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STRIDE’s Second Annual Seed Funding Initiative

WINTER 2016

Cal Poly STRIDE Seed Funding Wordmark

Projects supported by STRIDE’s second annual Seed Funding Initiative got underway this quarter. The Center funded research projects for three interdisciplinary teams of faculty and students during the 2015-16 academic year. Applicants were judged on scientific merit, interdisciplinary approaches, student involvement, potential for external funding, and relevance to STRIDE mission and values. Jointly funded by STRIDE and the Colleges of Science and Mathematics; Liberal Arts; and Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, each research team received $5,000 in start-up funds. 

One team surveyed families in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties with preschool-aged children to better understand health behaviors and feeding practices. The survey results will allow researchers Alison Ventura, a kinesiology professor, and Kari Pilolla, a nutrition professor, to advise the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum staff as they expand nutrition programming and exhibits. Ventura and Pilolla hope their research will help to combat high rates of obesity in children ages three to five in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Ventura, Pilolla and their student research team will also conduct focus groups with these same participants. Ventura has been working closely with museum staff and has already proposed several possible exhibit ideas that would teach children and parents key nutrition information. 

Other seed funding recipients include William Riggs in the City and Regional Planning Department and Anurag Pande in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, who are evaluating the perceived safety of cycling routes and how these perceptions can encourage or deter families from biking. Anthropology Professor Dawn Neill and Kinesiology Professor Marilyn Tseng are examining the impact of the university campus food environment.

Stay tuned — STRIDE will feature the other seed funding projects in upcoming newsletters

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