Higher education notebook

LITTLE ROCK — UAMS gets grant on eye disease

A researcher at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will use a three year, $1.1 million National Institutes of Health grant to study an inflammatory disease of the eye that causes 20 percent of all blindness.

Nalini Bora, director of research for the Pat and Willard Walker Eye Research Center, and her research team will use the grant to work toward an effective and safe treatment for the disease, called idiopathic anterior uveitis, UAMS said in a news release.

When left untreated, the disease can lead to permanent damage and loss of vision from the secondary development of glaucoma, cataract or retinal edema, the release said.

Bora’s group has been studying idiopathic anterior uveitis for nearly two decades and has already identified the protein associated with its cause, UAMS said.

NASA gives UALR research money

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will use a three-year, $750,000 grant from NASA to research and develop robot vision systems for vehicles on the moon or Mars.

The grant - part of the space agency’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research - will support the work of Cang Ye, an applied science professor, UALR said.

UALR is one of 17 research colleges and universities across the country, and the only institution in Arkansas, sharing in a $12.6 million grant project for research and technology development in areas important to NASA’s mission.

Ye and his research team will develop new computer vision methods and a prototype of an autonomous navigation system, UALR said.

ASU students win broadcast awards

Four Arkansas State University students won first place awards in the college division at the National Broadcast Society Southeast Regional Competition, the university announced last week.

The four students are Kurt Kamphausen of Little Rock; Xinzhong Zhao of Urumqi, China; Marcela Tapia of Mexico City; and Cody Dertow of Houston, Texas.

Kamphausen, a senior, won first place in the news feature and honorable mention in the open video categories. In the drama classification, Zhao, also a senior, was awarded first place, and Tapia won first in the promotion category. All are radio-television majors. Dertow a senior broadcast journalism major, achieved first place in the best sports package division.