The NSF ACCESS Regional AI Workshop - SoCal Edition invites both current and prospective users of the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) to come together for a day of learning, discussion, and community building.

The NAIRR-Pilot program is NSF’s flagship program about giving access to commercial and academic CI resources to researchers looking to conduct research in AI or applying AI to their science or education.

This ACCESS-Support led workshop will include presentations on the use of AI for research and education and provide an overview of NAIRR-Pilot, connecting practitioners in the Southern California region using the NAIRR-Pilot ecosystem. It will explore how to make the most of NAIRR allocations, highlight practical tools and workflows, and share strategies for advancing research across disciplines with AI. Participants will gain insights into best practices, hear about success stories from the community, and connect with peers to exchange ideas and foster collaboration.

This workshop offers a unique opportunity to strengthen your AI skills, broaden your network, and become part of the growing regional AI community. The workshop will provide an opportunity to present lightning talks or posters.

This is an application to attend. Space is limited to 100 participants. If there are more applications than space, applications will be selected based on the responses in the applications.

Apply Here

How it Started

In April 2025, NAIRR held “AI Unlocked: Empowering Higher Education through Research and Discovery” in Denver, Colorado with about 350 attendees. Based on the success of the workshop, it was decided to hold NAIRR smaller regional focused workshops limited to about 100 attendees.The first one was RMACC (see agenda here) in Colorado in August 2025. A second workshop was hosted in Kentucky early October 2025. USC/ISI is organizing the Southern California Region workshop in January 2026.

Agenda

(Will be updated as more speakers are confirmed)

Time Topic
8:00 - 9:00 am Check in and breakfast
9:00 - 9:15 am Welcome - Ewa Deelman, USC
9:15 - 10:30 am AI on Campus
9:15 - 9:50 am TBD - Danielle Mihram, USC
9:50 - 10:30 am TBD - Stephen Aguilar, USC
10:30 - 11:00 am Break
11:00 - 12:30 pm NAIRR
11:00 - 11:30 am What are Access & NAIRR? - Shelley Knuth, University of Colorado, Boulder
11:30 - 12:00 pm AI for All - Nabeel Alzahrani, California State University, San Bernardino
12:00 - 12:30 pm Requesting Resources via the national AI Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot - Maytal Dahan , Texas Advanced Computing Center
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
1:00 - 2:30 pm Lightning Talks: What Can You Do With AI? (10 min talks, 5 min Q/A)
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
2:30 - 3:30 pm AI Ready Data
2:00 - 2:30 pm Making Your Data Available for AI - Pete Beckman, Northwestern U
2:30 - 3:00 pm Use of AI in Agriculture - Nirav Merchant, University of Arizona
3:00 - 3:30 pm TBD
3:30 - 4:00 pm Break
4:00 - 5:00 pm Focus Demo: Pegasus Workflow Management System
5:00 - 5:05 pm Closing Remarks - Ewa Deelman, USC
5:05 - 7:00 pm Social Mixer / Poster Session