Morgan State University Receives More Than $1 Million In National Science Foundation Grant Funding In 2016

Awards to be used to advance scientific and innovative research

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Morgan State University (MSU) a combined $1,181,837 in total research grants for calendar year 2016. The funding supports a variety of cutting-edge research projects that advance the frontiers of innovation. Many of the projects funded by the NSF will be led by Morgan faculty from the University’s School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences (SCMNS), School of Engineering, and School of Education and Urban Studies.

Morgan’s current relationship with the NSF stems from an ongoing sponsor engagement effort to ensure that federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Education, are aware of the vast research capabilities of Morgan’s faculty coupled with the University’s strategic intent toward producing a diverse workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines.

“The National Science Foundation has been a great partner for Morgan over the years, and with their commitment to the University, our faculty and students have had access to the resources necessary to conduct basic and applied research and expand our knowledge,” said Victor McCrary, Ph.D., MSU’s vice president for Research and Economic Development. “We look forward to a continuation of this relationship and exploring further opportunities to propose interdisciplinary research centers that will provide solutions to complex problems that improves everyday life.”

NSF-funded research at Morgan includes six projects:

• A three-year, $350,000 HBCU-UP Broadening Participation Research grant will be used to investigate the “Impacts of the Concept Mapping Strategy in Introductory Biology Courses on Learning and Retention of Underrepresented STEM Students.” Catherine Martin-Dunlop, Ph.D. of the School of Education and Urban Studies and Ernest Steele, Ph.D. of the School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, will serve as co-principal investigators (PIs) leading this project.
• A $56,720 grant will be used in continued support of a collaborative research project on “Two Phase Highly Magnetostrictive Materials,” led by SCMNS associate physics professor Abdellah Lisfi, Ph.D. This funding will be combined with a previous award for this research, bringing the amended total to $340,328. The project concludes in June 2017.
• A three-year, $367,488 grant will support a “Targeted Infusion” project to research “Infusing Computational Thinking and Visual Learning into an Introductory Computer Science Course to Promote Students’ Success and Retention.” Mahmudur Rahman, Ph.D., an SCMNS assistant professor of computer science, will lead the research efforts on this project.
• Dr. Rahman of SCMNS also received a separate three-year Research Initiation Award in the amount of $297,843 to study “Integrating Image and Text Information for Biomedical Literature-based Cross and Multimodal Retrieval”.
• A supplemental support award of $29,131 will go toward continued collaborative research for Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS): Broadband Mobile Wireless Access Using mm-Waves Bands Beyond 100 GHz. Michel Reece, Ph.D., an associate professor in the School of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Center for Microwave, Satellite, and RF Engineering (COMSARE), serves as PI for the research.
• To conduct a study on “Real World-relevant Security Labware for Mobile Threat Analysis and Protection Experience,” a collaborative research grant was awarded in the amount of $80,655. Prabir Bhattacharya, Ph.D., computer science professor in the SCMNS, is leading this two-year project.

As part of Morgan’s continued partnership with the NSF, the agency has also agreed to host cohorts of Morgan faculty to give them an expanded understanding of the organization and its numerous offerings that align with faculty research interests.

“The Division of Academic Affairs welcomes a closer partnership with NSF to envision and realize transformational research,” said MSU Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Gloria Gibson, Ph.D., who is leading this initiative to engage Morgan research faculty with NSF program officers. “Through interdisciplinary partnerships and innovative collaborations, our goal is the discovery of new knowledge that contributes to our mission of engaging students and faculty, and impacting academic and global communities.”

In addition, NSF representatives will come to Morgan to conduct various education and training programs designed to enable faculty to become more successful in the grant submission and application process.

As the State of Maryland’s premier public urban research university, Morgan offers strong support to its faculty in their research efforts. Through its Division of Research and Economic Development(DRED), the University focuses on promoting its outstanding research faculty and their forward-looking innovations to the greater scientific community, including federal and state agencies. DRED serves as the initial point of contact for external organizations interested in connecting with the MSU research enterprise to explore possible collaborations.

Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified Doctoral Research Institution offering more than 70 academic programs leading to bachelor’s degrees as well as programs at the master’s and doctoral levels. As Maryland’s premier public urban research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. More information about the university is available at www.morgan.edu.

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MEDIA CONTACT(S):

Clinton R. Coleman or Larry Jones
(443) 885-3022