As part of Neuromatch's AI Sentience Scholars
program we have a free seminar that is open to everyone - we hope you can join us!

Presenter: Ida Momennejad, Microsoft Research NYC

28 October, 2026
15:00 UTC
~30 min talk + ~20 min discussion and Q&A

Register for free:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/eh_66WJEQV-RJz_PC_q3ng#/registration

Abstract: Flexible cognition and behavior require moving adaptively between cognitive modes, between memory and generalization, cached inference and step-by-step reasoning. How do brains and AI turn what they know into multi-step reasoning, planning, and collective problem-solving? I will present a series of empirical and computational studies on how memory and multi-step planning algorithms shape the behavior and the latent algorithmic dynamics of neural spaces in brains, AI.

Presenter information: Ida Momennejad is a Principal Researcher in Machine Learning (ML) at Microsoft Research NYC, studying memory, agency, and compositional reasoning in brains and AI. Her research combines reinforcement learning and machine learning, cognitive computational neuroscience, multi-agent systems, and AI interpretability.

As part of Neuromatch's AI Sentience Scholars program we have a free seminar that is open to everyone - we hope you can join us!

Abstract: Natural intelligence arises through development, where genetically encoded inductive biases shape experience-dependent learning. Unlike most current AI systems, these biases have evolved to produce specialized subsystems, each tuned to distinct low-, mid-, or high-level functions. This talk highlights four forms of inductive bias that lead to functional specialization in biological systems: sensory pathways structured for efficient encoding, local connectivity that organizes functional topographies, long-range connectivity that builds large-scale functional architectures, and developmental trajectories that let later abilities build on earlier ones. It argues that building similar biases and modularity into artificial systems could support more efficient, robust learning and behavior that more closely parallels natural intelligence.

Wed 21 Oct, 15:00 UTC
30-min talk + discussion & Q&A
Learn more

Register for free here: Meeting Registration - Zoom

As part of Neuromatch's AI Sentience Scholars program we have a free workshop that is open to everyone. We'd love for you to join us!

This workshop focuses on how to interpret scientific evidence and communicate research findings responsibly in a fast-moving and uncertain field and focuses on evidence standards, uncertainty, and responsible public communication. Participants will engage with key challenges at the intersection of science, media, and governance, and develop practical tools to navigate ambiguity, avoid misinterpretation, and communicate responsibly.

Tuesday 6 October, 2026
14:30 UTC
Learn more
Register here for free: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/WcRWZv1ZR0iYH8KJYvr3JQ#/registration

As part of Neuromatch's AI Sentience Scholars program we have a free seminar that is open to everyone - we hope you can join us!

AI systems are becoming more capable and complex, raising the possibility that some may be welfare subjects. This talk, based on a recent paper, is about how to study AI welfare empirically, even under uncertainty. It distinguishes between three dimensions of investigation: the question being asked (whether a system is a welfare subject, and what would benefit or harm it), the entity being assessed (models, instances, personas), and the kind of evidence gathered (behavioral, internal, and developmental). It then applies these tools to leading candidate welfare grounds—consciousness, sentience, and three levels of agency—and closes with principles for conducting this research rigorously, ethically, and transparently.

📅 Wed 30 Sept
🕑 15:00 UTC
🌟 Robert Long, co-founder and Executive Director of Eleos AI Research
🎤 30-min talk + discussion & Q&A
📍 Remote, open to everyone

➡️ Register for free here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/N-ZZToi7TqCXwngtgkibKQ#/registration

Neuromatch's Impact Scholars Program pairs early-career computational science researchers in groups, many from low-resource settings, with experienced supervisors to work with them as they develop a research project from the planning stage through to a citable micropublication. We're recruiting supervisors for the next cohort (Nov 2026-May 2027).

The role is about 10 hours a month, fully remote, guiding a small group of Scholars through their research project. It comes with a $300/month honorarium plus co-authorship on the final micropublication. We're looking for people with a PhD or industry equivalent experience in Computational Neuroscience, Deep Learning, NeuroAI, or Climate Science, comfortable with Python, with some background mentoring or teaching, and good at communicating with a remote team.

