"Neural Networks" Team Hosts 2022 Western-Fields Summer School

 Western Fellow Marieke Mur

Western Fellow Marieke Mur (Top right)

During the week of 19--23 September, the Western Academy Theme “The Mathematics of Neural Networks” hosted 10 students for a one-week intensive course in network theory and neuroscience. Students in the course, which included both Western and international graduate students, participated in a week of lectures on theoretical neuroscience, network dynamics, and graph theory. Students completed a range of “mini-projects” throughout the week that sharpened their research skills. Monday--Thursday the course met in the Mathematics Research Unit (MRU) in Western Science Centre (WSC).

Western Fellow and Theme Leader Lyle Muller with students

Theme Member Gabriel Benigno (Top left) with Theme Leader and Western Fellow Lyle Muller (Top right)

Western Fellow Jan Minac

Western Fellow Ján Mináč

The last day of the course included a closing session at the Fields Institute in Toronto, where Western Academy Visiting Scholar Alex Lubotzky gave a keynote lecture on “High-dimensional expanders”, which are network models useful in a wide range of coding theory and information processing. In the afternoon session, students then presented their work from the week, which range from projects studying the structure of connections in data from the human brain to the dynamics of mathematical models of neural networks.

Visiting Scholar Alex Lubotzky

Alex Lutbotzky (Top-left) is a Visiting Fellow at the Western Academy

Our team is grateful to both the Fields Institute and the Western Academy for support for this initiative. The students were enthusiastic and excited about the material, and we hope to build this into a continuing event, drawing bright students into this exciting and growing field.

Dr. Lyle Muller

Western Academy Fellow

Theme 1 Leader