Project Grant 2425206

This $300,000 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports a collaborative effort led by the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) to accelerate research and education in artificial intelligence and machine learning for science. The project aims to recruit, retain, and support the careers of undergraduate physics majors who are underrepresented minorities and have low incomes. Key components include providing research scholarships and tuition assistance, as well as developing advanced undergraduate courses that incorporate FPGA technology for data science. The project partners with the NSF-funded A3D3 Institute to enable URM students to conduct research on particle physics data challenges under the guidance of A3D3 faculty and graduate student mentors. An external evaluation will assess the effectiveness of the program. A sub-award to Purdue University will support a graduate student mentor to supervise the fellowship students and help organize training workshops. The project seeks to increase graduation rates and successful graduate school admission for URM physics majors at UIC.