- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Lee, Khodakovskaya, and Mitchell named Faculty Excellence Award winners

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 02:30:06 +0000

University of Arkansas at Little Rock professors Dr. Jin Wook Lee, Dr. Mariya Khodakovskaya, and Alicia Mitchell have been named the 2019 winners of the Faculty Excellence ��ɲ��.�� Each of the three professors will receive a $5,000 award as winners of the Faculty Excellence Awards in the categories of teaching, research and creative endeavors, and public service. Lee, assistant professor of systems engineering, received the Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award while Khodakovskaya was named the winner of the Faculty Excellence and Creative Endeavors Award. Mitchell, assistant visiting professor of law and director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, won the Faculty Excellence in Public Service Award. “Thirty years of recognizing the work of our outstanding faculty underscores the university’s commitment to our mission,” said Dr. Christina Drale, interim executive vice chancellor and provost. “It signifies the value we place on excellent teaching, research and creative activity, and service to our community. These essential components of our institution create a learning environment that enriches the education of our students and prepares them to embrace a bright future.” The winners were honored during an April 11 awards ceremony in the Schueck, McCarty, Lexicon Inc. Auditorium. Fourteen additional faculty members who earned Faculty Excellence awards at the college level also were honored, and they will each receive a $1,000 award. The 15 members of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Board of Visitors reviewed the achievements and selected the winners. This year celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Faculty Excellence Awards. Since 1989, the event has provided a way to recognize the great work of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty and is made possible through the valued contributions of the Bailey Foundation, Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Provost, and the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chancellor’s Circle. Sharon Bailey of the Bailey Foundation, which was instrumental in the creation of the Faculty Excellence Awards, presented the Bailey Teaching Award. “I would like to express our appreciation for the outstanding service each of you here have given,” Bailey said. “The Bailey Foundation has a long history with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. My late husband, Dr. Ted Bailey II, recognized the importance of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock many years ago and helped establish this teaching award. It is my honor to carry on his legacy.” More about the winners:

Faculty Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Jin Wook Lee is an assistant professor of systems engineering in the College of Engineering and Information Technology. “I never expected this kind of big award,” Lee said. “I am very honored. I would like to thank my wife, Ji, and son, Jason.” He began his career at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2013 and previously worked as a senior engineer at Samsung in South Korea. He connects with his students through a “disciplined, yet friendly” approach to instruction. In his teaching, Lee incorporates his personal experiences as examples in the classroom. He enjoys helping students understand new concepts and establish strong foundations to build their future careers. He is known for placing a high priority on his teaching and student interactions. “I just keep asking students questions instead of just giving lectures,” Lee said. “I want to make sure they understand what I am teaching. And after each test, I arrange a one-on-one meeting with those who have below average scores to ask how we can improve their learning. I think that helps a lot.” He contributed to the development of the Bachelor of Science in mechanical systems engineering at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and developed courses in fluid mechanics and computational fluid mechanics. Lee has been a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers since 2010. He was awarded two grants from NASA in 2015 and 2017 and has two patents pending.

Faculty Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors

Dr. Mariya Khodakovskaya is a professor of biology and interim associate dean in the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Her research is primarily on plant biology and nanotechnology, and she is well known for collaborations with scientists from other disciplines. Last year, she received a $1 million grant to study the genetic qualities of rice to determine its heat tolerance. Khodakosvkaya is a part of a consortium of four universities that collectively received $4.65 million from the National Science Foundation to study heat tolerance in rice in hopes of reducing hunger by helping rice farmers improve their yield. Khodakovskaya’s collaborations with material scientists, nanotechnologists, and other plant molecular biologists and biotechnologists resulted in the development of a unique research area in the intersection of plant biology and nanotechnology. She was the first person to demonstrate that carbon-based nanomaterials can affect plants at genomic and metabolomic levels, which activates genes involved in water transport, cell division, and response to environmental stress. She has also established new methods for increasing seed germination and plant and cell growth using nanomaterials. Khodakosvkaya strives to commercialize her research through interactions with industry professionals and through the submission of patent applications. In the past five years, two of her patent applications have been approved. In 2014, she formed a start-up company, Advanced Plant Technologies, LLC. Since 2008, she has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants totaling more than $9.6 million. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Arkansas Science and Technology Authority, Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board, and the Arkansas Space Consortium.

Faculty Excellence in Public Service

Alicia Mitchell is an assistant visiting professor of law and director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Bowen School of Law. She has worked at Bowen for almost 17 years and has spent her entire teaching career working in the clinical program, training students to ethically and professionally represent parties before the Internal Revenue Service. Alongside her students, Mitchell has served hundreds of economically distressed individuals in need of assistance with tax information. She works with the international student population, ensuring they are in compliance with federal tax regulations. Since 2014, Mitchell has been awarded the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grant from the National Taxpayer Advocate each year to aid in her endeavors. She also works in the Little Rock Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition and several national taxpayer committees. “The most impactful thing I do for students is give them the opportunity to learn by gaining practical experience,” Mitchell said. “They gain satisfaction by helping their clients in the clinic. When the students get a positive result, it reinforces everything that I am trying to teach them in the clinic – to be a good and impactful attorney.” In the community, she participates in events like the Hispanic Heritage Festival and the Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition Super Saturday. She believes in educating the community on their rights and responsibilities as taxpayers while spreading awareness of the clinic’s services. Mitchell is active on campus in the Delta Project Committee, Law School Admissions Committee, Assessment Committee, Faculty Development Committee, and the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Sustainability Committee. In the upper right photo, the 2019 Faculty Excellence Award winners include Jin Wook Lee (left) for teaching, Mariya Khodakovskaya (midde) for research and creative endeavors, and Alicia Mitchell (right) for public service. Photo by Benjamin Krain.

Doctoral student earns scholarship to present research on muscle synergy adaptation

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 14:46:46 +0000

Rajat Emanuel Singh, a doctoral systems engineering student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, earned a scholarship to present his research on muscle synergy adaptation at the IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference. Singh traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 17-19, to present his paper, “Muscle Synergy Adaptation During A Complex Postural Stabilization Task.” Rajat was one of a select group of students internationally who won a $750 competitive scholarship from the conference organizers to present his research. Muscle synergy is defined as the building blocks of movement that are encoded in the spinal circuitry. Various experimental studies have shown that their combination leads to different motor behavior. It is also believed that the muscle synergies are genetically encoded and are also learned or adapted depending on the task requirements, Singh said. In order to study muscle synergies associated with balance and control, Singh and his co-authors compared the muscle synergies of proficient and novice slackliners, those who walk or balance on a suspended length of flat webbing that is tensioned between two anchors. Two participants had at least three years of experience slacklining, while the other two were beginners. Their muscle synergies were extracted from EMG data. The paper is co-authored by Dr. Kamran Iqbal, professor of systems engineering and Singh’s doctoral advisor, and Dr. Gannon White, associate professor in the school of Counseling, Human Performance, and Rehabilitation. In the upper right photo, Rajat Singh makes notes about his experiment on muscle synergy adaptation. Photo by Ben Krain.

Veteran Looking Forward to Future Career as Engineer Exploring Renewable Energy

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 14:49:12 +0000

Victor Ruiz, a senior systems engineering major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has a lot to be thankful for. He’s a U.S. Air Force veteran with a beautiful wife and two young daughters. Now in his last semester as a systems engineering major, Ruiz is looking forward to a future career where he explores his passion for renewable energy. “As the world gets bigger, and there are more homes and buildings built that use more computers, lights, and phones, energy consumption will continue to boom,” he said. “I think people need to be educated more and learn to save what we have left on this world. People always assume energy is free and we can keep producing as much as we want at no cost, but it’s not the case.” A native of San Leandro, California, Ruiz graduated high school in 2006 and worked in an auto parts store “until a 6-foot, 6-inch mountain of a man walked into my auto parts store dressed in crisp Air Force Blues uniform and said, ‘Son, I am about to save your life.’” At 18, Ruiz joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base. He worked as an aircraft loadmaster, earned an associate degree in applied science in aviation operations, and even met and married his wife, Alba, who he met at Cajun’s Wharf. Life was going well for Ruiz, who thought he would spend his whole life in the military and retire. Things changed after Ruiz’s first child, Zoё, was born in 2014. Ruiz had already been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait, but the thought of leaving his newborn child was devastating. “Leaving to go fight a war was never hard for me. I accepted the fact that this is what came with the job,” Ruiz said. “The military turned this skinny boy from the suburbs of California into a man. The Air Force saved my life. It gave me goals, ambition, and a drive to never settle. I have never been terrified in my life except for one time. When I watched my 5-pound, 11-ounce baby girl come into this world, I was petrified. My baby was my world, and that’s when I knew I had to do the scariest thing imaginable. I had to leave the Air Force.” In 2014, Ruiz left the Air Force after eight years of service and moved his family to California and enrolled in college. However, life in California, with its expensive housing market and colleges, did not turn out well. He was only in his second semester at Ohlone College when he developed a devastating case of meningitis that left him unable to complete his classes. After he recovered, Ruiz and his family moved back to Little Rock, and he started at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock during fall 2015. With a strong belief that the world can no longer rely on fossil fuels as its main source of energy, Ruiz studies renewable energy and energy savings solutions “to put myself in a position to leave the world a little better than I found it.” His senior capstone project involved the development of a solar-powered irrigation system. Ruiz appreciates the small class sizes in the College of Engineering and Information Technology, something he wasn’t used to in California. “The small class sizes really make the learning environment intimate and student driven. Instructors are able to move at individuals’ pace making sure no one is left behind,” Ruiz said. “The passion EIT professors show for their students keeps me coming back every semester. Coming from California and large college classes really makes me appreciate the time and care everyone at the EIT college spends with the students.” He is also thankful to Amy Frets, EIT director of student services and retention, whose “mentoring and motivation makes you believe that when everything seems hopeless it can still be done.” As a full-time, nontraditional student, Ruiz said he has faced the challenges of working two, sometimes three, jobs while attending school in order to support his family, which now includes a second daughter, 1-year-old Khloё. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock is an institution that allows people like me who are getting up at 4 a.m. to run a truck route and then go to class all day to then go load and unload trucks until 10:30 at night,” Ruiz said. “A student that raises a 4-year-old and 18-month-old baby in their free time. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is an institution that does something no other college around here does. It gives nontraditional people that struggle to survive hope – hope for a better tomorrow. Hope that at the end of it all, that once you earn that degree, your dreams can become a reality. So last but not least, thank you ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for making my dreams a reality.” Ruiz is grateful to staff members of the Military Student Success Center including Cheryl Kleeman, assistant director of military student success, and Kathy Oliverio, director of military student success. “The Military Student Success Center has been vital to my success during my time at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. It is often thought of as a sanctuary for military students where they can share their college experience, troubles, and accomplishments. I owe all my success and complete turnaround in my GPA, from failing to three straight semesters on the Dean’s List, directly to the MSSC,” Ruiz said. “The Office of Financial Aid has made returning back to school feasible, affordable, and a reality. As a father with two beautiful little girls, I thought I could never be able to afford going back to school while providing for my family. Financial Aid’s support and easy access to scholarships has really eased the stress of college.” Ruiz is now completing an internship as an assistant energy engineer at Entegrity, an energy consulting business where he hopes to work after his graduation in December 2018. He also plans to pursue a master’s degree in systems engineering. In the upper right photo, Victor Ruiz is shown with solar panels that he works with at his internship as an assistant energy engineer at Entegrity. Photo by Ben Krain.

NuShores Biosciences receives $1.7 million grant to study bone regeneration technology

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 13:10:30 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock spin-off company, has received a $1.7 million grant to study how NuShores’ bone regeneration technology can be applied in craniofacial tissues. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, a component of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded the company a 2.5-year Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Fast Track grant to study the NuCress bone filler scaffold’s ability to facilitate dental implants in the jaw. “This NIH award is a direct result of the profound study results in long bone delivered by our research collaborators at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. The reviewers were able to clearly see the potential in dental applications for this technology. I’m excited to work with world-class clinicians to study the NuCress scaffold for the future benefit of their patients,” states Sharon Ballard, NuShores’ CEO. The NuCress scaffold is a nanomaterial-based bone regeneration device developed for large segmental defects. This development is led by Dr. Alex Biris, the director and chief scientist of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences and a professor of systems engineering in the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology. “This is a significant win to expand NuShores’ technology, made possible through our university relationships, Arkansas’ small business development infrastructure, and tireless work by a dedicated team. We are grateful,” said Biris.

