����Ӱ��

����Ӱ�� State University’s College of Engineering is the nation’s seventh-largest engineering college and a proven leader in research, with impacts that extend statewide, regionally, nationally, and globally. Research conducted here expands knowledge and creates use-inspired solutions in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean water, materials science, sustainable energy, high-performance computing, resilient infrastructure, and health-related engineering.

In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the College of Engineering received more than $85.3 million in sponsored research awards, its highest total ever and an increase of nearly 13% over the previous record of $75.8 million, set the previous year. With 326 new and continuing awards from 143 sponsors, 148 faculty members have been chosen as lead principal investigators. Funding sources include the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Department of Energy, the ����Ӱ�� Department of Transportation, and the ����Ӱ�� Health Authority. The following is an overview of notable grants received in the last fiscal year.

Christopher Daly, research professor in the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering and founding director of ����Ӱ�� State’s PRISM Climate Group, aims to strengthen the nation’s crop insurance underwriting and oversight activities using PRISM spatial weather data sets. The project is funded by a $4.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency. Crop insurance programs cover more than $120 billion in crop value and protect farmers against losses from weather events and other natural hazards. PRISM’s high-resolution quality spatial weather maps and data, along with expert interpretation, will allow the agency to determine risk more accurately, improve underwriting capability, substantiate weather events, and better assess the validity of claims. Daly anticipates another $1.75 million agreement with the RMA that will expand the group’s work to Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Funding has topped $30 million over the project’s 11 years so far.

A team led by , the Miles Lowell and Margaret Watt Edwards Distinguished Chair in Engineering, is developing a cellulose cement composite, or C3, that will be a durable, fire-resistant, low-carbon alternative to dimensional lumber and sheet products (such as plywood and drywall) used in residential and light commercial construction. The project is funded by a $2.5 million grant from the U.S Department of Energy. The new C3 will have high insulation values, resist rot and fungal growth, and be compatible with current construction processes. It will be made from low-value, small-diameter trees that are unsuitable for lumber production, thereby reducing a source of fuel that exacerbates wildfires. The material also holds the potential to mitigate supply chain and material cost volatility associated with lumber. The researchers plan to provide a parallel development track focused on bringing the technology to the market.

Ted Brekken, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is investigating the augmentation of standard hydroelectric generation units with fast-acting energy storage to create a hybrid hydroelectric-storage generation unit. Funded by a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the researchers will construct a 200-kilowatt lab-based hybrid hydroelectric generation unit that will serve as a testbed for performance analysis and model validation. The project’s goal is to demonstrate and quantify the value provided by a hybrid hydroelectric-storage generation unit and ultimately improve hydropower’s ability to integrate variable renewable resources and quickly adapt to yearly and seasonal changes in system loads.

To support the continuing development of components for TerraPower’s sodium fast reactor, Wade Marcum, the Henry W. and Janice J. Schuette Professor in Nuclear Science and Engineering, is leading a team of researchers investigating the potential effects of sodium on properties, such as friction and wear, of structural materials and coatings. Liquid sodium serves as the reactor’s coolant. The work is funded by a $1.7 million from a DOE grant awarded to TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design and development engineering company, though the original source of the award is the DOE. The researchers will perform tests in low-oxygen liquid sodium metal for friction performance, wear resistance, and resistance to self-welding when under contact for extended periods in sodium.

Geoff Hollinger, associate professor of mechanical engineering and robotics and the Ron and Judy Adams Faculty Scholar, is leading a team of researchers in creating novel bio-inspired soft, reconfigurable swimming robots. The design was inspired by salps, marine organisms whose bodies consist of long chains of jet pumps that they use to control their shape, position, and motion. The research team, funded by a $5.3 million grant from the Office of Naval Research, envisions a system of multiple heterogeneous soft robots made of advanced polymers formed by 3D printers into complex geometries. The robots will have the potential to inspect and monitor environments such as shipwrecks, underwater infrastructure, littoral zones, caves, and reefs, in challenging conditions. The team will also focus on distributed coordination and control of large numbers of salplike underwater robots.

Pallavi Dhagat, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is heading up the . The work is funded by a $1 million NSF grant. The goal is to develop an innovation ecosystem that will: advance use-inspired semiconductors, invent scalable nanofabrication manufacturing processes that can be leveraged across multiple platforms, develop innovative computational tools for predicting material properties that will enable unforeseen applications, expand innovation and entrepreneurship through regional programs and partnerships, and create training programs to enable a diverse workforce for regional industry needs, thereby creating a more secure and prosperous future for the state, regional, and national economies. Working closely with diversity, equity, inclusion, and access partners across ����Ӱ��, Washington, and Idaho, this project will expand its impact to increase underrepresented minority participation in STEM degree programs and professional careers.

Xue Jin, assistant professor of environmental engineering, is developing a . The nutrient-rich stream can be used for direct fertigation—delivering nutrients to crops through irrigation systems. The research team, funded by a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is addressing the critical need for effective treatment technologies that provide safe, reclaimed water for agricultural irrigation by creating a method that can be used to facilitate sustainable, resource-intensive farming, which depends on sustainable sources of water and nutrients that cannot be met by existing freshwater supplies.

Thomas Dietterich, emeritus Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, was awarded a $424,000 grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to advance, develop, and test the theory, architectures, and algorithms for novelty-aware computer vision. Current computer vision systems apply deep learning to a large body of image data based on the false assumption that the world is unchanging, and the system will not encounter variations that aren’t present in the training data. To solve the problem, the research team applied a method based on the premise that deep novelty detection works by detecting the absence of familiar image features rather than the presence of novelty. An important engineering goal is to develop a single novelty-aware computer vision system that can be easily configured for many different application scenarios.

The College of Engineering at ����Ӱ��is a proven leader in research, expanding knowledge and creating new engineering solutions in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean water, materials science, sustainable energy, computing, resilient infrastructure, and health care.

In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the College of Engineering notched its highest-ever total in research funding, with $75.8 million in awards — an increase of more than 17% over the previous record of $64.6 million, set the year before. With 321 new and continuing awards from 128 agencies (13 of them awarding $1 million or more), 140 faculty members were chosen as lead principal investigators.

Among the notable new sponsored projects:

Geoff Hollinger, associate professor of mechanical engineering and robotics, is leading a large team of researchers to develop a multi-arm robotics platform capable of performing complex manipulation tasks, such as cleaning the hulls of boats and performing routine maintenance of piers in challenging, low-visibility environments. The team, funded by a $6 million Office of Naval Research grant, will develop algorithms for coordination of the semiautonomous arms, build reactive sensor systems to provide tactile feedback, and create decision-support modules to provide easier control by human operators.

Nordica MacCarty, associate professor of mechanical engineering and the Richard and Gretchen Evans Scholar in Humanitarian Engineering, is working to , a primary source of heat in Native American communities and in low-resource areas in the United States. MacCarty will work with other ����Ӱ�� State researchers, including , professor of energy systems engineering and interim director of research at OSU- Cascades, and David Blunck, associate professor of mechanical engineering, in collaboration with tribal and industry partners to develop a firebox retrofit that uses turbulent jets of air to improve combustion efficiency, even under suboptimal conditions. Funding for the project comes from a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Energy.

Haori Yang, associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, is developing sensors to monitor nuclear waste from within storage vessels. With the storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain on hold, U.S. nuclear power plants have resorted to storing waste on-site in dry storage casks. Ensuring the integrity of these canisters is critical. The Department of Energy has awarded Yang $640,000 to design externally powered sensors that can be placed inside the canisters and read from the outside. Such sensors would allow the monitoring of internal conditions difficult to assess with external sensors alone.

The National Science Foundation awarded Andre Barbosa, associate professor of structural engineering, $530,000 to develop a  while integrating sustainable building practices. The new paradigm will be applied to the design of mass timber structures.

With $500,000 in funding from the Department of Energy, Goran Jovanovic, professor of chemical engineering, is developing a microchannel device for membrane-less recovery of lithium from unconventional sources, such as byproducts of shale gas extraction. Lithium is a critical element for advanced energy storage systems.

