Kaufman Foundation grant will engage Seton Hill students in insect flight research

Seton Hill University has been awarded a $100,000 grant from The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation of The Pittsburgh Foundation to fund groundbreaking research investigating how natural wing sensor distributions contribute to flight stability and maneuverability in moths. The project will pioneer comparative insights into how biological organisms navigate dynamic environments while serving as an authentic, hands-on learning platform for undergraduate students.

Seton Hill received one of two Integrated Research-Education Grants awarded by The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation of The Pittsburgh Foundation to support research that directly engages undergraduate students alongside innovative scientists. The $100,000 competitive grant will fund the project over two years. Only 10 grants were awarded to six institutions across Pennsylvania by The Kaufman Foundation this year out of more than 200 submissions over three categories.

The project, “Discovering Generalizable Principles of Wing Sensory Feedback for Flight Control Through Undergraduate Research Integrated across Curriculum,” is led by Brett Aiello, Ph.D., principal investigator and associate professor of Biology and Jessica Brzyski, PhD., co-investigator and associate professor of Biology.

“This prestigious grant from The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation is a testament to the outstanding scholarship and dedication of Dr. Brett Aiello and Dr. Jessica Brzyski,” said Seton Hill University President Mary C. Finger, Ed.D. “Their commitment to integrating high-level, innovative research into the student experience exemplifies the devotion of Seton Hill’s faculty to providing undergraduate students with transformative, hands-on learning opportunities.”

The research is the first comparative study in a biological system to determine how a fixed budget of sensors can be distributed to acquire the information, or feedback, necessary for locomotor control and stability. While insect wings perform dual roles as both propulsors and sensors, using wing sensory feedback for effective locomotion and flight control, the functional significance of sensor placement is not well understood.

The project targets a fundamental gap in biomechanics and sensory feedback: how insects efficiently process flight dynamics using a limited "budget" of specialized sensory organs known as campaniform sensilla (CS). Over the course of the project, undergraduate student researchers will examine how wing shape, structural mechanics, and evolutionary adaptations in the moth superfamily Bombycoidea — specifically hawkmoths and silkmoths — influence sensory feedback and locomotor control.

“At Seton Hill, active inquiry and practical application are at the heart of how our students learn,” said Seton Hill Provost Susan Yochum, SC, Ph.D. “By collaborating directly with faculty on research of this caliber, our undergraduates gain a distinct competitive edge — developing the technical skills, analytical confidence, and laboratory experience essential for top graduate programs and scientific careers.”

“What makes this grant so exciting is that it comes full circle for our students. The preliminary data collected by students laid the groundwork for this grant, and now these resources will allow current and future students to build on those findings, solving fundamental questions about animal flight and sensory systems through authentic research experiences,” Aiello said.

The project will combine advanced biophysical tools, high-speed video recordings of moth flight, scanning electron microscopy, and other open-source tools to map sensory networks across 10 distinct moth species. Preliminary student-led findings have already revealed striking differences between hawkmoth and silkmoth wing stiffness and sensor locations, laying the foundation for hypotheses on generalized principles of sensory feedback.

Student researchers will be engaged in coursework through an interdisciplinary vertically integrated project, a semester-long project in an ecology and evolution course that includes the collection of live moths, and the analysis of findings in an advanced biostatistics course.

"I am excited about the opportunity to engage students in this unique pedagogical approach. By integrating field-based data collection in Ecology and Evolution with quantitative analysis in Biostatistics, students will experience the scientific process from beginning to end while contributing to meaningful ecological research,” Brzyski said.

The project will also support summer research internships and the dissemination of student presentations at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology’s annual meeting.

Seton Hill’s grant is among $2 million in grants for faculty at Pennsylvania institutions conducting innovative, fundamental scientific research in the fields of biology, chemistry and physics announced by The Charles E. Foundation.

The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation provides research funding through three programs: New Investigator grants for independent, early-career scientists; New Initiative grants for new research collaborations between established investigators; and Integrated Research-Education Grants (IREG) for institutions to provide undergraduate students with opportunities to engage with investigators in novel research.

This year, The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) reviewed 187 letters of intent from scientists at 23 institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania for the New Investigator and New Initiative awards. IREG is an invite-only program and received submissions from 26 institutions. The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation awarded four New Investigator awards, four New Initiative awards and two Integrated Research-Education Grants (IREG) awards. In addition to Seton Hill, the awards support research at Lehigh University, The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and West Chester University of Pennsylvania.