Jekyll2023-11-27T10:35:39+00:00https://neurogears.org/feed.xmlNeuroGEARSNeuroscience, Games, Interaction, RoboticsNeuronautas 20212021-08-19T12:00:00+00:002021-08-19T12:00:00+00:00https://neurogears.org/news/2021/08/19/neuronautas2021<p>
<img class="img-posts" width="560" src="/assets/images/210819-NeuronautasGlasses.png" />
</p>
<p>The Neuronautas are back! After a hiatus in 2020 thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the teaching staff of Neuronautas re-vamped the curriculum to make it possible to run the program entirely remotely.</p>
<p>This year, the Neuronautas program was embedded in a sci-fi story universe set in the distant future, when humans can travel across galaxies and research institutes float in bubbles through space. Portuguese youth could join the adventure as either a Neurocadete or a Chimera.</p>
<p>Neurocadetes spent a total of 3 weeks and 2 days completing the same curriculum that was originally designed for the 2019 edition of Neuronautas. The initial phase, called “build your Neuronautas goggles”, consisted of practical neuroscience and engineering exercises and discussions over video chat, supplemented by activities with a take-home Neuronautas kit that students worked on independently. The final phase, called “use your Neuronautas goggles”, was once again an opportunity for students to design, build, conduct, analyze, and present their own field neuroscience experiments.</p>
<p>Chimeras spent 2 weeks exploring a new curriculum that combined neurobiology with speculative science fiction storytelling. This version of the Neuronautas adventure spent the first week in a similar “build your Neuronautas goggles” phase, where students completed practical neuroscience and story-world-building exercises and discussions in collaboration with each other over video chat. The second week was also a “use your Neuronautas goggles” phase, in which students collaboratively improvised a science fiction story, through the format of table-top role playing and set in the story-world that they created during the first week.</p>
<p>To learn more, you can <a href="https://neuronautas.github.io/2021-showcase/">visit the Neuronautas 2021 showcase!</a></p>The second edition of Neuronautas ran online with two groups of students -- the Neurocadetes and the Chimeras!HiveTracker: UbiComp 20192019-09-12T12:00:00+00:002019-09-12T12:00:00+00:00https://neurogears.org/news/2019/09/12/ubicomp-hivetracker<p>The <a href="https://hivetracker.github.io/">HiveTracker</a> is a small & affordable system for scalable and accurate 3D tracking developed over the past two years. It builds off the existing SteamVR tracking system by Valve, Inc. and together with a 9DoF inertial measurement unit (IMU), allows sub-millimetric 3D positioning at scale. We have recently presented our latest cross-platform logging and visualization interface at <a href="http://ubicomp.org/ubicomp2019">UbiComp 2019</a>.</p>
<div class="gallery">
<div class="popup-gallery">
<a title="Smartphone demo"><img src="/assets/images/190912-ubicomp-hivetracker-phone.gif" /></a>
<a title="Computer demo"><img src="/assets/images/190912-ubicomp-hivetracker-pc.gif" /></a>
</div>
</div>
<p>The original Lighthouse 3D tracking combines real-time readout of dozens of photosensors in a single object, requiring an expensive dedicated FPGA for the accurate readout of the timing of the external beacons. The main innovation of the HiveTracker project is to explore a miniaturization tradeoff by using less photosensors and a single inexpensive microcontroller to accurately log external beacon signals for localization. Read more about the project in the <a href="https://hackaday.io/project/160182-hivetracker">HiveTracker Hackaday page</a> and the <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3341162.3349295">UbiComp extended abstract</a>.</p>Excited to present our latest developments on the HiveTracker project at UbiComp 2019!Neuronautas2019-08-12T12:00:00+00:002019-08-12T12:00:00+00:00https://neurogears.org/news/2019/08/12/neuronautas<p>In collaboration with the Champalimaud Foundation, NeuroGEARS received a grant of 30,000 € from the Academias Gulbenkian Conhecimento to launch Neuronautas, an immersive hands-on and minds-on program for teaching Portuguese youth the theory, tools, and techniques for conducting studies in field neuroscience. This grant will fund the first 3 editions of Neuronautas, which will be hosted at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown.</p>
<p>The first edition of Neuronautas ran from April until June 2019.</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/FRCwWx-dlZE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>The Neuronautas curriculum focuses on maximizing the quality and depth of personalized, exploratory, and immersive education that we can offer to our students. Using low-cost and open source tools, we teach students how to pose questions about the world around them, then collect and analyse data to address these questions. The scientific and technological content of the Neuronautas curriculum is embedded in the context of science fiction storytelling, in order to also teach the creative yet rigorous imagination and speculation required to conduct science research.</p>
<p>Participants of the Neuronautas program spend an initial phase becoming familiar with the theory, philosophy, and history of Field Neuroscience, while simultaneously learning how to build and maintain their own field neuroscience tools, with a strong contextualization within the open science and open hard/soft-ware movements. During this initial phase, students and teachers will discuss the testable hypotheses available within the field neuroscience framework, then collaboratively design a field neuroscience experiment.</p>
