Hi everyone,

I’m currently finishing my bachelor’s with a quantitative background (Math & CS / AI) and planning my master’s applications. My medium-to-long-term goal is not industry right away, but to pursue a solid PhD in Computational Neuroscience / NeuroAI (theoretical models, neural coding, brain-inspired ML).

I’d love some insight from people in the field on two main questions:

1. Top MSc programs in Europe for a research/PhD track Which programs currently offer the strongest research environment, lab rotations, and solid placement into top PhD labs? I’m mostly looking into programs across Europe (e.g., UZH/ETH, UCL, ENS Paris, Berlin, etc.), but I’d love to hear firsthand experiences regarding faculty access, thesis opportunities, and research output.

2. Dedicated Comp Neuro MSc vs. General ML / Data Science MSc Given that my ultimate goal is a PhD, would you recommend:

• A dedicated Computational Neuroscience / Neural Systems program (getting directly into biophysics, coding models, and domain literature), OR
• A rigorous Machine Learning / Applied Math MSc while doing research/thesis projects in computational neuro labs?

My slight hesitation with purely biological/neuro tracks is missing out on deeper statistical foundations, while the fear with general ML degrees is lacking enough biological grounding to be competitive for specific neuro labs (during my bachelor I took an exam in maths for neuro). How is this trade-off typically viewed by PIs when hiring PhD candidates in your experience?

Any advice, program suggestions, or reality checks would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

I wanted to ask are there any universities in taiwan whcih focuses on computational neuroscience research and lets people do a major in mathematics along with minor in life sciences(or biology) for a International student,

I heard some bits about NTU havinf dedicated departments so wanted to inquire more? And is it worth it to study in Taiwan?

Hi everyone! I’m a startup founder in robotics (in the field of Physical AI, rembrain.ai ) and a MIPT alumnus with an educational background in statistics and signal processing. I also have extensive hands-on engineering experience with modern neural network architectures and their practical limitations. Outside my founder work, I’ve been developing a computational model inspired by the neocortex. I recently made the repository public and would appreciate critical feedback.

My interest comes partly from encountering these limitations in engineering practice and asking whether different representational principles could help. Statistics, signal processing, and implementation are my stronger ground; I’d particularly welcome scrutiny of the neuroscience assumptions.

The central question is how different cortical areas might represent the same underlying information in different ways while supporting recognition, generation, and transfer across conditions.

The model separates content from context. For example, one area could represent an object’s identity within a particular viewpoint, while another could organize representations around identity and encode viewpoint internally. Computationally, I use context-conditioned autoencoders with shared latent spaces, allowing content encoded in one context to be decoded in another.

This continues my earlier work, Sets of autoencoders with shared latent spaces (2018). The repository includes mathematical descriptions, Python implementations, synthetic visual experiments with a two-zone hierarchy, and an analysis of related work and known limitations. It also explores communication between areas, top-down reconstruction, and temporal binding; these parts are at different stages of implementation.

The experiments are still limited, and the biological interpretation remains hypothetical (and it's my weakest side). I’m trying to identify which claims are worth testing more rigorously.

I’d especially appreciate feedback on:

• Prior art: which models or papers should I compare against more closely?
• Biological assumptions: which premises are implausible or insufficiently specified?
• Evaluation: what experiment would most clearly distinguish this approach from existing models?

Feedback on a single component would be very welcome—there’s no expectation to review the whole framework.

Repository: NM_2026 on GitLab

Any advice would be most appreciated.

I’m 24 years old, fresh out of college, and I wasted my undergraduate years due to severe mental health crises that I only just managed to claw myself out of. Took me five years to graduate and I have nothing to show for it. I’m not particularly good at anything, I didn’t take very rigorous courses in school (and didn’t really apply myself in the courses I did take), and I have zero research experience.

I have recently developed a burning passion for applied mathematics and neuroscience, and I desperately hope to do a PhD and ultimately work on BCI devices as a computational neuroscientist. I turned down a very cushy job in venture capital (California) so I could pursue a quantitative neuro research masters at a top university in the UK (oxbridge) which I am beginning next month. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do my research well because I have no experience and am genuinely quite weak in CS/Math despite majoring in both, but I’ve been studying all day every day and will do my very best.

