The 2018 Brain Data Bank Competition in Xi'an, China [Society News]

S ince 2016, the IEEE Brain Initiative has sponsored numerous hackathons, challenges, and competitions on neuroscience and technology. These events are distinguished by their duration (onsite versus offsite), free range (optional versus specific topic), base material (by choice versus dedicated data set), and prize (academic versus industry sponsorship). Of specific interest to me, as the IEEE Consumer Electronic (CE) Society’s representative to the IEEE Brain Initiative, is the Brain Data Bank (BDB) competition. The event was held on 7–8 July 2018 for the first time in Asia, under the sponsorship of the ninth biannual Conference on Brain-Inspired Computing Systems (BICS) and Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU) in Xi’an, China. Participants demonstrated popular topics such as brain big data analytics using neural networks, robotics, and mobile handset music applications. For the first time since 2016, the event charged participants a fee to enter the competition. Approximately 100 attended the tutorial