According to a news release today, the Keystone AI + Quantum Factory brings together R1 research institutions — Carnegie Mellon University, Drexel University, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh — with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, a joint research center between Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. The center provides high-performance computing, data storage and advanced software to universities, government and industry researchers.
According to IBM, training advanced AI systems and running large-scale simulations can require a lot of processing capacity, often involving specialized hardware like graphics processing units (GPUs) and central processing units (CPUs). University leaders said these constraints can be a bottleneck for researchers.
“We are quickly moving to a place where the computing resources needed to keep our researchers and innovators on the cutting edge cannot be solely supplied by individual institutions,” Josh Gladden, vice president of research at Temple University, said in a public statement.
Typically, researchers seeking to use systems at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) apply for access to resources on a project-by-project basis, through allocation programs like the National Science Foundation’s ACCESS program, according to the PSC website.
With the new initiative, participating universities plan to share infrastructure, including CPUs and GPUs.
Beyond academia, the initiative is designed to make these resources more accessible to the state's technology industry. According to the news release, companies, including smaller manufacturers and startups, will be able to connect with university researchers and computing resources.
The initiative also emphasizes workforce development, with plans to train students and workers in AI with the goal of encouraging graduates to stay and work in Pennsylvania.
“This initiative represents exactly the kind of coordinated, large-scale effort needed to ensure Pennsylvania leads in the technologies that will define the next century,” Andrew Read, senior vice president for research at Pennsylvania State University, said in a public statement. “By aligning our research strengths, infrastructure and talent across institutions, we are creating a platform that accelerates discovery while delivering real economic impact for the commonwealth.”
The partnership with Pennsylvania's research universities is the latest of several efforts by the state government to capitalize on emerging technologies, after an announcement last week to give AI tools to thousands of state workers and a cooperative agreement last fall to have the University of Pennsylvania advise the state on AI.
