SOLAR-Eclipse Computational Tools for Imaging Genetics

   

   

PhD Studentship Available for October 2012

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in Statistics at the University of Warwick, funded by a NIH RO1 grant, joint with University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Title: SOLAR-Eclipse Computational Tools for Imaging Genetics

Supervisors: Dr. Thomas Nichols (Warwick) and Dr. Peter Kochunov (U. Maryland Baltimore)

Funding: Tuition fees (at UK/EU level) and tax-free stipend for a 3.5 year PhD. Stipend rises annually as per the UK Research Councils minimum rate (£13,590 for 2011/11).

Start Date: October 2012

Project Description: Imaging genetics is an exciting merger of neuroscience and genomics, looking to discover and understand the genetic variation in brain imaging phenotypes. The over-all goal of this project is to create a new imaging genetic tool, that will allow the use of imaging data with classical genetic and epigenetic epidemiological analyses such as heritability, pleiotropy, quantitative trait loci (QTL) and genome-wide association (GWAS), gene expression, and methylation analyses. The project will extend the the widely used genetics SOLAR software, creating the "SOLAR-Eclipse" toolkit.

This studentship specifically concerns the development of inference methods that account for the genomic and spatial structure in the data analyzed. In particular, multiple testing methods that account for both the spatial nature of the signal and correlated noise structure. The methods must work with both independent samples (unrelated individuals) and pedigrees (related subjects). The methods developed will be ultimately be released as a standalone application and integrated into the existing neuroscience eScience networks. Such an integrate analysis package will greatly enhance and speed up the search for genes that influence brain's neuroanatomic and functional traits and provide comprehensive tools to illustrate pathways from genes to brain structure/function. It is expected that a combination of permutation and random field theory based methods will be developed to meet these goals. Grant pending final approval; studentship conditional on grant award.

Requirements: The studentship is available to candidates with the equivalent of a first class or upper second class degree in a relevant discipline, and who meet University entry requirements (see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/academicoffice/gsp/prospective ).

Eligibility: UK or EU nationals. Non-EU nationals can apply, but would be responsible for the difference between UK/EU fees and international fees.

To Apply: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/statistics/postgrad/research/apply (and please notify Dr. Nichols t.e.nichols@warwick.ac.uk when application is submitted)

Deadline: Applications are considered on rolling basis, up until 31 July 2012, but priority given to applications received before 15 April.

Inquires: Specific questions on this project should be directed to Thomas Nicholst.e.nichols@warwick.ac.uk; questions on the postgraduate application process at Warwick should be directed to stats.pg.support@warwick.ac.uk

Links:

• Warwick Statistics

• Thomas Nichols

• Peter Kochunov recently moved to University of Maryland Baltimore. For more on his work see his lab's profile from U. Texas Health Science Center.

Educational Workshop on Resting State Connectivity

  

 

Magdeburg – September 3rd and 4th 2012

We are proud to announce the Resting State Educational Workshop taking place right before the 3^rd Biennial Resting State Conference – September 5-7 2012.

The 2-day educational workshop, organized together with the ESMRMB – Lectures on MR Series, will feature the most relevant subjects of resting state imaging, including physiology, data analysis, and applications. The target audience, researchers with existing knowledge on fMRI with interest to broaden and substantiate their knowledge on resting state fMRI, will get to experience focus lectures and hands on courses by international experts in the field. For more information on the program and speakers, visit www.restingstate.com. For registration, also visit http://www.esmrmb.org. The registration fee for PhD students and physicians in training is € 190 for ESMRMB members and € 285 for non-members, which includes access to the workshop, a course syllabus, full catering of lunches and coffee breaks, and a welcome dinner.

Biennial Resting State Conference

Magdeburg – September 5-7 2012.

Right after the educational course, Magdeburg will host the 3rd international resting state conference, welcoming international experts in this growing field.

The Biennial Resting State Meeting Series was initiated as an expert meeting on all aspects of this fascinating technique in Magdeburg in 2008. After the great success of our last biennial meeting in Milwaukee in 2010, the 3rd Resting State Conference now returned to the birthplace of this unique conference.

