PAGE 8-9 • OUTREACH Our Signature Events and Key Visits
PAGE 10-11 • HISTORY 2024 Timeline
OUR LEADERSHIP
The year 2024 was a landmark year for IAD, marked by exciting growth and impactful achievements. A key milestone was the addition of a brand-new, state-ofthe-art 3,000-square-foot facility to host the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education. This physical growth was matched by an expansion in human capital, with the addition of three new full-time staff members to further IAD’s mission of better serving the UB community.
IAD played a pivotal role in several major institutional successes, including UB’s winning of a $10 million grant to establish the IES National Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI (CELaRAI), as well as a $28.4 million NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award. The institute also deepened its strategic focus on high-impact areas such as AI and Health Science and AI for Social Good, with IAD faculty leading research initiatives and contributing significantly to SUNY’s Strategic Research Investment (STRIVE) planning efforts. These efforts culminated in a historic announcement from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who committed to supporting the establishment of a new Department of AI and Society at UB, as well as a dedicated AI and Society building. Additionally, the Governor unveiled a $400 million investment to create the Empire AI Infrastructure, the most advanced in the state, which will be housed at UB.
The momentum is indelible and the possibilities ahead are vast. Let’s continue to build on this remarkable progress and look forward to an even more transformative year to come.
Jinjun Xiong, PhD Director
SUNY Empire Innovation Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Rachael Hageman Blair, PhD Associate Director of Education
Kenneth Joseph, PhD Associate Director of AI & Society
Srirangaraj (Ranga) Setlur Associate Director of Community Engagement
Yijun Sun, PhD Associate Director of AI & Health Science
Shaojie Tang, PhD
Associate Director of AI and Management Science
John Beverley, PhD
Associate Director of AI and Ontological Science
Sara Metcalf, PhD
Initiative Lead for the Benchmarking and Evaluating AI for Modeling and Simulation (BEAMS)
The Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (IAD) brings together leading researchers, labs, and centers across the University at Buffalo and beyond, connecting affiliates from a wide range of disciplines.
Our mission is transforming how we solve the world’s most complex challenges through cutting-edge AI, data science, and collaborative innovation.
Our vision is to foster interdisciplinary research to continue to move the community in new and interesting directions. Bringing together university, industry, government and community partners - affiliates - to advance core technologies and techniques, applying them in ways to optimize humane-machine partnerships and develop the necessary tools and skills to have a positive societal impact.
SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION
$20M: NATIONAL AI INSTITUTE FOR EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATION
The National AI Institute for Exceptional Education (AI4ExceptionalEd) is a National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institute led by UB. It aims to close the gap in services for the nearly 3.4 million children who require speech and language support by developing advanced AI technologies to scale the reach and availability of speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Funding Source: National Science Foundation (NSF) and Institute of Education Sciences (IES). IAD Affiliates: Venu Govindaraju, Jinjun Xiong and Srirangaraj (Ranga) Setlur.
$1.2M: Clean Energy Research Hub
UB awarded grant to establish a research center that taps into the university’s expertise in materials science, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and other fields. Funding Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). IAD Affiliate: Krishna Rajan.
$10M: CENTER FOR EARLY LITERACY AND RESPONSIBLE AI (CELARAI)
The Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI (CELaRAI) conducts pioneering research on integrating generative AI into early literacy education. Its AI Reading Enhancer (AIRE) tool personalizes text, analyzes reading in real time, and delivers immediate literacy support for K–2 students. Funding Source: Institute of Education Sciences (IES). IAD Affiliate: X. Christine Wang.
$3M: mHEALTH TECHNOLOGIES FOR ASSESSING BLOOD PERFUSION IN CHRONIC WOUNDS
This project focuses on harnessing mobile artificial intelligence to enhance the management of chronic wounds.
Funding Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH). IAD Affiliate: Wenyao Xu.
$1.8M: TO SECURE THE DOD’S MOST CRITICAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MODELS
Working with security for AI firm HiddenLayer as part of an effort by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and AFWERX to use AI detection and response to manage critical issues in the U.S. IAD Affiliates: Siwei Lyu, Sanjukta Das Smith and Dominic Sellitto.
$1M: REFUGEES AND UNDERPRIVILEGED STUDENTS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN EMERGING STEM TECH
Three-year Education Pathways Summer Program for underrepresented high school students for learning in AI, cybersecurity, drone technology and Internet of Things (IoT). Funding Source: National Science Foundation. IAD Affiliates: Shambhu Upadhyaya, Sreyasee Das Bhattacharjee and Wenyao Xu.
