FutureUp!
FutureUp!
BMI and Partners Annual PhD Students
Neuroscience Symposium
organised by PhD students for PhD students
29 August – 01 September 2018
EPFL, Lausanne – Switzerland
As part of its effort to promote and enhance collaboration, the Brain Mind Insitute (BMI), EPFL, is organising an annual PhD students symposium that will bring together neuroscience PhD students from the BMI and its strategic partnering institutes.
The symposium aims to provide the students with a forum to share their work, exchange ideas, explore collaborations, expand their network and discuss career and scientific topics of mutual interest.
The conference will take place in a relaxed and friendly setting designed to foster effective exchange of knowledge, ideas and experiences among the students while they broaden their perspectives and explore the scientific frontiers and career opportunities in neuroscience and brain research.
The conference is open to all PhD students working in the fields of neuroscience and brain research from the BMI and the BMI partner institutes.
To maintain an interactive and friendly environment, the number of participants will be limited to 30-40 PhD students. Selection amongst the applicants will be made at the level of the institute.
Accompanied by coffee and snacks.
Visits to BMI labs and core facilities at EPFL
EPFL campus tour
EPFL hosting system:
To enhance networking opportunities and maintain better integration of the guest students to the symposium, roughly one EPFLBMI PhD student will be hosting one student from each of the partner institutes. The host student will be the main point of contact to answer the questions of, and provide assistance for, the guest students.
The ‘collaboration challenge’:
As we are expecting students from four partner institutes (EPFL, Donders Institute/ Radboud University, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Grenoble Institute of Neuroscience), each PhD student from EPFL will have three-four students to host, and together they will form a scientific group that will participate the collaboration challenge.
You will be asked to come up with a brief proposal for a 'hypothetical' collaborative interdisciplinary project. These proposals will be presented briefly by each group at the end of the second day of symposium, and the most promising/ innovative proposal will receive an award.
The idea behind this mini challenge is to build a platform for development of teamwork skills and for future partnership opportunities.
For all participants.
Accompanied by coffee and snacks.
Introduction to EPFL and BMI by Carmen Sandi and Hilal Lashuel.
Welcoming remarks by the FutureUp! student organizing committee.
- Nathalie Bovy-vanderLugt: Donders Center for Medical Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center (Donders)
- Eva Mikics: Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS/MTA)
- Remy Sadoul: The Grenoble Institute of Neuroscience (GIN)
Presentation 1 (09:30-09:50): Mireia Coll-Tane (Donders, Netherlands)
Presentation 2 (09:50-10:10): Thomas Bolton (EPFL, Switzerland)
Presentation 3 (10:10-10:30): Veronica Munoz Ramirez (GIN, France)
Enjoy a hot drink in a relaxed atmosphere.
• How do we use the PhD time efficiently to prepare for success?
• What is the definition of a successful PhD? How do we define 'success'?
• What type of skills and training are we missing within the current PhD training programmes?
Moderators:
Hilal Lashuel (EPFL, Switzerland)
Nagham Badreddine (GIN, France)
Panelists:
Ossama Khalaf (EPFL, Switzerland)
Laszlo Biro (HAS/MTA, Hungary)
Jemila Houacine (Medicxi, Switzerland)
Marta Moita (Champalimaud Foundation, Portugal)
Presentation 1 (14:00-14:20): Katalin Sviatko (HAS/MTA, Hungary)
Presentation 2 (14:20-14:40): Jane Yi (EPFL, Switzerland)
Presentation 3 (14:40-15:00): Emilia Bosz (HAS/MTA, Hungary)
• What are the career options for neuroscientists upon completion of PhD?
• When is the right time to start thinking about your career options?
• Post-doctoral training; is it necessary for all?
• How to assess, discover and refine your potential and capabilities and align them with your career interests and future goals?
Moderators:
Judith Homberg (Donders, Netherlands)
Stefania Vacaru (Donders, Netherlands)
Panelists:
Brian McCabe (EPFL, Switzerland)
Heribert Watzke (Nestle, Switzerland)
Markus Britschgi (Roche, Switzerland)
Elisa Scariati (UNIGE, Switzerland)
Enjoy a hot drink in a relaxed atmosphere.
(1) One form of age-related macular degeneration, a disease of the retina, up until the year 2000 rendered all patients blind within about six months after their first medical visit. This is the most important blinding disease in older people. We developed the first effective treatment for this disease (VISUDYNE technology), injecting a dye i.v., and activating the dye in the retina with a laser beam. I will describe the disease and the solution, and some of the things that happened during the development. Millions of eyes world-wide have now been saved with this treatment. Currently our technology is mainly used to treat small polyps in the eye, another blinding disease. The clinical development in Lausanne was with the Jules Gonin hospital.
