Collaborative Research: Conference: NAIRR Pilot Expansion: FA1: Mid-South Conferences on CyberInfrastructure Advances to Enable Interdisciplinary AI Research in Health

About This Grant

Tennessee Technological University, the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Meharry Medical College, and Vanderbilt University have joined in this project to address health challenges via Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) infused workshops and training. At present, Tennessee ranks 44th among the 50 states in national health outcomes. This project will advance the use of modern, AI/ML-enabled computer technology in medical research and healthcare delivery. At the heart of the project is a three-part workshop series, powered by National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot resources aimed at accelerating interdisciplinary research at the intersection of advanced cyberinfrastructure, AI/ML, and health outcomes. These workshops train participants in high-performance computing, cloud-based AI applications, and open data tools, while fostering sustained collaboration among medical professionals, engineers, scientists, and students who participate. Workshop course content and outcomes will be shared with the NSF NAIRR program and broadly with the public. This project brings together leaders in medical AI/ML research at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee, along with emerging research cyberinfrastructure centers such as Meharry Medical College. It builds upon collaborative frameworks previously advanced by the AI Tennessee Initiative, a statewide initiative led by UT Knoxville and TN Tech's AI Center---structures that have demonstrated success in enabling cross-institutional efforts. The workshops are linked to the usage of NAIRR Pilot AI resources, and will train participants to use NAIRR resources through hands-on training. Significant training on NAIRR resources---both HPC and Cloud---for AI applications, methods, and practice is included in all three workshops. Relevant methods, applications, and techniques working on open data will provide participants with significant training and scaffolding to engage in further AI/ML use-inspired research and to use NSF NAIRR resources in the future. Overall, this workshop series will engage and train a significant group of medical professionals, scientists, engineers, and pre-professional students on NAIRR Pilot resources and AI/ML concepts, advancing the careers of medical professionals, scientists, and engineers. 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.