Methods in Computational Neuroscience 2027

Methods in Computational Neuroscience (MCN) is a four-week Marine Biological Laboratory course that introduces the computational and mathematical techniques used to address how the brain solves problems at levels of neural organisation ranging from single membrane channels to operations of the entire brain. In each of the first three weeks the course moves up a level of complexity, from molecular and cellular to network to cognitive and behavioural, asking whether biologically plausible mechanisms can explain how nervous systems solve specific computational problems, how such problems can be decomposed, and how those decompositions relate to observable properties of neurons and circuits and their molecular building blocks. Core presentations are given jointly by theorists and experimentalists who have worked on the same problems, with optional first-week tutorials on dynamical systems, information theory, dimensionality reduction, neural network modelling and simulation in Python and MATLAB. Laboratory exercises combine quantitative analysis of experimental data with analytic and numerical exploration of models, often in teams mixing theoretical and experimental backgrounds, and the fourth week is reserved for student projects with resident faculty. The 2027 course, directed by Stefano Fusi (Columbia University) and Roozbeh Kiani (New York University), runs from 24 July to 21 August 2027 and is limited to 24 graduate students, postdocs and faculty from fields ranging from zoology and neurobiology to physics, engineering and mathematics. Applications are due on 10 March 2027, and financial aid is offered.