2024: The year of AI at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The year started with a bang.

In January, Gov. Kathy Hochul named UB the home of Empire AI, a new $400 million supercomputing center that will provide UB and partners with breathtakingly powerful resources to harness artificial intelligence for the betterment of society.

An avalanche of advancements – all pointing towards UB’s leadership in AI, in New York State and nationwide – followed the governor’s announcement.

With interest in AI surging globally, these advancements showcase and build upon UB’s impressive half-century of expertise in AI research and education. They also hint at a brighter future, where AI’s uncanny abilities merge with human ingenuity to tackle society’s greatest challenges.

“Traditionally, colleges and universities are at the epicenter of life-changing research and ideas,” said Venu Govindaraju, vice president for research and economic development. “The University at Buffalo is pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence and data science in fields that are critical to the state’s and nation’s future.”

As 2024 comes to a close, here’s a look back at what has been a year of AI at UB.

UB researchers have been laying the groundwork for today’s boom in artificial intelligence for decades. This includes pioneering work creating the world’s first autonomous handwriting recognition system, which the U.S. Postal Service and Royal Mail adopted to save billions of dollars.

Those innovations explain, in part, why Gov. Kathy Hochul chose UB to be the home of Empire AI, a consortium of public and private universities, and foundations, that will harness AI for the public good while driving economic development.

“We want to make sure New York State is the capital of AI development … but I need a home for this supercomputer that’ll power the innovation all over our state. And I’m proud to announce that the home will be right here at [UB],” Hochul said Jan. 26 at the Center for the Arts.

Earlier in the month, during her State of the State address in Albany, the governor spotlighted UB student Holliday Sims for her work using AI to improve the child welfare system.

UB was chosen to join the federal government’s first-ever consortium dedicated to ensuring that AI systems are safe and trustworthy.

Announced Feb. 8, the U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC) includes government agencies and top research universities, as well as Microsoft, Apple, Google, OpenAI and other tech companies. AISIC will create standards for AI usage that protect Americans’ privacy; advance equity and civil rights; and promote innovation and competition.

Two UB research groups – the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (IAD), and the Center for Embodied Autonomy and Robotics – will represent UB in AISIC. (To learn more about IAD, check out this episode of UB’s Driven to Discover podcast).

Weeks later, UB was among 28 new members to join AI Alliance, an international coalition led by IBM and Meta that is dedicated to promoting open, safe and responsible AI.

On a beautiful spring day, engineering professor Chase Murray and students took to the skies at UB’s Structure for Outdoor Autonomy Research, one of the largest outdoor drone-testing labs among the nation’s colleges and universities.

Murray uses AI and other technologies to optimize how autonomous vehicles work together – research that has implications in logistics, search-and-rescue, surveillance and more.

Elsewhere, researchers in UB’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science kept tabs on their AI system that aims to improve indoor farming and address food insecurity. And another research group began using AI to make algae fuel production more cost-effective. The projects illustrate UB’s commitment to sustainability and social justice.

April brought Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the National Science Foundation, to campus. The occasion?

“Today, we’re here to celebrate something truly amazing: the opening of the new, $20 million, federally funded National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, and it’s going to be housed right here at UB,” said Schumer.

Funded by the NSF and Department of Education, the institute will create AI systems that ensure children with speech and language disorders receive timely, effective assistance. The work, which addresses the nationwide shortage of speech-language pathologists, will help ensure that millions of children do not fall behind in their academic and socio-emotional development.

On May 31, UB hosted thought leaders from IBM, M&T Bank, Moog and other institutions for its ongoing chat series on AI and society.

“Don’t be an AI user, be an AI value creator,” Dario Gil, IBM senior vice president and director of research, told attendees at the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.

The event included presentations from UB researchers using AI to make advancements in medicine, medical devices, climate change, materials science, pharmaceutical science and other fields.

An electricity grid that uses AI to identify and fix problems before they cause widespread power outages? It could become reality sooner than you think due to research published June 4 and co-led by Souma Chowdhury, who studies how to apply AI to complex systems. He is among more than 200 researchers at UB using AI to address societal challenges.

Also in June, more than 300 scholars from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, one of the world’s most recognized scientific organizations dedicated to advancing AI research, gathered at UB for a multiday conference. The scholars represented more than a dozen fields – including machine learning, psychology, political science, the humanities and more.

On July 17, SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. and state lawmakers visited UB for a roundtable discussion on AI. The attendees learned about UB researchers using AI to identify “forever chemicals,” as well as spinoff companies working on technology to improve treatment for strokes and aneurysms.

“We are pioneering AI discoveries that will drive progress in research and economic development, demonstrating UB’s commitment to leveraging technology for societal benefit,” Govindaraju said.

The start of the new semester brought record enrollment to UB’s Master of Science program focusing on AI. Launched in 2020 with five students, the number swelled to 73 students this fall, with an additional 50 expected next semester.

The program’s growth “shows that we’re providing students with in-demand skills that they can use for the betterment of society,” said Kemper E. Lewis, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Graduates have taken jobs at Amazon Web Services, NVIDIA, Visa and other companies.

UB was awarded $10 million from the U.S. Department of Education to establish the Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI. The center will create AI tools to ensure culturally and linguistically diverse learners in grades K-2, including those in Western New York, receive transformative early literacy instruction.

“We believe that, with the right support, all students — regardless of their backgrounds — can succeed in literacy,” says project leader X. Christine Wang, a professor of learning and instruction in the Graduate School of Education.

Later in the month, Rep. Tim Kennedy announced UB would receive $475,000 to equip its wind tunnel with equipment that allows it to leverage the power of AI, among other technologies. UB uses the facility to study and improve the nation’s response to hurricanes, wildfires and other extreme weather. 

On Oct. 11, roughly nine months after it was announced, Empire AI went live. Gov. Kathy Hochul flipped the switch on a stack of powerful new computer servers at Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences. The servers represent a fraction of the eventual power of Empire AI, which will be located at a new building on North Campus.

On the same day, UB President Satish K. Tripathi delivered his annual State of the University address. “While today, only the private sector has the computing power needed to seriously advance AI research, Empire AI will put New York State at the epicenter of artificial intelligence innovation. This game-changing initiative will enable us to tap the full power of AI to solve complex issues facing our state, nation and world.”

From fake celebrity endorsements to manipulated videos of politicians, the 2024 election was rife with misleading information. Debunking much of this content was the DeepFake-o-Meter, a publicly available tool used by journalists, law enforcement and others. The tool was created by UB computer scientist Siwei Lyu and students.

With AI being added to medical devices, the Food and Drug Administration wants to ensure these products meet public health standards. The agency called upon experts, including UB’s Peter Elkin, for insight at a public meeting. Elkin, professor and chair of the Department of Bioinformatics, said the FDA should allow these devices to learn and therefore improve. “AI-enabled devices are no longer just tools; now they are partners in care,” he said.

Back on campus, UB hosted the latest in a series of “AI at UB” forums on Nov. 21. Organizers updated faculty and staff on how UB is implementing AI in its classrooms and labs. Presenters also discussed how AI can be a tool to foster collaboration and enhance learning outcomes.

In early December, UB officials detailed plans to create a new academic department focused on AI and its impact on society. The department aligns with the mission of UB and SUNY, both of which are committed to responsibly harnessing the power of AI for social good.

Around the same time, UB computer scientist Nalini Ratha published a series of research papers focused on machine learning and encrypted data.

One of the papers suggests a new technique for safeguarding personal medical data as it travels from third-party cloud service providers back to patients and their doctors. The work points to a future where medical diagnostics are quicker and more accurate, and patient medical records remain confidential.