Department of Management Information Systems

Research Projects and Publications

Ongoing Projects

2026-2029: ASCEND-AI

  • Azene Zenebe (PI) and Rand Obeidat (Co-PI)
  • $1.6M
  • Department of Education (DoE)

Summary

Industry demands for AI‑Ready Professionals and Leaders whereas universities currently are behind in producing AI-ready graduates. The ASCEND-AI grant focuses on addressing this gap and it will help Bowie State university faculty and students develop AI fluency, i.e., develop knowledge, skills and abilities to use and collaborate with AI systems ethically, safely, efficiently and effectively. The grant focuses on Business and Health related disciplines. View additional information about the ASCEND-AI project.  

2024–2027: CAP: Expanding Use-Inspired AI Research and Instruction Across Campus

  • Rand Obeidat (PI), Azene Zenebe (Co-PI), Azene Zenebe (Co-Principal Investigator), Tyesha Burks (Co-Principal Investigator), Sriram Srinivasan (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • $400K
  • NSF

Summary

The "Expanding Use-Inspired AI Research and Instruction Across Campus" project, led by Bowie State University (BSU), Maryland's oldest Historically Black College and University (HBCU), aims to bridge the significant gap in Artificial Intelligence (AI) education and research for African Americans and other underrepresented groups. Despite AI's profound impact on modern society, these communities remain largely absent from the field, risking their exclusion from the critical fourth and fifth industrial revolutions. BSU's multidisciplinary initiative seeks to counter this trend by integrating advanced AI advancements, including Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM) like GPT-3 and GPT-4, into its curriculum and research activities.

2022-2026: Cooperative Agreement with HHS/ONC: Public Health Information Technology (PHIT)

  • Azene Zenebe (Key Personnel)
  • $10 Million

Summary

The $10 million Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), supports comprehensive public health informatics workforce development through the creation and expansion of academic programs, structured internships, and targeted training initiatives. The project focuses on developing new degree programs, certificates, and curriculum pathways in public health information technology and informatics, aligned with national interoperability standards and public health priorities. It also establishes paid internships, experiential learning, and industry‑embedded training opportunities with public health agencies and healthcare organizations to provide students and professionals with hands‑on, real‑world experience. Collectively, these efforts strengthen the pipeline of skilled PHIT professionals, expand career pathways for underrepresented populations, and build sustained workforce capacity to support public health data modernization at the local, state, and national levels.

Recently Completed Projects

2021-2025: NSF: HBCU-RISE: High Performance Computing Data Science Institute

  • Azene Zenebe (Co-PI), Hoda El-Sayed (Pl)
  • $1 Million

2018-2025: Targeted Infusion Project: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Infusing Data Science and Analytics into the Undergraduate Curriculum at Bowie State University

  • Azene Zenebe (PI & former Co-PI), LaTanya Brown-Robertson (Former PI) and Augustin Ntembe (Co-Pl), Tyesha Burks (Co-PI), and Eric Bonsu (Former Co-PI)
  • $450K

2023-2025: Maryland State Opioid Response III: Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting (MDSOR-DCAR), State of Maryland, Maryland Department of Behavioral Health Administration

  • Azene Zenebe (Pl)
  • $792,000

2021-2023: Maryland State Opioid Response II: Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting (MDSOR-DCAR), State of Maryland, Maryland Department of Behavioral Health Administration

  • Azene Zenebe (Co-Pl), and LaTanya Brown-Robertson (PI)
  • $ 599,491

Publications (Samples)

  1. Srinivasan, S., Alabsi, H., Obeidat, R., Ponnala, N., & Zenebe, A. (2025). GPU programming for AI workflow development on AWS SageMaker: An instructional approach. In Workshops of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC Workshops '25). ACM. (best paper award)
  2. Srinivasan, S., Alabsi, H., Kapur, K., Obeidat, R., Zenebe, A., & Mangle, A. (2025). AI augmented student advising: A comparative study of LLMs and advisor-based course recommendations. In Proceedings of the 48th National Association of Business, Economics, and Technology (NABET) Conference (NABETus2025).
  3. Zenebe, A., Nega A. Lakew, Ademola Obisesan, Nithisha Ponnala, Moriah Parker. The Relationship Between Crime Rates and Socio-Economic Factors: Data Science Approach. Published in the Proceeding of the 47th Annual NABET, Oct 2024, page 325 - 335.
  4. Zenebe, A. and et al. (Feb 2023). Exploring a Mid-Atlantic State’s Opioid Treatment Response to Patients by Race and Place-Based Economic Indicators. Variation in a Mid-Atlantic’s State Opioid Response Services by Race, Age, Gender, and Place-Based Economic Indicators NBER.
  5. Zenebe, A., Lakew, N., and Brown-Robertson, L. (2021). Analysis of COVID-19 Cases by Economic, Health, Education and Race Indicators of Communities. In the 44th Conference Proceedings of the Northeastern Association of Business, Economics, and Technology (NABET), 256 – 266. 
  6. Lakew, N., Zenebe, A. and Williams, K. (2020). Applying Machine Learning to Classify Players Importance in the NBA. In the 43rd Conference Proceedings of the Northeastern Association of Business, Economics, and Technology (NABET), 147 - 155. 
  7. Zenebe A., Lakew, N., Brown, L, & et. al. (2020). Communities’ COVID-19 cases by Race and Economic Indicators
  8. Zenebe, A. and et al. (2019). Cyber Threat Discovery from Dark Web. In Proceedings of ISCA 28th International Conference on Software Engineering and Data Engineering (SEDE 2019), vol 64, pp. 174-183, 2019. 
  9. Zenebe, A. (2019). Entrepreneurship Tendency and its Relationship With Knowledge And Adoption Of information Technology: A Case Of Ethiopian College Students. In the Conference Proceedings of the Northeastern Association of Business, Economics, and Technology (NABET), 332 - 338.