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DOE to Provide $16 Million for Machine Learning, AI Research

Sept. 10, 2020
Funding to support advanced research in ML and AI for scientific investigation, management of complex systems.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced it will provide US$16 million for advanced research in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) for both scientific investigation and the management of complex systems.

The funding will support two sets of projects. The first set focuses on the development of ML and AI for predictive modeling and simulation for research across the physical sciences. The second set of projects focuses on basic ML and AI research for "decision support" in managing complex processes similar to those found in self-driving cars, where ML and AI can make or aid in making decisions in real time.

"We are making enormous strides in adapting ML and AI to a wide range of scientific and operational challenges," said Dr. Chris Fall, director of the DOE's Office of Science. "These projects will strengthen ML and AI as tools both for scientific investigation and the management of complex processes."

The projects, which are led by a mix of universities and DOE national laboratories, were chosen by competitive peer review under two separate DOE funding opportunity announcements (along with parallel, companion DOE laboratory announcements), Scientific Machine Learning for Modeling and Simulations and Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support for Complex Systems, issued by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) within the DOE's Office of Science.

The five modeling and simulation projects will be funded at a total of US$3 million in fiscal year 2020 dollars over two years. The six decision support projects will be three years in duration, for a total of US$13 million, with US$7 million in fiscal year 2020 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations.

Lists of the projects can be found on the ASCR homepage, under What's New.

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