TANGENT
Advanced Track
Future Offering

A small reading group for students ready to work with papers directly.

Primarily for undergraduates, with room for advanced high school students ready for serious reading, technical discussion, and direct work with papers.

Advanced high school / undergraduate 4–5 students 4 weeks Online
Ask about this track Meet the mentors
Who it suits

Good fit

Primarily undergraduates, along with advanced high school students working beyond the usual level, especially if they want a small group in which they can read papers carefully and think aloud without having to pretend they already understand everything.

What it asks

Students should be willing to read one paper a week, stay with technical difficulty, and talk honestly about what they understand and what they do not. Advanced high school students can also fit when they are ready for that level of work.

Current topic

One shared line of inquiry.

The current topic is shaped around a focused cluster of papers rather than a broad survey. Future topics can open when there is enough overlap in interest and mentor availability.

NeuroAI — Minds x Machines

Four papers at the intersection of neuroscience and machine learning, asking what neural networks reveal about the brain, what the brain reveals about learning, and what remains hard to explain.

Future topics open based on interest overlap and mentor availability.

What students do

Reading and analysis

  • Each week centers on one paper.
  • Sometimes a technical essay or review sits alongside it, with optional extra reading for anyone who wants more depth.
  • The aim is to identify the question, the main claim, and how the evidence or argument works.
  • Students are encouraged to notice what remains unclear, not hide it.

Discussion and presentation

  • Week 1 models how to read and present a paper well.
  • Weeks 2–4 ask students to present and lead part of the discussion.
  • In larger groups, students can work in pairs or trios, and a simple one-slide format is enough.
4-week format

How the cycle runs

  • Week 0 begins with a short intro call before the reading cycle starts.
  • The group then moves through four weeks of reading, discussion, and gradually more student-led work.

What matters

  • Good questions matter more than polished performance.
  • A simple one-slide format is enough.
  • The point is to learn how to enter a paper properly, not to perform expertise.
Read the full process Get in touch