AI Climate Institute
University’s AI Institute is a leader in climate-smart agriculture and forestry.
One of the defining societal issues today — and going forward — is how to slow down or stop climate change, and a new institute at the University of Minnesota is exploring ways to do this using artificial intelligence (AI).
The University of Minnesota was awarded a $20 million federal grant over five years to lead the AI Institute for Climate-Land Interactions, Mitigation, Adaptation, Tradeoffs and Economy (AI-CLIMATE). Led by researchers at the College of Science and Engineering who are working with partners across campus and the country, the institute aims to leverage AI to create more climate-smart practices that will absorb and store carbon while also boosting the economy in the agriculture and forestry industries.
In the push to combat climate change, some sectors of the economy can go beyond carbon neutral and have “net-negative emissions,” which is a state of removals exceeding emissions. One sector where this is possible is the agriculture and forestry industries.
“One of the driving factors of climate effects is carbon emissions,” says Shashi Shekhar, director of the institute and a professor in the College of Science and Engineering. “By 2050, the United States aims to have net zero carbon emissions, and one of the most promising ways to do this is using natural systems like forestry and agriculture as ‘carbon sinks.’”
To lead the institute, the University received a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The institute is one of 25 NSF and NIFA-funded AI institutes. It is part of a larger federal initiative — totaling nearly half a billion dollars — to bolster collaborative artificial intelligence research nationwide.
AI-CLIMATE is a joint effort between the U of M College of Science and Engineering, Minnesota Robotics Institute, Data Science Institute, College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences, and the Office of the Vice President for Research. It brings together scientists and engineers from across the country, including national experts on artificial intelligence and climate-smart ag and forestry from Cornell University, Colorado State University, Delaware State University, Purdue University, and North Carolina State University. The researchers will also collaborate with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and the tribal nations it represents.
