Highlighted Programs and Initiatives

CVM Global Health

Director: Sid Thakur

To address the pressing challenges of today’s increasingly interconnected world — emerging zoonotic diseases, climate change, food security — requires multidisciplinary approaches. And veterinarians play a vital role.

The College of Veterinary Medicine’s Global Health program unites students, researchers and clinicians to support the discovery of knowledge, promote the development of lifelong learners, and address key global health challenges.

Data Science Academy 

Executive Director: Rachel Levy

NC State has a long history of strengths in disciplines that support data science, such as statistics, computer science and engineering. Today, data science is found in every college — and interest exists at all academic levels. Data science as a field accessible to all is now a core strength of the university.

The Data Science Academy (DSA), formally established in 2021, creates a solutions-oriented center for NC State’s growing collaborative network of people, programs and partnerships in the data science space that is not defined by discipline and college. The DSA provides a focal point for data science activities at NC State, broadly involving faculty and students across the university in data science education and scholarship. The DSA also seeks to build external partnerships — and to position NC State as an international leader in data science.

Genetics and Genomics Academy

Executive Director: Fred Gould

Genetics and genomics are central to all life sciences. The Genetics and Genomics Initiative (GGI), now an academy, recognizes this — and aims to leverage NC State’s rich legacy in genetics to connect and invigorate our other unique strengths in the life sciences. Ultimately, the goal is to drive excellence in transdisciplinary research and training.

The GGI leverages collaborations across all life sciences research and training at NC State University — from the basic to the applied, from molecules to ecosystems, from the traditional to the cutting-edge — to enhance our understanding of the genetic and genomic underpinnings of life on earth, sustain biodiversity, and enhance social equity.

Plant Sciences Initiative

Platform Directors: Hannah Burrack, Chris Reberg-Horton, Ross Sozzani and Cranos Williams

The complex challenges of agriculture — rapidly growing population, less farmland, climate and water shifts, emerging crop diseases and pests — don’t fit into particular academic or research silos. The North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative (N.C. PSI) breaks down barriers to solving these and other grand challenges.

Bringing together the brightest minds in academia, government and industry — to drive vital research and innovation that increases crop yields, creates new varieties, extends growing seasons, enhances agricultural and environmental sustainability, and produces new and improved technology — N.C. PSI’s mission is to improve the world through plant science innovation.

NSF AI Institute for Engaged Learning

Principal Investigator: James Lester

Guided by a vision that supports and extends the capabilities of teachers and students using artificial intelligence, the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Engaged Learning conducts research on AI-driven narrative-centered learning environments with embodied conversational agents and powerful multimodal sensing capabilities to create deeply engaging collaborative story-based learning experiences.

Building on advances in core AI on natural language processing, computer vision and machine learning, the institute is part of a broader NSF effort to advance our understanding of AI technologies and how they can drive innovation to address real-world challenges.

Secure Computing Institute

Co-Directors: William Enck and Laurie Williams

The Secure Computing Institute (SCI) is a focal point for cybersecurity research and education at NC State University and throughout the Triangle. Located in the Department of Computer Science, SCI seeks to unite cybersecurity efforts across the university — including the Department of Business Management, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Department of Psychology.

Performing basic and applied research and advancing and delivering cybersecurity education, SCI’s mission is to enhance the security and privacy of computing systems for the betterment of society. The efforts of SCI’s core research labs are spread across theoretical and practical cybersecurity and privacy — including blockchain security and privacy, cloud security, mobile and IoT application security and privacy, and more.