$750,000 AWARD FOR SAFER AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE RESEARCH
UB’s Center for Embodied Autonomy and Robotics (CEAR) receives award from MOOG, Inc. for support in robotics research. IAD Affiliates: Karthik Dantu and Souma Chowdhury
$175K: AI-ENABLED ENERGY-AWARE HPC & CLOUD SOFTWARE
The GreenSW project advances sustainable, low-carbon software development through AI-driven energy-aware code refactoring, helping reduce the overall carbon footprint. Funding Source: National Science Foundation. IAD Affiliate: Tevfik Kosar
AI REVOLUTIONIZES EMERGENCY RESPONSE
A study reveals ChatGPT has been successfully trained to extract location information from social media posts during natural disasters to aid first responders. IAD Associate Director of AI and Society: Kenneth Joseph.
AI TO TREAT BRAIN ANEURYSM
Al applications developing prognosis tools for the operating room, which could improve treatment outcomes and early detection of complications. IAD Affiliate: Ciprian “Chip” Ionita.
COLLABORATIVE FOR A REGENERATIVE ECONOMY (CoRE)
CoRE received a three-year funding extension to continue advancing green manufacturing in Western New York. This funding cycle seeks to accelerate and scale up safer material innovations in clean energy technologies by building on our earlier work. IAD Affiliate: Krishna Rajan.
BASIC FORMAL ONTOLOGY (BFO) AND THE COMMON CORE ONTOLOGY (CCO)
U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Intelligence Community (IC) will rely on Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and one of its widely used extensions, the Common Core Ontology (CCO), as the “baseline standards for formal DOD and IC ontology.” IAD Affiliate: Barry Smith.
COLLABORATIVE INSTITUTE FOR MULTISOURCE INFORMATION FUSION (CIMIF)
Positioned to leverage strategic partnerships with government, industry and academia to advance data fusion in support of intelligence-gathering, defense activity and homeland security. The top technical areas of CIMIF are space defense, big data, automated decision-making and cybersecurity. IAD Affiliate: John Crassidis.
BOOK: BINARY NEURAL NETWORKS: ALGORITHMS, ARCHITECTURES, AND APPLICATIONS
This publication is the first book in the binary neural network field, leading to further advancement of the field. IAD Affiliates: Baochang Zhang and David Doermann.
AREAS
Autonomy & Robotics
Biotech, Genomics & Pharmaceuticals
Computational Research & Modeling
Computer Vision & Machine Learning
Education and Special Education
Finance, Business & Management
Chemistry & Materials
Foundational Research
Health Sciences
Legal, Ethics & Fairness
Natural Language Processing
Ontology
Privacy, Trust & Information Security
Social Science
Curious About AI and Data Science?
Let’s explore the future together, visit: Buffalo.edu/iad
IAD’S DEGREE PROGRAMS
The Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science provides multiple educational programs to accommodate and train students and professionals at different levels. These programs provide students with the skills they need to thrive in the rapidly evolving fields of artificial intelligence, information technology, and data science.
Leonid Khinkis, PhD Professor of Teaching
Adithya Lakshmi Narayanan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Teaching
Vochita Mihai, PhD Professor of Teaching
Jianzhen (Jason) Liu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Teaching
Computational and Data-Enabled Sciences (CDES) PhD
The Computational and Data Enabled Sciences PhD addresses research challenges in a variety of fields by integrating large-scale computing and big data analysis, training scientists to effectively analyze big data and multisource datasets. By combining expertise in computing, data sciences and domain sciences, students are equipped with the skills to tackle complex problems and solve grand challenges in their respective fields.
Data Sciences and Applications MPS
The Master of Professional Studies in Data Sciences and Applications program focuses on equipping students with the necessary skills in analytics to derive valuable insights from large and diverse datasets. Students receive training in various data mining and machine learning techniques, enabling them to analyze and extract meaningful information from complex data.
Engineering Science (Artificial Intelligence) MS
This Engineering Sciences MS with a course focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a multidisciplinary program designed to train students in the areas of machine learning, programming languages, deep learning algorithms and advanced artificial neural networks that use predictive analytics to solve realworld problems.
Engineering Science (Data Science) MS
The Engineering Science MS with a course focus in Data Science offers a comprehensive education in big data and analysis. Students gain knowledge, expertise and practical training in data collection and management, data analytics, scalable data-driven discovery and fundamental concepts.
EDUCATION LEADERSHIP
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GRADUATE PROGRAMS
MICRO-CREDENTIALS
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
2024 ENROLLMENT GRADUATE STUDENTS
400+ companies from all over the world have sponsored IAD masters students as interns, including:
EDUCATION
Rachael Hageman Blair, PhD
Associate Director of Education, Program Director of Data Sciences and Applications MPS
Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Health Professions
Sarah Muldoon, PhD
Program Director of Computational and Data Enabled Sciences (CDES) PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, College of Arts and Sciences
Johannes Hachmann, PhD
Program Director of Engineering Sciences (Data Science) MS
Associate Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
IAD’s CDES program propels one to transform into a general-purpose problem solver - the best kind there is in this century. I entered the program as an engineer, and its cross-disciplinary structure allowed me to explore countless areas in research and in the classroom, from network theory to numerical analysis. The program’s malleability in enabling problem solving is singular and exceptional.
