AI Research at Carolina: Leading the Way
Today’s most pressing challenges demand research that cuts across disciplines. No single field can meet this moment alone. This is where Carolina’s institutional strengths provide a singular advantage.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s integrated AI and data infrastructure gives researchers access to massive datasets, scalable computing power, and seamlessly connected platforms that accelerate discovery, enabling breakthroughs at unprecedented speed and scale.
The University’s highly collaborative environment fosters interdisciplinary teams whose deep knowledge guides technical innovation, with AI expertise amplifying real-world impact. At Carolina, there are 2,100 investigators incorporating AI into their research. Since 2010, researchers have secured $2.5B in funding for 8,600 AI-focused projects.
UNC’s Unique Advantage
When it comes to AI-enabled research, Carolina has strong core resources, specialized programs, and a long legacy of data‑intensive inquiry. With this foundation, our research enterprise can aim higher and dream bigger, advancing discoveries such as these that support the public good:
- Detect and treat chronic diseases earlier to prevent suffering and save lives
- Accelerate discovery of new drugs and therapies to bring hope to patients more quickly
- Advance healthy aging practices that extend life span and quality of life
- Enhance personalized care for people facing substance use disorders
- Predict and mitigate the impacts of disasters to safeguard our citizens, infrastructure, and economies
- Ensure access to clean, safe water amid growing threats of contamination
- Lead in creating successful human-centered AI that strengthens civic life and delivers true public good
Signature AI Research Accelerators
Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI)
RENCI develops and deploys advanced technologies that enable research discoveries and practical innovations across disciplines. With deep expertise in data science, informatics, software architecture, and cloud ecosystems, RENCI creates secure, shareable data platforms that catalyze AI innovations and power large-scale collaborative research.
Research Data Management Core (RDMC)
The RDMC is a first-of-its-kind effort to unlock the full potential of Carolina’s research data by breaking down silos, organizing research data responsibly, and making it usable for AI — while maintaining strong privacy and governance standards.
Secure Health Informatics Research Environment (SHIRE) Platform and OMOP Research Data Repository – De-Identified (ORDR-D)
Developed as a partnership among UNC Health, School of Medicine, and the University, the SHIRE and ORDR-D analytics platforms provide Carolina researchers with unprecedented secure access to over 3 million UNC Health patient records with protections for sensitive data. These novel assets support large-scale AI development, moving seamlessly from data to AI models to real-world clinical applications. UNC is one of only a few leading institutions equipped to provide broad access to high-quality electronic health records data in a fully privacy-protected environment.
Microsoft Azure AI Developer Lab
Researchers from across campus can request computing resources through the University’s Microsoft Azure partnership. Azure offers scalable, secure cloud computing that supports accelerated AI experimentation and model development, with access to both on-premises and cloud-based high‑performance computing.
Odum Institute for Research in Social Science
The Odum Institute provides expert training and consultation for every phase of the research lifecycle — from study design and planning to data collection, analysis, and reporting. Attuned to the trends shaping the future of social and data science, the Institute equips researchers with the rigorous methodological foundation that AI research demands.
Key Units Powering AI Discovery
Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation (IRMII)
IRMII brings together researchers, students, and 40+ industry partners to develop AI-driven solutions for managing financial risks from escalating threats such as climate change, natural disasters, and cybersecurity attacks.
Sheps Center for Health Services Research
The Sheps Center hosts one of the nation’s richest repositories of Medicare claims and outcomes datasets, positioning Carolina as a national leader in using real-world data and AI to drive smarter healthcare solutions.
Institute for the Environment (IE)
IE is incorporating AI into projects designed to identify and solve the world’s environmental challenges. For example, the Data-Driven EnviroLab and Carolina Drone Lab leverage data science and AI-adjacent technologies to analyze environmental challenges at scale and turn complex environmental data into actionable policy insights.
UNC Gillings Center for Artificial Intelligence and Public Health
The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Public Health connects world-leading AI experts with domain scientists from the nation’s top public school of public health to create a collaborative hub where innovative ideas are cultivated, tested, and implemented.
Triangle Research Data Center
Through the Carolina Population Center, the Triangle Research Data Center provides researchers secure access to restricted federal microdata unavailable through public sources and essential for AI-driven social science breakthroughs. This partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, Duke, and RTI enables faculty to apply machine learning to the nation’s most comprehensive datasets on health, employment, inequality, and economic mobility.
Structural Genomics Consortium
The Structural Genomics Consortium in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy is the first and only U.S. site of this global open science partnership focused on understanding the functions of all human proteins and developing new chemical probes. High-quality protein science datasets provide a foundational resource for computational and AI–driven drug discovery efforts, accelerating the generation of new chemical probes and drugs for cancer, neurodegeneration, infectious diseases, and rare disorders.
Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC)
BRIC houses state-of-the-art imaging equipment, giving Carolina researchers access to PET, MRI, CT, and ultrasound capabilities along with the image analysis to turn raw scans into valuable data. The center’s AI systems learn from this vast trove of images to make diagnosis faster and more precise. Leveraging AI, BRIC researchers can detect patterns in imaging data that no human eye could catch.
Core Facilities
Carolina’s research core facilities deploy advanced automation and AI-powered discovery tools, robotic sequencing, automated microscopy with AI analysis, high-throughput proteomics, and computational pipelines that produce data and enable analysis at exceptional speed and scale.
AI-Enabled Outcomes Across Campus
Collaborative Research Breakthroughs
The most pressing challenges demand research that cuts across disciplines and fully harnesses the power of AI. By uniting experts across fields, we are redefining what is possible.
Predictive prescriptions
Alex Tropsha is part of a multi-million dollar, federally funded project using machine learning to identify new uses for existing drugs.
AI for better births
Jeffrey Stringer has merged an AI app with a portable ultrasound device to improve maternal and child health.
Data-driven heartbeats
By blending psychology, data science, and AI, Lindsey Rosman reveals how wearable smart devices are reshaping heart care.
Translation for Social Good
AI-driven insights are speeding the translation of discoveries into public health practice. These advances are creating better outcomes for vulnerable populations, informing public health policy, and delivering real-world solutions that reach far beyond campus.
Home truths
Hsun-Ta Hsu combines machine learning with data and community feedback to determine better housing solutions for homeless populations across the United States.
Symbiotic strides
Helen Huang and her lab are building better prosthetics by enhancing them with robotics and AI.
AI insights
Carolina researchers leverage AI across various fields to enhance their studies, build on existing knowledge, and drive discoveries for a brighter future.
Innovative Strategy and Policy
Carolina’s AI research experts are shaping how the technology is governed, regulated, and understood at state and national levels. Our research data infrastructure enables seamless cross-campus collaboration, while maintaining strong governance and privacy standards.
Coding compassionate AI
Snigdha Chaturvedi is developing AI systems with empathy and social awareness to understand the nuances of human language.
Rethinking AI responsibility
Francesca Tripodi is putting people at the heart of AI — challenging bias, teaching ethics, and shaping a more responsible future for technology.
Questioning AI
How will artificial intelligence change the world? This is just one of many questions philosopher Thomas Hofweber hopes to answer.
Tomorrow’s AI Leaders
Beyond coursework, Carolina develops AI-ready leaders through experiential learning and training. In labs across campus, students integrate AI and ML in their work and participate in research enabled by robotic automation, AI-powered imaging and analytical platforms, machine learning pipelines, and advanced computational tools. These hands-on experiences build the technical literacy required for graduates to thrive in an AI-shaped economy.
Graduate student works with faculty mentor to leverage AI for protein design
Amartya Banerjee constructed more accurate protein models using Carolinaʼs AI tools and cloud computing, including UNC Research Computingʼs Longleaf shared computing cluster and a strategic partnership with Microsoft Azure.
Students contribute to research in the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Public Health (CAIPH)
The Precision Health and AI Research Lab, embedded in CAIPH, develops and applies precision health methods to a wide array of settings and populations. The lab is composed of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty associates, allowing students and trainees the chance to work alongside world-class leaders in AI to develop cutting edge research with real-world applications.
Student Vaidehi Patil receives 2025 Google PhD Fellowship in Machine Learning and ML Foundations
Patil was one of only eight recipients in the United States in that category. Her research seeks to make deep learning models safer and more responsible for real-world applications.
New Pathways to Impact
AI is increasing the speed at which our research findings make their way out into the world. Carolina researchers are using AI to tackle the world’s greatest challenges and advancing the foundational science and technology that power the AI revolution itself.
A new era of AI at Carolina
Students and researchers are embracing AI in their work, from English and comparative literature to computer science to public health.
Clinical data infrastructure modernized for secure sharing
The UNC School of Medicine, NC TraCS Institute, and UNC Health have built the new Secure Health Informatics Research Environment to give research teams easy access to research data and a variety of analytics tools.
Robotics work heralds ‘discovery factories’
Carolina scientists define lab automation and create AI that enables a robot to work beside humans.
