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AI for Accelerating Discovery

This workshop will bring together researchers from across the University of Houston— spanning all fields of inquiry from the sciences to engineering, the arts, humanities, and social sciences— to explore how artificial intelligence can advance research and creative practice. Our goal is to foster new, integrated collaborations that bridge “user” domains (e.g., experimental sciences, arts, humanities, and social sciences) with “developer” domains (e.g., AI/ML, computer science, engineering, mathematics).

Following the workshop, we will offer seed grants to support promising interdisciplinary teams that emerge from these discussions.

Call for Abstracts

To help shape the workshop and identify potential project teams, UH researchers are invited to submit short abstracts (up to 300 words) describing a project, challenge, or area of inquiry in which AI could accelerate discovery or creative work. View details below. 

Submit your abstracts by Monday, April 13.

Schedule

This workshop will create a structured yet open environment for collaboration:

  • Lunch and Networking
  • Framing the Opportunity: Short talks and examples illustrating how AI can accelerate discovery across diverse fields, including the arts and humanities.
  • Networking & Team Formation: Facilitated discussions to help participants connect across disciplines and develop ideas for collaborative projects.

Date/Time: Friday, May 29, noon - 4 p.m.
Location: TSO Room (186), Health 1

Call for Abstracts

Submission deadline: April 13, 2026.

To help shape the workshop and identify potential project teams, we invite you to submit a short abstract (up to one page) describing a potential project, challenge, or area of inquiry where AI could accelerate discovery or creative work. If you come from the “user” community, you should describe (in non-technical terms) how AI might be helpful. If you come from the “developer” side, you should describe your expertise and the type of applications you have worked on in the past and might be interested in working on in the future. The abstracts will be used to identify speakers for short talks and to form teams.

Abstract Guidelines 

Please include:

  1. Title
  2. Name and Departments/College of Team Members
  3. Primary Discipline(s)
  4. Problem or Opportunity:
    1. User: What question, challenge, or creative problem are you addressing?
    2. Developer: What applications have you worked on and are interested in working on?
  5. Role of AI: How could AI contribute to advancing this work?
  6. Collaboration Needs: What expertise are you seeking (e.g., AI agents, automation, data science, modeling, domain knowledge, critical/ethical perspectives)?
  7. (Optional) Existing data or resources available

We encourage submissions that:

  • Bring together or envision collaboration between domain experts and AI developers
  • Propose novel applications of AI/ML methods in any domain
  • Identify data, methods, or conceptual gaps where collaboration is needed
  • Address research questions or creative practices in the arts, humanities, or social sciences
  • Emphasize interpretability, ethics, or societal impact of AI

Submission Deadline: April 13, 2026 

Submit to: cmneuhau@central.uh.edu