In This Issue

Meet CSU's New Faculty

Fengxia Zhu, Marketing

Dr. Fengxia (Sandy) Zhu joined CSU in 2016 as an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing. Dr. Zhu earned her PhD in business administration at the University of Missouri (UM) and taught at UM for three years before joining Cleveland State. Her research interests include marketing strategy, international marketing, and services marketing with a focus on health care services. One of Dr. Zhu’s current projects examines US hospital service quality and cost trade-offs. Another on-going project investigates the performance implications of international companies that serve the world’s four billion bottom of pyramid (BOP) customers.

Dr. Zhu’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as International Business Review and International Journal of Advertising.

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Featured Research Alumni Series

Dr. Xi Wu, California Polytechnic

Dr. Xi Wu is a tenured, full professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). She completed her Ph.D. at CSU under the guidance of Dr. Jerzy Sawicki, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Vice President for Research. Her graduate research focused on damage detection of rotor dynamic systems.

Dr. Wu held the Bently Endowed Professorship at Cal Poly from 2005 to 2007. Her research interests include rotor dynamics, vibrations, mechanical control systems, health monitoring of rotating machinery and fault detection in gearboxes and wind turbines, and she has collaborated with industry partners that include Solar Turbines and GE Bently Nevada.

If you know a former Cleveland State student researcher who has gone on to career success, please email Dan Simon or Joy Yard to let us know. They may be featured in an upcoming Office of Research newsletter.

Internal Funding News

Internal Funding Sets New Record

The Office of Research was hit by a blizzard of internal funding proposals this year, including:

• 7 FRD proposals for seed funding for external research grants
• 19 GSRA proposals from graduate students
• 40 FSI proposals for scholarship and creative activity by faculty from 7 colleges
• 78 USRA proposals for undergraduate summer research, submitted by 96 faculty across 6 colleges and involving 114 undergraduate students

These record setting numbers and the diversity of applicants attest to the passionate commitment of our faculty to undergraduate research and the capability of our student researchers. Thanks to all who applied - funding decisions will be announced by April 1.

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CSU Scholar News

Alan Weinstein, Law

Alan Weinstein is a professor in the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and also holds a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Urban Studies. His research focuses on local government regulation, particularly land-use regulation, that affects rights protected under the federal constitution or statutes. Such issues arise when local governments regulate the use and development of real property; activities associated with freedom of speech such as displaying signs, offering “adult entertainment,” or panhandling on public sidewalks; and zoning approvals for religious institutions.

Professor Weinstein’s research is both doctrinal and practical. For example, his article on the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, AZ, involving a first amendment challenge to a local government’s sign regulations, both critiqued the Court’s ruling from a doctrinal perspective and offered practical guidance to local governments on how to comply with the Court’s ruling. His research has also led to his being retained as an expert several times by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in litigation claiming that local government land-use regulations have violated rights to religious freedom guaranteed under federal law.

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Inspired Creativity

Lynn Deering and Bryant Henderson: CSU Spring Dance Concert

The Dance Program returns to the Allen Theatre Mainstage with its popular annual CSU Spring Dance Concert March 22-23, 2019.

The program will feature the CSU Dance Company, faculty, staff, musicians, and guest artists, all under the direction of Lynn Deering, a professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. Visiting assistant professor and Artistic Director of CSU Dance Company Bryant Henderson is creating two pieces of choreography for the concert.

Show time is 7:30 both nights, and tickets can be purchased through Playhouse Square’s website.

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News from the Technology Transfer Office

Patent Pipeline @ CSU

Use of MyoD Mutant to Treat Muscular Dystrophy

The CSU Patent Review Committee has approved the invention disclosure of Dr. Crystal Weyman, a professor and Chair of the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BGES) and a member of the Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease (GRHD), titled Use of MyoD Mutant to Treat Muscular Wasting, Damage or Dystrophies.

