No, it's not dormant. Yes, we have funding.
Part of writing software is recognizing the right tools for the job. It seems like potentially ours is not the tool for your needs. App Inventor is open source though so you're always welcome to check out the sources yourself and implement features you need.
Good for you to have academic funding despite the difficulty all around in academia.
I think you pointed out the root to my struggle, using the wrong tool. I saw arduino, lego, and other official components, and videos of a couple of gals having a blast building fun apps and I thought this tool may help me do something similar, connect to an actual device, talk to it, and do something simple to moderate, like that app enthusiast, who looked like a 20-yr old gal, so college level. I've never taught 100-level engineer intro courses but I know they do matlab and sometimes robotics. I imagine if I wrote an app that works with arduino or lego I could solve problems at that level. That may not align with this project. Maybe this is intended for younger audience with less emphasis on completing a specific task but more on having fun and enjoy making something new. I'm definitely down for new and fun when I'm not looking to complete a specific task.