Eight A&T Faculty Receive Seed Grant Funding to Kickstart Research

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Feb. 10, 2025) – Eight faculty members at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University have each received a portion of $160,000 — $20,000 each — in seed grant funding through the Provost’s Faculty Fellows opportunity. 

Launched in 2023 by North Carolina A&T’s Office of the Provost, Title III and the Division of Research, the Provost’s Faculty Fellows program was created to support faculty pursuing innovative and interdisciplinary research projects. It aims to develop and sustain competitiveness while setting the stage for larger projects seeking to secure extramural resources. 

“A&T’s faculty are among the most innovative and collaborative researchers anywhere,” said Tonya Smith-Jackson, Ph.D., provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs. “They are leaders in interdisciplinary research and they are blurring the lines between disciplines to solve complex challenges and create new and transformative knowledge. Seed grants help position them to be more successful in the research enterprise, broadening their expertise and scholarly dissemination to lay the groundwork for securing additional external funding. I am excited to see what they discover and create in partnership with undergraduate and graduate students who will contribute to the success of these projects.” 

Proposals for the fellowship were based on one or more of the seven focus areas of Preeminence 2030: North Carolina A&T Blueprint and required cross-college collaboration. The focus areas are: health, transportation and housing equity; education and lifelong learning; economic empowerment; climate and environment; security, equal benefits and social justice; narrative empowerment; and innovative systems design and development. This year, proposers were required to integrate AI in the research.

Establishing goals and strategies that will advance A&T’s research and strengthen its mission, Preeminence 2030 allows the university to continue its commitment to research expansion. A&T aspires to achieve R1 status, Doctoral University: Very High Research Activity under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, up from its current R2 designation Doctoral University: High Research Activity. 

The 2025 Provost’s Faculty Fellows include collaborations among assistant, associate and full professors across schools and departments campus-wide. Projects were selected from a competitive pool of proposals:

Adaptive Virtual Reality System for Sundown Syndrome Management

Hamidreza Moradi, Ph.D., principal investigator (PI) and assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Travonia Brown-Hughes, Ph.D., co-principal investigator (co-PI), associate professor in the Department of Biology and executive director of the Center for Outreach in Alzheimer’s, Aging and Community Health.

Utility and Cultural Responsiveness of GenAI

Sabrina Johnson, Ph.D., PI and assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, and Brittany Ingram, Ph.D., co-PI and assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology.

AI-enhanced Organoid-vasculature-intelligence System

Seong-Tae “Ty” Kim, Ph.D., PI and associate professor of mathematics and statistics and graduate coordinator for the data science and analytics concentration in the Applied Science and Technology Ph.D. program. Yeoheung Yun, Ph.D., and co-PI is a professor of chemical, biological and bioengineering, graduate coordinator of the bioengineering program, and the principal investigator for the NIH-funded NERVE center.

Evaluating Pavement Conditions’ Impacts on Rural Area Traffic Safety Using AI Model

David Wang, Ph.D., PI and assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Rongfang “Rachel” Liu, Ph.D., UPS Endowed Professor of Supply Chain Management and director of the Transportation Institute at the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics.

Artificial Intelligence-Driven Transcranial Focused Ultrasound for Enhancing Glymphatic Clearance in Alzheimer's Treatment

Communities Using AI Strategies for Health Equity and Social Justice

AI-Integrated Imaging and Biosensors for ROS Analysis in Cisplatin Ototoxicity

Eunsoo Yoo, Ph.D., PI and assistant professor in the Department of Chemical, Biological and Bioengineering, and Robert H. Newman, Ph.D., co-PI and Nathan F. Simms Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology.

Applying Active Learning Strategies in STEM