Selected Research Highlights This fiscal year, externally-sponsored research expenditures in the School of Engineering totaled $34.1 million, the highest in the School’s history. Faculty submitted 331 new and supplemental funding requests, and invention disclosures from the School of Engineering continued to make up nearly half of the university’s total technology transfer activity. Energy, water, and the environment: In research published in Nature Communications, Assistant Professor Jonathan Lamontagne (CEE) and colleagues found that not only can localized water shortages impact the global economy, but changes in global demand can have ripple effects in river basins across the globe. In an NSF-funded project co-led by Professor Lenore Cowen (CS), researchers are using data science methods to understand the exact factors that determine whether corals will be more or less resilient to stresses caused by climate change. Assistant Professor Prashant Deshlahra (ChBE) received an NSF CAREER Award to study the effects of surface coverage and catalyst composition on vinyl acetate synthesis.
When corals are healthy, they look like these, in shallow water at Baker reef in the Pacific
Prashant Deshlahra
A new computer model of climate effects and human economic activity reveals weaknesses and strengths of hundreds of river and water basins across the globe, as we face increasing levels of climate stress
Human health and bioengineering: Stern Family Professor of Engineering David Kaplan (BME) and his lab received a $375,000 award from Merck’s competitive worldwide grant program. The team’s proposal for a new concept in bioreactor design to grow food was selected as the Merck competition winner in the category of cultured food. Assistant Professor Madeleine Oudin (BME) Madeleine Oudin and her team found that specific proteins in the extracellular matrix may play an important role in triggering the invasion of cancer cells in the breast fat tissue of obese individuals. Human breast cancer tumor (blue) near fat tissue (red), with abundant Collagen VI (green). Photo — Sydney Conner, Oudin Lab
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