NeuroKits
Advanced Neuroscience Training for Everyone, Everywhere
NEUROKITS are revolutionizing training & accelerating progress in basic neuroscience and mental health research.
They provide scientists and clinicians with better, cheaper, and broader access to the latest methods and technologies.
PROGRAMME
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Experimental Neuroscience Bootcamp
September
Application will open soon
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Extracellular Electrophysiology Acquisition
October
Applications will open soon
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Visual Reactive Programming (Bonsai)
November
Applications will open soon
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Modern Approaches to Behavioural Analysis
December
Applications will open soon
If you want to take a course at your own pace, as an INDIVIDUAL or PARTNER, please contact us at info@noblackboxes.org.
WHAT ARE NEUROKITS?
To benefit from rapid advances in technology, we created a standardized and up-to-date curriculum for all neuroscience researchers. The goal of this curriculum is to teach the fundamentals of state-of-the-art technology for acquiring neuroscience data (electrical, optical, and behavioural) and the computational skills for data analysis, which are required to interpret and interrogate the results.
The NeuroKit courses combine the benefits of a practical hands-on course with the benefits of online tutoring. This is achieved by sending neuroscientists, throughout the world, an experimental kit containing all the physical materials needed for the course.
KEY FEATURES
1. Practicality. Students receive hands-on training with real lab equipment to build data acquisition systems. The hands-on component is fundamental for in-depth applied knowledge.
2. Relevance. The coupling between the data acquired and the computational methods used to analyse the data encourages students to invest the time to acquire these vital digital skills.
3. Scalability. The high-quality recorded lectures and online content are reusable, allowing students from all over the world to receive the same outstanding training.
4. Accessibility. The physical components are standardized and shared across kits, which allows us to greatly reduce the cost per student.
5. Social Experience. A large community of international young researchers and experts in the field are connected together through our online platform, sharing a common curriculum and the same physical materials.
6. Up-to-date. Online lectures and hands-on materials are constantly updated by an international faculty of experts in the field, but also by the many international partners. This will guarantee that new local technological advances are also promptly integrated in the curriculum.
AUDIENCE
These courses are targeted to experimentalists (neuroscientists and clinicians) who want to acquire a broad range of skills and knowledge of modern neuroscience tools at the start of their careers or when embarking on a new project.
We are also developing courses to upskill experimentalists working in the field of mental health.
FORMAT
Each NeuroKit course lasts one week.
In the morning, participants watch recorded lectures at their own pace, and start building their systems, robots, behavioural experiments, etc.
In the afternoon, participants join the faculty online and/or a local tutor who guides them though the exercises and the more advanced stages of the daily tasks.
CERTIFICATE
To receive the certificate, participants must complete a course project designed by them. The project is usually submitted 1 or 2 weeks after the course. During this time, participants continue to receive feedback from the faculty through our online platform.
The final project is evaluated by the course faculty, and if accepted, a completion certificate and letter for ECTS accreditation is sent to the participant.
CURRICULUM
One of the unique features of the NeuroKits is that students receive training in how to analyse their own data acquired by the instruments that they designed and built during the course.
Each NeuroKit is coupled with its own computational module. These modules span from an introduction to the fundamentals of programming and data analysis, to machine learning and AI tools. The materials and topics of the curriculum are constantly updated to cover the latest techniques.
We have currently developed 4 NeuroKits:
Experimental Neuroscience Bootcamp. After an introduction to computers (hardware, software) you will understand data acquisition, motion control, and programming. You will use these new skills to build your own intelligent robot.
Extracellular Electrophysiology Acquisition. You will learn the essentials of electrophysiology by building your own amplifers and a working EMG/EEG system.
Visual Reactive Programming - Bonsai. You will learn about modern tools for behaviour assay design while building a psychophysics experiment using a real-time closed-loop visual programming framework.
Modern Approches to Behavioural Analysis. You will learn how to analyse behavioural experiments using state-of-the-art machine vision methods, e.g. DeepLabCut.
WHERE WE TEACH
Each NeuroKit course is organised once a year ONLINE. Therefore, anyone can take the course from anywhere.
Thanks to our international instructors, we also organise in-person training at specific LOCAL HUBS during the online courses (see specific course pages for more details).
If you want to ORGANISE A LOCAL HUB for a group of researchers at your Institute, University or Laboratory, please contact us (info@voight-kampff.tech).
Demographics of our participants between 2022-203.