3 Carolina researchers share how they’re using AI
Artificial intelligence is driving discoveries in nutrition, transportation and education.
Artificial intelligence allows users to build on existing knowledge and gain new insights. Because of this, it is also revolutionizing research across various fields. Meet three UNC-Chapel Hill researchers who are leveraging AI in nutrition, transportation and education.
Creating personalized food plans
Tate is co-leading a study aimed at developing algorithms to deliver personalized nutrition plans for every person’s unique diet needs. (Megan Mendenhall/UNC Research)
Imagine a future where a diet can be customized to align perfectly with an individual’s unique makeup, helping to prevent the effects of chronic and progressive diseases like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
This vision is the driving force behind Nutrition for Precision Health, powered by the All of Us Research Program. This $170 million investment from the National Institutes of Health Common Fund aims to explore how genetics, gut bacteria, environment and lifestyle influence our responses to food. What makes this initiative particularly innovative is its use of AI.
“For every intervention we’ve tried, half the people have succeeded, and half the people haven’t. We’re trying to move away from what works best on average to what works best for the individual,” explains Deborah Tate, a nutrition professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and interim director of the UNC Nutrition Research Institute. Tate is co-leading the study with nutrition professor Elizabeth Mayer-Davis.
The goal is to develop algorithms that look at weight, age, blood sugar levels and other health information to predict a food regimen to meet specific health goals, such as lowering blood pressure. These advances provide unprecedented opportunities to generate new data offering insight into precision nutrition.
Mapping safer roads
Srinivasan is using AI to help the North Carolina Department of Transportation identify the presence of guardrails and other objects that would reduce the severity of car crashes. (Megan Mendenhall/UNC Research)
Researchers like Raghavan “Srini” Srinivasan, a senior transportation research engineer at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center, play a crucial role in this process by studying how drivers behave, analyzing traffic data and developing solutions to prevent crashes and injuries on the road.
Many state agencies have information about their roads, like the number of lanes, their width, traffic volume and features like shoulders and curves.
“But gaps come in when you’re talking about the roadside beyond the shoulder, like if guardrails, poles or other objects are present,” Srinivasan explains. “Many state agencies do not have the information about poles and other objects that are beyond the shoulder.”
Inserting guardrails can prevent vehicles from straying too far off the road, while strategically placing utility poles in areas where runaway cars are less likely to collide with them can help reduce the severity of accidents.
Srinivasan and his colleagues at the HSRC partnered with RENCI, Carolina’s computing institute, to use AI to assist in identifying these objects. In the next phase of the project, the team is developing an AI model that can pinpoint the exact coordinates of these objects, verified by a mapping technology called LiDAR.
Improving science education
Nguyen’s work touches on a variety of applications and data related to AI. (Megan Mendenhall/UNC Research)
Ha Nguyen, an assistant professor at the UNC School of Education, focuses on the intersection of education and technology, especially how students learn in science classes.
Nguyen thinks through how chatbots can help students identify with scientists and construct their own scientific identity. For her current project, she’s training chatbots to create more relatable and realistic responses using information from interviews with local residents and students on topics like sustainability, the values they associate with their sense of place, and the effects of severe weather on these values.
Another strand of Nguyen’s work is designing AI technology to help researchers analyze and understand data more effectively. The goal is to provide students with tailored feedback and follow-up questions related to their performance.
“That level of teasing out student thinking and their responses is really important,” Nguyen says. “But teachers don’t always have the time to do it.”
