The Carney Center for Computational Brain Science and the Brainstorm Program is organizing a two-week computational modeling workshop with a focus on computational modeling of cognition, behavior, and brain/behavior relationships. Workshop attendees will learn the basic tools for understanding, developing, and applying models to brain science questions, and have the opportunity to apply these techniques in a novel behavioral dataset.

Week 1 will consist of workshops and live tutorials, including daily lectures spanning basic to advanced topics, accompanied by hands-on coding tutorials. Attendees will learn the basic tools for understanding, developing and applying computational models, with a focus on hypothesis testing, quantitative fitting, Bayesian methods, and model checks and comparisons. Additionally, advanced modeling sessions will provide a deeper theoretical understanding and application of complex modeling techniques.

During Week 2, participants will have the opportunity to work in teams to apply these skills to analyze a real dataset provided by the organizers, with potential for novel discoveries. Prizes will be awarded for models with the most predictive power, rigor, creativity, and innovation.

For details on last years’ workshops and modeling competition, visit the Center for Computational Brain Science website. Previous syllabi are available here. We will cover most of the same basic topics, with a few tweaks and additions (based on participant input and guest speakers).

Note: The organizers will host a follow-up workshop on an advanced topic “Automated Scientific Discovery” from July 29 - August 2 at the Institute of Cognitive Science in Osnabrück, Germany. You get more information and sign up for this workshop here.

Intended Audience: This workshop is open to the members of the Brown community, and is designed for researchers across fields, backgrounds and levels of experience: computation “novices” with no experience and those with more computational experience who may want to augment their toolkit with advanced approaches to parameter estimation or specific classes of models. Although there is no computational experience required, those with modeling backgrounds will still benefit from the advanced modules, and will have the opportunity to learn new skills and state-of-the-art computational approaches.

Maximum number of participants: Participation is limited to 20, but we do keep a waitlist.

Organizers: Sebastian Musslick, Younes Strittmatter, Michael J. Frank

Contact: Please reach out to Sebastian Musslick ([email protected]) with any questions.