Tianxi Ji has received a grant from the USDA to enhance AMR dashboards
Tianxi Ji, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Texas Tech University’s Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering, has received a $260,237 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to enhance the confidentiality and utility of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) dashboards.
The project, titled “Augmenting AMR Dashboards with Strict Confidentiality, Robust Trackability, High Utility, and Verifiable Integrity,” focuses on protecting sensitive AMR data, critical in veterinary and public health settings from misuse and unauthorized distribution.
Ji is leading the project alongside co-principal investigators Babafela Awosile and Marcelo Schmidt, both faculty members at Texas Tech’s School of Veterinary Medicine. The multidisciplinary collaboration bridges computer science and veterinary medicine to address real-world AMR challenges.
“Thanks to USDA support, we're embedding privacy-preserving fingerprints that protect AMR data from misuse while keeping it richly informative for veterinarians and public-health teams,” Ji said.
The new research builds upon a previously funded USDA initiative to create an AMR dashboard for rural and regional veterinary practices in Texas. Ji’s team will now develop advanced fingerprinting mechanisms that ensure ownership, copyright tracking, and secure redistribution of AMR data.
The system will incorporate confidentiality-preserving techniques that maintain data usefulness while enforcing strict privacy, accountability and traceability protocols. These improvements will be integrated into the current AMR dashboard and validated using additional similar platforms.
Project outcomes will be shared through governmental agency reports, peer-reviewed publications, and open-source analytical tools made available on GitHub.
The USDA’s support comes through its 2024 AMR Dashboard Funding Opportunity. More information can be found here.
This project aims to strengthen antimicrobial stewardship by ensuring that publicly available AMR dashboards are secure, ethically used and scientifically rigorous.