Building Benchmarks for AI-Driven Veterinary Innovation
June 9 - June 11
Cornell University – Ithaca, NY
The From Data to Animal Health: Building Benchmarks for AI-Driven Veterinary Innovation Thought Summit focuses on advancing artificial intelligence to transform animal health across species and veterinary domains. The summit will bring together experts from veterinary medicine, computer science, ethics, and law to tackle the unique challenges of creating standardized, high-quality datasets tailored to veterinary needs.
Through collaborative workshops and discussions, participants will lay the groundwork for VETNET—a pioneering ecosystem of live benchmarks designed to foster AI-driven innovation in veterinary medicine. The summit aims to spark a multi-institutional academia-industry partnership, publish a foundational whitepaper, and catalyze the development of public benchmark datasets that will drive transformative progress in animal health and improve outcomes for animals, veterinary professionals, One Health, and society at large.
Program highlights
Keynotes (open to the event participants only):
- P-J Noble, University of Liverpool, “What is? Current state of benchmarks in vet medicine: needs, challenges, and opportunities”
- Heather Whitney, University of Chicago, “What can become? Learn from benchmark successes and failures in human medicine”
- Kilian Weinberger, Cornell University, “Datasets in the Age of Foundation Models”
Panel on the plans for the VETMED ecosystem (open to the public)
Where: Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine, Lecture Hall 5
When: June 11, 2026
• 4-5 p.m.: Panelists will reflect on key insights and share future visions for interdisciplinary collaboration in building veterinary benchmarks.
• 5-6 p.m.: Networking reception
Organizers
Renata Ivanek
PI
Professor, Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine
Casey Cazer
Co-PI
Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Sciences and Department of Public and Ecosystem Health, College of Veterinary Medicine
Parminder Basran
Co-PI
Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine
Jennifer J. Sun
Co-PI
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science
Participants
Dottie (Dorothy) Cimino Brown
Vice President Science & Healthcare Innovation
Mars, Veterinary Health (USA)
Marta Castelhano
Associate Research Professor; Director Cornell Veterinary Biobank
Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (USA)
Chris De Sa
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Cornell University Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science (USA)
Peter Frazier
Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Cornell University Duffield Engineering (USA)
Julio Giordano
Professor of Dairy Cattle Biology and Management
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (USA)
Brian Hur
President; Principal AI Scientist
Association of Veterinary Informatics; Veterinary Information Network (USA)
Monica Meduri
AI Engineer
The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center (USA)
Kim Nayyer
Edward Cornell Law Librarian, Associate Dean for Library Services
Cornell Law School (USA)
Peter-John (PJ) Mäntylä
Professor, Small Animal Clinical Science
University of Liverpool (United Kingdom)
Christopher Pinard
Veterinary Oncologist, Lead health AI researcher
ANI.ML; Toronto Animal Cancer Centre (Canada)
Lauren Que
Regulatory Scientific Reviewer at Center for Veterinary Medicine
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USA)
Ron Seccia
Director of Information Technology
Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (USA)
Meg Thompson
Clinical Professor of Diagnostic Imaging
Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (USA)
Kilian Weinberger
Professor of Computer Science
Cornell University Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science (USA)
Agenda
Day 1 • Tuesday, June 9
8:30-9 a.m.
Check-In & Breakfast
9-10:00 a.m.
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Welcomes: Vice Provost Thorsten Joachims (remote), Associate Dean Julia Fellipe
Explain Thought Summit goals: Renata Ivanek
10-10:15 a.m.
Coffee Break
10:15-11:15
Introductions
Through a hands-on activity, participants will get to know each other and collaboratively surface their views on benchmarks in vet medicine
Session Lead: Renata Ivanek
11:15-11:30 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Keynote 1: P-J Noble, University of Liverpool, “What is? Current state of benchmarks in vet medicine: needs, challenges, and opportunities”
Keynote 2: Heather Whitney, The University of Chicago, “What can become? Learn from benchmark successes and failures in human medical imaging”
Moderator: Parminder Basran
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Lunch social
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Keynote 3: Kilian Weinberger, Cornell University, “Datasets in the Age of Foundation Models”
Panel with the three keynote panelists
Moderator: Jennifer Sun
2:30-2:45 p.m.
