07.29.21

Cantwell, Murray Applaud $40M Investment to Launch UW-led and WSU-led Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) applauded the announcement that Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes will be established at the University of Washington (UW) and Washington State University (WSU), with leadership from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA), respectively. NSF announced 11 new centers, each of which will receive approximately $20 million over five years.

“The State of Washington is already a leader in artificial intelligence,” said Senator Cantwell. “From the University of Washington’s Tech Policy Lab that studies the grand challenges around artificial intelligence to Washington State University’s work in precision agriculture, we are more than ready for these two grants to help us understand more artificial intelligence applications.  The UW will work in the area of complex systems to improve fields like manufacturing and WSU will work on improvements in farming.”

“I’m glad to see this substantial investment going to two of our state’s premier research institutions,” said Senator Murray. “As the University of Washington and Washington State University continue to lead on artificial intelligence, these investments will be critical to ensuring that the State of Washington remains a leader in innovation, research, and scientific achievement. I’ll keep fighting for important federal investments like these to move this work forward.”

"The engineering sciences are undergoing a revolution that is aided by machine learning and AI algorithms," said J. Nathan Kutz, a UW professor of applied mathematics and director of the UW-led AI Institute for Dynamic Systems. "This institute brings together a world-class team of engineers, scientists and mathematicians who aim to integrate fundamental developments in AI with applications in critical and emerging technological applications."

“People are very much part of the agricultural ecosystem. It’s not just plants growing. Humans manipulate crops on a daily basis and make complex decisions, such as how to allocate water or mitigate the effects of an incoming storm,” said Ananth Kalyanaraman, a WSU computer science professor and the lead principal investigator for the AgAID Institute. “We aim to partner human knowledge with AI tools in a way that amplifies the end outcomes where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

The specific grant awards follow, with information provided by NSF.

University of Washington (UW) -- NSF AI Institute for Dynamic Systems.  This UW-led institute will enable innovative research and education in fundamental AI and machine learning theory, algorithms, and applications.  The institute will integrate physics-based models with AI and machine learning approaches to create safe, ethical, efficient, and explainable solutions for real-time sensing, prediction, and decision-making challenges, with applications across science and engineering. Other Washington partners include Seattle University.

Washington State University (WSU) -- USDA-NIFA Institute for Agricultural AI for Transforming Workforce and Decision Support. This WSU-led institute, also known as AgAID, will integrate AI methods into agriculture, supporting operations for prediction, decision support, and robotics-enabled agriculture to address a complex web of challenges, including those presented by a changing climate. AgAID will work with farmers, workers, and managers to develop these solutions and to train the next-generation agricultural workforce. Other Washington partners include Heritage University and Wenatchee Valley College.

###