronal credit assignment problem as causal inference”, Rutgers-Newark Department of Mathematics & Computer Science, Newark, NJ. (Invited)
  5. Lansdell B (January 24, 2020), “The neuronal credit assignment problem as causal inference”, CNI seminar, Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania.
  6. Lansdell B (July 1, 2019), “The neuronal credit assignment probem as causal inference”, Cox lab seminar, IBM Watson AI, Cambridge, MA
  7. Lansdell B (May 1, 2019), “Causality and reinforcement learning: considerations for smarter agents”, CNI +/- seminar, Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, PA
  8. Lansdell B (March 22, 2019), “Optimizing policies with thresholds in neuroscience and medicine”, AMS Sectional Meeting, University of Hawaii. (Invited)
  9. Lansdell B (August 21, 2018), “Causality and reinforcement learning: considerations for smarter agents”, Neuro+ML theory talk, MILA, University of Montreal, QC
  10. Lansdell B (June 5 2017), “Neural population dynamics in motor control and development”, Geffen Lab, University of Pennsylvania, PA (Invited)
  11. Lansdell B (May 30 2017), “Neural population dynamics in motor control and development”, Kording Lab, Northwestern University, Chicago (Invited)
  12. Lansdell B (January 23, 2017), “Unraveling principles of motor control: from nerve nets to neural prosthetics”, Neurotheory group talk, Columbia University, New York. (Invited)
  13. Lansdell B (January 24, 2017), “Unraveling principles of motor control: from nerve nets to neural prosthetics”, Special seminar, Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn VA. (Invited)
  14. Lansdell B (June 12, 2012), “Modeling Retinal Waves in Starburst Amacrine Cells”, SIAM Conference on Non-linear Waves and Coherent Structures, University of Washington, Seattle. Invited
  15. Lansdell B (February 11, 2012), “Modeling Retinal Waves in Starburst Amacrine Cells”, Frontiers in Biophysics, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. Contributed

Unpublished work

  1. Lansdell B, Triantafillou S, Kording K, “Rarely-switching linear bandits: optimization of causal effects for the real world”, (arXiv)
  2. Lagache T, Lansdell B, Tang J, Yuste R, Fairhall A, “Tracking Activity In A Deformable Nervous System With Motion Correction And Point-Set Registration”, (biorXiv)
  3. Lansdell B, Understanding the Bcl-2 family through computational modelling, Masters thesis. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne, 2012. (pdf)
  4. Lansdell B, Computational Gene Prediction using Generalised Hidden Markov Models and Tiling Arrays, Honours thesis. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne, 2008. (pdf)