The journal, , is meant to highlight student research and scholarship across all disciplines. The inaugural issue includes pieces on isolated galaxies, legal history, medicine and more.

“The point of research is to communicate it,” said Jahnavi Sunkara, co-editor-in-chief of the journal, senior biology major and (GEMS) student. “We wanted to provide an avenue for undergraduate students to relay their research, as they’re the core of incredible research projects at UofL.”

The Cardinal Edge editorial team worked with UofL Libraries to develop an open-access portal where students can submit their work and read the journal. The goal is to help students share their work and prepare for future publishing by gaining experience as authors and editors.

The journal will publish once per year, and undergraduate students at UofL are full-length manuscripts, brief reports and literature reviews for the 2022 issue.

Currently, only UofL students can submit articles, but the journal may accept work from other universities in the future. Submitted papers will be evaluated by faculty and students through a double-blind peer review process, in which the identities of reviewers and authors are kept hidden, before the final issue is curated by the journal’s student editorial board.

Aside from faculty advisers Mark Running and Shira Rabin, of the Department of Biology, and their journal sponsor, Charlie Leonard, executive director of the UofL Grawemeyer Awards, every member of the editorial staff is an undergraduate student.

“We are grateful to the programs, organizations and individuals on campus who have promoted and continue to support our mission,” said Betty Ngo, a junior psychology and biology major, Grawemeyer Scholar and co-editor-in-chief of the journal. “We hope to increase our visibility in UofL’s community and strengthen our reputation as an academic journal in upcoming years”.

You can view and download published articles .

“This cooperative project will help bolster Kentucky’s economy, create jobs and put the Commonwealth at the forefront of automation and human-machine interaction,” said UofL president Neeli Bendapudi and UK president Eli Capilouto, in a joint statement.

The project, titled the , will harness the collective research power of 40 multidisciplinary researchers from UofL, UK, Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Somerset Community College, Transylvania University and Western Kentucky University.

A video explaining the KAMPERS project can be found .

The research results will have applications in the construction of components for robotic and autonomous systems in areas as diverse as elder care, home service, health care, education and other collaborative human-robot interactions.

The research for the KAMPERS project will fall into three categories: materials, device configuration and systems. Co-investigators of research include UK professors Seth DeBolt and John Anthony, and UofL electrical and computer engineering professor Dan Popa. Popa and his team are working in all three research areas, with a special emphasis on collaborative robotics.

“As we introduce more robots in the manufacturing environment, they have to be more intelligent and they have to be chaperoned and taught by the workers —in a way that doesn’t take jobs but creates more opportunities,” Popa said. “I think the frontier is to push into more and more applications for medium to small companies that can use this technology. This will do a lot for robotics in Kentucky and give us a nationally visible research presence.”

UofL’s portion of the grant is $5.3 million. Fifteen UofL faculty and 15 to 20 students and staff will work on the project, according to Popa. He says the collaboration could also pave the way for a new robotics institute at UofL.

KAMPERS will hire, educate and mentor eight new faculty, and an average of five post docs and 28 graduate students per year. It will offer opportunities for undergraduate researchers, creating a ripple effect of experience throughout the state and country.

The grant also aims to increase underrepresented minorities in these fields, including African Americans, Hispanics and women.