The EPFL is offering a free online course on Simulation Neuroscience. The aim is to build a unified empirical picture of the brain, to study the biological mechanisms of brain function, behavior, and disease.

In this six week course, applicants will learn how to digitally reconstruct a single neuron to better study the biological mechanisms of brain function, behavior, and disease. This course is self-paced.

Course At A Glance 

Length: 6 weeks
Effort: 5-8 hours pw
Subject: Biology & Life Sciences
Institution: EPFL and edx
Languages: English
Price: Free
Certificate Available: Yes, Add a Verified Certificate for $49
Session: At your own pace

Providers’ Details

EPFL is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. The past decade has seen EPFL ascend to the very top of European institutions of science and technology: it is ranked #1 in Europe in the field of engineering by the Times Higher Education (based on publications and citations), Leiden Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

About This Course

This course is part of a series of three courses, where you will learn to use state-of-the-art modeling tools of the HBP Brain Simulation Platform to simulate neurons, build neural networks, and perform your own simulation experiments. We invite you to join us and share in our passion to reconstruct, simulate, and understand the brain!

Why Take This Course?

This is a unique, massive open online course taught by a multi-disciplinary team of world-renowned scientists. In this first course, you will gain the knowledge and skills needed to create simulations of biological neurons and synapses.

Learning Outcomes

• Discuss the different types of data for simulation neuroscience
• How to collect, annotate and register different types of neuroscience data
• Describe the simulation neuroscience strategies
• Categorize different classification features of neurons
• List different characteristics of synapses and behavioral aspects
• Model a neuron with all its parts (soma, dendrites, axon, synaps) and its behaviour
• Use experimental data on neuronal activity to constrain a model

Instructors

Henry Markram
Professor
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Idan Segev
Professor
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Sean Hill
Professor
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Dr. Felix Schürmann
Adjunct Professor
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Dr. Eilif Muller
Section Manager of Cells & Circuits in the Simulation Neuroscience Division
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Dr. Srikanth Ramaswamy
Senior Scientist in the Cells & Circuits Section of the Simulation Neuroscience Division
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Werner Van Geit
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Samuel Kerrien
Section Manager, Neuroinformatics Software Engineering
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Lida Kanari
PhD student, Molecular Systems, Simulation Neuroscience Division
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Requirements

• Knowledge of ordinary differential equations, and their numerical solution
• Knowledge of programming in one of Python (preferred), C/C++, Java, MATLAB, R

How To Join This Course

• Go to the course website link
• Create an edX account to SignUp
• Choose “Register Now” to get started.
• EdX offers honor code certificates of achievement, verified certificates of achievement, and XSeries certificates of achievement. Currently, verified certificates are only available in some courses.
• Once applicant sign up for a course and activate their account, click on the Log In button on the edx.org homepage and type in their email address and edX password. This will take them to the dashboard, with access to each of their active courses. (Before a course begins, it will be listed on their dashboard but will not yet have a “view course” option.)

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