July 20, 2011
School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri
 

Harilal Parasuraman and Krishna Chaitanya Medini obtained M.Sc. degrees in Bioinformatics from the Amrita School of Biotechnology.
 

Now as Junior Research Fellows (JRF), they receive funding from the Government of India that supports their research, as they work towards doctorate degrees in Amrita’s Computational Neurosciences Lab.
 

Both scholars recently received invitations to participate in prestigious workshops in this field.
 

While Harilal’s invitation came from the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, Krishna was invited to China by the Cold Spring Harbour Asia School on Computational Neurosciences.
 

Both scholars were very happy to have the opportunity to represent Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in these international workshops.
 

“A great opportunity for us to interact with top scientists in our research areas; these interactions will help us tremendously in our future research work as well as possibly lead to many collaborations,” they shared.
 

The Brain and Cognition Workshop in which Harilal Parasuraman participated, focused on techniques and concepts of cognitive neurosciences. Sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, it was conducted during July 5 – 15, 2011.
 

Some 45 participants including many post-doctoral scholars learned about Cortical Circuits, Visual Perception, Brain – Machine Interface, Object Recognition, Neural Recording Techniques, Language and Speech, Learning and Neuropsychology, Spatial Memory and Navigation.
 

“There were many eminent speakers from top research labs who are all working to understand the basic principles behind various functions of the brain,” shared Harilal. “Pioneers in the field including Prof. Albright, Prof. Rizzolatti, Prof. Bhalla, Prof. Krichmar, Prof. Das were all there.”
 

Meanwhile, the workshop on Computational and Cognitive Neurobiology in China drew 28 participants from all over the world, including Amrita’s Krishna Chaitanya Medini.
 

During July 16-31, at the workshop, alongside other participants from the US, UK, Germany, Korea and China, Krishna is gaining a fundamental understanding of single neuron computations, molecular mechanisms behind plasticity, neocortical microcircuits and decision making.
 

“I consider it as having received a great opportunity to attend lectures from the world renowned neuroscientists,” he shared, from China.
 

Both scholars received full funding to attend the workshops. “Typically only a limited number of participants are invited from across the globe to attend such workshop,” stated Dr. Shyam Diwakar, the students’ PhD guide, with obvious pride.
 

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