Research Platform Services Blog
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Last week I ran my newly developed 3D Slicer training workshop over three content-packed afternoons. Five willing participants were able to come along and get their first peek at the training material, provide very helpful feedback related to the structure of the workshop, and brainstorm ways in which this software may be harnessed in their own work.
Day 2 of the #resbaz #3dslicer alpha training. @LouWerff talks segmentation #3dmed @resplat @ozvascdoc @dfflanders pic.twitter.com/wW2Bc0ZNeT
— Paul Mignone (@PJMignone)
July 22, 2015
For those who may not be familiar with 3D Slicer, it is an open source software package for image visualisation and analysis. More specifically, 3D Slicer is tailored towards the analysis of medical scan data such as that generated via MRI and CT scans. Although 3D Slicer has a wide range of functionalities, this workshop was primarily focussed on generating 3 dimensional volume renderings and surface models of anatomical features from medical scan data.
After giving an introduction on the principles of image processing, I conducted a tour of the 3D Slicer graphical interface, then gave the participants a series of challenges to generate 3D surface models of different anatomical features.
The first step towards generating a 3D model involves image segmentation, which is the process of separating an image into distinct components to make it more meaningful for software to analyse. This is done by assigning each pixel belonging to a particular object a label.
Segmentation of a photo into three distinct components.
Anatomical structures are segmented from medical scan datasets in 3D Slicer by generating a labelmap over the feature of interest. Anatomical structures we segmented during the workshop included bone, lungs, airways, lateral ventricles, and a trachea and larynx. We explored both manual and automated segmentation methods, their appropriateness being predominantly dependent on the level of contrast between the feature of interest and the surrounding volume.
A particularly challenging case was manually segmenting the trachea and larynx from an MRI scan. Below is a picture of the original scan data, the segmented labelmap, the generated 3D model, and a 3D print of the model to-scale.
An MRI scan of a child’s trachea and larynx. These were manually segmented before a 3D surface model was generated and then 3D printed to scale.
In addition to segmentation, we also touched upon basic image registration, adding annotations such as fiducials and rulers to a dataset, using statistical tools to calculate volumes of segmented regions, and creating scene views.
The generation of 3D models of anatomical features may be beneficial to many researchers and clinicians, for teaching and training purposes, surgical planning, the creation of custom fit implants and prosthetics, and simple visualisation.
Modelling lungs with #3Dslicer @LouWerff @PJMignone @awajih08 @ResBaz @ResPlat pic.twitter.com/8lZvtfokXE
— Vincent Khau (@thevinniek)
July 22, 2015
As well as using local installs of 3D Slicer on laptops, we are also currently exploring the effectiveness of running 3D Slicer from the NeCTAR Research Cloud via resbaz.cloud.edu.au (which is powered by the DIT4C engine). A couple of participants tried this approach out with promising results. One major benefit of running graphically intensive software from the cloud is that performance is not limited to the specifications of local devices, and resources can be scaled as required.
Major points of feedback from this alpha 3D Slicer workshop was that participants preferred more practical content to theory, and wanted to get hands-on with the software as quickly as possible. It was great to see ideas flowing near the end of the workshop from participants about how they might apply 3D Slicers functionalities to their own research projects. Some participants were also interested in exploring whether 3D Slicer could be applied to non-medical applications, such as in the Materials Engineering field.
The alpha training material can be viewed and commented on here.
Please keep an eye out for more training sessions, soon to be announced! If you have any questions, please don’t helistate to contact me at louisevanderwerff@gmail.com or tweet me @LouWerff.
Here at the Research Bazaar we’re always looking for great things happening around campus and love sharing the latest tech toys and digital research tools with our community. So we’re really excited to be partnering with the University Library and Campus Innovation to be bringing you a pop-up makerspace for three days from the 4th to the 6th of August.
