What is Brainhack?

Brainhack is a unique conference that convenes researchers from across the globe and a myriad of disciplines to work together on innovative projects related to neuroscience. Year after year, global Brainhack events have brought together researchers to participate in open collaboration, and now we are proud to introduce regional Brainhack events that will keep the momentum going throughout the year.

To kick off the new model, Brainhack Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) will unite regional Brainhack events in Ann Arbor, Boston, Miami, Montreal, New York City, Porto Alegre, Toronto and Washington DC on October 18 & 19, 2014. Having several simultaneous events will help build a critical mass for the regional Brainhack movement and will provide opportunities for inter-Brainhack collaboration. Local events will be connected by videoconference to expand collaborative opportunities so that smaller sites can plug into the content and energy generated at larger sites.

What will happen at local Brainhack events?

Brainhack is unconventional – the event eschews a prearranged schedule of scientific sessions and instead structures activities onsite based on the interests of the community. This model encourages active participation and interaction between attendees.

Regional Brainhack events will span 2 days and are comprised of several unique components:

• Welcome reception and icebreaker: Opportunity for attendees to get to know each other and to identify scientific challenges they would like to tackle during Brainhack.
• Ignite sessions: Brief talks to inspire attendees and set the pace for the rest of the day
• Open hacking sessions: Most conference time will be devoted to these sessions during which attendees collaborate on neuroscientific projects.
• Unconference sessions: Oral presentations by attendees that are dynamically scheduled onsite.
• Presentations and wrap up: Reporting on progress made on each project and a summary of the event.

Schedule

The schedule of each regional Brainhack will vary, please refer to the web page for each regional event for scheduling information.

Who comes to Brainhack?

Brainhack attendees come from a wide variety of backgrounds and are interested in working together on projects related to brain science. Although the nature of the Brainhack makes it most amenable to projects that can be completed with a computer, effective contribution is not limited to those with computational backgrounds. Brainhack welcomes expertise from all fields, including but not limited to: engineering, math and computer science, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, neurology, art, and philosophy – from undergraduate students to established principal investigators. All have found opportunities to make valuable contributions to the Brainhack.

What do people work on at Brainhack?

Attendees are free to work on any project that they like. In order to assist with the process of choosing a project, attendees are encouraged to post project ideas to brainhack.org weeks before the event. A poster session will occur during the welcome reception to offer another opportunity for attendees to discuss their project ideas. Local organizers may also wish to present a “grand challenge” or unifying problem to offer an additional project opportunity for attendees. As the purpose of local Brainhack events is to build new relationships and to set the foundation for longer-term collaborations, the project need not be completed during the course of the Brainhack. Some attendees may not work on a project, but instead use the Brainhack as an opportunity to learn from other attendees about different domains of brain science.

Example projects from previous years of Brainhack can be viewed at brainhack.org and run the gamut from large-scale analyses of cortical thickness in autism, to developing better tools for analyzing and visualizing brain imaging data, to establishing standards for assessing the quality of functional MRI data. These projects have led to ongoing international collaborations and in some cases resulted in scientific publications.

Attending a local Brainhack

1. Pre-register to make sure that you are accounted for.
2. If you have a project idea, post it to brainhack.org and make sure that you indicate which of the local Brainhacks that you will be attending. This will make other attendees aware of your project idea, so that they can prepare to join your team. If the project involves working with a specific dataset, make sure that it is organized before the Brainhack and consider bringing it on a thumb drive or external hard drive for easy sharing.
3. If you do not have a project idea, read the list of projects occurring at your local Brainhack event at brainhack.org to get an idea of what will be available. If you find a project team, feel free to contact other project members so that you can prepare to work on the projects.
4. Prepare to participate in the icebreaker activity. Depending on the local site this might involve preparing a poster, a single slide, or a brief introduction, that showcases your research and interests to present at the welcome ceremony. This will be a valuable means for introducing yourself to others and to tell them about your project ideas.
5. Come to the Brainhack local event well rested and ready for hardcore collaboration. Bring along any presentations that you may have lying around in case you are called upon to provide a talk at an Unconference session.