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. For details on the broad topic of Generative AI, and the relevant university-wide efforts and guidelines, please visit the URI Provost’s AI page.
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
IACR staffing update: postdocs, students - We’re pleased to announce that starting in January ’26 we are adding 2 postdocs and a graduate student to help advance IACR activities. Details appear below. Dr. Adel Aly: new AI postdoc who will be broadly supporting our AI strategy; Dr. Nouman Butt: new quantum computing postdoc who will develop and run a new workshop […]
Faculty Spotlight: Roxanne Beinart (GSO) - Researchers and Research Computing Resources at URI: A Powerful Symbiosis While URI researchers need not require exceptional computational power to benefit from its research computing resources, sometimes it is downright essential to have a bit more oomph. That is the case for Dr. Roxanne Beinart, an Associate Professor of Oceanography at the Graduate School of […]
US launches the Genesis Mission - https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/launching-the-genesis-mission/ The White House issued a new Executive Order launching the “Genesis Mission,” a large-scale national effort led by the Department of Energy to accelerate AI-enabled scientific discovery. New Website: https://genesis.energy.gov/
AI Lab — Fall ’25 Report - A detailed AI Lab — Fall ’25 Report is available here: https://web.uri.edu/iacr/ai-lab-projects-fall-25/
Faculty Spotlight: Manshu Yang (Psychology) - Dr. Yang is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Health Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Rhode Island and co-director of the Behavioral Science Ph. D. program. Her research interests focus on the development and adaptation of quantitative methods and analysis tools (1) to handle missing data, especially for longitudinal studies and […]