FIU Research Annual Report 2012-13

ANNUAL REPORT ON RESEARCH ACTIVITY

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Florida International University is a comprehensive university offering 340 majors in 188 degree programs in 23 colleges and schools, with innovative bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs across all disciplines including medicine, public health, law, journalism, hospitality, and architecture. FIU is Carnegie-designated as both a research university with high research activity and community engagement.

The Florida International University (FIU) research enterprise has continued to thrive, even with an intensely competitive research environment and shrinking budgets from federal and state governments. During fiscal year (FY) 2012-2013, FIU researchers and scholars exceeded once again the $100M threshold in research, increasing the value of awards received by 5.2%.

We have become more focused and selective in our investments, as reflected in faculty recruitment, enhanced infrastructure and Worlds Ahead discoveries. On page 14, you can read about FIU researcher Madhavan Nair from the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM) and Sakhrat Khizroev from the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), who used magneto-electric nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver significantly increased levels of AZTTP. This method has potential applications for patients who suffer from neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, meningitis and chronic pain, and may be applicable to diseases such as cancer. HWCOM’s Alexander Agoulnik, working with scientists from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), developed a new molecule called ML290 that has potential for treating chronic diseases. NCATS’ Strategic Alliances group is now working closely with a large U.S. pharmaceutical company to develop a research plan and finalize details of a joint agreement, a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), for the development of ML290. The aim of this public-private collaboration is to complete the necessary studies with ML290 to produce the first small-molecule drug that activates the RXFP1 receptor to treat chronic heart failure and fibrotic disorders.

Our buildings are increasingly reflecting FIU’s commitment to interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. Early in 2013, we inaugurated Academic Health Center 4 (AHC4). The $43 million building offers 137,500 square feet of space that includes laboratories, lecture halls and student spaces, all specifically designed to promote collaboration among its occupants.

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Located in the heart of the dynamic south Florida urban region, our multiple campuses serve over 50,000 students, placing FIU among the ten largest universities in the nation. Our annual research expenditures in excess of $128 million and our deep commitment to engagement have made FIU the go-to solutions center for issues ranging from local to global. At FIU, we are proud to be Worlds Ahead!

Among others, AHC4 houses the Advanced Mass Spectrometry Facility, which promotes collaborative research efforts leading to the development of new methods for specific investigative problems. It features state-of-the-art instrumentation enabling a broad range of analytical approaches, and offers services ranging from small molecule synthetic identification to biological extract characterization to tissue imaging; from investigating complex mixtures using traditional chromatographic separations prior to mass analysis to analyzing using the new high resolution FTICR instrument to obtain exact mass identifications. AHC4 also houses the Neuroinformatics and Brain Connectivity Lab, which focuses on developing novel data analysis algorithms, neuroscience informatics tools and neuroimaging ontologies. The Biomolecular Sciences Institute, also located in AHC4, is a multidisciplinary institute focusing on collaborative research in biomolecular and biomedical science topics. The multidisciplinary nature of AHC4 is also reflected in three other groups. First, the Center for Children and Families (CCF), with its focus on child mental health research, will have facilities in AHC4. Second, several Biomedical Engineering laboratories will be located in AHC4 in order to facilitate collaboration with the other health disciplines in the Academic Health Center. Third, the Integrated Biostatistics and Data Center will be located in the building. This Center will provide important biostatistical and data management support to researchers and graduate students across all disciplines.

Under Professor Atorod Azizinamini’s leadership, we also won a very important grant to establish FIU’s first ever highly competitive University Transportation Center. In leading a UTC, FIU joins the likes of MIT, Carnegie Mellon and UC Berkeley. FIU’s UTC will focus on the critical national issue of Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) at a time when there are more than 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the United States.

Our faculty and students continue to make significant contributions to the advancement of science and knowledge through their discoveries, scientific publications and transfer of technologies. Please read about some of their accomplishments in this report, as well as brief profiles of new faculty that have joined FIU. We look forward to continuing to share the great work that is being done at our great University.

Andrés G. Gil, Ph.D. Vice President for Research

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HIGHLIGHTS: FACULTY NEW TO FIU Alejandro Arrieta Robert Stempel College of Public Heath & Social Work Department of Health Policy & Management Alejandro Arrieta has an active research portfolio in health policy and global health. He is interested in the impact of healthcare financing and the organization on utilization and quality of care. His work examines such questions as how health reforms have changed the role of the private sector in health systems in Latin America, and how the organization of hospitals and payers affect the provision of preventable care. Arrieta has a special interest in maternalcare quality and assessment, and how financial and non-financial incentives affect maternal-care outcomes.

Arrieta has served as principal investigator, co-investigator and consultant on several studies assessing the cost-effectiveness of healthcare programs. In particular, he is interested in healthcare interventions that target changes in patient behavior to improve the control of chronic diseases at the lowest cost. Those studies include financial incentives to change smoking behavior, technological devices to improve self-control of hypertension and care management programs to improve diabetes control. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Rutgers University and an M.A. in finance from the Universidad del Pacifico in Peru.

