In this installment of CCC’s Weekly Computing News, we are looking deeper into the SkAI research center led by Northwestern University. This comes after a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Simons Foundation, creating more opportunities to advance research and exploration of the universe.

SkAI launched to further explore the universe

Have you ever wondered what it would take to discover the undiscoverable mysteries of the universe? Exploring the unknown requires overcoming huge challenges in analyzing huge datasets composed of different data types, structures or sources, while designing astronomical tools and surveys to measure the data. 

That’s where SkAI comes in.

The research center brings together 25 partner organizations including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Argonne National Laboratory and University of Wisconsin-Madison, to advance Astro-AI research, an initiative to tackle the most exciting and challenging problems in astrophysics.

The institute seeks to bring together astrophysicists, foundational AI researchers, educators, AI-ethicists, software engineers, and artists to develop trustworthy AI tools for the research community and nurture a diverse generation of interdisciplinary leaders in science and engineering to ethically apply and extend AI within and beyond academia.

SkAI research offers three cross-disciplinary pillars including enhanced inference from cosmic survey data, AI-accelerated simulations with multi-scale astrophysics, and learning-based astrophysical survey and instrument design to educate the community and broaden participation.

Learn more about this research here.