STRATEGIC PARTNERS

AHFA partners with multiple organizations who share similar missions to empower and engage youth in aviation. A complete list of our partners include:

AHFA

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

  • Be at least 16 years old by 1 June of the flight training year.
  • Be enrolled in high school* or homeschool during the flight training year.
  • Be a US citizen **
  • Have no more than 5 powered flight hours 
  • 3.0 current Grade Point Average either with an unofficial GPA Transcript or a registrar/counselor verifiable memorandum.

Notes: 

  • No flight or aviation experience necessary (we teach you to fly!)  
  • No commitment or obligation to the Air Force  
  • *USAFA & AFROTC Cadets may apply through their institutions
  • **Non-US Citizens regardless of residency status are ineligible to apply

 

Videos from DVIDShub.net

Nikolaus Kriegeskorte - Comparing models by their predictions of representational geometries and topologies
Air Force Research Laboratory
Video by Kevin D Schmidt
Feb. 26, 2025 | 01:23:26
Description: In this edition of QuEST, we will have an extended session with Niko Kriegeskorte on geometric analyses of brain representations

Abstract:

Understanding the brain-computational mechanisms underlying cognitive functions requires that we implement our theories in task-performing models and adjudicate among these models on the basis of their predictions of brain representations and behavioral responses. Previous studies have characterized brain representations by their representational geometry, which is defined by the representational dissimilarity matrix (RDM), a summary statistic that abstracts from the roles of individual neurons (or responses channels) and characterizes the discriminability of stimuli. The talk will cover (1) recent methodological advances implemented in Python in the open-source RSA3 toolbox that support unbiased estimation of representational distances and model-comparative statistical inference that generalizes simultaneously to the populations of subjects and stimuli from which the experimental subjects and stimuli have been sampled, and (2) topological representational similarity analysis (tRSA), an extension of representational similarity analysis (RSA) that uses a family of geo-topological summary statistics that generalizes the RDM to characterize the topology while de-emphasizing the geometry. Results show that topology-sensitive characterizations of population codes are robust to noise and interindividual variability and maintain excellent sensitivity to the unique representational signatures of different neural network layers and brain regions.

Key Moments and Questions in the video include:
Focus on methods development
RSA3 Toolbox: github.com/rsagroup/rsatoolbox
Representational Similarity Analysis version 3
Representational Similarity Analysis
Studying vision
Activity patterns as representations of the stimuli
Neural network model
Representational geometry, representational dissimilarity matrix
Euclidean distance
Representational dissimilarity matrix (RDM)
RDM estimator
Distance from noisy data are positively biased
Two true response patterns
Noisy response patterns
Removing Bias
Square Mahalanobis distance
Crossnobis distance estimator
RDM Comparator
Accounting for dependency among dissimilarity estimates by whitening
Dissimilarity estimation error covariance
Whitened Pearson RDM correlation
Whitened cosine RDM similarity
Topological RSA
Representational geodesics matrix (RGDM)
Turning an RDM into a weighted graph
Distance matrix
Geo-topological matrices
Adjacency matrix
Family of geo-topological distance transforms
Identifying subject’s brain regions
Identifying which layer of a neural network generated the data
RDM estimator
Biased distance estimators
Euclidean distance
Pearson correlation distance
Mahalanobis distance
Poisson-KL estimator
Unbiased:
Crossnobis estimator
Linear-discriminant t
Crossvalidated Poisson-KL estimator
Choosing a combination of RDM estimator and RDM comparator
Flexible RDM models
Data RDM
Selection model
Weighted component model
Manifold model
Fitting and testing in cross validation
Model evaluation
RSA3: new capabilities
More


AHFA Locations & Training Partners

  • California Aeronautical University, CA 
  • California Baptist University, CA 
  • Marion Military Institute, AL 
  • Oklahoma State University, OK  
  • South Dakota State University, SD 
  • Troy University, AL
  • Schreiner University, TX
  • University of Texas San Antonio, TX
  • Tennesse State University, TN

*To learn how to become one of our training locations please email: 

Afrs.ahfa.studentapplications@us.af.mil

SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS RECEIVE* 

  • Up to 12-15 flight hours 
  • Housing and meals during training 
  • Transportation to/from training location 
  • Classroom training (ground school) 
  • Flight simulator training 
  • All training is provided by FAA Certified Flight Instructors 
  • Access to university recreation facilities 
  • Mentorship from Air Force aviators  

*All items funded by USAF except:

  • FAA Class III Med Certificate
  • Luggage during travel
  • Personal driving to/from university assigned session

Contact us

 

 

                                                              Please direct program questions to: Afrs.ahfa.studentapplications@us.af.mil