Seed Funding (for socially responsible AI)

Seed Funding (for socially responsible AI) is sponsored by Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) - Penn State. The CSRAI invites short proposals for seed funding from Penn State faculty for research that advances its mission of promoting, practicing, and studying socially responsible ways of using, building, and deploying AI technology.

Seed Funding | Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence Social Responsibility Consultancy Each year, the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) invites short proposals for seed funding from Penn State faculty, for research that advances its mission of promoting, practicing, and studying socially responsible ways of using, building, and deploying AI technology.

Pilot projects should show potential for transformational research on AI that can contribute to social good, social accountability, social consciousness, social justice, equity, ethicality, fairness, inclusivity, transparency, privacy, human agency, or related concepts and topics. Interested researchers who are looking for potential collaborators are invited to submit their interest on the CSRAI website .

They can also consult the center’s directory of affiliates and consider becoming an affiliate themselves.

Previously Funded Projects AI Augmented Urban Resilience Agents with Model-Based Behavioral Priors and Theory-Driven Adaptation for Urban Disasters Yuqing Hu , College of Engineering Rui Zhang , College of Engineering Ambiguities and Tensions in Trans Crowdfunding: Viral Visibility Under Surveillance Kelley Cotter , College of Information Sciences and Technology Andrea Miller , Donald P.

Bellisario College of Communications and College of the Liberal Arts Sara Liao , Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and College of the Liberal Arts Cora Butcher-Spellman , Donald P.

Bellisario College of Communications and College of the Liberal Arts Benji Davis , College of Information Sciences and Technology Hil Malatino , College of the Liberal Arts Lili Dudas , College of Information Sciences and Technology Salah Seoudi , University Libraries Expanding Empathic AI 2026 – A Research Roadmap Christopher Daryl Cameron , College of the Liberal Arts Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence for Public Transportation Services Aron Laszka , College of Information Sciences and Technology Yiqi Zhang , College of Engineering Leveraging AI to improve therapeutic outcomes in parent-focused psychotherapy Cynthia Huang-Pollock , College of the Liberal Arts Roger Beaty , College of the Liberal Arts Kenneth Huang , College of Information Sciences and Technology Leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance language learning by non-speaking children with disabilities who use speech generating technologies Michael Clarke , College of Health and Human Development Syed Billah , College of Information Sciences and Technology Gloria Soto , College of Health and Human Development Transparent and Reproducible AI-assisted Annotation for Social Data: A Multi-Agent framework Qunhua Li , Eberly College of Science Yuehong (Cassandra) Tai , College of the Liberal Arts “A Future where Assessing Placentas is Possible for All Births” Alison Gernand, College of Health and Human Development James Wang, College of Information Sciences and Technology “Artificial Intelligence Driven Workflows for Assisting in Synthesizing Climate Change Assessment for Water Adaptation Progress” Christine Kirchhoff, College of Engineering Sarah Rajtmajer, College of Information Sciences and Technology “Communities in the Loop: Developing AI for Black Digital Archives” Jim Casey, College of the Liberal Arts Christopher Dancy, College of Engineering P.

Gabrielle Foreman, College of the Liberal Arts “Comparative analysis of AI models and human judgments for evaluation of student writing with and without non-normative use of English language” Matthew Beckman, Eberly College of Science Rebecca Passonneau, College of Engineering ChanMin Kim, College of Education Dennis Pearl, Eberly College of Science “Planning for AI Infrastructure for Evidence-to-Impact Pipelines” Max Crowley, College of Health and Human Development Jonathan Wright, College of Health and Human Development Alexander Winters, College of Health and Human Development “Toward Robust Annotation and Detection of Logical Fallacies in Online Misinformation” Kenneth Huang, College of Information Sciences and Technology Dongwon Lee, College of Information Sciences and Technology “Understanding Rural Healthcare Attitudes Toward AI” Stephen Hampton, Penn State Harrisburg Anthony Buccitelli, Penn State Harrisburg Bernice Hausman, College of Medicine Jennifer McCormic, College of Medicine Vida Abedi, College of Medicine Michael McShane, College of Medicine Bridging the Linguistic Divide: Evaluating and Enhancing Large Language Models (LLMs) for Code-mixed Language Processing Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology Rebecca Passonneau, College of Engineering Ritu Jayakar, College of the Liberal Arts Engaging AI Healthcare Imaginaries through the Arts and Humanities Bernice Hausman, College of Medicine Michael Green, College of Medicine Priscilla Song, College of Medicine Jennifer McCormick, College of Medicine Anthony Buccitelli, Penn State Harrisburg MathMentor: A System for Navigating Concepts and Strategies in Math Problem Solving and Learning with Large Language Models Qingyun Wu, College of Information Sciences and Technology Xiaolong Zhang, College of Information Sciences and Technology Ellen Wenting Zou, College of Education Mitigating Linguistic Discrimination of LLMs in Assessing English Learners Dongwon Lee, College of Information Sciences and Technology ChanMin Kim, College of Education Student Perspectives on the Ethics of Generative AI Priya Kumar, College of Information Sciences and Technology Laura Cabrera, College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts Kelley Cotter, College of Information Sciences and Technology Summer 2023 (BIG Ideas Grants) Enhancing Situation Awareness of Adversary ML in Human-AI Collaboration for Safe Implementation of Automated Driving Systems Yiqi Zhang, College of Engineering (Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering) Aiping Xiong, College of Information Sciences and Technology Optimizing Large-Scale Language Model-Based AI Integration and Human-Computer Interaction in Educational Scenarios John M.

