Argonne receives funding for artificial intelligence in scientific research

Projects will push the boundaries of AI’s role in science while safeguarding sensitive data

2024-10-08

(Press-News.org) The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory funding as part of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Scientific Research program. These grants will drive the development of cutting-edge AI technologies that promise to accelerate scientific discovery while preserving data privacy and improving energy efficiency.

Argonne Computational Mathematician Kibaek Kim received funding for the project called Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning for Science: Building Sustainable and Trustworthy Foundation Models. This project aims to innovate the way large-scale AI models are trained on distributed datasets across multiple institutions without centralizing the datasets. A key aspect of this project is the development of robust and efficient algorithms and software framework with privacy-preserving methods that protect sensitive information while still allowing scientists to harness the full potential of AI.

“Our goal is to ensure that AI can drive research collaboration and scientific breakthroughs without compromising data privacy,” said Kim. “By developing new algorithms that optimize communication, memory and energy use, we hope to create AI models that are not only more efficient but also secure and fair.”

Argonne leads this collaborative project, bringing together experts from DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Arizona State University, and Rutgers University. The team will work to create scalable AI models that can analyze large amounts of data while keeping personal and sensitive information private.

Franck Cappello, a senior computer scientist at Argonne, received funding for the project Tensor-Compressed Sustainable Pre-Training of Extreme-Scale Foundation Models. This project focuses on making AI models more energy-efficient while maintaining their ability to handle complex scientific problems. With the growing demand for AI in various fields, finding ways to make these systems more sustainable is crucial for the future of scientific research.

The funding is part of a larger $68 million investment by DOE aimed at advancing AI technologies in scientific research.

“Progress in AI is inspiring us to imagine faster and more-efficient ways to do science,” said Ceren Susut, DOE associate director of science for advanced scientific computing research. “These research efforts will make scientific AI both more trustworthy and more energy efficient, unlocking AI’s potential to accelerate scientific discovery.”

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.

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