UNF receives Sloan Foundation grant to create generative AI tools to improve research software codes
The University of North Florida has received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to utilize AI to make the process for updating research software code faster and more reliable.
This is the first grant made to UNF by the Sloan Foundation, a prestigious not-for-profit grantmaking institution that supports high quality, impartial scientific research.
“The durability and trustworthiness of scientific research depends on the rigor and robustness with which the underlying research code is built and maintained,” says Joshua M. Greenberg, director of the Sloan Foundation’s Technology program. “This grant to UNF will help ensure that we can take advantage of new AI tools to safely restructure legacy research software as scientific needs evolve.”
The research is led by School of Computing faculty Dr. Upulee Kanewala, associate professor, and Dr. Nan Niu, director and professor, working with two graduate research assistants, Eric Good and Nabin Chaulagain.
The project's goal is to help evolve software used by researchers across the globe while preserving accuracy and reliability. The team will evaluate the use of generative AI-supported refactoring to change the internal structure of legacy computer code, making it cleaner and easier to maintain without changing how it functions or affecting the precision of calculations.
By reducing the effort needed to update research codes, the team hopes to reduce the time spent by researchers in managing software.
The project aims to provide evidence that generative AI-supported refactoring and metamorphic testing can reduce technical barriers to maintaining and extending research software. Outcomes include increased confidence in refactoring legacy scientific code, improved software engineering methods for developers working under resource constraints, and a foundation for future, larger-scale research focused on sustainable research software development.