Newsletter February 2025

By the numbers:

40 research publications advancing AI
35+ attendees at the inaugural NRT+ Summit at RIT
25 PhD/MS programs associated with AWARE-AI
10 visits to partner institutions and 16 mobility exchanges

Photo of Dr. Cory Merkel delivering technical tutorial.

Photo: Dr. Cory Merkel delivered a technical tutorial that introduced trainees to neuromorphic computing at the AWARE-AI Winter Symposium in January.

Message from the Director

Warm winter greetings from AWARE-AI!

This newsletter highlights some of our trainees and faculty and their achievements, as well as other accomplishments of the AWARE-AI team. Some are the result of creating or strengthening partnerships and networks through AWARE-AI, which is contributing to the growth of a long-term scholarly community with shared interests.

In January 2025, we held a four-day AWARE-AI Winter Symposium. This annual event involves a conference-level effort, and it was coordinated by Dr. Reynold Bailey with support from AWARE-AI staff member Kaitlyn Bergen and the AWARE-AI team. In addition to the midpoint presentations by graduate student trainees about their research projects and outreach objectives, we were pleased to welcome two keynote speakers to RIT's campus. From Dr. Srinivas Sridharan at Corteva Agriscience (RIT PhD/GCCIS and MS/KGCOE alumnus), we learned about new forms of AI applications that are advancing innovations in agriculture, supporting farming, and ensuring food security. Dr. Jason Mars from the University of Michigan engaged an enthusiastic audience with the recent history of AI and novel innovations in software development for the next generation of AI systems. We were also proud to welcome back RIT alumnus Dr. Celal Savur (PhD/KGCOE; now at Intel Labs), who visited us virtually. In addition, we were incredibly grateful to all the faculty, research scientists, and other contributors, who, as members of panels or other sessions, engaged with trainees on themes ranging across industry research careers, topics in research translation and commercialization such as IP and successful entrepreneurial teams, and strategies for applying for academic positions or developing interpersonal skills. The event also included an online re-meet with our ML-Labs partners in Dublin, featuring updates from PhD students from each side of the Atlantic about outcomes from the most recent international exchange. A part of one day was organized by our Trainee Council with activities that fostered learning, community-building, and networking skills.

Another AWARE-AI partnership is the NRT+ network alliance, in which RIT’s AWARE-AI is working with research traineeship programs from three other universities. In March, a delegation from AWARE-AI will participate in the second NRT+ Summit held at Clemson University. This summit will offer opportunities to catalyze joint activities and also provide new inter-institutional training sessions for the trainees participating from the four institutions.

Lastly, I would like to highlight that AWARE-AI is now in its application cycle for the next academic year, with a deadline of March 1, 2025. RIT students from 25 eligible graduate programs are encouraged to submit applications on the AWARE-AI website for starting the program in Fall 2025. Students and trainees are also welcome to apply to a new program, IRES AI-PROWIL, which is enabling international research stays in Fall 2025, with an application deadline of March 15, 2025. Please help us spread the word about both opportunities!

On behalf of our team, I wish you a productive and joyful spring!

Kind regards,

Cissi

Photo of four AWARE-AI trainees in Dublin, Ireland.

Photo: AWARE-AI trainees visited ML-Labs in Dublin, Ireland in Fall 2024. Photo courtesy of ML-Labs.

Explore AWARE-AI at RIT

Select Achievements

AI software track faculty have received new NSF grant awards:
- International research experience in Sweden seeks to develop the AI-enhanced workplace
  - The Fall 2025 IRES AI-PROWIL opportunity is also open to applications from AWARE-AI trainees
- Alm and Fitch awarded NSF grant to study visual prosody in collaboration with Gallaudet University
AI hardware track lead Prof. Ferat Sahin was elected as the Vice President of the Human Machine Systems area of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.

Trainee Spotlights

Abdoulaye Maiga

Abdoulaye Maiga is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Mathematical Modeling at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), advised by Dr. Nathan Cahill. His doctoral research is centered around spectral graph analysis, dimensionality reduction and clustering. As an AWARE-AI trainee, Abdoulaye is serving as a member of the 2024-2025 AWARE-AI Trainee Council. He was awarded the School of Mathematical Sciences Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in 2021 and was one of the two recipients of the 2022-2023 Provost’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. Abdoulaye garnered teaching experience as a graduate teaching assistant for calculus A and B during his first year of graduate school and was a recitation instructor for differential equations during the following six semesters from 2021 to 2024. Abdoulaye is also driven by a passion to use his modeling and applied mathematics skills to study and solve real-world problems.

