Student Ambassadors
HBP Student Ambassadors represented the student community of their WPs. They helped to strengthen the student community, raise awareness for the HBP Education Programme and served as a mouthpiece between students and Student Representatives.
Student Ambassadors were a point of contact for Student Representatives, the Education Programme Office and the student community. They provided input from their WPs to ensure that the interests of all HBP students are equally represented in the HBP Education Programme.
Name: Joana Covelo
Social Media/Get in Touch: capela@clinic.cat | joana.covelo@gmail.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/joana-covelo-49340a12b/ (LinkedIn)
Role: PhD Student
Work Package & Location: WP2 | Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) (Barcelona, Spain)
Research/Thesis Title: Exogenous electric fields modulation of interlaminar, intercolumnar and interareal cortical network dynamics
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: As an early PhD student, I find it really important to have a platform to connect with other young researchers and where I am continuously encouraged to improve my scientific and transversal skills. Therefore, I am very grateful to be part of a scientific WP where I can contribute to the neuroscientific community. As the WP2 Student Ambassador, I will be the link between the WP2 student community, the Student Representative and the Education Programme Office (EPO). My goal is on the one hand to ensure that the interests of my fellow students are represented in the HBP Education Programme and on the other hand to raise awareness of the HBP Education Programme offering within the WP2 student community.
I aim to nurture a network where students have easier access to all the enriching opportunities that the HBP has to offer and where the feedback and innovative ideas of the student community are being heard.
Name: Sandra Díaz Pier
Social Media/Get in Touch: s.diaz@fz-juelich.de
Role: PhD student
Work Package & Location: WP5 | Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany)
Research/Thesis Title: Structural plasticity
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: I was one of the Student Representatives in the HBP Education Programme for SGA2 where my role, among other things, was to be the voice of the HBP Student community in the HBP Education Programme committee. I have been involved in the organisation of the last two Young Researchers Events and the last two HBP Student Conferences.
My focus in the activities with the Student Ambassadors is to work on boosting the involvement of students in collaborative HBP activities and making information about the Project more accessible to them. I also want to increase the awareness within the Student community about all the interesting and unique possibilities that the HBP offers for further development of research and social skills. I am also working on setting up a course to help students acquire new skills regarding grant proposal writing, which are essential for a successful career in academia and research. I am proud of being part of the HBP and being able to represent the students in the HBP Education Programme. I welcome any suggestions, comments and questions and will try to address them in the best way possible.
Name: Alice Geminiani
Social Media/Get in Touch: https://twitter.com/gemi_alice (Twitter) | alice.geminiani@unipv.it (contact email)
Role: PostDoc Researcher
Work package & Location: WP 1/ WP 3, Pavia (Italy)
Research: Computational Neuroscience; Cerebellum modelling; Spiking neural networks
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: I am an early PostDoc researcher at the University of Pavia, where I study the cerebellum through spiking neural network models, with the aim to investigate the neural bases of cerebellar functioning and disease. During my whole research path, the Human Brain Project has been a key reference point, inspiring the underlying motivations of my research activity. I have strongly benefited from the educational activities of HBP, which have been fundamental training and networking opportunities. Based on my experience, I will do my best to give voice to the HBP students and significantly contribute to the future of the HBP Education Programme.
Name: Camilla Hagen Blixhavn
Social Media/Get in Touch: c.h.blixhavn@medisin.uio.no | @CBlixhavn (Twitter) | in/camilla-hagen-blixhavn/ (LinkedIn)
Role: Researcher
Work Package & Location: WP4 | University of Oslo (Norway)
Research Title: “Data integration through digital brain atlasing”
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: When I joined the Young Researcher’s Event in Belgrade, July 2019, to hold a workshop, I gained more insight into the good work of the HBP Student Representatives and Ambassadors and decided to join the team. As I am involved in various communication and dissemination tasks in WP4, it fits quite well to collaborate on such matters across the Student community of the HBP.
Name: Lionel Kusch
Social Media/Get in Touch: lionel.kusch@univ-amu.fr
Role: PhD Student
Work Package & Location: WP1 | Aix-Marseille University (France)
Research/Thesis Title: Spiking neuron network at rest and in disease
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: I have joined the HBP Student Ambassadors because I am involved in the creation of the collaboration between the HBP and the PhD programme in neuroscience of my university. During the end of SGA2, I was involved to transfer information of the Education Programme to the young researchers in SP4. I will try to continue the role to be a link between young researchers and the HBP Education Programme in WP1 of SGA3.
