In March 2026, a cross-campus open selection process was conducted to award travel grants to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, supporting opportunities to showcase research conducted under the umbrella of the Center. The C-CEA scientific committee (three reviewers) awarded a total of nine grants, totaling approximately $8,000 ($889 per award). Six awards were granted to graduate students in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (two PhD and four MS students), two to postdoctoral researchers in the Department of Molecular Biology and one to a MS student in the Department of Botany. Awardees - Mahbubur Rahman, Md Omor Faruk, Muhammad Iqbail, Abiam Khalid, Dayan, Xiao Yang, Anahita Gorbani, Seungmee Jung and Isaiah Spiegelberg – have been utilizing the funding during Summer 2026 to expand their professional and research experiences in CEA. Eight awardees have participated in conferences across the United States, presenting research on engineering, data science and biological applications of CEA, while one has used the funds to support collaborative work with a Wyoming producer. Examples of student engagements are reported on the last page of this report. All awardees are requested to send in a summary of their experience, and they will be presenting during the Fall series of the C-CEA meetings and during the SI Spring Research Symposium 2027.
Besides annual internal grants opportunities there are continuous opportunities for faculties to connect with companies affiliated with the CEA network to work on collaborative questions with the CEA industry. Please, reach out to cguadagn@uwyo.edu for specific information about your expertise.
The University of Wyoming has earned its Research Level 1 (R1) status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, placing Wyoming's only four-year university with the top research universities in the United States.