The SkAI initiative aims to expand astrophysics research with AI
Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) September 22, 2024
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) received a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Simons Foundation to partner with academic institutions and federal laboratories across the Midwest to accelerate AI-driven astrophysics research.
Led by Northwestern University, the collaboration will establish the NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI), one of two new centers established to help astronomers unlock new insights about the universe. Based near NCSA’s Illinois campus, the institute will bring together 83 researchers from 25 organizations, including NCSA, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and other leading institutions, to develop AI tools to analyze astronomy data and improve physics-based simulations.
“Our mission at NCSA’s Center for Astrophysical Surveys (CAPS) is to bring together innovative software and cutting-edge hardware to address some of the most pressing problems in the universe,” said Gautam Narayan, co-principal investigator of SkAI and deputy director of CAPS.
“We are excited for our students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty and staff to deepen their engagement with colleagues at Northwestern and the University of Chicago, providing the entire SkAI community with access to the NSF’s Delta and DeltaAI supercomputers at NCSA to build tools and services that will increase the interpretability and reliability of AI methods. Our goal at Illinois is to democratize AI and make it more trustworthy for astrophysics and cosmology, not just for our campus, but for everyone. This is a great step forward and Illinois will be leading the way.”
SkAI aims to overcome the challenges posed by the massive astronomy datasets coming from surveys such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the CMB Stage 4 experiment. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with our incredible interdisciplinary, multi-institutional team to accelerate the data-driven revolution that wide-field and deep space surveys are bringing to the field of astronomy,” said Northwestern University’s Vicki Calogera, director of SkAI and principal investigator on the grant.
“We will transform our understanding of astrophysics across a huge range of scales: from stars and the transient phenomena they produce, to the evolving galaxies they inhabit, to the black holes they form, and finally to the dark regions of the universe and their cosmological origins.”
The effort also prioritizes open science, diversity and educational outreach. Through partnerships with community colleges, minority-serving institutions and public engagement initiatives, SkAI works to lower barriers to STEM fields and provide workforce development resources for high school students through postdoctoral students. “Our research is guided by AI ethics principles, and all SkAI members receive training in key AI ethics practices,” Narayan said.
“Our commitment to open collaboration will ensure that SkAI’s research findings are widely adopted. We will develop new trustworthy AI tools in an open source ecosystem and train a diverse generation of scientists and engineers to ethically apply and scale AI within and outside of academia.”
“Thanks to the University of Illinois’ leadership and vision in establishing the Center for Astrophysical Investigations, we were able to get a head start in these areas, which was critical to SkAI’s success. Their continued support also gives us the freedom and ability to innovate. By pushing the boundaries of computing, we are reaching even further horizons in the universe,” Narayan added.
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