Notre Dame Research

As the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health pursues new discoveries, data, and technologies for all, the 2024 awardees of its Technology Development Fund will turn cutting-edge ideas into innovations. Consistent with the Institute’s translational spirit, the four funded projects will apply new knowledge at the frontier of science and engineering for health. Read on to learn more about what this approach will make possible. 📎 Yamil J. Colón and Yichun Wang, both assistant professors of ND Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will leverage machine learning technology alongside sensor development to create fast, effective ways to identify street drugs. 🔍 Jingcheng Ma and Emily Johnson, both assistant professors of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering at Notre Dame, will design a new compact sensing platform to identify airborne markers of disease. 🧪 Yichun Wang and Kaiyu Fu will design a 3D liver cell culture model for testing pharmaceuticals and will pair this model with a special microfluidic system to help it more accurately replicate the conditions of a liver in the human body. Wang is an assistant professor of ND Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Fu is an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. 💡 Yanliang Zhang, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Collegiate Chair and associate professor of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering at Notre Dame, will create a wireless device that can be implanted in a patient’s body for programmable delivery of a wide range of therapeutics, enabling personalized medical interventions to respond to chronic health conditions. Congratulations to these awardees, who will bring expertise and creativity to pressing challenges in health. Learn more about what's to come: https://lnkd.in/eWskN9sY

“Notre Dame has an opportunity and an obligation to marshal our expertise across the disciplines to advance sustainability solutions that will not leave behind the most vulnerable.” — John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost To guide that approach, Arun Agrawal — a renowned scholar of environmental politics and sustainable development — will join the University of Notre Dame as the inaugural director of the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative. As a key priority in the University’s strategic framework, this Initiative will coordinate and amplify sustainability research, education and engagement efforts across Notre Dame’s eight colleges and schools, as well as a wide array of centers, institutes and programs. This work will also produce new knowledge and experts, as the Initiative develops an agenda for leading-edge research and trains a new generation of sustainability champions. Learn more about Agrawal's leadership, new avenues for multidisciplinary research and more: https://lnkd.in/egqSYd_F

As we gear up for the ☘ Notre Dame vs. ⚓ Navy game this weekend, it's a great time to remember that the Fighting Irish and the Navy share more than a football rivalry. We are also partners in research efforts in a wide variety of areas, with key collaborations in global health! Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health welcomed Capt. Franca Jones and Dr. Jill Phan from the Naval Medical Research Command (NMRC) to explore new ways to work together on cutting-edge research. Thank you Capt. Jones and Dr. Phan for your visit and for sharing your expertise with our students and faculty! https://lnkd.in/gjnUBMrT #NotreDame  #NavyFootball  #GlobalHealth

“This project has literally been career-transformative for me.” With a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, researchers will ensure that Mary Wollstonecraft’s treatises about human rights continue to inform scholarship across disciplines. Toward that end, Eileen Hunt will collaborate with Nancy Johnson to annotate and track variations in different editions of Wollstonecraft’s interrelated books: A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). This work will compose Vol. 4 in Oxford University Press’ six volume “Collected Works of Mary Wollstonecraft.” Hunt is a professor of political science in the University of Notre Dame - College of Arts & Letters, and a fellow in the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Nancy Johnson is a SUNY New Paltz associate dean and English professor. Learn more about the pathways this research stream will create: https://lnkd.in/gmZhcYcA

Each year, the The IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame receives hundreds of pitches for new business concepts and works with these campus entrepreneurs to further explore, refine and launch their ideas. Years ago, Mike Bean, a longtime associate athletic trainer for the football team, shared a novel concept: an ankle brace that would attach to the outside of a cleat. After collaborating with South Bend-based companies on the design, Bean and others were ready to expand the commercial impact of this research idea. The IDEA Center saw the group through the patent filing process, and helped the founders to find investors, structure the business, and build a board of directors. Now, these TayCo braces are used by 23 NFL teams and more than 80 college athletics programs. Learn more about this journey to entrepreneurship, and the outcomes that have followed, in Notre Dame Magazine: https://lnkd.in/eAsDjuW5

“Over 700 million people around the world are living in extreme poverty, with many more just one crisis away.” A new round of multi-year investments aims to establish the University of Notre Dame as a leading institution for poverty research, prepare students for careers and service in anti-poverty efforts, and turn evidence into action. Toward that end, the University's Poverty Initiative has offered support to three cutting-edge projects, empowering the following outcomes: 🌿 Understanding how pervasive poverty interacts with water insecurity to exacerbate health disparities in Africa's urban slums, and developing interventions to address these intertwined challenges 💡 Evaluating the effects of national efforts in Mexico to alleviate violence against women through local programs 🌊 Eliminating invasive aquatic vegetation that causes disease to spread Learn more about these research streams, support for new faculty positions, and more. https://lnkd.in/gEmVRBru

In an era where social media bots can manipulate public discussion, incite hate speech, and spread misinformation, are platforms doing enough to keep users safe? To find out, researchers at the University of Notre Dame attempted to launch bots on eight platforms — assessing the effectiveness of policies and mechanisms that should combat potentially-harmful bot activity. Not one of the tested platforms provided sufficient protection and monitoring, the researchers concluded. As of the study’s publishing date, all test bot accounts and posts were still live. “There needs to be U.S. legislation requiring platforms to identify human versus bot accounts because we know people can’t differentiate the two by themselves,” said Paul Brenner, the study's senior author and Director of the Notre Dame Center for Research Computing (CRC). “The economics right now are skewed against this as the number of accounts on each platform are a basis of marketing revenue. This needs to be in front of policymakers.” Read the story: https://lnkd.in/eRwr-FRz

Congratulations to Kirk Doran, winner of the Adam Smith Panmure House Prize — which seeks out radical innovation and celebrates Adam Smith, who is known as the father of modern economics. Doran’s research centers on identifying how and where new knowledge is created, seeking to ultimately find the cause of long-term per capita economic growth. As an associate professor in the Department of Economics, he responds to overarching questions with techniques developed by modern labor economists. “It is not enough to better educate our workforce or even produce more entrepreneurs, scientists, and inventors,” Doran said. “Such efforts could not possibly produce long-run economic growth unless these individuals enter periods of deep collaboration with each other in the joint production of knowledge.” Learn more about this honor, the work that preceded it, and the outcomes that can follow: https://lnkd.in/ex-5uU74

As researchers work to integrate AI-based solutions with human ingenuity, the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab invites proposals for projects that grapple with related challenges and opportunities. ⭐ Question: How do we design effective solutions for safe and ethical human-AI collaboration in real-world settings? 🗓️ Application deadline: October 31 📎 Teams may apply for up to $60,000 in award funding. Discover more about how to put together a successful application, the potential outcomes of these inquiries, and more: https://lnkd.in/ercxK29E

This Thursday, Professor Uddhab Pyakurel of Kathmandu University and Indra Adhikari, Board Member of the Policy Research Institute, will bring expert insights to pressing topics. Pyakurel will address “Tradition-based Inequality Vs. Inclusive Constitutional Set Ups: A Study of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal,” and Adhikari will discuss “Gender Issues in Security Forces in Nepal.” Join us at 2148 Jenkins-Nanovic at 4 pm on the 10th! Refreshments will be served. Pulte Institute for Global Development Keough School of Global Affairs Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eBZ5ukYM