College of Engineering and Polymer Science: Sponsored Research Update

Congratulations to the following faculty who have won new awards from June 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021.

Biomedical Engineering

• Lawrence Noble, Ph.D. received $8,000 from the Summit County Board of Mental Retardation to sponsor and direct students that participate in the Biomedical Engineering Design Team projects to develop toys, mobility or accessibility aids for children with disabilities.
• Hossein Tavana, Ph.D. received $590,632 from the National Cancer Institute. His research team is developing a tissue-engineered model of human breast tumors to study how the microenvironment surrounding cancer cells impacts their therapy resistance in order to identify strategies that improve effectiveness of treatments.
• Ge Zhang, Ph.D. received $150,000 from Pennsylvania State University and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to develop a cardiac implant to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels and minimize inflammation in the injured area after heart attack.
• Jie Zheng, Ph.D. received $110,000 from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to develop autonomous self-healing and highly tough elastomers used in harsh conditions (e.g. underwater, at freezing temperatures, or in high-concentrated saltwater) in order to increase their longevity, strength, reusability, and safety in outer space, deep ocean, and polluted water and land applications.

Chemical Engineering

• David M. Bastidas, Ph.D. received $11,605 from the American Maglev Technology of Florida, Inc. and The Office of Naval Research to research light aluminum alloys and composite structures to increase thermal protection and reduce maintenance requirements.
• George Chase, Ph.D. received $51,740 from BASF to finance the development of a new technology to remove water droplets from emulsions of water in organic fluids. An example of its application is the removal of water from diesel fuel to prevent damage to diesel engines.
• Lu-Kwang Ju, Ph.D. received $97,400 from the United Soybean Board to study production of effective enzymes and their use to hydrolyze soybean carbohydrate in order to improve soybean value through “green” processing.
• Lu-Kwang Ju, Ph.D. received $7,300 from The Ohio Space Grant Consortium and The National Aeronautical and Space Administration. His research group is incorporating bio-based mechanisms and materials into masonry materials for improved property and sustainability.
• Lu-Kwang Ju, Ph.D. and Donald Visco, Ph.D. received $16,547 from the American Society for Engineering Education and NSF to develop a framework for faculty that will recognize their professional development in teaching. This will ultimately create better-prepared students upon graduation.
• Nic Leipzig, Ph.D. received $299,999 from NSF to better understand tissue level mechano-chemical changes that occur following spinal cord injury to help develop new approaches for repair and regeneration strategies.
• Jie Zheng, Ph.D. received $361,996 from NSF to develop a new class of generic protein sensors for early detection on a wide variety of proteins associated with different neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes, and prion disease.
• Jie Zheng, Ph.D. received $110,000 from American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to develop tough and self-healing materials used in harsh conditions (e.g. underwater, at freezing temperatures, or in high-concentrated saltwater) for addressing long-term challenges for renewable and substainable materials.

Civil Engineering

• Ala Abbas, Ph.D. received $38,999 from Ohio University to collect information on transportation asset management practices by local transportation agencies in Ohio to identify potential overlaps or opportunities for collaboration.
• Ala Abbas, Ph.D. received $154,998.95 from the Ohio Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration to design an asphalt mixture that can be used for roadway resurfacing on low-volume local roads.
• Teresa J. Cutright, Ph.D. was awarded $21,800 from the Akron Department of Public Service (City of Akron Water Bureau) and $157,501 from the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative of the Ohio Department of Higher Education to mitigate harmful algal blooms and reduce PO4 in surface water.
• Nariman Mahabadi, Ph.D. received $174,381 from NSF to develop a computational framework to explore the performance of complex biological transport networks. These learnings will determine feasibility and scalability for practical engineering problems, such as water drainage or traffic networks.
• William Schneider, Ph.D. received $192,686 from The Ohio Department of Public Safety and The Federal Highway Administration as part of a 2022 statewide observation survey of seat belt use in Ohio.
• Ping Yi, Ph.D. received $75,000 from The CCAT and USDOT Center for Connected and Automated Transportation to study automated vehicle spacing while considering vehicle and roadway conditions in order to improve traffic safety.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Shivakumar Sastry, Ph.D. received $69,955 from NSF to work on emerging technological advances including the electrification of vehicles.
• Yilmaz Sozer, Ph.D. received $115,835 from Turntide Technologies to investigate design alternatives for electric machines to reduce their acoustic noise and torque ripple.
• Huu Nghi Tran, Ph.D. received $50,000 from Air Force Research Laboratory and Intelligent Fusion Technology to develop new protected tactical waveforms for future military satellite communication systems in order to provide high data rate and jam-resistant communications in high-priority military missions.

Mechanical Engineering

• Jae-Won Choi, Ph.D. received $169,079 from eSens LLC and NSF to develop a shoe insert to help runners monitor their performance and prevent injuries.
• Jae-Won Choi, Ph.D. and Gopal Nadkarni, Ph.D. received $62,313 from NSF to develop 3D printed all-solid-state Li-Ion batteries. This will make them much safer, have higher performance and allow product engineers greater creative flexibility by removing traditional design and manufacturing constraints.
• Christopher Daniels, Ph.D. received $12,514 from HX5 and NASA Glenn Research Center to develop thermal barrier seals to prevent infiltration of hot gases into high-speed aerospace vehicles as well as gas pressure seals to confine air inside spacecraft after seals are exposed to harsh space environments.
• Siamak Farhad, Ph.D. received $148,169 from The Ohio Department of Higher Education to develop the basic knowledge for grinding processes for improving the productivity and training new generation of researchers and engineers for manufacturing industries.
• Michelle Hoo Fatt, Ph.D. received $100,000 from The Office of Naval Research to develop predictive models for the crushing and post-yield behavior of foams that may be used in US Navy ships and submersibles operating in Arctic regions.
• Xiaosheng Gao, Ph.D. received $66,556.00 from Robin Industries to conduct finite element analysis of products made by Robin Industries to optimize designs and select materials with the right properties.
• Chen Ling, Ph.D. received $10,633 from the Federal Aviation Administration to evaluate the learning effectiveness and the usability of a mobile learning app for teaching vectoring skills to help with training of air traffic controllers.
• Chen Ling, Ph.D. received $30,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a human factors awareness training for aviation safety specialists within aircraft certification.
• Francis Loth, Ph.D. received $5,000 from the Ohio Space Grant Consortium and the National Aeronautical and Space Administration to be used for building, testing, and finalizing two two-stage rockets, a sub-scale and full-scale rocket for Spaceport America, various research and development projects, as well as outreach, travel, and other administrative expenses for the Akronauts Rocket Design Team.
• Gregory Morscher, Ph.D. received $235,000 from Alpha STAR Corporation and Office of Naval Research to develop test techniques to evaluate sand ingestion into jet engines and then assessing their impact on ceramic matrix composites under fatigue at high temperatures.
• Gregory Morscher, Ph.D. was awarded $111,979 from Analytical Mechanics Associates to better understand how different materials hold up to damage.
• Gregory Morscher, Ph.D. received $20,000 from the Ohio Space Grant Consortium to work on automating a hypersonic-capable burner rig for testing high temperature jet engine and hypersonic vehicle materials.
• Gregory Morscher, Ph.D. received $60,000 from the Ohio Aerospace Institute and Air Force Research Laboratory to assess the anisotropic fracture and fatigue crack growth properties of additive Ni-based superalloys.
• Donald D. Quinn, Ph.D. was awarded $30,000 from Sandia National Laboratories in order to further extend the development of reduced-order models for structural systems that isolate specific regions of interest that are identified as critical to the overall health and performance of the larger system.
• Scott Sawyer, Ph.D. was awarded $5,000 from the Ohio Space Grant Consortium to add "Zips: Engineered for Success" to the first-year engineering course, Tools for Mechanical Engineering, to improve the retention rate of first and second year students.
• Kwek Tze Tan, Ph.D. received $28,196 from The University of Akron Research Foundation and LTA Galactic to fund his research to fund his research on the design of composite joints for aerospace applications.
• Jiang “John” Zhe, Ph.D. and Gopal Nadkarni, Ph.D. received $49,998 from NSF in pursuit of developing an AI based sensing network that facilitates rotary/reciprocal machine managers/owners to monitor the machine health status, avoid catastrophic failure, and reduce maintenance cost.

School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

• Kevin Cavicchi, Ph.D. was awarded $45,090 from the NASA Glenn Research Center to create a handbook on the development of shape memory materials requirements. The will be used by scientists and engineers researching and developing shape memory polymers.
• Kevin Cavicchi, Ph.D., James Eagan, Ph.D. and Sadhan Jana, Ph.D. received $69,581 from Virginia Tech and NSF to develop a method for producing high-performance polyester fibers for tire chords from recycled plastic bottles which will help produce tires with higher recycled material content.
• Steven Chuang, Ph.D. received $2,000,000 from NSF along with Tianbo Liu, Ph.D., Toshikazu Miyoshi, Ph.D., and Zhenmeng Peng, Ph.D. to explore a transformative concept of gas phase electrocatalysis for an economical conversion of mixed plastic/polymer wastes to value-added small organic molecules such as ethylene and propylene which are raw materials for chemical/plastic industries.
• Ali Dhinojwala, Ph.D. received $231,617 from New York University and the Getty Foundation. Together, The Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and The University of Akron will work to fine-tune and optimize adhesion performance and tailor the strength of the new lining adhesive products to minimize risks to paintings on canvas.
• James Eagan, Ph.D. received $110,000 from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to study how to recycle CO2 into the synthesis of polymers. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award in the amount of $131,479 which will fund his continued research.
• Mark Foster, Ph.D. received $70,000 from CenTiRe to study the way that filler particles in rubber composites move when the composite is strained in order to make silica-filled tires more fuel efficient.
• Xiong Gong, Ph.D. received $8,000 from NSF to develop electronic materials and a new device structure for harvesting light to generate more efficient solar cells.
• Sadhan Jana, Ph.D. and Erol Sancaktar, Ph.D. received $48,000 from the Ohio Soybean Council to convert soybean hulls/stalks into renewable and economical carbon-based fillers for thermoplastics. This will make them a more recyclable product and more appealing to be used as an extender for thermoplastics.
• Abraham Joy, Ph.D. received a $49,980 award from PolyLux to design light responsive monomers and polymers in order to further the PolyLux platform of light-switchable medical adhesives.
• Abraham Joy, Ph.D. and Mesfin Tsige, Ph.D. received a $500,000 award from The Burroughs Welcome Fund to create a machine-learning based tool for predicting the immune response to polymers. This tool can potentially help accelerate the regulatory process for polymer-based medical devices.
• Chunming Liu, Ph.D. received $110,0000 from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to study living polymerization at single-molecule level in order to better understand the kinetics and mechanism of the polymerization process.
• Toshikazu Miyoshi, Ph.D. received $138,000 from NSF to analyze chain-level structures for long polymer chains during crystallization which will help our understanding of polymer crystallization at the molecular level.
• Nita Sahai, Ph.D. received $176,778 from NSF to understand how one of the simple units (monomers) came to form long chains of molecules (biopolymers,) that are the building blocks of life (e.g., RNA, proteins, sugars, etc.), especially in the absence of any enzymes (molecules that are produced by life itself).
• Mesfin Tsige, Ph.D. received $324,299 from NSF to develop theoretical and computational models to gain fundamental knowledge of complex solution systems in order to help the design of novel drug delivery systems, nanocontainers or biomimetic materials.
• Mesfin Tsige, Ph.D. received $110,000 from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to study the physical properties of mechanically interlocked polymers for oil-spill clean-up in a water environment and for oil/water separation applications
• Junpeng Wang, Ph.D., along with Abraham Joy, Ph.D., James Eagan, Ph.D., Mark Foster, Ph.D., Ali Dhinojwala, Ph.D., and Toshikazu Miyoshi, Ph.D. received $812,808 from The Department of Energy to develop a new type of recyclable material used in cars and airplanes.
• Junpeng Wang, Ph.D. received $110,0000 from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to study the structure-property relationships of chemically recyclable polymers in order to address the challenges of plastic waste.

Dean’s Office

• Heidi E. Cressman was awarded $2,500 from the Ohio Space Grant Consortium for the "Future Earth" project to educate middle school children about topics in sustainability, renewable energy (specifically wind and solar) and engineering.

Interdisciplinary

• Teresa Cutright, Ph.D. in the Department of Civil Engineering and Dr. Tianbo Liu in the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering received $68,865 from Virginia Tech and NSF to explore the biological and non-biological degradation of tire particles in the environment.
• Teresa Cutright, Ph.D., along with Ed Evans, Ph.D. (Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering), Joan Carletta, Ph.D. (Dean's Office), Nidaa Makki, Ph.D. (School of Education) and Amir Nourhani, Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering and Biology) received $1,499,239 from the National Science Foundation to increase retention of part time and full time STEM students with scholarships, mentoring and mathematics tutoring.
• Yilmaz Sozer, Ph.D. received $18,516 from Bendix CVS with Nao Mimoto, Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematics to investigate the use of machine learning algorithms to predict the performance of electric brakes in commercial trucks and trailers.

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Media contact: Cristine Boyd, 330-972-6476 or akncboyd@uakron.edu.