SCIENCE & RESEARCH
Exploring computational neuroscience, Brown’s newest interdisciplinary concentration
Concentration investigates intersections between brain sciences, computer science, applied math, data analysis, ethics
By Gabriella Vulakh, Senior Science & Research Editor
Web Design & Layout by Jakobi Haskell
3D Design by Oxterium
November 13, 2023
How do you analyze the data recorded from hundreds of neurons at a time?
The degree combines cross-disciplinary study in the computer and brain sciences with learning objectives spanning computational skills, neuroscience, data analysis and ethics.
“Computational neuroscience is pretty broad and we’re at this exciting point where the field has really been taking off because the computing power is there and the data is there,” said Linden, who is helping spearhead the new concentration. “There’s so much research at Brown that falls under this umbrella … so we want students to see that and be able to engage with that.”
As with any new concentration, the course requirements are undergoing a “rigorous curricular scaffolding,” according to Sydney Skybetter, deputy dean of the College for curriculum and co-curriculum. “Interdisciplinary pedagogy is hard, and so when new concentrations are proposed, we partner with faculty, staff and departments to ensure the sorts of longitudinal support necessary in the long-term.”
While the exact courses are being finalized, the concentration will likely include classes from existing introductory neuroscience and computer science sequences, a new introductory computational neuroscience course, math-related background courses and electives including a senior capstone, according to Linden.
How the computational neuroscience concentration came to be
Over the last decade, the University has seen consistent interest in a computational neuroscience concentration, according to Professor of Neuroscience David Sheinberg, who is currently helping develop the new concentration.
Eight students had graduated with the Independent Concentration (IC) as of 2018 and four more were pursuing it as of last year, he explained. “That seems like an indication of a larger demand.”
Students curious about computer and brain sciences often found that their interests “couldn’t quite fit into a box of a concentration that already existed,” said Lila Zimbalist ’23, one such independent concentrator.
Herald podcast producer Carter Moyer ’24 said he was motivated to pursue an IC as a way of merging his interests in engineering and computer science — “which I really enjoy from a technical perspective and see as really crucial to the future” — and brain and human cognition, which relates to his “future career plans as an aspiring physician.”
Rather than pursuing an IC, Benjamin Schornstein ’24 chose to complete both a computer engineering and neuroscience concentration after enrolling in “ENGN 1220: Neuroengineering” and realizing that “how computers work is intuitively related to how the brain works.”
But to fulfill all 21 computer engineering requirements and 17 neuroscience requirements, in addition to taking courses to fulfill medical school requirements, Schornstein has had to take five courses during each of his semesters at Brown.
Though Moyer said he enjoyed how creating an IC gave him “ownership” over his coursework, students pursuing the IC reported extra steps with completing concentration applications and fulfilling all their requirements.
Whenever Moyer’s course plan changes or he is unable to secure a spot in a class, he needs to seek approval from both his IC advisor and the director of undergraduate studies for the IC program — which is an “administrative burden,” he explained.
“Making this concentration mainstream … reduces a lot of the work that students have to do and gives them a lot more resources and a community,” Moyer said.
Schornstein added that the concentration will allow students to take “courses that are relevant to both computer science, engineering and neuroscience while also being able to explore the Open Curriculum,” an experience he had less time for as a double concentrator.
Officially establishing the concentration at the University was one way to make it more accessible to a “diverse student population,” said Zimbalist, who advised independent concentrators in her last three semesters at Brown.
Lowering “the barrier to entry … so that people don’t have to go through the IC process, which is very rigorous and might be excluding some students,” was another motivator, Linden said.
Solidifying course requirements, getting departmental support
In going through this “rigorous” process, independent concentrators paved the way for future students.
Last spring, Zimbalist began fleshing out an official concentration as part of her IC’s senior capstone project. She went through “every single past independent concentration that was either titled ‘computational neuroscience’ or ‘computational cognitive neuroscience’” and created a list of consistent courses sorted by difficulty level and department.
“Having a student help us made all the difference,” Linden said. “Her work was instrumental to actually getting (the concentration) moving forward.”
Sheinberg, Linden and Zimbalist then reached out to professors from those departments, asking for feedback on the classes they had identified as crucial to the concentration and requesting written letters of support from each department to submit to the CCC.
