Institute Announces Seven Hariri Research Awards

Through the Hariri Research Awards, the Institute supports a portfolio of ambitious research projects that catalyze interdisciplinary research, each applying computational and data-driven approaches in new ways. By supporting projects in social sciences, humanities, law, business, and medicine – to engineering, computer science, and statistics, the Research Awards advance the Institute’s goal of bringing together and building a community of researchers across schools and colleges at BU.

It is with great enthusiasm that we announce our funding of 7 exciting projects:

Coupled Human-Natural Dynamics in Urban Heat Islands: From Big Data to Local Policies, led by principal investigator (PI) Lucy Hutyra from the Department of Earth & Environment, in collaboration with Dan Li (Earth & Environment) and Mark Friedl (Earth & Environment).

Interdisciplinary Development of a Biokinematic Data Acquisition System, led by PI Richard West from the Department of Computer Science, in collaboration with Cara Lewis (Physical Therapy and Athletic Training) and Sheryl Grace (Mechanical Engineering).

Statistically Principled and Scalable Computational Tools for Transforming Communication Research, led by PI Lei Guo from the Department of Emerging Media Studies, in collaboration with Margrit Betke (Computer Science), Prakash Ishwar (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Dino Christenson (Political Science), and Jacob Groshek (Emerging Media Studies).

An Ongoing Streaming Sample Twitter Collection and Analysis Toolkit, led by PI Jacob Groshek from the Department of Emerging Media Studies, in collaboration with Manuel Egele (Electrical & Computer Engineering).

Graph-based Approaches to Record Linkage in Large Datasets, led by PI Jacob Bor from the Department of Global Health, in collaboration with George Kollios (Computer Science).

Enabling High Fidelity Imaging and Quantification of Tissue Mechanical Properties in Vivo through Access to Sophisticated, led by PI Paul Barbone from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Imagine All the People: The Origins of Education Reform and the Life Trajectories of Low-Skill Youth, led by PI Cathie Jo Martin from the Department of Political Science.