AI Tennessee

applied ai

Empowering better health, informed decisions, and faster progress

Dr. Karen Tobias trains veterinary surgical residents in the ala vestibuloplasty technique for brachycephalic dogs using 3D-printed nasal facsimiles in the simulation lab of the Pendergrass Library at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Biomedical engineering PhD student Tyler Morris assesses a robot’s user perception while assisting a person posing as an early-stage dementia patient with medicine sorting in the HITS Lab’s (Health Innovation Technology and Simulation Lab) Smart Home at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
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eterinary surgical residents practice the ala vestibuloplasty technique for brachycephalic dogs using 3D-printed nasal facsimiles in the simulation lab of the Pendergrass Library at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.
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UT faculty collaborate to effectively, ethically implement and manage AI systems in settings ranging from classrooms and boardrooms to hospitals and farms. These AI systems, many of which are developed right here at UT, take a variety of forms including generative AI, smart sensors, robots, and cognitive digital twin platforms. They are designed to enhance human well-being, empower informed policy and decision-making, and improve resource and process efficiency.

Our applied AI researchers are enabling caregivers, investors, policy makers, supply chain managers, and other professionals to put AI to work. They’re solving real-world challenges in real time—to make a lasting difference.

A detail of hands as veterinary surgical residents practice the ala vestibuloplasty technique for brachycephalic dogs using 3D-printed nasal facsimiles in the simulation lab of the Pendergrass Library at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.

UT’s Approach

At UT, domain experts collaborate with AI researchers to ensure that innovations are both cutting-edge and deeply relevant. In health and medicine, teams from UT, UT Medical Center, and the UT Health Science Center College of Medicine apply natural language processing, reinforcement learning, and explainable AI to clinical data, enabling faster patient-specific decisions in areas such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and sepsis.

Faculty explore AI with wearable technologies to prevent sports injuries and with language models to address health literacy. Beyond human health, researchers extend AI to veterinary medicine and agriculture—developing farm-level monitoring and precision feeding systems, robotic field solutions, and tools to strengthen animal and crop health.

Applied AI also drives business and economic innovation, where UT researchers are creating resources to optimize freight transport, forecast demand, guide financial decisions, and improve supply chain resilience. Some translate their work through entrepreneurship, developing AI-powered platforms for big data visualization. In the public sector, faculty use AI to expand access to complex datasets, inform evidence-based policy, and advise leaders on antitrust and competition law. Both students and faculty engage critically with AI’s long-term impacts through ethics, philosophy, sociology, and literature, supporting the responsible adoption of AI across sectors.

“UT is positioned to pioneer AI applications in animal health and veterinary medicine. We are making progress on four fronts: incorporating AI to support diagnostics; training our faculty and students to use AI inside and outside the classroom while being well-versed in relevant ethical challenges; leveraging AI to improve process efficiency; and lastly, leveraging AI to mine valuable insights in medical records.”

—Dennis Makau, Assistant Professor of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine

Data science and engineering PhD student Nehal Hasnaeen assesses a robot’s user perception while helping a person posing as an early-stage dementia patient with tasks commonly required during grocery shopping in the HITS Lab’s (Health Innovation Technology and Simulation Lab) Smart Home at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Dr. Karen Tobias trains veterinary surgical residents in the ala vestibuloplasty technique for brachycephalic dogs using 3D-printed nasal facsimiles in the simulation lab of the Pendergrass Library at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
A detail of hands as veterinary surgical residents practice the ala vestibuloplasty technique for brachycephalic dogs using 3D-printed nasal facsimiles in the simulation lab of the Pendergrass Library at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Veterinary surgical residents practice the ala vestibuloplasty technique for brachycephalic dogs using 3D-printed nasal facsimiles in the simulation lab of the Pendergrass Library at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Biomedical engineering PhD student Tyler Morris assesses a robot’s user perception while assisting a person posing as an early-stage dementia patient with medicine sorting in the HITS Lab’s (Health Innovation Technology and Simulation Lab) Smart Home at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Highlights

Xueping Li, Professor and Dan Doulet Faculty Fellow in Industrial and Systems Engineering; and Bing Yao, Dan Doulet Early Career Assistant Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Collaboration Between UT and UTMC Could Revolutionize Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Researchers in engineering and medical fields are using AI and machine learning to significantly speed up the time it takes to accurately analyze pathology reports, enabling clinicians to turn those findings into actionable treatment plans for breast cancer patients.

