Bold Challenges has awarded seed funding to 14 University of Michigan faculty teams to support projects that pursue solutions to food challenges and explore the intersection of AI and manufacturing.
Awarded projects include ones that will use AI to dramatically cut the time and cost required to certify new shipbuilding components, develop a smart 3D concrete printing system using real-time sensor data to detect and fix issues as they occur and explore how humans and AI can work more collaboratively in smart factories. The AI Institutes at Michigan initiative provided $42,500 for the teams pursuing projects focused on the future of manufacturing, contributing to a total of $107,500 in awards.
MORE INFORMATION
Researchers were eligible to apply for funding after participating in Pollination and Seed-Networking events centered on the research themes. Pollination workshops bring together faculty from across disciplines to share their work and explore potential new interdisciplinary research directions. Seed-Networking brings faculty together one-on-one to foster collaboration.
“When we connect scholars with different expertise and perspectives, we can unlock new ways of working together and innovative solutions to society’s toughest challenges,” said Arthur Lupia, vice president for research and innovation. “Our role as a research university is to equip researchers with the tools and support they need to pursue discoveries that today may seem out of reach.”
In 2025, Bold Challenges awarded $40,000 in pollination awards to four faculty teams working on issues related to women’s health, ranging from substance use and women’s health in midlife to facilitating postpartum family planning discussions among African refugee couples in Uganda. The team also awarded another $20,000 to two teams engaged in projects centered on climate and health issues.
Bold Challenges is one of many units affiliated with the Michigan Research Launchpad, an effort by the Office of the Vice President for Research to connect researchers with the resources they need to increase their competitiveness for external funding.
This spring, Bold Challenges will host Pollination workshops centered on the future of healthcare and on biotechnology. The next workshop will take place March 13 and focus on delivering health care from a distance. This event invites researchers to explore the complex challenges of transcending distance barriers for patient care, behavioral health and community health.
This event will be held in the Michigan League’s Hussey Room from 9 a.m.-noon. Attendees will be eligible to apply for up to $10,000 to continue their work.
Bold Challenges also awards funding to interdisciplinary teams of U-M researchers via Boost and Accelerate, programs that offer expert consulting, facilitation and funding for activities directly related to increasing the probability of a competitive and successful proposal for future funding opportunities.
“Bold Challenges is cultivating U-M’s exceptionally wide range of talented scholars to build interdisciplinary teams that are learning how to work more effectively together,” said Jill Jividen, assistant vice president for research development. “Together, we are building strong partnerships and positioning our researchers to be national leaders in critical areas.”
Food for Tomorrow
The funded projects and principal investigators for Pollination awards related to the Food for Tomorrow theme include:
Healing Foodways: Establishing a Place-Based Learning Health Network for Food Sovereignty
Francesca Williamson, assistant professor of learning health sciences, Medical School
From Surplus to Energy: Community-Partnered Electro-Fermentation of Food Waste into Renewable Biofuels
Joshua Jack, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, College of Engineering
Food insecurity and glycemic variability: A pilot feasibility study
Aleda Leis, research assistant professor of epidemiology, School of Public Health
Implementation of Effective Food Programs to Treat and Prevent Chronic Disease
Tammy Chang, associate professor of family medicine, Medical School
AI and Manufacturing
Partnering with the AI Institutes at Michigan, Bold Challenges hosted a Seed-Networking event and funded 10 projects related to the AI and Manufacturing theme, including:
AI Enabled Rapid Certification of Additive Manufacturing Process for Shipbuilding
Zhen Hu, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, UM-Dearborn
AI-Enabled Digital Twins for Closed-Loop Robotic 3D Concrete Printing
Yulun Tian, assistant professor of robotics, CoE
AI-Driven Discovery and Additive Manufacturing of Next-Generation Magnetic Materials
Lei Zuo, Herbet C. Sadler Collegiate Professor of Engineering, professor of naval architecture and marine engineering and professor of mechanical engineering, CoE
AI Driven NextG Networks to Support High Fidelity and Responsive Manufacturing
Junaid Farooq, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, UM-Dearborn
Advancing Human-AI Co-Evolution in Smart Manufacturing Systems
Bogdan Epureanu, Roger L. McCarthy Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, professor of mechanical engineering, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, CoE
AI-Driven Smart Sensing Manufacturing for Underwater Concrete Degradation Inspection and Repair
Xiao Zhang, assistant professor of computer and information science, UM-Dearborn
Digital Light Processing of Passive Visible Light Tags
Zheng Liu, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, UM-Dearborn
Enhancing Worker Resilience in AI-Integrated Manufacturing: Exploring Error Recovery Strategies for Human-AI Interaction Failures
Manhua Wang, assistant professor of industrial and operations engineering, CoE
AI-Driven Efficient Photonic Manufacturing under Uncertainty
Hui Deng, professor of physics, LSA; and professor of electrical engineering and computer science, CoE
Machine Learning–Enabled Smart Materials and Manufacturing for Critical Mineral Extraction and Recovery
Jing Tang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, CoE
