The Marian University learning environment is enriched by a wide array of scholarly activity from numerous fields. From humanities to natural sciences to education and everything in between, the diversity of scholarship produced by our community benefits us all and enhances campus culture. As such, the Research & Scholarship Administration within the Division of Academic Affairs is pleased to host the Enhancing Opportunities for Scholars (EOS) Intramural Grants Program.

The EOS Program launched in 2022 to support scholars across all academic units with the monetary funds and institutional commitment needed to produce high-quality research and scholarly activity. Award funds may be used to support actual costs of the project/program including supplies, fees, travel, services, summer faculty stipends, student research assistant stipends/hourly wages, etc. All Marian University faculty and staff members are eligible to apply for funding. To date, more than $50,000 in funding has been awarded across three cycles and supported more than $400,000 in external funding requests.

The 2025 EOS program description (link) and scoring rubric (link) contain specific details on the application contents, program guidelines, and special focus areas conferring potential bonus points during scoring. Completed applications were due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, October 31, 2024. Incomplete or late applications were not be considered.

Awardees include the following (click for more detail):

2025 Cycle:

Stephanie Caruso (Leighton School of Nursing), $2000 for “Timing Matters: Evaluating Student Perceptions and Effectiveness of the 3-Day NCLEX Review Course at Midterm"

The Leighton School of Nursing requires undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Nursing students to complete a three-day NCLEX (National Council Licensing Exam for Registered Nurses) preparation course. Beginning in Summer 2023, the timing of the course was moved from after graduation events to midterm week (week eight). Students were surveyed using Qualtrics from Summer 2023 to Fall 2024 to identify student perceptions of the timing and effectiveness of the course. We predict the use of NCLEX prep resources was increased after this implementation and NCLEX pass rates for first time test takers increased.

Robyn Fuchs (Wood College of Osteopathic Medicine), $5000 for “Strength training outcomes in running and menopause (STORM)"

Despite the known benefits of exercise for bone health, skeletal adaptations to endurance running in women during early menopause remain poorly understood. Bone stress injuries (BSI) are influenced by multiple factors, including hormones, bone structure, muscle strength, and training load. While weight-bearing exercise can reduce menopausal bone loss, questions remain about whether high-volume endurance training increases injury risk, particularly among novice runners transitioning to longer distances. Our study will explore how adding progressive resistance training to marathon preparation influences BSI prevention, fracture risk, bone mineral density, and skeletal microarchitecture. It will also examine how menopausal status affects skeletal adaptation to combined endurance and strength training.

Andres Gutierrez (College of Arts & Sciences), $5000 for “Genomic-Wide Association Study of Salt Tolerance in the model leguminous plant Medicago truncatula"

Soil salinization—caused by climate change and unsustainable farming—hurts global agriculture by reducing crop growth and yield. This two-year project at Marian University aims to uncover how plants survive salty environments using Medicago truncatula, a model legume. By studying its genes through a powerful method called Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS), we hope to identify the genetic "blueprints" that help plants grow successfully in salty conditions. This research could lead to the development of salt-tolerant crops like soybeans and alfalfa, which are critical for food security and sustainable farming.

The project also involves Marian undergraduate students, providing hands-on training in plant biology and genetics.

Jamie Higgs (College of Arts & Sciences), $2000 for “The Marian University Permanent Art Collection Stewardship and Education

The long-term goal of this project is to revolutionize accessibility to and usability of the Marian University Permanent Art Collection. This impressive collection – containing over 300 works of art and appraised at over $860,000 – is difficult to access. Thus, EOS funding will establish an easy-to-access, fully-accessioned online presence for the collection to enable innovative teaching, research, and community engagement. Specifically, EOS funds will be used to 1) identify storage needs; 2) improve sorting, accessioning, photographing, and updating the appraisal records and 3) educate our campus and community and create online exhibits and campus tours centered on the Franciscan sponsorship values.

Stephanie Miller (Physical Therapy Program), $5000 for “Reliability and Validity of the Rock Steady Boxing Fidelity, Implementation, and Safety Tool (FISTool)"

Rock Steady Boxing (RSB) is the largest exercise program in the world for people with Parkinson’s disease. The global expansion of RSB over the last decade has led to potential loss of intervention fidelity, variations in implementation logistics, and reduced safety. Using implementation science methods, we recently developed the Fidelity, Implementation and Safety Tool (FISTool) to assess RSB’s key exercise components. However, psychometric properties of the FISTool have not been established. Therefore, we aim to explore reliability and validity of the FISTool with this proposed study. This is an essential step before widespread use by RSB and future clinical trials.

