Robotics expert Sooyeon Jeong and her lab strive to make robots a beneficial force in human life and society. (Photo by Purdue University/Rebecca Robinos)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —
To address the world’s most pressing challenges, Purdue University has leveraged its strengths in science and technology to create a leading research and education program in physical AI, the application of artificial intelligence to our physical world.
Here is just a sample of the work carried out in the many centers on campus.
AI is a fundamental part of Physical Artificial Intelligence InstituteA Purdue calculates initiative.
The best in research
First Law of Robotics: I, for one, salute our new robot… healthcare providers
Sooyeon Jeong, assistant professor of computer science, works in the field of artificial intelligence to ensure that robots are friendlier helpers to humans and less inscrutable intruders, more R2-D2 than HAL, more Baymax than Terminator.
From designing robots that socialize with hospitalized children to virtual agents helping Latinas with breast cancer in the Greater Lafayette and Chicago areas, Jeong’s projects are all aimed at ensuring that robots do the most quite possible.
“As robots become more and more available in people’s daily lives, we need to make sure they actually help, in the long term, in the real world,” Jeong said.
Related: When AI Jokes Fall Flat
Watch (2:45): The complexities of humor make it difficult to teach conversational AI to be as human-like as possible, says Julia Rayz, associate director of the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the information at Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
Green energy: an AI algorithm to improve the performance of nuclear reactors
Using a new machine learning algorithm, Purdue engineers have made progress in understanding how AI could improve the monitoring and control systems overseeing small modular reactors (SMRs). The algorithm can quickly learn about the physics behind a measure of the regularity of a reactor’s electricity output and predict changes in that metric over time with 99% accuracy.
This finding shows how AI could help reduce the operating and maintenance costs of SMRs so that they are more economically viable.
(Fun fact: The study was conducted using a “digital twin” of Purdue’s PUR-1 reactor. It’s the first and only reactor in the United States, licensed with a fully digital instrumentation and control system.)
View model: Machine learning and wearable sensors reliably track tremors in older adults
Biomedical engineering scientists have developed machine learning techniques to closely analyze a person’s wrist tremors, determining whether the patterns are the result of normal aging or a diagnosable disorder.
For what?
Reliably distinguishing normal age-related hand and wrist tremors from those caused by disorders would improve diagnosis, treatment and quality of care in older adults. And because a person’s tremors can be affected by medications, blood sugar or sleep, it proves difficult to reliably assess natural, disordered movement patterns with the human eye.
Physical Artificial Intelligence Institute
Dimensions of discovery: IPAI special edition
A special edition of the Research Office’s monthly newsletter highlights the breadth of artificial intelligence research being conducted across IPAI at Purdue, including discussions on governance and responsible AIusing AI to accelerate drug discoveryand an autonomous space station maintenance robot.
Spotlight on collaborative research — #NSFfunded
Mobile video game plunges users into the depths of the oceans
This feature from the National Science Foundation highlights a video game that could improve our understanding and ability to monitor the health of the deep sea and their ecosystems.
In FathomVerse, players interact with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s deep-sea image archive, the beginning of a process used to train the AI to perform identification and tagging itself.
FathomVerse is just one result of a bigger Ocean Vision AI program, seeking to make artificial intelligence and ocean research more accessible and effective, with support from the NSF, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the National Geographic Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Something fun
AI and theme parks (3:41)
Chris Rogers, associate professor at Purdue and director of the Computer Graphics Technology program in Indianapolis, explains the new attractions announced by major theme parks. He also explains how AI technology and devices are already being used to personalize visitor experiences, and how parks are leveraging artificial intelligence to look toward the future.
That’s it for now for the university which has the first computer science department in the country. Purdue University is building a cutting-edge artificial intelligence program.
Leveraging Purdue’s strengths in materials science, engineering, microelectronics, computing, agriculture and life sciences, the Physical AI Institute is committed to solving the world’s toughest challenges.
About Purdue University
Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence on a large scale. Ranked among the top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with unparalleled quality and scale. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue in all formats and locations, including nearly 50,000 in-person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. Learn how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap – including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative – at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.