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Projects get UB 2020 Scholars funding
Four research projects have been awarded seed funding through the UB 2020 Scholars Fund, a program run by the Office of the Vice President for Research that is designed to fund new projects within the 10 areas of strategic strength identified by the UB 2020 strategic planning process.
The fund awards grants of $500 to $15,000 to scholars in the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences for research and creative activities demonstrating or leading to creative and academic excellence. The grants, which are designed to foster “truly innovative work” by UB faculty members, are intended to provide funding when such resources are not available from the department, school or college, or are rare from external funding sources, according to a program description.
The projects receiving UB 2020 Scholars awards—with descriptions culled from abstracts submitted to the Office of the Vice President for research—are:
• "Nanovisual Work": Nancy Anderson, Department of Visual Studies, investigator. The award will fund a workshop that will bring together artists, scientists, philosophers and historians of science—both at UB and at other institutions—to explore the issues and the senses involved in nanoscience research.
• “Cravin “the Cravens: A Plan to Foster K-12 School-University Learning Experiences Using the Cravens Collection Project”: Sarah A. Robert, Department of Learning and Instruction, investigator. This project blends together two UB strategic strengths—“Cultures and Texts” and “Civic Engagement and Public Policy”—in a school-university collaborative pilot project with two interrelated goals. The project will connect teachers and students with faculty and staff from the Graduate School of Education, the College of Arts and Sciences and the UB Anderson Gallery involved with the Cravens Collection Project, a diverse collection of artwork, archival material and archaeological objects. It also will bring Western New York students to campus as part of an academic experience that will further foster community and UB relationships.
• "Fair Housing in the U.S. Real Estate Industry: An Analysis of Minority Real Estate Industry; An Analysis of Minority Real Estate Professionals’ Perceptions": Robert M. Silverman, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, investigator. This project is based on a national survey that examines fair housing from the perspective of minority real estate professionals. It will collect data on minority real estate professionals’ attitudes about fair housing and their perceptions of the effectiveness of existing laws in enhancing access to affordable housing. The analysis also will examine how norms and practices within the real estate industry affect the implementation of fair housing law.
• “Fusing Agent-Based Simulation Modeling with Multi-player Virtual Reality Environments”: Natalie Simpson, Department of Operations Management and Strategy, investigator; Lawrence Sanders, Department of Management Science and Systems, co-investigator. The multidisciplinary Incident Dynamics Working Group, working in the strategic strength “Extreme Events,” is developing plans for a research center to study the effects of situational factors on human behavior and decision-making in complex work environments impacted by extreme events. The award will fund the staging of a proof-of-concept pilot study utilizing recent developments in simulation modeling to create a virtual replica of an existing hospital emergency room in which authentic emergency room decision-makers can interact in the context of a simulated pandemic. Once completed, the project will demonstrate the fusion of agent-based modeling with multi-player virtual reality environments in creating simulations that accurately replicate real-life responses to a crisis.
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