OS SIG elections 2019

Open Science SIG Leadership Election

Dear OHBM Members,

It is this time of the year when we ask you to help select new leadership for the Open Science Special Interest Group.

We are seeking to elect people for the following positions:

Chair Elect
Treasurer Elect
Secretary Elect
Hackathon Co-Chairs for OHBM 2020 (Montreal)
Open Science Room Chair for OHBM 2020 (Montreal)

Detailed information for each role are available in the election bylaws.

The position of Chair Elect was uncontested. We are delighted to welcome Aki Nikolaidis to the committee.

The candidates for the other positions are listed as questions below.

We truly appreciate your participation. Your vote in these elections will shape the direction in which Open Science activities will take in the future.

Question Title

* 1. Treasurer Elect

Neha Bhutani

Statement: I have experience working with non-profit organizations at the leadership level- organizing public forums, cafés, and workshops. At the OHBM meeting, I would like to contribute to the advancement of OHBM’s efforts for open science and for developing workshops for increasing diversity in science- not only for the increased representation of women, but also for non-binary people and people of colour. During my PhD, I felt nervous interacting with speakers. I would thus like to organize a one-on-one mentor-mentee platform to encouraging mentoring and collegiality at the meeting and to have increased opportunities for professional growth and development of mentees.

More info here.

Tristan Glatard

Statement: What's the point of science if it's not open? I'm a computer scientist who would love to contribute more to the community than git commits! My lab is strongly involved in free software development, open access publications, and open science projects. I have attended several BrainHack events (Hawaii, Geneva, Rome, Montreal x 2) and am co-organizing BrainHackSchool in Montreal this Summer. I have experience running a lab with a substantial yearly budget. I think I'm an organized person who can meet deadlines and keep track of a budget.

More info here.

Question Title

* 2. Secretary Elect

Sam Nastase

Statement: I believe the OHBM Open Science SIG is uniquely positioned to (a) introduce new members to radical perspectives on the scientific process, and (b) leverage senior members of the OHBM community to enact the structural changes necessary to promote transparency, inclusivity, and open practices. As both a participant and local organizer of several hackathons and workshops (OHBM, SfN, Brainhack Global, AFNI Bootcamp, ReproNim), I’ve been fortunate to learn from the best. These experiences have given me the tools (and motivation!) to contribute something back by serving in a coordinating role as secretary.

More info here.

Katie Bottenhorn

Statement: I'm running for Secretary elect because I’d like to support our growing community. By keeping track of who we are, what we do, and the tangible outcomes of hackathons, and sharing this information with the community-at-large, I think we can encourage more people to join us and engage with open science. Moreover, understanding our changing demographics can help us reach more people from underrepresented groups.

I have some prior organizational and secretarial experience, organizing a journal club in my graduate program, running a series of training workshops in my lab, and serving on the executive board of my undergraduate sorority.

More info here.

Question Title

* 3. Hackathon Co-Chairs (team of two)

Derek Pisner & Jaewon Chung

Statement: This coming year, Derek and Jaewon would be honored to host the OHBM hackathon in Montreal. Our platform includes:

1. Guaranteed spots for all applicants and will not turn anyone away regardless of prior experience to collaborative and open science. Furthermore, we will guarantee high-speed internet (portable WiFi if needed), comfortable and spacious hacking location, and power supply for everyone.
2. Informal extension of hackathon projects through the main conference at the open science room with final project presentations on the last conference days.
3. Continuation of traintracks, which are introductory courses on tools and practices towards open and collaborative science.
4. Suggested, but non-mandatory project groups with pre-made slack channels for like-minded participants to connect before arrival. Groups would be formed using NLP, clustering and ML based on application content.
5. Social events prior to and during hackathon to facilitate collaboration and creativity.

More info here.

Elizabeth Levitis & Remi Gau

Statement: Our experiences as trainees and instructors in academia and software development have helped us understand how to most effectively introduce students to programming and open-source project contribution. Going through our own crisis of confidence in how we do science in neuroimaging, we hope that open-science can help us a) improve reproducibility and inefficiency issues in our workflows, b) create a more inclusive community that empowers people. For the next hackathon, we’d like to: develop a more comprehensive TrainTrack that offers more basic training on essential skills and ensure that we can offer a range of projects that can be tackled by participants with varying levels of experience.

More info here.

Question Title

* 4. Open Science Room Chair

Cassandra Gould van Praag & Stephan Heunis

Statement: We believe the OSR has three key roles:

- Providing an enjoyable, accessible, welcoming, and inclusive space for all;
- Facilitating training and education in open science practices and tools;
- Inspiring collaboration through open interactions.

We aim to make this vision a reality by providing a well communicated structure and giving you the freedom to explore.

Cass works at the University of Oxford with the WIN Open Community Theme, supporting transparent and reproducible neuroimaging in Psychiatry. Stephan is the founder of OpenMR Benelux and the Open Science Community Eindhoven. We are both passionate about delivering the open science room you deserve.

More info here.

Davide Valeriani

Statement: I love building things that connect computer science and neuroscience. I believe hackathons and public events where people can experience the potential of neuroscience are vital to the field. My effort will be put in organizing more of such initiatives, by joining forces with other societies (for example, neurotechx or IEEE brain) and companies. I would also like to bring entrepreneurship as another focus of the OHBM open science initiative, via specific training events and prizes for novel ideas.
Finally, I would like to create open datasets managed by the society, where researchers could share their data to the community in an open manner. The most used dataset every year could be awarded a prize at the annual meeting.

More info here.

Jessica Steventon

Statement: I have experience serving on the university open science committee at Cardiff University and thus can provide input on the challenges and some of the solutions at an institutional level. I was inspired by the Open Science session at OHBM 2019 and would relish the opportunity to be part of the OHBM SIG and contribute towards pushing the open science agenda forward internationally; my vision for the position is to expand the Open Science session for OHBM 2020 to include practical software solution demonstrations and a debate on the barriers to open science faced by OHBM attendees.

More info here.

Junaid Merchant

Statement: I first became enthralled with the open science/brain hack movement at the first Neurohackweek in 2016. Since then I've helped organize local DC area brainhacks at the NIH, and have been a huge enthusiast in general. I've encouraged others to join the movement (many who have), and have devoted much time to teaching others at Georgetown University and University of Maryland. I will also be taking over the responsibility of running and organizing student led methods seminar for the University of Maryland's Neuroscience and Cognitive Science program. Beyond my enthusiasm and involvement, I feel that I have ideas for expanding this approach to other societies like the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society and Cognitive Neuroscience Society.

More info here.

Franklin Feingold

Statement: I have past experience leading logistics for several meetings and events. In my current role, I organized 4 successful 2-3 day meetings (at Stanford University, MIT, and Princeton University) attended by 12-35 international and domestic guests. Before this, I have experience running numerous events as the president and events coordinator of my undergraduate radio station. The events ranged from weekly coffee and music events to larger music events.
I think the Open Science Room is an excellent room and can further be expanded in years to come. A few potential extensions could be to: have the Open Science Room program integrated into the OHBM app/booklet to have attendees find what is happening (and be in the loop), have the Open Science Room location in the program booklet map, and provide more space to have meetings or hacking sprints during the larger conference. A few great aspects of the OSR was the centralized location with its own internet.

More info here.

OS SIG elections 2019

Open Science SIG Leadership Election

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* 1. Treasurer Elect

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* 2. Secretary Elect

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* 3. Hackathon Co-Chairs (team of two)

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* 4. Open Science Room Chair

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* 5. For verification purposes, please enter the email address you used in your OHBM membership