​Dr. Jie Wei, a computer science professor at The City College of New York (CCNY), is leading a U.S. Air Force-funded project aimed at enhancing situational assessment and awareness (SAAW) through artificial intelligence and machine learning. The three-year, $299,000 grant supports the development of an efficient, robust, and explainable AI/ML system utilizing multi-modal sensing and deep learning techniques. Collaborating with Dr. Haibin Ling of SUNY Stony Brook, the project focuses on improving data and computing efficiency, ensuring robustness against noisy data and adversarial attacks, and providing transparent, interpretable, and certifiable decision-making processes. This initiative is critical for military operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response applications.