{"id":120778,"date":"2026-07-27T23:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T23:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/120778\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T23:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T23:47:14","slug":"uh-manoa-researchers-selected-for-national-effort-to-advance-ai-driven-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/120778\/","title":{"rendered":"UH M\u0101noa researchers selected for national effort to advance AI-driven science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reading time:   3 minutes<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/manoa-research-genesis-mission-awards.jpg\" alt=\"two people standing in front of a large poster board\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-238064\"  \/>Assistant Professor Liuwan Zhu (left) and Assistant Professor Zepeng Li (right) will lead two UH research projects selected for the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s inaugural Genesis Mission, a national initiative using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery<\/p>\n<p>Two University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa research projects have been selected for the inaugural <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/undersecretaryforscience\/genesis-mission\/genesis-mission\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Genesis Mission portfolio<\/a>, placing UH\u2019s flagship research campus among a select group of universities and research institutions nationwide using artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate scientific breakthroughs.<\/p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/articles\/secretary-energy-chris-wright-announces-first-genesis-mission-projects-selected-accelerate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announcement on July 22<\/a>, the DOE said the projects were selected to develop and demonstrate AI-enabled tools and workflows designed to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, science and national security. Each project is eligible for Phase I awards of $500,000\u2013$750,000 over nine months, providing investigators with the opportunity to develop innovative AI-driven research while positioning them to compete for future Phase II awards of up to $15 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe selection of not one, but two UH M\u0101noa projects for this highly competitive DOE mission reflects the strength of the UH research community and the creativity of our faculty in pursuing solutions to some of the most complex challenges facing society,\u201d said UH Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation Chad B. Walton. \u201cAt UH, we are committed to fostering an environment where bold ideas, interdisciplinary collaboration and emerging technologies can come together to create meaningful impact not only in Hawai\u02bbi, but across the nation, and around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two UH M\u0101noa projects selected are led by researchers in the <a href=\"https:\/\/ece.hawaii.edu\/home\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phys.hawaii.edu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Physics and Astronomy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>AI security for critical infrastructure<\/p>\n<p>One project, led by Assistant Professor Liuwan Zhu from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, focuses on improving the security and reliability of AI systems used in critical infrastructure. The project, called STRATOS (Security and Trust Runtime Architecture for Time-critical Operational Science), will develop an AI security platform designed to detect and respond to cyber threats targeting AI systems used in real-time operations, such as electrical grid management and forecasting.<\/p>\n<p>The research team will test the technology using a dual-site platform that includes the UH M\u0101noa campus microgrid and real-time computing systems at Argonne National Laboratory. The project includes collaborators from Old Dominion University and Argonne National Laboratory.<\/p>\n<p>AI advances the search for extremely rare decay processes<\/p>\n<p>The second project, led by Professor Zepeng Li from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will develop an AI foundation model to support searches for neutrinoless double beta decay, one of the most important unanswered questions in nuclear and particle physics. Neutrinoless double beta decay is an extremely rare nuclear process that, if observed, could help scientists better understand the nature of neutrinos, the mysterious \u201cghost particles\u201d that are abundant in the universe and are constantly passing through us without interacting. In particular, this rare decay process could tell us whether the neutrino is its own anti-particle.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers around the world are searching for this phenomenon using different types of detectors, but each experiment typically relies on its own specialized software and analysis methods. Li\u2019s project aims to create a shared AI framework that can learn from data across multiple detector technologies, helping researchers identify patterns, analyze results and improve collaboration among experiments studying this rare event. The project will develop a unified AI framework that streamlines data analysis across the diverse detector technologies used in neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments, accelerating the search for this rare process.<\/p>\n<p>The Genesis Mission brings together DOE laboratories and universities to combine advanced AI, high-performance computing and scientific expertise. UH M\u0101noa was among 168 universities selected for the first round of Genesis Mission projects, which included a total of 278 research efforts involving more than 340 institutions across the country. Through these projects, UH researchers will contribute to emerging applications of AI in fundamental physics, energy systems and national security, while strengthening Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s role in cutting-edge scientific research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading time: 3 minutesAssistant Professor Liuwan Zhu (left) and Assistant Professor Zepeng Li (right) will lead two UH&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,11305,2765,1710,61128,61129,61131,25,13656,58749,2661,6454,313,61134,25178,48056,61127,61126,18803,61130,61139,372,61141,2683,32580,32579,61140,32578,3151,684,61132,39977,39979,39987,39988,39978,96,1896,61142,61135,61136,61138,61137,61143,26650,1282,14687,238,61125,39976,227,32615,61133],"class_list":["post-120778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-ai-innovation","tag-ai-research","tag-ai-security","tag-ai-driven-science","tag-ai-enabled-research","tag-argonne-national-laboratory","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-critical-infrastructure","tag-cyber-threats","tag-cybersecurity","tag-department-of-electrical-and-computer-engineering","tag-department-of-energy","tag-department-of-physics-and-astronomy","tag-doe-ai","tag-doe-genesis-mission","tag-electrical-and-computer-engineering","tag-electrical-grid-security","tag-energy-research","tag-engineering","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-hawaii","tag-hawaii-college","tag-hawaii-higher-education","tag-hawaii-research","tag-hawaii-university","tag-high-performance-computing","tag-innovation","tag-liuwan-zhu","tag-manoa-campus","tag-manoa-college","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-manoa-university","tag-microgrid","tag-national-security","tag-natural-science","tag-neutrinoless-double-beta-decay","tag-neutrinos","tag-nuclear-physics","tag-particle-physics","tag-physics-and-astronomy","tag-scientific-research","tag-stem","tag-uh","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uh-research","tag-uhm","tag-university-of-hawaii","tag-university-of-hawaii-at-manoa","tag-zepeng-li"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}