Congratulations!
The following UTC Faculty and Staff have attracted $2,562,367 in external grant and contract awards:
Dr. Ryan Zwart and Dr. Andrew Bailey (Health & Human Performance) have received $4,000 from the Chattanooga Area Southern Offroad Bike Association (SORBA) for the project entitled, “2025 Economic and Socio-cultural Impact Study for SORBA Chattanooga.”
Dr. Mina Sartipi and Austin Harris (CUIP), in collaboration with the City of Chattanooga, have received $322,222 from the US Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “A Nationally Scalable C-V2X Pilot Deployment: Advancing Interoperable Connectivity for Improving Safety and Operations in the City of Chattanooga.”
Dr. Murat Barisik and Dr. Reetesh Ranjan (Mechanical Engineering) have received $188,410 from the US Department of Energy for the project entitled, “First principles multiphase modeling of mesoscale gas transport in porous reactive systems.”
Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu (Engineering Management and Technology) has received $7,536 from EVBots, Inc. for the project entitled, “2025 EVBots Testing Contract Proposal.”
Dr. Kara Hamilton and Dr. Joel Harden (Health & Human Performance) have received $15,000 from Fast Break Athletics for the project entitled, “2025-26 Fast Break Clients utilization of HHP Sports Lab (Phase 2).”
Dr. Linda Hill (School of Nursing) has received $401 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “2020-27 HRSA Nurse Anesthetist Traineeships.”
Dr. Brooke Epperson, Tessa Mullinax-Baker, Rosebelle Peters, Maggie Duckworth, Dr. Jenny Holcombe, and Michelle Rosano (School of Nursing) have received $388,441 from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the project entitled, “AHEAD-RN.”
Dr. Dutch Fayard (Accounting) has requested and received $2,000 from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) for the project entitled, “2025 IMA Memorial Education Fund grant.”
Dr. Ruth Walker and Taylor Claxton (Psychology) have received $850 from Psi Chi, International Honor Society in Psychology for the project entitled, “2024-25 Summer Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Research Grant from Psi Chi.”
Dr. Andrew Bailey (Health & Human Performance) has requested and received $4,350 from Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center for the project entitled, “Reflection Riding & Arboretum Economic Contribution Analysis.”
Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education) has received $86,000 from the Tennessee Department of Education for the project entitled, “2026 TN Governor’s School for Prospective Teachers.”
Dr. Harry Van Buren (Management), in collaboration with the University of Oslo, has received $86,730 from the Research Council of Norway for the project entitled, “What is the Purpose of Responsible Business? Bringing Society to Stakeholder Theory (STAKES).”
Dr. Mina Sartipi (CUIP), Dr. Tian Li (Physics and Astronomy), Dr. Rick Mukherjee (Quantum Center), and Dr. Donald Reising (Electrical Engineering) have received $1,326,261 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Advanced Cybersecurity for Power Distribution Infrastructure.”
Dr. Raga Ahmed, Dr. Sharief Babikir, Dr. Abdelrahman Karrar, Dr. Abdul Ofoli, Dr. Nurhidajat Sisworahardjo (Electrical Engineering), Dr. Mbakisya Onyango, Dr. Jejal Reddy Bathi, Dr. Weidong Wu (Civil and Chemical Engineering), Dr. Stephanie Philipp (School of Education), Dr. Wolday Abrha, Dr. Gokhan Erdemir, Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu (Engineering Management and Technology), and Mengjun Xie (Computer Science and Engineering) have received $99,000 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Noyce RESS-Research Experiences in Microelectronics and Artificial Intelligence: A Path for Recruiting, Retaining and Empowering STEM Teachers in Urban and Rural Schools in Hamilton County, TN and Beyond.”
Dr. Deborah McAllister and Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education), in collaboration with Vanderbilt University (Vandy), have received $31,166 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the project entitled, “STEM Topics for Pre-service Teachers.”
Good Luck!
The following UTC faculty and staff members submitted proposals for the potential to generate over $7,555,385 in external funding, if awarded:
Dr. Jannatul Ferdoush (Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science) and Satyajit David (Chemistry) have requested $199,882 from the American Heart Association for the project entitled, “AHA AIREA: Elucidation of the expression of TATA box-binding protein-associated factor 2 in eukaryotic cells.”
Sarah Chehade (Quantum Center) has requested $75,000 from the American Mathematical Society for the project entitled, “Mathematical foundations of quantum computing.”
Charles Mix, Nyssa Hunt, and Laura Lee (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science) have requested $34,999 from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) for the project entitled, “Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership RFP: Conservation Project Portfolio Tool Development: A GIS/web-based intake, review, approval, tracking, and sharing tool.”
Dr. Ryan Zwart, Dr. Andrew Bailey, and Dr. Eric Hungenberg (Health & Human Performance) have requested $20,011 from the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc. for the project entitled, “2025-26 Chattanooga Tourism Company – UTC Health and Human Performance Visitation Research.”
