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2010-11 MISTI Global Seed Funds winners announced

More than $900,000 distributed to 46 international faculty research projects.
2006 MIT-France Seed Fund awardees Ben Weiss and Jerome Gattacceca received a grant to explore the impact demagnetization of geological materials.
Caption:
2006 MIT-France Seed Fund awardees Ben Weiss and Jerome Gattacceca received a grant to explore the impact demagnetization of geological materials.

A project to examine quark-gluon plasma and a study of computationally optimized photovoltaics are among the 46 international faculty research collaborations that will receive more than $900,000 from the 2010-2011 MISTI Global Seed Funds competition.

Now in its third year, this growing initiative received 112 proposals, up from the 104 received for the inaugural 2008-2009 grant round. Faculty and research scientists from 26 departments across the Institute submitted proposals for projects in 26 countries. All awardees include undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral student participation.

Teams will use the grant money to jump-start international research projects and collaboration with faculty and student counterparts abroad. Funds will be used to cover international travel, meeting and workshop costs. MISTI will provide cultural preparation for participating students before their departure.

The MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) established the Global Seed Funds with funding from the Office of the Provost to enhance the internationalization of MIT research and education. The program is composed of a general pool for projects in any country and country-specific funds for Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Japan and Spain. MISTI will soon launch new funds for Chile and Germany.

MIT's largest international program, MISTI is a pioneer in applied international studies. Each year, the program places more than 500 MIT students in professional internships and research with its network of leading companies, universities, research institutes and NGOs around the world. The program is a part of the Center for International Studies.

The next MISTI Global Seed Funds call for proposals will be announced in May with a proposal deadline in early fall. More details are available on the MISTI website.

2010-2011 MISTI Global Seed Funds recipients are:

MISTI GLOBAL SEED FUNDS GENERAL POOL

Prototypical Sustainable Residential Communities for Israel 2025 (Israel)
Eran Ben-Joseph
Architecture and Planning; Urban Studies and Planning

Design of a Satellite Research Platform for Pollution Monitoring in Mexican Cities: Quetzal 1st Stage (Mexico)
Paulo Lozano
Engineering; Aeronautics and Astronautics

Creative Capacity Building in Uganda (Uganda)
Amy Smith
Engineering; Development

Graphene-Based Bioelectronics (Germany)
Tomas Palacios
Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Dielectrophoretic Selection of Microorganisms for Bioelectrochemical Systems (Australia)
Cullen Buie
Engineering; Mechanical Engineering

Developing a New Post-Extinction Model for the Cretaceous-Paleogene Mass Extinction Event (Spain)
Roger Summons, Julio Sepulveda
Science; Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

ODAS: Opinion Formation and Decision Making in Multi-Agent Social Networks (Belgium)
Cesar Hidalgo, John Tsitsiklis
Science; Mathematics

Co-Innovation: Bringing Rural Africa into the MIT Class, Taking the MIT Class to Rural Africa (South Africa)
Clapperton Mavhunga
SHASS; Science, Technology and Society

GREATER CHINA FUND FOR INNOVATION

Ecological 'Smart-Slope' Urban Development (China)
Reinhard Goethert
Architecture and Planning; Urban Studies and Planning

An MIT-China Collaboration to Bridge Ecology and Bioengineering to Benefit Human Health (China)
Edward Boyden
Architecture and Planning; Media Arts and Sciences

Solar Thermoelectric Generator for Micro-Power Application (China)
Rajeev Ram
Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Mapping Antigenic Evolution of Influenza Viruses in China (China)
Jianzhu Chen
Science; Biology

Illuminating the Primordial Quark-Gluon Liquid (Taiwan)
Gunther Roland
Science; Physics

Non-Democratic Accountability: Experiments with Citizen Contacting in China (China)
Edward Steinfeld
SHASS; Political Science

MIT-BRAZIL SEED FUND

Impact of International Agricultural Markets' Liberalization on the Brazilian Amazon Forest
Karen R. Polenske
Architecture and Planning; Urban Studies and Planning and Economics

Systems Engineering a Brazilian University Pico-satellite: A Focus on Test & Evaluation
Deborah Nightingale, Ricardo Valerdi
Engineering; Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems

Metatranscriptomic-based Diagnostics of Abrolhos Bank Coral Health
Janelle Thompson
Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering

Semiconducting Nanostructured Films for Gas Sensors
Harry Tuller
Engineering; Materials Science and Engineering

High-Throughput Processing for Scalable Silicon Photovoltaics
Tonio Buonassisi
Engineering; Mechanical Engineering

Rehabilitation Robotics: Ankle Impedance and Neural Ionic Channel to Muscle Control Simulator
Hermano Igo Krebs, Neville Hogan
Engineering; Mechanical Engineering

Overexpression of EMT Genes in Endothelial Cells During Endothelial Mesenchymal Transition
Robert Weinberg, Leonardo Rodrigues
Science; Biology

Injectable Biopolymers and Cells Therapy: Improvement of Cardiac Repair after Myocardium Infarction
Elazer R. Edelman
Whitaker; Harvard-MIT Health and Sciences Technology

MIT-FRANCE SEED FUND

Combined Growth and Electron Tomography Studies of Nanowire Heterostructures: From Basic Properties to Advanced Applications
Silvija Gradecak
Engineering; Materials Science and Engineering

Coiling Spaghetti: Periodic Patterns in the Deposition of a Thin Filament onto a Moving Substrate
Pedro Reis
Engineering; Mechanical Engineering

Quantum Mechanics on a Macroscopic Scale
John W. M. Bush, Tristan Gilet
Science; Physics and Applied Mathematics

The Mathematics of Liouville Quantum Gravity
Scott Sheffield
Science; Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

Who Will Serve? Recruiting and Retention in Contemporary All-Volunteer Forces
Cindy Williams
SHASS; Political Science

MIT-INDIA/IFMR TRUST SEED FUND

India Dairy Industry Optimization
Rich Fletcher
Architecture and Planning; Media Arts and Sciences

Strengthening Partnerships for Mobile Based Health-Care Technology in India
Peter Szolovits, Leo Anthony Celi
Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

MIT-SPAIN/LA CAMBRA DE BARCELONA SEED FUND

Soil Moisture on Planet Earth
Dara Entekhabi
Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering

Stochastic Dynamic Models for Advanced Electric Power Systems Planning
Mort Webster, Ignacio Perez-Arriaga
Engineering; Electrical Engineering, Engineering Systems

Development of GMI Autobiased Sensors Based on Exchange Bias Effect
Caroline Ross
Engineering; Materials Science and Engineering

MISTI HAYASHI SEED FUND

Re-Production of Water-Community Symbiosis (Japan)
Shun Kanda, James Wescoat
Architecture and Planning; Environmental Design and Planning

Workshop on Ecological Genomics in Urban Aquatic Habitats (Singapore)
Janelle Thompson
Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering

Uncovering the Generation Mechanism of Internal Waves in the Luzon Strait (Taiwan)
Thomas Peacock, Matthieu Mercier
Engineering; Mechanical Engineering

Does Turbulence Control Phytoplankton Community Structure at the Kuroshio Front? (Japan)
Michael Follows
Science; Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

MITOR PROJECT

Multidisciplinary Framework for Morphing Wing Design
Karen Willcox, Qiqi Wang
Engineering; Aeronautics and Astronautics

Multi-scale Analysis of the Cytoskeleton Machinery
Roger Kamm
Engineering; Biological Engineering

Guiding L’Aquila Reconstruction after 2009 Earthquake: Rebuilding a Resilient City to Multiple Hazards
John Ochsendorf
Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering

Advanced Macromodeling Techniques for Micro-, Nano-, and Bio-Systems
Luca Daniel
Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Development of New Cellular Materials by Gel-Casting Technique: Optimization of Production Process and Functional Simulation of the Microstructure
Lorna Gibson
Engineering; Materials Science

Computationally Optimized Photovoltaics Based on Nanomaterials: Elucidating Fundamental Mechanisms and Predicting New Designs
Jeffrey Grossman
Engineering; Materials Science

Bicycles as a Vehicle for Engineering Education
Dan Frey
Engineering; Mechanical Engineering

A Predictive System for Neutron-Induced Material Activation and Damage for Fusion Energy Devices
Dennis G. Whyte
Engineering; Nuclear Science and Engineering

Understanding the Earth Crust and Upper Mantle Seismic Properties through Joint Surface- and Body-Wave Tomography
Robert van der Hilst
Science; Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

Long Term Interaction in Flow Systems
Rodolfo Rosales
Science; Mathematics

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