Research Funding Dr. Yunmei Liu Receives the NSF Award as Lead PI
NSF CMMI/EDSE Collaborative Research on Advanced Driving Systems
Project Title: Exploring an Integrated Cognitive-Emotional State Assessment System to Support Real-Time Automation Intervention Design for Advanced Driving Systems
Award Type
NSF CMMI/EDSE collaborative research award
Total Award
3 years, USD 600,000
UofL Portion
USD 300,000 for the MINDxAI Lab
Collaborator
Dr. David Kaber, Oregon State University
Dr. Yunmei Liu, Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville and Director of the MINDxAI Lab, has received her first National Science Foundation award as Lead PI.
The three-year, USD 600,000 collaborative project is funded by the NSF Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) through the Engineering Design and Systems Engineering (EDSE) program. The University of Louisville portion provides USD 300,000 in support for the MINDxAI Lab.
The research addresses major challenges in cognitive workload modeling, including unreliable ground-truth labeling and the common reliance on offline model training. By combining physiological signals with context-dependent emotional states, the project aims to create more accurate cognitive-emotional assessment models that can inform adaptive automation in safety-critical driving contexts.
If successful, this work will generate fundamental insights into the dynamic interplay between cognitive and emotional states during safety-critical tasks. The long-term goal is to support a new generation of human-centered automation systems that can better promote operator safety, trust, and effective real-time intervention.
From Dr. Liu:
I am truly honored and grateful to receive my first NSF award as Lead PI in my second year as an Assistant Professor.
I sincerely appreciate the support from NSF CMMI/EDSE, my collaborator Dr. David Kaber at Oregon State University, and my Ph.D. students in the MINDxAI Lab whose efforts make this work possible.
I look forward to advancing this research and sharing our progress as the project develops.