Learn how AI can be applied to save lives.

Haochen Li, in his lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Li Develops Revolutionary Flood Hazard Forecasting System

Haochen Li and an interdisciplinary team are enabling Appalachian communities to better assess flood risks, plan emergency responses, develop infrastructure, and implement mitigation strategies. Li intends to make this predictive tool publicly available on a web platform.

Learn more about this tool.

Darlene Player, former BESS Senior Design student, records how an early prototype of the PIPER (Pot-in-Pot Extraction Robot) harvests a red maple in a 15-gallon container with her mobile device at the UT Nursery Research Complex. Fellow Senior Design student, Bailey Millsaps, operates the prototype by remote control.

UTIA Researchers Win USDA Grant for Automation Technology for Plant Nursery Industry

Scientists, economists, communicators, and Extension specialists in the UT Institute of Agriculture are working alongside plant nursery partners to develop and accelerate the adoption of intelligent automated systems—and evaluating the positive impacts for nursery employees.

Learn more about this work.

Jian Huang, University of Tennessee Knoxville Tickle College of Engineering professor.

UTRF’s Accelerate Fund Invests in an Innovative AI Health Care Solution

The UT Research Foundation has supported faculty member Jian Huang’s startup, VisualizAI. The company is working to commercialize UT’s AI-driven data visualization and analytics platform to drive value and outcomes in data-intensive professional settings, starting with health care.

Learn how UT research is benefiting businesses.

Detail macro photo of components at the High Performance Scientific Computing’s ISAAC (Infrastructure for Scientific Applications and Advanced Computing) data center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Facilities & Initiatives

UT faculty apply—and enable others to apply—effective AI systems in numerous applications. Their work is performed both on campus and in business, community, and health care settings.

Participants converse at the opening of Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Haslam College of Business at tthe University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Researchers

  • Rigoberto Advincula

    Associate Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

    Computation, simulation, theory, cell biology, immunology, intracellular transport, synthetic biology, systems biology, biomembrane, cytoskeleton, nanoparticle, biophysics, machine learning

  • Alex Bentley

    Professor, Anthropology

    Cultural evolution, computational social science

  • Michael Galbreth

    Pilot Corporation Chair of Excellence, Haslam College of Business

    Applied Optimization, Supply Chain Analytics

  • Qiang He

    Qiang He

    Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Biological treatment processes, water and wastewater quality, environmental microbiology, renewable energy

  • Xueping Li.

    Xueping Li

    Dan Doulet Faculty Fellow and Professor, Industrial & Systems Engineering

    Systems modeling, simulation and optimization, agent-based modeling, machine learning

  • Yilu Liu.

    Yilu Liu

    UT–ORNL Governor’s Chair for Power Electronics

    Power systems, smart grid, micro grid, infrastructure reliance, energy policy

  • Anne-Hélène Miller

    Anne-Hélène Miller

    Associate Professor, World Languages and Cultures

    History of French, humanism, translation studies, theories of authorship, lineage, nationhood, post-colonial theory, and urban studies

  • Agricola Odoi

    Agricola Odoi

    Professor, Biomedical and Diagnostic Science

    Epidemiology, Public Health

  • Krista Weigand

    Krista Weigand

    Professor and Director, Center for National Security and Foreign Affairs

    International relations, territorial and maritime disputes, conflict management, Indo-Pacific, US national security

See all APPLIED AI Faculty