AI and Health

AI and Health Research Area

News  Projects  Faculty  Featured Dataset

As one of 10 key research areas within the AI Center in Engineering, or AICE, AI and Health bridges the UC Davis College of Engineering with the School of Medicine, School of Nursing and premier research centers at UC Davis Health to accelerate discovery and transform care across the health continuum. Collaborative centers include the MIND Institute, the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Clinical and Translational Science Center.

AI and Health draws on engineering strengths in AI-driven imaging and genomics, data- and label-efficient deep learning, multimodal AI, foundation model adaptation, AIoT and edge intelligence, and specialized AI hardware and software architectures. Teams work with diverse health data, including biomedical imaging (MRI, PET, digital neuropathology), physiological time-series, electronic health records and clinical video, to develop new methods for understanding disease and supporting clinical decision-making.

Our interdisciplinary efforts span fundamental AI and health research, such as quantitative neuropathology image analysis, as well as applications ranging from acute and outpatient care to continuous remote patient monitoring. Across these efforts, researchers are developing AI systems that emphasize explainability, fairness, security and patient privacy, laying the foundation for smart, equitable and proactive healthcare.

Featured Seed Funded Projects

The AI and Health Seed Funding Program is a new initiative spearheaded by Professor Sam King, the Director of CITRIS at UC Davis, in partnership with the Center for Information Technology Research. It’s focused on strengthening interdisciplinary connections between schools and colleges across UC Davis and UC Davis Health through interdisciplinary AI-enabled healthcare technology research. Three seed funded projects co-led by AICE faculty members are featured below. 

Chatbot support for sexual assault survivors

Associate Professor of Computer Science Josh McCoy is collaborating with Jessica Draughon Moret, an associate professor of clinical nursing at UC Davis Health, on a chatbot to connect survivors of sexual assault to resources and community support.

Interpretable AI/ML Models for Cognitive Impairment Detection in Older Adults

Professor of Electrical and Computer Science Chen-Nee Chuah is working with Alyssa Weakley, a faculty member in the Department of Neurology, and Michelle Cohn, a Project Scientist in the Department of Linguistics, to create a non-intrusive test for cognitive impairment, a sign of Alzheimer disease and other dementias. They are working on a large language model capable of detecting mental decline through vocal features, such as pitch and speech patterns. Building on this seed fund, the trio has subsequently secured an NIH NCBIB grant to develop HOME: Health-Oriented Monitoring Empowered by Multimodal Cyber-Physical Systems for Geriatric Career, in collaboration with Prof. Shijia Pan from UC Merced. 

AI-assisted system to evaluate donors’ cornea

Associate Professor of Computer Science Hamed Pirsiavash sees AI as an important tool to take eye health to the next level. He is part of a project using AI to improve corneal care and eye transplant procedures with Mark Mannis, a Distinguished Professor of ophthalmology and vision science at UC Davis Health.