President and Provost Research Excellence Award recipients report findings

The President and Provost Research Excellence Awards were introduced last October to inspire Gallaudet University researchers to develop projects that dismantle traditional barriers to inclusion and support meaningful career opportunities for Gallaudet students. The winners of these awards are excited to share the results of what they have been working on for the past year.

All of these projects emphasize the use of sign language in arts, technology, or education, while fostering collaborations that showcase the University’s creative contributions to both the deaf and hearing communities, as well as embodying Gallaudet Promise imperatives of bilingual mission, belonging and equity, and innovation for impact. They demonstrate, once again, what Gallaudet is doing, not only to make the world a better place for deaf and hard of hearing people, but what the University is contributing to the body of knowledge in numerous disciplines.

The President Research Excellence Award ($40,000-$50,000) went to Dr. Tugba Kucukkal, an associate professor of chemistry in the School of Science, Technology, Accessibility, Mathematics, and Public Health, for her project, “Creating Pathways to Success: Gallaudet’s Drug Discovery Lab High-Performance Computing Acquisition.” 

Kucukkal’s funding award allowed her to equip the University’s Drug Discovery Lab with a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-based high-performance computing system to enhance the lab’s cancer research. GPU workstations are high-performance computers designed to process large amounts of data simultaneously. Originally developed for rendering graphics in video games and animation, GPUs have now become essential for scientific research and many other applications. Their unique ability to perform thousands of calculations at once makes them ideal for tasks like molecular dynamics simulations, data analysis, and machine learning. 

“One fascinating fact about GPUs is their growing role in biomedical research,” said Kucukkal. The GPU workstations for Kucukkal’s project are currently being used to study interactions of small molecules with polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1), a protein critical to cell division and often overactive in cancers. “Cancer is essentially the result of uncontrolled cell division,” said Kucukkal, “and Plk1 plays a key role in this process by regulating various stages of mitosis (cell division).” She added that inhibiting Plk1 has become a promising strategy for cancer treatment because blocking its function can potentially halt the division of cancer cells, preventing tumor growth. 

Not only are the GPU workstations invaluable in Gallaudet’s cancer research, they are a way to promote the Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) laboratory’s technical capabilities. “As part of campus tours, it will highlight Gallaudet’s commitment to providing state-of-the-art research facilities and fostering innovation in technology and drug discovery,” said Kucukkal. “These demonstrations will help attract prospective students and convey our institution’s role in advancing scientific research and mentoring while maintaining accessibility for all.“

Kucukkal called the President Research Excellence Award “pivotal in the successful execution of our project.” She said the award “directly contributed to student success, cutting-edge research, and collaborations with leading institutions. The acquisition of GPU-based workstations has significantly enhanced our ability to conduct high-level computational research and foster student development.” Moving forward, Kucukkal said she and other STM researchers are “committed to expanding these successes and building on the strong foundation established by this grant.”

One of the two Provost Research Excellence Awards ($10,000-$39,999) went to an interdisciplinary team (pictured at the top of this article) associated with Gallaudet’s Center for Latine Deaf Studies, Nuestra Casa, for the project, “Culture, Language, and Identity among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Latine Students.” The research collaboration included Nuestra Casa’s interim director Norma Morán and interim associate director Leticia Arellano, as well as faculty members Dr. Franklin Torres, faculty administrator for global learning in the Office of International Affairs and an associate professor in the English program; Dr. Deborah Schooler, a professor in the Psychology program; and Dr. Pilar Piñar, a professor in the World Languages and Cultures program. 

The team, along with three Latine undergraduate research assistants, explored the often complex relationships deaf and hard of hearing Latine students experience with their heritage languages and cultures through an online questionnaire and in-depth interviews. They developed a bilingual survey in ASL and English that was completed by 25 participants who met eligibility criteria, and were invited to complete a survey. Ultimately, three one-on-one interviews were conducted, leading the researchers to work with their respective Schools to secure seed funding to continue recruiting participants and expand their data while identifying outside funding sources during the coming year.

While full analysis of data won’t be conducted until there is a larger sample size, preliminary data reveals a range of experiences with language among the participants. Students reported a range of different languages used in their schools while growing up, with many reporting multiple languages, including American Sign Language, Signing Exact English, Signed English, and Oral English. Most participants (78%) reported that Spanish was used in their home while growing up, 20% had taken Spanish classes in high school, and 50% had taken Spanish classes at Gallaudet. No students reported using a signed language from their family’s country of origin growing up, and one student reported studying such a language at Gallaudet. 

Students reported that knowing and using Spanish was moderately to extremely important to their identity as a Latine person, but rated other practices as equally or more important, including participating in events that involved special food, music, customs, or traditions, studying Latine culture, or literature, and socializing with other Latine people. Using a signed language from a Spanish speaking country was also rated as moderately important. Participants were enthusiastic about taking classes to improve their Spanish skills and to improve their skills at a signed language from their families’ country of origin. Participants also reported a moderate sense of feeling comfortable being themselves at Gallaudet, as well as feeling valued by Gallaudet, and like they are part of the campus community.

Overall, the findings signal the important interrelationship between language and identity among Latine students at Gallaudet, signaling the potential benefit of curricular strategies to enhance feelings of belonging. The researchers are excited to report a more comprehensive analysis of those relationships after they have recruited a larger sample. 

The second Provost Research Excellence Award went to Dr. Brian Greenwald, ‘96, director of the Drs. John S. and Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center (SDDC), and Dr. Jannelle Legg, assistant professor in the History program in the School of Arts and Humanities, for the documentary film, “Deaf City.”

“Deaf City highlights the multigenerational ethnic, racial, and cultural intersections across New York City,” Greenwald said. Over the past year, he and Legg worked with the project’s advisory board and scriptwriter to grapple with the narrative arc of the project. In two collaborative meetings, the team attempted to characterize and bring to life the central message from the collection of interviews and historical materials. “The project is a lot like the city itself, deeply layered with diverse experiences and expressions which form complex sites for interpretation,” shared Legg. “We continue to work toward bringing this story to life.”

Award funding also supported vital ASL to English translation work and ongoing revisions to the project’s slide deck and sizzle reel. “These components are necessary for our project to attract the potential funders needed for full-scale production of the documentary,” Greenwald explained. To learn more about this work, an overview of the “Deaf City” project, developed by the SDDC with student Brianna DiGiovanni ‘21, is available at https://arcg.is/049fen. 

As the SDDC recently received a $3 million National Science Foundation grant to produce a documentary film about deaf people’s participation in the space race, said Legg, continued work on the “Deaf City” project is deferred while the team continues to refine the scope of the documentary.

Note: Winners of the 2024-2025 awards will be announced soon.