2023 Summer School

Call for Participation

The University of California, San Diego, the University of Oslo, and Simula Research Laboratory host the 9th annual Joint Summer School in Computational Physiology 2023:

Focus: Models, Tools, and Techniques for Excitable Tissues

Location: Oslo, Norway (19- 30 June 2023) and San Diego, CA, USA (7-15 August 2023)

Application deadline: 14 February 2023.

For more information about applying, click here.

Motivation and description

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has promoted long-standing research collaborations with the University of Oslo (UiO) and Simula Research Laboratory (Simula), focused on multiple aspects of computational physiology. This joint summer school, now in its 8th year, has emerged based on the complementary expertise and shared educational goals of these three institutions.

The core goal of the summer school is to promote successful research collaboration between the host institutions, with particular emphasis on the training of excellent Ph.D. candidates.

This school includes both targeted research lectures and a practical project component. The lectures will be conducted over 2 weeks in Oslo from 19 - 30 June. In the final two days of this Oslo period (29 - 30 June), students will be assigned and begin working together with a supervisor and several other students on a group research project in their area of interest. They will write up the project methods and results in student reports during the second half of the school, which will be held in San Diego from 7-15 August. The written report has the potential to be published in a Simula SpringerBrief: Reports on Computational Physiology anthology following the end of the course.

The material covered by this summer school will focus on fundamental principles of mathematical modeling in electrophysiology and biomechanics. Specifically, the lectures will address cellular and subcellular biophysical processes responsible for electrical activation in cardiac muscle cells and neurons, frameworks for tissue scale electrical signal propagation, and cellular- and tissue-level contractile mechanics in the heart. Since the final part of the course will be a small research project, the students will also be introduced to the required materials and use numerical methods and software tools for computational modeling based on differential equations.

The summer school is tailored to interest first- and second-year Ph.D. students and MSc students; students from third-party institutions, as well as both host Universities, are encouraged to apply.

Course enrollment will be limited. Simula offers travel grants to all accepted applicants, designed to cover major costs associated with travel to/from Oslo and/or San Diego. Accommodation will also be provided free of charge. (Note: students should expect to cover the cost of some of their meals, as well as any leisure activities or travel).