Interdisciplinary team receives UMD Grand Challenges Impact Award

The University of Maryland (UMD) announced an investment of nearly $15 million over three years across 11 projects with faculty representing more than 40 disciplines across campus. The projects will receive a 50% matching in-kind and/or cash investment from their college or unit.

The team led by Dr. Eric Wachsman, UMD Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Mayland Energy Innovation Institute, will work on developing Sustainable and Ethical AI Infrastructure. Key ideas behind this proposal were previously published in an article in Maryland Matters on November 10, 2025.

This initiative will integrate cross-disciplinary expertise to provide input to help guide the State of Maryland’s policy for AI and quantum data center deployment in the coming years, and to chart a national and global path toward sustainable and ethical AI infrastructure. The team will assess four core areas of impact for Maryland arising from the rapid growth in AI data centers: (1) advancing technologies developed at UMD that can power data centers at lower cost and with lower environmental impact, (2) electricity affordability and how policies impact the burden of increased generation costs from new data center loads, (3) the ability of the state to effectively balance economic growth incentives with climate and environmental goals, (4) the critical national security risks posed by threats to large data centers and associated electricity infrastructure, and (5) air quality impacted by emissions from out-of-state electricity producers, such as coal-fired generators.

The interdisciplinary team combines expertise in innovative technology development, economics, policy, and business strategies.

Clark School of Engineering - Eric Wachsman (PI), Paul Albertus (Co-PI), Alireza Khaligh (Co-PI), and Damena Agonafer (Co-PI)
School of Public Policy – Anand Patwardhan (Co-PI) and Yueming Lucy Qiu (Co-PI)
Smith School of Business – Wedad Elmaghraby (Co-PI)
College of Agricultural and Natural Resources – Joshua Linn (Co-PI), Anna Alberini, James Archsmith

According to Dr. Wachsman, “AI and quantum computing offer potential opportunity for the State of Maryland and the US but powering them creates major environmental issues and economic challenges for rate payers. This effort will combine the perspectives across four colleges at UMD to provide economic, policy, business, and engineering contributions thus ensuring both an ethical near-term deployment of data centers and the long-term environmental sustainability of data centers in Maryland and beyond.”

The Grand Challenges Grants Program is a signature initiative of UMD’s Fearlessly Forward strategic plan designed to catalyze bold, interdisciplinary research projects that address society’s most pressing issues and advance solutions for the public good.

Published June 26, 2026