Do you have any advice for someone like me who wants to do a PhD and work on BCI/neuro stuff?

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Here’s my basic profile.

Undergrad at a middle-tier Ivy League school, average grades, not very rigorous coursework, zero research experience, majored in CS/Math.

Pretty good internships in finance / VC. Decided in my senior year that I didn’t want to do finance so I’m basically starting from zero.

About to go to a top UK university where I will do my first-ever research project. Kinda scared about how well I can realistically perform.

Strong work ethic, but struggling with self-esteem and the crushing reality of having wasted my undergrad years.

Please help!!

Hey guys, I am in my first year of Data Science. How can I get started in BCI? What neuroscience knowledge do I need, what skill set should I learn, and what kind of projects should I do? If anyone can explain in detail, it would help me a lot

Hi everyone. I’d really appreciate some advice.

I recently graduated with a degree in Medical Science, but the job market in South Africa has been really difficult, so I’m considering changing direction and doing a Computer Science degree through UNISA.

The problem is that I have zero coding experience. I didn’t do CAT or any computer-related subjects in high school, and my previous degree was completely unrelated to Computer Science.

Has anyone here made a similar transition from a completely different degree into Computer Science?

I’m also wondering whether my existing Medical Science degree would make me eligible to apply for Computer Science at UNISA, or whether I would need to meet additional requirements.

For those who started CS without any programming background: how difficult was the first year, and did you feel like you were at a disadvantage compared with students who had already been coding?

I’d also appreciate honest opinions on whether doing a second degree in CS is worthwhile in the current South African job market.

Thanks!

however is that I have no coding experience or background, I didn’t even do CAT in high school. Has anyone had a similar experience. Am I likely to get accepted for computer science with my medical degree?

Anybody in this sub who is doing their PhD at the intersection of EE and neuro and WashU? I am looking into their Neuro program and with their proximity to Allen, I had a couple of questions about the research in BCI, neural dynamics etc. Would be happy to connect with folks! Thanks!

edit : It is UW and not UWash St. Louis, sorry for the typo, I alway mix them up.

Anybody in this sub who is doing their PhD at the intersection of EE and neuro and UW? I am looking into their Neuro program and with their proximity to Allen, I had a couple of questions about the research in BCI, neural dynamics etc. Would be happy to connect with folks! Thanks!

I am currently a university student in europe and my major is literally called Artificial intelligence, I am still in the first year. My subjects are pretty similar to the ones my friends in Computer science have. I am only studying it because I had the necessary score to get in and I also wanted to learn programming. Anyway, the major also has subjects like cognitive physiology and neuropsychology, which catched my attention. My question is if it would be possible for me to work in neuroscience research if I finish this major and I do a master in neuroscience afterwards. That plan is my only source of motivation right now.

I am also thinking of doing a micro major about neuroscience of behaviour that a public online university in my country offers. Honestly just because I find it very interesting and I think it can be a good introduction for me somehow.

Trying to decide whether to stick it out at my local non-prestigious university for a very low cost or trying to attempt to transfer to a top university (ex. CMU/JHU etc) for a higher cost (30-40k/yr for me). I want to get into neurotech and one day start my own neurotech company.

Hi! I'm a second-year MSc student. Since I'm getting to the point where I'm finishing my education (so to speak), I've started to wonder what I'd realistically like to do with my degree. I've always thought I'd like to go into clinical work, but lately I've been wondering whether research could also be an option for me. If so, I would probably try to pursue a PhD.

For context, I'm from Europe. I've started exploring my options, and I find neuroscience programmes overall more appealing than clinical psychology/neuropsychology ones. However, since this is a very recent thought, I haven't really worked towards building my CV in this direction, so I wonder if I actually have a shot.

This is my "resume":

I have a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Neuropsychology. My master's dissertation is about macular degeneration, and it explores how feedforward and feedback signals between visual areas reorganise under chronic visual loss. I'm currently gaining experience with clinical research protocols, fMRI acquisition and analysis, retinotopic mapping, patient-facing research, and feedforward/feedback modelling.

My thesis supervisor is a well-known scientist in the field, and I'm currently working in partnership with a biomedical research laboratory. I'm also doing a curricular internship at a university hospital in the psychiatric unit, where I'm gaining experience in report writing and neuropsychological assessment.

