The Department of Energy intends to award $30 million in grants to support the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence methods in fusion energy research. DOE said Wednesday that it eyes to provide $17 million in support of research efforts that will cover the management of facility operations, forecast of plasma phenomena and rapid discovery efforts in the area of data science.
A separate $13 million grant will be provided to fund fusion theory studies and observe various factors that affect the movement of plasma within fusion reactor systems. Each funding opportunity will run for two to three years and recipients may receive an additional $7 million through fiscal year 2020 funds and Congressional appropriations. Universities, private sector firms, nonprofit organizations and national laboratories are eligible to participate in the projects.
“Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies can bring new, transformative approaches to tackling fusion energy theories and challenges,” said Dan Brouillette, secretary at DOE.