FSU data scientist receives NSF CAREER Award to develop AI model to analyze complex numerical data at scale

A Florida State University artificial intelligence and data scientist has earned one of the most prestigious early career faculty awards to develop a new type of AI model that better calculates and uses numeric data, including large-scale healthcare data for applications in cancer research.

Michael Gubanov, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, received a 2026 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program for his work developing an advanced large language model, or LLM, to analyze properties of numeric data, such as number order, and more accurately calculate and interpret numeric data.

The Faculty Early Career Development Program offers the NSF’s most significant awards in support of early career faculty who have the potential to serve as leaders in research and education. The award provides five years of funding to support scientific goals, student training and educational outreach activities.

“While AI can’t diagnose or treat patients, this advanced AI model is expected to help healthcare professionals make more accurate decisions,” Gubanov said. “Because of its ability to better comprehend complex numerical data, it can be applied to gauge the promise of candidate cancer treatments for patients based on individual factors, such as prior cancer treatments, to increase cancer patients’ survival rate.”