MRtrix: enabling advanced tractography and microstructure analysis of diffusion MRI in the brain

MRtrix是一个开源软件项目，为扩散MRI分析领域的新颖和重要技术创新提供高质量的实现。弥散MRI越来越多地用于识别和研究脑白质纤维束和研究脑连接。MRtrix是医学图像处理和可视化、神经科学和神经技术研究人员使用的一种有价值的软件工具，已经在全球至少60个医疗中心和一些商业产品中使用。到目前为止，MRtrix一直由一个由专业学者组成的小团队维护。然而，由于时间的限制，项目的成功和广泛采用使得团队不可能维护和提高项目到预期的标准。项目的长期可持续性需要更广泛的开发人员和维护人员的积极参与，以及由知识渊博的用户组成的活跃社区的支持。因此，该项目的目标有四个方面：实现重要的功能，使软件能够在更广泛的情况下使用，改善与其他补充软件包的互操作性，并确保MRtrix为未来的应用做好准备。-鼓励研究人员和开发人员使用MRtrix作为开发和/或传播他们自己的方法的基础（通过改进代码文档，提供在线课程和文章，以及提供快速响应的支持）；-维护软件，解决突出问题，并尽可能简化涉及的各种流程。-最大限度地提高用户参与度（通过举办研讨会、提供在线教程和改进文档）；该项目将资助一名研究软件工程师，为期3年，以实现这些目标。

MRtrix is an open-source software project to provide high-quality implementations of novel and important technical innovations in the field of diffusion MRI analysis. Diffusion MRI is increasingly used to identify and study brain white matter fibre tracts and to investigate brain connectivity. MRtrix is a valuable software tool used by researchers in medical image processing and visualisation, neuroscience and neurotechnology and is already in use in at least 60 medical centres worldwide, and several commercial products. MRtrix has so far been maintained by a small team of dedicated academics. However, the success of the project and its widespread adoption now makes it impossible for the team to maintain and enhance the project to the expected standard due to time constraints. The long-term sustainability of the project will require the active participation of a wider range of developers and maintainers, and support from an active community of knowledgeable users. The aims of this project are therefore four-fold:- to implement important features that will enable use of the software in a greater range of situations, improve interoperation with other complementary software packages, and ensure MRtrix is ready for future applications.- to encourage researchers and developers to use MRtrix as the basis for the development and/or dissemination of their own methods (by improving the code documentation, providing online courses and articles, and providing rapid and responsive support); - to maintain the software, fix outstanding issues, and ease the various processes involved as much as possible.- to maximise user engagement and participation (by running workshops, providing online tutorials, and improving the documentation);This project will fund a Research Software Engineer for 3 years to achieve these objectives.