NRAO Part of New AI Institutes Launched by U.S. National Science Foundation and Simons Foundation

Credit: Photo by Bettymaya Foott/NSF NRAO/AUI, composition by U.S. National Science Foundation

Researchers will build a new breed of AI-powered tools to find the needles of discovery lurking in vast haystacks of astronomical data

From the early telescopes made hundreds of years ago by Galileo to the sophisticated astronomical observatories of today, people have built increasingly innovative tools to probe and measure the cosmos. Soon, researchers at two new institutes funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation will build a new breed of astronomical tools by harnessing the uniquely powerful abilities of artificial intelligence to assist and accelerate humanity’s understanding of the universe.

The new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes for astronomical sciences are part of the NSF-led National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program, which now includes 27 AI institutes across the U.S. The two new institutes will each receive $20 million over five years: $10 million from NSF and $10 million from the Simons Foundation.

“The massive amount of data that will be gathered in the coming years by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory and other large-scale astronomical projects is simply too vast and rich to be fully explored with existing methods,” says NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “With reliable and trustworthy AI in their toolbox, everyone from students to senior researchers will have exciting new ways to gain valuable insights leading to amazing discoveries that might otherwise remain hidden in the data.”

“Astronomy has incredibly rich and open data sets and is poised for more deep and profound inquiry,” says Simons Foundation President David Spergel. “AI offers novel tools that can use this data both to produce transformative results and to develop tools that can have impact in other fields.”

Both institutes aim to advance the capabilities of AI beyond just astronomical sciences so it can become a more useful tool for all scientific disciplines involving large datasets, sophisticated models and the iterative process of generating and experimentally testing theories.

The new AI Institutes for astronomical sciences are:

NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins (NSF-Simons CosmicAI)

Led by The University of Texas at Austin in collaboration with NSF NOIRLab, the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the University of Utah, the University of Virginia and UCLA, NSF-Simons CosmicAI aims to accelerate traditionally time-consuming aspects of astronomical research, such as processing and analyzing large amounts of data and creating and evaluating simulations of complex phenomena like the chemical processes within stars. The institute plans to democratize access to astronomical data and analysis by developing a powerful AI-based assistant that provides accurate responses to scientific queries.

NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (NSF-Simons SkAI)

Led by Northwestern University in collaboration with The University of Chicago, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the Adler Planetarium, NSF-Simons SkAI will tackle exceptionally complex problems in astrophysics and astronomy across a broad range of cosmic scales, from the physics of exotic objects like neutron stars and black holes to the formation of galaxies and the role that dark matter and dark energy play across the entire universe.

The institutes will seek to empower researchers at all career levels by providing access to trustworthy AI that can rapidly conceptualize and assist in research projects with full access to all published astronomical data and findings.

Training and education for early-career researchers and students is another objective the institutes will pursue over the next five years. The institutes will conduct a variety of outreach activities to broadly disseminate their innovations and help train the AI-literate workforce of tomorrow. Those activities include summer schools for high school students and teachers and the development of online courses allowing scientists and students anywhere in the U.S. to gain certification in the burgeoning field of AI-assisted astronomy.

Eric Murphy, an astronomer with the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory, adds, “We are excited to be a key part of one of the first Astronomy AI institutes. This opportunity will allow us to collaborate with leading experts in the field to drive key areas in foundational AI research while simultaneously identifying how these advancements can increase the efficiency and reliability of our instruments—the most in demand radio telescopes in the world for astronomy—for our existing facilities, like our partnership in the Atacama Large Millimeter and submillimeter Array, and future facilities, like the Next Generation Very Large Array.”

Launched in 2020, the NSF-led AI Institutes are part of a broad federal effort to advance a cohesive approach to AI-related opportunities and risks and support the goals outlined in the White House’s 2023 “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” For more information about NSF’s decades-long support for foundational AI research and the AI Institutes program, visit NSF’s Artificial Intelligence webpage.

About NRAO

The NRAO is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

This news article was originally published on the NRAO website on September 18, 2024.