Sustainability Next Seed Grants
The third round of Sustainability Next Research Seed grants had been awarded. The seed grant program is administered by the BBISS in collaboration with the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI), the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI), and the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT). The goal of the program is to nurture promising areas for future large-scale collaborative sustainability research, research translation, and/or high-impact outreach; to provide mid-career faculty with leadership and community building opportunities; and to broaden and strengthen the Georgia Tech sustainability community as a whole.
The call for proposals was modeled after the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research’s (EVPR) “Moving Teams Forward” and “Forming Teams” programs. All told, the work of 49 people will benefit from these grants. The researchers come from 19 different Schools in 5 Colleges, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), and include external partners and research professionals from several of Georgia Tech’s Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRIs).
2024 Seed Grants
Moving Teams Forward
- Towards a Center on Inclusive (and Effective) Climate Communication; Bruce Walker (Psych), Susan Lozier (EAS), Claire Arthur (Music), Jessica Roberts (IC), Carrie Bruce(IC), Amy Bower (Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst).
- Moving Teams Forward to Building a Path Towards Community-Owned Resilience Hubs for Equitable Climate Adaptation and Mitigation: An Interdisciplinary and Community-Engaged Approach; Sofia Perez-Guzman (CEE), Allen Hyde (Hist&Soc), Danielle Willkens (Arch), Alexander Robel (EAS), Jennifer Hirsch (SCoRE), Valerie Thomas (ISYE), Joe Bozeman (CEE), Nicole Kennard (BBISS), Jung-Ho Lewe (AE).
- A Digital Twin for Atlanta: Towards a Building Energy Demand / Mobility Nexus; Patrick Kastner (Arch).
- “Moving Team Forward” Sustainable Development in Africa: Cropland Expansion, Fire, Climate Change, and Economic Solutions; Yuhang Wang (EAS), Olga Shemyakina (Econ), Kexin Rong (CS).
- Interdisciplinary Program in Transportation; Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy (CEE), Alexander Robel (EAS), Christopher Wiese (Psych), Kurt Wiesenfeld (Physics), Nimisha Roy (Comp Inst).
- Enabling Disadvantaged Communities to Baseline the Performance of Residential Energy Systems; Jung-Ho Lewe (AE), Scott Duncan (AE), David Solano (AE).
Forming Teams
- Identifying and Amplifying Georgia Tech’s Research Strengths in Conserving Georgia’s Biodiversity in the Face of Rapid Global Change; Jenny McGuire (Biol/EAS), James Stroud (Biol), Emily Weigel (Biol), Lauren Speare (Biol), Saad Bhamla (ChBE), Matthew Swarts (GTRI), Allen Hyde (Hist&Soc), Jennifer Hirsch(SCoRE).
- UrbAdapt CA4: Urban Climate Adaptation for Indigenous Households in Guatemala; Alberto Fuentes (INTA), Gregory Randolph (City Planning), Joshua Ayers (City Planning), Erick Calderón (World Vision Intl), Sara Sywulka (World Vision Intl).
- Mitigating the Risk of Life Threatening Power Outages During Extreme Weather; Constance Crozier (ISYE), (Brian) Yeokwang An (Pub Policy), Hiba Baroud (Vanderbilt).
- A Sustainability Data Dashboard for the GT Library Media Bridge, Yanni Loukissas (LMC), Emily Weigel (Biol), Alison Valk (Library), Jason Wright (Library), Charles Bennett (Library), Atlas Coltrain (LMC) (Co-funded by IPaT & BBISS).
Joint Initiative
- Modeling the Dispersal and Connectivity of Marine Larvae with GenAI Agents; Annalisa Bracco(EAS), Jacob Abernethy (CS), Xing Zhou (EAS), Renzhi Wu (CS), Guanghui Wang (CS) (Co-funded by IDeAS & BBISS).
2023 Seed Grants
Moving Teams Forward
- Growing & Sustaining Momentum in Our Research, Education & Outreach Activities on New Age Manufacturing of Forest Products; Christos Athanasiou (AE), Cyrus K. Aidun (ME), Else-Marie Ulrika Egertsdotter (RBI), Patritsia Stathatou (ChBE).
- Youth Advocacy for Resilience to Disasters (YARDs): Next Steps for Sustainability, Scalability, and Transferability; Allen Hyde (HSTS), Yanni Loukissas (LMC), Timothy Cone (CEISMC), Iris Tien (CEE), Norman F. Robinson III (CEISMC), Mustafa Shabazz (GTPE), Philip Omunga (Savannah State University, Political Science and Public Affairs).
- High-Fidelity Controlled-Environment Agriculture Digital Twin for In-Silico Optimization; Yongsheng Chen (CEE), Joe F. Bozeman III (CEE), Yuanzhi Tang (EAS), Zhaohui (Julene) Tong (ChBE), Kaye Husbands-Fealing (IAC), Guanghui Lan (ISyE), Jing Li (ISyE), Perry P. J. Yang (CRP), Ye Zhao (ME), Frank Dellaert (IC), Jie Xu (GTRI).
- Finding Underlying Mechanisms and Built Environment Factors Impacting Sleep Health and Cognitive Aging in Low SES Communities; Eunhwa Yang (BC), Ece Skourup (BC), Jennifer DuBose (SimTigrate Design Lab), Julie Boron (University of Nebraska Omaha, Department of Gerontology), Felicia Goldstein (Emory University, School of Medicine), Monica Parker (Emory University, School of Medicine), Glenna Brewster (Emory University, School of Nursing), W. Hong Yeo (ME), Arthi Rao (CQGRD).
- EV Battery Recycling: Technology Integration and Systems Modeling for Circular Economy; Paula Gomez (GTRI).
- Enabling Continuous Scalable Bio-processing of Lignin for Bioplastics Production, Fani Boukouvala (ChBE), Lily Cheung (ChBE), Hang Lu (ChBE), Marcus Cicerone (Chem), Patritsia Stathatou (RBI/Chem).
- Towards a Global Center African Fire, Climate, and Economic Solutions; Yuhang Wang (EAS), Olga Shemyakina (Econ).
- Inclusive Sustainability: A Research Roadmap for Climate Justice and People with Disabilities; Arthi Rao (CQGRD), Maureen Ann Linden (CATEA), Maribeth Gandy Coleman (IPaT), Clint Zeagler (IPaT), Yiyi He (CRP).
- AI-assisted PREdiction of bioDIversity and health for Coral reefs (AI-PREDIC); Annalisa Bracco (EAS), Karim G. Sabra (ME), Saibal Mukhopadhyay (ECE).
- Collaborative Approaches to Research Engagement (CARE): Building and Validating a Community-Centered Realist Approach to Human Subjects Recruitment; Lewis Wheaton (BIOL), Karen Minyard (Georgia State), Jennifer Hirsch (Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain), Melanie J Clark (Office of Research Integrity); Chris Parker (Georgia State), and Lea T. Marzo (Center for Promoting Equity and Inclusion in the Sciences).
- Nurturing Climate-Aware Knowledge Networks for Environmental Justice-Oriented Design; Neha Kumar (INTA), Vishal Sharma (IAC), Anjali Karol Mohan (Integrated Design, India), Bonnie Nardi (UC Irvine), Aaditeshwar Seth (IIT Delhi), and Gayathri Muraleedharan (Integrated Design, India).
- Urban Heat Atlanta - Moving Forward; Brian Stone (SCRP), Christopher Le Dantec (IAC), Russell Clark (College of Computing), Kim Cobb (Brown University), Jairo Garcia (College of Design), and Na’Taki Jelks (Spelman College).
Forming Teams
- A Global Clean Water Network Enabled by Renewable-powered, Low-cost Desalination; Shannon Yee (ME), Richard Simmons (SEI), Akanksha Menon (ME).
- Forming Teams to Pursue Research on Community Resilience, Equity, Disasters, and Transportation; Sofia Perez-Guzman (CEE), Lisa Losada-Rojas (University of New Mexico, CEE), Lauryn Spearing (University of Illinois Chicago, CEE).
- A Digital Twin for Atlanta: Deployment of a Data Visualization and Simulation Platform to Inform Urban Decarbonization, Patrick Kastner (ARCH).
- Building a Virtual Sustainability Lab for Climate Adaptation in Megacities – Urban Flood Modeling as a Prototype; Yi Deng (EAS), Xiaoming Huo (ISYE), and Jian Luo (CEE).
- Low-carbon Building Materials for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation; Ebenezer Fanijo (BC), Ece Erdogmus (BC), Kimberly Kurtis (CEE), and Giovanni Loreto (Kennesaw State).
- Heritage BIM and Sustainable Tourism; Danielle Willkens (ARCH), Junshan Liu (Auburn University), Maria Jose Viñals (Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain), Russell T. Gentry (ARCH), and Ece Erdogmus (BC).