Leonardo Bobadilla College of Engineering & Computing School of Computing & Information Sciences Leonardo Bobadilla is an expert in robotics, artificial intelligence and cyber-physical systems, with a particular interest in understanding the information requirements for solving fundamental robotics tasks such as navigation, patrolling, tracking and motion safety.

Bobadilla’s research proposes techniques for tackling robotic tasks that depart from traditional approaches. In his most recent work, Bobadilla and his colleagues are studying algorithms and technologies to detect dangerous configurations in construction projects.

Bobadilla earned an undergraduate degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in statistics from the National University of Colombia and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has received recognition with engineering awards both in the United States and in his native Colombia.

Kathryn Brogan Robert Stempel College of Public Heath & Social Work Department of Dietetics & Nutrition Kathryn Brogan brings expertise in pediatric obesity and motivational interviewing to the FIU community. Her research focuses on the interdisciplinary development and implementation of behavioral obesity interventions in minority children and adolescents. Brogan also studies patientprovider behavior-change communication in adolescents and adults in the areas of weight management, HIV and other chronic diseases.

Previously an assistant professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Brogan was co-investigator and site project director for the National Institutes of Health Obesity Related Behavioral Intervention Trials (ORBIT) Center grant. She has received funding from the NIH, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Wayne State University Medical Education Research as well as a collaborative grant supported by several organizations, among them the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Adolescent AIDS Trials Network.

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A registered dietitian, Brogan has a doctoral degree in nutrition and food science from Wayne State University. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, a group that promotes collaborative conversation for strengthening a person’s own motivation and commitment to change.

Zhe Cheng College of Engineering & Computing Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering

Zhe Cheng is an expert in the design, synthesis, processing and characterization of advanced functional ceramic and ceramic-metal hybrid materials for solid-state energy conversion.

Cheng came to FIU from DuPont in Wilmington, DE where he worked in the area of advanced metallization materials for silicon solar cells.

Cheng earned his undergraduate degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D from the Georgia Institute of Technology in materials science and engineering. During his Ph.D. study, Cheng revealed the fundamental behaviors and underlying mechanism for sulfur poisoning of solid oxide fuel cells using a combination of advanced experimental and theoretical tools.

In addition, he was instrumental in the development of a new class of materials that combine high electrochemical performance with significantly improved tolerances.

Catherine Coccia Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work Department of Dietetics & Nutrition Catherine Coccia has an M.S. in food and nutritional sciences with a specialization in dietetics from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in family relations from Florida State University. Her research interests include community-based programs for children and families, program development and evaluation, parent-child relationships and health outcomes of diverse populations.

Coccia has utilized qualitative and quantitative research methods to examine the impact of parents on the eating behaviors of adolescents and emerging adults in high school and college settings.

She has contributed to the development of several communitybased interventions for African-American children and adults that focus predominately on blood pressure control and the prevention of cardiovascular disease risk factors. Coccia has also worked on instrument development projects to enhance the development and evaluation of intervention research. Specifically, she developed and validated culturally-sensitive dietary assessment tools in two community health projects, one for an African-American population and another for a Mexican-American population.

Prior to joining FIU, Coccia was an assistant professor at Texas A&M University at Kingsville where she taught a variety of courses, among them family and community health, foundations of child development and advanced foodservice management.

Jonathan Comer College of Arts & Sciences Department of Psychology Jonathan Comer is director of the Mental Health Interventions and Technology Program, an interdisciplinary clinical research laboratory within FIU’s Center for Children and Families.

His program of research examines five areas of overlapping inquiry, among them the assessment

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of child anxiety disorders; the development and evaluation of evidence-based treatments for childhood psychopathology; the psychological impact of disasters and terrorism on youth; national patterns and trends in the utilization of mental health services and quality of care; and psychosocial treatment options for mood, anxiety, and disruptive behavior problems presenting in early childhood. His work has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation, the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, the Mental Health Initiative and the Charles H. Hood Foundation.

among other factors, influence a child’s self-regulation skills or ability to adapt behavior. Graziano is also co-director of the PreK Summer Treatment Program, a comprehensive school-readiness program for pre-kindergarteners who exhibit behavior challenges.

He has published works in notable scientific journals such as the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, the American Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. He holds both a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Temple University.

Hui Huang’s research interests include child welfare, juvenile justice and substance abuse.

She has research experience with large-scale projects, such as the MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Research and the evaluation of the Illinois Title IV-E Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Waiver Demonstration. Her dissertation research was funded by the National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship and investigated neighborhood impact on delinquency.

