Summer course in computational neurobiology

[Jim Bower]

 Course announcement:
 
               Methods in Computational Neuroscience
   
                  The Marine Biological Laboratory
                      Woods Hole, Massachusetts
 
                     August 6 - September 2,1989


 
                        General Description
 
      The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole
 Massachusetts is a world famous marine biological laboratory that
 has been in existence for over 100 years.  In addition to providing
 research facilities for a large number of biologists during the
 summer, the MBL also sponsors a number of outstanding courses on
 different topics in Biology. 
 	This summer will be the second year in which the MBL has
 offered a course in "Methods in Computational Neuroscience".  This
 course is designed as a survey of the use of computer modeling
 techniques in studying the information processing capabilities of the
 nervous system and covers models at all levels from biologically
 realistic single cells and networks of cells to biologically relevant
 abstract models.  The principle aim of the course is to provide
 participants with the tools to simulate the functional properties of
 those neural systems of interest to them as well as to understand
 the general advantages and pitfalls of this experimental approach.
 
                  The Specific Structure of the Course 
 
      The course itself includes both a lecture series and a computer
 laboratory.  The lectures are given by invited faculty whose work
 represents the state of the art in computational neuroscience (see
 list below). The course lecture notes have been incorporated into a
 book published by MIT press (" Methods in Neuronal Modeling: From
 Synapses to Networks"  C. Koch and I. Segev, editors. MIT Press,
 Cambridge, MA.,1989). 
 	The computer laboratory is designed to give students hands-on
 experience with the simulation techniques considered in the lecture.
 It also provides students with the opportunity to actually begin
 simulations of neural systems of interest to them.  The students are
 guided in this effort by the visiting lecturers and course directors,
 but also by several students from the Computational Neural Systems
 (CNS) graduate program at Caltech who serve as Laboratory TAs.  The
 lab itself consists of state of the art graphics workstations running
 a GEneral NEtwork SImulation System (GENESIS) that Dr. Bower and
 his colleagues at Caltech have constructed over the last several years. 
 Students return to their home institutions with the GENESIS system to
 continue their work.
 
                           The Students
 
 	The course is designed for advanced graduate students and
 postdoctoral fellows in biology, computer science, electrical
 engineering, physics, or psychology with an interest in computational
 neuroscience.  Because of the heavy computer orientation of the Lab
 section, a good computer background is required (UNIX, C or PASCAL). 
 In addition, students are expected to have a basic background in
 neurobiology. Course enrollment is limited to 20 so as to assure the
 highest quality educational experience.

                          Course Directors

 James M. Bower and Christof Koch
 Computation and Neural Systems Program
 California Institute of Technology 

                            The Faculty
 
 
 Paul Adams (Stony Brook)
 Dan Alkon (NIH)
 Richard Anderson (MIT)
 John Hildebrand (Arizona)
 John Hopfield (Caltech)
 Rudolfo Llinas (NYU)
 David Rumelhart (Stanford)
 Idan Segev (Jerusalem)
 Terrence Sejnowski (Salk/UCSD)
 David Van Essen (Caltech)
 Christoph Von der Malsburg (USC)
 
 For further information and application materials contact:
 
 Admissions Coordinator
 Marine Biological Laboratory
 Woods Hole, MA 02543
 (508) 548-3705 extension 216
 
 Application Deadline May 15, 1989
 Acceptance notification in early June.