Workshops

With such a vast project and partners from so many different places it is obviously very difficult to manage the project. The workshops come in handy on this matter and they provide insights and directions to follow. During this workshops the ideas that are presented by the speakers or the work submitted by the persons who have an interest in the topic are analyzed and filtered not only by the members, but also by all the experts in this domain.

The first workshop of TOBI took place in Graz (Austria) in February 2010 and was entitled "Integrating Brain-Computer Interfaces with Conventional Assistive Technology". The main idea behind this international meeting is, like its title states, to inspect how BCI can be better integrated with the existing assistive technology. Even though there was a huge increase in interest and innovations in the BCI area, the outcome failed to reach the target market (the users) because of the lack in interoperabilty.

"Translational Issues in BCI Development: User Needs, Ethics, and Technology Transfer" was the second workshop in a series of four and took place in Rome (Italy) in December 2010. The main goal was to find ways to reduce the significant gap between the advances in computing capabilities and what neural engineering was offering at that point. In order to so, further improvements were considered, by user centered research and design, neuroethics and technology transfer.

For the third workshop the partners and associates met in Wurzburg (Germany), in March 2012 under the title: "Bringing BCIs to End-Users: Facing the Challenge . Evaluation, User Perspectives, User Needs, and Ethical Questions". While still aiming for the goals presented in the first two workshop, in this meeting the relation Technology-Users was the main focus. By informing the interested people on what the existing BCI technology can offer and listening to their opinions and needs the expectations were that clear directions to follow will emerge.

In the final meeting, which was in Sion (Switzerland), in January 2013 some conclusions on the current state of the progress in BCI technology were drawn. Under the name "Practical Brain-Computer Interfaces for End-Users: Progress and Challenges", this workshop brought together developers, users, professionals, clinicians with the goal of evaluating the current position and future scenarios. Along with this meeting, the project was concluded.


Therefore, you can see that the workshops are a great tool in order to manage a project a project of this size and to organize all the partners. As far as I understand, this is the common practice among European projects of this type.

More detailed information on the workshops can be found here.