Ball State Research

FALL 2015

Outstanding Creative EndeavorOutstanding Researcher of the Year

Reaching for the Skies

Welcome!

What a difference a year makes! On January 1, 2015, with the full support of the University community, Sponsored Programs Office (SPO) and the Contracts & Grants Office (CGO) fully merged into a compre-hensive unit: Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA). The merger has been both physical and administra-tive in nature: weve added offices to the Research House and expanded our service to faculty and staff, all in an effort to achieve our mission to reduce administrative burden, increase faculty and staff knowledge, and provide the highest level of support possible in research, creative, and programmatic external funding pursuits.

To that end, this magazine includes the FY 2014-15 records pertaining to Sponsored Projects Adminis-tration (SPA). Figures include grant awards, contracts awarded to University Centers and Institutes, and funding to the Ball State University Foundation that resulted in sponsored programs.

As an executive summary of sorts: FY 14-15 brought $11.1M in external dollars to Ball State University. 440 proposals were submitted during the fiscal year. 264 funded awards were recorded.

We extend our appreciation to all who carried out the challenging work of preparing and administering sponsored projects, both internal and externalawarded or notand recognize the productivity and com-mitment represented by all who are actively engaged in the pursuit of extramural funding.

On behalf of the first-rate and hard-working SPA staff, we offer our warm regards and best wishes for con-tinued success.

2 | Ball State Research

Robert J. Morris Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate SchoolProfessor of Chemistry

Justin Miller, EdDDirectorSponsored Projects Administration

Fall 2015 | 3

Ball State ResearchFall 2015

Editor/WriterHolly Ford

PhotographsRobin BlomHolly FordShireen KanakriBall State Photo Services

Ball State University

PresidentPaul Ferguson

Provost Terry King

Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate SchoolRobert J. Morris

Sponsored Projects AdministrationJustin Miller | Brenda Ayers | Maria Bumba-lough | Keith Chandler | Carol Clendening | Todd Davidson | Jacqueline Davis | Wil Davis | Stanley Geidel | Jay Javed | Sarah Lee | Matthew Moore | Chad Paskiewicz | Jessie Roark | Stephanie Roof | Sheila Shafer | Lee Anne Shore | Eric Strauch | Linda Swartz | Araminta Tuttle | Augusta Wray | Holly Ford | Emily Hayes | Briana Lomax | Byron Long | Abe Schreier

www.bsu.edu/spa

Cover Photo: Robin Blom

Contents

2 Welcome

4 Drones for Disaster Relief

8 Calories, Bias, and Autism

13 A Possible Treatment When Antibiotics Dont Work

16 Creating a New Frankenstein

20 Defense against Technology Threats

22 Measuring Health Inequality with Economics

FY 2015 Annual Report

24 External Funding Overview

26 Initiatives & Accomplishments

30 ASPiRE Internal Grant Programs

31 Intellectual Property

13 16 224

4 | Ball State Research 4 | Ball State Research

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Drones forDisaster Relief

Disaster strikes. Earthquakes. Floods. Hur-ricanes. Explosions. Thousands of people need immediate help, but widespread destruc-tion can mean theyre not found for weeks. How can workers assess such situations more quickly and start aid sooner?

Drones. Fleets of drones.For those scenarios, it is hard for people to get in.

This kind of research is very, very beneficial for those kinds of applications, says Assistant Professor of Computer Sci-ence Shaoen Wu.

He conducts his research on drones for the sole pur-pose of helping others. He proposes to create a cyber-physical system (CPS), which is an integration of computation, networking, and physical processes. His CPS would be called cooperative unmanned aerial vehicles enabled pan-oramic video surveillance. He recently received a National Science Foundation grant of nearly $238,000 to support this three-year project which ends in 2017.

This CPS generates mobile real-time video pan-orama using a fleet of cooperative drones equipped with cameras, Wu says.

Right now, we have the ability to fly a single drone, but the camera view is limited, he says. For large regions, especially after large disasters like floods or earthquakes, our hope is to fly a group of drones and actually see the whole situation. Those drones will collaborate and automatically control each other. If you use a single drone, you obtain a very limited, partial view. You have no global view of that region. So with this research, you will have that capability.

Currently, drones send separate pictures to a home base where the images are stitched together into a panorama. The problem is that the visuals often overlap, and send-ing the redundant information wastes energy. If the drones could piece the visuals together immediately and send a completed panoramic view

back, it would keep the battery-powered aerial vehicles in the sky longerthat is what Wu is working toward.

Stitching static camerasStep by step, Wu is achieving his goal. So far, hes

been able to create a panorama from static cameras. His current challenge is how to create panoramas when the cameras become mobile. Instead of jumping straight from static to flying cameras, Wu is experimenting with cameras on top of carts.

We plan to install at least four cameras and make a small cart, and we will use a remote control to move the cart, so it will be mobile. As the cart moves, the cameras will automatically create panoramas, theoretically. Once

the cameras on carts work, Wu will set to the sky.

Several students assist Wu with his research. We have seven graduate stu-dents and three undergraduates working on this right now. We are very glad that we can have the financial support for

multiple students. I always think involving students in research is very important, because its not only about the outputs for faculty members but also to enhance student experiences. They attain real life experience. My students are very excited!

Small beginnings, big dreamsWu is from a little community in China where he had

minimal exposure to technology. In China, I grew up in a small countryside village; we did not see any computers.

When it came time for Wu to choose a college major, he took a chance and picked information technology. I had no idea what major to choose. My high school did not have a computer. I had never seen a computer.

I can imagine back to those moments when I was wondering what career I will have. When I look back, I feel that God led me this way. I feel its just amazing and unex-pected . Its a very fantastic time for me to work here be-cause Ball State is very supportive of faculty in their research. They give a lot of effort to encourage people.

Wus vision: smart housesMy biggest hope is to help people live in much better

environments with my research. The drone is just part of my vision.

Wu hopes to create smart houses in which each room will know your individual preferences and that of your fam-ily members, he says. The system will learn everything by itself, so we call it artificial intelligence.

I had no idea what major to choose. My high school did not have a computer. I had never

seen a computer.


With the use of smart vents, a smart house will au-tomatically adjust room temperature based on individuals preferences. Using various sensors placed in the room, the system will communicate with the vents and tell them to open or close, thus automatically adjusting each single rooms vents according to the set temperature, Wu says.

The next step is for the system to recognize thats you, not your dad. The system will memorize your preferences from the past and learn, he says. After that, its about ac-tivity recognition. Sitting, walking, and exercising. Once we recognize its you, but you are doing different activities and your preference is different, the system will learn from you. Its ongoing.

This system senses motion in a way similar to Kinect for Xbox 360. We can use different sensors to detect your gestures. We do not want to use anything that you have to wear on your body, because thats not convenient, Wu says. We would like to use sensors embedded in the environ-ment, so the environment will be smart. You do not have to do anything.

His smart house system is similar to the Nest thermo-stat, but Wu says his system is more advanced. The Nest only replaces the manual programmable thermostat widely available in markets, in that it intelligently learns the user

preference on temperature and then makes adjustments without manually programming the preference.

However, Wus system would learn to differentiate between household members, as well as the various activities of the different members. It then adjusts the temperature based on a particular user and his or her activity. So, it is smarter and more user friendly. It is based on artificial intelligence algorithms. It will not only save energy, but also definitely result in a completely different user experience in our future housing.

Wus smart house system can make a big difference in energy use. Energy is wasted when unoccupied rooms have as high of a temperature as the occupied ones. With this system, in which each room is individually controlled, if there are no people in a room, the system automatically turns off. That saves energy. It is hard to say, but from the report of what we have so far, at least 20-35% of energy can be saved.

The long-term goal is for the whole world to be smart, Wu says. Thats the final goal for CPSto use computing technology in the physical world. If we can make a contribution to the whole world, I would think thats the most rewarding part.

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Ball State Universitys junior faculty research could have great impacts on countless lives. The 2014-15 junior faculty research competition awardees are working to improve fitness technology like Fitbits, studying consumers trust and misperceptions of news based on their news source preferences, and helping architects and interior designers create classrooms that meet the needs of students with autism.

The Aspire internal grant programs Junior Faculty Competition, administered by Sponsored Projects Administration, helps support such research and creative endeavors. The primary purpose of this competition is to give junior faculty seed money for research findings and projects that will lead to further support from exter-nal funders. Those in their first five years of a tenure-track appointment are eligible to apply.

Measuring calories burned in everyday lifeAmericans idea of fitness is changing. Instead of

simply counting hours at the gym or calories in the kitchen, were using technology to measure the energy we use in our everyday activitiesat work, at the store, at home, every-where. Were recognizing that every bit of activity counts toward a healthy lifestyle, and that has caught the attention of one Ball State researcher.

Fitbits are a popular tool for measuring calories burned during everyday activities, also known as free-living energy expenditure. Free-living energy expenditure is the amount of energy that a person uses as he or she undergoes normal, daily activities in the real worldnot in the laboratory, according to Alex Montoye, assistant professor of clinical exercise physiology.

Montoye says wearable activity monitors like Fitbits are good for estimating activities like walking, but theyre not so great at measuring the energy used during other activ-ities of daily living. Preliminary results of Montoyes research show that consumer-based activity monitors tend to under-estimate steps and the amount of calories burned, especially during higher-intensity activities and household activities, such as sweeping, vacuuming, and doing laundry.

Most research studies looking at the accuracy of activity monitors are conducted in the laboratory because it allows researchers to exert a high degree of control over activities that participants perform as well as allowing for use of high-quality criterion measures of energy expenditure,

Montoye says. However, recent research has shown that activity monitors that work well in the laboratory may work very poorly in the real world, where there is no restriction on activities that people perform.

We know that physical activity and exercise are good for health. However, actually measuring how active people are is surprisingly difficult, and the method we use to mea-sure physical activity results in dramatic differences in how

active we think people are, he says. For example, almost 50 percent of U.S. adults claim to meet the national phys-ical activity guidelines (150 minutes a week of moderate or vigorous physical activity) when asked via questionnaire, but less than 5 percent meet guidelines when assessed using a physical activity monitor.

We need to improve the ways we measure physical activity in order to understand how active people are and target interventions toward people who are achieving low levels of physical activity.

I hope that we can improve the accuracy of physical activity monitors so that we can have a better idea of how active people are and have valuable information to use to devise ways of getting people to be more physically active to improve health.

Montoye received an Aspire junior faculty award to as-sess how correct activity monitors are in the real world. My current research is looking at the accuracy of several differ-ent kinds of accelerometer-based physical activity monitors for measuring energy expenditure while performing a wide variety of sedentary, household, ambulatory, and exercise activities in both the laboratory and in the real world, says Montoye.

From May 2015 through December 2016, Montoye will be working with thirty research participants. Partici-pants will be fitted with accelerometers on their hips, wrists, thigh, and ankle for two four-hour sessions while in their free-living environment, says Montoye. A research assistant will follow participants in their everyday settings to observe and record the time-stamped order and sequence of activities performed by the participant, he says.

So far, Montoye has found that machine learning, a pattern recognition approach to modeling data that has applications in many areas, improves the accuracy of energy expenditure measurements from wearable physical activi-ty monitors. However, machine learning is considerably more complex than other modeling techniques, he says,

Fall 2015 | 9

Almost 50% of US adults claim to meet the national

physical activity guidelines...but less than 5% meet guidelines when assessed using a physical

activity monitor.

Calories, Bias, and AutismAspire Internal Grants Support Varied Faculty Research

and its current complexity may preclude it from becom-ing a mainstream approach to modeling data from activity monitors. Therefore, my current work is focused on find-ing ways to simplify machine learning models enough that

they can be used by people who dont specialize in activity monitor research.

Students who assist with Montoyes re-search gain expe-rience beyond the classroom. Its very rewarding getting to help students learn about the research process, and the

students Ive worked with have been incredibly helpful in all the stages of data collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings. A few students have presented our work at regional conferences with plans to present at national conferences in the near future.

Montoye is grateful for the campus research environ-ment and resources. The Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State is celebrating its 50th anniversary this fall, making it one of the oldest exercise physiology labs in the country. We have excellent support from both faculty and administrators within the school, college, and at the uni-versity level. Additionally, the Clinical Exercise Physiology Program in which I work runs the Adult Physical Fitness Program, one of the oldest university-run exercise programs in the country. We have years of data available for use as well as many members who are willing to be involved in research studies. Its a wonderful environment that promotes high-quality scholarship. I am privileged to be able to con-tribute a small piece to the labs outstanding reputation.

News source trust and misperceptionsFox News or CNN. Which one are you more likely to

believe? Why?These kinds of questions intrigue Robin Blom, assis-

tant professor of journalism. He received an Aspire junior faculty research award to support his work in bias percep-tions toward news sources. This work will run from May to December 2015.

Expose two groups of people to the same truthful headline, but tell one group the headline is from CNN and

tell the other group the headline is from Fox News. Even though the information isliterallythe same, the groups will consider the headline for one outlet more believable than when its attributed to a competitor, Blom says.

Im fascinated by people who believe things that arent true and people who dont believe things that are true, he says. There could be negative consequences for themselves or others when people make decisions based on mispercep-tions. Thats why this is a fascinating research area. Lots of work to do!

For his current research, Blom is surveying a random-ly-selected group of 1,000 U.S. adults online. Participants get exposed to one of two headlines about whether a majority or minority of citizens wants religious groups to be more involved in politics, attributed to either NBC or CBN (Christian Broadcast Network). The participants will indicate to what extent they believe the headline, as well as information about source trust, Blom says. They will also indicate their own political leaning, religious beliefs, and how surprised they were that the source provided the headline.

Based on preliminary results from two of Bloms previous studies, he expects that the participants source trust and expectations about source messages will explain the differences in believability. If this is true, it could suggest that sources people distrust at first can actually become very believable, and trusted sources can become very unbeliev-able. Those findings could be the core of media literacy training modules to indicate the importance of accessing a variety of news sources to become educated about important issues in society for which there is no shared consensus on solu-tions, Blom says.

Blom hopes to teach young adults to rely on multiple news sources so they can make informed choices, especially about life-and-death matters. In a swiftly changing society, in which all members are bombarded with news and gossip through numerous channels each day, it may be more than ever that citi-zens require fundamental information-literacy skills to decipher fact from fiction, he says.

On some important political issues, such as whether vaccinations cause autism, there is only one truthvaccinations cause autism or they do not. And political decisions should reflect that reality, he says.

Any decision based on misperceptions, or long delays (in decisions) based on dis-cussions fed by those misperceptions, takes away valuable time and resources on fixing


problems that communities deal with. And sometimes those decisions could literally mean the difference between life, illness, and deaththere can be severe consequences on refusing vaccinationsregardless of whether some related concerns are valid or not.

Blom is especially intrigued in how people react to a news headline about a reli-gious topic that is either attributed to secular or nonsecular sources. Im particularly interested in how the believability level of the headline is influenced by the level of news source trust and the prior expectancies of what news content individuals were expecting from a particular news source.

So far, Blom has discovered a double-edged swordpeoples own bias can lead them to misperceive the news, yet the news can cause misperceptions, intentionally or not.

