CSE DSI GenAI Day and Open House

The Generative AI (GenAI) revolution—exemplified by the remarkable success of foundation models and applications like ChatGPT that leverage these models—is beginning to see widespread adoption across science and engineering. Specifically, foundation models (i.e., pre-trained models capable of being fine-tuned on a wide variety of tasks) are now being used across nearly all scientific disciplines. In some cases, these models already outperform traditional methods employed by their respective scientific communities, highlighting their transformative potential in driving scientific discovery.

The College of Science and Engineering (CSE) Data Science Initiative (DSI) is holding a Generative AI (GenAI) Day and Open House on May 20 from 10:00 to 3:00 in Keller Hall. This event will serve as a starting point for building communities around GenAI and exploring its transformative potential across disciplines. It will also highlight some of the exciting research being pursued by our affiliates and showcase our new interaction space in Keller Hall.

This event will be the first step in a series of activities we are planning to enable UMN to take leadership in this fast-evolving area of great importance. Future activities will support: 

1. Evaluating the potential of generative AI to drive scientific discovery while assessing its limitations (e.g., hallucinations) and exploring approaches to enhance its reliability and effectiveness (e.g., by incorporating scientific theories);
2. Identifying gaps in the current capabilities of generative AI for addressing grand scientific challenges and outlining the AI advancements needed to foster synergistic research across scientific disciplines;
3. Identifying actionable strategies for effectively integrating these advancements into the practice of scientific discovery.

Tentative Agenda

We will add more detailed information as it becomes available. The event will start with an overview of GenAI fundamentals and a panel discussion on GenAI challenges and opportunities in science and engineering.