Collaborative grant with MSIs and HBCUs will develop a diverse talent pipeline and pursue fundamental research in artificial intelligence (AI)

Dr. Sathish Kumar, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, has been awarded $600,000 by the Department of Energy under a collaborative grant to develop diverse talent to support the training of artificial intelligence (AI) researchers and developers.

The Mobilizing the Emerging Diverse AI Talent (MEDAL) project is a collaboration between University of Texas at San Antonio, the Florida International University, the Argonne National Laboratory, Bowie State University, Oakland University, Cleveland State University, and the University of Central Florida. The University of Texas at San Antonio, Florida International University, and the University of Central Florida are Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Bowie State University is one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Cleveland State University and Oakland University are doctoral universities with high research activity.

The MEDAL project aims to train faculty, doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students at the HBCU, three HSIs, and two urban universities with high research activity on contemporary artificial intelligence (AI) research relevant to the Department of Energy, including topics such as transformers, large language models, pre-trained visual and scientific models, and data-driven control of autonomous scientific labs.

The collaborative group of six academic institutions will be supported by the Argonne National Laboratory as they pursue fundamental research in AI.