Apply by Oct. 19
The National Institutes of Health is pleased to announce a virtual biological data science codeathon on Nov. 7-8, 2020, directly after the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Biological Data Science Conference, which will be held Nov. 4-6. Applications are due Oct. 19 at 3 p.m. EST.
Researchers and data scientists at any stage of their data science journey are encouraged to apply. Codeathon teams will greatly benefit from people who possess any of the following skills:
- Analyzing sequencing data types
- Data mining and text analysis
- Working knowledge of scripting
- Familiarity with methods for manipulating and/or analyzing large datasets
- Developing bioinformatics code, pipelines or tools
- Data visualization
- ML/AI techniques
- Cloud computing
There is no registration fee associated with this event. Applicants may pitch an idea for a project, run a project as a team lead, or be a general team participant.
To apply, please complete this application form. Applications are due Oct. 19, 2020, by 3 p.m. EST. Participants will be selected based on their experience and their motivation to attend.
Prior participants and applicants are encouraged to apply. A team preferences form will be sent on Oct. 21, and accepted applicants have until Oct. 26 at noon EST to confirm their participation. Applicants confirming their participation should be mindful that confirming and not participating prevents other scientists from participating this event.
Please contact Allissa Dillman, Ph.D., if you have questions or need more information.
Frequently Asked Questions
What topics are in scope?
Building tools and pipelines for advanced analysis of biological datasets including text, images, next generation sequencing data, proteomics, and metadata. We are interested in proposals for pipelines and analysis of large public datasets such as SRA, data interoperability, and using machine learning techniques. We also welcome proposals for tutorial pipelines and educational tools. You will have access to computational resources in the Cloud to turn your idea into a working prototype. You can also propose to build off of previous codeathon projects.
If I pitch a project, do I need to lead it?
You can choose to lead your project team, recommend someone, or we can try to find a suitable team lead. Providing a designated team lead dramatically increases the probability that we will select the project for the codeathon.
Do I need to assemble a team?
No. We will create working groups of five to six individuals who have various backgrounds and relevant expertise to work on each project.
What are my responsibilities as a team lead?
The team leader will coordinate a group of 5-6 people in defining the project and producing clear vision for developing a solution. To accomplish this goal, the team lead must define and delegate tasks, incorporate team members’ ideas to accomplish the goal, and ensure the team’s success. All participants in the codeathon, including team leads, will need to be present for all three days of the codeathon.
What will we build?
We will make all pipelines, other scripts, software, and programs generated in this codeathon available on a dedicated public GitHub repository.
Teams may submit manuscripts describing the design and use of the software tools they created to an appropriate journal such as the F1000Research hackathons channel, BMC Bioinformatics, GigaScience, Genome Research, or PLoS Computational Biology.
Legal Information
Participants retain ownership of all intellectual property rights (including moral rights) to the code submitted to as well as developed in the codeathon. Employees of the U.S. Government attending as part of their official duties retain no copyright to their work and their work is in the public domain in the U.S. The Government disclaims any rights to the code submitted or developed in the codeathon. Participants agree to publish the code and any related data on GitHub.
Please contact Allissa Dillman if you have questions or need more information.