More information on Rock Steady Boxing may be found here.

Mohammed Noor-A-Alam (Witchger School of Engineering), $5000 for “Design, Fabrication and Studying the Performances of Thin Film Metallic Glass Zr-Hf-Al-Ti in Single Layer and Bi-Layered Structure"

Metallic glasses are solid alloys of several elements with the absence of long-range order. This proposed project will investigate a unique composition of quaternary thin film metallic glass with potential applications in biomedical industries. Their performance as a corrosion-resistant thin film will be evaluated using an electrochemical test by simulating a corrosive environment for the targeted applications. This work will also demonstrate a comparative performance of corrosion resistance of fabricated thin film metallic glasses with their counterpart of conventional crystalline materials.

2024 Cycle:

Kleio Avrithi (Witchger School of Engineering), $2000 for "Impact of Additives on the Hydraulic Conductivity of Soil"

The hydraulic conductivity shows how easily water can flow through the soil mass. The soil hydraulic conductivity needs to be low for the design of sanitary fields, embankments, and road subbases and in other cases, needs to be high to assure reduced runoff and stream flows after extreme events such as storms and hurricanes. The research examines the impact of polyvinyl alcohol, a biodegradable and sustainable material, on the hydraulic conductivity of different soils.

Pattie Mathieu (Witchger School of Engineering), $5000 for "Investigating the Link Between Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Osteogenic Differentiation, Cyclic Tensile Strain and Cell Aspect Ratio"

Vascular calcification is an extremely prevalent cardiovascular disease that is associated with increased mortality. Vascular smooth muscle cells, the cells primarily responsible for vascular calcification, are mechanosensitive, yet little research has investigated the links between mechanical stimuli and vascular calcification. The proposed research investigates the links between osteogenic differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells, cyclic tensile strain, and cell shape. The resulting data will be used to apply for further grant money through the NIH and the AHA. This application requests funding to pay an undergraduate research assistant to participate in this research project and for conference attendance.

Najmus Saqib (Witchger School of Engineering), $5000 for "Investigating Li+ Transport in Li-S Battery Electrolytes using Operando Spectroscopy"

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have been studied extensively in the past decade as a post-lithium‐ion battery technology. However, their performance is still insufficient for commercial deployment. Practical Li-S batteries remain elusive due to a huge gap between laboratory research and industrial applications. One of the main reasons for this gap is that the transport and stability of key chemical species inside Li-S batteries are poorly understood. This proposed study will shed new light on the understanding of Li-ion (Li+) transport in Li-S batteries. We will collect operando infrared spectra from batteries. The analysis will inform the next generation of high-performance batteries.

2023 Cycle:

Elizabeth Delery (Wood College of Osteopathic Medicine), $5000 for “Modeling Repeat Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) In-Vitro"

Modeling Repeat Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) In Vitro.

Matthew Furber (College of Arts & Sciences), $5000 for “A STEAM-Focused Equitable AR Platform for Early Learners"

The push for children to learn computing skills ever earlier highlights systemic inequities with computer access leading to low levels of computer literacy. Our cross-disciplinary team has developed an augmented reality (AR) platform to drive creative expression and teach computational thinking to early learners. The platform was developed with equity in mind, using open-source software, inexpensive printable materials to keep costs down, while the tactile AR environment will allow for self-directed activities minimizing teacher supervision and assistance. The grant funds would support prototyping and student developers and designers. Additionally, the grant would fund community-based rollouts in collaboration with neighborhood partners.

Kyung Kang (Witchger School of Engineering), $5000 for “Stress analysis of reconstructed 3D long bone models"

This project develops 3D computer models to estimate structural properties of long bones, and performs stress analysis under different loadings. Currently, a three-point-bending test is a popular method to generate necessary mechanical properties of bones, which is essential to see changes in bone bending strength under certain genetic conditions. Although additional mechanical tests are needed to see the diverse bone properties, especially focusing on how bone cells react to mechanical loadings, it is realistically difficult to produce larger number of animals just for more mechanical tests. We anticipate these computer models serve as effective tools for bone-related research without sacrificing additional animals.

Please send any questions regarding the EOS Program to research@marian.edu.