APRIL 2026 AWARDS AND PROPOSALS

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.”