UGA awards seed grants to propel interdisciplinary AI research – UGA Today

The University of Georgia’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence has awarded seed grants to eight university-wide research projects designed to advance interdisciplinary AI research. The grants, which support faculty across 11 schools and colleges, aim to spark breakthroughs in how data science and artificial intelligence is applied to complex societal challenges.

“Artificial intelligence is a powerful catalyst for innovation that transcends traditional academic boundaries,” said Benjamin C. Ayers, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “By investing in these interdisciplinary seed grants, UGA is empowering faculty to develop AI-driven solutions that address critical needs in a wide range of fields, including health care, agriculture and human development.”

The grants, totaling $276,250, represent a significant step in UGA’s strategic commitment to applying data science and artificial intelligence to real-world challenges. Funded by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost and the Office of Research, with additional support from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, these awards provide faculty with critical resources to launch high-impact projects that are positioned to secure future external investment. Additionally, the grants provide researchers with access to OpenAI’s latest AI models through UGA’s participation in the NextGenAI consortium.

“Artificial intelligence is fueling innovation across disciplines at UGA, and we are committed to staying at the vanguard of this watershed moment in scholarly and scientific inquiry,” said Chris King, interim vice president for research. “These seed grants will enable our faculty to take vital early steps in applying AI shrewdly and ethically to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the world today. I’m excited to see these projects grow and develop into research that will make a positive public impact.” 

Advancing global solutions

This year’s grants align with five convergence themes identified by the university: AI in education, ethics of AI, AI and the future of health and work, AI for 3F (farm, food, forest) and AI for cyber and societal security.

“The scope of the selected projects highlights the fact that AI is no longer the domain of just a few but that recent advances have transcended traditional barriers — it is now a fundamental bridge connecting all academic disciplines,” said Prashant Doshi, executive director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence. “These seed grants are the spark for interdisciplinary research and innovations that will eventually benefit the citizens of Georgia and beyond.”

The projects funded by this year’s IAI seed grants are:

AI in education

• Developing multi-agent world model for training AI systems and clinical personnel in emergency department (Zhen Xiang and Tianming Liu, School of Computing; and Jie Lu, Mary Frances Early College of Education)

Ethics of AI for human society

• Responsible causal AI: Reproducible designs, testable mechanisms (Jason Anastasopoulos and Ryan Powers, School of Public and International Affairs; and Akshat Lakhiwal, Terry College of Business)

Ethics of AI for human society and AI and future of health and work

• Interpretable deep learning linking adverse childhood experiences, biology and cognition: Identifying modifiable supports (Hee Yun Lee, School of Social Work; Yana Zavros, School of Medicine; and Khaled Rasheed and Jaewoo Lee, School of Computing)

AI and future of health and work

• AI-driven multimodal biomarker discovery and reasoning in depression and related mental health disorders (Chao Huang, College of Public Health; Rongjie Liu, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences; and Tianming Liu, School of Computing)
• Building multimodal foundations for AI-pathology at UGA (Eugene Douglass, College of Pharmacy; Suchendra Bhandarkar, School of Computing; and Megan Corbett and Lilian Oliveira, College of Veterinary Medicine) 

AI for 3F

• Building the first million-level benchmark dataset and foundation models for cost-effective poultry management (Guoming Li, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; and Tianming Liu, Lakshmish Ramaswamy and Ramviyas Parasuraman, School of Computing)
• AI-assisted breeding for anthracnose resistance in pepper (Amol Nankar, Bhabesh Dutta, Luan Oliveira and Zhihang Song, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; and Jin Lu and Ramviyas Parasuraman, School of Computing)

AI for cyber and societal security

• Edge-AI for safe and efficient autonomous vehicles (Qianwen Li, College of Engineering; and Geng Yuan, School of Computing)

UGA’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence is a research and instructional unit jointly supported by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Research. More than 90 faculty from colleges across campus are affiliated with the institute.