By Wayne Gillam / UW ECE News
UW ECE Assistant Professor Hossein Naghavi is leading one of 278 research projects chosen for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission from more than 5,000 applicants nationwide. His project is focused on developing an artificially intelligent augmented reality headset that would enable the user to see through smoke, fog, debris, and other nonconductive materials. Photo by Ryan Hoover / UW ECE
UW ECE Assistant Professor Hossein Naghavi is leading a multi-institutional research project selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, a historic national initiative aimed at building the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform. His project is one of only 278 selected nationwide from more than 5,000 applicants, the largest response to a funding opportunity in DOE history. The selected projects were announced on July 22 at the Genesis Mission Summit in Washington, D.C.
Naghavi’s project, “Neuromorphic Terahertz Imaging via Analog Compute-in-Memory in AI-Driven Augmented Reality Hardware,” is focused on developing a low-power, high-bandwidth augmented reality headset that combines terahertz imaging with intelligent sensing and computing. Terahertz waves sit on the electromagnetic spectrum between microwave and optical frequencies. They can be used to see through many nonconductive materials and identify substances based on unique wave absorption and reflection signatures. The headset would enable the user to see through smoke, fog, debris, and other nonconductive matter. Potential applications include firefighting, emergency response, autonomous navigation, security screening, industrial inspection, biomedical sensing, and beyond 5G communication networks.
“I am honored to represent the University of Washington as part of the DOE’s Genesis Mission,” Naghavi said. “This is an exciting project that is rethinking how intelligent sensors are built, and by doing so, the research is supporting national priorities in energy-efficient computing and next-generation hardware.”
According to the DOE, the Genesis Mission was designed to address some of the nation’s most pressing energy, scientific, and engineering challenges while doubling America’s scientific productivity. By uniting government, industry, academia, and philanthropy, the initiative accelerates breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery, and national security through a new platform combining AI, supercomputing, quantum systems, and advanced scientific instruments.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission is a historic national initiative aimed at building the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform.
Projects under the Genesis Mission are collaborative by design; teams must draw on the expertise of researchers from academia, industry, and/or national laboratories. Naghavi’s co-investigators include Milad Koohi, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Texas A&M University, Morteza Fayazi, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Utah, and Daniel Elmhurst, chief executive officer of ChipNexus (formerly PrimisAI). The group is also collaborating with John Josephakis, global vice president of high-performance computing and supercomputing at Nvidia.
Naghavi and his team have been selected by the DOE under the Genesis Mission for Phase I funding. During this nine-month phase, the team will design and demonstrate a research workflow that integrates AI with scientific investigation. The DOE will evaluate whether the approach can accelerate discovery, improve predictive capabilities, enhance experimentation, and generate new scientific insights. Projects demonstrating strong potential for transformative scientific capabilities may be considered for additional Genesis Mission funding.
Naghavi said that the nine-month timeframe was ambitious, but he and his colleagues were up to the challenge.
“This project brings together expertise in terahertz systems, semiconductor devices, integrated microsystems, AI methods/hardware, and high-performance computing,” Naghavi said. “By combining those strengths, we can move much faster toward a practical solution than any one institution could alone.”
Read this DOE press release to learn more about the first Genesis Mission projects selected to accelerate AI-driven scientific discovery.