It's official
It’s official!
Our hub has been officially renamed to Cognitive Neuroscience Hub (formerly known as Decision Science Hub). The key purpose of renaming is to more accurately reflect the broad scope of research work we conduct in the hub. On 26th October 2023, we hosted a Launch event to celebrate this milestone in the presence of local and international attendees.
Prof Rob Hester kicked off the day with an opening speech to firstly acknowledge the original custody and Aboriginal descendants of the land we were in. Quoting from his speech, the hub would not be around if not for the decision of former Head of School, Prof Sarah Wilson, to make MSPS into hub and centres of research, and for the Founding Director, Prof Stefan Bode, for taking on the leadership role when the hub was first created. Hear the full opening speech by Rob and what Stefan had to say about the hub via the video links below:
Next, we had some of our early career researchers present a showcase of the range of in-house methods and capabilities. Dr Sophie Lin introduced us to the state-of-the-art OPM-MEG system which we anticipate being officially launched by Sept 2024. Dr Daniel Feuerriguel presented the broad range of work we do using EEG . Dr Jacob Paul showcased how far we have gone with using the 7T-MRI system on campus. Their talks were followed by an engaging question and answer session with the audience. We look forward to more collaborations and new exciting projects using these machines and technologies!
After lunch, the crowd returned to the podium for the much-awaited panel session on the topic “The Hard Problem of Consciousness”. We were privileged to have 4 experts (Prof Anil Seth, Prof Olivia Carter, Prof Timothy Bayne & A/Prof Wendyl D’Souza) on the panel to discuss viewpoints on this hot topic that tickled our minds and spurred new ideas.
We then had a lineup of 8 student talks. The audience had an overview of the student projects, and the students had an opportunity to practice their public speaking skills. A big round of applause to our researchers-in-training!
Finally, Dr Kate Storrs, cognitive neuroscientist from the University of Auckland, gave a Keynote talk on Learning about the world by learning about images. Thank you to all speakers, staff and students, on-stage and off-stage, for making this event a huge success! We look forward to seeing you at the next hub event!
