UHV awards three faculty research grants
The University of Houston-Victoria has awarded grants to three faculty members to support their research during the academic year.
Two Junior Faculty Summer Research Grants of $10,000 each have been awarded to Haijing Ma, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, and to Aobo Jin, assistant professor in the College of Natural & Applied Science for Summer 2025. The Internal Research Grant of up to $6,000 has been awarded to Jia “Joy” Liu, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, for the 2025-2026 academic year.
"We are thrilled to be able to support our faculty as they pursue impactful research," said Joann Olson, UHV interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. "These projects have the potential to make significant contributions to their academic fields. We look forward to seeing the impact of their respective work and how it will contribute to new knowledge, solutions and opportunities for our students in the community."
The annual awards were made possible through donors who support the Faculty Development Quasi Endowment, the Faculty Research Endowment, and the Margin of Excellence General Faculty Development fund. Following the award year, the recipients are expected to present their findings with the UHV community.
Ma’s research, “Integrating Narratives in a Dynamic Norm Communication: Application to Vaping Prevention,” will look into whether merging personal storytelling with social norm influences can enhance the effectiveness of each approach in encouraging positive health choices while reducing harmful ones. It will examine narratives that can communicate the dangers of vaping, evaluate how presenting evolving social trends might deter vaping behavior, and determine whether integrating storytelling elements within dynamic norm messaging creates a more compelling impact than either strategy alone.
"I am honored to receive the award and appreciate that UHV supports faculty research,” Ma said. “This grant award will allow me to examine how to best communicate vaping risks with young adults to discourage them from vaping, a public health priority in our society."
Jin’s research title, “Sketch-based 3D Character Modeling,” will look into plans to design and develop a complete sketch-based 3D character modeling system, with the embedded aid of advanced artificial intelligence algorithms – in particular, deep learning techniques that can enable a broad range of artists and designers to intuitively and efficiently create various 3D characters.
Starting with a simple sketch, artists can watch their creations evolve into detailed 3D models complete with expressive poses, clothing and facial features, Jin said. This technology accelerates the prototyping and iteration process while enhancing creative possibilities across multiple fields including digital artistry, game development, animation production n and educational applications.
“I really appreciate the opportunity and trust from the community. Using simple sketch-based tools and AI-driven algorithms, our work links modern 3D modeling with conventional 2D creativity. We want to enable all kinds of artists to rapidly, artistically, and with unheard-of flexibility bring their characters to life in 3D,” Jin said. “We remove many of the technological constraints usually related to 3D character creation by combining deep learning architectures with a user-friendly interface. Our ultimate aim is to democratize 3D character modeling so that artists everywhere – storytellers, designers, and others – have new opportunities.”
Liu’s research proposal, “Enhancing Remote Usability Testing Through the Integration of Large Language Models: An Experimental Study,” is an experimental study which seeks to investigate the integration of GPT-4, a large language model, into the remote usability testing platform UXtweak to enhance qualitative insights for evaluating an e-commerce website's usability. The project aims to determine the effectiveness, benefits and limitations of using GPT-4-generated follow-up questions to deepen user insights and improve the efficiency of remote usability testing.
"I am honored and excited to receive this research grant,” Liu said. “This funding offers a valuable opportunity to further explore the integration of AI with usability and user experience evaluation. I look forward to sharing my findings with the academic community."
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 50 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.