A chemistry professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received $188,863 from the National Science Foundation to study experimental methods of developing organic optoelectronic materials. Dr. Noureen Siraj, assistant professor of analytical and physical chemistry, will work with the Center of Organic Photonics and Electronics at the Georgia Institute of Technology to characterize new materials developed at UA Little Rock that possess Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) characteristics. FRET is a radiation-free energy transfer process between chemical compounds.
One University of Arkansas at Little Rock student-athlete got the surprise of her life when the Trojan mascot she was taking a picture with turned out to be her sneaky boyfriend successfully pulling off an unforgettable marriage proposal.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock spin-off company, NuShores Biosciences, LLC, has received a $1.7 million grant to study how NuShores’ bone regeneration technology can be applied in craniofacial tissues. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, a component of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded the company a 2.
A black World War I veteran and victim of the 1919 Elaine Massacre will posthumously be honored with the Purple Heart and other World War I honors that he was denied a century ago. For Dr. Brian Mitchell, a professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, helping Leroy Johnston receive his medals is about righting a wrong a century in the making.
The research presents an in-depth examination of the information networks using social network analysis and cyber forensic based methodology to identify prominent information actors and leading coordinators of the disinformation campaigns.
A group of University of Arkansas at Little Rock employees, students, and alumni who created a space-western storytelling card game – dubbed Galactic Scoundrels – have reached their online fundraising goal to raise enough money to have the game manufactured, breaking their fundraising goal by more than $10,000.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor visited Syrian refugees and activists in Turkey and Lebanon in the last of four trips to war-affected countries by an 18-member international research team investigating how peace can be achieved in societies emerging from conflict.
When most people think of tea and molasses, their thoughts don’t stray any further than the kitchen. Meghana Bollimpalli, a Central High School student who was mentored by two chemistry professors at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, saw the potential to create a less-expensive renewable energy source that has earned her more than $60,000 in scholarships and prize money from science fair competitions.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor is shedding light on gangs in rural communities that have a connection to urban gangs in Chicago. Dr. Timothy Brown, a sociologist and associate professor of criminal justice at UA Little Rock, is studying rural gang activity in a small town in the Mississippi Delta region with ties to gang affiliates in the Windy City.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor and social media infiltration expert Dr. Nitin Agarwal has been selected as a member of the U.S. State Department’s Tech Demo program to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation. Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Science, leads COSMOS (Collaboratorium for Social Media and Behavioral Studies) at UA Little Rock. Agarwal’s team of researchers is one of 14 groups throughout the country that is participating in the program, which is organized by the Global Engagement Center that is charged with leading the U.S. government’s efforts to counter propaganda and disinformation from international terrorist organizations and foreign countries.
A famous Arkansas composer, teacher, and pianist has been honored by the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association for her lifetime of musical accomplishments after being denied entry to the organization nearly a century ago because of her race. Florence Price is a Little Rock native who became the first African-American woman composer to have a symphonic composition performed by a major American orchestra, and one of the first African-American classical composers to gain international attention.
Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock students are looking to make a name for themselves in the world of hackathons. Michael DiCicco, sophomore information science major from Benton, and Karen Watts, senior information science major from Bryant, took home a big win as first place winners of CrimsonHacks, a Major League Hacking event held April 14-15 at the University of Alabama.
The neighborhood that a person recently released from prison lives in is a key factor in whether that person will eventually return to prison, according to a study by two professors at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In their study, “There Goes the Neighborhood? Crime, Blight and Recidivism,” Tusty ten Bensel, associate professor of criminal justice, and Michael Craw, associate professor of public administration, examined whether ex-offenders being released into disadvantaged neighborhoods increased the likelihood of them returning to prison.
Homeowners in the Little Rock area who are looking for a long-term return on their investment should look for neighborhoods with a neighborhood or homeowner’s association, according to a study by a University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor.
In 1919, one of the deadliest racial conflicts in the country occurred in Elaine, Arkansas. Historians still do not know how many people died during the Elaine Massacre. Barclay Key, associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and students in his “Age of Reform” class searched U.S. census records during to try to identify potential victims of the Elaine Massacre.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is among the very few universities in the country with a team and projects dedicated to researching blogs. Blogtrackers, a tool designed to track and analyze blogs and gain insights from the blogosphere, is being developed for public use.
Three University of Arkansas at Little Rock students attended the Clinton Global Initiative University Oct. 13-15 at Northeastern University in Boston to discuss their design of a water pump to provide clean drinking water to a rural village in Haiti.
Researchers at the Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, helped saved the life of an injured baby alpaca using the NuCress™ scaffold, a nanomaterial-based bone regeneration device.
Researchers from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are investigating how opinions are formed and manipulated in an artificial population. They set up a simulation demonstrating how the opinions of the artificial population are driven by intergroup dynamics. In the simulation, the subjects modify their opinions based on whether the person who gives the opinion is a part of the in-group (us) or out-group (them).
The Institute for Chief Data Officers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will fill an important role to help protect and maximize big data owned by the state of Arkansas. The Arkansas Department of Information Systems has contracted the Institute for Chief Data Officers, led by Executive Director Dr. Richard Wang, to serve as the state’s chief data officer.
A recent anonymous donation to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will fund a workshop designed to promote academic breakthroughs and career counseling for academics studying the intersection of transportation and telecommunications research.
