Award Recipients

2025 Recipients

Collaborative Seed Grants

• Mona Ahmadiani, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Using Machine Learning and Mobility Data to Analyze Fishing Effort and Behavior in the Gulf of Mexico” with co-principal investigators Alan Kuhnle, Engineering, and Richard Woodward, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Reza Avazmohammadi, Engineering, “Integrated, AI-Powered, Mechano-Energetic Approach to Identify the Mechanisms of Heart Failure in Cardiometabolic Diseases” with co-principal investigators, Carl Tong, Medicine, and Mahua Choudhury, Pharmacy.
• Marcia Cooper, Engineering, “Rate-Dependent Mechanical Properties of Thin and Ultra-Thin Foils” with co-principal investigators Ankit Srivastava, Engineering, and Michal Demkowicz, Engineering.
• Victoria Crawford, Engineering, “Cross-Domain Interpretable Knowledge Transfer for Extrapolation in Natural Hazards Engineering” with co-principal investigator Stephanie Paal, Engineering.
• Jinyang Deng, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Leveraging AI and Digital Twins for Tourism Intelligence and Economic Sustainability (TIES) in Rural Development” with co-principal investigators Jian Tao, Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, and Manuel Garcia, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Youjun Deng, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Synergistic Effects of Novel Clay- and Gallium-Based Antimicrobials to Treat Wounds Infected with Multidrug-Resistant Pseudomonas Aeruginosa” with co-principal investigators Carolyn Cannon, Medicine, and Terry Gentry, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Sandun Fernando, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Development and Optimization of Novel Inhibitors Targeting Fusarium Oxysporum for Cotton Crop Protection” with co-principal investigators Maria King, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Sanjay Antony-Babu, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Cedric Geoffroy, Medicine, “The Role of Nasal Dysbiosis in Mediating Infection, Health Issues and Death after Spinal Cord Injury” with co-principal investigator Jessica Galloway-Pena, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
• Shannon Glaser, Medicine, “Unraveling the Mechanisms of Ductular Reaction for the Development of Antifibrotic Therapies for Chronic Liver Diseases” with co-principal investigator, Chaodong Wu, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Vishal Gohil, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Determining the Architecture of Mitochondrial Energy-Generating Machinery in Disease Models by Cryo-Electron Tomography” with co-principal investigator, Junjie Zhang, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Sheng-Jen Hsieh, Engineering, “Framework for Beef Quality Design and Measurements: An Integrated Concept of Metabotypes, Biomarkers, Imaging and Cyber-Physical Systems” with co-principal investigator Penny Riggs, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Linda Katehi-Tseregounis, Engineering, “Rapid Design and Optimization of Memristors Using Digital Twin and Additive Manufacturing Technologies” with co-principal investigtors Jian Tao, Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, and Shiren Wang, Engineering. 
• Kiseok Kim, Engineering, “Engineered Geo-Barriers for Geologic Energy Storage” with co-principal investigators Rami Younis, Engineering, and Joseph Kwon, Engineering.
• Yong-Rak Kim, Engineering, “Upcycling Urban-Rural Waste into Carbon-Negative Building Materials” with co-principal investigators Eunsung Kan, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Chenglin Wu, Engineering.  
• Peter Knappett, Arts and Sciences, “Arsenic Sources and Transformations in Brahmaputra River Sediments” with co-principal investigator Garrett McKay, Engineering.
• Dmitry Kurouski, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Development and Deployment of Raman Spectroscopy for Confirmatory Detection and Identification of Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Rice” with co-principal investigator Xin-Gen Zhou, AgriLife Research.
• Gerard Kyle, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Assessing Conservation Pressures Along the Texas Coastal Prairie to Support High-Value Conservation Efforts” with co-principal investigator Ashley Long, Texas A&M Galveston.
• Yuming Lei, Education and Human Development, “A Novel Approach to Motor Recovery in Spinal Cord Injury: Combining Brain Stimulation and Virtual Reality” with co-principal investigator Zina Trost, Arts and Sciences. 
• Yina Liu, Arts and Sciences, “Realistic Modeling Transport of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in the Environment” with co-principal investigators Itza Mendoza-Sanchez, Engineering, and Yinuo Yao, Engineering.
• Zhi Lu, Education and Human Development, “Harnessing AI-powered Digital Twins for Youth Sport Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention” with co-principal investigators Xin Li, Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, Hyun-Woo Lee, Education and Human Development, Lisa Colvin, Education and Human Development, Cheng Zhang, Engineering, and Huanhuan Shi, Mays Business School. 
