Physics prof endorses NIA2

Oct 21, 2008 • Posted by Ann Stuart

Rhonda Dzakpasu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Georgetown University, sent me this endorsement:

“My first exposure to NIA was in 2005 during a summer course at the MBL in Woods Hole, MA. This was also my introduction to neurobiology and NIA was a great way to start. The tutorials are well written and it was comforting to know that a misstep on my behalf would only result in resetting the program at worse, not destroying a biological preparation or a piece of expensive electrophysiological equipment! The software is very user-friendly and is a fun and painless way to learn neurobiology.

“I did not have the opportunity to work with NIA again until I started my faculty position at Georgetown University in 2008. I organized a NIA2 seminar and workshop for first-year graduate students in the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience. Ann Stuart was gracious enough to visit us and gave a command performance. Her presentation of the software was well received by both faculty and students and several of the faculty will purchase NIA2 for use in their classes.

“I will finally have the chance to work intimately with NIA when I offer a month-long research module to undergraduate students in our Cognitive Science program. This module will be designed so that students will work with the NIA2 program and then compare the results from their tutorials with real experiments in which they will perform intracellular recordings from dissociated cultures.

“NIA is an excellent pedagogical tool for both the beginning and advanced neurobiology student. It will become the centerpiece of my neuroscience teaching component at Georgetown University.”