Award Recipients

The selected teams and projects are:

• Jorge Alvarado, professor, Department of Engineering Technology, College of Engineering, Texas A&M, and Dr. Ziaul Huque, professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, PVAMU: “Numerical and experimental characterization of low-noise vertical axis wind turbine.”
• Spencer Behmer, professor, Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M, and Dr. Charcacia Sanders, assistant professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, PVAMU: “RNAi as a novel method for controlling grasshoppers and locusts.”
• Faruque Hasan, associate professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Texas A&M, and Dr. Nabila Shamim, assistant professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, PVAMU: “Exploring ionic liquids as sustainable solvents for ambient temperature carbon capture.”
• Sheng-Jen Hsieh, professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Texas A&M, and Dr. Richard Griffin, professor, Department of Agriculture, Nutrition and Human Ecology, Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, PVAMU: “Just-in-time and precise irrigation of specialty crops for water conservation.”
• Sungmin Lee, assistant professor, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, College of Architecture, Texas A&M, and Dr. Ling Wu, assistant professor, Department of Justice Studies, College of Juvenile Justice, PVAMU: “Understanding heat-aggression dynamics: Crafting adaptive strategies through data-driven approach and master planning.”
• Dongying Li, associate professor, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, College of Architecture, Texas A&M, and Dr. Xiaobo Peng, associate professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, PVAMU: “Developing and evaluating scalable digital twin therapeutic interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders.”
• Tie Liu, professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Texas A&M, and Dr. Lijun Qian, professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, PVAMU: “Leveraging generative AI technologies for trustworthy offline optimization.”
• Zhipeng Lu, assistant professor, Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, Texas A&M, and Dr. Huiyi Xu, assistant professor, Department of Architecture, School of Architecture, PVAMU: “Examining the influence of environmental interventions on health and behavioral outcomes of children with autism.”
• Tapasree Roy Sarkar, assistant professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas A&M and Dr. Gururaj Neelgund, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences, PVAMU: “Nanoengineered materials to target cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs)-associated tumor progression.”
• Manish Shetty, assistant professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Texas A&M, and Dr. Emmanuel Dada, assistant professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, PVAMU: “Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCS) for tandem polyolefin depolymerization.”
• Jian Tao, assistant professor, Department of Visualization, College of of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, Texas A&M, and Dr. Ripendra Awal, professor, Cooperative Agricultural Research Center, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, PVAMU: “Development of a digital twin model for optimizing sorghum cultivation.”
• Shiren Wang, professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Texas A&M, and Dr. Lai Jiang, associate professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, PVAMU: “Flexible and recyclable printed electronics on nanopapers.”
• Feng Zhao, associate professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Texas A&M, and Dr. Yunxiang Gao, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences, PVAMU: “Utilizing liquid crystalline elastomer for anisotropic tissue engineering innovations.”

The following investigator-teams and projects will receive Panther-RISE Grant Awards:

• MD Jobair Bin Alam, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Dr. Chukwuzubelu Ufodike, Texas A&M College of Engineering, “Investigation of the Ideal Pore Volume of Soil for Optimum Plant Growth Using 3D Printing Model.”
• Sameh Abdelwahed, PVAMU College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Shiqing Xu, Texas A&M School of Pharmacy, “Exploration of Novel SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors.”
• Janet Antwi, PVAMU College of Agriculture and Human Sciences, and Dr. Susanne Talcott, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Interactions of Tannins with the Intestinal Microbiome in Obesity and Translational Research and Sustainable Undergraduate Student Engagement in Under-Represented Communities.”
• Jaejong Park, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Dr. ChaBum Lee, Texas A&M College of Engineering, “Computational Design of Fluidic Pressure-Fed Mechanism (FPFM) for Thermal Stability of Nano-Positioning Systems.”
• Richard Wilkins, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Dr. Qing Tu, Texas A&M College of Engineering, “Radiation Effects on the Mechanical Behavior of Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskites for Robust Photovoltaics in Space Exploration.”
• Jeffrey Streator, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Dr. Kumbakonam Rajagopal, Texas A&M College of Engineering, “Advancing the Theory of Fatigue in Polymer Materials to Engineer Better Devices.”
• Raghava Kommalapati, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Dr. Shankar Chellam, Texas A&M College of Engineering, “Improving Sustainability and Reducing Environmental Impacts by Beneficially Reusing Hydraulic Fracturing Produced Water in Non-Food Agriculture.”
• Anne Lippert, PVAMU College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Donggill Song, Texas A&M College of Engineering, “Combining Knowledge Visualization and Intelligent Tutoring to Support Learning in STEM Education: The Development of KVIS (Knowledge Visualization Intelligent System).”
• Ram Ray, PVAMU College of Agriculture and Human Sciences, and Dr. Muthukumar Bagavathiannan, Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Plant Biomass Estimation in Cropland Using Multimodal Deep Learning.”
• Ali Fares, PVAMU College of Agriculture and Human Sciences, and Dr. Rabi Mohtar, Texas A&M College of Engineering and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, ”Quantifying the Implications of Organic Amendments on the Hydro-Structural Properties of Soil.”
• Annamalai Annamalai, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Dr. Karen Butler-Purry, Texas A&M College of Engineering, “Strengthening Cybersecurity in Electric Power Grids.”
• Aruna Weerasooriya, PVAMU College of Agriculture and Human Sciences, and Dr. Alan Pepper, Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences, “Exploring the Growth of Extremophile Terrestrial Plants on Simulated Lunar Soils.”
• Sunil Karna, PVAMU College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Wenhao Wu, Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences, “Synthesis and Transport Properties Investigation of Novel Chiral Magnets.”
• Rambod Rayegan, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Dr. Ashrant Aryal, Texas A&M School of Architecture, “Supporting Low-Income Communities Make Customized Home Energy Retrofit Decisions Using Artificial Intelligence.”
• Andrea McDonald, PVAMU College of Education, and Dr. Kelly Wilson, Texas A&M School of Nursing, “Understanding Mechanisms of Mental Health Response Intervention among HBCU Students and Future Emerging Public Health Workforce.”

