VDRI selects awardees for the 2021 FSE strategic interest seed funding program

The Vice Dean for Research and Innovation (VDRI) Office is pleased to announce 12 awardees for the 2021 Fulton Schools of Engineering (FSE) Strategic Interest Seed Funding Program: Working Collaboratively to Meet Future Needs. The response to this year’s seed funding initiative was impressive with a variety of topics and ideas presented by faculty across FSE and the application pool was very competitive. The VDRI Office received nearly 50 proposals and coordinated a panel of FSE faculty reviewers for each topic area to determine final selections. 

2021 recipients across six topic areas will receive a 12-month grant of approximately $25,000 to advance a project and cultivate a collaborative network inside and outside of ASU.

As Arizona’s economic growth continues and plans for the New Economy Initiative remain underway, these projects present an opportunity to advance innovative research while building a network of connections across disciplines as well as with external partners.

The key areas of advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, energy and materialsextreme environmentsfuture communications technologies, and human performance remain of interest across the state and region. Collaboration in these focus areas is an opportunity to empower engineering linkages across a variety of interests and will position research ideas for upcoming federal, state, and local opportunities.

The Dean’s Office looks forward to the implementation of these projects and the innovative impact they will have on ASU’s approach to supporting the New Economy Initiative. Congratulations recipients!

Advanced manufacturing

Mass Production of Low-cost Perovskite Solar Cells via Electrostatic Field Assisted Nano-Ink Writing
PI Terry Alford (SEMTE)

Liquid Crystal Templating Assisted 3D Printing of Programmable Smart Nanocomposites
PI Xiangjia Li (SEMTE)

Artificial intelligence

Determining traffic load and location through machine vision with on-device image processing
PI Yezhou Yang (CIDSE)

Energy and materials

MgCdTe Solar Cells for High-efficiency Tandem Module Application
PI Yong-Hang Zhang (ECEE)

Solid-State Lithium/Sulfur Batteries for Long Range Electric Vehicles
PI Yoon Hwa (ECEE)

Towards a Privacy-Preserving Recommender System For Decentralized Electric Vehicle Charging
PI Duong Nguyen (ECEE)

Application of Andragogical Schema to Extended Reality (XR) Environments to Increase Adoption of Energy Efficiency Technologies within Buildings
PI Kenneth Sullivan (SSEBE)

Gallium Nitride (GaN) Semiconductor-based Integrated Onboard Charger for Electric Vehicles (EV) with Enhanced Energy Efficiency
PI Ayan Mallik (TPS)

Extreme environments

New lab-based and computational methods for simulating extreme hot weather and its impacts on human energy balance and performance
PI Konrad Rykaczewski (SEMTE)

Future communication technologies

Virtual Reality with Realistic Human Interactions for Construction Safety
PI Steven Ayer (SSEBE)

Human performance

Characterization and enhancement of human upper extremity proprioception
PI Christopher Buneo (SBHSE)

A Unique Academia-Industrial-Clinical Collaboration for 3D Printing Biomedical Scaffolds
PI Kenan Song (TPS)

Assistant Professor Yezhou Yang and 11 other Fulton Schools faculty earned 2021 FSE Strategic Interest Seed Funding awards. Photographer: Marco-Alexis Chaira/ASU