Arts and Sciences | Business and Industry | Health Education and Human SciencesJuly 31, 2024

Mini Grants Awarded for 2024-2025 Year

The University of Arkansas - Fort Smith awarded grants to four faculty members for special research projects for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Provost Dr. Shadow Robinson announced the Faculty Research and Innovation Awards went to Dr. Alexandra Zacharella, music professor in the College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Kiyun Han, associate professor in the College of Business and Industry; Ms. Jennifer Garner, dental hygiene instructor in the College of Health, Education, and Human Sciences; and Dr. Maurice Testa, associate professor of physical science in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In announcing the awards, Robinson said that since he started in 2022, this year has been the “most competitive cycle for these awards, with each grant proposal that came in being interesting and worthy of support.”

The mini grants, the latest of 22, support faculty investigations or projects beyond the normal scope of their duties. The deans of each college award one faculty member a grant of $5,000. Robinson awards an additional grant of $10,000. Testa is the recipient of the Provost’s Award.

Zacharella proposed a chamber music tour and concert series featuring members of the UAFS Brass Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble including a concert series at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The tour will include performances at smaller band programs in Northwest Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma. Finally, a concert series at the King Opera House in Van Buren will include UAFS students and students from area high schools with chamber ensembles.

Students will be involved in all parts of the tour, including programming, transportation planning, equipment wrangling, performance logistics, and other less obvious but essential functions. The UAFS students will have an opportunity to interact with area high school students, including those who will be first-generation college students and who may not have considered pursuing a music education at the college level.

Han’s “Wi-Fi Antenna Design for the Industrial Internet of Things” project will investigate the types of Wi-Fi antennas and the frequency bands used by local industries. Then students will simulate two antennas using electromagnetic software. Finally, Han and his students will create and optimize the antennas.

Han plans to develop class labs and demonstrations to help students understand antenna design and research. He will work with local companies, potentially designing customized antennas for their specific needs.

Garner will look at the benefits, challenges, and logistics of implementing electronic health records in the dental hygiene department. Digitizing health records is expected to improve record keeping, streamline clinical workflows, enhance infection control, and improve communication among educators and students.

The research project will look at how electronic records are used in a dental hygiene program using interviews, discussions, and surveys. A thorough needs assessment will identify current record-keeping practices, technical infrastructure, and staff capabilities. After determining the needs, the project will focus on developing an implementation plan for the university’s program.

Testa’s project continues five years of work by UAFS, Shawnee State University, and the Hiawatha National Forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In this year’s study, students will track the movement of dye through otherwise unobservable underground water. The students will look at both where the water flows and how quickly it moves. The information is important for resource management, like predicting where groundwater contamination might travel in the forest.

Testa wrote that the research aligns with UAFS’s vision. It reinforces classroom learning with real-world application and allows students to work with other universities and federal agencies. Students who participate in the work develop a passion they “take back into our community as leaders that help address the needs and challenges of the region.”

• Tags:
• College of Business and Industry
• Provost
• College of Health Education and Human Sciences
• College of Arts and Sciences