Makerspaces are places where people interested in building and creating can come together to share resources and make some amazing things, either individually or as a community. We’ll be in the library, so no soldering irons for (this time!) but there will still be plenty to do. We’ll have some high-tech options to explore, such as creating 3D models with TinkerCAD and printing them out on a 3D printer but will also have some no-tech options such as origami and yarn crafts. We’re also hoping to have a guest appearance by RoboGals Melbourne, with lego robots!
See 3D printing in action
As well as the chance to learn about 3D design and printing, we’ll have a couple of our short workshops on offer so you can learn to make data visualisations on maps with CartoDB or try your hand at making an online exhibition with Omeka. More activities will be confirmed shortly and we’ll publish a schedule to let you know when you should come by.
You’ll find us in the foyer of the Baillieu and in the Dulcie Hollyock room. So join us for a workshop, come and make some craft (I’m hoping to yarn-bomb the library before we’re done!) or just drop in for a chat.
See you there!
By Aliza Wajih
The final day of shark’s den before the big pitch is finally here!
Last day in the workshops peeps! Next week is #pitching time! #sharksden pic.twitter.com/2TRs0I9z9s
— Paul Mignone (@PJMignone)
July 22, 2015
On day four of the sharks den challenge the teams were fortunate enough to meet Wen Xi who is an Associate at @MAPUniMelb!
In the presence of greatness, @Wen_Xi_ teaches our sharks to pitch their design at #sharksden @Carlton_Connect pic.twitter.com/0roDPY9ob1
— Paul Mignone (@PJMignone)
July 22, 2015
For the first half of the session, Wen gave an excellent crash courses on ‘how to pitch’: helping students tailor their presentations to make a compelling business case and answering some interesting questions in the follow up. Wen gave the team some handy tips on how to create a business model and taught us that contrary to popular belief having competition in the market is a good thing!
All teams working hard at #sharksden! 1 week to go! @awajih08 @PJMignone @ResPlat @ResBaz pic.twitter.com/dVvS8qWJQQ
— Vincent Khau (@thevinniek)
July 22, 2015
During the rest of the session teams shared their first prototype 3D printed objects and amended designs to build their final product supported by research and further investigation in the market.
The teams also took Wen’s recommendations on board and worked on their final presentation - due to happen on the 29th of July next week!!
Our top spot collected a MASSIVE 2800 page views!!!
1. “5 Ways I Wish Life Was Like MATLAB”
by Kerry Halupka
MATLAB-lover Kerry takes her devotion to the next level. Are those wedding bells we’re hearing? She even got a special mention from the MATLAB Twitter account!
#ICYMI 5 Ways I Wish Life Was Like #MATLAB by @EngKerry http://t.co/bg5ypoBj9V
— MATLAB (@MATLAB)
July 2, 2015
2. “The #MyResearch Campaign” by Marcella Purnama
Our exceptional videographer, Marcella, introduces our July campaign: #MyResearch! Researchers are invited to highlight their research experience using a single pen and piece of paper. It’s not too late to join!
3. “Vincent talks #SharksDen: Day 1″
by Vincent Khau
Vincent has done an exceptional job at recapping the first day of our #SharksDen & is one of our newest ResComs! How does he feel about joining our community? “EXCITED!”
by Vincent Khau
Day 3 of Shark’s Den meant we were already at the halfway mark of this exciting innovation challenge yet it only seemed like yesterday that we had met our fellow team members. We were now rapidly approaching the pointy end of things and ideas were flying out left right and centre as teams worked together to produce a marketable product.
We’re at the half way point here at #sharksden, and @thevinniek is excited @ResPlat pic.twitter.com/FyXGUrk5nw
— Paul Mignone (@PJMignone)
July 15, 2015
The first hour flew by as each team quickly discussed the prototype designs that they were going to 3D print, before the CTOs were whisked away by Paul and given a tour of UniMelb’s 3D printing facilities, along with a demonstration of how they worked. Everyone was palpably excited as they learnt about both the advantages and (present) limitations of this fascinating additive manufacturing process. During this time, the remaining team pooled their minds together and increased their efforts to further refine and reiterate on their existing product, now calculating and ironing out the technical details of design, trying to bring the product to life; out from the confines of their minds and into the real world.
