Funded Projects

The chart below is updated weekly.

PI	Department	College	Date	Sponsor	Award Amount	Project Title	Description
Patrick Geho (PI), Kayla Retherford-Miller (Co-PI)	Tennessee Small Business Development Center		1/1/2026-12/31/2026	US Small Business Administration	$2,693,283.00	Lead Center, TN Small Business Development Center (TSBDC) Program CY2026	The Tennessee Small Business Development Center (TSBDC) was established by state statute in 1984 to provide small businesses with counseling and training. The TSBDC network consists of the Lead Center, 14 TSBDC network service centers and 2 affiliate offices located across the state. Six of the TSBDC’s network service centers are hosted by state universities with the remaining 8 hosted by community colleges. Online training and assistance is available and hosted by the Lead Center. The TSBDC Lead Center is the contractor for all TSBDC service centers and affiliate offices.
Kristi Stringer (PI)	Health and Human Performance	College of Behavioral and Health Sciences	7/1/2025-6/30/2026	Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council (through the Prevention Coalition for Success, Inc.)	$24,813.00	Peers for Success – Opioid Abatement Council – Community Grants (Year 2)	Peers for Success Certified Young Adult Peer Support Specialists (CYAPSS) will engage transition-age youth and young adults in Rutherford and Cannon Counties. This project collaborates with MTSU to develop substance misuse prevention and recovery programs. Peers for Success CYAPSS and MTSU Public Health and Social Work student organizations will mobilize youth to develop a mental health and substance misuse prevention annual event, and CYAPSS will collaborate with MTSU Public Health faculty to develop a student-led collegiate recovery program.
Deborah Lee (PI),Lisa (Kay) Murphree (Co-PI)	NHC Chair of Excellence in Nursing	College of Behavioral & Health Sciences	7/1/2025-6/30/2026	US Department of Health & Human Services/HRSA (through Vanderbilt University)	$140,853.00	Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (Middle Tennessee Collaborative Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP)) Year 2	The primary goal of the Middle Tennessee Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP), currently in Year 2, is to educate and train the primary care and geriatrics workforces and other appropriate specialties to provide age-friendly and dementia-friendly care of older adults. This geriatric education and training includes team training conferences, an RN apprenticeship program, and a CNA apprenticeship program. The GWEP encourages the development of reciprocal partnerships between academia, primary care sites, and community organizations.
Katie Schrodt (PI) , Stuart Bernstein (Co-PI)	Elementary and Special Education	College of Education	5/15/2025-3/31/2027	Jeannine Herron	$65,000.00	Efficacy of the Encoding to Decoding Curriculum in Prekindergarten: A Quasi-Experimental Study with Longitudinal Follow-up	This study will evaluate the efficacy of the Encoding to Decoding curriculum in prekindergarten classrooms through a randomized controlled trial design. The research will follow approximately 120 students from prekindergarten implementation through the first semester of kindergarten to assess both immediate and sustained effects on early literacy development.
Michelle Stevens (PI), Lisa Strayer (Co-PI)	Center for Fairness, Justice and Equity	College of Education	7/1/2025-6/30/2026	Tennessee Department of Education (through TN SCORE)	$101,883.00	Tennessee Teach Back Initiative FY26	This is a renewal grant supporting the Tennessee Teach Back Initiative, a teacher recruitment program that partners with school districts throughout Tennessee to provide low-cost funding to MTSU initial teacher licensure students from rural and underserved communities. Upon successfully completing the Teacher Education Program, students will be required to teach in their sponsoring school district for as long as they are supported by that district.
Zada Law (PI)	Geosciences	College of Basic & Applied Sciences	10/1/2025-9/30/2027	US Department of the Interior/National Park Service (through the Tennessee Historical Commission)	$136,000.00	Geospatial and Computing Services for the Tennessee Historical Commission.	Since the 1990’s, MTSU’s Fullerton Laboratory for Spatial Technology has provided comprehensive geospatial and computing services to the Tennessee Historical Commission to facilitate the management and preservation of Tennessee’s historical and architectural resources. MTSU’s services include scanning historic resource survey maps, digitizing historic property locations as GIS data layers, and creating GIS data from legacy historic survey records.
Van West (PI)	Center for Historic Preservation	College of Liberal Arts	9/14/2022-9/30/2027	US Department of the Interior/National Park Service	$500,000.00	Operational Support of the Tennessee Civil War Heritage Area, Year 4	Following the Management Plan goals for this project, the Center for Historic Preservation strives to provide an exceptional heritage area experience for Tennesseans and visitors, now and in the future. Through heritage tourism, education, and interpretation, Tennessee’s irreplaceable Civil War experience is being preserved and promoted.
Trevor Cheney (PI), Jonathan Leverette (Co-PI)	University Police		10/1/2025-9/30/2026	US Department of Transportation (through the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security)	$10,000.00	Tennessee Highway Safety Office High Visibility Enforcement Grant 2026	The objective of this project is to reduce the number of fatal and serious injury crashes on Tennessee roadways as detailed in the triennial Highway Safety Plan. High Visibility Enforcement (HVE) will be conducted at hot spot locations identified through analysis of crash, citation, crime, and other data. This is a proven traffic safety approach designed to create deterrence and change unlawful behavior.
