A total of 11 projects from Hope received funding from the consortium through its 2024-25 grant period.  The awards to Hope projects, which total $48,000, include seven undergraduate fellowships for students conducting collaborative research with faculty, and four seed grants for faculty research.

Hope will provide additional funding, including stipends for students as they conduct research during the summer, and support for the faculty and institutional projects.

The students receiving fellowships are:

Valen Feldmann, a sophomore from Wayzata, Minnesota, for “Developing a novel variant of k-means for dividing massive data into many clusters with well-spread centroids,” with Dr. Gabriel Chen, associate professor of statistics and data science;

Joseph Fogt, a sophomore from Hudsonville, for “Effect of Radiation Damage on TI-Ba-Ca-Cu-O (2212) thin film superconductors,” with Dr. Kyuil Cho, assistant professor of physics;

Trevor Harrison, a freshman from Lapeer, for “Calibration of Fluence of High-Energy Particles using a Rutherford Backscattering Method,” with Dr. Kyuil Cho;

Benjamin Jackson, a junior from Fort Wayne, Indiana, for “Influence of Surface Roughness on Mechanochem Competition of Wear vs. Growth for Metal Oxide Nanoparticle Antiwear Films,” with Dr. Meagan Elinski, assistant professor of chemistry;

Christopher Klaver, a sophomore from Holland, for “Analysis of the temperature sensitivity of peat decomposition using carbohydrate analysis across a climate transect of Michigan,” with Dr. Michael Philben, assistant professor of geological and environmental science;

Natalie Leake-Jara, a sophomore from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, for “Effects of Urbanization on Stress Levels, Auditory and Visual Processing of the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus),” with Dr. Kelly Ronald, assistant professor of biology; and

John Wenderski, a sophomore from Livonia, for “The impacts of iron oxide nanoparticle exposure on antipredator behavior of house sparrows (Passer domesticus),” with Dr. Kelly Ronald.

The faculty members who received seed grants are:

Dr. Kyuil Cho, assistant professor of physics, for “Effects of Radiation Damage on Thin-Film Superconductors”;

Dr. Sarah Dean, assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences, for “Lunar Anorthite Chemical Extraction”;

Dr. Gina Garza-Kling, assistant professor of mathematics, for “Developing Intuitive Multiplication Facts Strategies with Young Students”; and

Dr. Jeff Martin, assistant professor of mathematics instruction, for “Machine Learning to Advance Nondestructive Inspection and Evaluation with Compton Scattering Tomography.”

The Michigan Space Grant Consortium is part of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program initiated by NASA in 1989, and seeks to foster awareness of, education in, and research on space-related science and technology in Michigan.  The MSGC’s mission is to create, develop and promote programs that reflect NASA’s strategic interests and support cooperation between academia, industry, state and local government in science and technology in Michigan.  In addition to Hope, the consortium includes Calvin University, Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, Oakland University, Saginaw Valley State University, Wayne State University, Western Michigan University, the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

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