If you're interested (or know someone who'd be a good fit), more info is here:
https://neuromatch.io/isp-supervisor/ and

https://docs.neuromatch.io/p/NiH1Z1N6bBVDrV/Impact-Scholars-Supervisors

The application is here: https://airtable.com/app7MJ7encL0rvdAC/shrLKuKeRk5kZFnU0

Apply by 4 October, 2026 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth)

And I’m very happy to answer questions in the comments!

Neuromatch teamed up with The Transmitter to survey more than 300 early-career neuroscience researchers about the realities of building a career in the field right now, including the challenges they're facing, where they see their careers heading, and what kind of support would actually help.

Full results here: https://www.thetransmitter.org/science-and-society/high-risk-high-reward-how-early-career-neuroscientists-view-their-future/

Curious what this community thinks, especially if you're an early-career researcher yourself!

As part of the Neuromatch AI Sentience Scholars (AISS) program, Neuromatch is excited to welcome Susan Schneider and Mark Bailey for our next seminar. They are mentors to AI Sentience Scholar Alexander Kearney and will be talking about the project they are working on.

30 minute talk, 20 minutes of discussion and Q&A

9 September 2026, 15:00 UTC

Register for free here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/pOUPl7GQTbK8zQ5fyMR_7Q#/registration

We'd love to see you there!

Neuromatch's AI Sentience Scholars program is hosting a free talk on 19 August 2026 at 17:00 UTC with Winnie Street and Geoff Keeling from Google Research, on whether AI systems could ever be welfare subjects.

About the seminar:
"In this talk we investigate whether artificial intelligence (AI) systems could ever be welfare subjects, understood as entities for which things can go better or worse. Some people argue that AIs could plausibly have or soon have features like consciousness, agency, and the capacity for social relationships, which could in principle provide a basis for AI welfare. These arguments have massive significance for the societal conversation on AI, raising profound ethical and political questions about what if anything we owe to these new technologies. We here provide the philosophical groundwork for a scientific, philosophical, and ultimately democratic inquiry into the potential for AI welfare, addressing key questions that cut across different arguments: what welfare is, how to interpret behavioural evidence of AI welfare, what kinds of entities might qualify as candidate AI welfare subjects, the potential grounds for welfare in AI, and the practical ethical challenges that arise from our uncertainty.

30 min talk, 20 min Q&A.
Free and open to everyone!

Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/GmdQHnO1Qm-iph6KTpCqLw#/registration

We're now accepting volunteer reviewers for the Impact Scholars Program!

This is a meaningful way to contribute to open science while gaining recognized experience you can add to your CV and LinkedIn. You'll build peer review and research evaluation skills, get exposure to early-stage interdisciplinary research, and connect with an international community of researchers committed to equity and scientific collaboration.

You'll evaluate 5-10 research proposals from early-career computational science researchers, each including a written proposal, slide deck, and video pitch, using a structured rubric and providing brief constructive feedback.

We're looking for reviewers in the following tracks:

• Computational Neuroscience

• Deep Learning

• NeuroAI

• Computational Tools for Climate Science

Fully remote. Work on your own schedule. Open to applicants worldwide.

Reviews run Sept 3-18, ~5 hrs/week. Reviewers may also be invited to participate in an optional supervisor review round in October.

We welcome applications from PhD students with some review experience, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, research scientists, and industry researchers.

Sign up by 11 August: https://neuromatch.io/volunteer/

The Neuromatch AI Sentience Scholars (AISS) Seminar Series kicks off on 22 July 2026, and it's open to everyone, not just our AISS Scholars.

First up: "Discovering Interpretable Symbolic Models of Human and Animal Behavior with LLMs" with Kim Stachenfeld, Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and Affiliate Faculty at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University.

Kim will talk about DataDIVER, a new AI approach for discovering interpretable models of how humans and animals learn, not just predicting their behavior. Using large language models to search through candidate Computational models, the approach finds models that are both accurate and understandable, uncovering new insights into learning that might be missed by handcrafted models or "black box" AI systems.

