On Tuesday, October 1, 2024, the AIM-AHEAD Program for Artificial Intelligence Readiness (PAIR) held a kickoff ceremony for PAIR Cohort 1 Phase 2. The PAIR Leadership Team, consisting of Dr. Jamboor Vishwanatha, CONTACT PI; Dr. Gordon Gao, Co-Director; Dr. Toufeeq Syed, Co-Director; and Dr. Harlan Jones, Co-Director, hosted the event. Special guests included Dr. Emir Khatipov, the Scientific Program Lead on Data and Infrastructure from the National Institutes of Health.
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The 11 awardee teams were recognized, and leadership reviewed the main goals and expected milestones for Phase 2. This phase will be a two-year program scheduled to complete in September 2026. Phase 2 awardees will participate in 12 Cluster Check-In Workshops, 10 AI Health Equity / Team Science Trainings, 10 Grant Writing Proposal Sessions, and two Grant Writing Mock Reviews during that time.

Phase 2 Goals:

• • Teaming and institutional support

  • Establish AI for Health Equity Lab

  • Complete all PAIR training

  • Preliminary study and manuscript submission

  • Proposal submission, pipelines, and portfolio

PAIR Cohort 1 Phase 2 Awardees:

• • California State University Northridge: Dr. John Valdovinos, Dr. Xiyi Hang, Dr. Thomas Chan

  • Hawai’i Pacific University: Dr. Yi Zhu and Dr. Peter Mataira

  • Howard University: Dr. Marjorie C. Gondré-Lewis, Dr. Stuart Washington, and Dr. Amy Yeboah Quarkume

  • Johnson C. Smith University: Dr. Debra Terrell, Dr. Felesia Stukes, Dr. Rosalyn Lang Reid, and Dr. Ying Bai

  • Marymount University: Dr. Nathan Green, Dr. Patricia Heyn, and Dr. Diane Murphy

  • Morehouse School of Medicine: Dr. Muhammed Idris, Dr. Carmen Dickinson-Copeland, and Dr. Jabril Johnson

  • Morgan State University: Dr. Fahmi Khalifa, Dr. Timothy Meeker, and Dr. Md Rahman

  • University of Alaska Fairbanks: Dr. Arghya Das, Dr. Falk Huettmann, and Dr. Srijan Aggarwal

  • University of Washington Tacoma: Dr. Martine de Cock, Dr. Weichao Yuwen, and Dr. Ling-Hong Hung

  • Sam Houston State University: Dr. ABM Rezbaul Islam and Dr. Adam Natoli

  • San Diego State University: Dr. Uduak George and Dr. Melody Schiaffino

AIM-AHEAD would also like to recognize the groups of researchers supporting the PAIR awardees throughout Phase 2.

Faculty: Drs. Roy Adams, Anjalie Field, Angie Liu, and Weiguang (Wei) Wang

Experts: Drs. Jun Deng, Arya Farahi, Elham Hatef, Keila Lopez, Xinghua Lu, Nestoras Mathioudakis, Abu Saleh Mohammad Mosa, Paul Nestadt, Chirag Patel, Dakuo Wang, and Yiye Zhang

Grant Writing Coaches: Drs. Chellu Chetty, Marc Cox, Mary Louise Healy, Edward Krug, Jaime Rubin, and Roland Thorpe

Related Links:

PAIR Program - https://www.aim-ahead.net/pair/

Year 3 Awardees - https://www.aim-ahead.net/latest-news/aim-ahead-year-3-programs-launched/