DECEMBER 2025 AWARDS AND PROPOSALS

Congratulations!  
The following UTC Faculty and Staff have attracted $226,430 in external grant and contract awards: 

• Charles Mix, Nyssa Hunt, and Laura Lee (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science (CAGDS)), in collaboration with Austin Peay State University, have received $37,931 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the project entitled, “Research and Development of Southeastern Grasslands Institute Southeast Native Seed Network Hub & GIS Web Tools.”
• Dr. Ryan Zwart, Dr. Andrew Bailey, and Dr. Eric Hungenberg (Health & Human Performance) have received $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.”
• Dr. Ryan Zwart and Dr. Eric Hungenberg (Health & Human Performance) have received $13,380 from the Haywood Waterways Association for the project entitled, “2025 Pigeon River Watershed Impact Study.”
• Andrew Van Slyke, Dr. Morgan Smith, and Hunter Whitehead (Sociology, Anthropology, and Geography) have received $3,000 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.”
• Dr. Mengjun Xie (National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense), in collaboration with Purdue University Northwest, has received $106,729 from the Department of Defense for the project entitled, “2025 CAE Community National Center.”
• Charles Mix and Nyssa Hunt (Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science (CAGDS)), in collaboration with the South-Central Tennessee Development District, have received $45,379 from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for the project entitled, “Developing a GIS Conservation Priority Model of the Duck River Watershed Planning Partnership.”

Good Luck! 
The following UTC faculty and staff members submitted proposals for the potential to generate over $6,272,297 in external funding, if awarded: 

• Dr. Mohammad Mahtabi (Mechanical Engineering) has requested $7,780 from AMAERO Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, Inc. for the project entitled, “316L Sintered Buttons.”
• Dr. Shahnewaz Karim Sakib (Computer Science and Engineering) has requested $46,764 from Microsoft Corporation, Inc for the project entitled, “Trustworthy LLM Teammates for Preference-Aware Collective Decision-Making.”
• Dr. Azad Hossain and Dr. Elizabeth Olson (Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science) have requested $550,756 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the project entitled, “RIPPLES: River Water Quality Intelligent Platform for Predictive Learning & Evaluation using Satellite Observations.”
• Dr. Venkateswara Kode (Civil and Chemical Engineering) has requested $99,563 from National Lubricating Grease Institute for the project entitled, “Boron Nitride Quantum Dots as High-Performance Additives for Lubricating Greases.”
• Dr. Venkateswara Kode (Civil and Chemical Engineering) has requested $5,000 from Oak Ridge Associated Universities for the project entitled, “Controllable, Carbon-Free Synthesis of Boron Nitride Quantum Dots for Quantum Photonics and High-Temperature Optoelectronics.”
• Dr. Mengjun Xie (National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense), in collaboration with Oakland University, has requested $650,000 from the US Department of Education for the project entitled, “VITAL-AI: Virtual Institute for Transformative AI Literacy in Postsecondary Education.”
• Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu (Engineering Management and Technology) has requested $13,155 from Sensory Bridges LLC for the project entitled, “Design and Development of the Brooks Band Wearable System.”
• Dr. Serkan Varol (Engineering Management and Technology) has requested $49,916 from the Spencer Foundation for the project entitled, “Detecting Mental Effort Misalignment in Online Learning Using EEG and Eye-Tracking.”
• Dr. Joey Shaw (Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science) has requested $14,979 from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for the project entitled, “Vascular Flora of Scotts Gulf Wilderness State Park.”
• Dr. Stephan Davenport and Dr. Spencer Usrey (Accounting) have requested $19,999 from the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, Inc. for the project entitled, “2025-26 IRS/Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Matching Grant Program.”
• Dr. Brian Choi (Mathematics) has requested $94,275 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: Complex analytic regularity and uncertainty quantification for stochastic singular non-linear phase transitions.”
• Dr. Deborah McAllister, Dr. Jason Gordon, Dr. Jennifer Lynberg (School of Education), and Dr. Aniekan Ebiefung (Mathematics) have requested $300,000 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “DCL 25-035 – Expanding K-12 Resources for AI Education.”
• Dr. Luis Sanchez Diaz (Physics and Astronomy) has requested $378,026 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Integrating Atomic Force Microscope, Rheology and Fluorescence Microscopy to Probe the Biomechanical Response of Escherichia Coli to Nanoplastics.”
• Dr. Mina Sartipi, Austin Harris, Dr. Huu Hoang Nguyen, Yasir Hassan, Dr. Seyedmehdi Khaleghian, Dr. Mohamed Fadul (CUIP), and Dr. Gazi Akgun (Engineering Management and Technology) have requested $3,309,400 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Frameworks: Distributed Learning Framework for Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Ecosystems.”
• Dr. Rick Mukherjee (Quantum Center) has requested $467,559 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Blocks of Inter-connected Graph-based Modular Atomic Quantum Computing (BIG-MAQC).”
• Dr. Yukun Yuan, Dr. Shaogang Ren (Computer Science and Engineering), Dr. Feng Guo, and Dr. Max Teaford (Psychology) have requested $265,125 from the National Science Foundation for the project entitled, “Collaborative Research: Learning-enhanced Traffic Collision Risk Assessment with Human Behavior Uncertainty.”