Cody Bumgardner, PhD

Name, Title: 

Cody Bumgardner, PhD

Associate Professor

Director Center for Applied AI

Director Pathology Informatics 

College/Unit: 

Department of Pathology

Institute for Biomedical Informatics

Describe what you and/or your team does at UK. 

I have been with UK for over 21 years in various roles, with the majority of my time working as ITS staff.  In the past, I directed Enterprise Computing, served as Chief Technology Architect, and directed Research Computing.  In 2017, I transitioned to a faculty role in the Department of Pathology and founded the Division for Pathology Informatics.  In this division, we develop and support the informatic and bioinformatic components of clinical genomics, pathology imaging, and laboratory analytics.  In 2020, I founded an Innovation Core within the Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI), to apply technology in interesting ways to biomedical problems.  A year later, I co-lead the College of Medicine AI in Medicine Alliance, which with the Innovation Core developed into the Center for Applied AI, within IBI.  In addition, I serve as Senior Fellow for Innovation in the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), where I coordinate and promote the advancement of cyber infrastructure across the state.  

My UK experience has been incredibly broad, working across academic, research, clinical, and outreach efforts.  From a training standpoint, we work with high-school students, undergrads, graduate, and medical residents, which requires a broad range of personal technology.  Clinically, we develop and support systems that must provide accurate answers and be available 24/7 for our patients.  Research is often the most challenging and rewarding, because it often does not fit within IT standards, and much like trying to build a race car to drive on the public highway, it can be tricky.  I have learned over the years to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, which has really allowed me to enjoy the current wave of generative AI.                      

Talk about the ways you’ve collaborated with ITS and how it impacted your work. 

 In each of my UK roles, access to both data and cyber infrastructure has been critical.  Navigating impediments (both resource and human blockers) to advancement is a persistent challenge, one that exists, but is not unique to UK.  Given enough money and time you can accomplish nearly anything, but doing interesting things with limited time and resources is another matter.  I have been fortunate in my UK life to have worked with people (many in IT) confident and cleaver enough to think outside the box for solutions.  I have been fortunate to have been part of many technology first at UK, from stereoscopic 3D simulations, the first 10/40/100/400G networks, and the latest evolutions of high-performance computing.  Many of the most enjoyable efforts were doing more with less.  For example,  clinical genomics started on an out-of-service research cluster, we pieced together a campus (1k network ports) and state-wide research network (10/100G) upgrades through grants and gift, and the latest AI supercomputer (likely single fastest in Ky) was composed through startup funds and grants.  In addition, ITS provides operational support of research networking connecting all public higher-ed institutions in Ky.  These efforts, while not standard by any measure, are only possible through direct collaboration with ITS.