Georgia Southern University Faculty Recognized as 2023 Partnership for Inclusive Innovation Community Research Grant Winners

December 8, 2023

Two projects led by Georgia Southern University faculty were chosen for the 2023 Georgia Smart Communities Challenge Cleantech cohort from the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation (PIN).

Both the University’s Institute for Water and Health (IWH) and the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health are first-time recipients. PIN supports community research across the state of Georgia by engaging a network of researchers, community leaders, and key stakeholders to advance local initiatives for innovation. 

IWH, along with partners at Rebuilding Together of Glynn County, the City of Brunswick, the Office of Health Equity and Community Engagement at Georgia Southern, and the Georgia Institute of Technology Institute for People and Technology, has been awarded a grant for approximately $108,000 to support the “Safe Water Together in Glynn County” project. This one-year project addresses environmental justice issues around water quality and equitable access to scientific information. Funding will facilitate the creation of the Safe Water Ambassador Group (SWAG), a minority-led water quality monitoring and communication team. By using advanced water quality detection technologies, the project will identify occurrences and sources of contamination in water resources worsened by sea-level rise and close by toxic waste sites where local people live. 

“We are very excited about this project,” said Asli Aslan, project investigator and director of IWH. “Toxic waste pollution is a significant health threat for U.S. citizens. One in every six Americans lives within one mile of a toxic waste site and low-socioeconomic communities who are already burdened with many health inequalities are impacted the most. This project is an excellent example of IWH’s ongoing academic and local partnerships in improving water quality in Coastal Georgia.”

For the first time in PIN’s award history, this project also supports a local K-12 school system to promote environmental stewardship among communities. An additional $20,000 was awarded to IWH to support two PIN interns who will join the team in support of these activities.

“This grant opportunity builds the capacity of our community and empowers traditionally underserved Black and brown neighborhoods in our community so that our families can improve their quality of life,” said Glynn County Commissioner Allen Booker. 

A separate JPHCOPH project, in partnership with the City of Statesboro, has been awarded a grant of $127,225.33 from PIN. Jingjing Yin, Ph.D., leads the multidisciplinary research team to facilitate the city government’s facilities to improve the indoor air quality of the workplaces and the health and well-being of city employees and local visitors.

“The well-being of our employees and visitors is of the utmost importance to our organization,” said Mayor of Statesboro Jonathan McCollar. “It is our hope that this study will equip the City of Statesboro with the necessary tools and resources to improve air quality in city facilities.” 

The grant will benefit faculty, staff and students by obtaining pilot data on indoor air quality evaluation and intervention through two parallel data collection processes using multiple “smart” sensors for objective air quality monitoring and evaluations, as well as employee surveys for subjective perceptions about their workplace indoor air quality. 

“In this project, we are building upon a previous NASA study that tested the use of green indoor plants for removing air pollution in space stations or enclosed chambers with small sample sizes,” said Atin Adhikari, Ph.D., co-project investigator. “Our project will investigate its impact in real-world contaminated indoor environments and examine how plants and indoor environmental factors like temperature, humidity and light affect absorption and reduce bad smells.”

Public health students, both undergraduate and graduate, will gain training opportunities and field research experience on indoor air sampling and evaluation and the research team will build partnerships with the local communities for on-going research collaboration.

“We are excited to partner with the City of Statesboro on this project to evaluate the air quality within the public servicing city facilities, focusing on malodor and volatile organic compounds, and measuring how city employees feel about their workplace air quality through surveys,” said Jingjing Yin, project investigator. “We also plan to investigate a green intervention to improve indoor air quality and hope to obtain its proof of concept through this community collaborative study. This pilot research project will collect meaningful data and provide reference on indoor air quality evaluation and intervention in areas with subtropical climate similar to Statesboro.”

PIN is led by a group of established leaders from the state of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology and other prominent private and public institutions across the state that are committed to establishing a roadmap for advancing technology and innovation across Georgia. The board of advisors includes leaders from the public and private sectors across Georgia. They are united by their vision to advance Georgia and their commitment to helping drive the long-term success of the organization. 

Many of the projects are supported through Community Research Grants, a program that provides community research assistance to empower municipalities to utilize technology and data to pursue a “smart” future. PIN also accepts proposals for applied community research funding to foster impact in a variety of regions and disciplines. 

PIN activates collaborations between faculty and municipalities to explore innovative uses of technology and data in pursuit of prosperity for all through applied research. The Georgia Smart Communities Challenge (Georgia Smart) program engages a network of researchers, community leaders and key stakeholders to advance local initiatives for innovation by providing funding, technical assistance and access to a variety of resources in a cohort program. Big ideas for innovation can happen at any time, so the Partnership offers an open call for applied research proposals where researchers receive seed grants to support community innovations.