Office of Research update: April 2023

April 3, 2023

See who is getting funded, learn about new grant opportunities, and find useful tools to advance your work in the Office of Research April 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:

U-M Principal Investigator: Birhanu Eshete, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science

Project Title: CAREER: Towards Provenance-Driven Understanding of Machine Learning Robustness

Direct Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Awarded Amount: $619,838

The increasing use of Machine Learning (ML) in socially critical applications like self-driving cars, medicine and finance makes it susceptible to attacks that can lead to poor decisions by the models and their users. This project aims to make ML systems more robust and accountable to attacks through systematic capture and analysis of data on 'what happens' during training and inference processes. This work will help organizations and regulators assess risks, audit models, and analyze incidents. The project also includes an integrated educational plan to teach K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students about ML trustworthiness so as to empower the next generation of cybersecurity practitioners.

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U-M Principal Investigator: Hafiz Malik, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project Title:  I-Corps: LIVE: Liveness & Integrity Verification Examiner

Direct Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Awarded Amount: $50,000

This project will work toward the development of reliable real-time liveness detection and integrity authentication of digital audio data, a growing problem that concerns security of many critical applications central to modern digital lifestyle such as speaker verification, speech recognition, fintech, ecommerce, and social media platforms. The liveness detection and integrity verification of audio data framework rely on physics of acoustic and photo-acoustic processes, mathematical modeling of distortion artifacts due replay attacks and use them to detect liveness of audio at the input of voice activated devices and services. In addition, the innovation leverages acoustic environment, acquisition device, and post-processing artifacts for forensic analysis, and content integrity authentication. The audio forensic analysis tool resulting from this research could protect voice activated devices and services against a growing number of attacks, as well as providing forensic examiners and law enforcement personnel a powerful, computationally efficient, scalable, and reliable tool to perform online (as well as offline) forensics analysis.

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U-M Principal Investigator: Yunus Zeytuncu, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Project Title: REU Site: Mathematical Analysis and Applications

Direct Sponsor: National Science Foundation ($259,200) and National Security Agency ($59,963)

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) in Mathematical Analysis and Applications has been running for several years under the direction of Dr. Zeytuncu. This eight-week program at UM-Dearborn takes place over the summer and allows undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds to participate in research that contributes to mathematical infrastructure by providing them with a rich intellectual environment to practice employing mathematical ideas to solve real-life problems.

Announcements

2023 UM-Dearborn - UM-Flint Collaborative Research Grant
Applications Due May 1, 2023 by 5:00 PM

As a part of the 2023 UM-Dearborn – UM-Flint Collaborative Research Series hosted by the University of Michigan Dearborn Office of Research and the University of Michigan Flint Office of Research & Economic Development, faculty from both campuses are invited to apply for collaborative research grants ranging from $20,000 to $40,000. The award criteria will focus on developing cross-campus research collaborations with potential for external funding. Applications must include at least one PI from both campuses to be eligible. View the complete grant guidelines here and apply within the InfoReady application portal. 

Looking for a collaborator? View the Research profile database of interested collaborators.

Recordings of the Series’ Lighting Talks:

Reminder: Resources for Using SciENcv

Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) is a researcher profile system for all individuals who apply for, receive or are associated with research investments from federal agencies. SciENcv allows researchers to document their education, employment, research activities, publications, honors, research grants, & other professional contributions to create multiple SciENcv profiles in official biographical sketch formats funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). In addition, the SciENcv application can be used to create the official NSF Current and Pending Support document.

Any researcher can register for SciENcv and create multiple biosketches, for different research projects or different funding agencies. You can find much more information about how to use SciENcv on their FAQs page. The central Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and U-M Library have resources and previous workshops available on how to create a biosketch in SciENcv specifically focused on NSF and NIH. These resources are available linked below:

Research Events in April:

  • COB “College of Business Research Seminar” - Friday, April 7, 10-11:15 a.m., in-person located at Fairlane Center North Room 120/121
     
  • Research Data Stewardship Initiative “RSDI April Seminar” - Friday, April 7, noon-1 p.m., virtual
     
  • IRB-HSBS “IRB On-the-Road” - Wednesday, April 19, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual drop-in
     
  • MICHR, “Conducting and Obtaining Valid Informed Consent” - Thursday, April 20, 10 a.m.-noon, virtual

The Office of Research website is also updated regularly with research-related events and announcements, so we would encourage you to bookmark our landing page and subscribe to our Research News email list. 

Research Resource Highlight: 
OVPR’s Multidisciplinary Research Initiatives

Every month, the Office of Research will feature a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month we are featuring the Office of the Vice President of Research’s (OVPR) Multidisciplinary Research Initiatives.

The university has invested in several major research initiatives, including those featured below, which bring together the perspectives of diverse disciplines, as well as of industry and other partners, to address emerging challenges and opportunities in areas of broad potential impact. Many of these initiatives offer events, workshops, internal funding opportunities and/or opportunities to engage in research. Faculty interested in the initiatives are encouraged to check out the individual websites and sign up for the newsletters to receive updates about the work, events and funding opportunities available.

  • The Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention (IFIP) collaborates with communities and harnesses the research might of the University of Michigan to address the root causes of, and potential solutions for, the most important issues surrounding firearm violence. Sign up for the IFIP email list.
     
  • The Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG) is an interdisciplinary unit of the University of Michigan Office of Research, supporting research on women, gender, and sexuality. IRWG provides direct funding to U-M faculty research efforts focusing on women, gender and sexuality, offers administrative coordination, stimulation and support for extramural research proposals, and facilitates communication about scholarship on women, gender and sexuality to the U-M campus and public through publicity, events, and intellectual dialogue. Sign up for the IRWG email list for notifications of funding opportunities, research support, and upcoming events.
     
  • The Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering (MICDE) is the focal point for the wide spectrum of research in computational science and engineering at the University of Michigan. This includes the development and deployment of sophisticated models from nearly every aspect of science and engineering on high performance computers (HPC) to support basic research, product development, and forecasting. Sign up to receive MIDAS and/or MICDE emails.
     
  • The Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) strengthens the University of Michigan’s preeminence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and enables their transformative use in a wide range of research disciplines to achieve lasting societal impact. Currently, MIDAS focuses on five pillars: responsible research, data, analytics, AI, emerging initiatives and boosting emerging research priorities. MIDAS supports the five pillars through research activities, training programs, community building and partnership development. Sign up to receive MIDAS and/or MICDE emails.
     
  • Bold Challenges, an Office of Vice President for Research initiative, leads events and programs to empower researchers to create dynamic teams, produce transformative discoveries, and improve the quality of life for our communities, state, nation, and world. Bold Challenges events and programs are designed to support the objectives of increasing cross-school collaboration, public impact, and U-M’s competitiveness for large grants on essential challenges, forecasting funding opportunities and identifying comparative advantages, and offering broad and inclusive pathways to large-scale external research funding. Sign up for the Bold Challenges email list.

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.

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