Research

The University of Central Florida has several nationally and internationally recognized research centers and institutes that offer students the opportunity to work hands-on with experienced researchers. Other organized research units complement the activities of academic departments and engage graduate students in instructional and research roles. For more information regarding the university's centers, institutes, and other organized programs of research, visit www.research.ucf.edu.

CREOL

Funding in 2012  |  $10.6 million

CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics provides high quality education in optical science and engineering, conducts scholarly fundamental and applied research, and aids in the development of technology-based industries in Florida and throughout the nation. A new laser technology center of excellence, The Townes Laser Institute, was dedicated in 2007. Named after Nobel laureate Charles Hard Townes, who made fundamental inventions that led to the laser, the institute's mission is to make UCF the premier institution in advanced laser technology in the United States. Research activities in CREOL include:

• Diffractive and holographic optics
• Fiber Optics Fabrication
• Fiber Optics Communications
• Image analysis and understanding
• IR systems and technology
• Laser system development
• Laser-aided materials processing
• Liquid crystal optics
• Nonlinear optics
• Optical glass sciences
• Optoelectronics
• Nanophotonics
• Photonic information processing systems
• Quantum Optics
• Remote sensing, laser radar and atmospheric propagation
• Theory of light matter interaction
• Virtual reality and medical imaging
• Biophotonics
• X-Ray sources and technology

Dean and Director: Bahaa Saleh
www.creol.ucf.edu
407-823-6800

IST

Funding in 2012  |  $16.7 million

The Institute for Simulation and Training (IST) is an internationally recognized research institute that focuses on advancing modeling and simulation technology and increasing the understanding of simulation's role in training and education. Research activities include:

• Multi-resolution simulation
• Mixed reality simulation
• Connectivity
• Computer generated forces
• Virtual environments
• Computer graphics
• Terrain databases
• Low-cost graphics
• Training and education
• Augmented reality
• New simulation environments
• Medical applications
• Public safety simulation
• Parallel computing
• Information systems technology
• Robotics and machine cognition

Director: Randall Shumaker
www.ist.ucf.edu
407-882-1300

FSEC

Funding in 2012  |  $11.2 million

Located at UCF Cocoa, the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) is the largest and most active state-supported renewable energy and energy efficiency research and training organization in the United States. FSEC researches and develops energy technologies to reduce Florida's use of energy and enhance its economy and environment, and educates the public, practitioners, and students on the results of the research. Research activities include:

• Solar thermal systems
• Photovoltaic systems, applications and cells
• Energy efficiency and building science
• Indoor air quality
• Advanced HVAC systems
• Hydrogen energy from renewable resources
• Pollutant detoxification
• Energy-Efficient Industrialized Housing
• Cost-Effective Solar Program for Utilities/ESCOs
• Energy-Efficient New Homes Program

Director: James Fenton
www.fsec.ucf.edu
321-638-1000

Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences (College of Medicine)

Funding in 2012  |  $9.9 million

At the University of Central Florida, biomedical researchers are advancing our understanding of human disease and developing innovative methods of treatment. Many are engaged in research on the world’s most prevalent and serious health problems, including cancer and cardiovascular, infectious and neurodegenerative diseases. The Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, part of UCF’s College of Medicine, is building nationally recognized research programs and undergraduate and graduate programs in biomedical sciences. Research activities include:

• Molecular and genomic basis of diseases
• Advanced fluorescence microscopy
• Allergy
• Antithrombotics
• Arthritis
• Bionanotechnology in therapeutics
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular diseases/ischemic heart disease
• Cell signal transduction
• Crohn's disease
• Developmental genetics
• Giardia
• High-yield recombinant protein production using plants as bioreactors
• Kidney ischemia
• Image analysis
• Inflammation
• Magnetic force microscopy
• Malaria
• Mechanisms of cell death
• Mechanisms of gene expression control
• Molecular immunology
• Neuron guidance damage and repair
• Photoctivated drugs
• Raman spectral microscopy
• Reproduction
• Synthesis of antimetabolites
• Thalassemia
• Transcription factors and proteomics
• Tuberculosis
• Uptake and delivery of drugs
• Vaccines

