B1: Inclusion AI for Neurodiverse Employment

NSF融合加速器支持受使用启发的、基于团队的多学科努力，这些努力应对国家重要性的挑战，并将在不久的将来产生对社会有价值的成果。神经多样性是一个新兴概念，通过它，某些神经差异-自闭症、注意力缺陷多动障碍、阅读障碍和其他-被认为是人类神经认知变异的自然部分，不仅与损伤有关，而且与独特的优势有关。事实上，许多不同神经质的人拥有在许多行业都很受欢迎的能力。然而，尽管每年约有7万名自闭症患者进入成年期，但目前85%的自闭症患者相对于他们的技能水平将处于失业或就业不足状态，这意味着美国每年要花费1750亿美元。因此，优化自闭症患者的员工敬业度有可能将巨大的成本转化为巨大的价值。授予范德比尔特大学的国家科学基金会融合加速器(C-Accel)奖将通过将尖端人工智能(AI)创新与跨学科专业知识(从工程学和计算机科学到组织心理学、临床翻译和实施科学)结合起来，创建一套商业上可行的技术套件，将AI集成到虚拟环境、机器人系统、人与人的交互和新颖的评估工具中，以应对这一重大挑战。这些技术将利用利益攸关方的意见创建，这些利益攸关方包括自闭症患者的雇主、开发技术产品帮助就业的公司、提供就业培训的国家职业和康复服务，以及提供社区需求指导的倡导团体。这些技术将通过与私营和公共部门合作伙伴的部署过渡到实践中，并使用实施科学进行分析，以确保长期可持续性和最广泛的影响。这项C-Accel第二阶段计划将推进第一阶段启动的项目的科学和技术方法，这些项目旨在为自闭症患者创造一条就业管道。具体地说，将开发的工具套件包括：(1)用于评估自闭症人才的视觉和认知人工智能工具；(2)基于虚拟现实(VR)的模拟器，用于提高求职面试技能；(3)带有嵌入式智能代理的协作虚拟环境，用于社会互动评估和支持；(4)用于评估和训练对中断的容忍度的社交机器人系统；以及(5)用于测量和改善非语言交流的计算机视觉工具。在这些项目中，我们将在以下方面取得根本的科技进步：(I)数据驱动的可视化人工智能，用于创新评估工具，以确定优势、人才和与工作相关的技能，以及雇主确定的工作需求；(Ii)基于虚拟现实的新型求职面试培训平台，利用实时闭环多模式情感计算进行压力和注意力识别；(Iii)协作虚拟环境，创建新的技能评估算法和由人工智能代理中介的基于同伴的学习范式；(Iv)使用社交辅助机器人的基于家庭的技能评估和培训系统；以及(V)新的计算机视觉和深度学习方法和算法，用于评估非语言社会交流的真实世界概括性。该项目的知识产权计划包括在两年的项目期内通过许可协议将每项技术从原型推进到最低可行产品(MVP)阶段并投入商业使用。通过范德比尔特大学第一个自闭症与创新中心，研究生和不同神经质的实习生将参与C-Accel研发工作的方方面面。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The NSF Convergence Accelerator supports use-inspired, team-based, multidisciplinary efforts that address challenges of national importance and will produce deliverables of value to society in the near future.Neurodiversity is an emerging concept through which certain neurological differences—Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyslexia, and others—are considered a natural part of human neurocognitive variation, associated not only with impairments but also with unique strengths. Indeed, many neurodiverse people have capabilities that are in high demand across many sectors. Yet, while some 70,000 Americans with autism enter adulthood every year, currently 85% of them will be unemployed or underemployed relative to their skill levels, representing a cost to the United States of $175 billion annually. Thus, optimizing workforce engagement for individuals with autism holds the potential to transform great cost into great value. This National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator (C-Accel) award to Vanderbilt University will address this grand challenge by bringing together cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations with transdisciplinary expertise—spanning engineering and computer science to organizational psychology, clinical translation, and implementation science—to create a suite of commercially viable technologies that integrate AI within virtual environments, robotic systems, human-human interactions, and novel assessment tools. These technologies will be created using input from stakeholders, including employers of individuals with autism, companies that develop technological products to help employment, state vocational and rehabilitation services that provide job training, and advocacy groups that provide guidance regarding community needs. The technologies will be transitioned to practice through deployment with private- and public-sector partners, together with analysis using implementation science to ensure long-term sustainability and the broadest impact.This C-Accel Phase II program will advance the scientific and technological methodologies of the projects initiated in Phase I that are designed to create a pipeline to employment for people with autism. Specifically, the suite of tools to be developed include: (1) Visual and Cognitive AI Tools to Assess Autistic Talent; (2) Virtual Reality (VR)-based Simulator for Improving Job-Interview Skills; (3) Collaborative Virtual Environments with Embedded Intelligent Agent for Social Interaction Assessment and Support; (4) Social Robotic System to Assess and Train Tolerance to Interruption; and (5) Computer Vision Tools to Measure and Improve Non-verbal Communication. Across these projects, we will make fundamental scientific and technological advancements in: (i) data-driven visual AI for innovative assessment tools to identify strengths, talents, and job-relevant skills, as well as employer-identified work needs; (ii) novel VR-based platform for job interview training that utilizes real-time closed-loop multimodal affective computing for stress and attention recognition; (iii) a collaborative virtual environment that create new skill estimation algorithms and a peer-based learning paradigm mediated by an AI agent; (iv) a home-based skill assessment and training systems using socially assistive robotics; and (v) novel computer-vision and deep learning methods and algorithms to assess real-world generalization of nonverbal social communication. The project’s intellectual property plan includes advancing each of these technologies from prototype to minimum viable product (MVP) stage and into commercial use through licensing agreements within the two-year project period. Through Vanderbilt University’s Frist Center for Autism & Innovation, graduate students and neurodiverse interns will participate in all aspects of the C-Accel research and development efforts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.