GRIPex: AI in the Disciplines
2024 awards announced
A total of 21 commendable proposals were submitted, requesting $3.8 million in support. After careful review by faculty peers both within and external to K-State, five proposals were selected to receive funds totaling more than $950,000.
The 2024 GRIPex awardees are:
- Daniel Rolles, physics: "AI-based Molecular Image Analysis for Ultrafast Laser Experiments," $179,249.
- Cydney Alexis, English: "Collaborating with AI: A Project to Develop Writing Studies-Informed Applications of Generative AI for Teaching in Higher Education," $100,356.
- Tianjun Sun, psychological sciences: "Training Artificial Intelligence Conversational Agents to Detect Early Cognitive Decline," $224,438.
- Ajay Sharda, biological and agricultural engineering: "Mapping Seed-to-Plant Life Cycle to Predict Yields — Integrated Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics Approach," $248,173.
- Brian Spiesman, entomology: "AI for Pollinators: Developing a Global Hub for Collaboration, Data Sharing, and Pollinator Research," $247,475.
GRIPex is a GRIP initiative for exploratory research that currently seeks to build interest and capacity in the game-changing domain of Artificial Intelligence. This is a follow-up program to the larger Game-Changing Research Initiation Program, or GRIP, launched in 2022, which made 10 awards in summer 2023.
Given that AI is expected to be game-changing for nearly every research domain and aspect of our lives, the focus of this game-changing research initiation program is on exploratory research in AI in the Disciplines with goals as follows:
- To build interest, capacity, and excitement for research related to the application of AI across multiple domains and disciplines.
- To create synergy groups of faculty members having shared interests in AI.
- To lay the groundwork for competitive proposal development, faculty hiring, and additional investments in AI-related activities at K-State.
Questions:
Contact Gina Becker, Office of Research Development, gbecker@k-state.edu or ord@k-state.edu