This book includes papers from the second year of the prestigious First International Early
Research Career Enhancement School (FIERCES) series: a successful new format that puts a
school in direct connection with a conference and a social program all dedicated to young
scientists. Reflecting the friendly social atmosphere of excitement and opportunity the
papers represent a good mixture of cutting-edge research focused on advances towards the most
inspiring challenges of our time and first ambitious attempts at major challenges by as yet
unknown talented young scientists. In this second year of FIERCES the BICA Challenge (to
replicate all the essential aspects of the human mind in the digital environment) meets the
Cybersecurity Challenge (to protect all the essential assets of the human mind in the digital
environment) which is equally important in our age. As a result the book fosters lively
discussions on today's hot topics in science and technology and stimulates the emergence of
new cross-disciplinary cross-generation and cross-cultural collaboration. FIERCES 2017 or the
First International Early Research Career Enhancement School on Biologically Inspired Cognitive
Architectures and Cybersecurity was held on August 1-5 at the Baltschug Kempinski in Moscow
Russia.
