Industrial Engineering Professor Completes Department of Defense Fellowship

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Rob Curry, assistant professor of industrial engineering, was awarded a research fellowship for summer 2024. The fellowship is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense through the High-Performance Computing Modernization Program.

The program sponsors two summer research opportunities: the High-Performance Computing Internship Program and the Faculty Immersion Experience. Each 10-week experience is offered in collaboration with more than a dozen Department of Defense hosting organizations nationwide. The programs seek to strengthen department and academic collaboration, enhance research capabilities and encourage broader university-level participation in high-end computing.

Curry took part in the Faculty Immersion Experience. His project is titled Leveraging High Performance Computing to Facilitate Accelerated Development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Large Language Models (LLMs).

In this project, Curry aided in documenting and exploring the use of an LLM-based chatbot deployed on a high-performance computer. He and his collaborators at the Engineer Research and Development Center had already developed this tool and were able to work on the scope of how to deploy it on a high-performance computer.

Curry shared, "I was drawn to the opportunity because of the ability to work on defense-related projects on the high-performance computer. What I found was how valuable stakeholder input is when developing the deployable tools. As with any government work, there are significant security considerations when building these tools. And I had to be flexible and resourceful when exploring options that met the security requirements."

He continued, "This opportunity allowed me the time, resources and experience in building LLMs. Through it, I've already identified ways to use what I've learned in the classroom and within my research group."

The Department of Defense established the High Performance Computing Modernization Program as a department-wide program to provide department scientists, engineers and acquisition engineering professionals with the computational resources needed to develop robust solutions to complete technical challenges.

About the Department of Industrial Engineering: The Department of Industrial Engineering was founded in 1950, led by department head John L. Imhoff, who believed deeply in the global impact of industrial engineering. Today, the department averages over 200 undergraduate students (sophomore through senior) and over 40 doctoral and master's students. In addition, the department has three online master's degrees: the Master of Science in Operations Management, Master of Science in Engineering Management and Master of Science in Operations Analytics. These three programs alone enroll over 2,000 students each academic year. A wide range of practical research is conducted in the department in the areas of reliability, maintainability and quality engineering; transportation, logistics and distribution; health care systems engineering; manufacturing and automation; engineering management and big data; and data analytics in each of the five research centers housed in the department. To learn more about the Department of Industrial Engineering please visit our website.