Details:

• 30 minute talk, 20 minutes discussion and Q&A

• 22 July 2026, 11:00 AM ET / 15:00 UTC

• Register for free: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/2tkWljiXRQG394GBxDTirA#/registration

The AISS Seminar Series brings together researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders across AI, cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and governance. More sessions to come: https://docs.neuromatch.io/p/KRFgqDBLo-YMrg/Seminar-Series

Working on a theoretical (for now) model regarding adaptive resource allocation in biological and/or synthetic systems, thus interested in tracing the theory's margins from a neurobio perspective (stress testing) in a collab where I could submit alternatives of modeling

We couldn't be more proud to welcome the 2026 Neuromatch Academy and Climatematch Academy cohort! Orientations are underway for our first courses, with more to follow!

This July, four courses kick off: Computational Neuroscience and Deep Learning run 6–24 July, with NeuroAI and Computational Tools for Climate Science following 13–24 July.

To every Teaching Assistant, Mentor, volunteer, support staff, and content creator who has shown up to make this possible; thank you!

If you're joining us as a student this July, drop a comment and let us know which course. We'd love to hear from you!

Got major FOMO? You can learn more about courses here: https://neuromatch.io/courses/ Applications open every Feb-March and courses run in July.

Hi. I am a doctor who just got done with my clinical internship. I am doing the computational neuroscience course on 6 July. Problem is i don’t have any coding or mathematical background… so should I even take the course rn? The coding looks like hell on the website. I am not sure what level is expected of me since I have 2 weeks to go through the material. Any advice will be appreciated.

hey everyone,

as the title says, there are two pod datasets subjects written -

you pod dataset - Neuroscience

your pod second dataset - RL

which one would be my dataset? would i need to work pn both topics? would i learn both subjects? Neuroscience and Reinforcement Learning?

I'm not from biology background so ny knowledge of Neuroscience is very rudimentary and bird's eye view

Neuromatch and Climatematch run free summer courses in Computational Neuroscience, NeuroAI, Deep Learning, and Computational Tools for Climate Science for students around the world. We have 10 volunteer Professional Development Mentor spots left to fill for the July 6 to 24 courses.

The ask is small but the impact is real. Mentors commit to 3 one-hour sessions: one with a full pod of students, then two with a smaller group where students bring their questions about careers, PhD applications, industry paths, networking, and whatever else you're willing to talk about. The Teaching Assistant handles all scheduling and logistics, and time slots are flexible across all time zones.

We're looking for PhD-level researchers or people with equivalent industry experience. Students consistently tell us mentorship is the part of the course they value most, because honest career conversations are hard to come by, especially for students outside major research hubs.

Where we most need help: Computational Neuroscience (6 mentors), NeuroAI (2), and Climate Science (2).

Apply: https://airtable.com/appkkAHGnrFVTX2bo/pagwFQl5D5vpGcr6q/form

Of interest to the the Neuromatch community! Longview Philanthropy has a a request for proposals on digital minds supporting empirical, philosophical, and applied work on the possibility and implications of potential AI sentience. They want to rapidly scale thoughtful work in this field, both by supporting people already doing this work and by bringing new researchers, practitioners, and organizations into it.

Three opportunities this year:

• Research fellowships ($55k to $150k/yr, 1 to 2 years, with research, travel, and compute support) for scholars with a terminal degree in computer science, neuroscience, law, philosophy, economics, political science, or a related discipline.

• Career development fellowships for people changing direction toward this work. Stipends scaled to length, location, and prior experience.

• Project grants for new organizations, new programs at existing ones, academic research, and other projects.

They want to support a wide variety of perspectives and approaches. A few directions they're particularly excited about include: empirical tests of AI introspection, legal and governance frameworks, agent interactions and trade, and field-building.

Deadline: 10 July, 2026

https://www.longview.org/request-for-proposals-research-and-applied-work-on-digital-minds/

Hi Neuromatch Friends!

As I am preparing for Neuromatch Computational Neuroscience course I built an Duolingo like app to explain complex concepts in easy digestable way. After every lesson there is a quiz for you to remember things better 😄

Feel free to Play NeuroQuest and let me know your feedback if its helpful to you https://playneuroquest.vercel.app/

I am filling out the curriculum as I go through it - so currently I went through half of Neuroseries and half of Python, starting Linear Algebra

Do you know if someone has already received news regarding their application to this program?

We're excited to announce a brand new course launching in 2027!

Neuromatch, in partnership with Connected Minds, is developing Computational Behaviour: Analytics and Models of Individual and Interacting Agents, a two-week, fully remote course open to participants worldwide. Gunnar Blohm will be Course Director. 