On the one hand, cognitive biases lead certain in-dividuals to adopt misperceptionsits not necessarily the actual news coverage, he says. On the other hand, news organizations must realize that the skepticism toward news coverage is largely caused by journalists distributing much misinformationwhich is caused by a mix of honest mis-takes, flawed journalistic practices, and intentional distor-tion by certain reporters and commentators. That distrust needs to be restored to decrease misperceptions within societies.

Blom appreciates the support hes received from Ball State and Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA). The

university has great programs to help junior faculty to develop their research ideas and grant-writing abilities. In particular, the folks at SPA have helped me to develop a

research agenda for the next few years. The SPA workshops have helped me to craft competitive grant narratives, which have led to receiving a Hollis Award (for psychological research) and an Aspire junior faculty research award. That financial support allows me to collect valuable data to develop theories about why certain people believe things that arent true and other people dont believe things that are true.

The results of Bloms research are taking him all over the world as he speaks to mass communication, political science, and social psychology audiences. He has presented in places such as the Midwest Political Science Association annual conference in Chicago, the Interamerican Congress of Psychology in Lima, Peru, and the Affect: Memory, Aesthetics, and Ethics Conference in Winnipeg, Canada. In October, he traveled to Santiago, Chile, to present at the first international regional conference by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Blom also shares his research in the classroom in hopes that his students will think critically about news sources and bias perceptions. I think its important for student jour-nalists to know that they will be challenged by some audi-ences even when they report neutrally and ethically. And, of course, they are news consumers as well. I hope to convince

them that their own cognitive biases could influ-ence how they perceive reality and how easily they could adopt misinformation.

Autism and acoustics: sounds affect student behavior

Charley is a delightful 7-year-old boy. He giggles and plays, and he loves watching movies more than anything else. His favorite movie is Cars, like many other kids his age, but something is a little different about Charleyhe can quote the entire movie from beginning to end, and hell repeat the same quote over and over all day long.

Charley has autism. Hes high-functioning, but it still affects his social interactions and per-formance in school.

Many kids like Charley have a hard time in school. Some of them communicate more slowly than their peers without autism, and they find it difficult to interact with others. Some students with autism have repetitive behaviors similar to Charleys movie quotes.

One member of the interior design facul-

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Im fascinated by people who believe things that arent true and people who dont believe things that are

true.

ty at Ball State hopes her research could help students like Charley perform better in schoolbut how? What is the connection?

Autism has long been excluded from the various ar-chitectural and interior design guidelines of practice for spe-cial needs, according to Assistant Professor Shireen Kanakri.

She received a junior faculty award to support her research on how classroom acoustics may directly affect the behavior of students with autism.

I found that there is a strong relation between sound and specific types of behaviors, says Kanakri. So far, Kanakri has discovered that high-frequency sounds correlate positively with three behaviors: hitting, covering ones eyes, and blinking. Frequency is essentially the pitch of a sound. A loud sound does not necessarily have a high frequency. For instance, the hum of a fluorescent light bulb has a high frequency but is most often quiet. Meanwhile, an ambulance siren or a person yelling are loud sounds that do not neces-sarily have high frequencies.

Kanakri is working on a follow-up study to confirm her findings. In this study, Kanakri will study children con-sidered to be high-functioning autistic, both in her lab and in various classrooms. In the lab, children will be exposed to two different types of soundshigh-frequency sounds and loud soundsand Kanakri will observe their behavior. These lab studies will allow Kanakri to study individual sounds without interruption from any other sound.

Kanakri is recruiting families from Indianapolis, Mun-cie, Fishers, and Caramel. So far, 80 families have agreed

to participate. She hopes to eventually recruit families from further away and to pay for their travel and overnight costs.

In classrooms, Kanakri will observe the decibel levels of naturally-occurring soundssuch as from teachers, air conditioning units, other classrooms, and outside trafficand the students behavior.

For most students with autism, education is centered on learning skills for future independence. Acoustics is one of the most important factors when designing classrooms for children with autism, she says. If learning environments are not designed to accommodate students with develop-mental disabilities they may not learn these important skills and may struggle to live in our society.

Kanakris research can help children like Charley by helping families, teachers, physicians, and therapists under-stand the environments effects on students with autism. She also hopes her research will help the architectural and design worlds. This research will give compelling reasons for architects and designers to modify the learning environment for children with autism. These modifications will help these children develop their skills, cope with the auditory prob-lems and improve their behaviors.

How can we improve the acoustic environment to sup-port students with autism? I recommend building acous-tical panels in the classrooms to shut down all the sounds above 70 decibels (equivalent to a vacuum cleaner), says

Kanakri.Because children with autism

are often hypersensitive, they are overstimulated by different things, so we need to be careful about what we put in the spaces around them. We should respect what they need.

Kanakri plans to establish an autism healthy environment lab at Ball State. This lab will be unique in this area, she says. It will be well-designed acoustically to observe childrens behaviors under specific levels of sound.

She hopes to help students with autism to understand their environment better. If autistic children are able to understand auditory information, they will be more likely to comprehend their environment, both socially and academically.


Acoustics is one of the most important factors

when designing classrooms for children with autism.

Antibiotics certainly save lives, but long-term and widespread use of the drugs has caused some bacteria to adapt and become harder to kill. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that 2 million people become infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria every year in the United States, and at least 23,000 of those people die as a direct result of these infections.

Susan McDowell, professor of biology and Muncie native, is working on a treatment to make antibiotics and the immune system more effective. McDowell leads a team of Ball State University professors and students, along with researchers from the University of New Mexicos Center for Molecular Discovery, in this collaborative effort.

Our main area of interest is in trying to develop new molecules that can combat bacterial infection by mech-anisms that are different than those used with antibiotic treatment, says McDowell.

She and her colleagues just received a patent for a vari-ation of a molecule called ML141. With this molecule, she hopes to develop a drug that eventually can be used along-side antibiotics to help fight infections.

Antibiotics are not able to access all of the areas of our bodies where bacteria can be hiding out. So specifically,

some bacteria are able to actually invade our cells, and when theyre within our cells, most antibiotics are not able to get across the cell membrane or at least not at high enough concentrations to then kill the bacteria inside, McDowell explains.

She says this often becomes a problem after a person has a knee or hip replacementthe resistant population is able to invade the new device and cause an infection.

What weve been working on for several years now is an approach that blocks the ability of bacteria to invade host cells, she says. Then they remain exposed outside of the host cells, and if they are susceptible to antibiotics, then they can get killed off by the antibiotics, or if theyre a resistant population, our own immune system has better access to the bacteria and is able to help clear it away better.

Statins, staph, and serendipityBefore coming to Ball State in 2003, McDowell was

conducting postdoctoral research at Eli Lilly on the cardio-vascular effects of statins such as Simvastatin, a prescription drug that helps lower cholesterol. She continued this re-search at Ball State, but unfortunately, none of her hypothe-ses were right.

Outstanding Researcher of the Year

A Possible Treatment When Antibiotics Dont Work

Fall 2015 | 13

We had an entire years worth of negative data, meaning that every idea that we tried in that grant was wrong. I can laugh now. I was in a panic, she says with a smile.

A pivotal point in McDow-ells research happened when one of her students, Sharm Knecht, returned to Ball State after con-ducting a summer internship at IPFW. She had been studying staphylococcus aureus (staph) and asked McDowell for permission to continue her project.

In all honesty, I kept putting her off because I didnt know anything about staph. I didnt know how to grow it, says McDowell.

Knecht was persistent, and eventually McDowell gave in. Now in hindsight Im very grateful for that, she says.

John McKillip, associate professor of biology, taught McDowell and Knecht how to grow staph. I made a lot of mistakes. I still make a lot of mistakes. Im not a microbiolo-gist, says McDowell.

Meanwhile, McDowell was not making any break-throughs in her research on statins. One day, in a moment she calls serendipitous, she skimmed the literature on statins and staph. She discovered that people who were on statins for lowering cholesterol were at a decreased risk of death due to infection.

Thats huge. When youre affecting death rates, then thats usually important, she says.

Alongside her students, McDowell set up a simple experiment in the lab in which they pretreated some human cells with Simvastatin. The next day, they infected the cells with staph, and later assessed whether or not there were

fewer bacteria in the cells treated with the statin compared to the control cells.

I remember standing at the incubator that day physically shaking, because I knew if this experiment worked, it was a game changer, she says. It was an incredible effect. It was a 90

percent inhibition at a clinical concentration of the statin. So that just opened a whole new direction, and thats where all of our resources went. To the best of our knowledge, we were the first to discover that statins could limit bacterial infection.

Whats wrong with statins?Statins do not kill bacteria like anti-

biotics do. Rather, statins limit bacteria by immobilizing a host protein called CDC42. When its inactivated, the host cell machin-ery that the bacteria usually hijack in order to invade us gets turned off. So the bacteria just get frustrated, says McDowell.

However, statins affect more proteins than just CDC42, and critically ill people can have adverse effects to statins. McDowell began to wonder if another molecule existed that inhibits CDC42 only, without the adverse effects.

After several dead ends and lots of help from her colleagues, McDowell tracked down a CDC42 inhibitor called ML141. This molecule was very unstable; its effects changed from week to week. McDowell began work-ing with Robert Sammelson, chairperson of the Department of Chemistry, who began making alterations to ML141. In October 2015, McDowell and her colleagues received a pat-ent for their altered molecule.

Hope for a clinically available drug

When asked about her hopes for her research, McDowell says, I dream big. What we would hope is that this drug would be clinically available, so that people who are receiving antibiotics could be put on our compounds at the same time as antibiotics to try to break that infection cycle.

McDowell hopes that such a compound would pre-vent infections in people with hip and knee replacements so they would not need addi-tional surgeries. Her drug could also help those who get chronic infections such as strep throat. She says that chronic infections are caused by those pesky bacteria that hide out in cells, so her drug could potentially get rid of those infections for good.

I remember standing at the incubator that day physically shaking, because I knew if this experiment worked, it was a game

changer.


A great job and great studentsIn the lab and in the classroom, McDowell prepares

her students for careers in science. Several current students and graduates shared via email the lasting impact McDowell has made on their lives.

Without the excellent start that I got working in Dr. McDowells lab, I would not be the scientist I am today, says Robin Dewalt. Upon graduating in 2011 I left the lab feeling confident and fully prepared to start my new posi-tion. To this day, I still hear little reminders and good point-ers that she taught in class and also in the lab in my head as I do my work. Her lab gave me a foundation, and luckily for me it was a solid one.

I have learned how to work hard and aim high from Dr. McDowells example. I also learned more during my time in her lab than I learned in all of my science classes combined. Dr. McDowell has inspired my love of research and teaching, says Ashley Zahrt who now teaches high school science. I teach ... classes that focus heavily on bio-medical science and research. Many of the techniques I teach my students were first taught to me by Dr. McDowell.

Caroline Hersley is pursuing her Masters degree in biology and is participating in a co-op with Eli Lilly through Ball State. She says, Without knowing what Dr. McDowell had taught me and gaining the experience through her lab, I would not be where I am today.

I love teaching here. I have the best job, says McDowell. I have highly motivated students in each one of my classes. Were able to do really interesting things in my classes, and Ive had these great students doing research with me.

Every student whos written to congratulate me on this award, Ive had to say to them, Please know that you

were the one to put the hours in at the bench. I hardly ever run an experiment. It was your work ethic, and your creative ideas. Sometimes the students will raise a question that my brain never would have gone to. They get so invested in it. They really have redirected our work many, many, many times. Left up to me, we wouldnt be where we are today.

McDowell loves teaching so much that she encourages her students to work at a similar uni-versity. If any of you are thinking about teaching, I would hope that you find a place like Ball State, and I mean that sincerely.

Acknowledgements

These accomplishments would not be possi-ble without McDowells colleagues Henry Akinbi, Derron Bishop, Heather Bruns, Mark Haynes, John McKillip, VJ Rubenstein, Rob Sammelson, and Larry Sklar, as well as the many hardworking students who have contributed to these efforts.

McDowell extends her gratitude to the following organizations for their financial support of this research: the Ball State Honors College, the College of Sciences and Humanities, the Indiana Academy of Science, the Lilly Foundation, The National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and Sponsored Projects Administra-tion.

Fall 2015 | 15

Creating a New

Frankenstein

Drew Vidal and Michael Elliott brought Dr. Frankensteins murderous monster to life, and for that, they received the 2015 Out-

standing Creative Endeavor Award.Elliott and Vidal created an original, move-

ment-based production of Frankenstein over a mere eight-week period in the fall of 2013. Vidal, assistant professor of theatre, directed and edited the show while Elliott, assistant professor of theatre and dance, composed all of the music. They relied on movement to tell the story as much as possible and only used spoken words when necessary.

I wanted it to be an original, movement-based pieceso I knew our source material had to be a story that was well-known enough that we could take what-ever storytelling liberties we wanted to with it, says Vidal. Even the people that havent read the novel know the story. Its in the ether enough that people feel like they know it. It seemed like it was ripe for retelling.

For the story line, they dove into the original source of Frankenstein, Mary Shelleys book. Everything came from the novel . We went through the novel and tried to identify the parts of the story that would be integral to share with the audience, says Vidal. We told it in a different way since we were using a visual and auditory story medium instead of a lot of text.

A structured, organic rehearsal processThe actors in Frankenstein had no script to memorize.

It wasnt (written), because we were creating it as we went, says Vidal.

Because there was no script, students had the freedom to createa chance they dont often get. In traditional theatre, the actors are working as actor-interpreters of the text, and I think it was exciting for them to be actor-creators and have a hand in what the final product was actually going to look like. Getting to be in the room as they made those discoveries was exciting.

Everything about our productions process demanded this level of constant collaboration, writes the productions dramaturg Colin Hart, instructor of theatre, in his entry for the Student Dramaturgy Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Everyone in the room had a hand in the tearing apart and putting back together of our final product. Actors came up with story ideas, (and) assistant directors made design choices.

Akin to working with a new play, we were taking a piece of text, breaking it down through a series of workshops, and rebuilding it into a quasi-final form through rehearsal. We were not tied to one specific viewpoint or story-arc; we

could work with the text and the characters to fashion any number of different narratives, says Hart. Our storytelling options were not limited by lines or stage directions but were as boundless as our joint imaginations.

Joe Colajezzi, an ensemble member who portrayed various roles, learned about the importance of creativity from this experience. Frankenstein taught me that nurturing the creative, innovative side of your brain is as important as nur-turing your technique as an artist.

Vidal compares their production to a poem in that everyone has their own interpretation of it. Every single audience member was going to receive this storytelling a little bit differently. There were some parts the audience got right way. There were other parts that the audience was maybe like, What exactly is happening right now?

One part in particular probably made the audience wonder what was going on. When the creature learns lan-guage from the peasants that he encounters in the forest, we chose to convey that by having the peasants speak all of their words backwards. They were speaking, but they had written out every word that they spoke backwards and then learned it phonetically, so they were speaking what sounded like a completely foreign language that nobody in the audience got, says Vidal.

As the creature spent more and more time with them, he started to figure out how to put the words right-side upput the words back together. There were audience members who caught on to that, and there were audience members that were just utterly like, What is going on?! And Im fine with that.

The music became a characterWhile Vidal and the students figured out how to por-

Outstanding Creative Endeavor

Michael Elliott (left) and Drew Vidal (right)


Fall 2015 | 19

tray the story using words and movement, Elliott composed the music for Frankenstein. He received the Outstanding Achievement in Composition award in spring 2014 from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

Just like Frankensteins creature, the music came alive. It became a character of the show. The process of writing was very fast. It was frenetic. It was problem-solving, Elliott says. If I ever thought of the scope of it, it would slow me down. Id take what theyre giving me and build around it.

Elliott has a knack for problem-solving. He studied engineering in college before switching to music. The things I love about music, I loved about engineeringtheory, how things are put together. (For Frankenstein), all I was doing was problem-solving the entire time, trying to create solu-tions. I had a few themes going into it during the rehearsal process . I just started piecing things togethersewing it together, building structures that needed to be built. That was the process. I had no plans.

A couple times I had to go, Trust me, its going to be OK. Thats not what its going to sound like.

Elliott and Vidal drew inspiration from each others ideas. We were working back and forth, says Vidal. Espe-cially at the beginning, Michael had created music that we were creating storytelling to, but there were other times that worked the other way and I created storytelling. Wed film it and give it to him, and Id say, I need this to sound like this. Or wed listen to something he created, and wed talk about how it feels a little bit like this, and we need it to feel a little bit more like this. Sewing all the pieces together became a huge challenge at the end because we had lots of puzzle piec-es. Ultimately we had to link them all together.

Vidal and Elliott often worked right beside each other to create this award-winning production. I feel very lucky to be able to work with the composer in the room with me, says Vidal. So often I feel like there are directors and music

directors and choreographers working in compartments, so being able to spend as much time in the room together was amazingly useful.

Tips for show bizFor any aspiring artists,

Elliott and Vidal can impart some wisdom. The single greatest sign of success is literally just grit. (A success-ful person is) someone who wants to do something so bad that no matter what hard-ships they encounter, they are going to just keep working, says Vidal. I feel like that is probably true in all fields but very true in theatre because there are a lot of hurdles.

I think there are also a lot of careers in theatre that college students maybe dont have on their radar. Everybody wants to be a performer starting out, but ultimately there are hundreds of other careers in and around the arts that maybe (dont involve) you on stage that can be wildly rewarding.

Elliott adds, Success is not measured by Tony Awards. Just being a working actorthats successful.

The definition of success will continue to evolve, says Vidal.

A hub for original workOur department is one of the best resources that we

havevery supportive of what we all do, says Elliott. And the fact that they let us just go off and do this really without even knowing if it was going to be successful or not

I think it was a huge encouragement and a huge leap of faith to let us do that says Vidal.

The Theatre and Dance Department has some big plans for more original work. This department as a whole is really excited byand continuing to pursuemore and more op-portunities to create and present original work, which I think is becoming a really exciting part of our mission statement, Vidal says. Thats not just movement-based, devised stuffits new musicals, new plays.

The goal is that every single semester, were presenting new works and that Ball State becomes a hub for presenting new work, especially since more and more regional theatres dont have the flexibility and/or finances to be workshopping and creating new work. So more and more, thats shifting to the university level. Thats something I think a lot of us are really excited by.

Go see plays! Come see shows! says Vidal.And dance concerts! Elliott says with a smile.

We can lock our doors, install home security systems, and fend off intruders with guard dogs, but none of those measures can shield our digital worlda world containing precious information about our lives, our work, and our money.

New Internet threats emerge all the time, and indus-tries must employ the latest security measures to combat ever-changing threats. To help industries defend themselves, the Security and Software Engineering Research Center (S2ERC) explores ways to improve such security measures.

Whats in the name?The S2ERC is a National Science Foundation (NSF)

cooperative research project that is headquartered at Ball State. The university has received numerous NSF grants to support the center, including its most recent five-year grant of $521,000.

Working in collaboration with other universities, the center tailors its research to industries specific needs, with the goal of improving software products, software develop-ment processes, and security systems.

Basically, what we do is analyze the heck out of soft-

ware, says Dolores Zage, research coordinator for the center and assistant professor of computer science.

The S2ERC works to fix and prevent software problems for over 27 large companies and government agencies such as AT&T, John Deere, NASA, Ontario Systems, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Early detectionWe can find errors in your code before you write the

code . using the information in a software design, which comes before the code, much like an architect has a blue-print (design) of a building before the building is construct-ed, says center Director Wayne Zage, professor of computer science. Thats the ideacatch problems early in the life cycle.

We created software metrics that highlighted problem areas in the software, says Dolores. When youre develop-ing software, if you had to spend an equal amount of time reviewing every section, youd never finish or youd spend too much money, so practitioners kept asking us, Well, where are my problem spots? And guess whatthose met-rics pointed out very well where they were.

Defense against Technology Threats


From left to right: Vida Scarpello (NSF Center Evaluator), Dolores Zage, Eric Burger (S2ERC Site Director at Georgetown University), Wayne Zage, and Rita Rodriguez (NSF Program Director)

Motorola used these design metrics to identify where to place testing effort, says Wayne. The design metrics can identify modules that could be troublestress points. Thats where software developers at Motorola placed their testing effort.

Basically it gives you better software. And dont we all want better software? Dolores says with a smile.

The S2ERCs metrics technology has been applied in myriad domains. Weve analyzed code from missile defense systems, radar systems, financial systems from the U.S. Army, telecommunications systems, all kinds, she says. Our metrics are consistent identifying stress points in all of those systems.

With all of this exciting research, those working for the center never run out of things to do. The research never finishes, says Dolores. Theres always an open question. The more you delve, the more detail there is.

The MIDAS touchThe S2ERC may not specialize in turning code into

gold but its design metrics might be just as valuable. One of its current research areas is MIDAS (Metrics IDentification of Attack Surfaces) which is one way to predict weak areas in software.

To understand MIDAS, recall the movie 300 when Spartan King Leonidas fends off thousands of Persian sol-diers with his small band of 300 during the Battle of Ther-mopylae. At the battle these soldiers were able to stave off thousands because they had that small attack surface (area to protect). They could actually defend that space, says Dolores. So naturally, this is the same in software. The smaller your attack surface, the less you have to protect and defend.

The problem in software is that I only know about the attack surface when the code is done, and thats very late. I want to predict that attack surface beforehand in the design of the code.

Customized researchIn addition to the Ball State headquarters, there are

three other S2ERC centers at Georgetown University, Iowa State University, and Virginia Tech. Nine additional univer-sities participate in the research, including Indiana schools IPFW, IUPUI, and Purdue University. Each of these schools brings in a whole set of researchers that complement what we already havethey add to our skill profile so that we can solve unique and different kinds of problems, says Wayne.

These centers are set up to solve technical problems in the country, he says, and what better way than to work with industry and government agencies and the top re-

searchers in the country to get that done?The S2ERC centers actually customize their research

efforts based on the needs of the affiliates. The affiliates become members of the S2ERC for a fee and can vote on research projects. About 25 funded projects are worked on at a time.

The affiliates do more than vote, though. The affiliates are a tremendous bunch. They really add a lot to the center, Wayne says. Theyre not just managers that come by. They are true technical people. Some have their own patents and some are distinguished researchers in their own right.

How it all beganIn 1976, the National Science Foundation established

the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) Program to encourage more collaborative endeavors between academia and industry. The S2ERC is one of these established I/UCRC centers. It began as the SERC, or the Software Engineering Research Center at Purdue University and the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1986, making it the second oldest center still in operation. Wayne says each I/UCRC center typically has one lead university and other collaborative university sites.

In 2001, the SERC headquarters moved to Ball State. In 2009, Ball States center joined with another one, add-ing Security and to its namehence the S2. Since the 1970s, NSF has established more than 100 I/UCRC centers and continues to establish centers. These centers diverse foci include advanced electronics and photonics; advanced manufacturing; advanced materials; biotechnology; civil infrastructure systems; energy and environment; health and safety; information, communication, and computing; and system design and simulation.

The Zages design metrics work earned the Alexander Schwarzkopf Prize for Technological Innovation. Each year, all of the I/UCRC centers can nominate one project for this national award, and Ball States received the prestigious honor in 2007.

Students who are interested in the S2ERCs work are welcome to join in. Were supporting, through the center, anywhere from four to six students at any given time, and thats a lot of fun, says Wayne. Our work has led to over 50 masters theses and creative projects at Ball State.

The university has helped the center achieve its goals. Ball States been really supportive, he says. We could never do this without Ball State, at all levels.

For more information about the center, visit www.serc.net.

Fall 2015 | 21 Fall 2015 | 21 Fall 2015 | 21

We could never do this without Ball State,

at all levels.

Measuring Health Inequality with Economics

How can economics be used to help alleviate poverty and increase the health of and opportunities for people around the world? Economists like Erik Nesson, assistant professor of

economics, devote their research to assisting others.Were looking at ways to get children in develop-

ing countries vaccinated. Were asking whats the best way to increase the education of girls in developing countries, whats the best way in general to get people out of poverty, and how do we reduce health care costs in the United States? Were asking all of these different policy-related questions, says Nesson.

Its not just about stocks and bonds and bank ac-counts, he says. Increasingly, were making very important contributions in a wide variety of areas.

Nesson researches ways in which public policies affect peoples health behaviors. I take general economic ideas and apply that to the analysis of peoples health behaviors and how firms and the government act in the health care sector, he says. Most of what I do focuses on the consumers.

He is especially interested in policies and behaviors related to smoking. For example, if the government raises

cigarette taxes, it provides more revenue and may convince people to quit smoking, thus reducing lung cancer and decreasing the number of heart attacks. Nesson seeks to discover if such policies are effective and if there are any un-intended consequencespeople may simply change the way they smoke to get more nicotine out of a single cigarette, rather than smoke less.

A new way to measure health inequalityNesson recently received a Robert Wood Johnson

Foundation grant of over $117,000 to support his research from January 2015 to December 2016. He conducts his research in collaboration with Joshua Robinson, assistant professor of economics at the University of Alabama at Bir-mingham Collat School of Business. Nesson and Robinson attended graduate school together at Emory University.

There is a lot of research in economics that looks at what characteristics of people seem to be related to their health, and a lot of this focus is on the relationship between income, education, socio-economic status, and health, he says. Measuring income, education, and socio-economic status is pretty simple, but measuring health is more


complicated.Currently, a persons health is often measured very

subjectively. A research study might ask subjects to answer questions like, On a scale of 1-5, where 1 is the best and 5 is the worst, how would you rate your health right now? Nesson says a lot of studies use this type of measure, but he seeks a more objective and accurate measure.

One of the big improvements that we want to make to the health inequality literature is coming up with a

different and hopefully better way to measure health, he says.

Nesson and his colleague propose use of a measurement called mul-tivariate general entropy. Our measure leads us to a different conclusion

than the 1-2-3-4-5 subjective health status does, and that is that there seems to be much less connection between so-cio-economic status and health inequality than the tradition-al measure would lead you to believe. Our conjecture is that what happens when people are asked How healthy are you on a scale of 1-5, they bring a lot of other stuff into their response than just their health status. And they think about their socio-economic status when they answer that question. So that gives you a much stronger relationship between in-come or wealth and health than might actually be the case.

A persons health involves an array of factors, which makes it difficult to create a single health measurement. If you take 10 different health metrics and have some way to collapse them all into one measure of health for people, youre throwing away a lot of information. We have to find some way to aggregate all of these different characteristics together into one measure of health for everyone. What entropy (the measurement he uses) does is it gives us the best possible way to aggregate all this stuff together in a way that preserves as much information from all of these under-lying measures of health as possible.

We dont know how different our results will be yet from what is currently being done, since were still estimating our models. However, theoretically, our methods will allow researchers to account for the multidimensional nature of health in estimating the relationship between income and health inequality, Nesson

says. There are a number of reasons why this makes a lot more sense than current methods, but we still have a lot of work to do before weve settled on a specific methodology and generated empirical results.

The origin of an ideaNesson became intrigued by economics during college,

when he realized the immense effect the field could have. I was mostly struck by the wide variety of issues that econo-mists are studying, everything from recessions and financial issues to crime, development, poverty, sports and health. It just made a lot of sense to me, and it really clicked that (economics) is a powerful set of tools for understanding how the world works.

He soon learned about multivariate general entropy from one of his professors in graduate school, Esfandiar Maasoumi, arts and sciences distinguished professor of economics at Emory University. Maasoumi developed the measurement to assess well-being, not health. You basically have the exact same issues with well-being as you do with health, Nesson says. Current studies use the same scale of 1-5 to measure peoples well-being, so Maasoumi used entro-py to gain a more objective measurement. Because a persons well-being has numerous characteristics, as does ones health, Nesson had the idea to apply entropy in his own research.

By using this objective measurement, Nesson may permanently change the way economists measure health inequality.

Fall 2015 | 23

...there seems to be much less connection between

socio-economic status and health inequality than the

first measure would lead you to believe.


External Funding Overview

The Sponsored Projects Administration external funding totals include Ball State University Foundation funds that play out as externally sponsored projects, as well as funding self-administered by University Service Centers. The chart below, External Dollars Received FY 2010 - 2015, reflects totals for all sources of external funding for Ball State projects, including Foundation support and Centers.

FY 2015ANNUAL REPORT

16.5 14.1

20.2 18.2

11.1

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

External Dollars Received FY10 - 15

532 505 532 485 440

362 285 267

329 264

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Total Number of Proposals Submitted and Funded by External Grants

Proposals Submitted Proposals Funded



16.5 14.1

20.2 18.2

11.1

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

External Dollars Received FY10 - 15

532 505 532 485 440

362 285 267

329 264

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Total Number of Proposals Submitted and Funded by External Grants

Proposals Submitted Proposals Funded



Fall 2015 | 25

Awards by College/ Unit

College/Unit Amount Awards Sciences and Humanities $ 3,349,356 92 Academic Affairs $ 2,671,446 36 Teachers College $ 1,976,480 42 Information Technology $ 1,113,515 33 Applied Sciences and Technology $ 1,023,977 27 University Advancement $ 500,000 1 Miller College of Business $ 219,465 10 Student Affairs

$ 132,756 4 Fine Arts $ 74,000 6 Architecture and Planning $ 71,643 9 Communication, Information, and Media $ 22,000 3 Enrollment, Marketing, and Communication $ 500 1 TOTAL $ 11,155,138 264

External Dollars Received by Type of Award 2014-15 Source Number Amount Percentage

Basic Research 65 $ 3,262,960 29% Service 90 $ 2,726,115 24% Academic Support 53 $ 2,346,251 21% Institutional Support 17 $ 1,424,277 13% Applied Research 21 $ 928,938 8% Instruction 18 $ 466,597 4% TOTAL 264 $ 11,155,138 100%

External Dollars Received by Funding Source 2014-15 Source Number Amount Percentage

Federal 64 $ 4,758,061 43% Foundation 51 $ 3,006856 27% Non-Profit 69 $ 1,493,430 13% State 22 $ 868,609 8% Industry 43 $ 705,601 6% International 5 $ 193,420 2% Local 6 $ 108,710 1% University 4 $ 20,451 Less than 1% TOTAL 264 $ 11,155,138 100%
