Facebook has inspired the next generation of technology industry leaders in Arkansas with the launch of the “Tech Take Over” campaign at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “Tech Take Over” is part of the TechStart Partnership between Facebook and the state of Arkansas, which was announced earlier this year to generate student interest in computer science education and careers.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor has received $230,000 to help defend the United States against the use of social bots. Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair of Information Science, received the grant to develop a socio-computational model for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to detect the online presence of social bots.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been named a priority partner in a new Department of Homeland Security-funded national consortium. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate will award the consortium a $3.85 million grant for its first operating year in a 10-year grant period to create the Center of Excellence for Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis (CINA).
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor traveled to China this summer on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to advise a group of hearing impaired Chinese professors who are working to standardize Chinese Sign Language and start interpreter education programs in Chinese universities.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor is making strides toward developing an effective cancer treatment without the severe side effects of traditional therapies. Dr. Darin Jones, UA Little Rock associate professor of chemistry, envisions a day when patients can battle cancer without chemotherapy side effects such as hair loss, muscle atrophy, and compromised immune systems.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor has received $500,000 to develop high-performance, cost-effective transportation fuel cells. Dr. Tansel Karabacak, professor of physics and astronomy at UA Little Rock, received $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy. UA Little Rock will provide $100,000 in matching funds. The main goal of the research is to produce transportation fuel cells that cost less, last longer, and provide more power.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock researcher is creating a virtual lab to address issues related to cloud-based computing environments and to help students practice networking and cyber defense skills. The program's modules will be part of a cybersecurity curriculum that will be available to the public.
An Arkansas law school student and his 85-year-old grandfather have reached a licensing deal with Gamo Outdoor to bring their invention, the Daisy Rocket Shot, a child-friendly product that shoots aluminum cans into the air that can be shot with an air rifle or BB gun as target practice, to the market.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor has received more than $1.5 million to research ways to aid U.S. military forces in the fight against cyber propaganda campaigns. The Office of Naval Research awarded Dr. Nitin Agarwal, the UA Little Rock Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy endowed chair and a professor of information science, a $1,530,778 grant. This new grant enables Agarwal to continue his investigation into the practices, tactics, and motivations of organizers of web-based mass movements and their participants.
Genetic research by a University of Arkansas at Little Rock student that could one day aid Mars colonists was one of only 10 student projects highlighted during a national NASA Space Grant conference.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor advised members of NATO about the danger of false information distributed online through botnets, a network of computer programs that act autonomously on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy chair and professor of information science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and his doctoral student, Nihal Hussain, will conduct a four-day social media analysis training course for NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence (STRATCOM COE) at the Latvian Defense Academy March 21-24.
Four experts will participate in a roundtable discussion that will be broadcast as a free webcast on March 9 and explore how trolls, bots, and fake news are shaping conversations and shifting public discourse in an online environment.
A nanomaterial-based bone regeneration technology developed at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock already proved effective in saving a prized bull. In the future, it could help everyone from patients to soldiers to car crash victims more fully recover from traumatic bone ailments injuries.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock TRIO program received a five-year Educational Opportunity Grant worth nearly $1.2 million to help Arkansans in the Delta region enroll in postsecondary education programs. With the Delta Educational Opportunity Center program, TRIO staff members will travel to community partners like workforce services, veterans affairs offices, and school districts to serve people in the 12-county area in Arkansas.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Biology Professor Mariya Khodakovskaya, her collaborators, and her graduate students are among a handful of scientists around the world pioneering research on the potential benefits of nanotechnology for crops. Their research was recently published in a book by Springer International Publishing, “Plant Nanotechnology: An Overview on Concepts, Strategies, and Tools.”
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received two five-year grants totaling more than $3.75 million to fund college readiness programs for low-income and first-generation college students in Pulaski and Jefferson counties.
First-grade students benefit from engineering lessons being added to their curriculum, according to the results of a Department of Education-financed study by researchers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor and two doctoral students recently got a chance to unveil their research on cyber defense at an international NATO conference. The talk, “Understanding Influence Operations of Novorossiya through Blogs and Twitter,” detailed the research team’s monitoring of social media responses to NATO exercises Operation Brilliant Jump and Anakonda over the summer. Specifically, they tracked how anti-NATO groups reacted to information released by NATO and media coverage of the exercises via social media.
A University of Arkansas at Little Rock doctoral student is out to discover how knowledgeable people are about their privacy on social media. Terry Williams, a doctoral student in the integrated computing program, is using a series of surveys and privacy awareness tips to investigate privacy awareness and social media in her dissertation, “A Study of Privacy Awareness in the Digital Age and the Influence of Knowledge Over Time.”
Researchers from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service are studying how politics and religion mesh in the 2016 presidential election. The nonpartisan study is led by Dr. Rebecca Glazier, UALR associate professor of political science, and Dr. Warigia Bowman, assistant professor at Clinton School of Public Service, to understand how the efforts of churches, mosques, and synagogues in Little Rock influence their communities and congregations.
The Arkansas Attorney General’s Office has given a $1 million grant to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law to create a Business Innovation Clinic. The new clinic will be the first in the state to focus on providing business law advice and services to small businesses, innovators, and nonprofit organizations.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a public charter school are taking collaboration in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education to new levels. eStem Public Charter Schools is revamping and expanding one of the university's original buildings to move its high school to the university campus in time for the fall 2017 semester.
Zachary King spent the summer researching how to keep cars safe from cyberattacks during an intensive eight-week cybersecurity summer research program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Criminal Justice has entered into a seven-year contract worth more than half a million dollars with the Arkansas Department of Human Services Division of Youth Services to assess disproportionate minority contact within the criminal justice system.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have partnered to create the first academic institute devoted solely to the professional development of chief data officers.
With the help of a recently awarded National Science Foundation grant, University of Arkansas at Little Rock researchers plan to launch a program designed to fill a national gap in cybersecurity education and better prepare students to enter the workforce.