UTSA Knowledge Enterprise supports 76 faculty members with research travel awards

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 — Closing out this fiscal year, the UTSA Office for Research, Economic Development, and Knowledge Enterprise (REDKE) awarded 76 faculty members with over $85,000 in research-related travel awards. Collectively, UTSA researchers logged over 130,000 miles, covering 22 states and nine countries including Guatemala, France, Mexico, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Italy.

Complementing similar programs from UTSA Academic Affairs and the colleges, REDKE launched this new travel support program in 2021-22 to help faculty defray the costs associated with their research activities. Travel expenses are often not covered by extramural funding, leaving a gap in faculty member’s ability to travel for scholarly engagements. Dissemination of their research and networking with peers are crucial for professional development. These activities also enhance the institution’s research portfolio and reputation.

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“Coming out of the pandemic, where travel was suddenly halted, it was a priority to kickstart faculty research once again.”

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“Coming out of the pandemic, where travel was suddenly halted, it was a priority to kickstart faculty research once again,” said Jaclyn Shaw, interim vice president for REDKE. “Some international projects have been ongoing for years, supporting the local economies of certain regions, while new projects couldn’t wait any longer. While the majority of the funds support scholarly research, some of the funds were used to develop critical research relationships with peer institutions.”

More than 60% of the overall funds were given to faculty in the arts and social sciences. While the majority of the funds were used by faculty to present research findings at national and international conferences and other scholarly meetings, a small number were used to engage in independent or collaborative research projects. Some met with program officers at granting agencies to pursue additional funding and professional development opportunities. A few were used to support musical performances and one art installation. UTSA faculty subject matter experts were also invited to speak at the DC-based AI & Quantum conference co-hosted by the MATRIX AI Consortium, BigBear.ai, and the Maryland Innovation & Security Institute.

The research travel awarded for FY22 are:

Ali Atabey
History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Research focuses on seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul with a specific emphasis on cross-religious interactions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
Research trip to Istanbul, Turkey 

Ibukun Awolusi
Construction Science, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Collaborative Research: Improving Students’ Computational Thinking Skills in Construction Engineering and Management
2022 IUSE Summit; Washington, DC

Ibukun Awolusi
Construction Science, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Worker Safety and Health Activity Monitoring in Construction using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Deep Learning
ASCE Construction Institute (CI) and Construction Research Council (CRC) Joint Conference 2022; Arlington, VA

Thad Bartlett
Anthropology, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Collaborative Research in Thailand: Focuses on examining the relationship between forest resources and small ape (or gibbon) population density 
King Mungkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT); Bangkok, Thailand

Rebecca Bria
Anthropology, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Temples in Process, not Periods: Reevaluating Narratives of Early Community Practice and Interaction Across North-Central Peru
Society for American Archaeology; Chicago, IL 

James Bray
Psychology, College for Health, Community and Policy
Pregnant and Postpartum Women with Substance Abuse Problems: The PAMPERRS Program
European Congress of Psychology; Ljubljana, Slovenia

Kathryn M. Brown
Anthropology, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Early Maya Communities, Integration, and Creation of Sacred Landscapes: A View from the Mopan Valley, Belize
Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology; Chicago, IL

Krystel Castillo
Mechanical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Stochastic Modeling for Energy Efficient Supply Chain Networks 
Seminar at Anahuac Mayab; Merida, Mexico

Andrey Chabanov
Physics & Astronomy, College of Sciences
Optical Reflective Limiter Collaborative research/measurements at the EU Center of Nonlinear Spectroscopy 
Florence, Italy

Oswaldo Zapata Correa
Music, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
South American Music for Trumpet & Piano Lecture Recital
Charlotte, NC

Tracy Cowden
Music, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Cincinnati Conservatory Faculty Concert
Cincinnati, OH

Stacey Davis
Music, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Perception and Performance of Contrapuntal Monophony in Britten Cello Suite
Society for Music Analysis Conference; Newcastle, England

