skip to main content


Title: Applications and Techniques for Fast Machine Learning in Science
In this community review report, we discuss applications and techniques for fast machine learning (ML) in science—the concept of integrating powerful ML methods into the real-time experimental data processing loop to accelerate scientific discovery. The material for the report builds on two workshops held by the Fast ML for Science community and covers three main areas: applications for fast ML across a number of scientific domains; techniques for training and implementing performant and resource-efficient ML algorithms; and computing architectures, platforms, and technologies for deploying these algorithms. We also present overlapping challenges across the multiple scientific domains where common solutions can be found. This community report is intended to give plenty of examples and inspiration for scientific discovery through integrated and accelerated ML solutions. This is followed by a high-level overview and organization of technical advances, including an abundance of pointers to source material, which can enable these breakthroughs.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2132700 2003098 1934757 1934700 1836650
NSF-PAR ID:
10340565
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Frontiers in Big Data
Volume:
5
ISSN:
2624-909X
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. The rapid development and application of machine learning (ML) techniques in materials science have led to new tools for machine-enabled and autonomous/high-throughput materials design and discovery. Alongside, efforts to extract data from traditional experiments in the published literature with natural language processing (NLP) algorithms provide opportunities to develop tremendous data troves for these in silico design and discovery endeavors. While NLP is used in all aspects of society, its application in materials science is still in the very early stages. This perspective provides a case study on the application of NLP to extract information related to the preparation of organic materials. We present the case study at a basic level with the aim to discuss these technologies and processes with researchers from diverse scientific backgrounds. We also discuss the challenges faced in the case study and provide an assessment to improve the accuracy of NLP techniques for materials science with the aid of community contributions. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract

    The development and design of energy materials are essential for improving the efficiency, sustainability, and durability of energy systems to address climate change issues. However, optimizing and developing energy materials can be challenging due to large and complex search spaces. With the advancements in computational power and algorithms over the past decade, machine learning (ML) techniques are being widely applied in various industrial and research areas for different purposes. The energy material community has increasingly leveraged ML to accelerate property predictions and design processes. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of research in different energy material fields that employ ML techniques. It begins with foundational concepts and a broad overview of ML applications in energy material research, followed by examples of successful ML applications in energy material design. We also discuss the current challenges of ML in energy material design and our perspectives. Our viewpoint is that ML will be an integral component of energy materials research, but data scarcity, lack of tailored ML algorithms, and challenges in experimentally realizing ML-predicted candidates are major barriers that still need to be overcome.

     
    more » « less
  3. Despite significant advances in machine learning (ML) applications within science, there is a notable gap in its integration into K-12 education to enhance data literacy and scientific inquiry (SI) skills. To address this gap, we enable K-12 teachers with limited technical expertise to apply ML for pattern discovery and explore how ML can empower educators in teaching SI. We design a web-based tool, ML4SI, for teachers to create ML-supported SI learning activities. This tool can also facilitate collecting data about the interaction between ML techniques and SI learning. A pilot study with three K-12 teachers provides insights to prepare the next generation for the era of big data through ML-supported SI learning. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract Machine learning (ML) has great potential to drive scientific discovery by harvesting data from images of herbarium specimens—preserved plant material curated in natural history collections—but ML techniques have only recently been applied to this rich resource. ML has particularly strong prospects for the study of plant phenological events such as growth and reproduction. As a major indicator of climate change, driver of ecological processes, and critical determinant of plant fitness, plant phenology is an important frontier for the application of ML techniques for science and society. In the present article, we describe a generalized, modular ML workflow for extracting phenological data from images of herbarium specimens, and we discuss the advantages, limitations, and potential future improvements of this workflow. Strategic research and investment in specimen-based ML methods, along with the aggregation of herbarium specimen data, may give rise to a better understanding of life on Earth. 
    more » « less
  5. Machine learning (ML) is being applied in a number of everyday contexts from image recognition, to natural language processing, to autonomous vehicles, to product recommendation. In the science realm, ML is being used for medical diagnosis, new materials development, smart agriculture, DNA classification, and many others. In this article, we describe the opportunities of using ML in the area of scientific workflow management. Scientific workflows are key to today’s computational science, enabling the definition and execution of complex applications in heterogeneous and often distributed environments. We describe the challenges of composing and executing scientific workflows and identify opportunities for applying ML techniques to meet these challenges by enhancing the current workflow management system capabilities. We foresee that as the ML field progresses, the automation provided by workflow management systems will greatly increase and result in significant improvements in scientific productivity. 
    more » « less