Research in the Shehu Lab

Our laboratory bridges two worlds. We advance foundational and use-inspired research in Artificial Intelligence. What drives us is a deep passion to push the barriers of our understanding of the physical and biological world.

In all we do we ask two questions: how are we advancing foundational research; what scientific breakthroughs can we make with this foundational research? In answering these questions, we bridge worlds and communities.

Over the years, we have contributed novel stochastic optimization algorithms for exploring high-dimensional, non-linear variable spaces and modeling the complex, spatio-temporal dynamics of physical and biological systems. We continue to make contributions in both foundational and use-inspired AI to advance inquiry in diverse disciplines, from the life sciences to engineering. It is real-world, complex, wicked problems that prompt us to design novel AI and ML frameworks and algorithms. This is nowadays abbreviated as AI4Sience.

Highlights of our recent work include optimization for deep learning, deep generative (latent variable) models in generative AI for modeling small and large molecules, and advancing large language models for bio & health informatics. Generative AI for modeling complex dynamic systems is a main thrust of research in our lab.