The developing collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and NVIDIA will accelerate how medical research is done and health care is delivered in Pittsburgh and beyond.
The NVIDIA Joint Center with the University of Pittsburgh for AI and Intelligent Systems will focus on computational opportunities across the health sciences, including applications of AI in clinical medicine and biomanufacturing, the company says.
Pittsburgh will be the site of NVIDIA’s inaugural AI Tech Community, bringing together academia, industry and public sector partners to drive progress in AI. NVIDIA also announced a Joint Center with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for Robotics, Autonomy and AI. Farnam Jahanian, Carnegie Mellon University president, Anthony Robbins, vice president, Federal at NVIDIA, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Joan Gabel, University of Pittsburgh chancellor, celebrated the signing of a ceremonial memorandum of understanding with NVIDIA on Oct. 14 (pictured above).
Pitt stands to strengthen its already impressive medical influence through access to the tech giant’s hardware and software. NVIDIA chips power gaming systems, self-driving cars and data centers, but they also handle the accelerated computing that propels drug discovery, genomics and medical imaging through artificial intelligence.
With access to AI capabilities that few other institutions have, Pitt medical researchers will be able to expedite their current studies at a much faster pace. In pathology, for instance, this might include the use of AI for whole slide image assessment, which could expedite and enhance the accuracy of certain cancer diagnoses.
But the collaboration will be leveraged to do more than explore new ways to connect computing breakthroughs to improved health outcomes for everyone, says Anantha Shekhar, an MD, PhD and Pitt’s senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine. It will enhance how the University carries out its mission as an educational leader, he says.
“As a top-tier institution for the study of health sciences, it’s imperative that we continually educate our entire academic community on the best ways to optimize AI for the equitable study, prevention, and treatment of disease,” Shekhar says. “We’re excited about the potential for this collaboration to help us achieve this goal.”
Recognizing AI’s potential to improve the quality of and speed delivery of medical care, Shekhar and Liron Pantanowitz, an MD, PhD, MHA who is the Maud L. Menten Professor and Chair of Pathology, recruited Hooman Rashidi to serve as Pitt Med’s associate dean for AI in medicine. For his part, Rashidi sees NVIDIA’s technology as a driver in all of this.
Describing generative AI as “the current and future orchestrator of most things we’re going to do around AI,” Rashidi says the right hardware is crucial. “That’s where NVIDIA fits into all of this,” he says. “They’re the engine around all of the software tools we’re developing.”