Faculty Research

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Social Sciences

Off

Mon, 05/19/2025 - 12:54

Professor of Political Science Mitchel Sollenberger, an expert in executive privilege, weighs in on what he's seen so far with the new administration.

��-Dearborn Professor of Political Science Mitchel Sollenberger. Photo by Annie Barker

A team won a surprise victory at this year’s Senior Design competition

lblouin — Mon, 19 May 2025 12:08:15 +0000

A team won a surprise victory at this year’s Senior Design competition lblouin Mon, 05/19/2025 - 08:08

Of the five seniors on their team, only Micah Hagedorn says he thought they had a shot at the Best in College award — the top honor at the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s annual Senior Design Competition — and that was only after the team earned a nod for the best project from the Mechanical Engineering department. Just weeks earlier, things were not going well for Hagedorn and teammates Nicole Kormos, Rosa Carapia, Kenny Conuel Oralde and Emmet Reamer. Multiple times they’d had shipments of biological materials spoil when the supplier mistakenly shipped them to the Ann Arbor campus. And Carapia spent weeks trying to figure out their not-so-state-of-the-art microscope — at one point resorting to contacting the rep whose business card had been attached to the device who knows when. “It was the last couple weeks and I was, like, ‘Oh my gosh, this isn’t going to happen,’” Carapia says. “I was really thinking, ‘Our presentation was just going to look dumb because there’d be nothing there.’”

The team bumped into quite a few challenges, in part, because their multi-faceted project was one of the more ambitious in the competition. Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Caymen Novak had it on her to-do list for some time to bring an imaging technique known as traction force microscopy to the Dearborn campus for the first time. TFM is used often in mechanobiology to study how cells interact with their microenvironments, and Novak thought it could be very useful for her current work, which is investigating how sex-based differences influence pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease marked by significant scarring and stiffening of lung tissue. “So just to explain it briefly, you have a gel with fluorescent beads in it, and you put cells on it, so the cell interacts with the surface and pulls on it,” Novak explains. “Then, you take some ‘before’ pictures of the cells and the fluorescent beads, then you lift the cells off and take an ‘after’ picture. By measuring the movement of the beads, you can get a representation of the amount of force the cell is exerting on the surface.”

Novak had used this technique in her postdoctoral work at The Ohio State University, but there, she was plugging into an established lab setup. She hadn’t ever personally created the gels or configured the microscope for this type of imaging, and the analysis protocol was a closely guarded secret of the project’s principal investigator. So when Kormos, who’d been working as a student researcher in Novak’s lab, asked Novak if she had any projects for her and her Senior Design teammates, Novak immediately thought of the TFM setup. “I thought, ‘This sounds like a really ambitious Senior Design project. Let’s see how far they get,’” Novak says. Kormos took the idea to her teammates, who all liked the idea. They sketched out a plan for who would do what and got to work.

Because TFM is an established technique, there was actually quite a bit of literature out there to guide them. But it’s hardly a plug-and-play technology. The gels, for example, can’t be purchased off the shelf. You have to buy all the ingredients and make your own gel from scratch, fine tuning the chemistry so you have a medium with the proper stiffness for the kind of cells you want to study. Kormos and Reamer took on that part of the project and ran into several challenges. “You’d think because this has been done before, it would be pretty straightforward, but you follow the recipe, and sometimes your gel just doesn’t form,” Kormos says. “So we had to do some digging and figure out which component was doing what. Then we learned you had to add this component before that one or it wouldn’t work, or you have to dilute something just before you add it. So it took some troubleshooting before we found the proper protocol.” And then there was the unexpected challenge of even getting the materials properly delivered to their lab. Despite specifying the correct Dearborn campus address, Reamer says the distributor shipped their biologically sensitive components — one costing $400 for 50 milligrams — to the Ann Arbor campus not once but twice. When the third shipment finally made it to the lab, it arrived a week late. “I spent a lot of time on customer service,” Reamer says, wryly. “That was probably my biggest contribution to the project.”

After overcoming multiple shipping snafus, Nicole Kormos (left) and Emmet Reamer successfully created the custom gels that are used in traction force microscopy.

Carapia, meanwhile, was wrestling with the lab’s less-than-ideal microscope to see if they could get it to work for TFM. She got some initial guidance from a couple other researchers on campus who also use this particular instrument. She made some initial progress — only to discover that she’d need to integrate a totally different camera-software setup than the one she’d just spent the past few weeks learning. Then, a weeks-long email back-and-forth with the person on that business card ended up in a dead end. In the end, Carapia relied on her engineer’s instincts, rolled up her sleeves and figured out most of it herself.

Rosa Carapia (left) took on the challenge of adapting the lab’s older microscope, with help from teammate Emmet Reamer.

Hagedorn and Oralde tackled the analysis part of the project. Essentially they would have to write and tweak software to properly measure the displacement of the fluorescent beads and then convert those measurements into forces, given the known characteristics of the gel. Hagedorn dug into the published literature and found an open-source algorithm he thought they could work with. “By the end, it was pretty good, but initially, we got a lot of random arrows that were pointing in random directions,” Oralde says. “And we had to tweak variables and figure out what the right contrast was for the images, so the algorithm was tracking points that were relevant and not just random,” Hagedorn adds.

Micah Hagedorn (left) and Kenny Conuel Oralde show off the software they built to measure displacements and calculate corresponding forces that the cells exert.

All the effort finally — and somewhat unexpectedly — paid off. With just a week or so to go until the Senior Design Competition day — and following a 19-hour session in the lab — they got their final set of images to work, measured the displacements and calculated the corresponding forces. The students say they would have loved to have had more time to run a mini-study with their technique, which was their original plan. (They joke it may have been possible had their FedEx packages arrived on time.) But they’re ultimately satisfied with the results. Novak is now digging through their final report to see what her next moves will be. “I’ve still not gotten hands-on with this myself, so I’ll have to see if I can make this process work, or possibly throw it to another Senior Design team to keep working on it,” Novak says.

Regardless, she’s impressed with the team’s hard work and tenacity. “It was interesting to watch them experience the difficulties of research,” Novak says. “They were, like, ‘We were there for hours trying to take these images.’ And I’m, like, ‘Yep, that’s how it works.’ But you have to admire their dedication in forcing this project to work on any level. In research, everything takes three times as long as you predict, often because of silly things, like deliveries going to the wrong address, which are totally beyond your control. And then you have to put way more effort in than you think. So that was a little eye-opening for them. But I’m sure they’ll feel it was worth it because they won everything! It doesn’t get better than that.”

###

Story by Lou Blouin. Photos by Annie Barker.

Awards

Experiential Learning

Undergraduate Research

Mechanical Engineering

Off

Mon, 05/19/2025 - 12:07

Assistant Professor Caymen Novak threw an ambitious project to her Senior Design team. It almost didn’t work out. Until it did.

From left, seniors Kenny Conuel Oralde, Emmet Reamer, Rosa Carapia, Nicole Kormos and Micah Hagedorn took home the top prize at this year’s Senior Design Competition for their work on an imaging technique known as traction force microscopy.

Office of Research update for May 2025

lblouin — Mon, 12 May 2025 17:21:02 +0000

Office of Research update for May 2025 lblouin Mon, 05/12/2025 - 13:21

External Awards Received

U-M Principal Investigator: Zhi Zhang, Natural Sciences, CASL
Project Title: Non-invasive Targeted Nanotherapy for the Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury
Sponsor: M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust via Washington State University
Award Amount: $20,000

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) refers to a brain injury that is caused by an outside force, which often has long-lasting effects. However, most of the drugs cannot pass the blood brain barrier (BBB), a highly selective membrane that separates the blood from the brain, thus the treatment options for TBI are limited. In this project, Dr. Zhang, in collaboration with Washington State University, has created a non-invasive drug delivery system that can efficiently transport drugs across the BBB. This drug delivery system not only delivers the drugs to the injured brain region but also targets specific cells that are affected by TBI. The main objective of this proposed project is to evaluate the short-term and long-term effectiveness of this novel nanoplatform in TBI. This project holds immense promise for TBI research, offering innovative approaches to drug delivery, diagnosis, and treatment, potentially leading to more effective therapies and improved patient outcomes.

Principal Investigator: Shan Bao, Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering, CECS
Project Title: Evaluating the Applicability of Global AEB Testing Scenarios in the U.S. Context – Toward Global Harmonization
Sponsor: Toyota Motor North America, Inc.
Awarded Amount: $443,086

Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) represents a critical advancement in vehicle safety technology, designed to prevent collisions by automatically engaging the brakes when potential impacts are detected. These systems employ an array of sensors, cameras, and radar technology to continuously monitor the vehicle's surroundings, capable of responding faster than human reflexes in critical moments. Particularly effective in common accident scenarios - such as sudden traffic slowdowns, pedestrian crossings, or instances of driver inattention - AEB has become a cornerstone of modern automotive safety systems. Dr. Bao will focus on conducting a comprehensive evaluation of international AEB testing procedures to assess their real-world applicability in order to bridge the gap between laboratory testing conditions and real-world driving demands, thereby enhancing AEB system effectiveness. This work will contribute directly to the development of more robust safety features, helping to create a transportation ecosystem where preventable accidents are significantly reduced. The insights gained may also inform the evolution of complementary advanced driver assistance systems, further advancing vehicle safety standards worldwide.

Principal Investigator: Xuan Zhou, Electrical & Computer Engineering, CECS
Project Title: Closing the Loop: Secondary Life Battery Energy Storage Systems for Grid Applications and Recycling
Sponsor: Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy
Awarded Amount: $1,485,037

This project focuses on giving old electric vehicle (EV) batteries a second life by turning them into energy storage systems that can help power homes, businesses, and microgrids. Instead of throwing away used batteries, the team will carefully test, combine, and reuse them to create new, reliable energy systems. Later, when these reused batteries reach the end of their life, valuable materials like nickel, cobalt, and magnesium will be recovered and recycled to make new batteries. This helps reduce waste, saves important natural resources, and supports cleaner, more affordable energy for communities.

Announcements

ORSP Updates and Guidance for Federally Sponsored Projects

The U-M Office of Research & Sponsored Projects has provided the following guidance for faculty and staff questions about the approach to proposals or new and existing awards:

Proposal Submissions: All federal proposals will be submitted in accordance with the appropriate negotiated indirect (F&A) cost rate agreement. Funding opportunities that prohibit the application of institutional negotiated F&A rates should be brought to the ORSP Pre-Award Team
New Awards: We expect all new federal awards should be received with the appropriate rate, based on our rate agreement or program specific policy. ORSP will contact sponsors for corrections if new awards are received with rates other than proposed.
Existing Awards: PIs should continue project activities and incurring associated expenses for their active awards. If you receive notices for actions (e.g., stop work, stop activities, terminations) on active awards, you should provide them to your research administrator (RA) for submission to ORSP for review and appropriate action.
Certifications/Attestations: PIs should not make or provide attestations on behalf of the institution (recipient, awardee, grantee). If you receive written requests for attestations or certifications regarding an active or pending award, provide the documentation to your RA to be submitted to ORSP for review and determination of the appropriate action.

New Federal Policy in Effect for Research Involving Certain Biological Agents and Toxins

A new policy on research with certain pathogens and biological toxins went into effect as of May 6, 2025, that may require additional information for new proposals being submitted.

The United States Government Policy for Dual Use Research of Concern and Pathogens with Enhanced Pandemic Potential (“USG DURC-PEPP policy”) requires assessment of life sciences research at the proposal submission stage to ensure that risk assessments and mitigation plans are completed and approved prior to funding for any work deemed subject to the policy.

All U-M Principal Investigators proposing work with or generating any replication-competent infectious agent or proposing to work with a toxin of any amount from the Federal Select Agents and Toxins list must assess whether their research is reasonably anticipated to be within the scope of research categorized under the USG DURC-PEPP Policy. The ��-Dearborn Office of Research proposal staff will assist PIs with determining whether this assessment will be necessary for their proposals.

More information on the USG DURC-PEPP policy and the U-M implementation process is on the IBC DURC-PEPP webpage, and in the IBC Fast Facts: DURC-PEPP Edition. Contact ibcstaff@umich.edu with any questions.

Updates from the �� Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR)

As a reminder, OVPR continues to provide information, updates, and tracking of federal changes related to the university’s research enterprise on their Federal Research Blog page. This includes information about U-M’s internal program to support units in managing uncertainty related to funding stoppages, mitigate impacts to staff, and reduce risk to health and safety with respect to critical research already underway. Bookmark and check back often!

Abstract/SOW Now Required for All Proposals

Due to a change in the Proposal Approval Form (PAF) in eResearch, an abstract or statement of work is now a requirement for all proposals. For ��-Dearborn’s process, this will replace the three key terms we normally request for the PAF.

Research Events in May

IRWG Faculty Writing Retreat
- Join IRWG for a four-day writing retreat designed to foster productivity, connection, and support for feminist scholars. Enjoy structured writing time, goal setting, and reflections in a scenic setting at U-M Recreational Sports.
- IRWG’s Savannah Hall will be available for grant proposal consultations. Space is limited, and full attendance is expected. The venue is wheelchair accessible and near the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, perfect for breaks to enjoy nature. Light breakfast, lunch, and snacks will be provided. This event is only open to faculty.
- May 12-15, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
- Register here
��-Ann Arbor Office of Research Development Grant Prix Seminar Series
- ��-Ann Arbor Office of Research Development (ORD) has launched a seminar series on research proposal development, featuring a range of topics designed to boost grant writing expertise. View previous sessions on the ORD YouTube. Grant Prix will continue every third Friday of the month at 12 p.m. starting in February:
  - May 23: Broadening participation and inclusive excellence in grant proposals, virtual
- Register now for an opportunity to elevate your grant writing skills!
Michigan Medicine - Storage and Retention of Data
- Presented by IRBMED, a unit of the Medical School Office of Research, this course will review the fundamentals of maintaining confidentiality of subject data, including data encryption and protection, using secure environments and external websites, and distinguishing among anonymized, coded, and de- identified datasets.
- Tuesday, May 20, 1-2 p.m., virtual
- Register here
MICHR - Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR4K) Summer 2025
- RCR4K is a seminar that is designed to meet the requirements of the NIH K-23, or any federal or non-federal career development grant. The 5-session (10 hour) seminar is mostly interactive, practice-based, and focused on addressing RCR issues (ethics, integrity, and regulatory matters) that have arisen in the course of your own funded research. It is relevant, interactive, and includes mentoring from experienced faculty.
  - Session 1: Thursday, June 26, 9-11 a.m. - History of research ethics, Human subjects research regulations
  - Session 2: Thursday, July 17, 9-11 a.m. - Research integrity: falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism
  - Session 3: Thursday, Aug. 14, 9-11 a.m. - Authorship & Plagiarism
  - Session 4: Thursday, Sept. 18, 9-11 a.m. - Clinical Trial Design: The Support Trial
  - Session 5: Thursday, Oct. 16, 9-11 a.m. - Public Health Research, and Research with data and specimens: Henrietta Lacks and the Common Rule debate
- ��-Ann Arbor North Campus Research Complex, Bldg. 300, Room 376
- Register here

Research Resource Highlight: Reference Finder

Every month, the Office of Research features a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month, we are featuring Reference Finder.

Reference Finder is a research tool provided by the National Academies Press (NAP) and can be used to help identify community reports supporting the need for proposed research. Copy and paste brief content from an article or your rough draft, then click "Find Relevant Reports". Reference Finder analyzes the text you provide and identifies the reports that are most likely to have content that might apply to your needs.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

The Office of Research maintains a list of selected funding opportunities, organized by college on our website under Announcements. In addition, we encourage you to check out the Hanover Research subject area calendars with funding opportunities which we upload on a regular basis to our website.

Please refer to OVPR’s Tracking Federal Changes 2025 page for more information and updates related to the Trump administration's changes to federal research funding.

Use the updated U-M Research Commons to look up internal (to U-M) funding opportunities and Limited Submission opportunities open to Dearborn researchers.

Contact the ��-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.

Research

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Off

Mon, 05/12/2025 - 17:20

See which of your colleagues' work is getting funded, browse the calendar of upcoming research events and learn about ways to support your work.

Natalie Sampson named Distinguished Professor of the Year

lblouin — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 12:32:16 +0000

Natalie Sampson named Distinguished Professor of the Year lblouin Wed, 04/16/2025 - 08:32

Anyone who knows Natalie Sampson knows one of her more endearing (and perhaps Midwestern) traits is her reluctance to be in the spotlight — even when the attention is obviously due. Whenever we interview her about her work, which often has some connection to grassroots community organizations, she is quick to play up others’ hard work and contributions and lower the volume on her own. So it’s unsurprising that it's been a little uncomfortable for Sampson since the Michigan Association of State Universities shared that she had been selected as one of three Distinguished Professors of the Year for 2025. The news wasn't even public yet and Sampson was already sweating whether the invitations for her allotted guest list of seven for the Lansing awards ceremony should include her colleagues. "I didn’t want to bug them — ask them to drive to Lansing. They’re busy!” Sampson says, laughing. Luckily, her longtime friend and collaborator, the straight-talking Associate Professor of Sociology Carmel Price, told her to get over it. "She was, like, ‘They’re going to be upset if you don’t ask them.’”

Sampson’s aversion to attention is perhaps amplified a bit by the fact that, for much of her life, she’s not always been exactly comfortable in the world of academia. She says she definitely did not grow up with an eye on becoming an academic. Her father, who was an airline mechanic, and her mother, who was a customer service representative, grew up in an era where college degrees weren’t necessarily seen as prerequisites for solid, well-paying jobs. But both she and her older sister excelled in school, and their parents were huge cheerleaders when their daughters landed at the University of Michigan. In retrospect, Sampson sees it as a moment of generational transition in her own family — and one that also says something about the region. “My parents grew up at a time when it was Papa Ford and Papa Chevrolet, and people did quite well for a very long time without going to college,” Sampson says. “So for my family, this college thing was a different trajectory — especially because my sister studied sociology and I did environmental studies. I was lucky because my family was always very supportive. But I think there was this curiosity about what this would translate to.”

It took a little exploration during her undergraduate years at U-M to find her niche. Sampson says she gravitated to her major because she liked the outdoors, but not all of the coursework clicked: “I remember taking the woody plants class and memorizing all the different Latin names and the different kinds of acorns and thought, ‘Well, I’m definitely not going to be a conservationist,’” she says. However, through U-M’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, which is akin to ��-Dearborn’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, she found something that was a little more her speed. She got paired with a faculty member who was doing research around the health impacts of truck traffic on people living in neighborhoods near Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge. During her assignment, she got to talk with dozens of people in the neighborhood and witness some of the inner workings of grassroots community organizations. “I remember thinking, ‘This is research? If this is research, then I like research,’” she says.

It was indeed research — or a particular brand of research that was coming of age in the public health discipline at that time. Sampson says beginning in the late 1980s, some academics in the field were going through a bit of a what-is-it-all-for moment. There was an impulse to not simply use research to document, say, epidemiological trends, but to try to more deliberately use the data to actually improve, well, the public’s health. This sometimes meant interacting more directly with community organizations who were taking on big corporations or government agencies, or interrogating long-held assumptions about academic research, like the value or validity of “objectivity.” During her master’s program at Portland State University, Sampson got exposed to more examples of this kind of “action-oriented research.” During one of her internships, she collaborated closely with a small nonprofit that was working with residents on issues related to asthma. “I saw faculty listening to residents, and their experiences were shaping the research. I started to see, ‘Oh, this is how it works,’” she says.

Today, it’s easy to see the imprint of this approach on Sampson’s work. Along with Price and several partners, she co-created Environmental Health Research-to-Action, the flagship program of which is a summer academy that teaches high school students to do things like air and water quality monitoring, and to understand how environmental health science can support policy work. She’s also been working with community organizations and other academics on a plain language initiative, which is pushing government agencies like the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to use language that is understandable to everyday people, so they don’t feel alienated from decision making processes. And a few years back, during the planning stages of the Gordie Howe International Bridge — a project that promised to bring a vast amount of truck traffic to a neighborhood already burdened by poor air quality — her team’s community health survey of residents in Southwest Detroit helped push the city and state to agree to a landmark $45 million community benefits package. That agreement included an unprecedented relocation program that provided some residents of Detroit’s Delray neighborhood with the option of moving to a renovated Detroit Land Bank home. In typical Sampson fashion, she’s quick to point out that, in her opinion, her work made an impact because the timing was right. “This result is 100% due to the fact that this group had been organizing for 10 or 20 years, but they took that data and used that to support their argument for this community benefits agreement,” she says. “At that moment, the data just fit into that story.” Now, she says, another group, which is trying to get the city to design truck routes that don’t go through residential neighborhoods is using similar data that their community-academic teams are continuing to collect. The organizers’ work recently prompted the city to propose a new truck route ordinance.

Several years ago, Valeria Cossyleon, right, and Janine Hussein, left, were among the students who helped Sampson collect door-to-door health surveys in Detroit's Delray neighborhood. Photo by Lou Blouin

That community organizations, who are good at community organizing, and academics, who are good at collecting and presenting data, could collaborate in practical ways to improve the public’s health is something that makes intuitive sense. But in practice, Sampson says it doesn’t always work smoothly. As she sees it, the key ingredient is trust: University researchers who aren’t from the community, and who might speak in technical jargon, are often greeted with a healthy degree of skepticism by local residents, who don’t know how durable or broad their allyship is. Sampson says there were plenty of times early in her career where her status as an academic made her feel out of place in community meetings. But that has changed over time — and because of time. Trust, she says, is built through relationships, and relationships don’t arise out of thin air. Nowadays, she rarely feels that kind of awkwardness, namely because she’s been working with the same communities for years, sometimes decades. “That’s one reason I feel like it’s been a blessing for me to come to ��-Dearborn. I got to come back and work with people that I worked with as an undergrad when I was 20 years old,” she says. “Simone Sagovac, who now runs the Southwest Detroit Community Benefits Coalition, I know I have a picture of us somewhere at some meeting and I’m 20 years old, and I have an eyebrow pierced, and I’m not dressed professionally. And now here we are, a couple decades later, and we’re older ladies, some of us with gray hair, still working together, still trying to collect the data, because there’s so much frickin’ work to do.”

In the classroom, Sampson is always nudging her students to think about the practical applications of environmental health science too. She says she’s benefited greatly from teaching the same two courses — Community Organizing and Introduction to Environmental Health — for years now, which has enabled her to continually refine the curriculum. One of her go-to assignments in her environmental health class is to ask each student to bring in their municipal drinking water quality report, which local utilities are required to provide to residents. It’s a simple but powerful prompt. For one, many students discover for the first time things about their drinking water that aren’t great. And even the sheer challenge of deciphering these technical reports reveals that government documents aren’t always presenting important scientific data in ways that are easily understood — which in turns, stunts residents’ abilities to push their public officials when there is a problem. And for many semesters in her community organizing course, it’s been a staple assignment for students to partner with community groups on practical projects, like a collaboration a few years ago where students helped a group in south Dearborn write a grant proposal to support their work around air quality. She also recently did something she thought she’d never do: create a textbook. It has a benign sounding name: “Environmental Health: Foundations for Public Health.” But the content, featuring contributions from a diverse range of leading voices in the field, is far edgier, emphasizing the broad scope of the discipline, including the community-based approaches that originally inspired her.

Now a couple decades into her own public health journey, Sampson senses she might be entering a moment of transition. She says it’s a little weird to look around and see that she’s now one of three senior faculty members in the Health and Human Services Department. One of her colleagues, who’s just a little younger than her, recently recoiled when she casually referred to them both as “middle age.” And she’s also increasingly interested in exploring other approaches in her quest to make environmental health science universally accessible, including ones that utilize the arts. She’s also feeling more of a generational divide in the classroom, especially the past few years. In particular, she’s observing an increasing reluctance of students to talk — “like, at all” — in class, something she attributes a little bit to COVID, but mostly to the fact that young people’s lives are increasingly lived online. It’s something she can sort of relate to. “I never talked in class as an undergrad,” she says. “And I’m definitely sympathetic to students who are feeling anxiety about that. But many of them are going to be clinicians. A huge part of their jobs is going to be talking to people. So you have to practice. Definitely, one of my biggest priorities as an instructor is just creating any opportunity to make them talk.”

She also tries to keep their spirits up. Public health can, frankly, be a depressing subject much of the time, and she does feel like younger generations are living with a different kind of weight on their shoulders as they realize most of their lives will be lived in the climate change era. During her periodic efforts to bring them up to speed on current events, she makes sure to find at least some good news from the world. And it’s now one of her standard assignments to challenge them to do something for their mental health. (This semester, they are listening to a playlist of songs, crowd-sourced from the class, that get them pumped up.) She concedes that this kind of positivity can sometimes be a “performance.” But it’s also something that keeps her own motor going. “It’s funny: Sometimes I feel like I’m just getting started. And some days I feel like I’m ready to retire!” she says. “But there are always opportunities to reinvent.”

###

Story by Lou Blouin

Health and Human Services

Off

Wed, 04/16/2025 - 12:30

The associate professor of public health talks about her sometimes uncomfortable relationship with academia, the politics of community-centered research and the challenge of getting today’s students to talk in class.

Associate Professor of Public Health Natalie Sampson, far right, says she loves that she's been able to teach the same two courses for much of her career, which has allowed her to both experiment with and refine the curriculum. Photo by Annie Barker

Meeting future business needs today

stuxbury — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 12:43:25 +0000

Meeting future business needs today stuxbury Mon, 04/07/2025 - 08:43

Over the next three years, 92% of companies plan to increase their artificial intelligence investments, according to a 2025 global report. Assistant Professor of Marketing Mainak Sarkar — an expert in AI marketing — is preparing the next generation of professionals for this paradigm shift in ��-Dearborn’s College of Business classrooms.

Sarkar, who started at COB in Fall 2024, recently worked as an assistant professor at University of Stavanger in Norway and was a visiting scholar at ��-Ann Arbor’s Ross School of Business after earning his doctorate in marketing in 2022 from ESSEC Business School in France. His AI-focused dissertation led to Sarkar having one of the most downloaded papers on SSRN’s e-library in the areas of customer relationship management, managerial marketing and marketing science.

Drawing from his research, Sarkar is currently developing a new marketing analytics course — which will be offered during the 2025-26 academic year — to get ��-Dearborn students familiar with a variety of marketing models. "The course is for students to be knowledgeable about the existing traditional approaches of doing marketing analytics and know how to leverage the latest AI methods,” he says. “It's important to be prepared for today and for the future."

As focused as Sarkar is on teaching business and optimizing AI technologies for business use, he didn’t start there. As a young adult in India, where Sarkar grew up, he originally went into a field where he’d quickly land a job. “Information technology in India is quite big and I was focused on where I could get a job once I graduated,” says Sarkar, who earned a bachelor of technology degree from West Bengal University of Technology in Kolkata in 2011.

After a couple years working as an IT professional, Sarkar realized that he needed to follow his passion for the business field. “When you are doing something purely engineering-oriented, you see how the technical side of things work. That’s very good, but you are missing that understanding of your work’s larger purpose, the business side. I had a lot of curiosity,” he says. “I’d read business books about finance and marketing — I’d try to read everything I could when it came to business topics. My interest and curiosity was so strong that I decided it’s a world I wanted to explore.” Sarkar earned his MBA from the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon in 2015.

Sarkar blended his IT background with business strategy when he took a marketing role with a financial services company shortly after earning his MBA. “I was devising all these strategies that would be pitched to the customer as they moved along their relationship with the company. For example, if someone takes a certain loan for a two-year period — I’d use programming and data to look into what would be the best next product to sell to that customer,” he says. “I found those projects really interesting, and that made me want to delve even deeper into marketing.”

Then a major event dominated the conversation in Sarkar’s professional social circles: the DeepMind Challenge Match. In 2016, the AI bot AlphaGo beat the world’s best player of Go, a board game that’s considered more complex than chess. “Not only that, it was able to come up with completely new moves which humans had never thought about previously,” Sarkar says. “That got my attention and made me realize that AI is going to be something very important in the coming years.”

Thinking about his marketing work with the bank, Sarkar realized that AI could optimize managing customer relationships. “From a business side, AI customer relationship models can help you target customers better, which can lead to more profits. From the customer side, you can better personalize the experience and quickly connect them with what they may want or need,” he says. “So I would say AI can create a win-win for both the customer and the business.” And that led Sarkar to return to school — this time for a doctorate in marketing — to research AI in marketing.

Sarkar’s dissertation research led to a publication that was the first of its kind. He showed how deep-learning sequence models in customer relationship management systems can be more effective and efficient than traditional marketing methods. “Natural language models are trained to predict the next word in a sentence. If you repeat that for enough number of times, it develops an understanding of an overall topic, which can lead to it answering different questions that you can ask it,” says Sarkar, noting a chatbot can be an example of a natural language model. “My research was on using these kinds of language models and not just using them to develop chatbots — but to develop customer relationship models that can predict and analyze customer behavior. My research showed that it can predict, with high accuracy, how customer behavior will unfold.”

Seeing the power of AI, Sarkar — just as the 2025 report points out — expects to see it used more and more in business. He wants to teach the next generation of professionals how to effectively implement it when it comes to marketing strategies. And ��-Dearborn is the right place for him to do that.

“��-Dearborn is special because it has smaller class sizes and this allows me to provide more individualized attention to our students,” he says. “The University of Michigan brand has a reputation for developing leaders and it is an honor to teach here.”

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

College of Business

Off

Mon, 04/07/2025 - 12:42

New College of Business Assistant Professor Mainak Sarkar, a former visiting scholar with ��-Ann Arbor’s Ross School of Business, brings his artificial intelligence expertise to ��-Dearborn.

Assistant Professor of Marketing Mainak Sarkar brings his AI expertise into the classroom. Photo courtesy of Mainak Sarkar

How postdocs help faculty take research to another level

lblouin — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 16:34:51 +0000

How postdocs help faculty take research to another level lblouin Mon, 03/31/2025 - 12:34

When students complete a doctoral degree, they’re at the top of one of the highest mountains in higher education. But just like undergraduates facing post-graduation anxiety, postdoctoral life can represent a fraught time for recent PhD graduates. For those interested in long-term careers in academia, they’re likely embarking on job searches for highly competitive faculty positions. And if someone wants to work in the private sector, employers in at least some industries seem to balk at hiring highly trained applicants with little industry experience — simply because they generally command higher salaries than those with less-advanced degrees.

Director of Research Development Vessela Vassileva-Clarke
Photo by Julianne Lindsey

But there is another option for recent PhD grads: working as a postdoctoral researcher. As the name suggests, this is a research position at a university, typically lasting one to three years, that someone takes after they finish their PhD. ��-Dearborn Director of Research Development Vessela Vassileva-Clarke says this may be an attractive route for a number of reasons. For example, if a person isn’t quite sure whether they want to go into academia or industry, a postdoc position can simply buy someone a little time to figure it out, while they continue to stay active and build a research portfolio. And for those who are definitely interested in faculty positions, doing a postdoc can help someone burnish their CV if, say, they weren't able to publish as much as they’d liked during their PhD program. In addition, depending on the arrangement between the researcher and their faculty advisor, Vassileva-Clarke says a postdoc position might give someone a chance to log some teaching experience — or even pursue an externally funded grant for a research project that they co-lead with a faculty member. Moreover, a postdoc gives recent PhD grads experiences in other core parts of academic life that they may not have gotten in their doctoral programs, like proposal writing.

��-Dearborn currently has about a dozen postdoctoral researchers working on campus, the vast majority of whom are working with faculty in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Rongheng Li, who finished his PhD at ��-Dearborn under Mechanical Engineering Professor Ben Q. Li in 2019, says the opportunity to do a postdoc actually grew organically out of his doctoral research experience. His research focused on some of the advanced mathematical challenges associated with the use of nanoparticles in photovoltaic systems, which is seen as a promising way of improving output from solar panels. But then one day, toward the end of his PhD program, Li found himself chatting with Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Xuan (Joe) Zhou. The two of them discovered that a lot of the same mathematical methods Li was using in the area of photovoltaics might have interesting applications for battery research, which is Zhou’s specialty. Now, as a postdoc, Li is working on several of Zhou’s funded projects, including one exploring how well used EV batteries perform when used in a grid-tied storage system.

“A lot of my prior work has been very theoretical, so working with Dr. Zhou is giving me a chance to learn in a more experimental setting,” Li says. “I’m learning new instrumentation, and I got to visit the clean room in Ann Arbor, where they are working on a variety of projects. So I think it’s going to be quite valuable for me to get this hands-on experience, including with batteries, which is a technology that’s so important for the future.” Another big payoff for Li: He’s getting to work closely with the research team’s industry partners, which is helping him see how private sector projects are managed and how their teams work. After his postdoc, he thinks he’ll likely be applying for faculty jobs in the United States. But he’s not opposed to a position in the private sector, and he thinks the practical experience he’s logging during his postdoc will make him a more competitive candidate.

Rongheng Li completed his PhD at ��-Dearborn in 2019 and now works as a postdoctoral researcher. Photo by Annie Barker

Gajendra Singh Chawda followed a different path to ��-Dearborn for his postdoc. Chawda finished his PhD in electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in early 2022 and took a postdoctoral research position there after graduation. But he really wanted to get experience at an American university, and when he saw a posting for a postdoctoral research position working with Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Wencong Su, he felt like it would be a great fit. Chawda’s work focuses on the complexities of integrating renewable energy into the electric grid and renewable energy access for economically disadvantaged communities — which happen to be two of Su’s research interests. Currently, Chawda is working on some foundational research on high-frequency AC microgrids — a technology that many researchers and industry experts see as vital for modernizing the electric grid so it can accommodate more renewable energy and battery storage. Chawda says one of the other big perks of the position is that he gets to work as a lecturer — the first time he’s had the opportunity to teach students outside of a lab setting.

Moreover, it’s also been an exciting time for his family. His wife and daughter accompanied him for this adventure in the United States, and Chawda says his daughter loves her school in Dearborn Heights. “She’s always so excited to come home and show me what she’s done at school,” he says. “The American education system is a lot different. In India, I would say it’s more focused on books and, here, students seem to do a lot of activities. For example, she came home the other day and was so proud to show me the house that she built.” Like Li, Chawda says he’s hoping to find a faculty position at an American university after his postdoc and thinks having that experience on his CV will boost his chances of success.

Aside from the professional benefits to postdoctoral researchers, Vassileva-Clarke says there are huge benefits for their faculty supervisors. “The impact is tremendous. Postdoctoral researchers are just so helpful to faculty members because they are already trained and highly skilled, so they can help a faculty member with so many things that are so time consuming, like proposal writing, hands-on research in the lab, or research training and mentoring of students,” Vassileva-Clarke says. “PhD students are super helpful too, but you still have to train them, advise them, and then some of them find out research is not their calling. So a postdoc really extends the bandwidth of the faculty member.”

Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry Christos Constantinides
Photo by Annie Barker

Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry Christos Constantinides can vouch for that. As an early-career faculty member working towards tenure, he was excited to recently land a large grant from the U.S. Department of Energy supporting research that could improve nuclear magnetic resonance-based technologies like MRI. But with a demanding course load teaching organic chemistry to undergraduates, he frankly needs help with the very labor-intensive, advanced chemistry that the DOE-funded project demands. A postdoc was really his only option, since some of the work is too advanced for the undergraduate students he’ll also be hiring for the project, and his department doesn’t have a PhD program he can use to recruit doctoral students.

When he posted the position, Constantinides was surprised to get 65 applicants. He finds that pretty encouraging given that ��-Dearborn just recently earned an R2 designation and he’s still in the process of making his name in the field. But as someone who did a three-year postdoc himself, which he says is a prerequisite to getting a tenure-track position in his discipline, Constantinides gets the logic. “You can go work for a big name at a big university, and if everything goes well, you’ll get your publications and, most importantly, get a letter of recommendation from your mentor. You’re basically going to get a job at that point. But if you don’t get the letter, it can be the kiss of death,” Constantinides says. “That big name — you’re going to see that person maybe one or two hours a week. And, frankly, they don’t need the publications. Me, though? I need the papers. So if you come work with me, you’re going to get more support, more mentorship and hopefully more publications. It’s kind of a gamble either way, but for some people, this postdoc opportunity is going to feel like a good bet.”

###

Story by Lou Blouin

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Natural Sciences

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Off

Mon, 03/31/2025 - 16:31

Postdoctoral researchers on campus are another sign of ��-Dearborn’s growing research culture. But what exactly do postdocs do, and why can they be a game changer for university research?

Postdoctoral researcher Gajendra Singh Chawda is currently researching high-frequency AC microgrids with Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Wencong Su. Photo by Annie Barker

Office of Research update for April 2025

lblouin — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 14:23:26 +0000

Office of Research update for April 2025 lblouin Mon, 03/31/2025 - 10:23

External Awards Received

U-M Principal Investigator: Tian An Wong
Project Title: Assessing Surveillance Efficacy and Fostering Visions for Community Safety for Social Justice in Detroit, MI
Sponsor: American Council of Learned Societies (via University of Cincinnati)
Awarded Amount: $23,500

The Safety Ain’t Surveillance Coalition is a citywide organization seeking to build non-punitive ways to build safety across our city, without continued reliance on surveillance technologies that strip Detroiters of their privacy while criminalizing Black neighborhoods and people. The research work will involve collaborating with community members to address the current divide between digital justice, racial injustice and public safety. We are carrying out this work by building critical perspectives that inform the protection of rights to privacy in the nation's largest majority-Black city through collaborative analysis, the development of a layered interactive digital map, and corresponding oral histories of Detroiters addressing digital justice, racial injustice and public safety.

U-M Principal Investigator: Jacob Napieralski
Project Title: Building and Enhancing Environmental Education and Stewardship in SE Michigan
Sponsor: DTE Energy Foundation
Awarded Amount: $18,000

The goal of this project is to increase access to and diversity of educational programming at the ��-Dearborn Environmental Interpretive Center for homeschool groups, K-12 classes, community members and our campus community in 2025. Engaging with as many residents (young and old) as possible will generate informed citizens that can tackle tough issues and help shift communities toward sustainability and equity. The project will also support stewardship opportunities to manage the natural area, both in terms of improving the safety and quality of the habitats.

Announcements

Tracking Federal Changes: ��OR Research Blog

The U-M Office of Research has continued to monitor and update their research blog Tracking Federal Changes related to ongoing changes in the federal administration. There you will find useful information such as the process for appealing terminated federal awards, as well as eligibility for the new research funding program that was developed in response to federal stop-work orders.

Resources for Faculty Preparing Proposals to NSF

The Office of Research Administration provides instruction and guidance documents for faculty who are working to prepare a proposal or manage an award from NSF. Interested faculty can find this information at this link in Google Drive.

Research Events in April

U-M Library, Introduction to Zotero for Citation Management
- Zotero, a free citation management tool that lets you easily organize and cite all the resources you use for your research. In this workshop, you will:
  - Set up your Zotero account
  - Learn how to get citations into Zotero
  - Create and organize personal and group libraries
  - Annotate the PDFs you read
  - Add a bibliography and in-text citations in your Google Docs or Microsoft Word document.
  - Please note: To use Zotero, you will need a desktop or laptop computer – not a Chromebook or tablet – capable of downloading software. While having a desktop or laptop is not required during the workshop, it would help if you plan to get your account set up during this session.
- Thursday, April 3, 12-1 p.m., virtual
- Register here
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Seminars
- The Ann Arbor Office of the Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering is hosting an NSF CAREER seminar series and has extended an invitation to interested Dearborn faculty to join. Registration is required- register for individual events using the links below.
- NSF CAREER: How to Address Reviewer Feedback - Friday, April 4, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. - 3725 Bob and Betty Beyster Building
- NSF CAREER: Project Description: The Research Plan - Thursday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF Panel TBD - Thursday, May 8, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. - Ford Library
American Cancer Society (ACS), Extramural Discovery Science Grants Workshop
- The Extramural Discovery Science Grants Workshop, hosted by the American Cancer Society (ACS), will provide tips on applying for the upcoming spring application cycle. The ACS awards research grants and fellowships to promising scientists early in their careers who have unique hypotheses for cancer prevention and study.
- Wednesday, April 9, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
- Register here by April 7.
IRB-HSBS, IRB On-the-Road Drop-In Session
- Elizabeth Molina, the ��-Dearborn Health and Services and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB-HSBS) liaison will be resuming the virtual “IRB On-the-Road” sessions once a month for any study team members who would like to have a one-on-one discussion about any questions they may have about the IRB process.
- Wednesday, April 16, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
��-Ann Arbor Office of Research Development Grant Prix Seminar Series
- ��-Ann Arbor Office of Research Development (ORD) has launched a seminar series on research proposal development, featuring a range of topics designed to boost grant writing expertise. View previous sessions on the ORD YouTube. Grant Prix will continue every third Friday of the month at 12 p.m. starting in February:
  - April 25: NIH Updates to the Biosketch and using SciENcv, virtual
  - May 23: Broadening participation and inclusive excellence in grant proposals, virtual
- Register now for an opportunity to elevate your grant writing skills!

Research Resource Highlight: National Institutes of Health Bio Art Graphics Collection

Every month, the Office of Research features a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month, we are featuring the free National Institutes of Health Bio Art Graphics collection.

NIH offers over 2,000 high-quality scientific and medical graphics for free to aid researchers, educators and healthcare professionals. These graphics serve to enhance presentations and research by providing accurate visual representations of complex scientific concepts. The collection includes various file formats, making it easy to use in research papers, presentations or proposals, enhancing their impact. NIH 3D also offers an open, community-driven portal to download, share and create bioscientific and medical 3D models for 3D printing and interactive 3D visualization, including virtual and augmented reality. Access the free collections here: NIH Bio Art Graphics and NIH 3D.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

Please refer to OVPR’s Tracking Federal Changes 2025 page for more information and updates related to the Trump administration's changes to federal research funding.

Use the updated U-M Research Commons to look up internal (to U-M) funding opportunities and Limited Submission opportunities open to Dearborn researchers.

Contact the ��-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.

Research

Off

Mon, 03/31/2025 - 14:19

See which of your colleagues' work is getting funded, browse the calendar of upcoming research events and learn about ways to support your work.

Reconstructing a life through letters

stuxbury — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 15:13:37 +0000

Reconstructing a life through letters stuxbury Mon, 03/17/2025 - 11:13

Surrounded by nearly 1,000 handwritten letters in an attic, History Professor Anna Müller got a front-row seat to what it was like to live throughout the historic turmoil of the 20th century.

The letters — written by a Polish Jewish woman named Tonia Lechtman — documented wars, prisons and the efforts to rebuild Poland through the eyes of someone who experienced all of these things. The letters included the ways Lechtman’s life was connected to anti-British actions in Palestine during the 1930s, as well as the Spanish Civil War, the Nazi occupation of France, Auschwitz, the Cold War and more.

“Tonia just tried to live day to day, just like you and me. She was an ordinary person. But the world around her was not ordinary. It was collapsing. Even through adversity, she made decisions influenced by kindness and care,” says Müller, recalling that Lechtman, who lived from 1918 to 1996, helped reconnect war orphans with surviving family members

After nearly a decade working with Lechtman’s children, reading the letters from the attic and tracing the government paper trail Lechtman left behind, Müller documented Lechtman’s life in her most recent book, “An Ordinary Life? The Journeys of Tonia Lechtman.” In it, Müller follows Lechtman’s life through multiple countries — Poland, Palestine, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Israel — during some of the most pivotal and cataclysmal decades of the 20th century.

The book cover for "An Ordinary Life? The Journeys of Tonia Lechtman"

“In most of those places, she lived on the margins of society,” Müller says. “She wanted a better world than the one she saw around her. She wanted to create a safe space for her small children. She wanted to do what she could to help others. I think many of us can identify with that.”

However, Lechtman’s efforts came at a personal cost. “Tonia’s decisions, along with her identity, got her followed by governments, imprisoned and tortured,” says Müller, who shares that Lechtman identified as a Jewish woman, feminist, communist, refugee and migrant. “Tonia lived into her 70s and later reflected on if the struggle was worth it. She never said it wasn't.”

Born in Lodz, Poland, Lechtman moved to Palestine with her parents in the 1930s as a teen because of rising antisemitism in Poland. In Palestine, when Lechtman was aged about 19, she advocated for Palestinians, who were displaced due to immigration waves — and she was imprisoned and later exiled by the British, who controlled the land at the time.

With a man she met and married in Palestine, Lechtman relocated to France in 1937. Her husband then left to join the Spanish Civil War, leaving her with two young children. After the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, Lechtman was sent to Nexon, a French internment camp near Limoges. She was rounded up for transport to Auschwitz in 1942. But a June 15, 1942 memorandum from SS Captain Theodor Dannecker said children under 16 should be excluded from the Final Solution. And Lechtman had two. “From my research, there isn't a more direct answer on why Tonia eluded Auschwitz, but we know she was excluded from being sent there,” Müller says.

Lechtman’s husband, Sioma, was sent to Auschwitz after fighting on the losing side during the Spanish Civil War. He died there. After Lechtman’s release from the Nexon internment camp, she fled to Switzerland as a refugee in 1942 and returned to her homeland of Poland in 1946 to help rebuild the country.

Tonia and Sioma Lechtman, circa 1937

Once back in Poland, Lechtman was impacted by the Cold War, Müller says. Suspicious of American influences, the Soviet-controlled Polish government imprisoned Lechtman from 1949 to 1954 because of the American ties she made through her humanitarian work. For example, Lechtman helped set up a hospital in southern Poland with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Aid.

“Even when she made it back to her homeland, dictatorships continued to deprive her of freedom. While in that prison, she was severely beaten, lost all of her teeth and, after prison, she was subjected to electroshock therapy for mental health treatment,” Müller says. “In a letter Tonia wrote after she got out, she said that she didn’t regret the choices that she made.” She stayed in Poland to support her country following her release until 1971, when Lechtman moved to Israel to be closer to her grandchildren and daughter, Vera, who relocated there as an adult. During that time, Poland was experiencing another wave of antisemitism.

“It’s incredible what Tonia lived through,” Müller says. “Even after she was released from prison, she maintained this calm, positive outlook and talked about helping people in her letters. She kept saying that it was going to be OK.”

Müller, who is from Poland, learned about Lechtman in 2010 while doing research about women in Polish prisons. One of the former female prisoners Müller spoke with for that research work mentioned Lechtman and Müller wanted to learn more about her.

Müller knew that Lechtman had died, but she reached out to Lechtman’s children. During a conversation with Lechtman’s daughter Vera, Müller learned there were letters in Vera’s attic written by her mother that spanned more than 50 years. The first one was written when she was a child, around age 8, while vacationing in Poland. Letters continued throughout her life, on average of three or four a month. They were from prisons, the Swiss refugee camp, the French internment camp and more.

Müller says the source material drew her into the project. But getting to know Lechtman through the letters — which were written in Polish, French, German and Hebrew — encouraged her to write the book.

“We often hear interesting family stories during historic times that were passed down, but we often don’t have documentation to back them up,” Müller says. “Famous people are written about more because their lives are documented in the news or very often they write their histories themselves. Ordinary people usually don’t have that, even when things are extraordinary. However, in this case, because all these letters were saved, I was able to connect the dots and reconstruct her story.”

Now Lechtman’s life, which was once remembered through family stories and letters in an attic, is out there for the world to read.

Interested in learning more about Müller’s book or having her speak at an event regarding her research? Contact Müller here.

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

Off

Mon, 03/17/2025 - 15:11

History Professor Anna Müller read through handwritten letters that spanned 50-plus years and several countries to share the story of an ordinary woman who lived during an extraordinary time.

History Professor Anna Müller documented Tonia Lechtman’s life in Müller most recent book, “An Ordinary Life? The Journeys of Tonia Lechtman.” Photo by Sarah Tuxbury

Office of Research update for March 2025

lblouin — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 12:22:01 +0000

Office of Research update for March 2025 lblouin Wed, 03/12/2025 - 08:22

External Awards Received

U-M Principal Investigator: Pravansu Mohanty
Project Title: Digital Enterprise Technology for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle Phase II
Sponsor: Department of Defense - Army (via National Center for Manufacturing Sciences)
Award Amount: $1,645,200

This project supports the Army’s Digital Transformation Strategy by creating a collaborative digital engineering environment where industry partners can improve the design, manufacturing, and maintenance of military systems. By using digital tools and models, teams can manage engineering changes more efficiently, optimize supply chains, and reduce costs. The project also includes workforce development efforts, offering training in systems engineering and digital technologies to better prepare professionals for the future of defense manufacturing.

U-M Principal Investigator: Suvranta Tripathy
Project Title: Elucidating the Impact of Early Endosomal pH on SARS-CoV-2 Transport in Cardiomyocytes
Sponsor: American Heart Association
Awarded Amount: $199,327

Cardiac injury is the most frequent complication of COVID-19. We aim to understand how the virus gets into heart cells, hoping to find ways to stop it. The virus is taken into the heart cell within a membrane-bound compartment known as an endosome. The acidity in the endosomes typically increases as the compartment moves from the cell periphery towards the inside. Intriguingly, genetic studies of COVID-19 patients have highlighted the importance of the protein NHE9 in controlling this acidity. Higher levels of NHE9 make the endosome less acidic, which we observed disrupts the virus's journey within the cell and makes it harder for it to infect. This disruption involves how tiny "motor proteins" move the endosomes along pathways within the cell. We will study how changes in NHE9 manipulate the acidity to affect the movement of the virus-containing endosomes, including the role of these motor proteins. The goal is to see if targeting NHE9 could be a new way to stop viral entry and prevent COVID-19 related heart damage.

U-M Principal Investigator: Finn Bell
Project Title: The Least of These: Violence, freedom, and the promise of a new world
Direct Sponsor: American Bar Foundation
Awarded Amount: $36,000

The Least of These traces the legacy of black freedom making in former slave societies. It attends to the ways that emergent collectives imagined and enacted forms of freedom, for themselves and for others, and worked toward a future without bondage. The project does so to better inform how we might design a more just world. The project is led by Reuben Jonathan Miller at the University of Chicago. Bell lends methodological expertise on oral history and research coordination.

U-M Principal Investigator: Zhen Hu
Project Title: Surrogate Modeling for Dynamic Systems Based on Reduced-Order Modeling
Direct Sponsor: Sandia National Laboratories
Awarded Amount: $80,000

Hu will work with researchers from Sandia National Laboratories to develop reduced-order modeling techniques for fast surrogate modeling of computational expensive nonlinear dynamic systems. The surrogate model will accelerate the analysis, monitoring and control of complex nonlinear dynamics systems.

U-M Principal Investigator: Christos Constantinides
Project Title: Leveraging Radical Dynamics to Generate Nuclear Spin Hyperpolarization
Direct Sponsor: Department of Energy
Award Amount: $600,000

This project aims to improve Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a technique used to analyze molecular structures, by developing new materials that enhance signal strength. By designing and testing special molecules called radicals, this project aims to make NMR imaging more sensitive and efficient. This could lead to better tools for studying chemistry, materials and even medical imaging.

Announcements

��-Dearborn Earns the R2 Carnegie Classification

Earlier this month, ��-Dearborn was reclassified as an R2 institution–a designation for universities with high research activity and one of three classifications for doctoral universities, along with R1 (very high research activity) and D/PU (doctoral/professional universities).

This designation comes from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education for universities that award at least 20 research doctorates and have $5 million average annual research spending. It is the first time the university has received this designation. See the Reporter article here!

��OR Continues to Monitor Updates to Federal Funding

The U-M Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) continues to update their webpage for researchers and administrators to track information related to federal directives that may impact research and federally sponsored projects. Everyone is encouraged to visit this page periodically to view the most recent updates and recommendations from OVPR.

Virtual Gift Card Option for Human Subjects Payments

The Human Subjects Incentives Program (HSIP) has added an option for virtual gift cards that can be e-mailed to subjects. Researchers who have IRB approval to provide gift cards to research participants can submit their requests through our HSIP Request form to obtain such payments, including electronic gift cards.

Research Events in March

M-PACT Career Development Series: Early-Career Faculty as Change Agents
- In this webinar, you will discover strategies to navigate tenure while remaining a committed change agent. Experience insightful discussions with both early-career and seasoned faculty who will share their experiences and lessons learned. The webinar will provide valuable resources to enhance leadership skills and foster advocacy for emerging academic leaders. Designed to both inspire and equip, this session will prepare early-career faculty to excel as both scholars and transformational leaders.
- Registration required
- Wednesday, March 10 @ 12 p.m., virtual
IRWG; Sustaining Feminist Research in an Era of Change
- Join the ��-Ann Arbor Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG) for an engaging town hall focused on navigating the changing research landscape with confidence and innovation. This conversation will highlight the experiences of scholars who have successfully adapted to shifts in politics, policy, funding, and institutional priorities — offering actionable insights for the future. Panelists will share their experiences, discuss strategies and take questions from attendees.
- Thursday, March 13 @ 4-5:30 p.m.
  - In-person (location TBD) and virtual option
  - Registration required
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Seminars
- The Ann Arbor Office of the Associate Dean for Research, College of Engineering is hosting an NSF CAREER seminar series and has extended an invitation to interested Dearborn faculty to join. Registration is required- register for individual events using the links below.
- NSF CAREER: Structuring your CAREER for Reviewers - Thursday, March 13, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF CAREER: How to Address Reviewer Feedback - Friday, April 4, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - 3336 Duderstadt or Robotics
- NSF CAREER: Project Description: The Research Plan - Thursday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Johnson Rooms 3rd Floor LEC
- NSF Panel TBD - Thursday, May 8, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. - Ford Library
IRB-HSBS, IRB On-the-Road Drop-In Session
- Elizabeth Molina, the ��-Dearborn Health and Services and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB-HSBS) liaison will be resuming the virtual “IRB On-the-Road” sessions once a month for any study team members who would like to have a one-on-one discussion about any questions they may have about the IRB process.
- Wednesday, March 19, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
- Wednesday, April 16, 2-3:30 p.m., virtual
PERI Winter 2025 Focused Intensive: Strategically Navigating Projects for Public Impact
- The Office of Public Engagement and Research Impacts is hosting a Winter 2025 Focused Intensive, composed of four virtual learning experience sessions between Feb. 21 and March 21 on planning and managing projects for public impact, including designing, implementing, evaluating, and closing projects and partnerships. Participants will explore and apply frameworks, resources and best practices in equitable, collaborative project planning and management to an initiative of the participant's choosing. All U-M faculty, research trainees and research support staff are welcome to apply. Faculty are eligible for $500 in research discretionary funds after completing the final session.
  - Session 3: Keeping Your Project on Track (or Changing Course if Necessary); Friday, March 14 - 10-11:30 a.m., virtual
  - Session 4: Transitioning and Wrapping up for Impact; Friday, March 21, 10-11:30 a.m., virtual
- Registration required
��-Ann Arbor Office of Research Development Grant Prix Seminar Series
- ��-Ann Arbor Office of Research Development (ORD) has launched a seminar series on research proposal development, featuring a range of topics designed to boost grant writing expertise. View previous sessions on the ORD YouTube. Grant Prix will continue every third Friday of the month at 12 p.m. starting in February:
  - March 28: Budgeting for large-scale proposals, virtual
  - April 25: NIH Updates to the Biosketch (and using SciENcv, virtual)
  - May 23: Broadening participation and inclusive excellence in grant proposals, virtual
- Register now for an opportunity to elevate your grant writing skills!
MICHR, Communicating the Value of Your Research to a Broad Audience: How to Tailor Communications to Specific People or Groups
- This two-hour workshop will teach the importance of value propositions and tailoring research communication in a way that makes it compelling for every audience. Often referred to as the “elevator pitch,” you will have the opportunity to create a short, professional introduction for your research that can be used at any social gathering, departmental meeting, or professional conference. You will learn how to tailor your elevator pitch to fit the different audiences and situations you may face in the future.
- This workshop is sponsored by FastForward, Office of Faculty Development, and MICHR.
- Faculty can register. If you are a U-M staff member or student, please contact Faculty Development at ��MS-Faculty-Development@med.umich.edu to request registration.
- Thursday, March 13 @ 12-2:00 p.m., virtual

Research Resource Highlight: Protocols.io

Every month, the Office of Research features a resource and/or tool that is available for researchers. This month we are featuring Protocols.io.

Protocols.io is a free and open-access repository and workflow tool for researchers to collaboratively create step-by-step, interactive, and dynamic protocols that can be read and run on mobile or the web. With protocols.io, you can share protocols with colleagues, collaborators, or specific research communities while maintaining control over who sees your work. Alternatively, you can make your protocols publicly discoverable, ensuring you receive credit and enabling other researchers to build on your work. The platform's versioning, Q&A, and troubleshooting features foster real-time communication. To learn more, please visit the protocols.io website.

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

The Office of Research maintains a list of selected funding opportunities, organized by college on our website under Announcements. In addition, yearly grant calendars organized by subject area provided by Hanover Research are available there as well.

Please refer to the Research Resource Highlight section above for more information and updates related to the Trump administration's changes to federal research funding.

Use the updated U-M Research Commons to look up internal (to U-M) funding opportunities and Limited Submission opportunities open to Dearborn researchers.

Contact the ��-Dearborn Office of Research if you would like more information about submitting a proposal to any of the programs.

Research

Off

Wed, 03/12/2025 - 12:21

See which of your colleagues' work is getting funded, browse the calendar of upcoming research events and learn about ways to support your work.

��-Dearborn earns R2 research designation

lblouin — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 12:34:13 +0000

��-Dearborn earns R2 research designation lblouin Wed, 02/26/2025 - 07:34

By every big metric that Vice Provost for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies Armen Zakarian tracks, ��-Dearborn’s research enterprise is on a tear. The big top line stat: Since 2018, externally funded research expenditures have nearly tripled, increasing from $4.8 million to a projected $13.2 million for FY25. Earlier this month, that growth led to a reclassification of ��-Dearborn as an R2 institution, a designation from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education for universities that award at least 20 research doctorates and have $5 million average annual research spending. It’s the first time the university has received this designation. ��-Dearborn Chancellor Domenico Grasso says the honorific is, without a doubt, an important new feather in the cap for the university. But, for him, the real achievement is all the work that it’s a reflection of. “This recognizes something which we already accomplished — and that is great and I’m very proud of that — but we were going to do it anyway. And honestly, we’re not even satisfied with where we are. There remains enormous untapped potential, so this is really just the start for us,” Grasso says.

So how did we get here? Zakarian and Grasso point to a number of contributing factors. Flash back to 2018 and Zakarian says you’d see an institution where research was “recognized but not prioritized.” The tone changed when Grasso came in and made growing the university’s research and scholarly output one of his top priorities. “In my view, distinguished universities are defined by a faculty comprising scholar-teachers. To my mind, the definition of a professor is someone who is a scholar at the forefront of their field, sharing their passion, knowledge and discoveries with their students,” Grasso says. “Even in the elite small liberal arts schools in New England, where they are known for their focus on educating undergraduate students, the faculty are active scholars.” Zakarian says the administration endorsed that model and supported faculty with larger investments in research development and pre- and post-award support, so researchers could get assistance securing and administering grants.

Aside from the messaging and support from leadership, Zakarian thinks three other things helped set the stage for the explosive research growth the university has seen over the past few years. First, he says faculty consistently cite a shortage of time as their biggest impediment to building their research careers. So some departments decided to lighten the teaching load from three to two courses per semester. The second big factor: the sanctioning of the College of Engineering and Computer Science doctoral programs by U-M’s Rackham Graduate School in 2019. That affiliation meant the programs had to meet the same rigorous standards as doctoral programs on the Ann Arbor campus, which boosted ��-Dearborn’s prestige and ability to recruit top PhD students. This helped faculty recruit valuable talent to power their labs, which further eased their time/labor burden. Finally, Zakarian says when filling faculty vacancies, colleges prioritized hiring ambitious, early-career, research-focused scholars who had the potential to become leaders in their fields.

Then, of course, there’s something to be said for momentum. As some of the above changes started to take root, a few faculty started landing bigger grants, and a larger share of the awards were coming from federal funders, like the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and Department of Defense. “We used to get very few million dollar grants. But it just took a few teams to do that and then we started getting more,” Zakarian says. “You basically reach a point where I think people are looking at what each other are doing, and the mood shifts. Now, we are approaching $85 million in submitted proposals, which I think is just incredible. And the number of proposals hasn’t gone up by a whole lot. That means faculty are more confident going for bigger and bigger grants. Frankly, that’s what it’s going to take. It would be difficult for us to reach the next level, $200,000 at a time.”

Zakarian says the university has also reached a point where the research enterprise has a fairly broad base. “When I think about how sustainable this is, I’m basically looking at whether this is just a handful of people bringing in the big dollar amounts. But it’s much broader than that,” he says. Moreover, while engineering disciplines are responsible for the largest share of the research growth, Zakarian says other disciplines, particularly in the natural sciences, are starting to develop the same momentum. Last year, with engineering in a good spot, the Office of Research made it a priority to assist faculty in the natural sciences. That resulted in several big research grants in biology and chemistry from national funders, including the National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy. Looking ahead, Zakarian and Grasso say the most untapped potential lies in those disciplines, along with computer science, artificial intelligence, and health and human services — the latter of which could also be targeting NIH grants, one of the national funders with the biggest budget.

Grasso notes, however, that realizing that potential now faces some new political hurdles. The Trump administration has pursued several measures that directly disrupt university research, including attempting to severely cut the amount of indirect costs covered by NIH grants, layoffs at the National Science Foundation and pauses by grant review committees. “This is a significant threat,” Grasso says. “I understand the desire to be cost conscious and efficient. But research has been the fuel in the engine that has powered this country, whether you’re talking about revolutionary medications, transistors, AI or practically everything that has changed the world — it all has roots in research — and many of those roots found a home in American soil. To hamper this is incredibly reckless and foolhardy.”

Even within the climate, Zakarian says the R2 designation and what it represents should help keep the momentum going. “Obviously, a lot of this goes back to our ability to recruit and retain top faculty, and I think this designation really does help us communicate that if you are really ambitious and you want to build a strong research program, you can do it here. It says, ‘We’re open for business. We have the resources and the vision. Others have done it, you can do it too.’”

###

Story by Lou Blouin