NC State’s Data Science and AI Academy Announces $245,400 in Seed Grants to Drive Innovation Across Disciplines
“This year, the Data Science and AI Academy encouraged projects that embrace the powerful themes of accessibility and responsible AI—two areas that will be central to our work in 2025 and beyond. We are excited to support the seed grant awardees who are leading the charge in these important fields.”
— Meredith Graham, Data Science and AI Academy Grants Officer
The Data Science and AI Academy (DSA) is excited to announce the recipients of its latest round of Seed Grants, totaling $245,400 across eight groundbreaking research proposals. This year’s grants represent a significant milestone in supporting interdisciplinary collaboration at NC State University, with projects spanning all 11 colleges and NC State University Libraries for the first time. This broad engagement underscores the Academy’s commitment to advancing innovative research by bringing together diverse expertise from across the University.
The seed funding, which is made possible through a partnership between DSA, NC State’s Provost’s Office, University Libraries, and the Office of Research and Innovation, aims to further the application of data science and AI technologies to solve real-world challenges. This new wave of projects will address important issues ranging from healthcare safety and environmental sustainability to combating misinformation and advancing accessibility for people with disabilities.
The awarded projects are poised to leverage AI and data science to tackle critical societal issues, including improving patient safety in long-term care settings, enhancing media literacy to combat AI-driven misinformation, and revolutionizing the way we understand plant responses to climate change. Researchers at NC State are taking bold steps forward by combining AI with fields such as healthcare, education, environmental science, and the arts.
One such project seeks to address the growing threat of AI-augmented misinformation, particularly in the form of deepfakes. By focusing on media literacy and the psychological impacts of mis/disinformation, the project aims to equip students and the community with the tools necessary to identify and navigate misleading content. In healthcare, another project is working on the development of AI-powered risk prediction tools that could significantly improve infection prevention in nursing homes, a critical concern as the population ages.
Other projects focus on using AI to enhance accessibility and improve lives in unexpected areas. For example, one project is developing an AI-powered clothing system designed to meet the unique needs of individuals with physical disabilities, while another project aims to make large-scale environmental data more accessible to researchers, policymakers, and the public through natural language processing technologies.
The breadth of the awarded proposals demonstrates the power of collaboration at NC State, where researchers from diverse disciplines are coming together to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. From advancing agricultural science to decolonizing data infrastructures, these projects showcase how data science and AI are transforming fields far beyond traditional technology sectors.
DSA is excited to support these groundbreaking initiatives, which are not only advancing research at NC State but also contributing to broader societal good. These projects represent just the beginning of what promises to be a dynamic and impactful era of interdisciplinary AI and data science research at NC State University.