Tag: Formula SAE Team

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Grants in News

Starr Hill Pathways scholars listen to University professors and students. Photo: Erin Edgerton

Many grant projects have been busy over the summer! From conducting field tests to hosting seminars, to preparing for future events, check out some incredible Jefferson Trust projects highlighted in the news:

An initiative from the UVA Equity Center and a 2022 annual grant recipient, Starr Hill Pathways brought middle-school students to Grounds for a three-week program to learn about the college experience and engage with a university. Check out their experiences in this UVA Today article, CBS19 feature, and Daily Progress article.

A 2022 flash grant recipient, “Chaos to Chaos: Documenting Afghan Women,” was recently highlighted on CBS19 News for their work to build community and share the stories of Afghan women in the local community.

The Roadmap Scholars Initiative hosted their first summer program, helping first-gen, low-income undergraduates prepare for and apply to elite law schools. Learn more about the scholars in this UVA Law article.

The UVA Solar Car team raced a custom solar-powered electric vehicle at the Formula Sun Grand Prix in Topeka, Kansas this summer. Learn about their preparations and building their car since receiving a Trust grant in 2017 in this Cav Daily article.

Since their 2018 grant, read about the growth and impact of Hoos Connected in this UVA Today feature. The grant funds a one-credit class lasting a single semester that teaches healthy relationship-building skills in small groups of first-year, second-year and transfer students.

“Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala” is the first major exhibition of Aboriginal Australian bark paintings to tour the U.S. It opens in September 2022 at the Hood Museum. Kluge-Ruhe received a Trust grant in 2019 to help produce the accompanying catalog, a 352-page piece in both Yolngu Matha and English (which is the first ever international touring exhibition catalog in an Australian language). Read more about the significance of this exhibition.

The “Transformative Autism Biomarker Research Initiative” in UVA’s Developmental Neuroanalytics Lab was spotlighted in National Geographic’s June 2022 issue. A 2020 grant recipient, the lab is developing new universal screening protocols for social processing disorders.

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Carrying on Despite COVID

Emily Beyer (Engr ’22) conducts research for the Jefferson Trust grant “Guiding Student Research of Air-filtering Technologies.”

This spring, the world as we know it was upended. Workplaces shuttered, students were sent home, and for many, life came to a screeching halt. As the University community worked to adapt and find the best course forward, the Jefferson Trust was determined to support our grant recipients.

The first step was to affirm our continued support as programs and events were canceled, rescheduled or restructured. The majority of grant recipients are students or faculty, who were simultaneously adapting to the new academic landscape, and the Trust’s goal was to ensure that they could focus on primary responsibilities without detriment to their grant funding.

We began to hear from recipients.

  • The Virginia Motorsports Team reported that with students unable to gather, their work on the SAE car had been halted. They requested an extension to delay their participation in the annual SAE race until 2021.
  • A student documentary was delayed as in-person interviews were cancelled and moved virtual.
  • A project that involved a partnership with local elementary school teachers was delayed for a year in anticipation of a more-stressful-than-normal school year ahead.

Some updates were positive!

  • Several groups were able to transition their original events to virtual events. The Alumni Association’s Retold project was one — Trust funds were reallocated to launch the virtual platform.
  • A graduate student conference originally scheduled for April was postponed until October, and in October it went fully virtual.
  • A project aimed at capturing oral histories of alumni of the 1960s and 1970s pivoted when Reunions was cancelled, as the team planned to record the interviews that weekend. However, they were able to reallocate the production-related costs to provide student interns with stipends in order to conduct the interviews via Zoom over the summer.
  • A project funded in February to allow a small group of students to investigate various approaches to modeling COVID saw a dramatic increase in student interest and expanded their original plan to include more than double the student and faculty participants.
  • A research project set to investigate air-filtering technologies to fight air pollution turned into a rapid-response effort in utilizing those same technologies for PPE alternatives against COVID.

And this is just a sampling! Across the board, our resilient grant recipient community was able to dig in and move forward in these unusual circumstances. We want to congratulate all of our grant recipients and their teams on their masterful adaptations and their determination to carry forward in the safest way possible.

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Flash Funding Grant Cycle Announcement

The preservation of the Alderman card catalog is among the flash funding grant recipients

The Jefferson Trust is excited to announce our 2019–2020 Flash Funding Grant Awards, totaling $108,716. A majority of the 13 projects awarded went to student organizations.

The flash grants are:

Rotunda Planetarium Phase 2 & Preservation of Alderman Card Catalog: $10,000

Funding provides additional public nights for the Rotunda Planetarium and the publication of a book detailing the multidisciplinary history of the Rotunda. An ongoing project to preserve the historic Alderman Library card catalog for future research will also be supported.

Aboriginal Art on Grounds (Documentary): $7,000

Funding supports the production of a short documentary capturing student engagement with Aboriginal art at UVA through two recent exhibitions: “The Inside World” at the Fralin Museum and “Munguyhmunguyh (Forever)” at the Rotunda.

Native American Student Union Powwow: $3,750

NASU’s Powwow at UVA is an annual celebration of Native American culture and the biggest event the organization hosts. The powwow is open to the public and has hosted nearly 600 spectators who learn about Native traditions through engaging in a broader community.

Formula SAE Team 2019–20: $9,966

Funding will support and expand experiential learning for the fledgling Formula SAE team as they design and build a car to race in national competition.

UVA Safe and Sustainable Driving: $7,000

A team of students will analyze data collected by Facilities Management from 182 fleet vehicles to improve driving skills and sustainable driving practices. This will allow the team to generate initial results in order to secure larger funding through NSF or DOE sources.

Graduate English Students Association’s Annual Graduate Conference (UVA GradCon): $1,000

The Graduate English Students Association will present an annual graduate conference, themed “Transformation.”

Kluge-Ruhe Permanent and Summer Exhibitions 2020: $10,000

UVA students will gain significant experience in helping with two upcoming exhibitions: “From Little Things, Big Things Grow” in the permanent exhibition galleries at Kluge-Ruhe; and the summer exhibition in Kluge-Ruhe’s rotating gallery, “Bapurru (Remembering): New Yolngu Prints from Milingimbi and Yirrkala.”

Retold: Celebrating Women of the University of Virginia: $10,000

To honor the 100th anniversary of the Board of Visitors resolution allowing white women to enroll in some of the University’s graduate and professional programs and the 50th anniversary of full coeducation, the UVA Alumni Association and the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center at UVA will host Retold, a celebration of the transformational impact of women on the University of Virginia.

Modeling the Spreading of the Coronavirus: $10,000

School of Engineering faculty are creating three research groups of undergraduate students who will set up effective models for the spread of the disease and then merge the three models into a more comprehensive model.

Arctic Design Group | 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale, Italy: $10,000

Funding will support Architecture faculty and students in the production of an Arctic-focused design installation which will be exhibited at the world-renowned Venice Architecture Biennale. The group’s participation in the Biennale will provide a unique opportunity to promote UVA’s design excellence and provide an exceptional experience to UVA students on a premier global stage.

“Stepping Out” into Deeper Understandings of Marginalized Families: $10,000

Using recent research, this project will help train teachers for home visits, focusing on self-reflection, understanding systemic privilege and disadvantage, and recognizing listening techniques that are more and less effective for deepening relationships.

So Many Ways to Say “I Belong at UVA”: Documenting Linguistic Diversity among the UVA Student Body: $10,000

This project will help to train teachers for home visits, focusing on self-reflection, understanding systemic privilege and disadvantage, and recognizing listening techniques that are more and less effective for deepening relationships.

1970: May Strike in Context — Oral Histories of Alumni: $10,000

The UVA Library will host a major exhibition, “1970: May Strike in Context,” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the May Strike and the larger cultural context that sparked student activism at UVA.