Course Offerings
We offer courses that teach skills and techniques for computational sciences and research in Neuroscience, Climate Science, and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Our courses are geared towards adult learners with undergraduate-level scientific or technical knowledge as a prerequisite.
Student and Teaching Assistant applications for the July 2025 course will open in early 2025. Join our Mailing List to make sure you don’t miss it!
How Does It Work?
These courses are inclusive, intensive, 2 or 3 week virtual programs in which you are partnered with a peer learning group, a live instructor, and complete interactive coursework and novel research projects under the guidance of a mentor.
Course Benefits
Our courses place an emphasis on real learning, networking and collaboration, and applied knowledge through research experiences.
You’ll get to work closely with a group of peers with similar research interests, receive live mentorship and guidance, do a novel research project and receive educational materials from amazing scientists around the world.
Course Structure
Students work in small learning groups, or pods, made up of 10-15 students and an instructor. These pods are formed on timezone, common research interests, and language preference using our custom matching algorithm.
Each day, students spend approximately 4.5 hours on curriculum and 3 hours on research projects or professional development activities.
Coursework
Composed of mini-modules, each with a short video introducing the concept, narrative explanation, and interactive coding tutorials in Python. All in an interactive Python notebook so that you can execute code in-line while you learn with your peers.
Research Projects
Apply the techniques you are learning on real research projects matching your interests. These are done with a smaller set of peers and a mentor that will help you formulate research questions and explore available open science datasets.
Professional Development Events
Broad, and diverse interactive events to learn about career pathways, get career advice, cover topics in your research field, or learn about science communication. These take many forms such as networking events, workshops, or short talks.
Timing
These intensive programs are typically offered in July to align with major summer breaks from most education programs. Courses will generally be full-time commitments for 2 or 3 weeks.
Courses are delivered in five timeslots around the world to align with global timezones. You can see our timezone widget here.
Topics and Subjects
| Course Title | Course Description | Course Link | Next Course Dates |
| Computational Neuroscience | The curriculum integrates cutting-edge advances in machine learning and causality research with state-of-the-art modeling approaches in neuroscience. | See Course Details and Upcoming Dates | July 7-25, 2025 |
| Deep Learning | Our Deep Learning (DL) course grew out of the realization that there is a real need for teaching an ethically responsible hands-on TA-guided code-first DL curriculum that emphasizes how DL can be used to advance science and achieve better scientific insights. | See Course Details and Upcoming Dates | July 7-25, 2025 |
| Computational Tools for Climate Science | Through this program, students will gain skills and knowledge in the areas of climate science and impact, computational methods, data access, and scientific practices. | See Course Details and Upcoming Dates | July 14-25, 2025 |
| NeuroAI | What are common principles of natural and artificial intelligence? The core challenge of intelligence is generalization. Neuroscience, cognitive science, and AI are all questing for principles that help generalization. | See Course Details and Upcoming Dates | July 14-25, 2025 |
| Open Science 101 | Open Science 101 is a free, one-week, part-time course designed to introduce participants to the principles and practices of open science. This course is structured differently than our traditional full-time courses, view the course page for more information. | See Course Details and Upcoming Dates | Multiple dates, November & December 2024 |
How to Apply
Applications typically open two or three months before the course starts. You can see if applications are open by visiting our portal, or, if they are closed, you can get on our mailing list to be notified when they open.
Students
- Courses require a full-time commitment:
- 8 hours of study per day, 5 days a week.
- No more than two absences to receive a certificate
- Students are placed in classrooms (pods) with about 15 students and a teaching assistant and work collaboratively
- Generally expected to have video camera on and engage in classroom discussion
- Work on research projects with input from teaching assistants and mentors
- Each student will have a role in a collaborative team project that includes a presentation at the end
- Students receive a certificate at the end
- All course materials are freely available online. Students are invited to review the materials before applying to ensure the course is a good fit for them
- We are committed to making our course affordable, including offering full course cost waivers. We are updating our course price structure and will share out updates soon.
- Student Applications are closed for the 2024 Course.
