Neuromatch Academy
Advise Neuromatch Academy on Incorporation
Offering opportunities world-wide to underserved individuals normally available only to elite students using the available resources (time and human energy) created by the covid-19 pandemic.
Posted May 6, 2020
Background & Context
In response to the current Covid-19 crisis which has shut down nearly every summer program in the world at which students, postdocs and faculty would normally gather to acquire crucial skills and build networks that are the lifeblood of academic science. This crisis has left an enormous hole in the career prospects of our most valuable and vulnerable scientists. With The Neuromatch Academy we are planning to fill that gap, and in the process to build a unique model of individualized, intensive academic training that is available to nearly everyone, rather than to the privileged few. In place of the legacy summer program model, which typically charges ~$4000, we will offer a three-week intensive program with a voluntary registration fee of no more than $100 to facilitate inclusive access for all students. This program will combine features of both legacy summer workshops and online course work to create a unique educational platform that is tailored to furthering academic careers.
The Neuromatch Academy represents a unique opportunity to build an inclusive summer school experience that spans the entire globe and provides a fundamental education in modern computational neuroscience. Many of the students who attend The Academy this year would not have had the opportunity to attend an in-person summer school due to financial or travel restrictions, or to limited space in these schools. The Academy will provide equal access to excellent computational neuroscience training for all students regardless of geography, nationality, socioeconomic status, or other factors.
Immediate Problem
Covid-19 crisis which has shut down nearly every summer program in the world at which students, postdocs and faculty would normally gather to acquire crucial skills and build networks that are the lifeblood of academic science. We have successfully run an online conference which was massively successful. Currently, we have recruited leaders from almost all the existing programs the were canceled to help develop a new, global scale program that will overcome the access problems that existing in the current programs.
Work & Deliverables
We need to a) incorporate a 501(c)(3) (or appropriate legal structure) to accept donations already committed and ensure appropriate legal protection and the ability to enter into contracts with supporting vendors, b) get legal advice on the issues we may encounter deploying a course worldwide and therefor across legal systems.
Preparation Phase
- Conference call to determine legal needs.
Collaboration Phase
- Establish a 501.3c
- Determine legal structure for data and services (including privacy and insurance requirements).
Wrap Up
- Ensure that the legal entity can be updated to allow the project to continue past 2020.
Neuromatch Academy
Neuromatch is an online community of computational neuroscientists whose mission is to foster inclusive global interactions for learning, mentorship, networking, and professional development. History Our first success was the Neuromatch conference held online on March 30-31st, 2020 which brought together nearly 3,000 attendees from around the world as part of 120 talks given by both senior and junior scientists. Reflecting our core philosophy of building connections and community we matched over 500 participants to 6 other partners each, based on interests gleaned from natural language processing of submitted abstracts. A follow up conference is planned for May 25–27. This covid-19 crisis has left an enormous hole in the career prospects of our most valuable and vulnerable scientists. With The Neuromatch Academy we are planning to fill that gap, and in the process to build a unique model of individualized, intensive academic training that is available to nearly everyone, rather than to the privileged few. The program will combine features of both legacy summer workshops and online course work to create a unique educational platform. The Neuromatch Academy represents a unique opportunity to build an inclusive summer school experience that spans the entire globe and provides a fundamental education in modern computational neuroscience. Many of the students who attend The Academy this year would not have had the opportunity to attend an in-person summer school due to financial or travel restrictions, or to limited space in these schools. The Academy will provide equal access to excellent computational neuroscience training for all students regardless of geography, nationality, socioeconomic status, or other factors. Features of The Neuromatch Academy include: An integrated, scientific inquiry-based curriculum with instruction in core topics of neural data science and computational neuroscience. Interactive lectures by world-renowned scientific leaders. Dedicated teaching assistants with a target student to TA ratio of 6 to 1. Lectures and TA sessions accessible by students in every time zone of the world and with TAs who speak multiple languages.
Neuromatch Academy
Neuromatch is an online community of computational neuroscientists whose mission is to foster inclusive global interactions for learning, mentorship, networking, and professional development. History Our first success was the Neuromatch conference held online on March 30-31st, 2020 which brought together nearly 3,000 attendees from around the world as part of 120 talks given by both senior and junior scientists. Reflecting our core philosophy of building connections and community we matched over 500 participants to 6 other partners each, based on interests gleaned from natural language processing of submitted abstracts. A follow up conference is planned for May 25–27. This covid-19 crisis has left an enormous hole in the career prospects of our most valuable and vulnerable scientists. With The Neuromatch Academy we are planning to fill that gap, and in the process to build a unique model of individualized, intensive academic training that is available to nearly everyone, rather than to the privileged few. The program will combine features of both legacy summer workshops and online course work to create a unique educational platform. The Neuromatch Academy represents a unique opportunity to build an inclusive summer school experience that spans the entire globe and provides a fundamental education in modern computational neuroscience. Many of the students who attend The Academy this year would not have had the opportunity to attend an in-person summer school due to financial or travel restrictions, or to limited space in these schools. The Academy will provide equal access to excellent computational neuroscience training for all students regardless of geography, nationality, socioeconomic status, or other factors. Features of The Neuromatch Academy include: An integrated, scientific inquiry-based curriculum with instruction in core topics of neural data science and computational neuroscience. Interactive lectures by world-renowned scientific leaders. Dedicated teaching assistants with a target student to TA ratio of 6 to 1. Lectures and TA sessions accessible by students in every time zone of the world and with TAs who speak multiple languages.