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.
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.
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
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
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
CEAIS' seed funding initiative brings together research projects at the intersection of advanced AI, emerging hardware and real-world impact. Each project pairs UAlbany AI and subject matter experts with leading IBM Research scientists, with an eye toward mutually beneficial collaboration and the continued development of a joint AI research community.
Together, these teams are advancing scalable, efficient and responsible AI while exploring new frontiers in both foundational methods and applied innovation.
Five joint 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:
Our second cohort reflects the breadth and ambition of the CEAIS research agenda, with projects focused on a diverse range of areas including symmetry-aware AI models, scalable attention mechanisms for NLP, AI acceleration on IBM’s AIU Spyre platform, climate-focused modeling, optical communications and AI security.
The seven CEAIS projects funded in the second round are:
"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
