Brainboxes gather at UCT in a big quest

TO HELP develop computational neuroscience in Africa, a summer schools programme will be hosted at UCT.

UCT will host the three-week course together with the University College London and the University of Oxford.

Computational neuroscience is a relatively new discipline within the broader field of neuroscience, using computers and mathematical theory to try and understand how the brain works.

This will be the second IBRO-SIMONS Computational Neuroscience Imbizo (isiCNI) and will bring together African and International students under the guidance of leading experts in the field.

Dr Joseph Raimondo from the UCT Neuroscience Institute is one of the lead organisers and said the first gathering took place last year and was a “huge success”.

“For us, the most encouraging sign of success is that students formed a tight-knit group, who are still in regular contact.”

The school is a combination of lectures on advanced topics in computational and theoretical neuroscience as well as practical exercises in brain simulation and data analysis.

Lecturers and tutors are from world-class academic institutions across the globe. Under their guidance, each student works on a mini-research project, which is presented at the end of the programme.

The students work hard, but are also given the time and space to forge relationships, which would, Raimondo hopes, serve as the bases of collaborations in years to come.

“Africans are currently under-represented in computational neuroscience, but represent a vast untapped human resource, poised to make contributions in the quest to understand the brain”.