The IBRO-SIMONS Computational Neuroscience Imbizo, or isiCNI2019 is an opportunity for African and international students to learn about cutting edge research techniques in computational neuroscience.

This three-week summer school is the only one of its kind in Africa that focuses on Computational Neuroscience. The school aims to teach central ideas, methods, and practices of modern computational neuroscience using a combination of lectures and hands-on project work.

Two of the event organisers, Joseph Raimondo (a Principal Investigator at UCT) and Christopher Currin (his PhD student), shared, “To accelerate the development of neuroscience in southern Africa, we organised a 3-week long Imbizo (from Zulu/Xhosa, a gathering to share knowledge). Uniquely in Africa, we bring together world leaders in computational/theoretical neuroscience and machine-learning with a small group of passionate students both from Africa and internationally. Over 21 days, we lecture and learn, code and brainstorm, eat and celebrate together, creating a tight-knit network of inspired young scientists.

In the century of the brain, African scientists and educators are poised to make important contributions to global neuroscience research. The IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo aims to further this goal, offer insight into the status quo, and enable knowledge transfer from the current leaders of the field.”

The Imbizo will take place in Muizenberg, Cape Town from 7 – 26 January 2019 and is co-sponsored by the Simons Foundation and the International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO).

Media are invited to attend the last day of the school, where students will be presenting some of the work they have done on their projects. To attend please RSVP to Christopher Currin on CRRCHR004@myuct.ac.za.