• Zhipeng Lu, Architecture, “Examining Telemedicine Booths as a Community-Based Intervention to Improve Healthcare Access in Minority and Underserved Communities” with co-principal investigators Whitney Garney, Public Health, Xinyue Ye, Architecture, and Wei Li, Architecture.
• Lacey Luense, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Epigenetic Regulation of Tissue-Specific Metabolism in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome” with co-principal investigators Annie Newell-Fugate, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, James Cai, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Rodolfo Cardosa, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Amirali Najafi, Engineering, “Integrated Assessment of Wildland-Urban Interface Community and Infrastructure Resilience to Wildfires” with co-principal investigators Maria Koliou, Engineering, and Rajarshi Guhaniyogi, Engineering.
• Esuru Okoroafor, Engineering, “Quantifying the Impact of Biofilm Formation on Underground Hydrogen Storage” with co-principal investigator, Yinuo Noah Yao, Engineering.
• Santosh Subhash Palmate, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Integrated Solar PV Array and Hydro-Panel System – A Pilot Study for Arid Water Systems” with co-principal investigator, Girisha Ganjegunte, AgriLife Research.
• Jean-Philippe Pellois, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Harnessing Phage Encapsulation for Enhanced Biosynthetic Production of RNA Therapeutics” with co-principal investigator Junjie Zhang, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Hays Rye, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Understanding the Role of Conformational Disorder and Hydration in the Activity of Biological Nano-Machines: Molecular Chaperones” with co-principal investigators David Russell, Arts and Sciences, and Junjie Zhang, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Ashok Shetty, Medicine, “Directed Delivery of Metformin to Neural Cells in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease Using MOF-74 Mg Nanoparticles” with co-principal investigator Ya Wang, Engineering.
• Junqi Song, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “An Innovative Approach to Create Disease Resistance Genes Against Nematodes Through Deep Learning-Based Protein Design” with co-principal investigator Shuiwang Ji, Engineering.
• Yuxiang Sun, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Activation of Ghrelin Signaling in Macrophages Accelerates the Progression from Fatty Liver to Liver Cancer” with co-principal investigator, Robert Tsai, Medicine.
• Heather Thakar, Arts and Sciences, “Mapping Migrations” with co-principal investigators Ethan Grossman, Arts and Sciences, Peter Knappett, Arts and Sciences, Franco Marcantonio, Arts and Sciences, and Shankar Chellam, Engineering.
• Lynn Vartan, Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, “Sanctuary Space: Improving College Student Wellness Through Music and Visual Immersion” with co-principal investigators Jay Maddock, Public Health, Courtney Suess, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Charlie Hall, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Arianna Pikus, Education and Human Development.
• Shannon Walton, Graduate and Professional School, “Aggies-Lead Grad Program” with co-principal investigator, Hector Rivera, Education and Human Development.
• Aart J. Verhoef, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Optical Quantification of Hessian Fly Infestation in Wheat” with co-principal investigators Shuyu Liu, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Alexei Sokolov, Arts and Sciences.
• Shuyi Xie, Engineering, “AI-Driven Design of Compatibilizers for Multi-Stream Plastic Wastes Recycling” with co-principal investigator Wei Chen, Engineering.
• Takashi Yamauchi, Arts and Sciences, “Mobile Brain-Computer Interface” with co-principal investigators Sheng-Jen Hsieh, Engineering, Jessica Bernard, Arts and Sciences, Tomer Galanti, Engineering, and Jinsil Seo, Performance, Visualization, & Fine Arts.
• Ping Yang, Arts and Sciences, “A Novel Broadband Radiative Transfer Model for an Upcoming Earth Energy Budget Satellite Mission (LIBERA)” with co-principal investigators Elaine Oran, Engineering, and Lifan Wang, Arts and Sciences.
• Shixuan Zhang, Engineering, “Learn to Adapt to Wind Energy Variability in Smart Grid” with co-principal investigator Xin Chen, Engineering.
• Minghui Zheng, Engineering, “Integrating AI and Robotics in Insect Farming (AIR-INF): An Intelligent Robotic System for Larval Monitoring, Feeding, and Harvesting” with co-principal investigators Jeffrey Tomberlin, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Xiao Liang, Engineering.
• Yuling Zhuang, Education and Human Development, “Advancing Mathematics Teacher Education with GenAI as Students: An Innovative Conversational Role-Play Approach” with co-principal investigator, Zhengzhong Tu, Engineering.

