Diagnosing a disease from your wearable. Making electrical infrastructure more resilient. Predicting catastrophic events. These innovations and more could result from the latest round of Kummer Ignition Grants for Research and Innovation at Missouri S&T.

S&T is providing $393,000 in seed funding for 12 S&T research projects.

Ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 per project, these grants support researchers’ efforts to develop compelling proposals for multi-million-dollar grants from federal agencies, foundations and corporations. The program requires principal investigators to submit proposals for at least $500,000 to agencies such as the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.

When added to the first 12 Ignition Grants and second round of five grants funded in Fiscal Year 2022, the Kummer Institute tallies 29 projects funded by nearly $900,000.

“Even if a small percentage is funded, we will see an excellent return on investment,” says Dr. Kamal Khayat, vice chancellor for research and innovation at Missouri S&T. “From the fall 2021 cycle of Ignition Grants, 13 external proposals totaling $25 million were submitted and we expect a similar level for future cohorts.”

The latest 12 proposals funded by the Ignition Grant Initiative are:

• “Building a Resilient Network of Workforce-Opioid Rural Community-organizations” led by Dr. Claire Reynolds-Kueny, associate professor and interim chair of psychological science.
• “Cost-Effective and Ecological 3D Printing of Reinforced Concrete Structures through Vibration Dynamics and Granular Physics” led by Dr. Dimitri Feys, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering.
• “Federated Graph Learning of Brain Networks using Neuroscience IoT Data” led by Dr. Tony Luo, associate professor of computer science.
• “Hydrogen Storage and Safety through Developing and Standardizing Testing of High-sensitivity Hydrogen Sensors for the Emerging Green Energy Applications” led by Dr. Mina Esmaeelpour, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.
• “Lunar Exploration and Resource Utilization: A Multidisciplinary Team and Transdisciplinary Approach” led by Dr. Daoru (Frank) Han, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
• “Missouri Materials Exchange” led by Dr. Michael Moats, chair and professor of materials science and engineering.
• “Planning an ERC and Other Significant Projects on Gigaton-Scale Carbon-Negative Engineering” led by Dr. Hongyan Ma, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering.
• “Preparing Missouri S&T’s Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Research Roadmap” led by Dr. Andreas Eckert, associate professor of geosciences and geological and petroleum engineering.
• “Preparing for an International Continental Drilling Program Project in Lake Izabal, Guatemala” led by Dr. Jeremy Maurer, assistant professor of geosciences and geological and petroleum engineering.
• “Projecting the Performance and Enhancing the Resilience of Electricity Infrastructure under the Changing Climate” led by Dr. Rui Bo, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.
• “Toward the Establishment of an Institute for Catastrophic Event Prediction” led by Dr. Kelly Liu, professor of geosciences and geological and petroleum engineering.
• “Truly Mimicking a Dog’s Sense of Skin Emanates for Diagnosing Diseases Using High-Density Sensor Arrays Embedded in Wearables” led by Dr. Jie Huang, Roy A. Wilkens Telecommunications Associate Professor of electrical and computer engineering.