Science and Society at State, or S3, a research program that supports scholarship across disciplines at Michigan State University, has awarded funding to 12 new research projects for 2016-17.
Research topics include lactating mothers in the workplace, wearable activity trackers and computation science in high-school classrooms.
S3 was created in 2014 by a small group of faculty to promote interdisciplinary research, grants and education. The advisory board now consists of scholars from all parts of the university from the College of Music to the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Since 2014, S3 has awarded 34 grants that promote interdisciplinary scholarship on campus with the goal of supporting new collaborations seeking external grant opportunities. The program provides around $10,000 worth of seed money per project.
“In just three years, S3 has been incredibly successful in supporting interdisciplinary scholars at MSU by providing grants to support the development of new projects with the goal of generating competitive external grant applications and increased visibility for MSU as a site for innovative and interdisciplinary research,” said Georgina M. Montgomery, director of S3.
S3’s mission to encourage collaboration is strongly reflected in the grants awarded, as each project includes at least one MSU STEM faculty member or health professional and at least one MSU science studies faculty member.
The 12 projects funded are:
- Societal Perception about On-Road Wireless Charging for Electric Vehicles: Considering Mobility and Environmental Impacts
- The Importance of Being There: Exploring the Effects of Communicating via Telepresence Robot on Older Adults’ Well-being
- Tribal Environmental Governance and Environmental Science
- Integrating Equitable Computational Science into High-School Science Courses
- Health Disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach
- Vital Signs: Bridging & Democratizing Physics
- Measuring the Impact of Scientific Uncertainty on International Environmental Regimes
- A Parent Portal for Parents of Children with Type 1 Diabetes
- Co-worker Stigma Towards Lactating Mothers in the Workplace
- Future Design Studio
- Supporting Innovation in Team Science through Online Collaborative Modeling
- Staying Fit: Long-Term Wearable Technology Uses Among Older Adults