USC Rossier celebrates four new federal grants this fall

USC Rossier faculty
Brendesha Tynes, Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, Erika Patall and Stephen Aguilar

Brendesha Tynes, Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, Erika Patall and Stephen Aguilar each received large grants for their research.

The USC Rossier School of Education already boasts a wealth of extraordinary research. This fall, that research will become even richer, thanks to four recent federal grants totaling more than $15 million. The recipients, Professors Brendesha TynesYasemin Copur-GencturkErika Patall and Stephen Aguilar, will each receive several million dollars over the next few years for their pathbreaking work, accounting for nearly half of the most recent awards to USC Rossier.

The caliber of research that such funding endows, in the words of one of the grantors, is not only innovative but transformative. It has “the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms.” Each of the four projects funded by the federal grants aim to do just that.

The researchers at USC Rossier will either employ cutting edge-technologies—artificial intelligence and virtual reality—to bolster student learning and teacher instruction, or they will strengthen such learning and instruction within the sciences and mathematics. They not only intend to change how students learn and how teachers educate, they hope to fortify young people of color against the pervasive racism they daily endure and help them heal.

Read more about Brendesha, Yasemin, Erika, and Stephen’s story