August 2023 Grants and Awards

Investigation of Naming Space Hijacking Threat and Its Defense

Principal Investigator:
Haining Wang
Professor
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$300,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Perfect Electromagnetic Teleporting Metasurface Wormholes

Principal Investigator:
Jordan Budhu
Assistant Professor and Steven O. Lane Junior Faculty Fellow
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$343,324

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

United States-Ireland Research and Development Partnership: Hardware and Software for Sustainable Wearable Edge Intelligence

Principal Investigator:
Dimitrios S. Nikolopoulos
John W. Hancock Professor of Engineering
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$600,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Sentiment and Topic Analysis for Reliable Supply

Principal Investigator:
Maice Dutra Da Costa
Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech National Security Institute

Total Anticipated:
$240,000

Sponsor:
United States Naval Surface Warfare Center

Exercise and Muscle Mitochondria in Alzheimer's Disease

Principal Investigator:
Joshua C. Drake
Assistant Professor
Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$3,232,851

Sponsor:
National Institue on Aging

Small Grains Extension Program, Variety Testing, and Market Development

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$29,253

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Catalyst Design Strategies for Multifunctional Metal-Promoted Zeolites for Direct Valorization of Methane

Principal Investigator:
Sheima Khatib
Associate professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$511,735.16

Sponsor:
United States Department of Energy

Developing Enhanced Sealants for Neurosurgery

Principal Investigator:
Michael Schulz
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$200,000

Sponsor:
Commonwealth Health Research Board

Deliberative Valuation and Integrated Modeling to Accelerate Equitable Decarbonization in New England

Principal Investigator:
Ryan S. Calder
Assistant Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$649,328

Sponsor:
United States Environmental Protection Agency

Soft Red Winter Wheat Cultivar Development

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$55,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Development of Specialty Wheat Varieties with High Value End-Use Properties

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$20,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Breeding, Mapping, and Genome-Enabled Selection for Scab Resistance in Barley and Wheat

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$25,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Improvement and Development of Barley for Use in Feed, Malt, and Food

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$10,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Digitization and Automation for Data-Driven Improvement of Small Grains for Virginia

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas Santantonio
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$9,991

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Small Grain Research Program Support

Principal Investigator:
Joseph C. Oakes
Superintendent
Eastern Virginia Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$10,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Increasing Accessibility to Diagnostic Support and Evaluating FHB Fungicide Performance in On-Farm Trials and a Two-Spray Program Through Flowering

Principal Investigator:
Douglas S. Higgins
Assistant Professor
Eastern Shore Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$13,002

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Quantifying the Size-Distribution of Rivers Across Scales: Advancing Estimates of Global River Surface Area

Principal Investigator:
George H. Allen
Assistant Professor
Department of Geosciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$5,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

CAREER: Nanoscale Interfacial Phenomena and Reaction Kinetics of Calcium Silicates in Cements

Principal Investigator:
Alexander S. Brand
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$598,917

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Using the Rules of Antibiotic Resistance Development to Inform Wastewater Mitigation Strategies

Principal Investigator:
Liqing Zhang
Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$650,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Structure Theorems Beyond Z-systems

Principal Investigator:
Wenbo Sun
Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$160,457

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Transforming Cultures of Responsible Research through the Development of Ethics Expertise and Self-Efficacy among Faculty through Social Networks

Principal Investigator:
Lisa M. Lee
Associate Vice President for Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance
The Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance
Office of Research and Innovation

Total Anticipated:
$699,706

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

In-Situ Monitoring-Enabled Multiscale Modeling and Optimization for Environmental and Mechanical Performance of Advanced Manufactured Materials

Principal Investigator:
Yao Fu
Associate Professor
Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$369,202

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Elucidating the Dynamical and Structural Molecular Factors at the Origin of Non-Enzymatic Protein-Protein and Protein-DNA Cross-Links

Principal Investigator:
Valerie Welborn
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$1,913,579

Sponsor:
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Foundations of Few-Round Active Learning

