ARISE Team

More than 70 faculty, staff, students, and postdoctoral researchers participate in the ARISE project from across Kansas.

Learn more about ARISE

ARISE project team metrics with a bar chart showing most members are from three universities. Pie charts show that 47% are female and most are faculty.

Project Leaders

  • Belinda Sturm

    ARISE Project Principal Investigator, Kansas NSF EPSCoR Director, Professor, Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas (she)

  • Bala Natarajan

    Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University; Theme 2 Co-Lead (he)

  • Elaina Sutley

    Associate Professor, Associate Dean of Diversity School of Engineering, Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas; Theme 4 Co-Lead (she)

Research Theme Leaders

  • George Amariucai

    Associate Professor, Computer Science, Kansas State University; Theme 1 Co-Lead

  • Visvakumar Aravinthan

    Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Wichita State University; Theme 3 Co-Lead (he)

  • Husain Aziz

    Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering, Kansas State University; Theme 3 Co-Lead (he)

  • Jason Bergtold

    Professor, Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University; Theme 1 Co-Lead (he)

  • Justin Hutchison

    Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas; Theme 3 Co-Lead (he)

  • Rachel Krause

    Associate Professor, Public Affairs & Administration, University of Kansas; Theme 2 Co-Lead (she)

  • Xiaoheng Wang

    Assistant Professor, Public Affairs, Wichita State University; Theme 3 Co-Lead (she)

Research Investigators

  • Elizabeth Embry

    Assistant Professor, School of Business, University of Kansas

  • Jude Kastens

    Associate Research Professor, Kansas Applied Remote Sensing, University of Kansas (he)

  • Joel Mendez

    Assistant Professor, Public Affairs & Administration, University of Kansas (he)

  • Anil Pahwa

    University Distinguished Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University (he)

  • Edward Peltier

    Associate Chair and Professor of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas (he)

  • Vaishali Sharda

    Associate Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University (she)

Education & Workforce Development

  • Claudia Bode

    Education, Outreach, and Diversity Director, Kansas NSF EPSCoR (she)

  • Tonya Bronleewe

    Director, Environmental Finance Center, Wichita State University (she)

  • Eleanor Gardner

    Outreach and Engagement Coordinator, University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum (she)

  • Carolyn Kocken

    Education Program Coordinator, University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum

  • Teresa MacDonald

    Associate Director of Informal Science Education, Natural History Museum, University of Kansas, Leads ARISE museum and outreach initiatives (she)

  • Alej Martinez

    Program Coordinator for Education and Community Engagement, Kansas NSF EPSCoR

  • Beth Montelone

    Senior Associate Vice President for Research, Kansas State University, Leads Kansas Louis-Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program

  • Mary Patterson

    Data Science Core Instructor for the Saturday Academy, Kansas City Kansas Community College

  • Nicholas Willis

    Senior Program Manager, Environmental Finance Center, Wichita State University

  • John Colclazier

    Program Manager, Environmental Finance Center, Wichita State University

Community Engagement

  • Cynthia Esiaka

    Graduate Assistant, Center for Service Learning, University of Kansas

  • Alej Martinez

    Program Coordinator for Education and Community Engagement, Kansas NSF EPSCoR

  • Christina Pacheco

    Assistant Professor, Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Kansas Medical Center

Kansas Data Science Consortium (KDSC) Team

  • Janice Akao

    Professor of Accounting, Butler Community College

  • Michael Branicky

    Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Former Dean of Engineering, University of Kansas, Co-leads KDSC

  • William Duncan

    Assistant Research Professor of Data Science, University of Kansas, Co-leads KDSC

  • Jeff Girard

    Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Kansas, Co-leads KDSC

  • Edina Harsay

    Graduate Research Assistant

  • Emma Howard

    Research Project Specialist, University of Kansas

  • Safia Malallah

    Teaching Assistant Professor, Kansas State University

  • Ana Maradiaga

    Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Director of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Donnelly College

  • Jiji Osiobe

    Assistant Professor of Business, Economics, and Data Analytics, Baker University

  • Sergio Salinas Monroy

    Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Wichita State University

  • Lior Shamir

    Associate Professor, Computer Science, Kansas State University

  • Suzanne Smith

    Associate Professor of Mathematics, Johnson County Community College

  • Judith Smrha

    Chair and Professor of Business and Economics, Baker University

  • Fujian Yan

    Assistant Teaching Professor, Wichita State University

First Award Recipients

  • Davood Babaei Pourkargar

    Assistant Professor, Tim Taylor Department of Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University, 2023 award: “Distributed green ammonia generation for resilient energy storage and fertilizer production in rural communities.”

