Students, faculty and staff from across the University gathered from Monday to Wednesday this week in Gorgas Library to discuss the academic prospects of the new High Performance Computing Center, an on-campus multi-megawatt data center.
The University-sponsored event, called the HPC Summer Series, is part of a concentrated AI effort, including an AI-focused course, for the 2026-27 academic year, culminating in the opening of the data center.
At the event, researchers discussed how the data center, now slated to open in early 2027, could be used to enhance research in various fields, from mathematics and chemistry to unexpected applications like art history and law.
Jennifer Feltman, an associate professor of art history and medieval art, spoke on Tuesday about her research, which includes Healing Stones, a project to construct 3D models of destroyed artifacts using AI.
Sergei Gleyzer, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, spoke in the conference’s first keynote about his work in physics, which incorporates machine learning and high-performance computing. Gleyzer was part of the research team that discovered the Higgs boson in 2012, a massive endeavor involving the world’s largest particle accelerator and lots of computing horsepower.
Now, Gleyzer serves as the chief science officer for the HPC, where he said he will work on studying emerging technologies, such as AI and quantum computing.
While the Gorgas event mainly focused on the research applications of AI, faculty and staff at the University are also exploring AI applied to education.
Laura McNeill, an assistant professor of instructional technology in the College of Education, and her research team, AI-WISE, won a $30,000 grant to explore the AI skills that employers want and that future graduates wished they had.
The team found a large discrepancy between reported AI skills from students and the skills wanted by employers.
“I think we are doing a bit of a disservice to our students if we don’t allow them to explore these [AI] tools,” McNeill said to UA News. “When they graduate, they will be expected to know how to use them.”
McNeill’s AI course, CAT 400:AI Fluency in the Workforce, is a virtual program available to all undergraduate students for 3 credit hours. The program is built using the data that her team found and centers on safe and ethical AI usage.
“The course represents just one piece of The University of Alabama’s growing focus on preparing students for an AI-driven future,” the University said.
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