DSU Receives New $3M Dept. of Defense Research Grant

Delaware State University and its Department of Mathematical Sciences have been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Army Research Laboratory to receive a five-year $3 million research grant to establish a Center for Advanced Algorithms on campus.

 

The new DSU center – which will be based within DSU’s Department of Mathematics – will focus its work to assist the Department of Defense (DoD) in its effort to develop technologies that will protect U.S. troops and its allies from deadly improvised explosive devices.

 

U.S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper said he is pleased to see the DoD research funding coming once again to DSU.

 

“Federal research dollars lead to growth in new technologies, innovation and economic development, and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Army Research Lab grant to Delaware State University is no exception,” Sen. Carper said. “This award recognizes the excellent work already being done by Delaware State University and will enable the school to continue to conduct cutting-edge research and serve as an economic engine for central and southern Delaware.”

 

Dr. Fengshan Liu, director of the DSU Applied Mathematics Research Center and the principal investigator for the grant, said that the DSU-led Center for Advanced Algorithms will bring together an exceptional team of researchers from DSU, the University of Delaware and Penn State University.

 

The research grant is the result of a proposal that was a joint effort by Dr. Liu and DSU researchers Dr. Jinjie Liu, Dr. David Pokrajac, Dr. Xiquan Shi, Jeff Sichina and Dr. Jiguang Sun, along with UD’s Dr. Chandra Kambhamettu and Penn State’s Dr. Ram Narayanan. Mr. Sichina will serve as the project director for the center.

 

DSU President Harry L. Williams said this marks yet another new chapter in the continuing expansion of DSU research character.

 

“In addition to displaying the continued confidence that the federal government has in DSU researchers, this project also highlights the current era of higher education partnerships – in this case not only between DSU and the University of Delaware, but also with Penn State University,” Dr. Williams said.

 

The new center builds on DSU’s prior success that was achieved by its Applied Mathematics Research Center that was established by a $4 million Department of Defense grant in 2003. DSU completed the research pertaining to that grant in 2009 and has continued since then to work on several critical U.S. military-related projects.

 

“The funded project will enhance the research collaborations between Delaware State University and the Army Research Lab,” Dr. Liu said. “We will also involve and train our students in using mathematics to solve real-life problems and thus to prepare them to become the first choice of employers in a global market.”  

 

The previous Department of Defense research funding support was instrumental in DSU’s 2004 establishment of a doctoral program in Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Physics.