Matthew Johnston, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is creating a , the dosage of which is notoriously difficult to manage. The device sits in the mouth like an orthodontic retainer and monitors saliva in real time. The project is funded by a $205,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Lewis Semprini, University Distinguished Professor in the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, was awarded $1.4 million from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop a new approach to remediate groundwater contaminated by mixtures of pollutants.

FY21 Research Funding Highlights

The College of Engineering at ����Ӱ��has global as well as national and statewide impacts. The nation’s 10th largest engineering college is a proven leader in research ranging from artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean water, materials science, clean energy, computing, resilient infrastructure, and health-related engineering.

In the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the College of Engineering received more than $64.6 million in sponsored research awards, its highest total ever, with funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Department of Energy, the ����Ӱ�� Department of Transportation and ����Ӱ�� Health Authority. The following is an overview of notable grants received during that time.

With $250,000 from the Office of Naval Research, , associate professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will offer research experiences for Naval ROTC and other undergraduate students in high priority areas for the Navy, specifically cybersecurity and advanced RF electronics. Students will participate in research projects to develop their skills. Seminars with speakers from naval research labs will offer connections to potential job opportunities in the Navy.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $706,063 to a team led by , assistant professor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering (MIME), to create robots that can assist infants with delays in motor skill development. in MIME and in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences will collaborate in the project. They are investigating techniques to develop and test an intelligent mobile robot for therapeutic interventions.

With $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, the State of ����Ӱ��, and LanzaTech, Inc., in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering (MIME) leads development of a process to improve the conversion of biomass-based ethanol to jet fuel. Collaborators include researchers at the , providing the enabling catalyst, and , a company commercializing jet fuel made from bioethanol. Paul’s team will develop a cheaper microchannel reactor design by integrating catalyst scaffolds directly within additive manufacturing builds, leveraging new polymetal additive manufacturing techniques being pioneered at OSU.

The ����Ӱ�� Health Authority awarded , associate professor in the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering (CBEE), $5.6 million to lead and develop a state-wide wastewater monitoring program that quantifies the levels of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and identifies the presence of variants of concern. Collaborators include , professor in CBEE; Blythe Layton, former faculty research assistant in CBEE and now a research scientist with Clean Water Services in Hillsboro; Devrim Kaya, faculty research associate; and Brett Tyler, professor and Director of OSU’s Center for Quantitative Life Sciences. With additional funding through OSU’s TRACE project and data from six ����Ӱ�� communities (Newport, Eugene, Corvallis, Redmond, Bend, and Hermiston), the team has correlated novel coronavirus wastewater concentrations with the prevalence of COVID-19 at community and neighborhood scales. This makes it possible to use wastewater concentrations of the novel coronavirus to estimate the number of COVID-19 infections in a community, including both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals.

, University Distinguished Professor in the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering (CBEE), was awarded $1.4 million from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop a new approach to remediate groundwater contaminated by mixtures of pollutants. The approach uses a type of bacterium that Semprini has shown to cometabolize dioxane and trichloroethane, two volatile organic compounds that have been detected in municipal drinking water sources. Semprini’s team has found a way to degrade these and other pollutants by passively passing contaminated groundwater through materials containing the bacterium. Their system has the potential to significantly reduce contaminants and to lower treatment costs. Collaborators include assistant professor and professor , both in CBEE, and Michael Hyman, professor of microbiology at North Carolina State University.

With a $920,000 award from the National Science Foundation, , assistant professor in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering (CCE), leads a team developing artificial intelligence techniques to create accurate 3-D computer models of infrastructure such as public buildings, highways and bridges. Detailed structural data can now be efficiently collected by remote sensing devices, but the resulting large datasets require manual processing. The project will automate the processing of such datasets into visual models for planning and design purposes. Engineers and planners can use such models to design spaces that meet complex requirements. Collaborators include (CCE), i (EECS), Yong Cho at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Roger Chen at the University of Hawaii.

Jennifer Parham-Mocello (left), assistant professor of computer science, has received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a new computer science curriculum for ����Ӱ�� students.

As the 10th largest engineering program in the nation, the College of Engineering at ����Ӱ��is also among the most productive. It’s a proven leader in signature research areas, including artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean water, materials science, clean energy, computing, resilient infrastructure, and health-related engineering.

In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the College of Engineering received more than $59.3 million in sponsored research awards, with funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The following is an overview of notable grants received during that time: 

• , associate professor of manufacturing engineering and the Tom and Carmen West Faculty Scholar, received a  from the National Science Foundation to help ensure that current and future workers in the manufacturing sector have access to high-quality engineering education and technical training. Haapala and his team will design, develop, and evaluate online courses in mechatronics, a multidisciplinary branch of engineering that includes both electronic and mechanical systems.
• The U.S. Department of Energy awarded a $1 million grant to a group of ����Ӱ�� State engineers, led by , assistant professor of structural engineering, to simulate the combined and complex effects of wind and wave forces on turbines by conducting physical experiments and numerical modeling. The group includes , associate professor of mechanical engineering and the Boeing Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design, , associate professor of coastal and ocean engineering and co-director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center, , director of the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, and , professor of electrical and computer engineering.
• The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded a $1.5 million grant to , assistant professor of structural engineering, and a team of researchers to develop and deploy an affordable and easy-to-use sensor network to assess pipeline contamination that can be deployed to regions of high wildfire risk.
• A pair of computer science faculty were each awarded $1 million grants from the National Science Foundation to make computer science more accessible and interesting to a broad range of young people in the state of ����Ӱ��. Working in partnership with teachers and administrators at a middle school in Corvallis, ����Ӱ��, , assistant professor of computer science, and her colleagues will develop and investigate a new curriculum to teach algorithmic thinking to sixth and seventh graders using tabletop games such as Connect Four and Battleship. , instructor in computer science at OSU-Cascades, in partnership with Portland State University and the University of ����Ӱ�� project are using their grant from the NSF for a project—Computer Science for ����Ӱ��—that aims to provide high school students in ����Ӱ�� with more equitable access and participation in computer science courses.
• , professor of radiochemistry, is leading an  in collaboration with researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Nevada Las Vegas, to obtain fundamental data on the speciation and redox properties of neptunium, zirconium, and technetium in radiation fields, with an end goal of optimizing aqueous processing of the used nuclear fuel.
• , associate professor of bioengineering, was awarded a  from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust to build a lab for biomedical prototyping and characterization.
• Four faculty won National Science Foundation CAREER awards. , assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received  to probe the physical phenomena governing the heat transfer properties of near-critical fluids, with potential applications including highly efficient engines, advanced aerospace applications, and electronics cooling. , assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, was awarded  to study opto-electronic circuits based on a new class of materials, metal halide perovskites, that may be used in devices such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes. , assistant professor of computer science, was awarded  to research mapping problems in computational geometry and topology with the goal of producing new algorithms for technologies such as medical imaging. , assistant professor of materials science, received  to study phase change materials that have potential for low-power, non-volatile computer memory. 
• , professor of chemical engineering, received a  from the National Science Foundation to develop a novel 3D nanomaterial printer for the additive manufacturing of multiscale materials.
• The United States Department of Agriculture awarded , assistant professor of robotics, a pair of grants, one for $375,000 and one for $438,000, from to teach robots to prune fruit tree and pick fruits like humans, respectively. 
•  was awarded a  from the National Science Foundation to increase the operating voltages of aqueous batteries, which have the potential to be cheaper and more durable than lithium batteries, to be comparable to those of lithium batteries.

The College of Engineering has built a reputation for research and innovation with broad global impact. The college is positioned as a leader in the signature research areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean water, materials science, clean energy, computing, resilient infrastructure, and health-related engineering.

In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the College of Engineering received more than $56.8 million in research funding. The following is an overview of notable grants received during that time:

• The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency awarded a team led by , professor of computer science, an  to conduct research for a “machine common sense” service for artificial intelligence and robotic systems.
• The U.S. Department of Energy awarded a  to Bahman Abbasi, assistant professor of energy systems engineering at , to develop a new technology to treat hydraulic fracturing wastewater and minimize the public health and environmental impact concerns associated with untreated wastewater.
• Idaho National Laboratory awarded a $1.23 million grant to , associate professor of mechanical engineering, to develop a procedure for testing the degradation of structural alloys used in nuclear power systems.
• , professor and head of the school of civil and construction engineering and the Miles Lowell and Margaret Watt Edwards Distinguished Chair in Engineering and the Director of the Kiewit Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Research, is leading a $1.63 million Department of Energy funded study to develop tools and testing procedures for enhancing the durability of concrete containing industrial byproducts.
• The National Institutes of Health awarded , assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, a  to develop a wireless, battery-less sensor to be integrated into bandages and clothing for the continuous monitoring of wounds for early signs of infection and disease.
• Two faculty won National Science Foundation CAREER awards. , associate professor of environmental engineering, received  to apply theoretical ecology principles to quantify the fundamental processes that drive microbial community architecture and function. , associate professor of mechanical engineering, also received  to develop methods for enabling teams of autonomous vehicles collecting scientific information to make mission-critical decisions in response to changing environmental conditions.
• , professor of chemical engineering, was awarded a  from the National Science Foundation to create new teaching materials for concept-based mechanical engineering courses in Statics and Dynamics.
• The Department of Energy awarded , associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, a $640,000 grant to develop safeguards to protect against the diversion and misuse of separated plutonium.

Furthermore, , co-founded by , College of Engineering Dean’s Professor and associate professor of mechanical engineering, received  for commercial production of its bipedal robot Cassie.

Among the most productive colleges at ����Ӱ�� State University, the College of Engineering has built a reputation for research and innovation with broad global impact. The college is positioned as a leader in the signature research areas of precision health, clean energy, resilient infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing. Targeted strategic areas include robotics, materials research, and clean water.

In the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the College of Engineering received more than $50.27 million in research funding. The following is an overview of notable grants received during that time: 

• Bahman Abbasi, assistant professor of energy systems engineering at OSU-Cascades, received a;to develop solar-thermal desalination technology.
• Three faculty members received nearly $2 million in prestigous early career awards, including  for research and outreach that holds promise for making fundamental improvements in deep learning. , assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, received $450,000; and , assistant professor of computer science, received $513,726. , associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, received a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award for $983,567 to support a project titled "Nanocrystalline Semiconductors for Radiation Detection."
• The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has granted a team including , professor of computer science and associate director of the Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute, a  to develop drone swarm infrastructure to help the U.S. military in urban combat.
• Researchers led by , Tom and Carmen West Faculty Scholar and professor of manufacturing engineering, received  from Business ����Ӱ�� to expand Metal Additive Manufacturing. 
•  and , both professors of civil and construction engineering, are leading ����Ӱ�� State University's role in a $2 million study headed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop technologies that could enable cars and trucks to run on biofuel made from seaweed. 
•  assistant professor of computer science, received  to collaborate on building a tool that consolidates medical data from various sources in an effort to more quickly diagnose and treat patients. 

Furthermore, two companies created based on the research of College of Engineering faculty members have received substantial funding. , co-founded by , College of Engineering Dean’s Professor and associate professor of mechanical engineering, received  for commercial production of its bipedal robot Cassie. , co-founded by , professor emeritus and the Henry W. and Janice J. Schuette Endowed Chair in Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics, received a  to support advanced nuclear research and development.

As the 11^th largest engineering program in the nation, the ����Ӱ��College of Engineering is also among its most productive. Since 1999, the college has more than tripled its research expenditures by emphasizing highly collaborative research and innovation that address regional and global problems. The College of Engineering is positioned as a leader in signature research areas of precision health, clean energy, resilient infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing; and targeted strategic areas including robotics, materials research, and clean water. 

In the fiscal year 2016-2017, the College of Engineering received more than $55.6 million in sponsored research awards, with funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Defense. 

The following is an overview of notable College of Engineering grants received during the 2016-2017 fiscal year. 

• Over the past year, ����Ӱ��has joined three , showcasing the strength of advanced manufacturing research:

-In partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the College of Engineering, led by  and , was selected to co-direct the , which will help improve efficiency in the U.S. chemical industry.

-The College of Engineering, led by  and , will contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of manufacturing in the United States as one of the founding academic partners in the newest Manufacturing USA Institute, .

-As partner in the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), the College of Engineering will significantly expand its outreach and collaboration with Pacific Northwest business and industry, helping to save energy, waste less, create jobs, and become more internationally competitive.  and  have led ����Ӱ�� State’s participation in launching CESMII. 

• Under the leadership of , ����Ӱ�� State University’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center was awarded up to  to create the world’s premier wave energy test facility in Newport. The grant will fund a grid-connected wave energy test center and will allow researchers to build and test new wave energy technologies. 

•  was awarded to a team led by , associate professor of mechanical engineering, to develop technology aimed at detecting and deterring eagles from colliding with wind turbines.  

• A National Science Foundation award will establish a .  as co-principal investigator, will work with a team led by the University of Washington to provide equipment and logistical resources for reconnaissance efforts. 

• In collaboration with the National Science Foundation, the . Principal Investigator , assistant professor of civil engineering and Eric H.I. and Janice Hoffman Faculty Scholar, will conduct research focused on accelerating discovery and innovation at the nexus of food, energy, and water systems by creating a state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure for adaptation planning. 

• , professor of computer science and associate director of the , and a team of computer science professors received a  to better understand the decision-making behind artificial-intelligence-based systems like autonomous vehicles and robots. The project involves collaboration across the disciplines of artificial intelligence and machine learning, computer vision, human-computer interaction, natural language processing, and programming languages, and seeks to make autonomous vehicles and robots more trustworthy. 
• A  was awarded to a team of researchers led by , assistant professor of mechanical engineering and core member of the  to study the operation of autonomous marine vehicles in an effort to improve the vehicles’ ability to operate with little to no communication with a human technician. 

• Five faculty members in the College of Engineering at ����Ӱ��have received more than $2.5 million in . The recipients of the National Science Foundation CAREER awards include:

-, assistant professor of mechanical engineering

-, assistant professor of robotics and mechanical engineering

-, assistant professor of computer science 

The recipient of the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award is , assistant professor of mechanical engineering and core member of the . , assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, received the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award.

The OSU College of Engineering is among the nation’s largest and most productive engineering programs. Since 1999, the college has more than tripled its research expenditures by emphasizing highly collaborative research and innovation that address regional and global problems. It’s a leader in signature research areas, including precision health, clean energy, resilient infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing. The college also leads in targeted strategic areas, including robotics, materials research, and clean water.

In fiscal year 2015-2016, the college received $39.5 million in sponsored research awards. Most of the funding came from federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense.

Notable grants received during this past fiscal year include the following: 

•  for their teaching or research initiatives. Six will receive National Science Foundation CAREER awards totaling $3.3 million, which supports young faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research and excellent education. Another two faculty will share $1 million from the Office of Naval Research Young Investigators Program for junior faculty showing exceptional promise for creative research.

The NSF CAREER award winners are:

• , an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, for his research proposal, “Restoring Musculoskeletal Function by Designing Implantable Passive Mechanisms.”
• , an assistant professor of computer science, for his research proposal, “Program Analysis and Transformations of Asynchrony.”
• , an assistant professor of engineering education, for his research proposal, “Personal Epistemology in Engineering Education.”
• , an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, for his research proposal, “Scalable MIMO Spatial Filtering and Synchronization for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks.”
• , an assistant professor of computer science and biomedical sciences, for his research proposal, “Deciphering the human regulome: genomics-based analysis of intergenic genotype-to-trait associations, made accessible and powerful.”
• , an assistant professor of bioengineering, for his research proposal, “High-Density Non-Fouling Bioactive Coatings for Processing of Biological Fluids.” 