#prototyping time at #sharksden with #3Dprinters! Models loaded? #GO! #resbaz @awajih08 @PJMignone @ResPlat pic.twitter.com/ra4ALYlqGx
— Vincent Khau (@thevinniek)
July 17, 2015
The teams were fortunate enough to have the expertise of Gil who came along to give advice to each team on their product, getting them started on not only thinking about the current design, but future considerations of the growth and development of their product.
Heading into @unimelb to take part in the 3D shark tank session #3Dprinting #inovation
— Gil Poznanski (@koshertonystark)
July 15, 2015
As the end of the session approached, the teams rushed to get their models off to the 3D printers. This acted merely a starting point from which they need to produce rapid reiterations to get their product ready for their pitch on the 29th of July.
by Bernard Meade
Research computing is about using computational resources to produce better and/or faster research outcomes. Despite the fact that desktop and laptop computers are still managing to adhere to Moore’s Law, that is, doubling in power roughly every two years, the demand of research computing is growing even faster. Many researchers and research students, particularly those in STEM departments, are finding that the processing power of their local computer is no longer up to the task of dealing with big data or large, complex simulations.
Research Platform Services can help.
We have a mailing list! Join to receive info on tool training, #ResBaz conference, data and compute services & more: http://t.co/30Wfih5Ygx
— Research Platforms (@ResPlat)
April 20, 2015
Our Compute platforms include a High-Performance Compute (HPC) cluster and the Melbourne Node of the NeCTAR Research Cloud. These platforms provide researchers with far more power than the typical desktop computer.
The HPC system, called Edward, allows computationally intensive tasks to be distributed over many physical machines all working together. Compute jobs might need many cpus, or additional memory, or high-speed access to data for processing. Researchers can use open-source or commercial software designed to take advantage of this parallel processing, or can develop their own code to optimise performance. The system is used by many researchers and automatically provides fair and efficient access to everyone.
Cloud computing provides highly flexible resource allocation, which is increasingly valuable to researchers and university departments. Rather than purchasing a powerful computer that will only be used occasionally, a Virtual Machine (VM) can be created whenever it is needed, and deleted as soon as it is not. Alternatively, a VM might be used for an “always on” service such as a web server. Housed in an Enterprise-grade data centre, these VMs are every bit as robust and usable as a physical machine, but have many additional benefits. For example, a VM can be cloned, with many new versions created when needed. They can also be backed up and restored at a later date, or migrated in real-time to another physical host should the existing server become unstable.
Cloud provides the power you need, when you need, and where you need.
Seeing Prof. Richard Sinnott talk about teaching #cloud. He claims responsibility for the acronym NeCTAR @projectnectar #THETA2015
— Research Platforms (@ResPlat)
May 11, 2015
An example provided by Professor Richard Sinnott, Director, Melbourne eResearch Group:
“As a researcher/research infrastructure provider and educator I am heavily reliant on and indeed greatly benefit from the NeCTAR Research Cloud. With regards to research, I am involved in a broad portfolio of projects covering the full gamut of research endeavours where big data and big compute challenges have to be overcome. NeCTAR has provided a unique underpinning environment for such activities. It is important to emphasise that this is far beyond proof of concept activities. For example, the ENSAT-CANCER project (running and hosted on NeCTAR) has over 66 major cancer centres globally and formed the basis for the recently funded $12m Horizon2020 ENSAT-HT project. With regards to education, I have taught the Cluster and Cloud Computing course at the University of Melbourne since 2013. This course is heavily based on the NeCTAR Research Cloud with specific programming exercises on big data processing of social media (Twitter) data. The student numbers are growing drastically from 51 (2013), 71 (2014) and currently 139 (2015). Without the scalability offered through the NeCTAR Research Cloud such courses would be majorly impacted. To train the next generation of computer scientists it is essential that such national infrastructures exist and importantly are sustained.”
by Hannah Oates [guest blogger]
Dear internet,
I have always hated maps.