Teaching and Project Assistants
- Full-time, temporary paid positions as either a Teaching Assistant, Project Assistant, or Lead
- Facilitate problem-based learning for our students
- Teaching Assistant Role
- 4.5 hours per day in classwork with students
- 1.5 hours per day in project time with students
- 2 hours per day of teaching preparation and admin
- Project Assistant Role
- 8 hours per day in project time with multiple student classrooms
- Lead Role
- Leadership of other assistants, including managing absences and providing guidance and training
- Requires additional content knowledge and materials preparation
- We are committed to compensating TAs fairly and equitably. We are reviewing our payment structure and will provide updates on TA pay for 2025 soon.
- A certificate and TAs may request a letter of support
- TA Applications are closed for the 2024 course.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What if I have to miss some days of the course?
The course design is cumulative, meaning that each day requires knowledge from the previous day. Thus, missing any days of the course makes it difficult to keep up. If you know you will miss some of the course, it would be best to apply next year instead. In case of emergencies, students can miss up to 2 days and still receive a certificate. All of the content is freely available online, so students missing just a few hours of the course may be able to catch up by viewing the lectures and lessons out of sync with their pod.
I’m a TA and I’m confused about the acceptance and payment process.
We’ve created a guide that walks TAs through accepting their offer and the several tax and payment forms they need to fill out. See our Teaching Assistant Payment Instructions.
Do you offer refunds?
We hire and commits to paying teaching assistants based on the number of students signed up for each course and are therefore not able to grant refunds to any students after matching occurs, which is 30 days before the course start date. You can read more about our refund policy here. If you have an emergency situation that you feel grants you exemption from this policy, you may complete this form for consideration. Decisions about refunds are made on a case by case basis and can’t be guaranteed past the deadline above
If I was accepted, but can not attend this year, can I defer my enrollment to next year?
No, you will need to reapply.
Can I apply as both a teaching assistant and a student?
Yes, you can submit applications for both roles, but you will only be accepted for one.
Are your courses graded?
No, students are not graded and we cannot supply grades.
Do these courses provide credits at my university?
That is up for your advisors at your university to determine. Many university graduate programs DO offer credit for these courses by demonstrating your certificate and showing the curriculum to them.
What types of payment are accepted?
Available payment options differ by country, but Debit Card, Credit Card and Direct Bank Transfer are available in nearly all countries. Additional options include Google Pay, Apple Pay, WeChat Pay. We do not accept purchase orders or invoices from universities due to the complexity of university invoicing the relatively small amount of money for these transactions.
What time zone will the course take place in?
We offer 5 time slots to accommodate participants globally. You can see which time slot is best for you here. After you’ve been matched to your pod, you’ll be able to see your pods time slot in the portal.
Will the courses be in any languages other than English?
The main language of instruction will be English, and all materials will be in English. In addition, many of our students will be grouped into pods where the TA and students all share another language. Language pods are subject to availability and cannot be guaranteed.
How do students get grouped into teams or ‘pods’?
We use an algorithm [1, 2, 3] to place people in complementary groups based on common interests, time availability, seniority, and in many cases shared language. This will allow students to meet online at a time and context that is most convenient for them.
Do I need a letter of reference to apply?
Nope!
Can Iranian residents participate in the courses?
Yes! Iranian residents can apply to be either a student or a TA. Since the founding of our courses in 2020, we have prioritized global inclusion and have received a sanctions exceptions for all our courses that allows us to run our course in Iran.
I have logged in to the Portal but cannot see the applications, what’s wrong?
You have to complete your Profile in the upper right before you begin. There is also an email verification that you need to complete before your account is active.
I am having trouble creating an application through the Portal from a mobile browser.
We have not been able to test our application on mobile browsers. Please try to use a computer with a normal display instead.
Do students and TA receive a certificate?
Yes, both students and TAs will receive a certificate of completion. Students must comply with our Attendance Policy. Certificates are in the Profile page of Portal, under Documents. Students and TAs must complete the end of course survey to access their certificate. If you choose to connect your Portal account to your ORCiD account, you can publish your certificate via ORCiD.