2016 SIF Pre-proposals

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Faculty Immersion in Jesuit Education Principles and Practices

Team lead: Dr. Susan M. Mountin

This Ignatian Pedagogy program for faculty has linked innovative components: 1) A program to provide educational and spiritual background in the Ignatian and Jesuit tradition for faculty across disciplines through a blended course offered each semester, limited to 15. The course will include book-ended face-to-face components and a series of on-line modules focusing on: the history of St. Ignatius, key foundational components and philosophies of Jesuit education, issues of contemporary Jesuit education, the Ignatian pedagogical paradigm and practical applications to classroom work. The course will be offered each semester at Marquette.

2) As an innovative initiative Marquette will create an AJCU training institute to extend this course for the other 27 Jesuit Colleges and Universities. We will 1) continue teaching the course on campus and 2) create a 3-5 day training module for coordinators from other Jesuit Schools who will localize the experience.

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Latina/o Well-Being Research Initiative (LWRI)

Team lead: Dr. Lucas Torres

The Latina/o Well-Being Research Initiative (LWRI) seeks to advance academic scholarship as it pertains to the health and well-being of Latina/o youth and adults living in the United States. The rapid growth of the Latino community has brought to the forefront the marked health disparities evident within this group along with the need to engage in culturally-appropriate scholarship to address these inequities.

This initiative includes a group of multidisciplinary research scholars from across departments, institutions, and community organizations who are dedicated to serving the Latino community. The proposed project seeks to develop the LWRI’s core research agenda and initiate a multi-disciplinary research program (beginning with three signature projects), develop and integrate community partnerships, as well as strengthen the training and mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students

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Marquette Live

Team lead: Sherri Lex

Marquette Live would be a university venue hosting touring bands, comedians, or other live entertainment on the Marquette Campus. MUSG and GSO would be surveyed to determine the selection of the performances. This could provide unique experiences to engage current Marquette students as well as perspective students, especially for recruitment. It could be a great way for the university to continue to encourage students to select Marquette as their top university of choice. Engaging the students with exciting and fun entertainment on campus can provide an environment that provides common ground and creates a deeper sense of community. This could also be offered to faculty and staff as well.

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A Novel Treatment for Cognitive Disorders

Team lead: Dr. M. Behnam Ghasemzadeh

Cognitive disorders are devastating mental disabilities that affect a large number of individuals in the world. These disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, autism, depression) disrupt all aspects of life for the affected individual. There are more than 20 million individuals who suffer from these three diseases in US alone. The annual US economical impact is in billions of dollars. The available medications are mostly ineffective in treatment of some cardinal clinical symptoms and/or manifest significant neurological side effects and toxicity. Therefore, development of effective treatments with fewer and minor side effects is a top priority.

We have identified a novel brain target with unique properties ideal for treatment of cognitive and social symptoms. We have also identified a drug lead effective at this brain target. The goal of this project is to characterize the drug lead, create more effective drug candidates, and prepare for clinical testing of these novel treatments.

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Garden of Reflection and Prayer

Team lead: Gerry Fischer

Behind Marquette’s old Jesuit Residence is a true urban oasis. Sheltered from busy Wisconsin Avenue by a thick wall of evergreens, the Jesuit garden, donated by Mary Joan Stuessi, is filled with lovely trees, plants and flowers.

Campus Ministry proposes to preserve this garden as a natural space for reflection and prayer. This space would match the current configuration of the current Jesuit garden but will be delineated by a fence with an open gate to distinguish it from general green space. Persons in the garden would expect to encounter quiet for reflection and prayer. Besides the natural beauty of the plants and flowers we propose that the garden also include a stone labyrinth and a font of mercy. Because of its location, adjacent to the Chapel of the Holy Family, it would be a natural extension of the sacred space.

If care is given during the demolition of the old Jesuit Residence, much of the Mary Joan Stuessi garden could remain intact. The innovation grant would be used to design the space and provide restorative landscaping after the demolition of the old residence.

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Font of Mercy

Team lead: Gerry Fischer

Pope Francis declared a Year of Mercy to begin this coming December 8th, 2015 through November of 2016. In his Papal Bull describing this year, the pope’s wish is to make God’s mercy available to all. Reflecting on this message, we thought of developing a physical place where God’s Mercy would be available to all who seek it, including the faithful, the seeking, the doubting, and the unchurched. Our idea is to build a “font of Mercy” where people can symbolically leave their shame and guilt behind and receive God’s mercy which is meant for all. This “font of mercy” could be built in the manner of an ancient well and placed in a space on campus that is open to the public but secluded enough for private prayer and/or reflection. A suggested location for this font would be in the garden of the old Jesuit Residence as part of a designated place for prayer and reflection (as described in Fischer1). We are providing additional detail for the Font of Mercy in a separate proposal because it would be a valuable project even if it were to be located in another location on campus.

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DIY Electrocardiogram Machine

Team lead: Dr. Samuel Bechara

The DIY Electrocardiogram (ECG) Machine project is proposed as an outreach event series to reach local, urban, Milwaukee area high school students. The project will sponsor outreach events at local Milwaukee high schools with the intent to encourage and empower participants to pursue STEM careers.

Each event will consist of four parts: a short lecture on heart physiology, a hands on session where each student builds their own arduino based ECG machine, a short activity to show how ECG changes with physical activity, and finally a dinner to encourage community building with the help of Marquette undergraduate students. At the end of the evening, each student will take home the ECG machine that they built and will be given tips and resources to pursue other projects using the device.

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Rescuing At-Risk Toddlers and Preschoolers from Abuse and Neglect

Team lead: Dr. Robert Fox

Each year, 700,000 children are victims of abuse and neglect, and 1,500 die as a direct result. Sadly, most are younger than 5. The Behavior Clinic, a joint venture between MU and Penfield Children’s Center since 2003, discovered an innovative strategy for preventing abuse and neglect.

Our strategy involves going into the homes of central-city children to teach, guide and encourage their caregivers to use more effective parenting strategies for managing significant behavioral problems before resorting to abuse and neglect. We developed and extensively tested this intervention program. In November 2015, SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence Based Programs and Practices awarded this cutting-edge program, titled Early Pathways, its highest rating for effectively addressing serious behavioral problems in at-risk young children. This proposal will develop a training program for professionals who decide to use this nationally-endorsed program so more at-risk children can realize brighter futures.

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Computer Vision Algorithms for Commercial-Scale Text-to-Video Content Creation

Team lead: Henry Medeiros

Mobile platforms play a leading role in the shift of consumer TV viewing habits as consumers watch personalized content on-demand in accelerating trend. Recognizing this new market opportunity, Marquette alumnus Dr. Behrooz Rezvani founded Seyyer, Inc. with the purpose of introducing a new and unique technology to generate video content personalization on-demand to smartphones.

Seyyer is a text-to-video content creation company which produces avatars. An avatar is a customizable human-derived video personality created using machine learning and computer vision technologies to look like a real actor. Avatars can be deployed as news anchors, sportscasters, talk show hosts to deliver individualized video content to smartphones. The goal of this project is to create a partnership between Seyyer, Inc. and the Computer Vision and Sensing Systems Lab at the Opus College of Engineering in order to address some of the technical challenges to the production of avatars at a commercial scale.

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Developing National Guidelines for Resilient Schools

Team lead: Dr. John Grych

Mental health problems rise significantly during adolescence, and schools are critical developmental contexts that can serve as sources of support, or sources of stress, for youths. Schools and mental health professionals have focused on identifying deficits in youths’ functioning and intervening with individual students, but this approach has been ineffective for fostering students’ well-being and is too limited to serve the needs of all students. The emerging field of “Positive Education” seeks to transform schools into settings that promote resilience in students, but there is no common set of standards to guide schools seeking to foster student well-being. The goals of this project are to identify qualities of schools that promote student health and well-being, establish an empirically-based set of Best Practices for promoting resilience among high school students, and develop a process for certifying schools for meeting these standards.

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WeBikeMU

Team lead: Nicholas La Joie

How do we get to the Global Water Center, downtown or the Historic Third Ward? We bike. How do we get across campus or across town to the lakefront? We bike. How do we save money on fuel and parking and enjoy better health and wellness? We bike.

WeBike MU aims to raise awareness in the Marquette community for the importance of bicycle and pedestrian transportation methods, to encourage the health and wellness of students, faculty and staff by connecting Marquette’s main campus with the rest of the city of Milwaukee via intuitive bicycle and pedestrian-friendly tools and pathways. This project also hopes to serve as a means to connect vital nodes within the main Marquette campus itself, thus enhancing the quality of life for those at and around Marquette. The project further seeks to reduce the Marquette community’s environmental impact and fossil fuel consumption by encouraging bicycle transportation as a viable alternative to the automobile.

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Digital Hub: Consolidating and Expanding Digital Scholarship and Learning at Marquette

Team lead: Dr. Eugenia Afinoguénova

The Digital Hub will be a physical and virtual space where faculty, library staff, graduate and undergraduate students, and invited experts will work together to foster a visible culture of digital scholarship at Marquette. Over 3 years, the project team will implement programming designed to assess and begin to meet the most exigent community needs. Specifically, the Digital Hub will sponsor (1) a Digital Faculty Fellows program; (2) cross-disciplinary, cross-college workshops on relevant skills and resources (i.e., grants and publication opportunities), hosting guest experts when appropriate; (3) a new digital support staff member housed in the library; (4) seed grants for project development, and (5) both on and off-line showcases of digital scholarship.

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I’m First! Partnership

Team lead: Kaela Wojtycski

Being a high school student whose parents never went to college makes applying to college much more difficult than the average student. When first generation students get to college, many drop out due to financial, educational, and social stresses.

I propose that we team up with a non-profit organization called I’m First!. I’m First! assists in recruiting, retaining, and graduating first generation students. Having a specialized recruiting program targeted to these students will cultivate diversity. I’m First! will prepare high school students better for college by giving them guidance on how to pick a college that is right for them. The program helps college students by running a blog and posting videos relating to college. They also provide exchanges and webinars for faculty on campus to teach them the best ways to reach out to diverse populations on campus. With the help of I’m First!, Marquette will become a more diverse and inclusive environment for everyone.

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Sustainable, Resilient, and Efficient Electric Energy Conversion for Future Generations

Team lead: Nathan Weise

Thirty percent of the generated electricity in the United States passes through power electronics on the way from generation to consumption. It is predicted this figure will rise to 80 percent by the year 2030, highlighting the significant need to increase the efficiency and reliability of electric energy conversion while decreasing their volume, weight, and cost. Future generation students need to be informed, empowered, educated, and put into the workforce to tackle future global energy needs. The goal of this project is to create a local synergy of academics, research, industry, and high schools to encourage and empower the next generation of students to seek problems and solutions in the energy and power sector. Additionally this work will serve as a gateway to create harmonies between academics and local industry by serving the current and future needs in the energy and power sector.

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MarquetteMUnchMates

Team lead: Benjamin Zellmer

There are two problems on Marquette’s campus that MarquetteMUnchMates aims to resolve. The first is a failure to realize the full possibility and effect of student community on campus. The 2015 Climate Study revealed that 24% of Marquette Students (nearly 1 in 4) seriously considered leaving Marquette because they did not feel like they belonged. The second problem is the failure to maximize the use of Guest Swipes on the Meal Plan. Each student on the Meal Plan has fifteen Guest Swipes to use each semester. While some students use the majority of their Guest Swipes, there are also students who do not use most or any of their Guest Swipes. MarquetteMUnchMates aims to resolve these two problems through one simple program that would provide an opportunity for underclassmen to request a meal with a campus engaged upperclassman, faculty member, or Jesuit through an online website.

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Statistical Consulting and Training Center

Team lead: Dr. Naveen K Bansal

The Statistical Consulting and Training Center (SCTC) would provide complete statistical services and statistical expertise to the students, industrial community, and the researchers of non-statistical fields. Its main purpose will be to broaden the collaboration between the statistical and non-statistical researchers, and to create a statistical hub for private sectors who may seek expert opinion on modern statistical analysis tools. For the statistical services, the center will work with the clients on design of experiments, perform statistical analyses once the data is collected, and produce reports interpreting the statistical results. In addition, it will conduct lecture series and workshops on cutting edge statistical tools for the private sectors and for the students and faculty members of the Marquette University. Benefits of creating the center include increased collaboration between statisticians and non-statisticians, student supports for the statistics students, and increased visibility of the Marquette University within the local business community as a place of statistical experts and students recruits.

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Catholic Studies Project

Team lead: Dr. Ulrich L. Lehner

The aim of the Marquette Catholic Studies Project is to provide an institutional forum for developing and fostering Catholic Studies (a now defunct minor) on campus. By bringing together faculty and undergraduate students, it is our hope to develop and establish a model that excites faculty and students about the Catholic and Jesuit identity of Marquette by bridging disciplines, cultures and traditions. Our activities include the hosting of bi-monthly meetings for faculty, the hosting of public lectures, the sponsoring of two conferences with faculty and undergraduate research.

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Ward 4 office & membership

Team lead: Megan Carver

There’s growing understanding that innovation comes from people mixing their ideas, insights and thinking during the hard work of a startup. On campus students have the ability to explore their startup ideas and connect with others at the Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship but currently there is no venue for students to connect with entrepreneurs in the community. Ward 4 is the solution to this issue and is Milwaukee’s premier co-working space.

In an effort to continue supporting our student entrepreneurs and position Marquette as a leader in entrepreneurship education we propose an office for Marquette University at Ward 4 and three shared workspace memberships. The office will be utilized by various departments and the shared space by student entrepreneurs. This will enable student entrepreneurs to connect with local business people who can become mentors, partners, investors or customers. Current Ward 4 tenants include the Commons, Gener8tor, Quarles & Brady & CSA partners.

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Pilot Study for Creation of Center for Orphan Devices and Assistive Technologies

Team lead: Dr. Jay Goldberg

Goal #1: Enhance the education of MU undergraduate engineering students through 1) problem identification and needs finding activities, 2) interaction with clients, and 3) commercialization activities, through assistive technology (AT) projects involving the design and testing of custom designed solutions for people with disabilities.

Goal #2 : Disseminate knowledge of these new technologies and make them more accessible to people with disabilities, by 1) submitting these new technologies to an online database accessible to people with disabilities, and 2) providing resources for commercialization.

Goal #3: Design and plan for a new Center for Orphan Devices and Assistive Technologies (CODAT) that will expand and formalize the activities described in this proposal and include production capabilities.

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Peers Tutoring Peers

Team lead: Dr. Thomas Eddinger

In the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) retention of students to completion of a major, and mastery of the material throughout the curriculum is an issue. In the Biology department we are also concerned with 1) attrition from our major beginning in the large enrollment introductory biology series, and, 2) student difficulties with being able to apply, synthesize, and evaluate biological concepts and methods as appropriate. To address these issues, I am proposing a pilot program in biology by developing and incorporating an upper division peer-tutoring/mentoring course that will use our juniors and seniors to mentor and tutor students in these introductory courses. I hypothesize this will improve higher order learning for both the mentees and the tutors/mentors, and will also reduce attrition in our program by increasing student satisfaction through improved understanding and increased rapport and collegiality among our majors. Special efforts will be made to include minorities who may be most vulnerable to lack of this type of academic and social support. If successful, it will be continued in the Biology department and piloted in the other STEM fields initially, and then to any departments that may be interested.

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Planning for a Center for Computational Sciences

Team lead: Dr. Anne Clough

The discipline of computational science involves the discovery, implementation, simulation, and application of models to solve physical and social science and engineering problems. Commonly, computational science involves the development of computer software and/or computer systems to solve large-scale or multi-scale problems that are intractable through purely theoretical methods. We propose a Center for Computational Sciences housed on the Marquette campus that would serve as a university, local, and even regional focal point for education and research related to solving data-intensive problems with high-tech computational tools. The objective of this proposal is to obtain funding for 1) strategic planning for the Center with colleagues across campus, taking advantage of established collaborations and developing new ones; and 2) developing a specific pilot project (Biomedical Imaging and Modeling, BIM) within the context of the Center that would serve as a model to other investigators involved in related activities across campus that would be interested in participating in the Center.

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Marquette Enlightenment Colloquium

Team lead: Dr. Ryan Hanley

The aim of the Marquette Enlightenment Colloquium is to provide an institutional forum for interdisciplinary humanities research on campus via the consolidation of Marquette’s present interdisciplinary research strengths in eighteenth-century studies. By bringing together Marquette’s researchers in several departments on Enlightenment topics, our hope is to provide a forum to capitalize on one of the university’s existing research strengths and to establish a model for future interdisciplinary humanities and social science research at Marquette. Our specific activities will include the hosting of monthly meetings for the discussion of members’ research-in-progress, the hosting of occasional public lectures on campus featuring nationally prominent researchers, and the sponsoring of a two-day conference on campus featuring work by both Marquette and external faculty.

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HPGM Student Chapter Engagement Initiative

Team lead: Antonio Martinez

In 2013, in partnership with the Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee, a group of ambitious Marquette University students started an HPGM Student Chapter. Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee works to create a strong network of Hispanic students and professionals who exercise leadership and responsibility within their workplaces and communities. As an integral part of Milwaukee’s culture and workforce, HPGM believes it is vital to help young Latinos thrive.

HPGM student members at Marquette are ready to take the next step in engaging a diverse group of students and offering more opportunities for growth both in Milwaukee and surrounding areas including engaging in other events with other local HPGM student chapters at UW-Milwaukee, MATC, and Alverno College.

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Midnight Run Community Café

Team lead: Maggie Stang

Midnight Run, a student led service organization on campus, is looking to create a community space with the intention of broadening our mission. The overarching goal is to meet a basic need in the community by providing warmth to these members of our community. We envision the café connecting the Marquette community to the Near West Side while addressing the needs we hear voiced from our existing sites, which mainly includes creating a safe, warm space on cold winter days. Long-term, we envision potential job training programs, resume building experience, and many other activities that would be beneficial for anyone. From the viewpoint of the students, we perceive a need to break down stigmas between students and the members of our community in the Near West Side neighborhoods. This can be done through this café and assisted designated community activities and events. Overall, we truly envision a space that would be sought after by both members of Marquette and Milwaukee alike.

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Application of mechanical vibration to enhance success and longevity of dental implants

Team lead: Dr. Dawei Liu

Dental implants are commonly used in rehabilitating oral functions of patients with missing teeth. The success and longevity of dental implants are primarily relying on “osseointegration” – a process of direct structural and functional connection between living bone and the surface of a load-bearing artificial implant, which is influenced by many factors including mechanics. Mechanical vibration has been shown to be able to promote osteoblastic bone formation in vivo and in vitro. However, currently there is no data showing the enhancement of osseointegration of dental implants by mechanical vibration. To gain evidence at cell level as a start, we hypothesize that mechanical vibration promotes proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts cultured on dental implant material surface. If it is proved, mechanical vibration can potentially be applied to enhance osseointegration of dental implants, which will ultimately enhance the success and longevity of dental implants for patients.

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Social Innovation: South Africa Service Learning

Team lead: Maggie Stang

During my freshman year, Marquette’s Social Innovation Initiative changed the way I thought about the world and my own role as an agent for change. Taking what I learned from freshman year, I decided to go study abroad with Marquette’s South Africa Service Learning program to learn more about community development and grassroots organizations. In South Africa, I thought about Milwaukee, Marquette and the Social Innovation Initiative all the time. So, when I (hopefully) go back to Cape Town this summer, I would like to take some of the Social Innovation Initiative with me. By working with the program directors and local organizations in Cape Town, I hope to create some curricular materials for the students to read and work with during their semesters in Cape Town. In addition, I hope to work with existing social ventures in Cape Town in order to give students the opportunity to learn from them through service.

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A Sanctuary for MUsic

Team lead: Kevyn Schwab

A Sanctuary for MUsic simply aims to establish a space where student musicians at Marquette can practice their art. The Sanctuary will allow the student organization MUsic to fulfill its mission of facilitating the networking and collaboration of Marquette musicians. The Sanctuary will be an environment in which student musicians may thrive, providing essential resources for creating and sharing music – something which heretofore has not been established at Marquette. Student musicians are an underrepresented and unaccommodated group, and A Sanctuary for MUsic would change that fact.

A little background on MUsic: In January 2015, several Marquette students met at a leadership retreat, The LeaderShape Institute, where they recognized a lack of resources for student musicians and enthusiasts, which hindered their creative outlet. It was during this time that the students developed the idea of the student organization, MUsic. When they returned to campus, the students worked relentlessly to develop their idea into a reality. In May 2015, the organization was officially approved, and MUsic is currently establishing itself on campus.

