Clarkson University’s Inaugural Faculty Undergraduate Research Program Awards Three Competitive Proposals; Second Round of the Ignite Research Fellowship Program Holds “Shark Tank”-Style Competition on February 28, 2019

Newswise — Clarkson University has launched a competitive, small-grants initiative for faculty, who work primarily with undergraduate student researchers. A total of approximately $30,000 was requested for the numerous proposals received by the Research and Intellectual Property Committee of the Faculty Senate. The following three winning proposals shared $10,000.

Jennifer Knack (Psychology) received an award for her project titled “Decoding Social Media Posts: Qualitative Approach to Detecting Depression and Determining Helping Behaviors.”

Johndan Johnson-Eilola (Communication & Media) received an award for his project on “Design Practices Across Disciplines.”

Andreas Wilke (Psychology) and Alex Lee (Communication & Media) received an award for their project titled “The Misperception of Randomness: A Virtual Reality Foraging Study.”

In addition, Clarkson University is proud to announce the slate of 12 teams selected to advance to the final round of the 2019 Ignite Research Fellowship Program. This grant program was first launched in the 2017–18 academic year to foster synergistic campus-wide research collaborations intended to spur innovative solutions across four multidisciplinary research focus areas: advanced materials development, healthy world solutions, data & complex systems analytics and next-generation health technologies. The aim of this program is to drive innovative research that can have a societal impact at the national and international levels.

We are thrilled to have received 23 multidisciplinary, collaborative proposals for this second competition. Fifty unique faculty participants (14 female and 36 male faculty members) —representing 14 departments in our three schools, as well as Beacon, CRC, CARES and Syracuse University —participated. All proposals were peer-reviewed for scientific merit, societal impact, and feasibility; experts from other U.S. and foreign institutions were also invited to serve as reviewers to foster objectivity and integrity in the review process.  An Internal Selection Committee, comprising University academic administrators and last year’s awardees, considered applications deemed meritorious by peer review, for programmatic balance (e.g., history of collaboration, productivity, student training and thematic balance) to select 12 teams. These teams will participate in a final “shark tank”-style competition in which they will “pitch” their proposal ideas, in three minutes or less, to a panel of judges. The judging panel for the 2019 competition includes Rose Coluccio ’92, Michael Hayduk ’91, Steve Johnson ’77, Georgia Keresty ’83, Lisa Napolione ’87, Ken Solinsky ’71, Matt Watson and Bob Ziek ’78. The judges will choose six teams for the second annual Ignite Research Fellowship Awards, and the winners will be announced at a closing ceremony immediately following the final stage of the competition. Each team will receive an Ignite Fellowship to be awarded to an outstanding Ph.D. candidate for up to five years.

This live competition will be emceed by Erin Draper ’03, MBA’14, managing director, Clarkson Ignite, on February 28, 2019, in the Student Center Multipurpose Rooms. Come cheer on your colleagues!

This is an annual competition, so, teams that are not successful this year are strongly encouraged to participate again in the future.  

The following finalists have been invited to pitch their collaborative proposals for a chance to receive an Ignite Fellowship.

Erath, Byron (MAE), Ahmadi, Goodarz (MAE), and Ferro, Andrea (CEE). Healthy World Solutions: Sputum transport from speaking and sputtering; new modalities for the spread of influenza

Kim, Taeyoung (CBE & ISE), Grimberg, Stefan (CEE), and Rogers, Shane (CEE). Healthy World Solutions: Harvesting valuable resources during food waste anaerobic digestion using an electrochemical ammonia separation process

Vu, Tuyen (ECE), Athavale, Prashant (MATH), Ortmeyer, Thomas (ECE), Matthews, Jeanna (CS), and Mousavian, Amir (E&M). Healthy World Solutions: Real-time cyber-physical threat awareness for community microgrids

Bailey, Susan (BIO), Martin, Jonathan (MATH), and White, Diana (MATH). Healthy World Solutions: Mathematical models and experimental tests of food supplementation approaches in biological pest control

Andreescu, Silvana (CBS), Grimberg, Stefan (CEE), and Trivedi, Dhara (Physics). Healthy World Solutions/Advanced Materials Development: Advanced materials design for preventing water eutrophication

Liu, Yaoqing (CS), and Sonar, Ajay (ECE). Data and Complex Systems Analytics: Building a Collaborative and Information-Centric Multi-UAV Sensing System

Mondal, Sumona (MATH), and Sur, Shantanu (BIO). Healthy World Solutions/Data and Complex Systems Analytics: Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Rural Setting: Elucidating the Impact of Comorbid Conditions, Socioeconomic Factors and Access to Health Care on Disease Outcome

Krishnan, Sitaraman (CBE), Kim, Taeyoung (CBE & ISE), and Trivedi, Dhara (Physics). Advanced Materials Development/Healthy World Solutions: Solar-Energy-Driven Water Deionization Using Photoactive Conjugated-Polymer Nanocomposite Electrodes

Mousavian, Amir (E&M), Wu, Lei (Stevens Ins. Tech), and Madraki, Golshan (Reh). Data and Complex Systems Analytics: Graph-theoretic Cyberattack Propagation Modeling & Robust Prevention & Mitigation Approaches in Interconnected Power & Electric Transportation Systems

Baki, Abul (CEE), Langen, Tom (BIO), and Knack, Ian (CEE). Healthy World Solutions: The Influence of Instream Habitat Structures on Stream Transport Process: Enhancing Ecological Functioning of the Urban Stream Systems

Backus, Erik (CEE), Bird, Stephen (HSS), Heintzelman, Martin (Reh), Mahapatra, Santosh (Reh), and Mosher, Anne (Syr Univ). Healthy World Solutions/Data and Complex Systems Analytics: Best Practices for Implementation of Sustainable Holistic Planning Systems (SHPS) in the NY Olympic Region (NYOR)

Smith, Tyler (CEE), Galluzzo, Ben (Inst STEM Ed), Pacht, Asher (Beacon Inst), and Rivera, Seema (Ed, CRC). Health World Solutions/Data and Complex Systems Analytics: Engaging Communities to Advance Hydrologic Science (ECAHS)