In August, Johns Hopkins announced a major investment in data science and the exploration of artificial intelligence.

The heart of this endeavor will be a Whiting School of Engineering–based interdisciplinary data science and AI institute that will significantly strengthen the university’s capabilities to harness emerging applications, opportunities, and challenges presented by the explosion of available data and the rapid rise of accessible AI. The initiative also will transform the Whiting School, effectively doubling the size of the school’s faculty over the next few years.

The institute is dedicated to the application, understanding, collection, and risks of data and the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence systems across a range of critical and emerging fields, from neuroscience and precision medicine to climate resilience and sustainability, public sector innovation, and the social sciences and humanities. Its activities will support research activities across the institution.

“Data and artificial intelligence are shaping new horizons of academic research and critical inquiry with profound implications for fields and disciplines across nearly every facet of Johns Hopkins,” said Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels.

In addition to adding 80 new affiliated faculty appointments in the Whiting School, along with 30 new Bloomberg Distinguished Professors with substantial cross-disciplinary expertise, the effort also will include a state-of-the-art facility on the Homewood campus that will be custom-built to leverage a significant investment in cutting-edge computational resources, advanced technologies, and technical expertise that will serve the entire university community.

“It’s not hyperbole to say that data and AI to help us make informed use of that information have vast potential to revolutionize critical areas of discovery and will increasingly shape nearly every aspect of the world we live in,” said Ed Schlesinger, the Whiting School’s Benjamin T. Rome Dean.