Brainhack Toronto 2026 Register Program Schedule TrainTrack Featured Panels Projects Our team Sponsors Contact us ☰

Why Brainhack ?

BrainHacks are collaborative events that focus on the open sharing of ideas, models, code, and data. They bring together brain experts and enthusiasts from a variety of backgrounds to build relationships, learn from one another, and collaborate on projects related to the neurosciences.

BrainHack Global Toronto 2026 will be an in person event, featuring the theme of Building Bridges in Brain Data. The event will be held in collaboration with Neuronto, the Ontario Brain Institute, SickKids Neuroscience & Mental Health, and CAMH's Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics. Participants at BrainHack Global Toronto 2026 will have opportunities to work with like-minded scientists through either submitting an organized project or engaging in one.

We also encourage new programmers and all levels of students/scientists to participate in our workshop this year. We pair with the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) to provide TrainTrack sessions (i.e., tutorials and workshops) during the event to help kickstart your growth as a neurohacker!

Join us on Discord to join the community of BrainHack Global Toronto 2026 and start planning your projects! We also have an official #brainhack-toronto channel on Mattermost, where you can connect with the BrainHack Global community around the world!


BrainHack Toronto 2026

Dates: Jan 19-21, 2026
Cost: CA$30/person for General admission including onsite breakfast & lunch
Additionally, we have allocated funds to assist with travel expenses for those coming from out of town. We encourage those who are interested to send us an email for further information.
Location: Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, SickKids, 686 Bay St., Toronto, ON M5G 0A4
Hybrid option will be supported for talks and presentations, but not for open hacking. Link will be shared via Discord.
Note: We follow the code of conduct of BrainHack Global.

Learn

Learn about tools, techniques and datasets in neuroimaging research.

Be Social

Meet researchers from a variety of backgrounds. Share your knowledge.

Get Involved

Find exciting projects that you would like to contribute to.

Program

This three day event will bring together local scientists and trainees in neuroimaging from institutions across the region. The program will include:

  • Open hacking sessions in which attendees will work together on projects of their own design. Attendees are encouraged but not required to bring their own projects into the hackathon to work collaboratively with others. Project inspirations could stem from other projects proposed by attendees, ongoing work you're involved in, or new research areas that you've been waiting to have an opportunity to jump on!
  • TrainTrack to help you get up to speed with various programming languages and current practices in open-source and reproducible neuroimaging analysis. This year's BrainHack will feature 3 TrainTrack sessions, provided by Centre for Computational Medicine of SickKids.
  • Panel Discussions to give attendees an overview of brain science in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. This year, we invited speakers from SickKids, KCNI, Krembil Brain Institute, and Baycrest Rotman Research Centre to share their research. We also invite brainhackers from Taiwan, Montreal, and Marseille to share their experiences in their BrainHack.
  • Unconference sessions to provide a welcoming platform for attendees to share their tools, knowledge, and ideas. There will be three open slots for attendees to sign up. If you’re interested, please speak with a member of the organizing committee at the event. Sessions will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • Socials will be held during hack nights to foster community building.

Schedule

Schedule2026

View in Google Calendar or add it to your calendar

Workshops

BrainHack Global Toronto 2026 will work with the Centre for Computational Medicine (CCM) at The Hospital of Sick Children (SickKids) and feature three tutorial sessions for our TrainTrack to enhance the computational literacy of neuroscientists across all levels.

  • 1. Tue Jan 20, 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM: Introduction to Python (Presenter: Michael Li)
  • 2. Tue Jan 20, 01:00 PM – 02:00 PM: Introduction to machine learning using R (Presenter: Dr. Shireen Parimoo)
  • 3. Wed Jan 21, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Introduction to deep learning and AI (Presenter: Dr. Alper Celik)

Opening Panel: Building Bridges in Brain Data in Toronto

January 19, 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM

  • 9:30 - 9:50 Tristan Glatard The Brain Health Data Challenge Platform
  • 9:50 - 10:10 Kâmil Uludağ Opportunities and Challenges of 7 Tesla MRI Research in Toronto
  • 10:10 - 10:30 Rosanna OlsenOverview of Hippocampal Subfield Segmentation Methods: Best Practices for Validity and Reliability
  • 10:30 - 10:50 Milad LankaranyUsing Computational Neuroscience to Optimize Neuromodulation
  • 10:50 - 11:10 Farzad Khalvati: Toward Precision Neuroradiology: The Present and Future Role of AI
  • 11:10 - 11:30 Panel discussion: Building Bridges in Brain Data and how current and future initiatives, such as BrainHack toronto, can support this goal
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Featured Panel: Making BrainHack Global Again

January 20, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

BrainHack Global Toronto 2026 is excited to invite speakers from different BrainHack locations around the world--Taiwan, Montreal, and Marseille--to share their experiences and insights on their experience in participating and organizing their BrainHack. Our speakers include:

  • 09:00 - 09:15 Taiwan (participants): Amanda Lin & Ivo Niet
  • 09:15 - 09:25 Taiwan (organizer): Dr. Tzu-Yu Hsu
  • 09:25 - 09:35 Marseille (organizing team)
  • 09:35 - 09:45 Montreal (organizers): Mathieu Dugré & Michelle Wang
  • 09:45 - 10:00 Panel discussion: What you gain from participating in BrainHack and what are the challenges you face organizing one

Meet Our Team

Erin Dickie
CAMH, KCNI
Chair
Kathryn Manning
SickKids
Tristan Glatard
CAMH, KCNI
Julie Ruston
SickKids
Francis Jeanson
OBI
Ju-Chi Yu
CAMH
Minarose Ismail
SickKids
Ryan Panela
Baycrest
Justin Ng
CAMH
Stephanie Simpson
CAMH
Ayesha Rashidi
CAMH
Jiya Shah
CAMH
Mathieu Dugré
Concordia University
Daisy Hu
UofT
Alena Ionova
SickKids
Grace Burns
SickKids
Julia Qiu
University of Waterloo
Gulnaz Kudoiarova
Kant Yao
CAMH

If you are interested in joining our organizing team and the volunteering committee, please don't hesitate to email us at brainhacktoronto@gmail.com or reach out on Discord!

Project Ideas

Open hacking projects are a great forum for getting support on a technical issue from your own research program or starting a new collaborative project. Check out our previous project listing from BrainHack Global 2023 or suggest your own.

Suggest a Project

Thank you to our sponsors

Ontario Brain Institute CAMH KCNI SickKids Research Institute UHN Krembil Neuronto

Bringing together minds from:

University of Toronto Baycrest / Rotman Research Institute Sunnybrook Health Sciences CAMH University Health Network St. Michael's Hospital Mouse Imaging Centre NeuroTechX Ontario Brain Institute

...and many more!