Listen to this articleLeaders from Rutgers University-New Brunswick recently revealed a $10 million investment into a multi-pronged AI and data science initiative.
The product of more than a year of strategic planning, the effort aims to advance the university’s capabilities as well as expand the scope of its research and scholarship on AI and data science – all toward establishing the school as a leader in the space.
The vision is centered on the establishment of the Rutgers Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (RAD) Collaboratory. RAD will serve as a virtual hub where researchers and students can converge and lead efforts to make discoveries as well as devise practical applications. According to officials, RAD’s mission is to foster AI and data research that will help Rutgers compete for federal and state funding. It will also partner with industry leaders.
“The RAD Collaboratory emerged from Rutgers-New Brunswick’s Academic Master Plan as a new path forward for collaboration across disciplines, including with the public and private sectors,” Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway said. “Faculty, students and outside partners will dive into the rapidly expanding worlds of AI and data science and forge new discoveries and applications to advance our society.”
“Through the integration of intellectual communities both within Rutgers and externally, the RAD Collaboratory will be strategically positioned to attract significant interdisciplinary large-scale funding opportunities,” said Denise Hien, senior vice provost for research and one of the plan’s architects.
Working together
Interim Director Stephen Burley, Henry Rutgers Chair and University Professor in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, will lead RAD.
“Combining data science with AI has already begun to pay dividends across the biological and medical sciences,” said Burley, a structural biologist, physician and data scientist who currently directs the Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine. “This new collaboratory will make it easier, and more fun, for our community of scholars to capitalize on the expertise represented across the university, and the enormous wealth of digital data stored at Rutgers, running the gamut from agriculture to zoology.”
Advance in AI
around the state:
The planning for the RAD initiative began last fall. At that time, Hien formed the Provost Strategic Task Force on Cyberinfrastructure and Data Science. Composed of faculty from 11 campus schools and centers, the group was charged with reimagining the directions of AI and data science at Rutgers.
Hien also noted the support of the deans and research deans from the Schools of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Communication and Information, and Environmental and Biological Sciences to develop the collaboratory.
“These collaborations are expected to drive advancements in research and innovation, creating opportunities for joint projects, shared resources and impactful contributions to the field,” she said.
Other highlights of the overall effort include:
- Soliciting ideas for proposals of interdisciplinary research projects through a campus-wide call
- Creating two new AI- and data science-centric student research programs
- Devising optimal approaches to incorporate AI in the classroom (led by Saundra Tomlinson-Clark, Rutgers New Brunswick provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs)
- Expanding the number of faculty with expertise in AI and data science through the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Cluster Hire
Additionally, the Office of Advanced Research Computing and the Office of Information Technology will play crucial roles in AI efforts, including overseeing important investments in cyberinfrastructure.
“This initiative is what we need to propel Rutgers to the forefront of AI and be involved in its future evolution,” said Dimitris Metaxas, a Distinguished Professor who directs the Center for Computational Biomedicine Imaging and Modeling. Metaxas is also a pioneer in computer vision, a type of AI that uses machine learning to analyze images and videos. “It is very exciting to see that we will be investing in AI as a multidisciplinary endeavor. We’re going to need multiple perspectives, since AI is currently evolving beyond a purely data-driven approach and closer to human-centered direction.”
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