Research Notes
NSF Grant Funds Research
College of Education
Jonathan Hilbert, professor in the Department of Curriculum, Foundations and Reading, is the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation grant (with co-Principal Investigators Jenefer Husman and Sarah Brem from Arizona State University) delving into the domain general processes related to the emergence of innovative ideas in the engineering classroom. Hilbert is studying how diverse groups of students engage with each other to solve ill-defined problems and how ideas evolve within networks of students when they attempt to develop novel solutions to technological issues. In the current phase of the project, the researchers are working to develop a measurement instrument to provide evidence for the major characteristics of engagement at the group level that produce innovative ideas.
Examining Web-Based Data Query
Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
A collaborative study including Gulzar Shah, Ph.D., director of the Office of Research, and Dayna Alexander, a community health behavior and education Doctor of Public Health candidate, examined web-based data query systems. The study demonstrated the use of National Association of County and City Health Officials’ Profile-IQ, and how policymakers, researchers, the general public and public health professionals can use the system to generate descriptive statistics on local health departments. Profile-IQ’s customizable queries provide a variety of statistics not available in published reports and support the growing information needs of users who do not wish to work directly with data files because they lack staff skills/time or hope to avoid a data use agreement.
Cerebral Palsy Research
College of Health and Human Sciences
Professor Gavin Colquitt, Ed.D., is examining the effects of a power training (a specific type of exercise) intervention on the functionality of individuals with cerebral palsy. Other researchers include three undergraduate students, College of Health and Human Sciences (CHHS) faculty Li Li and Kristina Kendall, and Theophile Dipita, a biostatistics doctoral student in public health. Investigators are using the SkiergTM to simulate a unilateral, overhand throwing exercise by following power-training guidelines of individuals with cerebral palsy. The ongoing study will look at changes in power, spasticity, co-contraction, functionality, quality of life and fatigability to determine if power-training may facilitate unique improvements in strength and reductions in spasticity among individuals with cerebral palsy. This study is supported in part by the CHHS, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, and the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies.
Student’s Research Places Second
Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Information Technology
Computer Science major Bradford Bazemore won second place and a $500 prize in the Student Paper Competition during the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ regional conference in Lexington, Kentucky, with his paper titled, “Low Power Cluster Development System.” The project was funded through a student research grant from the College of Engineering and Information Technology (CEIT).
The 2013-2014 CEIT Undergraduate Awards Research Program received 43 proposals. Of those, 22 proposals were awarded to students who will be conducting research in areas of interest to the College, aligned to the following CEIT Departments: Civil Engineering and Construction Management, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Information Technology.
CEIT faculty who received funding from the 2013-2014 Faculty Seed Awards Program include Drs. Valentin Soloiu, Mosfequr Rahman, Danda Rawat, Sungkyun Lim, Mohammad Ahad, Peter Rogers, Rami Haddad, Maria Rocio Alba-Flores, Youming Li and Vladan Jovanovic.
Professor and Student’s Work on Nature Cover
College of Science and Mathematics
Physics Professor Mark Edwards, Ph.D., and College of Science and Mathematics student Noel Murray, were among the authors of an article featured on the cover of the February issue of Nature, widely regarded as the world’s premier interdisciplinary science journal. “It’s never happened to me before. It’s a great honor for me and primarily due to the collaborators that I worked with at the Joint Quantum Institute,” said Edwards, the University’s Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair. Murray is a master’s student in the Applied Physical Science program and plans to pursue his doctoral degree.
The article, “Hysteresis in a quantized superfluid ‘atomtronic’ circuit,” reports on the collaborative work between a team of experimental researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) and the Georgia Southern University theoretical team, consisting of Murray and Edwards.
Couples Therapy
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
What makes relationships successful? How can people find greater satisfaction in long-term, committed relationships? These are questions that a research team led by Professor Amy Hackney, Ph.D., is investigating. Working with marriage therapist Harville Hendricks, Ph.D., a Bulloch County native and author of the New York Times bestseller, Getting the Love You Want, Hackney, and researchers from the Department of Psychology and the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, are examining the effectiveness of Imago Relationship Therapy, a form of relationship therapy created by Hendricks and his wife, Helen Hunt, Ph.D. The research, supported by the Rural Health Research Institute, is following couples in the community, both before and after they participate in a specialized relationship workshop. The research team includes psychology professors Janice Steirn, Ph.D., Michael Nielsen, Ph.D., and Andrew Hansen, Dr.P.H., with support by several graduate students and therapists
in the community.
BBRED Evaluates Development
College of Business Administration
The Bureau of Business Research and Economic Development (BBRED) has partnered with the City of Hinesville, Georgia, to help prepare for the development of a new Family Entertainment Center. BBRED conducted research by performing a multi-part analysis comparing Hinesville to 11 similar communities. With all accumulated research, BBRED found the Family Entertainment Center to be a viable economic development project worth pursuing and congratulated the City of Hinesville on its latest endeavor. BBRED has been taking the role of providing economic research and policy analyses for over three decades.