2025 Collaboration Grant Awards
Project Title: Region-specific Microglia Contribution to the Effects of Diesel Exhaust Exposure in Alzheimer’s Disease
Institutional Partner: North Carolina Agricultural &Technical State University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Emilia Favuzzi, Dr. Jerome Moulden, Jr.
Project Scope:
This project explores how diesel exhaust affects Alzheimer’s disease by targeting microglia activity in specific brain regions. It supports this research by developing an AI-powered interactive learning system to teach Building Information Modeling (BIM). The tool includes step-by-step guides, adaptive feedback, and performance tracking to build neuroanatomical modeling skills. The result is a personalized learning platform supporting both environmental health research and digital design education.
Project Title: Oriented and Confined: Plasmonic Field-Driven Upconversion in Optically-Active 2D Materials for Solar Photocatalysis
Institutional Partner: North Carolina Agricultural &Technical State University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Amymarie Bartholomew, Dr. Rachel Bangle
Project Scope:
This collaboration develops nanophotonic-2D MOF hybrids to enhance triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion for solar photocatalysis. By aligning 2D materials in nanocavities and studying their light-driven dynamics, the team aims to generate ultrabright emissions and enable energy-efficient, light-powered chemical transformations.
Project Title: Developing an Open-Source On-Screen Interactive Guide (OSIG) Prototype to Promote Practical Hands-on Learning Experiences on Building Information Modeling
Institutional Partner: North Carolina Agricultural &Technical State University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Yuhan Jiang, Dr. Rex (Zhitao) Ying
Project Scope:
This project develops an AI-driven, on-screen learning tool for teaching Building Information Modeling (BIM). Featuring interactive guides, adaptive feedback, and instructor-created scripts, the system helps learners build practical skills in real time. It supports personalized, hands-on BIM instruction critical for digital design and construction education.
Project Title: Machine Learning-Enhanced Remote Sensing for Climate Monitoring and Environmental Change Detection
Institutional Partner: North Carolina Agricultural &Technical State University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Xuhui Lee, Dr. Zhaohui Wang
Project Scope:
This project applies AI-driven remote sensing to monitor climate change, focusing on forest carbon storage, urban heat islands, and greenhouse gas emissions. By combining satellite imagery, microclimate data, and deep learning, the research delivers high-resolution environmental maps to guide sustainable planning and climate resilience strategies.
Project Title: Generative AI-Driven Human Digital Twins: Revolutionizing Patient-Centric Healthcare in IoT-Connected Environments
Institutional Partner: North Carolina Agricultural &Technical State University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Gurcan Comert, Dr. Jun Deng, Dr. AKM Kamrul Islam
Project Scope:
This project develops generative AI-powered digital twins to simulate patient health in real-time, integrating cancer data from IoT-connected environments. By enabling early detection, monitoring, and prediction of disease progression, the technology supports more precise, proactive, and personalized healthcare interventions to improve outcomes and save lives.
Project Title: Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Yale Pathway to the PhD and Professoriate in Engineering (HYP3E)
Institutional Partner: Prairie View A&M University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Fred A. Bonner, II, Dr. Michael Loewenberg
Project Scope:
This mixed-methods study explores pathways for HBCU students to earn PhDs in Engineering and join the STEM professoriate. Through qualitative and quantitative research—including Photovoice, case studies, and survey development—HYP3E will produce transferable insights and a scalable national survey instrument to inform equity-driven doctoral pathways and faculty preparation programs.
Project Title: Enhancing Collaborative Research and Academic Excellence through Faculty Collaboration Grants
Institutional Partner: Prairie View A & M University (PVAMU) College of Nursing
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Allyssa Harris, Dr. Tatiana Sadak
Project Scope:
This project expands YSN’s mentorship model to include PVAMU’s expertise in health equity. Interdisciplinary research teams will focus on aging, mental health, maternal health, and chronic disease, culminating in a 2027 Research Institute. Pilot grants, mentorship, and collaborative publications will enhance faculty research capacity across both institutions.
Project Title: Gullah Geechee Spirituals Project (GGSP)
Institutional Partner: Morehouse College
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Braxton Shelley, Dr. David Morrow
Project Scope:
The GGSP will digitize and preserve 50 understudied Gullah Geechee spirituals through archival research, musical transcription, field recordings, and scholarly analysis. Led by Morehouse and Yale, the project emphasizes accessibility and pedagogy, ensuring this cultural heritage thrives in contemporary choral performance, scholarship, and education.
Project Title: FAMU-Yale Collaboration: A New Approach to Quantum Turbulence Using Levitated Superfluid
Institutional Partner: Florida A & M University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Wei Guo, Dr. Jack G.E. Harris
Project Scope:
This physics collaboration will investigate superfluid turbulence using magnetically levitated helium drops. By combining FAMU-FSU’s vortex simulation expertise and Yale’s experimental methods, the project enables minimally invasive, high-resolution measurements of vortex motion. Findings could advance our understanding of turbulence in both quantum and classical systems.
Project Title: Assessing, Expanding, and Operationalizing an HBCU Summer Bridge Program: Towards a Research-Informed Character Education Framework
Institutional Partner: Howard University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Jorge Burmicky, Dr. Matthew Croasmun, Dr. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Project Scope:
This project evaluates Howard University’s Summer Bridge Program through adapted survey tools and qualitative research from Yale’s Life Worth Living network. Findings will inform a character education framework tailored to HBCUs, fostering inclusive, reflexive dialogue on identity, values, and belonging among students and faculty.
Project Title: Margaret Walker and the Jubilee Opera: A Yale and JSU Collaboration
Institutional Partner: Jackson State University
Lead Collaborators: Dr. Albert Lee, Dr. Phyllis Lewis-Hale, Dr. Robert Luckett
Project Scope:
This collaboration supports the development and performance of Jubilee: A Folk Opera, based on Margaret Walker’s novel Jubilee. It brings together students from HBCUs and Yale for a 2025 Opera Bootcamp and a 2026 concert production, blending music, civil rights history, and literary legacy through interdisciplinary artistic engagement.