BU MA665 + MA666 (Fall 2025)

MA665

Introduction

• Read the syllabus
• Read: Wilson et al, Good enough practices in scientific computing, 2017
• Read: Riquelme and Gjorgjieva, Towards readable code in neuroscience, 2021
• Code: Set up ChatGPT
• Please confirm you can complete the items in Introduction to Python
• Advanced: 100 numpy exercises
• Advanced: Beautiful, Idiomatic Python

Integrate & Fire Neuron

• Read: Abbott, Brain Res Bull, 1999.
• Read: Chapter 1, pages 5-12 @ C. Koch, Biophysics of computation, 1998.
• Lecture Slides
• Code: Integrate & Fire Neuron in Python

Hodgkin-Huxley Neuron

• Read: Chapter 2, pages 25-42 @ E. Izhikevich, Dynamical Systems in Neuroscience, 2007.
• Read: Hodgkin-Huxley 1-page cheat sheet
• Advanced: Hodgkin and Huxley, J Physiol, 1952.
• Lecture Slides
• Code: Hodgkin-Huxley Neuron in Python

Perceptron

• Read: Electronic Brain Teaches Itself, New York Times, 13 July 1958
• Read: Perceptron Tested for Photo Analysis, Aviation Weekly, 1961
• Read: Undercover Algorithm, O’Connor, 2022
• Lecture Slides
• Code: Training a Perceptron in Python

Backpropagation

• Read: Lee or Delusions of Artificial Intelligence, 2023
• Watch: Inside an artificial brain
• Lecture Slides
• Code: Backpropagation in a Simple Neural Network in Python

Regression

• Read: Chapter 3 of An Introduction to Statistical Learning (Free via BU Library)
• Lecture Slides
• Code: Regression Example in Python