$160,000 Awarded
Developing FleetCalc to Reshape Our Nations Vehicle Fleets
Fleet owners now have a plethora of fuel options, vehicle types and technologies to choose from. There is a huge amount of information available on these options, some of which is contradictory, hard to compare, misleading or false. This same gauntlet is faced by policy makers who look to formulate strategies to accomplish a particular goal, or who wonder what the implications are of a particular program or initiative.
Complex fleet calculators have been developed giving fleet owners detailed information on the implications of a particular vehicle option. These fleet calculators require large amounts of data, and their results are complex and difficult to interpret. In contrast, this initiative will develop a simple-to-use software tool called FleetCalc that would: provide policy makers with a high level look at the results of a given policy, enable scoping studies by fleet owners to identify vehicle options of high interest, and provide educational information on available options in a clear, concise and consistent manor.
FleetCalc objectives include: (1) provide the ability to rank vehicle options in a variety of ways; (2) give an overview analysis while still providing accurate guidance; (3) allow the user to get good results with simple inputs; (4) provide policy level outputs and guidance; (5) provide a fleet owner with the capability of doing a high level scoping analysis; and (6) give educational guidance in the forms of hyperlinks, videos, and linked reports to help the user gain a solid overview of each option.
Partners:
Giorgio Rizzoni, Center for Automotive Research and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Beth-Anne Schuelke-Leech, John Glenn School of Public Affairs
Jim Durand and Vincenzo Marano, Center for Automotive Research
Pay It Forward Marion
As part of The Ohio State University, Marions course-based, service-learning initiative, Pay It Forward Marions (PIFM), this projects purpose is to promote civic engagement in at least six English courses ranging from beginner to advanced and to improve the local community through skill-based service and philanthropy.
Beginning writers will apply their burgeoning research, writing, and rhetorical skills by examining community needs and developing fundraisers to increase available funds.
Their findings and funds will be passed along to intermediate writing students, who will research and volunteer at local non-profit organizations responding to the identified community needs, promote the PIFM project, and collect RFPs. Students in advanced classes will receive these materials, analyze proposals, engage in more in-depth research at the non-profits seeking funds, and create multimodal arguments about how to distribute the funds.
Students will be able to provide $14,000 per year in grants to the community and conduct and record primary research by borrowing digital voice recorders. At an annual celebration where students will not only award grants to selected community organizations, but they will also discuss their research, their volunteer projects, and ultimately what contributed to their final decisions.
Partners:
Stuart Lishan, Ben McCorkle, Cassandra Parente, Alexis Martina, Amy Tibbals, Catherine C. Braun, English
Pam Stone, United Way of Marion County
Shakespeare and Autism: Intervention in the Columbus Community
The Ohio State University/Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) partnership is developing a ground-breaking, collaborative research project between Ohio State Theatre and the Nisonger Center.
Taking its cue from the RSCs innovative Stand Up for Shakespeare pedagogy, the project engages the question of whether drama - particularly Shakespeare - can break through the communicative blocks of autism and whether this therapeutic intervention has long-term benefits. This project includes a full, randomized control study of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study will begin with community partner, Columbus City Schools, in autumn 2012 and continue through spring 2015.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that drama-based intervention is a useful tool to improve the core symptoms of ASD in children and adolescents. However, such intervention has not been tested in a large-scale, randomized, wait-list control trial.
The team will collaborate with Kelly Hunter, a leading RSC actress, who has worked with children and young people with ASD for 20 years. Her signature approach, the Hunter Heartbeat Method, pairs the recitation of Shakespeares rhythmic language with physical gesture in a way that is accessible to those with ASD.
Kelly Hunter and Robin Post, Ohio States project director, have trained a team of Ohio State graduate and undergraduate theatre students in the implementation of Kellys method. This group has been involved in a pilot project working with a group of middle school children with ASD and the pilot has provided the foundation for the full-scale study. A new team of undergraduate and graduate theatre students will receive the training and this team will work with the new group of children with ASD while the proposed research is conducted. Plans are underway to develop a service-learning course at Ohio State to ensure that this work continues into the future.
Partners:
Lesley Ferris, Theatre and OSU/Royal Shakespeare Co. Programs
Marc J. Tass, Psychology, Psychiatry and Nisonger Center
Mary Ey, Columbus Public Schools Student Support Services
Amy Hess, Nationwide Childrens Hospital Autism Treatment Network