Boston University is a collaborating institution on a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Genesis Mission award led by Princeton University and announced by the DOE this July. The Genesis Mission supports the development and demonstration of AI-enabled scientific workflows to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, discovery science, and national security.
The multi-institutional project, “Towards a FLARE Digital Twin: Accelerating Experimental Research Using Neural Networks,” will use artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate plasma physics research. It will establish the foundation for a digital twin—a virtual, AI-powered representation—of the Facility for Laboratory Reconnection Experiments (FLARE) at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).
FLARE is an experimental facility that studies magnetic reconnection, the process by which magnetic field lines break apart and reconnect, releasing energy. This fundamental plasma process powers solar flares, drives space weather, and underpins the operation of fusion devices.
Chuanfei Dong, an assistant professor of astronomy and electrical and computer engineering, serves as Boston University’s institutional principal investigator. Brian Kulis, (ECE,SE) serves as co-investigator. Both are affiliated faculty with BU’s Hariri Institute for Computing.