Initiatives & Accomplishments

Progress on the Ball State Strategic Plan (2012-17):

FY 2015ANNUAL REPORTInitiatives & Accomplishments

Progress on the Ball State Strategic Plan (2012-17): Baseline FY12

FY13

Actual

FY14

Actual

FY15

Actual Increase by 125% external funding for scholarly work $14M $20.2M $18.2M $11.1M Increase by 40% the number of contract and grant proposal submissions. 505 532 485 440 Increase number of contract and grant proposal submissions totaling more than $25,000 by 25% 183 205 210 180

Notable Funded Proposals International Projects

Ken Holland (CID); Meridian International Center, PAYLP 2015: $173,958 Larry Gerstein (Peace & Conflict Studies); Meridian International Center, IYLEP 2015: $155,393 Mary Theresa Seig (IEI); Proyecta, Proyecta 100 Fall 2014: $133,000 Mary Theresa Seig (IEI); US Dept of State/CIES, Fulbright Junior Faculty Development Program for Lebanon & Iraq: $145,000

Sciences

Henry Wang (Kinesiology); U.S. Dept. of Defense, Effects of Multiaxial Skeletal Loading on Tibia Mechanical Strength during Load Carriage in Females: $685,422 Tim Carter (Biology): IN Dept of Natural Resources, Examining Urban and Rural White-tailed Deer; Mortality, Dispersal, and Relatedness: $630,589 Eric Rubenstein (Biology): National Institutes of Health, Genetic Requirements for Protein Degradation at the Eukaryotic Translocon: $310,688 Michael Perdue (Chemistry): Environmental Protection Agency, Prepare Concentrates of Natural Organic Matter (NOM) for Toxicological Research: $222,594 Shaoen Wu (Computer Science): National Science Foundation: RUI: CCSS: Collaborative Research: Cooperative Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Enabled Scalable Mobile Panoramic Video Surveillance: $221,826

Notable Funded Proposals

International Projects Ken Holland (CID); Meridian International Center,

PAYLP 2015: $173,958 Larry Gerstein (Peace & Conflict Studies); Meridian

International Center, IYLEP 2015: $155,393 Mary Theresa Seig (IEI); Proyecta, Proyecta 100 Fall

2014: $133,000 Mary Theresa Seig (IEI); US Dept of State/CIES,

Fulbright Junior Faculty Development Program for Lebanon & Iraq: $145,000

Sciences Henry Wang (Kinesiology); U.S. Dept. of Defense,

Effects of Multiaxial Skeletal Loading on Tibia Me-chanical Strength during Load Carriage in Females: $685,422

Tim Carter (Biology): IN Dept of Natural Resources, Examining Urban and Rural White-tailed Deer; Mortality, Dispersal, and Relatedness: $630,589

Eric Rubenstein (Biology): National Institutes of Health, Genetic Requirements for Protein Degrada-tion at the Eukaryotic Translocon: $310,688

Michael Perdue (Chemistry): Environmental Pro-tection Agency, Prepare Concentrates of Natural

Organic Matter (NOM) for Toxicological Research: $222,594

Shaoen Wu (Computer Science): National Science Foundation: RUI: CCSS: Collaborative Research: Cooperative Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Enabled Scalable Mobile Panoramic Video Surveillance: $221,826

Wayne Zage (S2ERC): National Science Foundation + Affiliates: Support for S2ERC and Affiliation Agreements: $906,791

Erik Nesson (Economics): Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Applying New Methods to Health Inequality Measurement: $116,965

Public Service Pat Clark (Elementary Education): IN Dept of Edu-

cation + Ball Brothers Foundation, MP3 and Family Engagement Initiative: $445,309

John Fallon (Building Better Communities): State of Indiana, NEI-AHEC Operational Support: $215,000

Institutional Support Dawn Miller (Burris): Ball Brothers Foundation,

O.W.L. Pride - Onward With Learning at Burris Laboratory School: $200,000

Fall 2015 | 27

Robert Koester (CERES): Sefaira, Sefaira Education Program Licensure: $149,900

Sotiris Hji-Avgoustis (Family & Consumer Sciences): IN Dept of Education, Cardinal Outreach Recruit-ment Efforts (C.O.R.E.) Proposal: An Expansion of Outreach Efforts at Ball State University to Increase the Number of Family and Consumer Science Teach-er Educators in Indiana: $115,726

Kay Bales (Student Affairs): Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BSU Achievements: $100,000

Research Recognition

Student Symposium: The 2015 Symposium continues to serve as an important public forum for students to display and present their research and creative projects. This year continued a new feature with moderated paper presen-tations scheduled in addition to posters. 205 individual student participants presented 149 projects, which drew an estimated 284 total attendees.

Display Award Winners:Heather Daly Psychological SciencePsychophysiological Responses to Isolated Musical Chord Progressions Faculty Mentor: Don Ester, Music Education

Yi-Hsin Liu Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementNitroglycerin Decomposition in Soil as Affected by Presence of Co-Contaminants Faculty Mentor: John Pichtel, Natural Resources and Environmental Management

Content Award Winners:Kayla Kmiecik Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise ScienceBiomechanical Analysis of a Backward Somersault Landing and Drop Landing in Female Gymnasts Faculty Mentor: Henry Wang, Kinesiology

Nolan Pachciarz BiologyThe Effects of Dilantin on Male Fertility and Sperm Indices in Mice Faculty Mentor: Clare Chatot, Biology

Emily Johann Physical Education, Sport, and ExerciseScience Influence of Drop Height and Fatigue on Landing Mechanics in Recreationally Active Females Faculty Mentor: Clark Dickin, Kinesiology

Jamie Lau BiologyComparing Five Macroinvertebrate Indices of Integrity: Are We Meeting National Water Quality Monitoring Intent?Faculty Mentor: Thomas Lauer, Biology

Benefacta DayThe 24th annual BeneFacta Day was celebrated Novem-ber 19, 2014 in the BSU Alumni Center. This annual event for recognizing faculty and professional personnel active in submitting proposals and carrying out sponsored projects brought together over 100 attendees who enjoyed wine, cheese, and hors doeuvres, as well as remarks from the President, Associate Vice-President for Research, and SPA Director.

Research & Outstanding Creative Endeavor of the YearThe annual lecture and reception featuring the Outstand-ing Researcher of the Year and Outstanding Creative En-deavor Awardee took place on April 9, 2015 in the Arts & Journalism Building. The 2014 Research recipient, as nominated by her peers and chosen by the University Research Committee, Melody Bernot, associate professor of biology, spoke on her research agenda and the impact of students on her research. The Outstanding Creative Endeavor award, also nominated by her peers and chosen by the Creative Arts Committee, was Christie Zimmer-man, assistant professor of dance, shared her creative process and video of that work from rehearsal through performance.

Staff Updates

With the merging of SPO and CGO, a number of new positions were created and staff movements occurred:

Retirements and Resignations Kathy Lucas, Director of CGO, retired effective

December 30, 2014 Jeanette Hathaway, Associate Director of CGO,

resigned her position in January, 2015

Pre-Award Operations: Jackie Davis was named Associate Director, Pre-

Award Operations Maria Bumbalough moved into a new Proposal Man-

ager position Eric Moore was hired as a new Proposal Manager and

served in SPA from June through early OctoberPost-Award Operations: Matt Moore was named Associate Director, Post-

Award Operations All Grant Specialists were moved into professional

personnel positions, as Grant Managers Araminta Tuttle was hired as a new Grant Manager,

starting early in FY15/16Outreach & Education Stan Geidel was named Campus Liaison and oversees

SPAs Outreach & Education effortsCompliance Operations Sheila Shafer was named Associate Director, Compli-

ance Operations Rebecca Tyler was hired as Compliance Secretary,

early in FY15/16 Ted Kolodka was hired as Contract Compliance Ana-

lyst, early in FY15/16

Program Offerings & Support Programs

Research Week, 2014A new initiative in FY14/15, Research Week focused on providing a number of professional development oppor-tunities for faculty and staff all concentrated over one week. Sessions included: Working with Foundations & Indianas Funding Profile, Not FundedNow What?, Professionalizing your Approach to Seeking External Funding, Proposal Construction: Developing a Fund-able Idea, and Managing a Funded Grant, among other presentations.

