FY2027 Research and Innovation Catalytic Funding Awardees

Research and Innovation is pleased to announce the recipients of FY27 internal catalytic funding. These opportunities support and encourage research, scholarship, creative work and innovation in multiple disciplines and foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Awardees are recognized in the following programs:

• Charles L. Cahill Grants for Faculty Scholarship
• Research Momentum Funds
• OIC New Invention Grants
• Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series

Please review the full list of projects below.

Charles L. Cahill Grants for Faculty Scholarship

• Challenging the Conservative Solute Assumption: Laboratory Constraints on PFMOAA and GenX Partitioning in Saturated Porous Media
  • Ralph Mead, professor, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences
  • Jeremy Patterson, assistant professor, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences
• Developing a Non-invasive Epigenetic Approach to Age Living Sea Turtles
  • Matt Ramirez, assistant professor, Department of Biology and Marine Biology
• Expanding Coastal Eco Explorer: Research and Community Engagement
  • Dennis Kubasko, associate professor, Department of Instructional Technology, Foundations and Secondary Education
  • Lucas Layman, associate professor, Department of Computer Science
  • Amy Taylor, professor, Department of Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, Literacy and Special Education
• HPV Vaccination Rates Among College-Aged Males: A Peer-Led Educational Intervention to Improve Awareness, Access, and Vaccination Uptake
  • Mudassar Arain, clinical assistant professor, School of Nursing
  • Maria Espinosa-Hernandez, professor and chair, Department of Psychology
  • Diane Parker, clinical assistant professor, School of Nursing
  • Shaila Strayhorn-Carter, assistant professor, School of Health and Applied Human Sciences
  • Erin Wax, clinical assistant professor, School of Nursing
• Human History Beneath Our Feet: Integrating Satellite and Field Data to Reveal Ancient Waterscapes in Egypt
  • Eman Ghoneim, professor, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences
• Identifying the Patterns and Drivers of Beach Closure Events in Coastal North Carolina
  • Ata Suanda, associate professor, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography
• Inflammatory and Metabolic Profiling of Aerobic Exercise Responses and Cognitive Function in Aged Female Mice
  • Rachel Kohman, professor, Department of Psychology
  • Jen McCall, clinical associate professor, School of Nursing
  • Remington Poulin, research assistant professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Marine Aerosol Compositions and Air-Water Interactions in the Cape Fear River Estuary (MASCAPE)
  • Nsikanabasi Umo, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• MARUMO A SHOBA
  • Meja Shoba, assistant professor, Department of Film Studies
• Songs, satellites & sensory worlds: Disentangling how invasive trees influence acoustic communication in an endangered bird
  • Sean Mahoney, assistant professor, Department of Biology and Marine Biology
  • Zijun Yang, assistant professor, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences
• Transforming School-Based Youth Suicide Prevention: Scaling Up SAFE-SN Across Underserved K-12 Schools
  • Jessica Reich, lecturer, Department of Psychology
  • Deborah Tyndall, associate professor, School of Nursing
• What learners hear, what learners acquire: Teacher talk and second language Spanish outcomes
  • Danielle Daidone, associate professor, Department of World Languages and Cultures
• What the Nose Knows: Variation in ontogenetic development of the olfactory system in two ecologically distinct hammerhead species
  • Kara Yopak, associate professor, Department of Biology and Marine Biology

Research Momentum Funds

• Advancement of Structured High Dimensional Data Analysis and Its Applications
  • Xuemei Chen, associate professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
• Quantum-Enhanced Underwater Acoustic Target Recognition
  • Yi Liu, associate professor, Department of Computer Science
• The Future of International Development?: Technology, AI, & Startups in Emerging Economies
  • Mary-Collier Wilks, assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology 

OIC New Invention Grants

• AI-Powered Pre-Execution Ransomware Detection System
  • Ajay Makanahalli Annaiah Kumara, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science
• Data Expedition for Research and Commercialization of an Underwater Camera Trap with a Smart Triggering Algorithm
  • Lorian Schweikert, assistant professor, Department of Biology and Marine Biology
• Phase up from TRL 3+ to TRL 6 advancements toward commercialization of Azure chatbot
  • Paul Castagno, professor, Department of Theatre
• Scam Watch: Identifying and Mitigating Fraudulent Activity Using Visual-Semantic Information
  • Sima Jafarikhah, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science
• TerraSense: Field Validation and Edge Deployment of a Non-Invasive AI Framework for Real-Time Soil and Crop Diagnostics
  • Laavanya Rachakonda, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science

Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series

• Technology, Food, and Health (TeFH): Connecting Global Experiences from Ritual to Algorithm
  • Romeo Abraham, assistant professor, Department of Public and International Affairs
  • Edzordzi Agbozo, associate professor, Department of English
  • Alemseged Aleho, lecturer, Department of Anthropology
  • Pamela Balogh, clinical assistant professor, School of Nursing
  • Amanda Boomershine, professor, Department of World Languages and Cultures
  • Jill Waity, professor and chair, Department of Sociology and Criminology
• Math-Physics Seminar
  • Lilit Martirosyan, associate professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
  • Tim Daniels, associate professor, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography