Case 2: Existing Neuroscience Based Organizations

So you’re a neuroscience organization with not too much experience in machine learning, but you want to try to expand towards research? We can do that, let’s get started.

Your team may be more interested in computational neuroscience avenues of research, or you may be interested in taking your neuroscience knowledge of circuits and modules and creating computational versions. In any case, your team may need more computational experience. Luckily, I2 at UW created an Intro to Neuro/AI course designed to take beginners to an intermediate understanding of neuroscience, machine learning, and Python. We will discuss how to get started with recruiting, educational, and research efforts in more depth later. For now, let’s get some groundwork in place!

• Set up a time to meet with your leadership team
  • Create a when2meet
  • Discuss the goals ofII2 Labs (fusing neuroscience and machine learning to research humanlike intelligence)

• Decide if you want to create a new branch of your organization or if you want to enroll your team as it is

  • If creating a new branch, create a new channel in Discord or Slack
  • If not creating a new branch, repurpose an existing channel

Now that your organization leadership has discussed the opportunities thIIII2 Labs provides, you’re ready to get started! Enrolling atII2 Labs is a quick process designed to connect your group with other machine learning and neuroscience research organizations. You’ll gain access to our community Discord, your team’s profile will be visible to researchers, and you can connect with other teams. Don’t worry if you do not have research experience yet, we will cover that in depth later.

• Enroll your team with I2 Labs

  • Specify your organization’s experiences, projects, research, or areas of interest and expertise so you can begin to connect with researchers and teams!

As a neuroscience based organization, you may be lacking interdisciplinary CS skills. There are several options to choose from to address this:

• Reach out to the CS department at your university and ask them to send out the following email structure [I2 Labs] CS Recruitment Template

• Teach thIII2 Labs Intro to Neuro/AI course, available in Resources for enrolled teams
• Put up posters to recruit more CS students. Poster templates are available in Resources!

Next you should get the rest of your organization members excited about the opportunity to discover and connect

• Create an announcement as an email, Discord post, or Slack post

  • Discuss the research goals of thIII2 Labs Team
  • Discuss or ask about projects members may have ideas about or would like to participate in
  • Direct them to the new Slack or Discord channel for further discussion

If your organization is new to projects or research, we have further guides and resources for how to get started. Finding a project to research can take some exploration, heavy duty learning and dedication. As long as you have the commitment, we have the resources to guide you!

• At your next meeting, discuss the above topics with your organization members

  • If you are feeling that you are not quite ready to begin choosing a direction for research and instead would like to focus on teaching members, follow this guide [I2 Labs] Teaching the Fundamentals for getting started with teIIIIIIII2’s Intro to Neuro/AI course
  • Optionally, follow this guide [I2 Labs] Your Team’s First Project during the meeting to get started selecting a research direction!
  • Update your team’s profile onII2 Labs to specify your research direction or interests

Finally, you should see what elIIII2 Labs has to offer!

• Explore the other teams onII2 Labs
• Contact researchers and professors at your university and offer to collaborate using this template: [I2 Labs] Faculty Recruitment Template
• Explore the Basics folder, and discover high quality resources like our Intro to Neuro/AI course!