BioSpec's interdisciplinary summer school on mining of biospectroscopy data

BioSpec Norway, as part of Norwegian University of Life Sciences, is organizing an interdiciplinary summer school for Master and PhD students dedicated to analysis of biological data in infrared spectroscopy.

BioSpec summer school 2025

Date: June 16th – June 20th

Where: Online and physical (NMBU, Ås, Norway) presence

Questions? Contact biospec@nmbu.no

Registration is open: register here

Deadline for registration is

• 1^st of April for students who needs officially study points from NMBU
• 1^st of May for others

About BioSpec summer school 2025

Participants will be given an introduction to fundamental concepts in cell biology, machine learning, and the physics of infrared absorption, delivered by distinguished scientists in these fields.

The primary objective of the summer school is to offer practical experience in tackling a complex research problem within a multidisciplinary team. Biology, physics, and computer science students will collaborate on a two-day project, culminating in a defense and a presentation session. This session will provide an opportunity for early-stage researchers to share their research findings with their peers.

• Hybrid: Physical and digital presence

  The summer school has been held in different formats in the past, with physical events held in 2018 and 2019 and digital versions in 2020, 2021, and 2022. In recent years, we have adopted a hybrid model, combining both physical and digital elements. We intend to continue this hybrid format for the BioSpec Summer School 2025.

  This approach will allow participants to join either digitally or in-person. All lectures will be live-streamed, and we will structure the group work to ensure full accessibility and participation in all aspects of the summer school, regardless of the chosen attendance method. Please note that the summer school is intensive, requiring availability from approximately 8:30 - 17:30* CEST daily. All activities are compulsory, and we expect full participation from all attendees. The exact schedule will be provided at the beginning of June.

  For those attending the physical summer school, please bring your own computer as we will be utilizing the Quasar software.

  For online participants, ensure you have a stable internet connection and a camera for maintaining connectivity. Your computer should be capable of running a video conferencing system (like Zoom) and the Quasar software simultaneously. If possible, we recommend using two screens for an optimal experience.

• Participation Options: Can I earn credits from this course?

  Starting from 2025, students from NMBU, other Norwegian universities, and non-Norwegian universities can enroll in the BioSpec Summer School as a standard NMBU course, which grants them 5 credits upon completion. The summer school is formally recognized as the NMBU courses FYS302 (for master's students) and FYS402 (for PhD students).

  Participation options:

  1. NMBU Students: Please register for the course via the Student Web by April 1^st.
  2. Non-NMBU Students: You will be registered as a guest student. This requires providing certain information/documentation (including a copy of your passport, documentation from your home university/grade list, mailing address, physical address, phone number, etc.). We will reach out to you with instructions on how to submit this information.
  3. Others: If you don't formally need the course credits awarded by NMBU, you can attend the course without being officially registered as a guest student at NMBU.

  
  In addition to the processes described above, everyone should also register using the provided registration form.

  All students who complete the course (pre-course and one-week summer school) will receive a participation certificate.

  For information on pricing, please refer to the section below.

• Pre-course

  Upon registration and payment of the fee, you'll receive a link to the pre-course material. This material includes several videos that you're required to watch, followed by a test after each video. Please note, passing the pre-course is mandatory for participation in the summer school.

  The deadline for submitting pre-course tests is June 9th, 2025. Be aware that the pre-course material is quite comprehensive and time-consuming. We strongly advise against leaving it until the last day.

• Temporary program and topics

  The following topics will be covered during the summer school:

  • Cell biology
  • Spectroscopic methods
  • Light scattering and pre-processing
  • Data pre-treatment
  • Analytical methods used in biology
  • PCA
  • Clustering
  • Basic regression, multi-block, PLC
  • Machine learning
  • Deep learning
  • FTIR Imaging
• Prerequisites

  The summer school will dive extensively into selected topics from cell biology, machine learning, and spectroscopy. Participants are expected to have intermediate-level English proficiency to effectively engage in and benefit from the learning process. Strong reasoning skills, the ability to quickly understand interdisciplinary relations, and experience with group work are highly valued.

  We encourage individuals from all natural science backgrounds to register for the course. Please note that to attend the summer school, you must have completed at least a bachelor's degree.

• Price

  Option	Description	Price	Deadline for registration
  1	Students who are enrolled in a study program at a Norwegian university/ University college and have paid semester fee (NMBU and others)	Free	April 1st
  1	Students seeking study points (who will be registered as guest students) and who have not paid the semester fee at Norwegian University/University college (See description above)	Semester fee of 560 NOK*	April 1st
  2	Junior researchers (Phd/master students) (who do not seek study points awarded by NMBU and who are not formally registered as guest students)	1500 NOK**	May 1st
  3	Senior researchers (all sectors) (who do not seek for study points and who are not formally registered as guest students)	2500 NOK**	May 1st

  * The university will provide information for payment of the semester fee (option 1).
  ** Link for payment for option 2 and 3 will be sent out within two weeks after registration.

• Accommodation

  The fee will not cover accommodation and food expenses.

  The closest accommodation option to NMBU is SiÅs in Ås and Thon Hotel Ski in Ski. There are also several accommodations available in Oslo, and fast connections for reaching Ås by train and bus from Oslo.

  For information on how to get to NMBU from Ski and Oslo, please see https://www.nmbu.no/en/research/groups/biospectroscopy-and-data-modeling-biospec#find-us

Acknowledgements

This summer school is supported through outreach activities by PHOTONFOOD. The PHOTONFOOD project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grand agreement No. 101016444.

Contact us

If you have any questions, please contact us at biospec@nmbu.no, or send an e-mail to Achim Kohler or Volha Shapaval: