Kaptur: The University Of Toledo Awarded $375,000 From National Science Foundation

Toledo, Ohio — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) announced today that the University of Toledo (UT) has secured a total of $375,000 in federal research funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support five research projects, namely in the fields of cybersecurity, advanced materials manufacturing, smart grid technology and three-dimensional cell culture. The funds were awarded by the National Science Foundation under a competitive review process, and the five separate awards are noteworthy given the limited federal research budget in a tight budget environment.


“These funds will allow the top researchers at The University of Toledo to focus on developing breakthrough discoveries that will likely spur private-sector economic growth from new products and services for the automotive and aerospace sectors, cybersecurity, and agriculture.” said Rep Kaptur. “There are exciting things happening at The University of Toledo.”


“The recent awards are the latest from four UT entrepreneurial teams that are focused on technologies related to cybersecurity, advanced materials manufacturing, smart grid technology and three-dimensional cell culture. The I-Corps program will provide these teams an opportunity to explore the commercial potential of their technologies,” said William S. Messer, Jr., PhD, Vice President of Research at the University of Toledo.


The National Science Foundation awards are for the following:

• Novel Smart Meters with Built-in Self-Test and Hardware Security, led by Dr. Mohammed Niamat, will receive $50,000 to enhance the reliability, longevity, security, and trustworthiness of the advanced metering infrastructure in smart grids;

• Auxetic Structures for Practical Applications, with principal investigator Dr. Lesley Berhan, will receive $50,000 to develop auxetic composites that are suitable for a broad range of applications spanning several industries, including personal protective equipment, and structural and noise vibration applications in the automotive and aerospace sectors;

• Dynamic Tissue Culture Platform for in vitro Drug Screening, led by Dr. Eda Yildirim-Ayan, will receive $50,000 to further develop a three-dimensional in vitro culture environment for cells in drug testing. This will reduce the time and resources spent on animal breeding and husbandry associated with animal model testing;

• Addressing Information Security with Channel Codes, led by Jared Oluoch, will receive $50,000 to improve data security using a combination of signaling and coding techniques to prevent eavesdropping on a communication channel;

• CM/Collaborative Research: CloudMEMS: Cybermanufacturing of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, led by Dr. Vijaya Kumar Devabhaktuni (principal investigator) and Dr. Daniel Georgiev (Co-Principal Investigator), will receive $175,000 to develop a web-based, low-cost program to design Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), which will allow innovators and entrepreneurs to more efficiently prototype their designs.


For more information:


University of Toledo Research: https://www.utoledo.edu/research/


National Science Foundation Awards: https://www.nsf.gov/awards/about.jsp