The Office of the Vice President for Research is excited to award 49 2022-2023 SPARC Graduate Research Grants to support graduate student researchers across nine University of South Carolina academic units. These SPARC recipients, listed below, will use their funding to engage in research, scholarly and creative projects over a 15-month period beginning this May.

Through SPARC, or Support to Promote Advancement of Research and Creativity, graduate students compete for internal funding of up to $5,000 to support their meritorious research, creative and scholarly projects. The SPARC application process includes many of the same steps involved in developing extramural research funding proposals, like planning a budget, documenting current and pending support, and drafting and refining the proposal narrative. By applying for SPARC, students practice these skills and prepare themselves for a future in research.

Please join the Office of the Vice President for Research in congratulating these bright graduate student scholars and thank you for the mentorship and support of our faculty advisors and departments.

 

2022-2023 SPARC Graduate Research Grant Recipients

Recipient Name	Degree Program	Proposal Title
Atefe Aghaei	Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior	Impacts of COVID-19 and Taliban takeover on Afghan refugee women's mental health wellbeing
Saharnaz Babaei Balderlou	Economics	Money or Love: Student Loans and Post-Graduation Work Outcomes
Shanikque Blackwell	Health Services Policy and Management	Impact of Telehealth and Obstetrics Capacity on Maternal Health Outcomes & User Satisfaction: A Mixed Methods Approach
Tancia Bradshaw	Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology	The role of adipoctye insulin signaling in controlling adult ovarian stem cell populations
Marren Brooks	Communication Sciences and Disorders	Reading Prosody in Elementary-age Children who use Cochlear Implants
Brooke Bullard	Biomedical Sciences	Gut microbiota’s contribution to the beneficial effects of panaxynol on murine ulcerative colitis
Jennii Burrell	Chemistry	A thermodynamic study of iron oxide nanocrystal surface chemistry using isothermal titration calorimetry toward enhancement of an emerging magnetic biosensing platform
Hannah Catron	Linguistics	Harsh Voice Quality in Appalachia
Amanda Davis	Psychology-School	Developing a Behavior-Based Measure of Teacher-Student Relationship Quality
Katherine DeVivo	Exercise Science	Understanding the factors influencing movement behaviors and affect among dog owners
Shea Ferguson	Educational Psychology and Research	What motivates your students? Exploring teaching assistants’ beliefs about motivation
Kaylyn Garcia	Psychology-Clinical-Community	Phase 1 Development of a Community-Member Informed, Community Advisory Board (CAB) Alliance Measure
John Gilliam	Exercise Sciences	Simulated trunk proprioceptive impairment: a paradigm for sensorimotor dysfunction in low back pain
Erin Gorman	Biomedical Sciences	Mitochondrial function in the prefrontal cortex as a nexus for the consequences of gestational stress
Lídia Gual Gonzalez	Epidemiology	Unearthing Candidatus Rickettsia andeanae, a novel tick-borne pathogen, in PeeDee South Carolina
Carly Halcomb	Biomedical Sciences	An amygdala-cortical neural circuit for the control of generalized gear and anxiety
Christian Harrison	Chemistry and Biochemistry	Photophysical and Stability Investigation of Silicon Phthalocyanines through Axial Protection and an Extended Conjugated System
Jason (Bailey) Heath	Mathematics	On the Representation Dimension of Algebraic Tori
Marco Hernandez	Biological Sciences	Ing4 deficiency promotes stem cell quiescence and stress resistance in hematopoietic stem cells
Niti Jani	Biological Sciences	Developmental Windows of Susceptibility when Exposure to Antibiotics Increases Risk of Developing Early Onset Colorectal Cancer
Hui Jiang	Hospitality Management	Tourist digital wellbeing and prosocial behavior: The role of social media
Dakshu Jindal	Health Services Policy and Management	An analysis of the association between state direct access laws and physical therapy use, and the effect of change in physical therapy use on subsequent healthcare costs and opioid use
Samantha Kincaid	Biological Sciences	The Role of Sexual Conflict in Seminal Fluid Protein Evolution in Drosophila melanogaster
Chunyan Li	Applied Mathematics	Investigation of Dynamic Boundary Conditions and Surface Curvature Effects for Thermodynamically Consistent Phase Field Models in Arbitrarily Shaped Domains
Enhui Liu	Electrical Engineering	Lithium-ion Battery Health Management with LS-Based SFP Model
Morgan Lowder	Political Science	Business or Beneficiary: How Social Welfare Framing Shapes Policy Attitudes
Tianchu Lyu	Health Services Policy and Management	Predict the occurrence of postpartum cardiovascular disease and assess the impacts of structural disparities among a national cohort of pregnant women using electronic health records
Jennifer Marler	History	The Revolutionary Black Experience in Occupied New York City (1776-1783)
Mary Mitchell	Biological Sciences	Determining the Impact of Increased 2-AG Signaling in a Crohn’s Disease Model
Tannaz Mohammadi	Biological Sciences	Characterization of newly discovered broad host range ssDNA bacteriophages that infect Caulobacter strains.
Dyk Chung Nguyen	Physics	The use of graphene kinks in filters to remove toxic metals from water
Huan Ning	Geography	Neighborhood Mobility Assessment for Wheelchair Users using Street View Imagery and Artificial Intelligence
Md Nasim Saba (Nasim) Nishat	Biostatistics	Personalized treatment for glucose intolerance in VLBW infants via dynamic treatment regimes
Junlin Ou	Mechanical Engineering	Autonomous Multi-Robot Cooperation and Real-time Planning for Intelligent Manufacturing and Warehousing
Sowmya Raghu	Mechanical Engineering	Development of Gas Turbine Engine Design and Performance Monitoring Tool ( GTE-DMT )
Ekaterina Rojas Kolomiets	Geological Sciences	Deciphering the compositional origin of Earth's crust with molybdenum isotopes
Sarah Sellers	Environmental Health Sciences	Atmospheric Dispersion of Antibiotic Resistant Genes from Wastewater Treatment Plant Generated Bioaerosols
Arash Shokrisaravi	Comparative Literature	John Duns Scotus
Savannah Simpson	Psychology-Clinical-Community	Cultural Responsivity in Youth Mentoring Relationships: Development of a Behavior-Based Measure
Jonathan Smith	Mathematics	Automorphisms of Del Pezzo Surfaces in Characteristic Zero
Gabriella Spatola	Biological Sciences	Dogs of Chernobyl: De novo mutation in free-breeding dogs inhabiting the radioactive exclusion zone
Nicholas Steichmann	Biological Sciences	Investigating the role of secondary eyes in dynamic color change
Julisa Tindall	Social Work	Judge Me Not- Exploring Black Mothers Perceptions of Maternal Health Services and Structural Racism in South Carolina
Chihchi Tsai	Comparative Literature	Globalization in the Eyes of the Locals: Imagining the United States in Taiwanese Nativist Literature, 1970s-1980s
James White III	Exercise Science - Health Aspects of Physical Activity	Utility and feasibility of activity type to augment consumer wearable-based physical activity energy expenditure prediction equations using heart rate and movement in children
Xuanke Wu	Civil Engineering	A Machine-learning Approach for Freight Fleet Electrification Planning Integrating Power System Constraints
Xiaomo Xiong	Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences	Impact of anti-dementia medications on mortality and the associated disparities in medication use among patients with ADRD in the U.S.
Kangkang Zhang	Mechanical Engineering	Exploring Propane-to-Propylene Conversion via a CO2/O2 Co-transport Membrane Reactor
Xuanxuan Zhu	Epidemiology	Complementary Feeding Among US Infants: Measures, Infant Growth, and Maternal Mental Health