The Resting State Meeting aims at bringing together key researchers working on the physiological background or analysis of resting state data in a familial and highly interactive setting.

The sessions for both the educational course and the main conference are structured into 3 major themes: Theme 1 will deal with recent advances and methodological issues in resting state data analysis. Theme 2 will cover the physiology and physical background of low frequency fluctuations including electrophysiological correlates, the impact of physiological noise and insights from pharmacological challenges. Theme 3 will focus on applications using resting state fMRI with a specific focus on psychiatric and neurological diseases.

Growing with the field and its diversity, we invite researchers working on all related aspects of this fascinating phenomenon to share ideas and insights from their disciplines, including clinical applications.

Each day of the main conference will consist of two morning and two afternoon sessions where specific emphasis will be put on discussion and debates on hot topics and ongoing controversies in the field of resting state. Additional lunch symposia will be paralleled by poster receptions on the major fields of resting state:

Methods and Acquisition

Data Analysis

Physiology

Animal Imaging

Pharmacology

Multimodal Resting State Studies

Applications in Psychology, Neurology, Psychiatry and Neuroradiology

 

Similar to the previous meetings, the scientific program will be extended towards evening social events providing ample room for intensive interactions and communication.

Abstract submission and online registration for the 3^rd Biennial Resting State Meeting opened March 1st and abstract submission will still be possible until April 30th.

Please save the date and make sure to register in time. Abstract submission requires registration for the conference. Safe on early bird registration fees (until April 30^th): The registration fee of € 395 includes access to the full meeting, welcome reception and full catering of lunches and coffee breaks for all three days. 

The satellite educational course on September 3^rd and 4^th will be restricted to a limited number of attendees so make sure to register in time for both events.

For more information including a list of our confirmed speakers please visit www.restingstate.com.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates if you haven’t done so yet!

We are looking forward to see you in Magdeburg

On behalf of all organizers

Martin Walter, MD

Chair - 3^rd Biennial Resting State Conference

Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory (Canlab),

Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology &

Otto-von-Guericke-University,

Magdeburg, Germany

Ilya Veer

Co-organizer ESMRMB Resting State Educational Workshop

Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)

Leiden, The Netherlands

2012 MICCAI Grand Challenge and Workshop on Multi-Atlas Labeling

  

 

Acropolis Convention and Exhibition Centre, Nice France            October 5th, 2012 - AM Session

Website: https://masi.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/workshop2012/                      Paper submission deadline: June 12th, 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS

Multi-atlas techniques are becoming increasingly integral to numerous medical image computing approaches and are now expanding into for diverse anatomical regions. The proposed workshop will present a forum to discuss recent advances in multi-atlas techniques. The discussion will focus on new methods/applications of multi-atlas labeling and comparative evaluations of methods on a newly public, manually labeled dataset. First, we will host a discussion on methods, theory, and applications in which traditional MICCAI format papers will be solicited. Second, we will host a challenge on whole-brain labeling which will provide an opportunity to characterize multiple labels, inter-label relationships, and heterogeneous structures (sponsored by NeuroMorphometrics). Submissions will be encouraged using a limited 3-4 page format.

WORKSHOP TOPICS

* Full-length papers are invited in (but not limited to) the following areas:

* Multi-atlas registration

* Statistical methods for label fusion

* Theory and applications with discrete, continuous, or non-traditional label types

* Manifolds theory and applications for voxel, volume, surface, or non-traditional multi-atlas representations

* Atlas design, selection, and exclusion

* Multi-atlas informed and augmented approaches, including shape modeling

* Applications of multi-atlas methods for segmentation and labeling

* Visualization and hypothesis exploration approaches using multi-atlases

Manuscripts may not be accepted at the main conference or submitted to any other MICCAI 2012 workshop.