Proposal Planning Grants

• Manish Dixit, Architecture, “AI-Driven Adaptive and Human-Centric Augmented Reality (AR) Interface for Reinforcing Spatial Perception During Space Missions” with co-principal investigators, Greg Chamitoff, Engineering, Joseph Orr, Arts and Sciences, and Xin Li, Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts.
• Hope Gerde, Education and Human Development, “Transforming Texas Lives and Economies Through Enhanced Early Educator Preparation: Developing Partnerships for Leading the Texas A&M University Early Educator Innovation Hub”, with co-principal investigators Jodi Nerren, AgriLife, Laci Watkins, Education and Human Development, and Jose Palma, Education and Human Development.
• Hyunyi Jung, Education and Human Development, “Empowering Marginalized Communities: Enhancing Microbiome Diversity for Well-Being Through Modeling” with co-principal investigator, Seockmo Ku, Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• Elnaz Kabir, Engineering, “Harnessing Supply-Chain Flexibility and Renewable Variability in the Energy-Supplychain Nexus” with co-principal investigator Thomas Overbye, Engineering.
• Xin Li, Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, “The Future of Student Support: AI-Empowered Digital Twin Campus and Virtual Coach for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” with co-principal investigators Xinyue Ye, Architecture, Wen Luo, Education and Human Development, Florina Erbeli, Education and Human Development, Sungmin Lee, Architecture, and Tianbao Yang, Engineering.
• Zhenyu Li, Pharmacy, “Molecular Mechanism and Therapeutic Targeting of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide” with co-principal investigator Wenshe Liu, Arts and Sciences.
• Shuyu Liu, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “AI Aid Climate-Smart Wheat Improvement” with co-principal investigators Nicholas Duffield, Engineering, Jackie Rudd, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Brandon Gerrish, Agriculture and Life Sciences,
• Zheng O’Neill, Engineering, “Climate Resilient Decarbonized Built Environment Through Equitable Energy Management and Underground Storage with Geothermal Wells (CRE3ATES – GW)” with co-principal investigator Hongbin Zhan, Arts and Sciences.
• Xiubin Bruce Wang, Engineering, “Planning for the Multi-Dimensional Autonomous Vehicles for Integrated Freight and Logistics Services to Rural and Tribal Areas (RAV-IFLORA)” with co-principal investigator Sivakumar Rathinam, Engineering, Wei Li, Architecture, and Yunlong Zhang, Engineering.
• Zhe Zhang, Arts and Sciences, “GeoShare: An AI-Driven Open Knowledge Geoscience Data Sharing Cyberinfrastructure” with co-principal investigators Nick Duffield, Engineering, and Shaowen Wang,

Grants on the Edge

• Aref Arzan Zarin, Arts and Sciences, “Multifunctional Sensorimotor Circuits Generating Bilateral Synchronous and Asynchronous Locomotor Behaviors” with co-principal investigator Isuru Godage, Engineering.
• Fadi Khasawneh, Pharmacy, “Paternal Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Exposure and Thrombogenesis” with co-principal investigators Fatima Alshbool, Pharmacy, and Michael Golding, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
• Jodie Lutkenhaus, Engineering, “Expanding the Chemistry of the MXene Frontier (ETCH)” with co-principal investigators, Perla Balbuena, Engineering, Micah Green, Engineering, Miladin Radovic, Engineering, and Abdul Djire, Engineering.
• Rupak Mahapatra, Arts and Sciences, “Magnetic Avalanche Detector Using Single-Molecule Magnets for Sub-GeV Dark Matter Search” with co-principal investigators Michael Nippe, Arts and Sciences, Nader Mirabolfathi, Arts and Sciences, and Ivan Borzenets, Arts and Sciences.
• Jingjing Qiu, Engineering, “Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from E-Waste Using Functionalized Mesoporous Carbon Foams” with co-principal investigator Shiren Wang, Engineering.
• Qing Tu, Engineering, “Plasticity in 2D Metal Halide Perovskites for Mechanically Resilient Semiconductor Applications: Deformation Mechanisms and Structure-Property Relationship” with co-principal investigator Wei Gao, Engineering.
• Azlan Zahid, Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Advancing Climate-Smart Greenhouses for Optimized Hydroponic Leafy Greens Production in Hot and Humid Climates” with co-principal investigators Genhua Niu, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Krishna Bhattarai, Agriculture and Life Sciences.