UMD Senior’s Children’s Book Honors her sister with Autism

In 2023, Seti (Neuroscience major) published a children’s book titled Marvelous Meghan: Our Big Sister, which chronicled her childhood growing up with her sister, Meghan, who has autism. The book aimed to raise awareness, empathy and understanding. It is part of the Lewuh Family Foundation, of which Seti is founder and president.

“These people need assistance, they need love, they need to be cared for,” Meghan said. “That's the message we're trying to spread with our book and our foundation.”

Meghan also inspired Seti’s major in neuroscience and her career goal of becoming a neurosurgeon.

 
“I've always been interested in the brain, especially seeing how different my sister's brain is compared to other people,” Seti said. “That's definitely what inspired my major in neuroscience.”

Read the whole story and share it here: https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/news/neuroscience-autism-awareness-marvelous-meghan-seti-ouelega

 

Exciting New Course Alert! NEUR338A/PSYC489C: Decoding the Brain: Machine Learning in Neuroscience

Launching Spring 2027

Are you ready to explore the intersection of neuroscience and machine learning? Students in this unique course will analyze neural data, learn fundamental machine learning concepts, and apply machine learning models to probe and predict cognition and behavior.

The Highlights: 

• Modeling: Learn the fundamentals of signal processing, supervised, and unsupervised learning models.

• Hands-on Coding: Using Python to decode real-world brain data. 

• Real Data: Analyzing EEG recording and fMRI scans. 

• Big Goals: Exploring brain decoding and neurodiversity classification. 

• Ethics First: Tackling bias at every step - from data collection to model training. 

This interdisciplinary course is perfect for students passionate about neuroscience, psychology, programming, and AI!

Ready to bridge the gap between the human brain and AI? 

To take this course, you must have DATA120 and NEUR200 as prerequisites. If you want to take this course in the Spring 2027 semester, make sure you have these prerequisites completed at the end of the Fall 2026 semester.

ARTiculate Narratives Stamp Gallery Exhibition

 

Post-Baccalaureate Research Assistant Positions for Brain Data and Behavioral/Metadata Analysis

INSPIRE Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park, led by Dr. Nan Xu, is hiring two post-baccalaureate research assistants to support ongoing projects on brain dynamics, neuroimaging data analysis, and associated behavioral, clinical, and metadata analysis. 

These positions are ideal for recent graduates or master students who are interested in gaining research experience before applying to graduate school, medical school, or research-oriented industry positions.

• Project Focus: The selected candidates will contribute to computational neuroimaging projects that investigate large-scale brain dynamics across different populations, conditions, and disease/disorder-related datasets. The work may involve fMRI data, behavioral measures, clinical variables, physiological measures, and other associated metadata. Research topics may include brain dynamics related to neurological, psychiatric, developmental, or metabolic conditions, as well as physiological responses to experimental or naturalistic conditions. The overall goal is to identify brain-based computational biomarkers and understand how large-scale brain activity patterns relate to behavior, symptoms, clinical variables, and individual differences.

• Primary Responsibilities
• Organize, clean, and manage fMRI, behavioral, clinical, physiological, and metadata datasets.
• Assist with extraction and analysis of parcellated fMRI time series.
• Support analyses of large-scale spatiotemporal brain patterns and time-varying interactions among brain networks.
• Conduct statistical analyses relating brain measures to behavioral, clinical, physiological, or demographic variables.
• Help develop and maintain clear, well-documented data analysis pipelines.
• Depending on background and project needs, contribute to machine learning-based prediction or biomarker analysis.
• Participate in lab meetings and contribute to research presentations, conference abstracts, and manuscripts.
• Required Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in bioengineering, neuroscience, computer science, data science, psychology, statistics, applied mathematics, electrical/computer engineering, or a related field.
• Prior programming experience in Python and/or MATLAB.
• Strong quantitative, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work carefully with complex datasets and document code clearly.
• Interest in brain imaging, computational neuroscience, biomedical data science, or machine learning.
• Preferred Qualifications
• Prior research experience in neuroimaging, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, data science, psychology, statistics, computer science, or a related quantitative/biomedical field.
• Experience with fMRI, time-series analysis, statistics, behavioral data analysis, clinical/physiological data analysis, or machine learning.
• Experience working with behavioral, clinical, physiological, or metadata tables.
• Prior research outputs, such as peer-reviewed publications, preprints, conference abstracts, posters, or research presentations, are a plus.
• Position Details
• Number of openings: 2
• Position type: Post-baccalaureate research assistant
• Location: University of Maryland, College Park
• Start date: Flexible; earlier start preferred
• Preferred commitment: At least one year
• How to Apply: Interested applicants should send a CV/resume, a brief statement of research interests, and a short description of relevant coding and research experience to Dr. Nan Xu at nanxu@umd.edu. Please include “Post-Baccalaureate Research Assistant Application” in the subject line.
  

Interested in grad school? Enroll in the National Name Exchange (Deadline: June 19)

Thinking about graduate school? You are invited to enroll in the 2026 National Name Exchange (NNE). Managed by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), NNE helps students explore graduate education and receive information about programs and related opportunities from participating institutions.

Deadline to enroll: June 19, 2026

How It Works:

When you enroll, your contact information is shared with participating institutions. Those institutions may contact you with information about relevant graduate programs and related opportunities. Student information is deleted each March, so you must re-enroll annually to continue receiving communications.

Eligibility:

We encourage domestic undergraduate, certificate, and master’s students to enroll. Undergraduate students who enroll should have completed at least 60 credits with a cumulative GPA above 3.0. There is no fee for students or institutions to participate.

Benefits for Students who Enroll:

• Access to resources on applying to and succeeding in graduate school.

• Emails from participating institutions about graduate programs.

• Application fee waivers from some institutions.

• Networking opportunities and social media communities.

• Special access to virtual events for prospective graduate students.

How to Enroll:

• Enrollment link: go.umd.edu/NNE 

• Step-by-step instructions: go.umd.edu/enroll-NNE-2026 

• FAQ: go.umd.edu/NNE-faq-2026

Questions? Check out the FAQ, or reach out to Jessica Crosby (jcrosby@umd.edu) or CGS (nne@cgs.nche.edu).

PLCY201 - Public Leaders & Active Citizens

 PLCY201 - Public Leaders & Active Citizens

June 1 - July 10

MW 12:30 - 3:00pm In Person TMH 0225

2026 Summer II course_The Future of the Brain

Explore the Future of Brain Research This Summer

Interested in learning more about the brain — one of the most complex systems in the universe? This Summer II course, BSCI339P: The Future of the Brain, offers students an exciting overview of cutting-edge neuroscience research and emerging technologies shaping the future of the field.

Students will explore topics including next-generation neurotechnologies, large-scale brain mapping and recording, big data, teamwork in science, open science initiatives, and more.

 Dates: July 13 – August 21, 2026
 Instructor: Dr. Chan Lin
 Location: Online
 Prerequisites: BSCI330 or NEUR200

For additional information, students are encouraged to contact Dr. Lin at linc@umd.edu.