Description of WG2
Many Early Career Investigators (ECIs) and Facility Staff are not well prepared to extract quantitative data from images. Few of the higher education programs in the Life Sciences have yet included Digital Image Processing (DIP) courses. Biologists lack basic DIP knowledge, while software developers are also often lacking domain knowledge (i.e. Life Science, microscopy).
WG2 will promote the education of ECIs and Facility Staff in DIP and enhance communication of Software Developers with BioImage Analysts via training. WG2 will provide the network with the infrastructure to build-up a three-level training program:
- BIAS for ECIs: Dedicated to data producers (End-users), the topics covered will be learning
the basics, having an overview of existing tools, and understanding the limits and ethics of
DIP. - BIAS for Facility Staff: Facility staff’s everyday tasks involve repeating individual complex tasks over several hundreds of images. This requires automation strategies, involving programming techniques covered by this “Facility Staff Course”.
- Advanced BIAS Course for Analysts: Software Developers will upgrade BioImage Analysts’ ability to programmatically use their software.
They will also get feedback from them to improve the usability of their packages. WG2 will identify a team of instructors for each course and help them collect material with the help of other Workgroups, set up the teaching program, and release course material online in collaboration with WG6. WG2 will collaborate with WG1 to share human resources (teachers) during the annual meeting where at least one ECIs course and 1 Advanced BIAS course will be delivered.