Welcome to the Institute for AI & Computational Research (IACR) at the University of Rhode Island — a collaboratively supported effort by central IT Services (ITS), the Vice President for Research’s Office, the Provost’s Office, and faculty contributions through research grants.
The Institute’s mission is to support, promote and grow high-level interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary computational research — artificial intelligence (AI), data science (Data), high-performance computing (HPC), and quantum computing (Quantum) — across URI campuses, in the region, and beyond. The computational work of over 150 faculty researchers is supported by this Institute. A quick snapshot of IACR resources is available here: IACR at-a-glance.
The IACR has an internal advisory group of key URI faculty members: Drs. Chris Kincaid (Oceanography); Ying Zhang (Life Sciences), Jason Dwyer (Associate Dean, College of A&S), Chris Hemme (INBRE Bioinformatics Core Coordinator, College of Pharmacy) and Drew Zhang (Alfred J. Verrecchia Endowed Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics) and is led by Gaurav Khanna (Asst. Vice President for Research Computing). The Institute partners closely with the Massachusetts High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC). IACR was formerly known as the URI Center for Computational Research.
Email us at iacr-group@uri.edu with questions, comments, suggestions — anything!
News
Open opportunities - Here are some potentially interesting opportunities for IACR students. The Microsoft one is also open to faculty. 1. SIParCS Summer Internships: Summer Internships in Parallel Computational Science (SIParCS) applications are open with a deadline of January 20, 2026. This year undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to work with technical projects ranging in topics from machine learning, […]
Faculty Spotlight: Rob Coyne (Physics) - Exploring the Cosmos Through Computation: How URI’s Research Computing Fosters Discovery Here at the University of Rhode Island, research computing isn’t just about high-performance computing (HPC) and powerful servers – it’s about enabling and fostering discovery. For Dr. Rob Coyne, Teaching Professor and a researcher, access to URI’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence & Computational Research […]
Michael included on Stanford’s top 2% of scientists list! - https://www.uri.edu/news/2025/10/university-of-rhode-island-faculty-members-named-to-stanford-universitys-top-2-scientists-2024-list/ Congratulations, Michael Puerrer!!- Discovering AI @URI Day - Discovering AI @ URI Day December 10 | 4:00 – 7:30 p.m. Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering, Rooms 040 & 045 The University of Rhode Island community is invited to join us for a dynamic recognition of the diverse and creative work of our faculty, students, and staff exploring artificial intelligence in research, teaching, and innovation. This AI @ […]
IACR seed funding program is back! - 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 […]