Empowering the Future of Neuroscience

Empowering the Future of Neurosceince

iBOTS: the iBehave Open Technology Support Platform


iBOTS offers critical programming assistance to over 40 neuroscience labs across Bonn, Köln, Aachen, and Jülich in the iBehave network. Our mission is to enable data collection, processing, and analysis through swift training and knowledge dissemination. We focus on simplifying, automating, and disseminating data analysis pipelines using open-source software and programming environments.

Unlike conventional engineering groups, iBOTS is a training and consulting platform that links researchers to open-source technologies and free resources. We’re committed to bridging the gap between scientific goals and technical execution by promoting knowledge exchange, collaborative development, and community building. This results in close relationships with researchers, custom, cost-effective neuroscience tech solutions, and high direct availability to scientists at all levels of their academic careers.

Our Services


Online Data Analysis and Programming Workshops

Our Upcoming Workshops

  • Building Robust Neuroscience Experiments with Python and PsychoPy: This three-day course focuses on building experimental applications with Python and PsychoPy that present stimuli, record responses and communicate with external devices. Going beyond mere scripting, we’ll create a modular software that is easy to understand, maintain and reuse. In hands-on exercises, we’ll learn how to create robust applications by leveraging modern software engineering tools like automated testing with PyTest, data validation with Pydantic, and continuous integration with GitHub Actions.
    All researchers are welcome – this will cover advanced topics, but you don’t have to be a seasoned programmer or experimenter to get a lot out of the workshops!
  • Research Software Development: Electrophysiological Data Processing and Packaging with Python, Nix, Neo, and DataLad: Want to better-organize, share, publish your neuroscience data analysis projects? Taught using the Python language, we will practice processing raw electrophysiological data from neuroscience experiments into ready-to-publish Nix files that can be used in data analysis using Neo.  Covering the full tool stack of software development and research publication tools including git, GIN, Zenodo,  and DataLad, this intensive hands-on course is intended for researchers with some previous data analysis experience in Python and a familiarity with electrophysiology.
  • Intro to Neuroscience Data Analysis with Python and Pandas: In this hands-on, introductory-level workshop, we will explore the use of Python and Pandas for data analysis in neuroscience and demonstrate their application to real experimental data. Short introductory lectures will be given for each topic, but most of the day participants will practice using Python on data themselves to get hands-on experience with the tools for data analysis, organization, and visualization. We will show how popular and widely used libraries, both in neuroscience and data science in general, like Numpy, XArray, Seaborn, Pingouin, and Matplotlib can help you go from collected data to final results.
  • Notebook-Driven Development for Research Data Analysis With Papermill and PyDoIt: Data science Notebooks are a powerful tool that allows you to combine code, figures, and written explanations all in one place! Join us in this three-day, hands-on workshop, where we will extract the best out of data science notebooks by learning how to embed explanations, create beautiful plots using hvPlot, generate presentations from our analyses, and even advanced techniques that leverage PyDoIt and Papermill to build multi-notebook pipelines, run the analyses across varying parameters, batch process across mutiple datasets, and even develop fully-documented libraries of reusable code! This course is open to all researchers, with or without experience in a programming language.
  • Essential Computational Tools for Researchers: The Terminal, Git, and VSCode: Whether it be text, scientific data, scientific manuscripts, or software, researchers keep their files organized and shareable as part of applying Open Science principles to daily work.  This hands-on workshop is designed to help all researchers learn how to use Git, VSCode, the terminal, and software package managers to keep their projects organized, shareable, backed up across computers, and even publishable in collaborative research environments.  

Open Registration to Neuroscientists in Germany


Our Mission: To Bring Modern Software and Data Engineering Practices into Neuroscience Research Groups through Team Collaboration

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Our Team

Nicholas A.
Del Grosso

Sangeetha
Nandakumar