UniverseTBD: Democratising Science in the Era of Agentic AI
Our Liverpool Virtual Seminar Series on Data Intensive Science will continue on Tuesday 14th January at 15:00 GMT. The seminar will be given by Ioana Ciuca of Stanford University who will present “UniverseTBD: Democratising Science in the Era of Agentic AI”
Seminars in this series cover R&D outside of the data intensive science CDT’s core research areas and give an insight into cutting edge research in this area. At the end of the talk there will be a Q&A session with the speaker.
About the talk
Scientists have long sought to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery. Traditional methods, while rigorous, can be slow and resource-intensive. Through the UniverseTBD consortium's mission to democratise science for everyone, we explore how artificial intelligence (AI), particularly agentic AI systems, can transform the scientific process. I first introduce Pathfinder, an AI-enabled retrieval framework that helps astronomers and enthusiasts efficiently explore and synthesise the vast astronomical literature. I then discuss extending the capabilities of Pathfinder with HypoGen, a methodology for generating novel, creative and feasible scientific hypotheses. I examine our efforts to understand the impact of these systems by evaluating them through real user-LLM interactions and how we are using these insights to build better tools that serve our community. Looking ahead, I discuss the potential ways AI will revolutionise astronomy over the coming years and our role in enacting this transformation. Through our continued efforts, values, and mission, the UniverseTBD team remains committed to advancing scientific discovery and understanding.
About the speaker
Ioana is a Research Scientist at Stanford University and a member of the newly founded interdisciplinary Center of Decoding the Universe led by Prof Risa Wechsler. She works at the intersection of Astrophysics and Artificial Intelligence. Her commitment to education and providing quality resources for underrepresented students, along with her experience as a Data Science for Social Good Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in the United Kingdom, led her to co-found UniverseTBD, an AI research lab aimed at Democratising Science for Everyone. As the principal investigator, she has guided her team to grow into a 30+ person international collaboration, developing specialised models and benchmarks for scientific research. Through these efforts, the team strives to make a lasting impact on both scientific advancement and educational equity.
How to attend
Participation is free, but you need to register to attend this and other webinars in the series. For more information and how to register please follow this link. Once registered, you will receive the Zoom connection details on the morning of the online seminar.
The seminar details
Speaker: Ioana Ciuca (Stanford University)
Seminar title: “UniverseTBD: Democratising Science in the Era of Agentic AI”
Date/Time: Tuesday 14th January at 15:00 GMT