Saugata Datta
Geological Sciences, College of Sciences
Effect of pH and organic matter on soil phosphate dynamics in a tall grass Prairie Ecosystem 
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting; New Orleans, LA

Bridget Drinka
English, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Excavating Language: Linguistic Connections across Latin, Greek, and Modern European Languages
Urbino, Italy

Jose Morales Escalante
Mathematics, College of Sciences
Panel: Convergence of Machine Learning and Quantum Computing
AI/Quantum Symposium; Baltimore, MD

Kathleen Ewoldt
Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching, College of Education and Human Development
How Can High School Students with Disabilities be Enticed to Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Careers in a Virtual Environment?
GlobalMindED conference; Denver, CO

Jorge Felipe-Gonzalez
History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Cuban Slave Trade
American Historical Association, Annual Meeting; New Orleans, LA

Bryan Gervais
Political Science & Geography, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Does Political Incivility Polarize? Considering the Role of Intergroup Dynamics
Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association; Chicago, IL

Garry (Buster) Graybill
Art & Art History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Two-person exhibition including a monumental outdoor sculpture
R.MUTT in NYC; New York City, NY

Teja Guda
Biomedical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
HGSE Professional Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education: Management Development Program; Cambridge, MA 

Jamon Halvaksz
Anthropology, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Climate Change and Agriculture along the Upper Bulolo
Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania; Portland, OR

David Han
Management Science & Statistics, Carlos Alvarez College of Business 
A brief review of blockchain technology and its implication on the practice of data science
ASA Symposium on Data Science and Statistics; Pittsburgh, PA

Robert Hard
Anthropology, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Stable Isotope Analysis of the Early Agriculture
Society for American Archaeology; Chicago, IL 

Anne Hardgrove
History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Postcolonialism and Sexuality 
World History Association; Bilbao, Spain

John Harrichand
Counseling, College for Education and Human Development
Mapping Solidarity, Liberation, and Activism: A Critical Autoethnography of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Leaders in Counseling
Dear Student, Please be Honest! Well, but Not Too Honest: Psychological Safety and Gatekeeping in Counselor Education
Association for Counselor Education and Supervision 2021 Conference; Atlanta, GA

Matthias Hofferberth
Political Science & Geography, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Becoming Global Governors. Self-Agentification, Recognition, and Delegation in World Politics
Annual International Studies Association Meeting; Nashville, TN

R. Lyle Hood
Mechanical Engineering, College of Sciences
Session Chair for two sessions and oversee five student presenters
Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and BioTransport Conference; Chesapeake Bay, VA

Jie Huang
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Electro-Osmosis Dewatering and Consolidation: G-I China Scan Tour Overview
GeoCongress 2022; Charlotte, NC

Sue Hum
English, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Advocating For Yet Inadvertently Circumscribing Change: Yellow Peril Rhetoric in Arnold Genthe’s Sympathetic Photographs of the Chinese in Old San Francisco in the late 1890s
Rhetoric Society of America; Baltimore, MD 

Estrada Interiano-Shiverdecker
Counseling, College for Education and Human Development
Foreign-born Counselor Educators’ Profile, Strengths and Challenges
Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Conference; Atlanta, GA

Murtuza Jadliwala
Computer Science, College of Sciences
Panel: AI Ecosystem for the Edge
AI & Quantum Symposium; Baltimore, MD

Murtuza Jadliwala
Computer Science, College of Sciences
Background Buster: Peeking through Virtual Backgrounds in Online Video Calls
52nd Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN'22); Baltimore, MD

Yufang Jin
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
American Society of Engineering Education 2022 Annual Conference; Minneapolis, MN

Gerald Juhnke
Counseling, College for Education and Human Development
Teaching Counseling Students to Conduct Suicide Risk Assessments: Meeting the Needs of Your Students in a Post-Pandemic World
Association for Counselor Education and Supervision; Atlanta, GA

