NVIDIA is launching its inaugural AI Tech Community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, aiming to accelerate innovation and public-private collaboration in artificial intelligence. The initiative, announced on October 8, during the NVIDIA AI Summit in Washington, D.C., includes collaborations with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as partnerships with local startups, enterprises, and organisations in the "city of bridges."
At the heart of this initiative are two NVIDIA joint technology centres to be established in Pittsburgh. The first is NVIDIA's Joint Centre with Carnegie Mellon University for Robotics, Autonomy and AI, which will equip higher-education faculty, students and researchers with the latest technologies and boost innovation in the fields of AI and robotics. The second is NVIDIA's Joint Centre with the University of Pittsburgh for AI and Intelligent Systems, which will focus on computational opportunities across the health sciences, including applications of AI in clinical medicine and biomanufacturing.
These centres will provide access to NVIDIA's full-stack AI platform, including DGX for AI training, Omniverse for simulation, and Jetson for edge computing. They will also offer NVIDIA's latest AI software and frameworks, such as Isaac Lab for robot learning, Isaac Sim for designing and testing robots, NeMo for custom generative AI, and NIM microservices, available through the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform.
Theresa Mayer, vice president for research at CMU, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration: "Pairing Carnegie Mellon University's existing deep expertise and resources in AI and robotics with NVIDIA's cutting-edge platform, software and tools has tremendous potential to power Pittsburgh's already vibrant innovation ecosystem."
Similarly, Rob A. Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research at the University of Pittsburgh, highlighted the potential impact: "By focusing on computational and AI opportunities across these 'meds and eds' areas, we plan to leverage our collaboration with NVIDIA to explore new ways to connect these breakthroughs to improved health and education outcomes for everybody."
As part of the initiative, NVIDIA is increasing engagement with Pittsburgh-based members of its Inception program for AI startups and Connect program for software development companies. The company mentioned two specific examples: Lovelace AI, which is developing AI solutions using NVIDIA accelerated computing and CUDA for national security customers, and Skild AI, a startup founded by two Carnegie Mellon professors developing a scalable robotics foundation model called Skild Brain.
NVIDIA is also collaborating with the Pittsburgh Robotics Network and technology accelerators like AlphaLab and the Robotics Factory at Innovation Works. The company's Deep Learning Institute, which has trained over 650,000 people, will support AI workforce development in the region.
The AI Tech Community initiative in Pittsburgh serves as a model for NVIDIA's broader goal of supercharging public-private partnerships across communities with high potential for enabling technological transformation using AI.