AI for Research: Harnessing Scientific Cyberinfrastructure in North America

About the webinar

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way research is conducted, from accelerating discovery to enabling new methodologies. In this talk, Prof. Jennifer Clarke will explore how AI approaches are being applied across disciplines and highlight the scientific cyberinfrastructure resources in North America—such as the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) and the Open Science Grid (OSG)—that are making these advances possible. She will discuss how these platforms are empowering researchers to adopt AI at scale, lowering barriers to access, and fostering a more open and collaborative scientific ecosystem.

Target Audience

• Researchers and scientists interested in AI, machine learning, and data-driven approaches in life sciences and related fields
• Data scientists and computational biologists working on high-dimensional datasets, bioinformatics, or metagenomics
• Research infrastructure managers and IT specialists who support scientific computing, cloud resources, and cyberinfrastructure
• Students and academics exploring interdisciplinary applications of AI and advanced analytics in scientific research
• Policy makers or stakeholders interested in open science, FAIR data, and cross-institutional collaboration enabled by AI and e-infrastructure

Programme

TBA

About the presenters

Professor Jennifer L. Clarke is a Professor Statistics and Food Science & Technology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and Director of the Quantitative Life Sciences Initiative. She works across departments to integrate big-data sciences within UNL and across the University of Nebraska system. Her research spans statistical methodology, high-dimensional predictive modeling, bioinformatics/computational biology, and metagenomics. She has held leadership roles in enabling data integration, open science practices, and cross-disciplinary research infrastructure.

Dr. Derek Weitzel is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studying topics related to distributed computing including cutting edge middleware, distributed security, and data movement and transfers. Weitzel graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2015 with a PhD in Computer Science. Weitzel has participated in national cyberinfrastructure projects such as the OSG, Partnership to Advance Throughput Computing (PATh), and the Institute for Research and Innovation in Software for High Energy Physics (IRIS-HEP). Additionally, Weitzel is the co-PI for the Prototype National Research platform, an experimental platform for allocatable and composable cyberinfrastructure targeted at AI researchers.