Engineering Faculty Win Seed Funding and Technology Development Funds
March 2, 2016 - Four UC Irvine executive offices interested in fast-tracking innovative research and technology have united to invest $1.4 million in 19 campuswide projects. The Research Seed Funding Program and the Technology Development Innovation Fund, a collaboration of the offices of the UCI provost, vice chancellor for research, vice chancellor for health affairs and the university’s Applied Innovation center, announced this week the funding contest’s first-round winners.
Competition was fierce; 141 proposals were submitted across three categories, and 19 projects were funded. Six Samueli School-affiliated researchers received awards. They are:
- Bernard Choi, biomedical engineering associate professor, who won $33,700 for intraoperative blood-flow imaging during pediatric intestinal surgery;
- Allon Hochbaum, chemical engineering and materials science assistant professor, who was awarded $50,000 for thin film thermoelectrics for wearable power and cooling;
- Suzanne Sandmeyer, a School of Medicine professor with a joint appointment in chemical engineering and materials science, who was awarded $50,000 for bioreactor for bioengineering and metabolomics of microbial systems;
- Xiaoqing Pan, professor and Henry Samueli Endowed Chair in Engineering, who will direct the proposed Center for Artificially Engineered Materials. Pan was awarded $150,000 for the center’s development;
- Ahmed Eltawil, electrical engineering and computer science associate professor and Samueli Faculty Fellow, who won $50,000 for self-interference cancellation in full-duplex system; and
- Abe Lee, biomedical engineering chair and William J. Link Professor, who won $25,000 for integrated microfluidic system for sample enrichment and concentration.
