Qin, prior NSF support

Long version

Prior NSF support of Qin in the last 5 years (on and after 2015):[QH1] 

NSF Award #1453078 (transferred to 1720215), $611K, 4/1/2015-3/31/2021 (with no-cost extension). PI Qin. “CAREER: A probabilistic gene network model of cellular aging and its application on the conserved lifespan extension mechanism of dietary restriction.” This ongoing project enable PI to develop a sophisticated mathematical model to extrapolate network information from cellular aging process.

Intellectual Merit: Currently, we have 4 peer-reviewed journal publications, including 3 undergraduate co-authors (Guven et al. 2016, Guo et al. 2019, Guven et al. 2019, Qin 2019), three undergraduate honor theses and one MS thesis.

Broad Impacts: This award has supported Qin to mentor 35 trainees [QH2] (31 undergraduates including 22 under-represented minority undergraduates, 2 MS students, 1 PhD student, and 1 postdoc trainee) and 1 mid-school student to conduct research in computational genomics. This project impacted courses include: BIO386 “Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics” with ~12 students in fall 2015, BIO125 “Molecular Biology and Genomics” with ~40 students in spring 2016, BIOL 3250 Genetics with 37 students in fall 2016, CPSC/BIOL4999 Introduction to Computational Genomics with 17 students in fall 2017 and 8 students in fall 2018, and CPSC4180/BIO5010 Data Science for Biologists with 7 students in fall 2019. 

NSF Award #1852042, $351K, April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2022.

PI Hong Qin, co-PI Soubantika Palchoudhury, “REU: ICompBio - Engaging Undergraduates in Interdisciplinary Computing for Biological Research”.

Intellectual Merit: This REU supports 10 students for 10 weeks per year in interdisciplinary computational biology research.

Publications: One undergraduate first-authored manuscript has been accepted in a peer-review journal. (Ledesma et al. 2020).

Broad Impacts: From May 27 to August 5, 2019, a total of 10 students from 51 applications were selected to participate in iCompBio. Additionally, we hosted 1 student supported by her home institution University of Virgin Islands. These 11 students include 2 Caucasian males, 1 Asian male, 2 Caucasian females, 4 African American males, and 2 African American females. Among them, 5 are sophomores, 3 are juniors, and 3 non-graduating seniors.  Four of them have no prior research experiences. Four of them are from non-PhD granting institutions. Home institutions of these students include 5 HBCUs – Fisk University, Tuskegee University, Morehouse College, Norfolk State University, and University of Virgin Islands. These students include 2 internal participants from UTC, and 9 external participants.  The majors of these students include 2 Mathematics, 2 Chemical Engineering, 3 Biology, 1 Biochemistry, 2 Computer Science, and 1 Computer Engineering. The iCompBio19 include a total of 8 faculty mentors 2019 that come from Computer Science, Mathematics, Biology, Geology, and Chemical Engineering. All students presented their REU research results at a poster symposium on July 31, 2019.

NSF Award #1761839, $549.9K, October 1, 2018 – September 30, 2021.

PI Qin, Co-PI Shaw, Liang, and Hossain. “Spokes: MEDIUM: SOUTH: Collaborative: Integrating Biological Big Data Research into Student Training and Education”.

Intellectual Merit: This is a four-institution collaborative project with Qin as the lead PI. It offers training workshops on applying data science in biological research and education.

Publications: We have one publication {Powell, 2019 #57} and one accepted manuscript in peer-reviewed journals { Ledesma, 2020 #56}, including one undergraduate as the first-author. We have one manuscript under review, and one manuscript in submission stage. One Master thesis was completed under this project.

Broad Impacts: Two R coding bootcamps were offered at UTC. One is the R Data Wrangling Bootcamp on July 29-30,2019 the other is the Electronic Health Record Analysis Bootcamp on Aug 1-2, 2019.  The R-bootcamp were attended by 46 participants, and the Electronic Health Records Analysis bootcamp was attended by 30 participants. A total of 49 unique participants from 22 organizations attend the two bootcamps. These 49 participants include 25 women and 24 men. Among them, there are 9 Asian, 15 African Americans/Blacks, 3 Latinos, 29 Caucasians, 1 person with multiple ethnic background, and 1 person who did not disclose. The 22 organizations include 7 HBCUs (Fisk University, Morehouse College, Norfolk State University, Prairie View A&M University, Spelman College, Tuskegee University, and University of Virgin Island), and 4 liberal arts colleges (Crown College, Morehouse College, Rhodes College, Spelman College).  Analysis of participants’ responses show significant positive changes in self-assessment and increased confidence in teaching and researching in data science. Focus groups interviews were conducted during the bootcamps.  Courses impact  include CPSC2100 software design in Spring and Fall 2019 with 25x2 students enrolled, and CPSC4180/5120/BIOL5180 Data Science in Fall 2019 with 7 students enrolled, CPSC 4430/5440 Introduction to Machine Learning with 25 students in Spring 2019 and 25 students in Spring 2020, GEOL 4999/GEOL 5010 Geological Remote Sensing in Fall 2018 with 18 students, GEOL 2100 Introduction to GIS and Remote Sensing in Fall 2019 with 19 students.

