Congratulations!
The following UTC Faculty and Staff have attracted $525,520 in external grant and contract awards:
Dr. Bento Lobo (Finance & Economics) has requested and received $25,000 from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga for the project entitled, “2026 EPB Contract for CRER Scholars.”
Catherine Quinlan and Dr. Lucy Schultz (Environmental Studies) have received $14,450 from the Alliance of Women Philanthropists – Giving Circle for the project entitled, “Urban Farm at Alton Park with Wild Violet Permaculture.”
Dr. Deborah McAllister and Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education), in collaboration with Vanderbilt University, have received $10,350 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the project entitled, “STEM Topics for Pre-service Teachers.”
Dr. Joey Shaw (Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science), in collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, has requested and received $10,750 from the US Fish and Wildlife Service for the project entitled, “National Wetland Condition Assessment 2026, West Tennessee Region.”
Dr. Yingfeng Wang (Computer Science and Engineering) and Dr. Jannatul Ferdoush (Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science), in collaboration with a cross-disciplinary team of faculty mentors, have received $464,970 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “REU Site: Interdisciplinary Computational Biology (iCompBio).”
Good Luck!
The following UTC faculty and staff members submitted proposals for the potential to generate over $7,276,675 in external funding, if awarded:
Charlie Mix, Nyssa Hunt, and Laura Lee (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science-CAGDS) have requested $65,000 from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture for the project entitled, “2026-2027 Extension to US Division of Forestry project.”
Dr. Deborah McAllister, Dr. Jason Gordon, and Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education) have requested $863,935 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the project entitled, “Science Simulations.”
Dr. Donald Reising (Electrical Engineering) has requested $125,000 from Purdue University for the project entitled, “SCALE: A Microelectronic Workforce Development Production Project.”
Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu, Dr. Gazi Akgun (Engineering Management and Technology), and Dr. David Levine (Physical Therapy) have requested $99,759 from Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics for the project entitled, “Adaptive Smart Interface Liner for Residual Limb Health Monitoring and Pressure Offloading.”
Dr. Imran Hossen and Dr. Mengjun Xie (Computer Science and Engineering) have requested $500,000 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CyberAI Innovation: Closing the CyberAI Skills Gap Through Low-Barrier, Portable Laboratory Modules for AI-Augmented Security Operations and the Security of AI Systems.”
Dr. Joey Shaw, Dr. Stylianos Chatzimanolis, and Jessica Sanders (Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science) have requested $35,892 from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga for the project entitled, “2026 EPB Bio Survey.”
Dr. Joshua Hamblen (Physics and Astronomy), in collaboration with Georgia Tech Research Institute, has requested $38,594 from the US Department of Energy for the project entitled, “Edge Intelligence for Enhanced Dataset Curation in Fundamental Neutron Physics.”
Dr. Joshua Hamblen (Physics and Astronomy), in collaboration with Eastern Kentucky University, has requested $76,513 from the US Department of Energy for the project entitled, “Expediting and Optimizing Precision Electromagnetic Field Mapping and Simulations for Precision Subatomic Physics Measurements Using Physics-Informed AI Models.”
Karen Vann (Center for Community Career Education) has requested $1,557,007 from the US Department of Education for the project entitled, “UTC Talent Search.”
Megan McKnight (Center for Wellbeing) and Steven Oberheim (Counseling) have requested $1,143,799 from the Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council for the project entitled, “Expanding Recovery Support on UT Campuses in Response to the Opioid Crisis.”
Dr. Mengjun Xie (National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense) has requested $150,000 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: CyberAI Innovation: Agentic AI-driven Adaptive Refinement and Customization of Cybersecurity Learning Materials.”
Dr. Mengjun Xie (National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense) has requested $89,076 from the US Department of Defense for the project entitled, “2026 DOW CSA – Returning Scholar.”
Dr. Mina Sartipi and Dr. Huu Hoang Nguyen (CUIP) have requested $250,000 from DENSO International America, Inc for the project entitled, “LinkedEyes: AI-Powered Multi-Target Multi-Camera Tracking with Infrastructure Communication.”
Dr. Mina Sartipi, Dr. Mohamed Fadul, Austin Harris, Yasir Hassan, Dr. Huu Hoang Nguyen (CUIP), and Dr. Gazi Akgun (Engineering Management and Technology have requested $283,016 from the US Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “PRISM: AI-Powered Dynamic Real-Time Mapping System for Safer AV Operation.”
Dr. Rick Mukherjee (Quantum Center) has requested $506,729 from the US Department of Energy for the project entitled, “Efficient Approximate Ground-State Search of Glassy Spin Systems.”
Dr. Venkateswara Kode, Dr. Jejal Reddy Bathi (Civil and Chemical Engineering), and Dr. Shahnewaz Karim Sakib (Computer Science and Engineering) have requested $1,492,355 from Google Inc. for the project entitled, “AI-Driven Co-Capture of Atmospheric Carbon and Water for Climate Resilience.”