GRANT WRITING WORKSHOPS SERIES

AGENDA

(Thursday, February 3^rd, 4:00-5:00)

4:00-4:15	Collaborative grant writing between Departments of Computer Science and History, Fuqua School of Business and ISIS	Casey Alt, administrative director of the Information Science and Information Studies program at Duke University (ISIS)
4:15-4:30	Laboratory for visualization and data analysis, CAVE-like virtual reality system. Learn how interdisciplinary communication and collaboration is critical to the success of the facility and NSF grant proposal	Rachel Brady, Professor, Department of Computer Sciences
4:30-4:45	From interdisciplinary project into a collaborative grant proposal	David Needham, Professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering & Material Science, and Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center
4:45:5:00	Questions and Discussion

Questions or comments: e-mail av12@duke.edu

Workshop speakers

Casey Alt, administrative director of the Information Science and Information Studies program at Duke University (ISIS)

Casey Alt is currently the administrative director of the Information Science and Information Studies program at Duke University. Casey's graduate research in the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at Stanford University focuses primarily upon the history of media, the material means by which we form representations, especially digital media as it affects science and other forms of cultural production. Of particular interest to him thus far has been the ways in which different tools of representation have engendered different historical experiences of spatial embodiment. In investigating this question, Casey has written on media as diverse as bioinformatics to comic books, 3D modeling programs to videogames. In addition to his academic research on the subject, Casey has also been actively engaged in the design and development of digital media software intended to extend the possibilities of humanities research and collaboration.

Casey Alt will talk about recent grant proposal which brought together faculty and staff from Information Science and Information Studies (ISIS), Computer Science, Fuqua School of Business, and History and involves developing a new system for rich-media distance learning education. He will also introduce a collaborative project which will combine researchers from ISIS; History; Institute for Global Health Policy; Sociology; Center for Genome, Ethics, Law, and Policy; the Fuqua School of Business; and the Nicholas School of the Environment, in which will be attempting to develop means for historically tracking the global diffusion of technology innovations.

Rachael Brady, Professor in the Department of Computer Science

Professor Rachael Brady is interested in how technology can aid data exploration and analysis. She began her career by designing signal detection algorithms and creating remote instrument control systems for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence projects at UC Berkeley and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 1990, Brady began work on interactive volume rendering and image analysis software for use in biological and medical data at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). During her time at NCSA, Brady became interested in the power of virtual reality as an interface for three-dimensional data. She co-authored the Crumbs volume rendering virtual reality software that has been used by biologists, astrophysicists geologists, architects, and dancers. Brady joined the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke in September 2001, where she is the founding director of the Visualization Technology Group.

With support from a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Award, Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering will acquire a fully enclosed, six-sided, 2.9m x 2.9m x 2.9m, back projected virtual reality environment. The VisRoom will be located in a specially constructed 30 foot cube in the atrium of the CIEMAS building. The VisRoom will be the only facility of its kind in the Southeast and the third such system in the United States. Projects currently planned for this VisRoom include research in cognitive neuroscience, exploration of 3D structures, and education.

Professor Brady will present a concept of the VisRoom and how interdisciplinary communication and collaboration is critical to the success of the facility. She will also illustrate, by example, a funded and unfunded NSF proposal for the VisRoom.

David Needham, Professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering & Material Science, and Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Needham's research program is in the field Materials Science and in particular, that of "Biological and other Soft Wet Materials." The program focuses on coating and encapsulation of solid, liquid and gaseous particles in the colloidal size range (10 nanometers to 10 micrometers). It essentially comprises two related areas. One deals with the material properties of lipid monolayers, bilayer membranes, hydrogels, wax particles, emulsions, gas bubbles, and cells. And the other is concerned with adhesion and repulsion involving molecular structures at interfaces including water-soluble polymers and receptor-mediated cell adhesion. Current research focuses on experiments and theory concerning: 1) molecular exchange and defect formation in lipid vesicle membranes, (specifically involving the partitioning of amphipathic molecules like surfactants, pH sensitive polymers, and fusogenic peptides); 2) physical properties of microhydrogels and their interactions with ionic species, especially drugs; 3) lipid and surfactant monolayers at gas bubble, liquid emulsion , and solid wax surfaces; and 4) in the measurement of the local compliance of cellular interfaces and bond strengths for receptor-ligand bonds in response to cell activation. Information gained in this work is directed towards improved image contrast agents and drug delivery systems that use lipids and polymers to create micro- and nano-capsules and monolayer coatings. These micro and nano carriers are being designed to load anti-cancer drugs and local anesthetics, and to coat or encapsulate image contrast agents for Ultrasound imaging. The current focus is on increased drug carrying capacity (solubility in lipid and surfactant structures), antibody and peptide targeted delivery to diseased sites, and triggered release of drug at the diseased site from a carrier by using temperature and pH-sensitive materials. These systems are being tested pre-clinically with collaborators in the Duke Medical Center, specifically with Dr. Mark Dewhirst in Radiation Oncology.