Sustaining Illinois Seed Funding

About Sustaining Illinois

The Sustaining Illinois name has multiple meanings, including the broad economic, health-related, and social well-being of the state and its communities, and environmental sustainability of its food and water ecosystem, which includes addressing issues affecting groups who are underserved, under-represented, or under-resourced.

Since its launch in 2020, Sustaining Illinois has funded 36 early-stage concepts supporting 125 investigators utilizing resources from the University of Illinois System and Northern Illinois University. Many of these projects have continued past the seed stage, earning nearly $500,000 in follow-on funding.

Calls for proposal are typically published twice a year.

Funded Sustaining Illinois Projects

Fall 2022 | News release

Artificial Intelligence Foundations in Autonomous Vehicles for Career Explorers
Rebekka Darner, Illinois State University (ISU); Elahe Javadi, ISU; Elham Khorasani Buxton, University of Illinois Springfield (UIS).

Cost-effective Road Maintenance through Machine Learning and Optimization Methods
Abdelmounaam Rezgui, ISU; Moussa Ayyash, Chicago State University (CSU).

Developing a Human Resources Tool for Intellectual and Developmental Disability Service Organizations
Jinsook Kim, NIU; Jennifer Gray, NIU; Caitlin Crabb, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC); Kelly Hsieh, UIC; Tamar Heller, UIC.

Educating Students, Farmers, and Professionals to Support the Livestock Industry of Illinois
Eduardo Gastal, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC); Igor Canisso, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Spring 2022 | News release

AI- and vision-enabled plant health monitoring system in vertical farms
Principal Investigator: Kevin Martin, NIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Pratool Bharti, NIU; Keith Cadwallader, UIUC.

Career/switch: gamified energy career exploration
Principal Investigator: Rebekka Darner, ISU
Co-Principal Investigators: Matthew Hagaman, ISU; Colin Wilson, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE).

Data-driven process modeling of advanced manufacturing systems
Principal Investigator: Jida Huang, UIC
Co-Principal Investigator: Niechen Chen, NIU

Designing equitable and sustainable STEM education with renewable technologies (DESSERT)
Principal Investigator: James Mathias, SIUC
Co-Principal Investigator: Matthew Aldeman, ISU

iGAIT-ASD: data-driven application to predict autism spectrum disorder (ASD) index for children living in underserved, underrepresented and low-income communities
Principal Investigator: Sinan Onal, SIUE
Co-Principal Investigators: Ziteng Wang, NIU; Allison Gladfelter, NIU; Milijana Buac, NIU

Introducing student-centered flipped teaching to faculty in the rural nursing program
Principal Investigator: Melodie Rowbotham, SIUE
Co-Principal Investigators: Chaya Gopalan, SIUE; Kelli Whittington, SIUC

Sustainable software for sustainable manufacturing: developing and training of open-source, high-performance computing simulation tools for additive manufacturing
Principal Investigator: Jifu Tan, NIU
Co-Principal Investigator: Sandra Gesing, Discovery Partners Institute (DPI)

Transforming wastes and industrial byproducts into sustainable construction materials
Principal Investigator: Prabir Kolay, SIUC
Co-Principal Investigator: Krishna Reddy, UIC

Fall 2021 | News release

Geopolymer concrete for sustainable construction and beyond
Principal Investigator: Guang Jin, ISU
Co-Principal Investigators: Pranshoo Solanki, ISU, and Nishant Garg, UIUC

Integrating hydrology and social science for community resiliency against flooding hazards: a case study for East St. Louis, Ill.
Principal Investigator: Ajay Kalra, SIUC
Co-Principal Investigators: Robert Dixon, SIUE; Courtney Breckenridge, SIUE; and Connie Frey Spurlock, SIUE

Planning the southeast Illinois P-16 computational thinking network
Principal Investigator: Brian Reid, Eastern Illinois University
Co-Principal Investigator: George Reese, UIUC

Sustainable inclusive supply chain for the electric vehicle industry in Illinois
Principal Investigator: John Simon, Governors State University
Co-Principal Investigator: P.S. Sriraj, UIC

Spring 2021 | News release

Multi-level Economic and Resilience Planning in Three Connected Communities: Critical Environmental Interfacing, Ecosystem Service Resourcing, and Sustainable Community Development
Principal Investigator: Connie Frey-Spurlock, SIUE
Co-Principal Investigators: Craig Anz, SIUC, and Sean Park, Western Illinois University

C2C:  Supporting Special Educators in their Transition from College to the Classroom
Principal Investigator: Melissa Jones-Bromenshenkel, EIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Michelle Parker-Katz, UIC, Wendy Weber, SIUE

