Appendix C: Self-Study Questionnaire Responses
Partnership in Physiological Measurements and Computing
1. List the active faculty participating in the Partnership. How has this changed over
time?
The PMC Partnership was formed in April 1999, the initial members were 25 URI faculty and
25 outside collaborators. Over the past two years the membership has expended to 60, with 28 outside
collaborators and 32 URI faculty. The 32 URI Faculty are from 9 Departments across 4 different Colleges:
Engineering (18), Arts & Science (6), HSS (5), and Pharmacy (3).
Electrical & Computer Engineering (11): Faye Boudreaux-Bartels, Godi Fischer, Steven Kay,
Ramdas Kumaresan, Allen Lindgren, Jien-Chung Lo, Shmuel Mardix, William Ohley, Ying Sun, Donald Tufts,
Rick Vaccaro.
Chemical Engineering (3): Arijit Bose, Richard Brown, Mercedes Rivero-Hudec.
Mechanical Engineering (4): Philip Datseries, Martin Sadd, Arun Shukla, Zongqin Zhang.
Biological Sciences (4): Emily Carrington, Robert Hill, Gabrielle Kass-Simon, Cheryl Wilga.
Computer Science (1): James Kowalski.
Mathematics (1): Li Wu.
Exercise Science (2): Linda Lamont, Thomas Manfredi.
Physical Therapy (3): James Agostinucci, Peter Blanpied, Thomas Romeo
Biomedical Sciences (3): Clinton Chichester III, Roberta King, Robert Rodgers.
2. List the annual number of research papers and presentations made associated with
Partnership activities. Do Not list each citation, but just the number of papers or presentations.
Referred Journal Publications 1999-2000: 10
Referred Conference Papers/Abstracts 1999-2000: 39
Journal Papers in Review or in Print 1999-2000: 15
3. What external funding has resulted from Partnership activities? Give examples of any
funding that was directly linked to the Partnership.
Total External Grants Awarded 1999-2001: $907,667 from 12 grants.
1) Carrington E. 1999-2000, $24,143, RI DEM: Shellfish Disease Survey Program, State of Rhode
Island (with M. Gomez-Chiarri).
2) Carrington E. 2000-03, $320,000. National Science Foundation: Incorporating structural
response into the prediction of disturbance of a competitive dominant on wave-swept rocky shores.
3) Carrington E. 2000-01, $39,538. RI Dept. of Environmental Management: Shellfish Disease
Survey Program 2000, State of Rhode Island (with M. Gomez-Chiarri).
4) Hill RB, Brooks DD, Huddart H. 2000-03, $10,455 (£15,100). Wellcome Trust Biomedical
Research Collaborative Grant: Modulation of buccal muscle contraction in Busycon canaliculatum: Physiological
responses to nerve stimulation and localisation of putative neurotransmitters.
5) Lamont L. 2000, $135,000. Renewal of a NIH minority training grant: A New England Bridge
to the Future.
6) Sun Y, Romero T. 2000-01, $35,500. RI Dept. of Mental Health, Retardation, and Hospitals:
Biomedical Engineering Clinical Internship.
7) Sun Y. 2000, $5,000. Arrow International, Inc.: Automated R-wave detector evaluation
system.
8) Sun Y. 2000-01, $1,000. Feinstein Faculty Fellow, Feinstein Center for Service
Learning.
9) Sun Y. 2000, $3,332. Ohio State University Medical Center, support for graduate
assistant.
10) Swaszek P, Kumaresan R, Boudreaux-Bartels F, Sun Y. 1999-02, $199,917. National Science
Foundation: Experiential signal processing laboratory (ESPLab) for multiple curricua.
11) Swaszek P, Sun Y, Kumaresan R, Boudreaux-Bartels F. 1999-00, $109,782. Champlin
Foundation: Digital signal processing lab for multiple curricula.
12) Zhang Z. 1999-00, $24,000. US Environmental Protection Agency: Computer simulation of
air flow and particle deposition in human lung.
These grants are linked to the PMC Partnership with various degrees of relevancy.
Example 1: the Experiential Signal Processing Laboratory received a NSF CCLI grant (10) and a
Champlin grant (11). Three of the four co-PI’s are active members of the PMC Partnership. Biomedical engineering
is also one of the major areas that the project is focused on. Therefore, the Partnership has contributed in
part to this effort. Example 2: Emily Carrington, an active member of the PMC partnership, has received
a prestige NSF grant for a total of $320,000 (2). The Partnership has contributed to her summer support for
proposal development and laboratory equipment. Example 3: Ying Sun and Tom Romeo have started an
internship program under a grant from the RI DMRH (6). This program engages undergraduate students in designing
and developing devices for persons with disabilities, and would not have been possible without the support of
the PMC Partnership.
4. Give examples of how the Partnership activities are or will be self-sustaining? For
those Partnerships that no longer receive funding from URI, has this objective been met? How? For those
Partnerships still receiving URI funding, what is the plan to become self-supporting? For both groups, what
is the management plan for self-support?
The core of the PMC Partnership is a consortium of the multidisciplinary experts. For the
initial three years, the URI funding is used to support laboratory equipment, graduate and undergraduate
students, and development of grant proposals. We do not have any administration budget. Nor do we allocate
budget for travel and business meal. We use the Internet technology such as an e-mail list and a dedicated
website for the purpose of communication and dissemination of information related to the Partnership. The key
components to achieve the self-supporting goal are well-equipped laboratories, collaborative faculty,
multidisciplinary expertise, graduate and undergraduate student involvement in research, and external funding.
