The Ken Kennedy Institute AI, Data, and Computing Seed Funding Initiative

The Ken Kennedy Institute — supported by contributions from the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute, Smalley-Curl Institute, and Rice Advanced Materials Institute — awarded $175,000 across seven projects through the 2024 AI, Data, and Computing Seed Funding Initiative. This initiative aims to bridge interdisciplinary gaps, foster collaborations, and set forth new paradigms in AI, Data, and Computing by supporting innovative research groups with aspirations to launch groundbreaking projects. The following projects have been funded for the award period of March 2024 – March 2025.

• $25,000 awarded to Shengxi Huang (PI), Electrical and Computer Engineering and Meng Li, Statistics
• $25,000 awarded to Oleg Igoshin (PI), Bioengineering; Caleb Bashor, Bioengineering; and Ankit Patel, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• $25,000 awarded to Tasos Kyrillidis (PI), Computer Science and Vladimir Braverman, Computer Science
• $25,000 awarded to Arlei Lopes da Silva (PI), Computer Science and Philip Bedient, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• $25,000 awarded to Vicente Ordonez (PI), Computer Science
• $25,000 awarded to Tirthak Patel (PI), Computer Science; Hengrui Luo, Statistics; and Younghyun Cho, Computer Science and Engineering (Santa Clara University)
• $25,000 awarded to Ming Tang (PI), Materials Science and NanoEngineering and Xia (Ben) Hu, Computer Science

Learn more about each awarded project here.

Social Sciences Projects

The goal is to fund projects in social sciences, up to $5,000 for one year, that demonstrate a clear institutional benefit and can demonstrate a clear potential for external funding. We looked for proposals that promote the mission of the Ken Kennedy Institute and support community building efforts with a potential high return on investment. Proposals that demonstrated potential for long‐term impact and position researchers for being competitive for obtaining external funding were strongly encouraged.

• $5,000 awarded to Brielle Bryan, Sociology (May 2023)
• $5,000 awarded to Jim Elliot and Jaleh Jalili, Sociology (May 2023)

Digital Humanities Projects

The goal is to fund digital humanities projects, up to $10,000 for one year, that demonstrate a clear institutional benefit and can demonstrate a clear potential for external funding. We looked for proposals that promote the mission of the Ken Kennedy Institute and support community building efforts with a potential high return on investment. Proposals that demonstrated potential for long‐term impact and position researchers for being competitive for obtaining external funding were strongly encouraged.

• $10,000 awarded to Alida Metcalf, History and John Mulligan, Center for Research Computing (December 2020)
• $10,000 awarded to Elizabeth Roberto, Sociology (April 2022)
• $7,500 awarded to Alida Metcalf, History (April 2022)
• $7,500 awarded to Kirsten Ostherr, Humanities (April 2022)
• $7,500 awarded to Farès el-Dahdah, Art History and David Alexander, Physics and Astronomy (April 2022)
• $5,000 awarded to Cesar Uribe, Electrical and Computer Engineering (May 2023)

Advancing Computational Health with Houston Methodist (Robotics and Imaging)

The Ken Kennedy Institute has continued its partnership with Houston Methodist Academic Institute and Rice ENRICH to jointly support robotics and imaging projects. Our seed funding commitment of $140,000 grew into a seed grant program to foster innovative research between Rice University and the Houston Methodist Academic Institute faculty, collaborating researchers, and clinician scientists. Through funding from The Ken Kennedy Institute and ENRICH, 11 Rice faculty were awarded a total of $260,000 for robotics and imaging projects. View more details here.

• $260,000 awarded across 11 projects in 2022 (in collaboration with ENRICH)

Enriching Rice Through Information Technology (ERIT)

The key mission is to fund projects, up to $50,000 for 1-2 years, that demonstrate a clear institutional benefit AND/OR can demonstrate a clear potential for external funding, that involve ideas and faculty crossing school boundaries, and that explore the impact of the pervasiveness of information technology on society. We are looking for proposals that promote the mission of the Ken Kennedy Institute, support community building efforts with a potential high return on investment, and give rise to new collaborations that bridge across campus. Proposals that demonstrate potential for short‐ and long‐term impact and position researchers for being competitive for obtaining external funding are strongly encouraged.

• $724,000 awarded across 31 projects with $51 million ROI between 2003-2016

Collaborative Advances in Biomedical Computing (CABC)

The key mission is to fund projects, up to $100,000 for 1-2 years, that demonstrate a clear institutional benefit AND/OR can demonstrate a clear potential for external funding, that involve ideas and faculty from at least one TMC institution outside Rice, that explore opportunities at the interface of information and computing technology and biomedicine. We are looking for proposals that promote the mission of the Ken Kennedy Institute and support community building efforts with a potential high return on investment. Proposals that demonstrate potential for lasting impact, give rise to new collaborations, and have a high probability for attracting external long‐term funding are strongly encouraged.

• $1.7 million awarded across 16 projects with $5.2 million ROI between 2005-2015