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== International competitions ==
== International competitions ==


Beyond his research, Nieto-Castanon is also recognized for his numerous prizes in international programming and data-analysis competitions. Programming in [[Matlab]], Nieto-Castanon won in 2009 and again in 2011 the ''Color Bridge'' and ''Vines'' [[MathWorks]] collaborative-programming competitions.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140111125250/https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/contest/hall_of_fame Matlab contest Hall of Fame]</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Saez|first= Juan Manuel|title=Alfonso Nieto Castanon gana por segunda vez este concurso de programacion online de MathWorks|url=https://www.developersti.es/noticias-developer/1alfonso-nieto-castanon-gana-por-segunda-vez-este-concurso-de-programacion-online-de-mathworks456|newspaper=Developers TI|date=}}</ref> He was also the winner in 2011 of the [[Microsoft]] Kinect video gesture identification competition,<ref>{{cite news|last=Byrne|first=Ciara|title=Kaggle launches competition to help Microsoft Kinect learn new gestures|url=https://venturebeat.com/2011/12/12/kaggle-competition-microsoft-kinect-learn-new-gestures/|access-date=13 December 2011|newspaper=VentureBeat|date=December 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>[http://www.kaggle.com/c/GestureChallenge/leaderboard Kaggle Microsoft Kinect competition]</ref> obtained second place at the Marinexplore and Cornell University ''Whale Detection'' audio classification challenge,<ref>{{cite news|last=Marlow|first=Jeffrey|url=https://www.wired.com/2013/02/wanted-right-whale-caller-id/|title=Wanted: Right Whale Caller ID|date=February 12, 2013|newspaper=Wired}}</ref><ref>[http://www.kaggle.com/c/whale-detection-challenge Kaggle Marinexplore competition]</ref> took first prize in 2013 [[Genentech]]'s ''Flu Forecasting'' predictive model competition,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423022802/http://blog.kaggle.com/2014/03/24/kaggle-newsletter-join-the-team|title=Join the team|newspaper=Kaggle newsletter}}</ref><ref>[https://www.kaggle.com/c/genentech-flu-forecasting Kaggle Genentech competition]</ref> and placed second in MathWorks 2014 bin packing optimization competition.<ref>{{cite news|title=Packing Santa's Sleigh|url=http://blogs.mathworks.com/pick/2014/03/21/packing-santas-sleigh|date=March 21, 2014|newspaper=MathWorks Blogs}}</ref> In 2013 Nieto-Castanon was ranked as the third best data-scientist in [[Kaggle]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/google-buys-kaggle-and-its-gaggle-of-ai-geeks/|title=Google buys Kaggle and its gaggle of AI geeks|date=2017-03-08|work=CNET|access-date=2018-06-01|language=en}}</ref><ref>[https://www.kaggle.com/alfnie Kaggle Nieto-Castanon profile]</ref> and he has been ranked as the best [[Matlab]] programmer in [https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/cody MathWorks Cody] games for seven consecutive years between 2013 to 2019.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gulley|first=Ned|title=Cody interview:Alfonso Nieto-Castanon|url=http://blogs.mathworks.com/community/2014/01/29/the-cody-interview-alfonso-nieto-castanon|date=January 29, 2014|newspaper=MathWorks Blogs}}</ref>
Beyond his research, Nieto-Castanon is also recognized for his numerous prizes in international programming and data-analysis competitions. Programming in [[Matlab]], Nieto-Castanon won in 2009 and again in 2011 the ''Color Bridge'' and ''Vines'' [[MathWorks]] collaborative-programming competitions.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140111125250/https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/contest/hall_of_fame Matlab contest Hall of Fame]</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Saez|first= Juan Manuel|title=Alfonso Nieto Castanon gana por segunda vez este concurso de programacion online de MathWorks|url=https://www.developersti.es/noticias-developer/1alfonso-nieto-castanon-gana-por-segunda-vez-este-concurso-de-programacion-online-de-mathworks456|newspaper=Developers TI|date=}}</ref> He was also the winner in 2011 of the [[Microsoft]] Kinect video gesture identification competition,<ref>{{cite news|last=Byrne|first=Ciara|title=Kaggle launches competition to help Microsoft Kinect learn new gestures|url=https://venturebeat.com/2011/12/12/kaggle-competition-microsoft-kinect-learn-new-gestures/|access-date=13 December 2011|newspaper=VentureBeat|date=December 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>[http://www.kaggle.com/c/GestureChallenge/leaderboard Kaggle Microsoft Kinect competition]</ref> obtained second place at the Marinexplore and Cornell University ''Whale Detection'' audio classification challenge,<ref>{{cite news|last=Marlow|first=Jeffrey|url=https://www.wired.com/2013/02/wanted-right-whale-caller-id/|title=Wanted: Right Whale Caller ID|date=February 12, 2013|newspaper=Wired}}</ref> took first prize in 2013 [[Genentech]]'s ''Flu Forecasting'' predictive model competition,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423022802/http://blog.kaggle.com/2014/03/24/kaggle-newsletter-join-the-team|title=Join the team|newspaper=Kaggle newsletter}}</ref> and placed second in MathWorks 2014 bin packing optimization competition.<ref>{{cite news|title=Packing Santa's Sleigh|url=http://blogs.mathworks.com/pick/2014/03/21/packing-santas-sleigh|date=March 21, 2014|newspaper=MathWorks Blogs}}</ref> In 2013 Nieto-Castanon was ranked as the third best data-scientist in [[Kaggle]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/google-buys-kaggle-and-its-gaggle-of-ai-geeks/|title=Google buys Kaggle and its gaggle of AI geeks|date=2017-03-08|work=CNET|access-date=2018-06-01|language=en}}</ref><ref>[https://www.kaggle.com/alfnie Kaggle Nieto-Castanon profile]</ref> and he has been ranked as the best [[Matlab]] programmer in [https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/cody MathWorks Cody] games for seven consecutive years between 2013 to 2019.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gulley|first=Ned|title=Cody interview:Alfonso Nieto-Castanon|url=http://blogs.mathworks.com/community/2014/01/29/the-cody-interview-alfonso-nieto-castanon|date=January 29, 2014|newspaper=MathWorks Blogs}}</ref>


