REU Site: Trustworthy AI -- 2026 summer

Overview

With the widespread use of AI in areas such as transportation, finance, medicine, security, and entertainment, there is a rising societal awareness that these systems must be made trustworthy. An improperly developed AI system can lead to many undesirable outcomes ranging from biased treatments in hiring and loan decisions, to the wrongful release of prisoners, to the loss of human life. If such negative outcomes persist, human users will eventually lose trust in AI systems. To face this challenge, AI trustworthiness has been the focus of federal government as well as institutions and academic initiatives like the AI Now Institute and the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency. In response, the goal of this project at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is to encourage talented undergraduate students to pursue graduate study and research careers by engaging them in exciting and meaningful research experiences in developing trustworthy AI and by cultivating their talents during their summer experiences and beyond. This NSF REU at RIT will pursue three objectives to address the project goal: Engage a total of 10 students annually from traditionally underrepresented groups or colleges and universities with limited research opportunities and immerse students in ongoing research projects in the development of trustworthy AI for social good, Cultivate talented students to effectively plan, conduct, and communicate scientific research through meaningful and engaging research projects, close and effective mentoring, weekly group meetings, mentor training, and public presentations, and Improve educational pathways to advanced trustworthy AI research and development careers through student involvement in expert speaker series and additional professional development activities.