Nine University of Miami School of Communication faculty were awarded a School of Communication Creative Activity and Research Grant from the Center for Communication, Culture, and Change for the 2018-2019 academic year. The grant supports research and projects that will result in clear and prominent scholarly and/or creative accomplishments that enhance the reputation of the School of Communication. Below is a brief summary of the grant recipients and their projects.

Ching-Hua Chuan, research associate professor in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, received a grant for Creating Chatbots for Domain-Specific Communication in which she will create a chatbot that provides guidance and support for cancer patients regarding clinical trials.

Juliana Fernandes, assistant professor, and Sarai Nunez, lecturer, both in the Department of Strategic Communication, were awarded a grant for their project, An Integrated Approach to Evaluating Advertising Campaigns Capstone Courses, which seeks to describe and evaluate a team teaching method developed by advertising campaigns professors, gauge students’ perception on several learning dimensions, and map out how this course is being taught in American universities.

Kim Grinfeder, associate professor in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, was selected for his project Addressing the International Urban Agenda,­­ in which he will build software that will automatically generate documentaries using a storytelling algorithm, as well as user participation.

Barbara Leibell, assistant professor of professional practice in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, will receive funding for her feature film script, Counter Revolution, based on the career of Chef Jon Eifman.

Howard McCain, assistant professor in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, received a grant for his short dramatic horror film, Goodnight, Scarecrow.

Barbara Millet, research assistant professor in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, received a grant for her project The Congruence-Association Model in Musical Multimedia: New Insights from Eye-Tracking and Facial Expression Capture, which she will be working on with Juan Chattah, associate professor in the Frost School of Music, and Soyeon Ahn, associate dean for reseach in the School of Education.

Thomas Musca, associate professor of professional practice in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, received a grant for post-production work for his feature film comedy Chateau Vato.

William Rothman, professor in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media, received a grant for his work on his book, Jean Rouch as Film Artist.