News
Global land rush
Dr. Kyle Davis and Dr. Saleem Ali, both DSI Affiliated Faculty members, have co-authored a new paper that looks at how transnational agricultural large-scale land acquisitions pose a threat to biodiversity. These large scale land acquisitions have surged since the beginning of the century and have resulted in an area larger than South Africa being officially put under contract for agriculture, logging, and mining.
Changing the definition of autism
DSI affiliated faculty Anjana Bhat, associate professor of physical therapy in the University of Delaware’s College of Health Sciences, pushes to change autism definition to include motor difficulties.
Exploring Antarctica
UD researchers are among the scientists in Antarctica conducting fieldwork on penguins, ocean currents. DSI Affiliated Faculty are involved in the research including Mark Moline and Carlos Moffat. Mark Moline from the UD Marine Studies Department, is the principal investigator on a project examining the feeding habits and predator-prey interactions of Adélie and Gentoo penguins in the region using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Carlos Moffat, a coastal physical oceanographer who is in Antarctica serving as chief scientist of the NSF Palmer LTER program, which has been collecting long-term ecological data for over 30 years, is also conducting research as part of his NSF Career Award to understand the dynamics of melting glaciers and how that impacts the ocean circulation and properties, such as salinity and temperature of the coastal ocean.
The future of testing self-driving cars
Prof. Andreas Malikopoulos of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and DSI Affiliated Faculty, and built the Scaled Smart City to bridge the gap between driving simulations and real-world tests to try out the latest innovations for self-driving cars within the safe confines of a controlled setting.
Understanding where things happen, and why
In an effort to raise geography awareness throughout the state of Delaware, faculty members and staff engaged in outreach programs at local middle schools (such as those spearheaded by DSI Affiliated Faculty Tracy DeLiberty) and hosted competitions to raise awareness about the power of geography (such as the UD Student Competition for Geospatial Data Visualization/Map Design, created by DSI Resident Faculty Jung Goa) as well as possible career opportunities that could be attained through the field.
Project ABLE
DSI Affiliated Faculty Fabrice Veron (interim dean of CEOE): CEOE was awarded project ABLE, a two-year, $1.3 million grant from NOAA to make Delaware a leading national center in the application and development of autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and workforce development in support of advancing the Blue Economy. DSI faculty council Art Trembanis is UD’s lead researcher on the project.
Tackling plastic waste
DSI Affiliated Faculty Mark Blenner is leading a multi-institutional team of researchers exploring ways to engineer microbes from the gut of the yellow mealworm to degrade non-recyclable plastics. The work is supported with $9M funding from the Department of Energy.
Preparing for a changing climate
Jack Puleo, chair of the University of Delaware’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and DSI Affiliated Faculty, is leading a research effort that could have broad implications for coastal communities and calculating risk in the face of a changing climate and rising sea levels.
Mechanical Cures
Sambeeta Das, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UD and DSI affiliated faculty member, was recently awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award program, which is part of the NIGMS, to support student-driven groundbreaking research in her laboratory in the College of Engineering.
The impact of highway construction
With support from a Partnerships for Arts and Culture Grant, Nina David, associate professor in UD’s Biden School and DSI affiliated faculty member, and her research team co-sponsored an event on Oct. 8 in which they closed off the 9th Street bridge in Wilmington to allow residents to gather over the highway and envision what a potential capping of I-95 could look like.
