Lucina Q. Uddin1,2
1Department of Psychology, University of Miami, P.O. Box 248185-0751, Coral Gables, 33124 Florida, USA.
2Neuroscience Program, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA.
##Introduction
A 1200-square-foot MRI facility in the Neuroscience Annex building on the University of Miami Coral Gables Campus has been operational as of 2012. The Neuroscience Annex was established as a hub for interdisciplinary activities in neuroscience research and student training on campus. The creation of this facility was funded by a $14.8-million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awarded by the NIH. Following completion of the building, the University began a cluster hiring initiative on “Understanding the Brain”, which has allowed the psychology department to hire several cognitive neuroscientists over the past few years.
Last year, investigators at the University of Miami attended Brainhack 2014, hosted by Dr. Angela Laird at our neighboring institution, Florida International University. The program was an opportunity for neuroimaging researchers at both universities to learn about our programs of research and brainstorm ideas for collaborative projects and grants. The event successfully fostered collaborations across the two institutions, as evidenced by several ongoing projects. This year, as the number of faculty and trainees with neuroimaging interests increased substantially from the previous year, we organized another Brainhack event to bring the two universities together again at a one-day meeting held on Friday October 23, 2015.
##Approach
###Funding
The Department of Psychology at the University of Miami receives annual funds from the estate of Fred C. and Helen Donn Flipse, and a portion of these funds is distributed in support of faculty research. Proposals of up to $2000 are invited from faculty, and preference is usually given to proposals that support multiple investigators. I applied for and received these Flipse Funds to support our Brainhack event. The generous support of these donors allowed me to reserve a large meeting room in the student activities center on campus, and provide breakfast and lunch for all attendees, all at no cost to Brainhack participants who registered for free. As an incentive to encourage trainee participation, I created a Brainhack data blitz competition with a $500 award to the top presentation.
###Schedule of Activites
The schedule of activities for the day proceeded as follows. We opened at 9:30am with breakfast, followed by a welcome and introduction at 10am where I introduced the concept of Brainhack to the attendees, comprised of six faculty members from the University of Miami, five from Florida International University, and nearly 50 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and trainees working within our laboratories. We heard about the history of the creation of the Neuroscience Annex from the current chair of the department of psychology at the University of Miami, who was responsible for writing the NIH grant that funded the construction of the building and scanning facilities. At 10:30am we began a series of 1-minute presentations by the faculty. These were intended to provide general (but short) introductions of each investigator and his/her research program. In total, 11 faculty members (or representative from their group) presented.
At 11am we broke into four groups to discuss topics of interest to the neuroimaging community in South Florida: 1) scanner enhancements, peripheral equipment, 2) curriculum development for student training, 3) participant recruitment for imaging studies, and 4) opportunities and challenges for obtaining funding. After these four sessions met simultaneously, one representative from each of the four groups reported back to the larger group on issues discussed and potential solutions and plans for the future. Following a break for lunch during which we watched the Brainhack Welcome presentation by Cameron Craddock and Daniel Margulies via video conference, we began the highlight of the meeting: the trainee data blitz competition. Twelve trainees each presented five-minute data blitz talks with a few minutes for questions. At the end of these presentations, a committee of faculty judges comprised of two faculty members from the University of Miami and two from Florida International University convened to select the winner.
###Results/Discussion
As evidenced by a lengthy and difficult deliberation, the data blitzes were excellent and very well received. Because so many were of such high caliber, in the end the judges could not decide on one winner and decided instead to award three prizes of $200 each. The topics of the winning presentations were: “Exploring the neural mechanisms of physics learning” (presented by Jessica Bartley from Angela Laird’s group), “Characterizing the vertical occipital fasciculus in young children” (presented by Iris Broce from Anthony Dick’s group) and “Dynamic brain systems and behavior” (presented by Jason Nomi from my group).
###Conclusions
After the announcement of the winners at 4:15pm, we commenced with happy hour at the Rathskeller on campus. The event was very well attended and achieved the goal of bringing the burgeoning community of neuroimaging researchers in South Florida together to exchange ideas and initiate collaborations.