Catherine Stinson

Catherine Stinson

Centre for Integrative Neuroscience

Philosophy of Neuroscience Group

Otfried-Müller-Str. 25 Room 5.531

Education

• PhD (expected 2012) University of Pittsburgh, History & Philosophy of Science

Advisors: Peter Machamer, Kenneth Schaffner

Dissertation Title: Explanation and Methodology in Cognitive Neuroscience

• Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Training Program, University of Pittsburgh

• MSc (2002) University of Toronto, Computer Science

Thesis Title: Adaptive Information Filtering with Labeled and Unlabeled Data

• BSc (1999) University of Toronto, Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence

Areas of Specialization

Philosophy of Neuroscience, Philosophy of Psychology, Philosophy of Computation

Areas of Competence

Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind, History of Neuroscience

Fellowships & Awards

2011: Best Student Paper Award, Epistemology of Modeling and Simulation Conference

2010: Max Planck Institute for History of Science Pre-doctoral Fellowship

2009, 2011: Travel Grant, Wesley Salmon Fund

2005, 2007, 2009: Arts & Science Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh

2000, 2002: Computer Science Department Fellowship, University of Toronto

1999: Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology

1999: University College Honour Award, University of Toronto

1998: James and Connie Dickson Math & Science Scholarship, University of Toronto

1994, 1996, 1997: Howard Ferguson Provincial Scholarship, University of Toronto

Publications

Stinson, C., ?Searching for The Source of Executive Attention?, PSYCHE 15:1 (2009): 137-154.

Selected Presentations

"Computational Models as Experimental Systems"

Comparative Politics, Interdependence, and Globalization Seminar, Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Kiel 2012 (invited)

Max Planck Institute for History of Science Pre-doctoral Seminar, Berlin 2010

"What Mechanisms Can Do for You"

Body Perception Seminar, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen 2011 (invited)

"The Role of Computational Models in Cognitive Neuroscience"

Epistemology of Modeling and Simulation national conference, Pittsburgh 2011

"Aristotle?s Argument Against Functionalism"

International Society for History of Philosophy of Science conference, Budapest 2010 (with Boris Hennig)

"The Explanatory Role of Computational Models in Cognitive Neuroscience"

7th European Conference on Computing and Philosophy, Barcelona 2009

13th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, Berlin 2009 (poster)

"Searching for The Source of Executive Attention"

ESF 'Consciousness in a Natural and Cultural Context Essay' Competition for Junior Scholars, Edinburgh 2008 (invited)

"Locating Executive Attention in the ACC: Explanation and Levels of Description"

Philosophy of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Biology conference, Edinburgh 2008 (poster)

"Attention, Volition, and the Ghost in the Machine"

15th annual meeting of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Geneva 2007

"On-line Learning from Labeled and Unlabeled Data"

Neural Information Processing Systems conference: Workshop on Machine Learning Methods for Text and Images, Vancouver 2001 (poster)

Teaching Experience

University of Pittsburgh, History and Philosophy of Science:

Spring 2009: Causal Reasoning (Independent)

Fall 2008: Principles of Scientific Reasoning (Independent)

Spring 2007: Mind and Medicine (TA for Edouard Machery)

Fall 2006: The Nature of the Emotions (TA for James Lennox)

University of Toronto, Computer Science (TA):

Fall 2001, Fall 2002: Web Programming

Fall 2000, Spring 2002: Computer Organization

Fall 1998, Fall 1999, Summer 2000: Discrete Math for Computer Science

Spring 1999, Spring 2000: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Summer 1999: Programming Languages

Fall 1997: Introduction to Computer Science

Scientific Research

2002-2003: Researcher, University of Toronto AI Lab (Machine Learning Group)

Applied Bayesian information filtering algorithms to letter-recognition and webpage classification datasets.

1998-1999: Student Programmer, University of Toronto AI Lab (Computational Vision Group)

Developed algorithms for the gesture recognition module of a teleconferencing robot.

Summer 1998: Student Researcher, National Research Council (Institute of Aerospace Research)

Developed an artificial neural network program to evaluate airplane wing designs.