Rajesh Titung

Rajesh Titung is a Computing and Information Sciences PhD student in the Computational Linguistics and Speech Processing Lab at Rochester Institute of Technology, advised by Dr. Cecilia Alm. His research interests are in natural language processing and multimodality, human-in-the-loop machine learning, and human multimodal sensing. Specifically, his work focuses on interactive machine learning and federated learning for multimodal personalized computing. As an AWARE-AI trainee, he participates in the AI software track. In addition to publishing and presenting work in multiple venues, Rajesh has also co-mentored undergraduate students on research, and he has served as a graduate teaching assistant for artificial intelligence courses. Before becoming a PhD student at RIT, Rajesh worked as a machine learning engineer in industry.

Liya Thomas

Liya has pursued a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction at Rochester Institute of Technology. She is a member of the Center for Accessibility and Inclusion Research (CAIR) Lab. During the 2023-2024 academic year, Liya served as a Trainee Council member for the AWARE-AI program. In addition, she gained hands-on summer research experience at the Century Mold Robotics Lab in RIT’s engineering building, where she applied her HCI expertise to enhance AR systems used in collaborative robotics. Liya recently completed her capstone project under the guidance of Dr. Kristen Shinohara and Dr. Gareth Tigwell, working as a research assistant. She aspires to continue advancing her work in HCI after completing her studies.

Faculty Spotlights

Cory Merkel

Dr. Cory Merkel joined the faculty of RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering in 2018. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Computer Engineering. Before joining academia, Dr. Merkel was a research electronics engineer with the Air Force Research Lab, Information Directorate. He holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Engineering and a PhD in Microsystems Engineering, all from RIT.

As the director of the Brain Lab, Dr. Merkel leads multidisciplinary research efforts aimed at leveraging neuroscience to enhance the efficiency and capability of AI systems. His group seeks answers to three fundamental questions: What are the building blocks of biological intelligence and how can we emulate them in hardware/software? How do the building blocks interact and form complex architectures that can efficiently learn and adapt? How can we ensure that AI systems inspired by neuroscience are trustworthy and safe? Dr. Merkel tackles these questions by leveraging expertise of collaborators across a number of disciplines from device physics and integrated circuit design to neuroscience and psychology. His research has primarily been funded by the Department of Defense and Department of Energy.

Ali Baheri

Dr. Ali Baheri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he leads the Safe AI Lab. His research lies at the critical intersection of autonomy, controls, and machine learning, with a focus on developing safe, certified, and efficient autonomous systems for both ground and aerial applications. Drawing on expertise in artificial intelligence, data-driven optimization techniques, and control theory, Dr. Baheri's research team is advancing the frontiers of intelligent systems. His work has received substantial recognition and support from leading institutions including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and NASA.

Before joining RIT, Dr. Baheri brought valuable experience from roles at prestigious institutions, including time as a visiting scholar at Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory (SISL) and as a research-track assistant professor at West Virginia University. He completed his postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor and earned his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2018.

The Safe AI Lab's vision centers on pushing the boundaries of autonomous system capabilities while maintaining rigorous safety standards and certification protocols. This work is particularly relevant as autonomous systems become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, from transportation to industrial applications.

News

NRT+ Summit at RIT

Photo of Summit Guests during a presentation.

Photo: NRT+ Summit guests during the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty presentation.

AWARE-AI program hosted its first NRT+ Summit at RIT on September 23-25, 2024, with guests from Clemson University (Clemson), Cleveland State University (CSU), and the University of Wisconsin Madison (UWM). After a warm welcome by RIT Provost Prabu David, the first day consisted of sessions and group discussion, including presentations from each university on Sensing and display technology, facilitated by RIT’s Dr. Reynold Bailey and Dr. Yuhang Zhao of UWM, and Assistive technology, moderated by CSU’s Dr. Eric Schearer and RIT’s Dr. Jamison Heard. The day also included a campus tour and grant writing and career-advancement strategy panels and concluded with a meal from a Rochester favorite, Dinosaur BBQ, with remarks by RIT Graduate School Dean Diane Slusarski.

