The Collaborative Research Advancement Program Pilot Grants, as part of the Office of Research’s goal to seed interdisciplinary collaborative research, provide support for high-potential team research and creative activities. The program aims to help teams develop their research and increase their competitiveness and capacity for major external awards and funding opportunities.

Congratulations to the following awardees!

General Track

Real-Time Ultrasound Biofeedback for Treatment of Swallowing Disorders

Swallowing rehabilitation therapy involves coaching patients to complete complex movements with muscles in their throat, which they are unable to see. The work funded by this award is working to make some aspects of these complex swallowing rehabilitative tasks more “visible” and accessible for patients with swallowing disorders who are working to recover their ability to swallow. This work will focus on creating simplified real-time ultrasound signals to provide simple and specific feedback on swallowing movements.

Spatio-temporal profile of injury-induced alterations in protein glycosylation and sialylation in brain tissue

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a large-scale public health problem and is a leading cause of disability around the globe. We currently lack any FDA-approved therapeutics for the treatment of TBI, a problem due in large part, to our lack of understanding of the molecular and cellular consequences of injury to the brain. Our research aims to identify specific molecular consequences associated with injury to brain tissue in the hope that we can identify novel targets for pharmacotherapeutics that will ameliorate the negative side effects of mild forms of TBI.

Impact of True-to-Life Microplastics on Heart Health and Disease — an Interdisciplinary Collaborative Study

Microplastics are minute plastics particles and are becoming ubiquitous and persistent environmental pollutants nowadays. Currently, the impact of exposure to microplastics on human health is very poorly understood. In the URC Pilot study, we will address two fundamental problems regarding microplastics, including the production of “true-to-life” microplastics in the lab for exposure studies that mimic real-life environmental microplastics, and assessment of the cardiac toxicity of such “true-to-life” microplastics in human cardiac cells. These studies are expected to significantly contribute to our understanding of how exposure to microplastics affect human heart health and disease.

Behavioral Dynamics of Retinal Optic Flow in Locomotor Control

This project investigates how retinal optic flow—visual motion perceived during walking—influences locomotor control, using a novel combination of virtual reality, eye tracking, and full-body motion capture. Participants will perform controlled walking tasks in VR environments while researchers manipulate visual input to study its effects on foot placement and movement dynamics. The research will produce a foundational dataset, dynamic systems models, and lead to biologically informed neural network simulations of visuo-motor integration. Outcomes include open-source tools and data that will support future clinical research, assistive technology development, and applications in computational neuroscience and robotics.

Space Track

Exploring the Righting Reflex of Animals to Develop Operational Strategies for Space Manipulator Systems

This research explores how animal righting reflexes can inform the development of more adaptable and efficient control strategies for space manipulator systems. By studying the dynamic posture stabilization behaviors of animals like lizards, the project aims to create biologically inspired algorithms that enhance robotic stability and efficiency in low-gravity environments. Expected outcomes include the development of new control frameworks for space manipulators, with improvements in operational reliability, safety, and energy efficiency. Additionally, the findings may have applications in other extreme environments, such as deep-sea exploration and hazardous material handling.

Lunar Surface Exploration using Cooperating Multiple Robots

This project focuses on the development of a multi-robot system to enable exploration of extreme lunar terrain, such as steep slopes and loose regolith, via cooperative, closely coupled action of multiple robots. The outcome of this study will be a cooperative multi-robot system that considers the dynamic interaction among multiple robots and between multi-robots and lunar terrain to efficiently access, navigate, and explore lunar surface or subsurface areas. The developed system will build the foundation to enable the safe and autonomous operation of the multi-robot system for lunar exploration in the Artemis and future missions.