In This Issue

Meet CSU's New Faculty

Cigdem Slankard, Film and Media Arts

Cigdem Slankard is an assistant professor in the School of Film and Media Arts. She was born and raised in Turkey and received her BA in translation and interpreting from Bogazici University (Istanbul, Turkey) in 1999. In 2002, she received a Master of Fine Arts in filmmaking from Ohio University. She started her current position at CSU in fall 2016. Her creative work focuses on popular culture and identity issues. Recent works include short documentaries, virtual reality cinema, and video art pieces.

Her recent short documentary, Fresh Start, which chronicles life in a refugee farming community in New Hampshire, was screened in 13 film festivals across the US and seven countries in Europe and Africa. She is currently finishing a feature length documentary focused on a neighborhood development and community building project in the International Village neighborhood in Cleveland. Her other projects in progress include a short documentary capturing the story behind the Rooms to Let project in Slavic Village, as well as a virtual reality documentary series exploring stories of refugee families in Cleveland. Additional information on her work can be seen at www.cigdemslankard.com.

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Featured Research Video

Undergraduate Summer Research at CSU

Research performed by Cleveland State University undergraduates under projects funded by the Undergraduate Summer Research Award (USRA) program is the focus of this month's Featured Research Video.

The USRA program provides undergraduate students with a summer learning experience that involves intellectual inquiry and faculty mentoring, and fosters an engaged environment that promotes a culture of student involvement in research and scholarship.

Click here to watch.

Research Regulations

NIH, AHRQ, and CDC to Require ORCiD iDs for All Awardees

The National Institutes of Health (NIH),
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that individuals supported by research training, fellowship, research education, and career development awards will be required to have ORCID iDs (Open Researcher and Contributor Identifiers) starting in FY2020. ORCID iDs are unique, persistent digital identifiers that distinguish individual investigators and can be used to connect researchers with their contributions to science over time and across changes of name, location, and institutional affiliation.

The intent of the new rule is to reduce the confusion of researchers with similar names and make it easier to discover a researcher’s publications. In addition, it will simplify the creation of biosketches for research proposals. Each individual must register for their own ORCID iD, and can do so here.

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CSU Scholar News

Christopher Mallett, Social Work

Dr. Christopher A. Mallett, a professor in the School of Social Work and BSW Program Coordinator, joined Cleveland State University in 2005. He received his Ph.D. in social work from The Ohio State University and his Juris Doctor from CSU’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Dr. Mallett teaches juvenile delinquency, mental health policy, research methods, and graduate and undergraduate statistics courses. He is licensed in Ohio as a social worker and attorney, and has a twenty-year history of clinically working with, advocating for, and representing vulnerable children, adolescents, and their families.

Dr. Mallett’s research focuses on disability law, delinquency, and young people with certain difficulties and their involvement with the juvenile justice system and school discipline protocols - specifically the impact of trauma, mental health problems and special education disabilities. This research has led to important and unique findings related to the suspension and expulsion of students from schools and the detention/incarceration of young people in juvenile (and adult) courts, as well as better understanding of why these outcomes disproportionately impact children and adolescents of color. As a consultant whose expertise is utilized nationally by juvenile courts, school districts, and child protection agencies, Dr. Mallett has published three books and more than 60 research papers, book chapters, and technical assistance training briefs on these topics.

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Inspired Creativity

CSU Wind Musicians Record New Album

The CSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the CSU Chamber Winds, and the Cleveland Winds (a professional wind band at CSU) recently released a CD via Mark Custom Recordings. The groups, which include CSU student musicians, were invited to create these recordings by Timothy Reynish, who is one of the best-known wind band conductors in the world. Dr. Birch Browning, a professor in the School of Music and Director of bands at CSU, joined Mr. Reynish in conducting duties for the album.

The album can be purchased here, and the recording is also available via Spotify.

