2021 Binghamton University Research Annual Report

Binghamton faculty net seven CAREER awards Seven Binghamton researchers received word in 2021 that they are recipients of CAREER awards from the National Science Foundation. The grants are the agency’s most prestigious awards for early-career faculty members, supporting five years of work and encouraging the integration of education and research.

Three of the grant winners — Jeremy Blackburn, Aravind Prakash and Mo Sha — are assistant professors in the Computer Science Department. The others are Emrah Akyol, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering; Jessica Hua, associate professor of biological sciences; Nicholas Gaspelin, assistant professor of psychology; and John Swierk, assistant professor of chemistry.

It’s the campus’ most successful year ever with the NSF program, says Bahgat Sammakia, vice president for research.

“We’re excited about these CAREER winners,” he says.

“They’re all outstanding scholars and educators, and they’re poised to do work that will make a significant impact on our campus and beyond. It’s especially impressive that three of the winners come from a single department, and I look forward to seeing how we can learn from the model established by our colleagues in computer science.”

Jessica Hua’s lab seeks to understand fundamental mechanisms shaping ecological interactions and evolutionary processes.

The NSF sees these grants as investments in faculty members who can serve as academic role models and lead advances in their department or university.

Most of the projects are in progress now: • Akyol’s project, A Holistic Framework for the Analysis of Information Dynamics in Human Networks, began in February with $596,295 in funding.

• Blackburn received $517,484 in support for his project, Towards a Data-driven Understanding of Online Sentiment, which began May 1.

• Gaspelin was awarded $708,780 for his project, Understanding the Relationship of Covert and Overt Attention Using Concurrent EEG and Eye Tracking, which began Aug. 1.

• Hua’s project, due to start in March 2022, received the largest grant in this group, $947,030. It’s titled Evolutionary Disease Ecology — Can Evolutionary Responses to Environmental Change Modify the Biodiversity-Disease Relationship?

• Prakash was awarded $499,893 for his project, Binary-Level Security Via ABI-Centric Semantic Inference, which began Oct. 1.

• Sha’s project, Advancing Network Configuration and Runtime Adaptation Methods for Industrial Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks, which started in March, received $500,000.

• Swierk received $630,000 for his project, Mechanistic Investigation of Photoredox Reactions, which began July 1.

Bahgat Sammakia, Vice President for Research It’s no stretch to say that the past year presented challenges unlike any we’ve seen recently. With the pandemic shaping people’s lives and work habits and a tumultuous political landscape, researchers across the country encountered literal and metaphorical roadblocks and, in some instances, fresh inspiration, too.

At Binghamton, many researchers applied their expertise to combating and understanding COVID-19 and its impacts.

Others modified their routines to get work done with new safety measures in place.

We also convened a group, Strategic Planning for Research Enterprise Evolution (SPREE), to discuss how to position our faculty and institution for a post-pandemic world. The task force asked some big questions: How can we use research to improve our scholarship and help the larger community?

How can faculty address the interests of funding agencies and community partners? How can the University invest its resources to help faculty meet these priorities? Our answers are still evolving, of course.

In difficult times, it’s helpful to focus on the bright spots as well. Happily, there are many as we look back at the year: • The National Academy of Inventors named computer scientist Lijun Yin to its 2021 class of senior members. He has been a pioneer in the field of three- and four-dimensional modeling, creating a series of facial-scan databases used by Hollywood filmmakers, video-game creators and more.

• Seven Binghamton University researchers received National Science Foundation CAREER awards. These are highly competitive grants to early-career researchers, with a success rate of about 14% to 24%.

So many of our colleagues at Binghamton are motivated by a desire to have a positive impact on society, and that ambition is clear in the subjects these researchers plan to address, from information security to biodiversity. They’re all outstanding scholars and educators, and they’re poised to do work that will make a significant impact on our campus and beyond.

I hope that 2022 will be a productive and healthy year for them and for all of us.

S3IP, A NEW YORK STATE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE AT BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing Center for Autonomous Solar Power Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems Center for Heterogeneous Integration Research in Packaging Integrated Electronics Engineering Center NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage

FEDERALLY DESIGNATED RESEARCH CENTERS AT BINGHAMTON Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2) A National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center (DEARC) A National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Alcohol Research Center New York Node of the Next Flex Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute A Department of Defense Manufacturing Innovation Institute NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage (NECCES) An Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the Department of Energy Office of Science

Biomedical engineers Kaiming Ye, left, and Guy German developed a system that uses ultraviolet light to sterilize personal protective equipment.

NSF RAPID projects help fight COVID-19 Binghamton researchers put their varied expertise to work against the pandemic, building prototypes, modeling human behavior, hypothesizing about possible treatments and advocating for public health measures.

Simpson said she and her colleagues hoped to support and enhance learning during the widespread pandemic school closures. The team developed about 60 STEM activities, delivered via a Facebook group. An especially successful one garnered 23,000 views.

Several faculty members received funding for projects through the National Science Foundation’s Rapid Response Research (RAPID) program, which enables the agency to support research that addresses an urgent need: • Guy German, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Kaiming Ye, professor of biomedical engineering, collaborated on a project titled “Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation for Disinfecting and Reuse of N95 Respirators.”

“From my perspective,” Simpson says, “providing at-home STEM learning opportunities during nationwide closures afforded families an opportunity to talk about and engage in activities within an environment that was not bounded by time and other constraints, such as fear of a failing grade.”

Amber Simpson

• Amber Simpson, assistant professor of math education, collaborated with colleagues at Indiana University and Science Friday on a project titled “Rapidly building a collaborative network of informal educators to address school closures related to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic.”

