Duke U. lands $3M training grant for artificial intelligence research

DURHAM – The National Science Foundation has awarded Duke University a $3 million, five-year Research Traineeship grant to develop a program for graduate students to develop expertise in using artificial intelligence (AI) for materials science research. The aiM (AI for Understanding and Designing Materials), program will fill a vital workforce gap by training the next generation in the new convergent field of materials and computer science research. "To achieve the promise of the U.S. Materials Genome Initiative of accelerated discovery, design and application of new materials, we must integrate the traditional tools of experimentation, theory and computation with the emerging tools of data science to transform the way we approach materials understanding and discovery," said Cate Brinson, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and director of aiM. The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), launched in 2011, is a multi-agency federal government effort to accelerate the development and deployment of new, advanced materials to address a host of challenges in clean energy, national security, health and welfare. "The MGI promoted a paradigm shift from slow individual experiments and computation to the beginnings of data-driven AI approaches in materials science research," added Brinson.