R&ED Fall 2023 Faculty Newsletter

R1 Retention Efforts 

As of July 31, 2023 every data point that will go into the next Carnegie Classification (which will be finalized early in 2025) has been collected. You can see how we have performed on each criterion on our R1 webpage . Although calculating Science and Engineering and non-Science and Engineering Expenditures is a delayed process, we improved significantly on the number of postdocs and non-faculty researchers at KSU (moving up from 20 to 51) and maintained our levels of doctoral conferrals (both times we have submitted 165 conferrals). Although it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict what these values mean with respect to the next designation, had we previously submitted our current values instead of our prior values, we would have jumped nine spots in the rankings. We anticipate that our efforts to invest institutional dollars (e.g., the Game Changer pilot fund program) and ensure that dollars were appropriately spent last year will also result in improved numbers for our research expenditures, and we will update you on those when the data are available.

New Humanities R&ED Fellow 

In FY21, RASP implemented the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Program in which a faculty member from the arts or humanities works closely as a member of the R&ED leadership team to aid our division in better meeting the research/creative activity needs of these disciplines. Dr. CJ Wu, Associate Professor from the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics, was selected as a RASP faculty fellow for AY 2023-24. Dr Wu has proposed an ambitious plan focused on enhancing collaboration and success for arts and humanities faculty across the university. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Wu to this role.  

Judges and Moderators Needed for the Three-Minute SURE Presentations

The Office of Student Research is seeking judges and moderators for our upcoming Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) presentations. The presentations will be held on Monday, October 16^th and Tuesday, October 17^th from 1 – 2:15 and 2:30 – 3:45 pm. in the Kent Student Center with judges convening 15 minutes prior to the beginning of a session. The award ceremony will held on Monday, September 23^rd at 3 p.m. in 218 KSC.  

As part of the program, students are required to present their research via a three-minute presentation using one static PowerPoint slide - a presentation mimicking the international 3-Minute Thesis competition. This annual event is a great opportunity for students to present their work and for the university community to support their efforts. To make this program a success, we need your help. Please share this information with your graduate students as they are encouraged to assist and attend. Please consider joining us as a judge and/or moderator.  

If you can assist, please go to

https://kent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dhhvQ833wtpSkBw

If you can’t assist with judging at the event, we hope that you will join us in supporting our student research efforts. See schedule below.

Monday, October 16th the following academic areas will be showcased:

Aeronautics and Engineering - 1 - 2:15 pm and 2:30 - 3:45 pm, Room 307 KSC

Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geography, Zoology - 1 - 2:15 pm and 2:30 – 3:45 pm, 309KSC

Biological Sciences - Cellular and Molecular - 1 - 2:15 pm, 315 KSC

Biological Sciences, Neuroscience, Chemistry, Exercise Science - 2:30 - 3:45 pm, 315 KSC 

Languages, Art, Art History, Communications, Marketing 1 - 2:15 pm, 303 KSC

Computer Science, Applied Math - 1 - 2:15 pm and 2:30 - 3:45 pm, Room 317 KSC

Fashion Design and Merchandising - 1 - 2:15 pm, Room 318 KSC

Music, Marketing, TLC, other - 2:30 - 3:45 pm, Room 318 KSC

Tuesday, October 17th the following academic areas will be showcased:

Nursing, Nutrition, other – 1 – 2:15 pm, Room 318 KSC

Physics – 2:30 – 3:45 pm, Room 318 KSC

Psychological Sciences – 1 – 2:15 pm, Room 307 KSC

Social Sciences, Public Health, 1 – 2:5 pm and 2:30 – 3:45 pm, Room 314 KSC

Biological Sciences, Neurology, Bio Chem and Exercise Science, 1 – 2:15 and 2:30 – 3:45 pm, Room 319 

Celebrate Student Researchers 

Join us on October 23rd at 3 p.m. in the Kent Student Center – 2nd floor dining room for the Three-Minute Presentation Awards Ceremony as we announce the winners of this year’s competition. We will have a reception and selected students will present their award-winning entries.  

Need Assistance with Your Research

Can you use assistance with your research? Please consider providing an opportunity to a student interested in engaging in research. Positions in the Student Research Experience (SRE) are paid through Federal Work Study and the Office of Student Research – at no cost to you or your department. SRE is an excellent opportunity to be a mentor, increase your research productivity, and provide meaningful learning experiences to students. 

Information on the Student Research Experience can be found at https://www.kent.edu/research/student-research/student-research-experience 

To submit your position https://kent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8k2jPRlLXy4rBVH.

