REU Site: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Resilient Health and Biological Systems

As the understanding of the relationship between people’s well-being and the environment grows, the increasing prevalence of chronic ailments, the aging population, and changes in climate fuel the need to rapidly adopt remote biological monitoring. Efficient and effective monitoring requires coordinated research efforts across multiple disciplines for innovative and transformative solutions to study people in their environment and their response to the changing climate locally and globally. This Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site focuses on integrating core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into the research on sensing systems for resilient health and biological systems and providing students with unique and interdisciplinary research experiences. This REU summer program will help build the workforce needed for the urgent adoption of innovative biomonitoring systems built on recent technological advancements, including smart and miniaturized sensors, communication technologies, and AI. This REU site will recruit eight talented undergraduates annually from underrepresented groups and institutions without substantial research activities. AI-driven smart and resilient systems integrate different supporting technologies, which requires cross-domain collaboration in research and development. The REU site will build a research and development platform shared by researchers with different expertise, whereby the participating students will study individual topics related to cutting-edge AI-driven solutions for smart and resilient health and biological systems. Faculty mentors will collaborate to engage the students in various resiliency problems, providing them with an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of AI-driven Internet of Things (IoT) resilience research. Along with these research activities, knowledge-broadening lectures/talks are planned over the scholarship period to provide students with in-depth content knowledge of AI techniques and their applications to strengthen system resilience. While the REU program will primarily train future successful professionals, the developed platform will also increase the institution’s capacity for housing bigger projects while maintaining its focus on core technologies, such as AI, cyber-physical systems, internet of things, data science, cybersecurity, and resilience. This valuable experience can play a transformational role in preparing new generation innovators who can ensure the nation’s AI and technology competitiveness in the global economic ecosystem. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.