Ramayya Krishnan to lead new AI cooperative research center at Carnegie Mellon

Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded $6 million to the University to establish a joint center to support cooperative research and experimentation for the test and evaluation of modern AI capabilities and tools.

The CMU/NIST AI Measurement Science & Engineering Cooperative Research Center (AIMSEC) will seek to advance measurement science for modern AI systems, using stakeholder partnerships in a wide range of application domains — including human services, education, finance, transportation, energy and more —  to test approaches and translate assessment capabilities and methodologies into practice, according to a media release.

Krishnan, William W. and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems, was appointed to the Department of Commerce’s National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC) in 2022 in recognition of his leadership, expertise and ground-breaking work from the university, which is considered the birthplace of AI.

A faculty member since 1988, Krishnan was appointed Dean of the Heinz College in 2009. He is an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow (section T), an INFORMS Fellow and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. In 2019, he served as president of INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and Analytics.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Krishnan holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, as well as a master’s degree in industrial engineering and operations research, and a PhD in management science and information systems from the University of Texas at Austin.

“Artificial intelligence is the defining technology of our generation, and at the Commerce Department we are committed to working with America’s world-class higher education institutions, like Carnegie Mellon University, to advance safe, secure and trustworthy development of AI,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announcing the grant.

“I am excited to announce this NIST award of $6 million for Carnegie Mellon to boost research of AI systems and support a new generation of scientists and engineers that will help advance American innovation globally.”

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“Carnegie Mellon University is looking forward to partnering with NIST on research and development that will enable the trustworthy deployment of AI-driven decisions and systems,” said CMU president Farnam Jahanian.

“The work of the center will lead to the development of standards and tools and by filling in this critical missing piece in the nation’s emerging technologies landscape, we will be equipping American businesses, researchers, leaders and consumers to better understand and trust emerging technologies and better utilize AI tools to their full, transformative potential.”

Carnegie Mellon University is a pioneer in AI technology development, in the study and analysis of AI deployments as socio-technical systems, and a leader in AI ethics and policy with several hundred faculty already focused on ensuring the safe and responsible development and use of AI, according to the release.

AIMSEC will focus on foundational research and developing AI system-level tooling, metrics, evaluation procedures, development processes and best practices to help AI builders consistently engineer safe AI systems.

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Its efforts will align with NIST AI priorities including better methods for measuring validity, reliability, safety, privacy and security; accountability, transparency, fairness and explainability; and generative AI evaluation at any stage of development or deployment.

The grant to CMU was awarded through NIST’s Measurement Science and Engineering Research Grant Program, which supports collaborative research that is aligned with NIST’s research objectives.

The program seeks to develop a diverse, world-class pool of scientists and engineers to engage in NIST’s measurement science and standards research and to promote understanding of measurement science and standards.

The new university-wide center will be housed at CMU’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and will draw on strengths to support the NIST AI Innovation Lab (NAIIL), a component of NIST’s larger efforts on fundamental AI measurement research and guideline development.

(This story was originally published by The American Bazaar.)