<p>The final phase of Neuronautas is focused on supporting the students as they design, conduct, analyze, and present their own field neuroscience study. In many ways, this final phase is the most meaningful phase, as it is often the first time that students experience such a great level of autonomy and control over their own education. By allowing students to make their own mistakes in an environment that doesn’t punish them for failure, we hope to achieve Neuronautas’ greatest aim: to give our students the confidence to try out ideas that are not guaranteed to succeed. This willingness to face the unknown, the unexpected, and the unpredictable is crucial for developing resilient individuals, strong community members, and global leaders who can help us face complex global challenges such as the climate crisis.</p>
<p>Because neuroscientists study something that everyone has and uses every day to navigate the complexities of human society – a nervous system – neuroscience, and in particular field neuroscience, is especially well suited for democritizing science. Out of sheer necessity, every person alive has a significant familiarity and knowledge about the nervous system’s influence on their own behaviour and the behaviour of others. This gives neuroscience a unique, and currently, largely untapped, potential compared to other sciences.</p>
<p>We hope that Neuronautas can be the start of building a bridge between laboratory research and everyday life, in a way that empowers each human with the tools and knowledge to shed light on how their own brain grows, develops, and evolves in spaces beyond sterile and predictable laboratory environments. We hope that by updating science education to emphasize how our nervous systems empower us to face the chaotic, the unpredictable, and the unknown, these students will gain the resilience to face the challenges in their personal lives, and the confidence to become leaders in tackling the challenges that face our global community.</p>Do pigeons have a sense of time? An academy for young explorers rediscovers the world through science by building their own scientific instruments.Brain: Wider than the Sky2019-03-16T12:00:00+00:002019-03-16T12:00:00+00:00https://neurogears.org/news/2019/03/16/brain-wider-than-the-skyWe developed an experiment contemplating the moments between perception and action for a new exhibition at the Calouste Gulbenkian museum, in collaboration with Artica.Braitenberg Vehicles2018-03-20T12:00:00+00:002018-03-20T12:00:00+00:00https://neurogears.org/news/2018/03/20/braitenberg-osh<p>Fascination with the brain often starts with a fascination for understanding behavior, and how the brain of living organisms evolved in relation to their environment. How does the brain generate behavior and how can behavior emerge from physical rules?</p>
<p>Together with the <a href="https://plataforma.edu.pt/">Open Science Hub</a> in beautiful Barca d’Alva, we raised awareness to these questions by inviting students, teachers, and the community at large to create, design, and manipulate the brain of artificial creatures.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braitenberg_vehicle#/media/File:Braitenberg_Vehicle_2ab.png"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Braitenberg_Vehicle_2ab.png/269px-Braitenberg_Vehicle_2ab.png" alt="Vehicles 2a, 2b" title="Vehicles 2a, 2b" /></a></p>
<p>The outline of the workshop followed closely the progression laid out in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braitenberg_vehicle"><em>Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology</em></a>, a seminal work by the neuroscientist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentino_Braitenberg">Valentino Braitenberg</a>. In this small but quite inspiring book, Braitenberg shares beautiful speculations on how artificial living organisms might have developed complex behavior using incredibly simple rules which he lays out in detail.</p>
<p>During the course of a week, students came to the Open Science Hub to assemble their own reconfigurable Braitenberg vehicle. To do this, we used the flexible architecture of the <a href="https://lab.guilhermemartins.net/tag/farrusco/">Farrusco</a> platform which allows direct rewiring of the connection between light, touch, and distance sensors with a pair of brushless DC motors, making Farrusco an ideal basis for running these experiments.</p>
<p>The workshop sessions culminated in a hackathon for the local community, where participants observed first hand the emergence of complex behavior and movement. By simply rewiring the brain of these robots using different patterns of excitatory and inhibitory connections, the robots were able to develop steering behaviors and freely navigate around their surroundings, seeking specific stimuli, while avoiding others. Everyone also learned how their own robotic creations relate to existing biological neural circuits that have been mapped in animals, and how behavior complexity and flexibility relates to the external environment.</p>