Coffee Break
2:45-3:45 p.m.
Panel 1: Open Benchmarks, Open Minds
Panelists: Leszek Bukowski, VetApp; David Hogg, University of Leeds; Tomasso Banzato, University of Padua; Chris De Sa, Cornell University
Moderator: Parminder Basran
3:45-4 p.m.
Coffee Break
4-5 p.m.
Metrics of Success
The participants will collaboratively define what success means for this summit, both immediately and in the long term.
Session Leads: Renata Ivanek, Parminder Basran, students
5-7 p.m.
Dinner social
Day 2: Wednesday, June 10
8:30-9 a.m.
Breakfast
9-10 a.m.
Discussion 1: Imagine VETNET 1.0!
Small Group Discussion
Participants will brainstorm what VETNET means to them: WHO, WHAT, HOW?
Session Leads: Renata Ivanek, Parminder Basran, students
10-10:15 a.m.
Coffee Break
10:15-11:15 a.m.
Discussion 1: Imagine VETNET 1.0!
Group presentations
Groups will share their ideas about VETNET
Session Leads: Renata Ivanek, Parminder Basran, students
11:15-11:30 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Panel 2: VETNET ethical and legal compliance
Panelists: Simon Coghlan, University of Melbourne; Kim Nayyer, Cornell University; Margret (Meg) Thompson, Cornell University
Moderator: Renata Ivanek
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Lunch social
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Panel 3: Building Trustworthy Benchmark Repositories
Panelists: Beryl Rabindran, AWS Open Data; Christopher Pinard, ANI.ML Health; Fei Wang, Weill Cornell Medicine
Moderator: Parminder Basran
2:30-2:45 p.m.
Coffee Break
2:45-3:45 p.m.
Discussion 2: Design VETNET 1.0 ecosystem
Small Group Discussion
Participants will design the VETNET ecosystem framework. The goal is to outline steps and tasks for the development of the VETNET ecosystem
Session Leads: Renata Ivanek, Parminder Basran, students
3:45-4 p.m.
Coffee Break
Discussion 2: Design VETNET 1.0 ecosystem
Group presentations
Participants will share steps and tasks for the development of the VETNET ecosystem
Session Leads: Renata Ivanek, Parminder Basran, students
5-7 p.m.
Dinner Social
Day 3: Thursday, June 11
8:30-9:00 a.m.
Breakfast
9-10 a.m.
Summit synthesis
This session focuses on identifying overarching insights from earlier discussions. Participants will work together to connect themes across data, tasks, and stakeholders/ experts/teams, helping shape a cohesive research agenda.
Session Leads: Renata Ivanek, Parminder Basran, students
10-10:15 a.m.
Coffee Break
10:15-11:15 a.m.
Summit synthesis – cont.
11:15-11:30 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Whitepaper and Collaboration
Building on the previous session, participants will begin drafting a collaborative whitepaper. We’ll consolidate findings, articulate future research questions, and outline pathways toward VETNET development.
Session Leads: Renata Ivanek, Parminder Basran, students
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Lunch social
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Whitepaper and Collaboration – cont.
2:30-2:45 p.m.
Coffee Break
2:45-3:45 p.m.
Reflections and Next Steps
Participants will reflect on key learnings and define next steps for research and engagement pathways toward VETNET development.
Session Leads: Renata Ivanek, Parminder Basran, Jennifer Sun
3:45-4 p.m.
Coffee Break
4-5 p.m.
Panel on the plans for the VETMED ecosystem
Open to the Cornell community (Lecture Hall 5)
Panelists from the summit will reflect on key insights and share future visions for interdisciplinary collaboration to build veterinary benchmarks.
Moderator: Parminder Basran
5:00-6:00
Reception for Summit participants and the Cornell community
6:00-8:00
Self-Organized Dinner
Venue: College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, 930 Campus Road Ithaca, NY 14853, Classroom 6
Student assistants: Gayatri Anil, Amelia Nelson, Katherine Koebel, Chen (Mila) Xin, Param Mohapatra, Ziang Liu