Virtual FreeSurfer Course

The virtual FreeSurfer course is scheduled for April 29th, 30th & May 1st, 2024. The course will take place between 9am and 5pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on these days. This is a two day course that offers a basic introduction to FreeSurfer. A FreeSurfer Virtual Machine (VM) will be provided to course participants so that they can easily work with FreeSurfer and practice data during the course. Before registering, review the tentative schedule (listed below) to make sure it will work for you and review the technical requirements to be sure your computer can run the course software. You will be required to verify your computer can properly host the course software by April 3rd in order to stay enrolled in the course. If your computer cannot run the course materials, your course registration will be cancelled and a full refund issued to you.

Computer verification deadline: April 3rd, 2024

If you have a specific question about the FreeSurfer courses that was not answered by this website and our FAQ or would like to host a course in your area, you can email one of the course organizers (fscourse AT mgb.org).


Course Details

Click on any of the topics below for more information:
Overview
Technical Requirements
Schedule
Payment
FAQ
Topics Covered During the Course

Overview

The two day course consists of talks and tutorials that run throughout the day. Attendees are expected to attend all talks and tutorials.

This course will cover the basics of using FreeSurfer, including how to process subjects through the FreeSurfer pipeline, how to inspect processed data for accuracy, how to intervene if results are inaccurate, and how to conduct various analyses including group analysis, ROI analysis, and longitudinal analysis. Lectures & virtual meetings will be hosted on gather.town while tutorials will be accessible via Virtual Machine (VM). A tentative schedule is below.

Technical Requirements

Prior to the course, attendees will be provided with instructions on how to download & install the VM software package and course data necessary to participate in the course. These downloads require 64GB of free storage space on your computer or an external hard drive. The computer also needs to have a minimum of 16GB of RAM (total) to function properly while working with the course data during tutorials. There are additional technical requirements listed here which must be checked prior to registering for the course. The VM may not work on all computers (including the newer Mac laptops). You will be required to verify your computer can properly host the course software by the deadline (April 3rd, 2024) in order to stay enrolled in the course. If your computer cannot run the course materials, your course registration will be cancelled and a full refund issued to you. See the payment section below for more details on cancellations and refunds. A strong internet connection is a must for the best workshop experience.

Schedule

WARNING: The hyperlinks in the tables below used to download slides will NOT WORK in Google Chrome. Please use a different browser to access these slides.

All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

Monday, April 29th - Gathertown Social & Instructions

Time

Title

Type

Lecturer

3:30-4:00pm

Social Gathering & Gathertown Demo

demo

Doug Greve & FS staff

4:00 - 4:30

** Intro to Linux for FreeSurfer Users

talk/demo

Karthik Gopinath

4:30 - 4:50

** Intro to FreeSurfer Jargon

talk

Karthik Gopinath

** optional talks

Tuesday, April 30th - Introduction / Single Subject Analysis / Troubleshooting

Time

Title

Type

Lecturer

9:00 - 9:10

Welcome

social

staff

9:10 - 9:55

Introduction to Freesurfer

talk

Bruce Fischl

9:55 - 11:05

Analyzing the Individual Subject

talk

Doug Greve

11:05 - 11:25

20 minute break

11:25 - 11:45

Freeview Demo

demo

Nathan Draudt

11:45 - 12:30

Tutorial: Individual Subject Output

tutorial

staff

12:30 - 1:30

Lunch

1:30 - 2:15

FreeSurfer Troubleshooting

talk

Doug Greve

2:15 - 3:25

Tutorial: Troubleshooting Freesurfer

tutorial

staff

3:25 - 3:45

20 minute break

3:45 - 4:30

Quality Checking a Recon

talk

Nathan Draudt

4:30 - 5:00

Practice Working with Data or finish other tutorials

tutorial

staff

Wednesday, May 1st - ROI Analysis / Group Analysis / Longitudinal Analysis

Time

Title

Type

Lecturer

9:00 - 9:30

ROI Analysis

talk

Malte Hoffmann

9:30 - 10:15

Tutorial: ROI Analysis

tutorial

staff

10:15 - 10:45

Surface Based Analysis

talk

Divya Varadarajan

10:45 - 11:05

20 minute break

11:05 - 11:50

Longitudinal FreeSurfer

talk

Martin Reuter

11:50 - 12:35

Tutorial: LongitudinalTutorial

tutorial

staff

12:35 - 1:35

Lunch

1:35 - 2:20

Group Analysis

talk

Doug Greve

2:20 - 3:05

Tutorial: Group Analysis (FSGD Examples)

tutorial

staff

3:05 - 3:25

20 minute break

3:25 - 4:10

Corrections for Multiple Comparisons

talk

Doug Greve

4:10 - 4:40

Tutorial: Corrections for Multiple Comparisons

tutorial

staff

4:40 - 5:00

Q&A with FreeSurfer Team

talk

Bruce Fischl, Doug Greve, & FS Team

Additional Useful Information

During the Course

After the Course

Payment

Cost

The fee for the course is $425. A reduced rate of $275 is available to undergraduate and graduate students. MDs, PhDs, RAs and Post-docs do not qualify for the student rate!

Accepted Payment Types

Accepted Payment types: credit card, MGB internal fund, cash (contact the course organizers to arrange how to pay with cash)
As long as there are empty spots in the course, we will accept late registrations (regardless of the cancellation deadline).
Payment and all questions about payment should be sent to Stacey.

Payment Coordinator/Contact: Stacey Ladieu (sladieu at mgh dot harvard dot edu)

Cancellations, Refunds, and Deadlines

Course fees are refundable, minus a $200 fee, up to 2 weeks prior to the program. After that, the tuition can be applied to a future program within one year of the course for which you registered and paid for, or you can send someone in your place. If you do not cancel your registration by April 16th, you will not be issued a refund. If you do not show your computer is unable to run the software by April 3rd, you will not be issued a refund.

Partial Refund Cancellation deadline: April 16th, 2024
Computer verification deadline: April 3rd, 2024

FAQ

  1. How many individuals are accepted into the Virtual course?

    • 40 people
  2. Do postdocs qualify for the student rate?

    • No, sorry.
  3. Is there a discount for MGH or Martinos Center employees?

    • Sorry, no.
  4. I cannot pay by internal fund or credit card. Do I have any other options?

    • If you are local, you may bring a cash payment to Allison Stevens (allison.stevensplayer at mgh dot harvard dot edu) before the deadline. If you are not local, you may be able to pay via Western Union and Moneygram if it is addressed to Stacey Ladieu. Please contact Stacey (sladieu at mgh dot harvard dot edu) first for details.

  1. The course is full. Can you register me for the next one?

    • You can sign up for the Freesurfer mailing list and follow our Twitter Page to see announcements of when registration for the next course opens. You can also register for the currently full course to be put on the waiting list for it. This does not however automatically get you a spot in the next course.

  2. Can I get a receipt for the course?

    • Contact the payment coordinator, Stacey (sladieu at mgh dot harvard dot edu)) to arrange getting a receipt.
  3. How do I know if my payment went through?

    • If it hasn't we will contact you.
  4. I have some data I would like to get your opinion on. Can I show it to you?

    • Sure! But please know that if you show us during a tutorial, questions from students about that tutorial will have to take priority over personal data questions. If you email the course organizers (fscourse AT mgb.org) prior to the course, they can try to arrange a time to discuss your data.
  5. I need some help installing FreeSurfer on my laptop - I can't seem to get it to work. Can you help with that?

    • Sure! Please email the course organizers (fscourse AT mgb.org) for assistance.

Course Topics

Below is the list of topics. The course format is composed of lectures followed by hands-on tutorials so that you can gain experience interacting with data processed by FreeSurfer. A basic understanding of Linux is necessary to run and work with FreeSurfer.


Future Courses


We will announce future courses via our Freesurfer mailing list and our Twitter Page.

VirtualCourse (last edited 2024-07-23 11:02:41 by LiamrSennott)