Five grantees cover medicine, AI, and the humanities
CHICAGO – A rapid-detection sensor for toxic gas, an AI tool for agriculture and the inaugural arts and theater program at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum were among five research proposals selected for the 2024 science team grants from Discovery Partners Institute, part of the University of Illinois System.
The grants are an initiative of DPI’s research and development unit, aimed at supporting research with economic and societal impact. In addition to seed funding of $125,000, each team will receive support to apply for new funding opportunities and to commercialize their research, including grant-writing support, access to DPI’s network of corporate partners and workspace in DPI’s downtown Chicago office.
All five teams came to DPI headquarters to meet the staff who will be supporting them with administration and business building. The meeting was the first in-person kickoff for the Science Teams project since its inception in 2020.
The recipients are:
- UIC-101, an injectable, rapidly acting peptide that will decrease cell death and increase survival for both out-of-hospital and in-hospital cardiac arrest.
- Lead researchers: Terry L. Vanden Hoek of UI Health and Jing Li and Zhangdong Zhu of the University of Illinois Chicago
- CropWizard, an interactive advice and decision support tool for agriculture professionals.
- Lead researchers: Vikram Adve, John Reid and Kastan Day of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Industry-specific foundation AI models to address industry-specific core problems.
- Lead researchers: Vijay Kamble and Theja Tulabandhula of the University of Illinois Chicago, and Varun Gupta of the University of Chicago
- The opto-electronic nose, a portable, reasonably priced sensor to rapidly detect toxic gases from chemical spills and industrial fires.
- Lead researchers: Kenneth S. Suslick and William P. King of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- “Act Well Your Part,” a project supporting Hull-House as a performance venue and hub for cross-industry collaboration among museums, visual artists, theaters and higher education. This team represents the inaugural humanities seed grant from DPI.
- Lead researchers: Ross Jordan, Matthew Randle-Bent, and Liesl Olson of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
The grantees were selected from 61 proposals, including 10 in the humanities.
“At Discovery Partners Institute, we believe multi-institutional and transdisciplinary work can drive innovation and equitable economic development,” said Venkat Venkatakrishnan, DPI’s director of research. “Within this group of science team initiatives there are efforts to transform lives through better crop management, AI modeling, and expedited medical emergency response. I am especially thrilled to see the intersection of science, the humanities, and community education come together for Hull-House with our inaugural award for a project in the humanities.”
“Innovation and discovery are core tenets of DPI,” said Deba Dutta, DPI’s interim executive director. “We are proud to provide these researchers with seed funding at a critical stage to move their projects to the next level. We consider the funding not just an investment in the projects but also an investment in these talented researchers and their ideas.”