Graduate Courses

Term Schedule

Fall 2025

Number	Title	Instructor	Time
BCSC 505-1 Perception, action, and neural foundations Gregory DeAngelis R 1:00PM - 3:30PM
This team-taught course will provide an interdisciplinary introduction to sensory perception, interplay between action and perception, as well as their basic neural foundations. Topics to be covered include: fundamentals of perceptual detection and discrimination, eye movements, visual perception of form, motion, and depth, haptic perception, basics of neural coding, multisensory processing, and attention. Location (R 1:00PM - 3:30PM)
BCSC 519-01 Statistics for Brain & Cognitive Sciences Florian Jaeger T 2:00PM - 3:15PM W 10:25AM - 11:40AM
This course discusses statistical concepts and procedures commonly used in brain and cognitive sciences research. It is a peer-led class, meaning that each student will take part in actively teaching some of the concepts. You will be evaluated on your participation in class and the effort in organizing your lessons. Location (T 2:00PM - 3:15PM) (W 10:25AM - 11:40AM)
BCSC 520-01 The Intelligent Eye Michele Rucci TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM
Provides an interdisciplinary view of modern research into how the human brain solves the problems involved in perception, including how we perceive the three-dimensional structure of the world, how we recognize objects and how visual information is used to control action in the world. Students read contemporary research and, through classroom discussion and critical essays, explore and analyze the questions and debates that define contemporary perceptual science. Location (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)
BCSC 522-01 Continuing Statistics for Brain & Cognitive Sci Florian Jaeger M 9:00AM - 10:15AM
The goal of this course is to continue learning about statistical concepts and methods relevant to research in BCS, building off of BCSC 519 (Statistics for Brain & Cognitive Sciences). The course will be primarily be based on article discussion, with the opportunity for students to discuss and/or work through practical applications for their own projects. BCSC 519 is not a prerequisite. Location (M 9:00AM - 10:15AM)
BCSC 528-1 Special Topics in Vision Duje Tadin 7:00PM - 7:00PM
Advanced graduate seminar on a chose problem in vision sciences. In previous years, topics have included motion perception, stereopsis, color vision and visuo-motor control. Readings for the course are drawn from the scientific literature in the topic being covered. Students are typically required to lead discussions on papers. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 542-1 Neuropsychology Renee Madathil MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM
Examines clinical neuropsychology, which bridges neurology, neuroscience, and clinical psychology. Covers history of clinical neuropsychology, principles of neuropsychological assessment, and the interpretation of cognition and behavior as they relate to brain dysfunction. Considers specific neurological syndromes including neurodegenerative, cerebrovascular, toxic, and memory disorders; epilepsy; head trauma; infectious processes; pediatric neuropsychology; psychiatric syndromes; and forensic neuropsychology. Patient presentations (videotape and in-person interviews) supplement lectures. Location (MW 4:50PM - 6:05PM)
BCSC 543-1 Neurochemical Foundations of Behavior Renee Miller MWF 10:25AM - 11:15AM
This class covers how the brain controls behavior, and what goes wrong in various diseases, from a neurochemistry perspective. We start by learning about the neurochemicals –neurotransmitters, peptides, growth factors, etc. and move on to their receptors and associated signaling pathways, including gene transcription and epigenetics. An emphasis is placed on primary research literature, experimentation/data analysis and application of knowledge to the interpretation of scientific data. Students will attend research seminars on campus or online and write brief summaries of their understanding. The course culminates in small group presentations about the neurochemistry of diseases of interest, and an individual research review paper on the same topic. Location (MWF 10:25AM - 11:15AM)
BCSC 547-01 Intro to Computational Neuroscience Ralf Haefner TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
Computational neuroscience studies how the brain can be understood in terms of computations implemented by neural circuits, and in terms of using computational methods to analyze neural and behavioral data. This course for advanced undergraduates and graduate students starts with models of individuals neurons before moving on to networks of neurons and behavior. It provides both a classic signal processing, and a probabilistic perspective on how neurons support the brain’s computations. While primarily lecture-based, an important part of the course are exercises that typically consist on implementing (programming) a model discussed in the class and analyze its behavior. The course also provides the opportunity for a final project but this is not required. The material mostly considers the sensory system and perceptual decision-making. There are no formal prerequisites. However, programming experience and a minimal background in linear algebra (vectors and matrices) and analysis (basic ordinary differential equations) are essential. At the beginning, there will be a very brief introduction to the key biological concepts necessary for the course. In doubt, please email the instructor. Location (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)
BCSC 570-1 Introduction to Augmented and Virtual Reality Mujdat Cetin MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM
This course provides a broad introduction to augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) systems. The course involves lectures and workshops covering an overview of all aspects of the AR/VR domain, as well as an individual class project developing an AR/VR demonstration of an application chosen by each student. Topics covered in the lectures and class workshops include history, conceptual origins, and design/evaluation principles of AR/VR technologies; optical architectures; audio and visual perception; graphics and computation; data processing and machine intelligence; introduction to AR/VR developer tools; societal implications and ethical aspects. At the end of the course, students will have gained familiarity with the techniques, languages, and cultures of fields integral to the convergent research theme of AR/VR. This course includes workshops and project demonstrations in Studio X, as well as several guest lectures. Location (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)