ORGANIZERS

Bennett Landman, Vanderbilt University

Simon Warfield, Harvard Medical School

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Paul Aljabar, Imperial College London; Dzung Pham, Henry M. Jackson Foundation; Hakmook Kang, Vanderbilt University; Arno Klein, Columbia University; Torsten Rohlfing, Stanford University; Dinggang Shen UNC Chapel Hill; T. Robin Langerak, Utrecht University ; Paul Thompson, UCLA; Paul Yushkevich, UPENN

IMPORTANT DATES

Technical Manuscripts Due (Extended MICCAI Format) - 6/12/2012

Challenge Testing Procedure Available - 6/1/2012-6/8/2012

Challenge Manuscripts Due (Abbreviated MICCAI Format) - 6/12/2012

We look forward to seeing you in Nice!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bennett Landman, Ph.D., bennett.landman@vanderbilt.edu

Assistant Professor

     Department of Electrical Engineering (primary)

     Department of Biomedical Engineering

     Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences

     Vanderbilt University, School of Engineering

Director of the Center for Computational Imaging

     Vanderbilt University Institute of Image Science

Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) Sample

 

 

The International Neuroimaging Data-Sharing Initiative (INDI), in coordination with the Child Mind Institute, announces the public release of the "Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) Sample" via the 1000 Functional Connectomes Project (http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/abide/index.html).

 

Drs. Adriana Di Martino (NYU Child Study Center; consortium coordinator) and Stewart Mostofsky (Kennedy Krieger Institute) have assembled ABIDE as an international consortium explicitly dedicated to the sharing of previously collected resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) and morphometric data for autism. To date, the effort has brought together 20 samples from 16 contributing sites, yielding an aggregate dataset of 539 individuals with autism and 573 typical controls. The effort builds upon the model of the highly successful ADHD-200 Consortium (http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/adhd200/), though providing an extensive array of phenotypic characterizations common to nearly all sites, that far exceeds it predecessor. Key diagnostic and assessment schedules (e.g., ADOS, ADIS), psychometric testing (e.g., IQ) and a variety of additional questionnaires, commonly employed in the autism community, are being shared along with brain imaging data.

 

In addition to distributing ABIDE datasets in .tar and .csv file formats via NITRC as is customary for the FCP, the INDI team has recruited the efforts of leading informatics platforms including COINS: http://coins.mrn.org; LORIS: http://cbrain.mcgill.ca/loris; LONI IDA: http://pipeline.loni.ucla.edu/; NITRC-IR/XNAT: http://www.nitrc.org/ir. They have each agreed to host the ABIDE datasets prepared by the INDI team. Such coordination is intended to give users an opportunity to sample emerging technologies and explore the value of these platforms not only for sharing, but also for their own internal infrastructure.

INDI SUMMER OF SHARING 2012: UPDATE & CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

THE INTERNATIONAL NEUROIMAGING DATA-SHARING INITIATIVE (INDI) SUMMER OF SHARING 2012: UPDATE & CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

 

The INDI team is pleased to provide an update on the Summer of Sharing.  Intended to draw attention to emerging open science initiatives in the imaging community, and to encourage increased involvement in the sharing of data and analytic resources, the INDI Summer of Sharing has a growing number of data pledges and openly available analytic tools you should know about. To learn more, check out:  http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/summerofsharing2012.html

 

Keep in mind, the summer is not over yet – you still have time…So, GET INVOLVED! Do you have…

-       a resource that you’d like to advertise? Let us know and we'll list it.

-       A published dataset that you’d like to share with your colleagues around the world? We'd be happy to help – whether it be sharing it for you through the FCP/INDI or letting others know where you are releasing it from.

-       An open science event that you want everyone to hear about? We'll pass the word along.

 

Contact us at INDI_SummerOfSharing@childmind.org to make a pledge or learn more about how to get involved.

International Summer School and Workshop on Brain Dynamics

  

  

International Summer School and Workshop on Brain Dynamics

Turunc, Marmaris, Turkey

July 23-28, 2012

International Summer School and Workshop on Brain dynamics aims to highlight state of the art topics in the study of functional and behavioral dynamics as well as complexities of the brain by bringing together experts from a variety of interdisciplinary fields involving neuroscience, neurotechnology, engineering, medicine, computer science, mathematics and physics. This summer school and workshop aims to reach senior and junior researchers, scientists, engineers, clinicians, mathematicians, physicists, biologists and students and to inform them about the recent advances in brain dynamics research by bringing them together with experts in the field.

