Center for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems (CEAIS)

UAlbany & IBM’s AI Compute Infrastructure Collaboration

The Center for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems (CEAIS) is a collaboration between the University at Albany and IBM powering new AI research projects with the help of advanced cloud computing and emerging hardware.

The new AI research center builds on the deep existing alliance between SUNY and IBM, which includes SUNY's involvement in the IBM Research AI Hardware Center founded in 2019, where academic and industry researchers are collaborating on faster, more powerful and more energy-efficient chips. 

 

A hand slides a metallic silver computer node into a server rack.

IBM AIU Spyre Accelerator

In April 2024, IBM Research and UAlbany announced the first step on the journey towards powering tomorrow’s AI research.  

The University installed a cluster containing IBM Research AIU Spyre prototype accelerators — the first such installation on a university campus — enabling students and researchers to run complex AI models in a quest to advance the state of the art in AI. 

 

Leadership

Thenkurussi (Kesh) Kesavadas, Steering Committee Representative for UAlbany

Mukesh V. Khare, Steering Committee Representative for IBM

Eric Stern, Interim Co-director for UAlbany

John Rozen, Co-director for IBM 

 

Scientific Advisory Council

DeeDee Bennett Gayle, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, UAlbany

Nathaniel Cady, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering, UAlbany

Jeff Offutt, Professor and Chair, Department of Computer Science, UAlbany

Balakrishnan (Prabha) Prabhakaran, Director, AI Plus Institute, UAlbany

Paul G. Crumley, STSM, AI & Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, IBM

Kaoutar El Maghraoui, Principal Research Scientist and Manager, AIU Spyre Model Enablement, AI Hardware Center, IBM

Mudhakar Srivatsa, Distinguished Engineer, AI Platform, IBM 

 

2024-2025 SEED Funding Recipients 

Five new joint artificial intelligence (AI) research projects will explore the use of AI for designing complex circuits more efficiently, optimizing large language models for use in mental health applications, improving next-generation wireless signal processing, developing advanced mathematical applications and forecasting extreme weather in urban environments.

The five CEAIS projects funded in the first round are:

  • Leveraging AI for Advanced Extreme Weather Forecasting over New York City
    • Empire Innovation Professor Jorge González-Cruz, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, UAlbany
    • Johannes Schmude, Senior Research Scientist and Manager, IBM
  • Fine-tuning Large Language Models for Mental Health Applications
    • Assistant Professor Zi Yang, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, UAlbany
    • Professor Xin Li, Department of Computer Science, UAlbany
    • Naigang Wang, Senior Research Scientist and Manager, IBM
  • AI-Driven Power Converter Circuit Generation
    • Associate Professor Mohammed Agamy, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, UAlbany
    • Xin Zhang, Senior Research Scientist, IBM
  • Thrust 2: Mixed-Precision Deep Learning Models for Integrated Sensing and Communication
    • Associate Professor Dola Saha, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, UAlbany
    • Asaf Tzadok, Manager, Cognitive Vision and Interaction Group, IBM
  • BayesianMamba: Probabilistic Perspective of Generalization of State Space Models
    • Assistant Professor Felix Ye, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, UAlbany
    • Davis Wertheimer, Research Scientist, IBM

 

Lasting Educational, Research & Economic Impacts

"The Center for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems will significantly expand UAlbany researchers’ access to AI supercomputing resources and make our University a leading academic test bed for some of the latest computing technology developed by IBM.”  

— UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez 

"Working together with UAlbany and other ecosystem partners, we look forward to providing opportunities that reinforce the Capital Region and greater Hudson Valley as centers of technology innovation, as well as supporting a New York workforce shaping our nation’s future.” 

— Mukesh V. Khare, general manager of IBM Semiconductors and vice president, Hybrid Cloud Research at IBM


 

Recent News

 

Three men and a woman stand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of a blue SUNY backdrop smiling and holding a blue t-shirt that reads "SUNY AI Symposium"
UAlbany, IBM Announce New Artificial Intelligence Research Projects
The projects are the first five funded through the Center for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems (CEAIS), a $20 million UAlbany-IBM research collaboration announced last year by Gov. Kathy Hochul that included the installation of state-of-the-art prototype IBM AI hardware at UAlbany.
hands are seen installing computer units
RFP for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems Now Open
The UAlbany-IBM Center for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems (CEAIS) is now accepting white papers as part of the first Request for Proposals (RFP) on the topics of AI infrastructure and applications.
The UAlbany Uptown Campus as photographed from a drone hovering above Collins Circle on a beautiful summer day.
The future of AI research comes to Albany
A cluster of AIU chips, designed by IBM Research to spur on innovations in AI, will be installed at the University at Albany.
A person in the foreground slides a metallic silver computer node into a server rack.
UAlbany to Install First Computing Cluster of IBM Prototype Artificial Intelligence Hardware on a University Campus
The University at Albany announced it will be the first academic institution in the world to receive the IBM AIU, a prototype computing cluster specially designed by IBM Research for artificial intelligence applications.
Gov. Hochul speaks from a wooden podium with the University at Albany seal, in front of a colorful poster of SUNY college logos
UAlbany, IBM Announce New $20M AI Research Collaboration
The Center for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems will include new computing technology developed at the Albany NanoTech Complex and is the next evolution of UAlbany's AI Plus initiative, which is integrating teaching and learning about AI across the University's academic and research enterprises.