Being a part of a fairly old-fashioned family who detest spending money on
things they ‘believe’ they don’t need, means that GPS never came into my
life. So we bring out the old ‘Mel-ways’ that has coffee stains and ripped
out pages, and attempt to find our destination (before we realised our phones
did this). So my basic experience of maps was never very exciting.
But yesterday, my world was turned. No longer do maps literally just map a path from A-B. They can map almost anything. The CartoDB work shop program, run by Steve Bennett with the help of Fiona and Lachlan, was mind-blowing.
Starting off with basic procedures, we learnt how to log in, what the buttons do, very simple things. And then scaled off into another realm of difficulty, spiraling into the map-making empire. We began with Ebola. Not the happiest topic, but gave an interesting element to our maps, and had a rather curious data set. And then we learnt how to work with the data sets; downloading data sets, uploading data sets, playing around with the data sets, changing parts of the data sets, then having to change it back. It seemed to all revolve around this data set. Which is an accurate assumption, because in fact, the entire program revolves around you have a proper data set.
And with this seemingly magically set of data, comes a map. Quite simply, a fully-fledged, legitimate (depending on the data set) and much more interesting than Mel-ways, map.
For example, here is a map that I made, that shows every public internet access in Victoria. How cool is that? Not to mention, amazingly useful.
And if you wanted to see the full extent of the power of this map, see the link. It shows the individual addresses of the places, whether it is free and phone contact details. http://cdb.io/1f9fCwH
Or how about every meteorite that has hit Australia? This map, created using CartoDB, by Simon Rodgers, acurately shows where meteorites have hit, from all over the world. (http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/feb/15/meteorite-fall-map)
https://simonrogers.cartodb.com/maps
No longer have maps taken a mundane toll on my life. I am definitely going to be using this site. And encourage everyone reading this to as well.
Visit data.gov.au for pre-made data sets.
By Aliza Wajih
Hi everyone! This is an update to our Shark’s Den event, which is the first attempt to support start-up business and bring people of different qualities together in one room to come with ideas that will change the world.
This week we started by a crash course to TinkerCAD by Vincent Khau. The lesson soon transformed into a game of start-up charades! It challenged our abilities to communicate ideas, work collaboratively and most of all test our patience. The idea of the first challenge was to bring together two member of the team the CEO and CMO and have them look at a picture, they then had to describe the model in front of them to their CTO who would have to design it using Tinker CAD. The idea on this exercise was to demonstrate the importance of good communication in a team, as well as the difficulty of conveying your ideas to another person.
For the next hour the teams worked on an ideas they are passionate about, or as Paul puts it their “Gazillion Dollar Idea” . With such a diverse crowd we had teams looking at ergonomic issues where a design for customised mouse for gamers was introduced. The idea of the fancy doors that was carried from last week were made better. Environmental issues were also tackled by proposing indoor compactor bins!
Team #1 presenting the indoor compactor bin
All ideas were brilliant and were pitched at the end of the day in a presentation by the CEO and a draft using TinkerCAD . This session was the followed by the “pivot” where CEO’s went against each other to defend their ideas and design. In the end it was established that as a start-up business most businesses have to pivot their idea meaning they have to take a different look at their business model and really evaluate if their product is viable and will survive in the market. So, sad face, no one won the gazillion dollar this time because the teams have to rethink their designs and ideas, but they are all as determined as ever to really go out there and bring home the prize!
Stay tuned till next week!
Hi Everyone! Here is another great story from the Research Platforms!
Last week we ran our hugely successful CAD course for the first time after #ResBaz! We used Autodesk Inventor to teach 3D modelling and once again had a fun and wonderful learning experience. The workshop was fully booked within the first 2 weeks of advertising and there were plenty of requests for more… so keep an eye out for them because we will be running more CAD workshops very soon!
