A new Center for Alternative Sustainable and Intelligent Computing (ASIC) is coming to the Pratt School of Engineering.
ASIC is a recently created research collaboration among three universities—Duke University, Syracuse University and University of Notre Dame. Duke has centered its focus on artificial intelligence "applications," while Syracuse specializes in "software and algorithms" and Notre Dame on "hardware innovations."
The center kicked off its opening during an event February.
“We are trying to encourage collaboration between the university and industry,” said ASIC co-director Yiran Chen, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
The goal of the center, Chen said, is to aid in coordinating company investments for academic research that relates to artificial intelligence and computation.
Support for ASIC comes from the National Science Foundation and various technology companies, such as Lenovo and Thales.
ASIC is a NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center. These types of centers combine academia and industry to perform research focused primarily on information technology, defense technology, infrastructure and applications.
According to a slide presentation Chen delivered in February that he provided to The Chronicle, the worldwide market for AI is approximately $4 billion and is expected to increase to $30 billion by 2022.
“One of the big themes that came out of the research projects was neuromorphic computing and artificial intelligence providing better hardware and software to execute these sort of capabilities," said ASIC co-director Benjamin Lee, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
The organization's set-up allows for joint research and work across the three sites. At events like the kick-off festivities, researchers at different locations can provide feedback and resources to add to individual projects.
As of now, the three ASIC sites include work from eight different disciplines—including electrical and computer engineering, computer science, applied and computational mathematics, biology, mechanical and aerospace engineering, software and information systems, mathematics and physics.
Lee said students interested in participating in industrial research have the ability to potentially join the company-funded projects that are run by faculty.
“Representatives from all these companies came to Durham, and we presented some of our ideas and they had a chance to give us feedback," Lee said. "And that was a great opportunity.”
Through that experience, students would be able to catch a glimpse of industrial work and even possibly have the opportunity to intern with partner companies.
“This sort of arrangement is really exciting because it allows the Ph.D. students and the faculty to get closely tied in to industry challenges, and it allows us to translate fundamental research into practical solutions that the companies care about,” Lee said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.