Problem. The analysis of massive neuroimaging datasets is made difficult due to 1) the accessibility of adequate storage and computational resources, 2) vast number of branch points in analysis pipelines for preprocessing and model training / validation, 3) maintaining the de-identification of data while building algorithms for predicting individual traits is a catch-22 that potentially challenges tenets set in GPDR and other regulations regarding privacy. Standardization of pipelines and dataset specifications via the open source BIDS specification has addressed issues of dataset reproducibility and sharing. However, issues regarding access to adequate cloud resources and privacy preservation of individuals remain difficult challenges.
Project. This project will address these remaining challenges by tokenizing BIDS-compliant datasets and apps on the Ethereum blockchain to tap into the vast storage of the peer-to-peer IPFS network and into anonymous computing using the Ocean protocol and iExec confidential distributed cloud computing resources. The summer scholar will work on a python/javascript application for converting a BIDS-app and associated BIDS-compliant dataset into a tokenized object compatible with the Ocean Protocol for exchange on data marketplaces and with iExec for anonymous cloud computing.
Project Lead + Mentor: Shady El Damaty, Ph.D.
This project will build off of the 2020 decentralized science brainhack project. More information can be found on the github repository.