• Katherine Wander, associate professor of anthropology, and Titilayo Okoror, associate professor of Africana studies, received a grant in support of their project, “Evolutionary Nutritional Adaptations and COVID-19 Risk Among Healthcare Workers.”

RESEARCH FUNDING

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 2020-2021

expenditures

committed funds

NEW TECHNOLOGY DISCLOSURES

$60M U.S. PATENT APPLICATIONS

$55M $50M

U.S. PATENTS ISSUED

$45M $40M

ROYALTIES 2020-2021

$35M $30M

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

212,699

2020-21

RESEARCH EXPENDITURES BY SPONSOR AND BY TOPIC Total expenditures: $46,533,629 in 2020-2021

C

2 B

D 3

BY SPONSOR 1

E

BY TOPIC

F

4 G H

5 A

1 Federal/Federal Flow-through • 61% 2 State and Local Governments • 18% 3 Research Institutes, Universities, Hospitals and others • 13% 4 Industry and Small Business • 7% 5 Private Foundations • 1%

A Healthcare • 36% B Electronics Packaging/Systems Science • 26% C Education/Training/Outreach • 11% D Energy/Materials Science • 10% E Information Security/Networking • 7% F Economic Development • 4% G Environment/Historic Preservation/ Sustainability • 3% H Other • 3%

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT BINGHAMTON In FY2021, Binghamton Incubation Program companies reported 353 full-time equivalents and 82 interns. How did we get here?

Home to the Binghamton Incubation Program Opened in 2017

Versatile spaces (wet- and dry-lab, high-bay, offices, collaboration spaces, event center)

37,000 square feet

KOFFMAN SOUTHERN TIER INCUBATOR

54 start-up clients (on-site and virtual), 25 co-workers, 19 graduates NSF INNOVATION CORPS SITE • 2020-2021

45 teams trained

microgrants to each team for travel and prototyping:

$3k

Customer discovery training

teams accepted for national training:

7

7

start-up companies launched

IMPACT

entities launched after Koffman Accelerator cohorts

Follow-on funding for I-Corps companies:

companies launched after I-Corps cohorts

Since 2017, SCI companies raised over

Timothy de Smet, director of Binghamton’s Geophysics and Remote Sensing Laboratory, received a 2021 grant from the SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund, which helps faculty inventors and scientists turn their research into market-ready technologies. De Smet, right, and Alex Nikulin, left, assistant professor of geological sciences and environmental studies, have devised a safe and efficient way to locate abandoned oil and gas wells, which present environmental hazards across the United States. The researchers participated in the I-Corps program and established a company called Aletair.

ORGANIZED RESEARCH CENTERS Center for Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging Science Binghamton Biofilm Research Center Center of Biomanufacturing for Regenerative Medicine Computer scientist Ping Yang compares cybersecurity to an arms race: “Both the hackers and the researchers will get smarter.”

Center for Cognitive Applications Center for Collective Dynamics of Complex Systems Center for Development and Behavioral Neuroscience Center for Healthcare Systems Engineering Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity Center for Imaging, Acoustics and Perception Science Center for Integrated Watershed Studies Bernard M. & Ruth R. Bass Center for Leadership Studies

Homeland Security, NSA name Binghamton a cyber research center

Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Center for Research in Advanced Sensor Technologies and Environmental Sustainability Center for Writers

DESIGNATION OPENS UP OPPORTUNITIES FOR CYBERSECURITY GRANTS, STUDY

Center for Translational Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering

Protecting American information infrastructure and data privacy have become top concerns, especially during the past decade — and Binghamton University is ready to take a greater role in combating these threats.

Institute for Materials Research

The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have named Binghamton a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research (CAE-R) through 2025. The designation recognizes the Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity (CIAC) as well as other research efforts around campus.

CIAC includes 25 faculty members from several disciplines.

Their research areas range from programming and computer engineering to security policy, education technology, mathematics and psychology.

“This designation shows that Binghamton University has a strong academic program in cybersecurity research,” says Ping Yang, associate professor of computer science and director of the center. “It also opens up cybersecurity grants and scholarship opportunities for our students and faculty. I also hope that this designation will attract more students to apply for our cybersecurity certificate program.”

Public Archaeology Facility Roger L. Kresge Center for Nursing Research Tick-borne Diseases Center

INSTITUTES FOR ADVANCED STUDIES Center for Israel Studies Center for Korean Studies Human Rights Institute Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities Institute for Asia and Asian Diasporas Institute for Evolutionary Studies Institute for Justice and Well-Being Watson Institute for Systems Excellence Binghamton University/Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity

Office of the Vice President for Research Binghamton University PO Box 6000 Binghamton, NY 13902-6000

Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID Binghamton, NY Permit No. 61

binghamton.edu/research

CONNECT WITH BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY’S DIVISION OF RESEARCH Bahgat Sammakia

Per Stromhaug

Vice President for Research bahgat@binghamton.edu

Associate Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development per@binghamton.edu

Mary Beth Curtin Associate Vice President for Research mcurtin@binghamton.edu

Lisa Gilroy Assistant Vice President for Sponsored Programs lgilroy@binghamton.edu

Nancy Lewis

Rachel Coker Director of Research Advancement rcoker@binghamton.edu

Darcy Fauci Director of Government Relations dfauci@binghamton.edu

Assistant Vice President for Research Compliance nlewis@binghamton.edu

binghamton.edu/research On the cover: Yuhao Yuan, doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering, and Fake Lu, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, produced this image using stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy. With this technique, the distribution of water (pseudocolor cyan) and cartilage (yellow) in a mouse’s ear tissue can be seen at a subcellular level without the use of chemical labeling. The image took first place in the Visualizing the Unseen category in Binghamton’s 2021 Art of Science competition.

Binghamton University: Proud to be the research home of Nobel laureate M. Stanley Whittingham