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Evidence-Based Health & Wellness in Academia: Development of Standardized Assessment Tools

Team lead: Dr. April Harkins

Standardized national exams gauge academic success, but there are no standardized assessments of health and wellness for secondary education. It is well established that stress-related disorders and obesity lead to adverse academic performance. The project goal is to standardize assessments of health and wellness to supplement and inform academic success in secondary education. Our established collaborative team brings together faculty from Marquette University and a Milwaukee secondary school (Divine Savior Holy Angels [DSHA]). The experiences of DSHA students parallel national trends of adolescents reporting unhealthy stress levels and the impact on exercising, sleeping well, and eating healthy foods. Pilot data shows how insufficient sleep is associated with poor body image, high stress, and high pain catastrophizing among DSHA students. DSHA approached MU faculty to introduce standardized assessments of student health and wellness in conjunction with a new wellness curriculum.

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The Joan of Arc Chapel Portal Project

Team lead: Dr. Elizaveta Strakhov

We aim to design a multimodal online portal devoted to the history of the Joan of Arc Chapel now located in the heart of Marquette’s campus. Originally built in France in the 15th century and brought to Marquette in 1964, the chapel holds numerous medieval artifacts. The web portal will contain content cumulatively supplied by an existing research project and undergraduate research projects to be done over a 3-year period. Specifically: (a) 3D visualizations of the Chapel currently being done at the MARquette Visualization Lab (MARVL) and a previously filmed video tour of the space; (b) undergraduate student research projects on the chapel’s history, Joan of Arc, objects in the chapel, and other medieval materials at the Raynor-Memorial Libraries and the Haggerty Museum of Art; (c) videos of undergraduate theater performances of the transcript of Joan of Arc’s trial. Marquette faculty and undergraduates will thus collaborate across the disciplines to bring the history of this remarkable Catholic landmark to the wider Marquette community.

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Immigration: a holistic view

Team lead: T. Michael McNulty, S.J.

This project will provide a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of immigration through publications, a symposium and a final report. Discussions of immigration and its problems have typically been approached from a single point of view: security, economics, etc. But none of these optics does justice to the complexity of the issues we are dealing with: human beings whose circumstances, desires and fears play a significant role in producing the present situation. Only a multidisciplinary approach based on the values of our Ignatian Catholic community can make any real progress toward the humane policy called for by Pope Francis: “Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more.” Only if we understand the problem holistically can we do justice to the dignity of the people at its heart.

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MU4Gold Scholars – a pilot program

Team lead: Dr. Rosemary A. Stuart

The MU4Gold Scholars program seeks to brand research excellence as a cultural expectation of a Marquette undergraduate experience. Marquette’s integrated research and teaching missions affords our undergraduates access to transformative educational opportunities and is critical for future career paths. This notable feature of a Marquette education is not sufficiently promoted in our current enrollment strategies. We propose to establish a MU4Gold Scholars program which will enhance the recruitment and yield of academically superior high school applicants. This competitive 3-year pilot program, embedded within the Honors program, will provide a research scholarship to a cohort of students and guaranteed access for them to faculty mentored research projects as paid research assistants, starting in the freshman year. The MU4Gold Scholars program will also guide students through the application processes for prestigious fellowships, off-campus summer research programs and graduate school.

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Varsity Theater Technology Upgrade

Team lead: Joseph V. Brown

The proposed project involves a technology upgrade to Marquette’s Varsity Theater. The Varsity Theater is a beautiful 1,200 seat theater that is not fully utilized. The space lacks adequate projection, sound, and media management technology. Although MUSG utilizes the space for student film screenings, viewer experience is subpar. Upgrades including an ultra high definition projector, tension screen, and professional sound are costly, but will allow the Varsity to become a hub for a variety of high-profile campus events. Such events could include: TedX events, Milwaukee Film Festival screenings, alumni presentations, MCA-I Video Cirque screenings, and MU’s Great Lakes Environmental Film Festival (GLEFF) screenings. An upgrade to the Varsity Theater’s technology would also aid the College of Communication in that the college does not currently have an adequate screening space for the many student projects that are produced in its television and film production classes.

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The effects of mechanical vibration on human chondrocytes in vitro

Team lead: Dr. Dawei Liu

The cause-and-effect relationship between orthodontic loading on temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and TMJ disorders (TMJD) is of controversy. Under “do-no-harm” guideline, all new orthodontic techniques exerting forces on TMJ should be carefully assessed. Recently a new orthodontic device AcceleDent (AD) is commercially available to help move teeth faster by providing cyclic forces to the surfaces of teeth, however its potential impact on TMJ – one of the big concerns among the AD users is unknown. A recent laser Doppler study showed that the vibration from AD device is effectively transmitted to TMJ. Does mechanical vibration do any harm (or good) to chondrocytes? To answer this question, we will study the effect of mechanical vibration (0.3g, at 0, 30, 60 and 90 Hz respectively) on the biological behaviors (proliferation, differentiation and signaling pathway) of human chondrocytes in culture. Findings from this project will help us prevent the damage to (or promote) the health of TMJ.

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Marquette – UWM Graduate Student Humanities Conference

Team lead: Carolyne Hurlburt

The MU-UWM Graduate Student Humanities Conference is an interdisciplinary conference intended to bring together emerging scholars from throughout the Midwest to present and discuss new research in the humanities, foster partnerships among institutions in the Milwaukee area, and promote the development of and collaboration among Marquette’s graduate students and programs in English, History, and other fields

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My-O – Improving Pediatric Wheelchair Propulsion Safety through Research

Team lead: Jacob R. Rammer

My-O seeks to improve propulsion efficiency in pediatric manual wheelchair (PMW) users, reduce risk of injury, and improve the quality of physical therapy practice for these children.

This will be accomplished through: (1) development of integrated technology to measure wheelchair propulsion metrics, (2) collaboration with the Marquette University Physical Therapy (MUPT) program to involve PT students in the development of customized game-based rehabilitation solutions guided by current best practices, (3) research collaboration with the Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Engineering Center (OREC) to conduct clinical studies to better understand the upper body biomechanics as they relate to injury prevention, and (4) commercialization of the rehabilitation technology through EngAbility Inc. My-O will maximize the impact of this technology on children within and beyond the Marquette community to promote improved health, function, independence, and quality of life.

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Engineers2Assist – Customized Assistive Devices for Mobility and Independence

Team lead: Jacob R. Rammer

People with disabilities use assistive devices to improve daily mobility and independence. However, rising costs and insurance coverage restrictions prevent patients from obtaining them, and inappropriate designs of many currently marketed devices do not meet the needs of patients. Engineers2Assist brings together student teams and assistive technology users to develop customized solutions, relying on collaboration among: (1) clinics and community organizations supporting patients with movement disorders, (2) Marquette engineering students recruited to participate on project teams, (3) local professional engineers as advisors, (4) the Marquette law school and legal resources to ensure that product liability is handled correctly and (5) EngAbility Inc., a local medical device startup company, to commercialize the devices. Engineers2Assist provides a valuable service to assistive technology users in need and enhances the engineering education at MU.

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Historic Islam in America Immersion Trip—Detroit

Team lead: Dr. Louise Cainkar

For the Spring 2016 semester, four undergraduate students anticipate taking a trip to Dearborn, Michigan, the US city with the largest Arab/Muslim population/concentration, to learn about the history of Islam and Arab culture and its influence on a Midwestern city. We intend to visit the Arab American National Museum, meet with experts on Islamic history/culture and meet with a Michigan representative to discuss Michigan’s more liberal, humane and unique stance to welcome Syrian refugees. The experiences and knowledge gained during the trip will reflect in the students’ research and development of a video documentary discussing the impact that Muslim/Arab Americans have on the Milwaukee landscape. Led by Dr. Louise Cainkar of the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences and president of the Arab American Studies Association, we intend to educate members of the Milwaukee community on the humanity and culture of Muslim/Arabs, groups subject to intense stereotyping on a national level.

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MU Overseas Funded Projects

Team lead: Dr. Rosita Tormala-Nita

The proposed MU Overseas Funded Projects aims to assist faculty, staff, students, and alumni with international ties to funded projects by identifying Marquette University (MU) campus resources to support efforts in overseas projects development. To this end, a model with a win-win matching formula must be developed. This request to access funds from the MU Strategic Innovation Funds is seeking approval for 1%-50% match to MU resources for those overseas projects with guaranteed funds from foreign nations. A first model is hereby proposed to serve as a pilot for future projects targeting school innovation projects on the island of Curacao. In an effort to create such an innovative model, this proposal is seeking MU strategic innovation funds to: 1) support the MU staff involved in pulling these funded projects. 2) research comparative resources available that would impact and push these overseas projects to successful completion. 3) explore the comparative economic, legal, and administrative aspects of a win-win formula on overseas projects. 4). Invite other nationals at Marquette to consider similar paths to contribute to funded projects in their native countries. The overall purpose in proposing institutional support through the MU Innovation Funds is to position Marquette as a safe and reliable partner in overseas project planning efforts. This would also be an opportunity to invite all nationals at Marquette with ties to funded overseas projects to consider Marquette as their partner for an international higher education institution push or pull on projects.

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Engendering Dignity in Philosophy (EDIP)

Team lead: Drew Dumaine

Marquette is a leading institution of social justice in Milwaukee and is therefore well positioned to advance novel approaches to the most critical social challenges present in the city. Engendering Dignity in Philosophy (EDIP) recognizes the value in the variety of lived experiences present in Milwaukee and embraces these differences as a means to advance Marquette’s aspirations of social transformation, both inside and outside of the classroom. It does so by acting as a locus of discourse for multiple stakeholders, including disadvantaged individuals, community leaders, Marquette undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. At present, this manifests in the form of a course between MU and MWCC that explores social justice through the lens of gender and freedom. It is our intention to make this course (and others like it) a regular part of the MU curriculum and to eventually expand Marquette’s partnerships with other community organizations in order to achieve shared understandings and aims for social justice.

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Global Technology Outreach Coordinator

Team lead: Dr. Lars Olson

Innovation at Marquette needs to extend beyond campus boundaries. Marquette must translate existing technologies to developing markets, while creating opportunities to develop new technologies with international partners. This work cannot happen ad hoc; it needs coordination. We envision a Global Technology Outreach (GTO) Coordinator who would increase Marquette's ability to: (1) translate existing technologies to developing markets; (2) create global partnerships to develop new technologies; and (3) prepare technologists in the skills necessary for international collaborations. Many opportunities at Marquette are ready for help. Global health researchers need assistance working with health ministries to scale-up existing devices. Marquette's computational and data science groups could coordinate with the HIV informatics team at the University of Western Cape to advance HIV treatment. Innovators on campus are requesting workshops on international collaboration.

