AI-Directed Tool Development for Pathogenic “Flesh-eating” Vibrio Bacteria – Gulf of Mexico Alliance
Dr. Gerardo Toro-Farmer
Project Objectives: 1) Build a metabolomics biomarkers system for early detection of Vibrio in the water column and in/on oysters in various places on the Florida Gulf Coast. 2) Investigate the correlations of Vibrio abundances in the water column and oysters with water quality, sediment loads, seagrass density, and weather conditions using both local measurement and GIS tools. 3) Evaluate the high throughput factors in Vibrio occurrence with artificial intelligence approaches and generate Vibrio prevention and control approaches. The interdisciplinary team includes scientists and educators in microbial ecology, metabolomics, chemistry, GIS, and marine biology, proposes to evaluate seagrass bed densities, eutrophication and turbidity, and oyster beds and metabolites of oysters.
A Remotely Delivered Tai Chi/Qigong – National Institutes of Health
Dr. Kristopher Fennie
TCQ, a series of slow, low-impact meditative movements that integrates breath work, meditation, and stances shows growing evidence for improving mental health (anxiety, depression, stress), physical health, and cognitive functioning. The intervention is culturally tailored and remotely delivered to an ethnically diverse population of older people living with HIV (older PLWH), which shows good acceptability and feasibility, and promise for detecting improvements for depression and anxiety. We propose testing the efficacy of this standardized mind body intervention – Tai Chi/Qigong Easy – as a promising non-pharmacological intervention to prevent and/or improve common multiple symptoms experienced by older PLWH.
ARS Internships – U.S. Department of Agriculture
Dr. Bernhard Klingenberg
Partnership Goal: Advance Agricultural Research Service (ARS) research efforts and enhance student training by providing summer and spring student fellowships.
Specific Objectives:
- 1. Provide opportunity for graduate students to contribute their skills to ARS research teams.
- 2. Enhance educational experiences by providing paid, hands-on, real-world research opportunities, scientific domain expertise, and mentoring.
- 3. Boost the Applied Data Science Program at New College by increasing the breadth of student training.
- 4. Support future ARS workforce development efforts by increasing student awareness of ARS and agricultural research as a rewarding career.
Channels of Change: Tracking Seagrass and Biodiversity Recovery in Midnight Pass — Environmental Discovery Award Program (EDAP)
Dr. Samuel Bedgood
This project investigates the ecological and hydrological impacts of the recent reopening of Midnight Pass in Sarasota Bay, a historic waterway that was closed in 1983 to protect beachfront properties. Decades of closure disrupted water flow between the Gulf of America and north Sarasota Bay, altering the local ecology. However, hurricanes Helene and Milton naturally reopened the pass, restoring historic water regimes on October 10th. Our project focuses on monitoring the recovery of these seagrass habitats and the associated ecological changes. Students and summer interns play a key role in this collaborative effort, contributing to both fieldwork and laboratory analysis.
Collaborative Research: MTM 2: Marine Invertebrate Microbiome Assembly, Diversification, and Coevolution — National Science Foundation
Dr. Kent Hatch and Dr. José Moscoso Nuñez
While the microbial communities of the guts of humans and other vertebrates have been the subject of much research, little is known about the symbiotic microbial community of most marine invertebrates. This project focuses on studying the assembly or colonization of marine invertebrates by their symbiotic microbes, as well as the diversification and coevolution of their microbiome, thereby resulting in a broader understanding of the roles that microbiomes play in sustaining biodiversity. The goal is for this research to lay the foundation for a broader understanding of the role microbes play in maintaining and improving the fitness of their hosts.
