The NSF Expand-AI project is led by the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley, in collaboration with AI4OPT. Its goal is to empower minorities to carry out research in Autonomous Robotics and Infrastructure Monitoring and to transform AI research and innovation for smart environments. The research collaboration leverages AI and optimization for condition monitoring and maintenance, using autonomous robots for sensing. Faculty and students from UTRGV spend summers at Georgia Tech for research collaborations.