Four teams of engineers, doctors awarded Grace Woodward grants

Four teams of Penn State engineers and doctors have each been awarded Grace Woodward Grants for Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine.

The grants offer seed money for projects that create or capitalize on opportunities to use engineering to solve problems in the life sciences and medicine.

This year's grant winners and their projects are:

- Steven Schiff, the Brush chair professor of engineering and director of the Center for Neural Engineering; Robert Harbaugh, professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and professor of engineering science and mechanics; Andrew Webb, professor of bioengineering; and James McInerney, assistant professor of neurosurgery at Hershey, for "The Use of CT as a Substitute for MRI in the Diagnosis of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy in Children in Sub-Saharan Africa."

- Barbara Shaw, professor of engineering science and mechanics; Henry Donahue, the Michael and Myrtle Baker professor in the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation in the College of Medicine; and Elizabeth Sikora, research associate in materials, for "Fix, Heal, and Disappear -- Designing New, Tailored Magnesium Alloys for Re-absorbable Orthopedic Implants."

- Suzanne Shontz, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; Frank Lynch, staff physician in the College of Medicine; and Michael Singer, postdoctoral associate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, for "Trapping Blood Clots: Modeling and Simulation of Optimal Inferior Vena Cava Filters."

- H. Joseph Sommer III, professor of mechanical engineering, and Mark Dias, professor and vice chair of neurosurgery at Hershey, for "Quantitative Clinical Diagnosis of Pediatric Positional Plagiocephaly."

Each grant is approximately $25,000 and lasts for one year.

Started in 2005, the Grace Woodward Grants for Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine are an outgrowth of the Grace Woodward Endowments to Penn State. The endowments were created from a multi-million dollar gift to the Colleges of Engineering and Medicine from the estate of Grace Woodward, a long-time friend and supporter of the University.