Jose Eirin-Lopez College of Arts & Sciences Department of Biological Sciences

Jose Eirin-Lopez holds joint research positions at FIU and the University of Coruña in Galicia, Spain. He is the director of Chromevol, a research group within the Department of Biological Sciences devoted to the study of genetic, epigenetic and evolutionary mechanisms underlying the adaptation of marine organisms to changes in the environment. The work of his team involves analysis of three areas: the DNA within the cell nucleus, the links between pollutants and genetic alterations and the epigenetic markers for adaptive response. Eirin-Lopez’s research has been recognized nationally and internationally, and he received the Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the Spanish Society of Evolutionary Biology in 2011.

Eirin-Lopez earned his B.S. in biology, M.S. in genetics and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Coruña.

Jacqueline Evans College of Arts & Sciences Department of Psychology Evans returned to FIU, where she received her master’s and doctoral degrees, after serving as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Tyler. She completed undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia.

Evans’ research at the TRIIIAD Lab, which is conducted with the help of both graduate and undergraduate students, includes interviewing cooperative witnesses, interrogating uncooperative suspects and gathering intelligence from sources.

Findings coming out of the lab will help to inform professionals in various legal and national security contexts regarding the most effective methods to use when engaging in investigative interviews and assessing interviewee credibility. Evans’ work has been funded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the American PsychologyLaw Society and the Intelligence Community Post-doctoral Research Fellowship program.

Paulo Graziano College of Arts & Sciences Department of Psychology Paulo Graziano’s research focuses on developmental psychopathology. He is the director of the S.E.L.F.-Regulation Lab, an acronym for school-readiness, early intervention, learning and fitness. He is particularly interested in how parents, teachers and classroom settings,

Graziano has authored or co-authored papers published in the Journal of Attention Disorders, the International Journal of Obesity and the Journal of School Psychology. His work has been supported by both federal grants and local agencies. He earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Central Florida and a master’s and Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Huang holds two master’s degrees in social work, one from Xiamen University in her native China and one from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which she also holds a master’s in statistics and a Ph.D. in social work.

Boubakari Ibrahimou Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work Department of Biostatistics Boubakari Ibrahimou’s research interests lie in the areas of nonlinear analysis, exposure assessment and the implications of clustering. His research experience speaks directly to maternal and child health and environmental exposure issues. He also spends time providing biostatistical support to other investigators working in public health and medical research. At the University of South Florida (USF), Ibrahimou was a member of the Florida Prevention Research Center, the Center for Research and Evaluation at the Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies, and the Center for Collaborative Health within the College of Public Health.

Ibrahimou has a Ph.D. in pure and applied mathematics with training in biostatistics from USF. He most recently held the position of assistant professor of biostatistics in the Department of Public Health at Western Kentucky University.

J. Zoe Klemfuss College of Arts & Sciences Department of Psychology J. Zoe Klemfuss is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and directs FIU’s Child Narratives Lab. Her research focuses on how children remember and report their past experiences. She is particularly interested in how social contextual factors and children’s cognitive abilities impact the accuracy and content of their event narratives. This work is firmly rooted in cognitive and social developmental theory and has direct societal application, for example, in legal settings where a child’s memory report may be the deciding evidence in a case. She has published in top-tier academic journals including Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Review and the Journal

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Hui Huang Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work School of Social Work

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of Experimental Child Psychology, as well as in books and online resources.

Klemfuss joined FIU after completing post-doctoral work in psychology and social behavior at the University of California at Irvine. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of California at Berkeley and a masters and doctorate in developmental psychology from Cornell University.

Hebin Li College of Arts & Sciences Department of Physics Hebin Li’s research interests focus on the study of the interaction of light with matter by using cuttingedge optical tools. He is interested in quantum systems consisting of interacting atoms, molecules and electrons. His group develops and utilizes techniques and ideas in ultrafast spectroscopy and quantum optics to probe and manipulate the quantum dynamics of such systems. His laboratory explores fundamental physics associated with these problems and facilitates unique applications in fields such as quantum information processing, solar energy conversion, optoelectronics, metrology, imaging, sensing and biomedical science.

Li received a B.S. in physics from Wuhan University in his native China and a Ph.D. in physics from Texas A&M University. Before joining the faculty at FIU, he worked as a research associate at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Tan Li Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work Department of Biostatistics Tan Li is the deputy director for the Biostatistics Resource Laboratory within the Department of Biostatistics. In addition to his own research in the areas of modeling, he provides biostatistical support for numerous funded studies conducted by FIU’s Center for Children and Families and the Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse. He previously worked in the Statistical Consulting Laboratory of the University of South Carolina.

Li’s research focuses on ordinal data analysis, multilevel mixture models, psychometrics and longitudinal studies. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in statistics from the University of South Carolina.

