Posted: February 5, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

 

We are excited to announce that two new University Research Centers (URCs) will be established in 2025: the Center for Community-Driven Assistive Technologies and the Center for Advancing Community Electrification Solutions. We are also pleased to award a planning grant to further the development of a third team, the Small Cities Lab.

The Center for Community-Driven Assistive Technologies (CDAT), led by Vinod Namboodiri and George DuPaul, aims to transform the lives of people with disabilities through interdisciplinary research and cutting-edge assistive technologies. By focusing on life transitions, mobility enhancement, and smart living spaces, this URC will empower individuals with disabilities by expanding opportunities in education, employment, and health. With a unique holistic approach combining community-based participatory research, collaboration with service providers, and translational innovation, CDAT researchers will develop impactful solutions tailored to real-world needs. Partnering with an array of stakeholders, the center aspires to become a national leader in advancing independence, accessibility, and quality of life for people with disabilities.

The Center for Advancing Community Electrification Solutions (ACES), led by Shalinee Kishore and Arindam Banerjee, aims to transform how communities use electricity by creating efficient, reliable, and self-sustaining energy systems. Focusing on transportation, water, and buildings, ACES investigates how “electricity-sheds” can be designed that provide clean, locally generated power tailored to the unique needs of specific communities. By combining new technologies with solutions and policies that prioritize people’s needs, this URC will help reduce energy costs, promote energy security and independence, and improve public health. With strong partnerships and workforce development initiatives, ACES will lead the way in making electrification scalable and accessible.

The teams leading these Centers were awarded year-long planning grants following the previous round of URC selection in 2023-24. Over the past year, they each engaged in significant work to refine their ideas, build critical partnerships, and lay out pathways for achieving national and international prominence. More detailed information about the evaluation and selection process can be found here.

We are awarding a similar planning grant to the Small Cities Lab. Led by Wes Hiatt and Karen Beck Pooley, the Small Cities Lab is focused on the distinctive challenges faced by smaller cities typically overlooked in urban research as they tackle pressing issues such as affordable housing, public history, urban ecology, public health, and economic development. The Small Cities Lab is designed as an action-oriented collaborative hub that directly engages with communities to co-create practical, scalable solutions tailored to small cities’ unique needs. Reflecting the complex nature of cities, the Lab prioritizes real-world impact through interdisciplinary research, participatory design, innovative public-private partnerships, and hands-on student involvement – making it a dynamic platform for transformative change.

​The two new URCs, along with the Small Cities Lab, are directly aligned with the priorities of the Lehigh Strategy, Inspiring the Future Makers. A key initiative of this plan is to invest in strategic interdisciplinary research, recognizing that critical problems require a holistic approach to problem-solving.

The new centers join the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience, launched in February 2024, as part of our growing interdisciplinary ecosystem designed to tackle complex societal challenges and elevate Lehigh’s research impact. 

Joseph J. Helble ’82
President

Nathan Urban
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Anand Jagota
Vice Provost for Research