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UTSA Invests More Than Half a Million Dollars in New Research

$250,000 of those awards went to the university's college of sciences

by University of Texas at San Antonio
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researchThe university's internal seed funding programs will support 32 new research projects.Photo courtesy of UTSAThe University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Office of the Vice President for Research is awarding $520,000 in grants to help UTSA faculty kickstart new research projects over the next academic year. The university's internal seed funding programs will support 32 new research projects, further advancing the university's goal of reaching Tier One status.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for UTSA faculty to take advantage of internal funds to work out new ideas, unique collaborations or explore further avenues in their research," said Jaclyn Shaw, director for research support, who administers the VPR internal research grants. "These funds also help faculty finesse their research proposals to apply for additional federal funding."

Winners span four funding programs:

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Internal Research Awards (INTRA) September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2017 $100,000 awarded: $5,000 per researcher, 20 research projects

The INTRA program is part of the UTSA Office of the Vice President for Research's coordinated efforts to promote research and scholarship of the highest quality.

College of Architecture, Construction and Planning

Jae Yong Suk, Department of Architecture, Development of Shading Control Algorithm for Enhanced Occupant's Thermal and Visual Comfort in Buildings

College of Business

Edgar A. Ghossoub, Department of Economics, What were the effects of the Federal Reserve's Term Discount Window Program?

Hu Harrison Liu, Department of Accounting, Corporate Responses to the Repatriation Incentives and Domestic Production Activities Deduction of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004

Juan Mao, Department of Accounting, Individual Auditor Audit Workload and Job Turnover: Evidence from China

Matthew W. McCarter, Department of Management, It's a trap! Examining the relationship between self-control and population growth in the 18th century Swedish commons

Emeka T. Nwaeze, Department of Accounting, Seasons of Auditor-Client Relation: Auditor performance and accounting quality

Victor De Oliveira, Department of Management, Science and Statistics Modeling Geostatistical Binary Date: Models, Properties and Connections

Zhongxia (Shelly) Ye, Department of Accounting, Consequences of Voluntary Disclosures in the Audit Committee Report

College of Education and Human Development

Kristen Lindahl, Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, The Intersection of Language Awareness and Ideology among In-service Teachers of Emerging Bilinguals

College of Liberal and Fine Arts

Thad Bartlett, Department of Anthropology, The Singing Apes of Fraser's Hill: Gibbon Density in a Human Modified Landscape

Whitney Chappell, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, A Sociophonetic Perception of Spanish Speakers in San Antonio

Bridget Drinka, Department of English, The International Conference on Historical Linguistics

LaGuana Gray, Department of History, Black Women and Delta Pride: A Tale of Mississippi Catfish

Luis Hestres, Department of Communications, New Directions for Research Framing and Networked Gatekeeping

Matthias Hofferberth, Department of Political Science and Geography, Get your act(ors) together! Theorizing Agency in World Politics

Andrew Konove, Department of History, The Black Market in Mexico City

Viviana Rojas, Department of Communication, Iraqi Refugees and Their Integration to the Texas School System

Walter Wilson, Department of Political Science and Geography, From Inclusion to Influence: Latino Representation in Congress

College of Public Policy

Megan Augustyn, Department of Criminal Justice, Using the National Crime Victimization Survey to better understand the determinates of help-seeking behavior among victims of intimate-partner and sexual assault 

Francine Romero, Department of Public Administration, Political and Policy Dynamics of Municipal Annexation in Texas

Grants for Research Advancement and Transformation (GREAT) September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2017 $120,000: $20,000 awarded to each researcher, 6 research projects The GREAT program, sponsored by VPR, provides seed grants to support new areas of research for UTSA faculty.

College of Architecture, Construction and Planning

Shelley Roff, Department of Architecture, The Inventory and Analysis of the Tools and Building Materials of Eighteenth-Century Spanish Mission Architecture in the Texas Region

College of Engineering

Pranav Bhounsule, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Highly customizable, lightweight artificial legs based on embedding actuators and sensors in 3D printed parts

Jie Huang, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Converting Ubiquitous Biomass into Sustainable Civil Engineering Materials Based on Polymerization and Cross-linking

Xiaowei Zeng, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Advancing Cohesive Interface Zone Model for Biomechanics Applications

College of Public Policy

Michael Caudy, Department of Criminal Justice, Elucidating the Mechanisms of Reentry

College of Sciences

Yongli Gao, Department of Geological Sciences, Isotopic Study of Sea Ice: Tracing Moisture Sources of Precipitation and Snow Accumulation in the Polar Regions

Connecting through Research Partnerships (Connect) September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2017 $250,000 awarded: $125,000 per team, two teams

The Connect program was founded to enhance scientific collaboration between UTSA and Southwest Research Institute, and increase their joint research funding base. Over the past six years, 11 high-impact projects have been funded through the Connect program. This year's awardees will investigate biofilm corrosion in pipelines and an ultrasound drug delivery methodology.

"When we leverage the research expertise of both institutions and cross-pollinate efforts through the Connect program, we can spark innovation and progress," said Bernard Arulanandam, UTSA interim vice president for research. "Our funding selection committee is looking to fund research that finds solutions for specific challenges. This year, with the two chosen projects—precision medicine and pipe corrosion in the petroleum industry—the research we fund can have a systemic impact on the people, and the industries, of Texas."

Heather Shipley, UTSA and Tony Reeves, SwRI Molecular characterization and quorum sensing of microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) bacteria in pipeline populations

Jing Yong Ye, UTSA and Jian Ling, SwRI Ultrasound Mediated Drug Delivery in 3D Tissue Model Quantified by Photoacoustic Tomography

San Antonio Life Sciences Institute

The San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) has awarded $400,000 through its innovation and research excellence grants to support scientists at UTSA and the UT Health Science Center who are conducting research on technology solutions in health care and brain health, system-wide priorities included in Chancellor William McRaven's Quantum Leaps vision.

SALSI, a collaborative partnership established between UTSA and the UT Health Science Center by the Texas Legislature in 2003, has strengthened research in the life sciences, one of the fastest growing industries in Texas and a $30.6 billion industry in San Antonio.

The global issues and challenges that research institutions are working to address are complex and occur at the intersection of disciplines. To make advancements in research there must be an integration and convergence of disciplines.

SALSI Clusters in Research Excellence: Brain Health June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017 $200,000: $100,000 per team ($50,000 per institution)

SALSI solicited applications for participation in the Clusters in Research Excellence program, with the aims to develop two new strategic research clusters that bridge UTSA and the UT Health Science Center through capacity building and collaborative, interdisciplinary research. Over the next year, SALSI will support two institutionally driven brain health clusters:

Stephen Bach, UTSA and Bess Frost, UT Health Science Center Utilizing Imaging Mass Spectrometry and Electron Microscopy to Investigate Nucleoplasmic Reticulum Expansion in Alzheimer's Disease

Todd Troyer, UTSA and Hye Young Lee, UT Health Science Center Elucidating social communication deficits in autism

SALSI Innovation Challenge June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017 $200,000: $100,000 per team ($50,000 per institution) The grants awarded through the Innovation Challenge are high-risk, high-reward studies that have the potential to create groundbreaking research directions in health informatics and bioinformatics:

David Akopian, UTSA and Amelie Ramirez, UT Health Science Center An Interactive Automated Mobile Messaging Service for Mobile Health Promotion Interventions

Yufei Huang, UTSA and Yidong Chen, UT Health Science Center A Cloud Computing Pipeline for Precision Medicine