1. Responsible Conduct in Science

9.901: Graduate students in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences are required to take the seminar Responsible Conduct in Science. This training to become an ethical and responsible scientist is required for all first-year graduate students. All students will be informed of registration for this training and attendance will be taken. Students must receive a Passing grade (P).

The courses below must be taken for a letter grade and must be completed with a grade of B or better to receive credit.

2. Core Subjects

(Must complete two subjects in this category for a letter grade) 

9.012 Cognitive Science
9.011 Systems Neuroscience Core I
9.014 Quantitative Methods and Computational Models in Neuroscience
9.015 Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Core
Students may also use the following Harvard courses to satisfy one of the core requirements: PSY2170, PSY2020 and MCB231.
 

3. Statistics

(Must complete one subject in this category for a letter grade)

9.073 Statistics for Neuroscience Research
9.272 Topics in Neural Signal Processing
9.014 Quantitative Methods and Computational Models in Neuroscience (cannot be used to meet both the core and the statistics requirement; it must be one or the other)
9.520 Statistical Learning Theory and Applications
9.521 Mathematical Statistics: a Non-Asymptotic Approach
12.444 MatLab, Statistics, Regression, Signal Processing
16.391J Statistics for Engineers and Scientists
PSY 1950 Intermediate Statistical Analysis in Psychology (Mair)
PSY 1952 Multivariate Analysis in Psychology (Mair, Rusch)
MCB 131 (Harvard) Computational Neurobiology

Students can petition for a different course to fulfill this requirement by contacting the graduate officer.

4. Electives: 

Students must take at least two 12-unit graduate-level subjects. Students should chose subjects that are relevant to their research, and are encouraged to ask for advice from their advisor. All 12-unit graduate level subjects in BCS are approved electives. In some cases, students may wish to replace one 12-unit subject with two 6-unit subjects; take a course in any other MIT department; or enroll in a subject outside MIT (e.g. Harvard, BU, etc); these exceptions require advance approval of the BCS graduate officer. To request an exception please complete this form.

5. Tools for Robust Science: 

This seminar (9.401) will be taken by all PhD students in Spring of their second year. In this seminar students will learn to identify obstacles to conducting robust research, practice using current cutting edge tools to improve scientific practices and incentives, critically evaluate these tools’ potential and limitations.

6. Professional Development: 

Students entering the program in Fall 2024 and later must participate in two approved professional development activities by the end of the Summer term of their fourth year. Planning for completing this requirement should be discussed with their advisor and thesis committee early and often. Students should be registered for 9.990 during the semester(s) in which they are participating in professional development activities. Petitions to use other activities to fulfill all or part of the professional development requirement can be submitted here.