Rutgers makes $10M investment to become leader in AI, data science

Efforts will include a call to faculty for proposals, new student research programs and formation of a “collaboratory” hub

Rutgers University-New Brunswick leaders made an initial investment of $10 million to advance the university’s capabilities and expand the scope of its research and scholarship on artificial intelligence and data science.

The university expects to produce groundbreaking insights and practical solutions, through a multipronged program, that will mark it as an innovator in the revolutionary technologies.

The program will include:

  • The establishment of a research collaboratory;
  • soliciting ideas for proposals of interdisciplinary research projects;
  • the creation of two new AI- and data science-centric student research programs; and
  • new partnerships with governmental agencies and industry leaders.

Rutgers Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (RAD) Collaboratory, will be at the center of this vision. The initiative will serve as a virtual hub where university researchers and students can lead efforts to make discoveries and devise practical applications.

“The RAD Collaboratory emerged from Rutgers-New Brunswick’s Academic Master Plan as a new path forward for collaboration across disciplines, including with the public and private sectors,” Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway said. “Faculty, students and outside partners will dive into the rapidly expanding worlds of AI and data science and forge new discoveries and applications to advance our society.”

A mission for the RAD Collaboratory will be to foster AI and data science research that will help Rutgers compete for federal and state funding while also partnering with industry leaders.

The collaboratory will function as a center of research, but it also will serve as a hub, creating opportunities for all faculty members, students and staff to come together and learn about AI and data science.

Stephen Burley, Henry Rutgers Chair and University Professor in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, will be the interim director of RAD.

“Combining data science with AI has already begun to pay dividends across the biological and medical sciences,” Burley, a structural biologist, physician and data scientist who currently directs the Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, said. “This new collaboratory will make it easier, and more fun, for our community of scholars to capitalize on the expertise represented across the university, and the enormous wealth of digital data stored at Rutgers, running the gamut from agriculture to zoology.”

The Office of the Chancellor has allocated $10 million to the effort and the Office of the President is committing additional funding from the Roadmaps for Collective Academic Excellence program, a five-year initiative created by the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Later this academic year, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research will issue an “Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge Call,” inviting all faculty members to submit proposals for consideration as research areas within the collaboratory.

Crucial to the RAD program will be two new Platforms for Education and Research Cores (PERCs) that will ensure students’ active participation in AI and data science research. The PERCs initiative, announced in September, is designed to open doors to core facilities for participants who can earn academic credits and certifications.

An internal search for a permanent faculty director of the collaboratory will begin in the fall of 2025.