Upcoming FreeSurfer courses

If you would like to be notified about upcoming FreeSurfer courses, sign up for the course mailing list.

Next Boston course?

The next Boston course is scheduled for September 25-28, 2017.

We have expanded to a four day course so that we may offer structural, functional and diffusion MRI topics at every course. You may find an example of the schedule here. Please note that this schedule is not yet final.

The course will be held at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston (114 Sixteenth Street, Charlestown, MA 02129).

Registration is not yet open.

We plan to open registration for the September course on June 20, 2017 at 10:30 AM EST. To be notified of when it is open and to receive other course-related emails, sign up for the course mailing list. The payment deadline is July 31, 2017 for all payment forms except for institutional check. The payment deadline for those sending an institutional check is August 28, 2017 with the expectation that we will be contacted by your financial institution by July 31, 2017 to confirm a check is being issued. Note: As long as there are empty spots in the course, we will accept late registrations. If you register after the payment deadline has passed, payment is due immediately.

Next International course?

Barcelona, Spain

September 5th- September 8th, 2017

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Click here to register!

Further details, including the course schedule, can be found here. For schedules of past international courses, see past courses.

It will be held at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona (Roc Boronat, 138, 08018, Barcelona, Spain).

Course organized by BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) with the support of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).

Questions about payment and registration? Contact Julieta Pereda ( jpereda@red-innova.es ) Questions about course content? Contact Emma Boyd ( eboyd2@mgh.harvard.edu )


General Information

Additional details about the Boston Course can be found below. Information about international courses can be found on their respective websites.

If you have a specific question about the FreeSurfer courses that was not answered by our FAQ or would like to host a course in your area, you can email Allison Stevens (astevens at nmr dot mgh dot harvard dot edu) who organizes the courses.


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Boston Course Details

Click on any of the topics below for more information:
Overview
Payment
FAQ
Topics Covered During the Course
Lecturers and Staff
Accommodations
Directions
Parking
Map of the Course Location

Overview

The FreeSurfer Development Team hosts a four-day course for beginner and experienced users of FreeSurfer.

Day 1 caters to beginners and will cover:

Day 2 will cover:

Day 3 will cover:

Day 4 will cover:

The four days will run roughly from 9am-5pm with the last day ending early (~3pm). Laptops are provided with FreeSurfer and the tutorial data already installed. Attendees will work in pairs (sharing a laptop). The most recent Boston course schedule can be found here. Please check back for updates.

Additional topics and more detail on each topic is provided below.

Payment

Cost

The fee for the course is $900. A reduced rate of $625 is available to undergraduate and graduate students. MDs, PhDs, RAs and Post-docs do not qualify for the student rate!

Deadlines & Accepted Payment Types

The Payment deadline is July 31st, 2017 for all payment forms except for institutional check. The payment deadline for those sending an institutional check is August 28th, 2017 with the expectation that we will be contacted by your financial institution by July 31st to confirm a check is being issued. As long as there are empty spots in the course, we will accept late registrations (regardless of the payment deadline). If you register after the payment deadline has passed, payment is due immediately. Payment and all questions about payment should sent to Stacey Ladieu (sladieu at martinos dot org). Please Allison (astevens at martinos dot org) on your emails with Stacey so she can update your payment status accordingly.

Credit cards, checks, and cash are the only forms of accepted payment.

Checks

Make checks payable to: Massachusetts General Hospital

Mail checks to this address:
Stacey Ladieu
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
149 Thirteenth Street - Room 2301
Charlestown, MA 02129

Please be sure the name of the person taking the course is listed on the check.

Cash

There are two options for paying by cash:

  1. Make an appointment with Allison Stevens (astevens at martinos dot org) to deliver cash in person
  2. Contact Stacey (sladieu at martinos dot org) to send cash via Western Union or Moneygram. The transfer must be made out to Stacey Ladieu.

Credit Cards

Please use the website below to make a payment via credit card.
https://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/fsurfer/course_payment.cgi

Missed Deadlines & Cancellations

If payment has not been received by the payment deadline or in the case of an institutional check, your institution has not contacted Stacey Ladieu (sladieu at martinos dot org) with details of their payment arrangement by that date, your spot will be opened to the waiting list. There is no need to contact us to check whether your payment has gone through - your spot is safe unless we contact you.

Course fees are refundable up to the payment deadline. A $200 fee will be deducted, should you request a refund up to 2 weeks prior to the program. After that, the tuition can be applied to a future program or you can send someone in your place.

FAQ

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

    • 50 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 check or credit card. Do I have any other options?

    • If you are local, you may bring a cash payment to Allison Stevens (astevens at nmr dot mgh dot harvard dot edu) before the deadline. If you are not local, you can pay via Western Union and Moneygram if it is addressed to Stacey Ladieu. Please contact Stacey (sladieu at nmr dot mgh dot harvard dot edu) first for details.
  5. Payment is required with registration but my institution will take several weeks to cut a check. Does this mean I cannot attend?

