CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Birmingham are pleased to announce the recipients of the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement, and Education (BRIDGE) Seed Fund Grant for the 2026-2027 Academic Year.
The BRIDGE Seed Fund is a joint initiative designed to stimulate collaboration and research between Illinois and Birmingham. The fund provides funding to support faculty-led projects that foster academic engagement, research development, and educational exchange.
Twelve projects have been awarded funding to pursue joint research on a variety of topics.
The recipients and their projects are:
Sayan Mitra, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois, will collaborate with Mohammadhossein (Vahid) Mamduhi, an assistant professor at the School of Computer Science at Birmingham. The title of their project is “Trustworthy Shared Autonomy under Perception and Network Uncertainty.”
Christopher Napolitano, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the College of Education at Illinois, will collaborate with Shane McLoughlin, Associate Professor of Character Education at Birmingham. They will be working on, “The Alma Project: Promoting Neighborliness at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign.”
Xing Wang, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the Grainger College of Engineering, is collaborating with Jennifer Heaney, a senior research fellow in the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Novel Nanotechnology Development for Point of Care Multiplexed Detection and Surveillance of Vector-Borne Diseases.”
Emily E. LB. Twarog (she/they), an associate professor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Illinois, is collaborating with Courtney Campbell, Associate Professor of Latin American History at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Gender@Work: A Global Lab on Bodies and Politics.”
Philip S. L. Anderson, an associate professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior at Illinois, is collaborating with Stephan Lautenschlager, an associate professor in Paleobiology at Birmingham, on a project titled, “The Biomechanical Diversity and Evolution of Toothless Beaks in Herbivorous Tetrapods.”
Becca Taylor, an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural & Consumer Economics at Illinois, is partnering with Aleksandra Cavoski, College Director of Global Engagement at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Governing Plastics: Comparative Policy Pathways in the UK and US.”
Emanuel Rota, Director of the European Union Center at Illinois, is collaborating with Thomas Brodie, Assistant Professor in 20th Century European History at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Memory Wars after Fascism and Empire: Historical Legitimacy, Far-Right Mobilization, and Democratic Crisis in Europe.”
Daniel J. Bodony, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs for Aerospace Engineering at Illinois, is collaborating with Zhong-Nan Wang, an associate professor in Aerospace Engineering at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Data-Driven Aeroacoustics for a Sustainably Quiet Living Environment.”
Catherine Christian-Hinman, Associate Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at Illinois, is collaborating with Felix Chan, Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Metabolic Contributions and Sex Differences in Seizures and Epilepsy.”
Shelby Keye, and assistant professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Illinois, is collaborating with Kiya Hurley, Children, Young People & Families Program Coordinator for the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Health Disparities in Brazil Across the Lifespan.”
Kahyun Choi, Professor of Information Sciences at Illinois, is collaborating with Hyunyoung Kim, Lecturer of Computer Science at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Touching Sound: Designing Multimodal Tangible and Haptic Interfaces for Vocal Training and Performance.”
Kristin Hoganson, Professor of History at Illinois, is collaborating with in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is collaborating with Nathan Cardon, Associate Professor in United States History at Birmingham, on a project titled, “Cardon - Infrastructures of Empire and Empires of Infrastructure in the Age of Fossil Fuel Take Off.”