Cara Exten, an assistant nursing professor and infectious disease epidemiologist, studies the occurrence and spread of infectious diseases in populations over time. She put her nearly 20 years of epidemiology experience to the test by helping the University create and execute a COVID-19 testing and contact tracing initiative.
The Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE) has awarded seed grants to 22 groups of interdisciplinary researchers for the 2020-21 award cycle. This year, seed grants were awarded to proposals focusing on at least one of IEE’s five strategic research themes — Climate and Ecosystem Change, Health and the Environment, Integrated Energy Systems, Urban Systems, and Water and Biogeochemical Cycles.
Seven Penn State faculty teams have received seed grants for biodiversity research as part of the 2021 “Mainstreaming Biodiversity in a Decade of Action” symposium, developed by Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research, in collaboration with Penn State’s Sustainability Institute.
Arizona Shreck, a first-year student majoring in kinesiology at Penn State Berks, was recently awarded the Penn State Student Engagement Remote Innovation Grant in support of her research on heart rate variability (HRV), measured by the Oura Ring.
The Institute for Computational and Data Sciences has awarded the first round of RISE seed grants, supporting research including standardizing satellite weather analysis to predicting, predicting wireless signal penetration using deep learning, using automated data processing systems for neuroimaging and analyzing exoplanet survey data.
A Penn State Berks-led research team built a multidimensional model to measure the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education. The model not only includes teaching entrepreneurial skills, but also addresses the students’ intentions to start a business and their perceptions of the barriers they might encounter when starting a business.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach — and mixing in a little do-it-yourself initiative — a team of Penn State Berks researchers developed a wearable device that can tell the difference between indoor and outdoor lighting. The device could help scientists better understand the health benefits of outdoor lighting and even lead to wearables that could nudge users to get more outdoor time.
