JUNE 2026 AWARDS AND PROPOSALS

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.”