We hosted the first in-person gathering of the OpenFlexure community in Bath, in July 2022. It was a three day gathering for people from all over the world to showcase what they were doing, build connections, and help set future directions for the project. It was held at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, and there are now notes, articles, and recordings available below.

Group photo at OpenFlexureCon 2022

Articles on the event

With many thanks to Julieta Arancio for preparing these, we have write-ups of several of the projects that were represented. We are very keen to document more of the exciting things happening with the OpenFlexure Community, so if you’d like to add to this list (whether or not you were at OpenFlexureCon), please get in touch on the forum or by email.

A recording of Richard’s introduction is available on YouTube:

Accelerating malaria diagnosis in Tanzania with the OpenFlexure Microscope

Joram Mduda (Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania) and Paul Nyakyi (Bongo Tech & Research Labs, Tanzania) are using OpenFlexure towards faster, sustainable malaria diagnosis in Tanzania.
Accelerating malaria diagnosis in Tanzania with the OpenFlexure Microscope

Enabling digital pathology for Global Health with OpenFlexure Microscopes

Daniel Rosen (Baylor College of Medicine, US) is using OpenFlexure Microscopes for faster and more efficient cancer diagnosis around the world.
Enabling digital pathology for Global Health with OpenFlexure Microscopes

Using OpenFlexure to build an accessible Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM) system

Dr. Tatsunosuke Matsui (Mie University, Japan) built an accessible SIM system, adapting the OpenFlexure Microscope design.
Using OpenFlexure to build an accessible Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM) system

Assessing soil health with farmers in Argentina, using OpenFlexure Microscopes

Fernando Castro (reGOSH / Cooperativa Ayllu, Argentina) is using OpenFlexure Microscopes to help farmers understand the impact of their more sustainable farming practices in Argentina.
Assessing soil health with farmers in Argentina, using OpenFlexure Microscopes

Measuring microplastics everywhere using modified OpenFlexure Microscopes

Niamh Burke (University College Dublin, Ireland) has modified the OpenFlexure Microscope to enable wide access to sea microplastics monitoring.
Measuring microplastics everywhere using modified OpenFlexure Microscopes

Recordings and notes

We’ve uploaded lots of notes from the event to the forum category. Recordings of the talks from Tuesday are in a YouTube playlist. Many thanks to the Royal Academy of engineering, who enabled us to engage the excellent paraphrase studio to live-scribe the event.

Unconference live-scribe illustration

Aims and format

We met over two half-days and one full day, with some short talks and lots of room for discussion. There were be posters and hardware demos on the evening of Monday 11th, and plenty delegates brought microscopes and other creations for the in-person show and tell that we have all been missing these last few years. There was lots of discussion in small and large groups, most of which has been summarised in the forum category.

Timeline and future directions

This was an in-person meeting, with some pre-recorded talks from delegates who could not attend. Recordings are now available in a YouTube playlist, and notes from the discussions are in the forum category.

GitBuilding workshop live-scribed notes

Programme

Monday 11th July 2022

  • 12 noon - 1pm: Arrivals and lunch
  • 1:00 - 1:15pm: Welcome and introduction
  • 1:15 - 1:45: Icebreaker
  • 1:45 - 2:00pm: Introduction to unconference format and discussion topics
  • 2:00 - 2:30pm: Unconference planning
  • 2:30 - 3:00pm: Coffee
  • 3:00 - 3:45pm: Unconference session 1
  • 3:45-4:00pm: Changeover and short break
  • 4:00 - 4:45pm: Unconference session 2
  • 4:45 - 5:15pm: Wrap up
  • 5:15 - 9pm: Drinks, nibbles, demos, posters, and discussions

Tuesday 12th July 2022

  • 9:00 - 9:30am: Coffee and arrival
  • 9:30 - 10:00am: Welcome and introduction to the OpenFlexure project (recording)
  • 10:00 - 10:30am: Short talks
    • Paul Nyakyi, Bongo Tech & Research Labs, Tanzania
    • Daniel Rosen, Baylor College of Medicine, USA (recording)
    • Joram Mduda, Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania (video)
  • 10:30 - 11:00am: Panel Discussion
  • 11:00 - 11:30am: Coffee
  • 11:30 - 12:00pm: Short talks
    • Niamh Burke, University College Dublin (recording)
    • Tatsunosuke Matsui, Mie University, Japan (video)
    • Oliver Higgins, University of Glasgow, UK
    • Stephane Fadanka, Mboalab, Cameroon
  • 12:00 - 12:30pm: Panel Discussion
  • 12:30 - 1:30pm: Lunch
  • 1:30 - 2:00pm: Short talks
    • Fernando Castro, reGOSH - Ayllu Cooperative, Argentina
    • Samuel McDermott, University of Cambridge
    • Benedict Diederich, Universitat Jena, Germany
    • Joe Knapper, University of Bath, UK
  • 2:00 - 2:30pm: Panel discussion
  • 2:30 - 3:00pm: Coffee
  • 3:00 - 3:15pm: What next for OpenFlexure?
  • 3:15 - 4:00: Table discussions with topics including:
    • Adding features for ready-made microscopy
    • Modularity and linking up projects
    • Commercialisation and scaling up
    • Medical use and certification
  • 4:00 - 4:05: Move tables (and top up coffee)
  • 4:05 - 4:50pm: Table discussions 2
  • 4:50 - 5:00pm: Wrap-up
  • 7:00 - 9:00pm: Conference dinner

Wednesday 13th July 2022

  • 9:00 - 9:30am: Coffee and arrival
  • 9:30 - 10:15am: Unconference session 3 (including thinking about project pitches)
  • 10:15 - 10:45am: Plenary discussion and project pitches
  • 10:15 - 11:15am: Coffee
  • 11:15 - 11:50am: Group work on next steps
  • 11:50 - 12:00pm: Wrap-up and departure