From Climate Change to Healthcare, Stony Brook University Drives AI Solutions for a Better Tomorrow

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly changing the way people think, live and work, affecting us in ways we never imagined. It’s part of our new reality, and Stony Brook University (SBU) is at the forefront of AI research and discovery through interdisciplinary collaboration, strategic partnerships and transformational investment.

Stony Brook, New York State’s No. 1 public university, has the academic expertise, resources and infrastructure to drive the nation forward into the next Industrial Revolution.

Stony Brook’s world-class Computer Science Department has national strengths in AI research, including a Top 10-ranked program in computer vision, while the renowned Institute for Advanced Computational Science provides high-performance computing services and acts as a nexus for students and researchers. 

Its Applied Mathematics and Statistics department, known for its quantitative finance faculty, is applying AI for the analysis, management, and optimization of investment and risk. The Computational Science Initiative at Brookhaven National Laboratory, which SBU co-manages, is one of the largest AI groups in a national lab.

AI plays a key role in understanding and providing solutions to topics of global importance like climate change and healthcare, and Stony Brook is well-positioned to be a leader in those areas as well.

Tackling the Climate Crisis

• Stony Brook’s strategic faculty hiring at the intersection of climate and AI has led to programs focused on developing smart electric grids, analyzing social media exchanges to understand the impact of climate change in disadvantaged communities, and performing ecological modeling to help save Antarctic ecosystems. 
• Using AI to develop climate models that can assess future human health and property risks down to the neighborhood scale will help inform best approaches in climate mitigation and adaptation.
• At The New York Climate Exchange, SBU is working alongside IBM, BCG, and Moody’s — as well as with partner universities — that are deeply invested in AI and its impact on climate solutions.

Improving Healthcare for All

• SBU is ushering in transformative advancements in the application of AI in biomedical research and healthcare through its Renaissance School of Medicine, in collaboration with its world-class health system and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences.
• Stony Brook faculty are collaborating to invent AI tools that will improve the early detection of disease, optimize disease management and outcomes, and provide more personalized healthcare. 
• The Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology is pioneering computational approaches to accelerate drug discovery and vaccine design. 
• SBU is also partnering with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the state-funded NeuroAI initiative aimed at furthering our understanding of the brain.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the first-in-the-nation Empire AI Consortium in October 2024, with SBU Professor Robert J. Harrison — an expert in theoretical chemistry, mathematics and computer science — appointed interim executive director.

The consortium will advance research aimed at addressing major societal challenges for the public good, focusing on critical areas such as climate change, health disparities, accelerating drug discovery, democratizing education, and tackling global food insecurity and urban poverty.

The September 2024 launch of Stony Brook’s AI Innovation Institute (AI3) expanded the university’s Institute for AI-Driven Discovery and Innovation to a university-wide initiative that, according to SBU Provost Carl Lejuez, “will serve to empower the entire university community and beyond, catalyzing core AI research, curriculum innovation, and societal change.”

AI3 Interim Director Steve Skiena, distinguished professor in Stony Brook’s Department of Computer Science, said AI’s impact is not limited to high-tech disciplines, but is a pervasive technology that affects everybody.

“Besides the people who work in core and foundational areas of AI, there’s also a world where these tools are revolutionary, changing the way people do business in all disciplines,” he said.

Learn more about how Stony Brook is fueling New York’s future.