Scott Institute announces 2025 seed grant winners

For the thirteenth year, the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation has awarded seed grant funding to sustainability projects helmed by faculty across Carnegie Mellon University, with particular emphasis on supporting cross-disciplinary research and projects that engage with building electrification and climate adaptation and resilience. 

This year, the awards were announced during Energy Week 2025 and comprise five projects that will receive over $400K in funding for researchers from the College of Engineering, the School of Computer Science, and Mellon College of Science. 

The seed grant award is a prized opportunity for the Scott Institute to give ambitious projects a boost, with the intention that researchers will use the funding to grow their early-stage projects into larger efforts that will attract follow-on funding. Since 2013, 82 seed grant projects have garnered a further $26 million in funding as the projects grew. 

Two mechanical engineering faculty were among the awardees:

Kate Whitefoot, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and engineering and public policy, will serve as principal investigator for the project “Increasing Resiliency of U.S. Transportation Electrification.” Thanks to support from the Rankin Grand Challenge Program, Whitefoot’s research team will explore how to support decarbonization of the transportation sector while remaining adaptable to likely changes in the supply chain; varying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions policies stateside and abroad; as well as differing consumer demands. 

Albert Presto, a research professor in mechanical engineering, has received support from the Scott Institute for the purpose of upgrading the sulfur dioxide monitor used by the Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies (CAPS). The research group, of which Presto a member, will use the refurbished monitor to track the presence of sulfur dioxide since it’s a known precursor to atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM), which is hazardous to human health and detrimental to the climate. The new and improved monitor will be applied to field research as well as to measure for the pollutant in the Pittsburgh area.