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.

Registration for the Hackathon is now open, allowing participants to secure their spot here by 29 February 2024.

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. 

Meet two more keynote speakers, who will share their knowledge and expertise with us at the Hackathon.

Lucy Bastin

Lucy is a Reader in Computer Science at Aston University, with experience in spatio-temporal analysis for trustworthy decision support across various environmental and conservation contexts. Her recent work with the DOPA team integrated satellite products, species models, citizen science data and in situ field observations to generate robust indicators for conservation and nature-based solutions. As for B-Cubed’s hackathon, she believes in the importance of semantic and technical interoperability across domains, since we all face cultural and institutional challenges in doing open and transparent science: “Hackathons are a great way of ‘thinking by doing’, and understanding other perspectives in the process. I am fascinated by the range of projects proposed and the wealth of expertise among participants - looking forward to some exciting synthesis and some fun”.

Evangelia Drakou 

Evangelia is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Geography at the Geography Department of Harokopio University of Athens, focused on mapping and modelling human-nature interactions through ecosystem services. She aims to understand how data and ontologies can help improve our knowledge in this direction by utilising Linked Open Data frameworks in collaboration with larger initiatives such as GEOBON and the Ecosystem Services Partnership. Evangelia is looking forward to the Hackathon, as she believes “Interoperability and plurality of typologies can be a key to a sustainable future in which plural ecological and social values are addressed”.