[CogSci] Announcing Neuromatch Academy courses for 2021!

[Eric DeWitt]

Dear colleagues,

We are excited to announce that Neuromatch Academy (NMA) will offer two courses this year:

NMA-Computational Neuroscience: July 5-23, 2021
Content: https://github.com/NeuromatchAcademy/course-content

NMA-Deep Learning: Aug 2-20, 2021
Content: https://github.com/NeuromatchAcademy/course-content-dl

Applications for interactive students and teaching assistants will be open April 15 to May 7th 2021. Faculty interested in being project mentors can use the same portal to apply.
Application Portal: https://portal.neuromatchacademy.org/


What is Neuromatch Academy? 
Neuromatch Academy (NMA) launched last year as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim is to provide globally-accessible, high-quality, TA-supported training in computational techniques related to neuroscience. In 2020, NMA designed and ran a fully online 3-week Computational Neuroscience course for 1757 students with 191 teaching assistants (TAs) working in virtual inverted (or flipped) classrooms and on small group projects. Fourteen languages, active community management, and low cost allowed for an unprecedented level of inclusivity and universal accessibility. 

What’s in a course?
Our courses are intensive 3-week programs involving hands-on tutorials developed by experts in the field. We have two tracks for students: interactive and observer.  Accepted interactive students are placed into TA-led pods (groups) using the neuromatch algorithm, which matches students with common interests who are in the same timezone and their preferred language for instruction. Interactive students receive personalized support as they work through hands-on tutorials and collaborate on course projects.  Officially registered observer track students have full access to the materials, access to NMA course communications (e.g., Discord), and can choose to be matched with other observer track students 

What does it cost?
We charge full-time students/academics a region adjusted small fee for the Interactive track in order to pay for TAs (fee waivers are available to those who need it, no questions asked). Students without an academic affiliation (i.e., industry applicants) are charged the full unsubsidized cost of the school, but can also inquire about waivers. Observer track participants have access to all the content at no cost, but are not placed in TA-led pods.

Please see the website (https://academy.neuromatch.io/) for additional information, pre-course resources and volunteer opportunities!

Warm Regards,
Neuromatch Academy team 

Follow @neuromatch on twitter for regular updates!