Office of Research Newsletter

January 2025

Dr. Thijs Heus, an associate professor in the Department of Physics, is leading Cleveland State’s activities funded by two new grant awards, which together total over $1 million in funding, focused on improving climate and weather modeling.

In collaboration with Dr. John Peters of Penn State University and CSU postdoctoral researcher Dr. Girish Raghunathan, Dr. Heus is investigating both shallow clouds and deep convective thunderstorms under a project titled, “Contrasting Shallow and Deep Convection over Bankhead National Forest.”

Dr. Heus is also part of a team led by Dr. Tim Wagner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and including collaborator Dr. Dave Turner from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is working on a project titled “Characterizing Boundary Layer Processes During Transition Periods with Observations and Modeling.”

CSU’s High Performance Computing Resource, the Viking Cluster, is powering the modeling and data analysis performed by Dr. Heus’s lab. Learn More »

Reminder: Deadline for Internal
Funding Proposals is February 3

The Office of Research is pleased to announce the call for proposals for these 2025-2026 internal funding programs:

Undergraduate Summer Research Award (USRA)
Graduate Student Research Award (GSRA)
Faculty Research and Development (FRD)
Faculty Scholarship Initiative (FSI)

The deadline for applications is Monday, February 3. To assist in the preparation of successful applications, the forms that will be used to evaluate the proposals are found on the above web sites.

Be sure to allow time to acquire the required signatures from your chair and dean’s office.

For more information, please contact Joy Yard, 687-9364, or Roman Kondratov, 687-5171.

Jingqi Yan Receives AHA Funding

Dr. Jingqi Yan, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Sciences (BGES) and a member of the Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease (GRHD), has received a $200,000 American Heart Association (AHA) Institutional Research Enhancement Award for his work on disability induced by stroke. The grant is titled “Brain targeted delivery of Cofilin1 siRNAs prevents synaptic loss and disability induced by stroke.” AHA’s Institutional Research Enhancement Awards provide funding for small-scale research projects related to cardiovascular diseases and brain health.

Ye Zhu Awarded Cybersecurity Workforce Development Funds

Dr. Ye Zhu, a professor in the Department of Computer Science, has received $139,534 to develop trainings and programs to build the cybersecurity workforce in the US. The project, titled “Revitalize Auto Industry: Elevating Automotive Workforce Excellence through Cybersecurity and AI Innovation,” is led by Dr. Huirong Fu of Oakland University and funded via the National Security Agency’s National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) program.

Update: US Patent Application Filing

CSU has filed U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63/722,632 titled Spontaneous Assembly of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Shells from Boron Nitride Nanotubes mixed with Cellulose Nanocrystals in Water, which names Dr. Geyou (Augyu) Ao, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (CBE) and her Ph.D. student, Tanner Larson, as inventors.

The novel liquid crystal shells can be used as building blocks for many applications, such as films and coatings, chemical and optical sensors, and anti-counterfeiting technology that are invisible to the naked eye.

Contact Jack Kraszewski for assistance with a disclosure to begin the process of protecting your invention or intellectual property.

NSF I-Corps Applications

Online Application Deadline is February 2, 2025, Start Date February 28th

I-Corps supports teams of students or a faculty member and at least one student through a 7-week critical market and commercialization evaluation. Benefits of I-Corps include:

Increasing the impact of your research by understanding industry needs, so you can compellingly communicate the value of your research
Learning NSF tech commercialization approaches that will improve your ability to pursue grants like NSF's $50,000 I-Corps Teams, $300,000+ Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) or $275,000 STTR grants; I-Corps graduates have a greater than 37% success rate on each of the above grants
Receiving $1,000 in NSF-lineage funding just for participating

Apply now to participate in I-Corps this winter. To apply or to learn more, visit I-Corps UARF or email UAicorps@gmail.com.