NSF Award #1663105, $715K, January 1, 2017 – December 31, 2021.

PI Qin since August 2019 (Former PI Yang), Co-PI Xie and Kizza.  “Collaborative Research: SFS Program: Strengthening the National Cyber Security Workforce”. Qin is a replacement PI when the form PI took an academic leave in fall 2019.

Intellectual Merit: This is a Scholarship for Service (SFS) program to train cybersecurity professionals for state, local and federal governments in collaboration with the Tuskegee University.

Publication: One peer-reviewed conference publication (Suarez, 2017).

Broad Impacts: This collaborative project has trained 5 scholars at UTC and Tuskegee University respectively. All five scholars at Tuskegee are under-represented minority students. This project has graduated two scholars that are currently working as cybersecurity professionals for state or federal agencies.

NSF Award #1602594, $41K, 12/15/2015-11/30/2016, PI Qin, “Conference: A strategic planning workshop to explore quantitative biology as a vehicle for broad participation.”

Broad Impacts: This conference award enabled over sixty faculty and students from 17 universities and colleges to attend a workshop at Atlanta during March 11-12, 2016.

NSF Award #1517588, $500K, August 2015-2018, PI Eberhard Voit, Qin as co-PI in Year 1 from August 1, 2015 to July 31, 2016, “Problem-based learning modules for systems biology”. This is a course development and educational project.

Broad Impacts: Modeling and coding exercises were developed for BIO233 Microbiology with annual enrollment of 20 students and BIO115 Organismal Form and Function with annual enrollment of about 170 students.

References

Guo, H.-B., Y. Ma, G. A. Tuskan, H. Qin, X. Yang and H. Guo (2019). "A Suggestion of Converting Protein Intrinsic Disorder to Structural Entropy Using Shannon’s Information Theory." Entropy 21(6): 591.

Guven, E., S. Akcay and H. Qin (2019). "The Effect of Gaussian Noise on Maximum Likelihood Fitting of Gompertz and Weibull Mortality Models with Yeast Lifespan Data." Exp Aging Res 45(2): 167-179.

Guven, E., L. A. Parnell, E. D. Jackson, M. C. Parker, N. Gupta, J. Rodrigues and H. Qin (2016). "Hydrogen peroxide induced loss of heterozygosity correlates with replicative lifespan and mitotic asymmetry in Saccharomyces cerevisiae." PeerJ 4: e2671.

Ledesma, D., C. Powell, J. Shaw and H. Qin (2020). "Enabling automated herbarium sheet image post-processing through neural network models for color reference chart detection." Applications in Plant Sciences: Accepted. .

Qin, H. (2019). "Estimating network changes from lifespan measurements using a parsimonious gene network model of cellular aging." BMC Bioinformatics 20(1): 599.

Suarez, H., H. Kincannon. "SSETGami: Secure Software Education Through Gamification," PROCEEDINGS ON CYBERSECURITY EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, 2017. 

Short version

Prior NSF support of Qin in the last 5 years (on and after 2015):[QH3] 

NSF Award #1453078 (transferred to 1720215), $611K, 4/1/2015-3/31/2020. “CAREER: A probabilistic gene network model of cellular aging and its application on the conserved lifespan extension mechanism of dietary restriction.” Intellectual Merit: Currently, we have 2 publications (wit 3 undergraduate co-authors), 1 manuscript under review, and 1 undergraduate honor thesis. Broad Impacts: This award has directly supported Qin to mentor 29 students (including 22 under-represented minority students) and 1 mid-school student. It has impacted 4 courses with a combined ~100 students.

NSF Award #1602594, $41K, 12/15/2015-11/30/2016, PI Qin, “Conference: A strategic planning workshop to explore quantitative biology as a vehicle for broad participation.” Broad Impacts: This conference award enabled over sixty faculty and students from 17 universities and colleges to attend a workshop at Atlanta during March 11-12, 2016.