UTC makes major statement about importance of research
Its new Research Institute is designed to pursue increased research funding, interdisciplinary collaboration across campus, and support for community and local industry priorities.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) is making a major statement about the importance of research.
At an event on Monday, Chancellor Steven R. Angle announced the establishment of the UTC Research Institute as a strategic initiative designed to pursue increased research funding, interdisciplinary collaboration across campus, and support for community and local industry priorities.
“This new institute will help UTC move forward and realize our research goals,” Angle said. “The heart of the UTC Research Institute is impactful and broad cross-disciplinary research that will help fast-track Chattanooga’s place as a hub for mobility electrifications, connectivity and automation.”
To lead the new initiative as its Executive Director, Angle named the University’s best known researcher – Mina Sartipi (pictured here), Founding Director of the UTC Center for Urban Informatics and Progress (CUIP) and Guerry Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. She also holds a joint appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Research Institute will narrow and intensify the University’s focus on strategic areas of research funding. Two initial focus areas are transportation (intelligent transportation systems, electric vehicle and battery technologies, human factor, automation, multimodal systems, policy and planning, cyber security, privacy and infrastructure) and quantum technologies (computing, sensing and networks).
The Institute’s approach to pursuing community- and funding-driven research areas is intended to expand resources and opportunities across campus and disciplines, engaging scholars whose expertise can bring needed interdisciplinary depth to fully exploring solutions to complex problems. It will also be the home of the UTC Center of Excellence in Applied Computational Science and Engineering and CUIP.
According to this news release, the UTC Research Institute will be charged with:
- Engaging all colleges and departments in defining ambitious outcomes that one or two departments can’t achieve;
- Managing relationships with funding agencies and mentoring faculty to assume these roles;
- Developing and/or ensuring access to cross-cutting capabilities such as high performance computing, artificial intelligence, data engineering and economic analyses;
- Developing research facilities and testbeds;
- Developing strategic partnerships, possibly evolving into new centers; and
- Engaging the community.