Van West (PI)	Center for Historic Preservation	College of Liberal Arts	7/1/2025-9/30/2026	Tennessee Department of Agriculture	$208,500.00	Revision of Tennessee’s Pioneer Century Farms Book	The original Tennessee Pioneer Century Farms book was written by Dr. West and tells the story of Tennessee’s Century Farms, also drawing attention to the rapid loss of farmland in the state. This revision would update the work and verify the eligibility of 125 Pioneer farms highlighted in the book with new pictures and histories.
Greg Rushton (PI), Kimberly Evert (Co-PI)	TN STEM Education Center, Womack Educational Leadership	College of Basic & Applied Sciences , College of Education	10/1/2025-9/30/2028	National Science Foundation	$1,232,951.00	Collaborative Research: Improving Teacher Retention and Effectiveness through Knowledge Sharing (iTREKS): Studying STEM Teachers in High Need Schools across a Community of Practice	This is a collaborative project with 9 other institutions with the goal of creating a national STEM preparation community of practice working together to study teacher persistence and effectiveness. The focus will be on STEM education in HNSDs, ultimately providing populations of students that have historically been underserved in STEM courses more equitable access to quality STEM teachers and increased likelihood to consider STEM focused careers.
Kevin Ragland (PI)	TN STEM Education Center	College of Basic & Applied Sciences	7/15/2025-6/30/2026	Tennessee Department of Education	$35,000.00	From Education to Employment: Building Regional STEM Readiness (Battelle)	The goal of this project is to empower educators, schools, and stakeholders throughout the Middle Tennessee STEM Innovation Hub by aligning K-12 STEM education with postsecondary pathways that lead to high-wage, high-skill careers and recognized impact credentials. Three Innovative Educator Workshops will be held during the 2025-26 school year, as well as Science Olympiads for elementary, middle, and high school students.
Katie Goodwin (PI)	Governor’s School for the Arts		10/1/2025-9/30/2026	Tennessee Department of Education	$1,000,000.00	Governor’s School for the Arts 2026	The Governor’s School for the Arts, an annual three-week intensive summer arts program at MTSU for high school students, includes classes and performance opportunities in instrumental and vocal music, visual arts, theater performance, theater technical design, filmmaking, and dance. The grant provides tuition and fees as well as lodging and meals for the approximately 275 student attendees.
Greg Van Patten (PI)		College of Basic & Applied Sciences	9/1/2020-8/31/2026	US Department of Energy	$126,329.00	Light Harvesting in Semiconductor Quantum Dots	Dr. Van Patten, who is receiving additional funding for Year 6 of this project,  will continue to work with multiple research assistants to synthesize and characterize high quality quantum dot samples to be used in 2D Electronic Spectroscopy (2DES) studies by the Beck Group at Michigan State University. He will also continue to develop and optimize Direct in Real-Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) as a highly sensitive and quantitative tool for analysis of ligands on QD surfaces.
David Butler (PI)		College of Graduate Studies	7/1/2025-6/30/2026	Launch Tennessee	$300,000.00	TTAC FY26-Ideation, Development, and Commercialization of Intellectual Property	This project funded by the Tennessee Technology Advancement Consortium (TTAC) seeks to boost invention activity and commercialization readiness. In FY26, MTSU will prioritize educating faculty and graduate students on intellectual property (IP) concepts, the disclosure process, and TTAC’s role in supporting innovation. This will streamline workflows, enhance communication, and build engagement to foster a campus-wide innovation culture.
Melissa Towe (PI)		Student Support Services	9/1/2025-8/31/2030	US Department of Education	$306,514.00	TRIO Student Support Services at Middle Tennessee State University	This Student Support Services grant is being renewed for another five years at approximately $300K per year, for a total of $1.5 million in funding from the US Department of Education. This will allow the MTSU program to continue its mission of supporting first-generation, low-income, and disabled college students in achieving academic success and graduating on time. The program has been an integral part of MTSU’s commitment to student success and retention, helping participants overcome barriers to higher education.
David Butler (PI), Joshua Phillips (Co-PI), Arpan Sainju (Co-PI), Letian Zhang (Co-PI)		College of Graduate Studies	9/15/2025-12/14/2026	Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development	$500,000.00	TNGO: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Pothole Detection and Rapid Repair Deployment	This grant, part of the Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) Program, aims to develop a system for identifying, analyzing, and mapping road potholes to improve infrastructure maintenance and develop an AI-led road repair system. It leverages citizens and their smartphones, through the Pothole Detection app, to crowdsource data on road conditions through real-time image and sensor capture.
