Self introduction: Ankur Sinha (and a Gitter channel for neuroscience related talk)

[Ankur Sinha]

Hello!

Just thought I'd introduce myself to the community:

I'm a final year PhD candidate at the Biocomputation group at the
University of Hertfordshire, where Dr. Volker Steuber is my primary
supervisor[0].

I'm investigating the functional effects of structural plasticity led
network repair. So, my work primarily centres around Butz and van
Ooyen's model of structural plasticity[1] and the Vogels-Sprekeler
model of inhibitory homoeostatic synaptic plasticity[2]. I've primarily
developing using NEST[3] - it contains partial bits of the structural
plasticity model in it already.

I'm a computer science major moving into computational neuroscience.
I've been a free software volunteer at the Fedora project for the
better part of a decade now[4]. I'm quite proficient at Linux,
programming in multiple languages, and software development in general.
There's more information on my non technical/academic interests and
activities on my web space here[5]

I've been lucky enough to meet some of the folks on this ML already,
but I'd really like to increase my engagement with the research
community in general. I'll be sniffing around Github to see there's
anything I can help out with. If you do have something you reckon I can
assist with, please do ping me.

On a related note, I've seen multiple neuroscience related MLs now, but
nothing neuroscience related on any "chat" platforms. They come in
quite handy for quick development or troubleshooting or even just a bit
of socialising now and then. So, keeping in line with the "do first,
ask forgiveness later" philosophy, I've set up a general neuroscience
channel on Gitter here[6]. Please hang out there - it's open to all.

I hope you've had a good weekend, and I expect I'll see some of you at
CNS in a few weeks time.

[0] http://biocomputation.herts.ac.uk
[1] http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003259
[2] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6062/1569
[3] https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/
[4] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ankursinha
[5] http://ankursinha.in/blog/
[6] https://gitter.im/neuroscience-central/Lobby

--
Thanks,
Regards,

Ankur Sinha

Ph.D. candidate - UH Biocomputation
Hatfield, UK

http://biocomputation.herts.ac.uk