Ali Mostafavi College of Engineering & Computing OHL School of Construction

Ali Mostafavi conducts interdisciplinary research to address the challenges at the interface between the civil infrastructure systems, environment, economy and policy. His research interests include sustainability and resilience in civil infrastructure systems, integrated performance assessment in complex construction projects, and simulation and computational modeling for analysis of complex systems-of-systems.

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administration from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.

Erica Musser College of Arts & Sciences Department of Psychology Erica Musser’s research is focused on furthering the understanding of a multitude of behavior problems in children and adolescents, including those that lead to disruptions in behavior, cognition and emotion.

In her lab she examines children who present with ADHD, anxiety disorders, callous/unemotional behavior, substance abuse, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and obesity, as well as typically developing children and teens. Projects take a multi-method approach, which has included behavioral ratings, laboratory computerized testing, behavioral coding, and physiological measures of both autonomic and central nervous system activity.

Musser joined FIU after receiving a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oregon where she also received a master’s degree in clinical psychology. Musser completed a pre-doctoral internship in clinical and pediatric psychology at Oregon Health & Science University.

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Rochester.

Jessica Ramella-Roman College of Engineering & Computing Department of Biomedical Engineering Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine Department of Cellular Biology & Pharmacology Jessica Ramella-Roman is an expert in optical imaging. Her groundbreaking research focuses on the development of novel and noninvasive technologies for diagnoses of retinal disease and conditions caused by diabetes.

Previously an associate professor at the Catholic University of America, Ramella-Roman established an active laboratory with grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Wallace Coulter Foundation, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the Christopher Reeve Foundation.

Ramella-Roman has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pavia, Italy, and a doctoral degree in electrical engineering with an emphasis in bio-optics from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University where she developed theoretical models and instrumentation for imaging of the retina and the skin.

Her appointments include senior research scientist at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington D.C. and adjunct professor in the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

Raphael Raptis College of Arts & Sciences Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Mostafavi supervises the Infrastructure System-of-Systems (I-SoS) Research group at FIU. He is the author of more than 35 journal and conference publications, and his research has been presented at more than 25 national and international conferences related to construction.

He is a reviewer for several scientific journals and has also been invited to serve on review panels for the National Science Foundation.

Raphael Raptis obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Texas A&M University. He joined the faculty of the chemistry department at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, in 1998 after completing a postdoctoral appointment at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia and an assistant professorship at the University of Crete in Greece.

Mostafavi joined FIU after completing his Ph.D. studies in civil engineering at Purdue University. He also holds a master of science in industrial

Raptis’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and NASA. A major theme of his work

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has been the study of a new class of iron-based MRI contrast agents that can target specific organs and tissues. Other work involves the preparation of molecular precursors. Raptis holds two U.S. patents and has two applications pending.

Laura Serbus College of Arts & Sciences Department of Biological Sciences Laura Serbus has established a laboratory at FIU dedicated to the study of Wolbachia bacteria. Her ongoing interest in the host-microbe interactions grew out of her thesis project, which led her to postdoctoral work on the same subject. The findings from this line of investigation are expected to contribute to fundamental understanding of host-microbe interactions and advancement of human health interests, particularly in the area of neglected tropical diseases.

Serbus earned her bachelor’s in molecular and cell biology from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology from Indiana University.

Mary Shaw Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work Department of Health Promotion & Disease Prevention

Miguel Villodas College of Arts & Sciences Department of Psychology Miguel Villodas’ research supports psychosocial interventions for children and adolescents affected by abuse and neglect as well as youth involved in the child welfare system. He examines risk and protective factors for externalizing behavior problems among this population at the individual, family, peer and community levels. In addition, he evaluates clinic and school-based psychosocial intervention models that target impairments associated with ADHD and externalizing behavior problems among children and adolescents.

Villodas has authored or co-authored a number of papers published in various journals including the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology and the California Journal of Health Promotion. He earned undergraduate and master’s degrees at San Diego State University and a Ph.D. at the University of California at San Diego.

Yu (Michael) Zhong College of Engineering & Computing Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering Yu (Michael) Zhong is an expert in computational thermodynamics and kinetics. His research focuses on integrated materials and process design.

Mary Shaw has more than 30 years of teaching, research and service experience in grades K-12 and higher education, including associate professorships at Indiana University and Texas A&M University.

Shaw recently completed a two-year cancer prevention study (funded by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas) that focused on the black family reunion as a venue for health promotion and disease prevention. Her recent publications have focused on social networks of young adult African-American men as opportunities for improving utilization of health care services.

Zhong previously worked at Saint-Gobain, a Fortune 200 company, where he produced 30 internal technical reports, 16 invention disclosures and two patents. He also worked as a senior internal technical consultant at a research and development center in Northboro, MA where he was in charge of all North America research related to the application of thermodynamics and kinetics to various ceramics projects. Zhong has authored more than 18 peer reviewed journal papers.

Zhong earned an M.S. from Sichuan University, China, and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from The Pennsylvania State University at University Park.

