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  built on this success, incorporating invited session chairs and highlighted trainee talks, eclipsing 500 registrants. Perhaps most importantly, the limited costs of the virtual setting allowed both iterations of the meeting 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 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.

CCNSv3 will incorporate the "best of both worlds" from our previous two iterations. Two of our four themed sessions will be chaired by external invitees, while the other two will be led by members of the organizing committee.

CCNS will remain a "trainee focused" meeting, highlighted by tutorial talks beginning each session. These talks will introduce a vital topic or tool that will be of import in the following research talks to the broad CCNS audience.  This trainee focus will also be seen in our parallel "trainee talk" sessions and the return of "highlighted" trainee presentations. The Panel Discussion will also return and be a highlight of Day 2.

Who are the session chairs, and who is speaking?

Our invited session chairs are Dr. Alexandra Chatzikalymniou of Stanford University and Dr. Randy McIntosh of Simon Fraser University. Dr. Chatzikalymniou will chair a session focused on neural circuit modeling, while Dr. McIntosh will chair a session on large-scale brain modeling.

In addition, Dr. Milad Lankarany will chair a session focused on Neuro-AI, and Drs. Andreea Diaconescu and Povilas Karvelis will co-chair a session on cognitive modeling.

The list of speakers and meeting schedule is currently being populated, and 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. Talks will be 7 minutes (with 3 minutes for questions). Four submissions that are both the most meritorious and best correspond with the themes of our sessions will be offered a longer, "spotlight" presentation.

Wait, do I have to be Canadian to attend?

This meeting was first designed as a “Canadian” spotlight event considering the COVID-19 related cancellations or postponements of many neuroscience meetings in our country. 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.

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

Scott Rich, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Krembil Research Institute.

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

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

Milad Lankarany, Ph.D. Scientist, Krembil Research Institute.

Canadian Computational Neuroscience Spotlight

Canadian Computational Neuroscience Spotlight v3

Concluding Remarks

Parallel Trainee Talks: Room 2

Parallel Trainee Talks: Room 3