How one research center is driving AI innovation for academics and enterprise partners alike

A new research center for artificial intelligence and machine learning has sprung up at the University of Oregon, thanks to a collaboration between IBM and the Oregon Advanced Computing Institute for Science and Society. The Oregon Center for Enterprise AI eXchange (CE-AIX) leverages the university's high-performance computing technology and enterprise servers from IBM to create new training opportunities and collaborations with industry.

"The new lab facility will be a valuable resource for worldwide universities and enterprise companies wanting to take advantage of IBM Enterprise Servers POWER9 and POWER10 combined with IBM Spectrum storage, along with AIX and RHEL with OpenShift," said Ganesan Narayanasamy, IBM's leader for academic and research worldwide.

Narayanasamy said the new center extends state-of-the-art facilities and other Silicon Valley-style services to researchers, system developers, and other users looking to take advantage of open-source high-performance computing resources.  The center has already helped thousands of students gain exposure and practice with its high-performance computing training, and it is expected to serve as a global hub that will help prepare the next generation of computer scientists, according to the center's director Sameer Shende.

"We aim to expand the skillset of researchers and students in the area of commercial application of artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as high-performance computing technologies," Shende said.

Thanks to a long-term loan agreement with IBM, the center has access to powerful enterprise servers and other capabilities. It was envisioned to bring together data scientists from businesses in different domains, such as financial services, manufacturing, and transportation, along with IBM research and development engineers, IBM partner data scientists, and university students and researchers.

The new center also has the potential to be leveraged by everyone from global transportation companies seeking to design more efficient trucking routes to clean energy firms looking to design better wind turbines based on models of airflow patterns. At the University of Oregon, there are potential applications in data science, machine learning, environmental hazards monitoring, and other emerging areas of research and innovation.

"Enterprise AI is a team sport," said Raj Krishnamurthy, an IBM chief architect for enterprise AI and co-director of the new center. "As businesses continue to operationalize AI in mission-critical systems, the use cases and methodologies developed from collaboration in this center will further promote the adoption of trusted AI techniques in the enterprise."

Ultimately, the center will contribute to the University of Oregon's overall research excellence, said AR Razdan, who serves as the university's vice president for research and innovation.

"The center marks another great step forward in [the university's] ongoing efforts to bring together interdisciplinary teams of researchers and innovators," Razdan said.

This post was created by IBM with Insider Studios.