University of Arizona awards nearly $1M for AI-driven health projects
College of Engineering projects span cancer treatment, surgical training, disease prediction and patient communication.
The University of Arizona is funding 12 research teams using AI to improve diagnosis, treatment, patient care and medical training.
The University of Arizona has awarded nearly $1 million in seed funding to 12 transdisciplinary research teams developing artificial intelligence tools to improve health care.
The projects, selected from 60 proposals submitted from across the university, include efforts to create patient-specific digital twins for surgical training, predict how colorectal cancer patients will respond to specific therapies and identify early warning signs of heart failure before patients require emergency care.
The Office of Responsible AI leads a university-wide effort that includes the Exploratory Projects in AI and Health Seed Grants. The Regents' Future Opportunity Initiative Fund finances the projects. In February 2025, the Arizona Board of Regents approved the $20 million fund – drawn from the Technology and Research Initiative Fund – to advance research in areas of strategic importance to Arizona.
“We encouraged teams to think boldly, pursue innovative ideas and build collaborations that extend beyond traditional boundaries,” said David Ebert, Computer Science Engineering Endowed Innovation Chair and the university’s inaugural chief AI officer. “By fostering this kind of convergent research, we can accelerate discoveries, improve health outcomes and create new opportunities for impactful research that benefits communities in Arizona and beyond.”
Teams were selected for their transdisciplinary approach, bringing together expertise in medicine, public health, engineering, data science, law and the humanities. Projects that also demonstrated collaboration with health care systems, clinical providers, startups, businesses or national laboratories were prioritized.
“Health shapes every moment of how we live, connect and make decisions,” said Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, senior vice president for research and partnerships. “By weaving responsible AI into areas from behavioral science to ethics and communication, the University of Arizona is breaking past the traditional boundaries of medicine to advance research that helps build a healthier, more resilient and better‑informed society.”
College of Engineering faculty are involved in six funded research teams:
- Leveraging Multimodal AI to Standardize Deceased Donor Kidney Evaluation: Bekir Tanriover, College of Medicine – Tucson; with Ali Bilgin, College of Engineering; Marek Rychlik, College of Science; and Maryam Emami, College of Medicine – Tucson.
- AI-Driven Surgical Excellence: Multimodal Digital Twins in Surgical Training: Ehsan Azimi, College of Engineering; with Eduardo Blanco, College of Science; Geoffrey Gurtner, College of Medicine – Tucson; and Iman Ghaderi, College of Medicine – Tucson.
- AI-Driven Image Classification for Deep Vein Thrombosis Diagnosis: Eung Joo Lee, College of Engineering; with Srikar Adhikari, College of Medicine – Tucson.
- AI-Based Prediction of Drug Response in Colorectal Cancer: Marwan Krunz, College of Engineering; with Curtis Thorne, College of Medicine – Tucson.
- Remote Ecosystem for Physics-Aware Intelligent Rehabilitation (REPAIR): Christopher Arellano, College of Medicine – Tucson; with Nicholas Adam Bonazza, College of Medicine – Tucson; and Janet Roveda, College of Engineering.
- Precision Equanimity: AI-Enabled Disentanglement of Metabolic and Psychophysiological Arousal for Real-Time Stress Regulation: Chang-Chun Chen, College of Engineering; with Richard Lane, College of Medicine – Tucson; John JB Allen, College of Science; Janet Roveda, College of Engineering; and Shu-Fen Wung, College of Engineering.
Read the full list of teams.
