5 projects received Pitt Seed pilot funding

Pitt Seed has selected five projects for the 2023-24 cohort. The program, now in its sixth year, provides internal financial support for pilot projects that can be scalable with the potential to have direct impact on advancing Pitt’s strategic plan.

This round of the program received 18 applications, with representation from the Greensburg, Pittsburgh and Johnstown campuses. Two review panels assessed multiple factors, such as transdisciplinary collaborations, potential impact on business operations, and unique solutions to address specific gaps like diversity, equity and scholarly advancement. The winning projects will each receive up to $75,000 to demonstrate proof of concept and will be eligible to compete for a $500,000 scale-up grant next spring.

All proposals will receive help from project management professionals in the Pitt Portfolio and Project Management Office to successfully execute their projects.

The winning proposals, with their primary applicants, are:

Dmitriy Babichenko, School of Computing and Information: STEM Through Games proposes to develop and pilot an immersive media design and research program that introduces high school students to computational thinking, foundations of programming and cross-disciplinary academic STEM research through the implementation of digital games and immersive technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality.

Keith Caldwell, Office of Engagement and Community Affairs: The CommUniversity Initiative will create a framework to support any faculty member interested in adapting their course into a CommUniversity learning opportunity, which will place Pitt students and community residents in the classroom as peer learners.

Melissa Lenos, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences: TC²: True Co-equal x Transformative Collaborations seeks to stimulate, guide and support interdisciplinary projects between the humanities and other graduate programs. This project will provide opportunities and resources to graduate students and faculty mentors dedicated to pushing the boundaries and inherent limitations of discrete academic fields to develop the collaborative relationships — and resulting skills — of fully interdisciplinary research.

Melissa Jo Marks, Behavioral Sciences Division at Pitt-Greensburg: Planting SEEDs-Growing Teachers: Creating a Pipeline has a threefold approach: 1) analyze the newly approved Educators Rising curriculum for consistency within Pitt’s education program’s state-mandated competencies to promote a high school to university teacher education pipeline; 2) work with local districts to develop a means of implementation per Senate Bill 99 mandates; and 3) provide University credits for introductory Pitt-Greensburg education courses to promote equity and opportunity for a wide range of high school students in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Manisha Nigam, Natural Sciences Division at Pitt-Johnstown: Project SOAR: Fostering Leadership, Resiliency, and Network for Students at Pitt-Johnstown will establish SOAR (Students Overcoming Adversity through Resilience), a leadership and enrichment program aimed at enabling marginalized students and Pell Grant recipients to achieve not only academic excellence at Pitt-Johnstown, but also successful careers.