B-Cubed is gearing up for its April Hackathon – a dynamic gathering of biodiversity informaticians, researchers, and practitioners in Brussels. The event aims to foster collaboration and address various biodiversity challenges by exploring data cubes.

The Hackathon is accepting project submissions until 17 December. You can submit your project here.

Throughout the four-day event, participants will receive guidance from technical coaches and scientific committee representatives, with multiple opportunities to attend keynote presentations.

To provide participants with insights into the variety of expertise that will be available at the Hackathon, B-Cubed will present some of the key event contributors through a series of news items. 

This week we present two of the keynote speakers at the Hackathon.

Andrew Rodrigues    

As a Data Partnerships Officer at the GBIF Secretariat, Andrew is supporting the mobilisation and use of GBIF-mediated data for decision making by developing indicators for the Global Biodiversity Framework. He believes data cubes present an innovative and more effective means to monitor biodiversity and will be talking about Building Data cubes and how to use them. Eager to explore the untapped potential of these data cubes, Andrew envisions the Hackathon as a crucial platform to test and refine these tools.

Yanina V. Sica

Yanina is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Giessen and the Science coordinator for the IPBES Data and Knowledge unit. In her role as a keynote speaker for the Hackathon, Yanina brings a wealth of expertise in biodiversity monitoring and policymaking: “Over the last decades, global biodiversity data has grown exponentially, but we still need efficient ways in which to standardise such information”. She looks forward to sharing insights and exploring innovative applications of data cubes at her Hackathon presentation: Global biodiversity indicators and their usage in different global assessment.