Federal Grant Award Summary

Florida State University's Sponsored Research Administration Division received a $249,013 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Division of Mathematical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) effective August 1, 2026, with a completion date of July 31, 2029. This collaborative research project develops mathematical and computational tools to accelerate optimal transport-based comparisons for complex data analysis. The core deliverable is the creation of "generalized slicers"—geometry-aware methods for simplifying complex datasets into more manageable, interpretable components while preserving analytical integrity. These tools aim to make optimal transport computationally more scalable and accessible for large datasets containing millions of measurements, including complex objects such as text, images, videos, and sensor readings.

The project advances data-driven scientific discovery by enabling researchers to compare and align datasets more efficiently while gaining meaningful interpretability of relationships rather than obtaining only numerical similarity scores. Anticipated applications include comparative analysis of biological data across developmental stages, damage detection in vehicles and infrastructure from sensor data, and open-source software development. The work is designed to train the next generation of mathematical and computational scientists while supporting both life sciences research and engineered system reliability across multiple scientific domains.