2019 Academic Year Connect Grants-featuring overviews of two of this round’s projects led by Lindsay Schenkel(COLA) and Patricia Taboada-Serrano (KGCOE) | Late Spring 2020

The Connect Grants program, currently in its 7th funding round, supports faculty career development and advancement as well as academic unit-level culture change initiatives and faculty recruitment approaches through awarding mini-grants.  Funded projects align with the goals and objectives of the AdvanceRIT program.  Connect Grants are offered through the AdvanceRIT program within the Office of the Provost with advisory support from Faculty Career Development, the Division of Diversity and Inclusion, and Sponsored Research Services.  The program’s target audience is all tenured and pre-tenured faculty at RIT. The Connect grants awarded in this funding round include:

• Training in the Development of a Preventative Intervention for College Students with Trauma Histories who are at Risk for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
  • Principal Investigator: Lindsay Schenkel, COLA
  • Co-Principal Investigator(s): Suzanne Bamonto, COLA
• Building a sustainable pipeline of graduate students for new PhD programs
  • Principal Investigator: Patricia Taboada-Serrano, KGCOE
  • Co-Principal Investigator(s): Obioma Uche and Poornima Padmanabhan, KGCOE
• Mapping Trust: Examining decision making in a context of double burdens of chronic and communicable disease epidemics
  • Principal Investigator: Jessica Hardin, COLA
• Preliminary Data Generation Related to the Use of Polymeric Threads for Management of Lymphedema in Breast Cancer Patients
  • Principal Investigator: Kathleen Lamkin-Kennard, KGCOE
• Indigenous Industrial Design
  • Principal Investigator: Mindy Magyar, CAD

In this newsletter, we feature two projects funded by the 2019 Academic Year Connect grants.

Training in the Development of a Preventative Intervention for College Students with Trauma Histories who are at Risk for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders:

Principal Investigator: Lindsay Schenkel, COLA

Co-Principal Investigator: Suzanne Bamonto, COLA

This project will support research mentorship and training in the areas of heart rate variability (HRV), biofeedback techniques, and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) for young adults with trauma histories who are at increased risk for mental health and substance use disorders (SUDs). Drs. Schenkel and Bamonto will receive hands-on training on the use and application of HRV/biofeedback, as well as the delivery of TF-CBT in a group format for college students.

Immediate and long-term benefits of the project include: 1) professional development and mentorship for Drs. Schenkel and Bamonto in HRV/biofeedback and TF-CBT techniques; 2) pilot data to support an externally funded research proposal and potential manuscripts; 3) a better understanding of risk and protective factors in the development of substance use disorders among college students; 4) the implementation of mental health services for at-risk college students at RIT; and 4) hands-on research training for undergraduate and graduate students involved with the project.

“Receiving the Connect Grant was very exciting. It will provide essential training in the use of empirically validated interventions for college students with trauma histories who are at increased risk for the development of substance use disorders. This project is an important first-step in the process of obtaining external funding. It has allowed us to work with leading researchers in mental health and substance use interventions to develop a comprehensive treatment program that combines heart rate variability/biofeedback techniques with emotion regulation and cognitive behavioral strategies for at-risk young adults.” -Lindsay Schenkel

Building a sustainable pipeline of graduate students for new PhD programs:

Principal Investigator: Patricia Taboada-Serrano, KGCOE

Co-Principal Investigator(s): Obioma Uche and Poornima Padmanabhan, KGCOE; Chemical Engineering

This project will provide training and research experience opportunities in computational materials to undergraduate students as an active graduate-student recruitment strategy. The PIs will use this Connect grant in order to meet two targets: (a) develop a hands-on workshop for the regional discipline-specific American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE )Student conference for undergraduate students; and (b) draft a proposal to seek National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF REU) funding. Fulfillment of the above objectives will establish a sustainable pipeline of graduate student applicants to the new PhD programs at RIT along with the added benefit of improving visibility of the recently launched Computational Materials Research Nucleus. "The Advance Connect Grant will enable two colleagues and me to establish a pipeline for graduate students into our research programs. This is critical to grow our scholarly careers " -Patricia Taboada-Serrano