BCSC 580-1 Advanced Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience Coraline Rinn Iordan TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM
An interdisciplinary tour of human cognition with a special focus on large-scale neural representations in the human brain. Topics will include categorization, semantics, attention, memory, language, and cognitive control, with an emphasis on cutting-edge research that lies at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and computer science. The course will provide introductions to several neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI, MEG, EEG) and neural manipulation methodologies (e.g., TMS, tDCS, neurofeedback) and will involve discussions of advanced machine learning analysis techniques (multivariate pattern recognition algorithms, deep neural networks, Hidden Markov Models). Format: lectures and student-led seminar discussions. Location (TR 3:25PM - 4:40PM)
BCSC 595-01 PhD Research Ralf Haefner 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-02 PhD Research Manuel Gomez-Ramirez 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-03 PhD Research Duje Tadin 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-04 PhD Research Robert Jacobs 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-05 PhD Research Michele Rucci 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-06 PhD Research Adam Snyder 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-07 PhD Research Martina Poletti 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-08 PhD Research Gregory DeAngelis 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-11 PhD Research Karl Rosengren 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-12 PhD Research Elise Piazza 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-13 PhD Research Dora Biro 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-14 PhD Research Ian Fiebelkorn 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-15 PhD Research Coraline Rinn Iordan 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-16 PhD Research Samuel Norman-Haignere 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 595-17 PhD Research Takao Sasaki 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-07 Supervised Teaching Assistant Ralf Haefner 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-1 Supervised Teaching Assistant Renee Madathil 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-14 Supervised Teaching Assistant Farran Briggs 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-15 Supervised Teaching Assistant Karl Rosengren 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-16 Supervised Teaching Assistant Brian Keane 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-2 Supervised Teaching Assistant Duje Tadin 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-3 Supervised Teaching Assistant Chung-Lin Yang 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-4 Supervised Teaching Assistant Gregory DeAngelis 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-5 Supervised Teaching Assistant Dora Biro 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 598-6 Supervised Teaching Assistant Robert Jacobs 7:00PM - 7:00PM
No description Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 897-01 Masters Dissertation Manuel Gomez-Ramirez 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides master's students who are currently completing their final required coursework, or with special circumstances like an approved reduced courseload, with the opportunity to work full-time on their degrees. Students will make significant progress toward completing their degrees. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 897-1 Masters Dissertation – 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides master's students who are currently completing their final required coursework, or with special circumstances like an approved reduced courseload, with the opportunity to work full-time on their degrees. Students will make significant progress toward completing their degrees. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 986V-01 Full Time Visiting Student Michele Rucci 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course affords graduate students visiting the University of Rochester full-time student status. Visiting students will engage in research, discussion, and/or professional training in partnership with an academic department or faculty member. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 986V-1 Full Time Visiting Student – 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course affords graduate students visiting the University of Rochester full-time student status. Visiting students will engage in research, discussion, and/or professional training in partnership with an academic department or faculty member. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 995-1 Continuation of Doctoral Enrollment Florian Jaeger 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is designed for PhD students who have completed all required coursework but still need to finalize specific degree requirements under less than half-time enrollment. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
BCSC 999-01 Doctoral Dissertation Dora Biro 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students who have completed or are currently completing 90 credits of coursework and have fulfilled all degree requirements (except for the dissertation) with the opportunity to work full-time on their dissertation. Students will make significant progress toward completing their degrees. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

Number	Title	Instructor	Time
Monday
BCSC 522-01 Continuing Statistics for Brain & Cognitive Sci Florian Jaeger
The goal of this course is to continue learning about statistical concepts and methods relevant to research in BCS, building off of BCSC 519 (Statistics for Brain & Cognitive Sciences). The course will be primarily be based on article discussion, with the opportunity for students to discuss and/or work through practical applications for their own projects. BCSC 519 is not a prerequisite.