Samuel Haruna (PI)	Agriculture	College of Basic & Applied Sciences	4/1/2025-3/31/2028	US Department of Agriculture	$84,923.00	Building Foundations for Perennial Grain Agriculture in the Southeast	As part of this USDA grant, a research site will be located on a plot at the MTSU experiential farm where Intermediate Wheat Grass (IWG) will be planted during the summer of 2025. Dr. Haruna will analyze soil health parameters and use the field for teaching purposes. He will also work to establish another site on a collaborating farm.
Yixiang Wu (PI)	Mathematical Sciences	College of Basic & Applied Sciences	9/15/2025-8/31/2027	National Science Foundation	$246,528.00		Researchers will investigate the impact of network structure and the spatial dispersal of individuals on the persistence of a single stream species, the competition of two stream species, and the outbreak of waterborne infectious diseases. Applications include preserving endangered stream species and improving sustainability and efficiency in fisheries; understanding the effect of human activities such as building dams and channels and weather conditions such as droughts and floods on the stream species; and helping government agencies optimally respond to waterborne infectious disease outbreaks.
Wandi Ding (PI), Hanna Terletska (Co-PI), Joshua Phillips (Co-PI), Jing Kong (Co-PI), Abdul Khaliq (Co-PI)	Mathematical Sciences	College of Basic & Applied Sciences	9/1/2025-8/31/2030	National Science Foundation	$2,000,000.00		This project aims to create an impactful graduate research and training program at MTSU in the fields of quantum information science and artificial intelligence. It is aligned with the national priority to cultivate a skilled, diverse workforce in these critical areas, and will offer extensive training and research experiences for up to 40 graduate students.
Yucheng Cao (PI), Amy Elleman (Co-PI), Timothy Odegard (Co-PI)	Literacy Studies Ph.D. Program	College of Education	6/1/2025-8/15/2026	HEC Software, Inc.	$75,474.00		Reading Horizons is a literacy program that employs an explicit, systematic, and multisensory phonics approach to support early and struggling readers. This project aims to evaluate key components of the program with the purpose of systematically strengthening instruction and improving student literacy outcomes.
Jennifer Kaplan (PI)	Mathematical Sciences	College of Basic & Applied Sciences	10/1/2025-9/30/2028	National Science Foundation	$405,063.00		This project will bring a set of 10 undergraduate researchers from science and education per year (30 participants total) to MTSU for an eight-week, in-depth research experience aimed to apprentice the students into the STEM Education research community of practice. The project aims to not only assist undergraduate participants in negotiating the complexity of this interdisciplinary research field, but also to create scholars who can work within and across disciplines collaboratively.
Timothy Odegard (PI), Jennifer Stewart (Co-PI)	Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies	College of Education	7/1/2025-9/30/2029	Montana Office of Public Instruction	$292,184.00		Over a four-year period, the MTSU researchers will conduct an external implementation evaluation of the MT Reads literacy initiative for the Montana Office of Public Instruction.
Cynthia Chafin (PI), Christina Byrd (Co-PI)	Center for Health & Human Services		9/1/2025-8/31/2026	US Department of Health & Human Services	$975,689.00		For a third year, this federal grant is enabling MTSU’s Center for Health & Human Services (CHHS) to partner with Cedar Recovery (a local treatment provider) to establish medication-assisted treatment (MAT) access points in six rural Tennessee counties. Cedar Recovery provides direct services, and CHHS provides coordination and support services.
Souvik Banerjee (PI), Kevin Bicker (Co-PI), April Weissmiller (Co-PI)	Chemistry	College of Basic & Applied Sciences	7/22/2024-6/30/2028	National Institutes of Health	$169,233.00		This project, now in its second year, aims to discover new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, focusing on a new scaffold of tubulin inhibitors, fused heterocyclic pyrimidine (FHP).
Jennifer Stewart (PI)	Dyslexia Services	College of Education	7/1/2025-12/15/2028	The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Inc.	$32,000		The primary purpose of this research is to assess the efficacy of the AIM Pathways to Proficient Reading course in improving educator knowledge of literacy and instructional practices. A comprehensive database will be developed from existing data sources for the AIM Institute for Learning & Research that documents the development and impact of the professional development course. Ultimately, this database will be utilized to investigate the impact of the training on educator content knowledge and any perceived change to classroom pedagogical practice to student reading outcomes in participating states and districts.
Hanna Terletska (PI)	Physics and Astronomy	College of Basic & Applied Sciences	7/1/2025-10/31/2027	National Science Foundation	$286,822.00		MTSU will be involved in two projects within this collaborative effort between several universities. The first project aims to develop interpretable descriptors to effectively capture the structural and functional properties of perovskites, such as atomic arrangements, environmental stability, and electronic or optical behaviors. An AI-powered chatbot will be developed utilizing natural language processing techniques to assist researchers. The second project proposes to develop an active learning-driven machine learning workflow to tackle the structural and compositional variability of HOIS (Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Structures) for their properties prediction. This project will advance the understanding of structure-property relationships and accelerate the discovery of HOIS optimized for energy, electronics, and sensor applications.