NuShores Biosciences, LLC

NuShores has partnered with Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine on this grant. If successful, the scaffold will be a transformational tool for surgeons involved in bone regeneration in a variety of fields. Founded in 2014, NuShores has the exclusive, global license from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to commercialize university-owned patented and patent-pending technologies related to the NuCress scaffold. The company has received assistance from the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center. The NuCress scaffold has already given a number of animals a new lease on life. For example, just last year, it was used at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine to heal Hercules, an alpaca who broke his leg on his ranch in Lebanon, Tennessee, at only 24 hours old. The open wound and exposed bone led to a serious infection, which prevented the bone from healing properly. Against the odds, the scaffold eliminated the infection and completely regenerated the missing bone. Thanks to the NuCress scaffold, Hercules is now a thriving member of his herd. About the SBIR Program The SBIR program involves 11 federal agencies investing more than $3 billion a year in high risk/high payoff research and development conducted by the nation’s leading science-technology innovators. NuShores’ award is known as a Fast Track Grant, where funding occurs when SBIR Phase I and Phase II proposals are peer reviewed at the same time and granted in a single award. This approach expedites funding and research for the companies. Research described in this press release is supported by the National Center for Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health under award number 1R44DE028213-01.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock instructor leads project to develop STEM education tool

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 23:22:48 +0000

Ben Rainwater, instructor of systems engineering with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, will lead a project at Brown Engineers to create a water engineering computer simulation for students in grades six through 12. , an electrical engineering consulting firm in Little Rock, was awarded a $225,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation. The simulation will be used to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education across the state. “We envision students would go through a guided simulation and then a game where the students are asked to solve a problem or respond to a crisis,” Rainwater said. “For example, the students could be asked to bring a central water line to a town. They would use math, science, and engineering principles to build a functioning water plant. It would be a rich environment to teach the students.” Rainwater, electrical design engineer at Brown Engineers, will serve as the project’s principal investigator, while his co-worker, Sam Vandiver, lead technologist, will be the lead technical advisor. “The project is intended to teach students about water engineering and career education,” Rainwater said. “We want to translate engineering practice to engineering education to teach students how to apply the concepts they are learning in the classroom.” The simulation will educate students about the water purification process, engineering skills needed to create infrastructure, water conservation, and careers in the water treatment industry. “We think that it is valuable to train students on pathways to water-related jobs and to tackle challenges related to our shared and most valuable resource,” he said. The encourages small businesses to engage in research and development that has the potential for commercialization. The one-year Phase 1 grant will cover market research costs like conducting interviews with educators and curriculum developers to understand the STEM education market. Brown Engineers will apply for a Phase II grant, which supports the development of the product, by the end of the year, Rainwater said. Rainwater completed his Master of Science degree and Ph.D. in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His Ph.D. research includes new materials development for emerging energy technologies with support from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Rainwater has worked at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock since 2016 and teaches Introduction to Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Materials classes. “It’s a great opportunity to teach engineering materials to students,” he said. “Dr. Andrew Wright, Dr. Ibrahim Nisanci, and Dr. Alex Biris have been great mentors in the Systems Engineering department, and I’m lucky to get to teach my favorite subject.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock team attends Clinton Global Initiative University

