Research & Innovation
Using data science and research for innovative solutions to transform urban challenges into actionable insights.
"Data work is what we do."
Research Spotlight:
AI Report to NJ Governor
In 2024, IDRIS leadership contributed expertise to the report to the Governor on Artificial Intelligence.
This comprehensive report, developed by a state-appointed Task Force including IDRIS Executive Director Dr. Fay Cobb Payton and Associate Professor Gregory Porumbescu, examines the potential societal impacts of emerging AI technologies, particularly Generative AI (GenAI).
The report provides findings and recommendations aimed at ensuring New Jersey leverages AI responsibly and ethically to improve government services, enhance equity, foster innovation, and create economic opportunities for its residents. Key areas addressed include safety and privacy considerations, workforce training, Al equity and literacy, and strategies for making New Jersey a hub for AI innovation.
Our Research & Innovation Themes
Highlighting themes that drive our research.
Regional Research Participation
NSF I-Corps Hub Northeast Region
IDRIS extends its research influence and commitment to innovation through active participation in significant regional initiatives.
IDRIS Executive Director Dr. Fay Cobb Payton served as an Research and Evaluation Lead for the NSF I-Corps Hub Northeast Region.
I-Corps prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory to increase the economic and societal impact of NSF-funded and other basic research projects.
Dr. Fay Cobb Payton
Executive Director, Institute for Data, Research, and Innovation Science (IDRIS)
About the NSF I-Corps Hub Northeast Region
The NSF I-Corps Hub Northeast Region supports researchers in transforming scientific discoveries into market-ready products and services that benefit society.
It offers free events, mentorship, and accelerator programs through a collaborative network of universities to help innovators assess and advance the feasibility of their ideas.
Featured Research Publications & Conferences
Pengju Zhang Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Research Focus: Local Government Fiscal Health
- Zhang, Pengju, Jinah Yoo and Carolyn Abott. (working paper) The Bankruptcy of Special Districts in the United States: What, When, and Why?
- Zhang, Pengju, and David Guo. (2024). Navigating local fiscal sustainability: topics and challenges. Local Government Studies, 50(6), 1094–1104. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2024.2408629
- Hayes, M. S., Rubin, J. S., and Zhang, Pengju. (2023). The state takeover of the Camden City District schools and students’ academic performance: A descriptive analysis. Journal of Urban Affairs, 47(4), 1348–1370. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2216886.
Anthony Mayo Ph.D.
Biomedical Informatics Co-Adjutant
Research Focus: Computational Models for Substance Use Disorder (SUDS)
- Mayo, Anthony, “Trends in Substance-Related Emergency Department Visits and Treatment Outcome in Individuals with Substance Use Disorder in the United States”, Global Learning through Global Health: Advancing Common Goals, Together, December 4, 2019, Office of Global Health & Brain Health Institute, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
- Mayo, Anthony, “Trends in Substance-Related Emergency Department Visits and Treatment Outcome in Individuals with Substance Use Disorder in the United States”, Computational Models in Disease: Applications and Implications, May 9, 2019, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
- Frank E, Tu XM, Anderson B, Reynolds CF 3rd, Karp JF, Mayo A, Ritenour A, Kupfer DJ. Effects of positive and negative life events on time to depression onset: an analysis of additivity and timing. Psychol Med. 1996 May;26(3):613-24. doi: 10.1017/s0033291700035686. PMID: 8733219.
- Stack JA, Paradis CF, Reynolds CF 3rd, Houck PR, Frank E, Anderson B, Mayo AL, Miller MD, Rifai AH, Perel JM, et al. Does recruitment method make a difference? Effects on protocol retention and treatment outcome in elderly depressed patients. Psychiatry Res. 1995 Jan 31;56(1):17-24. doi: 10.1016/0165-1781(94)02617-r. PMID: 7792338.
Kimele Persaud Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology and MC² Lab Director
Research Focus: Employing computational cognitive models to understand semantic and episodic memory processes across development.
