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Seed Funding

Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence manages an annual seed funding program, which aims to generate proof-of-concept studies and preliminary results that will lead to bigger externally funded projects.

Spring 2024 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, 2023. Applications arriving earlier than November 1 will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Awarded projects are expected to start in spring 2024 and last for up to two years.

Funding will be provided through three types of grants:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 that can be demonstrated at any and all levels of the project.

Funding Details

Previously Funded Projects

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

  • Jue Wang, Smeal College of Business
  • Daniel Mallinson, Penn State Harrisburg
  • Eric Best, Penn State Harrisburg
  • Pedro Robles, Penn State Lehigh Valley
  • Lauren Azevedo, Penn State Harrisburg

An AI-Driven Tool for Case Assessment of Survivors of Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation among Children

  • Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Samuel Schleipman, World Hope International
  • Andy Gatto, Nittany AI Alliance

AI for Synthesizing Social Science Knowledge

  • Kevin Munger, College of the Liberal Arts
  • Sarah Rajtmajer, College of Information Sciences and Technology

Predicting Number of Tenants At-Risk of Eviction in High Resolution using Social Media, E-Commerce Data, Sociological Insights, and Low-Resolution Eviction Data

  • Dongwon Lee, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • J. Andrew Petersen, Smeal College of Business
  • Guangqing Chi, College of Agricultural Sciences

Towards data privacy and security in the era of digital agriculture

  • Anna Squicciarini, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Paul Esker, College of Agricultural Sciences
  • Primal Pappachan, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Mladen Cukak, College of Agricultural Sciences

Understanding the Prevalence of Drinking Water Service Disruption through Large-Scale Analysis of News Articles and Social Media

  • Christine Kirchhoff, College of Engineering
  • Shomir Wilson, College of Information Sciences and Technology

Read the Announcement

Automated Techniques for Educational Meta-Analyses to Improve Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of Educational Policy and Classroom Methods

  • Rebecca J. Passonneau, College of Engineering
  • Brian Belland, College of Education

Modeling Transition Patterns of E-Cigarette and Cigarette Use in Youths to Inform E-Cigarette Regulatory Policies

  • Qiushi Chen, College of Engineering
  • Sunday Azagba, Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing
  • Guodong Liu, College of Medicine
  • Paul Griffin, College of Engineering

The Most Magical AI on Earth? How Magical Discourses Normalize and Legitimate AI System

  • Kelley Cotter, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Priya Kumar, College of Information Sciences and Technology

Promoting Algorithmic Fairness in Educational Technology

  • Ting-Hao (Kenneth) Huang, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Roger Beaty, College of the Liberal Arts

Socially Responsible AI for Autonomous Vehicles

  • Xianbiao (XB) Hu, College of Engineering
  • Vikash Gayah, College of Engineering
  • Ilgin Guler, College of Engineering
  • David Norloff, Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications
  • Yiqi Zhang, College of Engineering
  • Min Ding, Smeal College of Business
  • Sandra Allain, College of Engineering and School of International Affairs
  • Bin Li, College of Engineering

Study with Me: Self-Regulated Learning with Virtual Studying Environments and Personalized Study Companion

  • Syed Billah, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Prasenjit Mitra, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Marcela Borge, College of Education

'You Do Your Own Dirty Work’: Addressing the Risks of Ethical Outsourcing to Artificial Intelligence

  • Daryl Cameron, College of the Liberal Arts and Rock Ethics Institute
  • Martina Orlandi, Rock Ethics Institute and Schreyer Honors College

Read the Announcement

Application of AI-enabled Nondestructive Evaluation for Equitable Access to Safe Infrastructure

  • Rebecca Napolitano, College of Engineering
  • Wesley Reinhart, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences

Diversity and Fairness in Gig Economies

  • Hadi Hosseini, College of Information Sciences and Technology

GPS for Future of Work: AI Based Career Development and Transition of Displaced Workers

  • Dongwon Lee, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Hyung Joon Yoon, College of Education
  • Hamoon Ekhtiari, FutureFit AI

Intelligent Tutoring System Using Reinforcement Learning for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • Amulya Yadav, College of Information Sciences and Technology
  • Jonte Taylor, College of Education
  • Fei Fang, Carnegie Mellon University

The Moral Psychology of Human-Technology Interactions

  • Daryl Cameron, College of the Liberal Arts and Rock Ethics Institute
  • Alan Wagner, College of Engineering and Rock Ethics Institute

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.