Course offered autumn semester in 2022. The target group are master students in Cognitive Science, Computer Science and Bioinformatics, Physics, and students from the master's program at the GTC. If you are a bachelor student, or if you are from other study programs, you are highly welcome if you have sufficient background knowledge. Background knowledge in vision science and mathematical skills in linear algebra and statistics will be helpful for this course but not absolutely necessary. Contact the instructor at li.zhaoping@tuebingen.mpg.de with a description of your background (e.g., your transcript) if you like to know whether this course is suitable for you.
Course title: "How does vision work? Insights from theory, models, and data"
Course Description: This course has three components:
(1) Students read the textbook "Understanding vision: theory, models, and data" (see https://www.lizhaoping.org/zhaoping/VisionBook.html ), and some supplementary reading materials that in quantity are no more than 10-20% of the book. To help students digest the textbook and reading materials, students are required to complete an online course (built from the content in the textbook and the supplementary reading materials) at
https://zhaoping.thinkific.com/
This online course is composed of short video segments (each several minutes long) and simple quizzes. The total amount of video time is about 15 hours. Students are likely to find it easier to follow the videos and take the quizzes while using the textbook for additional content. This online course is being built now and should be completed around 15, September, 2022, and by October 1st, 2022.
(2) After (1), students attend a block event, scheduled as
November 18, Friday, 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
November 19, Saturday, 9 am - 12 noon, & 1:30 pm -- 5:30 pm
November 26, Saturday, 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Please note that completion of (1) is required before this block event. During the block event, each student is required to give one presentation, listen to the other presentations and participate in the discussions. Based on the materials in (1), there will be about 4-5 general topics for the presentations, these topics will be evenly distributed among the students so that each topic will be presented by roughly the same number of students. Students should sign up for these topics while doing (1).
(3) After (2), each student is required to write one term paper about 5-10 pages long. The term paper can be on one of the presentation topics in (2), it can also combine multiple topics in (2), and it can also be on the same topic as the topic presented by the student.
Grading of the course: The course is worth 3 ETC credits. The grade will be based on the presentation in (2) and term paper in (3). Full attendance in (2) is required to get the credits. Active participation in the discussion in (2) is expected and encouraged although not graded. The course can be taken on a graded or a pass-fail basis.
Important constraints for course availability: a minimum of 4-5 students are needed to sign up for this course for this course to take place. The course has a maximum capacity of 30 students.
To sign up for the course, please use ALMA. Each student, after signing up, will be contacted to be provided with updated information regarding the course, such as a course website, channels for communication and Q &A especially during (1), and discussion channels, information and updates about the online course component, and the location for the block event.
Location for the block event in November: to be decided, but it is most likely to be in a seminar room in the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.