Congratulations!
The following UTC Faculty and Staff have attracted $257,000 in external grant and contract awards:
Charles Mix (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science), in collaboration with the Chattanooga Area Southern Offroad Bike Association (SORBA), has received $7,500 from the Lyndhurst Foundation for the project entitled, “SORBA Chattanooga Mountain Biking Trail Guide Cartography.”
Susan Lazenby (WUTC) has received $9,205 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the project entitled, “WUTC Radio Community Service Grant.”
Charles Mix and Nyssa Hunt (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science), in collaboration with the Lula Lake Land Trust, have received $8,827 from the Land Trust Alliance for the project entitled, “Lula Lake Land Trust Conservation Priority Modeling.”
Dr. Christopher Cunningham (Psychology) has requested and received $49,994 from Peak Performance, Inc. for the project entitled, “Continuing support for the Smart Factory Institute (Year 5).”
Charles Mix and Nyssa Hunt (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science) have received $70,000 from Skytec, LLC for the project entitled, “TN Blueways Mapping and Spatial Analysis.”
Dr. Christina Policastro and Dr. Karen McGuffee (Criminal Justice) have requested and received $45,230 from the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence for the project entitled, “2026 Senator Tommy Burks Victim Assistance Academy.”
Dr. Kristina Wick and Meagan Oslund (School of Nursing) have received $64,444 from the Tennessee Department of Health for the project entitled, “Connecting Community Partners: Breaking Down Barriers to Heart Health.”
Dr. Richard Walker (Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science) has received $1,800 from Trout Unlimited for the project entitled, “Evaluating the Use and Benefits of Periodical Cicada Resource Pulses for Freshwater Fishes.”
Good Luck!
The following UTC faculty and staff members submitted proposals for the potential to generate over $5,402,724 in external funding, if awarded:
Dr. Gazi Akgun (Engineering Management and Technology), Dr. Chandra Ward (Sociology, Anthropology, & Geography), and Dr. Seyedmehdi Khaleghian (CUIP) have requested $50,000 from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AFAI) for the project entitled, “Consumer Acceptance of Automated Vehicles: Evidence from a Newly Deployed U.S. Survey and Stated-Preference Experiment.”
Dr. Yukun Yuan, Dr. Yu Liang, and Dr. Dalei Wu (Computer Science and Engineering), in collaboration with Central State University, have requested $149,989 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Excellence in Research: Advancing Scalability of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles via Bottom-up Hardware-Software Co-design.”
Dr. Jejal Bathi, Dr. Rahul Bhosale, and Dr. Venkateswara Kode (Civil and Chemical Engineering), in collaboration with the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, have requested $200,000 from Eastman Chemical Co. for the project entitled, “2025 Eastman Reactive Carbon Capture proposal.”
Dr. Jennifer Hogg (Health & Human Performance), in collaboration with Emory University, has requested $11,000 from Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF) for the project entitled, “Developing decision-making technologies for patients with ACLR.”
Dr. Ryan Zwart and Dr. Eric Hungenberg (Health & Human Performance) have requested $15,147 from Haywood Waterways Association for the project entitled, “2025 Pigeon River Watershed Impact Study.”
Dr. Kimberly Wingate and Dr. Stephanie Brennan (School of Education) have requested $1,114,074 from the Tennessee Department of Education for the project entitled, “GYOC Apprenticeship (FY2026-FY2027).”
Dr. Jason Peter, Dr. Amber Roache, and Dr. Kristina Wick (School of Nursing) have requested $2,024,282 from the Tennessee Department of Health for the project entitled, “BRIDGE – Breaking Barriers: Rural Initiative for Mental Health Access in Southeast Tennessee Development, Growth, and Empowerment.”
Dr. Zihao Wang (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $20,000 from the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF) for the project entitled, “Real-Time 3D Fluoroscopy Reconstruction Framework for Interventional Surgical Guidance of Cochlear Implants.”
Dr. Jin Wang (Mathematics) has requested $173,777 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: Multiscale modeling of viral infections: Dynamics and applications.”
Dr. Yingfeng Wang (Computer Science and Engineering), in collaboration with Augusta University and Kean University, has requested $499,999 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: SCH: RUI: Trustworthy Multimodal AI Agent for Supporting Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis.”
Dr. Ziwei Ma (Mathematics) has requested $299,872 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: SCH:Rehabilitation Evaluation of Neurologic Motor Disorders using Wearable Sensors.”
Dr. Dalei Wu (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $149,999 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the project entitled, “DSFAS-CIN-FM PARTNERSHIP: AI-Enhanced Microbial Soil Health Mapping for Climate-Smart Sustainable Agriculture and Food Supply.”
Dr. Venkateswara Kode (Civil and Chemical Engineering) has requested $649,462 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the project entitled, “Tunable Bio-Desiccants for Renewable Water Harvesting: A Climate- and Machine Learning-Informed Approach for Sustainable Agriculture.”
Dr. Caitlin Crews-Stowe (Health & Human Performance) and Dr. David Levine (Physical Therapy) have requested $45,123 from the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation Inc. for the project entitled, “From Bench to Bedside to Community: Enhancing Microbiologic Identification Capacity.”