[CTN] CTN Seminar - Eva Dyer - today, 3:30 p.m.

[Sue Ann Campbell]

Just a reminder of the CTN seminar by Eva Dyer from Georgia Tech today at 3:30 p.m. in E5 2004.

Title: Scaling Up Neural Data Pretraining to Uncover Shared Structure in Brain Function

Abstract: The brain is incredibly complex, with diverse functions that emerge from the coordinated activity of billions of neurons. These functions vary across brain regions and adapt dynamically as we engage in different tasks, process sensory information, or generate behavior. Yet, each neural recording captures only a small glimpse of this immense complexity, offering a limited view of the broader system. This motivates the need for an algorithmic approach to stitch together diverse datasets, integrating neural activity across brain regions, cell types, and individuals. In this talk, I will present our work on building scalable models pretrained on a broad corpus of neural recordings. Our findings demonstrate positive transfer across tasks, cell types, and individuals, effectively bridging gaps between isolated studies. This unified framework opens new possibilities for neural decoding, brain-machine interfaces, and cross-species neuroscience, offering a path toward more generalizable models of brain function.
About the speaker: Prof. Dyer’s research interests lie at the intersection of machine learning, optimization, and neuroscience. Her lab develops computational methods for discovering principles that govern the organization and structure of the brain, as well as methods for integrating multi-modal datasets to reveal the link between neural structure and function. More information about her work can be found at her lab webpage<https://dyerlab.gatech.edu/>.

Regards,

Sue Ann


_______________________________________________


Dr. Sue Ann Campbell (she/her)

Professor and University Research Chair

Department of Applied Mathematics & Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience<https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/>

Associate Dean, Research, Faculty of Mathematics

University of Waterloo

Waterloo ON N2L 3G1

https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~sacampbe/

President, Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society<https://caims.ca/>


I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of the Chonnonton, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo main campus is located on the Haldimand tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.

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