Data Science in the News

Local Women in Data Science conference showcases Lab research

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...

DSI sponsors LLNL hackathon

Since 2012, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) Computing directorate has held hackathons three times a year. These spring, summer, and fall events are scheduled over 24 hours and invite software teams to work on new ideas, programming languages, open-source tools, or project tasks. Exploration and experimentation are highly encouraged, and “It’s OK to fail” is the event mantra...

Deep learning may provide solution for efficient charging, driving of autonomous electric vehicles

LLNL computer scientists and software engineers have developed a deep learning-based strategy to maximize electric vehicle (EV) ride-sharing services while reducing carbon emissions and the impact to the electrical grid, emphasizing autonomous EVs capable of offering 24-hour service. Read more at LLNL News.

Successful simulation and visualization coupling proves the power of Sierra

As the first National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) production supercomputer backed by GPU- (graphics processing unit) accelerated architecture, Sierra’s acquisition required a fundamental shift in how scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) program their codes to take advantage of the GPUs. The majority of Sierra’s computational power—95 percent of its 125...

Cindy Gonzales forges a new career in data science

Through LLNL’s Data Science Immersion Program, Gonzales is now among the Lab’s newest data scientists. For two and a half years, she juggled a demanding workload—coordinating Computing’s Scholar Program, interning with data scientists, learning from mentors, supporting LLNL’s Data Science Institute, and attending college part time—while also having her first child. Read more at LLNL Computing...

Collaboration drives data science workshop

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) Data Science Institute (DSI) hosted its second annual workshop on July 23–24, 2019. Co-sponsored by the University of California (UC) system, the event drew more than 200 participants to Garré Winery in Livermore. A common theme ran throughout both days: Collaboration is always welcome. Indeed, feedback from last year’s workshop inspired a...

LLNL presentation at KDD Conference women’s luncheon (VIDEO)

The DSI co-sponsored the women's lunch at the 2019 Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. Alyson Fox and Amanda Minnich discussed LLNL's diversity and inclusion efforts. Watch on LLNL's YouTube channel.

New open-air facility will be testing ground for autonomous drones, vehicles and robots

LLNL’s new OS-150 Robotics Laboratory is an outdoor, 8,000 square-foot enclosure that will serve as a proving ground for the autonomous drones, vehicles and robots of the future. Informally known as the "drone pen," the 50-foot-tall rectangular enclosure, located directly across from one of the Lab’s main engineering buildings, is allowing operators to pilot their drones safely and...

LLNL Center for Applied Scientific Computing: accelerating scientific discovery (VIDEO)

The Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) serves as LLNL’s window to the broader computer science, computational physics, applied mathematics, and data science research communities. Major thrust areas in CASC research include: (1) Increasing simulation fidelity by integrating multi-physics and multi-scale models, increasing resolution through advanced numerical methods and more...

Protecting image classification in artificial intelligence

To address vulnerability concerns in image classification, a new subfield of machine learning has emerged called adversarial machine learning, which focuses on the security of machine learning algorithms. Thomas Hogan, a doctoral student of mathematics at UC Davis, spent his summer investigating this new area of research during the National Science Foundation’s Mathematical Sciences Graduate...

Speech generation: siblings collaborate on machine learning hackathon project

The first recording that brothers Sam and Joe Eklund, along with their colleague Travis Chambers, played for the audience was a validation. “I endorse Travis as president of the United States of America,” the audio clip played, in a voice resembling Barack Obama’s. The second, in the same voice, was a declaration: “Ice is back, our brand new invention” (from the song “Ice Ice Baby” by...

Machine learning on a mission

Machine learning uses computers to learn from data and make predictions about the environment. As the world generates more data, interpretation becomes more difficult. A smart machine—one that adapts to new information on the fly—can speed up processing and analysis times and improve its accuracy in identification and prediction tasks. Although commercial and consumer applications of ML are...

DOE fueled AI is transforming the world as we know it (VIDEO)

National Labs are home to some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. These powerful machines they have the potential to unlock artificial intelligence, providing scientists and researchers the ability to quickly analyze massive datasets for answers to the world's most complex problems. Watch on YouTube.

Going deep: Lab employees get an introduction to world of machine learning, neural networks

Deep learning is one of the most popular and widely used machine learning methods due to its success with autonomous vehicles, speech recognition and image classification, to name a few emergent technologies. But what exactly is deep learning, and how can it best be applied to Lab projects? LLNL employees discovered the answers during a recent "Deep Learning 101" course, which introduced the...

Playing video games may help researchers find personalized medical treatment for sepsis

A deep learning approach originally designed to teach computers how to play video games better than humans could aid in developing personalized medical treatment for sepsis, a disease that causes about 300,000 deaths per year and for which there is no known cure. LLNL, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Vermont, is exploring how deep reinforcement learning can discover...

DSI seminar: data for social good (VIDEO)

In this video from a DSI seminar, Dr. Lisa Garcia Bedolla, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies and a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, explores the new possibilities big data has opened up within the social sciences – with tools such as social network analyses and geospatial information systems, among others. Watch on LLNL's...

DSI kicks off 'bull sessions' for data science enthusiasts

In upholding its mission of centralizing data science activity at LLNL, the DSI launched an informal event series on July 25, 2018. The new “bull sessions” are intended to facilitate networking, brainstorming, and problem-solving among data scientists and engineers across the Lab. Dan Faissol, a member of DSI’s Data Science Council, states, “We hope these bull sessions will also serve as a...

Data science workshop embraces multidisciplinary community

Since launching in early 2018, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) Data Science Institute (DSI) has hit the ground running with a series of seminars, collaborative sessions, reading groups and other activities for the LLNL data science community. On August 7–8, 2018, the DSI hosted its inaugural offsite workshop, which was co-sponsored by the University of California (UC). More...

Researchers developing deep learning system to advance nuclear nonproliferation analysis

Artificial neural networks are all around us, deeply embedded in routine functions on the internet. They help online merchants make personalized shopping recommendations, enable social media sites to recognize faces in photos and assist email programs in filtering out spam. Neural networks also have the potential to play a critical role in national security, helping nonproliferation analysts...

What is machine learning? (VIDEO)

Have you ever been unsure what people mean when they talk about 'machine learning'? What machines? And what are they learning? This video is for you! Watch on LLNL's YouTube channel.