Released Time for Research & Creative Works (RTR)
Applications are open for 2021-2022 RTR awards
Click here to view the guidelines
RTR Application
Completed applications should be emailed to orsp@kean.edu with the name of the internal award program in the subject line.
RTR Application Renewal
Completed applications should be emailed to orsp@kean.edu with the name of the internal award program in the subject line.
Link to submit interim and final reports
RTR Timeline for Academic Year 2021-2022 Awards
Application Submission: November 1, 2020 – February 1, 2021 |
Department Chair/Program Coordinator Review: February 2, 2021 – February 9, 2021 |
Departmental Committee Review Deadline: February 16, 2021 |
University-wide Committee Review and Meeting: February 17, 2021 – March 18, 2021 Committee meets Thursday, March 18 |
Report to President: March 22, 2021 |
Awards announced in March |
2020-2021 RTR Awards
Expanding the Nantucket Historical Association Research Collaborative "The overarching goal of this release time for research project is to expand innovative design research opportunities for design students with the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) and partnering organizations. Two objectives to accomplish this expansion include (1) engaging further in collaborative research projects and (2) pursuing external funding, publication, and strengthening the potential for future partnerships by connecting with NHA’s partnering organizations. This project aligns with Kean’s mission in its dedication to student learning and expansion of collaborative opportunities with educational and community organizations in national arenas. Spring 2020 across courses within the graphic design curriculum, including a special topics course taught by Prof. Johnston and a GD 1996 GD Research Experience course.
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Caremanag-e: Enhancing the Capacity of Care Managers Individuals living with Severe Mental Illness (SMI), Substance Use Disorders (SUD) and/or physical health challenges are disproportionately vulnerable to and affected by social and environmental factors that limit progress towards recovery, health and wellbeing. Despite the support of community resources and care services these individuals are challenged in the complex navigation to access such resources and services. Care Managers are recognized in serving a critical role in behavioral health care settings in promoting health and health equity in individuals with SMI, SUD, and/or physical health challenges to help address their needs to increase positive health outcomes. Care Managers embrace a whole person, consumer centered, integrated approach to care to identify areas of need and help consumers in addressing social and environmental factors that increase the likelihood of positive health outcomes. This includes the complex navigation of community resources, exploring opportunities to bridge individuals to needed services, and creating linkages. However, the majority of care managers that deliver care management services are with minimal training and experience. Care Managers do not require formal training and often need consultation when providing guidance to consumers. Seeking guidance from supervisors and getting back to the consumer is a lengthy process and supervisors are not always available when guidance is needed. In addition, for the individuals living with SMI/SUD, there is limitation on how they navigate through resources and services which limits the progress towards their recovery, health and wellbeing. Thus, the goal of this project is to promote the efficacy of Care Managers and provide solutions for easy access to resources and services to individuals living with SMI/SUD. We seek to develop Caremanage, a web based interactive decision tree, designed for use by care managers to increase their capacity to deliver services that will address social and environmental challenges that are impediments to wellness and recovery. This will guide Care Managers through a decision-making process embedded in a best practice framework enabling them to optimally address social or environmental impediments to care. Currently available technology only offers searchable resource databases. Caremanag-e will have an impact on identifying interventions based on the needs and circumstances of each individual client thereby improving client outcomes. This project is under partnership with CPC Behavioral Healthcare and Kean University Computer Science and Occupational Therapy. Kean students will have the opportunity to be involved with this research and developing real world healthcare applications. |
The Fourth Edition of Advertising by Design (John Wiley & Sons) "The two main goals of my research project are to research and write the fourth edition of my book, Advertising by Design (Wiley), and to use that research to fully update the Robert Busch School of Design (RBSD) BFA: Graphic Design/Interactive Advertising academic program.
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Life cycle assessment of algae production with the Rotating Biofilm Reactor in a wastewater treatment plant "As sustainable energy attracts increasing interests in today’s society, the microalgae became a promising source of energy to replace petroleum-based fuels or crop based oil, such as corn ethanol. Despite the many benefits, there are still concerns over resource use, environmental and human health impacts caused by algal biofuel production, especially in the algae cultivation and dewatering stages where electricity, nutrients, and water is used for algae cultivation, pumping, mixing, and water removing. In order to reduce resource use, a technology, Rotating Algae Biofilm Reactor (RARB) has been developed to grow algae. The facility consists of several vertical plastic films for algae to attach and grow. When the algae are matured, they fall off the film as scrapes for harvesting (shown in Figure 1). The scholarly merits of the project lie in multiple folds. First, the study will improve our understanding of the environmental impacts of algae cultivation with RABR, which is still limited in current literature. Second, data used in LCA analysis will be mostly based on the actual data collected from a pilot-scale facility, which could provide more accurate analysis than using data from the literature review. Third, the project presents an international collaboration in a study of a novel technology. Its results will attract attention in both LCA and algae research areas. Broadly, the project will help to promote the application of algae as an energy source, which can reduce the use of petroleum fuels and mitigate global warming. |
Molecular diversity of fungal communities of dead wood Introduction Forest and park ecosystems include multiple communities of living organisms. Dead wood is a significant component of any forest biomass and a valuable habitat and food source for the associated organisms. From the numerous fundamental studies in natural ecosystems, it is apparent that richness and stability of natural communities depends on microbial species including fungi (Boddy et al. 2007, Stokland et al. 2012). Fungal diversity Fungi belong to a separate kingdom of living organisms and their body structure differs from animals significantly. Most of the fungi that live in dead wood look like threads or are nearly invisible and do not have any distinctive morphology. Dead wood mycobiome have been experimentally studied for several decades (Rayner & Boddy 1988, Boddy et al. 2007) without a significant breakthrough, however, modern DNA research techniques such as genome sequencing greatly simplify species identification. Thus, current molecular biology techniques make new microscopic fungal species being discovered every day. At present, the necessary information on the structure and functioning on fungal communities in North American landscapes, and especially in urban areas, is far away from completion (Moose, 2019). Biodiversity and park management Wood-decaying fungi are significantly influenced by management practices in the landscapes. Heavy management of urban forests and parks, such as cutting dead wood or hollow wood and seasonal removing of foliage and branches, may affect the microbiome of a natural forest community. Despite of common belief that rotten wood is a disease that can harm healthy trees; most of the organisms decaying wood are specific to dead plants and are not able to attack living trees and plants. It is shown that a heavily managed forest loses up to 25% of biodiversity once dead wood is removed (Bobiec, 2005). The magnitude of our management impact, as well as the vulnerability of individual species remains largely unknown. It is unclear if the current park management practices, focused on trees and animals to preserve urban biodiversity, actually preserve the microbial communities and the overall health of the ecosystem. We hypothesize that fungi and mycobiome-oriented park management can improve the stability and diversity in the urban forests and parks. Objectives: The aim of this project is to compare species of dead wood inhabitants among managed and unmanaged forests around in New Jersey, as well as heavily managed city parks (campuses, backyards etc.) to identify critical communities and microhabitats in need of focused management and conservation. Projected outcomes: We are working on a database of fungal species growing on dead wood, to identify and compare various decomposes in different environments so we will be able to compare the communities and assess the species richness and the health of the ecosystems across the NJ state. The database itself is shared online at inaturalist.org (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/saproxylic-fungi-of-new-jersey) and is available for the Global Biodiversity Information Center (www.gbif.org, see the publications list) for the world research community. We upload new information constantly as we progress through identification. We also perform statistical analysis of the studied communities, and develop new techniques to assess dead wood fungi diversity in a specific area. New Jersey localities where the sampling was performed are depicted on Figure 1. Forty to sixty samples were collected from each site. |