In its latest step to promote artificial intelligence (AI) and data science and integrate AI across the curriculum, the University of Florida will create an Artificial Intelligence Academic Initiative Center. The new center, led by Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives David Reed, will be the campus focal point for academic activity at the university related to AI and data science.

Chris Malachowsky (BSEE ’80), NVIDIA Corp. co-founder and a leading force behind the university’s ambitious initiative to become “America’s A.I. University,” is one of the 2022 honorees in the University of Florida’s prestigious Academy of Golden Gators.

With the goal of recruiting more students to STEM and computer science careers, a team from the University of Florida’s Thompson Earth Systems Institute (TESI), the College of Education and the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering will partner with the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland on a three-year, $1.3 million project funded by the National Science Foundation to teach Florida middle school teachers and students how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify fossil shark teeth.

The University of Florida announced this week a new collaboration with tech giant IBM to launch a comprehensive skills program designed to extend UF’s vision to be an international leader in artificial intelligence, data science, fintech, and other related technologies that can help solve society’s biggest challenges.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, has elected José C. Príncipe, Ph.D., as one of seven faculty and staff from the University of Florida, to the newest class of AAAS Fellows.

An all-female team of “hackers” was declared the winner of a national technology contest – Florida Hacks with IBM – that called on participants to discover potential solutions to combat the effects of climate change. The team was comprised of three current Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering students and a recent graduate.

A team of researchers at the University of Florida will explore ways to increase trustworthiness and interpretability of artificial machine learning in healthcare under a new $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The team will also investigate ways to use AI to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases earlier.

The first annual student Internet of Things (IoT) Design Competition recently wrapped up after nearly two months of competition. The national competition, hosted by the University of Florida IoT Students Club, required teams to design, build, and demonstrate the functionality of an IoT edge device to solve a real-world problem.

“Everybody is calling it the new electricity,” said Diego Alvarado, M.E., an instructional assistant professor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. “It’s under the hood of almost everything. We need to be able to understand it.”

A multidisciplinary research team that includes Alina Zare, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Daisy Zhe Wang, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, is developing ways to understand the changes taking place in forests and protect the ecosystem benefits trees offer.