The summer school and workshop will cover the following themes:

• cognitive neuroscience,  neuroimaging and neuroanatomy 
• information processing and neuromodeling,
• neural dysfunction and mental health,
• neurorehabilitation and neurolearning

Deadline for Registration is June 22, 2012

More information on the lecturers, registration and deadlines for the International Summer School and Workshop on Brain Dynamics  can be reached at http://itap-tthv.org/braindynamics2012.

We are looking forward to see you at this exciting and educational event.

Sincerely,

Meltem Izzetoglu, PhD

Chair, Program Committee

ITAP,  Summer School and Workshop on Brain Dynamics

Drexel University

Sch. of Biomedical Engineering

Philadelphia, PA 19104

Tel:( 215) 895-1988

Fax: (215) 895-4983

Email: meltem@coe.drexel.edu

INDI SUMMER OF SHARING 2012

   

 

THE INTERNATIONAL NEUROIMAGING DATA-SHARING INITIATIVE (INDI) SUMMER OF SHARING 2012

 http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/

 

Open science initiatives are transforming the neuroimaging community.  Researchers who once struggled to obtain 20-30 datasets now have unrestricted access to thousands of scans, including data obtained from developing, aging and clinical populations.  Equally important, the sharing of data analysis scripts and code is becoming increasingly common, thereby enhancing the dissemination of knowledge and capabilities among laboratories – as well as facilitating replication efforts. Although exciting, we are only at the beginning. The success of open science initiatives remains dependent upon continued community participation.

 

Against this background, the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI) is pleased to announce the launch of its 2012 Summer of Sharing – an effort dedicated to the sustenance and acceleration of data and analytic resource sharing among imaging community members.  In order to accomplish its goal the INDI Summer of Sharing initiative is requesting pledges for the contribution of:

 

1) DATA: Resting state fMRI and/or diffusion data employed in published studies, along with any available meta-data you’d like to share (See INDI Retro for previously shared datasets; examples include Kelly C. et al., 2011 Bio Psych, Keller C. et al., 2011 PNAS, and Power J. et al., 2012 Neuroimage).

2) ANALYTIC RESOURCES:  Python, Matlab, BASH, C/C++ - we’re not choosy! INDI is actively promoting the sharing of analytic scripts and codes employed in published and/or ongoing studies through NITRC and GitHub – if you post them, we’ll help to make sure you’re recognized for it.

3) OPEN SCIENCE EVENTS: Just provide us the information and we’ll help to get the word out!

4) MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES: Atlases, parcellation schemes, reference resources, etc. – everyone can benefit from them.

 

We are actively asking investigators around the world to get involved in the sharing process. Already, the following resources are scheduled for sharing this summer:

1) The Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE): a global, multisite consortium of laboratories dedicated to the study of autism that will release an aggregate dataset that is expected to consist of nearly 500 individuals with autism, and their matched typically developing controls.

2) The Enhanced NKI Rockland Sample: a recently launched large-scale, R-fMRI and DTI cross-sectional, community ascertained sample of individuals between 6 and 85 years of age, accompanied by a deep phenotypic protocol that broadly samples psychiatrically relevant behavioral domains.

3) Brainhack: a Neuro-Bureau resource (http://brainhack.org/) that points to collaborative projects in the field; the resource will be complemented by the Brainhack 2012 Unconference – a workshop that will blend the “unconference” and “hackathon” concepts to create a unique collaborative experience for participants interested in advancing analytic techniques and resources for functional and structural imaging.

4) The Configurable Pipeline for the Analysis of Connectomes (C-PAC): Building on the success of the release of the 1000 Functional Connectomes Project analysis scripts, the INDI team will be releasing a plug-and-play Nipype-based pipeline package that is easily configurable to accomplish a broad array of resting-state fMRI analyses.

5) DPARSF and REST: With the new releases of MATLAB-based user-friendly pipelines of Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI (DPARSF 2.2) and Resting-State fMRI Data Analysis Toolkit (REST 1.8) (www.restfmri.net), users can acquire resting-state fMRI measures efficiently (by parallel computing) and conveniently (by GUI or command line).

