Tampa Bay Times: Here’s how UF is deploying AI to tackle Florida’s growing health challenges
Florida is a vibrant state with a robust population, but like many states, it faces steep and growing health challenges, from rising rates of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to escalating burdens of cancer and diabetes. Florida’s geography, rapid population growth and uneven distribution of health care resources create additional layers of complexity.
Fortunately, the University of Florida has built a fully integrated biomedical ecosystem to address those challenges, using the most advanced tools in artificial intelligence, data science, translational infrastructure and community partnerships. It’s not simply another research hub. As the vice president for research at UF, even I sometimes need reminders of just what a powerhouse we have, and I had a front row seat earlier this month when National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya visited campus to hear from our faculty about their work.
Many of these advances are tied to UF’s investment in artificial intelligence, anchored by HiPerGator, the fastest supercomputer owned and operated by a university in the United States. HiPerGator is the computational engine that allows UF researchers to work with massive biological datasets, run complex modeling workflows in cancer research and neuroscience, develop clinical prediction tools, and power virtual realities for training and testing.