Annual Report 2019-2020
COVID-19 Research
Record Grant Funding Drives Innovation
Bowie State University’s record $5.1 million in grants in fiscal year 2020 is helping to fuel innovation with the potential for global reach, including research that is uncovering the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate impact on minority communities and businesses. Despite the challenges of remote teaching and learning in 2020, faculty and student researchers have developed COVID-19-related projects that are putting Bowie State out in front in the fight against the pandemic.
“Our recent grant-funded projects are seeking to address immediate challenges faced by our country. This work will have far-reaching implications on current health and social/behavioral practices to better support our communities and may have global implications as well,” said Dr. Anika Bissahoyo, BSU’s assistant vice president for research.
A foremost expert in virtual reality, computer science professor Sharad Sharma teamed up with the University of District of Columbia’s Dr. Timothy Oladunni to use data science and artificial intelligence to analyze the impact of COVID-19 in the Black community. Funded by a one-year, $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s RAPID Collaborative Research Program, the project includes designing a model to determine COVID-19 vulnerability, developing machine learning tools to predict the harm caused to discharged COVID-19 patients and creating a 3D virtual reality environment to visualize and analyze patient datasets. Seeing the data in a different format allows researchers to make connections they might not otherwise find and view statistics from new angles.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that Black people account for 30 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States, although the community represents only about 13 percent of the population. In New York City, an early epicenter of the pandemic, the Black population has made up 28 percent of the COVID-19 deaths.
“Ultimately, understanding how COVID-19 impacts the Black community will provide the criteria for mitigating the spread of future outbreaks,” said Dr. Sharma, who engaged his students from the BSU Virtual Reality Laboratory in the research. “The disproportionate impact relates to systematic disparity. Knowing the reasons why could help in developing a better system altogether.”
Research Experience Pays Off
Additional COVID-19-related research grew out of the virtual Data Science & Analytics Summer Undergraduate Research Institute. Starting in May 2020, 10 student researchers, matched with faculty mentors, spent nine weeks working in interdisciplinary teams on timely projects. The students and faculty investigated socio-economic factors associated with COVID-19 cases and explored the pandemic’s impact on small and medium-sized businesses.
Led by economic professor LaTanya Brown-Robertson and funded by a nearly $400,000 National Science Foundation grant, the Data Science & Analytics Initiative not only engages students in real-world research, but it also generates valuable insights into some of society’s most pressing issues. Research that began in summer 2020 is set to continue into the 2019-20 academic year, resulting in new discoveries to be presented in journal publications and at conferences. The initiative is paying off for the student researchers, who have landed internships and job offers at companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), American Airlines, Brookings Institute and ESPN.
Across Bowie State, talented faculty and students are using their research to find solutions and position the university as a leader in innovation.
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