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Get the most interesting and important stories from the University of Pittsburgh.Thirty-two research projects have received a 2022 Momentum Funds award, aimed at supporting high-quality research, scholarship and creative endeavors.
“From projects spanning interdisciplinary bone research, internationalizing our Manufacturing Assistance Center model, the future of public service or the modern history of Taiwan, I continue to be proud of the ambition and importance of the work our faculty are engaged in,” said Senior Vice Chancellor for Research Rob Rutenbar, who along with Provost and Senior Chancellor Ann E. Cudd, created the awards.
This research development fund supports faculty research through three tiers of grants: Seeding grants, which support individuals and small groups, teaming grants, which support the early-stage work of larger groups of faculty, and scaling grants, which fund teams pursing large, complex funding outside of the University.
This year’s funding cycle, with additional support from the office of Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences Anantha Shekhar, called specifically for projects investigating the social determinants of health.
“Not only do 10 of the projects investigate the social determinants of health or align with the Year of Data and Society theme, I am thrilled to see the incredible variety and vitality of the projects Pitt faculty have successfully proposed,” said Rutenbar.
All awardees will be celebrated at a funding showcase titled “Fueling our Future,” which will be held in early September. Below is a list of this year’s winners, in alphabetical order in each category by lead researcher.
Teaming grant awardees
From Titusville to Tuver with a stop in Lagos
Bopaya Bidanda, Department of Industrial Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, with colleagues John Stoner, University Center for International Studies; John Wallace, School of Social Work; Ravi Madhavan, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business; and M. Najeeb Shafiq, School of Education
Advancing the Pittsburgh Center for Interdisciplinary Bone and Mineral Research (PCIBMR)
Giuseppe Intini, School of Dental Medicine, with colleagues Dobrawa Napierala, School of Dental Medicine; Deborah Galson, School of Medicine; Peter Alexander, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery; Partha Roy, Department of Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering; Juan Taboas, School of Dental Medicine; and Shilpa Sant, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Cultural representativeness in the principles of AI
Yu-Ru Lin, School of Computing and Information, with colleagues Morgan Frank, School of Computing and Information; Edouard Machery, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences; Ben Rottman, Department of Psychology, Dietrich School; and Heath Cabot, Department of Anthropology, Dietrich School
Pittsburgh Transformations Project: Race, Migration, Education and Healthcare
Michele Reid-Vazquez, Department of Africana Studies, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, with colleagues Alaina Roberts, Department of History, Dietrich School; Abimbola Fapohunda, Department of Africana Studies, Dietrich School; Arif Jamal and Martha Mantilla, University Library System; Gina Garcia, School of Education; and Patricia Documet, School of Public Health
Scaling grant awardees
Center for Text Analytic Methods in Legal Studies
Kevin Ashley, School of Law, with colleagues Daqing He and Diane Litman and Rebecca Hwa, School of Computing and Information; and James Anderson, RAND
Pittsburgh Center for Healthy Environments and Equity Research
Aaron Barchowsky, School of Public Health with colleagues Melissa Bilec, Sarah Haig and Carla Ng, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering; Dara Mendez, Department of Epidemiology, School of Medicine; Emily Elliot and Daniel Bain, Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences; James Fabisiak, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health; LuAnn Brink, Allegheny County Health Department; Harry Hochheiser, Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine; and Janine Buchanich, Department of Biostatics, School of Public Health
Seeding grant awardees
Functional heterogeneity at the level of an individual neurotransmitter release site at the adult neuromuscular junction
Yomna Badawi, Department of Neuroscience, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Manipulation of sensory-motor coupling during speech production
Jason Bohland, Department of Communication Science and Disorders, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
T-box transcriptional control of Drosophila wing development
Deborah Chapman, Department of Biological Sciences, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Modernizing through electronic and digital media: transnational evangelicalism and Indigenous cultures in the Andes
Diego Cortes, Broadcast Communications, Pitt-Bradford
Modeling driver situational awareness in highly automated driving
Na Du, Department of Informatics and Networked Systems, School of Computing and Information
Agricultural adaptations in response to environmental stress in the tropics
Claire Ebert, Department of Anthropology, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Data mining approach to understand tensor properties in turbulent cascade
Lei Fang, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering
Beyond graduation rates: conceptualizing liberatory educational outcomes for colleges and universities
Gina Garcia, Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations and Policy, School of Education
Making skeletons of shapes dance
Paul Gartside, Department of Mathematics, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Adaptive stochastic optimization via trajectory cues
Oliver Hinder, Department of Industrial Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering
The politics-psychology nexus and the future of public service
Gary Hollibaugh, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Taking off the cape: removing the cloak of invincibility to support BIPOC graduate students
Alicia Johnson, Aliya Durham, Yodit Betru and Toya Jones; School of Social Work
Developing a holistic measurement plan for transition to adulthood
Traci Kazmerski, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, with colleagues Andrew McCormick, Department of Pediatrics; Ming-Te Wang, School of Education; Tomar Pierson-Brown, School of Law; Marlo A. Perry, School of Social Work; and Loreta Matheo, Department of Pediatrics
Situated task-driven multimodal intent modeling and applications
Adriana Kovashka, Department of Computer Science, School of Computing and Information, with colleagues Diane Litman, Malihe Alikhani, and Rebecca Hwa, School of Computing and Information
Digital resistance
Olga Kuchinskaya, Department of Communication, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Taiwan rising: a year in the life of a forbidden nation
Michael Meyer, Department of English, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Elucidating variable immune responses regulation through non-coding RNA-target interactomes
Olanrewaju Morenikeji, Biology, Pitt-Bradford
Understanding PFAS interactions with kidney function in health and disease
Carla Ng, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering
Would that
Diana Khoi Nguyen, Department of English, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Causal moderation and mediation analyses in multisite randomized trials
Xu Qin, Department of Health and Human Development, School of Education
Socially responsible data collection and network intervention codesigns
Amin Rahimian, Department of Industrial Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering
HBCU voices: a digital storytelling project
Khirsten Scott, Department of English, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Q-GPU: a recipe of optimizations for quantum circuit simulation using GPUs
Xulong Tang, Department of Computer Science, School of Computing and Information
Carbonic anhydrase-catalyzed carbon dioxide sequestration in seawater
Meng Wang, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering
Improving health equity by analyzing social determinants of health from the electronic health records
Yanshan Wang, Department of Health Information Management, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Highly scalable and efficient deep learning accelerator enabled by 3D photonic integration
Nathan Youngblood, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering
— Patrick Monahan