University of Massachusetts Amherst | Research

Congratulations to University of Massachusetts Amherst community health education doctoral student Mariana Pinto-Alvarez on being selected as one of three finalists in the Global Health Student Posters Competition at the 16th annual conference of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). Pinto-Alvarez presented “Gaps in the Ecuadorian Health System’s Response to Venezuelan Migrants: A Qualitative Study” at the conference, which was held February 20-23, in Atlanta, Georgia. Her research, under the mentorship of Daniel López-Cevallos and in collaboration with Irene Torres, technical director of the non-profit organization Fundación Octaedro in Ecuador, highlighted the needs of distressed migrants in Ecuador and how the health system responds to them. “With this achievement, I always think of my grandma and my mom—they are incredibly smart, but they did not have the same opportunities,” she says. “I feel grateful for this, for the opportunity to be here at UMass, and for Dr. Daniel and Dr. Irene, who believe in and support me.” Learn more: https://bit.ly/3XS9lxv #UMassAmherst #UMassAmherstResearch #GraduateResearch #HealthcareResearch

In this issue of Revolutionary Research Insider, we celebrate a major University of Massachusetts Amherst achievement in computer science. This month, Andrew Barto, professor emeritus in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst, and his former PhD student Richard Sutton (today, professor at the University of Alberta) received the Turing Award, often called the "Nobel Prize of Computing." They were recognized for their pioneering work in reinforcement learning, which has been central to the advancement of modern #AI. Read all about it in this month’s newsletter. ?

When nurses and engineers join forces, amazing things can happen. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a team of nurse and engineer researchers are being recognized for inventing a new intravenous (IV) pole designed to improve the safety and ease of administering IV medications at the hospital bedside. They were recently honored with an ANA Innovation Award from the American Nurses Association Foundation and the American Nurses Enterprise. IV smart pumps require a very specific setup to ensure the right amount of medication is delivered as ordered, and small mistakes can result in harm to patients. By combining the engineering and fluid dynamics expertise of Juan Jiménez with the clinical knowledge of critical-care nurses Karen Giuliano and Jeannine Blake, this interdisciplinary team set out to develop an IV pole that simplifies and accelerates the setup and delivery of IV medications in hospitals when using an IV pump, ultimately reducing the occurrence of dangerous yet largely preventable medication errors. The idea stemmed from real-world clinical observations. Learn more about this award and the robust research at UMass's Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation. https://bit.ly/4ipWMlf #UMassAmherst #UMassAmherstResearch #Nursing #MedicalResearch #Innovation

Happy #TriviaTuesday! In 2024, University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers published a new studying in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences quantifying the economic cost of adverse health effects from plastics. The study estimates the costs in a single year reached an astounding $1.5 trillion. "More than 16,000 chemicals are incorporated into plastics to produce color, flexibility and durability, but we know very little about how most of them affect human health,” explains?Yongjoon Park, assistant professor of resource economics at UMass Amherst.

Congratulations to Cristina Hirschbiegel, a University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral student in chemistry, on winning the UMass Graduate School's Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition! Critina won the top prize for her presentation, "Nanozymes for Cancer Treatment." The 3MT competition challenges UMass graduate students to describe their research in an engaging manner, using non-technical language, all in three minutes or less. This year, there was a tie for runner-up, with the judges selecting both Maria Victoria Acevedo-Estupinan, doctoral student in food science, for her presentation “How Oleosome Package Impacts Oxidation in Walnuts,” and Bachir Messikh, doctoral student in polymer science and engineering, for his presentation “Pushing the Boundaries of Cellulose: The Endless Potential of Nature’s Most Abundant Material.” Learn more about the 3MT competition and see a video of the winning presentation: https://bit.ly/4ivsCgB #UMassAmherst #UMassAmherstResearch #GraduateResearch #3MT

What does surging health care spending have to do with hospitals' adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs)? Recently published research led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst health economist finds that, contrary to concerns, EMRs do not lead to providers overbilling Medicare. Rather, they can help hospitals navigate the complex system of medical billing codes to reduce underpayments—by nearly 12% on average—by the federal health insurance program. “This technology is helping hospitals capture more legitimate reimbursements rather than facilitating improper billing behavior," explains UMass co-author Jianjing Lin. Learn more about this research: https://bit.ly/41joDxA #UMassAmherst #UMassAmherstResearch #HealthCareResearch #Medicare

Why choose to do research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as an undergraduate? For civil and environmental engineering major Raul Vera, participating in research gave him a chance to dive deep on a topic of importance to him: understanding changes to water resources. Raul grew up on the Eastern shore of Virginia, where his family worked in the fishing industry and aquaculture. He chose to study in the College of Engineering, UMass Amherst because of its strong reputation in research. “I thought it would be a really good opportunity to go in-depth on what I wanted to do,” he says. Learn more in this video and at: https://bit.ly/3CQFajg #UMassAmherst #UMassAmherstResearch #UndergraduateResearch #WaterResources

Do you find yourself frequently staying up later than planned, only to struggle when your alarm goes off in the morning? Many people are naturally "night owls," and there's thought to be an innate biological basis for one's preference for late nights or early mornings. Thankfully, as Rebecca Spencer, University of Massachusetts Amherst professor of psychological and brain sciences, tells Women's Health, most of us fall somewhere in the middle. But if you are wanting (or needing) to move your own sleep schedule earlier for any reason, Spencer has some advice: *Keep your body temperature low at night by moving workouts to earlier in the day, limiting hot showers at night, and lowering the temperature in your bedroom. *Limit your nighttime exposure to light, including electronics; on the flip side, light is important to help you wake up in the morning. *Find ways to avoid stressful stimuli and keep yourself calm. *Melatonin may help you, as a last resort, to regulate sleep. *Stick with it—switching your sleep schedule takes time. Learn more in Women's Health: https://bit.ly/4hSIvh1

Happy #TriviaTuesday and happy #NoSmokingDay tomorrow! Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, an assistant professor of health policy and management at UMass Amherst, has conducted extensive research on smoking and vaping. ? This year, she was part of a team of researchers that published surprising findings in the journal Addiction that contradict a commonly held belief about the relationship between nicotine vaping and cigarette smoking in young people. ? Learn more about this research and see the answer: https://bit.ly/3F9d17J

For undergraduate biomedical engineering students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Bridging Engineering and Medicine (BEAM) program offers a unique opportunity to engage with real-world medical problems through research in an experiential setting. Students in the program are paired with researchers at UMass Chan Medical School and work to develop engineering technologies that will benefit patient care. Senior Mia Bennett in College of Engineering, UMass Amherst decided to participate in the BEAM program in order to prepare for a future career in clinical research alongside clinical practice. “The environment in a medical school graduate program is completely different than the environment in an undergraduate program,” she says. “It was very intimidating at first, but BEAM really helps demystify graduate research." In addition to working on research projects in two different UMass Chan labs through BEAM, Bennett also benefited from weekly didactic sessions, addressing topics such as responsible research conduct, data display, research funding opportunities, scientific storytelling, and career pathways. "It was a great learning experience on those things that aren’t necessarily focused on in an undergraduate setting,” says Bennett. “And having the experience of working in a professional environment was really invaluable in gaining transferable skills that will stick with me.” Learn more about the BEAM program: https://bit.ly/3DkArGM #UMassAmherst #UMassChan #UMassAmherstResearch #UndergraduateResearch #BiomedicalEngineeringResearch