With SUNY Support, Stony Brook Builds AI ‘Ecosystem’

Stony Brook University is making strong progress toward the launch of a new department, the Department of Technology, AI and Society (DTAS), to be housed in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The new department was conceived and will be launched thanks to $5 million in funding from the State University of New York (SUNY). The department will become a vital component of an expansive focus on artificial intelligence that has been in development at the university for several years.

"We've made AI a part of a larger ecosystem at Stony Brook," said Andrew Singer, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "There are so many ways that AI is integrated into our College, not just in education but operations and research. We see DTAS as being foundational to everything we do in CEAS. It could end up being one of the most impactful departments in the college."

The new Department of Technology, AI, and Society will launch in the fall, following a comprehensive planning process that included a diverse and highly interdisciplinary group of faculty. The department planning builds on the work begun across the 64-campus system in SUNY STRIVE AI, a strategic plan that will help achieve the goal of doubling SUNY's research volume, and support continued innovation and evolution in the AI industry across the state. Singer was one of the leaders of STRIVE AI, and several other Stony Brook faculty and administrators participated in one or more of the effort's working groups.

"Stony Brook has long been a leader in developing AI tools, systems, and applications across multiple departments and institutes," said Carl W. Lejuez, executive vice president and provost. "With this new department, we are building on that foundation by bringing students in interdisciplinary scholarship together with leading work in the arts, humanities and social sciences to broaden both the scope and impact of our efforts.

"Establishing this department that will be focused on how AI can be used ethically, objectively, and in service of society is a natural next step," Lejuez continued. "It is a step that we are taking following deep, thoughtful conversations with faculty and leaders across Stony Brook."

The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences is moving into the final stages of the hiring process to identify a new chair for DTAS. At the same time, the university has filed letters of intent to establish three degree programs: one each at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral level.

When launched, the new programs will join a growing slate of AI-focused degree programs at Stony Brook. Two years ago, the CEAS Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering launched a master's degree in engineering artificial intelligence that has more than 20 students enrolled.

Since launching three years ago, the university's graduate programs in data science have grown to enroll nearly 200 students. The data science programs are a joint effort of the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, both in CEAS. Students in the programs receive rigorous training in areas including data analytics and management, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Students can take electives in areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, robotics, operations research, computational biology or quantitative finance. An undergraduate program in data science launched last year with an initial class of 50 students.

Overseas, Stony Brook is working with colleagues in SUNY Korea and the Korean Ministry of Education to expand the undergraduate and graduate programs in technology systems management to include artificial intelligence.

For the past few years, the existing Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook has been expanding efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into its faculty research portfolio. In the past year, the department has hired four faculty members whose expertise centers on AI in society, including policy, creativity and human-centered systems.

"AI is a hyper technology, in that every aspect of technology has, or will have, AI in it," said Klaus Mueller, interim chair of the CEAS Department of Technology and Society, which will be reimagined and recreated as the Department of Technology, AI, and Society. "AI is too important to leave to the computer scientists alone. I am a computer scientist and I know the spirit of pure technologists; you can get lost in the technology race and this work could be misused or have unintended consequences. In the end, we want to amplify the human. We want to empower the human to be more capable."

For years, the Department of Computer Science has focused on artificial intelligence, and it continues hiring faculty with research interests in this area. Most recently, the department hired three faculty members whose work will push the boundaries of what AI can do on its own and in partnership with people. The department's undergraduate program offers specializations related to AI, including data science and human-computer interface. Another undergraduate program in AI is in development. When launched, this highly technical program will focus on the mathematical, programming and system-building foundations of modern AI, AI ethics, and include a robust slate of elective options.

As artificial intelligence has expanded beyond the original bounds of computer science, Stony Brook has scaled its efforts to explore and develop capabilities using the technology, ethically and responsibly, across the institution.

Just over a year ago, the university elevated its longstanding Institute for AI-driven Discovery and Innovation from a center within the Department of Computer Science to a university-wide center, the AI Innovation Institute (AI3).

"At Stony Brook, what struck me was not only the strength of AI research, but the opportunity to connect that strength across the university in a more intentional way," said Lav Varshney, director of the AI Innovation Institute and Della Pietra Infinity Professor. "Over the past year, we have helped expand that momentum by opening new pathways for collaboration, education, and public impact. We joined the Empire AI SUNY campus partnerships, launched the AI Innovation and Diffusion summer program for undergraduates, and seed-funded projects applying AI to challenges. Our researchers have worked on applications such as air traffic control safety, Alzheimer's detection and recycling.

"We're also supporting the broader conditions that make this possible, including interdisciplinary consulting, shared research infrastructure, and stronger connections among faculty, students and external partners," Varshney continued. "What is exciting to me is that AI is not developing here as an isolated specialty. It is becoming part of how Stony Brook researches, teaches and engages with society."

Researchers affiliated with AI3 have secured more than $20 million in research funding to support work in a wide variety of fields, including neuroscience, cancer research, computer security, energy and sustainability, precision medicine and psychology. Early in 2027, the university will break ground on a building to house the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering and Neuro AI Institute, an 81,000-square-foot facility with flexible research labs, teaching space, student collaboration areas and offices.

Beyond research, the university is hosting thoughtful conversations about how and when to integrate generative AI into teaching and learning.

Just last month, the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching hosted its annual day-long symposium for faculty. The event's keynote speaker was José Antonio Bowen, co-author of "Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning," who discussed how he uses generative AI in his teaching and research, and presented ideas for how faculty could choose to experiment with it themselves. CELT hosts conversations and workshops about AI in teaching throughout the year.

The University Libraries has hired two artificial intelligence resource librarians, who give workshops and create guides for students about how to use, cite and acknowledge generative AI in line with their instructors' expectations. The library also recently launched two courses - one in data literacy and the other in AI literacy - to give students foundational knowledge required to understand and use these sources of information. Both courses were designed to satisfy requirements of the Stony Brook Curriculum, the university's general education program.

"When I arrived in 2022, we deliberately decided to treat AI as infrastructure in the Libraries, not just another service," said Karim Boughida, dean of the Stony Brook Libraries. "Since then, we've hired a strong team, launched credit-bearing courses and started collaborating with DTAS/Technology and Society and CEAS on projects like a humanoid robot in the library. We are also developing an AI Lab to support this work. This positions SBU Libraries as a national leader in how research libraries are engaging with AI. DTAS, in particular, is a complementary and critical partner, helping ensure our approach to AI remains responsible and grounded."

When DTAS launches in the fall, it will join a strong and growing effort across the university to design, apply and analyze the importance and the risks of artificial intelligence. As these systems become stronger with time, Stony Brook will be at the forefront of the conversation to ensure that uses and systems are devised thoughtfully and in service to society.