Stanford University

CogCompNeuro
Journal Club

Exploring the intersection of cognition, computation, and neuroscience through collaborative discussion and diverse perspectives.

2nd Tuesday of Each Month
5:00 – 6:30 PM
Wu Tsai Neuro, Room E255

Proudly supported by

Bridging Minds & Machines

The CogCompNeuro Journal Club organizes regular meetings open to the Stanford community. We foster interactions between students, post-docs, and faculty to encourage a deeper understanding of core techniques in computational neuroscience, cognitive science, and their real-world applications.

Our discussions span multiple scales—from single neurons to whole-brain dynamics—and embrace diverse perspectives on how to model and understand neural computation. Whether you're into fMRI or electrode arrays, deep learning or dynamical systems, you'll find stimulating conversations here.

📄 Papers & Methods

Choose between presenting a seminal article or introducing a computational method you think everyone should know.

🎯 Diverse Perspectives

Explore debates across granularities—from fMRI to electrodes—and discuss what models and questions matter most today.

🍕 Food & Community

Enjoy dinner together while diving into deep discussions. Good science is better with good company.

Upcoming Sessions

Spring 2026

Sessions held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, 5:00 - 6:30 PM @ Wu Tsai Neuro Building, Room E255 (2nd Floor)

Apr
7

The Successor Representation: Its Computational Logic and Neural Substrates

Ke Kay Fang (PhD Student, Psychology)
Kay will present Gershman's review on the successor representation, which encodes states in terms of their predictive relationships with other states, bridging reinforcement learning algorithms with neural representations.
Read the paper →
May
TBD

Topic TBD

Speaker TBD
Sign up to present! Check the sign-up sheet below.

Past Sessions

March 10, 2026

Inpainting the Neural Picture: Inferring Unrecorded Brain Area Dynamics from Multi-Animal Datasets

Yiqi Jiang (PhD Student, Electrical Engineering)

February 10, 2026

End-to-end topographic networks as models of cortical map formation and human visual behaviour

Seojin Lee (PhD Student, Psychology)

January 20, 2026

Kickoff Meeting

All Members

Introductions, planning sessions, and setting the agenda for the quarter.

How It Works

Session Format

  • 5:00 – 5:15 PM: Arrive, grab food, and mingle
  • 5:15 – 5:45 PM: Paper/method presentation (~30 min)
  • 5:45 – 6:30 PM: Open discussion over dinner

For Presenters

  • Choose a paper or method in your field that you think everyone should know about
  • Be prepared to explain why this topic is broadly important
  • Option to present either an influential article OR a computational method
  • Sign up with a brief description of your topic
  • Slides and materials will be shared on our Google Drive

Discussion Topics We Love

  • Perspective differences (e.g., granularity of data — fMRI vs. electrodes)
  • What kinds of models and questions are important for understanding the brain today?
  • Bridging computational theory with experimental findings
  • Emerging methods and their applications
Speaker Guidelines Doc

Organizers

Elizabeth Jiwon Im

Elizabeth Jiwon Im

Organizer

Website →
Jerome Han

Jerome Han

Organizer

Website →
Kaiwen Sheng

Kaiwen Sheng

Organizer

Website →
Mikaela Wilson

Mikaela Wilson

Organizer

LinkedIn →
Kwon Ko

Kwon Ko

Organizer

Website →

Get Involved

Interested in joining our discussions? We welcome researchers at all levels—from curious undergrads to seasoned faculty. Reach out or join our Slack to stay in the loop!