Milestones, Promises and Pitfalls

Course manual 2021/2022

Course content

This course is the kick-off of the research master Brain and Cognitive Sciences (MBCS). It's an intensive week that showcases the field, has you think about the future of neuroscience and cognitive science and prepares you to start the first year of your new programme.

An important element of MBCS is interdisciplinarity (integrating insights from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, cell biology and more). While MBCS students are trained to become experts in their field of choice, they are also stimulated and trained to interact with each other and recognize important features of each others field.

In this course, renowned researchers will give their perspective on earlier breakthroughs in their field (Milestones), where the field (might/will) be in 10 years (Promises) and what the challenges (Pitfalls) have been so far. 

Objectives

• describe the challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary research within the broad field of brain and cognitive sciences
• discuss the strengths, the difficulties, the main achievements, and the main promises for future research in this field
• articulate ethical considerations facing today's researchers
• speculate about future directions of the field

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Self-study
• Presentation/symposium
• Seminar

Lectures and practical assignments

Learning activities

Attendance

Requirements of the programme concerning attendance (OER-B):

1. In the case of practicals, the student must attend at least 80%. Should the student attend less than 80%, he/she must redo the practical, or the Examinations Board may have one or more supplementary assignments issued.
2. In the case of study-group sessions with assignments, the student must attend at least 80% of the study-group sessions. Should the student attend less than 80%, he/she must redo the study group, or the Examinations Board may have one or more supplementary assignments issued.

Assessment

Inspection of assessed work

Contact the course coordinator to make an appointment for inspection.

Assignments

Future Scenario

• The student proposes (interdisciplinary) research that will further the field in the future

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

First-year Brain and Cognitive Sciences master students are automatically registered to participate in this course.

Last year's course evaluation

In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. H.J. Krugers