Paul Introducing ResPlat and ResBaz
The purpose of the course was to give a basic introduction to Autodesk Inventor as well as help participants develop an intuition about the how to take an idea, transform it into a 3D model and modify it so that it can be printed or manufactured.
After introducing the fundamental concepts of design we looked at some practical examples with a capstone project of designing a fan using some basic Autodesk tools. This was the best way to show participants that even the very basic knowledge of CAD can enable you to make very complicated designs. It was also a great way to demonstrate that what we learnt in class is directly applicable to real world problems. Below is a picture of Ali Daneshpour who went ahead and 3D printed a model of that fan and brought to class for everyone to see!
Ali With his 3D printed fan and CAD model
Later that week I also discovered a similar model of the fan being used a propeller for a ship. You can imagine the excitement to see that what we did in class with just a few basic tools can be used to design a giant propeller! The link below will take you to that page
Moving onto our next challenge, The Lego Man was also a great success and had people learning and having a little bit of fun with animation and assembly! This is regarded as one of the more challenging aspects of design but everyone made it took very easy! Check out Jaimys’ Lego man and his rock star moves!New Maritime Consortium Forms — Will Research 3D Printing of Spare Ship Parts http://t.co/ebiQQQsWtl pic.twitter.com/LLoxeqF7MB
— 3D Printing News (@3DPrintGirl)
July 7, 2015
Lego Rockstar with Jaimys
To see all our adventure follow #cadventures on twitter and see everything that happened on the day!
To give you a little background information about our participant, we had a diverse group of talented researchers from molecular chemistry, architectural and engineering background. We encourgae a collaborative and friendly environment in our workshops, so even though most of our participants were not of similar academic backgrounds everyone not only worked with us but also helped each other overcome challenges while collaborating in smaller groups.
Group work in progress on day 2…
From the amazing feedback we received, the course was taught well, ran at good pace and everyone found the helper were always there to fix bugs and clarify doubts (for the participants reading this… Thank you for the lovely feedback). I would like to thank the helpers,Paul Mignone (@PJMignone), Vincent khau (@thevinniek), Bobby Lii, Karlo Julian, and Tony Zathila , who put in tremendous effort to make this another successful course.
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And last but not least, I would like to thank all the participants who came to the workshops. I got to meet some brilliant people and I am glad that my team and I could help them with their work and research. It makes me feel that I am part of a bigger community and that all the hard works has paid off. (#myresearch) Keep inspiring us!Another day of overwhelmingly positive feedback for @awajih08 and her #cadventure team #resbaz .@ResPlat pic.twitter.com/uSlCrPjomX
— Paul Mignone (@PJMignone)
June 30, 2015
by Vincent Khau
Hey everyone!
My name is Vincent Khau, the newest recruit to join the ranks of Research Bazaar! I will be coming on board with the rest of the team as a Research Community Coordinator, working primarily with TinkerCAD and 3D printing, although some of you may recognise me during your #CADventures as one of Aliza’s minions for the Inventor 3D modelling course. I’ve completed my Bachelor of Science just last year, and am currently studying a Master of Engineering (Mechanical) at the University of Melbourne (so I’ll definitely be seen around campus a great deal!). Feelings about joining the community? EXCITED!
Full house day 2! Vincent teaching assembly @ResPlat @ResBaz @thevinniek pic.twitter.com/Sl2PFMUUUr
— Aliza w (@awajih08)
June 29, 2015
Recently I participated in the exciting Shark’s Den Challenge hosted by Research Platforms. If you are, like I was prior to the event, slightly afraid that this might be a gambling den populated by card sharks, let me reassure you by explaining what this event actually is. The Shark’s Den Challenge is an opportunity for technical enthusiasts, entrepreneurs-in-the-making, and innovators to meet new people, form teams, and get creative by designing a product (over consecutive Wednesdays) that they will be pitch to a panel on the 29th of July. Successful teams may have the opportunity to pursue their design with the Melbourne Accelerated Program (MAP)!
