Supercomputing 2025 (SC25) is underway this month and is expected to draw more than 20,000 attendees from around the globe. As a key member of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), the University of Rhode Island will be represented at the MGHPCC booth with several cutting-edge research projects.

URI’s featured projects reflect the University’s growing impact in computational science, AI, and marine research:

URI’s participation in SC25 underscores its commitment to research excellence, strategic partnerships, and advancing discovery through computational technologies.

Learn more about MGHPCC and regional collaboration at: mghpcc.org/sc/regional-partners

I’m really happy to report that over FY ’25, ~70 submitted proposals included the CCR as an affiliated Center/Institute and historically we have averaged a ~50% acceptance rate. Thank YOU for your strong support. Today, we are continuing one of our key programs that invests these indirect cost return funds back into the URI computational researchers community :-). 
 
In brief, this new “seed funding” program is looking to support new computational projects that are interdisciplinary and convergent. The max budget request is $25,000 (direct costs) and the 5-page proposals are due on November 15th. Teams who have received funding previously from this program are not eligible this cycle. 

The Center for Computational Research (CCR) has officially transitioned into the Institute for AI & Computational Research (IACR)—uniting CCR, ITS Research Computing, and the URI AI Lab into one collaborative entity.

This change reflects URI’s growing investment in artificial intelligence, data science, and advanced computing. It also recognizes the Institute’s expanding role across the University and its partnerships with external research institutions and industry.

Why the Institute Designation Matters

  • Elevates the University’s standing in regional and national research communities
  • Encourages cross-college collaboration around high-impact computing projects
  • Streamlines research support and infrastructure under one organization
  • Signals strategic investment in AI as a pillar of URI’s academic mission

How It Benefits Faculty

The IACR aims to support faculty and researchers in every discipline. Whether you’re modeling climate systems, analyzing language data, or building AI-driven tools, the Institute provides:

  • A growing network of AI-focused resources
  • High-performance computing infrastructure
  • Technical expertise and research support
  • Opportunities for interdisciplinary projects and external funding
Visit the New Institute Website

Below are the details of our CCR / AI Lab summer workshops. Again, these are open to faculty, staff and students and are totally free. Please feel free forward this announcement to anyone who may benefit. 

As usual, you can find these on the URI events calendar (and subscribe): https://events.uri.edu/group/ai

Or here is a webpage link: 

https://docs.unity.uri.edu/news/2025/05/uri-summer-25-workshops/

We have some relatively new workshop offerings on AI Tools, Gen AI and Bioinformatics. A huge thanks to Indrani Mandal and our student team for planning and preparing these workshops! 

Dr. Liqun Zhang, a computational scientist in URI’s Department of Chemical Engineering and affiliate of the Center for Computational Research (CCR), recently published a paper in Nature Chemistry titled: “Interaction and dynamics of chemokine receptor CXCR4 binding with CXCL12 and hBD-3”.

The paper is open access and available here: Read the full publication

Dr. Zhang’s research explores molecular interactions that have critical implications for immune system response and therapeutic development. Her work relies heavily on URI’s high-performance computing infrastructure—specifically, the Unity cluster at MGHPCC and on-campus URI HPC environments—supported by ITS Research Computing.

This achievement highlights how URI’s computational resources empower groundbreaking scientific research with global reach.