Mid-career investigators now have a new source for external funding at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The first round of proposals are due February 1, 2021, and NSF anticipates funding up to $18 million via 35-45 awards. Continue reading
engineering
Recognitions, May 15
UT Economist Wins Arrow Award for Research on Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Marianne Wanamaker, an associate professor of economics in the Haslam College of Business, has been named a co-recipient of the International Health Economics Association’s Arrow Award for research showing the Tuskegee syphilis study decreased the overall life expectancy of black men.
Doing by Thinking
It’s a cold, frosty morning, and your thoughts turn to snuggling under the covers with a cup of coffee while the house warms up. Suddenly, your coffee machine kicks into gear just as the heat begins to rise in your home. No, it’s not your imagination. By merely thinking about it, your home is now cozier, your hot cup of java awaits in the kitchen, and you didn’t have to lift a finger.
The reality of controlling electronic devices using only your brain is closer than you think, thanks to the research of Associate Professor Xiaopeng Zhao.
A drone is the first device Zhao, graduate students Reza Abiri and Soheil Borhani, and undergraduate Justin Kilmarx, have demonstrated the ability to pilot using brainwaves, and they are amazing spectators who have the opportunity to see them make the drone fly without a normal hand-held controller.
Continue reading at engr.utk.edu.
Recognitions, February 7
Coble Named Southern Company Faculty Fellow
Jamie Coble has been named the Tickle College of Engineering’s first Southern Company Faculty Fellow in recognition of her work as an assistant professor of nuclear engineering.
“I’m honored and grateful to have been selected for this recognition and to be associated with Southern Company, given it operates and is expanding its nuclear power operations,” Coble said. “This will enable me to focus even more on the issues surrounding the safety, sustainability, and economic competitiveness of nuclear power as a key carbon-free energy source.”
Student Startup Grow Bioplastics Awarded NSF Grant
Tony Bova and business partner Jeff Beegle pose for photos in Oak Ridge Friday, July 15, 2016. Bova and Beegle founded Grow Bioplastics, a company specializing in biodegradable plastic sheets used in landscaping and agriculture. (Adam Brimer / University of Tennessee)
Grow Bioplastics, a student startup, has received a $225,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. The award will fund research and development work on lignin-biomass-based biodegradable plastics for agricultural applications, specifically plastic mulches.
Grow Bioplastics’ team, led by co-founders Tony Bova and Jeff Beegle, will use the SBIR funding to create new biodegradable plastics from lignin, a waste product of the paper and biofuel industries. Bova is an energy science and engineering PhD candidate in UT’s Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education. Beegle, a recent graduate with a master’s degree in microbiology, also completed his studies in the Bredesen Center.
The company’s biodegradable product offers an alternative to plastic mulch films used by farmers nationwide. Current nondegradable plastics must be removed at the end of each growing season and cannot be recycled. Grow Bioplastics’ biodegradable film can be plowed into the soil after each use, offering a solution to the additional labor costs and environmental impact of current films.
Continue reading at news.utk.edu.