Ambassador Story: Creating Experiments with PsychoPy and Pavlovia at ACNS 2025

In August 2024, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Rebecca (Becca) Hirst at the European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP). During this time, I expressed my genuine enthusiasm for PsychoPy, and in exchange, she showed me one of the UK’s finest establishments for a night out on the town: Popworld, Aberdeen—networking done right, if you ask me. About a year later, Becca offered me the opportunity to be a PsychoPy ambassador in Australia (where I was based at the time) under the recently established PsychoPy Ambassador Scheme. Suffice it to say, I accepted with little-to-no hesitation.

This opportunity came at a great time, too, as the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society (ACNS) 2025 conference was right around the corner. And so, with the permission of Becca, Prof. Jon Peirce (PsychoPy’s CEO), and the organisers of ACNS, I put together a three-hour beginner-level workshop to be run on the first day of the conference, titled Creating Experiments with PsychoPy and Pavlovia. As said on the tin, the workshop focused on building experiments in PsychoPy and deploying them online via Pavlovia, with an emphasis on practical workflows and common pitfalls.

I was quite nervous going into the session. I’d never run a workshop before—let alone one on behalf of a company! However, once things got underway, those nerves quickly gave way to excitement. The participants were engaged, asked great questions, and brought a real sense of curiosity to the room. It was so cool to see people actively experimenting, troubleshooting together, and gaining confidence in tools that can sometimes feel intimidating at first.

Overall, the experience was a delight, and I’d happily run another workshop like this in the future. I am very grateful to both Open Science Tools and ACNS for the opportunity. 😊

One final note: I have now left Australia, which means PsychoPy will be looking for a new Australian ambassador. If that’s something you’d be interested in, I’d strongly encourage you to get in touch. The role is a fantastic way to support the community and share tools you care about!