Shaw earned her M.S. in education from the University of Maryland at College Park and her Ph.D. in health studies from Texas Woman’s University. Her areas of research, practice and service include health disparities, black women’s health, professional and leadership ethics, and childhood obesity prevention. She is currently the associate editor of the “Ethics in Health Education” section of Health Promotion Practice Journal and the deputy director and curriculum coordinator for the notfor-profit Social & Health Research Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Jessica Siltberg-Liberles College of Arts & Sciences Department of Biological Sciences Jessica Siltberg-Liberles is a computational biologist whose areas of expertise include evolutionary and structural bioinformatics, protein allostery, protein engineering, comparative genomics and pathway evolution.

Her research is centered on the interplay between structure and function in protein evolution with an emphasis on protein structure evolution and protein pathway evolution. She is currently investigating the tyrosine kinases (targeting evolution, regulation and cancer-drug target specificity), the dopamine synapse (targeting evolution, regulation and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases) and viruses such as dengue and others that can cause encephalitis.

Prior to joining FIU, Siltberg-Liberles served as a senior research scientist with the Bioinformatics Service Core and as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wyoming. She earned a master’s degree from Stockholm University and a Ph.D. from the University of Bergen in Norway.

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FACILITIES

Newest science building designed to promote collaboration

FIU’s programs in health and medicine and other sciences have made huge leaps in recent years, and so have the facilities that support them. The university’s latest investment continues the trend of state-of-the-art collaborative spaces for teaching and research.

The $30 million Academic Health Center 5 (AHC5) opened in the summer of 2014 at Modesto A. Maidique Campus and welcomed the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, the Department of Earth & Environment, and the Extreme Events Institute along with the International Hurricane Research Center. AHC-5 boasts more than 120,000 square feet of classrooms, offices, laboratories and conference rooms on five floors. Following the theme of research facilities that support interdisciplinary research, AHC5 will also include facilities to support translational research for Biomedical Engineering, and a Behavioral-Clinical research facility on the ground floor. The building holds the highest sustainability rating. Green features such as an advanced cooling system (the first of its type at FIU) and an HVAC drainage system that supplies non-potable water for flushing restroom toilets and urinals will result in energy efficiency and cost savings.

More importantly, the building takes advantage of important new trends in architecture and interior design that put the people who work and learn there at its center. For example, the north face of the building offers occupants floor-to-ceiling windows. Inside, open stairways and transparent office walls allow natural light into every corner.

Among the innovations are several “active-learning classrooms,” an increasingly popular concept on university campuses and an important tool for the research of the STEM Transformation Institute. Such spaces contain a variety of media that instructors access from a central hub and that interface with students’ laptops. Students are positioned in small groups around the hub, and the classroom furniture is designed to be easily reconfigured as needed. The technology and physical flexibility together foster greater engagement and promote collaborative learning. Videoconferencing hookups on every floor will make information sharing with the outside that much easier. Dedicated space has been allocated for such programs as the Behavioral Research Laboratory, which will be dedicated to clinical translational research for faculty across the university. Wet and dry labs will support work in the Department of Epidemiology and the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics within the Stempel College.

“Having the new space will be a dream come true for our faculty and students,” Stempel Dean Michele Ciccazzo says. “Promoting the team approach to learning and research will only strengthen the work we do, and this building will make that possible. It is a major step forward for the college and an opportunity to put our research program front and center.”

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The Adaptive Neural Systems Laboratory Biomedical engineering remains a priority research area at FIU. A significant driver in this area is the Adaptive Neural Systems (ANS) Laboratory, which develops technology to benefit those suffering the effects of limb amputation, orthopedic injury and disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases. By applying a multifaceted approach, the laboratory investigates the effects of trauma and disorders of the nervous system to replace damaged or lost functionality, or to repair the system using advanced adaptive devices and therapeutic techniques.

The ANS Lab is focused on developing and utilizing new scientific knowledge and engineering technology to address the complex physiological, medical and societal problems presented by neurological disabilities. Its research agenda is at the intersection of bioengineering, neuroscience, and rehabilitation.

The multidisciplinary team is made up of engineers, clinicians and scientists with a wide range of expertise from electrical, mechanical and biomedical engineering to neurosurgery, physical therapy, neuroscience, physiology, exercise science, and kinesiology. The goal is to deliver advanced medical technology by not just developing it in the lab but by evaluating it in animal and human trials and, finally, transferring the technology to the biomedical industry and clinical practice. The lab is directed by Ranu Jung, chair of the biomedical engineering department in the College of Engineering and Computing.

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High tech on display FIU came on strong at the inaugural eMerge Americas Techweek conference in Miami Beach, a gathering of global technology leaders held in May 2014.

