Elon University will launch a major in the discipline of neuroscience this fall.
The step allows the university to offer bachelor’s degrees in neuroscience, is the latest in the development of a program that began nearly 20 years ago, said Matt Wittstein, coordinator of the program.
“We’ve had a minor in neuroscience since the late 2000s — it was one of the first minors in neuroscience in the state,” Wittstein said. “At Elon, our minors are pretty much all interdisciplinary programs, so ... [the neuroscience minor] was really feeding off of biology, psychology and exercise science at that time.”
Elon University currently boasts more than 180 students enrolled in its neuroscience program.
“We sort of realized that there was real interest in developing a [neuroscience] major, so a few years ago, we proposed a major as sort of a pathway, as co-majoring with another one of those foundational departments of biology, chemistry, exercise science or psychology,” Wittstein said. “We realized that we would be a little bit stronger for the long term if we developed a standalone major, and so that’s where we sit now.”
Last year, Elon launched its artificial intelligence Initiative and Wittstein said his personal area of endeavor — exercise science, biomechanics and motor control — has benefited greatly from the university’s incorporation of AI into all of its course offerings, so the launch of a neuroscience major this fall feels like a natural extension of the AI Initiative.
“Elon’s really trying to think about how to implement AI across every facet of the university, from administrative work to in the classroom to guarding against potential honor code concerns in the classroom to preparing students to work with AI in their future,” Wittstein said. “Those pieces will certainly filter into our neuroscience program.”
Wittstein added that one of the learning goals for the neuroscience program is professional development.
“Employers want people that can leverage [AI] technology, but we’re also seeing that we’re able to do different things in research and in teaching with artificial intelligence,” he said. “So there won’t be a direct connection ... [between the neuroscience major] and the AI initiatives, but we certainly will be involved in the things the AI Initiative is doing — the workshops and the implementation plans will certainly be participating in that aspect of it.”
The addition of bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees in neuroscience fits perfectly with Elon’s core values as a liberal arts institution, Wittstein said.
“Students have to take courses in science and civilization and society and in [human] expression,” he said. “They have to get some advanced studies. They have to take a global perspectives first-year seminar and a core capstone, which is the one I coordinate.
“Those courses are really meant to anchor Elon’s education with the strength of a liberal arts program where [students] are getting breadth and depth, they’re developing skills that are more around critical thinking and problem solving and communicating to lots of different audiences with different backgrounds and being able to inquire deeply about general questions or specific questions.”
