The Ryan Institute on Complexity is set to launch at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, looking to break new ground in the application of artificial intelligence on business.

Funded by a $25 million donation from the Ryan Family Foundation, the new academic initiative was announced Wednesday — the same day the proposed Ryan Field redevelopment is scheduled to go before the Evanston Land Use Committee. Both are drawn from a record-setting $480 million gift from the Ryan family.

In 2021, the Ryan Family Foundation made the largest single donation in Northwestern history, in large part to finance the $800 million stadium. But the donation also included academic initiatives, such as the Ryan Institute, which was created to conduct research on the intersection of physics, economics and sociology using big data and artificial intelligence.

A revised proposal to redevelop Ryan Field, which has met with increasing opposition in the wake of the football hazing scandal and firing of head coach Pat Fitzgerald in July, will be presented at a public planning hearing Wednesday evening.

Complexity science — the study of how systems interconnect, creating something bigger and often unpredictable out of the individual components — has gained traction during the new millennium across a wide spectrum of disciplines.

The Ryan Institute at Kellogg will be the first of its kind housed in a business school, a research initiative aimed at studying how these interconnections impact the success of organizations. Initial focus will be on the power of social networks, the path to invention and human-machine partnerships.

Artificial intelligence — the evolution of computer science to enable machines to take on increasingly complex tasks, from driving a car to writing a news story — brings potentially transformative disruption to the economy.

Teaching future business leaders how to leverage big data and artificial intelligence will be at the center of the scientific research at the Ryan Institute.

“The idea here is machines are not taking our jobs, but the humans who know how to use these machines will take your jobs,” said Dashun Wang, a physicist and professor of management and organizations at Kellogg.

Wang is one of three Kellogg professors leading the new institute along with Ben Jones, an economist and Brian Uzzi, a sociologist.

With the announcement of the $25 million funding Wednesday, Kellogg will begin building out the “dry lab” spaces where the research will take place. The Ryan Institute will also hold an annual conference on complexity, create new curriculum at Kellogg and collaborate with other Northwestern schools.

“We are thrilled to support the establishment of this revolutionary research institute that will place Kellogg and Northwestern University at the forefront of the study of complexity science,” Pat Ryan Jr., a Northwestern law and business graduate, said in a news release.

Ryan Jr. was not available to comment beyond the news release for this story. But the largesse of the Ryan Family, like the newly founded institute, is a study in complexity.

The primary benefactor of the proposed new stadium is billionaire Patrick Ryan Sr., founder and retired CEO of Aon Corp. and a Northwestern alumnus. The $480 million Ryan donation also included gifts to fund biomedical, economics and business research, among other fields at Northwestern.

The school did not specify how much of the initial $480 million was earmarked for the stadium redevelopment. But that gift has gotten the lion’s share of attention.

Northwestern announced plans for the privately funded Ryan Field rebuild in 2022. The new stadium would include a canopy to reduce noise and light pollution, better sight lines, chair backs instead of benches and 35,000 seats — 12,000 fewer than the current Ryan Field.

In addition to football games, the new stadium would host concerts and community events, an area of concern for neighbors worried about increased noise and traffic.

The Northwestern football hazing scandal and the firing of Fitzgerald brought new calls to temporarily halt the proposed rebuild.

In response to the backlash, Northwestern revised its stadium proposal, reducing the number of annual concerts from 10 to six, dropping a request for an unlimited number of 10,000-person university events and limiting community-based activities to 60 days per year.

The public hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday will include a request for a special use to demolish the existing Ryan Field and build the new facility, and a zoning amendment to modify the permitted uses at the site.

A city spokesperson said it is expected to take several meetings before coming to a vote at the Land Use Commission.

If approved, the proposal will go to the City Council for a final vote.

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