Ventureprise Launch Alumni Team Awarded NSF Grant
Funding supports new phase of a multidisciplinary research project by IDRL..
A long-term multidisciplinary research project by the Integrated Design Research Lab (IDRL), under the direction of Associate Professor of Architecture Kyoung-Hee Kim, has received a Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I (STTR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF STTR program funds research and development to help transform scientific discovery into products and services with commercial potential and/or societal benefit.
The $225,000 grant will support a new stage in the development of a microalgae façade system that Dr. Kim and her team, which includes IDRL Research Fellow Chengde Wu and Matthew Parrow, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, have been studying since 2012. It is the latest of several research grants the project has received, including a 2017 AIA Upjohn Research Initiative Grant ($30,000) and a 2019 NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) grant ($50,000). Collaboration with Ventureprise, the innovation and entrepreneurship center in Research and Economic Development, has provided the team with resources and expertise as the project has developed.