UTRGV Hosts Second STARTER-AI Workshop

Monday, February 17th 2025

2024 Workshop

Second Workshop is a Hit!

UTRGV has successfully hosted the second South Texas AI Research, Training, and Education Resource (STARTER) AI workshop, continuing its mission to advance AI research and education at UTRGV. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), grant IIS-2334389, with additional support from NIH, NVIDIA, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy (PHYA), this workshop builds on the momentum of the inaugural event, further strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration in AI.

Held from January 29 to February 7, the workshop was once again led by the dedicated STARTER team: Dr. Soumya D. Mohanty (PI, PHYA), Dr. Erik Enriquez (Co-PI, CS), Dr. Dong Chul Kim (SP, CS), Dr. Sanjeev Kumar (Co-PI, ECE), Dr. Karen Martirosyan (Co-PI, PHYA), and Dr. Soma Mukherjee (Co-PI, PHYA).

Following a hybrid format, the event connected participants via Zoom across the Brownsville and Edinburg campuses, fostering engaging discussions and hands-on learning experiences. With over 30 attendees, including faculty and students, the second STARTER-AI Workshop further demonstrated the growing enthusiasm for AI education and research at UTRGV. Stay tuned for future workshops in this exciting series!

Invited Speakers & AI Showcase

2024 Workshop

The event featured distinguished external speakers Dr. Joe Allen who provided insights on the recent technological advances at TACC, including the deployment of new GPU-powered resources and ongoing efforts to equip researchers with the right tools for AI. TACC is the world leader in academic supercomputing and has a long, successful history designing and operating some of the world's most powerful computing resources.

Hands-on Training

2024 Workshop

Dr. Enriquez led another outstanding session, introducing new participants to the basics of deep learning through interactive tutorials. Utilizing a curriculum designed by industry leader NVIDIA, attendees built a Convolutional Neural Network and took part in a fun, hands-on project: creating an automated dog door. This activity involved training an AI model to identify a specific dog among various animal images, offering practical experience with AI technologies.

Special Acknowledgment

Special thanks go to Dr. Nicholas Dimakis, Chair PHYA, and members of the staff Isabel Nicasio, Gisselle Delgado, Joselito Guardado, Katrina Martinez and several students Christian Narcia, Daniel Masamba, Hector Lugoa, and Eliana Alvarez who worked closely with the STARTER team to make the workshop organization a success.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Soumya Mohanty