Grants Roundup: Engineering Faculty Receive 10 Grants in First Quarter of Fiscal Year

Kelly Good, PhD, assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Kelly Good, PhD

Featured grant:

Kelly Good, PhD
Villanova Center for Resilient Water Systems
National Science Foundation: $199,991
“Iodine Variability in Watersheds and Implications for Drinking Water Treatability and Public Health”

Drinking water treatment is important for public health, and 260 million people in the United States receive drinking water that has been disinfected with chemicals like chlorine. Even though chemical disinfection prevents sickness, it also forms disinfection byproducts (DBPs) when the chemicals react with organic matter, bromine (Br), and/or iodine (I). DBPs have their own health risks, and in general Br and I can make them worse. Even though human activities can increase Br and I levels in drinking water sources, little is known about how much these vary across space and time, as well as what effect these levels have on the formation of DBPs containing Br and I.

This proposal will study how Br and I varies to better understand drinking water risks. Through guidance to drinking water utilities and wastewater regulators, this work will help the nation establish regulations and monitoring that can lead to improved public health protection. Results and supporting work will be shared with cross-sectoral stakeholders, including the scientific community through peer-reviewed journal publications and presentations at scientific conferences, utilities and/or regulators through targeted briefings, and K-12 students and educators through watershed decision-making activities.

Other grants received by Villanova Engineering faculty members:

Jonathan Hubler, PhD
Villanova Center for Resilient Water Systems
Office of Naval Research (ONR): $195,938
“Integration of Soil Mechanics in Numerical Models of Surf Zone Beach Processes”

Chris Kitchens, PhD
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (PADCED): $59,048
“Production of Valuable Biochemicals from Brewery Spent Grain Byproduct by Hydrothermal Carbonization”

Bo Li, PhD
Qianhong Wu, PhD
Mechanical Engineering
Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (PADCED): $70,000
“Development of a New Method for Testing Cut Resistance of High-Performance Polymer Webbings”

Bo Li, PhD
Mechanical Engineering
National Science Foundation: $50,000
“Translation Potential of Extreme Textiles”

Sylvie Lorente, PhD
Mechanical Engineering
Department of the Army: $170,000
“Assessment of Energy and Exergy Flows in Army Installations: Towards Efficiency and Resilience”

Bijan Mobasseri, PhD
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department of the Navy (DON): $41,933
“Acoustic Watermarking for Air ASW Systems”

Arash Tavakoli, PhD
Civil and Environmental Engineering
National Science Foundation: $199,949
“From Data to Design: Enhancing Pedestrian Infrastructure for Well-Being through Mobile Sensing and Experience Sampling in the Wild”  Read more.

Qianhong Wu, PhD
Bo Li, PhD
Mechanical Engineering
Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (PACED): $69,999
“A Wearable Technology to Enhance Conditioning and Recovery”

Chenfeng Xiong, PhD
Center for Human-Environmental Systems
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (GOC): $30,000
“Implementing Integrated Personalized Real-Time Traveler Information and Incentives in the Baltimore-Washington-Richmond Megaregion”

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Elizabeth Slocum
Director, Communication and Marketing

elizabeth.slocum@villanova.edu