Welcome to the January 2022 issue of the SfNIRS newsletter, covering the period from July 2021 through December 2021. It has been an unusually long period between issues, which are otherwise more or less quarterly. Lest you think this was a period of low activity, the longer time reflects a substantial increase of activity and our correspondingly busier agendas. Since July 2021, Executive Board elections for SfNIRS took place, the 2021 SfNIRS virtual meeting happened (and was a smashing success), a new DEI committee was created, the website saw important changes in organization and appearance, and many other activities have continued that are organized and/or endorsed by the Society. In short, it’s been a busy time! Here is a summary of the second half of 2021.
fNIRS 2021 Virtual Meeting
The first large virtual gathering of our society was held on October 18-22, 2021. This is a summary of it!
By Ilias Tachtsidis and Meryem Yücel.
SfNIRS 2021 board elections
The election process is now complete and we have a new board and officers ready to work for the society and its members. Congratulations to the new elected members, and thank you all for your participation in the election process.
By Elections Committee.
2021 Year end message from the President of the fNIRS Society
In case you missed it, here is the 2021 year end message from the President of the Society for fNIRS.
By Mari Franceschini.
New Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee
Led by Prof. Joy Hirsch, we are working on establishing a DEI committee. Contact us if you are interested in becoming a member of this committee.
By the acting DEI committee.
Webinars call for speakers
Do you have a recently published study? Do you have an exciting idea for an fNIRS study that you’d like to share? If you answered yes to either of these questions, share your findings and/or thoughts with us!
The SfNIRS Research Webinars allow early career researchers and junior scientists to present a talk about their work in the field of fNIRS. We actively accommodate different time zones and embrace everyone to avoid gender and/or geographical bias.
Be a part of this! If you are interested in giving a talk, please send an email to rmesquit@unicamp.br
By Rickson Mesquita.
1st LatAmNIRS 2021 Virtual Meeting
The first non-English spoken event endorsed by the society was a success. We attracted 136 participants from 70 institutions across 12 countries. Student participation represented 48% of the total attendees. We are already conspiring over our next actions!
By Felipe Orihuela-Espina, Rickson Mesquita, Samuel A. Montero-Hernández, Silvia Benavides-Varela, Ana Osorio and Javier Andreu-Pérez.
The fNIRS REproducibility Study Hub (FRESH)
We invite you to join our FRESH (fNIRS REproducibility Study Hub) project individually or as a team! The project aims to explore the range of analysis techniques utilised by the fNIRS community and to quantify the variation in conclusions that may be drawn when many independent researchers analyse the same dataset. For any queries please contact committee@fresh-fnirs.org.
By the FRESH team.
New edition of IEC / ISO standard for fNIRS equipment under development
The revision of the IEC / ISO International Standard for fNIRS equipment, IEC 80601-2-71, has been discussed in the Joint Working Group (JWG) “Oximeters” (IEC TC 62 / SC 62D / JWG 5 – ISO TC 121 / SC3 / JWG 10). The Committee Draft of the revision, IEC CD 80601-2-71 ed. 2, has been circulated to the National Committees for voting and comments by February 2022. We particularly encourage the fNIRS manufacturers to consider their participation, but also scientific/technical and medical researchers. If you are interested in joining this effort as a new expert, please contact your National Committee first.
By Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Heidrun Wabnitz.
New standards guidelines
As reported during a Special Session on Standards at vSfNIRS 2021, the community has made significant progress in standardizing formats for data storage, sharing, and real-time streaming. The first release of the SNIRF (Shared Near InfraRed File) file format is officially out, and the BIDS extension (Brain Imaging Data Structure) for organization of NIRS datasets is close to final approval and release. In addition, standardization of NIRS-specific metadata for LSL (Lab Streaming Layer) is currently underway, and we look forward to involving as many commercial vendors and academic developers as possible in this initiative. You can find all the relevant information, latest updates, and links to SNIRF, BIDS and LSL in the new webpage of the SfNIRS website: https://fnirs.org/resources/standards/
By Luca Pollonini.
Jobs postings
As usual, we have updated our list of job opportunities for this period. Remember to announce your job advertisements on the SfNIRS Facebook group page or on Twitter using the hashtag #fNIRS or sending us an e-mail. Keep sending us your job offers for posting!!
fNIRS publications
Check Felix’s summary and the usual PubMed reformatted searches. Keep yourself up-to-date on the latest fNIRS publications. Remember to announce your publications on the SfNIRS Facebook group page or Twitter using the hashtag #fNIRS.
By Felix Scholkmann and Felipe Orihuela-Espina.
Disclaimer: While we encourage translation of fNIRS technology to commercial products by our members, neither the Communication Committee nor the Society for fNIRS endorse any for-profit or non-profit entities. We do not receive compensation for reporting news about commercial products.
The Communication Committee © The Society for functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy