Missouri S&T research teams have received seed funding through three programs hosted by the office of the vice chancellor for research and innovation. 

Kummer Research Ignition Grants  

The Missouri S&T Kummer Ignition Grant Initiative is an annual planning grant to fund new and innovative ideas that will ultimately lead to large research proposals in strategic areas for Missouri S&T. The projects integrate multidisciplinary ideas and ignite teamwork and collaboration to strive towards achieving the visions of the Kummer research centers. 

The latest Kummer Research Ignition Grant projects and principal investigators are: 

• “Climate-Resilient Equitable Accessible Transportation Ecosystem (CREATE)” led by Dr. Genda Chen, Robert W. Abbett Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, director of INSPIRE-University Transportation Center, and director of the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure. 
• “Drone-Based Active Microwave Thermography for Infrastructure Inspection” led by Dr. Kristen Donnell, Woodward Associate Professor of Excellence in electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Genda Chen. 
• “Planning activities for an NSF Engineering Research Center and DC electric power distribution networks” led by Dr. Mehdi Ferdowsi, Schlumberger Endowed Professor in electrical and computer engineering and associate dean for research in the College of Engineering and Computing. 
• “Superalloy 2.0: Beyond Critical Minerals” led by Dr. Yijia Gu, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and Dr. Haiming Wen, associate professor of materials science and engineering. 
• “Real-time Intravenous Detection of Myocardial Infarction Using Electrified Optical Fiber Sensors” led by Dr. Jie Huang, Roy A. Wilkens Endowed Associate Professor in electrical and computer engineering. 
• “Biology Master Teacher Fellowship Planning Grant” led by Dr. Beth Kania-Gosche, professor and chair of education. 
• “Industrial solvents-induced neuropathology in the developing brain” led by Dr. Andrea Scharf, assistant professor of biological sciences. 
• “Building a Water Monitoring and Decision Support System for Water Resources Management” by Dr. Bong Chul Seo, assistant professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering. 
• “Technology Development to Reduce the Environmental Footprint and Carbon Emissions for Mining of Critical Minerals” led by Dr. Guang Xu, associate professor of mining and explosives engineering. 

Arts, humanities, social and behavioral sciences seed funding 

S&T’s Seed Funding for Arts, Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences Research program supports faculty creative work and research programs that show significant promise for long-term impact. 

The six arts, humanities, social and behavioral sciences research projects and principal investigators are: 

• “Establishing Criterion Validity for the Student Evaluation of Teaching” led by Dr. Devin Burns, associate professor of psychological science. 
• “Monitoring Environmental Performance and Compliance for Environmental Justice and Market” led by Dr. Mahelet Fikru, associate professor of economics. 
• “Repairing the Irreparable? The Holocaust, Material Loss, and War Damages in Paris” led by Dr. Shannon Fogg, professor and chair of history. 
• “Abnormal Review Behaviors, Market Competition, and Social Analysis on Amazon” led by Dr. Jikhan Jeong, assistant professor of economics. 
• “The High-Tech Workforce: Location, Space, and Place” led by Dr. Kathryn Northcut, professor of English and technical communication. 
• “Reducing Prejudice in Algorithmically Assisted Decisions: A Skeptical Trust Approach” led by Dr. Daniel Shank, associate professor of psychological science. 

Research and Innovation seed funding 

S&T’s Research and Innovation Seed Funding program provides funding to enhance research activities in strategic areas that will lead to grant proposals in core and emerging research areas such as manufacturing, infrastructure, materials, intelligent systems, bio-thematic areas, data science, natural resources, energy, water resources, STEM education, and workforce development. 

The two strategic area research and projects and principal investigators are: 

• “Neural Mechanisms Underlying Music-Evoked Memories in Older Adults” led by Dr. Amy Belfi, associate professor of psychological science. 
• “A Multi-Fidelity Scientific Machine Learning Approach for Experiment-Level Engineering Design Optimization” led by Dr. Xiaosong Du, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. 

Learn more about internal research opportunities on Missouri S&T’s research and innovation website.