  • Xiaolong Guo

    Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University, 2023 award: “LLM4KSS: Large-language Models for Kansas Science.”

  • Amanda Hovious

    Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Management, Emporia State University, 2023 award: “Data Literacy for All: A Kansas Public Library Initiative.”

  • Zelalem Demissie

    Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, Wichita State University, 2023 award: “The use of Radar technology and AI techniques to forecast early-stage drought in Kansas.”

  • Davi Soares

    Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Wichita State University, 2023 award: “Physics-informed machine learning model for assessment of state of health of lithium-ion batteries used in resilient infrastructure applications.”

  • Matthew Howland

    Wichita State University, 2024 award: Improving Cultural Heritage Resilience through Modeling and Quantification of Erosion Risks to Heritage Sites

  • Melinda Adams

    Langston Hughes Assistant Professor, Geography & Atmospheric Science and Indigenous Studies, University of Kansas, 2024 award: Indigenous-Led Cultural Burns and Research In Resiliency with Kansas Tribes

  • Hongyang Sun

    Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Kansas, 2024 award: Towards Robust Resilience for Large Computing Infrastructures

Research and Education Innovation (REI) Award Recipients

  • Shakil Bin Kashem

    Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning, Kansas State University, 2023 award: “Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies for Enhancing Disaster Risk Awareness in Vulnerable Communities.”

  • Chris Koliba

    Stene Distinguished Professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas, 2023 award: “An Institutional and Behavioral Design Approach to Improving the Use of Flood Forecast Information for the Kansas City Metro Portion of the Missouri River Basin.”

  • Atri Dutta

    Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Wichita State University, 2023 award: “Understanding and Mitigating Bias of AI-based Natural Disaster Assessment Models for Rescue Coordination and Resiliency.”

  • Ehsan Salari

    Associate Professor, Department of Industrial, Systems, and Manufacturing Engineering, Wichita State University, 2023 award: “Modeling Electric-vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Resilience Using a Socio-economic Approach.”

  • Wujun Si

    Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial, Systems, and Manufacturing Engineering, Wichita State University, 2023 award: “Integrating Social Equity into Infrastructure Maintenance Planning Towards Resiliency.”

  • Joseph P. Brewer, II

    Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences Director, Indigenous Studies Program, University of Kansas, 2023 award: “Native Prairie Restoration & Climate Resilience on the Ioway Nation in Kansas and Nebraska.”

  • S. Amin Enderami

    Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas, 2023 award: “Evaluating Feasibility of Buyouts as Adaptation Strategy for Post-Wildfire Flash Floods.”

  • Ali Eslami

    Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Wichita State University, 2023 award: “Developing a Network Science to Study Cascading Failures in the Cyber-Physical Infrastructure.”

  • Jeffrey Girard

    Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of Kansas, 2023 award: “Kansas Data Science Training Pathways | An Integrated Model.”

  • Admin Husic

    Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas, 2023 award: “The inequity of urban flooding: exploring societal and climatic drivers across scales.”

  • Xiaolong Guo

    Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University, Guarding the Gatekeepers: Ensuring the Safety of IoT Sensors in Essential Infrastructure

  • Andrew Swindle

    Associate Professor of Hydrogeology; Environmental Geochemistry, Wichita State University, Enhanced resilience of drinking water accessibility in Kansas using probabilistic machine learning

  • John Symons

    Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas Institute for Information Sciences, Advancing fairness in machine learning: a multidisciplinary approach

Postdoctoral Research Associates

  • Saranga Abeygunawardane

    Postdoctoral Researcher, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Wichita State University

  • Amin Enderami

    Postdoctoral Researcher, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas

  • Rahul Madbhavi

    Postdoctoral Research Associate, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University

  • Yongwang Ren

    Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University

  • Amulya Sreejith

    Postdoctoral Researcher, Kansas State University

  • Hsi-Chuan Wang

    Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas

General Staff