Healthy Aging in a Digital World Inaugural Joint Research Collaboration Forum

The AI Center in Engineering is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with UC Davis Health’s Healthy Aging in a Digital World (HADW) initiative. This collaboration bridges expertise in artificial intelligence, data science, and engineering with world-class clinical research in health and aging, fostering an environment designed to generate novel ideas, build cross-campus connections and improve health, well-being and quality of life across the aging continuum.

We invite faculty, researchers and clinicians across engineering, AI, data science, health, aging and related disciplines to join our first joint research forum on October 21 from 1-5 p.m. (with reception to follow until 7 p.m.) at the Student Community Center.

Register to attend

During this interactive session, we will:

• Feature Keynote Speakers: Speakers from industry/academia will present on the importance of technology in supporting the aging population and collaboration opportunities.
• Share Strategic Directions: Review HADW activities, recent progress, and future priorities in digital health.
• Highlight Synergistic Projects: Showcase ongoing research and emerging opportunities powered by HADW, AICE and CITRIS.
• Connect Interdisciplinary Faculty: Match expertise across engineering, data science, and healthcare to identify potential collaborators.
• Form New Research Teams: Spark new collaborative project ideas and structure cross-campus research teams.
• Target Funding Pipelines: Identify seed funding, external grant sources and strategic partnership opportunities to support innovative research initiatives.

Background

This forum aims to scale up a track record of successful cross-campus partnerships, including the Fall 2025 AI-in-Health Matchmaking Mixer. Held on November 17, 2025 and co-hosted by AICE with CITRIS, HADW and CTSC, this virtual mixer brought together 44 participants from the College of Engineering and UC Davis Health. 

The event helped connect health researchers with engineering faculty PIs to target the inaugural AI and Health Seed Funding Call, spearheaded by Professor Sam King, the Director of CITRIS at UC Davis, in partnership with the Center for Information Technology Research. This collaborative push generated 41 grant applications and resulted in six awarded seed grants, with engineering faculty serving as Principal Investigators on three of the winning cross-disciplinary teams. 

• 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.
• Professor of Electrical and Computer Science Chen-Nee Chuah is working with Alyssa Weakley, 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’re working on a large language model capable of detecting mental decline through vocal features, such as pitch and speech patterns.
• 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.