News

The Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CDSAI) selected two recipients of its AI in Research Accelerator Angel Award Program, which supports short-term, high-impact collaborations to advance AI-driven research. The selected participants, Professor Alexandra Zagalskaya (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UMass Amherst) and Professor Eviatar Yemini (Neurobiology, UMass Chan Medical School), will partner with CDSAI’s dataCore team to develop proof-of-concept solutions. The program provides technical expertise and support to help researchers explore innovative applications of artificial intelligence, strengthen proposals for future funding, and build new interdisciplinary collaborations.

On April 21, 2026, the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass hosted a session of the AI & Us SBS Series, featuring the 2025–2026 PIT Faculty Fellows as they presented early outcomes from their Responsible AI seed-funded projects. The event took place in the Old Chapel first floor multi-purpose room and on Zoom, with lunch provided for attendees.The program included a series of 15-minute lightning talks followed by audience Q&A, moderated by Ethan Zuckerman, Research Director of the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass.This year’s presentations included:Youngbin Kwak and Mohommad Atari of the College of Natural Sciences, who shared research on cross-cultural human-AI collaboration, focusing on trust, communication styles, and decision-making across diverse populationsChaitra Gopalappa and Mohammad Derakhshi of the College of Engineering, who presented work on integrating social determinants of health into AI-driven epidemic…

On August 12th, the AI for the Commonwealth (AI4CW) program interns presented their projects to state agency leadership in Boston.

IPA Transcription Project Awarded $20,000! The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Transcription project is a collaborative effort between the UMass Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts’s Linguistics Department and the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences to create an AI-assisted analysis of phonological variation in English. This project has recently been awarded a $20,000 HFA/CICS Collaborative Seed Fund grant to support the development of an AI-powered speech recognition model designed to transcribe English speech into the IPA with high accuracy. To advance linguistic research by automating phonological analysis, improve transcription efficiency, and enable new applications in language education and speech therapy, are the main goals of this project. Furthermore, we celebrate intercollege collaboration and are excited at the new prospects and developments this award will facilitate in the future.