Seed Funding

Spring 2025 Seed Funding

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.

The deadline to apply is November 1, 2024. Applications arriving earlier than November 1 will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Awarded projects are expected to start in spring 2025 and last up to two years.

Funding will be provided through three types of grants:

Collaboration Initiation Funding ($500-$5,000), which aims to assist Penn State faculty in forming interdisciplinary research teams and seed projects directed at pursuing external funding.
Pilot Project Funding ($5,000-$25,000), which aims to support research projects with specific research questions, a well-conceived theoretical basis, an identified team of Penn State faculty collaborators, and strong potential to obtain external funding.
Pilot Project Funding - Diversity Track ($5,000-$25,000), which aims to support projects that meet the criteria required for Pilot Projects and also have a strong diversity, equity, and inclusion focus.

Funding Information

Find Collaborators

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

In spring 2024, the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence awarded more than $105,000 to advance five interdisciplinary research projects. Each proposal was evaluated by peers for its connection to the center’s mission, intellectual merit, and potential for securing external funding. The Center's seed 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.

Click the titles below to read more about each awarded project.

Read the Announcment

Diversity Track: 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

Diversity Track: 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

In spring 2023, the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence awarded more than $212,000 to advance five interdisciplinary research projects as part of its Big Ideas Grant (BIG) program. The special off-cycle round of seed funding 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.

Click the titles below to read more about each awarded project.

Read the Announcment

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

Read the Announcment

AI-based Ventures, Fair Data Practice, and Government Interventions