Funded Proposals (12/1/2014-12/31/2014)
CONGRATULATIONS!
The following UTC faculty and staff recently attracted $156,317 in external grant and contract awards:
Ms. Sandy Cole, Director of the Center for Community Career Education (CCCE), received $15,000 from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga to initiate “College Knowledge, Now!” and Moc College Day, in conjunction with its Postsecondary Awareness with Success program. Through this program, UTC student ambassadors will travel to elementary schools to share their college experience, and children from elementary schools will have the opportunity to visit UTC for a mock college experience.
Drs. Preston Foerder, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Hope Klug, Assistant Professor of Biology, and Loren Hayes, Associate Professor of Biology, secured $15,000 from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga to initiate a collaborative, educational outreach program that will help K-12 public school students gain STEM research experience while working with animals. Throughout the project, students will work closely with project coordinators at the zoo, aquarium, and nature center to develop and experimentally assess the effectiveness of environmental enrichment for captive animals.
Dr. Ralph Hood, Professor of Psychology, secured $73,708 from the Universitat Bielefeld and John Templeton Foundation to assess possible changes in faith development in approximately 300 participants. The project participants have been involved in more than 10 years of cross-cultural research on faith development, and the results of these interviews will guide a new revision of the Manual for Faith Development Research.
Dr. Joanie Jackson, Assistant Professor and DNP Coordinator of Nursing, received $15,000 from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga for a joint project with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department (CHCHD) that will help to reduce falls for senior citizens. The project will offer A Matter of Balance Master Training, which will train instructors on how to increase physical activity and address the fear of falling in older adults.
Dr. Catherine Kendall, Professor of Interior Design, received $1,593 from the TN Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners to purchase GoPro cameras for Senior Thesis projects in the Interior Design program. Video surveys taken with the cameras will provide an opportunity for students to create realistic models and identify, evaluate, and interpret information during their final project.
Drs. Gary McDonald, Department Head of Mechanical Engineering, Charles Margraves, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Trevor Elliot, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, secured $26,036 from the TN Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners to fund new research equipment for the engineering department. This equipment will primarily enhance learning for junior-level and senior-level mechanical engineering courses by incorporating a wide variety of learning strategies to accommodate diverse student learning styles.
Mr. Perry Storey, Director of the UTC Challenger Center, received $9,980 from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga to fund three new, mobile STEM labs at the UTC Challenger Center. It is projected that approximately 3,000 students will benefit from the new educational labs each year.
Submitted Proposals (12/1/2014 – 12/31/2014)
GOOD LUCK!
The following UTC faculty and staff members submitted proposals with the potential to generate over $855,707 in external funding, if awarded:
Dr. Lucien Ellington (Education) requested $25,000 from the Apgar Foundation to host two new teacher institutes for the Center for Reflective Citizenship (CRC), an organization that aims to further civic education in K-12 schools and undergraduate programs. Additionally, the project intends to expand the activities presented at Constitution Day, an annual event presented by the CRC.
Dr. Trevor Elliot and Ms. Mary Sutton (Mechanical Engineering) requested $15,000 from the US Environmental Protection Agency to design and construct an automated management system to accommodate storm water runoff in a visually pleasing manner for UTC’s Center for Energy, Transportation, and the Environment facility. The project will engage students in conducting water quality analyses, constructing and administering surveys to measure visual aspects, and building reports and digital design portfolios to illustrate the result.
Drs. Yu Liang, Farah Kandah, Dalei Wu (Computer Science), Cuilan Gao (Mathematics), and Weidong Wu (Engineering) submitted a preliminary proposal to NSF’s Science and Technology Centers program to develop a big-data research and application center. The project aims to integrate research with courses at UTC, UTK, Old Dominion University, and The University of Cincinnati; implement a seminar course; and support a summer research experience focused around the project.
Dr. Daniel Loveless (Electrical Engineering) requested $72,888 from Vanderbilt University to investigate radiation effects on emerging technologies. The project will work on the development of standard analog and mixed-signal test structures through a one-year guided effort with Vanderbilt.
Drs. Jin Wang, Cuilan Gao, John Matthews, Xuhua Liu (Mathematics), David Giles (Biology), Yu Liang (Computer Science), Lafayette Taylor (Computational Engineering), and Pam Carter (Education) requested $742,819 from the National Science Foundation to establish an interdisciplinary mathematics (I-Math) program that will integrate education, research, and training for math majors at UTC. The program will include four components: biological math, computer math, data math, and engineering math.