SYDE 556 Course Outline

General Information

  • Course title
    Simulating Neurobiological Systems (SYDE 556/750)

  • Official course syllabus

  • Course website
    Links to all course material, including lecture notes and slides can be found at the following URLs:

    Note: Any material on GitHub should be considered “preliminary” until officially linked at from the github README. Until then, the material is still subject to change.

  • Instructor
    Chris Eliasmith
    Office: E7-6324
    Email: celiasmith@uwaterloo.ca
    Website: http://compneuro.uwaterloo.ca

  • Teaching Assistants
    Graeme Damberger
    Office: E7-6339 Email: graeme.damberger@uwaterloo.ca

  • Office hours
    By appointment

  • Readings

    Main resource: “Neural Engineering: Representation, Computation and Dynamics in Neurobiological Systems”, Chris Eliasmith and Charles Anderson, 2003. MIT Press. On Reserve in Library.

    Optional: “How to Build a Brain”, Chris Eliasmith, 2012. Oxford University Press.

  • Course Description
    This course examines a general framework for modeling computation by neurobiological systems with an emphasis on quantitative formulations. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding computation, representation, and dynamics in such systems. Students will learn how the fundamentals of signal processing, control theory and statistical inference, can be applied to modeling sensory, motor, and cognitive systems.

  • Prerequisites:
    Knowing how to program using numpy in Python is highly recommended. Familiarity with calculus and linear algebra is required.

Schedule

See the course syllabus provided above.

Grading

The course requires five assignments from all students (100% for 556, 80% for 750) and a final project (20%) from students taking 750. There is an option for 556 students to do a project in place of the final assignment. Assignments are due electronically by 11:50pm of the due date. Late assignments lose 1 mark per day and may be at most seven days late. Assignments are to be done individually (everyone writes their own code and answers questions themselves).

Policies

See the course syllabus provided above.