Indiana University Bloomington Launches New Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence

Indiana University Bloomington formally opened its new Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence this month, a cross-disciplinary research hub based on the Bloomington campus that will pool faculty from the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, the School of Medicine, and the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

University officials said the center grew out of years of informal collaboration between computer scientists and public health researchers at IU, particularly in epidemiological modeling and healthcare data analysis, and was formalized after a multi-year fundraising effort brought in more than $90 million in gifts and research grants.

"We have real strength in computing and real strength in public health and medicine, and for a long time those two worlds mostly stayed in their own buildings," said the center's inaugural director, a longtime IU computer science professor. "This gives us an actual home for the people who want to work at that intersection instead of doing it as a side project."

The center will fund roughly 20 new faculty and postdoctoral positions over the next five years, with initial research clusters focused on AI applications in rural healthcare access, agricultural data modeling, and public policy simulation. A new fellowship program will also bring in 30 doctoral students annually, with priority given to projects that pair a computing advisor with a policy or health sciences co-advisor.

State economic development officials have welcomed the announcement as a boost to Indiana's growing technology sector, noting that IU remains one of the state's largest research employers and a steady source of spinout companies. University leaders said the center's new building, a renovated space near the Luddy School, is expected to open to researchers within the year.