    • You may still attend the course. Have the person at your institution that is responsible for arranging your payment contact Stacey Ladieu (sladieu at nmr dot mgh dot harvard dot edu) to verify that a request for payment has been submitted and is being processed.
  6. The course is full. Can you register me for the next one?

    • You can sign up for our course mailing list and you will be notified when registration for the next course opens (that list is here). 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.

  7. Can I get a receipt for the course?

    • Sure! Paper receipts will be available on the first day of the course. If you need a receipt or invoice before then to get a check issued or reimbursed, please use the confirmation email you received when you registered for the course.
  8. How do I know if my payment went through?

    • If it hasn't we will contact you.
  9. Do I get any credits for taking this course?

    • Nope, but we will give you a certificate to prove you took it.
  10. Do you serve any food at the course?

    • There will be a continental breakfast each morning & coffee and some snacks supplied in the afternoon. There is also a cafeteria nearby where the course is held and two cafes 2-3 blocks from the building.

  11. 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 Allison prior to the course, she can try to arrange some help.
  12. 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 see the response to the question above.
  13. Can I bring my own laptop to work on instead of sharing with someone else?

    • If any issues arise during the tutorial sessions which are unique to your laptop, we will not be able to troubleshoot those issues for you (it takes staff away from answering general tutorial questions). We strongly discourage using your own laptop instead of the ones we provide. If you insist on working on your laptop, please thoroughly test your installation ahead of time - guidelines for this can be found on the TestingFreeSurfer wiki. It might also be a good idea to try to run all the commands in the tutorials (here).

  14. How far is the airport from the course location?

    • About 20 minutes by taxi and 1 hour by public transportation (there are several transfers). The taxi will cost $20-$25. Public transportation will cost under $3.
  15. Would it work if I scheduled a flight for the evening of the 3rd or 4th day of the class?

    • Certainly. You can bring your luggage to the room where the course is held and leave straight from there. Traffic can be bad after 3pm, so you may need 45 minutes to an hour to get to the airport. To attend all the talks on the 3rd day, your flight will need to be 8pm or later.

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.

Lecturers and Staff

Accommodations

For discounted hotel options, please see this website. Further instructions are below:

We've had some issues in the past with the Constitution Inn main desk telling attendees that there is no block or no vacancy. As long as the block deadline has not passed and the block is not full, you should be able to reserve a room at the discounted rate without issue. If the deadline has passed or the block is full *but* they still have rooms available, they will give you those rooms at the same discount. Please be sure to contact Elizabeth Benner to reserve a room at 617-286-1209 for the least amount of hassle. If they do not accommodate you or you are told the block is full, please let Stacey Ladieu (sladieu AT martinos DOT org) know.

To get to Downtown Boston from Charlestown you can take the free shuttle (it runs every 15 minutes during the day on weekends), the water shuttle, or the #93 bus. Shuttle bus stops are marked on the Map at the end of this page.

Directions

The FreeSurfer Course is being held at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston. Here is a map:

When you enter Building 114, take the door on your left. Follow the signs or let security know you are there for the FreeSurfer Course in Conference room D1 and they will direct you to the location.

Map

CourseMap.jpg

Public Transportation & Shuttle

If you are coming via the train (aka the T), there is a free Partners shuttle bus that picks you up at the MGH main campus and the North Station T stop (across from TD Banknorth Garden) and will take you to the course location in the Navy Yard. If you are taking the 'green line' train to North Station, leave the station via the Causeway Street exit. Shuttles traveling to the Charlestown Navy Yard and to the MGH main campus stop on Haverhill St. near the corner of Causeway St.

The shuttle schedule can be found here here under "MGH Main Campus, North Station, One Constitution Road, Charlestown Navy Yard". (Note: There is a second schedule in the list with a similar name but without "One Constitution Road" in the title. This is the Saturday/Sunday schedule. Be sure to choose the schedule that corresponds to the date you are traveling.)

The shuttle comes every 15 minutes during the day (after 7pm, it comes every half hour and stops around 1am). It will arrive at North Station approximately 5 minutes after the time listed on the schedule under "Arrive/Depart MGH Main Campus". The shuttle stops right in front of Building 114 (the third stop after you board at North Station). Please see the map above for the shuttle bus stop and building location.

There is another shuttle bus that picks up from North Station. It has only one stop - the Spaulding Rehab building in the Navy Yard. This is right next to the course location. The Spaulding shuttle has a limited schedule and only operates between 6:00 AM - 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM on weekdays. On weekends, it does not operate in the evening. It runs approximately every 10 minutes.

Parking

If you are driving to the course, you may park in the parking garage at 199 5th Avenue and we will pay for your parking. During registration on the first day of the course, you will be given validated parking.

Directions from Parking Garage

As can be seen on the map above, the parking garage has two exits. The exit at the back of the garage takes you to 16th Street and is closest to Building 114, however, it consists only of stairs. The exit farthest from Building 114 has elevators. If you would prefer to take an elevator, take it to the 1st floor. From there, go out the double doors and make a right. Take another right at the corner onto 5th Avenue. Cross the street at the crosswalk and in front of you will be the entrance to Building 114.