From its anchor position on the exhibit floor, FIU showcased some of its most promising research. Among the big draws: a live conversation (pictured here) between conference participants and two professors stationed on the ocean floor in FIU’s Medina Aquarius Reef Base, the world’s only underwater research facility. FIU researchers and students also demonstrated a prosthetic arm, showed off brain-mapping research and presented the Discovery Lab’s TeleBot, a robot designed to put disabled veterans to work. Even the crop-sniffing dog Buddy, who works in tandem with an FIU-developed drone to ferret out deadly fungi, made an appearance.

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Division of Research

Initiatives and Activities

The Division of Research (DOR) actively promotes, facilitates and enhances research efforts at FIU. In addition to supporting individual researchers and teams, DOR organizes talks and events that more broadly foster the research process. Here are just a few examples of recent activities.

• Hosted the 2013 Advanced Self-powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies industry workshop, held under the auspices of the NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center. More than 80 researchers and students from across the United States presented state-of-theart developments in areas such as low-power sensing, computation and communication, high-density storage and energy harvesting.

• Organized and hosted the Origami Design for Integration of Self-Assembling Systems for Engineering Innovation workshop. Representatives from NSF, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and several universities participated.

Among the presenters was FIU’s Stavros Georgakopoulus, who discussed his innovative research on reconfigurable and multiband electromagnetic systems for cognitive intelligence applications.

• Hosted and co-organized the Southern HIV and Alcohol Research Consortium conference. More than 60 participants, among them FIU students, made research presentations with the ultimate goal of identifying methods to improve health outcomes.

• Hosted a 2013 Small Business Technology Transfer Workshop to teach researchers how to compete for much needed commercialization funding from two government programs.

• Co-hosted the Inaugural BioFlorida Latin America and Caribbean Life Sciences conference that brought biotechnology representatives to Miami to foster collaboration.

• Hosted the West Africa Study Tour program for 13 Burkina Faso water management agency representatives as part of the USAID West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Program. FIU held seminars and performed site visits in Miami and West Palm Beach. The sessions included discussions about the responsibilities of academic institutions in water management research and education programs, and examined U.S. waterrelated legislation and the roles of local, state and federal government in water resources’ management and protection.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS

Origami influences novel new antenna design FIU researchers are using technology and principles derived from the traditional Japanese paper-folding art of origami to create remarkably compact and incredibly efficient antennae and electronics.

With the support of a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Professor Stavros Georgakopoulos in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is working with colleagues at Georgia Tech to develop paper structures on which sophisticated inkjet printers can deposit conductive materials such as copper or silver. These imprinted paper structures, which measure just a few centimeters in depth when folded up, exhibited powerful ultra-broadband capabilities.

A traditional paper-folding art, origami includes both modular and moving types of structures. Mathematicians recently have focused on theoretical and practical questions raised by origami, resulting in technical advances in many areas.

Origami structures can be fabricated from a wide variety of materials.

While Georgakopoulos mainly uses paper, he is also exploring plastics and more.

Potential applications include a range of military and commercial uses related to communications equipment, wireless sensors, health monitoring sensors and portable medical equipment, among others.

Examples include the possibility of equipping soldiers on the field with the devices to ensure contact with bases and launching the technology into space aboard vehicles with restricted payload capacities.

Professor earns early-career award The National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded the Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award for 2013, a prestigious national honor, to psychology professor Raul Gonzalez.

Gonzalez’s research focuses on the ways that disease, particularly HIV, and addiction affect an individual’s ability to make decisions. He sees a frequent overlap between HIV and substance abuse and is investigating predisposition to addiction.

Many of his more than 40 publications concentrate on the neurocognitive effects of marijuana.

Gonzalez hopes his research will lead to an understanding of what makes people vulnerable to addiction. He wants to generate knowledge to improve people’s lives and empower individuals to make informed decisions about their health.

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FIU a leader in new-bridge technology

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded FIU a $1.4 million grant to work on one of the nation’s top civil engineering challenges: deteriorating bridges.

The Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center at FIU is the first federally funded entity focused on developing technology and methods to improve and accelerate the construction of bridges.

Led by Professor Atorod Azizinamini, one of the world’s leading bridge engineers and chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering, the Center is responding to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ assessment that approximately 25 percent of U.S. bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete and need retrofitting or replacing.

FIU establishes South Florida’s first smart bridge FIU engineering professors have installed sensors in the belly of a concrete bridge to monitor its health. The group approached the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) with the idea in 2012, when the elevated “flyover” ramp that connects eastbound State Road 836 to northbound State Road 826 was still under construction.

MDX and the Florida Department of Transportation agreed to fund the project, and civil and environmental engineering Professor Nakin Suksawang, a researcher with FIU’s Lehman Center for Transportation Research, along with four graduate students, installed 96 stainless steel sensors in critical locations on the bridge prior to the pouring of concrete.

