Brookhaven National Lab awarded nearly $5M in federal funds for AI research projects

Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory are set to receive millions of dollars in federal grants for proposed projects meant to advance the limits of artificial intelligence on Long Island.

The Upton lab, which is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy and run through a partnership between Stony Brook University and Battelle Memorial Institute, was given seven grants ranging from $500,000 to $750,000 for research projects that will incorporate AI into the fields of nuclear physics, energy physics, computational science and microelectronics, according to Brookhaven National Lab executives.

The grants are among 278 awarded to academic, corporate and government organizations participating in the Energy Department’s Genesis Mission, a public-private partnership to advance the nation’s scientific and energy infrastructure created last year.

"We are well positioned to continue really leading in AI, in science, and I think we’ve done a lot of the groundwork," said Hendrik Hamann, chief AI scientist for Innovation, Science, and Security at Brookhaven Lab. "I really feel good about it."

The seven projects, all led by BNL, cover a range of complex scientific research topics, including using AI to stabilize high energy physics experiments, the design of microelectronics, analyzing data from particle colliders and developing AI capable of generating its own scientific hypotheses.

Hamann, who spoke during the Genesis Mission’s inaugural summit in Washington, D.C. last week, said the awards would help researchers hire and afford the resources needed to complete the projects in a roughly 9-month period.

The total value of the awards will be finalized after the lab negotiates with the Energy Department, according to a BNL spokesperson, though Hamann estimated the total funds could approach nearly $5 million.

Serve as 'incubators'

Although the projects will serve as "incubators" for further projects in the Genesis Mission and aren’t necessarily focused on commercial outcomes, Hamann said, such research will affect Long Islanders and its economy.

"We have one Genesis project where we will use AI and a cloud chamber to create and learn how these clouds are formed, why it rains heavily and how severe weather starts," he said. "To understand and forecast" severe weather events like Superstorm Sandy, "you need something like that" research.

Beyond BNL led projects, researchers with the lab will be contributing to 29 other projects led by other organizations, including Stony Brook University.

Stony Brook researchers, while partners on several projects with the lab, were separately awarded $1.6 million in funding from the Genesis Mission.

Over $5 billion in federal funds have been committed to the national AI-science push, according to the White House.

Local tech industry advocates said the funding and federal recognition positions Long Island as a leader in science and technology.

"This could put Long Island on the map, having two powerhouses like Brookhaven National Lab and Stony Brook leading the charge on AI," said Peter Goldsmith, chairman of the Long Island Software & Technology Network. "It’s s perfect partisanship."

Goldsmith, who also teaches tech entrepreneurship at New York Institute of Technology, said the institutions’ efforts in the still-evolving AI space had the potential to create an ecosystem of smaller businesses in the industry and "amplifies" the region’s reputation as a tech hub.

"Working with the Genesis Mission makes Long Island more recognized for its work in AI," he said. "They wouldn’t come to us if they didn’t think we had the talent."