We were founded in January 2023 by two students who were looking for collaboration, community, and a space to discuss machine learning as applied to biological problems. Since then we have grown in size and impact, hosting seminars, organizing AI hackathons, and offering a fellowship for students at UT Austin who work at the intersection of Biology and Machine Learning.

A brief history:

• Spring 2023: began guest lectures and collaborations

• Summer 2023: focus on organizational growth and textbook club (Speech and Language Processing (3rd ed. draft) by Dan Jurafsky and James H. Martin)

• Fall 2023: Hosted the BioML Seminar Series

• Summer/Fall 2024: Planning and kickoff of Bits to Binders: AI Protein Design Competition

• Fall 2025: Announced The Charles W. Smith Jr. Graduate Fellowships in Molecular Bioscience

We meet for one hour on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month at 11:00 AM in MBB 3.204 at UT Austin. These meetings are open to students, postdocs, and faculty interested in machine learning for the biochemical sciences.

Each session typically features a talk, discussion, or paper review designed to promote cross-disciplinary exchange. It’s a chance to hear about ongoing research, share ideas, and connect with others working at the interface of biology and machine learning.

Please see this link for an up-to-date schedule

Joining is simple, just come to one of our meetings! We meet on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month at 11:00 AM in MBB 3.204. There’s no formal registration required.

Whether you’re in biology, computer science, engineering, or another field, you’re welcome to participate. Attending a meeting is the best way to get involved, meet other researchers, and learn about ongoing projects and opportunities within the BioML Society.

See how to find us above.

We have a public BioML Slack channel that we recommend as a starting place! Here you can meet other BioML researchers around the country

If you would like to start a BioML Society at your university please contact us at biomlsociety@gmail.com or reach out to one of the student leadership found on the People page.

We are always looking for talented researchers and industry folk to come chat with us. Please note that we prioritize scheduling professors and industry scientists over graduate students and post-doctoral students.

Past guest speakers include:
Chris Dallago (NVIDIA), Caleb Ellington (GenBioAI), Steve Ekker (DellMed), David Soloveichik (UT), Zack Booth Simpson, Pete Kelly + Dana Cortade (AlignBio), Kevin Drew (UIC), Adam Broerman (UW), Kevin Yang (Microsoft).

Please email us at biomlsociety@gmail.com.

Yes! For both collaboration inquiries and collaboration requests, please reach out to us at biomlsociety@gmail.com

Consulting work will be considered on a case-by-case basis and must align with the policies of the student’s graduate program. Our members can provide expertise in areas such as data analysis, model development, and biological applications of machine learning.

If you are interested in collaboration, we welcome opportunities that bring together researchers from across UT Austin and beyond to tackle interdisciplinary problems at the interface of biology and ML.