Office of Research August 2022 Update

External Awards Received

The Office of Research is pleased to announce and would like to congratulate our Dearborn faculty members on receipt of the following external funding:

Junaid Farooq, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was awarded $749,866 under the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator program, which is designed to merge ideas, approaches and technologies from widely diverse fields of knowledge to stimulate innovation and discovery. Farooq’s project, Proactive End-to-End Zero Trust-Based Security Intelligence for Resilient Non-cooperative 5G Networks, will develop tools to enable military and critical infrastructure personnel to securely communicate using both military and modern commercial 5G infrastructure anywhere in the world, without the risk of being breached or hacked. Farooq’s team includes cross-disciplinary expertise from trustworthy system design, machine learning/artificial intelligence, and 5G networks and edge computing to accelerate the automated creation of an overlay of proactive, end-to-end zero-trust security and resilience mechanism over the tactical 5G network cloud infrastructure.

Natalie Sampson, Associate Professor of Health and Human Services, received funding in the amount of $124,146 for her role in the Michigan Center on Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD) funded by NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. As co-lead of the Community Engagement Core, Sampson will work with community, academic, agency, and youth leaders to share local environmental health and justice priorities with researchers, as well as to translate environmental health science into plain language for multiple audiences. The mission of the Michigan Center on Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease is to accelerate research that defines the impact of environmental exposures during vulnerable life stages and promote translation of research findings to improve clinical and public health interventions for the mitigation of human disease.

Maggie Wang, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering received $110,746 from Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America (TEMA) for her project High Power Density Power Electronics Design for Electrified Small Mobility. Transportation electrification requires innovative power electronics technology to achieve higher efficiency and higher power density. This project aims to develop a highly compact design of a power converter that can be used in a small mobility, such as an e-scooter or e-bike, using multi-layer PCB and advanced wide bandgap devices. 

Youngki Kim, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering has been awarded $80,367 for his project Optimal control and tradeoff analysis of one-pedal driving for ride comfort and energy savings of electric vehicles. The project, funded by Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc. (HATCI), aims to develop a framework for solving an optimal speed profile for an electric vehicle and to determine the tradeoff between a driver’s ride comfort and energy savings by one-pedal driving.

Announcements

Congratulations to the UM-Dearborn - UM-Flint Research Collaboration Grant Recipients!

The initiative supported by Chancellors Grasso and Dutta and hosted by the UM-Dearborn Office of Research in collaboration with the UM-Flint Office of Research & Economic Development, awarded a total of $160,000 to the following four cross-campus interdisciplinary teams:

Project title: “The e-bike boom: Examining key safety factors on e-bike potential to promote sustainability and equity in Detroit”

• Research Team: UM-Flint Associate Professor of Geography Greg Rybarczyk, UM-Dearborn Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Fred Feng, UM-Dearborn Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Shan Bao and UM-Flint Assistant Professor of Information Technology and Informatics Thiago Ferreira
  
  External Collaborators: UM-Ann Arbor Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning Anthony Vanky, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Lecturer of Geography Lorne Platt and University of Florida Research Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Xiang ‘Jacob’ Yan

Project title: "Inclusive Design in Shared Autonomous Vehicles for People with Parkinson's Disease"

• Research Team: UM-Dearborn Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Shan Bao, UM-Flint Assistant Professor of Psychology Nathaniel Miller, UM-Flint Associate Professor of Computer Science Charlotte Tang

Project title: “Effectiveness of an ACL Injury Prevention Program on Kinematic Performance in Amateur Youth Soccer Players using Inertial Measurement Units”

• Research Team: UM-Flint Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Tzu-Chieh Liao, UM-Dearborn Bioengineering Associate Professor Amanda Esquivel and UM-Flint Clinical Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy William Suits

Project title: “Alley Activation as a Community Resilience Strategy for Post-Industrial Cities: An Urban Acupuncture Proof-of-Concept Approach”

• Research Team: UM-Dearborn Professor of Sociology Paul Draus, UM-Flint Associate Professor of Design Benjamin Gaydos, UM-Dearborn Professor of Geology Jacob Napieralski, and UM-Dearborn Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Christopher Pannier
  
  Community Partners: Detroit Ain’t Violent It’s Safe/Korey Batey and Rescue MI Nature Now/Zenaida Flores, Janai Frazier, Tharmond Ligon, Jr., Brodrick Wilks
• Additional details about the collaboration and awardees can be found in the recent Reporter article, “A Win-Win: Working together to increase the impact.”

Competitive Campus Grants Update

The first cycle of Competitive Campus Grant programs for fiscal year 2023 will be available to apply to by UM-Dearborn tenured/tenure-track faculty in late August. The following Competitive Campus Grants will be available for the Fall cycle, with applications due by 5:00 p.m., October 17, 2022.

• Research Initiation and Development (RID) Grants provide financial support of up to $25,000 for research projects. This program supports projects designed to lead to a proposal for external funding with a strong potential of being awarded. 
  • Budget floor: $10,000; Budget ceiling: $25,000.
• UM-Dearborn Scholars (SCH) Grants are intended to support research and scholarship, including creative activities in the arts. This program is primarily for projects with funding needs not addressed by other support programs within or outside the university.
  • Budget floor: $8,000; Budget ceiling: $15,000.
• Thematic Research Planning (TRP) Grants will support the development of collaborative cross-disciplinary research proposals that address the FY '23 priority research areas (TBA).
  • Budget floor: $15,000; Budget ceiling: $30,000.

Complete details and program guidelines will be available when the grants open for applications in late August. Subscribe to our Research News email list to be notified when the applications open. More information about the campus grants program and eligibility can be found on our Campus Grants webpage.

Research Events in August

• ICPSR Blalock Lecture Series, “Best Practices in Data Management,” August 4, 7:30-9 p.m., virtual
• U-M Medical School Office of Research hosts “Researchpalooza,” August 10, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., in-person at 1150 West Medical Center Drive Driveway, on the north side of the MSRB buildings

More events and announcements can be found on the UM-Dearborn Office of Research website. For regular updates and research announcements, subscribe to our Research News email list.

Resources and Tools for Researchers

Every month, the Office of Research will feature a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month we are featuring The Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER), within the University of Michigan School of Education.

Since its start, CEDER has positioned itself to catalyze and support research at U-M by providing insight, knowledge and experience into education-related components of grant proposals, as well as adding evaluation and/or design capacity through subawards and consulting arrangements. This work has generated partnerships with all 19 schools and colleges that advance research via evaluation and assessment, broader impacts, outreach, and K-12 engagement. With an increased emphasis on inter- and trans-disciplinary ways of solving problems, CEDER and SOE are well positioned to bring education research and expertise to bear on the “wicked problems” of our time.

CEDER’s services are available to the U-M community in the form of free limited consulting services, ongoing consultations on a fee-based system, and team participation through contracts and large grant-funded work. CEDER serves as an “open door” to the SOE and the university to those interested in partnering with the School of Education or CEDER experts. Fill out their intake form for specific requests for CEDER’s evaluation, design or professional learning services. For more general inquiries, contact CEDER at [email protected].

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

The Office of Research publishes a list of selected funding opportunities, organized by college, every month on our website under Announcements. In addition, yearly grant calendars organized by subject area provided by Hanover Research are available there as well. Contact the UM-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.