The second day began with a virtual roundtable with international partners from Roskilde University, University West, Linköping University and University College Dublin, moderated by AWARE-AI Director Dr. Cecilia Alm. Dr. Kathleen Ehm, NSF Program Officer, presented on funding opportunities for the NRT+ audience. Sessions of the day included presentations from each university on Human-machine teaming, led by Dr. Bilge Mutlu of UWM and Dr. Matthew Krugh of Clemson, and Human-centered design, facilitated by Clemson’s Dr. Vinita Jansari and CSU’s Dr. Kelle DeBoth Foust. In the afternoon, trainees presented individual research posters and, later in the day, student teams also presented group proposals with a mock critique by faculty. Dinner took place at the Lobozzo Alumni House with remarks by RIT Vice President and Associate Provost Keith Jenkins.

Calvin Nau presenting his research talk.

Photo: AWARE-AI trainees presented at the NRT+ Summit (RIT PhD student Calvin Nau).

Industry and national lab partners, Dr. John Salerno of Griffiss Institute and the Air Force Research Laboratory and James Schorey of Control Bionics, joined the summit virtually to start off the third and final day. Dr. Nick Zingale of CSU and Dr. Garreth Tigwell of RIT then guided a Social impact session and discussion. The summit ended with a wrap-up discussion by Dr. Alm and Dr. Laine Mears of Clemson and the announcement of the trainee poster and proposal awards. Trainee Kareemat Melaiye of CSU won best poster and Clemson’s trainee team of Brandon Kelly, Joshua Murray, Meredith Sutton, and Flanagan Waldherr won best written proposal. The NRT+ members had a final lunch together and then said their goodbyes as the partners departed for their universities. The next NRT+ Summit will be hosted by Clemson University in March 2025.

Photo of Kareemat Melaiye next to her research poster.

Photo: CSU trainee, Kareemat Melaiye, won Best Trainee Poster.

Photo: Dr. Ferat Sahin introduced Diane Slusarski, Dean of the RIT Graduate School, to NRT+ Summit guests.

Spotlight on Research Track: Update on AI Hardware

Track 2 of the AWARE-AI program focuses on human-aware AI for human-robot collaboration, adopting a holistic approach that enhances robots' spatial awareness while enabling cobots to assess human physiological and mental states (defined as comfort) using physiological and environmental sensors. Comfort assessment in human-robot collaboration is achieved through continual learning, with validation conducted via privacy-preserving human-subject experiments in industrial settings. This capability allows cobots to evaluate human comfort levels during collaborative tasks. Current research efforts are focused on the use of AR/VR systems to improve human-robot collaboration by increasing the situational awareness of humans working alongside robots. The digital twin of the environment is implemented on AR/VR headsets, providing robots with spatial properties of the human to enable efficient speed and separation monitoring for safe and productive collaboration.

Summer 2024 AFRL/Griffiss Institute Internships

Photo of AFRL/Griffiss Institute research interns Kevin Barkevich, Cedric Bone, Michael Peechatt, and Rodney Sanchez.

Photo: AFRL/Griffiss Institute research interns Michael Peechatt, Cedric Bone, Rodney Sanchez, and Kevin Barkevich.

The AWARE-AI Summer Internship program provides students with valuable opportunities to engage with government research laboratories and leading high-tech companies. In Summer 2024, several AWARE-AI students successfully completed summer internships at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in collaboration with the Griffiss Institute. During their internships, students were paired with AFRL researchers on projects aligned with their academic backgrounds, ensuring a meaningful and productive research experience with their mentors. RIT advisors are remaining actively involved, facilitating research outcomes that contribute to PhD student outcomes, while expanding long-term collaboration between RIT and AFRL. Students reported highly positive experiences, with substantial research achievements and strengthened professional networks, enhancing their knowledge and skills in AI and related fields.

Spotlight on Select Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 Events

Photo of Emily Rooney presenting her research poster.

Photo: Emily Rooney presenting her poster at the 2024 NSF Research Traineeship Annual Meeting.

The NSF Research Traineeship Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. hosted more than 400 attendees, including AWARE-AI trainees Emily Rooney and Abdoulaye Maiga, in October 2024.
AWARE-AI Track Lead Esa Rantanen moderated the Grant Writing Spring Roundtable on February 4, 2025 with panelists Maria Cortez, Linwei Wang, Gabriel Diaz, David Messinger, and Ersin Uzun.

Explore AWARE-AI at RIT