Applied research for what's next
Spark AI is SDSC's industry consortium for applied research in AI, agentic systems, and quantum: sponsor-driven studies, working papers, and executive workshops.
Celebrating SDSC’s Role in the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics
We congratulate our colleagues at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory on the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Francis Halzen at UW Madison. Over the past decade, SDSC has provided the critical high-performance computing resources and expertise required to process and simulate the massive datasets behind this historic discovery.
Read the full announcement on UC San Diego Today — Behind Nobel-Winning IceCube Science Lies a Decade of SDSC Computing ExpertiseResearch
The four newest working papers. The library also holds executive briefings and points of view.
Building Hybrid Human-Agent Teams
James Massa
The organizational and governance side of hybrid teams: how team dynamics, performance management, compliance and disaster recovery apply to agent integration, and how humans take over when agents fail.
Working Paper·June 2026SCORE-AI: Orchestrating Teams of AI Agents
James Massa
A framework for the Selection, Chaining, Orchestration and Ranking of expert AI agents: recruiting from a registry, vetting through tryouts, onboarding, and evaluating across eight coordination patterns.
Working Paper·June 2026AI-Native Drug Discovery: Re-shaping Pharmaceutical R&D
James Short, Suresh Mani, Raju Pusapati and Murali Krishnam
Competitive advantage in pharmaceutical R&D increasingly rests on integrating high-quality data, automated experimentation, and iterative model development into one capability that compounds over time.
Working Paper·June 2026AI-Native Drug Discovery: Foundation Models and Autonomous Labs
James Short, Raju Pusapati, Suresh Mani and Murali Krishnam
How multimodal biomedical data, foundation models, and closed-loop autonomous laboratories are turning therapeutic discovery from a heuristic process into a predictive, data-driven one.
Active Projects
Sponsor-driven studies underway now.
What AI Means for Business
Digitalization is the opportunity, and it takes a decade to get right.
Most of AI's progress happens where it cannot be directly observed.
Healthcare is the use case with the most at stake.
Evidence-based policy is the case for AI in government.
The better life depends on the values built into the design.
An executive forum for applied AI research
Spark AI is SDSC's industry consortium for measuring what actually works in enterprise AI, through rigorous, sponsor-driven research and a small, senior group of members.
Join Spark AI