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Escalation: Raising the college students’ awareness of warning signs of abusive relationships

Team lead: Dr. Abir K. Bekhet

Abusive relationships (AR) are highly prevalent in our society. Statistics show that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men will be in a violent relationship in their lifetime. According to the CDC, the highest risk group for this violence contains those aged 18-24 years old. Victims of AR tend to stay in the relationship for a long period of time because, in most circumstances, they might be unaware of the AR until they are physically harmed. Also, they might be scared of the consequences of leaving their partners, worried about what their friends and family would think, felt that there was no one to turn to, or believed it was their fault. 57% of college students reported having difficulty in identifying relationship violence, while 58% reported not knowing what to do to help someone who is dealing with AR. Educating college students through peer facilitated group discussions is essential in raising college students’ awareness of the warning signs of AR to prevent its harmful consequences.

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Mobile Phone Positive Thinking Training Intervention for Autism Caregivers

Team lead: Dr. Abir K. Bekhet

Caregivers of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) experience great stress and burden. Studies have shown that a cycle develops in which caregivers’ poor psychological well-being escalates the child’s challenging behaviors, which in turn further degrades the psychological well-being of the caregiver. This project is innovative in examining the six intervention parameters of a Positive Thinking Training (PTT) intervention (acceptability, feasibility, safety, necessity, fidelity, and beginning effectiveness) delivered through a mobile phone and designed to help caregivers of persons with ASD to overcome their stress, which in turn, will decrease the frequency of their children’s challenging behaviors. The long term goal of this project is to apply the PTT nationwide to benefit caregivers of persons with ASD and their children and save USA the costs associated with the loss of productivity.

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Establishing a Rice Cultivation Business Model in the Milwaukee Area

Team lead: Dr. Michael R. Schläppi

I am requesting funds to build and maintain an experimental rice paddy at the Fondy farm that will serve as a model for establishing sustainable rice cultivation businesses in the Milwaukee area. The paddy will serve two purposes: to allow continuous undergraduate student centric research to identify rice varieties best suitable for cultivation in a cold climate; and to serve as a sustainable model for rice farming that will generate revenues through rice sales for reinvestment into research and student salaries. During the three years of grant duration, we will build a sophisticated half-acre paddy on Fondy farm land that can generate up to 4,000 lb of rice, build or purchase planting, harvesting, threshing, and hulling equipment, and enter into a long-term lease agreement with Fondy. After three years, we will provide fee-based training to prospective rice farmers and lease our equipment to those farmers to cover costs for repair and maintenance for a sustainable business model.

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MU Innovation Kickstart Kit

Team lead: Holly Neel

Modeled after Adobe’s open-sourced Innovation process Kickbox, this systematic deployment of an “innovator’s toolbox” to select groups and centers across campus helps to jumpstart more innovation and innovators. The Innovation Kickbox will be deployed along with a a Marquette Innovation Handbook that will empower Marquette Individuals to pursue their ideas, self-identify as innovators, and be more aware of all of the resources located on campus to make the innovation happen. The test-run kit will include various tools proven through the Kickbox program to be helpful and inspiring for creative play, invention, and strategic development of ideas. A Marquette-modified version of this kit could also include instructions and exercises for innovation, caffeine, creative inspiration, printing credits or possibly 3D printing credits, and a copy of the MU Innovator’s handbook. The MU Innovation Handbook would be a guide to all available resources on and off campus. This would include contact information for on-campus Innovation mentors from every college, as well as resources for research, prototyping, user-engagement, funding, and storytelling.

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Development of an Open-sourced API to Promote Innovation and Cross-collaboration

Team lead: Ryan Daulton

This proposal is to develop an Application Programming Interface [API] to provide campus users with secure and obfuscated access to information about patterns in location and movement based on network connection information with existing wifi infrastructure.

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Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Team lead: Dr. Ana C. Garner

The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS), located within the Diederich College of Communication, provides professional reporting on issues facing Milwaukee’s inner city. Largely ignored by traditional news media, the people living in central city Milwaukee are typically viewed through a singular lens of crime, gun violence and poverty. Yet, within Milwaukee’s inner city neighborhoods there are other narratives to be told. These narratives include efforts to improve education, public safety, economic development, environment, health and wellness, recreation, employment, youth development and housing initiatives. Spiritually embracing the neighborhoods it serves, NNS is a pivotal resource for community information and activism. Students working at NNS also learn first hand how Marquette’s commitment to social responsibility and community engagement is made manifest. Students working at NNS are encouraged, through the process of reporting, to go into Milwaukee communities and learn more about their people, culture, accomplishments and challenges.

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Online Platform For Self-­Published Community Stories

Team lead: James Brust

Deploy a mobile-­first, user-­centered, online publishing platform to share and showcase well produced stories from members of the Marquette and Greater Milwaukee communities. As a platform supported by Marquette but not directly branded as such (see greatbigstory.com/CNN for example) it will encourage participation from users regardless of their institution or discipline. It is distinct from the disparate efforts of individual blogs in that it will provide a single destination with fresh and relevant content, and different from news publications in its personal, community, and social impact focus (see Swearer Sparks and Hatch for examples). Finally, it will serve as an intersection, connecting people with a story to the knowledge and resources that empower them to tell it.

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Collaborative Space For Narrative Communication Development

Team lead: James Brust

Situated within the Diederich College of Communication, the Wakerly Media Lab for Creativity & Innovation is uniquely positioned to provide the space, tools, and expertise for students, faculty, and staff to practice and enhance their ability to develop multi-­modal narrative communication. As innovation efforts develop across campus it is essential to capture and tell these stories to foster a culture that embraces this opportunity. Leveraging the current advantages of faculty proximity and relationship to the curriculum, a reconfiguration of the space and enhancement of the equipment available would establish the Wakerly Media Lab as a node of the Marquette Innovation network with the scope and capacity to support efforts across campus, while simultaneously enhancing existing programs in Communication.

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Mid-Career Faculty Research Mentoring

Team lead: Katherine Durben

This pilot project is designed to promote research success for women faculty at the associate professor level in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) sciences. In STEM & SBE, women are underrepresented at the full professor level and often spend lengthy periods of time at the associate level. Marquette faculty are particularly challenged as they strive to balance increasing research ambitions with their serious commitment to undergraduate and graduate education. Encouraged by a relatively strong pipeline of junior women faculty, systems need to be developed to support the research success and advancement of our mid-career faculty. This pilot will provide research support and mentorship to post-tenure faculty to increase their success in moving through the ranks to full professor in a timely fashion.

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Dynamic monitoring of plant growth and performance: Commercialization of a novel, autonomous dendrometer band system

Team lead: Dr. Stefan Schnitzer

Water and food security are critical concerns facing humankind. Many water-intensive crops, such as almonds and fruit trees, are notoriously difficult to monitor. Nonetheless, these crops are a critical component of a $1B agricultural industry, and water for these crops is a significant cost. We designed a novel, innovative, autonomous, sensor system that collects tree diameter change hourly and provides accurate data on tree performance and water use. Our sensor will have the capacity to broadcast data to the cloud, making it accessible in real time by internet-enabled device (smart-phone or computer) anywhere in the world. Thus, an orchard manager would be alerted when individual trees (or an entire orchard) are failing and would have the capacity to monitor tens of thousands of trees from any location with an internet or cell-phone signal. We have developed the fundamental sensor technology; we request funding to refine the device and develop the user interface for commercialization.

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MADACC Animal Care-A-Van

Team lead: Lauren Burke

Each year 12,000 stray or unwanted pets find their way to the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission (MADACC). Milwaukee’s pet overpopulation (specifically pit bulls/cats) is a reflection of the need for more spay/neuter services in the community as well as health care and education. MADACC works hard to offer low cost services to the community, but it is often up against a roadblock – transportation. Our project proposes a mobile animal transport vehicle (MADACC Animal Care-A-Van) that aims to serve Milwaukee’s disadvantaged neighborhoods – specifically the 53208 zip code or Near West Side. MADACC’s highest intake of animals comes from this neighborhood. It’s also a neighborhood lacking in sufficient veterinary care services. The MADACC Animal Care-A-Van would fill this need by offering transportation of pets to spay/neuter appointments, delivery of pet food/pet supplies to residents, transport of supplies to neighborhood clinics, and other not yet imagined possibilities.

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Bronzeville

Team lead: Dr. Karen Slattery

This project explores the social cost of demolishing Milwaukee’s only African-American neighborhood, Bronzeville, in the mid-20th century in the name of urban renewal and freeway construction. The project consists of documentary and website, based, in part, on two original research studies. The target audience includes citizens of Milwaukee, including high school students. The first study includes oral histories of African Americans who grew up in Bronzeville before the houses and business district were leveled. The second involves a textual analysis of mainstream news coverage to identify the public narrative of the need to get rid of the decayed housing and build a new freeway. An effort will also be made to identify the counter narrative, if there was one, about the destruction of the social fabric created by the African-Americans who called the neighborhood home, out of necessity because racial housing covenants and redlining made relocation in the city impossible.

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Smart Classrooms for ASD intervention

Team lead: Dr. Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed

The learning capability of individuals with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is inversely proportional their anxiety level at any time. This in turn impacts their ability to express themselves, form relationships and function in society. The Program for the Enrichment and Education of Relational Skills, or PEERS is a manualized and evidence based program run by the Autism clinic in the department of Psychology. The goal of the 14 week program is to teach young adults with ASD to function in society.

The program relies on hand filled questionnaires and surveys to gauge the progress of the individual after each session and at the beginning and the end of the program. This has provided crucial insight into the effectiveness of the program.

