Research at DU: Outcomes for People

The University of Denver has long promoted a teacher/scholar model for its faculty, encouraging professors to excel in the classroom and in research. This model fosters a one-of-a-kind student experience because students learn from instructors who are inspiring educators and leaders in their field. At the same time, the University cultivates an environment in which research and scholarship are focused on the improvement of individual lives and the collective good of the public.

The result is an academic community in which renowned scholars and their students work tirelessly to improve the human condition.

Consider the work of Kimon Valavanis, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Valavanis was lured to DU from the University of South Florida. He is internationally known for his work on robotics, specifically unmanned systems used for traffic monitoring, search and rescue, emergency response, surveillance and crime prevention. His unmanned helicopters have the potential to save human lives by serving as first responders after natural and man-made disasters, such as forest fires, hurricanes and traffic accidents.

“It is easier to send down a robot than a human being,” he said. “We would much rather lose a robot than a human life.”

Valavanis joined DU’s faculty because, “from the top down,” administrators have made unmanned systems and mechatronics a priority. “Right now, DU is one of the best-equipped universities in the U.S. in unmanned systems,” he explained. “We have five custom-built unmanned ground vehicles, an all-terrain mobile robot, a fleet of several types of unmanned helicopters, a custom-built miniature helicopter capable of autonomous flight and five unmanned, fixed-wing platforms.”

While Valavanis seeks to advance robotics research, Peter Van Arsdale, senior lecturer with the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, is leading a team of scholars, students and community members seeking to improve water sanitation in a Kenyan slum known as Kibera. The multidisciplinary faculty group includes Renee Botta of mass communications and journalism studies, Randall Kuhn of the Josef Korbel School and Karen Loeb of the Daniels College of Business.

The Kibera Project aims to improve the slum’s water and sanitation by assessing needs and by building 14 water stations, financed through a grant from the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast.

Since spring 2008, Van Arsdale and several graduate students have traveled to Kibera to gather data about community needs and best practices. Even the culture of the residents contributes to decisions on how best to build and maintain water stations. Thus far, the group has built six facilities, each able to accommodate hundreds of people.

“This is particularly good for our graduate students’ perspective because they gain meaningful overseas experience,” Van Arsdale said. “They benefit their careers as they also help the people in Africa.”

Shaping Change in Political and Civil Institutions

When the presidential campaign kicked into high gear in 2008, Seth Masket, assistant professor of political science, along with three political scientists from the University of Minnesota and the University of Florida, secured a National Science Foundation grant to study dynamics at both political parties’ conventions.

Masket and a team of 20 undergraduate and graduate students blanketed downtown Denver—site of the Democratic National Convention—to conduct six-page surveys of 500 of the 4,000 delegates. “We were curious, how does a party overcome a serious internal rift? There was a serious rift between two of the Democratic Party’s most important groups, women and African-Americans,” Masket recalled.

Masket’s team studied the social networks encouraged by the Democratic Party’s caucus system. They found that the system actually made delegates cling tighter to their convictions. For example, after attending various caucus meetings, Hillary Clinton’s supporters were even less likely to support the party’s nominee, Barack Obama.

“Democrats may want to think about other ways to allow people to participate in the process that don’t cause as much friction at the convention,” Masket concluded.

Like Masket, researchers at DU’s Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) are interested in conducting projects with real-world impact. The institute, for example, is working to reform the civil justice system so that it is more efficient, affordable and transparent.

Jordan Singer, the IAALS’ director of research, noted that one of the institute’s current projects aims to create a fairer and more informed approach to judicial selection and retention. Through data collection and analysis, and then through education and legislative efforts, the IAALS staff has improved the public’s understanding of the judicial selection process and the appropriate standards for evaluating judicial performance.

“We advocate a performance-based judicial selection process featuring appointment, evaluation and informed choice by voters. It is a system with built-in accountability and transparency, and it has served states like Colorado well,” Singer said.

The IAALS created an educational publication promoting the process and sent it to every state legislature in the country. The institute also published two seminal reports on judicial performance evaluation to provide states with the tools to establish or strengthen their own programs.

Research also plays a central role in the institute’s Twenty-First Century Rules Initiative, which seeks to revise and update the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure—the procedural roadmap for the U.S. civil justice system. IAALS is also conducting a series of empirical studies of the civil justice system to pinpoint those areas that would benefit the most from constructive change. To educate interested parties about the issues involved, the institute maintains a Web site that includes the latest IAALS research, commentator analysis and comparative approaches.

Cross-Disciplinary Work to Solve the Mysteries of Disease

Across campus, researchers affiliated with the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (ERI) tackle some of society’s most frustrating and debilitating health issues, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Down syndrome.

Director of External Relations David Patterson, himself a researcher at ERI, noted that access to DU scientists from several disciplines enables researchers to follow paths of discovery beyond their initial expectations. These paths may well lead to new therapies and to a better understanding of disease processes.

For example, Patterson studies Down syndrome, which is the result of a person carrying three copies of Chromosome 21 rather than two. Because people with Down syndrome have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s and leukemia, researchers now believe that the extra copy of Chromosome 21 may contribute to those diseases as well. So now, interdisciplinary teams—enlisting both undergraduate and graduate students—have tackled those veins of research.

“We’re collaborating with people in physics and chemistry, as well as biology,” Patterson said. “We’re applying thought processes and technologies not normally applied to these topics.”

On the Horizon

With research one of DU’s top priorities, it’s essential that the institution focus on new ways to encourage collaboration and innovation.

That is Cathryn Potter’s mission. As associate provost for research, a newly created position focused on advancing DU’s research capabilities, Potter aims to encourage and support an interdisciplinary approach to research across the campus.

“Many problems that are addressed by research, whether social or scientific, are so complex that no one discipline has the complete angle on them,” she explained. “Much of the work that needs to be done must be done by people who can form teams and work on the problem from different vantage points and with varying skills.”

Provost Gregg Kvistad believes DU’s success in this endeavor hinges on its ability to capitalize on groundwork laid in recent years.

“We have the faculty, the infrastructure, the curriculum, the will, the flexibility and the entrepreneurial spirit to make this happen,” he said. “And there is a kind of optimism that runs through this institution, even when we’re dealing with challenges. The spirit and the talent here are extraordinary.”