The Bryan Innovative Instructional Grants Program supports the development of improved and innovative instructional content and delivery in the college. Bryan Grants are made possible through the generosity of brothers John and Charles Bryan, who gave $500,000 to MSU in 1997 and $25,000 in 1998, which was used to set up a permanent endowment.

The Bryan brothers grew up in Livingston, Montana. John graduated from Montana State College with a bachelor's in chemical engineering in 1956 and a master's in 1958. Charles graduated in 1958 with a bachelor's in physics, followed by a master's and Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, and then taught in the mathematics department at University of Montana for many years before passing away in 2015.

Two Bryan Grants will be awarded for FY19 and are used to provide course release support. Both grants may support academic year or summer salary coverage. 

The goal of the program is to design improvements in engineering curriculum content and delivery through the application of innovative methods and media. Examples include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Development of programs and processes that increase the knowledge, thinking skills, problem solving, and communication skills of engineering students
  • Development of methods to incorporate advances in emerging and educational technologies 

Proposals for Bryan Grants will be evaluated by their potential contributions toward these goals.

For application deadlines and directions, see the TEER Grant webpage. The deadline and directions for both grants are the same.

Grant History

2023-2024 Bryan Grants
Grant title
Principal investigators
Award amount

Exploring the Efficacy of Integrating ChatGPT into Undergraduate Technical Writing

Stephanie Wettstein

$10,000

Developing a Snow Science and Avalanche Engineering Textbook for Engineering Majors

Kevin Hammonds

$10,000

Curriculum Redesign for EGEN 200: Designing Our Community

Susan Kelly

$10,000

Improving CSCI 112 (Programming with C) Course

Lucia Williams

$10,000
 
Total:
$40,000
2022-2023 Bryan Grants
Grant title Principal investigators Award amount
Indigenous Ways of Knowing in the Engineering Classroom via Computational and Experimental Fluid Dynamics Ryan Anderson, Sweeney Windchief $10,000
Developing a Biomedical Engineering Laboratory Course Scott Monfort $10,000
Increase Student Performance in Engineering Mechanics Courses Through the Addition of Recitation Sections with Physical Demonstrations Flynn Murray $7,300
  Total: $27,300
2021-2022 Bryan Grants
Grant title
Principal investigators
Award amount
Effectively Engaging Engineering (Current and Future) Students in Group Video Projects 
Paul Gannon
$7,200
2020-2021 Bryan Grants
Grant title
Principal investigators
Award amount
Developing/Improving the Communication Skills of Undergraduate Students
Jennifer Brown, Stephanie Wettstein
$19,000
2019-2020 Bryan Grants
Grant title
Principal investigators
Award amount
Web-Based Reading Applications for EELE 101  
Jim Becker
$8,400
Scaling Up the Micro-Burst Model of Microprocessor Instruction 
Brock LaMeres
$8,400
Develop a New Research and Education Center - Advanced Power System Research and Education Center (APSREC) 
Shahooei, Bahramipanah 
$7,000
2018-2019 Bryan Grants
Grant title
Principal investigators
Award amount
Development of a “Pocket Lab” for Controls Engineering
Steve Shaw
$7,000
Micro-Bursting the Instruction of Microprocessors
Brock LaMeres
$7,000
 
Total:
$14,000