Zimbalist and Linden did a “truly remarkable amount of work to both scour the landscape of what was here and put together the curriculum, map the course offerings and create the learning objectives,” Sheinberg said.
Computational neuroscience will also include a newly designed introductory course that Moyer is helping to design with Brian Ji ’25 through an Undergraduate Teaching Research Award overseen by Linden.
“The course is designed to help students build competencies in computer programming … and also heavily leans into neuroscience topics,” Moyer said. “We are trying to help introduce neuroscience students to computer science and machine learning, and computer science students to neuroscience, biology and human cognition.”
Moyer and Ji are “very intentionally” designing assignments, final projects, assessments and learning goals based on their own experiences as students that they hope will serve as “recommendations” for the professor who ultimately teaches the course, Moyer said.
While the new concentration will live within the neuroscience department, “partly as an administrative support,” Sheinberg emphasized that it is “truly a multidisciplinary, multi-departmental program.”
“We really want other faculty from across the campus to feel like participants,” Sheinberg said. “We need partners and we are depending on our colleagues a lot.”
The Carney Institute for Brain Science will also support students in the concentration. Several faculty members from the institute are open to serving as advisors for students’ capstone projects.
Students will have access to “expertise across multiple departments and people who are interested in many levels of analysis that link … from molecules and genes all the way up to cognition, consciousness and artificial intelligence,” said Michael Frank, director of the Institute’s Center for Computational Brain Science.
Finding a home for the ‘multidisciplinary, multi-departmental’ concentration
While the new concentration will live within the neuroscience department, Sheinberg emphasized that it is “truly a multidisciplinary, multi-departmental program.”
“Even if it’s being run out of neuroscience, partly as an administrative support, it’s not only neuroscience — we really want other faculty from across the campus to feel like participants,” Sheinberg said, adding that “it’s important to make sure that is the message from the very beginning, that we need partners and we are depending on our colleagues a lot.”
The Carney Center for Brain Science will also support students in the concentration, with faculty from the center being open to serve as advisors to students for their capstone projects.
Students will have access to “expertise across multiple departments and people who are interested in many levels of analysis that link all the way from molecules and genes all the way up to cognition, consciousness and artificial intelligence,” said Michael Frank, Director of Carney Center for Brain Sciences.
“The brain is one of the biggest mysteries and one of the most wonderful physical systems in the universe and trying to address it from a single discipline level of analysis can only give you so much insight, so learning from the different levels and disciplines is really helpful,” Frank added.
Where to go after pursuing a computational neuroscience degree
Now a graduate, Zimbalist said that her computational neuroscience degree has proven helpful with data analytics in her current work as a healthcare consultant.
Zimbalist said that creating the IC also gave her “a larger perspective on how the world of academia works and what steps you have to take to approach a really daunting project and plan out a map to get from start to end.”
Sheinberg added that positions are “advertised every day for people whose focus is on computational neuroscience,” speaking to a demand for individuals who can both perform experiments and data analysis.
Students in the concentration could also explore careers in the biomedical industry, data science and technology while being “truly informed by the nervous system,” Sheinberg said.
“You can study the biophysics of neurons that produce a certain brain rhythm or you can study the algorithmic functions that the brain is trying to achieve at the cognitive level,” Frank said. Many studying the field end up pursuing a career in “artificial intelligence or in some cases (use) artificial intelligence to inform what the brain is trying to do.”
Schornstein hopes this field can help researchers better understand the neurotechnology used for neurological disorders like epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.
He explained that when using deep brain stimulation as a therapeutic approach in Parkinson’s disease, “you need to know which area of the brain you want to stimulate to know where to implant electrodes.”
“But from an engineering perspective, you also need to know how to actually develop these electrodes,” he added. “The computer science element answers the question of how you make a model to accurately map what is going on in the brain.”
“In the next decade or so there is going to be a big emergence of neurotechnology in everyday life and it will especially help people for whom medicine has not yet satisfactorily improved their quality of life,” Schornstein said. “This is a great time to start the concentration and Brown can really be a leader in computational neuroscience.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the steps required to make changes to an independent concentration course plan. The article has been updated to better reflect the process. The Herald regrets the error.