| Category | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Quizzes | 2-4 |
| Exams | 4 |
| Projects | 3 |
18-690 is a course crosslisted in the Biomedical Engineering department (42-630) and is typically offered in the Spring semester and taught by Prof. Linda Moya. As the name suggests, this course serves as an introduction to the study of neuroscience. The first half of the course mainly deals with rudimentary neuroscience material - from the cellular level to the structure and function of the central nervous system (CNS) vis-à-vis the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and include a study of basic neurophysiology. The second half of the course, because this course is for engineers, after all, focuses on neurotechnology and neuroengineering methods - with a focus on standard diagnostic techniques related to MRI and EEG as well as treatments such as Deep Brain Stimulation.
First Half of Course -> Neurophysiology:
- Neurons and Synapses
- Central Nervous System (CNS) vis-à-vis Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
- Motor and Somatosensory Systems and Pathways, Pain
- Autonomic-Hypothalamic-Limbic Systems
- Vision, Hearing and Sound, Taste, Smell, Memory
- Neuronal Circuits and Plasticity
Second Half of Course -> Neuroengineering:
- Cochlear Implants
- BCIs & Neural signal processing
- Neuromodulation
- Electrophysiology (MEG & EEG) & Seizure Prediction
- Neural modeling
- fMRI / MRI and causal connectivity analysis
This course does not have homeworks per se, rather there are weekly quizzes on lecture material for which you are highly recommended to make your own notesheet (one page - double sided). There are midterm and final exams that are basically structured as giant, cumulative quizzes. Additionally, there is a group project in which a small group of 3 students each prepare presentations on a specific neurotechnology (Cochlear Implants, Deep Brain Stimulation, Brain-Computer Interfaces) to be presented to the class as these topics are taught in the second half of the semester. There also are a few guest lectures to highlight the forefront of neuroscience research at CMU and Pitt and to directly correlate course learnings to up and coming research.
One does not have to have any prior biology, neuroscience knowledge in this course.
As each lecture tends to cover a great deal of information, preparing cheat sheets (and holding onto them for midterm and final exams) as well as referring to the course textbooks are quite helpful.
The structure of the group projects are typically flexible, so your group can make smaller contributions over a longer period of time.