Through collaborative research, faculty members across the consortium are creating rewarding opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in exciting and innovative projects as well as with their colleagues from other 4-VA institutions. From mini grants to scale up projects, consortium faculty are sharing ideas, increasing cost efficiencies and bringing public attention and excitement to the research arena.
Listed below in alphabetical order by name, department or unit (underlined), title of project (italicized), and collaborating institutions (in parentheses) are George Mason University faculty acting as Lead PI for 2026-2027.
-Bayraktar, Breana Sterns Center A Cross-Institutional Study of AI-Influenced Feedback Practices (UVA, JMU, CWM)
-Hong, Sungsoo Ray IST Multi-Robot Video Sensemaking for Urban Missing Person Search in Public Safety Operations (VT)
-Ihara, Emily CPH Opening Minds Through Art in Virginia (JMU)
-Salerno, Jen PEREC Characterizing the influence of the coral microbiome on coral resilience and restoration potential of American Samoa’s reefs (ODU)
-Smith, Daniel W. CEC Disinfection Byproduct Formation Mechanisms and Toxicity at the Solid-Liquid Interface of Chlorocyanurate Tablets (VT)
-van Hoek, Monique COS Breaking Down Silicate Like Sea Sponges: Using Bacteria to Produce a Biocatalyst for Rare Earth Element Extraction (VT)
-Ward, Allison CEHD Virginia Coaching Collaborative: Improving Clinical Practicum Experiences for Reading Specialist Candidates (JMU, RU, UVA)
-Xiao, Xuesu CEC Agile, Proactive, and Autonomous First Responder Robots (UVA)
Additionally, partner 4-VA institutions have called on George Mason University faculty for their expertise and experience in wide variety of areas to act as co-PI in research efforts at other schools:
-Arafin, Tanvir CSE ANCHOR: Analog–Cyber Sensing for Secure Energy Infrastructure (UVA)
-Grace, Karen Nursing Sexual Violence and Reproductive Coercion Among College Students with Disabilities (UVA)
-Moinul, Hossain CYSE Machine Learning-Driven Predictive Secure Beamforming for NextG UAV Networks (JMU)
-Kim, Mirae SCHAR Leading Change Conference 2027: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Leadership Studies (JMU)
-Kim, Mirae SCHAR Scaling Up Nonprofit Health and Resiliency Assessment in Virginia Funding Proposal (JMU)
-Lee, Yi-Ching PSYC Understanding Autistic Adults’ Needs with Executive Functioning Support Apps (UVA)
-Yao, Ziyu CS Improving Safety in Large Language Model Responses Targeted at Youth (UVA)
-Zhang, Xiaokuan CS Building Trustworthy Audit Systems via Hardware Security Primitives (UVA)