Workshop Context

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) is redefining how future physical systems will be built. The same way that sensing, imaging and communications have enabled the advances in AI, the future design of these same systems will be transformed by AI itself. Conventional physical systems have been developed in a modular, partitioned way, where different layers of the system (such as antennas, circuits, software, protocols, etc.) are designed independently. While holistic cross-layer optimization has been an aspiration for decades, it was intractable to implement before the AI era. We envision that AI for physical system design, could redefine how future systems will be built: as a unified stack from electromagnetic waves to information extraction, with AI enhancing each layer of the design. We are organizing this workshop to further progress toward this vision, by bringing industry experts, government agencies, and academics to share their ideas.  

 Workshop Goals

Covering a broad spectrum: Imaging (at any wavelength) and communications (optical or wireless) both rely on Maxwell’s equations, and hence share the same fundamental physics. However, their engineering approximations and implementations differ, and therefore, these two areas have little overlap in their communities. The workshop will bring these communities together.  

AI as a co-architect: Explore embedding AI into the physical system design process to optimize all degrees of freedom across the full stack.

Building an industry ecosystem: Establish a new industry consortium to foster deeper, more consistent engagement with the industry. At a time when federal support becomes uncertain, industry engagement is more critical than ever.   

 Agenda