Monday and Wednesday
BCSC 570-1 Introduction to Augmented and Virtual Reality Mujdat Cetin
This course provides a broad introduction to augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) systems. The course involves lectures and workshops covering an overview of all aspects of the AR/VR domain, as well as an individual class project developing an AR/VR demonstration of an application chosen by each student. Topics covered in the lectures and class workshops include history, conceptual origins, and design/evaluation principles of AR/VR technologies; optical architectures; audio and visual perception; graphics and computation; data processing and machine intelligence; introduction to AR/VR developer tools; societal implications and ethical aspects. At the end of the course, students will have gained familiarity with the techniques, languages, and cultures of fields integral to the convergent research theme of AR/VR. This course includes workshops and project demonstrations in Studio X, as well as several guest lectures.
BCSC 542-1 Neuropsychology Renee Madathil
Examines clinical neuropsychology, which bridges neurology, neuroscience, and clinical psychology. Covers history of clinical neuropsychology, principles of neuropsychological assessment, and the interpretation of cognition and behavior as they relate to brain dysfunction. Considers specific neurological syndromes including neurodegenerative, cerebrovascular, toxic, and memory disorders; epilepsy; head trauma; infectious processes; pediatric neuropsychology; psychiatric syndromes; and forensic neuropsychology. Patient presentations (videotape and in-person interviews) supplement lectures.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
BCSC 543-1 Neurochemical Foundations of Behavior Renee Miller
This class covers how the brain controls behavior, and what goes wrong in various diseases, from a neurochemistry perspective. We start by learning about the neurochemicals –neurotransmitters, peptides, growth factors, etc. and move on to their receptors and associated signaling pathways, including gene transcription and epigenetics. An emphasis is placed on primary research literature, experimentation/data analysis and application of knowledge to the interpretation of scientific data. Students will attend research seminars on campus or online and write brief summaries of their understanding. The course culminates in small group presentations about the neurochemistry of diseases of interest, and an individual research review paper on the same topic.
Tuesday
BCSC 519-01 Statistics for Brain & Cognitive Sciences Florian Jaeger
This course discusses statistical concepts and procedures commonly used in brain and cognitive sciences research. It is a peer-led class, meaning that each student will take part in actively teaching some of the concepts. You will be evaluated on your participation in class and the effort in organizing your lessons.
Tuesday and Thursday
BCSC 520-01 The Intelligent Eye Michele Rucci
Provides an interdisciplinary view of modern research into how the human brain solves the problems involved in perception, including how we perceive the three-dimensional structure of the world, how we recognize objects and how visual information is used to control action in the world. Students read contemporary research and, through classroom discussion and critical essays, explore and analyze the questions and debates that define contemporary perceptual science.
BCSC 547-01 Intro to Computational Neuroscience Ralf Haefner
Computational neuroscience studies how the brain can be understood in terms of computations implemented by neural circuits, and in terms of using computational methods to analyze neural and behavioral data. This course for advanced undergraduates and graduate students starts with models of individuals neurons before moving on to networks of neurons and behavior. It provides both a classic signal processing, and a probabilistic perspective on how neurons support the brain’s computations. While primarily lecture-based, an important part of the course are exercises that typically consist on implementing (programming) a model discussed in the class and analyze its behavior. The course also provides the opportunity for a final project but this is not required. The material mostly considers the sensory system and perceptual decision-making. There are no formal prerequisites. However, programming experience and a minimal background in linear algebra (vectors and matrices) and analysis (basic ordinary differential equations) are essential. At the beginning, there will be a very brief introduction to the key biological concepts necessary for the course. In doubt, please email the instructor.
BCSC 580-1 Advanced Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience Coraline Rinn Iordan
An interdisciplinary tour of human cognition with a special focus on large-scale neural representations in the human brain. Topics will include categorization, semantics, attention, memory, language, and cognitive control, with an emphasis on cutting-edge research that lies at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and computer science. The course will provide introductions to several neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI, MEG, EEG) and neural manipulation methodologies (e.g., TMS, tDCS, neurofeedback) and will involve discussions of advanced machine learning analysis techniques (multivariate pattern recognition algorithms, deep neural networks, Hidden Markov Models). Format: lectures and student-led seminar discussions.
Wednesday
Wednesday and Friday
Thursday
BCSC 505-1 Perception, action, and neural foundations Gregory DeAngelis
This team-taught course will provide an interdisciplinary introduction to sensory perception, interplay between action and perception, as well as their basic neural foundations. Topics to be covered include: fundamentals of perceptual detection and discrimination, eye movements, visual perception of form, motion, and depth, haptic perception, basics of neural coding, multisensory processing, and attention.
Friday