Events

CAII Spring Seminar Series: "Data Science and the Valley of Death! How the National Labs Help You Bridge the Gap"

Event Type

Seminar/Symposium

Sponsor

Center for Artificial Intelligence Innovation

Virtual

Date

Apr 12, 2021   11:00 am - 12:00 pm  

Speaker

Dr. Wayne Miller, Deputy Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Views

68

Originating Calendar

Center for Artificial Intelligence Innovation

Dr. Wayne Miller, Deputy Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will give a presentation during the CAII Seminar Series on Monday, April 12 at 11:00 a.m. The talk is titled “Data Science and the Valley of Death!  How the National Labs Help You Bridge the Gap." 

View Seminar here: https://go.ncsa.illinois.edu/CAIISpringSemesterSeriesSP21  

Abstract: 

The Valley of Death is the chasm between research and application that is often the early grave of promising new discoveries.  At issue is the effort and cost involved in taking basic research and developing new and useful applications from it.  Consider drug trials as an example: it is relatively easy to identify a drug candidate with the promise of efficacy, but hugely expensive (~$B) and time consuming (~decade) to prove both efficacy and safety of an individual drug candidate.  The DOE National Labs constantly create and move new technologies across the Valley of Death as a necessary part of their mission to support national needs with emergent practical solutions.  Often, these new technologies are immensely useful to the private sector as well as the nation, and the private sector can work with the National Labs to adopt these new technologies knowing that the risk of the maturation process is substantially underwritten by the National Labs.  This is now the case for the technology of data science, including machine learning and AI, which are major efforts across the National Labs.  This talk will discuss how the private sector works with the National Labs and will give several current examples of how data science applications for the private sector have been enabled through these partnerships.

Speaker Bio: 

Wayne is currently the Deputy Director of the High-Performance Computing Innovation Center (HPCIC) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He leads an exceptional team of LLNL scientists, engineers, and administrative staff in the Livermore Valley Open Campus (LVOC) who support open engagement and collaborative innovation with the private sector. He and his team work with industry, government, and academia to foster tech transfer of HPC applications and resources to make these game-changing capabilities broadly available for public benefit. HPC at this scale allows users to address computational challenges at revolutionary speed, detail and data density. Such world class capability has clear benefits and ROI across the full spectrum of applications including industrial design, drug discovery, and climate studies. Wayne works with technology leaders in industry to solve specific proprietary challenges and engages broadly with industry groups on common issues addressing entire sectors of the economy. He also works with leading academic institutions to support collaborative R&D between faculty and LLNL staff, and supports student engagement through sponsored research and internships. In addition, Wayne works with strategic domestic and international partner institutions that complement LLNL capabilities.

Wayne comes to this role with a long history of technical leadership and experience. He held a series of increasingly responsible research and management positions at LLNL that have included Associate Program Lead for Renewable Energy, Thermal Fluids Group Leader, and PI on internally funded R&D activities. Prior to joining LLNL, Wayne designed wind turbines at Kenetech Windpower, and developed helicopter simulation codes at NASA Ames. Wayne holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, with technical emphasis in methods of engineering simulation.

This presentation will be recorded and will be available on the CAII website shortly after the presentation.