LLNL, University of California to Finance Faculty AI/ML Research Effort

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate has partnered with the University of California to set up a program that would provide up to $1 million for a winning artificial intelligence and machine learning proposal from untenured, tenure-track faculty members.

The LLNL Early Career UC Faculty Initiative grant recipient will be allowed to form research groups composed of students to undertake the project, which is set to last for five years starting in the summer of 2023.

According to Kelly Humbird, the initiative lead for LLNL, technical researchers from the lab will be allowed to participate in the selected project.

Proposals are required to fall under at least one of the AI/ML focus areas such as advanced manufacturing, experiment support, radiographic analysis, autonomous drones and nuclear data. The deadline for applications to express interest is on Feb. 10, LLNL said Thursday.

In December 2021, the lab introduced AI Innovation Incubator, a program aimed at driving the development of such capabilities in applied science. Potential areas to be developed include AI-based predictive models, drug molecular design, 3D printing and fusion energy.

According to LLNL, AI3 will house El Capitan, an ongoing supercomputer construction project by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Advanced Micro Devices. LLNL is looking to use the in-development exascale-class system for physics and computer science applications.