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Institute of Engineering in Medicine IEM
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  3. GEMSTONES
  4. Past GEMSTONES projects

Past GEMSTONES Projects

The GEMSTONES Community Engagement Award funds faculty co-investigators from engineering, health, or social sciences to mentor student teams in developing projects that address community-defined health needs or plan research tackling community-identified challenges in underserved San Diego communities. Learn more about past GEM projects below.

2024-2025

Sovereign AI and Sustainable Computation for Indigenous Communities

Indigenous communities worldwide have long faced challenges related to technological dependence, environmental degradation, and lack of data sovereignty. The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and computational technologies has exacerbated these disparities, creating a digital divide and contributing to unsustainable practices such as e-waste. This proposal leverages the concept of Earth Friendly Computation (EFC) to build technological independence for Indigenous communities through the decentralization of micro-data centers powered by reanimated Zombie GPUs (ZGPUs). Read more.


Keolu Fox, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, UC San Diego