Connectionists: Call for proposal to host the Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience

[Nicolas Brunel]

The organizing committee of the "European Advanced Course in
Computational Neuroscience" is looking for applications for potential
sites to host the course for 3 years (2008-2010).  The course is now
in its eleventh year.  It was held first in Crete (Greece, 1996-1998),
and then in Trieste (Italy, 1999-2001) and Obidos (Portugal,
2002-2004). It is currently held in Arcachon (France, 2005-2007). Each
year, around 25 lecturers and tutors teach 30 graduate students,
postdocs and junior faculty; many research groups across the world
have thus been nucleated and nurtured.

Traditionally, the course is held in August in a European (or
Associated) country.  The ideal site is relatively remote and
small (ie not a large institution in a big city), in order to
ensure intimacy and quietness, and be an attractive location to
spend part of the summer.  We also need a relatively fast internet
connection for the computer network.

Critical to the success and smooth-running of the course is the local
organizer. S/he is responsible for sorting out and arranging for local
facilities, such as lodging, food, transport, rooms to hold the
lectures and the computer network to a budget provided by the course.
We will need a firm commitment to secure everything for a period of
three years (2008-2010).

Anyone interested should contact Nicolas Brunel (see address below)
and will be requested to send details such as a description of the
site and approximate budget including estimated costs for lodging,
food, rental of computers, etc.

In practice, we need:
- lecture room(s), with a capacity of about 50 seats;
- computer room(s), that can fit computers for about 50 people,
with a fast internet connection;
- affordable lodging for about 50 people for four weeks, close to the
lecture/computer rooms (university accommodation could be fine)
- affordable food (restaurant or other) for about 50 people, close to the
lecture/computer rooms;

In addition, it would be nice to have:
- kitchen/dining room that students can use during the week-ends
- a secretary that can handle communication with
faculty/students during the months preceding the school;
- a full-time systems manager for computer network for
the duration of the school
- possibilities of local funding.

A site-visit to selected locations will take place at the beginning
of 2007.

Below are contact addresses and a short description of the course


CONTACT

Nicolas Brunel
Laboratory of Neurophysics and Physiology
UMR 8119 CNRS-Universite Rene Descartes
45 rue des Saints Peres 75270 Paris Cedex 06
Tel (33).1.42.86.20.58 - Fax (33).1.49.27.90.62
nicolas.brunel at univ-paris5.fr
www.neurophys.biomedicale.univ-paris5.fr/~brunel


SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE

The European Advanced Course in Computational Neuroscience is a
high-level 4-week intensive course on the computational aspects of the
central nervous system function, from the cellular to the systems
level.  It is usually structured in 4 thematic weeks, going from the
cellular to systems level.  The invited faculty are among the best
scientists in their respective fields (both experimental and
theoretical; see web site for past programs).

The course is highly selective - we receive from 90 to 180
applications every year, from which 25 to 30 students are
selected.  Students are mid-term PhD or postdocs, and can be of
any background (usually a mixture of experimentalists and
theoreticians).  The course is intended to give them a solid basis
on the different aspects that are important to understand the
complexity of the nervous system, as well as the different
approaches that have been used in theoretical studies.  Students
are required to do a research project during the course, and are
helped by the faculty and tutors.  The selection of students is
based on letters of recommendation and the advice of three
independent referees.

More information is available at our website:
http://www.neuroinf.org/courses/EUCOURSE/EU06/courses.shtml