We are delighted to announce award decisions for the second cycle of Springboard, sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR). Each of these high quality, high impact research, scholarship and educational initiatives bodes well for vibrant research at Tufts by having an explicit plan leading to extramural funding or other outcomes that further influence research, scholarship, pedagogical outcomes, and/or policy.

These grants represent a significant investment in the future vitality of Tufts as a thriving R1, very-high research activity university.  In keeping with this cycle’s emphasis on supporting Tufts’ efforts to be an antiracist institution, many of the projects focused on racial inequities and/or the promotion of anti-racist interventions.

*These grants are for COVID-19 related research

Please join us in congratulating the following individuals/teams who were selected for awards:

TIER 1

Racism as trauma: Physiological correlates of experiencing discrimination
Team Leads: Lisa Shin (A&S) and Sam Sommers (A&S)
Team Members: Adolfo Cuevas (A&S), Felipe Dias (A&S), and Jasmine Mote (A&S)

NSF Engineering Resource Center for Engineering Tools for Innovation and Research in Education (EnTIRE)
Team Lead: Eric Miller (SoE)
Team Members: David Hammer (A&S) and Mark Hempstead (SoE)

TIER 2

Studying a novel dialogue-based intervention to build trust and vaccine acceptance in Covid-19 vulnerable individuals and communities of color*
Team Lead: Jonathan Garlick (TUSDM)
Team Member: Jennifer Allen (A&S)

Shifting the civic education field toward racial equity-centered approach-pilot
Team Lead: Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg (Tisch)
Team Members: Noorya Hayat (Tisch), Abby Kiesa (Tisch), Peter De Guzman (Tisch), and Rey Junco (Tisch)

Moving in place? The effects of public housing relocation and redevelopment on low-income households
Team Lead: Shomon Shamsuddin (A&S)
Team Member: Daanika Gordon (A&S)

Piloting a learning Assistant model for a Justice-based Engineering and Data science Initiative in ES-2 (JEDI-Pilot)
Team Lead: Ethan Danahy (SoE)
Team Members: Elisse LaMotte (SoE) and Jennifer Cross (SoE)

Thermophotovoltaic systems for waste heat harvesting
Team Lead: Dante DeMeo (SoE)
Team Members: Kevin Grossklaus (SoE) and Thomas Vandervelde (SoE)

Is the dollar store the new grocery store? Analysis of dollar stores' geographic distribution and role in household expenditures
Team Lead: Wenhui Feng (TUSM)
Team Member: Sean Cash (Friedman)

Electricity transmission workshops in preparation for a DOE Center of Excellence in Offshore Wind Infrastructure, Supply Chain, and Transmission.
Team Lead: Eric Hines (SoE)
Team Members: Barbara Kates-Garnick (Fletcher) and Aleksandar Stankovic (SoE)

Tracking the spillover of antimicrobial resistance from poultry to humans in an urban shantytown of Lima, Peru
Team Lead: Maya Lakshmi Nadimpalli (SoE)
Team Member: Jonathan Runstadler (Cummings)

Engineering portfolios as an approach to inclusive assessment
Team Lead: Kristen Bethke Wendell (SoE)
Team Members: Jason Rife (SoE), Chris Rogers (SoE), Amon Millner (SoE), and Briana Bouchard (SoE)

TIER 3

Antiracism in community engaged research
Team Lead: Elaine Donnelly (Tisch)
Team Members: Penn Loh (A&S), Diane O’Donoghue (A&S), and Anjuli Fahlberg (A&S)

Engaging in research to promote critical consciousness about racial injustice
Team Lead: Jayanthi Mistry (A&S)
Team Members: Kerri Bowen (A&S)

Understanding and addressing the effects of surging anti-Asian racism in Boston's Chinatown during the COVID-19 pandemic*
Team Lead: Alice Tang (TUSM)
Team Member: Kimberly Dong Breen (TUSM)

Accelerating research on the human cost of food
Principal Investigator: Nicole Tichenor Blackstone (Friedman)

Validation of microcirculatory imaging using the MicroScan videoscope in awake dogs
Team Lead: Armelle De Laforcade (Cummings)
Team Members: Alexandra Pfaff (Cummings) and Noa Berlin (Cummings)