Grant Announcements

App State is among five UNC System schools awarded a $3.4 million National Science Foundation grant to support underrepresented students in STEM fields through the Mountains to Sea North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program. The program will serve 100 App State students.

Thanks to more than a half-million dollars in federal funding, App State is partnering with the High Country Area Agency on Aging to safeguard the independence of older adults in North Carolina’s High Country — by expanding and implementing falls prevention programs in the seven-county region.

“Roots and Routes: Stories of Migration in the High Country” — an App State project supported by the N.C. Humanities Council — is providing Hmong refugee and Latinx migrant families an opportunity to share their stories, histories and contributions to Western North Carolina.

Dr. Alice Wright and Dr. Cameron Gokee are leading an archaeological research team into the Linville Gorge Wilderness area to learn more about the lives of Indigenous people who used the land hundreds of years ago, while facilitating the preservation of cultural resources.

Dr. Sarah Carmichael describes her job as similar to that of a crime scene investigator — and the evidence she examines is more than 350 million years old. Through her research, Carmichael and her team seek insight on the causes and outcomes of mass extinctions during the Devonian period.

App State assistant professor Dr. Sarah Evans and App State undergraduate students will spend the next three summers studying water saturation patterns in Alaska’s thawing permafrost — research aimed at providing new insights on the advancement of climate change. Their research is supported by a nearly $690,000 National Science Foundation grant.

Help is on the way for the 50%–70% of people who suffer from recurrent ankle injuries. App State’s Dr. Alan Needle has received $57,349 in grant funding from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Research and Education Foundation for research that might prevent recurrent ankle sprains.

Dr. Patricia Johann was awarded a $510,823 research grant from the National Science Foundation. Her work will enhance verification of computer software — ensuring the programs are correct, secure and reliable.

Dr. Abdelbaset Hamza is leading a team in studying ways to make the transfer of information in internet data centers more efficient — with the goal of speeding up the internet and reducing the environmental impact.