COHS Come ‘N’ Go Seed Grant Celebrates Another Successful Year of Noteworthy Applicants

Awardees of the 2019 Texas Tech College of Human Sciences (COHS) Come 'N' Go Domestic Research Collaboration Seed Program have been announced.

The grants, which are awarded to COHS faculty members and their fellow collaborators from institutions across the United States, provide funding in the amount of $5,000 to design and implement joint research projects, including covering travel costs between the co-collaborator's campuses.

When being considered for the grants, COHS faculty members and their collaborator's proposals must detail clear roles for each team member, demonstrate feasibility of developing a competitive federal/external grant proposal from preliminary data collected and must be innovative, with suitable research design and methodologies to successfully conduct the proposed research.

COHS Research Assistant Professor, Oak-Hee Park, Ph.D., spoke positively of this year's group of applicants.

"Each of the teams are noteworthy in that all are engaged in projects that involve close collaboration with high profile researchers from other universities across the nation, this year stretching from New York to Hawaii," Dr. Park said. "These collaborations set the stage for both trans- and cross-disciplinary research that is at the cutting edge of new knowledge in their respective fields."

This year's awardees include the following COHS faculty, outside collaborators, and grant titles:

• Julie Chang, Ph.D., Department of Hospitality and Retail Management
  • Seoha Min, Ph.D, California State Polytechnic University
  • Developing a 3D Patternmaking Cognitive Training Program to Improve Visual-Spatial Skills for Hispanic Elderly
• Dr. Erin Hamilton, Ph.D., Department of Design
  • Laura Cole, Ph.D., University of Missouri
  • Minding Resource Convention: The Role of Mindful Awareness of Cultivating Environmentally Responsible Behaviors in Green Buildings
• Dr. Oak-Hee Park, Ph.D., Dean's Office
  • Dr. Brenda Abu, Ph.D., Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Great Greens (GG): Innovative Nutrition and Gardening Curriculum for Obesity Prevention Among Early Adolescents
• Latha Ramalingam, Ph.D., Department of Nutritional Sciences
  • Mi-Jeong Lee, Ph.D., University of Hawaii
  • Role of Fish Oil in Paternal Obesity
• Sterling Shumway, Ph.D., LMFT, Community, Family, and Addiction Sciences
  • Dr. Spencer Bradshaw, Ph.D., LMFT, Utah State University
  • Mazie Zielinski, LMFT-A, LCDC-I, Co-PI, Community, Family, and Addiction Sciences
  • Behavioral and Neurological Recovery of Family Members of Those with a Substance Use Disorder

Moving forward, awardees and their teams will begin analyzing and publishing their results as their projects evolve and new data is collected. Once this step is completed, they will use the gathered preliminary data to submit proposals for federal grant funding to increase and expand the scope of their work. Having interdisciplinary teams from different campuses involved in such grants, Dr. Park said, increases the chances of the teams' success in securing competitive federal funding.

Overall, it is projects like the Come 'N' Go Domestic Research Collaboration Seed Program that not only strengthen college morale but encourage innovative research – both of which the COHS Associate Dean for Research, Michael O'Boyle, Ph.D., encourages.

"I think it is important for faculty and their students to synergize with colleagues from across the nation, to ensure that they experience multiple – and hands-on – perspectives relating to the topics they are investigating," Dr. O'Boyle said. "And by providing seed funding to travel between campuses via the Come 'N' Go program, faculty and their students gain new and invaluable insights into the problems/issues they are pursuing."