This NEST tutorial ramps up from basic concepts to recent research on spiking neural network models with the simulator NEST (https://www.nest-simulator.org, https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io). Starting with the graphical user interface NEST Desktop, we will interactively construct a network model and explore its dynamics. Afterwards, we will turn to PyNEST code using Jupyter notebooks.

You will learn how to define your own neuron and synapse models using the domain-specific language NESTML and train a network with the eligibility propagation (e-prop) learning rule to solve a task.

The first session is designed as a live demo, the second is mostly hands-on; it is possible to join both or either one. For the hands-on part we recommend to create an EBRAINS account (https://ebrains.eu/sign-up)."