The following investigator-teams and projects were selected for the Panther-RISE Grant Awards:

• Peter Ampim, PVAMU College of Agriculture & Human Sciences, and Sakiko Okumoto, Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Smart agriculture: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through plant root secretion
• Javad Barouei, PVAMU College of Agriculture & Human Sciences, and Anil Somenahally, Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Mitigation of food safety risks from agriculture fields through soil microbiome management
• Suxia Cui, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Dilma Da Silva, Texas A&M College of Engineering. Serverless computing risks analysis and mitigation
• Vahid Faghihi, PVAMU School of Architecture, and Ivan Damnjanovic, Texas A&M College of Engineering. Investigating the effectiveness of prediction markets in teaching project risks
• Thiagarajan Ramakrishnan, PVAMU College of Business, and Lei Zou, Texas A&M College of Geosciences. Leveraging geospatial big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve disaster resilience in vulnerable communities
• Kristan Russell, PVAMU College of Juvenile Justice, and Xinyue Ye, Texas A&M College of Architecture. Integrating crime pattern theory and spatial analytic techniques to examine youth crime
• Temilola Salami, PVAMU College of Arts & Sciences, and Noni Gaylord-Harden, Texas A&M College of Liberal Arts. Developing an adaptive toolkit for the prevention of IPV and IPV-Related mental health sequelae among Black college students
• Beverly Sande, PVAMU College of Education, and Gwendolyn Webb, Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. Assessing teachers’ and leaders’ perceptions and applications of culturally responsive teaching and culturally sustaining pedagogy
• Shahin Shafiee, PVAMU College of Engineering, and Debjyoti Banerjee, Texas A&M College of Engineering. Leveraging machine learning for fundamental investigation of anomalous transport phenomena of nanofluids under the effect of external fields for energy storage applications
• Beverly A. Spears, PVAMU College of Arts & Sciences, and Muna Bhattarai, Texas A&M College of Nursing. Examining posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, resilience and posttraumatic growth in college students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic

The following triads and projects have been selected for the Panther-RISE Grant Awards:

• “Analyzing Impact of COVID-19 on Student Learning and Persistence: A Multi-Dimensional Study.” Camille Burnett, PVAMU College of Education, with Texas A&M colleagues Bimal Nepal, College of Engineering, and Karen Rambo-Hernandez, College of Education & Human Development.
• “Multi-modal Knowledge-Graph Construction for Combating Global Pandemics.” Xishuang Dong, PVAMU College of Engineering, with Texas A&M colleagues Ruihong Huang and Anxiao “Andrew” Jiang, both in the College of Engineering.
• “Understanding the Response to USDA Food Aid among Minority Residents and Farmers in COVID-19.” Noel M. Estwick, PVAMU College of Agriculture & Human Sciences, with Texas A&M colleagues Michelle Annette Meyer, College of Architecture, and Rebekka Dudensing, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences.
• “Diversity of Grass Shrimp (Palaemon Sp.) and Their Parasites (Microphallus Spp.) in Gulf of Mexico Wetlands.” Noushin Ghaffari, PVAMU College of Engineering, with Texas A&M colleagues, Anja Schulze, Department of Marine Biology, Mary Wicksten, Department of Biology.
• “An Interdisciplinary Team for Investigating a Machine Learning Framework for Predicting Outdoor Thermal Comfort to Reduce Energy Needs of Future Urban Development.” Rania Labib, PVAMU School of Architecture, with Texas A&M colleagues Mark J. Clayton and Robert Brown, both in the College of Architecture.
• “Nanoengineered Materials to Modulate Mitochondrial Function.” Xiangfang “Lindsey” Li, PVAMU College of Engineering, with Texas A&M colleagues Annie Newell-Fugate, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, and Akhilesh Gaharwar, College of Engineering.
• “Preclinical Development and Emerging Strategies for Design of Selective Kinase Inhibitors Targeting Brain Metastasis of Resistant HER2+ Breast Cancer.” Victoria Mgbemena, PVAMU College of Arts & Sciences, with Texas A&M colleagues Hamed Ismail and Mahua Choudhury, both in the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy.
• “Resilience in Black College Students: Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Student Success.” Oluwagbemiga Ojumu, PVAMU College of Business, with Texas A&M colleagues Kalena Cortes, Bush School of Government & Public Service, and Catherine Eckel, College of Liberal Arts.
• “Nursing in the Puerperium: A Virtual Home Visiting Intervention for Women at Risk for Severe Maternal Morbidity and Mortality.” Gloria Rose, PVAMU College of Nursing, with Texas A&M colleagues Robin L. Page and Cynthia Weston, both in the College of Nursing.
• “Examining the Mental Health Impacts and Coping Strategies of the COVID-19 on Aging Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Texas: A Pilot Study.” Yuki Shigemoto, PVAMU College of Juvenile Justice & Psychology, with Ping Ma, Texas A&M School of Public Health, and Lei-Shih Chen, Texas A&M College of Education & Human Development.