Missouri S&T’s Center for Science Technology and Society (CSTS) recently provided seed funding for six interdisciplinary research projects. The grants are designed to help faculty establish or grow science, technology and society-related research programs, increase the amount of competitive research funding they obtain, and elevate the scholarly works they produce.

The grant recipients and their projects are:

• “Creating Risk Awareness of Tornado Disasters to Increase Homeowners’ Preparedness and Property Reinforcement through Virtual Reality Animation,” led by Dr. Grace Yan, assistant professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering. Dr. Fiona Nah, professor of business and information technology, Dr. Nancy Stone, professor of psychological science, and Dr. Hongxian Zhang, assistant professor of business and information technology, serve as co-principal investigators.
• “Cultivating a Culture of Ethics in Students Using an Interactive Online Module,” led by Elizabeth Cudney, associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering. Co-principal investigators on the project include Dr. Amber Henslee, associate professor of psychological science; Dr. Susan Murray, chair and professor of psychological science; Dr. Patrick Gamez, assistant professor of arts, language and philosophy; and Dr. William Schonberg, professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering.
• “Investigating Differences between the Experience of Live and Streamed Musical Concerts,” led by Amy Belfi, assistant professor of psychological science, and Dr. David Samson, assistant professor of arts, languages and philosophy.
• “Measuring Emission Costs Pass-Through with Strategic Bidding,” by Yishu Zhou, assistant professor of economics, and Dr. Rui Bo, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.
• “Unplugged: Understanding Anti-adoption of Google Home and Amazon Alexa,” led by Daniel Shank, assistant professor of psychological science, and Dr. David Wright, associate professor of English and technical communication.
• “Virtue Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: How does the Dispositional Character of an AI Agent Change Moral Attribution?,” led by Shank and Gamez.