The TrAC Seed Grant Program fuels collaboration and innovation in Translational AI. Launched in 2022, it has supported multiple research projects, each exploring unique aspects of AI’s real-world applications. With its growing success, TrAC expanded the program in 2023, welcoming contributions from industry partners. This initiative fosters a dynamic research ecosystem where academia and industry collaborate to drive cutting-edge AI advancements.
Seed Fund Projects
Exploring New Frontiers in AI with Funding, Collaboration, and Innovation.
Seed Grants
Filling the Gaps in Bacterial Genome Annotation Using Phylogenetic Profiling and Variational Autoencoders
Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Awardees: Iddo Friedberg
Co-PIs: Julie Dickerson, Yana Bromberg
Award: $20,000
Data-driven optimal control for parametric dynamical systems
Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Awardees: Hailiang Liu
Co-PIs: Baskar Ganapathysubramanian
Award: $20,000
Machine Learning for Efficient Ansatz Identification in Variational Quantum Algorithms
Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Awardees: Aditya Ramamoorthy
Co-PIs: Thomas Iadecola
Award: $20,000
Feedback Learning for Machine Perception with System-Level Objectives
Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Awardees: Tichakorn Wonpiromsarn
Co-PIs: Soumik Sarkar
Award: $20,000
Uncertainty Quantification in Physics-based Machine Learning Models
Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Awardees: Cody Fleming
Co-PIs: Adarsh Krishnamurthy, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian
Award: $20,000
Label-Free Confirmation of Circulating Melanoma Cell Identity Following Dielectrophoretic Capture by Machine Learning Analysis of Trajectory and Brightfield Micrographs
Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Awardees: Anuj Sharma
Co-PIs: Robbyn Anand
Award: $20,000
Machine learning for predicting phenotypic distribution based on group-level omics data
Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Awardees: Guiping Hu
Co-PIs: Juan P. Steibel
Award: $20,000
Computational force spectroscopy for prediction of protein-protein interactions
Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Awardees: Anwesha Sarkar
Co-PIs: Ratul Chowdhury, Adarsh Krishnamurthy
Award: $20,000
Data-driven discovery of physical systems and optimal control neural algorithms
Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Awardees: Hailiang Liu
Co-PIs: Hui Hu, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian
Award: $20,000
Simulation-based edge-case generation using reinforcement learning
Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Awardees: Tichakorn Wonpiromsarn
Co-PIs: S. Sarkar
Award: $20,000
AI-based real-time atomic force microscopy analysis for structural and translational DNA research
Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Awardees: Juan Ren
Co-PIs: A. Sarkar, S. Sarkar
Award: $20,000
Monitoring Key Performance Signatures in a Microscale Single-Cell Analysis Device in Real Time by Machine Learning
Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Awardees: Robbyn Anand
Co-PIs: A Sharma
Award: $20,000
Is LLMs Context Faithful
Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Awardees: Qi Li
Co-PIs: N/A
Award: $20,000
Understanding SME Customers’ State of Mind to Facilitate Sales Interactions – an LLM-based Approach
Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Awardees: Priyanka Jayashankar
Co-PIs: W. Zhang
Award: $20,000
Fusing nanomechanical characterization with multi-omics data to predict plant growth
Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Awardees: Anwesha Sarkar
Co-PIs: T. Jubery, H. Guo
Award: $20,000
Automated AI-driven procedural plant modeling for realistic digital twins of crops
Status: Completed
Year: 2025
Awardees: Aishwarya Pawar
Co-PIs: Aditya Balu, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian
Award: $20,000
COURAG: Towards Safety and Trustworthiness via Conformal Outlier detection and Uncertainty- and Rulebook-Aware Generative Reinforcement Learning
Status: Completed
Year: 2025
Awardees: Cody Fleming
Co-PIs: Soumik Sarkar, Tichakorn Wongpiromsarn
Award: $20,000
Accelerating agricultural G2P discoveries through data reuse with AI
Status: Completed
Year: 2025
Awardees: James Koltes
Co-PIs: Qi Li, Carson Andorf, Jamie O’Rourke
Award: $20,000
Fine-Grained Classification of Enzyme Functions Using Contrastive Learning
Status: Completed
Year: 2025
Awardees: Qi Li
Co-PIs: Iddo Friedberg
Award: $20,000
Transforming digital marketing strategies through agentic AI and LLMs: a small business to investor approach
Status: Completed
Year: 2025
Awardees: Priyanka Jayashankar
Co-PIs: Soumik Sarkar
Award: $20,000
AI-Accelerated Discovery and Experimental Validation of Efflux Pump-Blocking Aptamers as Antibiotic Adjuvants
Status: Active
Year: 2026
Awardees: Muslum Ilgu
Co-PIs: Ratul Chowdhury, Qijing Zhang
Award: $20,000
Agentic Autonomous UGA Navigation and Plant Manipulation Framework
Status: Active
Year: 2026
Awardees: Zhanhong Jiang
Co-PIs: Soumik Sarkar, Anuj Sharma
Award: $20,000