UCSB team wins $1M NSF grant to model higher-order interactions in physical systems with AI

ninamiolane · x · 2026-10-20

A UCSB team led by Nina Miolane received a $1M NSF award to advance mathematical foundations of AI, targeting higher-order interactions in physical systems from stars in galaxies to neurons in the brain.

Current AI-for-science approaches mostly model pairwise interactions, but multi-component systems can produce emergent effects no pair could create independently. The team aims to build AI methods that capture overlapping multi-component interactions, especially in fields lacking known laws like neuroscience. It is the first federal grant for UCSB's Real AI initiative launched this year.

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