  1. There is variability within the population of teens with ASD. The program is not effective for the entire population.
  2. Surveys are not a good indicator of the progress of the individual.
  3. It is not possible to monitor the impact of session on the individual in real-time.
  4. The program is not scalable and not be implemented without dedicating significant resources in terms of both capital and trained personnel.
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The Center for Access and Equity in Higher Education (CAEHE)

Team lead: Dr. Kevin A. Tate

Marquette’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), a national leader in serving first generation, low-income college students (FGLICS), is positioned to become the national authority on practices that best support FGLICS success before, during, and beyond college. In partnership with Marquette’s College of Education, our proposal seeks to establish the Center for Access and Equity in Higher Education (CAEHE). The CAEHE will be housed within EOP, and will generate and share knowledge nationally about practices which support success for FGLICS. We will develop and investigate innovative practices, and build partnerships with sister organizations around the nation to build a robust research base for serving FGLICS in and beyond college. The CAEHE will build on the long tradition of EOP in setting the national standards of practice in serving this marginalized population, while also setting new high-water marks for equity and access in higher education.

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Crowd Flow Optimization

Team lead: Dr. Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed

Large crowd localization has become an important aspect of the twentieth century. Places such as religious gatherings, sport arenas to densely packed transportation hubs experience large volumes of people. Crowd control is a critical component to ensure the safety of the individuals and success of the operation. Many localization methods such as GPS, RSSI based inertial navigation; CCTV’s have been implemented to cope with crowd volumes. However, they remain ineffective for large crowd localization. The low resolution, drops in signal strength, infrastructure and operational costs are common problems, and however the major hindrance in scaling these technologies for hundreds of thousands is the computational complexity and energy usage associated with these technologies. We have developed a smartphone based inertial navigation system that relies on internal sensors found in any smartphone eliminating the need for GPS. The system provides the coordinates of a device with respect to an origin at predefined time periods. We can leverage this technology towards crowd flow monitoring and optimization.

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Power-Match-Up: An App to Match you with the Smartphone for Longer Battery Lifetime

Team lead: Dr. Cristinel Ababei

We propose to develop a smart app which matches a user to different smartphone configuration profiles to save energy and extend the battery lifetime without visible degradation of performance to the specific user. This app is the equivalent of the “match” and “eharmony” concept but applied to the pairing between a specific user and a power configuration setting. The matching and adaptation are accomplished through the combination of one time “entry questionnaires” and machine learning algorithms to continuously adapt to better match the user’s behavior. The machine learning algorithms are used to learn from past history in order to make predictions about the future. These predictions are then utilized to change device settings dynamically; such as further dimming the screen or throttling processor frequency for additional power savings. The app will be released and a start-up will be attempted.

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WATERMARKS: An Atlas of Water and the City of Milwaukee

Team lead: Susan Longhenry

Working with internationally renowned artist Mary Miss, the project team will establish a research and outreach hub at the Global Water Center to work toward the implementation of a city-wide public art project titled WATERMARKS: An Atlas of Water and the City of Milwaukee. Developed over 18 months with a group of local stakeholders, WATERMARKS will make the intricately woven web of our reliance on water visible by mapping Milwaukee’s water story at the scale of the city. Beginning in the Inner Harbor, specific locations in the "atlas" will be identified by a series of “map pins” that range in scale from a 300’ industrial stack to a repurposed utility pole. We propose that the Haggerty Museum and Marquette serve as the institutional home of this community-based art project, which raises water literacy through collaborative programs and projects activated by arts/science/engineer/citizen teams from multiple Universities, water-related industries, and governmental organizations.

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Standards for Quantitative Fluorescent Imaging Analysis

Team lead: Dr. Pinfen Yang

To see to believe. This mantra is underscored by the explosive interest of fluorescence imaging in diagnosis and research. Under fluorescent microscopes, glowing probes allow clinicians and scientists to identify menacing molecules in damaged tissues, to visualize the location and pattern of molecules of interest, and even to track them in live animals in real time. Despite remarkable advances, it is still challenging to convert light intensity into molecule numbers, a matrix that is often highly informative. We reason that this could be addressed with a fluorescent standard. Using molecular biology tools, we have created a prototype standard that contains a precise number of fluorescent molecules per unit length and demonstrated its utility. This project seeks to expand the repertoire of standards and to broaden their applications. Participating students will gain a wide range of experiences, including research and product development, patent application and commercialization.

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Mother Friendly Campus Health Improvements: Lactation Rooms

Team lead: Brigid Kinsella-Alba

We would like to create safe and private lactation rooms for breastfeeding mothers to pump and store breast milk for their babies on the Marquette Campus. Currently there are only two rooms on campus and both are located in Zilber Hall. These rooms are not widely known about or accessible to most of the campus community. Therefore, we would like to create six more spaces throughout campus to make lactation more accessible for faculty, staff and students at Marquette. We believe that by providing spaces, we will create a culture of pro-life and pro-family, as well as well as follow Cura Personalis. We also believe that creating the spaces will build community for mothers across campus and make Marquette a leader in the Milwaukee community for supporting the breastfeeding movement.

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PACE: a Portal and Archive of Community Engagement

Team lead: Dr. Tara Baillargeon

This three-year project will develop a new digital resource: PACE, a Portal and Archive of Community Engagement. As a portal, PACE will connect a global community of students, faculty, alumni, donors, collaborators, and citizens interested in conversations, resources, and experiences centered around community engagement - an interdisciplinary area of academic study that is both personally and collectively transformative and a powerful means of making a difference in the world. PACE will bring together Marquette’s community engagement materials - current, historic, and future - that are otherwise dispersed across campus and beyond. As an archive, PACE will preserve content digitally, ranging from project planning documents and publicity to service learning course materials and reflections by participants, for long term use. The PACE project will significantly increase the quality and quantity of community engagement resources online, showcase Marquette’s leadership in this area, and support recruiting efforts among potential students and faculty interested in community engagement.

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Claver College

Team lead: Michael Class, S.J.

Claver College would be a 2 year college affiliated with Marquette University, granting Associate Degrees. It would be focused upon minority students, especially from urban high schools. It would offer a curriculum that combined the Humanities tradition of Jesuit education with the cultural support services of the HBCUs. It would include support services including study skills, time management and needed remedial courses.

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Applications of adult human stem cells from dental pulp

Team lead: Dr. Doug Lobner

There is great promise in the use of stem cells for the treatment of multiple diseases. However, the use of human embryonic stem cells has considerable ethical concerns. A population of adult stem cells has recently been purified from human dental pulp that have attractive properties. The proposed studies involve the use of these cells and involve a collaboration between Dr. Doug Lobner in Biomedical Sciences and Dr. Lobat Tayebi in the Dental School. The two investigators have complimentary experience and expertise. Dr. Lobner has already been culturing and studying human dental pulp stem cells and Dr. Tayebi has biomaterial applications that require the use of stem cells. The goal of this proposal is to not only perform specific joint experiments, but also begin a collaboration that will lead to extramural grant proposals and build core expertise and facilities for the study of adult stem cells as a resource for other faculty at Marquette University..

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Towards Improved Outcomes for At-risk STEM Students in Introductory Chemistry and Biology: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Team lead: Dr. Scott Reid

This interdisciplinary project is designed to increase the number and diversity of STEM majors at Marquette by improving STEM learning outcomes while motivating and preparing students to participate in science. Our introductory chemistry and biology courses (CHEM 1001, BIOL 1001) enroll well over 1/3 of the incoming freshman class, which in Fall 2015 is comprised of 57% women and 28% minorities. Students with DFW (D, F, withdrawal) outcomes in these courses show poorer retention in STEM majors and in the university, a trend disproportionately impacting first generation, economically disadvantaged, and less well–prepared students. Here we propose a unique interdisciplinary, targeted intervention program to improve outcomes for at-risk students across two key introductory, high-enrollment STEM courses which contain significant overlap of core content, vocabulary, and competencies.

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Entrepreneur in Residence Program

Team lead: Kelsey Otero

The Entrepreneur in Residence Program would allow students, faculty and staff an opportunity to receive one-on-one mentoring with an experienced entrepreneur and get feedback on their venture or entrepreneurial career goals and aspirations. The visiting entrepreneurs would come from diverse fields and be chosen based on starting and managing a successful enterprise. The program benefits the entrepreneur as well by exposing him/her to young, potential talent and would offer free work space and some university resources which can be expensive and hard to come by.

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Data Visualization, Milwaukee Poverty Database

Team lead: Sharon McGowan

We propose expanding the functionality of the Milwaukee Poverty Database, now in development, to reduce the level of expertise needed for students, journalists and community members to take the rich, usable data in the system and turn it into visual information. This will make it possible for non-technical professionals to quickly understand complex data and convey a meaningful story.

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Entrepreneurship for Medical Device Developers

Team lead: Dr. Robert Scheidt

This 3-year project fosters technology-based invention, innovation and entrepreneurship in the Biocomputer Engineering Major offered by the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). Biocomputer Engineering is a sub-discipline of BME wherein students integrate computer engineering with life science. The Program will foster invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship in two ways. First, we will re-design a sequence of 3 capstone courses offered by the BME Department to give students guided opportunities to recognize clinical need and market opportunities for medical devices, to iterate the device design cycle, and to develop familiarity with business models, their validation and marketing. Second, we propose to expand awareness of entrepreneurship in the medical devices industry by instituting a monthly "Innovators and Entrepreneurs" seminar series. Together, the proposed activities will enhance entrepreneurship within the Marquette Biomedical community.

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Infrastructure for Innovation in Interprofessional Education

Team lead: Dr. Marilyn Frenn

Innovation requires infrastructure. Interprofessional Education (IPE) is increasingly being required in health-related professional accreditation standards to prepare students learning from, with and about each other’s’ professions to better improve outcomes and safety when they graduate. Accreditation standards require infrastructure, not just a grant here or a faculty-initiated project there.

In order to allow faculty to pursue extramural innovation opportunities that will support ongoing IPE initiative development and evaluation, a coordinator, faculty and student time are needed. It is essential that MU not lose the investment it has made, that faculty have made and for which students see the need for more development. There is clear evidence about the impact of health team process on patient outcomes, yet the integration of IPE into health professions has not yet produced models that have demonstrated outcomes, so this innovation is very needed.

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Development of a sensor system for lithium ion battery management and control

Team lead: Dr. Fabien Josse

This project aims to contribute to the goals of Research in Action and Sustainability of Valuable Resources of the Marquette Strategic Plan. It addresses an important engineering problem, the development of a novel tool for direct, near real-time monitoring of the internal state of charge (SOC) of lithium ion batteries which are common in hybrid electric vehicles, airplanes, private homes, and control systems in industry. This will permit reduction of the impact of multiple charging/discharging cycles on the effective charge capacity of the battery, optimization of its performance and improved battery management. To achieve this goal, a prototype sensor system will be developed and investigated based on magneto-sensitive surface acoustic wave sensors to measure the degree of lithiation, an internal characteristic of battery cell behavior related directly to SOC and battery health. Once the basic concept is demonstrated, collaboration with industrial partners will be sought.

