CAREER: Cyberinfrastructure for the Computation and Collaboration Needs of Emerging Technologies Research

Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, are increasingly recognized as national research priorities, with the potential to transform society, the economy, and national security. However, their development and adoption require accessible software tools that simplify computation, enhance collaboration, and ensure equitable access.

This project addresses these needs by creating three innovative software platforms: one designed to facilitate easy and efficient use of cloud computing for AI tasks, one to enable a single software development workflow for the different varieties of quantum computers, and one to promote new collaborations among an inclusive spectrum of academic and industry researchers. In addition to the software platforms, the project develops new educational materials tailored to each platform, helping to integrate cutting-edge technologies like AI and quantum into university and K-12 classrooms.

By releasing all software and educational materials as open-source and engaging with organizations such as the Minority Serving Cyberinfrastructure Consortium (which helps share new software with minority-serving universities), the project aims to ensure widespread and inclusive adoption of its outputs, empowering a diversity of users.

This project addresses barriers that prevent the democratization of emerging technology research: inadequate computational resources, lack of interoperable software frameworks, limited access to collaborators and expertise, and insufficient emerging technology educational resources. The software cyberinfrastructure being developed under this project includes 1) a novel extension of the ADVISER (Advanced cloud-based Data- and Visualization-Integrated Simulation EnviRonment) cloud computing project, targeted towards equitable and efficient usage of AI cloud computing resources, including the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource; 2) a new quantum computing platform, MOCHA (Modular, Open, Cloud, Hardware-Agnostic quantum computing platform), that facilitates the hardware-independent future of quantum software development; and 3) Research.Team, an original cloud software application that helps researchers unlock inclusive collaboration opportunities.

The new version of ADVISER supports novel capabilities such as fractional GPU sharing and an abstraction layer for interfacing with various large language models. MOCHA includes innovative features like a unified compiler for annealing and circuit-model problems, as well as an original deep learning-enabled embedding optimizer. Research.Team is a new web platform that identifies funding opportunities, solicits interests of users (academic and industry researchers), and automatically identifies and facilitates new collaboration opportunities.

The curricular materials from the project enrich courses on numerical methods, quantum computing, and emerging technology while simultaneously benefitting the cyberinfrastructure developed during the project (e.g., via class projects that involve making new demos of MOCHA or ADVISER). Together, the innovations of this project broadly advance the computation and collaboration capabilities of researchers across the national emerging technology portfolio and support the democratization of these research areas.

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.