The 2016 ONR Young Investigators are:

• , an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, for his research proposal, “Ignition, Deflagration and Detonation Behavior of Fuel and Oxidizer Mixed with Combustion Products.”
• , an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, for his research proposal, “Soft Marine Robotics with Cephalopod-Inspired Dynamic Motion Primitives and Electroactive Fluidic Sensing and Actuation.”

•  as part of its participation in the recently formed Cyber Resilient Energy Delivery Consortium. The consortium’s five-year mandate is to protect the nation’s electric grid from cyber threats. The consortium, comprised of eleven universities and national laboratories, was awarded a total of $22.5 million, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and led by the University of Illinois. OSU, which has a growing expertise in the field of cybersecurity, will focus on projects to prevent manipulation of sensors and devices on the power grid that could lead to cascading power outages, according to  an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and a member of OSU’s cybersecurity team. 

• Following one of the worst wildfire seasons on record, the  to study the impact of smoldering combustion. The five-year project, headed by , could lead to development of tools for firefighters, climate scientists, foresters and others to predict and prevent smoldering, manage controlled burns, and calculate potential pollution emissions. 

• The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year,  to ����Ӱ�� State in partnership with the University of Washington and as part of the  for research in nanoscale science, engineering and technology. ����Ӱ�� State’s lead researcher for the grant, Greg Herman, a professor of chemical engineering, said that winning the NSF grant is evidence that OSU has made the right investments in materials and research infrastructure to be competitive with top universities in the country. 

• Two college faculty will share an  to fund research into sustainable and environmentally-friendly fabric dyeing techniques and for plastic injection molding. The recipients from the college are , a professor of chemical engineering, and , an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.  from the  and Sara Robinson from the  will share the award. In 2014, Walmart awarded ����Ӱ�� State , for a total of $1.4 million. 

The OSU College of Engineering is among the nation's largest and most productive engineering programs. Since 1999, the college has more than tripled its research expenditures by emphasizing highly collaborative research and innovation that solve global problems. It’s a leader in signature research areas, including precision health, clean energy, resilient infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing; and targeted strategic areas, including robotics, materials research, and clean water.

In fiscal year 2014-2015, the College of Engineering received $38.8 million in sponsored research awards. Most of the funding came from federal funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Examples of notable College of Engineering grants received during this past fiscal year include:

• A three-year, , through which  will head a multidisciplinary team of researchers from academics, government, and industry in an effort to help restart the  (TREAT) at the Idaho National Laboratory. As part of this effort, a new experimental facility will be built at ����Ӱ�� State University’s .

• With a five-year, , one of only six of its type in the nation, the  plans to substantially change its curriculum to make courses more realistic, consequential, and relevant to the lives of students and embracing of different cultures. Researchers will explore education that better incorporates both curricular and real-world experiences. Problem-based learning, cultural inclusion, and consequential work will hopefully improve the student experience and aid retention, recruitment, and graduate numbers.

• In , the  will be one of just five engineering programs in the nation to participate in a new program to increase diversity and foster an inclusive culture for underrepresented minorities and women in mechanical engineering. The project aims to advance understanding and the experiences of mechanical engineering faculty, staff, and students who have been underrepresented in the past. It will study the impact of stereotypes and the process of change-planning and goal-setting in an academic environment.

• A team of ����Ӱ��researchers that includes , , and  in the  will help lead the Community Resilience Center of Excellence,  to help communities improve resilience to natural disasters. The center will be based at Colorado State University, and is a partnership of 10 institutions. It will develop computer tools to help local governments create resiliency in buildings and critical infrastructure, lessen the impact of extreme weather and other hazards, and recover rapidly in their aftermath.

• A collaboration of five universities in the Pacific Northwest has received a five-year,  to increase the number of minority students who pursue careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
• ����Ӱ��has received a , part of a $1.4 million package to allow the university to acquire a near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The near-ambient XPS system will be the foundation of the surface characterization laboratory in Johnson Hall, a state-of-the-art engineering building and the future home of the .