UMass president awards $750k for faculty research

By PBN Staff
Twitter: @ProvBusNews

BOSTON – Brian Howes, professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology was awarded $90,000 from UMass president Robert L. Caret’s Science and Technology Initiatives Fund.

The $90,000, which was part of nearly $750,000 awarded to faculty members across the UMass campuses, is expected to expand hydrokinetic energy programs to Chile.

The project will build on the Dartmouth campus’ research in marine renewable energy and the work of the New England Marine Renewable Energy Center, as well as follow Massachusetts’ Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s trade mission to Chile.

Chile is considered one of the top international sites for hydrokinetic energy research globally and has identified multiple industry and university partners as part of the coastal research to be studied, according to a UMass release announcing the awards.

“The Science & Technology fund advances the work of producing the discoveries and technological breakthroughs that will improve lives, create jobs, and preserve our planet,” Caret said in prepared remarks. “It supports the ideas and inventiveness of our faculty and fosters a culture of collaboration across all five campuses that attracts investments and underscores our role as an innovation engine for the Commonwealth.”

This marks the ninth year the Science and Technology Initiatives Fund awards have been handed out.

Other grantees were as follows:

• Big Data Informatics Initiative (BDI2) - UMass Amherst - $136,250.

• Biomedical Applications of Terahertz Technology - UMass Lowell - $101,000.

• Institute for Computational Biology, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics (ICB3) – UMass Amherst – $97,500.

• mHealth-based Behavioral Sensing & Interventions - UMass Medical School/UMass - $185,000.

• NE Robotics Validation & Experimentation (NERVE) Center – UMass Lowell - $135,000.