This past October, the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation put out its first-ever call for large projects, mini-grants, scholarly literature reviews, and symposia proposals consistent with the Center’s mission of engineering technologies and transforming the workplace – inspired by neurodiversity. These awards are supported through a combination of Frist Center endowment funds, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor Prize funds, and National Science Foundation NISE training grant funds. After review by a multi-school panel of expert scholars from Engineering, Medicine, the Owen Graduate School of Management, and Peabody, the Center selected award recipients. Congratulations to these individual Principal Investigators and their collaborators/teams!
VKC Members and Investigators are noted with an asterisk*
Large Projects
Increasing Identification of Autistic Adults and Vocational Success
PI: Tiffany Woynaroski, Ph.D.*, Hearing & Speech Sciences, VUMC
Literature Reviews
Opportunities for Autistic Individuals to Bridge Gaps in the Growing Geospatial Technology Workforce
Janey Camp, Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering
Relationship between comorbid mood disorders on employment participation, satisfaction, and outcomes among adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A systematic review
Blythe Corbett, Ph.D.*, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, VUMC
High School Transition to Post-Secondary Education or Employment Settings for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Aislynn Kiser, M.Ed., BCBA*, Pediatrics, School of Medicine
Mini-Grants
Investigation of Autistic Employment Patterns and Profiles
T A McDonald, Ph.D.*, Neurology, VUMC
Mechanisms of success for Currently Employed Individuals with ASD
Ben Schwartzman, Ph.D., Special Education, Peabody College of Education and Human Development
Neurodiversity Inspired Science & Engineering Training Grants
Tools to Support Social Skills: Facial Mimicry in the Job Interview
Carissa Cascio, Ph.D.*, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, VUMC
Tools to Assess Individual Differences in Visuospatial Reasoning Strategies
Maithilee Kunda, Ph.D.*, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, School of Engineering
Virtual Reality (VR) Based Job Interview Simulator for Individuals with ASD
Nilanjan Sarkar, Ph.D.*, Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering
Neurodiversity Inspired Visualization of Big Data
Keivan Stassun, Ph.D.*, Physics & Astronomy, College of Arts & Science
Collaborative Virtual Environments for Social Communication Assessment and Support
Zachary Warren, Ph.D.*, Pediatrics, School of Medicine
Increasing Identification of Autistic Adults and Vocational Success
Tiffany Woynaroski, Ph.D.*, Hearing & Speech Sciences, VUMC
Claire Barnett is communications coordinator at the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation.