Data Science in the News

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COVID-19 detection and analysis with Nisha Mulakken (VIDEO)

June 7, 2021 - 
LLNL biostatistician Nisha Mulakken has enhanced the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA) system with detection capability for all variants of SARS-CoV-2. The technology detects a broad range of organisms—viruses, bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi—and has demonstrated novel species identification for human health, animal health, biodefense, and environmental sampling...

DSI virtual seminar series debuts on YouTube

May 19, 2021 - 
Since launching in 2018, the DSI has hosted more than three dozen speakers in its seminar series. These events invite researchers from academia, industry, and other institutions to discuss their work for an hour to an LLNL audience. In 2020, the series transitioned to a virtual format, and a video playlist of recently recorded seminars is available on the Livermore Lab Events YouTube channel...

Conference papers highlight importance of data security to machine learning

May 12, 2021 - 
The 2021 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, the premier conference of its kind, will feature two papers co-authored by an LLNL researcher targeted at improving the understanding of robust machine learning models. Both papers include contributions from LLNL computer scientist Bhavya Kailkhura and examine the importance of data in building models, part of a Lab effort to...

Lab offers forum on machine learning for industry

April 22, 2021 - 
LLNL is looking for participants and attendees from industry, research institutions and academia for the first-ever Machine Learning for Industry Forum (ML4I), a three-day virtual event starting Aug. 10. The event is sponsored by LLNL’s High Performance Computing Innovation Center and the Data Science Institute. The deadline for submitting presentations or industry use cases is June 30. The...

Winter hackathon highlights data science talks and tutorial

March 24, 2021 - 
The Data Science Institute (DSI) sponsored LLNL’s 27th hackathon on February 11–12. Held four times a year, these seasonal events bring the computing community together for a 24-hour period where anything goes: Participants can focus on special projects, learn new programming languages, develop skills, dig into challenging tasks, and more. The winter hackathon was the DSI’s second such...

Lab event encourages growth of women in data science

March 17, 2021 - 
Coinciding with International Women’s Day on March 8, LLNL’s 4th Women in Data Science (WiDS) regional event brought women together to discuss successes, opportunities and challenges of being female in a mostly male field. The Lab’s first-ever virtual WiDS gathering attracted dozens of LLNL data scientists as well as some from outside the Lab, and featured speakers, a career panel and...

Lawrence Livermore computer scientist heads award-winning computer vision research

Jan. 8, 2021 - 
The 2021 IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV 2021) on Wednesday announced that a paper co-authored by LLNL computer scientist Rushil Anirudh received the conference’s Best Paper Honorable Mention award based on its potential impact to the field. The paper, titled "Generative Patch Priors for Practical Compressive Image Recovery,” introduces a new kind of prior—a...

What put LLNL at the center of U.S. supercomputing in 2020?

Nov. 12, 2020 - 
The HPC world is waiting for the next series of transitions to far larger machines with exascale capabilities. By this time next year, the bi-annual ranking of the Top500 most powerful systems will be refreshed at the top as Frontier, El Capitan, Aurora, and other DOE systems come online. While LLNL was already planning around AI acceleration for its cognitive simulation aims and had a number...

From intern to mentor, Nisha Mulakken builds a career in bioinformatics

Nov. 3, 2020 - 
The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a wave of new research and development at the Lab, and Nisha Mulakken is very busy. The biostatistician has enhanced the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA) system with detection capability for all variants of SARS-CoV-2. The technology detects a broad range of organisms—viruses, bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi—and has demonstrated...

AI gets a boost via LLNL, SambaNova collaboration

Oct. 20, 2020 - 
LLNL has installed a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator from SambaNova Systems, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced today, allowing researchers to more effectively combine AI and machine learning (ML) with complex scientific workloads. LLNL has begun integrating the new AI hardware, SambaNova Systems DataScale™, into the NNSA’s Corona...

LLNL, ANL and GSK provide early glimpse into Cerebras AI system performance

Oct. 13, 2020 - 
AI chip and systems startup Cerebras was one of many AI companies showcased at the AI Hardware Summit which concluded last week. Cerebras invited collaborators from LLNL, Argonne National Laboratory, and GlaxoSmithKline to talk about their early work on Cerebras machines and future plans. Livermore Computing's CTO Bronis de Supinski said, “We have this vision for performing cognitive...

Machine learning speeds up and enhances physics calculations

Oct. 1, 2020 - 
Interpreting data from NIF’s cutting-edge high energy density science experiments relies on physics calculations that are so complex they can challenge LLNL supercomputers, which stand among the best in the world. A collaboration between LLNL and French researchers found a novel way to incorporate machine learning and neural networks to significantly speed up inertial confinement fusion...

Advancing healthcare with data science (VIDEO)

Aug. 3, 2020 - 
This video provides an overview of projects in which data scientists work with domain scientists to address major challenges in healthcare. To help fight the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are developing computer models to search for potential antibody and antiviral drug treatments, sharing a data portal with scientists and the general public, and analyzing drug compounds via a novel text...

DL-based surrogate models outperform simulators and could hasten scientific discoveries

June 17, 2020 - 
Surrogate models supported by neural networks can perform as well, and in some ways better, than computationally expensive simulators and could lead to new insights in complicated physics problems such as inertial confinement fusion (ICF), LLNL scientists reported. Read more at LLNL News.

AI hardware for future HPC systems (VIDEO)

May 20, 2020 - 
This interview with Brian Spears, who leads cognitive simulations at LLNL, covers the current state of evaluation of AI chips and how those will mesh with existing and future HPC systems. Watch on YouTube.

COVID-19 research goes public through new portal

May 18, 2020 - 
A new online data portal is making available to the public a wealth of data LLNL scientists have gathered from their ongoing COVID-19 molecular design projects, particularly the computer-based “virtual” screening of small molecules and designed antibodies for interactions with the SARS-CoV-2 virus for drug design purposes. The portal houses a wealth of data LLNL scientists have gathered from...

Faces of STEM: Brenda Ng (VIDEO)

May 11, 2020 - 
In this video, LLNL machine learning scientist Brenda Ng explains why she loves her job in STEM, what advice she has for others, what inspired her to go into STEM, and what she does in her free time. Watch on YouTube.

New partnership results in increased access to compelling 'real world data'

April 21, 2020 - 
Through a new partnership between the UC San Diego Library, Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute (HDSI), and LLNL's Data Science Institute, UCSD library patrons can now access and analyze two new “real world” data sets from LLNL. The Open Data Initiative collection shares some of LLNL’s challenging and unique data sets, which range in complexity from large-scale, domain-specific simulated data...

Lab promotes diversity, tech at Women in Data Science regional event

April 3, 2020 - 
For the third consecutive year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) hosted a Women in Data Science (WiDS) regional event on March 2. Held at the HPC Innovation Center, the event drew dozens of attendees from LLNL, Sandia National Laboratories, local universities, and Bay Area commercial companies. Livermore was one of over 200 regional events in 60 countries coordinated with the...

Local Women in Data Science conference showcases Lab research

April 3, 2020 - 
For the third consecutive year, LLNL hosted a Women in Data Science (WiDS) regional event on March 2. The event drew dozens of attendees from LLNL, Sandia National Laboratories, local universities, and Bay Area commercial companies. Livermore was one of over 200 regional events in 60 countries coordinated with the main WiDS conference at Stanford University. According to the WiDS website...