Md Faisal Kabir, assistant professor of computer science, and Sara Imanpour, assistant professor of health administration, were awarded $100,000 through the AIM-AHEAD Program for Artificial Intelligence Readiness (PAIR) program, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The PAIR program aims to enhance AI readiness among institutions across the nation, providing training to effectively leverage resources to initiate AI projects, advance health research through improved grant writing skills and foster collaboration by establishing institutional connections with AI/ML health research labs.

The current PAIR award will fund the first phase of the researchers’ planned program, which focuses on foundational training in AI/ML and grant writing, establishment of a team structure and early-stage research concept development. The project will integrate Kabir’s expertise in AI/ML development with Imanpour’s skills in measuring health outcomes and access to care. Kabir said that they will also collaborate with those in the medical and health care fields to build human-centered health care AI systems.

Together, Kabir and Imanpour aim to develop data-driven tools to analyze clinical and administrative health data, improve predictive modeling and support equitable health interventions. They will also mentor an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students, fostering hands-on experience in health-focused AI research. This lab will leverage clinical, biomedical, medical imaging and health care data to drive innovation in health care research, with an emphasis on interpretable, human-centered models, said Kabir, principal investigator on the grant.

Therefore, it will not only strengthen and expand the research capacity at our institution but also support the development of the AI/ML workforce by engaging talented students in health outcomes research.

Source: https://www.psu.edu/news/harrisburg/story/grant-help-establish-ai-health-research-lab-harrisburg