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October 2023 Grants and Awards

Modeling and Simulation of LIDAR in Turbulent Flows

Principal Investigator:
Wall, Dylan
Research Scientist
Virginia Tech National Security Institute

Total Anticipated:
$15,000

Sponsor:
Patuxent Partnership

Standardization of Unmanned Aerial Systems-Based Herbicide Spray Applications in Watermelon

Principal Investigator:
Singh, Vijay
Assistant Professor
Eastern Shore Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$324,833

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Assessment of Quantum Utility EvaluateD Under Current Technologies (AQUEDUCT)

Principal Investigator:
Economou, Sophia E.
Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$400,000

Sponsor:
United States Department of Energy

Outreach to Reduce Human Trafficking

Principal Investigator:
Mabry, Jessica E.
Senior Research Associate
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Total Anticipated:
$300,000

Sponsor:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Digital Inequalities in Latin America: The Effects of Code and Infrastructure in Indigenous Access to the Internet

Principal Investigator:
Ribeiro Rosa, Fernanda
Assistant Professor
Department of Science, Technology, and Society
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$75,000

Sponsor:
National Endowment for the Humanities

Standardization of Unmanned Aerial System-Based Spray Applications In Agronomic Crops

Principal Investigator:
Singh, Vijay
Assistant Professor
Eastern Shore Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$617,463

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Leveraging Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation for Sustainable Aquaculture

Principal Investigator:
Kuhn, David D.
Associate Professor
Department of Food Science and Technology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$759,999

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Integrating Remote Breath Alcohol Monitoring into Ecological Momentary Assessment of Alcohol-Related Intimate Partner Violence Among Young Adult Drinkers

Principal Investigator:
Brem, Meagan J.
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$434,491

Sponsor:
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Evaluating Diets for the Black Soldier Fly: A Novel Composting System for Agricultural Wastes

Principal Investigator:
Tracy, Benjamin F.
Professor and Associate Director for Undergraduate Programs
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$7,022

Sponsor:
Virginia Agricultural Council

Supporting Unbiased and Safe Disability Representation in Social Virtual Reality

Principal Investigator:
Yao, Yaxing
Assistant Professor

Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology

Total Anticipated:
$299,783

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Warning Devices for Stopped Commercial Motor Vehicles

Principal Investigator:
Miller, Andrew M.
Senior Research Associate

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Total Anticipated:
$1,125,704

Sponsor:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Continued Expansion of VTTI's Sharing the Road with Trucks Program

Principal Investigator:
Camden, Matthew C.
Senior Research Associate
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Total Anticipated:
$808,178

Sponsor:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Mapping Two Common Arthropod Pests from Airborne Environmental DNA Metabarcoding

Principal Investigator:
Schuerch, Roger
Assistant Professor
Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$587,749

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Exploiting Sparsity and Locality in AB Initio Open Quantum Systems

Principal Investigator:
Mayhall, Nicholas
Associate Professor
Chemistry
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$570,000

Sponsor:
United States Department of Energy

Collaborating with Mathematicians to Enhance Teaching (COMET)

Principal Investigator:
Johnson, Estrella
Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Inclusion and Diversity
Mathematics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$89,268

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Amazon Radio Frequency Machine Learning (RFML) Student Research Program

Principal Investigator:
Hill, Ehren
Associate Director for Education and Outreach, Office of the Executive Director

Virginia Tech National Security Institute

Total Anticipated:
$260,002

Sponsor:
Amazon Web Services Inc.

Perception Refinement

Principal Investigator:
Stowe, Loren J.
Senior Research Associate
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Total Anticipated:
$872,664

Sponsor:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

False Data Injection Cyberattack Detection in Distribution System Based on Deep Learning and Unscented Kalman Filter

Principal Investigator:
Mehrizi-Sani, Ali
Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$5,000

Sponsor:
American Public Power Association

Development of a Hybrid Mentoring Program for Autistic STEM Students - Foundational Work

Principal Investigator:
Kim, Sun Wook
Research Assistant Professor
Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$75,000

Sponsor:
Oak Ridge Associated Universities Inc.

Measuring Ultraviolet Radiation Reflectance from Turf Weeds

Principal Investigator:
Askew, Shawn D.
Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$5,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Agricultural Council

Dust Our Luck ? Measuring Molecule and Dust Formation in M101?s Hydrogen-rich SN 2023ixf

Principal Investigator:
Ashall, Christopher J.
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$19,800

Sponsor:
Space Telescope Science Institute

Development of UV-resistant Polymer-Regolith Composite Shielding Material for Long-term Lunar Habitats Incorporating Carbon Nanotubes

Principal Investigator:
Seidel, Gary D.
Professor and Assistant Department Head for Academic Affairs
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$5,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

An Integrated Multi-Time Scale Approach to High-Performance, Intelligent, and Secure O-RAN based NextG

Principal Investigator:
Reed, Jeffrey H.
Willis G. Worcester Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$900,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Testing the Feasibility of the Individualized Positive Psychosocial Intervention

Principal Investigator:
Hanlon, Alexandra L.
Professor of Practice
Director, Center for Biostatistics and Health Data Science (CBHDS)
Co-Director, iTHRIV Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Methods Core
Department of Statistics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$6,421

Sponsor:
University of Miami

New Weed Control Options for Nursery Crops

Principal Investigator:
Derr, Jeffrey F.
Professor and Director, Hampton Roads Agriculture Research Extension Center
Hampton Roads Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$9,777.68

