IBL News | New York
The University at Buffalo (UB), a flagship university in the SUNY system, will create a new academic department this fall dedicated to education and research on harnessing the power of AI.
Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York, announced this month that the institution will receive $5 million to launch the new “Department of AI and Society,” based jointly in UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences.
The funds will be used to purchase high-performance computing for the university’s researchers and students, and to hire over 200 additional faculty members with expertise in AI.
The initiative will complement existing academic departments and units, including UB’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, and Empire AI, the $400 million statewide consortium whose supercomputing center is at UB.
The Department of AI and Society will offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in academic disciplines such as geography, health, public policy, communication, creativity and the arts, languages, etc. It will also offer a core set of courses that can be integrated into a wide range of majors.
The University of Buffalo is also planning an AI & Society Building, a new facility featuring computer labs, offices, conference rooms, and startup incubator space.
Kemper Lewis, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Robin Schulze, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will co-chair an advisory committee of faculty members developing the new department.
Atri Rudra, the Katherine Johnson Chair in Artificial Intelligence and a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, will be the inaugural department chair.
