Two grants awarded to different departments at West Virginia University Institute of Technology
The Departments of Psychology and Mechanical Engineering have each secured grants for professors’ research.
Drs. Jemma Cook and Winnie Fu have each been awarded grant funding for their respective departments, which will aid their research projects in Instrumentation for animal self-drug administration and in Innovation for a COBOT at West Virginia University Institute of Technology.
According to an article on West Virginia Institute of Technology’s website, the grants come through the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission’s Science, Technology and Research (STaR) division. Dr. Cook’s proposal secured the Instrumentation grant for $16,008, and Dr. Fu’s proposal was awarded the Innovation grant for $39,600.
Dr. Cook’s project in the Psychology Department relates to using the school’s rodent laboratory to research self-administration in animals in projects about substance abuse.
Dr. Crosby Hipes is the co-investigator of this grant and is an associate professor of Criminal Justice. He said of the grant and the project, “We expect to heavily involve students in research projects using these instruments, including projects culminating in conference presentations and academic publications. Budgets are tight, especially at small campuses such as WVU Tech, and funding through grants such as this is sometimes the only way to acquire these innovative research tools.”
In the Mechanical Engineering department, Dr. Fu says that the purchase of a COBOT, which is an industrial collaborative robot, will “help bridge a gap in [the] curriculum.”
The COBOT is going to function as a tool to help ready students for the workforce. It will sense human interaction and be able to point out safety issues in a workplace.
Dr. Charan Litchfield is co-investigator of the grant as well as an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He said of the grant, “Robotics and automation in large-scale industrial manufacturing is one of the highly in-demand disciplines in electrical and mechanical engineering. This Innovation Grant will allow students to experience real-world equipment important to automation and industrial manufacturing.”
For more information about West Virginia University Institute of Technology, visit the school’s website.