Kansas NSF EPSCoR announces three $50,000 awards for research and education innovation.
Known as REI awards, these seed grants support small, one-year projects led by scientists in Kansas. This round of REI awards explore infrastructure resilience and machine learning, two areas targeted by ARISE, a five-year statewide initiative launched in 2022 focused on developing “Adaptive and Resilient Infrastructures driven by Social Equity.”
This year’s REI award recipients are from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and Wichita State University. With these seed grants, the three professors will be able to explore a novel area of study and gather the preliminary data, expertise, and collaborations needed to successfully compete nationally for larger grants — a key goal of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
Funding for these investments comes for NSF EPSCoR and the Kansas Board of Regents. Since the research projects align with the Kansas Science & Technology Plan, they will also help spur innovation and opportunity in areas of priority to the state.
Kansas NSF EPSCoR has been making these types of investments for more than 30 years. 10 similar awards were announced last year, five in March 2023 and five in November 2023. Another round of applications for this funding opportunity will be announced in spring 2025.
Research & Education Innovation Awards, Summer 2024
Guarding the Gatekeepers: Ensuring the Safety of IoT Sensors in Essential Infrastructure, by Xiaolong Guo, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University
Enhanced resilience of drinking water accessibility in Kansas using probabilistic machine learning, by Andrew Swindle, Associate Professor of Hydrogeology; Environmental Geochemistry, Wichita State University
Advancing fairness in machine learning: a multidisciplinary approach, by John Symons, Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas Institute for Information Sciences