== References ==
== References ==

Revision as of 18:39, 30 March 2022

Alfonso Nieto-Castanon
Alfonso Nieto-Castanon in 2016
BornSeptember 1972
Asturias, Spain
Alma materUniversidad de Valladolid, Boston University
Known forfunctional neuroimaging, subject-specific ROIs, connectome, CONN
Scientific career
FieldsComputational neuroscience
InstitutionsBoston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisorFrank H. Guenther

Alfonso Nieto-Castanon (born September 1972) is a Spanish computational neuroscientist and one of the world's leading developers of computational neuroimaging analysis tools and techniques. He is a senior research scientist, visiting researcher at the Boston University College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences,[1] and research affiliate at MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research.[2] His research focuses on the understanding and characterization of human brain dynamics underlying mental function.[3]

Early life and Education

Nieto-Castanon was born in Spain in 1972. He was part of the first Spanish team to participate in the International Physics Olympiad in 1990. He went to college at the Universidad de Valladolid from 1991 to 1995 and earned a B.S./M.S. in Telecommunications Engineering. In 1998 he pursued graduate studies in Boston University Cognitive and Neural Systems Department and was awarded a research training fellowship from Fundación Séneca/Cedetel, and a graduate research fellowship from Boston University. He received a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience in 2004.[4]

Contributions to science

In some of his early work Nieto-Castanon helped develop novel methods for region of interest (ROI) analyses of fMRI data,[5] with a focus on multivariate techniques and the use of subject-specific ROIs, where regions of interest are defined differently for each person based on common anatomical or functional landmarks.[6][7] Subject-specific ROIs allowed researchers to probe the limits of the functional localization hypotheses common in neuroimaging, and better understand the spatial and functional specificity of different brain areas.