<p>These activities were developed in the context of the <a href="https://brainawareness.org/">Brain Awareness Week</a>. Funding for this workshop was generously granted by the <a href="https://dana.org/">Dana Foundation</a> and <a href="https://www.fens.org/">FENS</a>.</p>Together with Open Science Hub Portugal, we organized a series of interactive robotics workshops for the Brain Awareness Week, inspired by the work of Valentino Braitenberg.Surprising Minds2017-10-21T12:00:00+00:002017-10-21T12:00:00+00:00https://neurogears.org/news/2017/10/21/surprising-minds<p>NeuroGEARS was commissioned to develop the software system for automation of the <a href="http://www.everymind.online/SurprisingMinds/">Surprising Minds</a> interactive neuroscience exhibit at <a href="https://www.visitsealife.com/brighton/">Sea Life Brighton</a>. At Surprising Minds, you are invited to watch a short 30-second video clip while your eyes are recorded up close. You can then watch the replayed recording and see what your eyes do when you watch movies.</p>
<p>All the installation displays, data acquisition, and interactive systems are controlled using the <a href="http://bonsai-rx.org/">Bonsai</a> visual programming language. The exhibit is now entirely automated and includes support for multiple languages. You can follow the history of the software development process on <a href="https://github.com/everymind/SurprisingMinds-Exhibit">GitHub</a>.</p>
<p>The exhibit is located next to the cuttlefish display tank in the main arcade of Sea Life Brighton. More information about the neuroscience research behind the Surprising Minds project can be found at the <a href="http://www.everymind.online/">EveryMind</a> website.</p>
<div class="gallery">
<div class="popup-gallery">
<a title="The Exhibit" href="/assets/images/171013-surprising-minds.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/171013-surprising-minds.jpg" /></a>
<a title="The main arcade at Sea Life Brighton" href="/assets/images/170824-surprising-minds.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/170824-surprising-minds.jpg" /></a>
<a title="Surprising Minds in Action" href="/assets/images/171020-surprising-minds.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/171020-surprising-minds.jpg" /></a>
</div>
</div>The second phase of this interactive neuroscience exhibit is now running at Sea Life Brighton.We are moving2017-10-17T12:00:00+00:002017-10-17T12:00:00+00:00https://neurogears.org/news/2017/10/17/we-are-moving<p><img src="/assets/images/141107-hereeast-wide.jpg" alt="Here East" /></p>
<p>NeuroGEARS is joining the <a href="https://hereeast.com/lettings/innovation-centre/">Plexal</a> technology innovation centre at <a href="https://hereeast.com/">Here East</a>, located within Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at Stratford. We are moving closer to an exciting community of London startups, enterprises and academics who are coming together to imagine and create future technology.</p>
<p>The Plexal centre is a short five-minute walk from Hackney Wick train station, or you can also take the shuttle from Stratford station to Here East. Make sure to drop us a line if you are around.</p>We are very happy to announce we are moving into the Plexal technology innovation centre over at Here East, London.INBC 20172017-10-12T12:00:00+00:002017-10-12T12:00:00+00:00https://neurogears.org/news/2017/10/12/inbc-2017<p>The first Instituto de Neurociencias Bonsai Course (<a href="http://neurogears.org/inbc-2017/">INBC 2017</a>) took place in the <a href="http://in.umh.es/">campus of the Universidad Miguel Hernández</a>, San Juan de Alicante, from 4-7 September. During this four day intensive course, participants were introduced to the <a href="http://bonsai-rx.org/">Bonsai</a> visual language for reactive programming, and how to use it to design their own neuroscience experiments.</p>
<p>The topics covered precise synchronization of electrophysiology signals with video or other data streams; the design of data-acquisition and processing pipelines; and how to create interactive closed-loop behaviour systems. We also discussed how to track coloured or moving objects; how to use Bonsai to design behaviour tasks; and how to streamline analysis of large datasets, among many other things.</p>
<div class="gallery">
<div class="popup-gallery">
<a title="INBC 2017" href="/assets/images/170905-inbc-2017-10.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/170905-inbc-2017-10-th.jpg" /></a>
<a title="INBC 2017" href="/assets/images/170905-inbc-2017-20.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/170905-inbc-2017-20-th.jpg" /></a>
</div>
</div>
<p>We were also very lucky to count with the participation of Aarón Cuevas López from the <a href="http://www.open-ephys.org/">Open-Ephys</a> team as a guest teaching assistant. Aarón provided invaluable support and an introduction to the Open-Ephys data acquisition board.</p>
<p>By the end of the course, at least twelve different groups were able to successfully create their own experiments combining Arduino, Open-Ephys, webcams, NI-DAQ cards and PointGrey cameras.</p>
<div class="gallery">
<div class="popup-gallery">
<a title="Interfacing Bonsai with an Arduino microcontroller" href="/assets/images/170905-inbc-2017-35.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/170905-inbc-2017-35-th.jpg" /></a>
<a title="Measuring closed-loop latency using a microphone and speakers" href="/assets/images/170905-inbc-2017-48.jpg"><img src="/assets/images/170905-inbc-2017-48-th.jpg" /></a>
</div>
</div>
<p>All slides and support materials are available at the <a href="http://neurogears.org/inbc-2017/">INBC 2017</a> website.</p>The first Instituto de Neurociencias Bonsai Course took place in the Universidad Miguel Hernández, San Juan de Alicante, from 4-7 September.