Core Areas of Focus
Health Informatics & Data Science
We harness the power of data, AI, and predictive analytics to enhance patient care, inform medical decision-making, and optimize healthcare delivery. By transforming raw data into actionable insights, we aim to personalize treatments, improve clinical outcomes, and address system-level inefficiencies.
Tech-Enabled Community Resilience
Our researchers develop and implement technological solutions to help communities adapt and thrive in the face of environmental, economic, and social challenges. Initiatives include bridging the digital divide, strengthening local health infrastructure, and supporting sustainable development through smart city innovations.
Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) of Technologies
We examine how new technologies, particularly in healthcare, can affect privacy, equity, and societal well-being. Our work involves creating policy guidelines, proposing ethical frameworks, and ensuring that innovations are both effective and responsible.
Highlighted Collaborations
Bmore Collab
With support from the Kauffman Foundation (2022–2025), we brought together Baltimore’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and creatives to co-create inclusive, tech-driven solutions that strengthen neighborhoods and promote equitable economic growth.
Featured Projects
Project TRACE
Project TRACE (Targeted Resilience and Community Engagement) brings together researchers, students, and local partners to identify and address persistent health and social gaps across Baltimore. By integrating national and neighborhood-level data, the project uses spatial analysis and clustering methods to uncover where disparities in health, housing, and environment intersect. The team develops a transparent data pipeline, interactive dashboards, and neighborhood case studies that make complex patterns easier to understand and act upon. Project TRACE helps policymakers, nonprofits, and residents use data collaboratively to strengthen local systems, improve wellbeing, and build a more resilient Baltimore.
Project LIFT
A partnership between Johns Hopkins University’s ARCHER Lab, the University of Baltimore’s Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation (CAILI), and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Project LIFT addresses the intertwined challenges of adolescent mental health and AI literacy in Baltimore. The initiative embeds ethical AI education into youth wellbeing programs, training educators and mentors while co-developing AI-supported tools that enhance access, personalization, and stigma reduction. Through youth-led co-design labs and mixed-methods evaluation, LIFT aims to build resilience, equity, and career readiness among young people. By 2028, the project will engage over 100 adolescents, train 20 educators, pilot at least one community-tested AI tool, and inform city policy through the Government Service Corps framework.
Project MOVE
Project MOVE (Mobility, Opportunity, and Vehicle Evolution) links Baltimore’s transportation goals with data, simulation, and community engagement to close long-standing gaps in access to jobs, health care, and education. In collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Performance and Innovation (OPI), Morgan State University’s National Transportation Center, and the Government Service Corps (GSC), the project connects students, researchers, and residents to design and test new mobility solutions. Through tools like EyeSim and Open Baltimore data, MOVE maps transportation barriers, models interventions, and trains local fellows in GIS, simulation, and civic technology. By 2028, the project aims to launch neighborhood mobility pilots, strengthen local technical capacity, and deliver a replicable model for cities seeking safer, more connected, and future-ready transportation systems.
Project SONAR
A partnership between Johns Hopkins University’s Nexus Harbor, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Community Conversations, and the Give to Give Foundation, Project SONAR addresses the structural inequities facing justice-involved Black and Latino youth in Baltimore. The initiative integrates legal empowerment, entrepreneurship training, trauma-informed mindfulness, and narrative restoration to create a holistic model for reentry and self-determination. Through multi-tiered pathways in legal aid, workforce development, and emotional resilience, SONAR equips participants with both structural supports and narrative agency to rebuild their lives.