ARISE Team

Since launching in 2022, the ARISE project has engaged more than 230 faculty, staff, students, postdoctoral researchers and educators from across Kansas.

Learn more about ARISE

ARISE Year 4 team metrics, showing 163 total with a bar chart showing most members are from three universities and a pie chart showing that 41% are students and 37% are faculty.

Project Leaders

  • Belinda Sturm

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

  • Bala Natarajan

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

  • Elaina Sutley

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

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

  • Husain Aziz

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

  • Jason Bergtold

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

  • Justin Hutchison

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

  • Rachel Krause

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

  • Xiaoheng Wang

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

Research Investigators

  • Elizabeth Embry

    Assistant Professor, School of Business, University of Kansas

  • Jude Kastens

    Associate Research Professor, Kansas Applied Remote Sensing, University of Kansas

  • Joel Mendez

    Assistant Professor, Public Affairs & Administration, University of Kansas

  • Anil Pahwa

    University Distinguished Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University

  • Edward Peltier

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

  • Vaishali Sharda

    Associate Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University

Education & Workforce Development

  • Claudia Bode

    Education, Outreach, and Diversity Director, Kansas NSF EPSCoR

  • Tonya Bronleewe

    Director, Environmental Finance Center, Wichita State University

  • Eleanor Gardner

    Outreach and Engagement 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

  • Alej Martinez

    Program Coordinator for Education and Community Engagement, Kansas NSF EPSCoR

  • Susan Rensing

    Associate Director for Scholar Development and Undergraduate Research at Kansas State University; directs the Developing Scholars 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

  • Jomella Watson-Thompson

    Professor, Applied Behavioral Science, University of Kansas; Leads Community Engaged Research

  • 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

  • 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

  • Brian Dye

    Assistant Professor of Computer Networking, Butler Community College

  • 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

  • Kiran Mihir

    Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems, Johnson County Community College

  • Sergio Salinas Monroy

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

  • Abraham Pascoe

    Assistant Professor of Data Science, Baker University

  • Lior Shamir

    Associate Professor, Computer Science, Kansas State University

  • Judith Smrha

    Chair and Professor of Business and Economics, Baker University

  • Lokesh Das

    Assistant Professor, Wichita State University

search Full list of KDSC Contributors

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

  • Nishit Jaideep Shetty

    Assistant Professor, University of Kansas, 2025 award: Strengthening Resilience of Built Environments Through Early Mold Detection

  • Shruti Kshirsagar

    Assistant Professor, Wichita State University, 2025 award: Advancing Robust Building Damage Detection for Resilient Infrastructure

  • Sankha Narayan Guria

    Assistant Professor, University of Kansas, 2025 award: Towards a Reliable Software Stack for Communications in Smart Infrastructure

  • Yoonjung Ahn

    Assistant Professor, University of Kansas, 2025 award: Evaluating Disparate Impacts from Multi-Climate Risks for Manufactured Homes

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

  • Yoonjung Ahn

    Assistant Professor of Geography & Atmospheric Science, University of Kansas, 2025 REI Award: Manufactured Housing Residents’ Air Quality Exposures and Perspectives

  • Matthew Howland

    Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Wichita State University, 2025 REI Award: Documenting and Disseminating History and Mortuary Segregation at Highland Cemetery

  • Nishit Shetty

    Assistant Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas, 2025 REI Award: Characterizing the fungal microbiome in indoor air and stormwater to improve resiliency to mold.

  • Rachel Krause and Hala Altamimi

    University of Kansas, 2025 REI Award: Nonprofits as Third-Party Governance Actors in Community Resilience by

  • Lior Shamir and Safia Malallah

    Kansas State University, 2025 REI Award: Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Educational Module for K-5

  • Balasubramaniam Natarajan and Rahul Madbhavi

    Kansas State University, 2025 REI Award: CLARA: County-Level AI for Resilience and Assistance

  • George T. Amariucai

    Kansas State University, 2025 REI Award: Conversational, Context-Aware, Adaptive Surveys: An AI-Driven Platform to Expand Human Data Collection Capacity across Kansas Institutions

  • Lokesh Das

    In collaboration with Visvakumar Aravinthan, Wichita State University, Jason Bergtold, Kansas State University, and Madison Graham, University of Kansas, 2025 REI Award: Quantify Voluntary Load Reduction to Enhance System Resilience for Resource Adequacy Events

  • Quan Lei

    In collaboration with Xiaoheng Wang, Wichita State University, 2025 REI Award: Assessing Local Government Decision-Making for Resilient and Equitable Infrastructure

  • Madison Graham

    University of Kansas in collaboration with Jason Bergtold Kansas State University, 2025 REI Award: Behavioral Experiments to Assess Behavioral Intentions of Kansas Residents

Postdoctoral Research Associates

  • Chia-Fu (Joey) Liu

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

  • Stephen Paolillo

    Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Policy and Social Research, 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

General Staff