An oncoming tsunami of data threatens to overwhelm huge data-rich research projects on such areas that range from the tiny neutrino to an exploding supernova, as well as the mysteries deep within the brain.
When LIGO picks up a gravitational-wave signal from a distant collision of black holes and neutron stars, a clock starts ticking for capturing the earliest possible light that may accompany them: time is of the essence in this race. Data collected from electrical sensors monitoring brain activity are outpacing computing capacity. Information from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)’s smashed particle beams will soon exceed 1 petabit per second.
To tackle this approaching data bottleneck in real-time, a team of researchers from nine institutions led by the University of Washington, including MIT, has received $15 million in funding to establish the Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery (A3D3) Institute. From MIT, the research team includes Philip Harris, assistant professor of physics, who will serve as the deputy director of the A3D3 Institute; Song Han, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, who will serve as the A3D3’s co-PI; and Erik Katsavounidis, senior research scientist with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
Infused with this five-year Harnessing the Data Revolution Big Idea grant, and jointly funded by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, A3D3 will focus on three data-rich fields: multi-messenger astrophysics, high-energy particle physics, and brain imaging neuroscience. By enriching AI algorithms with new processors, A3D3 seeks to speed up AI algorithms for solving fundamental problems in collider physics, neutrino physics, astronomy, gravitational-wave physics, computer science, and neuroscience.
“I am very excited about the new Institute’s opportunities for research in nuclear and particle physics,” says Laboratory for Nuclear Science Director Boleslaw Wyslouch. “Modern particle detectors produce an enormous amount of data, and we are looking for extraordinarily rare signatures. The application of extremely fast processors to sift through these mountains of data
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