We are confident that these components will sustain after the initial funding period and the Partnership will
continue to grow and explore external funding sources.
5. How have Partnership activities affected faculty workload? Give examples.
The PMC Partnership has increased the activities of the faculty in grant applications,
supervision of undergraduate and graduate students, development of laboratories, cross-disciplinary
collaboration, and teaching larger classes with enrollment from other disciplines. These increased activities
have not been systematically recognized as faculty workload.
6. What new courses have been created from the result of the Partnership? List the
enrollment in these courses.
The following existing courses have been completely changed in format and used as a forum for
cross-disciplinary collaboration. Faculty and students from at least three different colleges have attended
these courses (number indicating enrollment for the most recent offer):
BIO 642 Seminar in Physiology: 9
BIO 691A Advanced topics: Neurobiological Literature: 7
The following new laboratory course has been developed with software being developed under
the PMC Partnership:
PEX 335 Physiology of exercise laboratory: 20
The current enrollments for the new undergraduate Biomedical Engineering program are
3 seniors, 13 juniors, and 15 sophomores. The drastic increase from the junior class to the senior class may
be correlated with the establishment of the PMC Partnership two years ago.
7. How many undergraduate students and how many graduate students have participated in
the Partnership? How many of the publications and presentations listed in question 2 have had student
co-authors?
Doctoral students: 15
Master students: 29
Undergraduate students supported/involved in research: 41
Referred Journal Publications 1999-2000: 8 of 10 with student co-authors
Referred Conference Papers/Abstracts 1999-2000: 26 of 39 with student co-authors
Journal Papers in Review or in Print 1999-2000: 14 of 15 with student co-authors 4
8. What have student participants done after they have left URI? Give examples,
especially highlighting how the Partnership benefited the student.
Example 1: Peter Sccucces graduated in May 2000 and was among the first graduating
class of Biomedical Engineering. He was involved in our research to aid persons with disabilities under the
PMC Partnership. On April 10, 2000, he gave an oral presentation of a paper that he co-authored for the
26th Northeast Bioengineering Conference at the University of Connecticut. He now works for a major
signal analysis company in Connecticut as an application engineer. His specialty is concerned with LabView based
data analysis, which is relevant to the training he received under the PMC Partnership. Interestingly, just
recent Peter came back and volunteered his service to help us setting up a state-of-the-art LabView based
system for controlling a muscle lever instrument in one of our physiology laboratories.
Example 2: Viola Rieke completed a master thesis on the topic of a digitally-controlled
voltage clamp system, which was a joint project between electrical engineering and biological science under the
PMC Partnership. She graduated from URI in December 1999 and received a full research assistantship from the
Stanford University to continue her Ph.D. work.
Example 3: Biao Gong was supported as a research assistant under the PMC Partnership.
Within the period of a year he finished the research for his master thesis in electrical engineering. He
developed software in the C++ language for automated analysis of electron microscopic images. His software is
now used in the Exercise Science Department to support Tom Manfredi's research. Biao himself has obtained a
job in Massachusetts since September 2000, applying his software development skills to Internet based
products.
9. What service contributions have arisen from Partnership activities, to the professional
community, URI, or to the State of Rhode Island?
To the professional community, the PMC Partnership has contributed to the exploitation of
modern computing technology in the study of life sciences. The relevant activities include the development of
advanced biomedical instruments, computer models of physiological systems, and automated analysis software for
microscopic images and medical diagnostic images. To the URI community, the PMC Partnership has helped the
development of the undergraduate program in biomedical engineering, which has significantly contributed to the
recruitment of female students in engineering. The current enrollment in the biomedical engineering program is
50% women. Our program in assistive technology has produced the first service leaning course in engineering
supported by the Feinstein Center of Service Learning. The Partnership has also created a collaborative
atmosphere among faculty and students from 9 departments across 4 colleges. We expect to further expend the
scope of this multidisciplinary collaborative effort. To the State of Rhode Island, we have made a specific
contribution in developing devices for individuals with disabilities. This effort has been coordinated through
the Rhode Island Council of Assistive Technology and a grant from the RI Department of Mental Health,
Retardation, and hospitals. Six units of a microprocessor based environmental control system built by our 5
undergraduate students are now being used by quadriplegic patients in the Zambarano Hospital and the Slater
Hospital. A patent application has resulted from this project and more ideas are under development.
10. What does the Partnership need to become more effective?
It usually takes a lot of effort from very few individuals to coordinate and organize the
activities of a Partnership. Under the current system the partnerships are running in parallel with the
traditional department structures. The faculty workload associated with the partnership is not proportionally
recognized, at least in the case of some key personnel. We suggest that the URI administration consider awarding
special "on-campus sabbatical leaves" to certain key personnel of the URI Partnerships. This is to allow a
Partnership coordinator to devote a full year of his/her effort in the development and advancing of our
Partnership program.
11. What changes to the Partnership program could be made to make it better?
For successful Partnerships more support and incentive should be provided by the University.
The support can be in a variety of forms including the aforementioned on-campus sabbatical leaves, faculty
release time, graduate assistantships, and merit-based funding.
12. For those Partnerships no longer receiving URI funding: Did the Partnership receive
additional funds from the Provost after the initial grant expired to support student activities? How were
those funds used?
Not applicable to the PMC Partnership, which was formed in 1999.
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