Data Science and Image Analysis Conference of the Pacific Northwest

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

This award will provide funding for sixty students and junior researchers, with a focus on recruiting and funding women and members of underrepresented groups, to attend the Data Science and Image Analysis Conference of the Pacific Northwest at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, February 29th and March 1st, 2020. The conference will promote close collaborations on current and ongoing areas of research through a highly interactive and open format, with discussions taking place in both larger and smaller groups. The first day will have professionals from industry, government, and academia in the fields of data science and image analysis come together, along with students and post-doctoral researchers, to collaborate on open problems through short talks, in-depth group discussions, and breakout sessions. The second day will consist of professional development activities for students and junior researchers, and will feature presentations from members of this group, with direct feedback provided from professionals. The conference will provide a unique opportunity for students and junior researchers to participate and will encourage future collaborations among all levels of researchers. The ever-increasing demand for managing and analyzing "big data"in nearly every sector of society, from finance and security to health care and social media, has led to a wide range of applications across numerous fields of research. Similarly, image analysis techniques have continued to be developed and incorporated into a multitude of disciplines, such as biomedical imaging, machine learning, and computer vision. Since many important societal outcomes are dependent on these fields, the conference can make a broad impact on society by widely sharing the progress made on the open problems discussed, which has the potential to lead to even further progress in data science and image analysis and thus to advance scientific discovery. With the demand for experts in these areas growing rapidly, the conference will also serve to increase the number of researchers entering STEM fields, especially women and members of underrepresented groups. Discussion topics will include topological data analysis, bioinformatics, learning from remote sensing data, financial & economic prediction, image segmentation and filtering in biomedical imaging, hyperspectral imaging, pattern recognition, shape analysis, and image reconstruction. More information can be found at datascienceandimageanalysis.com. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.