Université Côte d'Azur is a group of higher education institutions that brings together the main players in higher education and research on the Côte d'Azur. UCA aims to develop the twenty-first century model for French universities, based on new interactions between disciplines, an experimental model of coordination between research, education and innovation and strong partnerships with the private sector and local communities.
The department of mathematics has been awarded three ERC grants (two seniors: HEIGHTEICH, SCAPDE and one consolidator: Sing Wave). It also has connections with private companies, including contracts with multinational companies like Thales, TOTAL, EDF and local start-ups, and with research agencies, like CEA (French agency for atomic energy). It also has a strong partnership with INRIA (French agency for computer sciences).
The Université Côte d'Azur is involved in several Applied Mathematics projects of interest for the present application. Some are supported by the French Research Agency ANR:
- ANR on mean field games (member: Delarue), application to economics/finance, crowd motion https://cbernard04.wixsite.com/anrednhs
- ANR in mathematics for neurosciences (members: Reynaud, Tanré) http://www.paris-neuroscience.fr/en/user/416
- ANR in statistical mechanics (PI: Bernardin) application to physics https://cbernard04.wixsite.com/anrednhs
Other projects related with the field of Neuroscience, of interest for the track at UCA:
- 3IA Chair: Chair in Artificial Intelligence from UCA. Both Delarue and Reynaud hold a chair (Chair means: PhD and Postdoc students, plus fundings) http://univ-cotedazur.fr/institutes/3IA/home#.XjniixdCf_9
- HBB: Human Brain Project. European project in Neurosciences (Etienne Tanré is a member) https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/
InterMathsUCACoordinator
University of Côte d'Azur (UniCA) Nice, France
Year #2 Cohort #2025 @ UniCA
Stochastics for biological and artificial neural networks;
ECTS Credits: 6 | Semester: 1 | Year: 2 | Campus: University of Côte d'Azur | Language: English
Unit Coordinator: Alice Guyon, Ingrid Bethus
Aims:
Neuronal and cognitive systems cannot be modeled without knowledge of the basics of Neurosciences, from the molecular to the integrated level, involved in cognition and behaviors. The first part of the program focuses on elementary neurophysiology and neuroanatomy. What are the different subparts constituting the nervous system and what are their main roles? How are neurons constituted? How do they generate activity and communicate with other neurons? The second part of the program explores, with an integrative perspective, the neurobiological basis for higher mental functions through several examples. Sensorimotor functions are at the root of all the other processes. So the study of feeding behaviors is a good way to learn about the bio-logic of elementary behaviors, starting from the physiology of the autonomic nervous system and ending with neuroethological issues. Learning and memory are the basic processes of higher mental functions and also hot topics with applications in many domains. In addition to all these fundamentals, the course also explains the materials and methods used in cognitive neurosciences to obtain data at the different levels of organization of nervous, cognitive and behavioral systems. This course is taught by a teaching staff member of the Master Programme Mod4NeuCog at UCA.
Content:
The specialisation track “Stochastics for biological and artificial neural networks” will be offered at the Université de la Côte d’Azur in Nice. The teaching staff are affiliated to the CRNS Laboratoire J. A. Dieudonne, in particular to the Probability and Statistics Team, featuring experts in the field at outstanding level, such as Francois Delarue (AMS Doob Prize 2020), Patricia Reynaud-Bouret (Director of the “NeuroMod” Institute), and Cédric Bernardin (a leading international figure in the field of stochastic calculus and applications). The former two are acknowledged researchers in the applications of probability and stochastic analysis to neuroscience. Part of the courses will be taught by staff at the “NeuroMod” Institute for Modelling in Neuroscience and Cognition.
The course “Stochastic calculus with applications to neuroscience”, taught by Cédric Bernardin, will provide stochastic calculus tools to be applied to the dynamics of biological neural networks. The course “Probabilistic numerical methods” will address Monte Carlo and quasi Monte Carlo numerical methods. It will be taught by Etienne Tanré, who runs several projects in this field. The course “Stochastic control and interacting systems” addresses a very innovative field at the interface of optimal control, stochastic calculus, and mathematical analysis, which has relevant contributions to mathematical modelling in neuroscience. It will be taught by one of the most important experts in the field such as Francois Delarue. Two courses will be taken from the existing Modelling for Neural and Cognitive Systems MSc program: “Stochastic models in neurocognition and their statistical inference”, taught by the Director of the NeuroMod Institute Patricia Reynaud-Bouret, and “ Behavioural and cognitive neuroscience”, taught by Alice Guyon, research director at CNRS at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology. The latter is the application-driven course of this track, it will be exclusively focused on neuroscience modelling and it will analyse the neurobiological basis for higher mental functions through several examples.
This specialisation track will give the opportunity to spend the thesis semester in one of the institutes involved with the teaching or in one of the industrial partners, such as Fotonower, a company devoted to artificial intelligence and image processing.
September 2025
September 2026
September 2026
Campus
University of Côte d'Azur
Cohort
2025
Semester
3