SPA Fellows ProgramA keystone program for new faculty developed by Cam-pus Liaison, Stan Geidel, continued during academic year 2014/15 with two cohorts of a hand-selected group of faculty members chosen by the Provost, AVPR, Colleges, and SPA staff to participate in a year-long intensive educational program. Knowledge base and grant-writing skills are developed in order to obtain external grants in support of fundable endeavors more successfully.

Focus on the SearchThis 1-hour intensive session allows 6-8 participants to

get hands-on, one-on-one, time with the SPA Research Information Coordinator to first sign up for COS Pivot and then how to utilize this power tool to develop a searchall with the help of a Pivot expert.

Indirect Cost Recovery DistributionPer University policy, of the $1,550,168 in indirect costs recovered by the University: 5% go to Principal Inves-tigator(s), 10% to Departments/Units, and 3% to the College (when their four-year average is met, with 20% on amounts over that average). During the past year, the following amounts were transferred: $67,402 to PIs, $227,191 to departments/centers, and $144,373 to col-legeswhich makes a total distribution of $438,966, an increase of over 47%. Communication & Information

SPA continues to share information through a number of social media outlets including the SPA Research Newslet-ter Blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account. In addition to funding opportunities, SPA events, and news related to external funding, these mechanisms have also allowed for the ability to share funding successes quickly with the campus community.

SPA Professional Development

SPA Staff attended and/or presented at the following conferences and professional meetings: Indiana Forum for Research Administration (IFRA) Midwest Research and Graduate Administrators

Forum (MRGAF) National Council of University Research Administra-

tors (NCURA) Fundamentals Class Butler Undergraduate Research Conference National Council of University Research Administra-

tors, Region IV Federal Demonstration Partnership National Council of University Research Administra-

tors (NCURA) Pre-Award Conference National Council of University Research Administra-

tors (NCURA) Post-Award Conference National Council of University Research Administra-

tors (NCURA) Annual Meeting Evisions Annual Conference National Institutes of Health Regional Seminar National Science Foundation Grants Conference National Organization of Research Development

Professionals


ASPiRE Internal Grant Programs Ball State Universitys Internal

Grants Program was created in 1965 to provide funding to faculty and students and to support and develop projects in the areas of research and creative endeavors. ASPiRE Internal grants are intended to supplement and strengthen the support for research and creative endeavors that comes both from departmental and college resources along with other university programs.

Ball State Internal Grants program offerings consisted of the following competitions this fiscal year: Junior Faculty Research, Junior Faculty Creative Arts, ADVANCE, New Faculty Start-Up, Reprint/Pub-lication Support, Travel Support for External Funding for faculty, Interna-tional Travel Support, Hollis as well as Graduate Creative Arts, Graduate Re-search, Undergraduate Creative Arts, Undergraduate Research, and Travel Support for Professional Meetings for students.

2014-15 Program ParticipationThe ASPiRE Internal Grants

program processed 136 student pro-posals and awarded $24,190 to support 118 projects; 140 faculty proposals and awarded $339,726 to support 114 projects. Details of the 2014-15 ASPiRE Internal Grants program are summarized in the table, Internal Grants Program 2014-15. Three of the Junior Faculty awardees are featured in the 2015 issue of Ball State Research: Alexander Montoye from the School of Kinesiology, Robin Blom from Journalism, and Shireen Kanakri from Family and Consumer Sciences.


FY 2015ANNUAL REPORT

Requests Submitted

Proposals Awarded

Award Amount

Faculty Programs - ResearchADVANCE Research 17 9 $93,425Junior Faculty Research 13 11 $146,447 Total Research 30 20 $239,872

Faculty Programs - Creative ArtsADVANCE Creative Arts 2 2 $10,000 Junior Faculty Creative Arts 2 2 $24,700 Total Creative Arts 4 4 $34,700

Hollis 6 4 $1,900 International Travel 44 44 $17,600 New Faculty Start-Up 28 14 $39,000 Reprint/Publication Support 25 25 $5,419 Travel Support for External Funding 3 3 $1,235 Total Faculty Programs 140 114 $339,726

Graduate Student ProgramsCreative Arts 1 1 $500 Research 31 19 $9,500 Hollis 11 10 $3,720 Travel Support for Prof. Meetings 61 61 $5,300 Total 104 91 $19,020

Undergraduate Student ProgramsCreative Arts 14 12 $3,570 Research 5 2 $600 Travel Support for Prof. Meetings 13 13 $1,000 Total 32 27 $5,170

Total Student Programs 136 118 $24,190

Total Internal Grants 276 232 $363,916

Internal Grants Program 2014-15

Fall 2015 | 31

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property development remains an inte-gral component to the research enterprise at the Univer-sity. SPA is responsible for both receiving initial disclo-sures of potential intellectual property and in serving as the University liaison with the Ball State Innovation Corporation (BSIC). The BSIC, under the continued leadership of President Wil Davis, directs commercial-ization and licensing activities related to BSUs works of intellectual property: everything from mobile apps to curriculum to musical theatre.

Three of the performance indicators of the BSU Strategic Plan directly relate to SPA and BSICs IP efforts, under Goal 4, Objective 5: Enhance commer-

cialization with new opportunities and strategies. Those indicators are to increase royalty by 50% (to $405,606), create a total of five start-up companies that generate significant net revenue, and increase the annual number of IP disclosures to 20.

During Fiscal Year 2014, 14 disclosures of intellec-tual property were made, maintaining a positive trajec-tory towards our 2017 goal. In addition, FY14 royalties totaled $399,305.36. Itemized listing of those IP prod-ucts are below. For additional questions on the IP process at Ball State, contact Stephanie Roof; for questions on the specific products available, contact Linda Swartz.

Intellectual Property Income FY2015Author(s) Project Title Income

DVD Michael OHara Explore Theatre: A Backstage Pass - DVD $17,700.50. Hans P. Kellogg Legacies of Perfection Auburn Cord Duesenberg $2,060.55. Hans Sturn The Art of the Left Hand $1,200.00. Teresa Matlock Child Care Collection, LLC $895.81. Hans Sturn The Art of the Bow $800.00. Catherine Primmer/L. T. Faison Weight Training for the Physical Body $512.30. Arlene Ignico Assessment of Fundamental Motor Skills $239.94. Rob Bell Mental Toughness Training for Golf $117.49. Linda Siktberg, Ann (Burford) Bilodeau Safe Swallowing $79.90. Rodger Smith, Jim Connolly Changing Gears: End of an Era $59.90. Stanley Geidel Hasty Legacy $49.99. Michael Gerhard, Wes Gehring The Many Faces of Movie Comedy $48.90. Chin-Sook Pak Sobrevivir $31.90. Software

Sherry Woosley, Donald Whitaker MAP: On-line (Making Achievement Possible: On-line) $372,365.72.Jason Doll, Thomas Lauer Back-Calc (FishBC) $205.67.

Miscellaneous Rodger Smith My Name is Jerry $2,543.04. Beth Turcotte The Circus in Winter $393.75. Total $399,305.36.

Ball State Research

Documents

Transcript of Ball State Research