Bill Katz
billkatz.com
Bill Katz
@billkatz.com
Programmer/scientist at HHMI Janelia Research Campus. Research interests include AI/ML, datastores, viz for imaging and sparse volumes. Consumer and very infrequent producer of fiction.
Reposted by Bill Katz
Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint:
“Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
October 15, 2025 at 4:17 PM
The male CNS is out with a number of papers to follow!
🪰 A team of researchers has unveiled the complete connectome of a male fruit fly central nervous system—a seamless map of all the neurons in the brain and nerve cord of a single male fruit fly and the millions of connections between them.
🔗 https://hhmi.news/4o3EJnk
October 6, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Bill Katz
I know there's a 𝒍𝒐𝒕 going on right now, but I couldn’t be prouder to share this long-incubated labor of love: the complete connectome of the male 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 optic lobe 🧠🪰
🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Connectome-driven neural inventory of a complete visual system - Nature
A connectome of the right optic lobe from a male fruitfly is presented together with an extensive collection of genetic drivers matched to a comprehensive neuron-type catalogue.
www.nature.com
March 27, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Bill Katz
TensorStore (github.com/google/tensorstore) has had a huge 2024 and continues to power checkpointing for much of the largest ML work at Google, including Gemini, and support major Google Cloud customers training models on GCP. Read on for some specific 2024 updates!
December 18, 2024 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Bill Katz
We are looking for a Scientific Computing Associate to develop AI/ML methods to identify the ancestors of genes of unknown origin, an exciting project with the Stern lab @ HHMI Janelia.

We are looking someone with AI/ML experience.

hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

@hhmi.bsky.social
November 24, 2024 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Bill Katz
John E. Stone made a similar point about shape perception in his talk for the Janelia Scientific Visualization Interest Group (organized by @wthang.bsky.social), although he uses ambient occlusion instead of path tracing for performance reasons.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzx0...
Sci Viz 2022-05-12: Advanced Rendering Methods for Scientific Insight (John Stone)
YouTube video by Scientific Computing Software (HHMI Janelia)
www.youtube.com
November 16, 2024 at 10:26 AM
Reposted by Bill Katz
I like to use #GlobalIllumination ( #PathTracing ) for #SciVis ( #SciViz ) because it creates the cues our visual systems use to perceive 3D shapes. For example, without shadows it is almost impossible to see the bulge in the middle of these SMP neurons from #Drosophila #Neuroscience data.
November 15, 2024 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Bill Katz
We are looking for exceptional #AIScientist|s to join our #AI@HHMI initiative at #HHMIJanelia. We want to uncover fundamental principles underlying complex biological systems that are inaccessible without new innovations that combine #AI with experimental design.

ai.hhmi.org#join-our-team

1/4
November 15, 2024 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Bill Katz
FlyWire #Neuroscience data (green) is now in neuronbridge.janelia.org for matching against #Drosophila light #microscopy data (magenta). Thanks to Cristian Goina, Hideo Otsuna, Rob Svirskas, Konrad Rokicki. See a match in the browser, using mixed surface / volume rendering implemented with #threejs.
November 23, 2024 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Bill Katz
Did you know a fruit fly’s brain has its own internal compass? Studying these neurons helps scientists explore how brains process spatial information, offering insights into navigation across species.

This image is from HHMI’s Beautiful Biology initiative.

⬇️ ℹ️: www.hhmi.org/beautifulbio...
November 19, 2024 at 8:21 PM
Later research shows measles can cause an immune system reset, leaving victims more susceptible to later infections. Anti-vaxxers championing "natural immunity" and "hygiene hypothesis" issues due to isolation predictably ignore the erasing of a lot of those supposed gains.
asm.org/articles/201...
February 23, 2024 at 5:40 PM