You don’t have to be a mathematician in order to understand and successfully use math. We use math every day in many aspects of our daily life. From chatting on the cell phone to making a frequency histogram or buying online with a credit card, we use math (and quite a complicated math indeed).

Realize that in Science, math is just the best language we can use in order to describe how Nature works. Understanding the mathematical description of natural phenomena (such as an action potential) allows a profound insight in a clear and straightforward way. Some of the more powerful examples are the Hodgkin-Huxley model of the action potential, Rall’s cable theory of neuronal dendrites and Hebbian-based plasticity rules. In all these cases, profound insights into the neural mechanism have sprung from theory- and math-based research

No! Absolutely no! Although (of course) any prior experience in computer programming may come in handy. Programming languages are like any other human language, just better. In fact, concerning any human language, programming languages have a limited vocabulary with a very clear semantic, a strict syntax, an efficient error checking system, and are (therefore) much easier to learn.

During the School, we will mostly use Python as a programming language. Python is an interpreted, object-oriented programming language, and (as of today) is one of the best platforms for scientific computing. Further, since Python is a general-purpose programming language, once you have learned it you will have in your hands an excellent tool for various projects.

Of course, you can! However, you will have your workstation to work on during the School.

Yes! We plan to visit some interesting places near Pula, among which the Archaeological site of NORA, and (weather permitting) the famous Porto Flavia