The Penn State AI Hub, one of the five research hubs housed under the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS), has recognized 14 students, faculty and alumni with 2026 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Awards for their AI-related innovations and contributions to society.
The Penn State AI Awards is an annual University-wide competition that celebrates research excellence in AI.
"This year brought a record number of nominations reflecting the growing impact of Penn State's AI innovations on the society," said Vijaykrishnan Narayanan, Evan Pugh University Professor and coordinator of the awards.
The competition seeks nominations from any University staff or faculty member, student or alumni for four different awards given to researchers within the Penn State community. A panel of Penn State AI researchers reviews each nomination and selects the winners and runners-up for each award category.
"The Penn State AI Awards showcase members of the Penn State community who have made strides in AI research across diverse disciplines," said Guido Cervone, ICDS director. "The AI Hub seeks to uplift and honor early-career or expert researchers who are making a difference. Through the AI Awards, we can take a moment to reflect on and recognize the novel and creative research ideas presented by students, staff, faculty and alumni at Penn State."
The awardees are:
AI Societal Impact Award
Winner: Firdaus Choudhury, doctoral student in informatics, "AI-Driven Logistics Optimization for Regenerative Agriculture"
Winner: Stiphany Ta Tieu, doctoral student in materials science and engineering, "Automated Imaging Maps Food-Packaging Interactions to Accelerate Safer Coating Development"
Runner-up: Wangda Zuo, professor of architectural engineering, "AI for Sustainable AI: A Physics-Informed AI Framework for Sustainable Data Centers"
Runner-up: Ajay Narayanan, graduate student in computer science and engineering, "NaviSense: Advancing Independent Object Retrieval for People with Visual Impairments Using AI"
Runner-up: Kathleen Mitchell, assistant professor of science education, curriculum and instruction, "Shaping AI in Education: A Pennsylvania Learning and Listening Tour"
Best Undergraduate (Honors) Thesis or Senior Project Related to AI within Penn State
Winner: Muyu Pan, who earned a bachelor's degree in computer science in 2026, "Reducing LLM Hallucinations through Learned Abstention and Group Relative Policy Optimization"
Winner: Sabrina Alder, who earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and mathematics and a master's degree in computer science and engineering in 2026, "PolliSense: Vision-Based Ecological Feature Extraction and Preference Learning for Pollinator Habitat Assessment"
Runner-up: Ryan John Oommen, who earned a bachelor's degree in cybersecurity analytics and operations in 2026, "Challenges and Implications of Identity Verification in Combating Social Security Benefit Fraud in the Age of AI"
Best Master's Thesis in an AI-related Discipline within Penn State
Winner: Wenxin Long, who earned a master's degree in statistics in 2026, "RNA Velocity Inference in Multi-Batch Spatial Transcriptomics"
Runner-up: Joshua Wenger, doctoral student in psychology and social data analytics, "The AI Empathy Choice Paradox: People Prefer Human Empathy Despite Rating AI Empathy Higher"
Runner-up: Xin Yu, who earned a master's degree in statistics in 2025 and is a current doctoral student in statistics, "Exploring the Accuracy and Communication Trade-off in Personalized Federated Learning"
Best Doctoral Dissertation in an AI-related Discipline within Penn State
Winner: Malyaban Bal, who earned a doctorate in computer science and engineering in 2026, "Toward Efficient AI: Scalable Bio-Inspired Neural Architectures"
Runner-up: Yusen Zhang, who earned a doctorate in computer science and engineering in 2025 and is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Columbia University, "Multi-Agent Systems in the Era of Large Language Models: Testbeds, Analyses and Methods"
Runner-up: Zhong Zheng, who earned a doctorate in statistics in 2025, "Advances in Inverse Problems and Decision-making Under Uncertainty"
"I feel incredibly honored to have received this award," Bal said. "Penn State, along with my outstanding adviser and colleagues, provided me with an exceptional environment and the resources to pursue impactful research and share it with the broader AI community."
Bal's faculty adviser, Abhronil Sengupta, praised his work, which focuses on developing sustainable and computationally efficient AI architectures and algorithms that are inspired by how the human brain learns and works.
"It has been incredibly rewarding to witness Malyaban's growth as a researcher throughout his doctorate," said Sengupta, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science. "I am confident this award will serve as a launchpad for his future contributions to the field of AI."
Tieu, one of the Societal Impact Award winners, was recognized for research using AI to analyze detailed imaging of food packaging surfaces to flag flawed food and packaging combinations, with the goal of developing safer, less wasteful food supply and packaging.
"This award is confirmation that we are moving the field in the right direction: away from reactive, trial-and-error testing and toward predictive, rational design of novel can coatings that keep our food supply safe and sustainable," Tieu said. "Our progress reflects my collaborators and the community that this work serves, and it affirms that bringing new powerful tools like AI to longstanding problems is how we get there."
The Penn State AI Awards are coordinated by centers within the AI Hub, including the Center for Applications of Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Engineered Systems, the Center for Applications of AI and Machine Learning to Industry, Center for Artificial Intelligence Foundations and Scientific Applications and Center for Socially Responsible AI.