Seok Kang
Communications, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Research Presentation: The Influence of Eudaimonic YouTube Videos: Exposure, Involvement, Empathy, Self-Compassion, Depression, and Happiness
International Communication Association; Paris, France

Vikram Kapoor
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Fecal Pollution Source Characterization in Environmental Waters of the Edwards Aquifer
WEFTEC 2021; Chicago, IL

Kasandra Keeling
Music, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
South American Music for Trumpet and Piano Lecture Recital
Greensboro and Charlotte, NC 

Md Shamsad Khan
Communications, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Critical Health Communication Methodologies: Centering Power and Politics in Health Communication
National Communication Association (NCA) Conference 2021; Seattle, WA

Kimberly Kline
Communication, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Critical Health Communication Methodologies: Centering Power and Politics in Health Communication
National Communication Association; Seattle, WA

Catherine Komisaruk
History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Research in Guatemala City (in the Archivo General de Centro America)
Research in government archives; Guatemala City, Guatemala

Andrew Konove
History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Archival research in Making Change: Money, Trust, and Sovereignty in Mexico, 1750-1850.
Archivo General de la Nación and the Archivo Histórico de la Ciudad de México; Mexico City, Mexico

Sandeep Langar 
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Online platform to enhance research and funding collaboration among faculty associated with the ASC across the U.S. and Europe (developed in collaboration with construction company Procore and faculty from Colorado State University)
58th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference; Atlanta, GA

Chad Mahood
Communications, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Pro and Anti-Gun Control Frames Depicting Mass Shootings: Impact on Fear of Victimization
National Communication Association; Seattle, WA 

Antonio Martinez Molina
Architecture, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
The Impact of Efficient Natural Ventilation on the Indoor Environmental Air Quality: The Case of a Social Housing in Turkey
ARCC-EAAE 2022 International Conference; Miami, FL

Ritu Mathur
Political Science & Geography, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Cyber Racialism & Cyber Nationalism in the Politics of Cyber Arms Control
International Studies Association; Nashville, TN

James McDonald
Communication, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Queering CCO Scholarship: Examining Communication as Constitutive of (Hetero)normative Organizations and Organizing
Queering Organizational Communication Research: Current Trends and Future Directions
National Communication Association; Seattle, WA

Catherine Nolan-Ferrell
History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Migrants or Refugees? Violence and Forced Migration in Southern Mexico and Guatemala, 1950-2000
CIRMA: Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamerica; Antigua, Guatemala

Kristen Pellegrino
Music, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
To Teach or Not to Teach? The Impact of COVID-19 on Music Teachers’ Career Decisions
2022 AERA Annual Meeting; San Diego, CA

Megan Piel
Social Work, College for Health, Community and Policy
Fostering Educational Success for Foster Care Alumni: Consistency of Needs and Services
Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference; Washington, DC

Annette Portillo
English, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
A Testimonio on Healing Through Decolonizing Pedagogies 
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS); Denver/Fort Collins, CO

Priya Prasad
Mathematics, College of Sciences
Problematizing the Notion of Rights and Responsibilities in Mathematics Teacher Education, and What’s Missing in the Research Literature on Mathematics Teacher Educator Knowledge?
Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators; Las Vegas, NV

Jeff Prevost
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
AI & Quantum Symposium; Baltimore, MD

Zhuolin Qu
Mathematics, College of Sciences
Multistage spatial model for informing release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes as disease control
SIAM Conference on the Life Sciences (LS22); Pittsburgh, PA

Rahul Raghavan
Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, College of Sciences
Examining the evolution of pathogenicity in Coxiella to identify novel therapeutic targets
American Society for Rickettsiology 31st Meeting; Greenville, SC

Jeanne Reesman
English, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Mark Twain and God
9th Quadrinneal International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies; Elmira, NY

