Recap of the 42nd Slicer Project Week in Gran Canaria

The 42nd Slicer Project Week (PW42) took place from January 27-31, 2025, in Gran Canaria, Spain. This bi-annual gathering brought together researchers, developers, and medical imaging professionals from around the world to collaborate on the open source 3D Slicer platform. From integrating advanced AI workflows to improving core functionalities, participants seized the opportunity to push the boundaries of medical imaging and visualization.

Key Accomplishments from the 42nd Project Week

• Core Enhancements and Bug Fixes: Attendees worked on addressing bugs, optimizing performance, and adding new features to Slicer core infrastructure. These improvements help ensure that 3D Slicer continues to deliver state-of-the-art capabilities for the medical imaging community.
• Advanced AI and Machine Learning Integration: Multiple teams explored the integration of AI-driven tools to automate image segmentation, classification, and analysis, making medical imaging workflows more efficient.
• Cloud and Remote Access Workflows: Cloud-based data storage and remote collaboration were key themes, enabling researchers to seamlessly upload, share, and analyze medical images from virtually any location without being confined to local hardware. Enhanced DICOM and web-based functionality further supported these new workflows.
• Interdisciplinary Research Applications: Teams collaborated on a range of applications, including neurosurgical planning, real-time image guidance in surgery, dental imaging, and radiation therapy planning. These efforts continue to expand the utility of 3D Slicer in both research and clinical settings.
• Workshops and Knowledge Sharing: Daily breakout sessions covered topics such as software development best practices, hardware acceleration for image processing, and specialized tutorials on Slicer modules. Participants benefited from hands-on training and lively discussions with leading experts.

Kitware’s Role during the Project Week

Kitware team members—Sam Horvath (co-organizer of the event), Thibault Pelletier, and Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin (JC)—made significant contributions to both technical development and community engagement during PW42, reflecting Kitware’s continued commitment to open-source innovation.

Notable Contributions:

• DICOM and Cloud-Based Imaging: Building on ongoing efforts to broaden Slicer’s interoperability, Kitware engineers worked on improving DICOM workflows and further integrating cloud-based imaging solutions. This included a focus on enabling seamless data uploads, remote access, and streamlined image-sharing features.
• Slicer Extensions and Module Development: Kitware developers participated in projects aimed at enhancing existing Slicer modules and expanding their functionality. Their work ranged from refining user interfaces to integrating novel algorithms that support a broader spectrum of clinical and research use cases.
• SOFA and Simulation Integration: Continuing a multi-project effort, Kitware helped advance the integration of the SOFA framework with 3D Slicer for surgical simulation and biomechanical modeling. This work lays the foundation for realistic training scenarios and improved preoperative planning.
• Slicer and Trame Integration: Led by Thibault Pelletier, this initiative explores bridging 3D Slicer with trame, a Python framework for interactive web visualizations. The integration aims to bring robust medical imaging tools to the browser, supporting remote and collaborative workflows.
• Infrastructure Updates: Kitware team members also contributed to a variety of infrastructure-focused projects, such as creating Linux distro-agnostic binaries for Plastimatch, improving PyRadiomics build processes, and exploring robust boolean operations for better 3D modeling.
• Builds of Slicer for ARM-Based Systems: Led by Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin (Kitware) and Andres Diaz-Pinto (NVIDIA), this project tackled building 3D Slicer on ARM architectures targeting NVIDIA Linux systems to broaden the platform’s reach and performance. By refining the build processes, testing volume rendering and segmentation AI models, and documenting platform-specific issues, the team successfully compiled Slicer on Ubuntu 22.04 (aarch64).

Breakout Sessions

• Slicer (2024 Recap / 2025 Plan) & Live Q&A
  Organized by Sam Horvath, Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin, Steve Pieper, and Andras Lasso, this session focused on Slicer’s recent milestones and future roadmap (see slides). Participants discussed core development priorities, user feedback, and upcoming projects.
• Web and AI
  Organized by Steve Pieper and Thibault Pelletier, this breakout covered the status of Slicer’s web integration and AI-centric functionalities. Thibault showcased progress on Slicer–trame integration, highlighting how web technologies can enhance medical imaging applications.
• Rendering / AR
  Organized by Simon Drouin and Rafael Palomar, with local attendance by Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin and Thibault Pelletier, this session delved into VTK integration, WebGPU support, and potential use of compute shaders for better rendering performance. The group also discussed pass-through rendering for AR and challenges with OpenXR/OpenVR on Windows 11.

Looking Ahead

Slicer Project Weeks continues to be a crucial venue for driving innovation in medical imaging. Kitware remains dedicated to supporting these efforts by contributing both software development expertise and community engagement to push the boundaries of what’s possible with open-source medical imaging software.

For more details about the event and future Slicer Project Weeks, visit the official PW42 page.

We look forward to the next Slicer Project Week and continuing our partnerships within the 3D Slicer community, striving to make cutting-edge, open-source medical imaging tools accessible to all.

Thank you to everyone who made PW42 a success—we can’t wait to see what’s next for the 3D Slicer community!