Current treatment of muscular dystrophy primarily involves the use of steroids. The present invention uses a proprietary mutant solution that targets the molecule responsible for controlling muscle stem cell differentiation as well as controlling stimuli that induce programmed cell death. The global duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) drugs market size is expected to reach USD 4.11 billion by 2023, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.

Augmented Reality Based Human Patient Simulations for Nurse Training

The CSU Patent Review Committee has approved the invention disclosure of Dr. Wenbing Zhao, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Dr. William Matcham, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, titled System and Method for Automatically Recognizing Activities and Gaze patterns in Human Patient Simulations. Current nursing student instruction includes direct faculty observation during simulation training sessions, or videotaping the entire simulation and having the instructor watch the videotape with the student to provide feedback. This invention describes an automated method to objectively assess the performance of students using computer vision, predefined rules, and a custom-designed debriefing mobile application.

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

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Research Events

Multidisciplinary Research Panel Series Continues February 22

The Office of Research created the Multidisciplinary Research Panel Series to enhance collaboration across the University that will creatively and meaningfully address the needs of our community and our society.

On February 22 at 12:00 pm, Frederic Lahey, a professor and Director of the School of Film and Media Arts, will moderate a panel titled, “Tumult in the Film Industry: Content Wins.” All panels are held in PH-104, and the full schedule can be found here.

Additional Upcoming Research Events

Internet of Things: Privacy, Security and Ethical Issues (Rescheduled)
February 21, 8:00 – 9:30 am at the MidTown Tech Hive (6815 Euclid Ave.)

Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Seminar Umut Gurkan, Case Western Reserve University
February 28, 11:30 – 12:30 pm in Washkewicz Hall 405

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Research Office News

Shilpa Kedar – Exec. Director of Digital and IoT Innovations

The Internet of Things Collaborative (IoTC) is a partnership between Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University to bring together industrial, governmental, educational, neighborhood and non-profit entities in the region to harness IoT’s vast potential. IOTC was created in 2017, and the Cleveland Foundation has awarded another $2.2 million, one-year grant to the collaborative for 2019.

To capitalize on this momentum, Shilpa Kedar has joined CSU as Executive Director, Digital and IoT Innovations. She is charged with leading the University efforts in fostering foundational research, development, application and education of digital and IoT technologies, and also serves as Co-Executive Director of the IoT Collaborative. She joins Cleveland State after working at the Cleveland Foundation for over a decade, most recently as Program Director, Economic and Workforce Development. She played a key role in many of the Foundation's collaborations and initiatives in the area of economic transformation and inclusive growth. Welcome, Shilpa!

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Research Guidance

NIH Offers New Guidance on Research Rigor

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have increased their emphasis on rigor and reproducibility in research in response to concerns that it has become increasingly difficult to replicate the findings of others.

The revised guidance can be accessed via a new landing page. Dr. Michael Lauer, NIH's Deputy Director for Extramural Research, discusses several of the updates and clarifications in a recent blog post.

New DOE Policy on Foreign Research Collaborations

The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a pair of memos that outline a new policy that would ban researchers from collaborating with scientists in several countries that are considered a security risk to U.S. interests.

An article in Science Magazine provides details on the new policy and its potential consequences on research programs.

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Research Support Services

Services and Support from the Office of Research

The Office of Research is focused on supporting CSU faculty as they cultivate their research and scholarship. Our office provides a range of online resources to help you write winning proposals, including the proposal writing guidance page for quick access to grant application guidelines, proposal writing tips, commonly required University information, and templates for supporting documents required by NSF, NIH, and others. A curated list of funding opportunities is sent weekly via email to faculty members on Friday. If the weekly funding list doesn’t have what you are looking for, CSU faculty can utilize SPIN, a searchable database of grant opportunities from more than 10,000 global sponsors. Our newsletter archive and Faculty Expertise Database are always available to help spark a research idea.

If you are unfamiliar with submitting proposals, please click here for an explanation of the process flow and contact SPRS immediately when you decide to submit a proposal. If you require assistance with developing a proposal concept or finding the right collaborator, contact Ben Ward.

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