● ⟶ MLTI Lab / Projects
Funded inquiries,
in motion.
02
ACTIVE GRANTS
$80,000
COMBINED AWARD
2026–27
FUNDING PERIOD
02
SPONSORS
2026 · 01
◉ ACTIVE
◉ ACTIVE
Multimodal Futures: Responsible AI for Equitable, Multilingual STEM Education Across Global Contexts
SPONSOR
University of Virginia Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation
PROGRAM
Global Programs of Distinction Grants
AWARD
$70,000
PERIOD · ROLE
Aug 2026 – Jul 2027
PI
AI is reshaping education, yet most AI in Education (AIED) systems are built on Western, monolingual, and individualistic models of learning that overlook the diverse ways students engage in STEM practices. The Global Responsible AI in Education Collaborative reimagines AIED through multimodal, multilingual, and globally grounded lenses, leveraging AI to make the invisible visible and the silenced heard. This participatory design project brings together researchers, practitioners, community partners, and families from four hubs, Virginia, New Mexico, Brazil, and South Korea, to examine how AI can support more equitable K-12 STEM education and develop research priorities and actionable guidelines for stakeholders.
2026 · 02
◉ STARTING
◉ STARTING
Multimodal STEM+AI Classrooms: A Sociocultural Inquiry into Participatory Design for Collaborative Learning
SPONSOR
University of Virginia
PROGRAM
IDEAs (Innovative, Developmental, Exploratory Awards)
AWARD
$10,000
PERIOD · ROLE
Mar 2026 – Mar 2027
PI
This participatory design initiative develops an AI-enhanced Multimodal Learning Analytics (MMLA) platform for collaborative K-12 STEM classrooms, co-designed with a transdisciplinary team of researchers, educators, and developers. Grounded in sociocultural perspectives, the project examines how MMLA platforms can be responsibly integrated into secondary learning environments, attending to the cultural, social, and material contexts in which collaborative STEM+AI learning unfolds. The project also builds a foundational multimodal dataset to support computer vision research for video-based MMLA.
Past projects
Prior grants that shaped the current research program.
Equity Learning Analytics: A Multimodal Approach to Understanding Group Dynamics through Verbal, Nonverbal, and Object-Based Interactions in Collaborative Learning
Jan 2024 – May 2024
Learnest · Learnest Ethical AI in Education Fellowship · $2,000 · PI
Optimizing Academic Success and Well-being Through AI: An Interdisciplinary Longitudinal SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) Study
May 2024 – Jun 2025
The University of Texas at Austin Moody College of Communication · Health Communication Scholars Program · $2,500 · Co-PI (PI: Fan Wang, The University of Texas at Austin)
An In-Depth Investigation of Student Interest Growth in STEM
Feb 2024 – May 2024
The University of Texas at Austin, Department of STEM Education · Graduate Student Research Scholarship · $500 · PI
Responsible AI: Why did mentors hide from mentees they had seen their mentees’ learning analytics data?
Jun 2022 – Aug 2022
The University of Texas at Austin, Good Systems Ethical AI at UT Austin · Good Systems Graduate Fellowship Award · $6,000 · PI