Travel: FLAIRS (2026) Conference Experience for Workforce Development in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) now permeates nearly every aspect of our daily lives—from personalized recommendations and virtual assistants to healthcare diagnostics, autonomous vehicles, and national defense systems. This widespread integration has placed a premium on individuals who can design, implement, test, and effectively use AI models and methodologies. However, despite the growing demand, there remains a significant shortage of skilled workers in the AI field. This talent gap poses a challenge to continued innovation and the ability of industries and governments to fully leverage AI’s transformative potential. This project will enable undergraduate and graduate students to attend the second oldest artificial intelligence conference in the United States, the Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society (FLAIRS) conference. Since 1990, the conference has been open to all. The plan is to host approximately 15 students at the next FLAIRS conference in May 2026 to represent students from a range of US academic institutions, including those from institutions less likely to have the funding resources. Through the conference’s main and special track sessions, tutorials, and keynote speakers, the student participants will be exposed to a wide variety of research and development areas in AI. The new conference will serve the NSF interest in advancing science through increasing interest and workforce development in artificial intelligence. This year, a new component will be a special conference session entitled “Workforce Development in Artificial Intelligence,” where the students will be able to hear what academia and industry are doing in the field of AI. 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.