Nieto-Castanon also developed multiple influential mathematical and computational techniques for functional connectivity analyses,[8] with a special emphasis on the robust estimation of functional connectivity measures in the presence of subject-motion and physiological noise sources.[9] In 2011 he developed CONN to integrate and facilitate best practices in functional connectivity studies.[10] CONN included a combination of novel methods such as multivariate connectivity analyses and dynamic connectivity estimation, together with multiple well known techniques such as psycho-physiological interactions, graph analyses, or independent component analyses. His software has been since widely adopted in the field and it has become a reference in functional connectivity studies with over 900 citations in 2021 alone[11]

Nieto-Castanon has given numerous courses and lectures worldwide[12][13][14][15][16] and his work has been cited in over 8000 refereed journal articles to date.[17]

International competitions

Beyond his research, Nieto-Castanon is also recognized for his numerous prizes in international programming and data-analysis competitions. Programming in Matlab, Nieto-Castanon won in 2009 and again in 2011 the Color Bridge and Vines MathWorks collaborative-programming competitions.[18][19] He was also the winner in 2011 of the Microsoft Kinect video gesture identification competition,[20][21] obtained second place at the Marinexplore and Cornell University Whale Detection audio classification challenge,[22] took first prize in 2013 Genentech's Flu Forecasting predictive model competition,[23] and placed second in MathWorks 2014 bin packing optimization competition.[24] In 2013 Nieto-Castanon was ranked as the third best data-scientist in Kaggle,[25][26] and he has been ranked as the best Matlab programmer in MathWorks Cody games for seven consecutive years between 2013 to 2019.[27]

References

  1. ^ [1][2] Boston University
  2. ^ [3] Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  3. ^ [4] Nieto-Castanon homepage
  4. ^ Nieto-Castanon, A. (2004). An investigation of articulatory-acoustic relationships in speech production. Boston University
  5. ^ Nieto-Castanon, A., Ghosh, S.S., Tourville, J.A., and Guenther, F.H. (2003). Region-of-interest based analysis of functional imaging data.NeuroImage, 19:1303-1316 PMID: 1294868
  6. ^ Nieto-Castañón, A., Fedorenko, E., (2012). Subject-specific functional localizers increase sensitivity and functional resolution of multi-subject analyses. Neuroimage , 63(3):1646-1669 PMCID:PMC3477490
  7. ^ Fedorenko, E., Hsieh, P.-J., Nieto-Castañon, A., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Kanwisher, N. (2010). New method for fMRI investigations of language: Defining ROIs functionally in individual subjects. Journal of Neurophysiology. 104:1177-1194. PMCID: PMC2934923
  8. ^ Nieto-Castanon, A. (2020). Handbook of functional connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging methods in CONN. Hilbert Press.
  9. ^ Chai, X.J., Nieto-Castañón, A., Öngür, D., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S. (2012). Anticorrelations in resting state networks without global signal regression. Neuroimage 59(2):1420-1428. PMCID: PMC3230748
  10. ^ Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., & Nieto-Castanon, A. (2012). Conn: a functional connectivity toolbox for correlated and anticorrelated brain networks. Brain connectivity, 2(3), 125-141.
  11. ^ Google Scholar CONN references
  12. ^ Harvard/MGH courses
  13. ^ Neurometrika courses
  14. ^ Harvard/MGH courses
  15. ^ University of Cincinnati & CHMC
  16. ^ BCBL
  17. ^ Google Scholar Nieto-Castanon profile
  18. ^ Matlab contest Hall of Fame
  19. ^ Saez, Juan Manuel. "Alfonso Nieto Castanon gana por segunda vez este concurso de programacion online de MathWorks". Developers TI.
  20. ^ Byrne, Ciara (December 12, 2011). "Kaggle launches competition to help Microsoft Kinect learn new gestures". VentureBeat. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
  21. ^ Kaggle Microsoft Kinect competition
  22. ^ Marlow, Jeffrey (February 12, 2013). "Wanted: Right Whale Caller ID". Wired.
  23. ^ "Join the team". Kaggle newsletter.
  24. ^ "Packing Santa's Sleigh". MathWorks Blogs. March 21, 2014.
  25. ^ "Google buys Kaggle and its gaggle of AI geeks". CNET. 2017-03-08. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
  26. ^ Kaggle Nieto-Castanon profile
  27. ^ Gulley, Ned (January 29, 2014). "Cody interview:Alfonso Nieto-Castanon". MathWorks Blogs.
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