Open Ephys at SfN 2019
It's going to be a busy week for us at this year's conference! We're organizing our first-ever booth (in collaboration with the UCLA Miniscope team), as well as putting together a number of posters, satellite events, and a DJ set. Read on to find out all the details...
The best place to find us this year will be at the Open Ephys x Miniscope Booth (#1766). We'll be showcasing oni, or "open neural interface," a new data acquisition system that will work seamlessly with our next-generation tetrode headstages, Neuropixels, and the latest Miniscopes. This will be an incredibly versatile tool, no matter where your science takes you. It comes in PCIe and USB versions, and has a whole host of features you'll want to explore. If you won't be at the meeting, be sure to check out our "virtual booth" by following this link.
Open-Source Technology Social
Jakob Voigts and Denise Cai are organizing a social for people using open-source tools and those curious to learn more about them. Come say hello on Monday evening from 6:45-8:45 pm in room N135 of McCormick Place.
Tools & Tech: A BRAIN Initiative Alliance Social
Open Ephys will have a table at this event, along with numerous other toolmakers in the field. It's happening Sunday evening from 6:30 - 8:30 pm at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Ballroom CD. More info can be found on the event website.
Poster sessions
Our main focus this year is on our booth, but there are also a few key posters that highlight the open-source tools we're using and developing:
Gonçalo Lopes - “BonVision - An open-source software to create and control visual environments” (Monday morning, L14)
Pavel Kulik – “Real-time processing and visualization of high-channel-count electrophysiology data with the Open Ephys GUI” (Tuesday morning, CC52)
Aarón Cuevas López – “A low-power wireless transmission system of neural data by hardware compression” (Tuesday morning, CC53)
Ephys data acquisition software survey
We're launching a new survey to help guide our software development over the next year. If you regularly carry out experiments with extracellular electrodes (regardless of whether or not you use Open Ephys tools), you are highly encouraged to respond! One randomly selected participant will receive a $100 Newegg gift card. Please visit survey.open-ephys.org to fill it out; it should only take 5-10 minutes.
"Meet the Experts" at the Neuropixels Booth
If you're currently using Neuropixels—or thinking about starting—there will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions at the Neuropixels booth (#2037). Josh Siegle will be there discussing Open Ephys/Neuropixels integration Sunday from 4-5 pm, Monday from 1-2 pm, Tuesday from 4-5 pm, and Wednesday from 9:30-10:30 am. Josh will also be at the Allen Institute booth (#401) answering questions between 10:30 and 12:30 on Sunday.
Neurolabware Party
Our friends at Neurolabware have consistently thrown THE party to attend at SfN, and this year is no different. The event is happening on Tuesday night from 9 pm - 2 am at PRYSM Nightclub. They aren't giving out wristbands this year, so be sure to arrive early! In any case, you'll want to get there to catch Josh Siegle's DJ set, which starts right at 9.
Compact, Open Ephys compatible headstages
At their booth this year (#1669), Cambridge NeuroTech will be showcasing *very tiny* 64-channel headstages that are plug-and-play compatible with the Open Ephys acquisition board. We are huge proponents of open interfaces, and we're glad that Cambridge Neuro decided to adopt Intan's SPI standard for these, which only weigh 0.38 g.
Open Ephys GUI updates
There's a new version of the Open Ephys GUI available for download (version 0.4.5). The major updates include improved support for Neuropixels (Windows only) and migrating the build system to CMake, which will allow us to use continuous integration for application testing and distribution. A big change on the developer side is that all plugins that rely on external libraries (e.g. ZeroMQ, HDF5) have been moved to separate repositories, so you can build the GUI with Juce as the only dependency. If you have any questions about the changes, don't hesitate to write to info@open-ephys.org!
Until next time,
The Open Ephys Team