A Transformational Partnership
In 2020, the University of Florida entered a public-private partnership with NVIDIA. This collaboration has powered UF’s strengths in AI education and research. Together, UF and NVIDIA are addressing some of the world’s biggest challenges through AI.
A National Leader in the Application of AI
This partnership, which created the first NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC) in North America, is central to UF elevating its reach and impact in research, teaching, and economic development. By collaborating with NVIDIA, UF researchers have access to the latest technologies to accelerate their projects and deepen their impact.
Through this collaboration, UF researchers and their students can help address challenges such as rising seas, aging populations, data security, personalized medicine, urban transportation, and food insecurity.
The World’s Most Powerful Processors
NVIDIA’s technology powers many of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers. At UF, the fourth generation HiPerGator will have access to NVIDIA’s most advanced AI software and integrate 63 NVIDIA DGX™ B200 systems with 504 NVIDIA B200 Tensor Core GPUs and high-performance NVIDIA Mellanox NDR400Gb/s InfiniBand networking.
UF is the first school in the nation to receive DGX B200 systems, which accelerate diverse workloads, including AI training, inference, and data analytics.
NVIDIA “Deep Learning” and Solutions
NVIDIA contributes AI expertise to UF through the following initiatives:
- The NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute collaborates with UF developing new curriculum and coursework for students and the community. This programming also serves the needs of K-12 student, encouraging their interest in STEM.
- UF is the site of the first NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC), where UF researchers and NVIDIA employees work together to advance AI.
- NVIDIA solution architects and product engineers partner with UF on the installation, operation and optimization of the NVIDIA-based supercomputing resources on campus, including the latest AI software applications.
- UF’s Equitable AI program brings together faculty members across the university to create ethical standards and certifications.
NVAITC Collaborations
The NVAITC is university wide, so a researcher from any college or department can become a NVAITC collaborator.
Successful Projects
- Successful NVAITC projects are those with a clear vision and an execution plan. Typically, projects will have a team (a researcher and at least one student/staff) proficient in coding, an identified problem, and some solutions already explored.
- Collaborations come in many forms, but the crux of this collaboration is NVIDIA scientist’s support/consultation at expert level for your research projects.
- Acceleration of workflow pipeline, scaling model/workflow, performance improvement on models/algorithms, novel models/algorithms, consultation during the entire workflow is also possible with more guidance from NVAITC than hands-on coding/work.
- NVIDIA experts are not extra coders or software developers.
Benefits
- Get NVIDIA’s expertise in your research area.
- Access NVIDIA’s expert consultation: brainstorming, computation, and mathematical modeling in various scientific disciplines.
- Learn from industry research that looks into solving hard problems.
- Dissemination of research work: Access NVIDIA blogs, GTC presentations, and SDK packaging.
Expectations
- It is a collaborative exercise.
- Minimum monthly meetings on project updates. More frequent when needed to meet deadlines.
- All parties will learn as they work together towards high caliber research to impact the community.
Submission and Selection
If you are interested in collaborating with NVAITC on your research project, please follow the steps below:
- Email Dr. Kaleb Smith (kasmith@nvidia.com) if interested in learning more about the NVAITC and if your project might be a good fit.
- Dr. Smith and the UFIT Research Computing’s AI team manager Ying Zhang (yingz@ufl.edu) are available for consultation during the initial exploration process.
- Fill out the project application form using the template provided by Dr. Smith after initial NVAITC consultation/project briefing.
- The proposal should include a clear statement of work (SOW) outlining the project participants and their roles and responsibilities.
- The review of the proposal takes a couple of weeks. The evaluation criteria include:
- NVAITC criteria:
- The targeted publication for the proposed work.
- The software stack used in the project.
- The scale of the computations and resources needed for the projects. This goes both ways: some small scale projects have the advantage of fitting easily on the system for rapid completion. Large scale projects are harder to schedule, but may be of interest because of potential larger scientific and technical impact.
- A identified team of students, postdocs, or research staff as well as the PI to work with on the collaboration.
- Project characteristics: compact timeline, availability of external funding, potential for future funding, etc.
- Details of the SOW.
- Realistic work being done from both sides, the project is identified with an obtainable outcome (time constraints is not a factor), data identified, team identified, and a timeline in place.
- NVAITC criteria:
Acceptance and Notification
Once the proposal has been accepted, the PI will be contacted and the proposed SOW will be expanded and modified to become a full SOW for execution of the project.
“UF’s leadership has a bold vision for making artificial intelligence accessible across its campus. What really got NVIDIA and me excited was partnering with UF to go broader still, and make AI available to K-12 students, state and community colleges, and businesses. This will help address underrepresented communities and sectors across the region where the technology will have a profound positive effect.” — Chris Malachowsky, NVIDIA cofounder and UF alumnus
Contact AI at UF
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 113175
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
Physical Address
105 Ayers Building at Innovation Square
720 SW Second Ave.
Gainesville, FL 32601
Call us: (352) 294-1895