2025-26 Teacher-Scholar Mini Grant Awardees

Cal Poly’s Office of Research awarded 27 projects for the 2025-26 cycle of the Teacher-Scholar Mini Grant (TSMG) program.  

The TSMG program has been developed to support our institutional commitment to advancing discovery, integration, application, and engagement in the context of teaching and learning. With support from the Office of the Provost, the Teacher-Scholar Mini Grant program expands internal funding to support all areas of teacher-scholar activities. 

The 2025-26 awarded projects are:

• “How Fast is the Universe Expanding? New Insights from Active Galaxies.”  Vardha N. Bennert, Professor, Physics, Bailey College of Science and Math 
   
• “High-Fidelity Approach for In-Situ Monitoring of Droplet Based Additive Manufacturing.” Aditya Chivate, Assistant Professor, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, College of Engineering 
          
• “The Fabric of Deception: Greenwashing and the Garment Industry in Bangladesh.” Nikhil Deb, Assistant Professor, Social Sciences, College of Liberal Arts 
   
• “Eco-Friendly Bird Deterrence for Vineyards Utilizing an Autonomously Coordinated Aerial and Ground Multi-Robot System.” Siavash Farzan, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Sean Hurley, Professor, Agricultural Business, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences 
   
• “Small-Scale Fisheries in Guatemala: Indigenous Activism for Ocean Governance.” Martha Galvan Mandujano, Associate Professor, World Languages and Cultures, College of Liberal Arts 
   
• “Measuring Mortgage Lending Fairness Using Explainable Machine Learning.” Hamed Ghoddusi, Associate Professor, Finance, Orfalea College of Business 
   
• “Autonomous Guided Vehicles in Smart Manufacturing Education: A Learning Factory Approach.” Javier Gonzalez Sanchez, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering, College of Engineering and Rafael Guerra-Silva, Assistant Professor, Industrial Technology and Packaging, Orfalea College of Business 
   
• “Flows: Mapping Dispossessions and Reimagining Kinship in Payahuunadü.” Lydia Heberling, Assistant Professor and Grace Yeh, Professor, Ethnic Studies, College of Liberal Arts 
   
• “S.C.R.I.P.T.S.: Studying Creativity, Representation, and Intellectual Property in Technological Storytelling: Generative AI in Film, TV, and Video Games.” Ryan Jenkins, Associate Professor, Philosophy, College of Liberal Arts 
   
• “Projection Augmented Landscape Models (PALM).” Aaron Liggett, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture, College of Architecture and Environmental Design 
   
• “Engineering Electrospun Zwitterionic Materials Towards Mechanically Robust Membranes.” Leily Majidi, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Seamus Jones, Assistant Professor, Materials Engineering, College of Engineering 
   
• “Ahead of the Breach: Anticipatory Approaches to Mitigating Ex-post Costs of Cyber Breaches.” Ndackyssa Oyima-antseleve, Assistant Professor, Finance, Orfalea College of Business 
   
• “Development of AIR (Alkoxyamine Investigator Reagent) for Early Disease Detection through Biomolecule Glycosylation.” H.H. Palandoken, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bailey College of Science and Math 
   
• “Characterizing Novel Microorganisms in Rhizosphere Soils in a Disturbed Serpentine Ecosystem.” Yamina Pressler, Assistant Professor, Natural Resource Management and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences; Nishanta Rajakaruna, Professor and Alejandra Yep, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, Bailey College of Science and Math 
   
• “Mobile Training Labs for California's Renewable Energy Workforce Development.” Mahdi Rastad, Professor, Finance, Orfalea College of Business 
   
• “From Lived Experience to Research Practice: Building Relational Consensus Analysis with Student Co-Researchers in Social-Community Psychology.” Daniel Rodriguez Ramirez, Assistant Professor, Psychology and Child Development, College of Liberal Arts 
   
• “Queer Love: On the Rise of the LGBT Romance.” Steven Ruszczycky, Associate Professor, English and Women’s, Gender, and Queer Studies, College of Liberal Arts 
   
• “Machine Learning Guided Variable Rate Sprayer for Vineyards.” Mohammad Sadek, Associate Professor, BioResource and Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences and Fahim Khan, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering, College of Engineering 
   
• “Dignity Through Design: XenaForms as Climate-Responsive Sunshades for Equity and Sustainability.” Edmond Saliklis, Professor, Architectural Engineering, College of Architecture and Environmental Design 
   
• “Development of Intensive Indoor Recirculating Shrimp Culture Module for Learn by Doing Labs.” Gregory Schwartz, Professor, BioResource and Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences 
   
• “Modern Global California: A Place-Based Study of the History of Capitalism.” Elizabeth Sine, Lecturer, History, College of Liberal Arts 
   
• “Development of a Time-Resolved Absorption Spectrometer: Enhancing Student Research and Instrumentation Skills.” Isinsu Toker, Assistant Professor, Physics and Leslie Hamachi, Assistant Professor, Chemistry, Bailey College of Science and Math 
   
• “Identity, Training, and Opportunity: Integrating Ukraine's IDPs into New Labor Markets and Communities.” Katya (Kathryn) Vasilaky, Associate Professor, Economics, Orfalea College of Business 
   
• “Navigating Consumer Perceptions of Homelessness-based Impact Hiring: Challenges and Opportunities.” Cindy Wang, Associate Professor, Marketing, Orfalea College of Business 
   
• “Electrical Imaging-Based Damage Detection for Aerospace Composites: Engaging Students in Cutting-Edge and Interdisciplinary Research.” Long Wang, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering 
   
• “A Data-Driven Human Mobility Modeling Framework for Analyzing Healthcare Service Accessibility.” Zhiyuan Wei, Assistant Professor, Industrial Manufacturing Engineering, College of Engineering 
   
• “Chemical Design of Multifunctional Polymer Binders for Lithium-Ion Batteries.” Shanju Zhang, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bailey College of Science and Math and Seamus Jones, Assistant Professor, Materials Engineering, College of Engineering 

Congratulations to those awarded grants, and thanks to everyone who submitted proposals. The team also extends a special thank you to the Review Committee members for their contributions to this important program.