(2) Early stage (carcinoma in situ, or CIS) bladder cancer is a quite aggressive disease, which used to be very difficult to localise and remove. Thus we created a minimally invasive method to detect CIS in the bladder, and remove it, as well as larger cancers, quantitatively under fluorescence. The cancers are made to fluoresce via instillation in the bladder of a substance (HEXVIX) which is selectively converted by the specific enzyme activity of the cancers into a fluorescing molecule, making the cancer easy to detect and to remove. About 50,000 patients are treated world-wide per year by this method. The clinical development in Lausanne was with the CHUV hospital's urology department.
• How do we adapt to the changing landscape of science?
• Open access, transparency, reproducibility, chasing impact factors, authorship, negative data
• What is the role of PhD students – should we try to influence and shape the scientific landscape, or remain as bystanders?
Moderators:
Nathalie Bovy-vanderLugt (Donders, Netherlands)
Firat Altay (EPFL, Switzerland)
Panelists:
Hilal Lashuel (EPFL, Switzerland)
Amy Wu (EPFL, Switzerland)
Galina Glousker (EPFL, Switzerland)
Kirsten Martin (Frontiers, Switzerland)
Luc Henry (EPFL, Switzerland
Enjoy the music and the meal...
Special thanks to Mario Romani (ADSV Communications Officer) for being our DJ!
Presentation 1 (08:30-08:50): Annika Brandt (Donders, Netherlands)
Presentation 2 (08:50-09:10): Laszlo Szente (HAS/MTA, Hungary)
Presentation 3 (09:10-09:30): Xiaochen Zheng (Donders, Netherlands)
• Giving back to the society: Is it an option or an obligation for researchers?
• Science communication: Skills and tools
• How can we as PhD students contribute to increasing awareness about science and promote evidence-based policies?
Moderators:
Eva Mikics (HAS/MTA, Hungary)
Biborka Bruzsik (HAS/MTA, Hungary)
Panelists:
Carmen Sandi (FENS, EPFL, Switzerland)
Luc Patiny (Hackuarium, Switzerland)
Adria LeBoeuf (Catalyst, Switzerland)
Marc Lutz (Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society, Switzerland)
Enjoy a hot drink in a relaxed atmosphere.
Presentation 1 (11:15-11:35): Victorita Stefania Vacaru (Donders, Netherlands)
Presentation 2 (11:35-11:55): Bibiana Torok (HAS/MTA, Hungary)
Presentation 3 (11:55-12:15): Arzu Guneysu Ozgur (EPFL, Switzerland)
Enjoy a meal.
Living in a group has an adaptive value for a number of reasons, namely when threatened by predators. The neural mechanisms by which animals use social information to make inferences about danger or safety are largely unknown. In this talk I will focus on our experiments aimed at understanding how animals use the behaviour of con-specifics as alarm or safety cues. I first will discuss our findings showing that rats use freezing as an alarm cue, which is sensed through a sudden cessation of movement-evoked sound. Furthermore, we found that for rats to use freezing by others as an alarm cue, they need to learn the association between their own freezing and the threat that caused it. Finally, using a combination of optogenetics and pharmacology we partially identified the circuit involved in this process. In the second part of my talk I will discuss how fruit flies also use movement cues from conspecifics to infer safety. In essence, we developed a paradigm to study the phenomenon of safety in numbers, whereby animals are less threatened the higher the number of individuals in the group. Using this set-up we have determined the safety cues perceived by flies and identified neurons involved. In summary, movements of others constitute essential cues of threat and safety that a wide range of animals use to regulate their defensive behaviours.
A brief presentation by Elias Friman (president of ADSV, EPFL) followed by group work and discussion.
• Is it worth doing a PhD? Pros and cons.
• What are the strategies for better management of work-life balance?
• What are the expectations of the PhD student in the PhD student-supervisor relationship?
• What are the expectations of the principal investigator in the PhD student-supervisor relationship?
• Assessment and critique of the mentorship system
• What are the inbuilt mechanisms for protection in cases of mistreatment, negligence and exploitation of power?
Moderators:
Marta Moita (Champalimaud Foundation, Portugal)
Ayah Khubieh (EPFL, Switzerland)
Preparation time for collaboration challenge proposals.
8min maximum per group: 5min presentation + 3min QA
Reflections and feedback on the symposium.
Discussion on the means by which networking and collaboration could be nourished for the future symposiums.
Enjoy the music and the meal...
Special thanks to Mario Romani (ADSV Communications Officer) for being our DJ!
Depends on the weather.
Please note that this activity is optional, participants willing to join will need to cover their own expenses.
Organising committee
The annual PhD conference is organised exclusively by PhD students with support and guidance from the faculty.
