The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the College of Engineering faculty $20 million to help create a national network of cloud labs, artificial intelligence-infused research facilities that can remotely run science and engineering studies. The network will allow researchers from anywhere in the country to request complex experiments and tests that they don’t have the equipment or expertise to do themselves.
The network will be made up of 20 individual labs, or nodes, around the United States, each specializing in different areas of research, from materials science to chemistry. The BU-based lab will focus on biotechnology and engineering biological systems and have the capacity to host studies exploring topics such as new vaccines, DNA sequencing, and genetic engineering.