Oregon State University-Cascades is bringing in $2.3 million for research in the past fiscal year. The money comes from both federal grants and private foundations.
The school, located in Bend, is directing the money toward research on world issues like water conservation, the decline of bats in the Pacific Northwest and the impact of the environment on children’s health.
“We are a top-tier research university. We have faculty doing amazing research on some of the world’s biggest problems that affect our local communities. So our students get to benefit from that,” said Shannon Lipscomb, OSU-Cascades Associate Dean for Research.
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OSU-Cascades says this money is a big way they can continue to grow their faculty and attract students to their research.
Among the research OSU-Cascades highlighted in its announcement:
- Computer scientist Patrick Donnelly received $638,000 from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research for the development of a smart compost bin that can measure home food waste, providing consumers a clearer understanding of their household sustainability.
- Engineering researcher Bahman Abbasi leads a team in the Water and Energy Technologies Lab where more than $380,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy supported the development of technology to recover grey water from fracking. In addition, Espiku, a company founded by Abbasi and launched through the OSU Advantage Accelerator advances technology developed to turn saltwater into drinking water through a patented and environmentally friendly process.
- The Human Ecosystem and Resiliency Lab, led by co-directors Matt Shinderman and Tom Rodman, attracted a $322,000 grant from the National Park Service for a collaborative project to collect native seeds and return propagated plants to natural lands where they can help build more resilient ecosystems.
- Awards totaling more than $273,000 from the National Park Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service will help researchers in the Northwest Bat Hub, a unit within the HERS Lab, monitor bat health and bat populations to support conservation of the beneficial mammals.
- Shannon Lipscomb, an associate professor of human development and family sciences at OSU-Cascades and research partner Molly Kile, an environmental epidemiologist in the OSU College of Health, received $264,000 from the National Institutes of Health as part of a multi-year study to advance understandings of children’s health and development.
- Jill Hubbard, a computer scientist focused on transforming how computer science is taught in K-12 schools in order to help diversify future generations of technologists, is co-leading a $148,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Together with researchers from Southern Oregon University and William & Mary, she is looking at how K-5 teachers integrate computational thinking into lessons across subject areas.
