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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Fixing the damn . . . waterways

kapalm — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 17:04:02 +0000

Fixing the damn . . . waterways kapalm Fri, 03/21/2025 - 13:04

Last Friday, one of Michigan’s largest tourist attractions — which also happens to be a tremendous driver of the state and nation’s economy — reopened for business. Every year, the Soo Locks close in mid-January for about 10 weeks so the Army Corps of Engineers can perform maintenance and ensure this gateway to the Great Lakes — in 2024, the locks enabled 68 million tons of raw materials like iron ore, taconite, coal, crude oil, salt, grain to be delivered to ports from Duluth to Buffalo and beyond — functions smoothly during the shipping season. An unexpected closure for maintenance would be devastating, causing costly delays in everything from auto assembly to food processing. Around 500,000 visitors will head to Sault Ste. Marie, in the northeastern Upper Peninsula, between now and next January to watch ships enter the Poe and Macarthur locks, then be slowly lowered to continue toward Lake Michigan or Lake Huron or raised to enter Lake Superior.

The nation’s extensive network of inland locks receives far less attention, but it is equally vital to the U.S. economy, facilitating the movement of 12 billion tons of commodities worth $770 billion each year. And the need to prevent unexpected malfunction is just as great. In 2003, costs from the closure of the main lock chamber, known as a miter gate, at the Greenup Locks in Kentucky resulted in a loss of approximately $41.9 million from delays and alternative shipping costs. While our nation’s system of lakes and rivers functions much as our highways do, with branching arteries ferrying traffic in multiple directions, there are a couple crucial differences. First, when traffic is blocked, there are no surface roads to hop onto. So when goods can’t make it through a waterway, they have to be delivered by different means, like trucks or trains.

Second, shipping lane shutdowns typically last much longer than freeway closures. “You can’t finish the maintenance within one or two days. Sometimes it takes several weeks or several months,” explains Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Zhen Hu. “So we cannot do the maintenance or repair of the locks too frequently. We have to consider the disruption to the supply chain and other transportation, that kind of stuff.”

Armagan Bayram

Currently, lock maintenance scheduling decisions are made based on what might best be described as highly informed guesswork: decision-makers consider the age of the lock, the duration of operation, the results of inspections and other relevant factors — much like you bring your car in for maintenance based on mileage, time of year and whether you hear a strange noise. Using advanced mathematical models and machine learning, Hu and his fellow IMSE Associate Professor Armagan Bayram aim to develop a much more fine-tuned and integrated system to inform lock maintenance schedules. Their work, which will incorporate sensor data from locks along the Ohio River, is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Hu explains it like this: “You have locks in different places along the rivers. On one river, you have maybe 10 locks. The traditional way of predicting failures is just looking at the lock by itself. But using this machine learning model, it allows us to share information across the different locks. If you consider the locks like a patient, when a doctor diagnoses the failures or disease of a patient, they do not only look at that individual, but also consider other similarities among different patients. That can help us to predict failure faster and with higher confidence.”

Data security is especially vital in this project — the monitoring data of the locks, if breached, could compromise national security and have far-reaching economic effects. In the method the researchers will use — known as federated learning — the data remains decentralized rather than stored on a central server, as in more traditional AI-training models, so it is considered highly protected. “This new machine learning approach allows us to preserve the privacy of the data. You do not have to share the data directly,” Hu explains.

A major challenge of the project is that there is a limited amount of data to work with. “Locks typically operate for anywhere from 60 to 90 years and failure is rare,” Hu explains. “Also, a miter gate is not like a car. You have millions of cars, but you don't have that many miter gates. There are only a few hundred in the U.S. This makes it hard to get failure data.” To address this challenge, Hu and Bayram plan to tackle the highly complex task of integrating information from computer simulations with data from real-time, sensor-based observations as they build out their model.

In addition to enabling engineers to set more precise maintenance schedules of individual miter gates, Hu and Bayram’s project aims to analyze the economic impacts on the overall transportation and supply chain networks when one or two locks are shut down. This information could point to the optimal time to take a specific lock out of service, Hu says. “We want to create a framework that will help with making a decision regarding when to perform maintenance, repair or replacement and look at it at a system level, not the individual level. That can reduce unnecessary downtime and reduce the overall system operational costs,” he explains.

”We don’t want to perform the repair too frequently, and we don’t want to perform the repair too late,” Hu adds. In other words, he and Bayram aim to find the sweet spot that will keep both ships and our economy flowing smoothly.

###

Story by Kristin Palm

The preliminary results of Hu and Bayram's research were generated through the support of a digital twin project funded by the United States Army Corps of Engineers through University of California San Diego and Hottinger Bruel & Kjaer.

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Off

Tue, 03/25/2025 - 15:49

In the U.S., ships transport $770 billion worth of commodities via inland lakes and rivers each year. IMSE Associate Professors Zhen Hu and Armagan Bayram aim to make this system more cost-effective and efficient.

IMSE Associate Professor Zhen Hu is leading a project to make inland waterway transport more efficient. Photo by Annie Barker

Understanding cultural beliefs to bridge mental health literacy gaps

stuxbury — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 18:20:28 +0000

Understanding cultural beliefs to bridge mental health literacy gaps stuxbury Wed, 03/19/2025 - 14:20

Clinical Health Psychology graduate student Abirami Suthan is passionate about mental health. Many times, people can point to an accolade or interest that influenced their career choice. For Suthan, it was a person.

When Suthan was an undergraduate student and a resident assistant at the University of Toronto, she held weekly meetings. One of Suthan’s favorite residents, CJ, who was an international student from India, would always be there and ready to help. Then CJ stopped showing up. “When I noticed a shift in her behavior, I reached out. CJ told me she was having suicidal thoughts, but was fearful to seek help. When she was in high school in India, a teacher she confided in suspended CJ after she shared that she was having these thoughts,” says Suthan, who helped CJ make a counseling appointment and walked her to the first session. “CJ has since graduated and is now doing well. Years later, her experience still affects me. Being from the South Asian culture myself, I know how deeply stigma shapes our responses to suicide. I needed to do something more to address this."

Suthan — who was raised by Sri Lankan parents and grew up in a South Asian American neighborhood in Texas — says there's a pattern of silence and shame around mental health in her community. To address this, Suthan became focused on educating herself and others.

Suthan, who started at ��-Dearborn in Fall 2023 and has an undergraduate degree in psychology and anthropology, is working on her thesis, "Cultural Identity and Suicide in South Asian Americans." She’s looking at age, cultural perspectives, mental health literacy, societal stigma and more.

To do this, Suthan — who’s advised by Psychology Professor Nancy Wrobel — created a survey that asks a variety of questions aimed at South Asian American-identifying adults aged 18 to 60 to gauge what people believe about mental health and suicide and how it’s tied to their cultural identities. Her research work is funded by an EXP+ Graduate Student Independent Research grant, which allows Suthan to compensate survey participants for their time.

“I believe suicide prevention work in a community starts with destigmatization and understanding cultural beliefs,” says Suthan, who chose ��-Dearborn for graduate school because of the faculty expertise and its clinical-based experiences. “For example, if someone believes depression is due to laziness and can be fixed through working harder — that’s one belief I’ve heard in my community — mental health literacy efforts can be made to explain how conditions are biological and psychological.” She’s also looking at how South Asian and American identities can be at odds with one another — one is more of a collective mindset and the other is more about the individual, respectively — and ways to bring those closer together. “I want to know, ‘How can we balance the norms of both cultures?’”

Suthan says her research didn’t start with suicide in mind. It began with a curiosity about mental health resources and how much they were accessed by South Asian Americans. “There was quite a bit of research on this and it says access is minimal because there are lots of stigma barriers,” she says. “Then I noticed a huge literature gap on South Asian American beliefs about suicide — there’s barely anything out there. I wanted to help find answers.” Data about South Asian Americans and suicide was so scarce that she looked to the United Kingdom, a comparable Western society to the United States, for statistics. Suthan found that South Asians in the UK were three times more likely to commit suicide and South Asian women were 7.8 times more likely to inflict self-harm than their white counterparts. “I’m not entirely sure why there is a lack of data in the U.S.,” Suthan says. “But it’s an issue that needs to be addressed.”

Suthan and her research took first place at the recent Three Minute Thesis Competition at ��-Dearborn. The competition, run by the Office of Graduate Studies, provides an opportunity for graduate-level students to share their research in three minutes or less in an uncomplicated and easy-to-understand way. Suthan will represent the university at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools regional competition from April 2 to 4 in Indianapolis. “I’m looking forward to representing ��-Dearborn and having a larger audience to talk with about this research gap in the South Asian American community and what I plan to do about it,” she says.

Suthan says she has identified participants for her survey, which will be sent out soon. And she’s hoping the answers show trends that will give insight for next steps in building bridges between the South Asian American community and mental health literacy.

Suthan has seen how education can open conversations to create change in her own family. When she first told her parents — who lived through the Sri Lankan Civil War — that she wanted to pursue a career in psychology, they had negative feelings about her working in mental health. But, knowing her parents' story about leaving their country because of a war and relocating nearly 10,000 miles away with nothing but hope for a better life, puts things in perspective. “Honestly, it helps me understand why mental health was put on the back burner for them. It was just about survival — it’s hard to think beyond that when your basic needs aren’t being met. Many people from South Asian communities have this type of trauma,” Suthan says. “But once things have stabilized, there is an opportunity to go beyond the physical needs.”

Now, Suthan says her mother sends her journal and magazine clippings about careers in suicide prevention and mental health. “It was once a topic that wasn’t discussed and now she is sending me articles and making comments on how interesting they are. She is now my biggest supporter. And my father, even though he was skeptical when I first chose this career path, is one of my biggest cheerleaders,” she says.

Suthan says she has hopes that educating the South Asian American community in a way that embraces cultural awareness will open doors for more South Asian therapists, more research studies and an increased acceptance of mental health needs.

These would all help to realize the ultimate goal of suicide prevention. “I love my community and I come from some very resilient people. But, even when we don’t talk about it, trauma still exists,” she says. “Imagine how much better life would be if we took care of each other now — before it is too late.”

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

Behavioral Sciences

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Wed, 03/19/2025 - 18:18

Three Minute Thesis Competition winner Abirami Suthan’s research looks to open doors for mental health care acceptance in South Asian American communities.

Graduate student Abirami Suthan won the 2025 Three Minute Thesis Competition at ��-Dearborn. Photo by Annie Barker

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.

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

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

College of Business

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Wed, 02/26/2025 - 12:33

The recognition follows six years of rapid growth in which externally funded research spending at ��-Dearborn has nearly tripled. So how did we get here? And what’s next?

Associate Professor Dr. Zhi Zhang (not pictured) and Assistant Professor Jie Fan (pictured, middle) recently landed a $465,000 grant from the NIH. Large federal grants helped power ��-Dearborn to an R2 designation in 2025. Photo by Julianne Lindsay

For a ��-Dearborn student and professor, the influence goes both ways

lblouin — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 13:06:36 +0000

For a ��-Dearborn student and professor, the influence goes both ways lblouin Mon, 02/24/2025 - 08:06

In 2020, Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Wencong Su was looking for an undergraduate student to assist with a project focused on adding innovative energy efficiency measures to the already LEED-certified Engineering Lab Building. At the time, Su was teaching all graduate courses so he didn’t have many undergrads in his orbit. So Su asked for a little help from one of his graduate assistants, who emailed the job posting to the students in a 200-level lab. LaRico Andres, a sophomore and recent transfer from Henry Ford College, thought it sounded interesting and reached out to Su with his resume. Su remembers Andres didn’t exactly fit the description of the type of student who usually applies for these kinds of opportunities. Andres was a few years older than Su, already had a full-time job working as an instrument tech at the Great Lakes Water Authority, and his GPA at the time wasn’t knocking anyone out. But after the two chatted for a little while, Su offered him the job. Andres was personable, seemed excited to learn, and though he was a research novice, it turned out his background in instrumentation was actually quite relevant to the types of things they would be investigating in the ELB.

Andres excelled on the project and it led to many more opportunities to work alongside Su. On one project supported by the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps — a program that helps researchers translate their laboratory work into marketable products — Andres traveled to conferences in Orlando, San Diego and Austin, completing a flurry of more than 100 interviews with industrial professionals in seven weeks about a product Su’s lab was developing. On another project, he and Su created an app that used the ELB’s building management software and the utility’s fuel profile to give users an idea of what being a building occupant added to their personal carbon footprint. As you’d expect, Andres picked up a lot of skills working with Su. But as often happens when two people spend a lot of time together, Andres and Su also started talking about things other than their work. Andres jokes that they initially bonded over the fact that they “both like to eat.” But the conversations gradually grew more personal. Both men had daughters, so they talked about their kids. Su shared some of the challenges he faced when he first came to the United States for college and he knew very little English. Andres reciprocated with stories about some challenges he faced growing up in Detroit, not always having enough money to pay all the bills at once, and some things that happened when he was younger that tripped up his plans to go to college earlier in his life.

Su says he enjoyed Andres' perspective — in part, because Su is someone who’s interested in people, and the ups and downs of Andres’ life made for a compelling personal story. In addition, Su says he’s always been interested in Detroit, and through Andres, a lifelong Detroiter, he enjoyed learning about a side of the city that “you don’t hear about on the TV news.” Interestingly, at a certain point, both men noticed that many of their personal conversations weren’t actually that separate from their field of study: energy systems. For example, Andres shared stories about how, in his family, when the power would go out, that meant you didn’t open the fridge so his grandfather’s insulin wouldn’t spoil. Or how, if the power was out long enough, they’d start barbequing the meat they had in the freezer so it wouldn’t go to waste. Or how he and his relatives used to take turns refilling his grandmother’s boiler when she couldn’t afford to fix it right away. “The biggest burden a lot of my people have is energy, whether it’s fuel, gassing up your car going to work, or just trying to keep your house warm,” Andres says. “I know what it’s like to struggle to pay a utility bill and choose between paying that bill on time or buying food. I know people whose furnaces go out and can’t afford to get them fixed. That’s the impact energy has. Energy helps. But if you don't have a lot of money, energy can be a burden.”

Andres’ testimony left an impression on Su, and eventually the two of them started kicking around ideas for projects focused on energy justice, an emerging field that focuses on equity, affordability, accessibility and participation in the energy system and the ongoing transition to new energy technologies. That lens became the cornerstone of their 2023 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience project, in which Andres helped create an interactive mapping tool that explores the connection between historical real estate redlining and disparities in energy access in metro Detroit. Using Andres’ dashboard, a user can quickly toggle through different layers and explore whether a neighborhood is formerly redlined, where current utility outages are and their causes, locations of renewable energy installations and EV charging stations, as well as census data that provides demographic information about the people currently living in the neighborhood. One of the big reveals from Andres’ work is that metro Detroit neighborhoods that were historically redlined tend to be lower-income, non-white, have power outages that tend to be longer, and have less access to renewable energy and EV charging infrastructure. Their work on the app led to an IEEE conference publication in 2023.

Andres shows off an interactive mapping tool he helped create that explores the connection between historical real estate redlining and disparities in energy access. Photo by Annie Barker

After the project, Andres was nearing the end of his undergraduate career, and Su began asking him a little more frequently and persistently if he’d ever thought about grad school. Andres says that honestly wasn’t on his radar when he initially transferred to ��-Dearborn. At that time, his thinking pretty much revolved around the straightforward calculus that getting an engineering degree would help him get a higher-paying job and lead to a more comfortable life for him and his family. But after working in Su’s lab, particularly on the energy justice-focused mapping project, he says his perspective began to change. “If I did the safe thing and got a job, yeah, that would help me. But working with Professor Su helped me see what it is that I really wanted to do. And what I really wanted to do was help people,” Andres says. To do that, Andres decided to take a chance and continue his education, enrolling in the department’s doctoral program, where he’s now continuing his work alongside Su. Andres is still just in his first year of the program, but the pair have already started discussing ideas for Andres’ dissertation research. Not surprisingly, energy justice topics are rising to the top of their list. One idea they’ve been kicking around recently is creating a machine learning-based app that would use weather and outage data to forecast the likelihood of power outages, sort of like the snow day prediction models that have become super popular with parents and kids. “A technology like this could have multiple applications,” Su says. “It could help a utility identify where they need to upgrade their infrastructure to make it more resilient, or where they might need to deploy the most crews ahead of a storm. But it could also directly help people. Like, if you saw that there was a 90% chance you were going to lose your power for five hours tomorrow, people could charge their batteries or make a trip out to get food.”

Andres says it’s still a little wild to think he’s in a PhD program, and the future he’s contemplating for himself now is much different than the one he was thinking about a few years ago. For the time being, he’d love to continue to do research in the energy justice field and develop innovative ways to help people. He also wants to start a nonprofit that gets young people excited about things like sustainable energy technologies and smart cities. Ultimately, if all goes well, he’d love to be a college professor just like his mentor. “It’s funny, the opportunities that come up in your life,” Andres says. “Like, what if I had ignored that email? What if I hadn’t stepped out and emailed professor Su? He saw something in me that I didn’t even know about myself. And he probably doesn't even know how many other people that’s going to touch. My daughter and little cousins, they all get to see that, ‘Hey, Uncle Rico is gonna be a doctor.’ Because of Professor Su, I’m setting a new example for the people in my life. My wife, sister and other family members, everybody is, like, ‘Wow, you was always smart.’ I just went the long way. And I’m just glad I have an opportunity now to make an impact in the community.”

That a college professor would have such a profound impact on a student isn’t super surprising. It’s what many faculty shoot to achieve every day. But Su says Andres has also had a big influence on him. On a personal level, he finds Andres' life so inspiring, and admires his work ethic, the personal sacrifices he’s making to be part of the PhD program, and his vision for using research to help people in his community. Their relationship has also had a big influence on Su’s own work. “For example, losing power for one hour in a wealthy neighborhood compared to a disadvantaged neighborhood, it has totally different impacts. Or if you lose power, then that suddenly becomes a food issue for some people. I never really thought about stuff like that before,” Su says. “Now, I'm thinking more about how our research has the potential to help people. Because, otherwise, maybe you’re just publishing a paper with some very fancy solutions and complicated equations. But how are you helping average people?”

###

Story by Lou Blouin

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Off

Mon, 02/24/2025 - 12:56

Unlikely collaborators who met through a job posting, first-year PhD student LaRico Andres and Professor Wencong Su have forged a partnership that’s left a lasting mark on both men.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Wencong Su (left) and doctoral student LaRico Andres have teamed up on a number of research projects focusing on energy justice. Photo by Annie Barker

Helping nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy go hi-res

lblouin — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 13:48:43 +0000

Helping nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy go hi-res lblouin Wed, 02/19/2025 - 08:48

Whether you’re talking about MRI, which doctors use to image tissues in the body, or the brand of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy used by organic chemists, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Christos Constantinides says the core idea behind the technique is basically the same. You start with a sample — in organic chemistry, it’s a compound you want to know the structure of, and in an MRI, it’s your body — and you surround it within a powerful magnet. The magnetic field causes the nuclei in the atoms in the sample, which have naturally occurring random spins, to momentarily align these spins with the external field, either in a parallel (lower energy state) or antiparallel orientation (higher energy state). Then, you shoot radio waves at the sample, which causes the spins of the parallel-spinning nuclei to momentarily flip to an antiparallel state. When you turn off the radio waves, these flipped nuclei then “relax,” returning to their original orientation. That releases a small amount of energy as an oscillating magnetic field, which induces an electrical signal. This signal is detected and processed to generate an NMR spectrum in the case of molecular analysis. For MRI, it can be used to create an image of tissues in the body.

Constantinides says NMR is an extremely powerful technique, but it still has some limitations. Notably, certain substances give off very weak signals when they relax out of their “excited” state, which means the spectra generated through NMR often don’t tell you everything you want to know. Scientists have discovered various ways to enhance NMR’s powers. For example, with MRI, contrast dyes can help doctors see more details in the brain, heart, blood vessels, soft tissues and tumors. In materials chemistry, Constantinides says organic chemists use what are called polarizing agents, which are chemical compounds that are added in solution with the sample. Chemically speaking, these compounds are “radicals,” meaning they have at least one unpaired electron (most atoms have electrons which orbit the nucleus in pairs). In an NMR environment, Constantinides says these unpaired electrons are able to influence the nucleus of the molecules in the sample through spin polarization transfer mechanisms, indirectly assisting the “flipping” process that is essential to NMR imaging. “This basically increases the sensitivity of the technique,” he says. “So for molecules that are difficult to get a good NMR spectrum because they give very weak signals, by adding a little bit of this organic radical substance, it basically amplifies the signal and you get more detail.”

Polarizing agents have greatly enhanced NMR spectroscopy, but they aren’t universally effective. For example, Constantinides says today’s most common polarizing agents, known as nitronyl nitroxides, can only be used with certain kinds of substances, because these radicals react with compounds that oxidize easily. With a new $600,000 project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and in conjunction with the Ames National Laboratory, Constantinides is looking to create novel polarizing agents that don’t have these limitations. He says when he describes this project to others, it ends up sounding like a lot of physics, because of the potential applications for NMR and MRI. But the day-to-day work will be a lot of advanced and, at times, unglamorous synthetic organic chemistry. During the three-year project, Constantinides estimates they’ll create 50 to 100 new derivatives of a class of molecules known as Blatter radicals — each of which takes weeks and a carefully planned sequence of chemical reactions to create. “Each compound requires six to 10 different steps,” he says. “One step can take multiple days to set up the chemical reaction, then you have to process it, clean it up a little bit and remove all the inorganic stuff, purify it, and then characterize it to see if you’ve made what you think you’ve made.” To assist with the labor-intensive research, Constantinides is hiring a postdoctoral research fellow and several undergraduates, which will give students an opportunity to get hands-on experience in some very advanced chemistry.

Constantinides in the lab with student research assistants Haidar Dakdouk (middle) and Carter Allen (front). Photo by Annie Barker

Even with this patient, methodical approach, Constantinides says success in organic chemistry is never assured. Over the years, he’s refined multiple techniques for creating certain kinds of molecules. But when you’re making something totally new, he says you never really know which methods will give you the best result — or whether your plan will even work — until you actually try it. “Maybe all of them fail, and then you have to try something totally different. It can be a lot of trial and error,” he says. As each new polarizing agent is created, Constantinides says they’ll first characterize it using the NMR setup at ��-Dearborn. After that, they’ll send the new compounds to the Ames National Laboratory, where they will be mixed in solution with substances that have well-known NMR profiles. By seeing how much of a boost in the signal the nuclei give off, they’ll know which new polarizing agents have the most potential to enhance NMR techniques.

Constantinides says some of his preliminary published research on this topic has shown a lot of potential for Blatter-type radicals, which is why the DOE has funded further work in this area. He says if all goes well, he’s hoping for two big applications: One, it’ll give materials chemists like himself tools for providing detailed characterizations of molecules which have been hard to study using other techniques. The even bigger payoff would be if one of the new molecules they create is suitable for use in MRI, which would give doctors much higher-resolution images of tissues and tumors.

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Story by Lou Blouin

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