Please contact Ann Gosky at agosky@kent.edu with any questions. 

Updates 

Personnel Changes in R&ED

The Division of Research and Economic Development is thrilled to welcome Katie Johnson as a new sponsored programs administrator who works closely with faculty and departments to ensure that grant funds are spent on time and appropriately. Lisa Soeder has begun supporting the division’s effort to build out the office of Corporate Engagement. Finally, Sheila Pratt will/has retired from her position as Special Assistant for the Office of Technology Commercialization after a long and productive career with the university. With Sheila’s retirement, we have completed a search for a new Special Assistant and we welcome Denise Jospeh and look forward to her contributions to our team. Please join us in welcoming our new and new-ish R&ED employees and in congratulating Sheila on her retirement.

Entrepreneurial Corner / Technology Commercialization

The Office of Technology Commercialization continues to focus on technology transfer activities of our faculty, staff and students. These commercialization efforts not only benefit our local economy, but also highlight the real-world importance of the technologies we develop at the university. It is important to recognize that commercially viable innovations come from ALL of our departments—and not only from the hard sciences. A great example is an activity called “Primal Points”, which comes from the Department of Anthropology. The Primal Points team has developed a unique fabrication technology to make ancient arrow tips that look and feel like those used thousands of years ago by ancient hunters but perform as good or better than their modern equivalents. Comprehensive interviews with a large number of archers, bowmen, and outdoor activity influencers strongly suggests that there is a robust market for commercial products that that would feature KSU invented technology! Another notable example comes from the College of Aeronautics and Engineering, where a team of scientists and engineers have manufactured unique structures using 3D Printing. These structures can be used to produce highly purified fuel which is a requirements for the rapidly growing fuel cell market. This groundbreaking innovation can lead to very high capacity, “man-portable” power sources for use in a variety of applications, such as remote locations where small, high-capacity sources of clean power are currently not available. The technology transfer team have been working closely with both of these teams and others across the university community to move their technologies forward. Development support for commercialization activities comes from a variety of sources. The Primal Points activity is supported through a combination of internal KSU commercialization support fund, NSF’s ICorp program, and Ohio’s Entrepreneur Support Program (ESP) network partnership; and the Fuel purification activity is supported by Ohio’s Technology Validation and Start-up Fund (TVSF).Translating technology into the marketplace remains a national priority and KSU continues to be at the forefront of these activities.

Grants, Grants, Grants 

• Connie Hawke received $4,228,598 from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the project: Rehabilitate Runway 1/19 (Mill & Overlay 3,000' x 60') (Construction); Reconstruct Runway 1/19 (1,000' x 60') (Construction); Rehabilitate Runway 1/19 RSA Grading (Construction)
•  Tracey Motter and Mary Kutchin received $3,902,998 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the four-year program Nurse Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention ‐ Interprofessional Collaborative Practice
• James Tudhope, Andrea Nelson, and Andrea Warner Stidham received $2,072,716 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the four-year Advanced Nursing Education‐ Nurse Practitioner Residency Fellowship Program
•  Elena Novak, Lisa Borgerding, Jong-Hoon Kim, and Ji-Ann Li received $1,775,982 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the four-year project Physical Science Robotics Interdisciplinary Design in Computer Science Education: Broadening Participation in STEM through Cascading Peer‐Mentorship
• Richard Piet and Michael Lehman received $1,720,000 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) for the five-year project Suprachiasmatic nucleus to kisspeptin circuit in the circadian control of reproduction
• Kim Laurene and Deric Kenne received $600,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for the three-year project Northeast Ohio Mental Health Awareness Training (NEO MHAT)
• Marianne Prevot and Torsten Hegmann received $591,704 from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for Zero-power, easily customizable, and wearable toxic gas and vapor sensors enabling enhanced safety for Ohio's first responders
• Hanbin Mao and Hao Shen received $584,811 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the three-year program Collaborative Research: Harnessing the chirality matching principle for enhanced catalytic reactivity
• Woo-Yang Kim, Jennifer McDonough, and Richard Piet received $557,050 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for Cellular mechanism of Arid1b haploinsufficiency-associated social deficit
• Jonathan Maletic received $447,251 from the National Science Foundation for the three-year project Collaborative Research: CCRI: New: Syntactic Differencing Infrastructure for Software Evolution Research
• Manabu Kurokawa received $433,003 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for the two-year project Role of the ubiquitin E3 ligase HUWE1 in age-associated nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
•  Ye Lu and Joycelyn Harrison received $402,740 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the three-year program REU Site: Research Experience for Undergraduates in Robotics and Autonomous Systems