PARTNER: NSF AIHUB@CAU - An AI Hub at Clark Atlanta University (CAU)

Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is an ExpandAI Partnership between Clark Atlanta University (CAU) and the AI Institute for Advances in Optimization (AI4OPT). In this project, a minority-serving institution (CAU, an HBCU) leads a new collaboration with an AI Institute to pursue shared, complementary goals to unlock untapped talent at CAU and other HBCUs in AI education and use-inspired research. The collaboration creates an AI Hub at CAU (AIHUB@CAU) for the establishment of new educational programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels and to initiate research collaboration with AI4OPT. AIHUB@CAU will leverage AI4OPT industry partnerships as well to accelerate course creation and ground experiences in the problems and materials available from real world application. Through a range of research and education initiatives, the project will build community and new centers of excellence in AI aimed at educating future generations of African-American AI researchers who will use AI to transform scientific disciplines, engineering, business, and cyberphysical systems. This mutually beneficial partnership in research, education/workforce development, and infrastructure will be centered on the vision to address the dearth of African-Americans PhD students and researchers in AI, and to achieve that vision by creating sustainable AI hubs in HBCUs, beginning with the first at CAU. AIHUB@CAU leverages the existing AI4OPT Faculty Training Program, the NSF INCLUDES NDSA, a deep collaboration between CAU and AI4OPT/GT, educational material from Intel targeted at HBCUs and MSIs, and the commitment of the partners to build the necessary capacity. The project takes a broad view of AI that goes beyond machine learning, and branches into decision making and innovative application areas where AI is poised to play an increasing role. The selected application areas leverage existing strengths of CAU in business analytics and supply chains, cyber-physical security, and materials science. A symbiotic relationship with AI4OPT includes collaborative growth of needed research infrastructure as well as the co-supervision of undergraduate and graduate students at AIHUB@CAU. The project is partially funded by NSF’s Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program within the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.