The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has secured two spots in the first round of the U.S. Department of Energy's Genesis Mission, a new program that funds AI-driven research to speed up scientific discovery. The DOE announced the selections on July 22, placing UH Mānoa among 168 universities and research institutions nationwide participating in 278 projects. Each Phase I award ranges from $500,000 to $750,000 over nine months, with the chance to compete for up to $15 million in Phase II funding.
"The selection of not one, but two UH Mānoa projects for this highly competitive DOE mission reflects the strength of the UH research community and the creativity of our faculty in pursuing solutions to some of the most complex challenges facing society," said UH Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation Chad B. Walton.
AI security for critical infrastructure
Assistant Professor Liuwan Zhu from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering leads a project called STRATOS (Security and Trust Runtime Architecture for Time-critical Operational Science). The team will build an AI security platform to detect and respond to cyber threats against AI systems that run real-time operations, such as managing and forecasting for electrical grids.
Testing will use a dual-site setup: the UH Mānoa campus microgrid and real-time computing systems at Argonne National Laboratory. Collaborators include Old Dominion University and Argonne.
AI advances the search for extremely rare decay processes
Professor Zepeng Li from the Department of Physics and Astronomy will develop an AI foundation model to aid the hunt for neutrinoless double beta decay. Observing this rare nuclear process would answer a major question in physics: whether neutrinos are their own antiparticles. Current experiments each use separate software and analysis methods, but Li's project aims to create a shared AI framework that learns from data across multiple detector technologies.
A unified approach could help researchers spot patterns, compare results, and work together more effectively, potentially accelerating the discovery of this elusive event.
Genesis Mission brings labs and universities together
The DOE designed the Genesis Mission to combine advanced AI, high-performance computing, and scientific expertise from its national laboratories and academic partners. UH Mānoa's projects will contribute to AI applications in fundamental physics, energy systems, and national security, while strengthening Hawaiʻi's role in advanced research.
Why this matters for science and research professionals
The Genesis Mission signals a clear DOE priority: integrating AI into core scientific workflows, with funding that can scale from half a million to $15 million. For researchers, this means new opportunities to propose AI-driven projects that tackle energy, physics, and security challenges. The program also encourages collaboration with national labs, giving academic teams access to high-performance computing resources. Scientists working on detector technologies, grid security, or foundation models should watch for future Genesis calls and consider how their work might fit into this emerging funding channel.
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