UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Each year, the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) aims to bring together faculty, students and industry professionals to foster innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration through the annual symposium.
This year’s event, ICDS Day MMXXIV: Shaping the Future of Penn State’s Digital Research, is on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 9 a.m. at HUB Alumni Hall.
ICDS Day seeks to bring together communities from diverse disciplines to discuss cutting-edge methodologies, data analytics and available computational resources, as well as learn about data ethics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and ways to amplify synergy for research opportunities.
“ICDS Day promises to be an exciting and insightful event,” Wolf Hey, ICDS interim director of operations, said. “Highlights for ICDS Day include sessions on AI, research excellence and funding strategies. A student poster session and networking event will end the day. This is a fantastic opportunity for researchers, industry professionals and students to connect, share ideas and contribute to the evolving landscape of data science at Penn State.”
Attendees will spend the day interacting with professionals using data or computational science resources to conduct their research. ICDS co-hires will hold panels about the successes of their projects in AI, visualization and custom/high-throughput computing.
Graduate students will also present their work in computational and data science in an evening session that was also designed as a space for networking.
“One morning session is related to faculty who have a need for creative ways to obtain sponsorship funding for research computing and/or storage. Chad Hanna, ICDS co-hire and professor of physics, will talk about how he approaches the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and other sponsors to obtain these resources and how ICDS can help,” Wayne Figurelle, ICDS assistant director of innovation and outreach, said.
Alongside Hanna, attendees will learn lessons about the complexities of large project proposal processes from other ICDS co-hires, Edward O’Brien, professor of chemistry; Dr. Keith Cheng, distinguished professor of pathology, biochemistry and molecular biology and pharmacology; Dr. Vasant Honavar, professor of information sciences and technology and ICDS associate director; and Dr. Soundar Kumara, Pearce Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and director of the Center for Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Industry (AIMI).
Mehrdad Mahdavi, AI Hub director, will also update the Penn State community about the direction of the Hub and consider how AI connections can be enhanced across the University and beyond.
Research ideas in AI, cyberinfrastructure, data and/or computational science will continue to be celebrated in researcher flash talks.
Researchers across Penn State submitted proposals for research that will be presented at ICDS Day. Selected principal investigators (PIs) will have the opportunity to connect with attendees on ways to transform their ideas into a set of achievable next steps.
“This event is a very exciting opportunity for brainstorming and seeding interdisciplinary research ideas,” Christelle Wauthier, associate professor of geosciences and ICDS co-hire and associate director, said.
Registration for this event is open now. Visit ICDS' website for a full agenda of the event and information on how to submit your research for presentation.