The goals of this course are to give the students a basic understanding of the techniques used for coupling an experiment to a computer. It will include some basic electronics, data aquisition techniques, data analysis techniques, scientific graphics, and perhaps modeling.

The approach will include:

• Practical laboratory exercises writing programs in a scientific computer language.
• Analytical techniques designed for the math background typical in biology.
• Specific examples drawn from practical neurobiological problems.

The course is a lecture/lab format. There will be weekly homework assignments and weekly lab assignments. The lecture/homework material will emphisize practical programming examples relevant to neurobiology. The labs will demonstrate various electronic and programming principles. Later in the semester, the labs will focus on construction of 'virtual instruments'.

Topics

The topics shown are probably more than can be covered in one semester, so there will be some selection of topics depending on the interests of the class. The topics are not arranged in chronological order, but rather in some logical (to me) grouping.

• Basic electronics and Instrumentation
  • the neuron as a circuit
  • amplifiers and filters
  • noise sources
  • stimulus generators
  • voltage clamp
• Data Acqusition/reduction
  • Getting the analog world into and out of a digital computer -- A/D and D/A conversion
  • Building a graphic user interface
  • Digital filters and DSP
  • Event detection and counting
  • Visualization/graphics
  • Network instrument interfaces
• Modeling
  • numerical methods and iterative solutions
  • Finite Difference equations
  • PDEs
• Technologies
  • Matlab -- high level scientific language
  • FPGA -- hardware lab on a chip
  • microcontrollers -- cheap, fast data handlers
  • PC type machines -- crunch machines