Empowering next-gen leaders in behavioral analysis

In the past years, DeepLabCut has become the leading popular software for animal behavior via pose estimation. We provide state-of-the-art code to users, plus our goal has also been to democratize AI-based behavioral analysis in life sciences, with the goal of making rapid and reproducible tools that allows for more quantitative insights and aids translational efforts to cure diseases.

“Yet, it is widely known that open source is predominantly created and maintained by a narrowly defined demographic. Open source maintainers are overwhelmingly cisgender white men, and this pattern carries over to most open source projects widely used in science.” - Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)

We want this to change.

With the generous support of the CZI DEI Program, in 2022 we established a DeepLabCut AI Residency Program. In 2022, 2023, and 2024 Residents came to the labs of the lead developers, Mackenzie Mathis and Alexander Mathis during the summer term, at EPFL in Switzerland. For 2025, now with the support of the Kavli Foundation, we are doing something a bit different!

In 2025, we will take the DLC AI Residency on the Road!

We will be hosting a Do-A-Thon in Geneva, CH & Okinawa, JP, and hubs around the 🌎.

We will select DLC AI Resident Hub Organizers (RHOs) who will locally host a one-day or multi-day Do-A-Thon. These AI Resident RHO’s should either identify, or empower, individuals selected exclusively from groups underrepresented in computer science: such as women, those with non-traditional backgrounds, and those that represent our users: diverse ages (career stages), gender identity, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and from different nationalities we will strive to attract to this project. The goal is to empower users to modify code, develop new add-ons, and become leaders within the DeepLabCut consortium.

We are extremely grateful for CZI funding for 2022, 2023, and 2024. Also in 2024, we had support from the Kandel Prize in Neuroscience, and for 2025 we are generously supported via an EOSS grant from the Kavli Foundation.

Summer 2025 RHOs: Applications open October 30th 2024, and closes Dec 1st, 2024.

Please click on the Apply Link Above
Geneva Hub Applications will open in March 2025.

We can’t wait to meet you!