Belgian Node News
A short description of the first Belgian-Duthc Neuroinformatics workshop
On December 10th 2010, the Belgian and Dutch Neuroinformatics nodes organized
the first joint Belgian-Dutch Neuroinformatics workshop in Antwerp, Belgium.
This first neuroinformatics event in Belgium had two specific aims:
1- Introducing neuroinformatics to the Belgian neuroscience community by presenting different aspects
of the neuroscience fields where neuroinformatics is or could be of a great use.
2- Presenting the work of our Dutch colleagues and creating an environment for interactions to reinforce
or create collaborations between Belgian and Dutch laboratories.
The meeting was focused on three general topics: computational neuroscience; fMRI in animals, data analysis
and digital brain atlasing; and in vivo electrophysiology and experimental databases.
The complete program is available here.
For each topic both Belgian and Dutch scientists presented their work in the context of neuroinformatics.
The workshop gathered about 40 attendants and the overall comments were quite enthusiastic. The Belgian community came as a majority (about 75%) from universities all over Belgium (Universiteit Antwerpen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Universiteit Hasselt, Universiteit Gent), contributing to the success of this workshop.
This first event will be used as a stepping-stone to organize the first Belgian Neuroinformatics meeting in 2011. This national meeting will help to create and organize a core Belgian neuroinformatics community and will define the future orientations of the Belgian node.
We would like to thank our Dutch colleagues for providing us an opportunity to organize such a neuroinformatics workshop in Belgium. We would also like to thank the meeting attendants for their interest and kind remarks. More particularly, we would like to thank the Belgian scientists for their massive participation and we are looking forward to seeing them again in 2011.
The Belgian node is organizing the First Belgian Neuroinformatics meeting
Based on the success of the Belgian-Dutch workshop, held in Antwerp last December, we are now organizing the first national neuroinformatics meeting.
This meeting will help to introduce neuroinformatics to a broader audience and create and organize a core Belgian neuroinformatics community.
Furthermore, it will provide the opportunity to define the future orientations of the Belgian node, at the service of the belgian neuroscience community, with the help of the belgian community.
The meeting will certainly be held end of November-beginning of December to avoid any overlap with major neuroscientific meetings.
We are inviting all the interested Belgian Neuroscience laboratories to join us and to propose specific topics to be addressed during the meeting.
For this, please send your requests to Yann Le Franc at the following email address:
yann
tnb.ua.ac.be.
Neuroinformatics News
Fourth Neuroinformatics meeting
Boston (USA), September 4th-6th, 2011
Abstract submission deadline: April 19th 2011
Abstract decision: mid-May 2011
Early registration ends: June 1th 2011
Job posting: Scientific applications software engineer
INCF is seeking an experienced software developer to develop software libraries, applications and tools to support neuroscience analysis,
modeling and simulation research.
This position is based at the INCF Secretariat in Stockholm. We are interested both in experienced applicants as well as in recent graduates.
Applicants should have a strong background in science and mathematics, as well as real experience developing quality software, either commercial or open source.
More experienced applicants should also have demonstrated project management skills and the ability to lead a team of strong developers with highly technical
backgrounds. The candidate should have experience with both static and dynamic programming languages, including C/C++ and Python, and in-depth understanding
of the following: domain-specific languages, scientific computing, algorithm analysis and data structures, foreign function interfaces between high- and low-level
languages (for example SWIG or Boost Python).
Applications should contain a cover letter and CV, and be sent to: jobsincf.org by March 4.
More information about this employment opportunity
Science deals with the data deluge: February 11 Special issue
Opportunities and challenges in organizing scientific data highlighted. Today, Science and several of its sister journals published a joint special issue on managing the increasingly huge influx of research data, a common problem across many different research disciplines. The articles in the collection, which are provided free of charge to all readers (accessible here), highlight the opportunities that can be realized when this tsunami of scientific data is organized and can be accessed, as well as the challenges and barriers encountered along the way. For a neuroinformatics perspective, we particularly recommend the article on mining neuroscience data, written by Huda Akil, Maryann Martone and David Van Essen.
INCF Digital Atlasing Task Force publication in PLoS Computational Biology
Recent report represents significant progress towards an open and shared digital brain atlasing framework.
A perspective article highlighting the INCF Digital Atlasing Program has just been
published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology ( please find the article here),
and is highlighted on the current homepage of the journal.This article marks a milestone for the INCF Digital Atlasing Program, describing the vision and key
accomplishments of the Program to date and announces a new framework consisting of the Waxholm Space (WHS; named in honor of the group's first meeting location)
and a supporting web-based Digital Atlasing Infrastructure (DAI). Together they enable the integration of data from genetic, anatomical and functional imaging studies.
A more detailed publication of this group's recommendations can be found in their Report from autumn 2009.
This foundation is being built on and expanded by the current INCF Digital Atlasing Task Forces. To find more details about these groups, standards and projects,
and other recent activities see the Waxholm community pages at waxholm.incf.org.
View the general press news release or the scientific press news release
New issue of the INCF newsletter
The fourth issue of the INCF Newsletter of 2010 is now available.
This INCF Newsletter features:
INCF News
photos from SfN 2010 in San Diego
a short interview with Allen Institute for Brain Science's Lydia Ng
Download the INCF Newsletter