Empire AI consortium members visit proposed sites for supercomputing center

Members of the Empire AI consortium joined UB leaders on Monday to tour possible sites on the North Campus for the statewide consortium’s new supercomputing center, which aims to place New York State at the forefront of harnessing artificial intelligence for social good.

The members represent seven New York-based founding institutions: the City University of New York (CUNY), Columbia University, Cornell University, the Flatiron Institute, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and SUNY.

Earlier this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature approved the establishment of Empire AI, which Hochul said will promote responsible research and development while creating jobs and driving innovation. New York is investing $275 million, and private universities and foundations are funding an additional $125 million.

AI research, facilitated by the Empire AI supercomputing center, will focus on tackling societal challenges, from climate change and world hunger to health disparities and access to education.

“The center will make our cutting-edge and competitive AI research possible,” said Venu Govindaraju, vice president for research and economic development, who is leading UB’s role in the consortium. “Each step in the process makes it seem more real and exciting.”

Consortium members boarded a shuttle at Lockwood Library to visit the two North Campus sites. They then visited the Center for Computational Research and the Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences in downtown Buffalo, which may serve as an interim site.

“This center is going to house computers completing large jobs with high societal impact. We have to make sure they will be able to function 24/7,” said Krystyn Van Vliet, vice president for research and innovation at Cornell, who added that she is excited by the progress the consortium has made thus far and the relationship formed among its members since they began meeting months ago.

The first site is located on 1.8 acres off Service Center Road near the power substation, which is a benefit. It also already has a service road entrance conducive to construction and it is near the Chilled Water Plant, which will be necessary to cool the servers.

The second site, located on 1.3 acres off Flint Road between the Solar Strand and John James Audubon Parkway, is adjacent to the Chilled Water Plant. A service road would have to be built to accommodate the construction equipment.

Either site will need significant electricity to run and cool the supercomputers. 

Participants on the tour, which was led by Govindaraju and Beth Del Genio, chief of staff to President Satish K. Tripathi and vice president for government and community relations, included Van Vliet and:

• Tom Secunda, founder and vice chairman of Bloomberg.
• Curt Cole, vice president and chief global information officer at Cornell.
• Gaspare LoDuca, chief information officer and vice president for information technology at Columbia.
• Jennifer Sparrow, associate vice president and chief academic technology officer at NYU.
• Stacie Bloom, NYU vice provost for research and chief research officer.
• Robert Hull, vice president for research at RPI.
• Ram Ramasubramanian, SUNY provost.
• Ian Rosenblum, SUNY senior vice chancellor for policy implementation and chief of staff to Chancellor John B. King Jr.

Also attending was Yael Fuchs, partner at Loeb & Loeb LLP, and Morgan Hook, managing director at SKD.

Additional UB attendees included A. Scott Weber, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs; Laura Hubbard, vice president for finance and administration; Matthew Jones, director of the Center for Computational Research; Kelly Hayes McAlonie, director of campus planning and design; William McDonnell, associate vice provost for academic planning; E. Bruce Pitman, interim vice president and chief information officer; and Tonga Pham, associate vice president for facilities.

Consortium members expect to decide on the center’s location in a matter of weeks, said Govindaraju, a SUNY Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering with decades of expertise in AI. While no groundbreaking date has been set yet, the goal is to get started soon.

“The governor wants to have this built as quickly as possible,” he said. “I believe it will be placed on the fastest track the state allows.”