Introduction to CPC Afterburn: A Software Engineer's Take on Computational Psychiatry

Hey there! I’m Pedro Teixeira, and for the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a series of posts called “CPC Afterburn” about my experience at the 2025 Computational Psychiatry Course (CPC) in Zurich. This course, organized by the Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), is an intensive, six-day program designed to give attendees the tools needed to tackle research challenges in computational psychiatry.

As a software engineer, I’m used to thinking about systems and models in a certain way, but this course was a fascinating dive into how those same concepts can be applied to understanding the human mind. The CPC’s goal is to provide a clear overview of the existing computational models and open-source software, demonstrating how they can be used to address specific problems in psychiatry.

What is Computational Psychiatry?
Computational psychiatry is an emerging field that uses mathematical and computational approaches to understand mental disorders. It bridges neuroscience, psychology, and computer science to develop models that can predict, explain, and potentially treat psychiatric conditions.

One of the most striking things about the course was the diversity of the audience. The organizers intentionally bring together a “mixed audience with diverse backgrounds,” including:

• Clinicians - bringing real-world patient experience
• Psychologists - contributing theoretical frameworks
• Neuroscientists - providing brain research expertise
• Engineers - adding systems thinking and technical rigor
• Mathematicians - providing the mathematical foundations

This made for a truly unique learning environment, where discussions weren’t just about the code, but also about the clinical and theoretical implications of the models we were building.

Course Structure

The course is structured to be a comprehensive journey into the field:

• Day 1: Introduction to psychiatry, laying the conceptual groundwork for the problems that computational psychiatry aims to solve
• Days 2-4: The most technical days, diving deep into computational methods:
  • Basic modeling principles
  • Machine learning applications
  • Brain connectivity models
• Day 5: Practical applications of these models in psychiatry and psychosomatics

What to Expect in This Series

This series will break down each session from the perspective of a software engineer. We’ll explore:

• The models and their mathematical foundations
• The systems behind computational psychiatry tools
• Insights gained from an interdisciplinary setting
• Practical applications for software engineers interested in neuroscience

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Stay tuned for my first deep dive, where we’ll explore some of the talks on the basics of computational modeling from Day 1. If you’re interested in the intersection of technology and neuroscience, this series is for you!