AI Institutes: Critical Research for U.S. Competitiveness
AI Research for Food Security, Public Safety, Education, Ethics, and So Much More
How much does a pepper picked by a robot cost? If you attended this year’s AI Institutes Expo Day on at Carnegie Mellon University, you would know! (spoiler alert: see the photo at right).
Twenty-seven AI Institutes serve as “national nexus points” for collaborative projects between higher education institutions, federal agencies, industry, and nonprofits/foundations. At this year’s gathering of the AI Institutes, Nirav Merchant and Rudy Salcido of CyVerse/Data Science Institute (DSI) attended as members of the AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture (AIIRA), a collaboration led by Iowa State University involving faculty from eight universities and organizations across the US.
Research by these AI Institutes ranges from robotics to education, agriculture to astronomy, weather and more. This year, activities included live demonstrations of technologies in development, interactive panel discussions with AI and industry experts, and networking opportunities to engage with ongoing research. In addition to showcasing their field robot, the AIIRA team demonstrated their AI-driven predictive digital twin technology that creates virtual 3D representations of an actual field crop (or even an individual plant) that can be subjected to experimental computational manipulations faster, easier and at far less cost than traditional field trials. AIIRA's vision is to create new AI-driven, predictive digital twins for modeling plants, and deploy them to increase the resiliency of the nation's agricultural systems.
Prior to Expo Day, Merchant and Salcido joined team members representing all 27 AI Institutes at a 3-day Summit for AI Institutes Leadership (SAIL) to discuss their AI-based research in areas of critical importance to U.S. competitiveness, such as agriculture, food security, public safety, education, and weather. AIIRA’s AI research goals include:
-develop and deploy novel plant breeding technology,
-empower farmers to adopt novel techniques and technology, and
-enhanced precision in agricultural management.
As part of the AIIRA leadership team, Merchant presented on The AI Research Workflow and Salcido on Project Management for AI Projects at SAIL. In summing up the AI Institutes events, Merchant said, “it was great to participate in the many conversations and hear presentations highlighting how we can leverage AI to advance science. SAIL offered many opportunities to get a better grasp on how we can implement AI in our everyday work, and especially in understanding the 'human-in-the-loop' when interacting with AI technologies.” Read more about AIIRA’s accomplishments.