EVENTS
The IEEE Brain Initiative, in partnership with the IEEE Big Data Initiative and the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, is excited to sponsor new hands-on events throughout 2017, to explore Brain Data storage retrieval and analytics, the so called Brain Data Bank (BDB) Challenges and Competitions. This “Call for Participation” is an extension of the popular brain-computer interface (BCI) Hackathons held in the prior year.
In the fall of 2016, the IEEE Brain Initiative co-sponsored three BCI hackathons. There were two standalone events in the United States, San Diego, CA and Philadelphia, PA respectively, and one during the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) Society annual conference in Budapest, Hungary. There were over 200 “hackers” who participated across these three events.
These competitions provided hands-on learning experience and encouraged creativity of the participating teams to develop innovative applications from extracted signals. Teams were given hardware tools to extract brain signals (EEG – electroencephalogram) and other bio-signals, and common software tools to embed brain signals into games, robotic control, music, healthcare and IoT-related web services. Competitions took place in a stimulating and guided environment that enabled collaboration and hard-working fun. Winning projects in each location were recognized with certificates and prizes.
While the focus in the 2016 BCI Hackathons had been on data extraction (left side of Figure 1, below), the 2017 BDB Challenges and Competitions will focus on data utilization (right side of Figure 1). In particular, these events will explore the accessibility and usability of brain data.
Source: N. Bigdelys-Shamlo, T. Mullen, C. Kothe, N. N. Chu, & K. A. Robbins, 2015
The driver for these challenges and competitions stems from the scattered and massive amount of neuroscience data that is available today. The processed data may provide information about the structure, development or function of the brain. But the raw imaging data are the basis for new analytics. Some of the brain data are from human while others are non-human. The data may be available online from open source, while other data remain proprietary. Such diversity is both an advantage and a challenge since suitable tools are necessary for proper archiving and exploitation of the ever-growing brain datasets.
The 2017 BDB Challenges and Competitions will give an opportunity for the participating teams to investigate the collected brain data that are available from open sources, including the IEEE DataPort and beyond. Individuals or teams of up to five (5) members are welcome to enter the competition. The challenge presented will be to create value and demonstrate usability of the collected data by asking tough questions of published interpretations, also applying Big Data analytics, artificial intelligence, and deep learning techniques.
Visit the BDB page for the latest updates and specifics to each event. Recognitions and/or awards will be given to top projects.