University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo has key role in developing AI suite to fuel scientific innnovation

University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo will receive more than $1.4 million as part of a landmark initiative to develop the first fully open suite of advanced artificial intelligence models explicitly designed to fuel U.S. scientific innovation — with the Hilo campus serving as a key collaborating institution.

The funds are from an award to Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which received a total of $152 million — $75 million from National Science Foundation and $77 million from NVIDIA — as part of a partnership for the development of the transformative new AI suite.

University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo associate professor of computer science and coordinator of the university’s data science program Travis Mandel serves as co-principal investigator on the project.

He will co-lead the adaptation and community engagement components of the initiative aimed at creating fully open, multimodal large language models trained on scientific data and literature.

“This award presents an incredible opportunity to bring world-class AI expertise to [University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo] and help our students better understand the technical details of how these large AI systems work,” Mandel said in the university’s announcement about the initiative.

He said data science students at the Hilo campus will gain invaluable hands-on experience with these systems, whether it’s studying how well the artificial intelligence suite meets the needs of local scientists or implementing improved training methods to provide better and more reliable assistance with challenging scientific tasks.

The project will directly integrate cutting-edge AI infrastructure into the academic programs at the Hilo campus, providing students unprecedented opportunities to contribute to nationally significant AI systems.

Students will work alongside Mandel and other AI researchers through summer internships and year-round projects, gaining valuable real-world experience building and evaluating artificial intelligence models that could transform scientific discovery throughout multiple disciplines.

The collaboration also will enable University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo students to benefit from the expertise of leading AI researchers while supporting local scientists throughout Hawaiʻi who want to incorporate artificial intelligence into their environmental, marine and climate research.

“We are honored to work alongside [Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence] and the other partners on this groundbreaking initiative,” said University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Chancellor Bonnie Irwin in the annoucement. “This award reflects our university’s growing strength in data science education and our commitment to advancing Hawaiʻi’s role in the nation’s technological future.”

Read the full announcement from National Science Foundation and NVIDIA for additional information.