Division of Research & Innovation
Communities of AI Research Scholars (CoAIRS) Awards Advance AI Adoption and Adaptation Across Key Sectors
CERTAIN invests $110,000 in interdisciplinary teams to accelerate responsible, scalable AI integration across healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, education and emerging technologies
The University of Memphis Center for Emerging Technologies in Artificial Intelligence
(CERTAIN) has announced the inaugural awardees of the Communities of AI Research Scholars (CoAIRS) initiative, a competitive internal funding opportunity designed to accelerate research
on AI adoption and adaptation across healthcare, manufacturing, software development,
logistics and higher education.
Launched to support cutting-edge research to address challenges in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, the CoAIRS program provides seed funding to interdisciplinary teams working to translate artificial intelligence technologies into scalable, reliable solutions across key sectors critical to Memphis and Tennessee. Providing a total of $110,000 in seed funding to support interdisciplinary, collaborative teams tackling one of the most pressing challenges in artificial intelligence: bridging the gap between technological capability and real-world usability.
Addressing the AI Adoption Gap
While AI technologies continue to advance at an unprecedented pace, their integration into everyday workflows remains uneven. Organizations face challenges ranging from governance uncertainty and operational integration to workforce readiness, security concerns and rapidly evolving model capabilities.
CoAIRS was established to help close this gap—supporting research that not only advances AI capability, but also strengthens reliability, usability, and workforce adaptation in sectors critical to the Memphis region and the state of Tennessee.
Award Funding Levels to Scale Impact
Finalized funding was awarded on three tiers:
- Level 1: Up to $10,000 for interdisciplinary, convergent and inter-institutional collaborative research projects
- Level 2: Up to $15,000 for larger-scale, interdisciplinary, convergent and inter-institutional collaborations
- Level 3: Up to $20,000 for larger-scale, interdisciplinary, convergent and inter-institutional collaborations
Four Level 1 awards, two Level 2 awards and two Level 3 awards were selected for funding. Projects run from January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2026.
2026 CoAIRS Awardees
The following interdisciplinary teams were selected based on impact potential, feasibility, and likelihood of securing external support:
- Drs. Haomiao Ni and Yiyang Chen
Adapting AI Foundation Models for Interpretable and Scalable Muscle Fatigue Assessment in Occupational Health - Drs. Vinhthuy Phan, Amy Cook and Brandon Booth (University of Memphis), with Yeonji
Jung (Texas A&M University)
Multi-Agent AI for Critical Thinking in Middle School Project-Based Learning - Drs. Yajiong Xue, Huigang Liang and Sy Saeed (University of Memphis)
Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Mental Health Clinics: A Multi-Stakeholder Investigation of Screening Performance, Workforce Concerns and Effective Implementation Strategies - Drs. Lan Wang, Eddie Jacobs, Mohammadreza Davoodi and Weizi Li (University of Memphis)
HYbrid DRone Autonomy (HYDRA) Testbed - Drs. Mohammadreza Davoodi (University of Memphis) and Nafiseh Ebrahimi (Virginia State
University)
AI-Enabled Modeling and Fabrication of Next-Generation Electromagnetic Soft Actuators for Assistive Applications - Drs. Xiaofei Zhang, Yongmei Wang and Kan Yang (University of Memphis)
AI-Enabled Polymer Knowledge Curation: Toward an Open Polymer Interaction Chromatography (PolyIC) Platform - Drs. Ruoxu Wang, Haomiao Ni (University of Memphis), Yan Huang (University of Houston)
How Human-Machine Agency and Humanization Shape Trust in AI: A Case Study of Autonomous Vehicles Adoption - Drs. Yuankai Huang and Mohammadreza Davoodi (University of Memphis)
Field-Ready AI for Agriculture: Scalable Soil Nutrient Sensing and Mapping
Several projects leverage the University’s iTiger high-performance computing cluster, underscoring the institution’s growing AI infrastructure and research capacity.
Building Scalable AI Solutions
By emphasizing governance, human factors, safety, regulation, training practices and sector-specific integration strategies, CoAIRS positions the University of Memphis as a leader not only in AI development, but in responsible and scalable AI deployment. The initiative reflects CERTAIN’s commitment to advancing interdisciplinary collaboration, strengthening external funding competitiveness and aligning research with regional industry priorities.
For additional information about the CoAIRS program or funded projects, contact Dr. Srikar Velichety at svlchety@memphis.edu.