Four teams awarded AI-Informed Discovery and Inquiry Seed Grants

Each year the Data Science and AI Institute, in collaboration with the Office of the Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, awards seed grants to bring together diverse, multidisciplinary teams, leveraging the integration of AI and data science to tackle pressing challenges across disciplines.

The Data Science and AI Institute Research Director for Discovery, Paulette Clancy, under whose auspices the seed award competition was run said, “We extend our thanks to all who submitted their worthy proposals. This is a testament to the incredibly creative and impactful research proposed by our KSAS and WSE collaborators. We wish we could support them all.”

For 2025, the Data Science and AI Institute and the Office of the Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences will fund four teams, including researchers from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) and the Whiting School of Engineering (WSE).

The four projects awarded the 2025 AI-Informed Discovery and Inquiry Seed Grants are:

Advanced Li-S Batteries Using AI
Sara Thoi (KSAS, Department of Chemistry)
Brendan Bukowski (WSE, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
Partially funded by the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI)

Flash Drought Prediction
Benjamin Zaitchik (KSAS, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences)

Monuments and Satellite Imagery
Michael Harrower (KSAS, Department of Near Eastern Studies)
Tom Lippincott (WSE, Department of Computer Science and Center for Digital Humanities)

Sociological Foundations of Learning with AI
Lingxin Hao (KSAS, Department of Sociology)
Anqi Liu (WSE, Department of Computer Science)