Equipment: Advancing Generative AI Research and Education: Acquisition of High-Performance Computing Equipment at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of PVAMU

The National Science Foundation Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) supports projects that enhance undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research at HBCUs, as means to broaden participation in the nation's STEM workforce. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a pivotal role in many fields, such as big data analysis, cybersecurity, and biomedical applications, owing to its capacity to produce novel and realistic data patterns.

It empowers advancements in these critical fields, ultimately fostering innovation and enhancing human welfare. This HBCU-UP equipment award provides Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) with funding to support the purchase of a NVIDIA DGX H100 GPU server and three DELL AI-ready workstations. The team will leverage their existing research capacities and utilize the new system for more effective and efficient big data processing and predictive analysis.

This project provides much-needed equipment for research in the emerging field of Generative AI and boost research and education in the areas such as big data science, machine learning, cybersecurity, and computational biology. This project advances the research in big data analytics for mission-critical applications, robust cyber defense, and smart health modernization.

Additionally, it will help validate theoretical results in current funded projects, greatly strengthening and broadening big data and AI research activities at PVAMU and across disciplines. The equipment will be made available to other researchers and students at PVAMU, helping to train students by providing them with unique hands-on experience and expertise in the emerging AI and big data processing techniques.

This equipment and the research it will support plays a key role in expanding student and faculty training opportunities and research across three research centers at PVAMU, thus expanding the research capacity at an HBCU in alignment with the goals outlined in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.