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Improving the Health of Vulnerable Underserved Populations in Milwaukee

Team lead: Dr. Sheila Stover

Access to oral health care services and adequate health literacy are essential to maintaining good overall health. Vulnerable underserved persons in Milwaukee frequently have a difficult time navigating a pathway to oral health care and often have low levels of health literacy. These issues are even more acute for the homeless and individuals with special needs. This program aims to increase access to oral health care and improve health literacy through a joint effort of the School of Dentistry (SoD) and the College of Nursing (CON). We will partner with local service agencies to identify vulnerable underserved individuals and provide dental care and health literacy interventions. Our aim is to create a synergy in service provision that maximizes dental care delivery and improves health literacy. Community partners will assist with transportation and referral. All services will be provided in the SoD clinics.

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Marquette Community Gardens

Team lead: Nicholas La Joie

The Marquette Community Gardens Project seeks to transform an underutilized lot on campus into a urban horticultural center and community garden including raised vegetable garden beds irrigated by rain run-off and gray water collected from university gutters and other drainage. In addition, the project aims to construct a fully off-the-grid campus building that will act as a support for the garden and greenhouse, as well as demonstrate green technologies and innovations that are ecologically sustainable. The community garden on campus could potentially serve to provide food for the Marquette community, as well as with our Near West Side neighbors. The “off-the-grid” building element of the project would serve as a greenhouse facility and be powered by wind and solar energy as an example of alternative energy sources on campus.

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On-Site Screening of Wastewater and Freshwater for Micropollutants Using a Sensor-Based Detection System

Team lead: Dr. Fabien Josse

This project will contribute to the strategic goals of Research in Action and Sustainability of Valuable Resources. It will further increase Marquette University’s involvement with the Global Water Center by contributing a sensor system for on-site detection of organic pollutants in wastewater or recreational bodies of water at the low μg/L to ng/L level. Target analytes will be pollutants of concern for human health and the environment, in particular, antibiotics such as trichlocarban or sulfamethoxazole. The final list of target analytes will be determined in close collaboration with the Micropollutants group at Marquette. The sensors used for the study will be based on a surface acoustic wave device with a multi-channel design, with different coatings obtained from a new class of polymer-plasticizer blends, for direct detection in the aqueous phase. Smart sensor signal processing will be implemented in collaboration with the Control Systems and Estimation group at Marquette.

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Certificate in Entrepreneurship

Team lead: Sandra Cleveland

Certificate in Entrepreneurship, a fast track competency credential, which provides essential knowledge and skills. It disrupts the notion that entrepreneurship is a “one size fits all” discipline taught by College of Business professors. Students and working adults may have no immediate interest in starting a business. Yet, an entrepreneurial skill set is imperative for the professional paradigm of today’s global world. Non-entrepreneurs must have the competencies, intelligence, and recognition of the political, cultural, and economic infrastructure that enables the generation of innovation and new enterprises. It supports cultural transformation on Marquette’s campus - graduates who are dynamic thinkers and risk-takers no matter what major areas of study are pursued. It enhances an individual’s professional portfolio, propels career advancement, and fosters career change. Program starts Fall 2017. Certificate resides in the College of Arts & Sciences taught by adjunct instructors.

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D2L-based online assessment systems for improved learning in first-year biology and chemistry

Team lead: Dr. Scott Reid

This interdisciplinary project is designed to develop a D2L-based question databank for use in introductory Biology and Chemistry courses (BIOL 1001/1002 and CHEM 1001/1002). The fall introductory chemistry and biology courses (CHEM 1001, BIOL 1001) enroll well over 1/3 of the incoming freshman class. Currently, publisher-based online homework systems are used to assign and track homework, which is not otherwise possible based on current resources. Homework completion is positively correlated with exam and course performance; however, the cost of these programs continues to rise, and often they cannot be purchased as standalone products. Recent development of open source introductory texts (OpenStax) offers the ability to develop an in-house homework system that could be combined with open-source text at essentially no cost to the student. This project proposes to develop and pilot such a system.

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Midnight Run Housing Initiative

Team lead: Sheila Connelly

For years, Midnight Run has strove to serve selflessly, build relationships, and walk in solidarity with those who are hungry, homeless, or suffering the consequences of society’s unjust structures, honoring the dignity and worth of all. One way to expand our mission is to create housing solutions for the guests we encounter at our meal sites. In collaboration with a variety of existing programs, sites, and organizations, we are hoping to purchase an existing property and create a Midnight Run affiliated housing initiative. We see housing as an essential step in helping someone move out of the homelessness cycle.

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Health Cart, a smart health insurance shopping tool

Team lead: Dr. Naveen Bansal

Health insurance costs are a tremendous financial burden on students. The proposed system allows the students to make informed decisions about their health insurance plans. We leverage publicly available datasets and use data mining to create a relational database, which will be used for statistical inference, and performing simulations. The user end will be a mobile platform based application, which will collect the data required to query the relational database. The output would provide the individual a recommended coverage plan and the ability to customize the plan. One of the key features of the user end application would be to run what-if scenarios, which will be supported by the computational module running on a cloud server.

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Using an iPad application to prepare for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Team lead: Dr. Norah Johnson

Undergoing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can be stressful for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Many children with ASD have trouble staying still in the MRI scanner, due to the 60-90 minutes of overwhelming new sensory experience, including noise. There is limited research on technology to prepare children for MRI in order to decrease stress and gain compliance. Our past research established efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of our iPad social script preparation app. for facilitation of safe and timely completion of MRIs without sedation. The app with photographs and audio is housed on the Marquette University’s Apple Store site, and is available for use at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. The actual app use, fidelity of use, and potential barriers to use is unknown. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use, fidelity of use, and barriers to use of the app. in order to inform a strategy for translation of research to practice.

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3 Dimensional Human Osteo-Mucosal Model

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

The proposed novel research aims to develop laboratory grown human jaw bone combined with the mucosa lining of the mouth, which can have the potential to be used as a graft material for the treatment of patients with lost bone and mucosa due to trauma, cancer, and developmental conditions such as cleft palate. It can also be used as a suitable laboratory test model to evaluate dental implants and oral care products and can be modified to investigate the effects of different treatments, to study oral diseases such as gum disease and oral cancer, and to explore immune reactions. The development of this laboratory model can replace or reduce the need for animal testing.

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Modified dental filling materials with enhanced flexural strength and wear resistance

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Treating caries around the neck of the teeth near the gum margins has been an increasingly challenging issue in dentistry. This kind of caries is known as “class V caries”. Glass ionomer cement (GIC) is the standard materials for filling such caries. However, they lack the ideal flexural strength and wear resistance to perform satisfactorily in class V lesions, which cause high failure rate in filling such caries. In this proposal we develop new and enhanced dental materials, in terms of flexural strength and wear resistance, to restore this type of cavities. The proposed materials have the potential to increase the survival and success of the dental fillings of class V caries and reduce the costs and complications associated with failure of the restorations which is a significant problem specially in ageing populations.

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A Novel Method for Tissue Vascularization: Microfluidic-Assisted Encapsulation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Polymeric Micro/Nanoparticles

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Blood vessels provide oxygen and nutrients for tissues and remove their waste products. Although, lack of blood vessels causes the ultimate death of engineered-tissues, bolus injection and imprecise use of angiogenesis agents can be highly harmful for human body. This project aims to offer a new approach for encapsulation of precise amount of an important angiogenic growth factor, VEGF, in a way that this growth factor can be released controllably to facilitate the vascularization of the target tissue More specifically, we will use a novel microfluidic approach to develop a simple method that creates precise customized encapsulated VEGF particles with well-regulated release rates. These particles can be embedded in implants designed for large defects to promote tissue regeneration and repair in oral and craniomaxillofacial injuries.

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Influence of E-cigarettes on Viability of Oral Mucosa

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Nowadays millions of people in the world are puffing e-cigarette. Use of e-cigarette has been dramatically increasing, especially among teen ages, since they were introduced. Investigation on the e-cigarette side effects has recently been heating up, and researchers are evidencing that consuming e-cigarettes may have some unanticipated health effects. In this proposal we will evaluate the effects of e-cigarette aerosol mixtures on mucosal viability using a 3D tissue-engineered human oral mucosal model and its histological appearance, following short-term and long-term exposure. The set-up used in this project is a new clinically relevant model which is similar to the actual response of normal human oral mucosa to the test agents in the mouth. It can provide important information about the influence of using e-cigarette on the viability of oral mucosa tissues.

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Incorporation of nano-silica particles into the dental GIC matrix

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Root caries has become a significant dental problem in older adult population due to increase in age and retention of teeth with exposed root surfaces. Several studies have demonstrated high failure rates of approximately 27.8% in 5 years and 36-87% in 13 years for class V restorations (specific root caries) using currently available dental materials. Glass ionomer cement (GIC) is the usual materials used for filling such cavities. In this proposal we are going to incorporate silica nano-particles to GICs materials and hypothesize that this procedure will improve the biomechanical, optical properties and dentin remineralization potential of the materials, which will decrease the failure rate in class V restorations.

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A New Approach in Preservation of Teeth

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

A frequent scenario that happens for an endodontist: a mother runs to the doctor office with a tooth of her child in hand. The child has lost a tooth due to a trauma in a playground causing complete displacement of the tooth from its socket in alveolar bone. The mother asks for returning the tooth into the mouth. In many cases the tooth is no longer good. The tooth could have been saved if the mother had used a right storage media. Making such storage media is the focus of this proposal. More specifically, this project aims to make a simple solution to preserve periodontal ligament cells.

Adult teeth are avulsed from the mouth frequently in adolescence. Successful replacement of the tooth into the mouth is limited by the type of storage media available. Ideal storage media is expensive and expires quickly. If a tooth is out of the socket for more than 30 minutes the tooth most likely will be lost within 5 years. This study will attempt to identify a storage medium that is inexpensive, readily available and will preserve the avulsed tooth for longer than 30 minutes.

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Mucosal permeability alternation by using e-cigarette

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Battery-powered electronic cigarettes, commonly known as e-cigarettes, normally contain nicotine; a component such as propylene glycol or glycerol to produce the aerosol. They may also have flavorings such as mint and chocolate. In some brands of e-cigarettes, potentially risky contents can also be found.

Evidence shows that e-cigarette use is significantly increasing, especially among young people, and there are some concerns in terms of adverse health effects of these products. Some of these potentially harmful effects have not been studied yet. One of these unanticipated side effects can be increasing the mucosal permeability in our mouth, which is the focus of this proposal. This is a particularly important biological endpoint as increased mucosal permeability may facilitate the penetration of other toxic substances and carcinogenic agents across the mucosa More specifically, in this proposal we are interested in assessing the effects of the e-cigarettes on the permeability of human oral mucosa using our lab produced 3D tissue engineered full-thickness oral mucosa.

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Bio-modification of Class-V Restorative Material by Incorporation of Bioactive Agents

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Class V cavities are the ones found on the area near the gingiva of the facial or lingual surfaces of the teeth. Evidence shows an increase in the incidence of root caries and relatively high failure rates for class V restorations using currently available dental restorative materials. Compared to occlusal cavities, non-carious cervical lesions and subgingival class V cavities require different biomechanical and biological properties from a restorative system. There is a need for a restorative material with optimal properties including enhanced ability to integrate with periodontal soft tissues and improved biocompatibility

In this proposal we will bio-modify the restorative materials for class V cavities by incorporation of bioactive materials to enhance periodontal reattachment The development of such a material would significantly enhance clinical performance and survival of class-V restorations

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Core Facility for Material Research

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

This proposal aims to initiate developing a university-wide core facility for materials synthesis and characterization (MSC Core). Material science has been selected as the focus of the core since there are many active materials researchers in various departments that require materials synthesis and characterization in order to be successful in their research endeavors. MSC Core plans to provide services to the researchers of different disciplines at MU by facilitating the production of different kinds of materials and characterizing their physical, chemical, thermal, optical and structural properties. The investigators in this proposal are offering their operational service for at least the first three years to initiate the core facility. MU can develop the MSC core further upon the availability of funds in the following years. It is expected that MSC core will facilitate: 1) submission and funding of extramural grants, 2) research productivity, and 3) collaboration among faculty.

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Effect of e-cigarettes on oral bacterial biofilms

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) is an emerging occurrence with approximately 2 million high and middle school student users. The increasing number of young people puffing e-cigarette concerns scientists and health providers.

However, there is limited data available on the potential biological effects of e-cigarettes on human oral tissues.

One of the special effects of e-cigarettes can be its influence on the bacterial biofilms of our mouth. Such alteration in the composition of bacterial biofilm or its shift towards specific oral bacteria type may have important biological consequences, which has to be studied in detail. The project proposed here aims to investigate this matter.

More specifically, in this proposal oral bacterial biofilms will be grown on the epithelial surface of the 3D oral mucosal model and will be exposed to the E-cigarette aerosol mixtures. Biopsy specimens will be collected and processed for basic histology, immunohistochemistry, confocal, and electron microscopy. Cell culture supernatants will be analyzed for the presence of inflammatory cytokines. Quantitative data on the degree of bacterial invasion will be obtained by disrupting removed epithelia in a tissue homogenizer and colony counting.

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Preclinical Examination of Novel 3-D Conductive Bone Scaffolds

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Bone tissue engineering (TE) is a new approach that has recently been introduced for treating bone defects. In this approach, instead of a nonresorbable traditional permanent metal implant, a degradable porous scaffold is inserted at the area of injury. TE scaffold allows the growth of new tissue while the scaffold itself degrades by time in the body.

In our laboratory, we improve the electromagnetic properties of such scaffolds to allow the local delivery of external electromagnetic stimuli to the site of bone defects which enhances the bone healing process. More specifically, we make scaffolds which are electrically conductive. After implanting the conductive scaffold in the body, an electromagnetic stimulator will be applied to the area of injury for approximately half an hour a day. Conductive scaffolds facilitate the delivery of electromagnetic stimulation to the injured region, which has the potential to significantly expedite the healing process.

We have already synthesized such scaffolds in our lab and performed the in vitro analyses. We also designed and built the electromagnetic stimulator. The result is highly promising and has been published recently. However, for robust confirmation, we need to perform a systematic animal study. In this proposal, we plan to apply our approach in a set of experiments with canines.

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3 Dimensional Human Osteo-Mucosal Model

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

The proposed novel research aims to develop laboratory grown human jaw bone combined with the mucosa lining of the mouth, which can have the potential to be used as a graft material for the treatment of patients with lost bone and mucosa due to trauma, cancer, and developmental conditions such as cleft palate. It can also be used as a suitable laboratory test model to evaluate dental implants and oral care products and can be modified to investigate the effects of different treatments, to study oral diseases such as gum disease and oral cancer, and to explore immune reactions. The development of this laboratory model can replace or reduce the need for animal testing

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Cost-effective production of hydrogen

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

With the increasing need for clean energy sources, hydrogen is expected to play an important role as a fuel in near future. It is obviously important that hydrogen should be produced from a renewable source of energy, such as solar. Although solar cells can be used to produce electricity for water hydrolysis, this is not a viable economic approach due the high cost and small efficiency.

We propose developing a bio-mimetic photo-thermal electrolyzer that, if successful, can result in a significant leap forward in hydrogen economy. The approach taken in this proposal relies on our recent discovery that certain hybrid organic/inorganic particles are capable to split water molecules when they are dispersed in water.

It is expected that our invention should build a viable technology that would be attractive to certain companies

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A novel solvent-free method for controlling tissue scaffolds’ micro-structure

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

In recent years, biodegradable polymer scaffolds have been widely used for three-dimensional (3-D) cell culturing to regenerate tissue-based artificial organs. Control of the scaffolds micro-architecture is of great importance during development of tissue engineering constructs. Such control on the microstructure allows scientists to manipulate cell growth and activity. The most popular example of such control and manipulation is “pore size gradient”. Different techniques have been employed to fabricate scaffolds with controlled micro-architecture all of which represent certain drawbacks which include but not limited to use of organic solvents. The aim of this study is to develop a solvent-free method to fabricate gradient scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. A pore size gradient will be applied using a novel microsphere-sintering technique.

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Oral wound healing assessment on e-cigarette users

Team lead: Dr. Lobat Tayebi

Electronic cigarette or e-cigarette is a battery-operated instrument that transports nicotine vapor to the consumer when inhaled. The number of e-cigarette users are dramatically increasing specially among high school students, and some analysts calculate that e-cigarette consumption will exceed traditional cigarettes within the next decade. Unfortunately, few representative studies document different aspects of e-cigarette side effects on oral mucosa. Our proposed project will add significantly to our knowledge and understanding of the effects of e-cigarettes on mucosa lining of the mouth using a laboratory grown full-thickness model of human oral mucosa. It will particularly show how the e-cigarette aerosol mixtures affect the health status of the mucosa in terms of its wound healing capability. More specifically, we will measure the rate of re-epithelialization following a thermal or laser wound injury to the center of the tissue-engineered oral mucosa using Alamar blue dye. Epithelial migration rate and the quality of the newly formed epithelium will be compared between oral mucosal models with and without exposure to e-cigarettes. The results of this study will inform the regulatory authorities of a specific potential adverse effects of e-cigarettes on human oral mucosa wound healing.

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Feasibility Study – Casa

Team lead: Kelsey Otero

This proposal is to conduct a feasibility study for a CASA MILWAUKEE immersion experience open for students at all 28 US Jesuit universities. The immersion experience will be modeled on the Casa El Salvador and Casa Philippines programs. The Casa programs have been transformative experiences for students because they are rooted in the following pillars: “accompaniment with those who suffer most, rigorous academic study, simple community living, and spirituality.” To help with the feasibility planning, we plan to bring in people who have participated in the Casa programs to gain insights into the student experience and opportunities to adopt it locally.

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Biomedical Sciences Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program for Dental Admission

Team lead: Dr. Judith Maloney

We propose to start an interdisciplinary post-baccalaureate program to be offered by the College of Health Sciences in partnership with Marquette University School of Dentistry (MUSoD). The program is intended to enhance the academic portfolios of pre-dental students not only through advanced biomedical science coursework but also through clinical immersion and service learning opportunities that educate students about social justice issues and dental health disparities. In addition, the program will provide an avenue for individuals from disadvantaged populations to be successful in dental school. The social justice and service emphasis is designed to motivate students to practicing in underserved urban and rural communities, where they are needed most. Therefore, this program will not only prepare future health professionals, but perhaps more importantly, develop men and women for others who can champion social change in health care.

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Cell Sorting Facility

Team lead: Dr. SuJean Choi

Whether the focus is cancer or schizophrenia, treating disease requires understanding pathology at the cellular level. Toward this goal, we seek to launch a cell sorting facility that will leverage powerful, laser-based technology to effectively isolate single cells from a complex environment such as a large tissue sample or even an entire brain. In this proposal, we request funds to purchase a cell-sorting device that will serve as the cornerstone of this facility. This approach will enable highly innovative research by allowing MU scientists to study molecular changes in specific cells of interest that are separated from healthy cells. Without this capacity, we are currently attempting to identify pathological changes in all cells of a tissue sample, most of which are healthy and obscure changes present in only a small percentage of cells. Hence, this facility will enable MU scientists to utilize a vastly more sensitive approach to study disease and unmask novel therapeutic targets.

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Eco-house

Team lead: Holly Neel

In 2014, a non-profit urban honeybee conservation and education organization in Rochester, NY called SweetBeez was donated a city-owned foreclosed house and a grant of $50,000. With these 2 assets, they started their dream of building an off-the-grid eco-house which would be used as an educational space for community outreach in a historically underserved, high crime neighborhood. Their dream is well on its way to becoming a reality, and even in the building process has proven to be a valuable asset to the community. This proposal would help Marquette University rehabilitate a house in the Near West Side Neighborhood, turning it into a research tool for energy and water conservation, creating an off-campus venue for events, meetings, and consultations between local entrepreneurs and students, and as an outreach tool for engaging the local community through gardening, bee-keeping, and educational opportunities.

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A retreat for Marquette LGBTQ students

Team lead: Dr. Michael Politano

I seek funding to put on a retreat entitled, “And you, who do you say I am? GLBTQ identity within the Catholic Church.” This retreat would be primarily targeted to MU’s GBLTQ student population, but would be open to their allies as well. I envision a weekend retreat held off campus and consisting of a series of sessions dealing with how GLBTQ people are viewed by various constituencies: e.g, who do my parents say that I am, who do my friends say that I am, who does society say that I am, who does the Catholic Church say that I am, who does Marquette say that I am, who does God say that I am and finally, who do I say that I am?