6) Power et al. 2011 (Neuron): The authors are now sharing the summary community assignments from their work on fcMRI networks (http://sumsdb.wustl.edu/sums/directory.do?id=8293343&dir_name=power_Neuron11), and will release a suite of scripts through NITRC this summer, so that others can replicate these analyses and carry out related work. Additionally, later this summer, the dataset used for this work will be released through INDI.

7) The Child Mind Institute (CMI) Librarian Initiative: Comprehensive hand-vetted and sorted reference libraries for various literatures, including Resting State fMRI and Diffusion Tensor Imaging are now available via Mendeley, with monthly updates scheduled (http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/cmi-librarian/).

 

It is our hope that this list is just the beginning. We will follow with updates throughout the summer months. The success of open science depends on all of us – so get involved, and Share That Brain!

 

Contact us at INDI_SummerOfSharing@childmind.org to make a pledge or learn more about how to get involved.

 

The International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI) is now sponsored by the Child Mind Institute (http://childmind.org).

NEURO-BUREAU BRAIN-ART COMPETITION 201

http://www.neurobureau.org/BrainArt/

Submission Deadline: 11:59PM CDT, Friday, June 1st, 2012

Award Notification: June 11th during the OHBM Annual Meeting, Beijing.

In order to recognize the beauty and creativity of artistic renderings

emerging from the neuroimaging community, we are launching the second

annual Brain-Art Competition.

Countless hours are devoted to the creation of informative

visualizations for communicating neuroscientific findings. The

Brain-Art Competition aims to recognize this often unappreciated

aspect of the publication process, and highlight the artistic

creativity of our community.

We are inviting researchers to submit their favorite unpublished works

for entry. Both team and single-person entries are welcomed. The

competition will have four award categories:

1)  Best Representation of the Human Connectome

2)  Best Educational Brain Illustration

3)  Best Abstract Brain Illustration

4)  Best Humorous Brain Illustration

5)  Best Video Illustration of the Brain

Sponsored by: Child Mind Institute (http://www.childmind.org/)

ICML '12 Workshop on Statistics, Machine Learning and Neuroscience

ICML '12 Workshop on Statistics, Machine Learning and Neuroscience. 
Date: July 1, 2012
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
https://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/stamlins
 
Neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have revolutionised the field of neuroscience by providing non-invasive measurements of the brain activity. From the outset, classical statistical approaches were used for neuroimage analysis, using known models,  offering good interpretability and the possibility to examine strength of hypotheses. Recently, however, analysis emphasis has changed towards data-driven (aka machine learning/multi-variate pattern analysis) approaches. By making minimal model assumptions, the learning algorithms are generally tuned for optimal prediction performance, automation and speed. 

A debate has ensued between the two respective strands of researchers about the relative benefits and downsides of each approach. The critique of data-driven methods, voiced by practitioners of classical statistics, include lack of interpretability/meaningfulness, non-existent power calculation for experimental design, and inability to deal with the "small N-large p" constraint.  Conversely, users of data-driven methods point to the inappropriateness of the model choice for biological data, the arbitrariness of significance levels, and the post-hoc corrections for multiple hypothesis tests.

The propose of this workshop is to bring together both approaches. The aim is to debate the strengths/weaknesses of classical statistical vs machine learning methods, and establish the parameters that would bring together hypothesis and data-driven approaches. While this workshop is to be driven by the practical needs of neuroscience research, more fundamental research into methods is also envisaged. Simultaneously, we expect that the need for improved methods will spark substantial contributions towards Predictive Medicine, Translational Medicine and Interpretational Models of Disease. For this purpose we have invited well-known experts and researchers in neuroscience methodology and application, notably Will Penny, Tom Nicholson, Zoe Kourtzi, and Eugene Duff. 