Bonita Sharma
Social Work, College for Health, Community and Policy
Built, Economic, and Natural Capitals' Influence in Health Decision-Making and Gender-Based Outcomes for Women in Nepal
Society for Social Work Research; Washington, DC 

Scott Sherer
Art & Art History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
The Enduring Rupture of Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric
Midwest Art History Society 2022 Annual Conference; Houston, TX

Elizabeth Sooby
Physics and Astronomy, College of Sciences
Nuclear Family Feud: Workshop on Emotional Intelligence
American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting; Washington, DC

Tulio Sulbaran
Construction Science, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
A Review of Genetic Algorithm as a Decision-Making Optimization Tool in Project Management
58th Annual Associated Schools of Construction International Conference; Atlanta, GA

Robert Sutherland
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Panel: Quantum Computing Today
AI & Quantum Symposium; Baltimore, MD

Zhongfeng Tian
Bicultural-Bilingual Studies. College of Education and Human Development
Infusing Plurilingualism and Translanguaging into Teacher Education: Successes and Challenges
TESOL 2022 Convention & English Language Expo; Pittsburgh, PA 

Robert Tokunaga
Communications, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Identifying the Mediating Pathways between Pornography Consumption and Condomless Sex
International Communication Association; Paris, France

Matthew Troia
Integrative Biology, College of Sciences
Magnitude-duration relationships of physiological sensitivity and environmental exposure improve climate change vulnerability assessments 
Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting; Grand Rapids, MI

Masataka Umeda
Kinesiology, College for Health, Community and Policy
Role of Physical Activity in Relationship Between Exercise-Induced Muscle Pain and Fibromyalgia Symptom Severity
American College of Sports Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting; San Diego, CA

David Vance
English, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Artist in Residence
School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, IL

Juliet Weirsema
Art & Art History, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Technical analysis of historic map, Library of Congress
Research project with LOC's Research and Testing Division; Washington, DC

Kenneth Walker
English, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Rhetoric, ethics, and knowledge coproduction: Engaging with discourses of transdisciplinarity
Rhetoric Society of America; Baltimore, MD

Melissa Wallace
Modern Languages and Literature, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Invisible researchers: Empowering practicing court interpreters to leverage and co-create scholarly inquiry, and Non-professional interpreting and translation: advancement and subversion
10th Congress of the European Society for Translation Studies; Oslo, Norway

Alan Whittington
Earth and Planetary Sciences, College of Sciences
Magmatic Plumbing Samples a Smorgasbord: At Least Four Components in Lava Erupted From Fissure 17, Kilauea 2018
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting; New Orleans, LA 

Ethan Wickman
Music, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Performance and Recording of a Major Oratorio
American Festival Chorus and Orchestra; Logan, UT

Hongjie Xie
Earth and Planetary Sciences, College of Sciences
Surface classification of ICESat-2 ATL07 sea ice surface height data in the Ross Sea using machine learning
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting; New Orleans, LA

Fang Xu
Chemistry, College of Sciences
Selected participant: develop NSF CAREER proposal
National Science Foundation Chemistry Early Career Investigator Workshop; Alexandria, VA

Jason Yaeger
Anthropology, College of Liberal and Fine Arts
Peopling the Mopan Valley Landscape: The Legacy of Wendy Ashmore’s Xunantunich Settlement Survey
Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology; Chicago, IL

Francis Yoshimoto
Chemistry, College of Sciences
Application of Organic Synthesis to Shed New Light on Cytochrome P450 Bile Acid Biochemistry
International Conference on Cytochrome P450; Arlington, VA

Xiaowei Zeng
Mechanical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Computational Modeling and Simulation of Epithelial Wound Healing
19th U.S. National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Austin, TX 

Tianou Zhang
Kinesiology, College for Health, Community and Policy
Mechanical Engineering, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design
Benefits of Qigong Mind-body Exercise On Salivary Biomarkers, Physical And Mental Health In Older Adults 
American College of Sports Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting; San Diego, CA

— Sarah Hada

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