Between January 2020 and June 2021, faculty from the School of Computing and Engineering have been awarded $7,549,732 in research funding.

Megan Hart, Ph.D., assistant professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, was awarded $262,821 from the Department of Defense for work on unique ways to break down polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are substances utilized for their water and stain repellant properties.

"From non-stick coatings, like inside of microwave popcorn bags, to your rain repellent gear and beyond, polyfluoroalkyl substances touch almost every aspect of our lives from food, to water, to air," Hart said.

Unlike other hazardous materials, most polyfluoroalkyl substances do not break down using normal water and wastewater treatment techniques, which means that as the substances later break down in soil or water, they can cause harm to humans and animals.

"Our research seeks to invent new and unique methods for completely destroying polyfluoroalkyl substances in the water, as well as investigate how they transform over time in soil," Hart said.

Assistant Professor Mujahid Abdulrahim, Ph.D., was awarded a combined total of $204,995 over the last year for research on virtually modeling aircraft movement by computer.

His goal is to take auto-pilot functionality to new heights without taking flying away from pilots. He wants to make their safety net stronger through developing a computer algorithm that would interpret the actual performance of an aircraft in flight compared to predetermined models on how it should be performing.

"I don't want to replace pilots with a computers," Abdulrahim said. "I love the idea of preserving everything that makes airplanes fun to fly, but I also love the idea of coming home to my children after every time I take to the air."

Below is a complete list of research funding awarded over the last year and a half.

Civil and Mechanical Engineering:

$396,899 to John Kevern for KC Urban Renewal Engineering fellows.

$600,000 to John Kevern for supplement KC Urban Renewal Engineering fellows

$24,998 to Amirfarhang Mehdizadeh for Indian Creek Flood assessment.

$13,500 to Antonios Stylianou for the development of computational tools for pre-op planning of periacetabular osteotomies.

$188,000 to Travis Fields for graduate fellowships for students engaged in NASA-relevant disciplines.

$57,128 to Travis Fields for material processing and automation (partnership with Institute for Material Processing).

$33,000 to ZhiQiang Chen for guidelines for response planning, assessment and rapid restoration of service of bridges after extreme events.

$110,000 to Zahra Niroobakhsh for tuning the viscoelastic properties of enhanced oil recovery relevant bijels.

$60,000 to John Kevern for evaluating the impact of anti-icing solutions on concrete durability.

$40,000 to John Kevern for evaluation of non-traditional sidewalk options for reduced long-term cost and improved public accessibility.

$262,821 to Megan Hart for validation of UV/TiO2 activated alkaline media for destruction of PFAS in concentrated liquid waste systems.

$129,995 to Mujahid Abdulrahim for modeling and simulation architecture to improve research.

$60,000 to Mujahid Abdulrahim for FLEXI-Fly: Field-Reconfigurable, Mission-Adaptive eVTOL.

$22,500 to Zahra Niroobakshsh and Kun Cheng for 3D printing of next-generation therapeutic microneedles using rapid self-association of surface-active peptide drugs.

$30,000 to Ceki Halmen for justifying corrosion durability of reinforced concrete, comparable critical chloride threshold for various reinforcement types.

$40,500 to Ceki Halem for the development of instructor resources for the Contractor's Guide to Quality Concrete Construction (fourth edition).

$19,900 to Deb Chatterjee for signal and radiating systems design and modeling for app.

$15,000 to Mujahid Abdulrahim for UAV-UGV cargo drop.

$57,500 to Ceki Halmen for standard critical chloride threshold test variability due to material sources.

$129,835 to Thiagarajan Ganesh for load and resistance factor rating methodology recommendations for Missouri bridges.

Computer Science and Electrical Engineering:

$305,800 to Yugyung Lee for CUE Ethics: Experiential Learning: Bridging Digital Divides in Undergraduate Education of Data Science.

$44,200 to Yugyung Lee for supplement: CUE Ethics: Experiential Learning: Bridging Digital Divides in Undergraduate Education of Data Science.

$20,000 to Yugyung Lee for supplement #2: CUE Ethics: Experiential Learning: Bridging Digital Divides in Undergraduate Education of Data Science.

$18,000 to Baek-Young Choi for Technology Education for Women in Transition: Broadening Participation Through Innovations.

$301,413 to Faisal Khan for estimating remaining life and availability of power semiconductor devices using sympathetic string phenomena, dynamic safe operating area theory and ultrasound resonators.

$50,000 to Zhu Li for membership renewal for NSF Center for Big Learning.

$150,000 to Yugyung Lee for Smart and Connected Communities Planning Grant: Early Community Intervention for Neighborhood Revitalization Using Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies.

$73,000 to Dianxiang Xu for modeling clinical notes with deep learning transformers.

 $42,763 to Yugyung Lee and Brent Never for early community intervention for neighborhood revitalization using AI and emerging technologies.

$22,500 to Yugyung Lee, Brent Never and Wang Ye for Communities in Action: Sustainable Science in Cyberinfrastructure.

$90,000 to Dianxiang Xu for EAGER: SaTC-EDU: Exploring Visualized and Explainable AI to Improve Students' Learning Experience in Digital Forensics Education at MSCI and HBCUs.

$15,000 to Yugyung Lee for gamifying cybersecurity to eliminate alert fatigue.

$96,058 to Dianxiang Xu for GenCyber Summer Camps at UMKC.

$50,000 to Zhu Li for membership fee for NSF Center for Big Learning.

$25,000 to Yugyung Lee for membership to NSF Center for Big Learning.

$25,000 to Zhu Li for membership fee for NSF Center for Big Learning.

$88,490 to Yugyung Lee for Our Healthy KC Eastside: A community-wide COVID-19 vaccination and health services project to address health inequities.

$50,000 to Zhu Li for membership fee for NSF Center for Big Learning.