IC2 Institute funds two faculty-led research projects to create real-world impact

Isabella Zeff, General news reporter

Faculty-led research projects recently received funding from UT’s IC2 Institute, a research unit that explores the intersection between technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

One project receiving funding examines end-stage kidney disease in communities of color, led by Joel Adler, assistant professor of surgery and perioperative care, and Sean Upshaw, assistant professor of visual information and persuasion in health communication.

The other project receiving funding focuses on the effects of severe weather events on marginalized populations, led by John Hasenbein and Erhan Kutanoglu, operations research and industrial engineering professors.


IC2 executive director S. Craig Watkins said the institute is interested in the relationship between inequalities and human well-being, which both of the recently funded projects address.

Joel Adler said he and Upshaw received $72,000 in funding for their research on the barriers many people of color face on a kidney transplant list, which have life-or-death consequences.

“It’s basically trying to understand how to address one critical problem,” Watkins said. “That lower income populations (and) populations of color, when they suffer from end-stage kidney disease, they’re much less likely than their more affluent or white counterparts to get on a transplant (list).”

Adler said he hopes the research will provide an understanding of what access to kidney transplants looks like in Central Texas and allow the researchers to improve access locally.

John Hasenbein said he and Kutanoglu received about $60,000 in funding. They use historical forecasts of hurricanes, including forecasts from Houston, to make models of potential future flooding, which Hasenbein hopes will inform government decisions on improving the power grid.

Hasenbein said the researchers are working to create models that equalize the adverse outcomes from power loss during severe weather events by mitigating harm in the places that experience the most adverse outcomes. He said adverse outcomes include household impacts like medical issues or loss of a job and community effects, such as losing resources like health clinics.

“Instead of just trying to distribute (improvements) so that I minimize the total power loss during upcoming hurricanes, how do I distribute it so that the adverse outcomes are spread equally?” Hasenbein said. “That would mean that you would most likely fortify things in more vulnerable neighborhoods.”

Watkins said IC2 will help both projects translate their research into real-world change, which he called the “secret sauce” of IC2.

“We are really in the business of trying to translate research into action,” Watkins said. “Real world application and therefore real-world impact.”