The process started back in the summer of 2018 when President Pinto and Provost Nelson shared the Digital Futures
concept with the Deans. In early fall, the Deans submitted 20 nominations of faculty teams that could be potential
anchor researchers in the Digital Futures space. From those 20 nominations, 13 teams were invited to the Digital
Futures Pitch Day to share their research ideas for this new space.
These teams were then invited to collaborate to propose a Digital Futures “Challenge” that could be addressed in
this new space. A total of 19 responses were received. The Digital Futures Leadership Team was extremely pleased to
see the interest, enthusiasm and ideas that were shared by our faculty and other research experts.
From the 19 responses received, the following submissions were recommended to move forward in an Executive-level
Anchor Development Process with internal resources and external partners:
- Bio-Inspired Computational Intelligence (BIComIn) for Personalization: Genetic fuzzy based AI for effective
real-time decision making in military/commercial applications and for personalizing treatment in health-related
disorders/injuries (Kelly Cohen - CEAS POC)
- Development of a Virtual Reality Augmented Violence Reduction Training System for Active and Mass Shooting
incidents (Edward Latessa - CECH POC)
- Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Systems (IRAS) (Ou Ma - CEAS POC)
- Smart and Connected Drones for Military and Civilian Applications: A paradigm shift in robustness & scalability
of emergency operations utilizing integrated air traffic management (Manish Kumar/Kelly Cohen - CEAS POCs)
- Security as a Given: The Innovation Model to National Distinction (Richard Harknett - A&S POC)
- Transdisciplinary AI: Applied Machine Learning for UC's Digital Future (James Lee -A&S/Libraries POC)
The following submissions were recommended to move forward with additional internal resources to assist team
maturation:
- Center for Innovative Design and Engineering for Accessibility (IDEA) (Daria Narmoneva -CEAS POC)
- Data Science to the Rescue: Data Integration, Management, and Analytics (Jacinda Dariotis -CECH POC)
- Decreasing Disparities in Access to Quality Cancer Care in Hamilton County Through Training for Patient
Navigators and Education for Co-op 2 Students (Anjanette Wells - CAHS POC)
- Designing Inclusive, Enabling, and Supportive Smart Environments (Tim Jachna - DAAP POC)
- Next Learns Here - the Learning Transformations Collaboratory (Eugene Rutz - CEAS POC)
- Performing Building - Building Performance (Anton Harfmann - DAAP POC)
- Transforming the Delivery of Cancer Care: Advancing Human and Technological Solutions (Charles Doarn - COM POC)
The Digital Futures Leadership Team anticipates hosting additional campus events to highlight the activities of
these and other teams.