In 2002, the first international conference """"""""""""""""Statistical Analysis of Neuronal Data (SAND)"""""""" brought together a small number of experimental neuroscientists, and theoreticians (statisticians, computer scientists, physicists and applied mathematicians) who were interested in quantitative analysis of neural data. The second conference, SAND2, was held in 2004. Both were in Pittsburgh, PA, at the joint Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. The third and fourth SAND workshops will take place during the Spring of 2006 and 2008. The specific objectives of the workshops are to define important problems in neuronal data analysis and useful strategies for attacking them; foster communication between experimental neuroscientists and those trained in statistical and computational methods; encourage young researchers, including graduate students, to present their work; expose young researchers to important challenges and opportunities in this interdisciplinary domain, while providing a small meeting atmosphere to facilitate the interaction of young researchers with senior colleagues; include as participants women, under-represented minorities and persons with disabilities who might benefit from the small workshop environment; encourage dissemination of the findings presented at the workshop via a set of peer-reviewed articles.
