This is the Actifield project repository and we’re excited to have you here.
This document (the README file) is a hub to help you find your way around. Feel free to jump straight to one of the sections below or just scroll down to find our more.
Prohibitive costs is one of the key factors that limit access to science equipment particularly in lesser funded institutions and countries. This affects the quality of science education and research in these institutions. As a graduate student I grew frustrated with this problem when I had to modify or abandon some experiments because I did not have the needed equipment. So I decided to build my own equipment. I and my friends started this project because we realised we could build some of the equipment we needed on our own by taking advantage of open source designs and code.
The Open Science hardware movement has gained popularity in recent years. Using open source designs, code and tools, scientists can now build and customise their own equipment, usually at a fraction of the cost of commercial versions. However, this movement is relatively new to African scientists who may not have the skills to build their own equipment.
Therefore this project was initiated to build and document some equipment as a step in tackling this problem. We chose to build an actimeter as our first equipment because it is routinely used in experiments in our faculty and the current approach is a very laborious task of manually tracking experiment videos.
This project was initiated by me, Victor, and my friends, Eli and Mary while we were graduate students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Technology in Ghana.
The project was supported by the generous mentorship and funding we received during the 1st TReND Advanced Open Labware Workshop in April 2018.
I also received further support and mentorship to reorganise this repository while participating in the 14th Cohort of the Mozilla Open Leaders program.
We’re building an equipment called an actimeter. At the simplest, the actimeter is used to measure and record the locomotor activity - how fast or slow a test animal (usually rodents), is moving. This information is useful for several tests such as screening for potentially toxic effects of a new drug on the brain.
However, beyond these basic tests. An actimeter can be modified to provide more information for example, detecting behaviours in rodents that indicate anxiety or fear. We developed this project for scientists who need a simple and inexpensive actimeter that can be easily built.
By providing scientists with the resources (designs and code) to build their own actimeter, this project will help scientists in several ways:
- Reduce spending for the purchase, repair and maintenance of proprietary equipment
- Save time by automating laborious tasks e.g. manual video tracking methods
- Improve teaching since the equipment can be used for practical demonstrations in undergraduate labs
- Allow scientists to customise the device for other experiments
- Increase reproducibility of experiments since the equipment is fully documented
Everyone! In whatever way you can help.
We need expertise in the following areas *Neuroscience *User interface (UI)/ User experience (UX) design *Computer Aided Design (CAD) *Electronics *Arduino *Technical writing *Web Development *Mentorship
If you can help in any of the areas listed above or in any of the many areas that we haven't yet thought of, then please check out our roadmap and contribution guidelines.
Please note that it's very important to us that we maintain a positive and supportive environment for everyone who wants to participate. When you join us we ask that you follow our code of conduct in all interactions both on and offline.
If you want to customise Actifield, feel free to download or fork the repository and adapt the content (designs and code) to suit your needs. Everything here is freely reusable.
If you need help with building your own actimeter don’t hesitate to get in touch.
If you have any questions or suggestions, you can simply open an issue here in this repository. You can also send Victor an email. Wanna hang out on social media? Follow me on Twitter.