It is time for a new paradigm! In the past 5 years or so, a new type of research institute has arisen [1]. One that is flexible and open, without the constraints typical of a University or corporate labs. In a time of institutional change and funding uncertainty, such institutes provide a means for many non-conventional types of research to flourish. We can think of such facilities an "Alt-research Program" (after the "
alt-academic" movement) [2], although stressing the open science and collaborative aspects are also important. So let's discuss some recent developments for one such organization,
Orthogonal Research and Education Laboratory.
We have three recent developments: a new paper collaboration, a preprint mention, and a set of
Google Summer of Code presentations. First up is a paper that was recently published with three co-authors. Orthogonal Research is a nexus for open science-enabled collaborations with University-based academics [3]. The paper “
Network Dynamics of Attention During a Naturalistic Behavioral Paradigm” is now live at
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience [4]. Learn about the what happens in attentional networks of the human brain during naturalistic behavior – in this case, high-resolution video game play with neural activity captured via “free-viewing” neuroimaging.
Here is how you build institutional credibility (or so I've heard). Notice the second affiliation.
Orthogonal Lab was also recently mentioned in a
preprint on scientific ecosystems [5] from members of the
Ronin Institute. In the paper, Orthogonal Lab was described as a lab focusing on more specific research questions than a larger institute focused on enabling basic science initiatives (such as
Neurolinx). This new scientific ecosystem paradigm proposed in the paper is focused on how to enable collaboration and open science outside of the formal University structure.
Thirdly, we have community period [6] presentations by
three students in this year’s
Google Summer of Code program (sponsored by
INCF). There will be a presentation now, and a final presentation at the completion of the Summer. The idea is to keep students thinking about the project's progress, to develop their public speaking/presentation skills, and to build up the foundations for a paper or future research.
Cheng-Hsun (Jim) Hsueh and
Sam Felder are working on
Contextual Geometric Structures project (
Representational Brains and Phenotypes Group), while Arnab Banerjee is working with the
OpenWorm Foundation (
DevoWorm Group).
One way to enable Alt-research Programs is to embrace low carbon and location-free modes of doing and disseminating research. One such proposal (by
Dr. Angel Goni-Moreno) has been made to provide low-carbon and researcher-accessible conferencing options to the
annual ALife conference. In particular, distributed sessions would enable participation and collaboration across continents and research groups that would otherwise not interact.
The new research ecosystem paradigm path to field-specific and interdisciplinary community-building?
NOTES:
[1] See a previous Synthetic Daisies post on hosting
theory hackathons through such as organization.
[2] While I find the prefix "alt-" to be a shallow marketing term (sometimes nefariously so), it does fit into existing descriptions of academic activity outside of or in parallel with Universities.
[6] Typically, the community period is an opportunity for students to get acquainted with the community resources (open datasets, open codebase, community members) of their chosen
open source/science organization. For more information on the Google Summer of Code community period, here are a few blog posts (
1,
2,
3,
4,
5).