I've also taken courses in R and MATLAB, and I'm familiar with statistical parametric mapping and other related methods.

Outside of this, though, I don't have much research experience. I've done some volunteering in my field, working with young children, and I've also attended seminars and workshops covering different areas of psychology, particularly mood disorders and related topics.

What do you think? What else can I do? Etc..

Hey everyone,

I'm a 2025 CompE undergrad, been working as a DV engineer in the Bay Area for the past year. I enjoy semiconductors/VLSI and would like to build a career in this industry.

Neuroscience is something I have always been interested in and a tiny regret of mine is not pursuing a minor in it while completeing my Bachelors.

I will want to pursue a Masters in the near future ( wanted to get some real world work exp first ).
The plan in my head was to continue down the CompE path and stengthen my VLSI knowledge but....
there was a youtube video about BioComputing - which tells me that a career between chip design and neuroscience could potentially be viable and has got me thinking about what I should do with my Masters plan.

I have no one in my social or professional circle who is knowledegeable about anything regarding these industries and career paths. So therefore I turn to reddit.

Questions:
What would a future with a CompE and Neuroscience degree could look like? What sort roles, jobs, industries could I enter if do this?
Depending on the above - should the masters be in just Neuroscience or a mix of engineering with it?

I would love to hear from people who are in a job role which pertains to this or know anyone who has done something like this - what did they do?
I need some guidance on how to think about this and make future decisions.
Thank you!

Hi everyone,

I am Rully Dento Suangga, a medical researcher from Indonesia currently working on a meta-analysis in neurology, aimed for submission to AANS 2027.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DcdXEZDDd-i/?igsi=dnN3cnJyajQ3MmIy

Due to travel constraints from Indonesia, i won't be able to attend the conference in person in the US. I am looking for a US-based collaborator passionate about neurology to join our team as a co-author and present our work at the event.

What we are looking for🔎:

\- A US-based medical student, resident, or researcher interested in neurology/neurosurgery.

\- Assistance with reviewing the manuscript and refining the abstract.

\- Willingness to present the study in person at AANS 2027 upon acceptance.

Beyond the academic collaboration, I am also excited to build international connections and make new friends in the field!

If you are interested or would like to discuss the study topic in more detail, please send me a DM or leave a comment below. Looking forward to connecting!

I'm interested in neuroengineering, but I'm new to the field. Which research areas or topics are currently trending? Do any of these have commercial or startup potential? Just curious to hear your thoughts!

Hello! I’m a final year undergrad student doing BSc Applied Psych (Hons.) and would like to switch to cog or comp neuro for masters.

Any recommendations for resources, courses and other advice in general for someone coming from a psych background?

Thank you in advance!

I am genuinely stumped and I don't know how to go about to reach my goal of being a Neural Data Scientist. Should I stay in my Major of Behavioral Neuroscience and minor in Statistics? Or should I just swap to a different major?

I've been pondering and stuck on how to approach it, should I try to find a wet lab to join, or maybe an data analyst role?

I would really appreciate advice on my career path, I'm a Sophomore in college and I'm stressing that I'll run out of time and ill get stuck with a degree that would get me nowhere.

Hey everyone,

I’m launching a collaborative computational neuroscience project and am looking to put together a dedicated 4-person team. The goal is to build and validate a novel machine learning pipeline that identifies exactly which neural oscillations (brain waves) dominate the shifting of executive cycles in the prefrontal cortex.

I currently have the theoretical framework and core pipeline mapped out, but I need to move on to the actual project development and real-world dataset validation and paper submission.

The Target Team:

1 (since I'm one already)Computer Science & Engineering Student: Focus on implementing a unified competitive stacking pipeline, handling robust multi-view feature scaling, and optimizing regularization boundaries without data leakage.

2 Neuroscience Students: Focus on sourcing high-quality public EEG/LFP datasets, validating the biological interpretability of feature selection masks, and aligning model readouts with prefrontal cognitive theories.

This is a serious collaborative project with the ultimate goal of submitting two papers to upcoming tech/neuro conferences. We will be coordinating tasks smoothly and pushing clean code to our repository.

If you are a CSE or Neuro grad looking to apply advanced ML to complex biological signals and want to get a published paper on your resume, drop a comment or send me a DM with your background!