Stanford launches a research initiative with Amazon
Last Wednesday, Stanford and Amazon leaders and researchers gathered to celebrate the launch of the Stanford and Amazon Research Initiative. Building on a longtime research relationship, the agreement establishes a framework to strengthen and grow collaborations and accelerate progress on common interests.
“To stay at the leading edge of AI and data science discovery, Stanford’s relationships with industry must expand and deepen,” said David Studdert, Vice Provost and Dean of Research and Professor of Health Policy and of Law. “Amazon has been a great supporter of our research for years, and we already have a strong track record together. I have high hopes that this initiative will unlock exciting new opportunities and bring more cohesiveness to our relationship.”
Through this enhanced coordination, Stanford researchers will have greater insight into the types of research most likely to garner Amazon’s support, facilitating the identification of promising opportunities of mutual interest.
“There is no intention to limit the opportunities that will be available to researchers. Our goal is to expand them,” said Gianluca Iaccarino, the Robert Bosch Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Joseph L. and Roberta M. Rodgers Professor in the School of Engineering, who is the Stanford faculty lead for this initiative. “This agreement aims at opening doors for researchers, sparking a clearer understanding of Amazon's key priorities and connecting them directly with teams across the company.”
Iaccarino sees this new agreement as an opportunity for a broader view of collaboration that could lead to more strategic and sustainable relationships between these organizations, recognizing that both Stanford and Amazon consist of large and complex networks.
Funding opportunities will include:
- Fellowships for Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers
- Sponsored research projects and gift-funded research
- Community and outreach activities, such as research symposiums and networking workshops
Amazon has a long history of collaboration with Stanford research, faculty, and students.
“From the Amazon side, you might assume that they tend to focus on computer science, machine learning, and large language models,” said Iaccarino. “But Amazon is very interested in a wide variety of work, like economics and market research, operations research, optimization, quantum computing, and sustainability, just to name a few topics.”
Amazon has provided support for many recent projects at Stanford, including research on robotic operation, better AI agents, safety of language models, supply chain management, quantum acoustic devices, neuroinflammatory disease, and much more, in departments such as computer science, mechanical engineering, aeronautics and astronautics, economics, linguistics, psychology and medicine, among others.
Curtis Langlotz, Professor of Radiology, of Medicine, and of Biomedical Data Science in the School of Medicine and Senior Associate Vice Provost for Research, was involved in conversations leading up to the new agreement. He and fellow Stanford faculty member Akshay Chaudhari have received Amazon support to research and develop a medical imaging AI model. When it’s finished, this foundation model will be openly available for use by the research community, so that it can be a basis for developing a variety of medical tools for diagnosis, treatment, education, and more.
Already familiar with the ways in which Stanford and Amazon have worked together to advance science, Langlotz looks forward to what will arise from the new initiative. “We're delighted to have this deepening relationship with Amazon,” he said, “and we expect that this will grow the many important collaborative ties that we have between our two organizations.”