Research Highlights

Researcher helps launch digital twin of corn field

Virtual replicas, known as digital twins, enable companies to innovate rapidly and are revolutionizing industries from manufacturing and health care to ride-hail services like Uber.

Nebraska plant scientist James Schnable is bringing the technology to agriculture by helping to develop the first digital twin of a corn field.

The digital field will enable researchers to explore how corn with different properties would behave under varying conditions and quickly identify promising hybrids, without the time-consuming process of growing the corn.

Schnable, Nebraska Corn Checkoff Presidential Chair and professor of agronomy and horticulture, is collaborating with colleagues at Iowa State and Purdue universities.

Nebraska’s state-of-the-art facilities play key roles in overcoming barriers to twinning crop fields. Its LemnaTec High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping System, housed at Nebraska Innovation Campus’ Greenhouse Innovation Center, automates data collection and produces high-resolution data across a plant’s life cycle.

Nebraska is a global leader in high-throughput phenotyping and corn quantitative genetics – two keys to achieving food security. It co-founded the AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture, based at Iowa State University, to build virtual replicas of crops and fields.

The National Science Foundation funds this project.

Press’ baseball catalog gets another win

The University of Nebraska Press continues its winning streak in baseball literature, with another publication taking top honors for best baseball history or biography.

This marks the 12th time an NU Press book has earned the Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal since 2006 and the 13th overall.

Historian Larry Gerlach, a Nebraska alumnus, won the 2025 Seymour Medal for “Lion of the League: Bob Emslie and the Evolution of the Baseball Umpire” (University of Nebraska Press, 2024). The medal is awarded annually by the Society for American Baseball Research, the nation’s foremost group of baseball researchers and historians.

“When they recognize your books, you know you’ve published something important to those who know baseball history,” said Rob Taylor, senior acquisitions editor in charge of sports.

Nebraska’s baseball expertise began in the 1990s, when the press reprinted several books dropped by trade publishers. The success of those books – which included Ty Cobb’s autobiography, “My Life in Baseball: The True Record,” – led to publishing original baseball books that have cemented NU Press’ national reputation.

Plastic bags get new life in recycled roadway

A newly asphalted stretch of road in South Sioux City, Nebraska, may look like any other, but millions of plastic bags went into its construction.

Nebraska engineer Jamilla Teixeira partnered with the town to test a cutting-edge asphalt blend that incorporates recycled plastic bags.

It was a win-win collaboration, removing 2 million plastic bags from the environment while delivering a more durable road material.

“This is a pilot project, but it is an excellent opportunity to partner with a Nebraska community and test how the mixture will perform under the extreme weather conditions we have here,” said Teixeira, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Teixeira’s research focuses on sustainable infrastructure. She’s one of four faculty to receive a College of Engineering Scholarship of Engagement Fellowship, which offers $4,000 stipends to assist with community projects.

Asphalt incorporating shredded plastic has been used elsewhere, but this is Nebraska’s first such project. It included paving an extension of the town’s Al Bengtson Bicycle Trail.

The collaborative project included the Nebraska Department of Transportation, private companies and nonprofit organizations. The Nebraska Environmental Trust funded the work

Makerspace names first robotics fellows

Nebraska Innovation Studio welcomed four Huskers as the inaugural class of its Robotics Fellowship Program.

Over 20 weeks, the fellows worked in the studio’s makerspace to develop cutting-edge products in cattle ranching, surgery, language development and precision agriculture. The work positioned them to pursue commercialization, such as seeking funding or a patent.

The fellowship program aims to expand Nebraska’s economy through robotics training, research and implementation. It’s part of the Heartland Robotics Cluster, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the university, the College of Engineering, local leaders in entrepreneurship and innovation, and community colleges. A 2022 U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration grant established the collaboration.

The robotics fellows have access to cutting-edge tools and resources; guidance from a panel of experts; and a stipend for supplies. Events and classes provide networking and learning opportunities.

The cohort included Amlan Balabantaray, a doctoral candidate in biological systems engineering; Brooke Bode and Teresa Monsees, mechanical engineering seniors at the time; and Husker alum Riley Reynolds, a surgical robots engineer at Virtual Incision in Lincoln.

“Opportunities like these are what will elevate our tech communities to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best of the best in robotics,” said John Strope, program coordinator.

