{"id":220221,"date":"2025-08-14T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=220221"},"modified":"2025-08-14T11:14:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:14:41","slug":"uh-hilo-project-ai-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/14\/uh-hilo-project-ai-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo partners in $152<abbr>M<\/abbr> project on cutting-edge <abbr>AI<\/abbr> infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_88245\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RCUH1Bu7Drg?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Â鶹´«Ã½Hilo Joins $152M AI Revolution\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo has been awarded more than $1.4 million as part of a landmark $152 million artificial intelligence (<abbr>AI<\/abbr>) grant from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/\">National Science Foundation<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/\">NVIDIA<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/allenai.org\/\">Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence<\/a> (Ai2). The nationwide initiative will develop the first fully open <abbr>AI<\/abbr> system designed specifically to accelerate scientific research and innovation, and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo faculty and students will play a key role.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_220226\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220226\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Instructor talking to two students with laptops\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-220226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-2-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-2.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220226\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mandel with data science students<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;Having <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo involved is going to raise the <abbr>AI<\/abbr> profile of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo, and it&#8217;s going to definitely enhance our programs in data science, especially, but also computer science, to help us offer more of this cutting edge work in <abbr>AI<\/abbr> to our students,&rdquo; said Travis Mandel, associate professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/cse.uhh.hawaii.edu\/\">computer science<\/a> and coordinator of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/datasci.uhh.hawaii.edu\/\">Data Science Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The project will integrate state-of-the-art <abbr>AI<\/abbr> infrastructure into <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo&#8217;s academic programs, creating summer research opportunities, school-year internships, and collaborations with leading <abbr>AI<\/abbr> experts. Students will work side-by-side with faculty and scientists applying <abbr>AI<\/abbr> to local and global challenges in fields such as astronomy, marine science, and climate research.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_220225\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220225\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Two students working in a computer lab\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-220225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-1-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-1.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220225\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo provides training in <abbr>AI<\/abbr>, machine learning, statistics and data analysis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;If <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> wants to be involved in this <abbr>AI<\/abbr> revolution, we need to be able to evaluate how well these systems are helping with problems that we care about here,&rdquo; explained Mandel.<\/p>\n<p>Mandel serves as co-principal investigator of the subaward and will co-lead adaptation and community engagement efforts to ensure the <abbr>AI<\/abbr> models meet the needs of diverse scientific communities, including researchers across <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <abbr>AI<\/abbr> system will be fully open&#8212;a rare feature in the field &#8212;allowing <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo students and faculty to not only use but also explore and modify how the models are trained. This transparency will help demystify <abbr>AI<\/abbr> and give students direct experience with high-performance systems often inaccessible to smaller institutions.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are honored to work alongside Ai2 and the other university partners on this groundbreaking initiative,&rdquo; said Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin. &ldquo;This award reflects our university&#39;s growing strength in data science education and our commitment to advancing <span aria-label=\"Hawaii's\">Â鶹´«Ã½&#8217;s<\/span> role in the nation&#8217;s technological future.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>For more go to <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/kukala\/20250814\/Ai2Subgrant\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s K&#363;kala N&#363;hou<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The project will bring cutting&#8211;edge <abbr>AI<\/abbr> tools to <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo, offering research opportunities, internships and collaborations with top experts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":220226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1602,541,14,56],"class_list":["post-220221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-ai","tag-computer-science","tag-uh-hilo","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hilo-data-science-ai-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220221"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220223,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220221\/revisions\/220223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}