PhD student - EPFL
PhD student - EPFL
PhD student - EPFL
PhD student -EPFL
BMI deputy director
PhD student
PhD student
Senior research scientist
PhD student
PhD student
Professor at Université Joseph Fourier
PhD student
Scientific manager
Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
Learn moreGIN, France
Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
Learn moreFaculty advisor / institute representative
Donders, Netherlands
Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society, Switzerland
Learn moreGuidelines for oral presentations
Oral presentations should last no longer than 15 minutes, which will be followed by 5 minutes of QA session with the audience.
In order to run the logistics smoothly on the day of your oral presentations, we ask you to send your presentation as PowerPoint and PDF by 27 August 2018 the latest. Please also send us any videos that you want to include in your presentation.
A laptop, an audio setup and a projector will be available for use in house. The participants wanting to use their own computers are asked to bring along any necessary adaptors.
Guidelines for posters
Posters should be size A0: 119 × 84 cm (height x width) // vertical
The posters do not have to be sent in advance; please take yours along on the day of your poster presentation session, where they can be put up by one of the student representatives.
Check out the FAQs to find the answers to common questions. Cannot find your question answered here? Contact us.
Which hotels are recommended ?
We recommend Starling Hotel (4 stars) and Hotel des inventions (3 stars).
Other hotels
Here is a list of other hotels provided by the city of Lausanne, please consider the Swisstech Hotel for its proximity to the symposium (750m by foot).
When will the symposium take place?
The main events of the symposium will take place from 30th to 31st of August, 2018.
In addition, 29th August will involve pre-symposium events, including EPFL campus tour, BMI laboratory visits and reception dinner.
Optionally, the participants can choose to stay for the social activities to take place on the 1st September.
Where will the symposium take place?
The symposium will take place in SV1717, SV building, EPFL campus.
From Geneve airport (Cointrin) to Lausanne
The journey to Lausanne takes about 45 minutes. There are 3 departures per hour. Most connections are direct from the “Geneve aéroport” bus station to Lausanne.
You will find the timetables at this adress:
From Zurich airport (Kloten) to Lausanne
The journey to Lausanne takes about 2½ hours. There are 2 departures per hour. Some trains have a connection in Bern or Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zürich HB). Follow the link below and type as your departure location: “Zürich Flughafen”.
From Bâle airport (EuroAirport) to Lausanne
There are no train stations in the airport. You will have to take the shuttle to the central railway station (Basel SBB), which takes around 20 minutes. The journey to Lausanne takes about 2½ hours. There are 2 departures per hour, with one change either at Berne or at Bienne. Follow the link below and type as your departure location: “Basel Airport”.
All train timetables can be found through this link:
From Paris to Lausanne
4 TGVs per day connect Paris-Gare de Lyon to Lausanne. The journey is direct and takes about 4 hours.
From Lyon to Lausanne
The journey from Lyon-Part-Dieu” to Lausanne takes 2½ heures. There is a train every 2 hours. Please note that there is a connection in Genève.
From Milan to Lausanne
From Milan central train station, the journey takes 4 hours (3 hours with the cisalpin). There is a departure every 2 hours. Usually there is no connection.
Public transportation
Please buy a ticket for the needed number of zones (between 3 and 4CHF)
From Lausanne, take the M2 from the CFF train station (next to the McDonalds). Change at Flon to M1 in direction of Renens. Get off at the EPFL stop. Then walk across the EPFL campus towards the SV building.
Option 1: Take bus n°31 in direction of “Venoge Sud”, get off at the stop “Paqueret” (press the red button in the bus to ask the bus to stop). Walk towards the SV building.
Option 2: Take the metro m1 in direction of Lausanne Flon, get off at EPFL stop. Then walk across the EPFL campus towards the SV building.
There are Uber drivers in Lausanne. Please download the app on your phone to book a ride.
Find below the link to the website of Lausanne taxis.
Is lunch included?
Lunch is provided for all registered participants.
Please note that the proposed social events on the 1st September are optional – participants willing to take part are asked to cover their own expenses.
Will I be able to connect to the internet?
Wireless internet access will be granted to the symposium participants – please find below the information needed.
Network: Public-epfl
Username: x-future2018
Password: bodnes29
Valid from 29-AUG-2018 until 1-SEPT-2018
Please do not hesitate to contact the PhD student representatives of your institute shall you have any queries.
For the Grenoble Institute of Neuroscience (GIN):
Our goal is to create a network and provide a platform that will allow the students to continue to support each other, work together and share their work and experiences amongst themselves and with future neuroscience students from our institutions.
To achieve these goals, we have established Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages to enable participants to remain in touch after the conference. Please do not forget to register by clicking on the following links if you would like to remain in touch with us: