Students, faculty receive more than $96,000 in research grants

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (OSRP) and the Office of Academic Affairs recently awarded 16 internal grants to students and faculty, including more than $96,000 to facilitate active learning through the purchase of specialized equipment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) relevant disciplines.

The Florida Department of Education Entrepreneurism, Policy, Innovation, and Commerce (EPIC) Equipment Grants program is an internal grant opportunity offered by ORSP funded through the State Department of Education.

Grants were made for:

• Geographical Information System Computer Lab Upgrades in the Geography Department
• Post-production suite for Media Arts
• Equipment for a Veterans History Project in Visual Arts
• Equipment for Assessment Plant Growth and Development After Exposure to Natural Frequency Technology and Contaminants, a joint project of Chemistry, Kinesiology, and Biology
• Enhanced Spectrophotometer Capabilities for Biology and Marine Science
• Equipment for Upper Airway Dysfunction: Assessment and Intervention in Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Human-Computer Interaction Lab in Computing Science

OSRP also made two Student and two Faculty Research, Creative Activity & Scholarship (RCAS) grants for:

• Concussion Management Among Speech-Language Pathologists: A Comparative Survey of Placement and Practices to graduate student Jennafer Best, speech-language pathology
• Devising Theatre: Exploring Non-Traditional Methods to Creating Performances to undergraduate students Nati Gonzalez, Isabella Martinez, Zachary Rivera, Hayley Smith, and Cristian Torres, musical theatre/ theatre arts
• A Temporal Approach to Understand the Effects of Top Executive Pay Dispersion to Dr. Zonghui Li of the Davis College of Business
• Land of Cetshwayo’s Children: Ethnic Categories and State-Building under Apartheid to Dr. Ashley Parcells of the History Department of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Student RCAS grants are awarded to student researchers for developing new lines of inquiry, which may include collecting and analyzing pilot data and exploring innovative forms of creative expression. Awardees are expected to present findings at the annual Student Research Symposium in April.

The Faculty RCAS grants provide seed funding to support faculty-initiated research, scholarship, and creative activity. Competitive grants assist faculty in developing new lines of inquiry, which may include collecting pilot data, exploring innovative forms of creative expression, writing and publishing original scholarship, or developing proposals for external funding.

The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations funds both Student and Faculty RCAS grants.

Finally, OSRP made one Collaborate JU award for:

• Human Behavior Studies Using Eye-Tracking and EEG to Drs. Mini Zeng, Christi Bamford and Amanda McGraw, Departments of Computing Science and Psychology

As a component of the EPIC Program at Jacksonville University, Collaborate JU supports projects designed to equip JU’s graduates with the skills needed to begin careers in the high-demand fields so vital to Florida’s economic prosperity and global competitiveness.