01/22/2026
By Anne Maglia

UMass Lowell and Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) are pleased to announce the awardees of the UML-FGCU Collaborative Seed Funding Program, an initiative designed to foster productive, interdisciplinary research collaborations across both institutions.

This year’s competition was highly competitive, with proposals involving 42 faculty members from both UML and FGCU representing multiple departments and all of the program’s priority areas: energy, resilience, artificial intelligence (AI), finance, and economic development.

We are proud to award nearly $100,000 in seed funding across five collaborative projects:

Data-Driven Plastic Waste Forecasting and Intervention Prioritization: A Proof-of-Concept Decision Tool
PI: Cindy Chen, UMass Lowell
Co-PI: Leandro de Castro, FGCU
Award Amount: $20,000

Creating Collaborations Between UML and FGCU in Energy and Sustainability
PI: Christopher Niezrecki, UMass Lowell
Co-PI: Osman Karatum, FGCU
Co-PI: John Hunter Mack, UMass Lowell
Co-PI: Lauren Redfern, FGCU
Co-PI: Juan Pablo Trelles, UMass Lowell
Award Amount: $20,000

Exploring the Complex Design Spaces: AI-Driven Design Generation and Optimization Using Real-Time Hybrid Simulation (AID-RTHS)
PI: Ali Ozdagli, FGCU
Co-PI: Alessandro Sabato, UMass Lowell
Award Amount: $20,000

Understanding the underlying physical drivers of future changes in compound flood risk
PI: Christopher Skinner, UMass Lowell
Co-PI: Mathew Barlow, UMass Lowell
Co-PI: Christopher Daly, FGCU
Award Amount: $19,526

AI-Driven Multimodal Security Framework for the Age of Deepfakes: Safeguarding Financial Integrity and Smart-Home Safety
PI: Julie Zhang, UMass Lowell
Co-PI: Chengyi Qu, FGCU
Award Amount: $20,000

The success of this program would not be possible without the generous support of UMass Lowell graduate Brian Rist ’77, ’22, ’22 (H). His longstanding commitment to fostering collaborative, sustainability-driven research has played a pivotal role in cultivating innovative programs at both UMass Lowell and Florida Gulf Coast University, enabling our significant partnership that extends impact across state lines.

Thank you to the UML Office of Research Development for administering the program, Dean Huzefa Kagdi of the U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering for leading efforts at FGCU, and the many faculty from both institutions who served as reviewers.

Congratulations to the five awardee teams whose projects exemplify innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and a strong foundation for future external funding, industry partnerships, and scholarly impact.