Teaching · Study abroad
A Cognitive Neuroscience Immersion in Geneva
Every May a group of UT Austin undergraduates spends four weeks studying cognitive neuroscience at the University of Geneva. Franco Pestilli created the program and teaches it. It is open to students from every college at UT.
At a glance
- When: May Term (four weeks in May). 2027 dates: May 5 – June 2
- Where: University of Geneva, Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland
- Credit: PSY 355N Cognitive Neuroscience, plus LA 119 seminar in the spring
- Who: Undergraduates from any UT college; GPA 3.0, PSY 301 and PSY 418 or 420M
- Deadline: November 1 for the following May (applications and scholarships)
- Contact: Franco Pestilli (faculty) · Mia Robinson (program coordinator, Education Abroad)
The course
PSY 355N covers how the brain supports cognition: perception, memory, attention, decision-making, and learning. Students work with brain imaging data, neural network models, and the methods of experimental design, with an emphasis on reading evidence critically. The lectures are the same as in Austin. What changes is everything around them.
Why Geneva
Campus Biotech houses one of the densest concentrations of neuroscience and neurotechnology in Europe, and the University of Geneva, the University of Lausanne, and EPFL are all within reach. Students visit laboratories, meet the scientists whose papers they read in class, and see how research is organized in a different country. Franco Pestilli has long-standing collaborations with the faculty there.
Life in the program
Four weeks of classes, lab visits, and a research project, together with the things that make Geneva Geneva: the lake, the mountains, boat trips and hikes, and day trips in Switzerland and France. Students live together in apartment hotels or University of Geneva housing. The program fee covers housing, some meals and activities, local transport, and orientation; airfare and personal expenses are separate, and scholarships are available through Education Abroad.
Photos
Geneva, in pictures
