The Biden Administration has announced a new $110 million AI partnership between Japan and the United States that includes an initiative to fund research through a collaboration between the University of Washington and the University of Tsukuba.
NVIDIA is committing $25 million in a collaboration with Amazon that aims to bring the latest technologies to the University of Washington, in Seattle, and the University of Tsukuba, which is northeast of Tokyo.
Universities around the world are preparing students for crucial AI skills by providing access to the high performance computing capabilities of supercomputing.
“This collaboration between the University of Washington, University of Tsukuba, Amazon, and NVIDIA will help provide the research and workforce training for our regions’ tech sectors to keep up with the profound impacts AI is having across every sector of our economy,” said Jay Inslee, governor of Washington State.
Creating AI Opportunities for Students
NVIDIA has been investing in universities for decades computing resources, advanced training curriculums, donations, and other support to provide students and professors with access to high performance computing (HPC) for groundbreaking research results.
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, donated $50 million to their alma mater Oregon State University — where they met and earned engineering degrees — to help build one of the world’s fastest supercomputers in a facility bearing their names. This computing center will help students research, develop and apply AI across Oregon State’s top-ranked programs in agriculture, computer sciences, climate science, forestry, oceanography, robotics, water resources, materials sciences and more.
The University of Florida recently unveiled Malachowsky Hall, which was made possible with a $50 million donation from NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky. This new building along with a previous donation of an AI supercomputer is enabling the University of Florida to offer world class AI training and research opportunities.
Strengthening US-Japan AI Research Collaboration
The U.S.-Japan HPC alliance will advance AI research and development and support the two nations’ global leadership in cutting-edge technology.
The University of Washington and Tsukuba University initiative will support research in critical areas where AI can drive impactful change, such as robotics, healthcare, climate change and atmospheric science, among others.
In addition to the university partnership, NVIDIA recently announced a collaboration with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) on AI and quantum technology.
Addressing Worldwide AI Talent Shortage
Demand for key AI skills is creating a talent shortage worldwide. Some experts calculate there has been a fivefold increase in demand for these skills as a percentage of total U.S. jobs. Universities around the world are looking for ways to prepare students with new skills for the workforce, and corporate-university partnerships are a key tool to help bridge the gap.
NVIDIA unveiled at GTC 2024 new professional certifications in generative AI to help enable the next generation of developers to obtain technical credibility in this important domain.
Learn more about NVIDIA generative AI courses here and here.