Dr. Fadel Lashhab is an Assistant Professor at Howard University, recognized for integrating theory with practical, hands-on learning. His work spans autonomous systems, signal processing, optimization, and control, with a focus on multidisciplinary, innovation-driven education.
When I met Dr. Lashhab, he shared his journey with Quanser, which started with an email offering support for his teaching and research. As he reached out, he found professionals who shared his passion and treated him as a colleague, something he had never experienced before. This approach led him to view Quanser’s grant consultation as a career catalyst, building long-term partnerships and, as a first step, funding the Quanser Autonomous Vehicles Research Studio (QAVRS) at Howard University.
Each institution and research team faces challenges unique to its own environment, and this collaboration stands out as one of the most meaningful. In the next section, Dr. Lashhab reflects on the grant challenges he faced and shares how our partnership led to an award-winning proposal and the creation of the QAVRS lab.
Challenge
When developing successful grant proposals, Dr. Lashhab identifies three critical steps, as illustrated in the figure. He emphasizes that academia excels at the first two steps: generating innovative ideas and defining impactful outcomes. However, a key gap often appears in the third step, which is implementation planning. He explains, “Academia excels at formulating ideas and identifying valuable outcomes. But when it comes to implementation, mapping research questions into appropriate lab infrastructure with clear milestones, engineers and experts like those at Quanser do a much better job of closing that gap.”
Implementation requires clearly demonstrating how your work will be carried out. Having lab infrastructure puts you far ahead, but without it, the challenge grows. This is where Quanser’s grant support becomes invaluable. As Dr. Lashhab sees it, Quanser excels at bridging the gap between ideas and outcomes. Let’s now look at how they supported him in writing and securing a successful grant proposal.
Solution
Founded by Prof. Dr. Jacob Apkarian, over 35 years ago, Quanser operates like an academic lab, securing R&D funding for our projects while collaborating with faculty to co-author papers, teach, and support courses. With a singular focus on higher education in control systems, robotics, and applied AI, our lab solutions have evolved over three decades into a cohesive ecosystem that streamlines research, teaching, outreach, and project-based learning, efficiently bridging ideas to outcomes.
Quanser Lab Solutions
“From our first interaction, I valued Quanser’s ecosystem, designed specifically for academia,” says Dr. Fadel Lashhab. “Its open-architecture hardware and software integrate with MATLAB, Simulink, ROS, and Python, and include high-fidelity digital twins called QLabs (Quanser Interactive Labs). QLabs is a game-changing platform that is academic-focused, accessible, and opens doors for grant opportunities and limitless thinking. This unified ecosystem supports all levels of engineering education, from K–12 outreach to undergraduate and graduate research, and serves departments such as Robotics, ECE, Mechanical Engineering, Control Systems, and Applied AI.”
As disciplines continue to converge, he adds, “It will be hard to draw lines between engineering programs. Quanser supports both your current and future academic needs.”
Expert Grant Proposal & Lab Consultation Support
For over a decade, we have developed deep expertise in research funding and grant development by working closely with top universities and funding agencies like the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Defense. Our team collaborates directly with principal investigators in a hands-on, step-by-step process. This includes identifying appropriate grant agencies, addressing infrastructure needs, articulating community impact, and defining educational value.
This experience allows us to support researchers at every stage of proposal preparation. In this particular case, our team reviewed and refined each section of the proposal more than 30 times, dedicating hundreds of collective hours to help bring a cutting-edge lab to life. Together, we submitted “Enhancing Autonomous Vehicles Research and STEM Education Through Studio and Control Equipment Acquisition” under the DoD HBCU/MI Research and Education Program. This process resulted in a $630,000 instrumentation award.
Quanser’s grant consultation support is completely free of charge, with no obligation to purchase our solutions. Built on trust, flexibility, and a genuine passion for helping educators succeed, Dr. Lashhab notes, “Quanser is always there when something happens. The team at Quanser loves to help. They are flexible, helpful, innovative, and truly understand academia. I’m happy to work with any supplier that makes our job easier and better, but no one even comes close to Quanser.”
Result
The QAVRS Lab is now fully equipped with Quanser solutions that support a wide range of academic applications across multiple domains, including control systems, aerospace, robotics, autonomous systems, haptics, mobile robotics, and more. This transformation has turned Dr. Lashhab grant strategy into a powerful engine for success. The initial funding helped build stronger proposals, and this year alone, he and the Quanser team have submitted four additional joint grant applications.
He also noted that “There is an incredible academic community built around the Quanser ecosystem, something I truly value. Recently, we submitted a grant proposal inspired by Professor Michael Frye’s webinar. I believe Quanser is the best at implementation planning in grant writing. These partnerships go beyond equipment and funding; I am looking for long-term collaboration on co-publications and joint initiatives.”
For those pursuing grant opportunities or working on proposals in robotics, control systems, autonomous vehicles, self-driving cars, mobile robotics, or applied AI, please contact Amirpasha Javid, Director of Research Partnerships at Quanser, at amirpasha.javid@quanser.com for consultation and support with your grant applications.
