Welcome to the 2017 Innovative Perspectives in Neuroscience Conference

 

Monday June 12, 2017, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Jacob Family Theatre in the Posluns Auditorium, Baycrest Health Sciences

 

The Rotman Research Institute Research Training Centre (RTC) invites you to attend its 2nd Annual Innovative Perspectives in Neuroscience Conference: Data Analytics.

The conference aims to expose attendees across all disciplines and levels (i.e., undergraduate to post-doctoral fellow) to exciting neuroscience and neuroscience-related career directions in non-academic (industry, not-for-profit, government) sectors. The one-day conference features presentations from industry, government, and not-for-profit leaders, a networking lunch for trainees, and a case competition during which teams will present and compete for a cash prize of up to $1,000.

Our conference offers trainees the opportunity to hear from and meet experts from a diverse number of organizations, including: IBM Canada, Cancer Care Ontario (CCO), Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), MaRS Innovation (MI), LifeLabs, QuintilesIMS, and Indoc Research.

Speakers

 

The morning will kick-off with guest speakers from diverse domains in neuroscience including industry and not-for-profit organizations. Participants will hear how speakers leveraged their academic post-graduate training to pursue exciting new directions in neuroscience. Confirmed speakers include:

Ali Vahit Esensoy, Ph.D

Group Manager, Strategic Analytics, Cancer Care Ontario

 

Dr. Esensoy is the Group Manager of the Strategic Analytics team at Cancer Care Ontario, which is an inter-disciplinary group that specializes in applying advanced analytics methods to support complex re/design, management and evaluation decisions in the health system. Over the last 10 years, he has been involved in the management and delivery of innovative analytic products to address health system transformation challenges both in industry and academic settings.

Esther Dryburgh, PhD

Ontario Health & Public Sector Managing Director, IBM Canada

 

Dr. Dryburgh is currently the Managing Director for IBM’s portfolio of business with IBM’s Public Sector and Health Clients in Ontario.She has a degree in Industrial Engineering and completed her MBA in 2005. She has over 20 years of experience successfully implementing large system integrations projects in Governments, Health Organizations and Banking and Insurance Clients.

 

In addition to her account responsibilities, Esther is well known as a diversity and inclusion leader both in IBM and with IBM’s clients. She recently won the Deloitte Leaders to be Proud of Award for her work in LGBT Diversity. She has been profiled in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Canadian HR Reporter, Canadian Retailer, and has spoken at many diversity industry and customer events. Recently she participated on behalf of IBM in the Catalyst panel discussion regarding the release of their study “Building LGBT Inclusive workplaces”. She also focuses on Women and endeavours to help the executive team in Canada create an inclusive and engaged environment in IBM for all employees.

 

Esther also supports social causes in IBM. She was the executive sponsor for IBM’s “Teaching Respect” program. This program had IBM employee volunteers visit schools and facilitate sessions with students on how to deal with bullies. Recently she was the executive sponsor for #Here4U … the winning idea of the IBM global cognitive innovation competition. This idea proposed Watson as cognitive chat agent for young adults in need of emotional support for mental health.

Michael Campitelli, MPH

Staff Scientist, Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences (ICES) Central

 

Michael is a staff scientist in the Health System Planning and Evaluation Program at ICES Central. He completed a MPH in epidemiology from the University of Toronto at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a BSc from the University of Waterloo in the faculty of Applied Health Sciences. Starting at ICES as a research practicum student in 2008, and then becoming an epidemiologist for both the Research Coordination and Data and Analytic Services departments, his research experience has mainly concentrated on using administrative and laboratory testing data bases to study infectious diseases and vaccines. He also has expertise in COPD and COPD-related medications. His research work has been accepted to a diverse set of publications including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Vaccine, and Pediatrics. Michael was also involved as an advisor and lecturer in the Improving and Driving Excellence Across Sectors (IDEAS) advanced learning program, which is a comprehensive Ontario-wide initiative to enhance the province’s health system performance by increasing quality improvement, leadership, and change management capacity across all sectors of the health care system.

His current research is focused on studying medication use among Ontario Long-Term Care residents and Home Care recipients, and the role that patient frailty may have in modifying drug-disease associations. He also works with Health Quality Ontario to facilitate indicator development and measurement using ICES data.

 

Nao

IBM Canada

 

(bio coming soon!)

Networking Lunch

(Reserved for current Undergraduates, Masters and PhD Students and Post-doctoral Fellows)

 

Lunch will be provided for attendees participating in the Networking Lunch. Participants will be able to meet and connect with industry, not-for-profit, and government leaders, gain insight into prospective careers, and discuss avenues for professional development. For those with limited networking experience, participants will be provided with pointers just prior to the lunch on conference day to help them navigate through a networking lunch experience.

 

Please note that separate registration is required to attend the Networking Lunch.

Case Competition

 

 

Interested trainees and research staff (e.g., research assistants, lab managers but not faculty) can register as a three-person team to compete in a data analytics case competition, with the opportunity to win major networking opportunities and a cash prize of up to $1,000. Individuals can register as part of a pre-formed team or ask to be put into a team by the conference organizers. Teams can only have one research staff member per team.

Teams will be invited to a Data Launch event at Baycrest to gain insider knowledge on approaches and techniques to analyze the case competition data. The best submissions shall be selected to go through to the second phase of the competition, where finalists will have a chance to pitch their presentation to the judging panel on the day of the conference.

The tentative schedule for the case competition is as follows:

 

§  Data Launch Event: May 4, 2017 @ 2:00 – 4:00 pm  

 

§  IPN Data Mentoring Session: May 11, 2017 @ 2:00 – 5:00 pm  

 

§  Case Competition Submission Deadline: May 26, 2017 @ 5:00 PM  

 

§  Finalists will be notified on June 2, 2017. Finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their solution and recommendations to an expert judging panel on the day of the conference and win a cash prize of up to $1,000.

 

§  Innovative Perspectives in Neuroscience Conference Date: June 12, 2017  

 

 

Registration

 

Fees:

Conference attendee:                                                      $10.00 (plus GST)

Networking lunch:                                                            $15.00 (plus GST)

Conference attendee and case competition:                 $10.00 (plus GST)

 

To register for the conference, please visit our Eventbrite page.

 

Attendees interested in participating in the Case Competition must first register for the conference through the Eventbrite link. Upon registration, you will receive instructions on how to proceed with the Case Competition via email.