September 21-22, 2026
Texas Advanced Computing Center
Pickle Research Campus | Austin, TX
Speakers
Dr. Stefan Henneking
Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences
The University of Texas at Arlington
Forecasting Tsunamis: Real-Time Inference and Optimal Sensor Placement at Extreme Scale
Dr. Stefan Henneking is a Research Scientist at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on high-performance computing, scalable algorithms, and Bayesian inverse methods for complex scientific applications, including acoustic sensing, fiber optic modeling, and tsunami early warning. He is a recipient of the 2025 ACM Gordon Bell Prize.
Dr. Jeanne Kowalski-Muegge
The University of Texas Dell Medical School
Supercomputing Precision Medicine: Purpose-Built Infrastructure for Clinical AI
Jeanne Kowalski-Muegge, Ph.D. is Associate Director, Clinical AI for Precision Medicine and Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. A leader in clinical AI and clinical cancer genomics, she advances their intersection to inform differential diagnosis and treatment strategies for complex care.
Dr. Jose Rizo-Rey
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
The local detergent model of biological membrane fusion
Josep Rizo (Jose Rizo-Rey), Ph.D. is the Virginia Lazenby O'Hara Chair in Biochemistry and Professor of Biophysics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His research uses structural biology and biophysical techniques to study the molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and intracellular membrane fusion, advancing our understanding of how nerve cells communicate.
Dr. Dan Stanzione
Associate Vice President For Research, The University of Texas at Austin
Executive Director, Texas Advanced Computing Center
State of the Center Address
Dr. Dan Stanzione is a nationally recognized leader in the field of high performance computing who has made an impact in the open science community for more than 30 years.
He is Executive Director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), one of the leading advanced academic computing centers in the world and holds the position of Associate Vice President for Research at The University of Texas at Austin.
Stanzione serves as the principal investigator (PI) for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Leadership Class Computing Facility (LCCF), which started construction in July 2024 and is expected to begin operations in 2026. The LCCF will deploy Horizon, which will be the largest academic supercomputer dedicated to open science research in the NSF portfolio.
Stanzione is also the PI for several current NSF-funded supercomputers including Frontera, the fastest supercomputer at a U.S. university, and Vista, an AI-centric system—all dedicated to open science research.
Stanzione received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and his master's degree and doctorate in computer engineering from Clemson University.
Dr. Thomas Yankeelov
The University of Texas at Austin
High-performance computing to enable patient-specific digital twins in oncology
Tom Yankeelov is the W.A. “Tex” Moncrief Chair of Computational Oncology and Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. He directs the Center for Computational Oncology, where his research combines advanced medical imaging, patient-specific data, and computational modeling to improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, and patient outcomes.
Tutorials
Building Interactive Scientific Dashboards in the Cloud with Plotly Dash
Presenter: Erik Ferlanti and James Labyer
In this workshop, we will dive into Plotly Dash, a powerful framework for building interactive web applications and dashboards in Python. We will learn how to create and customize Dash applications, and how to use them to visualize and explore scientific data in real-time. We will also learn how to deploy a Dash app into production on the Jetstream2 cloud.
Introduction to Horizon and CPU–GPU Architecture
Presenter: Dr. Lars Koesterke
The tutorial focuses on transformer-based neural operators, with Transolver and GeoTransolver as the worked examples. We will first build intuition for why transformers are useful beyond language: attention provides a way for distant points in a mesh or point cloud to exchange information, while physics-aware attention compresses large domains into a small set of learned physical states, making transformer models practical for large scientific datasets. We then connect these ideas to an end-to-end workflow using NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo on GPU/HPC systems: preparing simulation data, training, and validating a surrogate, interpreting accuracy, and using the trained model for rapid inference and downstream design studies.
This tutorial introduces Horizon, TACC’s latest high-performance computing system for open science, and uses it as a starting point for a broader discussion of modern HPC architecture.
If time permits, participants will have an opportunity to log in and explore a few short, practical exercises. For users who have not yet worked on Vista, this provides a useful bridge to Horizon, as the software environment, batch system, and basic workflow patterns are very similar.