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Gonzaga Scholars for Urban Ministry

Team lead: Mary Sue Callan-Farley

Grounded in the wisdom of St. Ignatius and the youthful zeal of Jesuit saint, Aloysius Gonzaga, to serve vulnerable communities, the Gonzaga Scholars for Urban Ministry program provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate juniors and seniors, as well as graduate students, to discern a call to Christian ministry, service and leadership. Through field experiences in Milwaukee’s Catholic urban parishes and opportunities to learn and reflect on campus, Gonzaga Scholars will hone their skills to address the needs of growing and underserved Catholic populations in the U.S. Placement sites will reflect the priorities of Marquette’s mission. Students will receive real-world formation in economically poor parishes and schools that: strive to serve the needs of Latino families; are Ignatian in inspiration, and/or are located on the near south and near west sides of Milwaukee. The Gonzaga Scholars program allows Marquette to make a significant contribution to our Catholic community.

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The Virtual Classroom

Team lead: Dr. Nicholas La Joie

The Virtual Classroom project aims to leverage new technologies in 3D VR video by building a live streaming 3D VR application for smart phones and connecting students to the virtual classroom using a 360 degree camera that would act as a "virtual reality web cam", sending fully explorable live video from the remote classroom to the students on the far end.

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Robotic assessment of proprioceptive kinesthesia in acute stroke

Team lead: Dr. Robert Scheidt

This collaboration between Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin will develop and test a portable, bedside robot that assesses proprioceptive integrity in the impaired arm during acute recovery from stroke. Proprioception is the sense of limb position in space provided by muscle and joint sensors. Loss of proprioception post-stroke contributes to long-term disability. It is unknown why some stroke survivors recover proprioceptive sensation and others do not, or whether the time-course and extent of its recovery predict the extent of motor function recovery. Our project develops a novel tool that will be able to track recovery of proprioceptive sensation during the first weeks post-stroke. The resulting device will be used in the future to provide clinicians with insights needed to better individualize rehabilitation interventions post-stroke and to optimize the allocation of therapeutic resources.

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Innovating Towards Spin-off: In Pursuit of External GasDay Partnerships

Team lead: Thomas Quinn

Marquette University produces and licenses GasDay, an industry-leading software product used by over 30 natural gas utilities across the United States to forecast short-term energy demand. This product competes with other solutions in the marketplace and is supported by a number of complementary Marquette GasDay products and services.

All products are the direct result of ongoing university laboratory research and student and faculty innovation. GasDay regularly receives interest from outside companies serving the energy industry about potential partnerships or licensing arrangements to support integration of Marquette’s technology into other products.

This project proposes two activities to position GasDay as an attractive asset for spin-off to an external partner:

  1. Accelerate the completion of the GasDay Web Platform, a cloud-based family of services providing GasDay capabilities to desktop and mobile users.
  2. Pursue strategic opportunities with energy industry partners.
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SWE Beyond the University Boundaries: Forging Community Connections to Attract and Retain Underrepresented Engineers

Team lead: Karlie Hornberger

Recruitment and retention of underrepresented engineering students is crucial. Far too few young people, especially women and students of color, are pursuing engineering. Employers are seeking diverse talent but finding a troubling “STEM gap.” Marquette has a unique responsibility to solve this challenge because Milwaukee is a booming hub of water, energy, and healthcare engineering innovation. Our proposal will integrate and deploy MU Society of Women Engineers (SWE) students as mentors into existing STEM education programming in local middle school classrooms. This mentor in-the-field model will: (1) inspire students to take advanced STEM coursework, preparing them for the transition to studying engineering in college, (2) put more of MU’s best “recruiters” -its students- into local schools, (3) encourage MU SWE members to publically identify as engineers and thus internalize that identity, and (4) network MU SWE with student and community leaders at UWM and MSOE.

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Midwest Jesuit Social Innovation Consortium

Team lead: Kelsey Otero

Marquette will be an inaugural, founding member of the Midwest Jesuit Social Innovation Consortium which will launch in the summer of 2016. The consortium kick off will be hosted by Marquette University and Marquette will play the lead role in organizing the network partners. The Universities invited include: Marquette University, University of Detroit Mercy, John Carrol University, Xavier University, Saint Louis University, Creighton University, and Loyola Chicago.

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Interfaith Initiative

Team lead: Mary Sue Callan-Farley

This initiative aims to increase interfaith awareness and convergence on campus to promote shared values leading to transformation in both the Marquette and the Greater Milwaukee Communities. This project starts with a group of 4 students and 1-2 staff or faculty members of Marquette attending the Interfaith Youth Core Leadership Institute on August 2016 in Chicago, IL to learn new models of interfaith programs on college campuses. Upon their return, they will be commissioned to organize an Interfaith Day of Service and an Interfaith Retreat. These core events will strengthen the interest in interfaith understanding and relations among the Marquette community and generate a student led interfaith group that helps to grow and empower the Interfaith Student Council, Dialogue Dinners, and other interfaith work currently taking place on campus. This group could be a Marquette chapter of the national interfaith student organization Better Together or a unique interfaith leadership corps.

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Gait Detection on Unconstrained Smartphone Using a Wireless Smart-shoe System

Team lead: Dr. Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed

Gait analysis for fall prediction is an important research topic with an impact on several aspects of human health and wellness. Accurate and reliable knowledge of one’s gait characteristics at a given time, and even more importantly, monitoring and evaluating gait over a period of time, can result in early diagnosis of abnormality in gait, and help to predict and ultimately, prevent a fall. By 2050, it is estimated that more than one in five people will be of age 65 or over. Falls in the elderly are a very common occurrence, and approximately, one-third to one-half of the elderly population experiences falls repeatedly on a yearly basis. Our research focuses on gait detection and analysis leading to fall prediction. We want to propose a smartphone-based fall prediction system that can alert the user to their abnormal gait pattern using smartphone sensors: accelerometer and gyroscopes, and a shoe embedded with pressure sensors. Since abnormal walking patterns can lead to a fall, our system uses the identification of an abnormal gait to alert the user regarding a potential fall. Our proposed system will be useful not only among elderly, but also has scope in identifying gait disorders among children, adults and stroke patients, physical rehabilitation patients, for environmental monitoring, and human behavior analysis research.

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Sustainability Undergraduate Project for Research in Environmental and Mechanical Engineering at Global Water Center (SUPREME@GWC)

Team lead: Dr. Zhongzhe Liu

Current Marquette undergraduate research programs are conducted within a single discipline, which is not fully competitive to address complicated practical issues. Undergraduates and their research also need an appropriate platform for more exposure. An interdisciplinary undergraduate research initiative is proposed using the new Marquette Global Water Center (GWC) facility as a catalytic platform to help undergraduates be involved in multidisciplinary research with more exposure to the community. The initiative involves mechanical and environmental engineering focusing on the sustainable wastewater treatment. It is called Sustainability Undergraduate Project for Research in Environmental and Mechanical Engineering at Global Water Center. Based on the GWC which connects academia, industry and government, the project can contribute to advancing Marquette as a leading force in the local and global water sector and provide young professionals to work with the community.

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Deficits of Sensorimotor Learning and Performance after Concussion in the Student Athlete

Team lead: Dr. Robert Scheidt

Sport-related concussion causes deficits of memory and attention that can impair motor learning and lead to persistent cognitive and sensorimotor performance deficits. Despite sparse supporting evidence, physical and cognitive rest remains the cornerstone of concussion management. This 3-year project seeks to understand how deficits of memory and attention resolve during recovery from concussion. We will test how different amounts of rest influence the rate of recovery using standard neuropsychological and balance tests, in addition to novel robotic testing procedures that quantify how memories from past actions combine to guide future motor performance. This multi-institutional and cross-campus collaborative project is a first step toward optimizing the therapeutic application of rest, one that minimizes persistent performance deficits and maximizes the rate and extent of recovery. This project advances the mission of Marquette University by involving faculty, staff and students in the pursuit of academic excellence for human well-being through research in action.

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Matteo Ricci Global Scholars

Team lead: Terence Miller

Marquette leadership has identified diversity, inclusion and global engagement as university values needing a dedicated strategic theme. Traditional stand-alone international opportunities are no longer sufficient to prepare students for today’s globalized economy. We propose implementing a comprehensive approach to internationalization through the development of the Matteo Ricci Global Scholars, a challenging academic program that cultivates global perspectives and intercultural competencies into the undergraduate degree plan of any major. In order to develop a depth and breadth of intercultural competencies, students will be challenged to go beyond the basic requirements and gain one additional semester of language mastery, complete a significant education abroad experience integrating 12-18 credits in academics, and international academic coursework, which they will complete here at Marquette. Rather then a certificate, it is a degree designation that must be pursued throughout a student’s four-year education. By selectively using credit hours they are already required to take, this program will not add time to graduation.

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EngageVR

Team lead: Connor Method

What is the biggest barrier to understanding and engaging in new material? It is without a doubt conceptualization, and to some extent, memorization. EngageVR aims to take the next foot forward to visualization and interaction with concepts by placing you into the conceptual world. This ‘experience’ with the material, increases the potential for memorization as the brain stores experience in the virtual world with novel sensory input and creates a thread of contact with the material: leaving one alone in the mental classroom. These factors add to a more engaging and efficient way of learning that frees and empowers the learner. EngageVR’s first project is teaching Biology 101. Targeted for its fundamental utility for advancing into the STEM fields and its inherent beauty exploring life itself, this first project will provide us with the best starting point for building a consumer base and the core competencies necessary for a successful virtual education company.

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Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Core Facility

Team lead: Dr. Chris Dockendorff

This project will help support the creation of an inter-institutional core facility for biological and medicinal chemistry. Small organic molecules, i.e. those composed primarily of carbon, regulate every facet of our daily lives, from the energy that drives our cells, to the vitamins that power our enzymes, to the hormones that regulate our heart rate. The majority of our essential medicines are small organic molecules discovered by chemists and biologists in collaboration. The majority of basic biological research studies require access to some form of specific organic compounds to perform a variety of tasks, for example the inhibition or activation of specific receptors or enzymes, or the visualization of specific proteins. New improvements in medicine are often dependent on the design and identification of new organic molecules. Presently, in southeast Wisconsin there is no academic core facility that can assist with these challenges.

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