CITRIS researchers receive UC Davis STAIR grants

Stavros Vougioukas discusses work around a table with two researchers.

Three of the four recipients of the 2024–25 UC Davis Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR) grants are CITRIS and the Banatao Institute affiliates. These funds will enable the researchers to validate concepts and explore the market potential of technological solutions in a range of fields, including health, environmental sustainability and agriculture. 

Omeed Momeni, a 2017 Seed Award recipient, will use an ultra-low-noise and high sensitivity radar sensor to enable continuous monitoring of cardiovascular activities in a contactless device. His team hopes to improve the standard of care for patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease using the high-resolution and non-invasive technology. 

Vinod Narayanan, who received a 2023 Seed Award, will develop the Microchannel Efficient Low-cost Thermal Energy-storage Device (MELTED), a compact, scalable conditioning system. The technology can provide necessary heating or cooling to a temporary or mobile unit for a period of several hours, and in buildings, can be coupled with other conditioning devices to lower peak electricity demand and associated greenhouse gas emissions and cost. 

Stavros Vougioukas, who received CITRIS support in 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2022, will develop a low-cost, wearable device that communicates worker movement and activity data to previously created harvest-aid robots, enabling improved human-robot collaboration. The device will be tested in field conditions working together with the harvest-aid robot and offers significant potential to benefit farmers, agricultural equipment distributors and contracting companies.

Read more from the UC Davis Office of Research.