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 18:17:26 +0000

Three University of Arkansas at Little Rock students attended the Clinton Global Initiative University Oct. 13-15 at Northeastern University in Boston to discuss their design of a water pump to provide clean drinking water to a rural village in Haiti. This is the second year ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has participated in the (CGI U) Network, a growing consortium of colleges and universities that support, mentor, and provide seed funding to student leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are developing solutions for some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Team members include Lottie Richardson, a fall 2017 systems engineering graduate, Tanner Harris, and Samuel Shelton, both spring 2017 graduates of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Dr. Andrew Wright, associate professor of systems engineering, also attended the event as the faculty liaison. “We would like to see the students learn how to take their ideas to implementation,” Wright said. “Part of implementation is developing funding and partnerships. Interacting with other like-minded students will help them build their partnerships, develop their ideas, and develop ways to get funding for their projects.” The team attending CGI U is working with a nonprofit organization that introduces clean water solutions to redesign and build a water pump that will provide access to clean drinking water in a rural village in Haiti. “Students our age are going above and beyond for people in this country and others,” Richardson said. “It’s humbling. It makes you feel like there are still good people on this Earth.” CGI U was founded in 2007 by former President Bill Clinton after the success of the Clinton Global Initiative, through which global leaders convene to implement plans to combat global challenges. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Office of Community and Career Engagement has sponsored the CGI U efforts at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock professor publishes new textbook for engineering students

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 14:52:56 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor has published a new textbook on control system design in engineering. Dr. Kamran Iqbal, professor of systems engineering, wrote, “.” River Publishers published the book this month as part of its Series in Automation, Control, and Robotics. Iqbal, who has been teaching control system design for years, wanted to write a new textbook for his students covering advances in the field. “I was not satisfied with the textbooks on the market on the subject,” he said. “Those texts were generally written 20 to 30 years ago and are in need of reorganization to cater for changing emphases in the subject.” Control systems are quite common, according to Iqbal, especially with an increased reliance on automation. Control system design is used in environmental controls and appliances in homes, airplanes, and vehicles. “Control system design involves designing a controller to obtain the desired behavior from the physical system, such as the airplane, the automobile, or environmental controls,” Iqbal said. “Controller design is based on a mathematical model of the physical system. The design is commonly implemented as a software routine using a microprocessor.” A control system design course is normally taken by students in all engineering disciplines, particularly as part of the curricula in electrical, mechanical, chemical, biomedical, and aeronautical engineering. This book provides a unified perspective with tools and methodologies that are applicable across all engineering disciplines. Iqbal holds a bachelor’s degree in avionics engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan. He also studied at Ohio State University, where he earned a Master of Business Administration as well as a master’s degree and doctorate in electrical engineering.

Indian students complete summer research program at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 13:15:39 +0000

A group of nine students from India completed internships in cutting-edge research areas at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock this summer. Dr. Seshandri Mohan, professor of systems engineering, initiated the international exchange program between ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and Vishwaniketan, an institution affiliated with the in India. Participants included Rahul Sharma, Yash Dutt Sharma, Shubham Gupta, Tanya Gupta, Yanshshree Anil Patil, Mohan Patle, Varad Anil Deshpande, Vatsal Paresh Gala, and Rajeev Kishore Sugandhi. The partnership brought Vishwaniketan students who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering, computer science, information technology, and mechanical engineering to Little Rock for a six-week research internship from June 19 to July 29. Upon completion of the internships, the students returned to their home universities to complete their degrees. Their completion of the international research internship will give them an advantage on their resumes. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has previously conducted similar exchange programs with Pondicherry University, SRM University, and Don Boscoe University, all in India. Mohan said many of the students who participated in these internships returned to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to pursue a graduate degree. “The students say they are enriched by this experience beyond what they expected out of it,” Mohan said. “They understand how to take responsibility and pursue research internships. Hopefully, some of them will return to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.” The students conducted research and experiments in four areas: robotics mentored by Dr. Andrew Wright, associate professor of systems engineering, and graduate assistant Trigun Maroo; entity resolution mentored by Dr. John Talburt, professor of information science and Acxiom Chair of Information Quality, and graduate assistant Yumeng Ye; machine learning mentored by Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, professor of computer science; and Internet of Things mentored by Mohan and graduate assistant Hadi Salman. In the Internet of Things project, interns Mohan Patle, Yashshree Anil Patil, and Shubam Gupta built devices that can be used in smart homes. According to Mohan, Internet of Things refers to devices that are connected to the Internet. Currently, the world contains more than 12 billion internet-connected devices, a number which could increase to 50 billion by 2020. Students programmed smart sensors to perform a variety of smart home functions. They programmed pressure sensors that could be used to build a smart refrigerator, range sensors that can detect motion to know when to activate lights, and a rain sensor that could be used to control shutters. As part of the machine learning project, interns Vatsal Gala and Varad Deshpande helped build a system that can predict the sentiments for commercial products by analyzing images and reviews posted on an ecommerce website. “Thousands of websites are selling millions of products online showing their images and stating the description of the product,” Milanova said. “The opinion mining is done by extracting various features from text and images that depict various sentiments. The most important part of the project was to train the machine on this set of extracted features and calculated data so that the machine can predict the values of sentiment for a new product (entity).” In the entity and identity resolution project, interns Tanya Gupta and Rahul Sharma used an open source software package called OYSTER that was developed at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to determine when records in an information system are about the same entity or different entity. Entities can be students, patients, customers, products, and locations. Entity and identity resolution is especially important in health care so patients can receive the proper treatment. “If you don’t bring together all of a patient’s records of diagnoses, tests, and previous treatments, it could easily lead the patient’s healthcare providers to make the wrong treatment decisions,” said Talburt, who mentored the interns. “Conversely, mixing the information together from two different patients could have many adverse consequences as well.” Gupta and Sharma took to OYSTER so well that they are considering using OYSTER to start a small business in India to help companies with entity resolution and data integration problems. In the upper right photo, nine college students from India completed six-week internships in cutting-edge research areas at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock this summer. The students also visited Gov. Asa Hutchinson at the Arkansas Governor’s Manson in Little Rock. Pictured, from left to right, are Yash Dutt Sharma, Yashshree Anil Patil, Tanya Gupta, Rajeev Sugandhi, Shubham Gupta, Sachin Sharma, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Seshadri Mohan, Rahul More, Rahul Sharma, Vatsal Gala, Mohan Patle, and Varad Anil Deshpande.

Innovation Hub awards ��Vlog��ý Little Rock team $25,000 in funding

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 20:45:15 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock systems engineering team received $25,000 in funding through the the Delta I-Fund program for its start-up company, IntelliNexus, to create a high-tech social networking solution for cars. Delta I-Fund is an early stage, proof-of-concept fund formed to capitalize and train university startups. The goal, according to the Innovation Hub’s website, is for the startups to eventually become successful businesses that bring jobs to the region. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock team consists of Dr. Seshadri Mohan, professor of systems engineering, Sachin Sharma, a Ph.D candidate in systems engineering, and Muhammad Baig Awan, who earned his doctorate in systems engineering in December 2016. The program provides up to $50,000 in funding through three stages. In September 2016, IntelliNexus was selected as one of eight teams to receive an initial investment of $5,000. IntelliNexus is the first of the cohort to received the third and final round of funding through the Delta I-Fund program. “The objective is to approach potential customers and stakeholders in the country, to interview them, and validate the business model,” Mohan said. “In talking to the potential customers or stakeholders, we polish our business model so we can be more successful if we launched the company.” IntelliNexus is developing technology that creates a network in both autonomous and driver-controlled vehicles. Its technology, SAVANT (SmArt Vehicles Adhoc Network Technology), is a high-tech social networking solution for cars. The key to SAVANT is that it will directly connect vehicles to other vehicles in the vicinity, rather than relying on cellular networks that can have connectivity problems. This can ensure cars remain connected when they come across stretches of road that don’t have cellular towers. It also means that drivers within the network can share information with other drivers, such as driving directions, playlists, photos, videos, and traffic updates, including any crashes they might encounter. “Imagine you are driving on Interstate 630 and there is an accident down the road. If these vehicles are connected through SAVANT, they can exchange information,” Mohan said. “The vehicles near the accident site can share the information with other vehicles as they happen in real time, so drivers can look for alternative routes.” The cars will be connected via cognitive radio, an adaptive radio and network technology that detects available channels in a wireless spectrum and changes transmission parameters to allow more communications to run in a given spectrum at the same time. “It mostly relies on unlicensed bandwidths that are free and unused, those that are not licensed by the FCC,” Awan said. By Dec. 3, the team received the second stage of funding for $20,000 to continue interviews to revise its business model and search for investors. The team has now interviewed more than 60 organizations — from insurance companies and law enforcement agencies to telecommunication businesses and automobile companies. It has conducted interviews with AT&T, Amazon, General Motors, Nokia, Nissan, Google, and Uber. IntelliNexus presented the findings of its commercial research and received the final round of funding, $25,000, on March 24. “Throughout the program, the team applied themselves diligently and learned as much as they possibly could about the commercial applications of their patented technology. They did this by conducting over 60 interviews with potential customers and through mentorship from the I-Fund teachers and mentors,” said Jeff Stinson, director of entrepreneurship for the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. The three entrepreneurs plan to use the rest of their funding to begin prototyping SAVANT and to look for more investors. They estimate that it will take $300,000 to $500,000 and one or two years to build an initial working prototype of their device. The team also plans to eventually hire ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students with expertise in computer science and electrical and computer engineering and to create additional entrepreneurial opportunities for students at the university. The next Delta I-Fund program begins in September. Anyone looking to be a part of the next cohort should visit . In the upper right photo, the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock team behind IntelliNexus consists of Sachin Sharma (left), Dr. Seshadri Mohan (middle), and Muhammad Baig Awan (right).