Surrogate Modeling on TACC Systems
Presenter: Dr. Luke Smith
Surrogate modeling is a popular framework in which high-resolution simulation data is leveraged to build lean, inexpensive models for engineering and design workflows. This tutorial will guide attendees through the process of building a surrogate model from the output of a numerical simulation, with an emphasis on implementation strategies for TACC systems. As a driving example, we consider a dataset drawn from epidemiology, in which disease spread is predicted over time, and discuss options for storing data, leveraging existing neural network architectures, and making optimal use of TACC's GPU hardware. This tutorial is intended as a complement to ''Transformer-Based AI Surrogates for Scientific Simulations,'' with the aim of exploring additional resources available to TACC users.
Transformer-Based AI Surrogates for Scientific Simulations
Presenter: Dr. Karthik Mukundakrishnan
Scientific and engineering workflows often require hundreds or thousands of simulations for design exploration, uncertainty quantification, and optimization, but high-fidelity solvers can make that scale impractical. This hands-on tutorial introduces AI surrogate modeling as a practical way to learn fast approximations of simulation solution operators: mappings from geometry, boundary conditions, and operating parameters to full physical fields.
Lightning Talks
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1 |
A Data-Intensive Pipeline to Map the Human Brain Connections for Vision Science
Gabriele Amorosino |
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2 |
Integrating MRI and Light Sheet Fluorescent Microscopy to Validate and Improve Imaging-based Tumor Modeling
Aliya Anil |
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3 |
Probing Cosmic Ray Ionization Rates in Star-Forming Clouds: Synthetic Observations with the STARFORGE Simulations
Hsin-Pei Chen |
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4 |
GPU-Accelerated Simulation of Wave–Debris–Structure Interactions: Debris Damming in Inland Coastal Forests During Tsunamis
Youngchul Choi |
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5 |
Numerical Simulations of an Array of Offshore Turbines and its Effect on the Local Circulation
Miguel Guzman-Hernandez |
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6 |
Bridging AI and Education: The Virtual Teaching Assistant
Ayesha Khalid |
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7 |
A Scalable Machine Learning Workflow for Computing Higher-Order Force Constants with Automatic Differentiation
Jaesuk Park |
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8 |
Miniaturizing Heme Copper Oxidase with Generative Protein Design
Lisa Phan |
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9 |
Sparse Annotation is Sufficient for Bootstrapping Automatic Neuron Segmentation
Vijay Venu Thiyagarajan |
Poster Presentations
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1 |
CFD-Based Large Eddy Simulations of Plunging Flows in Alexandra Canyon, Fraser River: Insights into Bed Shear, Erosion, and Morphological Changes Using TACC ResourcesJayanga Samarasinghe and Laura AlvarezEnvironmental Science and Engineering Program, The University of Texas at El Paso 2Department of Environmental and Resource Sciences, The University of Texas at El Paso |
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2 |
ClaimCheck: Real-Time Fact-Checking with Small Language ModelsAkshith Reddy Putta, Jacob Devasier, and Chengkai LiDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington |
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3 |
Miniaturizing Heme Copper Oxidase with Generative Protein DesignLisa Phan, Barshali Ghosh, and Yi LuDepartment of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin |
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4 |
Novel Feature Extraction from Ambulatory Blood Pressure DataRoberto Arias, Kristina Vatcheva, Vesselin Vatchev, and Gladys MaestreDepartment of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Department of Medicine, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley |
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5 |
Decadal Monitoring of Colonias Using Remote Sensing and Machine LearningYiming Zhang, Bridget Scanlon, Jon Paul Pierre, Brent Porter, Hassan Dashtian, and Manmeet SinghJackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences |
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6 |
Withdrawn |
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7 |
Lightweight Adaptive Sampling for Scalable Anomaly Detection in HPC Systems: Insights from Scientific Workloads at TACCVijayalakshmi Saravanan, Saikarthik Navuluru, Seetharam Rao Vanam, Khaled Z. Ibrahim, and Lakshman TamilDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Tyler Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
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8 |
Mechanism of SNARE-Mediated Membrane FusionAleksandra Wosztyl and Josep RizoDepartment of Biophysics, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Pharmacology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center |
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9 |
Withdrawn |
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10 |
Recycling Spent Nuclear Fuel in a Molten Salt Reactor: Simulating Online Refueling and Tracking Waste TransmutationBradley Gladden and Derek Haas WalkerDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin |
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11 |
Balancing Accuracy and Urgency for Real-time Epidemic Response: How Many Stochastic Simulations is Enough?Emily Javan and William J. AllenTexas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin |
