DOE Announces $6.4M for AI Research in High Energy Physics 

Oct. 6, 2022 -- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $6.4 million in funding for three initial Department of Energy national lab-led team projects in artificial intelligence research for high energy physics. These awards support the DOE Office of Science (SC) initiative in artificial intelligence research to use AI techniques to deliver scientific discoveries that would not otherwise be possible and to broaden participation in high energy physics research.

“Artificial intelligence research is essential to maximize the science of DOE SC funded research programs,” said Harriet Kung, Acting Associate Director of Science for High Energy Physics. “These awards represent new partnerships between researchers at DOE National Labs, universities, and the private sector that will enable the next discoveries in high energy physics.”

Projects include:

• Using deep learning to precisely calculate particle interactions and improve theoretical predictions.
• Developing publicly available standardized benchmark datasets to broaden participation in high energy physics research.
• Creating new methods for more trustworthy and robust machine learning using physics-inspired models where humans cannot be in the decision-making loop.

The projects are the first selected in the Team Path by competitive peer review under the DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement for Artificial Intelligence Research for High Energy Physics (DE-FOA-0002705). Additional awards from this solicitation remain to be announced.

Total funding for these awards is $6.4 million for projects lasting three years in duration, with $4.1 million in Fiscal Year 2022 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations. The list of projects and more information can be found here.

Source: DOE Office of Science