Carroll, College of Information Sciences and Technology ChanMin Kim, College of Education (Department of Learning and Performance Systems) He Zhang, College of Information Sciences and Technology Prediction Models for Airborne Infection Risk and Public Health Measures in Learning Environments Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Donghyun Rim, College of Engineering (Department of Architectural Engineering) Dongwon Lee, College of Information Sciences and Technology Transforming Augmentative and Alternative Communications with AI to Empower People with Complex Communication Needs Syed Billah, College of Information Sciences and Technology Krista M.

Wilkinson, College of Health and Human Development (Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders) Dawn Sowers, College of Health and Human Development (Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders) Unraveling the Impact of Human Activities on Wildlife: An AI-Powered Multimodal Data Analysis Prasenjit Mitra, College of Information Sciences and Technology Bing Pan, College of Health and Human Development (Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management) Peter Newman, College of Health and Human Development (Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management) B.

Derrick Taff, College of Health and Human Development (Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management) Shreya Ghosh, College of Information Sciences and Technology AI-based Ventures, Fair Data Practice, and Government Interventions Jue Wang, Smeal College of Business Daniel Mallinson, Penn State Harrisburg Eric Best, Penn State Harrisburg Pedro Robles, Penn State Lehigh Valley Lauren Azevedo, Penn State Harrisburg An AI-Driven Tool for Case Assessment of Survivors of Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation among Children Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology Samuel Schleipman, World Hope International Andy Gatto, Nittany AI Alliance AI for Synthesizing Social Science Knowledge Kevin Munger, College of the Liberal Arts Sarah Rajtmajer, College of Information Sciences and Technology Dongwon Lee, College of Information Sciences and Technology Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology J.

Andrew Petersen, Smeal College of Business Guangqing Chi, College of Agricultural Sciences Towards data privacy and security in the era of digital agriculture Anna Squicciarini, College of Information Sciences and Technology Paul Esker, College of Agricultural Sciences Primal Pappachan, College of Information Sciences and Technology Mladen Cukak, College of Agricultural Sciences Christine Kirchhoff, College of Engineering Shomir Wilson, College of Information Sciences and Technology Automated Techniques for Educational Meta-Analyses to Improve Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of Educational Policy and Classroom Methods Rebecca J.

Passonneau, College of Engineering Brian Belland, College of Education Modeling Transition Patterns of E-Cigarette and Cigarette Use in Youths to Inform E-Cigarette Regulatory Policies Qiushi Chen, College of Engineering Sunday Azagba, Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing Guodong Liu, College of Medicine Paul Griffin, College of Engineering The Most Magical AI on Earth?

How Magical Discourses Normalize and Legitimate AI System Kelley Cotter, College of Information Sciences and Technology Priya Kumar, College of Information Sciences and Technology Promoting Algorithmic Fairness in Educational Technology Ting-Hao (Kenneth) Huang, College of Information Sciences and Technology Roger Beaty, College of the Liberal Arts Socially Responsible AI for Autonomous Vehicles Xianbiao (XB) Hu, College of Engineering Vikash Gayah, College of Engineering Ilgin Guler, College of Engineering David Norloff, Donald P.

Bellisario College of Communications Yiqi Zhang, College of Engineering Min Ding, Smeal College of Business Sandra Allain, College of Engineering and School of International Affairs Bin Li, College of Engineering Study with Me: Self-Regulated Learning with Virtual Studying Environments and Personalized Study Companion Syed Billah, College of Information Sciences and Technology Prasenjit Mitra, College of Information Sciences and Technology Marcela Borge, College of Education 'You Do Your Own Dirty Work’: Addressing the Risks of Ethical Outsourcing to Artificial Intelligence Daryl Cameron, College of the Liberal Arts and Rock Ethics Institute Martina Orlandi, Rock Ethics Institute and Schreyer Honors College Application of AI-enabled Nondestructive Evaluation for Equitable Access to Safe Infrastructure Rebecca Napolitano, College of Engineering Wesley Reinhart, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Diversity and Fairness in Gig Economies Hadi Hosseini, College of Information Sciences and Technology GPS for Future of Work: AI Based Career Development and Transition of Displaced Workers Dongwon Lee, College of Information Sciences and Technology Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology Hyung Joon Yoon, College of Education Hamoon Ekhtiari, FutureFit AI Intelligent Tutoring System Using Reinforcement Learning for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology Jonte Taylor, College of Education Fei Fang, Carnegie Mellon University The Moral Psychology of Human-Technology Interactions Daryl Cameron, College of the Liberal Arts and Rock Ethics Institute Alan Wagner, College of Engineering and Rock Ethics Institute