A new nonprofit public-private partnership between educational institutions, Alabama cities and Auburn-based datacenter AUBix was announced last week in an effort to improve the development and understanding of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the state of Alabama.
The Alabama Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AAICE) partnership brings together a number of higher education institutions, including the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Alabama State University, Auburn University, Central Alabama Community College, Southern Union, Talladega College, Trenholm State Community College and Tuskegee University, in addition to the cities of Auburn, Montgomery and Opelika.Â
"As innovation continues to advance, it is imperative that rural and other underserved areas maintain parity in education and training," said AAICE President and Chair Kenny Brock, the associate dean for Biomedical Affairs and Research at VCOM's Auburn campus. "This initiative will enable our students to gain knowledge and skills, our researchers to receive new funding and insights, and the citizens of Alabama to benefit from a wide range of high-tech business ventures."
At the center of the partnership is AuBix, a mission-critical datacenter that opened in Auburn last spring. Last August, AUBix announced its partnership with NVIDIA, the industry's leading technology provider of artificial intelligence in equipment and software, and has already installed two large NVIDIA supercomputers, called "nodes."
"As we’ve seen, data is the lifeblood of business, education and research, and the next iteration of information technology is AI," said Andrew Albrecht, AAICE Advisory Board Secretary and CEO of AUBix, in an interview with the Villager last November. "We expect the availability of this leading-edge technology to benefit industry sectors including healthcare, aerospace, automotive, cybersecurity, digital manufacturing, academic research, military, state organizations and a wide array of Alabama-based industries."Â
AAICE will leverage the NVIDIA technology in the center's effort to improve the development and understanding of artificial intelligence and machine learning at educational institutions in Alabama.Â
"At Auburn University, we are already using the presence of this state-of-the-art technology to support applications for federal research grants," said Vini Nathan, interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Auburn University, in a press release announcing the partnership. "Additionally, I believe that AAICE will complement our current initiatives around AI and machine learning and jumpstart our students' careers by familiarizing them with the technology that is going to be integral to business in the future."
The AAICE partnership will allow these educational institutions and cities to crunch massive amounts of data.
"They can move massive amounts of data from their campus to now churn and compute on an AI supercomputer for free," said Albrecht.Â
"AAICE will be a catalyst for change, providing us with opportunities to engage with cutting-edge AI technologies and equipping our students and faculty with essential skills for the future," said Carl Pettis, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Alabama State.Â
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