From In-Person to the Online World: Insights Into Organizing Events in Bioinformatics

Alessandra Lima da Silva; Ana Paula de Abreu; Diego Mariano; Felipe Caixeta; Fenícia Brito Santos; Fernanda Stussi D Lage; Gabriel Quintanilha-Peixoto; Heron O Hilário; Joicymara S Xavier; Lucio R Queiroz; Nayara Evelin de Toledo; Raphael Tavares; Rodrigo Bentes Kato; Roselane Gonçalves Dos Santos; Stellamaris Soares; Wanessa M Goes; Wylerson G Nogueira; Thiago M Batista; José Miguel Ortega; Vasco Ariston Azevedo De Carvalho; Glória Regina Franco; Raquel C de Melo-Minardi; Aristóteles Góes-Neto

doi:10.3389/fbinf.2021.711463

From In-Person to the Online World: Insights Into Organizing Events in Bioinformatics

Front Bioinform. 2021 Sep 7:1:711463. doi: 10.3389/fbinf.2021.711463. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Alessandra Lima da Silva¹, Ana Paula de Abreu^{2

3}, Diego Mariano³, Felipe Caixeta¹, Fenícia Brito Santos¹, Fernanda Stussi D Lage⁴, Gabriel Quintanilha-Peixoto¹, Heron O Hilário⁵, Joicymara S Xavier^{6

7}, Lucio R Queiroz¹, Nayara Evelin de Toledo¹, Raphael Tavares¹, Rodrigo Bentes Kato¹, Roselane Gonçalves Dos Santos¹, Stellamaris Soares^{1

2}, Wanessa M Goes¹, Wylerson G Nogueira¹, Thiago M Batista⁸, José Miguel Ortega¹, Vasco Ariston Azevedo De Carvalho¹, Glória Regina Franco¹, Raquel C de Melo-Minardi³, Aristóteles Góes-Neto¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
² Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analysis, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
³ Department of Computer Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁴ Genomics for Climate Change Research Center, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, Brazil.
⁵ Conservation Genetics Laboratory, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Minas Gerais (PUC Minas), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁶ Rene Rachou Institute (Fiocruz Minas), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁷ Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM), Unaí, Brazil.
⁸ Environmental Science Training Center, Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia, Porto Seguro.

Abstract

Bioinformatics is a fast-evolving research field, requiring effective educational initiatives to bring computational knowledge to Life Sciences. Since 2017, an organizing committee composed of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil) promotes a week-long event named Summer Course in Bioinformatics (CVBioinfo). This event aims to diffuse bioinformatic principles, news, and methods mainly focused on audiences of undergraduate students. Furthermore, as the advent of the COVID-19 global pandemic has precluded in-person events, we offered the event in online mode, using free video transmission platforms. Herein, we present and discuss the insights obtained from promoting the Online Workshop in Bioinformatics (WOB) organized in November 2020, comparing it to our experience in previous in-person editions of the same event.

Keywords: Bioinformatics; Science popularization; computational biology; education; online events.

Copyright © 2021 da Silva, Abreu, Mariano, Caixeta, Santos, Lage, Quintanilha-Peixoto, Hilário, Xavier, Queiroz, de Toledo, Tavares, Kato, dos Santos, Soares, Goes, Nogueira, Batista, Ortega, De Carvalho, Franco, Melo-Minardi and Góes-Neto.