August 2024 Grants and Awards
Incubation Project: Leveraging the Ethics Bowl Framework for Community-Driven and Inclusive AI Ethics Education in STEM
Principal Investigator:
Qin Zhu
Associate Professor
Department of Engineering Education
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$25,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Monitoring Ceramic Fuel Fracture via Fiber Optic Acoustic Emission Sensors
Principal Investigator:
Gary R. Pickrell
Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$1,000,000
Sponsor:
United States Department of Energy
Empathy-Based Privacy Education and Design Through Synthetic Persona Data Generation
Principal Investigator:
Yaxing Yao
Assistant Professor
Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology
Total Anticipated:
$199,990
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Interface-Resolved Experimental and Numerical Studies of Two-Phase Flow for Nuclear Engineering Applications
Principal Investigator:
Yang Liu
Associate Professo
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$560,000
Sponsor:
United States Department of Energy
A Pulse-Driven Transdermal Patch for Continuous Drug Delivery
Principal Investigator:
Anne E. Staples
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$550,472
Sponsor:
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
Impact of Cryptococcus Titan Cells on Pathogenesis
Principal Investigator:
Kirsten Nielsen
Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine
Total Anticipated:
$3,510,922
Sponsor:
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Interfacial Interactions Between Graphite and Molten Fluoride Fuel Salt
Principal Investigator:
Jinsuo Zhang
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$800,000
Sponsor:
United States Department of Energy
Investigating Sources of Gravity Waves in the Thermosphere
Principal Investigator:
Brentha Thurairajah
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and ComputerEngineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$113,466
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
On-Farm Evaluation of Corn Production Strategies
Principal Investigator:
Robert T. Jones
Extension Agent
Northeast District Cooperative Extension
Director of Cooperative Extension
Total Anticipated:
$10,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Corn Board
Collaborative Research: Understanding STEM Faculty Mental Health and Well-Being: Impacts on Equity in Higher Education
Principal Investigator:
Mark V. Huerta
Assistant Professor
Department of Engineering Education
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$558,718
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Minds and Machines: Exploring Engineering Faculty Member Mental Models of Generative AI and Instructional Decisions
Principal Investigator:
Andrew S. Katz
Assistant Professor
Department of Engineering Education
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$592,712
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Development of Specialty Wheat Varieties with High Value End-Use Properties
Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$13,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board
Evaluation of Fungicide Application Timing Windows for Prosaro Pro, Sphaerex and Miravis Era for Fusarium Head Blight Management
Principal Investigator:
Douglas S. Higgins
Assistant Professor
Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$15,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board
Impact of Planting Date and Weather Patterns on Wheat Development, Freeze Susceptibility, and Yield
Principal Investigator:
Joseph C. Oakes
Superintendent
Eastern Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$5,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board
Understanding Material Removal in High-Resolution High-Throughput Magnetically Enhanced Laser Induced Plasma Micromachining
Principal Investigator:
Prahalada K. Rao
Associate Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$224,493
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Advancing Nonparametric Online Inference: Enhanced Uncertainty Quantification and Decision-Making for Streaming Data
Principal Investigator:
Meimei Liu
Assistant Professor
Department of Statistics
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$150,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Harnessing Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Pioneering AI-Driven Innovations in Library Service
Principal Investigator:
William Ingram
Associate Professor
Library
Dean of Libraries
Total Anticipated:
$44,1724
Sponsor:
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Improvement and Development of Barley for Use in Feed, Malt, and Food
Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$10,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board
Small Grain Research Program Support
Principal Investigator:
Joseph C. Oakes
Superintendent
Eastern Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$10,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board
Soft Red Winter Wheat Cultivar Development
Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$60,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board
Bat Distribution Upper Mississippi/Illinois River on National Wildlife Refuges of Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota
Principal Investigator:
William M. Ford
Associate Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment
Total Anticipated:
$195,078
Sponsor:
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Western Virginia Water Authority Fellowship
Principal Investigator:
Cayelan C. Carey
Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$41,252
Sponsor:
Western Virginia Water Authority
Early Detection, Classification, and Staging of Lymphoma in Canines Using Raman Spectroscopic Urinalysis
Principal Investigator:
John L. Robertson
Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine
Total Anticipated:
$5,500
Sponsor:
Morris Animal Foundation
VS Terminology Support (24-25)
Principal Investigator:
Julie M. Green
Research Assistant Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine
Total Anticipated:
$250,000
Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Collaborative Research: PlantTransform: Morphogenic-Based Mechanisms of Maize Regeneration
Principal Investigator:
Bastiaan Bargmann
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$524,852
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
United States - Australia Program for Research in Grid-Forming Battery Inverters for Grid Applications
Principal Investigator:
Ali Mehrizi-Sani
Professor
