Pitt Seed has selected two concepts to receive $500,000 each to fully execute their projects within three years and to further the Plan for Pitt.

Launched in 2018, the grant program underwent a reinvention in 2022 to better support projects with potential to transform the University. Over the 2022-23 academic year, 10 projects that received initial funding built out and demonstrated their proofs of concept with an eye toward competing for one of two $500,000 scale-up grants.

While they advanced their pilots, the project leads attended monthly virtual lunches and comprehensive training sessions to understand University infrastructure, and received personalized support to help advance their projects.

In May, the leads participated in a Big PITTch event before three University leaders, focusing on how they would use additional funding to institutionalize their pilot projects. The winning proposals were selected for their likelihood to directly advance the Plan for Pitt, excellence across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, pre-and post-assessment metrics and long-term sustainability plans.  

Both winning projects will receive additional support from project management professionals in the Pitt Portfolio and Project Management Office.

Here are the inaugural winners:

Sexual Misconduct and Prevention and Survivor Support: Carrie Benson, senior manager for prevention and education, Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five women experience attempted or completed sexual assault during her college years, as did 6 percent of men. There’s an urgent need to implement new data-driven, inclusive prevention initiatives, and Pitt can comprehensively respond to this crisis in ways that will significantly reduce the rates of sexual misconduct victimization. Funds awarded from the Pitt Seed initiative will be used to facilitate new and innovative educational programs, wide-sweeping awareness building campaigns and crucial prevention research, all designed to reduce sexual misconduct victimization.

CUPID: Fostering an Inclusive Community in the Schools of the Health Sciences: Susan Graff, director of Medical Technology Education and assistant professor, Department of Physician Assistant Studies

The Community, Pedagogy, Identity, and Difficulty (CUPID) Project addresses the need to improve community building and support for underrepresented groups in medicine. With an accessible asynchronous curriculum that focuses specifically on how social identities and equity manifest on Pitt campuses, CUPID will contribute to the creation of an inclusive and equitable campus environment that assesses both individual and learner engagement. Broader impact will be achieved through documentary-style video interviews supplemented with academic literature on concepts such as social identity and intersectionality to foster an inclusive environment at Pitt.

The next cohort

Pitt Seed has selected five projects for the 2023-24 cohort. Each will receive up to $75,000 to demonstrate proof of concept and will be eligible to compete for a $500,000 scale-up grant next spring.

This round of the program received 18 applications, with representation from the Greensburg, Pittsburgh and Johnstown campuses. Two review panels assessed multiple factors, such as transdisciplinary collaborations, potential impact on business operations, and unique solutions to address specific gaps like diversity, equity and scholarly advancement.

All proposals will receive help from project management professionals in the Pitt Portfolio and Project Management Office to successfully execute their projects.

The winning proposals, with their primary applicants, are:

Dmitriy Babichenko, clinical associate professor, School of Computing and Information: STEM Through Games proposes to develop and pilot an immersive media design and research program that introduces high school students to computational thinking, foundations of programming and cross-disciplinary academic STEM research through the implementation of digital games and immersive technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality.

Keith Caldwell, executive director of place based initiatives, Office of Engagement and Community Affairs: The CommUniversity Initiative will create a framework to support any faculty member interested in adapting their course into a CommUniversity learning opportunity, which will place Pitt students and community residents in the classroom as peer learners.

Melissa Lenos, Senior Director of Graduate Advising and Engagement for the Humanities, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences: TC²: True Co-equal x Transformative Collaborations seeks to stimulate, guide and support interdisciplinary projects between the humanities and other graduate programs. This project will provide opportunities and resources to graduate students and faculty mentors dedicated to pushing the boundaries and inherent limitations of discrete academic fields to develop the collaborative relationships — and resulting skills — of fully interdisciplinary research.

Melissa Jo Marks, professor of education, Behavioral Sciences Division at Pitt–Greensburg: Planting SEEDs–Growing Teachers: Creating a Pipeline has a threefold approach: 1) analyze the newly approved Educators Rising curriculum for consistency within Pitt’s education program’s state-mandated competencies to promote a high school to university teacher education pipeline; 2) work with local districts to develop a means of implementation per Senate Bill 99 mandates; and 3) provide University credits for introductory Pitt-Greensburg education courses to promote equity and opportunity for a wide range of high school students in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Manisha Nigam, associate professor of chemistry, Natural Sciences Division at Pitt–Johnstown: Project SOAR: Fostering Leadership, Resiliency, and Network for Students at Pitt–Johnstown will establish SOAR (Students Overcoming Adversity through Resilience), a leadership and enrichment program aimed at enabling marginalized students and Pell Grant recipients to achieve not only academic excellence at Pitt-Johnstown, but also successful careers.

— From Pittwire