Congratulations!
The following UTC Faculty and Staff have attracted $3,878,199 in external grant and contract awards:
Dr. Damitha Bandara (Data and Analytics), Dr. Jennifer Goodrich (Engineering Management and Technology), and Nyssa Hunt (CAGDS) have received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “Assessing Equity and Optimizing Emergency Response Services Using GIS: A Spatial and Socioeconomic Analysis of Hamilton County, Tennessee.”
Angela Dittmar (Arts-Based Collaborative) and Daniel Mailman (Computer Science and Engineering), in collaboration with the UC Foundation, have requested and received $10,000 from Chattanooga 2.0 for the project entitled, “Synthesizing Sounds & Stories in Digital Time and Space.”
John Freeze (Center for Professional Education) has received $44,422 from the Tennessee Office of Criminal Justice Programs for the project entitled, “SELA SouthEastern Leadership Academy 2026-2027.”
Farron Kilburn, Dr. Priscilla Simms-Roberson, Bethany Weaver, Dr. Amber Roache (Nursing), Dr. Elizabeth O’Brien, and Anna Miller (Counseling) have received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “Stylists as Community Care Connectors: A Regional Pilot to Bridge Clients to Mental Health, Healthcare, and SafetyResources.”
Dr. Heather Lee (Health & Human Performance) has received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “The Differential Effect of TN Together on County-level Opioid Overdose Mortality in Tennessee by Physician density and Uninsured rate.”
Dr. David Levine (Physical Therapy), Dr. Caitlin Crews-Stowe (Health & Human Performance), and Charlie Mix (CAGDS) have received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “Closing the Care Gap: Addressing Social Determinants to Improve Well-Child Visit Adherence.”
Dr. Marissa McElrone (Health & Human Performance) has received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “Food and nutrition security surveillance pilot across the Chattanooga Area Food Bank network.”
Dr. Erin Melhorn (Occupational Therapy) and Dr. Derek Liuzzo (Physical Therapy) have received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “BALANCE Hamilton – Building Analytics and Local Networks for Community Empowerment.”
Dr. Jason Peter, Dr. Farron Kilburn, Dr. Amber Roache, Bethany Weaver (Nursing), Harlee Milligan, and April Wilson (Social Work) have received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “Screenings, Health and Interprofessional Engagement through Library Delivery (SHIELD).”
Dr. Karissa Peyer (Health & Human Performance) has received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “Project IMPACT: Investigating Mobility Patterns for Access, Connections, and Treatment.”
Dr. Sean Richards, Dr. Dawn Ford (Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science), Nyssa Hunt, and Laura Lee (CAGDS) have requested and received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “Environmental Health Monitoring in Hamilton County, TN.”
Dr. Mina Sartipi (CUIP) has requested and received $3,400,000 from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga for the project entitled, “UTC QISE Research and Innovation Hub.”
Dr. Jin Wang (Mathematics) has received $173,777 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: Multiscale modeling of viral infections: Dynamics and applications.”
Dr. Guisen Xue and Dr. Monireh Rahmati (Data and Analytics) have received $25,000 from the Journey Health Foundation for the project entitled, “Data-Driven Investigation of Social Determinants of Public Health: Evidence from Key Diseases.”
Good Luck!
The following UTC faculty and staff members submitted proposals for the potential to generate over $11,989,784 in external funding, if awarded:
Dr. Gazi Akgun (CUIP), Hannah Archer, and Claudi Colpo (Research Institute) have requested $50,000 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “Develop an AI-Powered Winter Road Condition Intelligence and Resilience Metric Framework Using TDOT Traffic Detectors.”
Sybil Baker (English) has requested $2,876 from the Tennessee Arts Commission for the project entitled, “Paired Community Writing Workshops-Underground and Academic Writers.”
Dr. Brooke Epperson, Maggie Duckworth, Savannah Kelley, Dr. Jason Peter, Dionne Gray, Dr. Jenny Holcombe (Nursing), Dr. Amir Alakaam (Health and Human Performance), and Dr. Cathy Scott (Social Work) have requested $6,197,622 from the Tennessee Department of Health for the project entitled, “MOCS REACH – Reproductive Equity & Access in Community Health.”
