The IC² Institute is pleased to announce five Graduate Research Fellowship awardees for 2025-2026: Jiaxin An, Namuun Clifford, Sookja Kang, Rachel Tunis, and Huimin Xu. The IC² Graduate Research Fellowship is a new program of the Institute designed to amplify the Institute’s exploration of AI, health care and the future of work.
Published October 31, 2025
The IC² Institute is pleased to announce five Graduate Research Fellowship awardees for 2025-2026. The fellows program supports outstanding graduate students conducting thesis or dissertation research in areas aligned with IC²’s mission to advance technology-driven innovation in health and work.
The awardees are: Jiaxin An, Namuun Clifford, Sookja Kang, Rachel Tunis, and Huimin Xu. Three awardees — An, Tunis and Xu — are doctoral candidates in the School of Information; Kang and Clifford are doctoral candidates in the School of Nursing.
“In this inaugural year of the IC² Graduate Fellowship, the review committee was deeply impressed by the originality and depth of the proposals. The selected fellows reflect our mission to advance workforce innovation and responsible technology development. We’re excited to see this interdisciplinary group learn from one another and build connections across fields as they carry their research forward.” – Emily Spandikow, IC² Manager of Strategy and Engagement
Jiaxin An — Designing Generative AI for Older Adults’ Health Autonomy
Examines how generative AI chatbots can support or undermine older adults’ sense of autonomy in managing their health. Through interviews, hands-on interaction, and think-aloud tasks, the research identifies features that either preserve or diminish users’ independence and confidence. By centering senior voices, the project aims to generate actionable design principles for creating AI systems that empower users.
Namuun Clifford — Precision Digital Health in Cardiovascular Care: A Multilevel, Multidomain Analysis of Digital Engagement and Outcomes
Explores how social, digital and environmental factors shape engagement with digital health tools and influence health outcomes for adults with heart failure. Using data from an NIH-funded, randomized controlled trial, the project identifies engagement patterns and evaluates how digital applications can impact health behaviors and quality of life. The exploration aims to advance our understanding of why some populations engage with technology and others do not, and may help us design more equitable health interventions.
Sookja Kang — Digital Health and Maternal Care: Empirical Foundations for Equitable AI Innovation
Examines how pregnant and postpartum individuals use digital technologies to manage weight, diet and physical activity. Research employs a mixed-method approach, including an integrative review, qualitative interviews with Hispanic participants, natural language processing (NLP) analysis of online pregnancy forums and a validated model of mobile health engagement. The project promises to advance our understanding of how digital health tools can better serve diverse users and inform the development of inclusive, evidence-based AI innovations in maternal health.
Rachel Tunis — Human Needs Beyond Health Data: Designing Self-Care Technologies that Support Everyday Decision-Making and Well-Being
Investigates how wearables and self-care technologies (SCTs) can better align with the lived experiences of individuals managing chronic conditions like Type 2 diabetes. Examining diary entries of 16 participants, the study probes the emotional and psychological impacts of SCTs and suggests design improvements to enhance users’ confidence and sense of well-being. The research aims to offer practical design recommendations that reflect real-world needs rather than purely medical metrics.
Huimin Xu — Adapting to Generative AI: How the Scientific Workforce is Reshaping Team Collaboration and Knowledge Production
Investigates how scientists across disciplines are integrating large language models (LLMs) into their research and how this technological shift is transforming collaboration, division of labor and the production of scientific knowledge. The project combines large-scale bibliometric and text analyses with surveys and interviews. The research provides one of the first cross-disciplinary frameworks for understanding AI’s structural impact on the scientific enterprise.
MORE ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP
The IC² Graduate Research Fellowship is a new program of the Institute designed to amplify the Institute’s exploration of AI, health care and the future of work. Each awardee will receive up to a $7000 stipend to support the completion of their dissertation or thesis. Awardees are expected to conclude their research by May 2026 and present their research to the IC² team and other fellows.
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