UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) awarded more than $212,000 to advance five interdisciplinary research projects as part of its Big Ideas Grant (BIG) program. Awarded projects feature researchers from six departments across four colleges and institutes.

The program provides a special off-cycle round of seed funding with funds earmarked for early concepts and research that have transformational potential. The high-risk, high-reward grant program supports Penn State faculty in piloting cutting-edge research that advances the center’s mission of promoting, practicing and studying socially responsible ways of using, building and deploying AI technology.

Each proposal was evaluated for its connection to the center’s mission, intellectual merit, and potential for societal impact. Funding will support early-stage projects that demonstrate strong potential to obtain external funding. Projects are expected to start this summer and last for up to two years.

“This year’s funded projects include compelling ideas about using AI for human and animal welfare,” said S. Shyam Sundar, CSRAI director and James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. “They cover a wide range, from developing personalized AI algorithms for aiding individuals with vision and motor impairments, to combating safety and security risks caused by adversarial attacks on self-driving cars, to using AI for mitigating the impact of human activities on wildlife in U.S. national parks.”

Sundar said that several proposals tackled timely issues, such as the pandemic and the recent upsurge in generative AI tools.

“One of the funded proposals is about using AI to assess risk of infection in school buildings, to inform design and policy during outbreak of contagious diseases,” he added. “Another successful proposal tackles the timely issue of the effects of using ChatGPT on student learning.”

The five projects selected for funding include:

“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

The Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence, which launched in 2020, promotes high-impact, transformative AI research and development, while encouraging the consideration of social and ethical implications in all such efforts. It supports a broad range of activities from foundational research to the application of AI to all areas of human endeavor. More information can be found on the CSRAI website.