Sponsor:
University of Florida

Nonlinear Wind Estimation Using Large-Domain Flight Dynamic Models

Principal Investigator:
Woolsey, Craig A.
Professor
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$5,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

Assessment of Subsurface Hydrogen Storage in Depleted Gas Fields of Appalachia

Principal Investigator:
Pandey, Rohit
Assistant Professor
Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$1,499,999

Sponsor:
United States Department of Energy

Identifiability Investigation of Multi-Scale Models of Infectious Diseases

Principal Investigator:
Ciupe, Mihaela S.
Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$599,554

Sponsor:
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

GPS Assurance Anomaly Detection Evaluator

Principal Investigator:
Joerger, Mathieu
Assistant Professor
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$97,500

Sponsor:
Mitre Corporation

Using Ecological Momentary Intervention to Improve Emotion Dysregulation and Interpersonal Conflict Among Families of Adolescents with ADHD

Principal Investigator:
Boljonis, Rosanna B.
Assistant Professor
Director, Child Study Center
Director, CALMER Lab
Department of Psychology
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$20,000

Sponsor:
American Psychological Association

On-Farm Trials to Reduce Wireworm Populations and Tuber Damage in Potato Production Fields by Planting Broflanilide Seed Treated Wheat and Field Corn in the Wheat/Soybean/Corn/Potato Rotation System

Principal Investigator:
Kuhar, Thomas P.
Professor
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$5,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Irish Potato Board

Transient Aeroacoustic Turbulence Ingestion into a Rotor

Principal Investigator:
Devenport, William J.
Alumni Distinguished Professor and Crofton Professor in Engineering
Director, Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$5,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

Activating Physical Crosslinking in Synthetic Extracellular Matrices by Switch Peptides

Principal Investigator:
Matson, John
Professor and Dr. AC Lilly Jr. Faculty Fellow in Nanoscience
Department of Chemistry
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$135,150

Sponsor:
United States - Israel Binational Science Foundation

Pharmacokinetics of Oral Mirtazapine in Healthy Adult Alpacas

Principal Investigator:
Wilson, Katherine E.
Clinical Associate Professor and Equine Section Chief
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$10,000

Sponsor:
American Board of Veterinary Practitioners Foundation

Direct Dopamine Recording from Humans Engaging Working Memory

Principal Investigator:
Montague, Pendleton R.
Virginia Tech Carilion Vernon Mountcastle Research Professor and Director, Center for Human Neuroscience Research
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Total Anticipated:
$3,333,088

Sponsor:
National Institute of Mental Health

Collaborative Research: The Mismeasure of GxE: Causes and Consequences of Environmental Exposures for the Evolution of Plasticity

Principal Investigator:
McGlothlin, Joel W.
Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$298,375

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Quantifying the Size-Distribution of Rivers Across Scales: Advancing Estimates of Global River Surface Area

Principal Investigator:
Allen, George H.
Assistant Professor
Department of Geosciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$5,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

Listening to Longleaf Landowners: Responding to the Decline in Conservation Reserve Program Participation to Address Longleaf Pine Restoration

Principal Investigator:
Dayer, Ashley A.
Assistant Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$730,568

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency

The Cost of (Not) Being Pale, Male, and Yale: Ambassadorial Attributes and Foreign Policy Legitimacy

Principal Investigator:
Suong, Clara H.
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science

College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$2,500

Sponsor:
American Political Science Association

Cometabolic Emerging Contaminant Removal, Soil Aquifer Treatment, and Injectivity Studies

Principal Investigator:
Pruden-Bagchi, Amy J.
W. Thomas Rice Professor and University Distinguished Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$196,393

Sponsor:
Hampton Roads Sanitation District

Expanding Opportunities for Precision Turfgrass Management

Principal Investigator:
McCall, David S.
Associate Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$51,500

Sponsor:
The Virginia Turfgrass Foundation

Health Hazard Controls Industry Diffusion: An Evidence-Based Intervention Strategy to Improve Adoption of Hazard Controls Industry-Wide

Principal Investigator:
Dickerson, Deborah E.
Associate Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$193,095.50

Sponsor:
Center for Construction Research and Training

Optimizing Processing Conditions for High-Quality Tender Beef

Principal Investigator:
Gerrard, David E.
Director
School of Animal Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$30,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Cattle Industry Board

Investigating Night-time Pedestrian Safety and Conspicuity using Bollard Lighting

Principal Investigator:
Gibbons, Ronald B.
Associate Professor
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Total Anticipated:
$447,665

Sponsor:
Federal Highway Administration

Collaborative Research: Atomically Precise Catalyst Design for Selective Bond Activation

Principal Investigator:
Karim, Ayman M.
Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$625,184

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Partnering Award-Winning Teachers and Teachers with Promise: Enhancing the Disciplinary Diversity of USDA Teaching Excellence Award Winners

Principal Investigator:
Copenheaver, Carolyn A.
Professor
Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$125,000

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Evaluation Codes, Duals, and Applications

Principal Investigator:
Lopez Valdez, Hiram H.
Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$211,147

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Supporting Privacy Negotiation Among Multiple Stakeholders in Smart Environments

Principal Investigator:
Yao, Yaxing
Assistant professor
Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology

Total Anticipated:
$163,132

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation