Ilenna Jones

Kempner Research Fellowship - Kempner Institute The Kempner brings leading, early-stage postdoctoral scientists to Harvard to work on projects that advance the fundamental understanding of intelligence.

Applications are now open for our #KempnerInstitute Research Fellowships!

Postdocs studying the foundations of #intelligence or applications of #AI are encouraged to apply.

Learn more and apply by Oct. 1:
bit.ly/3UvpSpe

#LLMs #NeuroAI #ML @shamkakade.bsky.social

Finishing my 2 weeks of travel to #CCN2025 in Amsterdam, Netherlands and @deeplearningindaba.bsky.social #DLI2025 in Kigali, Rwanda. I saw tons o stellar research and ideas grounded in urgent real world applications of AI to improve people's lives. Now it's time to recuperate back home in Boston 😌🫠😊

About to board a flight to Amsterdam for #CCN2025 !

If you're there and want to meet up, let me know!

(Also, mini-announcement that I'M GOING ON THE JOB MARKET this fall, so I'm happy to discuss that and share notes!)

Formulas and numbers from the field of machine learning written in white chalk on a blackboard

Together with #AIMS, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, we have an exciting position to fill: The AIMS - Tübingen Junior Research Chair in Machine Learning for Science! 1/2

The Harvard @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social spotlights me and my efforts there and at @imbizo.bsky.social in this article! Check it out!

Today, @hhmi.org stopped all competitions supporting ECRs when we needed it most.

As an FGLI undergraduate 2014/2015 HHMI EXROP participant, a 2020 Gilliam Fellow, and applicant for the now paused 2025 HGF program - I was a consistently supported by HHMI throughout my career.

Please reconsider!

I am a proud HHMI Gilliam Fellow alumn. The HHMI funded me at a critical time in my career - a real inflection point that made me realize that I had a place and future in science. I always looked to the HHMI as a safety net to those historically excluded by academia, 1/4

I'm so sad to hear this too - I gave so much time and effort into this application too. At the very least it helped give me the push to solidify ideas that I'm trying to push forward. We'll make it work somehow.

Testing this briefly felt like this gamifies the writing and planning process especially since there's a rating system that comes with the feedback- honestly fun to use to expand on fledgling projects!

I have seen folks waste so much time by not properly planning research. Missed literature, missing controls, ignored hypotheses, etc. Lack of planning also produces bad science (e.g. analysis until significant). So I am writing an app. Looking for feedback. scientific-paper-planner-test.vercel.app

🧠🤖 Computational Neuroscience summer school IMBIZO in Cape Town is open for applications again!
 
💻🧬 3 weeks of intense coursework & projects with support from expert tutors and faculty
 
📈Apply until July 1st!

🔗https://imbizo.africa/

It feels so good to see Imbizo students doing great things! @imbizo.bsky.social #imbizo

While the world burns, we cook up a new preprint! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Biophysical modeling is a key tool to derive mechanistic insights into the brain. These models are governed by biologically meaningful parameters (unlike artificial neural networks), but the dirty secret ... 1/N

We are thrilled to host a tutorial on biophysical modeling with Jaxley & DendroTweaks at #CNS2025! 📍 Florence, July 5 — looking forward to seeing you there! www.cnsorg.org/cns-2025 @cnsorg.bsky.social

Traveling waves of neural activity are observed all over the brain. Can they be used to augment neural networks?

I am thrilled to share our new work, "Traveling Waves Integrate Spatial Information Through Time" with @andykeller.bsky.social!

1/13

Are you interested in comparing modern AI/RL agents to Humans?

To make it easier for researchers spanning cognitive science, multi-agent RL, and HCI to do this, I've made nicewebrl

github.com/wcarvalho/ni...

INTRODUCTION

Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?

Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.

thebullshitmachines.com

Group picture of students, TAs and faculty at the #imbizo2025 course

A bit late, but just to say how lucky I feel that I could spend a week at #Imbizo2025 summer school @imbizo.bsky.social, hanging out w/ this group of absolutely brilliant students, their dedicated TAs & other faculty. Watch out for this pool of talent! & consider applying/contributing next rounds

Dr. Dan Wetmore giving a lecture

Students at Imbizo working hard on their presentation

Student presentation on designing ML solutions to understand cardiac rhythms

Student presentation on designing ML solutions to sleep paralysis

🎉 Exciting day at #Imbizo2025! Dr. Dan Wetmore & Dr. Garrick Orchard from Meta’s Reality Labs shared their industrial insights on designing top-notch AI/ML experiments, including innovative BCI applications 🤖💡 Students showcased creative solutions for EMG, sleep, wind, epilepsy monitoring & more! 🌟

Dendrites endow artificial neural networks with accurate, robust and parameter-efficient learning - Nature Communications Artificial neural networks, central to deep learning, are powerful but energy-consuming and prone to overfitting. The authors propose a network design inspired by biological dendrites, which offe...

Dendrites doing AI problems, so great to see the increased activity! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Honoring Dr. King today by reflecting on his powerful speech "What’s Your Blueprint?" delivered to students in 1967. He challenged us to consider our purpose and legacy. Let's ask ourselves: what is our blueprint for a better world? Together, we can create a future that embodies his values. #MLKDay

It was great to meet @therealdrdukes.bsky.social at the Computational Neuroscience Imbizo this week! From reflecting on who we are, to the state of equity in academics, she gave an incredibly inspiring and immediately applicable lecture for all. We're thankful for all you do Dr. Dukes! #BlackInNeuro

Just gave my lecture at @imbizo.bsky.social summer school today. What an amazing school both in terms of science and social impact --and the place is breathtaking! Now, time to enjoy the summer time with @therealdrdukes.bsky.social, @arifahamid.bsky.social, and all the students and tutors 🏖️

Annual cockroach spike 🪳 fun at the @imbizo.bsky.social! @simonsfoundation.org @ibroorg.bsky.social @backyardbrains.bsky.social

‘My life’s purpose’: A neuroscientist wants to rewire mental illness treatment and remake the field he loves Duke neuroscientist Kafui Dzirasa wants nothing less than to reengineer the brain’s electrical patterns to treat anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

this profile, by @usha.bsky.social is well worth your while

Kafui Dzirasa is trying to understand the electrical basis for mental health disorders while creating a more equitable research environment than the one he came up in 🧪🔬 #medsky @blackinneuro.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2025/01/13/k...

A poster advertising the TREND CAMINA summer school.

Join us in Zambia for the third TReND-CaMinA course: computational neuroscience & machine learning in Africa.

📆Applications open until 15.01.

🧠🧪

trendinafrica.org/trend-camina/

A long read from 2017 but well worth the time for any scientist who both loves their job and and often finds themselves questioning their life decisions. www.danielnettle.org.uk/wp-content/u...

I will talk about our efforts to train biophysically detailed neuron models at the CMC Learning Club today (2pm CET). Zoom link sent upon empty email to virtual-talk-link-request@cmclab.org. Thanks a lot @neuroprinciplist.bsky.social for organizing this!

It's a good time to build local communities. Starter pack for neuroscientists at Harvard. I am sure I'm missing many folks; let me know.

go.bsky.app/VcFhesD