Imageomics

Overview

Imageomics is an emerging field of science that uses images, ranging from microscopic images of single-cell species to videos of charismatic megafauna such as giraffes and zebras, as the source of automatically extracted biological information, specifically traits, in order to gain insights into the evolution of function of living organisms.  A central goal of Imageomics is to make traits computable from images, including the morphology, physiology, behavior, and genetic make-up of organisms, by grounding AI models in existing scientific knowledge so that they produce generalizable and biologically meaningful explanations of their predictions. Spearheaded by our prior research and community building efforts in this area as part of the NSF HDR Imageomics Institute, Imageomics is ripe with opportunities to form foundational bridges between AI and biological sciences by enabling computers to see what biologists cannot see while addressing key challenges in AI, creating a virtuous cycle between the two fields.

Topics 

We encourage participation on a broad range of topics that explore AI/ML techniques to understand characteristic patterns of organisms from image or video data. Examples of research questions include (but are not limited to): 

1. What are the types and characteristics of knowledge and data in biology that can be integrated into AI methodologies, and what are the mechanisms for this integration? 

2. How best can new knowledge exposed by ML be translated back into the knowledge corpus of biology? 

3. How best can we inform and catalyze a community of practice to utilize and build upon Imageomics to address grand scientific and societal challenges? 

4. How can foundation models in vision and language impact biology or benefit from biological knowledge?

Symposium Key Dates:

• Paper Submission Deadline: December 6, 2024. 11:59 PM AOE

• Acceptance/Rejection Decision: December 16, 2024

• Early Registration Deadline: December 19, 2024. 11:59 PM AOE

• Camera-Ready Deadline: January 5, 2025, 11:59 PM AOE

Submission Requirements

• We are accepting short paper submissions for position, review, or research results (2-4 pages, excluding references). 

• Shorter versions (6 pages, excluding references) of articles in submission or recently accepted at other venues (or presented after Oct. 1, 2024) are acceptable provided they do not violate their dual-submission policy.

• An appendix (without a page limit) may be included after the references.  

• All submissions should be anonymous. All submissions will undergo peer review.

• Submissions should be formatted according to the AAAI template (two-column, camera-ready style; see Author Kit) and submitted via CMT. 

• The accepted paper will NOT be archived in AAAI proceedings. This allows the authors to extend their work afterward and submit it to a conference or journal.