grants

Houssam Abbas (right) works with students on building a one-tenth scale autonomous race car in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. Photo by Hannah O'Leary.

As the world becomes more dependent on the safe operation of autonomous vehicles and medical devices, the research in testing such systems becomes more critical. The challenge of developing control and verification algorithms for such safety-critical systems is what excites Houssam Abbas about his work.

And although his research begins with theory, it is more than that.

Jennifer Parham-Mocello (left), assistant professor of computer science, specializes in computer science education.

Researchers at Oregon State University are taking an innovative approach to teaching computer science concepts to middle school students using tabletop games such as Connect Four and Battleship. Working in partnership with teachers and administrators at Linus Pauling Middle School in Corvallis, Oregon, the team will develop and investigate a new curriculum to teach algorithmic thinking to sixth and seventh graders.

You need a scorecard to keep track of Masoud Ghodrat Abadi’s accomplishments since he arrived at Oregon State in 2014 to start his doctoral work in transportation engineering. Topping his own list is the Eno Fellowship that he earned last spring, an honor bestowed on just 20 graduate students in the entire country annually by the Eno Center for Transportation. The Eno Center is the nation’s preeminent transportation policy and professional development organization.

OSU’s Slocum Gliders provide long-term monitoring using low-power buoyancy controlled movements that allow them to glide through the ocean. (Photo: Seth McCammon)

The National Science Foundation has awarded $1 million to five Oregon State University researchers to study the operation of autonomous marine vehicles.

Through a $1.12 million grant from the National Science Foundation, faculty at Oregon State University and the University of Texas at Austin are collaborating to better understand how soil responds to earthquakes – and ultimately produce research that will deliver safer and more secure surroundings for the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Domestic production of natural gas is projected to increase significantly within the next decade. Chris Hagen, assistant professor in energy systems engineering, believes that this growth in natural gas production, coupled with advancements in methane-fueled vehicle, holds great promise toward relieving America’s dependence on foreign oil.

Hagen is spearheading a research program at OSU-Cascades to develop a self-contained natural gas vehicle with an engine that can compress the fuel and power the car, thus eliminating the need for fueling stations.