Sustainability Challenge Grants 2025 Funded Projects

Digital twin technology creates an interactive virtual replica of a physical object, system, or process, linked to its real-world counterpart through data and sensors. This project will develop an interactive, web-based Digital Stormwater Learning Lab that highlights campus stormwater control measures (SMP) and best management practices (BMP). It will connect students to the significant investments the University has made in campus sustainability, while monitoring the long-term performance of these investments.

Each digital twin will consist of an interactive 3D model and 360° tour of the site, which will be embedded with detailed information on the SMP/BMP's design, function, and cost. Users will also be able to engage with simplified storm simulations to understand hydraulic and water quality performance, test their knowledge with quizzes, and ultimately earn a certificate by completing all the related educational modules. UK’s Environmental Quality 
Management (EQM) lists over 50 university stormwater-related courses that may be served with this tool. 

Team: 

• James Shelley, Research Communications Specialist, Kentucky Water Research Institute
• Steve Evans, Associate Director, Kentucky Water Research Institute
• Lindell Ormsbee, Professor, Earl Parker Robinson Chair, Civil Engineering
• Sahar Alameh, Assistant Professor, STEM Education
• Diana Byrne, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering
• Lee Moser, Extension Associate Senior, UK-Cooperative Extension Service
• Kevin Lewis, Water Quality Compliance Manager, Environmental Quality Management
• Kenton Sena, Senior Lecturer, Lewis Honors College
• Alan Fryar, Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Tiffany Messer, Associate Professor, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Gatton Foundation Endowed Chair
• Tracey Miller, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture

One in five Americans lives in a rural area. People living in these communities face more significant health disparities than their urban counterparts - with demographic, environmental, economic, and social factors placing them at higher risk of illness and death. According to the National Rural Health Association, rural areas have significantly fewer providers than their urban counterparts. As of August 2025, more than 700 rural hospitals (31% of America's rural hospitals) face the possibility of closure. 

This project will reimagine underutilized and historic buildings across rural Kentucky for use as healthcare clinics. By combining adaptive reuse, historic preservation, and rural health equity research, this project team will identify best practices for turning vacant community landmarks into clinics that meet pressing local needs. Students will gain hands-on experience through an adaptive reuse studio course and research, and faculty and students will collaborate to create a toolkit and model proposals. This preservation approach is especially promising because it can leverage multiple assistive funding streams—such as historic preservation tax credits, rural development grants, and healthcare infrastructure programs—making such a project both financially viable and socially impactful. The result will be a replicable framework that preserves Kentucky’s heritage, reduces environmental impacts, and expands healthcare access for rural populations.

Team:

• Emily Bergeron, Associate Professor, Historic Preservation
• Travis Rose, Senior Lecturer, Historic Preservation
• Joe Brewer, Director of Technology and Facilities, College of Design
• Lindsey Fay, Associate Professor, Interiors
• Dave Kieser, External Consultant, Kieser Consulting Group

This project is looking to model new cyclical material processes and nurture cross-disciplinary relationships between Interiors, Architecture, and Theatre and Dance, with three main elements:

1. The purchase of a sublimation dye fabric printer and moving LED wash fixtures. Students will be enabled to experiment with recycled textiles and sustainable dyeing methods, and the LED upgrade will enable a complete phase-out of incandescent fixtures in Theatre and Dance.
2. Four cross-listed courses that will introduce students to principles of circular material processes and collaborative models of design and activation. Students will test methods for designing deployable, reusable environments and how bodies occupy them.
3. A public-facing performance event, the "Materialized Dance Concert", as the culmination of the cross-listed collaborative coursework, to take place Spring of 2027. This performance will demonstrate the impact of sustainable practices on both design and performance.

Team:

• Hannah Dewhirst, Assistant Professor, Interiors
• Ingrid Schmidt, Assistant Professor, Interiors
• Jordan Hines, Senior Lecturer, Design/Build Program Coordinator, Architecture
• Susie Thiel, Associate Professor and Chair, Theater and Dance
• Laura Neese, Lecturer, Theater and Dance
• Jeremiah Kearns, Assistant Professor, Theater and Dance

Seed saving is an important agricultural practice that sustains the history and culture of community food systems. The SOS: Save our Seeds – An Appalachian Heritage Seed Project will: 1) document existing practices and motivations of at least 50 gardeners and commercial growers in the Appalachian region of Kentucky who regularly practice seed saving; 2) provide experiential education opportunities for 3 student interns; and 3) exchange knowledge with at least 2500 stakeholders interested in heritage seed kinds and seed saving strategies.

From a standpoint of sustainability, this project promotes environmental, social, and economic interests of Kentuckians, particularly residents of Eastern Kentucky who are growing, adapting, sharing, and selling seeds, strategies that preserve the rich cultural history of agriculture and genetic diversity of open pollinated crops. Further, this project will mitigate known barriers of limited stock available from commercial vendors and minimal information available to Kentuckians interested in producing heritage crops. On-farm seed production can increase availability of heirloom seed kinds which contributes to a more resilient food system and seed production of heirloom seed kinds can provide growers with affordable and reliable seed stocks for their own use and as a source of revenue.

Team: 

• Cindy Finneseth, Assistant Professor, Horticulture
• Shawn Wright, Extension Specialist, Horticulture
• Kenton Sena, Senior Lecturer, Lewis Honors College
• Rebekah Radtke, Associate Professor, School of Interiors
• Matt Strandmark, Education Archivist & Appalachian Studies Academic Liaison, UK Libraries

Food waste remains one of the most significant sustainability challenges worldwide, with up to 40% of food lost due to cosmetic imperfections. On campus, this translates into missed opportunities for reducing waste, educating students, and building sustainable food systems. This project includes the development of a student-run sustainability operation model that diverts cosmetically imperfect but edible produce into three coordinated operations: (1) a Student-Run Ugly Produce Market (Retailing & Tourism Management + Interiors), (2) the Lemon Tree student-run restaurant (Dietetics & Human Nutrition + HMT students), and (3) the Campus Kitchen partnership through the Locally Chopped program (DHN).

The first operation, the student-run Ugly Produce Market, will function as a recurring pop-up on Alumni Mall, in front of the Chemistry–Physics Building. The market will serve as a living laboratory where students design, plan, market, and operate sales of imperfect produce sourced through local farms. The second operation, the student-run restaurant (Lemon Tree), will extend the use of imperfect produce into a food service operation. Located in the newly developed open teaching lab in Scovell Hall, the Lemon Tree will integrate imperfect produce into menus through soups, sauces, and other dishes that highlight flavor and nutrition rather than cosmetic perfection. The third operation involves collaboration with the student-run Campus Kitchen at UK. Unsold but safe produce from both the Market and the Lemon Tree will be recovered and redirected to Campus Kitchen, where students will assist in processing, meal kit preparation, and distribution to food-insecure members of the campus and local community, reinforcing the connection between campus sustainability efforts and broader community benefit.

Team:

• Yeonjung Kang, Assistant Professor, Retailing and Tourism Management
• Muzhen Li, Assistant Professor, Retailing and Tourism Management
• Krista Jacobsen, Associate Professor, Horticulture; Director, Sustainable Agriculture & Community Food Systems (SAG)
• David Johnson, Assistant Professor, Dietetics and Human Nutrition
• Sara Maksi, Assistant Professor, Dietetics and Human Nutrition
• Helen Turner, Director, School of Interiors