Women in Data Science (WiDS) is thrilled to launch its 8th annual WiDS Datathons partnering with Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative in collaboration with Cornell University and UC Santa Barbara; and dataset partner the Child Mind Institute.
Background:
The general goals of the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative (WBHI) are centered around understanding how events across the female lifespan impact brain health. Specifically related to the WiDS 2025 datathon, WBHI aims to map how imaging based measurements of the female brain track with diagnosis of neurological or neuropsychiatric diseases. Studying this area of brain health is critical to understanding how women’s brains are impacted by adolescence, menstrual cycles, the pill, pregnancy, menopause, and aging, and this understanding is key to improving women’s health.
The Datathon 2025 Challenges:
In this year’s challenges we will look at demographic, diagnostic, and functional MRI data provided by the Healthy Brain Network (HBN), the signature scientific initiative of the Child Mind Institute, and the Reproducible Brain Charts project (RBC). Using this dataset, the following versions of the datathon were created:
WiDS Datathon Global Challenge:
Designed for all data science enthusiasts who are discovering or building their data skills, participants will be tasked with building a predictive model, based on measures of individuals’ brains, to “diagnose” adolescent ADHD. Tools of this nature can help identify individuals who may be at risk of ADHD, and, importantly, help shed light on the parts of the brain relevant to ADHD in boys and girls, which in turn could lead to improvements in personalized medicine and therapies.
For those who have never tried machine learning, we will be releasing a series of workshops and guides to help you get started with the algorithms and dataset. Many WiDS ambassadors will host datathon workshops, where participants will be able to receive mentorship, form teams, and hone their data science skills.
The global challenge will run from January 7 – April 30, 2025. Sign up to participate.
WiDS Datathon++ University Edition:
Designed exclusively for college and university course integration, this challenge involves a machine learning task where students will predict age from 2 dimensional functional brain networks (functional connectomes) derived from fMRI recordings during resting-state. Predicting age from brain connectivity and comparing the results of “predicted age” vs. “actual age” between males and females can help chart typical brain development and in turn serve as a basis of comparison for disordered development.
Students are encouraged to go beyond the predictive challenge and engage in discussions in order to generate insights about how brain networks develop differently across males and females in adolescence.
The university challenge will run September 17, 2024 – June 30, 2025. This challenge, available only to colleges and universities, can be offered as a project in advanced undergraduate or graduate courses. Learn more about how you can bring the WiDS Datathon++ to your classroom.
Data science enthusiasts:
Ready to hone your data science skills?
University instructors:
Want to bring the WiDS Datathon to your classroom?
Ann S. Bowers Women Brain Health Institute (WBHI) advances the study of women’s brain health through deeply collaborative science. By integrating research activities across campuses and bringing together world-class expertise in neuroimaging, computer science/AI and healthcare, the University of California and Cornell University/Weill Cornell Medicine lead these efforts in partnership with institutions around the world. The AI Core of the Bowers WBHI is dedicated to developing and deploying cutting-edge machine learning and AI techniques tailored to the specificities of women’s brain health data.
The Child Mind Institute is the leading independent nonprofit in children’s mental health providing gold-standard, evidence-based care, delivering educational resources to millions of families each year, training educators in underserved communities, and developing open science initiatives and tomorrow’s breakthrough treatments.
The Healthy Brain Network (HBN) is a community-based research initiative of the Child Mind Institute. They provide no-cost, study-related mental health and learning evaluations to children ages 5–21 and connect families with community resources. They are collecting the information needed to find brain and body characteristics that are associated with mental health and learning disorders. The Healthy Brain Network stores and openly shares de-identified data about psychiatric, behavioral, cognitive, and lifestyle (e.g., fitness, diet) phenotypes, as well as multimodal brain imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), digital voice and video recordings, genetics, and actigraphy.