Apple Awards Seed Funding to Two School of Data Science Faculty
Two UVA School of Data Science faculty members have received $53,300 in Apple support for machine learning research at the School of Data Science.
At the University of Virginia, AI research is advancing rapidly across schools and disciplines. This collection of recent news stories highlights how UVA researchers are using AI to generate new knowledge, inform policy and practice, and address complex challenges across fields.
Two UVA School of Data Science faculty members have received $53,300 in Apple support for machine learning research at the School of Data Science.
A new UVA study introduces a massive dataset and evaluation tool to determine whether AI can accurately translate complex weather forecasts.
UVA researchers led by Jeff Saucerman tested whether AI large language models like GPT, Gemini and Claude can map cellular communication networks and predict disease-related disruptions. While the models identified known biological pathways reasonably well, they predicted disease outcomes accurately less than a third of the time, highlighting AI’s promise and current limitations in biomedical research without human oversight.
Measuring pain in clinical settings is challenging, especially for patients who cannot self-report. Cori Espelien, a postdoctoral researcher at UVA’s Department of Public Health Sciences, is developing AI facial recognition software that automatically detects and classifies pain.
UVA Engineering’s Yu Meng has won a five-year, $769,711 NSF CAREER Award to develop AI systems that learn effectively from imperfect, incomplete or inconsistently labeled data. His “weak supervision” research could transform fields like healthcare and finance while reducing costly manual data annotation, with findings integrated into new curricula and K-12 outreach programs.
Assistant professor or English Piers Gelley encouraged his students in an AI Literacy & Action Lab pilot class last spring to develop ways that AI could be used as teaching tools in literature and writing classes.
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UVA economist Anton Korinek shifted his research focus from financial crises to artificial intelligence in 2015, sensing its transformative potential. Now a TIME100 AI honoree leading research at Anthropic, Korinek studies how to distribute AGI’s economic benefits broadly and warns that fully automating AI research could trigger a significant growth explosion within just three years.
Snapping a photo of your meal can make healthy eating easier, but the results aren’t always reliable.
AI is transforming customer data from a competitive asset into a prediction engine, says Darden professor Raj Venkatesan. Owning data isn’t enough—companies must convert it into customer knowledge through analysis. Success requires patience, cross-business insight application, and understanding three pillars: customer data, analytical capability, and the knowledge that analysis creates.
UVA’s Peter Beling discusses why tech giants are eyeing space for AI data centers, driven by unlimited solar energy and SpaceX’s reusable rocket breakthroughs. He explores security risks like cosmic radiation and satellite attacks, the geopolitics of a space-based AI race, and why building trustworthy, resilient AI systems matters more than raw speed or capability.
UVA Professor John Van Horn secured a competitive NIH High-End Instrumentation Grant to purchase 36 NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips, creating one of the nation’s most powerful university-based neuroscience computing resources. The GPU cluster will accelerate brain data analysis, supporting research into Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and autism while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across UVA schools.
UVA researchers led by Bijoy Kundu, PhD, have developed iD-PET, an AI-driven dynamic PET imaging platform that reveals hidden seizure foci in drug-resistant epilepsy patients, even when standard scans appear normal.