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4-VA@Mason, part of the 4-VA state network, has announced 20 collaborative research awards for 911���� faculty members for the 2026-27 academic year. The selected proposals were chosen from the largest number of submissions received since the program’s inception more than a decade ago.   

4-VA is a statewide consortium of nine Virginia higher education institutions that encourages collaboration and relationship-building across the humanities and sciences and provides seed funding for novel research projects. The program provides a foundation that builds on the strengths of each institution, reduces the redundancies of working in silos, and affords opportunities for student experiential research. 

“Our 4-VA program is a wonderful example of how supporting cross-institutional efforts can improve higher education and boost faculty and student research, which benefits our state and beyond,” said Janette Muir, 4-VA@Mason campus coordinator and vice provost for academic affairs. 

In addition to 911����, the other members of the 4-VA consortium are Christopher Newport University (CNU), the College of William and Mary (W&M), James Madison University (JMU), Old Dominion University (ODU), Radford University (RU), University of Virginia (UVA), Virginia Military Institute, and Virginia Tech (VT). 

Listed below are 911���� faculty acting as lead principal investigator (PI) for collaborative research grants this cycle and collaborating institutions:  

• Breana Bayraktar, Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning, A Cross-Institutional Study of AI-Influenced Feedback Practices (UVA, JMU, W&M)      

• Sungsoo Ray Hong, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), Multi-Robot Video Sensemaking for Urban Missing Person Search in Public Safety Operations (VT) 

• Emily Ihara, College of Public Health (CPH), Opening Minds Through Art in Virginia (JMU) 

• Jennifer Salerno, Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC), Characterizing the influence of the coral microbiome on coral resilience and restoration potential of American Samoa’s reefs (ODU) 

• Daniel W. Smith, CEC, Disinfection Byproduct Formation Mechanisms and Toxicity at the Solid-Liquid Interface of Chlorocyanurate Tablets (VT) 

• Monique van Hoek, College of Science, Breaking Down Silicate Like Sea Sponges: Using Bacteria to Produce a Biocatalyst for Rare Earth Element Extraction (VT) 

• Allison Ward, College of Education and Human Development, Virginia Coaching Collaborative: Improving Clinical Practicum Experiences for Reading Specialist Candidates (JMU, RU, UVA) 

• Xuesu Xiao, CEC, Agile, Proactive, and Autonomous First Responder Robots (UVA) 

Additionally, partner 4-VA institutions have called on 911���� faculty for their expertise and experience in a wide variety of areas to act as co-PI in research efforts at other schools. These faculty members have received supplemental funding known as complementary grants: 

• Tanvir Arafin, CEC, ANCHOR: Analog–Cyber Sensing for Secure Energy Infrastructure (UVA) 

• Karen Grace, CPH, Sexual Violence and Reproductive Coercion Among College Students with Disabilities (UVA) 

• Moinul Hossain, CEC, Machine Learning-Driven Predictive Secure Beamforming for NextG UAV Networks (JMU)   

• Brittany Johnson-Matthews, CEC, Beyond Chat: Generative User Interfaces (UI) for AI-Guided Developer Onboarding in Large-Scale Codebases (VT) 

• Mirae Kim, Schar School of Policy and Government, Leading Change Conference 2027: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Leadership Studies (JMU) and Scaling Up Nonprofit Health and Resiliency Assessment in Virginia Funding Proposal (JMU) 

• Yi-Ching Lee, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Understanding Autistic Adults’ Needs with Executive Functioning Support Apps (UVA)  

• Cynthia Smith, PEREC, EcoQuests: Reconnecting Youth with Nature through Digital Exploration of Urban Greenspace (VT) 

• Chaowei Yang, COS, AI-Enabled, Stakeholder-Integrated, Context-Sensitive Data Center Planning Framework (VT) 

• Ziyu Yao, CEC, Improving Safety in Large Language Model Responses Targeted at Youth (UVA)  

• Xiaokuan Zhang, CEC, Building Trustworthy Audit Systems via Hardware Security Primitives (UVA)  

Additionally, 4-VA@Mason will be supporting an extension of a 2025-26 project:  

Quentin Saunders, CEC, Restoring Functional Grasp in Stroke Survivors: A Semi-Autonomous Hand Exoskeleton with Coordinated Thumb-Finger Sequencing (UVA).

“Quentin and his team have made exciting advances in the development of a hand exoskeleton for stroke victims, which has been very well received in testing. However, with just a little more work, they believe the exoskeleton can be expanded for a much broader range of tasks for use in activities of daily living,” Muir said.  “It’s just this type of project that 4-VA can bring to life.” 

The next cycle of proposals for the academic year 2027-28 will open mid-December 2026 and will be found on the 4-VA@Mason . Questions can be directed to mason4va@gmu.edu.