We seek full papers and extended abstracts discussing or developing new methods designed to link hypothesis generalisation, experimental design and hypothesis validation. Example topics include
   - Interpretable neuroimage modelling/model validation,
   - Experimental design and power analysis (also for machine learning),
   - Variable selection / dimensionality reduction / sparsity,
   - Scalability/efficient/parallel (Bayesian) inference,
   - Model reproducibility and testing of  computational  theories, 
   - Combined modelling of cellular neurophysiology, genetics, and behaviour,
   - Model selection in Bayesian and Classical methods,
   - Issues and experiences in implementing models for massive data-sets,
   - New models for Independent Component Analysis,
   - Classifiers and Brain Decoding.

Workshop Schedule
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To achieve a 4-way interdisciplinary workshop, four invited speakers have agreed to give talks representing respectively, classical statistical methodologies, machine learning methodologies, applications of classical statistical tools and applications of machine learning tools. The preliminary workshop's schedule is as follows:

-  Zoe Kourtzi  (invited speaker): application of data-driven methods
-  Eugene Duff (invited speaker): application of hypothesis-driven methods
-  Discussion
-  Will Penny (invited speaker): data-driven methodology
-  Tom Nicholson (invited speaker): hypothesis-driven methodology
-  Discussion
-  Lunch
-  Spotlight presentations 
-  Poster session
-  Discussion & roundup 


Submission Details
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We seek submission of extended abstracts at most 4 pages long and following the ICML paper format. All accepted submissions will be presented in form of poster presentations.
 
 
Important Dates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Extended abstract submission deadline: 13th May, 2012. 
Acceptance notification: 21th May, 2012. 

Workshop date: July 1, 2012.


Workshop Organisation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Workshop Organisers:

Iead Rezek, University of Oxford, UK 
Evangelos Roussos, University of Oxford, UK
Christian Beckmann,  MIRA Institute at the University of Twente,  Netherlands.


Program Committee

Will Penny, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, UK
Tom Nichols, University of Warwick
Zoe Kourtzi, University of Birmingham
Eugene Duff, University of Oxford

