Energy Department creates new AI research center

The U.S. Department of Energy recently created a new research center to advance the study and development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Scientists from the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Georgia Institute of Technology will staff the new research center, called the Center for ARtificial Intelligence-focused ARchitectures and Algorithms (ARIAA). The scientists will collaborate to develop core technologies vital for the application of AI to DOE priorities, including cybersecurity and grid resilience.

PNNL senior research scientist Roberto Gioiosa will be the center’s director. Siva Rajamanickam from Sandia and Tushar Krishna from Georgia Tech will serve as deputy directors.

“Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing our world,” Gioiosa said. “You can see this everywhere, from your mobile phone to the development of self-driving cars. AI is also revolutionizing the way we do science and the way we tackle problems important to our nation. The creation of ARIAA is part of the strategy for solving some of the most challenging problems by employing novel artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques.”

A focus of the center is to develop algorithms and architectures that can be used and applied in a variety of different systems.

“AI promises to yield answers to many problems in a fraction of the time compared to current processes,” Gioiosa said. “But more importantly, AI will allow us to solve problems today, that simply cannot be solved because they are too complex. This is the science of the future.”