Mapping and Spatial Analysis of Rural Broadband Access and Quality to Develop a Roadmap for Smart Farming in Illinois
Principal Investigator: John Kostelnick, ISU
Co-Principal Investigators: Jonathan Thayn, ISU, Rex Schaeffer, ISU, and Koushik Sinha, SIUC

Estimating the Burden of HIV in Semi-Urban and Rural Illinois
Principal Investigator: John Matta, SIUE
Co-Principal Investigators: Koushik Sinha, SIUC

Laboratory-scale biomass containers to achieve transportation density and lignin pre-treatment processes
Principal Investigator: Nicholas Pohlman, NIU
Co-Principal Investigator: Thomas Canam, EIU

2021 CURES Community Project Lab: Interdisciplinary Sustainable Solutions for Small to Medium Sized Illinois Communities Facing a Changing Climate
Principal Investigator: Carolee Rigsby, UIS
Co-Principal Investigators: 19 from UIUC, UIS, UIC, WIU, NIU, EIU

Sustaining Illinois through Collaborative Governance:  A Pilot Study of Water Systems Governance in Northeast and North Central Illinois
Principal Investigator: Thomas Skuzinski, NIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Kate Albrecht, UIC, Chris Goodman, NIU, Michael Siciliano, UIC, and Jered Carr, UIC

Development of an Affordable and Home-Based Point-of-Care Device for Universal Cancer Screening
Principal Investigator: Jing Su, Northeastern Illinois University
Co-Principal Investigators: Mathew Thoppil Mathew, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford

Fall 2020 | News release

The Design, Development and Deployment of a Mobile-based Child Vaccination Program for Underserved Communities in Illinois Using Novel Digital Analysis & AI Tools
Principal Investigator: Scott Barrows, OSF Healthcare
Co-Principal Investigators: Shaeon Wu, ISU, Mary Staple & Elise Albers, OSF Healthcare

Mitigating Future Threats to Biodiversity:  The Role of Headwater Streams and Land Management Practices in the Kaskaskia River Watershed
Principal Investigator: Joan Brehm, ISU
Co-Principal Investigators: Bill Stewart, Cory Suski, and Maria Librada Chu, UIUC

Development and Application of a Novel Cancer Mortality Index in Illinois:  Discovering Opportunities for a Public Health Intervention
Principal Investigator: M. Courtney Hughes, NIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Margaret Wright, University of Illinois Cancer Center and Mahdi Vaezi, NIU

Building a Sustainable Geo-STEM Learning Ecosystem for Illinois Teachers
Principal Investigator: Nicole LaDue, NIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Praveen Kumar, UIUC; Sarah Fisher, Lewis and Clark Community College

Forever Chemicals: PFAS Detection, Fate and Transport in Illinois
Principal Investigator: Melissa Lenczewski, NIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Kevin Tucker, SIUE; Megan Brown, NIU

Development of Robotic Technologies Tailored to Support the Specialty Crop Production in the State of Illinois
Principal Investigator: Nima Lotfi, SIUE
Co-Principal Investigators: Carrie Buss-Wilmsmeyer, SIUE; Hasan Ferdowsi, NIU

Establishing a Caregiving Stakeholder Registry for Collaboratory for Health, Equity, Engaging Technology for Aging in the Home
Principal Investigator: Naoki Muramatsu, UIC
Co-Principal Investigators:  Jennifer Gray, NIU; Milos Zefran, Emily Stiehl, Kathleen Diviak, Michael Scott and Alex Leow, UIC

NIU-UIUC: Sustainable Water Supply in Illinois using Innovative Electrochemical Treatment Technology
Principal Investigator: Tomoyuki Shibata, NIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Xiao Su, UIUC; Kyo Taek Cho, NIU

Spring 2020 | News release

Modification of Basil Flavor via Adjustment of Light Environment
Principal Investigator: Kevin Martin, NIU
Co-Principal Investigator: Keith Cadwallader, UIUC

Squash Hunger in Eastern Illinois through Partners in Produce:  An initiative to improve food access and decrease food insecurity among low-income residents
Principal Investigator: Nicole Lynch, EIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Melissa Maulding, EIU; Jennifer McCaffrey, University of Illinois Extension

Sustainable Urban-Regional Modeling Network (SURe Modeling)
Principal Investigator: John Murphy, NIU
Co-Principal Investigators: Moira Zellner & Sybil Derrible, UIC

Integrated Logistical, Techno-economic and Socio-environmental Assessment Framework for Sustained MSW Conversion Facilities: New Paradigm Shift for the State of Illinois
Principal Investigator: Maedi Vaezi, NIU
Co-Principal Investigator: Krishna Reddy, UIC