Two University of Missouri-Rolla professors are major contributors to an international neural network conference taking place later this month in Portland, Ore.

The International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, sponsored by the International Neural Network Society and the IEEE Neural Networks Society, will be held July 20-24 in Portland. Dr. Donald Wunsch, the Mary K. Finley Missouri Distinguished Professor of Computer Engineering at UMR, is the conference general chair, while Dr. Kumar Venayagamoorthy, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the program co-chair.

Venayagamoorthy will also receive the Neural Networks Society Young Investigator Award at the conference. This worldwide award is given to a researcher who is under 35 years old and "shows outstanding achievement in the neural networks field."

More than 600 research papers will be presented, representing many countries throughout the world.

More than six UMR professors and 10 UMR students will attend the conference. Many students won competitive travel grants. A number of UMR faculty were also on the paper review board. "UMR has had an eminent presence at the conference since 1999," Wunsch says. "It’s been very exciting to be working with such an exceptional group of people."