Anahita Khojandi has built her research career around a guiding belief: Artificial intelligence should empower people—not replace them. A professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Heath Endowed Faculty Fellow in Business and Engineering, Khojandi designs decision-making systems that operate under uncertainty and support human users in high-impact real-world environments. In settings from intensive care units to manufacturing facilities, her work connects data, operational workflows, and human judgment.
“I take a systems-view approach to modeling,” she explains. “Humans are always at the center of any model I build. My goal is to empower the person in the loop to make better, faster decisions.”
Human-centered AI for high-stakes challenges
During her 11 years at UT, Khojandi has developed expertise in decision-making under uncertainty and partial information along with machine learning and reinforcement learning. Her research spans health care and genomics, environmental engineering and sustainability, intelligent transportation systems, manufacturing, and maintenance optimization.
In recent years, much of her work has focused on urgent challenges in health care. Working closely with clinicians at the University of Tennessee Medical Center and the UT Health Science Center, Khojandi has helped advance new approaches for detecting sepsis—one of the deadliest and most costly complications for hospital patients.
While many models focus solely on predicting sepsis as early as possible, Khojandi and her collaborators recognized that timing is only part of the equation. Accuracy—and reducing false alarms—is just as critical to success. Her latest work introduces a novel AI framework that reduces false alerts while still identifying sepsis early enough to save lives. The model continuously analyzes a patient’s health history in real time and accounts for underlying disease progression to create a clearer, more reliable clinical picture.
She has applied similar people-first approaches to outpatient care for other conditions, including the development of algorithms that integrate wearable sensor data for Parkinson’s patients—work now being explored by the Department of Veterans Affairs for potential clinical use.
Managing complex chronic conditions more holistically
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 76 percent of US adults have at least one chronic disease. As millions of Americans manage multiple conditions at once, Khojandi is examining how AI can help physicians and patients build more coordinated, realistic care plans. Rather than treating each condition in isolation, her models aim to synthesize data, patient goals, physician expertise, and lifestyle considerations into unified treatment pathways.
“The patient must be an integral part of the team,” she says. “Their preferences, their ability to adhere to treatment, and any barriers they may face—it all has to be part of the system.”
Leveraging large language models for manufacturing and workforce development
Beyond her work in health care, Khojandi is collaborating with engineers and industry partners to explore how advanced AI systems like large language models can translate dense institutional knowledge—such as equipment manuals—into practical tools that help workers troubleshoot problems, optimize processes, and learn new systems more efficiently.
This work has broad implications for Tennessee’s manufacturing sector, particularly small and medium-sized companies that need to stay competitive but may lack advanced digital infrastructure.
Classrooms committed to real-world impact
Anahita Khojandi
Khojandi brings the same human-centered philosophy into the classroom. She developed a course in applied data science where students work with complex real-world datasets from partners including the Tennessee Valley Authority, UTMC, and industry collaborators. Many class projects have turned into conference papers and peer-reviewed journal publications.
“The course gives students a true understanding of real-world data—how to clean it, understand it, and communicate important findings,” she says.
Her teaching excellence has been recognized by the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, which granted her a national award for the course.
How UT helps turns ambition into action
Khojandi credits UT’s research ecosystem—including the AI Tennessee initiative, strong partnerships with UTMC, and proximity to Oak Ridge National Laboratory—with accelerating her work. “There’s been sustained strategic investment in health care, AI, and advanced computing,” she notes. “UT is really leading the state into the next decade.”
That support enabled one of the most transformative experiences of her career: a yearlong American Association for the Advancement of Science artificial intelligence fellowship in Washington, DC, made possible through UT’s educational leave policy.
“Serving as an AAAS fellow was a unique opportunity to help shape how the Department of Veterans Affairs uses AI to support veterans,” she says. “It deepened my commitment to human-centered innovation—and I brought that perspective back to campus. UT made the experience possible.”
Beyond her research and teaching, Khojandi serves as vice president of membership and professional recognition for the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, the world’s largest professional association in decision sciences. That leadership role—combined with career coaching through UT’s Expanding Horizons program—sparked deeper reflection on her purpose as an academic.
“I realized impact isn’t just through publishing,” she says. “It’s through teaching, partnerships, service, and giving back. All of these experiences have enriched my career, and UT recognized the value of that long before I did.”