Summer course

[Jim Bower]

                  Summer Course Announcement
 
             Methods in Computational Neurobiology
 
                  August 4th - August 31st
 
                 Marine Biological Laboratory
                        Woods Hole, MA
 
This course is for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows 
in neurobiology, physics, electrical engineering, computer science 
and psychology with an interest in "Computational Neuroscience."  
20 such students will be enrolled. In addition, this coming
summer the course has allocated 5 additional positions for participants 
who are currently faculty members at Universities or are established 
members of industrial research organizations.  For both faculty and
student participants, a background in programming (preferably in C or
PASCAL) is highly desirable and basic knowledge of neurobiology is
required.  Limited to 20 students.
 
This four-week course presents the basic techniques necessary to
study single cells and neural networks from a computational point of
view, emphasizing their possible function in information processing.
The aim is to enable participants to simulate the functional properties 
of their particular system of study and to appreciate the advantages 
and pitfalls of this approach to understanding the nervous system.
 
The first section of the course focuses on simulating the electrical
properties of single neurons (compartmental models, active currents, 
interactions between synapses, calcium dynamics).  The second 
section deals with the numerical and graphical techniques necessary 
for modeling biological neuronal networks.  Examples are
drawn from the invertebrate and vertebrate literature (visual system 
of the fly, learning in Hermissenda, mammalian olfactory and
visual cortex).  In the final section, more abstract models
relevant to perception and learning in the mammalian cortex, as well
as network learning algorithms will be analyzed and discussed from
a neurobiological point of view.
 
The course includes lectures each morning and a computer laboratory
in the afternoons and evenings.  The laboratory section is organized
around GENESIS, the Neuronal Network simulator developed at the
California Institute of Technology, running on 20 state-of-the-art,
single-user, graphic color workstations.  Students initially work
with GENESIS-based tutorials and then are expected to work on a
simulation project of their own choosing.	
 
Co-Directors:

James M. Bower 
Christof Koch, 
Computation and Neural System Program
California Institute of Technology
 
1991 summer faculty:
   
Ken Miller	   UCSF
Paul Adams	   Stony Brook
Idan Segev	   Jerusalem
John Rinzel    	   NIH
Richard Andersen   MIT
David Van Essen	   Caltech
Scot Fraser*       Caltech
Kevin Martin	   Oxford
Eve Marder*        Brandis
Nancy Kopell       Boston U.
Avis Cohen	   Cornell
Rudolfo Llinas	   NYU
Terry Sejnowski	   UCSD/Salk
Chuck Stevens*     UCSD/Salk
Ted Adelson	   MIT
David Zipser*      UCSD
 
*tentative
 
Application deadline:  May 15, 1991
 
Applications are evaluated by an admissions committee and individuals 
are notified of acceptance or non-acceptance by June 1. Tuition:
$1,000 (includes room & board).  Financial aid is available to qualified 
applicants. 
 
For further information contact:
Admissions Coordinator
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, MA 02543
(508) 548-3705, ext. 216