Objectives of the module and skills acquired

The students will arrive with very different backgrounds. To fill in gaps in their mathematical, statistical and programming skills, the first 5 weeks of the first year (Master 1) will be devoted to a complete update training. An additional novel feature of this very intensive pedagogical approach is to force students to rapidly work together and help each other in an independent way (without the teacher). They will also learn (and hopefully appreciate) to work in the open space. This will be very important for achieving one of our goals: at the end the Masters program, people with very different backgrounds will be used to interacting with each other and intensively working together. In every week of this module they will have different teachers and different topics: one week on Linear and bilinear algebra , complex numbers, Fourier analysis (Krupa) ; one week on basic probability, basic statistics and programming in R (Reynaud-Bouret) ; one week on differential equations, PDE, simulation (Krupa) ; one week on modeling, simulation and implementation of basic systems and object-oriented programming (Muzy); one week on basics in experimental protocol set-ups (Arslan/Lavigne/Reynaud-Bouret).

Pedagogical approach

During the 5 weeks, a three hour lecture will be given every morning (from Monday to Friday). The course notes and a video recording of the lecture will be posted almost instantly on-line for the students to consult. The afternoon of each day will be devoted to the study of problems and exercises assigned in the lecture. The students will work in groups in the open neurolab. Independent work will be encouraged, yet the teacher will be present to answer questions if need be. Given that the aim is to instill scientific cooperation and self learning experience, the teacher will give hints or solutions only if none of the students can solve a given problem, and will encourage communication between groups if needed. Access to books, the internet and the notes and recordings of the course will be given and their use strongly encouraged.