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News from the Technology Transfer Office

SBIR Event at JumpStart on September 19

Kory Hallett, PhD, a program director in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Development Center at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), will present information for researchers at JumpStart Cleveland’s offices on September 19 at 9:00 am. She will review key NCI SBIR/STTR information including:

• New and existing funding opportunities
• Commercialization resources available at NCI SBIR
• SBIR/STTR application tips and suggestions
• I-Corps at NIH and other training programs

One-on-one sessions are available, and interested faculty can register here.

CSU Licenses Technology to Start-Up BioPrinting Laboratories

CSU has licensed the U.S. Patent Serial No. 15/816,485 and PCT/US17/62266 titled “Chip platforms for microarray 3D bioprinting” (Pending 2017) to BioPrinting Laboratories, Inc.

BioPrinting Laboratories, a CSU start-up company created by CSU faculty researcher Dr. Moo-Yeal Lee, was also recently awarded Ohio Third Frontier Phase 2 funding totaling $150,000. This is the first CSU start-up company to receive a Phase 2 award. BioPrinting Laboratories will commercialize proprietary micro-array chip platforms to provide high throughput, in-vivo like drug toxicity screening for lead drug candidates.

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Undergraduate Research News

Best Poster Prizes Awarded for Undergraduate Research

The first-place winners were Michael Dodrill and Elizabeth Fritz, who were supervised by Prof. Phil Wanyerka

Undergraduate research students presented their work at the 2019 Undergraduate Research Poster Session on September 5. Students and faculty discussed research that was funded by the Undergraduate Summer Research Award (USRA) Program and the McNair Scholars Program. The session included a total of 83 posters from six CSU colleges.

Michael Dodrill and Elizabeth Fritz earned first place (a $200 gift card) for their project "Geophysical investigations at the Fort Hill Earthwork Complex, Cleveland Metroparks, Rocky River Reservation," conducted under the supervision of Prof. Phil Wanyerka, a lecturer in the Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology (CAS). The first-place showing of Prof. Wanyerka’s students follows their second-place award from last year!

The second-place winners were Ryan Ambrose and Anna Brandt, who were supervised by Profs. Mary Motley, Douglas Wajda, Kathleen Little, Kenneth Sparks, and Emily Kullman

Ryan Ambrose and Anna Brandt earned second place (a $150 gift card) for their project "Impact of dog restraint system on running gait while running with a canine: implications for injury risk." They were supervised by Profs. Mary Motley, Douglas Wajda, Kathleen Little, Kenneth Sparks, and Emily Kullman, all from the Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP).

The third-place winners were LaNiqua Jones (not shown) and Jose Mendez (left), who were supervised by Prof. Clayton Wukich (right)

LaNiqua Jones and Jose Mendez earned third place (a $100 gift card) for their project “Communication Through the Chaos: How City Governments Use Social Media During Disasters,” conducted under the supervision of Prof. Clayton Wukich from the College of Urban Affairs.

The many high-quality posters at this year’s event provided an impressive display of the scholarship and faculty-student collaborations at CSU. The Office of Research congratulates all of the students and their mentors, and encourages undergraduate and graduate students to continue to be actively engaged in research.

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Research Funding News

Kevin Mueller Receives Award for Food/Agriculture Research

Dr. Kevin Mueller, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences (BGES), has received funding of $79,914 over three years under a federal award from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Dr. Mueller will work with researchers from Iowa State University, and his lab will perform testing to quantify biochemical indices of the sources of soil organic matter.

Surendra Tewari Funded for Data Mining of NASA Experiments

Dr. Surendra Tewari, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (CBE), has been awarded $199,915 over two years under the NASA Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) program.

Dr. Tewari will use data from prior NASA experiments to explore the mechanism behind the formation of misoriented grain formation during directional solidification in a low-gravity environment.

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Research Support Services

Bring the Office of Research to Your Department

The Office of Research is dedicated to supporting CSU faculty in their research and scholarship endeavors. We provide a broad array of services and expertise, but for faculty who are new to CSU or new to funded research, it can be difficult to know where to start. No problem! Our staff will come to your department and provide an overview of the services we offer and strategies for building a robust research program.

Please contact Ben Ward for further information.

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