According to Forbes Advisor, the artificial intelligence market is expected to reach $407 billion by 2027. In addition, 64% of businesses believe that AI will help increase their overall productivity, which indicates a growing confidence in its potential to transform business operations.
Homayoun Valafar, director of the Artificial Intelligence Institute of South Carolina (AIISC) and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, is looking forward to leading efforts for the institute to provide resources and outreach opportunities to the university and Columbia area communities.
Located on the fifth floor of the University of South Carolina’s Science and Technology building at 1112 Greene Street, the AIISC was established in 2019 as part of the university-wide excellence initiative. Currently, with more than 25 researchers, the institute seeks to be a leader in AI and its applications. In addition to core research in AI, the AIISC supports comprehensive interdisciplinary research across the university and supports workforce and economic development in the state through education, technology and commercialization.
“AI is a part of everything, and without it, you’re essentially outdated,” Valafar says. “Every sector in South Carolina can benefit from AI.”
Within the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing and USC community, the AIISC provides experts to partner with researchers and groups for training or implementing AI.
“We can teach AI by leading the effort or a research lab can provide us with data and have the institute do the work. The institute can become partners in research activities, or they can build a research infrastructure,” Valafar says. “To modernize your research, you must have AI incorporated.”
Valafar emphasizes that the scope and work of the AIISC goes beyond the six computer science and engineering affiliated faculty who are directly hired under the institute. One of the goals of the institute is to collaborate with researchers and initiatives across campus with the goal of advancing science in areas such as healthcare and public health.
“We have AI researchers that work on image recognition in collaboration with the university’s Brian Health Network and grants with the [Arnold School of] Public Health that study human behavior using smartwatches and AI,” Valafar says. “With our AI tools, we’re also collaborating with the College of Nursing in advancing the entire domain of healthcare.”
While the AIISC’s work expands and benefits all disciplines across the USC campus, Valafar believes the scope of AI goes beyond academia. He has been contacted by organizations such as Siemens, the Association of Realtors and the Cordage Institute (international association of rope manufacturers and suppliers) to have experts from the AIISC to give presentations or ask how AI can help their business.
“Everybody hears that AI is making an impact, and if they don't have it incorporated into their activities, then they're behind, which is true for the most part,” Valafar says. “It’s beneficial to know what AI is, and how it can help and be incorporated in research. That’s where the institute can review the needs and suggest the best ways that AI can be incorporated.”
Computer Science and Engineering Assistant Professor and AIISC affiliated faculty Forest Agostinelli says that AI has become pervasive in many areas of research beyond computer science as well as in everyday life. The institute addresses this by facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers and communicating scientific results to the public.
“In my opinion, AI is the study of algorithms that implement algorithms. An algorithm is simply a sequence of instructions which can be carried out by anything capable of computation,” Agostinelli says. “Algorithms have existed well before the invention of computers, but they have made the execution of certain algorithms quick and precise, and its impact on modern society cannot be overstated. AI then operates at one more level by automating the implementation of algorithms that can be executed on modern computers. Therefore, since AI affects any aspect of society involving algorithms, AI will certainly affect everyone in society.”
During the fall 2024 semester, the AIISC is offering several events for researchers and the public. A two-hour, monthly AI Roundtable Discussion will focus on an AI-related topic (suggested by the USC community) with a panel of experts. There will also be two monthly events tailored for researchers. AI-ification will allow participants to present their research to a panel of AI practitioners, who will recommend ways of integrating modern AI techniques. The Ai-athon is a one-day, hands-on workshop where the AIISC will provide space and expertise for installing, coding and developing machine learning techniques into research activities.
“We’re providing events to address the university-wide need for AI,” Valafar says. “I'd like to have the institute's website to be a centralized place where everybody can find all the resources across the campus, including AI courses offered at the library, computer science department or other units.”
USC also has an interest in applied AI, which brings AI and machine learning technology out of the lab and into the world to solve real-world challenges.
“Real foundational research in AI today comes mostly from companies such as Google and Tesla. With applied AI, some of the latest developments in the community are applied in different domains,” Valafar says. “It's mostly applied because we assume the research interest is limited to engineering and computing domains, while the rest of the community wants to use AI and see how existing tools can help them.”