New Book Introduces the AI Technologies Leading to Transformational Scientific Discovery

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can accelerate the design, discovery, and evaluation of new materials; advance the development of new hardware and software systems; enable complex instrument design and optimization; and automate the large-scale creation of data resources that are FAIR — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

Northwestern Engineering’s Alok Choudhary is a co-editor of a new book called Artificial Intelligence for Science: A Deep Learning Revolution (World Scientific Publishing Company, 2023) that introduces the AI, machine learning (ML), and deep neural network technologies leading to revolutionary scientific discoveries.

Enormous datasets are generated by many sources — including supercomputer simulations, satellites, gene sequencers, X-ray synchrotrons, and electron microscopes — as well as modern experimental facilities such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Artificial Intelligence for Science features contributions from leading scientists who explore the challenges and opportunities in using AI to extract meaningful scientific insights from the ever-increasing mountains of data.

Designed for professionals, researchers, and students in all fields of science and engineering, the handbook outlines AI-enabled advances in many scientific domains, including agricultural and environmental science, astronomy and cosmology, climate science, energy and sustainability, health and medicine, life sciences, materials science and engineering, and particle physics.

Along with Choudhary, Artificial Intelligence for Science co-editors include Geoffrey Fox, professor of computer science and member of the Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative at the University of Virginia; and Tony Hey, chief data scientist at Science and Technology Facilities Council Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.

Choudhary is the Henry and Isabelle Dever Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and (by courtesy) of computer science at the McCormick School of Engineering. He is the director of the Center for Ultra-scale Computing and Information Security at Northwestern University.

Choudhary's research focuses on big data science, supercomputing, scalable data mining, and the applications of ML and AI in fields including the physical sciences, medicine, and business. He is the founder, chairman, and chief scientist of 4C insights, a data science software company acquired by MediaOcean in 2020.

Choudhary served on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence. He has published more than 450 papers in various journals and international conferences; presented more than 100 invited talks at conferences, businesses and universities; and has advised more than 40 PhD students. Choudhary has received several prestigious awards including the National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator Award, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Engineering Foundation award, an IBM Faculty award, and an Intel Research Council award. He is a fellow of IEEE, Association for Computing Machinery, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.