At the #sharksden event. #EXCITED! to say the least! @awajih08 @PJMignone @dfflanders pic.twitter.com/dVpXTJlm02
— Vincent Khau (@thevinniek)
July 1, 2015
My aforementioned premonitions quickly dissipated with David and Paul’s warm hospitality, and with so many interesting and affable people to meet and talk to, the first event on the night was a quick 2 minute ‘speed dating’ of the 20+ crowd where we discussed our strengths and whether we saw ourselves fitting into CEO, CTO, CFO, or CMO roles. The participants who gave the best first impressions were then nominated as CEOs and the teams were picked for the upcoming weeks.
We love speed dating at @ResPlat. Making #SharksDen more intimate, two minutes at a time. pic.twitter.com/5sGwSwiFM1
— Katie Ewing (@katieaewing)
July 1, 2015
In these teams, we were confronted with the challenge of innovating on an invention which has been around since… well since forever really; the door. After coming up with prototype designs (a foam door with key-less entry and a 'quarantine zone’ that cleans you? What’s not to like!), we immediately started working on a pitch to present our design to the other teams (with CFOs taking frivolous notes as to who were our main competitors).
Great success with Shark’s Den tonight! Amazing ideas and amazing people! #SharksDen pic.twitter.com/gtOZylgN7a
— Research Platforms (@ResPlat)
July 1, 2015
With an event that was so enjoyable, with so many fascinating ideas being shared, some teams even stayed well beyond the end of the event to continue discussing the next steps to their designs! It was truly an amazing experience to see the power of idea sharing at work, and I am really looking forward to next session on Wednesday 8th July. Can’t wait!
by Neil Killeen
The national Research Data Storage Infrastructure project (RDSI) contributed substantial storage infrastructure and middleware capability at nodes all around Australia. In Victoria, the RDSI presence manifests as VicNode, a joint venture between University of Melbourne and Monash University.
Building on RDSI, is the RDS (Research Data Services) project. RDS will improve already existing RDSI and other existing research computing infrastructure (networks, virtual infrastructure and high performance facilities) by helping to build, implement and maintain tools, services and capabilities. RDS is also operating on a national scale, with infrastructure nodes all around Australia participating in the program. RDS is currently investing in data services in a number of key areas: Climate and Weather Science, Life Sciences (Genomics), Medical and Health, Image Publication, Astronomy, Culture and Community, Terrestrial Systems, Marine Science and Geoscience.
VicNode is directly involved in the characterisation imaging, life sciences (mainly genomics), medical and health, and culture and community projects.
In the Image Publication project lead by VicNode, nodes will deliver imaging services that widely support their imaging communities and systems (e.g. MR, PET, CT scanners, microscopy systems) so that more users/facilities are able to manage, distribute and process data more effectively.
In the Life Sciences (Genomics) project lead by QCIF, work is focussing on delivering better integration between data sources (instruments and existing genomics collections) and tools analysis platforms.
In the Medical and Health project lead by Intersect, effort is being directed to provide better storage, collections, access, governance and discoverability for data across human genomics, imaging, personalized medicine, population health, bio-informatics and health informatics (leveraging, where appropriate, the imaging and life sciences projects).
In the Culture and Community project lead by eRSA, the main objectives are to create a specialised service for humanities and social science researchers by supporting usage of technical infrastructure, creating a meta-data portal (the National culture and Community Research Data store) and providing expertise that meet all ethics and discipline specific policies, procedures and practices.
What’s stored on VicNode? Analysis with colourful pie charts at http://t.co/o5ic6mLH9y #ResearchData
— VicNode (@VicNodeProject)
August 7, 2014
For more information, contact VicNode via http://vicnode.org.au/contact or the other nodes as appropriate. Contact information for other nodes can be found at https://www.rdsi.edu.au/node-contact-directory
Following my last blog post, I have been busy meeting members of the community and developing training material for the new 3D Slicer workshops soon to be on offer via the Research Bazaar. It’s getting to the point where I would love to share some of this material with the community, but the content and pace of the course is far from polished.
