Print

Print


Dear colleagues,

This year marks the 10-year anniversary since the first public release of MCX (http://mcx.space). It is our great pleasure to watch the steady growth of our user community, and see our software being used in many new explorations<https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,22&sciodt=0,22&cites=10749240164040877906&scipsc=&q=&scisbd=1>.

After successfully running two free MCX training workshops, first in 2017 (Boston)<http://fanglab.org/news/MCXWorkshop2017.html>, and 2nd in 2018 (Hollywood, FL)<http://fanglab.org/news/MCXWorkshop2018.html>, we are pleased to announce that we will be running our 3rd training workshop this summer in Boston, on the campus<https://goo.gl/DBcjxt> of Northeastern University. It will be a two-day event between Aug. 8 and 9. No registration fee to all participants! Registration is open today<http://bit.ly/2HvSIA1> and will be closed on June 30 (or the room capacity is reached, whichever comes first).

The tentative agenda and the overview of this event can be found from the below URL

http://mcx.space/#mcx19

No prior experience with MCX/MMC is required. All you need to bring is a laptop that is within 3-4 years old (good to have a discrete GPU, but you can still use MCX-CL<http://mcx.space/mcxcl> for the training if you have only a CPU).

In Day 1, we will cover the basic use of MCX/MCX-CL/MMC, both via easy-to-use GUI MCXStudio, as well as in MATLAB via MCXLAB/MMCLAB. The tutorials will be updated to include many new features added over the past year. In addition, we will provide hands-on training on mesh generation using our Iso2Mesh mesh generator.

This year, for the first time, we will introduce our new MATLAB toolbox named "Redbird-m", a fast comprehensive diffusion forward/inverse toolkit based on a FORTRAN software <https://www.osapublishing.org/abstract.cfm?uri=BIOMED-2008-BMD24> we have extensively developed over the past 15+ years (which is behind many of our past DOT works [paper1<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19116186>][paper2<http://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.10082176?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed&>][paper3<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21258460>][paper4<https://www.osapublishing.org/boe/abstract.cfm?uri=boe-6-7-2366>][paper5<http://biomedicaloptics.spiedigitallibrary.org/article.aspx?articleid=2427708>], and more). We decided to share this internal tool to public and add it as the newest member of the MCX open-source platform. We will show our participants how to solve streamlined DOT forward and inverse analysis using this tool, and inter-operates with our MC tools using the same input and output data structures. We will also demo unique features such as wide-field diffusion forward/reconstructions and compositional-prior-guided<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21258460> reconstructions. Adding Redbird-m to our toolkit provides the biophotonics community a comprehensive model-based data analysis platform - from shape modeling to diffusion and MC forward modeling/inversion. The preview-release of Redbird-m will be announced before the event.

In Day 2, we will start the day with two invited talks (TBD) and then focus on teaching participants how to build advanced MC simulations using our tools, such as simulating infinite domains, continuously varying media, customizing boundary conditions, volumetric sources etc. In the afternoon, we will introduce the programming interface to enable users to customize our open-source software for developing new applications. The workshop will end with a poster session with social hours.

This year, we allocated limited funding to provide travel grants for students to join our workshop. If you are interested in applying, please select it in the registration form, and send 1) your full CV, and 2) a 2-page statement on the relevant (current/future) work related to our software tools, and 3) a recommendation letter from your advisor to me by email.

Seats are limited, please register soon to reserve a spot. If you have any question regarding the workshop, please feel free to email me.

I look forward to seeing you in Boston!


Qianqian Fang, PhD

Assistant Professor,
Dept. of Bioengineering, Northeastern University

########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the MCX-NEWS list, click the following link:
https://listserv.neu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=MCX-NEWS