Biography

I am currently a research fellow in the Nature Inspired Computing and Engineering (NICE) group at the faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (FEPS), University of Surrey.

I have a background in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. In 2012, I received my PhD in Computer Science from J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. My thesis, entitled "Learning Active Vision: From Kinematics to Decision Making", focused on one hand on the computational mechanisms of saccadic eye and head movement adaptation, and on the other hand on a neural model of saccadic decision making under uncertainty, both in primate brains. In both studies, I used artificial neural networks, and proposed incremental learning mechanisms to adapt network parameters to various situations.

Publications

Journal Papers

• S. Saeb, C. Weber, J. Triesch, “Learning the optimal control of coordinated eye and head movements,” PLoS Computational Biology, 7(11), 2011, e1002253.
• S. Saeb, C. Weber, J. Triesch, “Goal directed learning of features and forward models,” Neural Networks, 22 (5-6), 2009, pp. 586-592.
• A. Farajidavar, S. Saeb, K. Behbehani, “Incorporating spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) and dynamic synapse into a computational model of wind-up,” Neural Networks, 21(2-3), 2008, pp. 241-249.
• M. Amiri, S. Saeb, M. J. Yazdanpanah, S. A. Seyyedsalehi, “Analysis of the dynamical behavior of a feedback auto-associative memory,” Neurocomputing, 71(4-6), 2008, pp. 486-494.
• S. Saeb, S. Gharibzadeh, F. Towhidkhah, A. Farajidavar, “Modeling the primary auditory cortex using dynamic synapses: can synaptic plasticity explain the temporal tuning?” Journal of Theoretical Biology, 241(1), 2007, pp. 1-9.
• A. Farajidavar, S. Gharibzadeh, F. Towhidkhah, S. Saeb, “A cybernetic view on wind-up,” Journal of Medical Hypotheses, Elsevier, Vol. 67(2), 2006, pp. 304-6.

Conference Papers

• S. Saeb, C. Weber, J. Triesch, “Development of coordinated eye and head movements during gaze shifts,” Proc. Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting (VSS’11), Naples, Florida, USA, 2011.
• S. Saeb, C. Weber, “Toward a goal-directed construction of state spaces,” Proc. Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience (BCCN’09), Frankfurt, Germany, 2009, pp. 125-126.
• S. Saeb, C. Weber, J. Triesch, “A Neural Model for the Adaptive Control of Saccadic Eye Movements,” Proc. International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN’09), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 2009, pp. 2740-2747.
• S. Saeb, A. Farajidavar, “Spike-time dependent plasticity could explain temporal tuning of auditory cells,” Proc. Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 2008.
• S. Saeb, A. Farajidavar, S. Gharibzadeh, “A model of wind-up based on short-term and longterm synaptic plasticity mechanisms,” Proc. International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN’07), Orlando, Florida, USA, 2007, pp. 1055-1060.
• S. Saeb, M. Amiri, M. J. Yazdanpanah, “Analysis of the dynamical behavior of a feedback auto-associative memory,” Accepted in the 2007 International Symposium on Neural Networks (ISNN’07), Nanjing, China, 2007.
• S. Saeb, A. Farajidavar, A. Seyyedsalehi, “Comparing gradient-based methods for the purpose of training dynamic synapse neural networks,” (in Persian) Accepted in the 13th Iranian Conference on Biomedical Engineering (ICBME’07), Tehran, Iran, 2007.
• S. Saeb, M. B. Menhaj, A. Seyyedsalehi, “A new evolution-based training method for dynamic synapse neural networks,” Proc. IASTED International Conference on Computational Intelligence (CI), San Francisco, USA, 2006, pp. 188-193.
• M. Amiri, S. Saeb, M. B. Menhaj, A. Seyyedsalehi, “Stability analysis of equilibrium points in auto-associative memories,” (in Persian) Proc. 14th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE’06), Tehran, Iran, 2006.