IGERT: Integrating New Technologies with Cognitive Neuroscience

这一综合性研究生教育和研究培训(IGERT)项目将为卡内基梅隆大学和匹兹堡大学认知神经基础中心(CNBC)提供的现有跨学科培训计划开发新的方向。11个博士项目正式隶属于该项目，该项目培训年轻科学家以跨学科的方法理解认知过程是如何从神经机制产生的。新倡议的一半涉及实验神经科学的新技术，例如，用于脑功能成像的光学、磁共振和脑磁图方法，以及使用先进的统计和数据可视化算法分析神经元群体活动模式。补充部分涉及系统和认知神经科学在神经假体、神经控制和认知机器人等领域的技术开发应用。目前CNBC IGERT项目最成功的方面将被保留：一个共同的核心课程，使用来自不同学科的多名顾问，以及选择学生进行资助的竞争性提案过程。该项目将培养新一代的科学家，以实现新技术与认知和系统神经科学研究的最充分整合。它还将补充卡内基梅隆大学与斯佩尔曼学院合作的一项新倡议，即在几所历史上一直是黑人的学院和大学开设认知机器人本科课程，从而增加CNBC项目等研究生项目的少数族裔申请者。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) project will develop new directions for an existing cross-disciplinary training program offered by the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Eleven doctoral programs are formally affiliated with the program, which trains young scientists in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding how cognitive processes arise from neural mechanisms. One half of the new initiative concerns new technologies for experimental neuroscience, e.g., optical, magnetic resonance, and magnetoencephalographic approaches to functional brain imaging, and analysis of neuronal population activity patterns using advanced statistical and data visualization algorithms. The complementary half concerns the applications of systems and cognitive neuroscience to technology development, in areas such as neural prostheses, neural control, and cognitive robotics. The most successful aspects of the current CNBC IGERT program will be retained: a common core curriculum, use of multiple advisors from different disciplines, and a competitive proposal process for selecting students for funding.The project will train a new breed of scientists to achieve the fullest possible integration of new technologies into cognitive and systems neuroscience research. It will also complement a new initiative at Carnegie Mellon, in collaboration with Spelman College, to establish undergraduate courses in cognitive robotics at several historically black colleges and universities, thereby increasing the pool of minority applicants to graduate programs such as the CNBC program. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.