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.
Drop by the IACR at URI Carothers Library 227 or email us at iacr-group@uri.edu with questions, comments, suggestions — anything!
News
Faculty Spotlight: Nick Pizzo (GSO) - How can we gather more insight from data to solve problems in the world today? This is one of the most fundamental questions driving the artificial intelligence boom. It’s also one that GSO Assistant Professor of Oceanography Dr. Nick Pizzo is no stranger to posing, and recently it led him and his collaborators into the […]
Faculty Spotlight: Chris Hemme (Pharmacy) - Bridging the Gap: How Research Computing Powers the Future of Molecular Informatics At the University of Rhode Island, the move toward data-intensive research is led by scientists who maintain a dual fluency in biological systems and the high-performance computing environments used to analyze them. For Dr. Christopher Hemme, Director of the Rhode Island INBRE Molecular […]
World Quantum Day — Friday, April 10th - URI’s annual celebration of World Quantum Day will be held on Friday, April 10th! Here are the details: https://events.uri.edu/event/world-quantum-day-uri-7928 Senators Reed and Gu will be at the event!
IACR participates in URI Day at the State House! - The AI Lab represented the IACR on URI Day at the State House! It was a super fun day with lots of participation. Governor McKee and Lt. Governor Matos celebrated the day with us! https://www.uri.edu/news/2026/03/uri-to-turn-rhode-island-state-house-keaney-blue-thursday-in-celebration-of-universitys-successes-statewide-impact-during-annual-uri-day/
Faculty Spotlight: Russell Shomberg (Engineering) - Russell Shomberg (GSO) interview