The sensors deliver data about stress on the structure—as many as 25,000 cars travel the bridge on a given day—and physical changes, such as cracking of the concrete or problems with the cable tendons that hold the bridge’s six segments together. These can be caused by a number of factors, including variations in temperature and other weather factors.

Part of a move in recent years toward the use of smart technology— a seemingly more reliable, consistent and less expensive method of mointoring than visual inspection—sensors typically have been used in signature bridges, including the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, but rarely deployed in ramps and flyovers.

The FIU research is a first of its kind in South Florida and has the capability to provide early-warning information that could prevent catastrophic failure, the researchers say.

from

magazine Graduate students Shuo “Eric” Zhang, left, and Brandon Mintz ’97 in the belly of the bridge.

Ninety-six sensors have been installed in critical locations over six segments of the bridge that links Miami-Dade’s Dolphin and Palmetto highways.

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Researchers take on the blood-brain barrier Researchers at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine have developed a revolutionary technique to deliver and fully release the anti-HIV drug AZTTP into the brain.

Madhavan Nair, professor and chair of the department of immunology, and Sakhrat Khizroev, professor of electrical and computer engineering and professor of immunology, used magneto-electric nanoparticles (MEN) to cross the blood-brain barrier and send a significantly increased level of AZTTP—up to 97 percent more—to HIV-infected cells.

Currently, more than 99 percent of the antiretroviral therapies used to treat HIV, such as AZTTP, are deposited in the liver, lungs and other organs before they reach the brain, essentially allowing the virus to lurk there unchecked, the researchers say.

F

or years, the blood-brain barrier

Their patent-pending technique binds the drug to a MEN that has been inserted into an immune cell outside of the body. That cell is then injected into the body and drawn to the brain, where a low-energy electrical current triggers the drug’s release. In lab experiments, nearly all of the therapy reached its intended target.

has stumped scientists and doctors

who work with neurological diseases.

A natural filter that allows very few substances to pass through to the brain, it keeps most medicines at bay.

This method of drug delivery could potentially also help patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, meningitis and chronic pain. It could also be applicable to diseases such as cancer. A second phase of testing is underway.

Professor’s work to safeguard transmission of sensitive data A grant from the Department of Defense to an FIU professor makes clear the government’s concern about the increasing use of mobile devices to transmit critical defense and intelligence information from the field. Bogdan Carbunar, a professor in the College of Engineering and Computing, is taking the lead on research that will address some of the current challenges of information sharing via mobile devices, such as ensuring documents derived from classified data stay classified, and figuring out how to enforce uniform security policies across a large set of computer environments and applications.

The project aims to develop a system of collecting, tracking and verifying data from mobile devices as well as designing, implementing, validating and evaluating data protection techniques.

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Researcher makes important discovery about charcoal An international team of researchers, co-led by chemistry professor Rudolf Jaffé, has uncovered a potentially powerful and long-kept secret of nature: the true fate of charcoal in the world’s soils.

The knowledge of how charcoal travels within soil could have important ramifications for the global carbon footprint. Until the discovery, scientists could only guess as to what happened to charcoal underground and, surprisingly, most were wrong. They believed charcoal accumulated in place when, the researchers found, it actually dissolves and moves toward wetlands and rivers and eventually makes its way to oceans.

Charcoal, or black carbon, is a residue generated by combustion sources including wild fires and the burning of fossil fuels.

Much of the charcoal in nature comes from wild fires, according to Jaffé.

In starting his research, Jaffé wanted to learn more about what comprises the dissolved organic carbon in the Everglades, where it is found in abundance and remains critical to the food chain. Through a research project funded by the National Science Foundation, he discovered that as much as 20 percent of the total came from charcoal. Surprised, he and his team shifted their focus to determining its origins.

Serendipitously, Thorsten Dittmar, head of the Max Planck Research Group for Marine Geochemistry at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, was tracing the path of charcoal at the same time as Jaffé but from an oceanography perspective.

The research teams joined forces, along with others from Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in Georgia, Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, the USDA Forest Service and the University of Helsinki in Finland. Their findings are outlined in a paper published in Science, one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed journals for general science in the world.

Jaffé and Dittmar agree that there are still many unknowns when it comes to the environmental fate of charcoal, and both plan to research the environmental consequences in hopes of developing strategies to mitigate climate change.

Everglades research receives grant renewal The National Science Foundation granted FIU a $5.88 million grant renewal for the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research program.

The program conducts research to determine how climate change and human activity, including resource management decisions, affect freshwater availability in the Everglades.

More than 160 researchers, students and staff from diverse fields at FIU and other universities, as well as government agencies, contribute to the program. Since its inception in 2000, the program has produced key findings that have influenced science and policy decisions locally and nationally. The program is operated by FIU’s Southeast Environmental Research Center.

