The Ken Kennedy Institute reached new records with over 1,100 registered for the annual Oil & Gas (now Energy) HPC Conference and over 600 registered for the annual Ken Kennedy AI and Data Science Conference, via the virtual format that allowed broad participation all over the country and world. The Institute held 2 distinguished lectures, 2 technology innovation lectures, 5 data science coast to coast seminars, a machine learning boot camp for executives with 40 attendees, assisted with coronavirus workshops and symposiums, and concluded the year with an in-person unofficial NeurIPS Day on Rice University campus with 70 attendees.

In collaboration with industry, supporting departments, and the HPC conference, the Institute awarded $110,000 in fellowships to Rice graduate students to pursue their research and attract top graduate students to Rice. Seed funding was awarded for Digital Humanities Research Development. In collaboration with Lilie, IBB, SCI, and the Provost’s Office, the Rice Innovation Fellow program launched to support graduate students to spend additional research time focusing on the practical aspects of applying their research to industry needs.

This year the Institute launched collaborations with Methodist/HMRI and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in collaboration with ENRICH. A data science fellow was brought on to the team to enable collaboration across institutions and work on Rice/MDACC-D3CODE projects. As part of our mission, we have established faculty-led collaborative research clusters enabled by the Institute that focus on the key problems affecting the world (currently computation in healthcare, disaster relief, and urban resilience).

The Institute launched a new website to highlight how the Institute impacts research, supports innovation, and builds partnerships. Finally, we are excited to announce we now have 302 members and reach over 5,000 subscribers.

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