The MSNE Project Week is a five-day event being curated by a group of sophomore MSNE students, supported by faculty members and alumni. This week was planned to be a combination of talks, workshops, and social events to encourage the onboarding of the new batch of MSNE students. The goal is to foster networking and inspiration as the new students start their journey into graduate studies at TUM.
The MSNE project week at TUM (October 18-22, 2021) is a student-initiated event addressing the newly enrolled students in the MSNE program, through a series of talks, workshops and social events tailored around Neuroengineering. This event provided a great beginning for the students by establishing discussions and hands-on workshops, as well as providing space for communication between different cohorts of students and alumni.
MSNE Program Director Assistant Professor Kristen Kozielski (TUM) welcomed all guests and started the main session by talking about the cutting-edge technologies of magnetoelectric nano-materials for wireless neuronal modulation. Talks by MSNE-Alumni gave valuable insight into the interdisciplinarity of Neuroengineering. Isabelle Hoxha held a presentation on neuroscience and mathematics and directed a hands-on tutorial about the brain analysis and behavioral recordings. Steffen Schneider presented his findings on “Adaptation & Robustness of Computer Vision Models” and guided the group through a hands-on tutorial on machine learning engineering for researchers.
Furthermore, students learned about social and ethical concerns in Neuroengineering and took part in a hands-on tutorial in electronics where they designed and assembled electronic circuits; an exposure that will be very beneficial for the new students in their first semester, given their different backgrounds.
The program also included lab visits: The Jacob Laboratory: Translational Neurotechnology lab (Professor Simon Jacob), the PainLabMunich (Professor Markus Ploner), Neuroelectronics lab (Prof. Bernhard Wolfrum) and Bio-Inspired Information Processing lab (Prof. Werner Hemmert).
Guest speakers provided a wider insight about research topics, tools, and the industrial applications of Neuroengineering. Yulia Sandamirskaya from Intel Labs (Munich) discussed neuromorphic computing technology. Researchers at BrainLab AG introduced their work and products through a digital in-house visit. Dr. Kathrin Kugler from MathWorks GmbH presented software simulation tools and a case study in Neuroengineering. The project week of the Elite Graduate Program "Neuroengineering" was complemented by social activities such as shared lunches at the TUM canteen, and a scavenger hunt activity, designed so that the new students could explore Munich in a fun and competitive way.
Text: Mohamad Issa, Pia Eckert, Florian Rattei; Elite Graduate Program "Neuroengineering"
