UPR–Mayagüez NSF CAREER Award Pairs Human–AI Driving Research With Student Programs

Juan F. Medina Lee, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico's Mayagüez Campus (RUM), has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant, the San Juan Daily Star reported ^[1]. The award runs five years, totals $517,000 and supports a project titled A Computational Framework for Integrating Trust, Shared Awareness, and Joint Action in Human-AI Driving Teams ^[1]. The newspaper characterizes the CAREER grant as highly competitive and as a distinction for early-career faculty positioned to lead in research and education ^[1].

The research question

The project sets aside two common views of the artificial intelligence in a highly automated vehicle: as a passive tool, and as a system that cannot fail ^[1]. The report instead describes collaborative driving models in which humans and intelligent systems act as partners that share information, coordinate decisions and reinforce each other's situational awareness ^[1]. Medina Lee described the aim as vehicles that can interact with the people on board and make decisions together with them, and that can "evaluate trust between human and machine, and understand how those decisions affect safety" ^[1].

Trust is one of three elements named in the project title, alongside shared awareness and joint action ^[1]. Medina Lee noted that people can behave riskily if they trust an automated system too little, which he called under-trust, or too much, which he called over-trust ^[1]. He said this makes it essential to design mechanisms that help keep the relationship between drivers and AI balanced and healthy ^[1]. The team plans computational models that estimate trust in two directions: how much users trust the AI, and how much the system can trust its human collaborators ^[1]. The project also acknowledges that human judgment remains critical in complex driving scenarios, even as automation advances quickly ^[1].

Why it matters to research and grants teams

The award covers education and training as well as research. The article lists graduate research, summer workshops for high school and university students, robotics competitions, and financial support for master's and doctoral candidates among the activities the funding will support ^[1]. Medina Lee said the grant gives the group five years to advance work on collaborative vehicles, human-machine interaction and human factors in autonomous systems, and that it lets RUM create programs that engage students at multiple levels ^[1].

University leaders also commented on the award. UPR President Dr. Zayira Jordán Conde called it recognition of the university's research excellence and its commitment to safer, more effective human-AI interaction ^[1]. Interim RUM Chancellor Miguel A. Muñoz pointed to Medina Lee's role in advancing engineering, communications and computer science research, and noted the growing importance of bringing artificial intelligence into real-world applications ^[1].

What to watch

• How the two-way trust models develop, given that they are meant to estimate both the user's trust in the AI and the system's trust in its human collaborators ^[1].
• The launch of the summer workshops for high school and university students and of the robotics competitions at RUM ^[1].
• The graduate research and the financial support for master's and doctoral candidates that the funding is set to support over the five-year award ^[1].
• The wider deployment setting: Medina Lee linked the award's significance to autonomous vehicles becoming more common in cities across the United States ^[1].