Undergraduate and Graduate Training in Computational Neuroscience

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Project Summary/Abstract This proposal is for a five-year renewal of a T90/R90 training program in Computational Neuroscience at Brandeis University. The proposed program requests funding to support 6 undergraduates, 4 NRSA eligible graduate students, and 2 non- NRSA eligible graduate students each year. Our goal is to identify early career students and provide them the formal and informal education and training they will need to develop into the next generation of computational/quantitative neuroscientists. This is particularly important in the upcoming era of “Big Data” as the techniques needed to collect and analyze neuroscience data are becoming increasingly rigorous and quantitative. The long-term goals and objectives are to increase the number of scientists with strong quantitative and modeling skills in neuroscience, as this cohort will be needed to understand brain function in health and disease. The 21 training faculty have research expertise from human cognition to cellular and molecular neuroscience, so a wide range of research problems, at numerous levels of analysis are available to trainees. The training faculty were chosen because they have demonstrated commitment to the use of theoretical and computational methods and interdisciplinary collaboration to understand the nervous system in health and disease. Students will take courses in statistics, data analysis, computational neuroscience, obtain skills in building models of neurons, synapses, and networks, and employ these in a variety of independent research projects. Two cohorts of prospective trainees will be targeted: 1) Individuals with strong prior experience with quantitative methods who wish to work in neuroscience. 2) Individuals in coming from psychology, neuroscience and biology who wish to learn to employ quantitative and computational methods as part of their ability to tackle important problems in neuroscience. In addition to course work and laboratory research, students and trainees will be engaged in a large number of other activities designed to enhance their speaking skills, writing skills, and ability to collaborate with other scientists. All students and trainees will receive training in the responsible conduct of science, and will interact with senior scientists at other institutions. Trainees from underrepresented populations will be included.