Interim Director: Richard Peppler
www.biomed.ucf.edu/
407-266-1101

AMPAC

Funding in 2012  |  $2 million

The Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center (AMPAC) excels in the development, processing, and characterization of advanced materials, including structural, electronic, optical and nanomaterials. The overall mission of the Center is to advance fundamental and applied multidisciplinary research in materials through combining resources of UCF and local industries. AMPAC is home to the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF), a facility with state-of-the-art surface and materials characterization equipment and the newly-commissioned Advanced Microfabrication Facility (AMF), for processing of Micro Electromechanical systems, miniaturized systems, devices and thin films. Research activities include:

• High temperature materials and coatings
• Micro and nano fabrication
• Nanomaterials, synthesis and consolidation
• MEMS and smart materials
• Multi-scale mechanical property characterization
• Atomic scale characterization of materials
• Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP)
• Acoustic wave devices
• Microelectronics materials processing and device characterization

Director: Sudipta Seal
www.ampac.ucf.edu
407-882-1455

Nanoscience Technology Center

Funding in 2012  |  $2.2 million

UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center (NSTC) applies multidisciplinary expertise in nanoscale science and technology to problems of regional, state, and national significance in order to acquire new knowledge, educate students, create new technology and promote industrial development. Research activities include:

• Microfluids
• Controlled cell attachment/growth via surface chemistry
• In vitro modeling of spinal reflex arc
• Neuronal networks to model physiology
• Patterned neuronal networks for robotics
• Engineered cardiac myocyte hybrid systems
• MEMS and NEMS
• Materials synthesis and characterization
• Neuronal cell patterning
• Cell-based biosensors for drug discovery/toxin detection
• High throughput drug screening

Director: Sudipta Seal
www.nanoscience.ucf.edu
407-882-1578

Central Florida Research Park  

The thousand-acre Central Florida Research Park, affiliated with UCF, is ranked among the top ten research parks in the nation.

UCF is in the company of North Carolina's Research Triangle and Stanford University in California at the pinnacle of research parks, says Research Park Executive Director Joe Wallace. "Whether by the number of acres, by the number of buildings, the number of companies or employees, we're always in the top ten, by whatever criteria used," he notes.

Today, the 1,027 acre campus-like office park is home to about 106 companies, 9,500 employees, many of them students and UCF graduates, and elements of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines, as well as university departments and projects. Although the park's foundation is U.S. military simulation and training research, the door is open to any other enterprise which can enhance UCF and the area's economic development through partnerships with the university and research park.

UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training, the Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center (AMPAC), the Nano Science Technology Center, Central Florida Technology Development Center, the National Center for Forensic Science, Crime Mapping and Data Management and Public Safety Research centers are in the Research Park, along with the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division and other joint missions with government entities.

On the private side, Siemens/Westinghouse, AT&T Wireless, Silicon Graphics, Hewitt Associates and others operate in the park. UCF's Incubation Program is also in the Research Park, providing private industries resources to help them transition university research into products and service.

Office of Research & Commercialization 

UCF's research enterprise plays an important role in Florida's emergence as a technological and economic leader in the twenty-first century. 

Since its inception as Florida Technological University, UCF has attracted scholars whose curiosity about the world around them has resulted in new inventions that have benefited the citizens of central Florida, the state and beyond in countless ways.

Building a Leading Research Institution

UCF researchers received $128.9 million in external funding in 2012, leading UCF into the ranks of major research institutions. In 2010, UCF was elevated to the top tier of the nation's research universities by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. UCF's dedicated faculty, students and staff continue to expand the quality, depth and breadth of research programs conducted at the university.

Research & Commercialization

The new economy encourages the rapid progression of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace, and UCF is a national leader in this area. The success of the UCF Business Incubation Program, the Disney Entrepreneur Center (supported by UCF), the UCF Venture Lab, and the UCF Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation all illustrate UCF's commitment to innovation-based economic development in the region.

Student Research

Graduate education and research go hand-in-hand. The great discoveries of the twenty-first century will come from the creative efforts of university faculty working closely with bright and motivated graduate students. Graduate students, particular those pursuing doctoral degrees, broaden the knowledge base of their disciplines. UCF undergraduates, through the Undergraduate Research Initiative, work one-on-one with Florida faculty on selected research projects. 

The university's graduate programs have produced generations of professionals in a wide variety of disciplines, many of whom have risen to positions of prominence in our state, the nation and the world.

Vice President for Research & Commercialization:
M. J. Soileau
www.research.ucf.edu
407-823-5538