Training Sites: Computational Neuroscience


 

The University of Chicago
The goal of this program is to introduce undergraduates from a variety of disciplines to quantitative training in neuroscience, with the intention that students will continue on to graduate training in this area. The program has two components. The first component is a summer program in which undergraduate students from both the University of Chicago and other colleges and universities participate in research in a faculty laboratory. Students also attend three seminars each week that introduce them to a wide range of neuroscience topics. The second component supports University of Chicago students who are doing extensive research projects with faculty during their junior and senior years. These students also take structured courses in computational neuroscience.
Project Director: Philip Ulinski, Ph.D.

 

Princeton University
This training program has both an undergraduate and a graduate training component, and focuses on interdisciplinary research at the boundary between quantitative sciences and neuroscience. Trainees (both undergrad and grad) will take a set of core courses that include closely intertwined computational and laboratory neuroscience courses. Research opportunities range broadly within neuroscience, with a particularly strong focus in three areas: (1) development of advanced technology for the neurosciences, including imaging and molecular biological approaches; (2) development of advanced data analysis methods for complex neuroscientific data; and (3) theoretical approaches and computational modeling of the dynamics of neural circuits and their relationship to mental function.
Project Director: David W. Tank, Ph.D.

 

Carnegie Mellon University
Interdisciplinary Training in Computational Neuroscience is a broadly-based computational neuroscience training program that provides students with opportunities for cross-disciplinary research in laboratories at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Programs include both a full-year research and education program and a summer program for undergraduates, as well as a Ph.D. training program. Training faculty come from a wide range of disciplines across both universities and have research interests ranging from dynamical systems to machine learning to biophysics in the quantitative domain, and ranging from neurophysiology to fMRI imaging to molecular biology in the area of neuroscience. The training program is administered by the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, an existing center that involves faculty and students at the two Universities. Students in the program will gain expertise both in quantitative and biological approaches to the study of the central nervous system.
Project Director: Robert E. Kass, Ph.D.

 

University of Pennsylvania
The focus of the Integrated Interdisciplinary Training in Computational Neuroscience program is to integrate neuroscience and quantitative studies through course work and extensive research training. The predoctoral program trains students in neurophysiology, data analysis, and modeling with the objective of producing scientists capable of investigating mechanisms of computation in neural circuits. The undergraduate program draws a select group of exceptional students from both the biological and physical science domains for coursework and integrated experimental/modeling research projects to enable them to succeed in graduate studies in computational neuroscience. The third component is a summer research program for undergraduates from Penn and other institutions, primarily in the Philadelphia area, including Swarthmore, Drexel, Temple, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Lincoln Universities. A distinguishing focus of this program is the application of computational neuroscience to neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Project Director: Leif Finkel, M.D., Ph.D.