The new AI hub, also located at the Holyoke site, will differ in several ways, most notably in that it will be a shared computing system. That system, Barden said, will be more capable and much larger than any single institution could build. This, he said, will provide a unique asset to strengthen Yale’s ability to support its scientific objectives.
The AI hub is projected to have between 1,500 and 2,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), operating much like a national laboratory in which partnering institutions will be able to access the cluster individually or as collaborators. Yale’s partners in the Massachusetts AI hub will include the MGHPCC member institutions, as well as stakeholders from Massachusetts state government and industry.
“We went to our faculty, who had advised on the original AI technology task force infrastructure recommendations, and asked if they would support this sort of framework, and the answer was a resounding ‘yes,’” Barden said.
Rajit Manohar, the John C. Malone Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been using Yale’s new computing resources at MGHPCC for several months in his computer chip design research.
“I view this as a positive development for the growing number of researchers across all fields who want to make more use of computational resources,” said Manohar, who is faculty chair of an advisory committee looking at research computing issues on campus.
Manohar said it is “critical” that Yale expand its computing infrastructure — particularly in ways that are environmentally conscious and offer a balanced approach to computational resources for researchers in the physical and applied sciences, and the humanities.
“This gives us more bang for the buck,” Manohar said.
The additional technical infrastructure is part of a $150 million investment over five years, which the university announced last August, to support faculty, students, and staff in engaging with AI. The commitment responds to the report of the Yale Task Force on Artificial Intelligence. For the report, an 18-member group of faculty and campus leaders engaged with dean-led faculty panels and university experts in education, collections, clinical practice, and operations to review AI activity already underway and develop a vision for Yale’s leadership in the future.
“Yale has long been at the forefront of AI development and research, and our leadership continues to be necessary as this technology evolves and endures,” Yale Provost Scott Strobel wrote in a message to the Yale community, providing details of the efforts. “To fulfill the university’s mission to improve the world and prepare the next generation of society’s great leaders and thinkers, we must explore, advance, and harness AI for its benefits while providing ethical, legal, and social frameworks to address the challenges it poses.”