2017 Strategic Innovation Fund Awardees
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BioDiscovery Confocal Imaging Core
Team lead: John Mantsch
The ability to study biology at the subcellular level is vital for life sciences research and has led to critical advances in understanding cell function. Confocal microscopy is a key bioimaging platform, but its resolving power is limited. With recent advances, confocal microscopy can now generate ultra-high resolution images of subcellular structures. Access to next-generation imaging technology is needed in order for Marquette scientists to remain at the cutting edge of research and represents an opportunity for Marquette to lead the way in biodiscovery. We propose to establish a BioDiscovery Confocal Imaging Core with the purchase of a state-of-the-art microscope that can capture images at twice the resolution of older platforms. The Core, which will house the most advanced confocal imaging technology in the region, will support >16 scientists on campus and provide researchers with a distinct advantage when pursuing grant funding and addressing critical topics in biodiscovery.
Environmental Sustainability: Increasing Underrepresented Student Research in the Field of Environmental Engineering
Team lead: Kyana Young
Drinking water quality has become a challenging compliance concern in cities across the nation, as emerging contaminants in drinking water are detected at limits previously not measurable. Numerous Wisconsin organizations are urging a commitment to conduct research and implement solutions to preempt a looming local crisis. In response to the need for drinking water research, and the goals detailed in Marquette University's Strategic Plan, the Environmental Sustainability program aims to train high school students to conduct innovative research to reduce drinking water contamination levels. These students are historically underrepresented in the field of environmental engineering and live in communities that are disproportionately affected by environmental and public health problems. In addition to raising drinking water quality awareness, the high school program will create a robust pipeline of students pursuing water technical careers by affording them the opportunity to intern at the Global Water Center.
Improving service to the Hispanic community through pronunciation training of Marquette students
Team lead: Jeffrey Berry
A large number of Marquette undergraduate and graduate students study Spanish as a second language (L2). While all these students gain proficiency, their spoken Spanish typically is hindered by a marked English "accent" that reinforces perceived socio-cultural barriers, undermining communication and engagement with Spanish-speaking communities. Research in the MU Speech & Swallowing Lab has demonstrated that digitally modified auditory feedback of an individual's own speech can be used to elicit subtle changes in tongue, lip, and jaw movements that affect pronunciation. This line of research has yet to be applied to non-native pronunciation teaching. Such an application would bolster the development of innovative pronunciation teaching tools that would reduce the perceived non-nativeness of L2 speakers of Spanish and, as a result, improve their social and professional interactions with the Hispanic community, aligning with MU's goal of becoming a Hispanic-serving institution. The proposed seed project will further the analysis of acoustic data we have already collected to characterize key pronunciation differences between native speakers and L2 learners of Spanish. Additionally, we will complete a pilot study that uses the results of this acoustic analysis to evaluate a prototype, technology-based program for pronunciation teaching of MU students.
Milwaukee Trauma Outcomes Project (MTOP)
Team lead: Lucas Torres
The Milwaukee Trauma Outcomes Project (MTOP) seeks to advance research and community prevention efforts pertaining to trauma and the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), particularly among racial and ethnic minorities living in Milwaukee. MTOP includes interdisciplinary scholars partnering to further understand the social and biological factors that contribute to PTSD. The structural inequities and increased exposure to traumatic experiences, including community violence and racial/ethnic discrimination, contribute to racial/ethnic health disparities. Still, our understanding is limited regarding how societal, environmental, cultural, and biological factors interact to cause mental health problems. Recent events have put Milwaukee at the epicenter of a local and national discourse regarding the role of civil unrest, violence, racial/ethnic discrimination, and health. The current proposal seeks to initiate an interdisciplinary research program that examines cumulative stress burden and the mechanisms that contribute to PTSD among racial/ethnic minority individuals. The MTOP research group includes scholars from vastly different disciplines that would not otherwise be able to bring their expertise together in such a collaborative effort and tackle such complex issues.
MU Innovation Garden
Team lead: Aidan Flanagan
The Innovation Garden is an on-campus urban agriculture project that would provide unique, high-impact learning experiences and meaningful opportunities related to food and wellness, environmental management and sustainability, community engagement and development, and more. At least 18 of MU's 22 President Advisory Team peer institutions have some version of a campus garden, as do UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison, but typically their primary function is merely growing produce. The Innovation Garden would exceed that function by emphasizing education, research, campus/community engagement, and spirituality. With planning and support, the garden would be relatively simple to implement and manage, and it would help Marquette advance its mission, inspire innovation, and achieve its strategic goals.
The Grocery Challenge
Team lead: Rana Altenburg
In January 2017, President Lovell announced the Grocery Challenge. The goal of the Grocery Challenge is to generate innovative, affordable, and sustainable models to bring fresh foods to Marquette University and the Near West Side and pilot a variety of ideas to determine the appropriate mix of fresh food retail options. We want grocery options that are inclusive to everyone who calls the Near West Side home – and change the narrative around "grocery". To date, 183 Marquette students, faculty, staff, and community members have been part of the Grocery Challenge and groups are focusing on: food pantry for students, a student run grocery store, small foot print store, leveraging existing retail spaces in the Near West Side, farmers market, mobile/delivery, and health literacy programs. The funds from the Strategic Innovation Fund will be used to help seed the top two ideas from those mentioned above following the final pitches in April 2017.
The Philosophy Lab
Team lead: Corinne Bloch-Mullins
Philosophical work is traditionally done from the armchair. While many philosophers draw on insight from the empirical sciences, traditional philosophy makes no room for them to formulate empirically testable hypotheses and put them to a direct test against reality. The Philosophy Lab project sharply departs from this tradition. It sets out to establish a novel, interdisciplinary research program in experimental philosophy at Marquette, through collaboration between Dr. Bloch-Mullins (philosophy) and Dr. Kristy Nielson (psychology). This will be achieved by conducting a pilot study into the nature of concepts, developing original protocols that would serve as exemplars for further interdisciplinary studies of cognition (broadly construed), and holding workshops in which faculty and graduate students in philosophy will have the opportunity to explore the potential benefits of experimental philosophy methods for their own projects.
Science, Policy, and Innovation for Clean Water Protection in the Dairy State
Team lead: Krassimira Hristova
The overarching purpose of the proposed program is to form a foundational nucleus of expertise for exploring, analyzing, and developing solutions to water challenges centered in Marquette's facility at the Global Water Center. Specifically, we will solidify collaborative relationships through extending research on water quality in Kewaunee County to include additional forms of social/political analysis and engineering solutions. Kewaunee presents a critical case for examining the science and politics of water quality due to the recent confluence of particularly vulnerable geology, expanding agricultural industry, and activist pressure. This project will establish a functioning citizen driven surface water quality monitoring program for testing and analysis water parameters associated with agricultural consolidation and manure practices. At the same time, will explore social and political dimensions of contamination problems and potential solutions in the Kewaunee County community. To offer solution to the problem of water contamination from manure runoff, we will develop and test new technology for manure volume reduction and pathogen elimination that has potential to address both water quality and quality of life concerns within the community, in the region, and nationally. This unique cross-college collaborative initiative will position us well for obtaining federal, state, and industry funding in the arena of environmental protection and sustain the program in the future.