SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island has received a $500,000 grant from The Champlin Foundation to purchase equipment and technology that will benefit more than 850 students annually in multiple departments.
The grant is in response to three interdisciplinary proposals submitted by faculty from URI’s Environment and Life Sciences, Engineering and Pharmacy colleges.
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“These projects will place URI students at the forefront of innovation, giving them hands-on experience with technologies most undergraduates never encounter – from isolating single microbial cells, to building digital twins of bridges, to nanoscale fabrication,” said Mark Antonucci, vice president for university advancement and CEO of the URI Foundation.
“As Rhode Island’s R1 public research institution, these investments provide opportunities for students to access top-tier equipment and better prepare them to shape the future of medicine, infrastructure and advanced manufacturing in Rhode Island and far beyond,” Antonucci said.
In a combination of environmental and engineering disciplines, an interdisciplinary center will be established that offers students hands-on training with advanced sensors, data analytics and digital twin technology to detect damage early and predict failures – an urgent need given Rhode Island’s aging bridges.
Microscopic 3D printing technology, capable of printing microscopic structures 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair, enables students to design and build tiny medical devices, optical components and lab-on-a-chip systems – skills that are increasingly valuable in the health care and tech industries.
Acquisition of a high-throughput microbial isolator will enable students to gain skills in advanced microbial cultivation and genome editing techniques that will boost job readiness, and it will support new research courses and collaborations to advance innovation.
The Champlin Foundation, one of the oldest philanthropic organizations in Rhode Island, has funded projects at URI for more than 40 years that cumulatively total nearly $22 million.
Veer Mudambi is the special projects editor at Providence Business News. He can be reached at mudambi@pbn.com.
