Authors
Hannah Gunderman, Knowledge, Gaming, and In style Tradition Librarian, Carnegie Mellon College Libraries
Ben Busby, Director, Resolution Science and Principal Scientist, DNAnexus
Introduction
With the world nonetheless reckoning with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, one factor that has remained fixed is the necessity to change how folks collaborate and talk concepts, usually shifting to distant and digital codecs. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the speed at which hackathons are hosted in a digital format. Distant hackathons have the potential to reflect the personally and professionally reworking experiences conveyed by in-person occasions to those that can’t journey as a result of monetary, bodily, or environmental constraints. Distant hackathons enable the mental wealth of scientists in these nations to be utilized to the essential matters and objectives of the hackathon, whereas supporting their well being and security by digital participation. We hope that hackathons will retain a hybrid mannequin to maximise the scientific contributions of each in-person and distant individuals.
Why are hackathons essential?
Hackathons enable for concentrated, centered effort on a job or aim by bringing collectively scientific consultants in a specific self-discipline, resembling structural variants, or united by a standard aim, resembling ending neurofibromatosis. Some hackathons clear up thorny issues, make life simpler for practitioners of particular disciplines, or push the boundaries of what a specific scientific area can do. That stated, hackathons not solely produce content material (normally software program), however ideally additionally actively facilitate schooling and networking. Those that take part usually have professionally transformative experiences that may result in a wider scientific community, job alternatives, and elevated confidence of their coding and analysis expertise.
Hackathons largely observe the mannequin of “disruptive innovation” by serving as a prototyping layer throughout scientific organizations, producing new concepts and applied sciences that the neighborhood can then assess for worth of their bigger objectives and initiatives. The prototypes that emerge both push the envelope of what’s attainable with biomedical informatics, or make day-to-day bioinformatics simpler. Whereas the code isn’t essentially persistent, these proof-of-concepts are supposed for the neighborhood to construct upon. Hackathons foster an atmosphere with “buzz,” an financial geography idea referring to the serendipitous sharing of inventive concepts that occurs when folks interact in face-to-face interactions. The final yr has taught us that these advantages from hackathons are additionally afforded by hybrid or fully-remote codecs, offering hope for a optimistic way forward for hybrid hackathons in scientific development and discovery.
How do hackathons profit the individuals?
Not solely do hackathons have an simple profit to the broader scientific neighborhood, however, in addition they can present transformative and impactful experiences for the individuals themselves. These experiences largely revolve across the areas of confidence-building, academic growth, and camaraderie.
As described earlier, the “buzz” created in hackathon environments helps advance the sharing of inventive and modern concepts. By way of this alternate of concepts, individuals can advance their journeys in computational problem-solving and fashionable software program growth strategies. Within the bioinformatics area, there are numerous newbie information scientists who’re nonetheless studying foundational expertise in computation and scientific collaboration. Hackathons, whether or not distant or in-person, provide a concentrated area for newbie information scientists to advance their expertise in each of those areas alongside extra established bioinformatics researchers. Not solely does this afford academic advantages to those individuals, however it could actually additionally improve their confidence as scientists who can contribute to essential analysis endeavours.
Lastly, hackathons additionally create the chance for individuals to forge shut private friendships and bonds, which may result in long-term collaborations and network-building.
Members usually discover themselves in intensely difficult and time-limited environments as they race to perform the objectives of the hackathon, and going by these transformative experiences collectively can result in sturdy friendships and connections that span past the bounds of the hackathon itself. This isn’t restricted to in-person hackathons, nonetheless: video-conferencing software program resembling Zoom and collaborative instruments resembling Slack enable individuals to work together with one another and construct each interpersonal {and professional} connections.
A Retrospective Look Into CMU-DNAnexus Digital “Genomic Knowledge to the Clinic” Hackathon
The CMU-DNAnexus Digital “Genomic Knowledge to the Clinic” Hackathon (June 1st – June 4th 2021) was centered on bringing complicated genomic information into the clinic. Particularly, we centered on integrating Expressed Variants, Polygenic Threat Scores, Structural Variants and T-Cell Receptors into an Digital Medical File readable format utilizing OMOP and labored on a clinically presentable interface. Distant assist was supplied by librarians from Carnegie Mellon College Libraries who’ve specialties in information administration, bioinformatics, and data sciences. This assist included collating essential assets discovered by hackathon individuals (resembling instruments, software program, literature, and so forth.) right into a single spreadsheet for straightforward entry, reviewing the hackathon manuscript for syntax and readability, and making ready the manuscript for submission to BioHackrXiv. Communication platforms resembling Zoom and Slack can provide methods to remain in contact and facilitate collaboration throughout a distant hackathon, however info can nonetheless get misplaced in translation in environments the place we are able to’t see one another face-to-face. Librarians are educated within the info sciences and well-positioned to help in preserving info organized and accessible throughout a distant or hybrid hackathon.
Members not solely successfully used on-line collaboration instruments to create modern workflows and deliverables supporting the objectives of the hackathon, but in addition used instruments resembling Slack to develop interpersonal friendships. A lot of the identical dynamic power and “buzz” felt throughout an in-person hackathon was additionally felt on this digital area and the expertise has already led to some promising future collaborations and scientific endeavors, together with an accepted proposal for a presentation on the 2021 annual assembly of the American Society of Human Genetics that can share the scientific findings from this hackathon.
Upcoming hybrid hackatons
Though the pandemic is experiencing a protracted tail, we are able to nonetheless start to ascertain what our post-pandemic future might seem like, taking the teachings now we have realized from navigating our distant atmosphere for the previous a number of months. One of many classes we are able to carry right into a post-pandemic future is that hackathons with a digital possibility will help us create extra equitable and various mental areas for tackling essentially the most urgent points we face in bioinformatics. Shifting ahead, hackathons ought to take a hybrid mannequin and permit for each in-person and distant participation, whereas permitting extra staff leads the sequestration they should absolutely focus their energies on these efforts as an alternative of juggling each work and the hackathon.
Additional, leveraging the assist of librarians within the hackathon area can result in a extra organized, cohesive, and collaborative expertise for individuals. That is significantly true for absolutely distant or hybrid hackathons, the place clear communication channels are essential for all individuals. Librarians will help facilitate collaboration and coordination between distant and in-person individuals, and assist collate assets (resembling instruments, software program, and literature) discovered throughout the course of the hackathon.
We’re excited to see what the way forward for hybrid hackathons holds for our area at massive, and the scientific discoveries that can consequence from these occasions. Under are some upcoming hackathons you’ll be able to observe or become involved in!
All the pieces is greater in Texas: Pan-Structural Variation hackathon within the Cloud!
October 10-13, 2021, hosted by the Baylor Faculty of Drugs
November 8-12, 2021, hosted by ELIXIR Europe
CMU-DNAnexus Hybrid “Genomic Knowledge to the Clinic” Hackathon
March Sept. 11, 2022, hosted by CMU Libraries (keep tuned for extra particulars!)
We additionally suggest maintaining a tally of future occasions and initiatives hosted by the DEMON community, a world community for making use of information science and AI to dementia!
Control this hyperlink for extra details about these and different occasions: https://biohackathons.github.io