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12 |
Probing Cosmic Ray Ionization Rates in Star-Forming Clouds: Synthetic Observations with the STARFORGE SimulationsHsin-Pei Chen and Stella OffnerDepartment of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin Oden Institute, The University of Texas at Austin NSF-Simons CosmicAI Institute, The University of Texas at Austin |
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13 |
Bridging AI and Education: The Virtual Teaching AssistantAyesha Khalid, Sagnik Dakshit, and Kouider MokhtariDepartment of Computer Science, Soules College of Business, The University of Texas at Tyler College of Education and Psychology, The University of Texas at Tyler |
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14 |
Adaptive Dialogue Based Simulation in Medical LearningAkilan Amithasagaran, Sagnik Dakshit, Bhavani Suryadevara, and Lindsey StocktonDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Tyler 2Department of Gen Int Med/Hosp - MSA, UT Health Science Center at Tyler |
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15 |
Symmetry-protected Topological PolaronsKaifa Luo, Feliciano Giustino, and Jon Lafuente-BartolomeDepartment of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Physics, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU |
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16 |
Strengthening Teacher Efficacy in Computer Science Education Through Hands-On CodingChanel Belvin, Elaine Anita De Melo Gomes Soares, Toni Dunlap, and James NewlandTexas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin |
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17 |
Integrating MRI and Light Sheet Fluorescent Microscopy to Validate and Improve Imaging-based Tumor ModelingAliya Anil, Indranil Guha, David A. Hormuth II, Ayesha Das, Deborah Healey, Puneet Kumar, Ernesto A. B. F. Lima, C. Chad Quarles, and Thomas E. YankeelovDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin Cancer Systems Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin Livestrong Cancer Institutes, The University of Texas at Austin Texas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Diagnostic Medicine, The University of Texas at Austin |
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18 |
GPU-Accelerated Simulation of Wave–Debris–Structure Interactions: Debris Damming in Inland Coastal Forests During TsunamisYoungchul Choi, Jun-Whan Lee, Justin Bonus, and Che-Wei ChangMaseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley Department of Ocean Engineering, University of Rhode Island |
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19 |
Deep Learning-based Whole Corn Ear Phenotyping with 3-D Ear Surface ImagingMike Tran, Haibo Yao, and Chengkai LiDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture |
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20 |
Withdrawn |
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21 |
Evaluating Open Source LLMs for Claim Detection in Fact-CheckingAkshay Kumar Rayapet Madhusudhan, Haiqi Zhang, Zhengyuan Zhu, Zeyu Zhang, Jacob Devasier, and Chengkai LiDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington |
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22 |
Machine-Learning-Driven Discovery of Rare-Earth-Free Permanent MagnetsTimothy Liao, Zhao Tang, Qi Zhang, Masahiro Sakurai, James Chelikowsky, Weiyi Xia, Renhai Wang, Chao Zhang, Huaijun Sun, Cai-Zhuang Wang, Kai-Ming Ho, Balamurugan Balasubramanian, and David J. SellmyerOden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin Iowa State University and Ames National Laboratory University of Nebraska, Lincoln |
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23 |
Tricuspid Valve Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair Simulations Predict Kinematic AlterationsCollin Haese, Vijay Dubey, and Manuel K. RauschDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin |
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24 |
GPR174 Antagonism: Structure Function and DynamicsVijay Kumar Bhardwaj and Alemayehu GorfeDepartment of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, 2Molecular and Translational Biology & Therapeutics and Pharmacology Programs, UTHealth MD Anderson Cancer Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences |
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25 |
Surrogate Modeling of Cell Dynamics in Agent-Based Models Using Transformers and PINNsAn X. Vo, Jonathan I. Tamir, Thomas E. Yankeelov, and Ernesto A. B. F. LimaOden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Diagnostic Medicine, The University of Texas at Austin Livestrong Cancer Institutes, The University of Texas at Austin Texas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center |
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26 |
Numerical Simulations of an Array of Offshore Turbines and its Effect on the Local CirculationMiguel A. Guzmán-Hernández, Davis B. Archer, Umberto Ciri, Kianoosh Yousefi, and Stefano LeonardiDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez |
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27 |
A Data-Intensive Pipeline to Map the Human Brain Connections for Vision ScienceGabriele Amorosino, Junbeom Kwon, Bradley Caron, and Franco PestilliDepartment of Psychology and Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin |
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28 |
From Petaflops to Fingertips: Interactive Spatial and Temporal Visualizations for the TACC Visitor CenterJared Galindo Hernandez, Dave Semeraro, and Greg AbramDepartment of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin Scalable Visualization Technologies, Texas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin |
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29 |
Aim4Active: Generating Theory-Driven Motivational Messages to Encourage Physical ActivityJack Pankaj and Chengkai LiDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington |
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30 |
A Scalable Machine Learning Workflow for Computing Higher-Order Force Constants with Automatic DifferentiationJaesuk Park and Feliciano GiustinoOden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin |
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31 |
HAFed: Improving Generalization with Harmony-Based Parameter Aggregation in Federated LearningAngel Peredo and Sergei ChuprovDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley |
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32 |
Bayesian Optimization of PID Coefficients for Robust Federated LearningEi Ei Nyein Chan and Sergei ChuprovDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley |
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33 |
Secure Federated Learning via Bayesian PID Control and Integrated Attack DetectionAdrian Peña and Sergei ChuprovDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley |
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34 |
Investigating Deep Learning Architectures for Trustworthy Multimodal Autism DiagnosisAsmitha Dhamodharan and Yunhe FengDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas |
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35 |
Ensemble-based Interpretation of Inter-well Tracer Tests for Residual Oil Saturation Estimation Using ESMDA and Fourier Neural OperatorsZihao Zhao, Y. Ou, C. Jia, R. Li, and Kishore MohantyHildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin King Abdullah University of Science and Technology |
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36 |
Investigating the Role of Small RNAs in Drought, Heat, and Combined Stress in Sorghum bicolorJavier Ramos, Lorena Martínez, Nabanita Chattopadhyay, Baibhav Kumar, and Manohar ChakrabartiSchool of Integrative Biological and Chemical Sciences, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley |
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37 |
LLM-Guided Hypothesis Generation from Temporally Evolving Patent GraphsAlankrit MosesDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington |
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38 |
Pore-Scale Modeling of Wettability Alteration Induced by Low Salinity Water in Carbonates: A Physically Scalable ApproachRuoyu Li, Kishore Mohanty, and Qinjun KangDepartment of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin 2Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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39 |
Tissue Data Explorer: A Website Template for Presenting Tissue Sample Research FindingsJames Labyer, Erik Ferlanti, Martha Campbell-Thompson, Clayton E. Mathews, Wei-Jun Qian, and James P. CarsonTexas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory |
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40 |
Sparse Annotation is Sufficient for Bootstrapping Automatic Neuron SegmentationVijay Venu Thiyagarajan, Arlo Sheridan, Kristen M. Harris, and Uri ManorDepartment of Neuroscience, Center for Learning and Memory, The University of Texas at Austin Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Center, Salk Institute for Biological Studies Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, University of California, San Diego |
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41 |
Designing Spike-Compatible Neural Networks for Low-Latency Inference on HPC PlatformsMd Asiful Hoque Prodhan and Sushil PrasadDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Texas at San Antonio |
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42 |
Computational Design of Chelation Strategies for Radiopharmaceutical ApplicationsBeibei Huang, Tran Ha Hoai Ngan, Zhiwen Liu, Shilpa Sharma, Coll Ryan Patrick, William Schuler, Ta Robert T, Jianbo Wang, Dimitra K. Georgiou, and H. Charles ManningDepartment of Cancer Systems Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Cyclotron Radiochemistry Facility, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Theranostics Drug Discovery Platform, RADIATE, Therapeutics Discovery Division, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center |
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43 |
GeneSieve: A Knowledge Network Interface for Gene Discovery Across Diverse Crop SpeciesPranav Umakant Pujar, Yen Duyen Le, Chengkai Li, Justin Vaughn, and Brian AbernathyDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Arlington US Department. of Agriculture 3Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Georgia, Athens |
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44 |
Shared Rank-One Matrix Pool for Multi-Task and Input-Specific Parameter-Efficient Fine-TuningAmin GhasemiDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Arlington |
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45 |
GraphNarrative + Orion: Graph-to-text models in Interactive Knowledge Graph Query FormulationQing Wang, Abhishek Divakar Goudar, Xiao Shi, Zhengyuan Zhu, Zeyu Zhang, Nandish Jayaram, Samiul Saeef, Farahnaz Akrami, and Chengkai LiDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Arlington |
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46 |
Prevalence and Parenting: Family Practices and Adolescent Mental Health in the U.S (NSCH 2018-2023)Aleena TomyDepartment of Computer Science, Texas State University |
