PNNL

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) recently participated in the Joint Statistical Meeting Conference (JSM). JSM is an annual event that functions as the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists in North America.

PNNL approaches computing research from a scientific perspective, advancing basic and applied research and analysis to address complex challenges in energy, science, and national security. With these values and mission in mind, PNNL data science and computing researchers who hold expertise in this area prioritize making their ideas heard at notable events like JSM.

With a focused theme of Statistics and Data Science: Informing Policy and Countering Misinformation, JSM served as a prime opportunity for PNNL's skilled statisticians and data scientists to exhibit their knowledge and share recent findings. 

The conference featured more than 600 sessions, including invited speakers, topic-contributed and contributed presentations, and poster sessions. Additionally, more than 40 professional development short courses and workshops were offered to attendees.

The workshop session was delivered by Karl Pazdernik and Robin Cosbey, and was focused on text analysis and natural language processing (NLP). During the workshop, a substantial number of aspects of the text analysis pipeline were discussed. Topics included data preprocessing, converting text to numeric representations (from simple aggregation methods to more complex embeddings), and training supervised and unsupervised learning methods for standard text-based tasks such as named entity recognition (NER), sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and text generation using large language models (LLMs).

Pazdernik also delivered a talk on What LLMs Do, which was very well-received and was an important topic to convey at JSM because LLMs in relation to artificial intelligence (AI) have been a growing area of study at PNNL. During Pazdernik's talk on what LLMs do, he highlighted what impacts the implementation of tools like generative AI and their accessibility have had, could have, and will have in the future. Although PNNL has been researching AI for decades, the lab launched the Center for AI at the end of 2023 in response to the recent surge in generative AI, which is easily accessible by the public.

PNNL also hosted a recruiting booth at the JSM EXPO, held in conjunction with the conference, promoting PNNL's missions and search for talented researchers looking to join PNNL.