Department of Electrical and ComputerEngineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$450,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Emergent Dynamics and Scaling Laws in Bioinspired Lipid Membranes
Principal Investigator:
Rana Ashkar
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$397,545
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Mapping AI Ethics Education Through Intervention Types, Faculty Perceptions, and Institutional Contexts
Principal Investigator:
Qin Zhu
Associate Professor
Department of Engineering Education
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$99,996
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Ensuring Reproducible Research Through Rigorous Study Design, Statistical Analysis Planning, and Data Presentation Within a Team Science Framework
Principal Investigator:
Alexandra L. Hanlon
Professor of Practice
Department of Statistics
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$202,494
Sponsor:
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Cooperative Loco-Manipulation Tasks between Humans and Multi-Agent Legged Robots: A Distributed Control Approach for Co-Learning and Co-Adaptation
Principal Investigator:
Kaveh Akbari Hamed
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$300,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
A Comparative Study to Investigate the Nutrition, Flavor and Consumer Acceptance Differences Between Virginia Blue Catfish and Farm-Raised Catfish
Principal Investigator:
Yiming Feng
Assistant Professor
Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$19,432
Sponsor:
Virginia Agricultural Council
Department of Defense Cyber Scholarship 2024
Principal Investigator:
Ehren Hill
Director for Education and Outreach
Virginia Tech National Security Institute
Total Anticipated:
$544,339
Sponsor:
Office of Naval Research
Enhancing Digital Inclusion in Rural Tribal Communities with Dynamically Reliable Mobile Broadband
Principal Investigator:
Shaddi H. Hasan
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$74,992
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Mechanistic Studies of Heterogeneous Chemical Warfare Agent Degradation Catalysts Enabled by Benchtop X-ray Spectroscopy Suite
Principal Investigator:
Amanda Morris
Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$436,200
Sponsor:
United States Army Research Office
Enhancing Outdoor Informal STEM Learning for Early Adolescent Youth Through Collective Evaluation, Capacity Building, Adaptive Management, and Comparative Research
Principal Investigator:
Marc J. Stern
Professor
Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment
Total Anticipated:
$1,983,088
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Autonomous Remote Geospace Observation and Research Array
Principal Investigator:
Zhonghua Xu
Postdoctoral Associate
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$1,632,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Digital Twins
Principal Investigator:
Daniel E. Appelo
Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$299,148
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Health Policy Research Scholars Fellowship
Principal Investigator:
Matthew C. Fullen
Associate Professor
Office of Educational Research and Outreach
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$124,000
Sponsor:
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Multi-Physics, Intelligent Sensing System for Real-Time, Look-Ahead While Drilling
Principal Investigator:
Joseph P. Vantassel
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$2,500,000
Sponsor:
Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy
Biodesign for Health Equity
Principal Investigator:
Christopher B. Arena
Collegiate Associate Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$176,948
Sponsor:
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
Wearable Bio-Nanophotonics Technology for Wound Biofilm Infection Management
Principal Investigator:
Wei Zhou
Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$200,000
Sponsor:
Commonwealth Health Research Board
Undergraduate Research on Ice Nucleation in Austria
Principal Investigator:
David G. Schmale
Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$450,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Development of a Muon Detector for Double Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (Fellowship for Mahmoud Gomina)
Principal Investigator:
Marie Boer
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$12,000
Virginia Department of Transportation Survey for Freshwater Mussels at the Interstate 81 Bridge, Middle Fork Holston River, Smyth County, Virginia
Principal Investigator:
Jess W. Jones
Restoration Biologist
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment
Total Anticipated:
$8,285
Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Transportation
Understanding the Geography of Wildlife Use in the Face of Urbanization
Principal Investigator:
Willandia Chaves Didier
Assistant Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment
Total Anticipated:
$396,474
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Virginia Department of Transportation Survey for Freshwater Mussels at the Route 608 Bridge, Catharpin Run, Spotsylvania County, Virginia
Principal Investigator:
Jess W. Jones
Restoration Biologist
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment
Total Anticipated:
$8,285
Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Transportation
Heterogeneous Integration of Wide-Bandgap Microelectronics and Power Electronics for Efficient Power Delivery to AI Processors in Data Centers
Principal Investigator:
Yuhao Zhang
Associate Professor
Dean of Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$1,800,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Advancing Integrated Fusarium Head Blight and Deoxynivalenol Management Strategies in Virginia
Principal Investigator:
Douglas S. Higgins
Assistant Professor
Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$22,895
Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service
Using the Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio of Microtremors to Determine Vs30 at Ground Motion Stations in the Continental United States for More-Accurate Predictions of Site-Effects
Principal Investigator:
Adrian Rodriguez-Marek
Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$99,027
Sponsor:
United States Geological Survey
A Framework for a Continuously Updated Ground Motion Prediction Equation
Principal Investigator:
Adrian Rodriguez-Marek
Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$110,662
Sponsor:
United States Geological Survey
FY2024 Mycotoxin Testing Services for Virginia Wheat and Barley
Principal Investigator:
David G. Schmale
Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$30,000
Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board
Extracting Causal Relationships Between Wing Kinematics and Flight Maneuvers in Bats for Transforming Bioinspired Flapping Flight
Principal Investigator:
Danesh K. Tafti
William S.Cross Professor of Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$390,227
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Data Quality Assurance for Robotic Anomaly Detection
Principal Investigator:
Ran Jin
Associate Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$118,000
Sponsor:
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Advancing Health Equity Using Interactive Condition Assessment and Monitoring
Principal Investigator:
Hoda M. Eldardiry
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$299,986
Sponsor:
LiteraSeed Inc
Dynamic Connectivity: A Research and Educational Frontier for Sustainable Environmental Management Under Climate and Land Use Uncertainty
Principal Investigator:
Admin Husic
Associate Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$609,734
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Advancing Data-Centric AI Through Generative Approaches for Feature Space Reconstruction
Principal Investigator:
Chandan K. Reddy
Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$200,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Bridging Short and Long Time Scales in Global Plate Tectonics Through Solver Adaptivity
Principal Investigator:
Johann Rudi
Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$280,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Fundamental Investigations into the Metal-Organic Framework Redox-Hopping Charge Transport
Principal Investigator:
Amanda Morris
Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$625,300
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Advancing Digital Twins for Jet Engines Through Mathematical and Computational Innovation
Principal Investigator:
Adrian Sandu
Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$769,412
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Stream Restoration Sample Analysis on the George Mason University Campus - 2024-2025
Principal Investigator:
Stanley Grant
Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$3,577
Sponsor:
George Mason University
Virginia Integrated Pest Management Extension Implementation Program
Principal Investigator:
Daniel L. Frank
Director, Pesticide Programs
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$273,000
Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Facilitating Responsible, Ethical, and Explainable Ergonomic Exposure Assessments When Using Artificial Intelligence Methods
Principal Investigator:
Sol I. Lim
Assistant Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$300,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Allelic Expression Dynamics and Its Roles in Genotype-Phenotype Relationships
Principal Investigator:
David E. Gerrard
Professor and Director
School of Animal Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$410,762
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Food and Agricultural Education Information System: A Collaborative Data Collection Resource
Principal Investigator:
Peter E. Ziegler
Assistant Professor and Director, Civic Agriculture and Food Systems Pathway Minor
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Academic Programs
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$220,000
Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Conformal Additive Solutions for Energy Harvesting on Structures
Principal Investigator:
Edward J. Barron
Research Scientist
Virginia Tech National Security Institute
Total Anticipated:
$319,942
Sponsor:
Office of Naval Research
CpG-B ODN Mediated Protection from Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Principal Investigator:
Xin Luo
Professor and Assistant Department Head for Graduate and Postgraduate Studies
Vice President of Health Sciences and Technology
Faculty of Health Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$196,371
Sponsor:
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
A Precision Test of the Standard Model with Parity-Violating Electron Scattering
Principal Investigator:
Julia C. Basso
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science
Total Anticipated:
$460,000
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
DJing and Hip Hop Music Production as a Clinical Intervention for Individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Principal Investigator:
Kylene W. Kehn-Hall
Professor
Department of Human Nutrition, Foods & Exercise
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Total Anticipated:
$25,000
Sponsor:
Aspen Institute
Rift Valley Fever Virus NSs Protein Interacts with LC3 Family Members to Inhibit Antiviral Autophagy
Principal Investigator:
Kevin G. Wang
Associate Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine
Total Anticipated:
$128,052
Sponsor:
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Optimizing 3D-Printable Hierarchical Materials for Shock and Projectile Impact Mitigation
Principal Investigator:
Ashley A. Dayer
Associate Professor
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$320,000
Sponsor:
Office of Naval Research
Evaluating Efficacy of Stewardship Actions for Vulnerable Gulf of Mexico Coastal Birds Through Co-Production Between Scientists and Resource Managers (LOI 043)
Principal Investigator:
Yinlin Chen
Assistant Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment
Total Anticipated:
$58,477
Sponsor:
National Audubon Society
LIBRAI: Liberating Libraries Through Generative Artificial Intelligence Incubator Program
Principal Investigator:
Sun Wook Kim
Research Associate Professor
Library
Dean of Libraries
Total Anticipated:
$115,398
Sponsor:
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Designing Intelligent Industrial Robots for STEM Inclusion by Leveraging Self-Determination Theory to Foster Autistic Talent in Manufacturing Work
Principal Investigator:
Philip J. Radtke
Associate Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering
Total Anticipated:
$819,984
Sponsor:
National Science Foundation
Forest Carbon Dynamics in Eastern National Parks
Principal Investigator:
David B. Langston
Professor
Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment
Total Anticipated:
$200,000
Sponsor:
National Park Service
Diagnosis and Characterization of Problematic Nematode Populations in Virginia Cotton and Evaluation of New Cotton Nematicides
Principal Investigator:
David B. Langston
Professor
Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station
Total Anticipated:
$11,928
Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Virginia Cotton Board