In This Issue

Meet CSU's Faculty

Tianyun Zhang, EECS

Dr. Tianyun Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). He received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Syracuse University in 2021. His research interests include model compression on deep neural networks, energy-efficient and high-performance implementations of deep learning and artificial intelligence systems, adversarial robustness on artificial intelligence systems, and convex and non-convex optimization.

Dr. Zhang employs many mathematical optimization techniques on the research of deep learning, including development of a state-of-the-art model compression method called alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to solve the weight-pruning problem of deep neural networks. His research papers have been published in peer reviewed journals like IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (TNNLS) as well as in conference proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM), the Design Automation Conference (DAC), and more.

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Featured Research Resource

Qualtrics Survey Translations UI

Qualtrics is launching a redesigned Survey Translations User Interface (UI). The intent is to streamline the UI and make it easier to translate survey projects.

Two additional translation tools have been added:

Exporting only untranslated items: This enables you to easily make translation updates to ongoing projects without affecting your original translations.

Auto-translate for the entire survey: You will now be able to use the auto-translate feature on an entire survey, streamlining the experience.

If you have a question about the New Survey Translations UI, visit the Survey Translations support page and the XM Community to see if any other users have the same question. If you’d rather speak to a specialist, log into the Qualtrics Support Portal.

Research Policy

U.S. House Spending Proposals Suggest Higher Budgets for Research

Science.org reviewed the most recent spending proposals drafted by the House of Representatives, with House spending panels recommending increases for a number of research agencies for 2023. Highlights include:

• A 5.6% ($2.5 billion) increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with targeted increases for the Cancer Moonshot, Alzheimer’s disease, and opioids.
• $2.75 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a new NIH agency designed to fund high-risk, high-reward research.
• An increase of 9% ($783 million) for the National Science Foundation (NSF), with targeted growth in education programs.

Due to federal midterm elections, it is unlikely that budgeting will be completed until after November.

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Inspired Creativity

CAN Triennial: "You Are Here" at the Galleries at CSU

CAN Triennial: “You Are Here” is a multi-venue exhibition organized in collaboration with an intergenerational, diverse team of curators from a range of institutional affiliations. The curatorial team has assembled more than a dozen exhibitions that will, at times, examine place and location, and at other times skewer notions of culture and politics, and will also map to discussions around presence and loss. Together, these exhibitions will give an experiential journey through the literal geography of our city, and the ever-complicated situational understandings of place, context, identity, and action.

Exhibits can be viewed through August 31 at multiple venues, including the Galleries at CSU and the Bonfoey Gallery.

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News from the Technology Transfer Office

U.S. Patent Issuance

On June 14, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. Patent 11,360,077, titled Death receptors as Markers for rhTRAIL-Sensitivity that names Dr. Michael Kalafatis, a professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and a member of the Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease (GRHD), and Dr. Katherine Turner, Ph.D recipient. The patent is directed to first determining a patient’s susceptibility to rhTRAIL-based treatments, allowing a patient to be more appropriately placed in rhTRAIL clinical trials and improve rhTRAIL as an anti-cancer therapeutic. rhTRAIL holds great promise as an anti-cancer therapeutic due to its selectivity for cancer cells. As a result, patients can experience potent anti-cancer activity with minimal side effects.

TeCK Fund Phase 3 Award

The TeCK Fund held its Selection Committee Meeting July 7 and selected a CSU-led proposal for funding. The CSU submission was provided by Dr. Prabaha Sikder, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MCE) and is titled 3D Printed Multi-functional Dental Implants for Treating Peri-implantitis. The project will validate a 3D-printed, customizable dental implant with antimicrobial and bioactive features that will effectively manage peri-implantitis issues for the millions of patients needing dental implants annually.

The TeCK Fund is accepting Letters of Intent until December 30th, 2022. Contact Jack Kraszewski for information regarding the TeCK Fund and technology transfer.

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Scholarship of Note

Research and Scholarship News from Across Campus

Dr. Bibo Li, a professor in the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences (BGES) and a member of the Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease (GRHD), was awarded a 2 year, $419,237 R21 grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at NIH for her research on the mechanisms of telomere integrity and variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) switching in the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. R21 grants support exploratory and developmental research that breaks new ground or extends previous discoveries toward new directions or applications.

 

Dr. Fasong Yuan, a professor in the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BGES), was awarded a two year, $159,875 grant from the Ohio Sea Grant at the Ohio State University for his project, titled “Lake Erie Oxygen Dynamics Across the Normoxia to Hypoxia Transition Zone off the Cleveland Coast.” Dr. Yuan studies environmental processes like the movement of nutrients and pollutants, both naturally occurring and anthropogenic (introduced by human activities) through aquatic systems like the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie lakebed.

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