SC EPSCoR announces 2020 Grants for Exploratory Academic Research – Collaborative Research Program recipients

For Immediate Release
February 6, 2020

(Columbia, SC) The SC EPSCoR State Office is pleased to announce the grant recipients of the 2020 Grants for Exploratory Academic Research Collaborative Research Program (GEAR CRP).

The goal of the GEAR CRP (Collaborative Research Program) is to encourage faculty researchers at the three South Carolina comprehensive research universities (CRUs), Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina; and predominately undergraduate institutions (PUIs) to build collaborative CRU/PUI academic research teams that will compete effectively for research funding. GEAR CRP grants are awarded to build and enhance the network of scientists in the state that will develop thrust-based research clusters associated with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track 1-Award entitled, Materials Assembly and Design Excellence in South Carolina (MADE in SC).

Four awards with a maximum budget of $60,000 each have been made to:

  • Sophya Garashchuk, University of South Carolina (PI) and D. Allen Clabo, Jr., Francis Marion University (Co-PI): Adaptive Design of Hybrid Materials with Tunable Optoelectronic Properties
  • Ming Hu, University of South Carolina (PI), Xiangdong Bi, Charleston Southern University (Co-PI), and Yu Gong, College of Charleston (Co-PI): Inverse Design of Organic Molecules with Superior Two-photon Absorption Characteristics by Synergetic Theory, DFT Calculation, and Experiments
  • Yi Sun, University of South Carolina (PI), Qi Wang, University of South Carolina (Co-PI), Gurcan Gomert, Benedict College (Co-PI), and Negash Begashaw, Benedict College (Co-PI): A Hybrid Multiscale Model with Machine Learning for Sprouting Angiogenesis in Biofabrication
  • Hanno zur Loye, University of South Carolina (PI), Ming Hu, University of South Carolina (Co-PI), and Maria Gelabert, Winthrop University (Co-PI): MGI Approach to Discovering and Optimizing New Scintillators

The vision of MADE in SC is to discover and establish new and sustainable approaches for the design and assembly of hierarchical materials at multiple relevant length scales that service South Carolina’s STEM research, education, and workforce needs and invigorate economic development. The focus of this initiative is to discover and develop new intelligently designed optical, electrochemical and magnetic materials, stimuli-responsive polymeric materials, and interactive biomaterials, all supported by a newly-created Multiscale Modeling and Computation Core.

MADE in SC is supported by the National Science Foundation Award #OIA-1655740.

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