Terry College faculty join research teams receiving interdisciplinary grant funding at UGA

Pair of research collaborations will focus on artificial intelligence and greenhouse technology
Business Learning Community

Terry College of Business faculty are collaborators on two research projects receiving funding from the latest round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants at the University of Georgia.

Overall, 11 grants totaling $1.5 million went to faculty from 13 UGA departments, centers, programs, schools and colleges.

The program launched in 2017, with a second round of grants in 2019, through a partnership between UGA Research and UGA Public Service and Outreach. Teams in the first two rounds were highly successful at winning external research funding to pursue the work initiated through these seed grants.

“I am pleased with the continued success of this program as the University of Georgia seeks ways to grow our research enterprise and expand the impact of our faculty,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “Research funding opportunities such as the Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants are investments in the future of our state, nation and world as well as our university.”

At Terry, Pengyuan Wang and Rosanna Smith from the Marketing Department and Carolina Salge from the Management Information Systems Department are co-investigators on a grant-funded project titled “From AI Ethics to AI Aesthetics: Artificial Intelligence and Aesthetic Harm.” Aaron Meskin, head of UGA’s Philosophy Department, is the primary investigator, with additional research team members from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education.

MIS professors Maric Boudreau and Richard Watson are co-investigators on a sustainable agriculture research project receiving funding, titled “Evaluating the Agrivoltaic Potential of Emerging Perovskite-Based Solar Cells for Greenhouse Applications.” Susanne Ullrich from UGA’s Chemistry Department is the primary investigator, with additional collaborators from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and College of Engineering.

In all, 89 faculty teams crisscrossing the university submitted research proposals for seed grant funding, targeting significant challenges at the local, national or global level that align with the goals in UGA’s 2025 Strategic Plan.

“I am encouraged by the number of faculty from across campus who will collaborate to address some of the challenges in our state,” said Jennifer Frum, vice president for Public Service and Outreach. “Part of UGA’s mission, as the state’s land-grant and sea-grant institution, is to extend our knowledge and expertise to help communities thrive.”

Proposed research topics included areas identified by the Provost’s Task Force on Academic Excellence (precision agriculture, security, climate and environment, brain and behavioral sciences, and data science and AI), as well as those requiring close collaboration between social/behavioral and biomedical faculty.

“UGA faculty are finding creative ways to explore challenges that affect our daily lives,” said Karen Burg, vice president for research. “We’re looking forward to seeing how their collaborations across subject areas result in novel approaches and innovative solutions.”

The original version of this story by Allyson Mann was published by UGA Research Communications.