It is hard to believe we are now entering the final year of our KAMPERS Track-1 Project, dedicated to advancing manufacturing in Kentucky. A few highlights from the last four years, despite the pandemic:
- 32 follow-on funded NSF awards totaling $19.57 million, which is more than the EPSCoR
Track-1 investment on that project to date. - 108 academic research publications.
- 33 filed, pending, and/or awarded patents added to the intellectual property pipeline by faculty participants over the life of the project to date, including six that have been licensed.
- Support for 15 post docs, 50 graduate student research assistants, and 121 undergraduate researchers graduating from the program.
- 7,034 individuals (i.e., STEM educators, K-12 teachers/students, industry representatives, government representatives, citizens, and citizen scientists, etc.) impacted via program
external engagement activities. - The project provided startup support to successfully recruit and hire nine new faculty to the project: Alexandra Paterson (UK), Kendall Corbin (UK), Aron Huckaba (UK), Shahnawaz Rather (UK), Sabur Baidya (UofL), Yash Chitalia (UofL), Jean Vaz (UofL), Jason Fry (EKU), and David Selvidge (Somerset CC). Selvidge recently left Somerset CC but a replacement
hire will be supported in year five of the project. All other new hires remain on the project and continue to contribute to the project outcomes. The CLIMBS project includes support for ten additional new faculty hires at three different institutions (UK, UofL, WKU).
On September 15th, our leadership team hosted our annual kickoff meeting virtually. You can watch the full video here:
