In January 2026, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS) announced six one-year, $50,000 awards through a new AI and Health Seed Funding Program. Focused on strengthening interdisciplinary connections between schools and colleges on the Davis Campus and schools of health on the Sacramento campus, the AI and Health Seed Funding Program aims to position UC Davis as a leader in interdisciplinary AI-enabled healthcare technology research.
Like other CITRIS Core Seed Funding initiatives, the new AI and Health version is designed to serve as short-term, stimulating funding for early pilot and proof-of-concept studies that have strong potential for future scaling and external funding. As a result, each proposal’s post-funding strategy to leverage funds was heavily weighted in the review process. Successful proposals also aligned with CITRIS’s mission to address significant social challenges using information technology; fostered interdisciplinary collaboration and involved junior faculty; and showed a high likelihood of generating outcomes and data to garner additional funding within the one-year grant period.
The current cohort of grant awards showcases the exciting research on applications of AI to healthcare underway across the Davis and Sacramento campuses. The projects envision AI applications to address every stage of life and a wide range of conditions, from losses of mobility, speech and cognitive aptitude to early autism detection and more successful corneal transplant matches, as well as social support for sexual assault survivors. In each case, they identify an obstacle that AI can help overcome. Stay tuned for initial results and next steps from these projects, to be shared in 2027.
The awardees are:
Gait Evaluation Algorithm Development for STRIDE-AI
Erik Henricson and Kuan-Hua Chen
AI-powered Speech Restoration
Sergey Stavisky and Lee Miller
Precision Genomics for Autism
Gerald Quon and Suma Shankar
Cornea AI: Boosting Transplant Success and Future Corneal Care
Mark Mannis and Hamed Pirsiavash
Interpretable Acoustic and LLM-based Cognitive Impairment Detection in Older Adults
Michelle Cohn and Chen-Nee Chuah
CARE-COMPASS: Community Assistance and Resource Engagement – Chatbot Orchestrated Mental, Physical, and Social Supports for Survivors
Jessica Draughon Moret and Joshua McCoy
About CITRIS
The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS) create information technology solutions for society’s most pressing challenges. Established in 2001, CITRIS leverages the interdisciplinary research strengths of four UC campuses – Berkeley, Davis, Merced, and Santa Cruz – to advance the University of California’s mission and the innovative spirit of California.
This UC Davis-specific seed funding program represents a strategic investment in Health and AI collaboration, made possible through joint funding from:
• UC Davis CITRIS
• CITRIS Health
• UC Davis Office of Research
• UC Davis School of Nursing
• UC Davis School of Medicine
• UC Davis Healthy Aging in a Digital World Institute
• UC Davis College of Engineering
• UC Davis AI Center in Engineering