Principal Investigator:
Ruoxi Jia
Assistant Professor
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$300,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Canine Acoustical Test Fixture, Ear Insert Passive Attenuation and Comfort Testing with Institutional Review Board Processing (Human), and Veterinarian Support with Canine Ear Insert Sizing and Reaction with Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Processing (Dog)

Principal Investigator:
John G. Casali
John Grado Endowed Professor and Director, Auditory Systems Laboratory
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$124,922

Sponsor:
SPEAR Labs LLC

Stock Assessment Model Development and Spatial Management Strategy Evaluation for Striped Bass

Principal Investigator:
Yan Jiao
Professor
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$244,941

Sponsor:
United States Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Tools for Measuring Route Origin Validation in Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) at Scale

Principal Investigator:
Taejoong T. Chung
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$599,997

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Defining and Quantifying Physical and Psychological Stress and the Associated Behavioral Outputs in the Search and Rescue Canine

Principal Investigator:
Erica N. Feuerbacher
Associate Professor
School of Animal Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$2,500

Sponsor:
Association of Professional Dog Trainers

Melt-Blended Ternary Polymer-Clay Composites for Additive Manufacturing

Principal Investigator:
Michael J. Bortner
Associate Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$3,500

Sponsor:
Virginia Space Grant Consortium

Fostering Responsible Innovation and Governance of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in Precision Agriculture

Principal Investigator:
Syed Maaz H. Gardezi
Assistant Professor
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$649,396

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Towards Inclusive Recommendation Systems with Stakeholder Alignment

Principal Investigator:
Ruoxi Jia
Assistant Professor
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$1,159,233

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Survey for Freshwater Mussels in the Mattaponi River at Route 628, King and Queen County, Virginia

Principal Investigator:
Scott D. Klopfer
Director, Conservation Management Institute
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$8,171

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Transportation

Survey for Freshwater Mussels in the South River at Route 638, Caroline County, Virginia

Principal Investigator:
Scott D. Klopfer
Director, Conservation Management Institute
Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
College of Natural Resources and Environment

Total Anticipated:
$8,171

Sponsor:
Virginia Department of Transportation

Particle Astrophysics with the Hyper-Kamiokande Detector

Principal Investigator:
Camillo Mariani
Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$100,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Sustainable Open Science Tools to Democratize use of 3D Geomaterial Data

Principal Investigator:
James E. McClure
Associate Professor and Interim Director, Mission Systems Division
Virginia Tech National Security Institute

Total Anticipated:
$417,579

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Conference: Geospace Exploration and Observation with Scientific Collaboration in Polar Regions (GEOSCPR) Workshop - GEOSCPR, towards International Polar Year 2032

Principal Investigator:
Zhonghua Xu
Research Scientist
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$50,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Every Participant Counts: Investigating the Impact of Experimental Language Research on Participants

Principal Investigator:
Abby J. Walker
Associate Professor and Director of the Language Sciences Program
Department of English
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$147,672

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Data Quality in Manufacturing Industrial Internet Integration

Principal Investigator:
Ran Jin
Associate Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$300,001

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

The Changing Mix of Food-at-Home and Food-Away-from-Home Consumption: Price Transmission, Market Structure, and Welfare Implications Throughout the Food Supply Chain

Principal Investigator:
George C. Davis
Professor
Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$555,220

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

FY24 Food Animal Residue Avoidance Database Program (FARAD)

Principal Investigator:
Jennifer L. Davis
Associate Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$105,000

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Black-box Optimization of White-box Networks: Online Learning for Autonomous Resource Management in NextG Wireless Networks

Principal Investigator:
Bo Ji
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$300,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Safety Under Distributional Shift in Learning-Enabled Power Systems

Principal Investigator:
Ming Jin
Assistant Professor
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$400,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Virginia Wheat Tissue Culture Development

Principal Investigator:
Bastiaan Bargmann
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$15,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine Small Animal Theriogenology Residency

Principal Investigator:
Julie T. Cecere
Clinical Assistant Professor
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$125,000

