Three UB faculty members receive SUNY-IBM Research Alliance grants

Three UB faculty members are among the 14 researchers from SUNY’s four university centers who have received 2024 SUNY-IBM AI Research Alliance grants.

The grants support projects ranging from cloud computing to sustainable energy to optimizing the next generation of supercomputers.

The alliance is part of a partnership between New York State and IBM to create a global research hub for developing next-generation AI hardware. It aims to promote scientific research, innovation and technology commercialization opportunities by leveraging both parties’ research expertise, strategic interests and key assets in AI and related areas. The partnership enhances and enriches both SUNY’s and IBM’s capabilities and underscores their commitment to advancing AI for economic growth and common good.

The UB faculty members who received funding and the titles of their projects:

• Tevfik Kosar, professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: “GreenAICode: Sustainable AI Model Development through Energy-aware Code Refactoring.
• Baishakhi Mazumder, associate professor, Department of Materials Design and Innovation, SEAS: “Enhancing conductance and reliability through atomistic investigation and optimization of hybrid bonding.”
• Jinjun Xiong, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and director, UB’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science: “Physics-informed Graph Neural Networks and Novel Graph Representation for Chiplet-based Physical Design Synthesis Closure.”

“As AI becomes further interwoven into every aspect of our society — from education and entertainment to health care and industry — SUNY has a central role to play in keeping New York State at the forefront of AI research and development,” SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said in announcing the award recipients. “Thanks to our partners at IBM, we can keep the momentum going by taking on significant AI research endeavors.

“Our SUNY faculty and researchers are truly exceptional, and it is through their dedication that SUNY will position New York State as a leader in artificial intelligence research and development thanks in part to the significant New York State investment and resources in the Empire AI consortium,” King said. “We are particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of this work being centered right here in the Empire State.”

Empire AI and its state-of-the-art computing center will be housed at UB, a SUNY flagship recognized for its decades-long leadership in AI and data science.

The consortium’s goal is to accelerate research and innovation in AI while driving sustained economic impact across the state. Empire AI aims to tackle societal challenges in medicine, education, social justice, climate change and other fields while also serving as a trustworthy source of information as AI technologies evolve.

“The University at Buffalo has been a leader in artificial intelligence for more than four decades and continues to build on this legacy as the home of Empire AI,” said Venu Govindaraju, UB’s vice president for research and economic development. “Congratulations to all of the awardees, including three from UB, who join more than 200 faculty members actively engaged in AI-related research throughout the university and at UB’s four AI-focused centers and institutes.”