Thus I am on the search for a few willing participants (aka. guinea pigs) to come along and be a part of my alpha training workshop. This workshop will not run smoothly, there will be ‘bugs’, and it will be incomplete. This is an opportunity to gain constructive feedback and guidance from others regarding the content, pace, and length of the workshop.
Image: Volume rendering of a DICOM dataset using 3D Slicer
Below is an 'expression of interest’ form, which you can fill out if you are interested in being part of the alpha training.
Th workshop will be run across three consecutive afternoons (Tuesday the 21st, Wednesday the 22nd and Thursday the 23rd of July) from 3pm - 5pm in the Doug McDonnell building (Level 3) at Melbourne University. All participants are invited to hang around for a drink (coffee/tea/beer/wine) after each session to provide feedback.
There are only a limited number of spots available, and we will try to pick a complimentary team from those who have expressed their interest. I will contact interested parties by Tuesday the 14th of July to let them know if they can attend. If you don’t get picked, don’t worry, a larger, beta training session will be organised soon after.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact myself, at louisevanderwerff@gmail.com, David F Flanders at dff.melb@gmail.com
by Andy Tseng
Mediaflux is a Data Operating System that has been developed by Arcitecta to meet the specific needs of researchers. Through Mediaflux’s web-based Desktop application, a flexible user interface is provided for accessing and managing a variety of files including documents, images, audio files, video files, web content and specialised datasets.
The University of Melbourne and Arcitecta are collaborating to deliver Mediaflux-based data management solutions to the University’s research community. Arcitecta is supplying a managed service to underpin these systems to ensure the very diverse capabilities of Mediaflux are delivered to users in a way that makes sense for their research and helps them achieve excellent research outcomes.
Here is one story describing how Mediaflux is being used by researchers at the university.
Ten to Men is an Australia-wide study of the health and lifestyles of a large group of Australian males aged between 10 and 55 years. The first of its kind, the study will follow participants over time and provide an important resource for improving the health of Australian men and boys. Funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health, this study, commissioned under the Federal Government’s 2010 National Male Health Policy, is being undertaken by The Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, at the University of Melbourne.
Arcitecta worked with the University of Melbourne to develop a respondent management system (using Mediaflux) for the study, accommodating data from over 16,000 participants, with the capability to manage a range of future study activities. With Mediaflux, the Ten to Men study team can now log participants’ contact details and contact events, as well as link individuals with other individuals and to households, and retrieve PDF scan files of documents associated with participants and households described in the system.
The processes utilise Mediaflux’s robust security and auditing capabilities, allowing the history of data changes, particularly to participant status and address changes, to be readily identified.
If you’d like to learn more about the Mediaflux capability and how it can help with your research, please contact the data management team at Research Platform Services, the University of Melbourne by emailing me at <andy.tseng@unimelb.edu.au
Introducing melbourne.figshare.com
Figshare is a safe, secure and easy to use cloud-based repository where you can securely store your valuable research data, whilst remaining in full control of it. You can store it for your private research use, or you can share with others. Upload any file format - figures, datasets, posters and more – in a simple way. A unique citable identifier in the form of a DOI can be assigned to your data or collections, making your research available in a way that traditional publications cannot.
We are looking for early adopters interested in participating in user testing of melbourne.figshare.com as it develops this year. I began investigating uses at #mozsprint and now welcome more feedback, ideas and testers.
here’s my #opennotebook about @figshare @unimelb user experiences https://t.co/GmFzCshzzP, get in touch if you’d like to participate :) #UX
— Cobi Smith (@cobismith)
July 1, 2015
You can read more about the service and see the roadmap for features that will be introduced in the coming months. There’s also a comparison table of data access tools supported by the university. How do you want to use figshare to support your research? Please email us at research-data@unimelb.edu.au to become part of the figshare pilot program, or simply start experimenting yourself!
