Sharing my experience of the ETH/UZH Neural Systems Computation Masters

I frequently receive messages on LinkedIn or Twitter to share my experience of the Neural Systems Computation (NSC) master’s program, so I decided to write a little blog post to share it with everyone. Disclaimer: I’m rather biased in my judgment — I am still at the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI), but now as a PhD student.

I won’t be getting into the details of the program in this blog post, as everything is already explained here. Rather, I’ll share some of my perspectives on things I liked and disliked in the program.

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NSC’s Home Institution - INI

The NSC program is run by the Institute of Neuroinformatics, which is located in the beautiful Irchel Park, home of the University of Zurich’s Science campus. The walk through Irchel Park that you’ll get to do every day to get to INI, through the changing seasons, is a privilege in itself — a “commute” unlike others.

INI was established between the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich at the end of 1995. The mission of the Institute is to discover the key principles by which brains work and to implement these in artificial systems that interact intelligently with the real world: INI’s research focus, while varying greatly from one group leader to another, is still aligned with the initial mission.

INI is a special place — a weird and unusual combination of warmth, kindness, chaos, and intellect. INI is unlike your typical scientific department office floor — it’s full of frames and pictures on the wall, celebrating scientists giants of the past, scientific ideas, and milestone moments of the institute. It is a very social institute, with several events organized, such as the colloquium talk followed by an apero every friday evening, the book club, or drinks for Masters and PhD students every Wednesday evening. Maybe you will be the driving force behind new social traditions at INI?

The NSC Program

The NSC program is a 90-credit program that students typically complete within 2 years, with some crazy students managing in as quickly as 1 year and other tranquille ones in 3 years. You must take the 45 credits worth of classes, and complete 45 credits worth of projects, and you’re good to go, and you do so at your own pace.

The way you arrange your 45 credits worth of classes is largely free, although you do have some requirements such as the “Readings in Neuroinformatics” or “Basics of Instrumentation” classes. Students have access to realistically (as long as it’s somewhat related to the aims of the masters — and that’s not hard to justify) all of UZH and ETH science classes — that’s A LOT of options. In effect, no students have the same path in the program, and some students end up having their highest focus in fundamental mathematics or even chemistry. After all — all of these core sciences are fundamental to our understanding of the brain.

Another great thing about NSC is that you are not in any way limited in the number of courses you take. The only (approximate) limitation is that you have three years to complete the program and graduate — leaving you ample time to do a lot of things.

Through time, every student ends up diverging into a unique path of their own, sometimes very different from other students of the program, albeit always with a common denominator: the brain. This interdisciplinarity and multiplicity in perspectives are deeply embedded into INI’s history and mission: “discovering the key principles by which brains work and implement these in artificial systems that interact intelligently with the real world.”

NSC Projects

Project work will be the most important part of your master’s (and cover the other 45 ECTS you should complete). You have a choice between doing 2 short projects and a short thesis, or directly a long thesis. In terms of duration, expect the following:

• Short project: 2–3 months long, usually working 2–3 days a week. 9 ECTS each
• Short thesis: 6 months long — deadline decided at the start of the project. Work as much as you can. 27 ECTS
• Long thesis: 9 months long — deadline decided at the start of the project. Work as much as you can. 45 ECTS

There is a lot of diversity at INI when it comes to the projects you can pursue — just have a look at the different research happening in the various INI research groups to get a feel of this.

INI makes it a bit annoying to do projects “externally” from INI. This makes sense as the program is obviously run to recruit researchers for INI, and that starts with short projects and thesis work. That being said, there are so many different outside collaborations from INI professors — they most often are happy to send you to a partner lab or company, and also allow you to go pursue things on your own.

Tips to do well in the program

I recommend students devote their first year to taking courses, especially the harder ones. Your patience for studying for exams will go down as a function of time, and your eagerness to do research will grow. Explore and take as many classes as you can in the first two semesters, and dedicate the rest of your time to doing practically only project work.

Doing two different semester projects can be a good idea if you are unsure what to dedicate your thesis to or who you’d best like to work with. You always have the option of extending a short project into a thesis if you are certain this is the right project for you.

If you can, don’t rush into finishing, producing good science requires time, and openness to the world of ideas. Take the time to explore.

Social life

Another key component of doing well in this program is to take advantage of its community. NSC is a very small program, with about 5–10 students coming in every semester (out of ~250 applicants!) from all areas of the world. You should get to know everyone. You might not realize it, but that will help you become a better scientist. The NSC students are especially lucky since they have an entire room of the lab that is dedicated to them. The “Masters room” is an amazing place where you’ll get to work surrounded by other students of the program, and where you’ll make great friends. This is where all the fun and bonding happens, when suffering together through project work or exam revision. I have had some of the most amazing work days moments in that room, laughing hard and discussing fascinating things.

Don’t limite your socializing to NSC students, PhD students, professors, staff are all extremely nice and welcoming, and most often physically present. People at INI are often insanely nice, and the vibe is super super cool. No one will go chase you and ask you to hang out, just be around INI, go to lunch with people, and do some effort to bring people together.

How to get in?

INI, although it’s unlike most masters programs I know of, is actually just like most masters programs I know of when it comes to applications. The committee seeks:

• Motivated students, who understand and truly value what they are applying for and show that this application is not only one amongst many.
• Talented students, with great track record of academic or industry experience and performance.
• Recommended students, who have worked with serious people who can testify of students’ ability to do work.

Before you ask, I’ll answer some frequent questions:

• Some students with average grades got into the program, because they had great project work or an academic paper out. At the same time, some students got in while never having done serious science research project but just from outstanding academic record. Both grades and work/scientific experience matter, and are taken into account when applying — there is no fixed rule
• NSC purposely tries to recruit students from a wide variety of scientific backgrounds. The whole purpose of the program is to have variety of students to work around Neuroinformatics from a variety of different perspectives. I know NSC students who have majored in pharmacology, chemistry, biomedical engineering, and even a (pretty damn smart) one that graduated from a business school!
• INI is an academic institution that does academic research, so they obviously will naturally prefer academic references. HOWEVER — this does not mean that they would not appreciate and value the word of a previous non-academic employer that can testify of anything that is relevant to the work or culture at INI.
• Personal statements, just like everywhere else, should be about 1 page long and present 1) who you are 2) what your interests are 3) why you are a great candidate for this program and 4) what you would want to use your experience in this program for.
• If you feel like your application is not mature enough yet, I recommend taking time to work in research or in industry. Take a research project from your home institution, or email some professor (could be an INI professor/student!) to work on a project with them, and do good work. That will earn you a good reference and a nice extra paragraph on your personal statement.
• If you are serious about getting in, get to know the institute, read through the works of the professors/students who work at INI, understand the purpose and the values of INI. If you do this research and have conviction that you actually fit here, sending a good application will be effortless, and it’s likely to work. Oh and if it ever does not work, don’t hesitate to try again — that worked for me :)