Texas State University is contributing to the U.S. Department of Energy’s historic Genesis Mission, a groundbreaking effort that brings together artificial intelligence, advanced computing, quantum technologies, and cutting-edge scientific instruments to transform scientific discovery and strengthen energy security and national resilience.
TXST faculty members Tanzima Islam, Ph.D., principal investigator on a Genesis Mission award, and Aniruddha Bora, Ph.D., an investigator on another Genesis Mission project, are applying emerging technologies to solve complex research challenges and improve the reliability and efficiency of critical systems.
“The Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission is bringing together some of the nation’s brightest researchers to accelerate scientific discovery,” said Kelly Damphousse, Ph.D., president of Texas State University. “We are proud that Texas State faculty members are helping lead that effort. The work of Drs. Islam and Bora reflects the extraordinary talent of our researchers and our commitment to advancing knowledge in ways that strengthen our nation’s scientific leadership and improve how communities manage critical resources like water and energy.”
The work places TXST researchers in an inaugural national cohort working across universities, federal laboratories, and industry to develop new AI-enabled research tools.
“Having Texas State researchers selected for this inaugural cohort demonstrates the competitiveness of our faculty and the university’s expanding role in large-scale, collaborative research initiatives,” said Shreek Mandayam, Ph.D., vice president for research.
Turning scientific code into faster discoveries
Islam, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, is the leading principal investigator for the Genesis Mission Phase I project titled “OPTIX: A Multi-Modal Foundation Model for Performance-Aware HPC Code Intelligence.”
Islam’s project addresses a widespread problem: AI can write code quickly but getting that code to run efficiently on powerful computers can still take scientists days or weeks of manual effort.
Islam and her collaborators are building an AI system that can suggest the best way to set up and run scientific code, show how confident it is, and explain why it made those recommendations. The goal is to help researchers get reliable results faster and make better use of computing power, energy, and research funding.
“Leading this project is an extraordinary honor and a profound responsibility,” Islam said. “Being part of the Genesis Phase I cohort gives our team the opportunity to contribute to a national effort that will strengthen American leadership in science, energy, and technology. For our students, this award also creates a rare opportunity to work on mission-driven research with national laboratories and industry partners.”
The OPTIX team includes subaward collaborators from Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The project also draws on cross-sector support from academia, national laboratories, and industry, including Advanced Micro Devices, a semiconductor company, and Weights & Biases, an AI developer platform.
Sharpening water forecasts for energy planning
Bora, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, received a sub-award from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the Genesis Mission project “Drift-Aware Initialization of Coupled Earth System Models for Scalable Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Prediction Using Agentic AI.”
The project aims to improve forecasts of how much water will be available in an area weeks or months ahead. Better forecasts can help communities, water managers, and energy providers prepare for drought, manage reservoirs, and plan hydropower use.
To make water forecasts, scientists rely on Earth-system complex computer simulations that represent how the atmosphere, land, and water interact. These models are powerful tools, but small errors at the start can grow over time and make predictions about rain, snowpack, soil moisture, runoff, and river flow less reliable.
Bora’s TXST team is developing a two-stage AI framework to address that problem before a forecast begins. First, the system predicts how early errors may change as the forecast runs. Then, it recommends incremental corrections to give the model a better starting point. Instead of adjusting forecasts after they are created, the approach improves the information the model starts with.
"It is especially meaningful to lead Texas State’s contribution and to work alongside scientists at PNNL on a challenge with national importance," Bora said. “Our team at TXST will develop advanced scientific machine learning and agentic AI methods and validate them within a major Department of Energy system. The project will create new research and training opportunities for TXST students, expand the university’s capabilities in physics-informed AI, scientific machine learning and Earth-system prediction, and position TXST to contribute to improved water and energy resilience.”
About the Genesis Mission
The Genesis Mission is a historic national initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy to build the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform. By uniting government, industry, academia, and philanthropy, it is accelerating breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery, and national security with a new platform that combines AI, supercomputing, quantum systems, and advanced scientific instruments.
The Phase I RFA awards support teams developing research workflows that integrate AI with scientific investigation and test whether those approaches can accelerate discovery, improve predictions, enhance experimentation, or generate new scientific insights.
TXST representatives will participate in the Genesis Mission Summit on July 22, 2026, in Washington, D.C., where selected teams will gather for the official launch of the first Genesis Mission cohort.