Four College of Engineering Teams Win UMass ADVANCE Seed Grants

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Four teams featuring researchers from the College of Engineering have received 2022-2023 ADVANCE Collaborative Research Seed Grant Awards. The collaborative teams will receive one-year seed grants of up to $15,000 and extensive logistics assistance from the ADVANCE team to support their proposals for external funding opportunities. Funded seed grants will also contribute to the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program’s mission, which is enhancing equity for women faculty, including women faculty of color, in science and engineering.

The funded projects were evaluated for scientific merit, contributions to faculty gender equity, and collaborative research among women faculty and faculty from under-represented groups at UMass. Additionally, the projects were assessed for their potential to establish sustainable research collaborations at UMass and opportunities to pursue external funding beyond the period of the seed funding.

College of Engineering researchers participated in the following two-person teams that received ADVANCE support:

Assistant Professor Jessica Boakye of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department and Research Assistant Professor and Lecturer Egemen Okte of the CEE department received a seed fund award for their project, titled “Quantifying the Impact of Road Condition on Drivers and Residents in Vulnerable Communities.”

Assistant Professor Shannon Roberts of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department and Associate Professor Lauren McCarthy of the Political Science Department were recipients of a seed grant to support their project on “Understanding cybersecurity risk and resiliency for law enforcement vehicles.

Assistant Professor Peter Beltramo of the Chemical Engineering Department and Assistant Professor Manasa Kandula of the Physics Department obtained a seed award for their project dealing with “Active particle dynamics at flexible interfaces.”

Assistant Professor Stacyann Bailey of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) Department and Assistant Professor (and BME adjunct) Govind Srimathveeravalli of the MIE department acquired a seed grant supporting their research on “Growing a garden in a toxic swamp: Patient-derived metastasis model for studying bone regeneration.”

Funded by the National Science Foundation to advance gender equity for faculty, UMass ADVANCE provides resources, recognition, and relationship building needed for faculty to build inclusive communities, engage in research collaboration, and participate in shared decision-making. (November 2022)