Reprisal of course offered spring 2012 of the same name ; see http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs379c/ for more detail ; which emphasized scaling the technologies of systems neuroscience to take advantage of the exponential trend in computational power known as Moore's Law. Course covers many of the same topics but will focus on the near-term prospects for practical advances in health care, prosthetic augmentation, and artificial intelligence inspired by biological systems. Graded pass / no credit on the basis of class participation, a midterm white paper or business prospectus and a final technical report evaluating an appropriate technology selected in collaboration with the instructor. Focus will be on examining the assumptions underlying current claims for realizing the potential benefits of research in neuroscience and identifying real business opportunities, disruptive new technologies and advances in medicine that could substantially benefit patients within the next decade. Technology-minded critical thinkers seriously interested in placing their bets and picking careers in related areas of business, technology and science are welcome. Prerequisites: basic probability theory, algorithms, and statistics.