Dr. Mohamed Fadul (CUIP) has requested $23,680 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “AI-Driven Post-Disaster Infrastructure Impact Estimation and Recovery Prioritization for TDOT Assets.”
Austin Harris (CUIP) has requested $122,703 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “AI-Driven Post-Disaster Infrastructure Impact Estimation and Recovery Prioritization for TDOT Assets.”
Dr. Lauren Ingraham (Academic Affairs), Dr. Andrew McCarthy (English), Dr. Kristin Pope (Career Connections), Dr. Allen Pratt (School of Education), and Dr. Jessica Taylor (Learning and Leadership) have requested $2,927,172 from the US Department of Education for the project entitled, “Reduced Credit Degrees: Transforming College Curriculum to Prepare Graduates for the Next Age of American Prosperity.”
Dr. Seong Dae Kim, Dr. Wolday Abrha (Engineering Management and Technology), and Dr. Ignatius Fomunung (Civil and Chemical Engineering) have requested $219,444 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “Multi-Objective Asset Investment Optimization Framework for TDOT.”
Dr. Ziwei Ma (Mathematics) has requested $40,835 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “Diagnosing Traffic Detectors and Improving Data Reliability Through Septotemporal Cross-Validations.”
Dr. Deborah McAllister and Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education) have requested $17,430 from Middle Tennessee State University for the project entitled, “Exploring Science and Mathematics with Library of Congress Resources.”
Charlie Mix and Nyssa Hunt (CAGDS) have requested $19,823 from the US Department of Agriculture for the project entitled, “2026 Cherokee National Forest Road Digitization Project – Phase 3.”
Dr. Shaogang Ren, Dr. Yu Liang, and Dr. Zihao Wang (Computer Science and Engineering) have requested $484,076 from the National Institutes of Health for the project entitled, “Causal AI for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease Using Multimodal Data’.”
Dr. Shaogang Ren and Dr. Zihao Wang (Computer Science and Engineering) have requested $236,995 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “AI-Enabled Standard Pavement Distress Library and Multimodal QA/QC System for Data-Driven Pavement Asset Management.”
Dr. Shaogang Ren (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $213,877 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “A Diffusion-Guided GeoAI and Time-Series Forecasting Framework for Slope Movement Detection and Corridor Risk Prioritization in Tennessee.”
Dr. Shaogang Ren (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $199,135 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “A Calibrated UAS-Hyperspectral Imaging Framework for Early Bridge Decay Detection and Forensic Condition Assessment.”
Dr. Shahnewaz Karim Sakib (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $167,312 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “A Standardized Pavement Distress Library for Consistent Interpretation of 3D Pavement Condition Data.”
Dr. Zakia Tasnim and Dr. Mbakisya Onyango (Civil and Chemical Engineering) have requested $182,209 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “Quantifying Natural Disaster Impacts on Transportation Infrastructure for Asset Management.”
Dr. Serkan Varol, Dr. Edmund Baffoe-Twum (Engineering Management and Technology), and Dr. Ignatius Fomunung (Civil and Chemical Engineering) have requested $240,210 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “From Classroom to Career: Preparing Tennessee’s Transportation Workforce.”
Dr. Jin Wang (Mathematics) and Dr. Gregory Heath (Health and Human Performance) have requested $331,092 from the National Institutes of Health for the project entitled, “Medium-grained modeling and simulation for infectious diseases.”
Dr. Weidong Wu, Dr. Ignatius Fomunung, Dr. Mbakisya Onyango, and Dr. Joseph Owino (Civil and Chemical Engineering) have requested $233,052 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “TDOT-Specific Standard Pavement Distress Library for Data-Driven Asset Management.”
Dr. Yukun Yuan (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $80,241 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “An AI-Enabled Open-Source Platform Integrating Pavement Distress Data Management with Real-Time Traffic Mobility and Risk Analytics.”