Joint Seed Funding Program Awards $40k for Federal Supply Chain Research
In May 2022, the Data Institute for Social Challenges and the Oklahoma Aerospace and Defense Innovation Institute partnered to create a joint seed funding competition to fund teams working on solving the challenges and complexities of the supply chain needs in the Department of Defense relevant to supply chain management, systems engineering, optimization, and many other topics.
“Partnerships with institutes like OADII bring more expertise and connections invaluable to the teams we work with,” said Yessenia Torres, DISC managing director. “With these types of partnerships, we can help more teams and provide more resources not only from a data science perspective.”
Two research teams were chosen to receive a total of $20,000 each towards their projects. The teams will have six months to use their funds and complete a final report discussing their project’s outcomes and proposed future research. Torres said DISC will meet with the teams during the Fall semester to monitor their progress and provide any additional support needed.
“We were impressed by the quantity, quality and academic variety of responses,” said Gene Kirkland, OADII Executive Director. “OU faculty are addressing a wide range of research topics to address national security challenges.”
DISC and OADII have also begun a Supply Chain Community of Practice that will help more OU researchers in this field connect with each other. Andrew Gonzalez, a member of one of the teams funded by this project, is leading the group.
The funded projects are:
Securing Critical Networks from Weaponized Disinformation Attacks: Initial Surveys
Led by Kash Barker with Coinvestigators Elena Bessarabova, Andrés González and Sridhar Radhakrishnan
This project aims to develop approaches to protect and defend critical networks from the harm of weaponized disinformation. The team will conduct a survey to better understand how disinformation affects and changes an individual’s consumption behavior.
Enhancing DoD Vaccine Innovation and Supply for Warfighters and Biodefense
Led by Myongjin Kim with Coinvestigator Junying Zhao
This project aims to create an optimal solution to the DoD’s vaccine procurement strategy. The team ultimately expects that their research will inform Congress and the DoD of the optimal vaccine liability policy that will best incentivize manufacturers to develop and produce vaccines for the military.