Name: Carmen Alina Lupascu
Social Media/Get in touch: carmen.lupascu@pa.ibf.cnr.it
Role: PostDoc Researcher
Work Package & Location: WP5 | CNR (Palermo, Italy)
Research Title: "Trans-synaptic signaling and receptor kinetics"
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: In 2017, I was involved in the organisation of the Young Researchers Event in Geneva and in 2019/2020, I was a member of the Programme Committee of the 4th HBP Student Conference, which was an occasion for me to improve my communication and organisation skills. As an HBP Student Ambassador I am part of the promotion group and I have the task to support the promotion of the HBP Education Programme on a Project-wide basis.
Name: Oluyinka Oyeniji (Olu)
Social Media/Get in Touch: P2623648@my365.dmu.ac.uk
Role: PhD student
Work Package & Location: WP9 | De Montfort University (Leicester, England)
Research/Thesis Title: Framing Neuroethics
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: It is an interesting time to further integrate research activities of students within the HBP. In addition to annual workshops, other avenues of interaction will be fostered to enhance collaboration amongst colleagues and therefore benefit from huge resources and abundant potentials. The multidisciplinary pattern of our academic research presents a need for highlighting different aspects of our Project. In the days to come, it will be delightful to connect in social spaces to elucidate on our activities using different platforms. I look forward to engagements which will ensure ease and optimum productivity for us all.
Name: Taylan Özden
Social Media/Get in Touch: taylan.oezden@tu-darmstadt.de | in/taylan-özden-1a4a3b1aa (LinkedIn)
Role: Research Associate
Work Package & Location: WP6 | Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany)
Research/Thesis Title: High-performance Computing | Scheduling of Data-intensive Applications and Workflows
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: Following my research and being involved in the HBP, I joined the Student Ambassadors to particularly provide input from within WP6 and to address the interests of involved students. I am very happy and grateful to have the opportunity to work with fellow researchers and students in the open community the HBP provides and aim to facilitate access to the HBP and its community for students interested in getting involved.
Name: Jens Egholm Pedersen
Social Media/Get in Touch:
jeped@kth.se | @jensegholm (Twitter) | in/jens-egholm-pedersen-69543117 (LinkedIn)
Role: PhD Student
Work Package & Location: WP3 | Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) (Sweden)
Research/Thesis Title: "Autonomous neuromorphic control systems"
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: As a young aspiring researcher, I was thrilled to participate in a number of HBP Education events, packed with knowledge and kindness. As a Student Ambassador, I am involved in the coordination of the HBP Tea & Slide events, and will continue to work on strengthening the scientific and cross-disciplinary foundations within the HBP Student community.
Name: Ingrid Reiten
Social Media/Get in Touch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingridreiten/
Role: Researcher
Workpackage & Location: WP4, Oslo, Norway
Research/Thesis Title: The sensory role of motile cilia
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: My background is in cell- and molecular biology, various fields within neuroscience, and didactics, and I aim to couple these experiences to work towards a more collaborative research field with unified and more accessible research data. I get to do this in my current position as a data curator in the Human Brain Project, where we collaborate across labs and research cultures to establish workflows for integration and sharing of heterogeneous neuroscience data. The key to succeeding in pushing the field of neuroscience forward however lies in getting today’s students and early career-researchers onboard. Initiatives and innovations must be communicated, any feedback and needs must be heard and integrated, and events must be organized so that we can meet and discuss in person. Thus, I find my position as the students’ representative in the HBP Education Programme committee highly valuable. I will strive to make information accessible and comprehensible, as well as promote and help organize events and other possibilities directed towards personal and career development. I am honored to represent the HBP’s younger generation of researchers and hope this effort will help and motivate students and early-career researchers to exploit the educational resources made available by the HBP.
Name: Alper Yegenoglu
Role: PhD student
Social Media/Get in touch: a.yegenoglu@fz-juelich.de
Work Package & Location: WP5 | Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany)
Research/Thesis title: Meta-learning and hyper-parameter Optimization in Artificial and Biological Networks
Role and Activities amongst the Student Ambassadors: After participating in the HBP Summit and the first HBP Student Conference in Vienna (Austria), I wanted to contribute to the HBP Student community. In 2018, I joined the HBP Education team as a Student Ambassador for SP7 (High Performance Computing), and now for WP5. In January 2019, I was part of the 4th HBP Student Conference Programme Committee. I like the familiar atmosphere of these student events, it gives a good insight on the ongoing and novel research inside the HBP. But it also creates opportunities to connect to new researches and to discuss lot’s of scientific topics. As a Student Ambassador my goal is not only to promote student activities but also to create connections and collaborations between young researchers in the community.