Contact:
~~~~~~~
iead@rezek.info, eroussos7@yahoo.co.uk

The 2012 International Workshop on Brain, Cognition and Learning (IWBCL2012)

Please see below the announcement of the pre-OHBM workshop on Brain,
Cognition and Learning, to be held on June 8-9, Beijing, China

The 2012 International Workshop on Brain, Cognition and Learning (IWBCL2012)

June 8-9, 2012, Beijing, China

http://iwbcl.bnu.edu.cn

 We are pleased to announce that the 2012 International Workshop on
Brain, Cognition and Learning (IWBCL) will be held on June 8-9, 2012
at the China National Conventional Center (CNCC) in Beijing, as a
satellite conference of 2012 Organization of Human Brain Mapping
(OHBM) Annual Conference. This workshop is co-organized by the
National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning,
Beijing Normal University and the Society of Brain Sciences and
Education Research, a division of the Chinese Society of Education
(CSE).

 This year the IWBCL will focus on language learning. The theme for
this workshop is set as “Towards an integrated perspective of language
learning”, to reflect the trend that the cognitive neuroscience of
language has increasingly become an interdisciplinary endeavor.

 Confirmed Speakers.

§   Yanchao Bi, Beijing Normal University

§   James Booth, Northwestern University

§   Urs Maurer, University of Zurich

§   Marcus Meinzer,  Charite Universitasmedizin

§   Russell A. Poldrack, University of Texas at Austin

§   Bradley L. Schlaggar, Washington University School of Medicine

§   Mark Seidenberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison

§   Hua Shu, Beijing Normal University

§   Michael Ullman, Georgetown University

§   Richard J. Wise, Imperial College London

§   Gui Xue, Beijing Normal University

§   Jason D. Zevin, Weill Medical College of Cornell University



Participants are encouraged to fill the online registration form by
May 1, 2012 to secure a seat. For more information, please visit our
website http://iwcbl.bnu.edu.cn . We look forward to seeing you in
Beijing this June!

2012 Brainhack, Sept 1-4, Leipzig Germany

  

The Neuro Bureau is proud to announce the 2012 Brainhack, to be held from September 1-4 at the Max Plank Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.

Brainhack is a unique workshop with the goals of fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and open neuroscience. The structure builds from the concepts of an unconference and a hackathon: The term “unconference” refers to the fact that most of the content will be dynamically created by the participants -- a hackathon is an event where participants collaborate intensively on science-related projects.

Participants from all disciplines related to neuroimaging are welcome. Ideal participants span in range from graduate students to professors across any disciplines willing to contribute (e.g., mathematics, computer science, engineering, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, neurology, medicine, art, etc...). The primary requirement is a desire to work in close collaborations with researchers outside of your specialization in order to address neuroscience questions that are beyond the expertise of a single discipline.

Brainhack will last 3.5 days, with the first night being dedicated to registration, a brief introduction of participants, and a poster session / cocktail hour. Each of the next two days will begin with an “Ignite Session” in which distinguished neuroscience researchers will give 10 minute talks that will address wide questions in neuroscience that would benefit from open, interdisciplinary collaborations. The “Ignite Session” will be followed by a dynamic set of talks organized by attendees. This session will be scheduled on-site, and aims to reflect participants' interests as they evolve over the course of the workshop. Each afternoon and evening will then include a brainhack session, in which participants will be encouraged to work together in small groups on relevant neuroscience projects. The workshop will culminate on the last day, when participants will have the opportunity to present a brief overview of their project.

We aim for Brainhack to be a highly dynamic event. As such, participants are encouraged to come prepared to discuss their research interests and work in ways that they may be able to contribute to the unconference portion of the workshop. In addition, there will be an opportunity for participants to present posters on Saturday night. If you are interested in doing so, please indicate this on the registration form so that we can be sure to have poster space allocated.

In order to maximize the productivity of the hackathon portion of Brainhack, we encourage participants to come with potential (or established) collaborators and projects in mind, as well as the data and tools required for the project. Participants are encouraged to advertise projects, or shop for a team of collaborators at thebrainhack.org web site prior to the conference. We will have preprocessed copies of the ADHD200 competition dataset, as well as other datasets publicly released through the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (structural, resting state fMRI, and DTI) available onsite. Participants will be encouraged to make results from their Brainhack experience openly available on a resource such as NITRC or github.

To maximize collaborative opportunities between participants all meals will be provided onsite (cost included in registration).

Important Dates

Registration Deadline: 30 July 2012
Payment Deadline: 7 August 2012
Final Program: 30 August 2012

Program

Click here to view the current schedule.

While the schedule provides the basic structure, the content will be primary determined by the participants onsite.

Confirmed Attendees

F. Xavier Castellanos, Helen Mayberg, Michael P. Milham, Tal Yarkoni, Arno Villringer...

Organizing Committee

Brainhack.org and the Brainhack workshop are initiates of The Neuro Bureau.

• Pierre Bellec (Centre de recherche de l’institut de gériatrie de Montréal, Université de Montréal, Canada)
• Cameron Craddock (Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, USA)
• Daniel Margulies (Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, DE)
• Donald McLaren (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA).
• Maarten Mennes (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, The Netherlands)

2nd Provence Summer Workshop: Molecules & Networks

   

 

Dear friends and colleagues

It is my pleasure to announce details for the 2^nd Provence Summer Workshop (Sat 1^st September – Tues 4^th September 2012), with this year’s theme ‘Molecules & Networks’.

Following on from the great success of our first Workshop, we will once again meet at the beautiful Domaine des Escaunes set in the heart of Provence, France.

We are also delighted to highlight the involvement of our two international guest speakers – Professor Ed Bullmore from Cambridge University (UK) and Professor Mirjana Maletic-Savatic from Baylor Medical College (USA).

This year’s Workshop is certain to be over-subscribed, so register now and take advantage of our early-bird rates. Even better, get involved by presenting your work – submit an abstract for consideration by our scientific committee.

Abstract deadline and Early Bird Registration deadline is 1^st May 2012.

Please visit http://rng.org.au/2nd_provance_workshop.html for more information or to register.

I look forward to seeing you in Provence this summer! And feel free to pass this message on to anyone who may be interested.

Regards

Michael Valenzuela