DOE turns its attention to AI with $20M research pledge
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced April 17 it would be extending $20 million in funding to research projects involving AI and machine learning.
The funding, divided between the DOE’s Office of Electricity and Office of Science, will reportedly go toward projects to improve grid operation and management and scientific investigation and prediction.
“Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence will revolutionize every single aspect of our lives and help us address the complex challenges we face today, including the world’s most pressing scientific challenges and securing the power grid in our rapidly evolving environment,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said in a statement from the DOE. “These two sets of AI funding will help ensure continued advancement in the scientific fields and will strengthen the resilience of our nation’s critical energy infrastructure.”
According to the statement, the DOE’s Office of Electricity will receive nearly $7 million of the total for projects that will “inform and shape” the future development of faster grid analytics, better grid asset management and sub-second automatic control actions. Eight projects have already been selected for awards.
The Office of Science will be gifted the remaining $13 million, $11 million of which will be devoted to the development of new AI algorithms and software and $2 million of which will support research aimed at improving the reliability of AI predictions. Applications are currently open for both efforts and will close May 31 by 5 p.m. Eastern.
The DOE said applications for the development of new algorithms are open to DOE national laboratories, with opportunities for universities, industry leaders and nonprofit organizations to participate as partners. The funding will support three-year projects, and awards will be selected by peer review.
Conversely, the $2 million donation is open to any national laboratories, universities, industry and nonprofits and will support two-year projects.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.