MDI Biological Laboratory
Education

MDI Bio Lab Hosts First Maine IDeA Data Science Conference

  • March 11, 2026
More than 60 faculty and students from Maine and beyond turn out for two-day event.

Poster session at the Maine IDeA Data Science Conference. Organizer Joel Graber, Ph.D., at center.

In late February, the MDI Biological Laboratory hosted the first Maine IDeA Data Science Conference. A diverse array of faculty and students from 15 Maine institutions (plus a few experts from other states) participated in panel sessions, lectures and a poster session.

Topics ranged from education in data research to the ethics of AI use in data science. Posters detailed specific data-driven inquiries, such as assessing cancer risk metrics in mammography or the use of open-source eDNA data to catalogue arthropods in the northern Maine woods.

MDI Bio Lab hosted the conference as part of its leadership of the Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (Maine INBRE).

A Maine INBRE committee led by Joel Graber, Ph.D., organized the event. Graber is co-director of the Maine INBRE Data Science Core and director of MDI Bio Lab’s Comparative Genomics and Data Science Core.

At the event’s start, he encapsulated the conference’s intent with two quotes from The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf’s biography of the German natural philosopher Alexander von Humbolt: “Rather than being talked at, he wanted the scientists to talk with each other,” and “Without a diversity of opinion, the discovery of truth is impossible.”

Goals included networking, collaboration and discussion among Maine biomedical data scientists, computer scientists, researchers and students interested in data science, with an emphasis on emerging challenges and opportunities associated with the accelerating evolution of AI.

Poster session at the first Maine IDeA Data Science Conference, held in late February at MDI Bio Lab.

Several Maine INBRE institutions participated in the presentations: The Jackson Laboratory, the University of Maine at Presque Isle, University of Southern Maine, University of New England, Bates College, and the University of Maine, as well as collaborating organizations such as Dahl-Chase Diagnostic Services & Pathology Associates, The Maine Technology Institute, and the Roux Institute.

Panel sessions included discussions of the impact of generative AI on colleges and universities, ethical issues in the use of AI in research, and a broad discussion of sharing and accessing public data. Panel participants came from Colby College, the University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire, Bates College, College of the Atlantic, and Bowdoin College.

C. Titus Brown, Ph.D., of the University of California at Davis, delivered the keynote address, titled “Adventures in (Biological) Data Science—A Lifetime Endeavor.”