Talk Title: Interoperable AI- and human-centered research with lab discourse graphs

Speaker: Matt Akamatsu, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Washington

Location: HCIL Lab (HBK 2105) and Zoom

Abstract: ​In the age of AI, a new medium for scientific communication is necessary for scientific research to remain collaborative, trustworthy, and mutually human/machine readable. We cofounded the discourse graphs project, a protocol and application for modular, attributable, and interoperable scientific research. Lab discourse graphs allow researchers to structure their ongoing research into atomic elements – questions, claims, and evidence – and connect them in an evolving semantic graph. Our cell biology lab at the University of Washington shares a discourse graph as a networked lab notebook, project tracker, meetings record, literature parser, and scientific story compilation board. An ongoing pilot with 10 labs has demonstrated that our open-source plugins for Roam Research and Obsidian help researchers think like a scientist, remain oriented to their target question, and make modular contributions to shared research projects. Modular attribution of interoperable research results will allow human and AI researchers to contribute to large-scale collaborations, while retaining agency and credit, through shared reasoning across an evolving, auditable, and citable knowledge base.

Bio: Matt Akamatsu is an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Washington. He received his PhD in the department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and did postdoctoral work in the department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. He co-founded the Discourse Graphs Project, an 8-member nonprofit research and product development organization, which has attracted philanthropic support from Schmidt Futures, The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, and The Navigation Fund. Matt received the top prize in The Experiment Foundation’s “Beyond the Journal” award, which recognizes technological advances to communicate science in the age of AI and the internet.