Equivalence Relations in Group Theory – National Science Foundation
Dr. Meng Che “Turbo” Ho
The interplay between logic and group theory has significantly enriched both areas over the years. A prime example of this interplay is the word problem proposed by Dehn in 1911, which arises from the use of normal forms when doing computation in groups. On the other hand, problems that involve classifying mathematical objects—such as the word problem—can be naturally thought of as equivalence relations, a field with significant recent research progress. Inspired by these recent advancements, the unifying theme of this proposal is to study the complexity of natural equivalence relations in group theory, thereby promoting interaction between these historically interconnected areas and bringing new ideas and perspectives to each. The proposed research is divided into two parts: A. Word and conjugacy problems. This section will study the word and conjugacy problems as equivalence relations. B. Equivalence relations. This section will study several other equivalence relations that arise naturally in group theory and algebra under various reducibilities.
Informal Science Education: PUSH/SUCCESS – Environmental Discovery Award Program (EDAP)
Dr. Sandra Gilchrist
This project introduces undergraduate students to informal science STEM education techniques including how to lead a field trip, development of hands-on projects, integration of scientific method into activities. Primarily, interns will work with high school students and experience science field trips, participate in a GIS project and develop a power point presentation.
Invigorating Liberty and Self-Governance: First Principles for 21st Century America – U.S. Department of Education
Dr. Casey Wheatland, Dr. Richard Izquierdo, and Dr. David Ellis
The project features three main components: (1) live, simulcast seminars for research and content capture serving annual cohorts of up to fifty (50) teachers and up to thirty-five (35) students per year (totaling 255 participants), (2) on-campus Summer Scholar experiences for teachers and students, and (3) enduring digital learning programs that perpetuate the project beyond the grant cycle to radically increase the total number of beneficiaries. The seminars and digital learning experiences employ evidence-based educational approaches to ensure deep engagement with the material and inclusion in teachers’ lesson plans. Six project objectives include: (a) provide high quality innovative evidence-based seminars for educators; (b) provide high quality innovative evidence-based seminars for students; (c) enhance instructional practice in American history, civics and government; (d) develop, disseminate, and scale up innovative, evidence-based approaches and professional development programs in American history, civics and government; and (e) develop innovative, evidence-based instructional materials for the teaching of American history, civics and government to sustain the impact of the project. The digital learning strategy makes possible a national reach, which will also directly benefit underserved and remote communities.
Manatee Conservation: Virtual Reality Simulation Development and User Study – Environmental Discovery Awards Program (EDAP)
Dr. Tania Roy
The primary focus of this project is for undergraduate students to develop Virtual Reality (VR) for the Oculus Headset platform to increase awareness about everyday pollutants that impact manatee population and gamify scenarios of impact. The first part of the project is development of the VR and the second will conduct a pilot to measure player immersion and engagement. Both phases will require background research on Manatee movements, habitats and impact of pollutants on manatee food sources.
Natural Sciences Seminar – Sarasota Bay Estuary Program
Dr. Samantha Levell
The primary goals of the colloquium are to celebrate science and engage students and the public with scientific research. NCF has faculty representatives from natural sciences, mathematics, chemistry, and biology on the Committee. The program hosts local Marine Science researchers, specifically four speakers on topics related to the Sarasota Bay. We anticipate approximately 20 attendees at each colloquium and SBEP funds will help provide refreshments and pay for speaker honorarium and travel.
Pritzker Marine Biology Research Center Aquarium Husbandry and Outreach Development: Inspiring Marine Conservation Through Developing Marine Lab Outreach Materials – Environmental Discovery Award Program (EDAP)
Dr. Jenny Lee
This internship provides a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in marine animal husbandry and science communication. The intern will work closely with our marine lab team to care for a diverse collection of marine species while also contributing to the development of educational materials (videos, posters, presentations) that highlight Pritzker Marine Biology Lab’s research and conservation efforts.
Seahorse Stewards: Assessing Sarasota Bay’s Seahorse and Pipefish – Environmental Discovery Award Program (EDAP)
Dr. Samantha Levell
The primary goal of this project is to study the ecology, morphology, and reproduction of Sarasota Bay’s syngnathids (seahorses and pipefish) and their associated seagrass communities. These unique fishes, referred to by New College Assistant Professor Samantha Levell as “stewards of our bay,” play a vital role in local ecosystems. Unlike many other bay residents, syngnathids are slow-moving, non-migratory, and unable to escape unfavorable conditions, making them key indicators of bay health and resilience. This internship offers participants an opportunity to engage directly in the scientific process through monthly fish and seagrass surveys.
Social Origins of Rhythm – International Human Frontier Science Program
Dr. Peter Cook
This project tests competing hypotheses on the evolutionary roots of rhythmic abilities by probing the importance of rhythmic processing in mediating social interactions in marine mammals, namely cetaceans and pinnipeds; two taxonomic groups well-known for their vocal flexibility, with each species under similar ecological, but different social pressures. The project will qualify the occurrence of vocal rhythmic patterns using high quality acoustic data collected from animal-borne sound and movement tags and hydrophone arrays on more than 30 marine mammal species that vary in social complexity.
The development of a cost-effective and scalable protected species monitoring plan for the Velella Epsilon and future finfish aquaculture projects in the Gulf of America – National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration
Dr. Athena Rycyk
This project aims to develop cost-effective monitoring methods for Ocean Era’s Velella Epsilon project, a demonstration finfish net pen in the Gulf of America (Gulf) approximately 45 miles southwest of Sarasota, Florida, and future commercial aquaculture projects. It will bolster Ocean Era Inc.’s efforts to evaluate potential effects of net pen aquaculture on species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and marine mammals protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Ocean Era, Inc. has committed to following a protected species monitoring plan (PSMP) which includes monitoring and data collection of ESA-listed species and protected marine mammals within the project area. While the monitoring plan meets the minimum requirements, it is limited in scope due to funding constraints and the project’s short duration. Given the paucity of data on how ESA-listed and protected marine mammal species respond to net-pen aquaculture in the Gulf, enhancing the scope of the PSMP will provide critical information for future projects, particularly as the Ocean Era net pen is the first of its kind in the Gulf. Partnering with New College of Florida and NOAA Fisheries, the proposed work will fund a graduate student to design and implement an expanded PSMP inclusive of pre-, during, and post-deployment monitoring. This funding would allow for increased monitoring that reflects seasonal changes in species behavior and distribution relative to baseline (pre-net pen deployment) conditions and utilize diverse methods, including visual observations and acoustic recordings, pending Department of War approval. The outcomes of this project will establish an essential baseline understanding of how ESA-listed species and protected marine mammals respond to net pen aquaculture in the Gulf. Additionally, it will provide a model for how future commercial aquaculture operations in the Gulf can efficiently and cost-effectively implement protected species monitoring plans that meet ESA regulatory requirements.
The Dolphin’s World: Information-seeking Behaviors for Object Recognition – Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research
Dr. Heidi Harley
Project objective: to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms allowing marine mammals
and humans to learn how to identify auditory objects in cluttered scenes. The technical approaches will use behavior and neural measures to see if cognitive processes control echolocation and hearing for marine mammals. The project focuses on dolphins and test sea lions and humans and seeks to quantify behavioral and neural responses and develop instrumentation to allow multi-modal neural and physiological sensing and build models to gain insight into how different biological listeners learn to form auditory objects from limited data.
Youth Bay Stewards – Sarasota Bay Estuary Program
Dr. Sandra Gilchrist
The mission of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program’s (SBEP) Sarasota Bay Partners Grants program is to improve the overall quality of Sarasota-Manatee area bays, their tributaries, and watersheds and to promote environmental education and community involvement. The New College SBEP program will focus on sea level change and climate. Activities will include learning to sample and analyze eDNA, environmental change shown in tree rings and otoliths, experiments with plants and saltwater intrusion, animals associated with Spanish moss near bay and farther inland, and direct human impacts on water quality through observations of microplastics in oysters and through beach clean-ups. Students will tour a mangrove island, clean the shoreline, and record observations.