The University of Hawaii at Hilo has received a $1.4 million to support advancement of science through the use of artificial intelligence.
The funding is part of a five-year, $152 million project by the nonprofit Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (abbreviated as Ai2) jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and AI company Nvidia, university officials announced in a news release last week.
That Ai2 project — to which NSF gave $75 million and Nvidia gave $77 million — is an initiative to “develop the first fully open suite of advanced AI models explicitly designed to fuel U.S. scientific innovation,” UH-Hilo officials said.
The $1.4 million for UH-Hilo will allow it to acquire equipment to facilitate collaborating with Seattle-based Ai2, hire a post-doctorate adviser to assist with on-campus projects, and offer students working on the project year-round summer internships, according to Travis Mandel, associate professor of computer science.
In addition to teaching, Mandel coordinates the data science program at UH-Hilo, serves as a co-principal investigator on the Ai2 project, and is the leader of UH-Hilo’s contribution to Ai2’s infrastructure development.
“It’s very exciting,” Mandel said. “Since the proposal is so large, it took a very long time to review, especially with the change in the federal administration. We originally submitted the proposal back in December of 2023, and it went through many stages of review because, such a large proposal, it’s not a common amount for NSF to give. In summer of 2024, (the whole project team) flew out to Washington, D.C., to make our case to NSF there. So, it’s been quite a large journey.”
Mandel said the project will allow students to work with Ai2 professionals first-hand via remote teleconnections, bring specialists to Hilo for yearly scheduled workshops, and provide recurring trips for Mandel and other team members to Seattle.
He explained that UH-Hilo students’ education will benefit when they contribute to the development of those AI models remotely. The students will be evaluating how well the AI can assist local scientists in an effort to support scientific advancements on locally important issues, he said.
“We are honored to work alongside Ai2 and the other partners on this groundbreaking initiative,” Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin said in the news release. “This award reflects our university’s growing strength in data science education and our commitment to advancing Hawaii’s role in the nation’s technological future.”
University officials said the development of open-source AI is meant to support local scientific endeavors in the fields of environmental, marine and climate science.
Mandel said utilizing AI — which requires a lot of energy and water to function, causing many to highlight the detrimental environmental impact it poses — to advance science meant to protect the environment is “tricky,” but he explained that the AI will support a climate science project he has already been working on and that the outcomes justify the impact.
“We’re not designing the AI system just to help people plan their schedule or solve their homework question. We’re designing it to help scientists; that is the goal of training this system,” he said. “We want to do AI for good, AI for science. So, yeah, it does cost some energy in electricity and water usage to run, but the benefit to the scientific endeavor would outweigh that. It’s certainly a challenging question that needs more research and more thought.”
Source: The Garden Island
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