2006–2007 highlights

Research funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced a new UW-Madison program, Project HealthDesign, to design and implement new tools for personal health record systems. The $4.1 million initiative, directed by Lillian S. Moehlman-Bascom Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Patricia Brennan, will fund eight interdisciplinary teams for 18 months. The teams will address specific health challenges for patients, physicians and caretakers by designing technology for personal health applications that can help patients with information management, communication and decision making.
Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Professor David Gustafson and NIATx, the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment, received a $2 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create a national center for quality in addiction treatment. NIATx works with addiction treatment providers to improve treatment access and retention and optimize resources through several programs, including the RWJF program Paths to Recovery, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment program Strengthening Treatment Access and Retention, and a number of independent addiction-treatment organizations.
With $1.6 million in funding for three years, Steenbock Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) James Dumesic and CBE Professor Manos Mavrikakis will work with researchers from the University of Delaware and the University of Texas at Austin on a catalysis science initiative. The research project will refine the design of catalysts and at the same time develop new technologies that could lead to alternative fuels, improvement of fuel cells, and decrease in pollutants.
The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded a $1.1 million grant to a team led by Philip Dunham Reed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Dan Botez, ECE Assistant Professor Irena Knezevic, ECE Professor Luke Mawst, Milton J. & A. Maude Schoemaker Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Thomas Kuech, and Smith-Bascom Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Paul Nealey. The team will develop and perform research on quantum-box semiconductor lasers emitting the mid-infrared (mid-IR) with 25 times higher electrical-to-optical power conversion efficiency than conventional mid-IR lasers. The goal is to develop the first practical mid-IR lasers for a vast array of applications, ranging from defense to medical diagnostics.
The National Institutes of Health awarded a two-year, $1 million grant to Industrial and Systems Engineering Associate Professor Ben-Tzion Karsh to study technology in pediatric medicine. Karsh will use human factors engineering methods to evaluate the effect of computerized provider order entry on pediatric medication errors, workflow, information flow, and working conditions. The study also will use econometric methods to evaluate the financial value of the technology to hospitals and society.

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