What is the Canadian Computational Neuroscience Spotlight (CCNS)?

The Canadian Computational Neuroscience Spotlight (CCNS) was created following the mass cancellations and postponements of traditional neuroscience conferences during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, including two such meetings amongst the Canadian neuroscience community. The absence of these meetings presented an opportunity to create a brand-new, entirely virtual academic meeting that could take full advantage of the online setting. Given that traditionally-defined trainees and early-career researchers were arguably most impacted by the cancellation of the networking and learning opportunities that conferences present, CCNS was designed as a “trainee-focused” meeting, highlighted by tutorial talks beginning each session, panel discussions with both established and early-career scientists, and a spotlight on trainee presentations.

The first edition of CCNS was planned and implemented entirely in ten weeks and yielded a meeting with more than 450 registrants, including representation from every continent across the globe. CCNSv2 and CCNSv3 built on this success in the following years, incorporating invited session chairs and highlighted trainee talks and eclipsing as many as 500 registrants. Perhaps most importantly, the limited costs of the virtual setting allowed these meetings to be completely free of charge for all attendees. Every element of these meetings remain available for replay online, another benefit of the virtual setting. This success served as the impetus for making CCNS a recurring academic meeting.

Going forward, CCNS will continue to highlight cutting-edge computational neuroscience research, both in Canada and around the world, while providing unique learning, networking, and presentation opportunities for trainees and early-career researchers. The meeting is committed to remaining cost-accessible to the entire academic community, using the virtual setting to maximize accessibility for populations for which physical conferences present a challenge, and maintaining a diverse lineup of speakers during its continued evolution.

This year, CCNS will be a “sibling meeting” to the Krembil Computational Neuroscience Symposium taking place (in person in Toronto) on October 2-3. Taking place the same week (October 5-6), CCNS will capitalize on this momentum in the Canadian computational neuroscience community with an even stronger emphasis on trainee engagement, including workshop-style sessions and more opportunity for spotlighted trainee talks.

CCNS will include three keynote addresses from world-class computational neuroscientists. Our continuing “trainee focus” will include more opportunities for spotlighted trainee talks alongside additional parallel sessions. Like each previous CCNS, the meeting will be entirely virtual, allowing for zero registration costs and material that is available online for replay indefinitely.

CCNSv4's three keynote speakers, Dr. Rick Adams, Dr. Jeremie Lefebvre, and Dr. Sarah Muldoon, are confirmed. Members of the organizing committee will compliment these keynote addresses with “workshop-style” sessions to provide hands-on experience in related topics. The remaining talks will be from selected trainees.

The list of speakers and meeting schedule will be updated at ccnsmeeting.ca on a rolling basis.

I want to give a trainee talk! What should I do?

We invite trainees to submit abstracts for talks covering any subject falling under the broad banner of computational neuroscience. To do so, fill out this Google Form. We anticipate all submissions that reasonably fall under the broad banner of "computational neuroscience" will be accepted unless the demand far exceeds our expectations.

Submissions before September 1 at 5 pm EDT will be considered for longer “spotlight” presentations, with preference given to topics that compliment the topics of our keynote speakers (computational study of epilepsy, psychiatry, myelin, and the stability/resilience of neuronal circuits). The exact length of the talks will depend on demand and be established when our schedule is finalized, no later than September 18.

Wait, do I have to be Canadian to attend or present?

This meeting was first designed as a “Canadian” spotlight event considering the COVID-19 related cancellations or postponements of many neuroscience meetings in Canada specifically. However, the meeting quickly grew to not only include an international group of speakers, but also attendees from across the globe. As such, while we endeavor to shine a spotlight on the burgeoning computational neuroscience community within Canada, this meeting is designed for an international audience, and everyone is encouraged to register and apply for trainee talks.

We are excited to see you at the fourth Canadian Computational Neuroscience Spotlight!

Scott Rich, Ph.D. Research Fellow, SickKids Research Institute.

Andreea Diaconescu, Ph.D. Independent Scientist, Krembil Center for Neuroinformatics at CAMH.

John Griffiths, Ph.D. Independent Scientist, Krembil Center for Neuroinformatics at CAMH.

Canadian Computational Neuroscience Spotlight v4