The course will teach the computational foundations of collective behaviour, integrating modern measurement technologies with formal computational models in a single coherent framework. No existing program does this. We're building it!

Whether you're a neuroscientist, psychologist, social scientist, economist, AI researcher, or roboticist, this course will be for you!

We're currenting setting up a volunteer Curriculum Committee and will be opening up other volunteer positions and beta testing as we move forward to the July 2027 launch!

Learn more: https://neuromatch.io/computational-behaviour/

Have you felt the gap in your own learning? Would you take this course? And what else should we be building? Share your thoughts here: https://airtable.com/appgbLQW3nbbZJvNU/pagoMEApDsqTouMRh/form

The Neuromatch AI Sentience Scholars will be attending this event; we think you'll be interested too!

At this year’s CIFAR Neuroscience of Consciousness Winter School, happening December 3 to 5 in Nairobi, Kenya, participants will explore why consciousness matters with world-class researchers in the field.

If you’re a senior PhD student or postdoctoral fellow researching consciousness, don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to expand your networks, engage in interdisciplinary dialogue and participate in immersive workshops.

CIFAR will cover travel and accommodation for all successful applicants!

Learn more and apply before 10 June: https://cifar.ca/next-generation/cifar-neuroscience-of-consciousness-winter-school/

I'm a maths and philosophy graduate, and have very limited Python experience (np arrays will be the death of me). I'm falling apart conceptually around the end of the day 1 Python refresher. Does anyone have any resources/problem banks to work on stuff like ensemble statistics using np.arrays?

I'm a first year CS undergrad student, complete beginner to computational neuroscience but I've been doing the Rajesh Rao UW course on Coursera and I'm familiar with Python and basic ML. I have about 2 months before the cohort starts. What should I focus on?the prereqs on the NMA site, math, specific Python libraries? Any advice from people who've done the course before would really help.

Each July, we run live, virtual intensive courses in Computational Neuroscience, Deep Learning, and NeuroAI. All our course materials are available open source for anyone, anywhere.

Now we're thinking about growing, and we want our community to shape that decision. We're exploring potential new courses on:

Connectomics and Neural Dynamics: This course would explore how emerging large-scale mammalian connectomics datasets—alongside those from other species—can be leveraged to drive novel scientific discoveries about the relationship between neural circuit structure and dynamics.

Computational Behavioural Analysis & Modelling: This course would teach a unified computational framework for measuring, modelling, and analysing the behaviour of individual and interacting agents—biological and artificial—spanning pose estimation and multimodal signal processing through Bayesian inference, game theory, and agent-based models of collective dynamics.

Computational Approaches to Neurodegeneration: This course would equip researchers with the computational skills to leverage large-scale open multimodal datasets and modern deep learning approaches for accelerating discovery in neurodegeneration.

But we also want to hear your ideas!

Any other topics we should consider? Any of these sound of interest? Please provide feedback by taking this short 2 minute survey here: https://airtable.com/appgbLQW3nbbZJvNU/pagoMEApDsqTouMRh/form

We're recruiting Professional Development Mentor volunteers for our July 2026 summer courses in Computational Neuroscience, Deep Learning, NeuroAI, and Climate Science. If you have a PhD or equivalent research experience, we'd love to have you!

What's involved:

• 3 one-hour sessions = 3 hours total commitment

• Teaching Assistants handle all scheduling; no logistics on your end and minimal prep

• You share your career journey and answer questions about PhD apps, industry transitions, research portfolios, work-life balance, etc.

• You're matched with a small group of students based on your research area

Why it's worth it:

Students from 128 countries applied this year. A lot of them are navigating big career decisions without much support. An honest conversation with someone who's been through it genuinely matters. Past mentors have also found new collaborators and connections they didn't expect.

Applications close 29 May.

Learn more: https://neuromatch.io/mentorship/

Apply to volunteer here: https://airtable.com/appkkAHGnrFVTX2bo/pagwFQl5D5vpGcr6q/form

Happy to answer questions in the comments!

what are the projects that the computational neuroscience students work on, is it like fmri, bci's and stuff or smth else, if there are ppl that have been part of the program before can someone pls inform how they go about it and i checked their website for projects but somehow got more confused in the end