The University at Buffalo is a leader in pursuing artificial intelligence for social good. From research and application to educational programs, UB continues to make strategic investments in people, programs and facilities to enhance the university’s national leadership in AI — including courses that highlight intersectionality between AI and education — to prepare the next generation of students for success. As a flagship university of New York State, UB is home to Empire AI, a $400 million statewide consortium and supercomputing center to be located on the North Campus that aims to make the state a national leader in AI research and innovation.
UB’s robust research environment enables AI scholars to push the boundaries of innovation in cybersecurity, drug discovery and medicine, education, environmental science and more. For almost five decades, UB has been conducting groundbreaking research in machine learning and building a reputation as a “national and international powerhouse” in harnessing AI for public good.
UB leads the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education - funded by the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences of the US Department of Education – which aims to close educational gaps by developing advanced AI technologies to aid nearly 3.4 million children in the U.S. with speech and language processing challenges. The five-year, $20 million institute will develop assistive technologies to help provide earlier universal screening to school-aged children who are at a higher risk of falling behind in their educational development. The institute is working to combat the nationwide shortage of speech-language pathologists (SLP) exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AI can be a helpful tool in understanding the contributions to disease, predicting patient responses to drugs or medical interventions, and addressing global health challenges by tracking the spread of infectious diseases. As a national leader in artificial intelligence, UB is well-positioned to shape the future of human-centered, AI-assisted, healthcare through a comprehensive understanding of data as well as the biological and clinical problems underlying patient treatment.
Venu Govindaraju, PhD, is the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, a SUNY Distinguished Professor in Computer Science and a nationally and internationally recognized research scientist in artificial intelligence who pioneered the Handwriting Interpretation System now used by USPS. Serving on the SUNY AI Taskforce as co-chair, he will work to outline a five-year strategy for harnessing AI in education, as well as developing training across the SUNY 64-member campus system to create a highly skilled NYS workforce in AI. Govindaraju has garnered more than $95M in research funding – including $20M from the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) – to establish the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, for which he is Director and PI.
Xiong, a leading expert in AI algorithms, has developed a program that can detect early signs of disease in plants to optimize growth, enhance agriculture and combat food insecurity.
Nwogu, a top expert in AI and facial recognition, shares her perspective on the devastating effects of bias and discrimination in facial recognition software.
Lyu, a national expert in cybersecurity, has been tapped to lead a $1.8 million initiative to strengthen artificial intelligence models within the U.S. Department of Defense.
Srihari, a leading expert in virtual assistants and digital literacy, is aiding in the development of a digital program that teaches older adults how to avoid online scams.
UB’s AI applications span a vast array of disciplines: From improving medical diagnostics to identifying deepfakes, our researchers utilize AI’s capabilities to solve the world’s most complex challenges.