NeurIPS 2025

Foundation Models for the Brain and Body Workshop

December 2, 2025 to December 7, 2025
San Diego, California

ARNI, in collaboration with Columbia University, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, MILA, the Donders Institute, and Meta, is organizing the “Foundation Models for the Brain and Body” workshop at NeurIPS 2025. The workshop was selected as one of just 55 accepted from a pool of 287 submissions.

This interdisciplinary workshop will bring together researchers working at the intersection of biosignals and machine learning. We invite short paper submissions presenting novel research in neuroscience, biosignal analysis, and machine learning—particularly work focused on foundation models and representation learning for neural, physiological, and behavioral data.

We also welcome proposals for interactive demos that showcase innovative methods, devices, or applications.

Important Dates

Full Paper Submission Deadline: August 22, 2025 (AoE) on OpenReview
Author Notification: September 22, 2025 (AoE)
Workshop Date: 12/2 to 12/7 2025

Keynote Speakers:

- Hubert Banville, Meta
- Juan Helen Zhou, National University of Singapore
- Cuntai Guan, Nanyang Technological University
- Guillermo Sapiro, Apple, Princeton University
- Eva Dyer, University of Pennsylvania

ARNI 2025 Annual Retreat

We invite all ARNI faculty and trainees to join us for two days of community building, exchange of research ideas, and forward-looking discussion at our annual retreat. This is a key opportunity to strengthen collaborations, deepen alignment around the big questions in NeuroAI, and help shape the future direction of ARNI.

We’re preparing an exciting program featuring keynote talks, research presentations, and interactive sessions designed to align our efforts and amplify our collective impact in the NeuroAI field.

Let’s come together to celebrate our achievements and lay the groundwork for impactful research ahead. We look forward to seeing you there!

ARNI 2025 Summer Cohort

This summer, ARNI is excited to host nine students across two programs: five undergraduates through our new NSF-funded REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program, and four students - two undergraduates and two high school students - through the ARNI Youth Residency, in collaboration with the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI).

Our REU students are conducting research with ARNI faculty and trainees, while also participating in Columbia Engineering’s SURE program. This year’s REU participants are John Lee, Ellie Yang, Zora James, Medha Morparia, and Ahana Dey and they come from Hunter College, Amherst College, Tuskegee University, Barnard College, and Carnegie Mellon University. 

Our four NYSCI Explainers - Elia Moses, Tasnim Hasque, Jayden Wong, and Leilanie Lewis - are either conducting research with ARNI Postdoctoral Fellow Mehdi Azabou or participating in Columbia Engineering’s CSE program. Through NYSCI’s mentorship, they also receive training as part of the Explainers cohort, supporting our collaboration in developing engaging NeuroAI-themed activities for the museum floor. In addition to co-designing these activities, the Explainers directly interact with museum visitors, enhancing public understanding of the intersection between neuroscience and AI through hands-on learning. 

Jisha Barua, one of last summer’s high school interns, is also back this year as a NYSCI Explainer. She is supporting an interactive exhibit exploring how AI interprets human emotions, examining both the capabilities and limitations of these systems, as well as the ethical implications of deploying emotion-recognition technologies.

ARNI x Saturday Science at the Zuckerman Institute

On June 7, ARNI partnered with Columbia Neuroscience Outreach (CUNO) and the Zuckerman Institute’s Public Programs to bring the world of AI and neuroscience to life at Saturday Science!

ARNI-themed activities led by Katriona Guthrie-Honea included two stations. At one station, kids tackled an “origami puzzle” to explore how adding layers, just like in neural network, can help solve complex problems. Another station featured AI-powered image recognition games, from peek-a-boo animal guessing to building models using minimal clues.

Young visitors even stepped into the role of AI engineers, choosing features to “train” themselves and solve visual mysteries. Big ideas, lots of laughter, and plenty of hands-on science made for a memorable day!

Saturday Science is now on summer break, but we’ll be back this fall with more brain-powered adventures. Katriona is hosting frequent activity development sessions with students across CU. Let us know if you want to get involved!

We’re building a shared library of research resources developed by the ARNI community including tools, datasets, and learning materials designed to advance NeuroAI for everyone. These resources are meant to support your projects and foster collaboration across ARNI and beyond. 

Explore here: https://arni-institute.org/researchresources/

ARNI Working Groups

• Summary: Neural network models are typically designed with a fixed architecture, determining the number of nodes, connectivity, and timesteps for backpropagation. While this approach helps limit resource requirements and optimize performance, it restricts the ability to explore tradeoffs between space, time, energy, and error. To address this, we aim to develop methods for quantifying resource costs and optimizing models to balance multiple constraints efficiently, benefiting both neuroscience and AI development.
• Next Session: Speaker Kwabena Boahen events details

We would like to highlight ARNI achievements in future newsletters. Please share with us your events, papers, presentation, or any news you want to share with the ARNI community!