Driving innovation in AI
K-State invests nearly $900,000 in AI-focused initiatives through One K-State Fund
Kansas State University has announced six awards totaling $894,022 from the One K-State Fund, the university's strategic investment vehicle for projects advancing the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan.
The spring 2026 award cycle is the most concentrated AI-focused cohort in the fund's history, with all six projects leveraging artificial intelligence to transform agriculture, academic preparation, student success and the university's regional outreach footprint.
The One K-State Fund empowers faculty and staff to bring innovative solutions to institutional challenges and advance K-State's strategic priorities. Spring 2026 proposals were evaluated for cross-unit collaboration, external funding leverage and measurable institutional impact with Next-Gen K-State imperatives.
Spring 2026 One K‑State Fund award recipients
Agricultural AI data and digital twin engine
This 18-month pilot will build a scalable pipeline for generating 4D crop digital twins — continuous, temporally structured phenotyping datasets for wheat, soybean and sorghum.
Incorporating the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture and the College of Arts and Sciences, the project addresses what researchers identify as the primary bottleneck in agricultural AI: not algorithm sophistication, but the scarcity of structured, simulation-ready data. The initiative targets more than $1 million in NSF and USDA-NIFA follow-on funding within 24 months.
The project has received $180,000 and will be led by Ajay Sharda, professor of biological and agricultural engineering.
Embedding modern computational methods in high-enrollment STEM classes
This initiative will embed machine learning and generative AI modules into four high-enrollment courses — MATH 222, MATH 340, PHYS 213, and PHYS 214 — reaching an estimated 1,800 students per year by the project’s second year.
A pilot module in MATH 340 achieved over 60 percent voluntary completion among 170 students, and a peer-reviewed publication is under review at the CODEE Journal. The two-year project uses tools already available to K-State students, including Microsoft Copilot and Google Colab, requiring no additional course redesign.
The initiative has received $125,000 and will be led by Andrew Bennett, professor of mathematics, and Qiaoyi "Joey" Liu, teaching assistant professor of physics.
AI and next-gen management in business initiative
This initiative will develop five new for-credit AI courses — one embedded in each undergraduate business major — and fund one year of access to the BoodleBox AI platform for approximately 803 College of Business Administration students, faculty and staff.
The work directly responds to hiring expectations from industry partners, including Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young and builds on five existing AI microcredentials offered by the college.
The initiative has received $137,000 and will be led by Hansin Bilgili, associate professor of management.
Regional expansion of the K-State AI Symposium
This investment in an interdisciplinary team spanning the humanities, the Department of Computer Science, the K-State Libraries and the College of Agriculture will expand K-State’s annual AI Symposium — now in its fourth year with 1,627 cumulative participants — into a statewide regional conference.
The fifth K-State AI Symposium, planned for fall 2027, targets 250 in-person and 500 virtual attendees from across Kansas, with dedicated tracks for agriculture, small business, K–12 educators and rural communities and scholarship support for regional participants.
The investment has received $143,000 and will be led by Raelynne Hale, assistant professor of Spanish.
Trustworthy neurosymbolic AI for high-precision agricultural autonomy
This novel research project will develop an explainable, self-correcting AI framework for autonomous control of agricultural sprayers. Unlike conventional approaches, the system uses symbolic analysis to monitor deep learning model behavior in real time, suppressing mispredictions before they result in physical action.
A provisional patent was filed in May 2025, and CNH Industrial has expressed industry interest. The project targets more than $500,000 in external follow-on funding and is cited in two pending NSF proposals.
The project has received $100,000 and will be led by Eugene Vasserman, associate professor of computer science; Pascal Hitzler, professor of computer science; and Ajay Sharda, professor of biological and agricultural engineering.
Empowering Wildcat Success: Campuswide EdSights Expansion
Through this investment, the Division of Academic Success and Student Affairs, or DASSA, will extend K-State’s existing EdSights AI student success platform from first-year-only coverage to all first- and second-year undergraduates.
The investment adds proactive AI-driven outreach, custom retention campaigns for first-generation students, transfer students, and academically at-risk cohorts and risk indicators integrated directly into Navigate for academic advisors.
The project directly targets K-State’s second-largest stop-out point — the end of students' second years — and supports K-State's goal of achieving 90% first-to-second-year retention. The investment has received $209,022 and will be led by DASSA.
— Submitted by Ian Jacobs