Donaghey Scholars start bone marrow donor registration organization on campus

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 18:46:19 +0000

Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock students are giving back through a campus organization that has resulted in hundreds of new participants in the registry, a global bone marrow registry operated by the National Marrow Donor Program. Roko Miocic, a 23-year-old student from Zadar, Croatia, and Adam Ness, a junior systems engineering major, started the organization as their final project for the Donaghey Scholars Program. The students held their first donor drive in March, followed by a second in September. So far, 570 people have joined the Be The Match registry thanks to these drives. Miocic, who will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in computer science on Dec. 17, said he and Ness were inspired to take up the cause after finding out that something as simple as swabbing a cheek could lead to a life-changing procedure. “Obviously, you support those causes, but why not get proactive about it?” Miocic said. “You literally have someone swab their cheek, and you can possibly save their life. This is a life and death situation, and you can be the decisive factor.” Bone marrow matches can help save the life of someone with a blood cancer like leukemia, lymphoma, or sickle cell anemia. Once registered, only 1 in approximately 540 people become donors. Most matches are based on age and ancestry. Since patients are most likely to match someone who shares their ancestry, members of underrepresented populations can have difficulty finding matches. Since the new students who come to ��Vlog��ýLR could potentially lead to hundreds of new registry participants every year, Miocic and Ness started a Be The Match student chapter to continue the bone marrow registry drives long after they graduate.

Adam Ness (left) and Roko Miocic (right) work at a Be The Match drive to register bone marrow donors.

Coming to America

After researching student-exchange programs since the age of 15, Miocic moved to Heber Springs, Arkansas, during his senior year of high school. While it was a tough decision to leave his home and family, Miocic and his parents thought the U.S. offered more opportunities for his education. “I was always attracted to the concept of the American dream,” Miocic said. “Croatia is territorially smaller than Arkansas. As beautiful as it is, there are not as many opportunities there.” After high school, Miocic got a basketball scholarship at Mid-South Community College, when his high school basketball coach, Kevin Kyzer, drove him to West Memphis to try out for the team. While looking for a university to complete his bachelor’s degree, Miocic struggled to find scholarships for international students. Though worried he would not be able to afford a university, his teachers and adviser at Mid-South all pitched in to find a solution. Miocic’s biology teacher, Erin Gordon, discovered the answer — the ��Vlog��ýLR Donaghey Scholars Program. This highly competitive, merit-based scholarship covers tuition, fees, housing, financial assistance for a study-abroad program, and new laptop computer. It is also open to international students. “What brought me to ��Vlog��ýLR was a little bit of coincidence and a whole lot of luck,” Miocic said. “When I learned I got the scholarship, I was walking to class, and I started screaming and jumping. People driving in their cars probably thought I was crazy.” While at ��Vlog��ýLR, Miocic has continued to thrive. He is a 2015 recipient of the Computer Science department’s Outstanding Junior Award and can speak seven languages. He has worked as a resident assistant, housing information technology assistant, and hall director for the Office of Campus Living and a technology intern for Dillard’s, Inc. He will begin ��Vlog��ýLR’s business information systems master’s degree program in January.

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