Summer research grants

The CAS Summer Research Grant program provides up to $5,000 to purchase materials, fund equipment or travel, support a graduate research assistant or replace summer salary. Highly competitive, the awards are made via faculty applications each spring.

2025 Summer grants

Ann Wheeler, Mathematics

Using digital curricula to enhance teaching mathematics

Explores using digital curricula (DC) in elementary classrooms and its impact on teaching practices, particularly in mathematics. With the increasing adoption of DC, concerns have emerged about teacher preparedness in managing its implementation. Wheeler and three colleagues from Ohio and Oregon received a five-year US Department of Education grant to create a website featuring videos of elementary teachers using DC and interviews discussing teaching philosophies. Reports from teachers about using DC in the classroom were obtained. Unfortunately, the federal grant was terminated in February 2025 due to recent funding cuts. However, Wheeler continues to gather data and analyze it, along with feedback from future teachers who watched video clips from the website. The research questions for the summer work would focus on how the website supports future teachers in integrating DC into their classrooms and how current teachers feel DC impacts their mathematics teaching. The goal is to publish the findings in a mathematics education journal.

Shiru Lin, Chemistry and Biochemistry

This project aims to harness convolutional neural networks (CNNs) enhanced with patch cropping and multimodal training techniques to detect key properties of two-dimensional materials and their catalytic performance. The approach includes generating image patches encompassing grayscale and color information, augmenting the dataset and improving model robustness.

Marta A. Mercado-Sierra, Social Work

Using technology in social work education: a systematic literature review

Explores use and effectiveness of technology, particularly educational software, and virtual and augmented reality technologies and adaptive learning platforms. The review is grounded on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The first three phases using the same 14 databases for academic articles and dissertations published from March to December 2024. The fourth phase will assess the quality of the studies and explore the effectiveness of TTs.

Lionel Faure, Biology

Elevating plants lipid droplet production to generate energy-rich biomass

Explores innovative genetic strategies to enhance lipid accumulation in vegetative tissues such as leaves to boost biofuel production. The research aims to support the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable, clean energy sources by increasing plant-based lipid yields. The research will investigate:

• lipid extractions of transgenic plants created in the lab to compare their lipid profile
• transcriptome impact of the expression of the new genes on transgenic pants, focusing on genes involved in lipid pathways

Stina Soderling, Multicultural Women's and Gender Studies

Soderling awarded Visiting Fellowship at CSSM

Housed at the University of Helsinki, Finland, the Centre for the Social Study of Microbes (CSSM) is a hub for social scientists and artists conducting research on human-microbial relations, and aims to develop theory and methods to better make sense of the complex relations between humans, nonhumans, microbes and their environments. Researchers associated with CSSM work on topics such as antimicrobial resistance, the role of custodial labor in preventing hospital infections, contemporary artisanal sake brewing and feelings of care and disgust for yeasts and bacteria. To learn more about the CSSM, visit https://www.socialmicrobes.org/

Zane Lybrand, Biology

TWU lab receives dual research awards advancing brain science

The Lybrand Lab in TWU’s Division of Biology has been awarded grants to advance brain research.

A $133,000 award from the DLG4SHINE Foundation will expand the lab’s use of brain organoid models to better understand DLG4-associated neurodevelopmental disorders, also known as SHINE syndrome. SHINE (Synaptic, Hypotonia, Intellectual disability, Neurodevelopmental delay, Epilepsy) is a rare genetic condition caused by changes in the DLG4 gene, which plays a crucial role in forming and stabilizing synapses, the connections that allow neurons to communicate. Children with SHINE often experience developmental delays, low muscle tone and seizures. This project builds on data generated by graduate researcher Preetika Karmacharya through a TWU REP award, which laid the groundwork for modeling these conditions in patient-specific pluripotent stem cells.

In collaboration with Sciperio, the lab also received a $100,000 Department of Defense award for Organoid Research and Automated Characterization for Live Electrophysiology (ORACLE). This Phase I effort focuses on developing human cerebral organoid cultures at TWU and integrating them into Sciperio’s automated, high-throughput platform with microfluidic chips and biosensors to study military-relevant trauma responses.

2024 summer research grants

Adesola Akinleye

Islam Akef Ebeid

Alexis Hardesty

Charmian Wells

Sierra Mendez

Shiru Lin