ENGINEERING FACULTY AND VIRGINIA MODELING, ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION CENTER (VMASC) RESEARCH SCIENTISTS GET SEED GRANT

The Old Dominion University Office of Research has announced nearly $360,000 in multidisciplinary seed grants for 2011, with the support going to a range of health and medicine projects and to others exploring the harnessing of ocean waves and social media communications during disasters.

Sixteen teams involving 75 faculty researchers, six of whom are from Eastern Virginia Medical School, applied this year and six teams were funded, according to Mohammad Karim, the ODU vice president for research.  The Frank Batten College of Engineering & Technology faculty and VMASC research scientists comprise five of the six funded teams and approximately 90% of the awarded grants. 

The purpose of the program is to nurture fledgling research projects so that they can win support from external funding agencies.

Here is a sample of the funded projects:

• "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Nanoscale Measurement and Image Analysis of Patient Cartilage for Predicting Surgical Response" ($70,000) -- Nikos Chrisochoides (principal investigator), computer science; Ali Beskok (consultant), aerospace and mechanical engineering; Andrey Chernikov (consultant), computer science; Shuiwang Ji (consultant), computer science; Shizhi Qian (consultant), aerospace and mechanical engineering; Mike Stacey (consultant), Center for Bioelectrics; Eric Dobratz (consultant), EVMS; Joe Han (consultant), EVMS.
• "Nanoindentation to Determine Turgor Pressure in Escherichia Coli" ($85,135) - Abdelmageed Elmustafa (PI), mechanical engineering, also affiliated with ODU's Applied Research Center in Newport News; Claretta J. Sullivan (co-PI), Ph.D., EVMS; L.D. Britt, M.D. (consultant), EVMS; David Gauthier (consultant), biological sciences.
• "Robust, Multifunctional, Bio-compatible Nanocapsules for Intraoperative Imaging and Other Biomedical Applications" ($56,572) -- Balasubramanian Ramjee (PI), chemistry and biochemistry; Khaled Sakhel, M.D. (co-PI), EVMS; Chris Osgood (consultant), biological sciences; Shizhi Qian (consultant), aerospace and mechanical engineering; R. James Swanson (consultant), biological sciences; David Gauthier (consultant), biological sciences; James Lukban, M.D. (consultant), EVMS.
• "Wave Energy Dynamics: Simulation, Experiment and Optimization" ($55,500) - Jin Wang (PI), mathematics and statistics; Miltiadis Kotinis (co-PI), aerospace and mechanical engineering; Gene Hou (co-PI), aerospace and mechanical engineering; Ravindra Joshi (Consultant), electrical and computer engineering.
• "Tool Development for Perioperative Blood Management Simulation Training" ($37,000) - Catherine Banks (PI), Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC); John Sokolowski (Co-PI), VMASC; Paul Hakim, M.D. (Co-PI), VMASC/EVMS; Aryeh Shander, M.D. (Co-PI), Englewood Hospital and Medical Center/Mt. Sinai Medical Center; Karen Gillikin (Co-PI), nursing.

For further information, please read the full article here.