On May 21 and 22, signal and image science experts from across LLNL, academia and industry gathered at the UC Livermore Collaboration Center (UCLCC) for the 29th annual Center for Advanced Signal and Image Sciences (CASIS) workshop. One of the longest-running events of its kind at the Lab, the CASIS workshop connects the signal and image sciences community to share research and resources, network and spark collaborations.
Signal and image sciences are a diverse and interdisciplinary field dedicated to processing, generating, analyzing and interpreting signals and images. This field is integral to the Lab's key missions through activities like extracting data from National Ignition Facility (NIF) experiments, enhancing remote sensing capabilities for security applications, developing robust AI platforms for mission-critical decision-making and enabling quantum-computing systems.
"Given the breadth of applications, CASIS is uniquely positioned to provide a window into the Lab and showcase a large number of research areas," said Ruben Glatt, CASIS director and AI Research Group leader in the Computational Engineering Division. "The workshop makes the Lab more approachable to the broader research community by helping identify overlapping interests and opportunities for collaboration."
A connection point
This year's workshop opened with an address from Engineering Principal Associate Director Anup Singh, whose directorate funds the center, and a visit from Lab director Kim Budil and other Lab leadership. It continued with 48 technical talks and 35 posters across six workshop tracks, covering topics like remote and non-invasive sensing, AI and machine learning, quantum sensing and quantum computing, NIF, multiphysics systems and advanced manufacturing, and non-destructive evaluation.
The activities all served to start conversations; during breaks, attendees of all career levels mingled and talked about everything from the latest developments in AI to conference experiences. Others broke off into small groups or gave informal poster presentations. Others opted for demonstrations, such as a group from UC Davis who brought their full-sized ground penetrating radar system for remote and non-invasive sensing, and Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) staff researcher Haichao Miao, who showed off his legged robot mounted with a camera and sensors to autonomously collect data for multimodal visual inspection.
"[The workshop] is a very good networking event," said Miao. "It's great to understand what others are working on and it's very important to connect with peers, as we need to bring people together both to get exposure for our work and generate new ideas."
Opportunities for career development
The workshop was also a great opportunity for younger researchers to meet and share their work with leaders at the Lab. After being encouraged by his professor, UC Riverside Ph.D. student Md. Kaykobad Reza was excited to present his work on multimodal machine learning and connect with others who may be able to apply it to solve real-world problems in AI safety. CASC research scientist Vivek Narayanaswamy, meanwhile, was thrilled to introduce himself and present his research to the Lab director.
"It was a proud moment for me both personally and professionally," said Narayanaswamy. "The CASIS workshop not only gave me a platform to share my work, but also helped elevate my confidence and visibility as an early-career researcher."
The event also emphasized career development by partnering with universities, particularly UC schools, and offering two parallel tracks to the main talks. One was a first-ever student track, focused on career opportunities and career paths at LLNL, and the other invited industry partners MathWorks and Weights and Biases to give tutorials on using their software for common problems in the field.
"The workshop has been a great opportunity for us to better understand the Lab's mission space and show how our tools might support users with their research," said Mark Kroto, director and head of federal sales at Weights and Biases.
Glatt is encouraged by the increased attendance and submissions for the third straight year and growing external participation, all of which sets the stage for next year's 30th anniversary.
"It is particularly encouraging to see the fruits of our efforts in increasing outreach with the UC system through our partner, the UCLCC," says Glatt. "These efforts help us further strengthen LLNL's reputation as one of the top Californian research institutions and build a workforce pipeline that fuels our achievements."
-Noah Pfluger-Peters
