UTHealth Houston team earns NASA space apps honor

A university-led team was named the Houston 2025 award winner at the NASA International Space Apps Challenge and selected as a global nominee. (Courtesy photo)

A university-led team has earned international recognition after its innovative artificial intelligence project rose to the top tier of one of the world’s largest global hackathons.

AURA, short for AI Unified Research Atlas, was named the Houston 2025 award winner at the NASA International Space Apps Challenge and selected as a global nominee, placing the project among the top 5% of teams worldwide.

An AI-powered tool designed to make NASA’s space life science research more accessible and easier to explore, AURA helps students, educators, and researchers navigate and understand complex scientific material, including more than 200,000 pages of data, through an intuitive, AI-driven interface.

The project reflects a coordinated effort that spans faculty, staff, and youth innovators and includes work by three UTHealth Houston employees and three youth AI and machine learning enthusiasts.

“This recognition highlights our collaboration, innovation, and support for young talent," said project lead Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD, chair of the Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and Christopher Sarofim Family Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Bioengineering at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston. “It was inspiring to work alongside youth who share a passion for using AI to make science more accessible.”

Jiang; Carlos Jaimes Garcia, artificial intelligence and machine learning programmer; and Sonia Ahsan, assistant director Epic interoperability and radiology, make up the UTHealth Houston faculty and staff portion of the team. Youth members are Ashley Jiang, Myreen Ahsan, and Abyaz Bhuiyan.

The NASA Space Apps Challenge is one of the largest hackathons in the world. This year’s competition included 114,094 participants, 18,860 teams, and 551 local events across 167 countries and territories. Global nominee status signifies that a project advanced beyond local recognition and was evaluated as one of the strongest entries internationally.

A demo video and live version of the AURA application are available for those interested in exploring the project and its capabilities.