iNeuro: Response to an identified need for a workforce trained to curate and manage large scale data and databases

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

The potential for advances in coordinated design, production and analysis of big-data bases in neuroscience to help us better understand the interaction between the structure and function of the brain are highlighted by the White House Brain Initiative (http://whitehouse.gov/share/brain-initiative). However, in order for that potential to be realized, there is a need for a workforce capable of both creating and maintaining these data bases in a sustainable, well annotated, easily accessible format. This workshop is designed to consider the challenges inherent in educating such a work force and ensuring undergraduate education in information-neuroscience (iNeuro) will reflect the diversity of the nation's population and institutions of higher education, consider the myriad demands on that work force, and promote workforce flexibility in responding to changing needs and resources as the discipline evolves. It will benefit the nation in such areas as workforce development, curriculum enrichment, undergraduate student education and establishing interdisciplinary approaches to complex national challenges. This one and one-half day iNeuro workshop will create a roadmap outlining necessary steps to educate the next generation of information curators/scientists. It will identify: 1) the skill set(s) and training necessary for such individuals (e.g. neuroscience, mathematics and quantitative methods, information science, computer science, and others) as well as the appropriate trans-disciplinary blend, 2) the educators and programs needed to train such individuals, and (3) actions needed to help faculty and institutions incorporate the precepts advanced by the Vision and Change report into their educational strategies/programs. Attendees will represent the full spectrum of higher education institutions across the nation and will include experts in such areas as: managers and purveyors of data resources, individuals involved in bioinformatics/analytics training, library and information scientists, computer scientists, neuroscience educators and research-involved neuroscientists. The workshop will be preceded by a period of information exchange among the participants to ensure an efficient use of workshop time and will be followed by production of a white paper summarizing workshop findings. This project is being supported jointly by the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Division of Research on Learning in the Directorate of Education and Human Resources and the Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems within the Directorate of Biological Sciences as part of their efforts toward support of Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.