WCU Stories      November 20, 2019

The following is a compilation of grants awarded at Western Carolina University during October 2019. The list is presented in unedited form, courtesy of WCU’s Office of Research Administration.

Title: Highlands Nature Center's STEM Outreach Program for Schools

PI: James Costa

Funder: Highlands Biological Foundation

Amount: $60,000

Description: to provide more than 40 different science programs to regional students in grades pre-k-12

Title: In Pursuit of the Clotilda: Environmentally-Derived DNA from a Candidate Shipwreck in the Mobile River, Alabama

PI: Frankie West

Funder: University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Amount: $12,701

Description: to conduct human mitochondrial DNA analysis on samples from a shipwreck from the Mobile River in Alabama

Title: PEARO: Providing Equitable Access to Robotics Opportunities

PI: Paul Yanik

Funder: Burroughs Wellcome Fund

Amount: $178,644

Description: to engage high school students in experiential project-based STEM activities, and to help foster in them the vision of STEM-related career paths

Title: Political Analysis for Strategic Multilayer Assessment

PI: David Dorondo

Funder: Arizona State University

Amount: $50,000

Description: to examine the potentially pro-Moscow "Trojan Horse" effect of selected political parties and other organizations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland

Title: University Participant Program

PI: Kelly Kelley

Funder: Evergreen Foundation NC

Amount: $5,000

Description: to support one student attending WCU’s University Participant Program, which facilitates the transition from secondary school to adult life