Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Context: In my role as division director of IIS, I’m sending out a short message to the IIS mailing list on the Second Tuesday Every Month (STEM). Here’s a bonus installment for February 2024.
Hi all,
Greetings from the tail end of the AAAI conference in (today, at least) gorgeous Vancouver, BC. I’ve had a great time connecting a bit more with the AI community, giving a few talks, participating in panels, and wondering whether to try poutine.
One of the sessions I participated in was “Envisioning Open Research Resources for Artificial Intelligence in the US”, where I described the recently started National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot. From the reaction of the folks who came to the session, it’s worth sharing a bit more information more broadly!
First, I want to point out that the NAIRR is intended to support the research community working on AI to make sure top-notch computation, data, software, and other information is available. So, the IIS community is intended to be one of the principal recipients of this support.
Next, you can find a recording of last week’s public webinar about the NAIRR Pilot on the NSF event page.
Lastly, I want to point out two opportunities for researchers and educators that are closing soon (hence my slightly rushed bonus STEM message):
The first NAIRR pilot call for requests for computing allocations closes March 1. (There will be future opportunities, too, so don’t panic if you miss this one. But I wanted to make sure that you at least had the chance to consider it.)
A request for information on researcher and educator use cases for the NAIRR, and priorities and challenges for accessing AI resources and infrastructure closes March 8. (We’d really love to hear from you. As I said, IIS folks are some of the main intended recipients for this type of support, so the more NSF knows about what you need, the more we can help adapt the pilot---and hopefully a more permanent NAIRR program---to your needs.)
I know that the computing research community is new to the idea of working together to provide large scale cyberinfrastructure, but I think this is a situation that is real and is likely to persist for the foreseeable future. Please help us shape the NAIRR so it will help the field move forward productively. Thank you!
-Michael
P.S. You can sign up to receive NAIRR Pilot announcements: email nairr_pilot_announcements-subscribe-request@listserv.nsf.gov. (To unsubscribe, email nairr_pilot_announcements-signoff-request@listserv.nsf.gov.)