Charles Mix (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science) has requested $7,500 from the Chattanooga Area Southern Offroad Bike Association (SORBA) for the project entitled, “SORBA Chattanooga Mountain Biking Trail Guide Cartography.”
Dr. Mina Sartipi, Austin Harris, Dr. Seyedmehdi Khaleghian (CUIP), and Dr. Vahid Disfani (Electrical Engineering) have requested $502,798 from the City of Chattanooga for the project entitled, “An End-to-End Decision Support System for Integrated Transportation System and Smart Grid Management.”
Dr. Mina Sartipi, Austin Harris, Seyedmehdi Khaleghian, and Dr. Huu Hoang Nguyen (CUIP) have requested $18,002 from the US Department of Transportation for the project entitled, “End-to-End Data Architecture and Analytics Pipeline for Safe and Adaptive Autonomous Vehicles.”
Andrew Van Slyke, Dr. Morgan Smith, and Hunter Whitehead (Sociology, Anthropology, and Geography) have requested $7,499 from the Institute of Nautical Archeology for the project entitled, “Columbus’ Caravels: Subsurface Testing of the Fisherman’s Beach Ballast Pile in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica.”
Charles Mix and Nyssa Hunt (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science) have requested $10,741 from the Lula Lake Land Trust for the project entitled, “Lula Lake Land Trust Conservation Priority Modeling.”
Dr. Donald Reising and Dr. Joshua Tyler (Electrical Engineering) have requested $1,197,539 from SRI International for the project entitled, “AUTOGRAD.”
Dr. Donald Reising and Dr. Joshua Tyler (Electrical Engineering) have requested $736,137 from SRI International for the project entitled, “2025 IARPA End-Gen-TA2.”
Dr. Kristina Wick and Dr. Meagan Oslund (School of Nursing) have requested $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 requested $1,800 from Trout Unlimited for the project entitled, “Evaluating the Use and Benefits of Periodical Cicada Resource Pulses for Freshwater Fishes.”
Dr. Reetesh Ranjan (Mechanical Engineering), in collaboration with the University of Alabama, Huntsville (UAH), has requested $31,727 from Titomic for the project entitled, “Computational and Experimental Development of a High-Speed Cold Spray Gun Prototype.”
Aruna Ranhotige (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $350,230 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: CSR: Hardware-Firmware Co-Verification of Embedded Systems.”
Dr. Aruna Ranhotige (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $350,000 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: SaTC 2.0: RES: Security Validation of Trusted Architectures for Confidential Computing Co-Verification for Resource-Constrained Systems.”
Dr. Fatma Ayca Cetinkaya (Mathematics) has requested $525,102 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Reconstruction on Quantum Graphs from Finite Measurements: Stars, Trees, and Cyclic Networks.”
Dr. Gokhan Erdemir, Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu, Dr. Serkan Varol (Engineering Management and Technology), Dr. Yu Liang (Computer Science and Engineering), and Dr. Victoria Bryan (Academic Affairs) have requested $973,719 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “CER: Development of Bloom-Driven Collaborative AI and Robotics Programming Environments for Undergraduate Computing Education.”
Dr. Khalid Tantawi (Engineering Management and Technology) and Dr. Lynette Carlson (Health and Human Performance) have requested $225,000 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Development of an Energy Storage Certification Program for the Northern Illinois Region.”
Dr. Shahnewaz Karim Sakib (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $199,955 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: III: Trustworthy Human-Machine Teaming: Integration of Large Language Model.”
Dr. Shahnewaz Karim Sakib and Dr. Mengjun Xie (Computer Science and Engineering) have requested $360,000 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: SaTC 2.0: RES: Fairness-Preserving Machine Unlearning in Federated Learning: Mitigating Bias in Minority Data Removal.”
Dr. Shahnewaz Karim Sakib (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $199,975 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “ERI: PAEON: A Framework for Privacy-Aware Explanations in Distributed Sensing Networks.”
Dr. Venkateswara Kode (Civil and Chemical Engineering) has requested $199,516 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “ERI: Renewable Water Harvesting Using Tunable Solid Bio-Desiccants for Low-Energy Regeneration.”
Dr. Yu Liang, Dr. Dalei Wu, Dr. Yukun Yuan (Computer Science and Engineering), Dr. Gokhan Erdemir, and Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu (Engineering Management and Technology) have requested $1,179,059 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “SCH: Smart Stride Aid: An Adaptive Multi-DOF Ankle Prosthesis Powered by LLM-Informed Reinforcement Learning for Robust Fall Prevention in Complex Terrains.”
Dr. Dalei Wu (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $60,000 from the US Department of Agriculture for the project entitled, “Real-Time Adaptive Aptasensing of Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens.”
Dr. Kristina Wick (School of Nursing), in collaboration with Vanderbilt University, has requested $24,750 for the project entitled, “Evaluating the TN Dementia ECHO Program to Enhance Community-Based Dementia Care Delivery.”
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