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.”
