Looking for an internship, research project, or a thesis project?
The Department of Sensory and Sensorimotor Systems, at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and University of Tübingen (https://www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/sensory-and-sensorimotor-systems) is happy to offer positions, projects, and trainings to students interested in various projects in our labs.
Our head, Li Zhaoping, is also a professor in Cognitive Science in University Tuebingen, if your project requires the supervisor to be a member of the University teaching staff. There are two internship courses (for cognitive or related program) and one course for Erganzungsmodul in the physics department offered by Prof. Li that you can sign-up on ALMA.
Our department, led by Prof. Li Zhaoping (see https://lizhaoping.org/zhaoping/index.html) works mainly on visual and olfactory functions in the human and animal brain and their elicited behavioral responses, but we also work on other related topics in brain science (more details at https://lizhaoping.org). Research methods include visual psychophysics, computational modeling, data analysis, human event related potential measurements, fMRI and eye tracking.
If you are not from the University of Tuebingen, we unfortunately could not admit you for projects/internships unless you could arrange yourself for your funding, accommodation, travel (and visa if required), and any other academic and logistic needs.
Current Internship/thesis projects: online experiments of visual psychophysics, application of a neural circuit model of the primary visual cortex, and exploration of data analysis. If you are good at programming and interested in our theme, contact us for these.
Other examples of possible projects on offer:
(1) Learn and practice one of the following three computational vision topics: efficient coding, a recurrent visual cortical model, or visual decoding, using the textbook "Understanding vision: theory, models, and data" .
(2) Learn visual psychophysics and practice on visual illusions. First, learn to do visual psychophysics by a guided self-learning course in the lab. Second, pick a visual illusion to test/play/explore a computational theory. Motivated students may add an eye-tracking component.
(3) Use visual psychophysics in conjuction with fMRI to test competing hypotheses of visual function. You may begin learning fMRI data analysis techniques immediately, with the possibility to help run participants in the scanner after completion of a safety training course.
(4) Human olfactory psychophysics project: read some papers in the literature, and repeat one experiment in a paper. Special skill requirement: you need to be self-reliant to learn and set up equipment from scratch to do the experiments, as a pioneer in the lab.
(5) Clinical/developmental projects: e.g.: age dependence of some visual illusions/effects. Special requirement: need to have access to subjects of clinical/developmental stages.
(6) custom design or modify some projects to suit your skills, interests, and training goals --- need to discuss individually.
Information we need from you to decide whether there is a suitable project or internship position (essay rotation, lab rotation, internship, thesis project) that we can offer for your training needs.
(1) Tell us your training program, and send us your transcripts, with information on the courses you have taken and grades you achieved.
(2) A CV, listing your skills (e.g., programming, writing, organization) and experience/achievements.
(3) Tell us what topics in our labs interest you most, or what related topics that you like to do a project/internship on.
(4) The training requirements for your project/thesis, according to your module handbook or as required by your department or course program. In particular, what are the duration and workloads, how many ETC units is involved, and what are the components that must be completed for the project or thesis.
(5) Tell us your preferred or planned months/semester/duration that you would like to do the project.
(6) You must make sure that a project/internship supervised by our department can meet the requirement by your particular training program.
(7) Very important: if you are not from the University of Tuebingen, you must find out and tell us whether doing an internship or project in our lab can satisfy the course and administrative requirements by your university, and whether the University of Tuebingen can administratively take you as an intern or project student. You must provide us with all the adminitrative information, including the administrative person of contact in your university and in your university, and the administrative steps necessary to fulfill this. You must take care of all these administrative steps.
Questions and enquiries: zhaoping.li.admin@tuebingen.mpg.de