MESSAGE from the DIRECTOR
Published February 2026
Dear SDSC Collaborators, Partners and All Friends:
As we move further into 2026, artificial intelligence continues to reshape research and education, influencing everything from how discoveries are made and how people learn to how institutions partner across sectors. At SDSC, partnerships are foundational to how we enable innovation. This issue of SDSC Innovators highlights how our community is harnessing cross-sector strengths in an increasingly AI-enabled landscape to tackle challenges in areas ranging from energy to agriculture and disaster resilience to health.
Among the projects featured are data-driven agriculture initiatives that support decision-making and regional workforce development, hydrogen combustion simulations on Expanse that advance clean energy research and CloudBank-supported tools that accelerate post-disaster recovery.
This issue also features how MIT researchers utilized Expanse to reveal hidden physics inside metals and how a UC San Diego team leveraged Voyager to develop AI tools that improve the speed and precision of cervical cancer treatment planning.
Just as cross-sector partnerships are advancing research, they are also informing how we approach education and workforce development. Through programs such as the Research Experience for High School Students, Wildfire Commons data challenges, COMPLECS training workshops, the Advanced HPC-CI webinar series, opportunities connected to the NAIRR Pilot and more, SDSC continues to support next-generation innovators nationwide.
Thank you for being part of the SDSC community. Your partnership helps ensure that today’s technological advances translate into lasting benefits for research, education and society.
Best wishes,
Frank Würthwein
SDSC Director