Four CSE faculty receive National Science Foundation CAREER Awards
Projects aim to improve digital well-being, strengthen human-AI collaboration, accelerate scientific discovery and make software more reliable
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (08/19/2026) — Four University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering researchers have received National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards to pursue innovative research and educate the next generation of scientists and engineers.
The CAREER Award is among NSF’s most prestigious honors for early-career faculty. The five-year grants support researchers who have the potential to serve as academic role models and lead advances in research and education.
Together, these awards demonstrate The University of Minnesota’s strength in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, creating fundamental innovations and beneficial applications.
All four 2026 recipients are assistant professors in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Stevie Chancellor: Redesigning social media to protect well-being
Stevie Chancellor is developing new ways to understand and reduce the harmful effects social media can have on mental health.
The five-year, $724,999 project will use human-centered artificial intelligence to examine how people engage with social media and identify features, such as infinite scrolling and video content, that may contribute to negative outcomes. The findings will inform tools that help people assess the benefits and risks of social media, as well as new platform designs that promote healthier online experiences.
“This project will let us identify what mechanisms hurt well-being and then build better tools to protect it,” Chancellor said.
The research will also extend beyond academic audiences by engaging technology companies, policymakers and the public in conversations about social media and well-being.
Learn more about Chancellor’s work on her personal website or Substack and watch her 2025 TED Talk.
Zhu-Tian Chen: Helping humans and AI work better together
Zhu-Tian Chen is developing augmented-reality tools designed to help people and artificial intelligence work together more effectively in physical environments.
Supported by a five-year, $682,882 award, Chen’s project will explore how adaptive visualizations and prompts can help people determine when AI guidance is useful and when it should be questioned. The interfaces will respond to factors such as user behavior, task demands and the AI system’s level of confidence.
The research could support safer, more accurate and more accountable decisions by surgeons, first responders, facility teams and others performing time-sensitive physical work.
“Receiving the CAREER Award gives me the opportunity to build a long-term research program around a question I care deeply about: How can AI strengthen human judgment without replacing it?” Chen said.
Learn more about Chen’s work on his personal website.
Aryan Deshwal: Accelerating scientific discovery with AI
Aryan Deshwal is developing artificial intelligence methods that could help scientists and engineers make promising discoveries with fewer costly experiments.
Supported by a five-year, $599,550 award, Deshwal’s project will create tools that help researchers determine which experiments to conduct next when each experiment is expensive to run. Using uncertainty-aware machine learning, the approach will navigate large numbers of possible experimental designs more efficiently than traditional trial-and-error methods.
The research could accelerate the development of carbon-capturing materials, environmentally friendly chemicals, new therapeutics and more efficient manufacturing processes. Deshwal also plans to make the tools accessible to scientists and engineers across disciplines.
“I am very excited to receive this award since it will help support many students who will build this research program together at the University of Minnesota,” Deshwal said.
For more information on Deshwal’s work, check out his personal website and recent presentation at Upper Bound 2026.
Mattia Fazzini: Making software testing faster and more effective
Mattia Fazzini is developing tools to help software developers test code changes more quickly while building dependable, high-quality applications.
Supported by a five-year, $679,996 award, Fazzini’s project will explore how large, end-to-end software tests can be repurposed into smaller, focused “carved tests.” These tests could give developers faster feedback on individual code changes while retaining the realistic software behavior captured by larger tests.
The project will address the full lifecycle of carved tests — from generating and recommending them to maintaining them as software evolves. The resulting techniques will be incorporated into TestCarv, an open-source framework.
“The goal is to get more value from tests organizations have already invested in by creating focused tests that can be used effectively during software development,” Fazzini said.
Each project integrates research with education, mentoring or public engagement. Together, the awards will create new research opportunities for University of Minnesota students, bring emerging discoveries into the classroom and prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Learn more about the NSF CAREER program.