UPDATE: Psychology 640/EECS 695: Neural Models

I emailed Leeann Fu, who co-taught the Neural Models class the first time and is still teaching it, apparently. And, thankfully. She replied to my email and sent me the 17-page syllabus, as well as suggesting 3 books I might be interested in reading. Here they are:

Vehicles“, by Valentino Braitenberg.
Gut Feelings“, by Gerd Gigerenzer. Leeann said, “Steve Kaplan added this as a textbook the last time he taught his Cognitive Functioning class”.
Stumbling on Happiness“, by Daniel Gilbert. Coincidentally, I just saw the TED talk where Gilbert asks, “What Makes Us Happy?”
On Intelligence“, Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky and Dileep George.

Meanwhile, there are so many articles in the syllabus, it would be hell to find them all online…well, maybe not. I am a student, after all.

Anyway, to save myself the trouble, I’m going to see if the copy center in Ann Arbor will be willing to send the course pack to NYC. Hopefully, more updates to come!

Psychology 640/EECS 695: Neural Models

In the Winter Semester, 2005 at the University of Michigan, I signed up for this interdisciplinary class between Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the Psychology department call Neural Models. Due to the anxiety of figuring out my final semester before graduation (I think?), I missed one day of class. Unfortunately, the structure of the class meant that missing just one day put me so behind in the course reading that it would have been impossible for me to catch up. That’s actually what the professor told us on Day 2. I don’t remember what my other classes were, but I don’t think it they were at all non-trivial in the amount of work required, so it would actually have been quite impossible to catch up. But, I’ve kind of regretted not being in that class since then, since understanding the chemistry of the brain is quite a fascinating subject. The good news is that Part I of the, yes, three-part course pack is posted on their website. So, if desired, I’m certainly at liberty to look into the reading. I think I will. And to justify cutting into the non-existent extra time in my schedule, I’ll call it something, innocuous, yet ridiculous like “Neural Design: Primary Chemical Processes and Digital Design for Tactile Environmental Change”. Actually, maybe what I could do is email the professor, assuming he’s not retired, and ask for literary sources. It’s faster than hunting down all the reading materials on the ACM.