SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) – Cal Poly hosted "AI Day" on Thursday, bringing together students, faculty and industry leaders to explore the growing role of artificial intelligence and examine both its benefits and challenges.
The event marked the public unveiling of Cal Poly's new $3 million "AI Factory," a powerful supercomputer designed to propel student innovation and advance research for years to come."(AI Day) is the third in a series of events that started about a year ago, where people at Cal Poly come together," said Franz Kurfess, a Cal Poly computer science professor. "They talk about what's going on at Cal Poly in the area of artificial intelligence."
The all-day event was held in the Swanson Center of Effort Conference Hall inside the Justin and J. Lohr Center for Wine and Viticulture.
Over the course of eight and a half hours, the discussion featured faculty presentations, student research projects and an AI Immersion Lab, highlighting the expanding range of applications for the technology.
Ashley Lowe, a fourth year environmental engineering student, said AI offers opportunities to make research more efficient and tackle problems in new ways.
"I think this is great," said Lowe. "I think that AI can be used in like a bunch of different ways. There's so many applications."
However, while Lowe lauded the technology’s potential benefits, she also countered they must be weighed against its environmental impact, including the resources required to support AI systems.
"There are definitely those impacts there, especially like with water and land usage," Lowe said. "I think we just need to be aware and conscious of what we're doing and making sure we're using it in the right way."One of the event’s biggest highlights was a "digital ribbon cutting" of Cal Poly’s new "AI Factory," a computer system housed inside the university’s Computer Science building.
Powered by NVIDIA technology and funded through the Robert Noyce Trust, the system gives students and faculty access to computing resources capable of handling complex AI projects that would be difficult to run on standard computers.
"This is a facility that will allow students and professors to build AI models, and in many cases, build models that are more efficient or effective or powerful for a specific task," said Ryan Matteson, Cal Poly’s technology and training director.
Matteson said the AI Factory has been tested by a small group of students and faculty since June and is preparing to open to the broader campus community.
He added the system will provide students with Cal Poly's famous "Learn By Doing" hands-on experience in their development of AI technology while supporting research aimed at addressing real-world challenges.
"We are focusing on solving public good problems, AI for public good,” Matteson said. "Solving the problems that exist here in California and around the world."
Matteson also emphasized the university is mindful of the equipment's environmental needs and has put into place systems that will lessen its impact on natural resources.
"It's a very powerful computer and to function it needs cooling and it needs electrical power," said Matteson. "We are using existing capacity that already was here at Cal Poly and for cooling we have a number of systems that have been in place that accommodate the fluctuating power demands in California, and we're the best possible neighbor we can be on power usage. We also have a solar farm out on the edge of campus that provides some of the power for this, and so really, this is not adding any load. This is replacing other equipment and adding a lot more capability for the campus."
The AI Factory is expected to be available to Cal Poly students and faculty beginning next week.
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