AnalytiXIN Summer Fellowships: Call for Proposals
Description
AnalytiXIN initiative aims to partner University of Notre Dame (ND) faculty and researchers with Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) companies to address the most pressing challenges faced by CICP companies for full utilization of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and data science/analytics in their business operations.
Acting on behalf of the AnalytiXIN Notre Dame PIs (Marie Lynn Miranda, Patricia Culligan, Michael Hildreth, Santiago Schnell and Nitesh Chawla), the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society (LFIDS) invites proposals that focus on developing collaborations with AnalytiXIN/ CICP companies. The AnalytiXIN Summer Fellowships are an opportunity for ND faculty to engage with CICP companies to establish broad relationships that might range from consulting to research projects to experiential learning opportunities for students. LFIDS will help facilitate possible connections with the CICP companies on the topics of interest. The goal of this RFP is to identify faculty who would be interested in and benefit from collaborations with CICP companies and to seed those relationships.
It is expected that AnalytiXIN Summer Fellows will spend some time during the funding period at the Notre Dame AnalytiXIN 16 Tech office in Indianapolis (1220 Waterway Blvd, Indianapolis, IN) and/or at CICP company sites. It is also expected that the activities seeded by these Fellowships will lead to subsequent activities such as consulting, research projects, capstone projects and internships, or extracurricular activities such as hackathons.
Eligibility:
Regular faculty members are eligible to apply.
Key dates:
Phase I (Idea Discovery): Rolling proposal deadlines (until all dedicated funding for this Phase has been allocated). We are also developing an AnalytiXIN Challenges Registry (Industry problem statements) that will be shared for the development of ideas.
Phase I Funding
- 1 month of faculty summer salary
- Travel (inclusive of boarding and lodging) to Indianapolis (Notre Dame has an office space in 16 Tech Innovation facility in Indianapolis.
- The central AnalytiXIN grant awarded to Notre Dame also includes funding for fundamental research. When the CICP companies and the Summer Fellows have identified cross cutting fundamental questions suitable for research, the Summer Fellows will be eligible to compete for graduate student support and other funding to conduct appropriate activities in collaboration with the CICP companies.
AnalytiXIN / CICP Partners and Example Use-cases
Example CICP Partners:
- Eli Lilly
- BioCrossroads
- Energy Systems Network
- Cummins
- Anthem
- One America
- IU Health
- Smaller businesses operating in Indiana
Based on the initial interests from the CICP partners, we especially encourage proposals that aim to address the strategic needs of CICP companies along the lines of the following overarching themes. More specific problem statements will also be provided, as they emerge. The key expectation of the Summer Fellowship is the ideation of a CICP partner-inspired problem statement that your expertise can help solve.
- Healthcare: Working with healthcare data partners, such as Anthem, to develop student capstone projects, hackathons, or long-term research projects.
- Life Sciences: Gain new insights by joining data such as electronic health records, omics data, and imaging/pathology data in well characterized research participants.
- Manufacturing: Develop AI/ML/analytics use-cases through access to real-world manufacturing machinery sensing data (based on MTConnect Standard).
- Condition Monitoring: Utilizing AI/ML and advanced data analytics on data being collected by CICP companies to find information that enhances efficiency and productivity of their products.
- AI and Cyber Security: Innovate artificial intelligence methods to successfully counter cyber-attacks orchestrated by intelligent bots across the industrial spectrum.
Requirements:
Phase I Idea Discovery Proposal
No more than 2 pages, 12 size font, single-spaced, one-inch margins
- Statement of Interest:
- Areas of interest.
- Potential Corporate Partners (potential or identified). Which companies might be interested?
- Fellowship objectives: What are you trying to accomplish? What problem does it solve for the Corporate Partner and why? How will you achieve your objectives?
- Suggested milestones
- Resources and budget requested (facilitation, computing, space use in Indianapolis) to help facilitate successful exploration of collaboration
- Phase I Timeline
All grant recipients will be required to submit a final report that articulates how your research benefited from the funds and what insights might be relevant to future funding opportunities.
Selection and Award Processes:
Proposals will be reviewed by a subset of the LFIDS Steering Committee and external members of AnalytiXIN. Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Potential to establish partnerships between Notre Dame and one or more CICP companies driven by problem statements of the company.
- Timeline and goals: This AnalytiXIN Summer Fellowship is a one-year grant. Summer Fellows will be eligible for renewal in subsequent years, with the possibility of graduate student support and other funding to conduct appropriate research studies or other activities (hackathons, capstones, etc.) in partnership with the CICP companies.
Benefits of participation:
- Designation as AnalytiXIN Summer Fellow
- 1-month summer salary and travel support for discovery of use-cases
- Possibility of graduate student funding or other funding to conduct appropriate research studies and/or related activities in partnership with the CICP companies.
- Surface applications of AI/ML/analytics for Industry strategic challenges
- Surface student learning opportunities
- Work on real-world use cases and challenges
- Access to data
- Potential transition opportunities
- Opportunities for a (long-term) funded collaboration with Industry and/or research grants
- Close collaboration with industry partners
Please direct any questions and submit your proposals by email to the AnalytiXIN Managing Director, Dr. Valentina Kuskova (vkuskova@nd.edu)