Travel: IEEE International Conference on Health Informatics (ICHI 2026) Doctoral Consortium Program

This project requests support for US-based doctoral students to attend the IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI2026) in Minneapolis, MN, USA. ICHI2026 provides a supportive scientific forum for students focusing on computing, health- and bioinformatics. It provides a forum for expert and peer critique of students' research with the goal of improving their science. Student participants will also have the opportunity to receive networking support and career advice from internationally recognized experts. This proposal supports doctoral students by providing a Student Doctoral Consortium focused on encouraging students to learn from peers and experts from multiple perspectives to understand how innovative computing, AI and informatics, combine to make the most impact in the area of health. In addition, student participation in rapid talks and roundtable sessions at the conference enables students to explore their science and see different career paths for researchers in this area. The ICHI2026 conference exposes participants to different scientific disciplinary approaches, supports networking with conference attendees, and is designed to support the development of the next generation of scholars in health-, bioinformatics and biotechnology. This travel support will strengthen the national AI and biotech workforce pipeline by providing intensive, mentored professional development for doctoral researchers who will become the next generation of faculty, R&D scientists, and innovation leaders. The Consortium’s focused training in problem framing, evaluation, and communication across disciplines increases participants’ capacity to conduct high-impact interdisciplinary research and to translate AI advances into biotech and health outcomes. Overall, the travel support brings together students with experts who might not otherwise engage with one another and engage in multidisciplinary science in the area of health. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2615140 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Dezhi Wu | Institution: University of South Carolina at Columbia, COLUMBIA, SC | Award Amount: $15,000 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2615140 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2615140.html