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The goal of this program is to attract a select group of students to engage in undergraduate research in the area of computational neuroscience. This program involves yearlong participation in research and requires completion of certain coursework (detailed below) before the end of the fellow’s senior year. In return, the program provides a stipend of approximately $11,000 for the year, plus the possibility of travel funds to attend meetings and workshops. Successful applicants may petition for a second year of funding.  The program is open to any student who will be enrolled at ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV or Pitt for duration of the fellowship.

Faculty Nomination Required

Students cannot apply directly to this fellowship. All applications must be submitted by a faculty mentor. If you are a student interested in this program, please follow the steps below to secure a nomination.

Fellowship Application Process

Nominations will be solicited from faculty each year. Contact Steven Chase at Carnegie Mellon or Gelsy Torres-Oviedo at the University of Pittsburgh for more information. To apply to the program, fellowship applicants need to be nominated by a faculty mentor as follows:

1. Identify a Mentor: The student contacts a potential faculty mentor to discuss and agree upon a specific research project.
2. Student Preparation: The student prepares and sends to their prospective faculty mentor:
   • Project Description: A one-paragraph summary of the intended research.
   • Course Plan: A description of the plan to complete fellowship course requirements (listed below).
   • Academic Transcript: A current copy of the student's transcript.
   • Resume: An up-to-date CV or resume.
3. Faculty Submission: Once the mentor approves the materials, the faculty member must email the nomination and all attached documents from Step 2 to Steven Chase and Gelsy Torres-Oviedo.

Research requirement

In addition to working in the lab during the summer, fellows are expected to participate in the summer program and attend a series of computational neuroscience lectures with the students in the Neural Computation Summer Program.  Fellows are expected to work for 10 weeks in the summer full time, and to be in town during the entire period of the summer program.  A small shift in schedule is allowed contingent on approval of the fellow’s mentor. Continuation of a fellowship is contingent on satisfactory research progress each semester.  There are three milestones in the fellowship program: (1) A 6-page report is expected from fellows describing research progress at the end of summer. (2) In January, fellows are expected to give a presentation of their research progress to the group of fellows. (3) By May, fellows are expected to submit a 10-page paper, in J. Neuroscience format, that has received their mentor’s approval.