- Macias, C., & Persaud, K. (2024). From silos to synergy: Integrating approaches to investigate the role of prior knowledge and expectations on episodic memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 31(6), 2390–2409. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-024-02505-4
- Persaud, K., & Hemmer, P. (2024). The influence of functional components of natural scenes on episodic memory. Scientific reports, 14(1), 1-11. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-81900-2
- Persaud, K., Macias, C., Hemmer, P., & Bonawitz, E. (2021). Evaluating recall error in preschoolers: Category expectations influence episodic memory for color. Cognitive psychology, 124, 101357. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2020.101357
Alex Gimenez-Santana M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice
Research Focus: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Public Safety, Crime Analysis, Neighborhood Effects on Crime, Community Responses to Prevent and Reduce Crime
- Giménez-Santana, A. (2024). Empowering Community Organizations to Co-Produce Public Safety. Translational Criminology, Fall 2024. cebcp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/TC24-Fall2024.pdf
- Giménez-Santana, A. & Caplan, J. (2024). Empowering Youth to Become Co-producers of Public Safety: Implementation of Data-Informed Community Engagement in Newark, NJ. In P. Boxer & R. Travis (Eds). The Future of Youth Violence Prevention: A Mixtape for Practice, Policy, and Research. Rutgers University Press. https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-future-of-youth-violence-prevention/9781978833777/
- Giménez Santana, A., Caplan, J.M., Kennedy, L.W. (2022). Data-Informed Community Engagement: The Newark Public Safety Collaborative. In E. Piza & B. Welsh (Eds). The Globalization of Evidence-Based Policing: Innovations in Bridging the Research-Practice Divide. London, UK: Routledge Press. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003027508-17/data-informed-community-engagement-alejandro-gimenez-santana-joel-caplan-leslie-kennedy
W. Evan Johnson Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Research Focus: Development of computational models and genomic biomarkers for precision cancer therapy, infectious diseases, and immune response. Statistical and computational methods for analyzing imaging, genome, transcriptome, and pathway data, including bulk and single-cell RNA-seq, with a focus on multi-study learning and batch effect correction. Application of metagenomics and genomics to study diseases, including cancer, obesity, food-borne pathogens, and respiratory diseases. Host-pathogen interactions, with a focus on tuberculosis and its impact on innate and adaptive immunity.
- Zhang Y, Parmigiani G, Johnson WE. ComBat-seq: batch effect adjustment for RNA-seq count data. NAR Genom Bioinform. 2020 Sep;2(3):lqaa078. doi: 10.1093/nargab/lqaa078. Epub 2020 Sep 21. PubMed PMID: 33015620; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7518324. https://academic.oup.com/nargab/article/2/3/lqaa078/5909519?login=false
- VanValkenburg A, Kaipilyawar V, Sarkar S, Lakshminarayanan S, Cintron C, Prakash Babu S, Knudsen S, Joseph NM, Horsburgh CR, Sinha P, Ellner JJ, Narasimhan PB, Johnson WE, Hochberg NS, Salgame P. Malnutrition leads to increased inflammation and expression of tuberculosis risk signatures in recently exposed household contacts of pulmonary tuberculosis. Front Immunol. 2022;13:1011166. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1011166. eCollection 2022. PubMed PMID: 36248906; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9554585. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1011166/full
- Leibler JH, Abdelgadir A, Seidel J, White RF, Johnson WE, Reynolds SJ, Gray GC, Schaeffer JW. Influenza D virus exposure among US cattle workers: A call for surveillance. Zoonoses Public Health. 2023 Mar;70(2):166-170. doi: 10.1111/zph.13008. Epub 2022 Nov 12. PubMed PMID: 36370131; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10099784. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zph.13008
- Lab’s Websites:
Fay Cobb Payton Ph.D.
IDRIS Executive Director
Research Focus: Algorithmic development, use and evaluation Health care systems/applications/comorbid conditions Data curation and biases Innovation ecosystems STEM talent development and retention
- Hurd, T. Payton, F. and Hood, D. Targeting ML and AI Algorithms in Healthcare to Reduce Bias and Improve Population Health, The Milbank Quarterly, 2024.
- Payton, F.C. 3 Ways Apple Intelligence and Embedded AI Will Transform Daily Life, Forbes Online, 2024.
- Payton, F.C. When the Algorithm Hallucinates: Disinformation or Misinformation Results, Forbes Online, 2024.
- Payton, F.C. AI Strategy: Think Before You Leap, Triangle Business Journal, 2024.
- Payton, F.C. Without Small Data, AI in Health Care Contributes to Disparities, Scientific American, September 2023.
- Kar, A. K., He, W., Payton, F.C., Grover, V., et al., How Could Quantum Computing Shape Information Systems Research – An Editorial Perspective and Future Directions, International Journal of Information Management, 2024.
David Troutt
Distinguished Professor
Research Focus: Tort law, Intellectual property, Civil rights, Racial and economic inequality
Urban Renewal’s Grandchildren: Remedying the Persistent Effects of Post-War Race Planning, 52 Fordham Urb. L. J. 91 (2024).
DEI and Public Universities: Guideposts for a New Era, a CLiME publication, with Anna Griffith, March 12, 2025, at https://static1.squarespace.
Empowering Public Property: Simulating New Housing, Economic Development and Greenspace Policy with Newark’s City-Owned Property Inventory, with Elana Simon, a CLiME publication, February 2024, at https://www.clime.rutgers.edu/
Who Owns Newark? Transferring Wealth from Newark Homeowners to Corporate Buyers, with Katharine Nelson, a CLiME publication, May 2, 2022, at https://www.clime.rutgers.edu/