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Aquarius Reef Base: a one-of-kind research center The Aquarius Reef Base, the Key Largo-based underwater research lab that FIU began to manage and operate in 2013, offers an unparalleled opportunity for scientists to study the ocean habitat. First submerged by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1993, the vessel was in danger of decommissioning due to budgetary cuts before FIU came forward to save it.

The only research center of its kind in the world, Aquarius provides researchers with the opportunity to dive and live underwater for weeks at a time. In its first year under FIU’s direction, Aquarius hosted several missions, among them a NASA astronaut training and an FIU student-led research study.

In addition to its research program, Aquarius’ educational projects have garnered the attention of students nationwide.

Virtual field trips that utilize Skype and other technologies brought undersea exploration science into K-12 classrooms from the Virgin Islands to California. The success and popularity of these remote teaching opportunities will be a part of every mission going forward.

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HIV discovery earns national attention A National Institute on Drug Abuse study led by Marianna Baum, a professor in the department of dietetics and nutrition at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, revealed that long-term (24-month) supplementation with multivitamins plus selenium delayed the onset of symptoms for patients recently infected with HIV. The research was published in November 2013 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which sent a video crew to interview Baum about the important findings. The work has the potential to impact all populations across the globe, Baum explained, and could prolong life for countless many.

Baum conducted the work along with FIU colleagues Adriana Campa and Sabrina Sales and Harvard University researchers.

Researchers study health of parents who lose a child JoAnne Youngblut and Dorothy Brooten of the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences conducted a five-year study that looked at how the health and functioning of parents changed after the loss of a child in a hospital intensive care unit. The project was funded by a $2.15 million grant from the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Nursing Research and published in 2013 in the journal Pediatrics.

The pair found that approximately one third of parents go on to suffer from clinical depression or clinical post-traumatic stress disorder up to 13 months after a child’s death. In addition to these mentalhealth problems, other newly diagnosed chronic health conditions included angina, hypertension, arthritis and asthma.

Nanotechnology could fight ovarian and other cancers In an exciting and truly interdisciplinary collaboration, researchers in the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and the FIU College of Engineering and Computing described in a study published in Scientific Reports what could be a breakthrough in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

In their lab experiments, the chemotherapy drug Taxol was loaded onto a magneto-electric nanoparticle that, with the aid of an electric field, penetrated the target tumor. Within 24 hours, the cancer cells were completely destroyed while normal ovarian cells remained untouched.

Sparing healthy cells has been a major challenge in the treatment of cancer, according to Dr. Carolyn Runowicz, professor of gynecology and obstetrics. The new treatment, with its capacity to leave healthy cells viable, promises to have a huge impact on side effects and toxicity.

Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all gynecological cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, 14,000 women die annually from ovarian cancer.

Sakhrat Khizroev, who holds joint appointments as a professor of electrical and computer engineering and a professor of cellular biology, said he sees potential for the treatment’s use in other cancers, particularly breast and lungs.

The goal of the research is to identify those at greatest health risk and target them for early intervention and support, Brooten explained.

The findings from the study will help health care providers better understand the potential impact on parents’ health after such losses and how they might provide appropriate treatment.

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NUMBERS 10-Year History of Research Expenditures (Millions) $ 135

$128.07 $118.06

$ 120 $ 105 $ 90 $ 75

$ 87.72

$ 84.70

2004-05

2005-06

$108.01

$107.02

2006-07

2007-08

$110.30

$110.01

$101.30

$ 72.72

$ 60 $ 75 $ 45 $ 30 $ 15

2003-04

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

Fiscal Year

Research Awards by Sponsor Type Fiscal Year 2012-2013 (Millions)

State & Local $ 8.7 9% Federal $ 78.6 77%

Private/Other $ 14.7 14%

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10-Year History of Awards Received (Millions)

$105

$ 105

$101 $91

$ 90

$90

$101

$102

2011-12

2012-13

$89

$79 $73

$ 75 $ 60

$ 62

$ 45 $ 30 $ 15 $ 0 2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

Fiscal Year

Research Awards by Unit Fiscal Year 2012-2013 (Millions) College of Arts & Sciences $60.94 58%

College of Engineering & Computing $16.08 15%

Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management $0.01 0% Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences $3.94 4%

Academic Affairs $6.24 6%

College of Architecture + The Arts $0.26 0%

College of Education $4.12 4% Other Administrative Units $5.21 5%

Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine $3.46 3% College of Business $1.31 1%

School of Journalism & Mass Communication $0.47 0%

Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work $3.92 4%

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College of Law $0.05 0%

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Division of Research Leadership AndrĂŠs G. Gil Vice President for Research gila@fiu.edu Joseph Barabino Associate Vice President for Research Administration barabino@fiu.edu Luis P. Salas Associate Vice President for Research salasl@fiu.edu

Research Florida International University Division of Research Modesto A. Maidique Campus 11200 SW 8th Street, MARC 430 Miami, FL 33199 305-348-2494 research.fiu.edu

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