Penelec Sustainable Energy Fund of the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies
Allegheny received a grant of $44,750 from the Penelec Sustainable Energy Fund via the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies to support the development of a course to train students to install solar arrays through a pilot installation project at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meadville and the development of educational materials to help other churches and nonprofits learn about going solar. Video by Scott Mason of Oct28 Productions
Project director: Ian Carbone, Associate Professor, Environmental Science & Sustainability
George I. Alden Trust
Allegheny received a grant of $150,000 from the George I. Alden Trust to create a center for innovation and to purchase a high-definition, full-dome projector for the planetarium, which will allow some of the projects developed in the center to be tested and displayed in the planetarium. Recognizing the importance our students and their families understandably place on post-graduation outcomes, the college has committed to offering more opportunities for students to put their classroom learning into action. The center for innovation and interactive planetarium will offer our students the ability to engage critically and creatively with real-world situations and problems, working across the curriculum and co-curriculum in intentional ways.
Project directors: Byron Rich, Associate Professor, Art & Director of Academic Innovation Partnerships, and Jamie Lombardi, Professor, Physics
Great Lakes Colleges Association
Allegheny received a grant of $156,000 from the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) through the Global Crossroads Internationalization Innovation Fund in support of an initiative to study and develop new approaches to internationalization and study away at Allegheny. This assessment is reviewing our current study away offerings (both semester and summer) in terms of student interest, cost, and fit with academic programs at the college. It is also developing universal learning outcomes and assessment rubrics for all sponsored study away programs; creating a structured set of opportunities for focus group discussions and listening sessions with students, faculty, and staff on ideas for new programs and approaches to study away; and laying the groundwork for the development of new programs and approaches that are financially viable, that are aligned with the college’s educational and curricular strengths, and that meet the needs and interests of today’s students.
Project directors: Terry Bensel, Professor, Environmental Science, and Lucinda Morgan
Orris C. Hirtzel and Beatrice Dewey Hirtzel Memorial Foundation
Allegheny received a grant of $110,000 from the Orris C. Hirtzel and Beatrice Dewey Hirtzel Memorial Foundation in support of a fluorescent/chemiluminescent imaging system and the creation of a Health Informatics Computer Lab, both of which will benefit Allegheny students interested in the health professions. The imager allows for imaging of protein and DNA electrophoresis gels, membranes, microplates, petri dishes, tissue sections on glass slides and small biological samples (such as plant leaves or roots). The on-campus Health Informatics Computer Lab allows our student and faculty researchers to download and analyze large datasets from national, international, regional and local data sources.
Project directors: Brad Hersh, Associate Professor, Biology, Biochemistry; Becky Dawson, Associate Professor, Biology, Global Health Studies; and Mia Finaret, Assistant Professor, Global Health Studies
Mozilla Foundation
Allegheny received a grant of $144,252 from the Mozilla Foundation as part of the Responsible Computer Science Challenge in support of a project to integrate ethics and social responsibility into each of the six application courses in Computer Science: Bioinformatics, Data Analytics, Web Development, Database Systems, Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Agents. By investigating and articulating relevant ethical challenges in our application courses, we can provide meaningful pathways for responsible applications of computer technology. The grant is supported by the Responsible Computer Science Challenge, a partnership of Omidyar Network, Mozilla, Schmidt Futures and Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
Project director: Oliver Bonham-Carter, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
National Endowment for the Humanities
Allegheny received a planning grant of $34,987 from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the Humanities Connections program. The grant is supporting planning to explore how interdisciplinary partnerships can be used to enhance and extend the impact of the humanities in both curricular and co-curricular initiatives. The planning committee developed plans for: 1) interdisciplinary team-taught courses that intentionally connect the humanities and the sciences, 2) an investigation of the influence of the humanities in existing interdisciplinary programs, 3) the expansion of the humanities in experiential programming, 4) the incorporation of the humanities into Allegheny’s new model of adaptive advising, 5) the establishment of protocol for interdisciplinary and collaborative senior capstone projects, and 6) the development of interdisciplinary research and teaching teams.
Project director: Soledad Caballero, Professor, English
Co-project director: Aimee Knupsky
National Science Foundation
Allegheny received a $236,990 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation program for acquisition of a 400 MHz NMR spectrometer console. The principal investigator and co-principal investigators are using the spectrometer to support their research, as are other chemistry faculty. The primary use of this instrumentation at Allegheny is for the characterization of small molecules by collection of 31P, 19F and 11B spectra as well as inverse experiments like collection of 1H{31P} spectra or 2D 1H-31P HOESY spectra. Students are gaining experience using the equipment as they conduct research with these faculty.
Principal investigator: Tim Chapp, Associate Professor, Chemistry
Co-principal investigators: Mark Ams, Associate Professor, Chemistry, and Ivelitza Garcia, Associate Professor, Chemistry