The New Digital Age

Spring 2024
By Mike Williams

The Ken Kennedy Institute, founded by its namesake in 1986 to revolutionize science, engineering and medicine through computation, finds itself on the leading edge of an upheaval. With the steady rise of artificial intelligence and its ethical and social implications, the institute’s dedication to the transformative power of computation and data has never been more important. 

“AI technology is taking off, and it is becoming readily accessible to individuals and organizations,” says Rice computer scientist Lydia Kavraki, the institute’s director since 2020. “As AI further develops, it will transform our world. Its impact will extend well beyond image understanding and text generation to sectors that include education, health care, energy, transportation, financial technology and security, to name a few.

We envision a world where research in AI, data and computing empowers all people and contributes to solving global challenges.

“The rate of change in AI just in the last three years has been astounding,” she adds. “We connect faculty for large research efforts and provide forums to exchange their ideas and mechanisms for fostering interdisciplinary research that transcends traditional boundaries.”

This research often incorporates partnerships with other universities as well as industry collaborators, including institutions at the Texas Medical Center and within Houston’s vast petrochemical industry.  

“Solving complex problems in computational health care, social informatics and urban infrastructure requires novel methods to manage large and diverse data sets and reason with noisy data,” Kavraki says. “Our faculty excel in generative AI and machine learning, including deep learning, distributed learning and machine learning for scientific computing. We envision a world where research in AI, data and computing empowers all people and contributes to solving global challenges.” 

Learn more at kenkennedy.rice.edu.