Students leverage virtual reality to animate history

Nebraska’s Animating History Lab is giving students the opportunity to bring historical research to digital life.

Founded in 2016, the lab mentors students in filmmaking and guides them in producing their own digital projects, from creative spark to exhibiting at Student Research Days.

The interdisciplinary nature of the projects helps students become well-rounded artists in their careers, said Michael Burton, the lab’s founder and assistant professor of textiles, merchandising and fashion design. 

Each fall, Burton hires students through Nebraska’s Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience program, which pays students to work alongside faculty. Students initially collaborate on an Animating History film production. In the spring, they launch their own projects, researching primary sources and developing a short animation, virtual reality experience, or 3D clothing model or similar digital artifact.

In fall 2024, four students worked on “Perihelion,” a short film examining risk-taking in astronomy. Individually, they created an animated short from Rachel Carson’s 1962 cautionary environmental book, “Silent Spring”; a 3D digital dress worn by a Nebraska philanthropist; an animated comic exploring an alternative version of the 1960s cartoon “The Jetsons”; and a video game telling the story of Atari, an early gaming company.

Center broadens legal help for rural families

A new center in the University of Nebraska College of Law represents a major step toward improving legal assistance for vulnerable children and families, particularly in rural communities.

The Nebraska Children’s Justice and Legal Advocacy Center is equipping attorneys with the knowledge, skills and support they need to become better advocates for children.

The center builds on Nebraska’s success training attorneys to work in juvenile courts, part of an effort to improve access to legal expertise in rural areas. Only 7% of Nebraska’s more than 5,500 attorneys practice in rural areas, a problem mirrored throughout rural America.

“The realities we experience in Nebraska are not unique,” said assistant professor of law Michelle Paxton, the center’s founding director. “Our programs have already shown tangible benefits in addressing Nebraska’s need for high-quality counsel for juveniles in rural communities.”

The new center is educating law students and attorneys on state and federal child welfare laws as well as on trauma, child development, substance abuse, domestic violence and mental health issues.

The center will be a centralized resource for information on juvenile attorney availability and quality in Nebraska.

By creating a framework for rural attorney education, the center will be a model for other states facing similar challenges.

Autonomy-supportive messages may boost interest in clinical trials

Clinical trials – a crucial step in medical research – require participants. Without them, treatments are delayed or may never reach patients.

Yet time constraints, safety concerns, lack of awareness and other challenges hamper recruitment. Social media, especially short-form videos, is helping to overcome obstacles.

Husker Ciera Kirkpatrick’s research suggests messages that give viewers a sense of agency or control lead to more favorable attitudes toward participating in the trial.

Kirkpatrick and her team surveyed more than 600 people who viewed recruitment videos. Those containing autonomy-supportive messages incorporated into a personal story garnered the fewest negative emotions and the best attitudes toward participation. Personal stories without autonomy-supportive messages resulted in less favorable attitudes.

Tweaking messages on social media sites, such as TikTok, to include autonomy messaging is easy to do and has a large impact on how people perceive clinical trials, said Kirkpatrick, assistant professor of advertising and public relations.

Such messaging also improves engagement with the video through likes, shares and comments, boosting the video’s viewership and, potentially, trial recruitment.

Health Communication published this study.

College develops first-of-its-kind space law manual

The University of Nebraska College of Law played a leading role in developing a groundbreaking manual for military interactions in space.

The Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Activities and Operations (Oxford University Press, 2024) is the first comprehensive examination of how earthbound laws will be applied in space.

As editor-in-chief, Nebraska’s Jack Beard helped guide the manual’s development alongside a team of space and military law experts in the United States, Australia and theUnited Kingdom.

Husker law students played an extensive role, providing research and editorial support and participating in editorial meetings at home and abroad, said Beard, Robert and Joanne Berkshire Professor of Law and director of Nebraska Law’s Space, Cyber and National Security Law Program.

The Woomera Manual provides an objective overview of existing international law applicable to military space operations. It’s designed to assist military and civilian governments, space operators and policymakers and to advance peaceful cooperation in space.

Nebraska’s program is recognized globally for its expertise in security, space and technology. Faculty consult with governments, nongovernmental agencies, military organizations and the private space industry.