Congratulations to CEE Professors Scott Moura and Dimitrios Zekkos for receiving the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS) 2022 Seed Awards! Their research proposals examine battery health degradation for electric off-road vehicles and using uncrewed aerial systems (UAVs) or drones to collect data and monitor methane emissions from landfills.
Since 2008, the CITRIS Seed Funding Program has supported more than 240 interdisciplinary research projects with the potential to shape their fields in the future. Moura and Zekkos' research comprises two of the eight selected proposals submitted by multi-campus teams from Berkeley, Davis, Merced, and Santa Cruz. These teams will receive up to $60,000 for their work, and the winning projects will show results within one year by addressing various industrial challenges. These challenges encompass areas within the information technology (IT) sector, including aviation, climate resilience, digital health, and robotics.
Sustainability has proved to be a common area of interest, given that half of the selected projects aim to advance energy storage or wildfire mitigation. Three projects use uncrewed aerial systems (UAVs) or drones to collect data and monitor terrain.
The awardees represent a diverse background of participants, with 88 percent of the research teams including women or people of color. In addition, over half of the research teams have a pre-tenure faculty member. Seventy-five percent of the principal investigators (PIs) are new CITRIS Seed Award recipients.
Check out the ITS website to learn more about the proposals, and view the complete list at CITRIS.