Syracuse Center of Excellence Awards $600,000 for Collaborative Research Projects to Improve Air and Water Quality
6/16/2008—Researchers at four member institutions of the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (Syracuse CoE) will begin innovative projects that will help improve the air quality of built environments and protect water resources, thanks to $600,000 in federally funded grants secured by U.S. Rep. James T. Walsh (R-NY) and announced today at Syracuse University.
The Collaborative Activities for Research and Technology Innovation (CARTI) grants are awarded to six projects aimed at investigating urban air pollution, understanding mercury pollution in Lake Ontario, researching salt contamination of streams and groundwater, quickly detecting water-borne toxins, modeling how urban water runoff affects natural water sources, and developing an "artificial dust" to help indoor air quality research.
This third round of CARTI awards is made possible through funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) secured by Walsh, who attended today's announcement. To date, Walsh has secured more than $30 million in federal funding for research and development for the Syracuse CoE.
The projects:
•Suresh Dhaniyala of Clarkson University: $100,000 to investigate the distribution of ultrafine particles that pollute urban neighborhoods and how this pollution is affected by local traffic patterns and urban terrain;
•Charles T. Driscoll of Syracuse University: $100,000 to analyze mercury pollution in Lake Ontario and how the amount and distribution of mercury is affected by surrounding watersheds;
•Stuart Findlay of the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies and Don Siegel of Syracuse University: $100,000 to research the causes of increased salt concentrations in surface and groundwater throughout New York state;
•Yan-Yeung Luk, Michael B. Sponsler and Ren Dacheng of Syracuse University: $100,000 to develop a highly sensitive hydrogel material that can quickly detect the presence of water-borne toxins;
•Giorgos Mountrakis, Karin Limburg, Myrna Hall and Bonggi Hong of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry: $100,000 to create a more accurate and useful model of how run-off from sidewalks, parking lots, rooftops and roads affects natural water sources, to help urban planners and municipalities better protect the environment; and
•Igor Sokolov and Douglas Bohl of Clarkson University: $100,000 to develop a novel ultrafine material "photoluminescent silica" that will simulate dust, allowing researchers to better model air flow in indoor environments.
An independent Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of eight nationally recognized researchers from the academic, research, and scientific communities recommended the projects for CARTI awards following a rigorous process used by the National Science Foundation and the US EPA for competitively awarded projects.
The air quality SAC team is headed by Professor Barry Ryan of Emory University, a leading expert on environmental effects on humans in urban settings. The water quality SAC team is led by Professor Denice Wardrop of Pennsylvania State University, a noted researcher and associate director of the Cooperative Wetlands Center.
In a two-step process, members of the SAC reviewed preliminary proposals submitted by 40 teams. Of these, 21 teams were invited to submit full proposals. After review and recommendations by the SAC, six full proposals were selected by the Syracuse CoE for funding.
For abstracts of the awarded 2007 CARTI III projects, click here.
Previous CARTI Awards
A total of 16 projects were awarded under the
2006 CARTI II program.
• View the press release announcing the
2006 CARTI Award Winners.
• For abstracts of awarded air quality projects,
click here• For abstracts of awarded water quality projects,
click here
A total of 13 projects were awarded under the 2005 CARTI I program.
• For abstracts of awarded air quality projects, click here
• For abstracts of awarded water quality projects, click here
Syracuse CoE CARTI Program Overview
The mission of the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (Syracuse CoE) is to create innovations that improve health, productivity, security, and sustainability in built and urban environments. The Syracuse CoE conducts projects across the full spectrum of innovation—from basic and applied research to technology application and demonstration—in multiple areas, including indoor environmental quality, air quality, water resource management, and energy systems. The “Collaborative Activities for Research and Technology Innovation (CARTI)” program targets basic and applied research in two focused areas: air quality and water resource management. This program is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under award X-83232501-0.
The long-term vision for CARTI activities supported through this solicitation is to advance the development of technology innovations required to create envisioned new “Intelligent Environmental Quality Systems” (
i-EQS). The
i-EQS vision includes three primary components:
1) Real-time monitoring of conditions at multiple locations across a broad range of scales, from “global” to “local”;
2) Analysis of sensor data, including linkages with simultaneous computational modeling;
3) Responses that improve an environment, including the services it provides (e.g., occupant comfort in built environments, drinking water and/or recreation from surface waters) and its impact on humans (e.g., health and performance effects) and natural resources (e.g., materials, energy, ecosystems).
Potential applications of envisioned i-EQS include a variety of situations in which assurance and/or optimization of environmental conditions is highly valued. Two applications of current interest to the Syracuse CoE are: (a) control of building systems to create comfortable, more healthy indoor environments, while reducing contaminant emissions from buildings into the surrounding airshed, and (b) monitoring of surface waters that are sources of drinking water and ecological and recreational benefits. Motivations for these applications include improving human health, productivity, and security, as well as promoting sustainability of urban ecosystems.
Achieving the
i-EQS vision will require advances in fundamental knowledge, technology innovation, technology application and demonstration, and system integration. Supported by grants and contracts from multiple sources, the Syracuse CoE is pursuing a broad portfolio of activities to realize the envisioned revolutionary
i-EQS, including extensive research efforts to improve indoor environmental quality and a multi-year collaborative effort to establish a network of water quality monitors in the Seneca River watershed. The Syracuse CoE seeks to extend the breadth of its
i-EQS research efforts via CARTI projects in the specific research areas of interest described below.
THE 2007 CARTI III RFA
Syracuse CoE Request for Applications for the 2007 CARTI III Program