Open Hardware
What it is, and everything you wanted to ask, but did not know how!
Expert of the month
Scientific Officer and Lecturer in Open Science at the University of Sussex
Andre is a neuroscientist, open science advocate, and innovator in the field of scientific instrumentation. He holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Tübingen and is currently a Scientific Officer and Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Open Science at the University of Sussex. He is also a visiting professor at the Yobe State University in Nigeria, and volunteers at Trend in Africa. Andre is known for his work in developing open science hardware (OSH) particularly in neuroscience. His projects include the development visual stimulators, microscopy systems, and behavioural tools. He founded the Open Neuroscience initiative, a community driven, curated repository of open source neuroscience projects. As a TReND in Africa Open Science coordinator, Andre has organized workshops and courses to promote OSH in resource-limited settings. The courses have been held in eight African countries, hosting over 200 participants. Some of the course’s Alumni have gone on to publish their own devices, and host their own workshops training others. Andre’s work has been recognized with several awards, including the Mozilla Open Science Fellowship and the Wikimedia Foundation “FreiesWissen” Fellowship.
Seminar/Workshop
Friday, February 7, 2025 at 11:30 am ET
de Grandpré Communications Centre, the Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) Click [here] for directions (https://www.mcgill.ca/neuro/about/find-us/wayfinding) And on Zoom (register for link)
Research in all fields requires dedicated equipment and tools, which are a lot of times, expensive, proprietary and hard to customise. In line with other Open Science efforts, Open Hardware has emerged as an answer to these shortcomings, where hardware developers freely share the documentation needed for scrutiny, replication and customisation of research tools. Examples range from interactive art pieces to microscopes able to measure details in atomic level. However, being a newish field in Open Science, there isn’t widespread knowledge on best practices, or even what kind of files should be shared and how. In this Office Hours Session we will have an overview of What Open Hardware is, how to get started and where to find the communities forming around it.