Mingchen Gao, PhD
Program Director of Engineering Sciences (Artificial Intelligence) MS
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Adithya Narayanan 2024, CDES PhD Student
OUR SIGNATURE EVENTS AND KEY VISITS
IAD DAYS: THE AI AND DATA SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM 2024
UB’s IAD Days is an annual celebration of big data, HPC, and AI, featuring leading scholars who host workshops, lectures, and networking for students and faculty.
A WORLD SCHOLAR’S SEMICONDUCTOR FORUM
An invitation-only forum brought global semiconductor experts together to highlight New York State’s major industry investments, including the $10B Green CHIPS initiative, Micron’s $100B megafab, GlobalFoundries’ $11.6B expansion, a $10B public-private R&D partnership, and a $40M federal grant for the NY SMART-I Corridor. Attendees shared insights and strategies to strengthen the state’s semiconductor ecosystem.
IAD TECH EXCHANGE SEMINAR SERIES
Throughout the academic year, the UB community and guest scholars come together weekly to explore diverse AI and data science topics—from child development to robotics—fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue and sparking new research collaborations.
EMPIRE AI AND PHASE ALPHA
The Empire AI computing center, located on UB’s North Campus, is set for completion in 2026. Its first stage, Phase Alpha ranks as the world’s 245th most powerful computer. Supported by a gift from the Simons Foundation, Alpha features 96 top-tier processors for AI training and ranks 38th in energy efficiency on the Green 500 list.
NATIONAL AI INSTITUTE FOR EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATION
UB celebrated the grand opening of the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, highlighting its decades-long leadership in artificial intelligence research. The institute is developing AI systems to help children with speech and language disorders succeed, uniting UB’s expertise to transform lives, promote inclusion, and strengthen communities.
IAD DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES
Each year, we bring some of the nation’s most prominent researchers and innovators in the areas of artificial intelligence, computational science and data science from academia, government and industry to speak on topics of interest to the Western New York community.
To nominate a Distinguished Speaker, please email: ub-iad@buffalo.edu
Sachin S. Sapatnekar, PhD
University of Minnesota
Electronic Design Automation and Machine
Learning - Building a Virtuous Cycle
UB | AI CHAT SERIES
The UB AI Chat Series explores the future of AI for maximum industry impact, and a key visit featured distinguished speaker Dario Gil, IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research. This event included keynote talks and panel discussions with leaders from local industries and academia—including Moog, M&T Bank, and the Jacobs School of Medicine—and showcased AI demos by UB students and postdocs from CSE and AI4ExceptionalEd.
SUNY + GOOGLE WORKSHOP
The SUNY + Google Workshop at the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education featured a hybrid, day-long event covering Google’s AI and cloud platforms, TPU/GPU model training, security, responsible AI, and AI use cases. It also explored potential collaborations between SUNY and Google related to UB, Empire AI, and AI4ExceptionalEd.
AWS - AMAZON MEETING
IAD Director Jinjun Xiong met with AWS representatives in the IAD Conference Room and AI4EE space to discuss available services and potential collaborations.
Guru Banavar, PhD
Viome Life Sciences, Inc.
A New Approach to Molecular Health for the Global Population
OUTREACH
Vincent Conitzer, PhD
Carnegie Mellon University
Getting AI systems (collectively) to behave the way we (collectively) want them to
SUNY CHANCELLOR’S VISIT
SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. visited UB’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education. The visit included tours, a roundtable with experts and elected officials, student demonstrations funded by the Chancellor’s summer program, and a robotics demo featuring Yubie.
NERDS VISIT WITH KEMPER LEWIS
Kemper Lewis, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, hosted the Northeast Engineering Regional Deans (NERDs) for their annual thought-sharing session at UB. The visit included a tour of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education and a brief talk about the facilities.
NEW IN 2025: AI AND SOCIETY DEPARTMENT
The new Department of AI and Society (AIS), led by Inaugural Chair Atri Rudra (IAD Affiliate), focuses on AI systems designed for societal needs. Supported by $5 million from New York State, AIS offers interdisciplinary degrees across health, policy, arts, and more. Housed jointly in Engineering and Arts & Sciences, it emphasizes ethical AI and complements UB’s wider AI efforts like the Institute for AI and Data Science and Empire AI.
NOVEMBER OCTOBER DECEMBER
ub-iad@buffalo.edu
buffalo.edu/ai-data-science