Sponsor:
American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation

Collaborative Research: the DarkSide Dark-Matter Search Using Liquid Argon

Principal Investigator:
Robert B. Vogelaar
Professor
Department of Physics
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$705,000

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

International Congress of Neuroethology Conference

Principal Investigator:
Silvio Macias Herrera
Assistant Professor
School of Neuroscience
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$2,550

Sponsor:
VT Research Contracting Services LLC

Participatory Water Science and Indigenous Resistance to Extractivism in Guatemala

Principal Investigator:
Nicholas M. Copeland
Associate Professor
Department of History
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$364,409

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Climate Change Impacts on Seed Dispersal in a Common Virginia Native Wildflower, Sanguinaria Canadensis (Bloodroot)

Principal Investigator:
Susan Whitehead
Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$6,656

Sponsor:
Virginia Native Plant Society

Development of Abuse-Liability Based Tobacco Tax Proposals: Experimental Impact on Tobacco-Related Socioeconomic Cancer Health Disparities; Short Title: Freitas Lemos NCI K01

Principal Investigator:
Roberta Freitas Lemos
Assistant Professor
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Total Anticipated:
$681,047

Sponsor:
National Cancer Institute

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Atmospheric Profiling

Principal Investigator:
John M. Coggin
Associate Director, Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership
Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science

Total Anticipated:
$199,314

Sponsor:
United States Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Design for Sustainability: How Mental Models of Social-Ecological Systems Shape Engineering Design Decisions

Principal Investigator:
Andrew S. Katz
Assistant Professor
Department of Engineering Education
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$826,368

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Integration of Climate Smart Technologies for Sustainable Crop Systems

Principal Investigator:
Mark S. Reiter
Professor and Director
Eastern Shore Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$999,277

Sponsor:
United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service

Use of Unmanned Aerial System for Herbicide Spray Applications in Row-Crops

Principal Investigator:
Vijay Singh
Assistant Professor
Eastern Shore Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$10,000

Sponsor:
Bayer Research and Development Services LLC

FY2023 Mycotoxin Testing Services for Virginia Wheat and Barley

Principal Investigator:
David G. Schmale
Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$25,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Impact of Planting Date on Wheat Development, Freeze Susceptibility, and Yield

Principal Investigator:
Joseph C. Oakes
Superintendent
Eastern Virginia Agriculture Research Extension Center
Agriculture Experiment Station

Total Anticipated:
$4,000

Sponsor:
Virginia Small Grains Board

Collaborative Research: BoCP-Implementation: Integrating Traits, Phylogenies and Distributional Data to Forecast Risks and Resilience of North American Plants

Principal Investigator:
Julia Allen
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
College of Science

Total Anticipated:
$265,453

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Collaborative Research: Science with the People: Collaborative Analysis of Government Data for Policy Reach and Structural Change in Environmentally Contested Regions

Principal Investigator:
Barbara L. Allen
Professor
Department of Science, Technology, and Society
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Total Anticipated:
$117,721

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

Comparing Milk Composition and Puppy Growth of Overweight and Lean Bitches

Principal Investigator:
Orsolya Balogh
JoAnne S. O'Brien Professor of Theriogenology
Veterinary Medical Research and Graduate Studies
College of Veterinary Medicine

Total Anticipated:
$4,500

Sponsor:
Theriogenology Foundation

Risk and Performance Evaluation of Enhanced Aquifer Recharge in the Coastal Plain

Principal Investigator:
Mark A. Widdowson
Professor and Department Head
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$2,000,000

Sponsor:
United States Environmental Protection Agency

Plant-Inspired Growing Robots Operating in Multiple Time Scales

Principal Investigator:
Suyi Li
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering

Total Anticipated:
$501,667

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation

6G-ConCoRSe: Local 6G Connectivity as a Service: Controlled, Resilient, and Secure

Principal Investigator:
Jacek Kibilda
Associate Professor
Commonwealth Cyber Initiative
Office of Research and Innovation

Total Anticipated:
$599,943

Sponsor:
National Science Foundation