A short brick wall is in a flower bed and Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Chartered 1869, is carved into the wall.

July 13, 2023

SIU profs among recipients of $120K in innovation grants

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill. – Four SIU faculty members are part of multi-university, interdisciplinary teams receiving a total of $120,000 in grants from the Illinois Innovation Network.

SIU faculty among this latest round of funding include:

  • Khaled Ahmed, assistant professor of computing, and Koushik Sinha, associate professor of computing. Their project is titled “Sustainable Farming in Illinois: Developing Deep Learning Algorithms for Classifying the Growth Stages of Weed in Soybean Field.”
  • Wasantha Jayawardene, assistant professor of public health, working on a project titled “Developing and Testing the Virtual Reality Embedded Naloxone Training (VENT).”
  • Sabrina Nilufar, assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace and materials engineering, working on a project titled “Engineering Sustainable Composite Membranes for Water Filtration and Remediation.”

IIN is a group of 15 university-based hubs across the state working to boost Illinois’ economy through entrepreneurship, research and workforce development. These latest grants are part of IIN’s Sustaining Illinois program, which is designed to increase collaborative research among the state’s public universities, focusing on the economy, health and social well-being, while addressing issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.