A $2 million donation from Eric and Wendy Schmidt will support the launch of the Program in Theoretical Machine Learning in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Mathematics. Eric Schmidt is the executive chairman of Google; Wendy Schmidt is president of The Schmidt Family Foundation and co-founder of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

The Schmidts have a history of supporting innovation. In 2009, they established the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund at Princeton University.

This gift will launch a three-year program beginning in the fall of 2017 and will focus on developing the mathematical underpinnings of machine learning, including unsupervised learning, deep learning, optimization, and statistics. The program will also explore connections to neighboring fields, including biology, computer vision, natural language processing, neuroscience, and social science.

“This incredible gift from Eric and Wendy highlights the importance of basic research and supports our endeavors to explore the deepest and most relevant questions about our world,” said Robbert Dijkgraaf, Institute director and Leon Levy Professor. “We are honored to be able to continue the Institute’s strong tradition and history of pioneering the fundamental aspects of computer science.”

For more information visit www.ias.edu/news/schmidt-theoretical-machine-learning.