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. 

We kick off by introducing several Hackathon technical coaches.

Matthew Blissett

As a software developer at the GBIF Secretariat, Matthew focuses on data interpretation, quality, standards, and output formats. His interest in the Hackathon stems from the fact that raw GBIF data is vast and can be difficult to use. Matthew is developing digested views in the form of data cubes and aims to understand how they will be effectively utilised and improved. 

Peter Desmet

Acting as an open data coordinator and team lead for INBO’s Open science lab for biodiversity, Peter specialises in developing research software, maintaining data standards and publishing datasets on animal tracking, camera traps, citizen science, and invasive alien species. He coordinates the development of the species occurrence cube generation in B-Cubed. As a co-author of the species occurrence cube specification, Peter is curious to see how these cubes will be put into practice and looks forward to assisting teams during the hackathon.

Shawn Dove

As part of the University of Giessen in Germany, Shawn is a postdoctoral researcher specialising in developing and adapting biodiversity indicators using GBIF data cubes. For Shawn, the Hackathon is a unique opportunity to collaborate with fellow scientists and experts to develop new projects in the field of biodiversity science. He is particularly excited about exploring the potential of data cubes to standardise and streamline biodiversity data, providing enhanced products for policymakers and other end-users.