Current

This Center of Excellence (COE) will conduct fundamental research that transforms the way in which conventional distributed sensing, state estimation, morphing structures, and control are applied to high-speed aerospace systems. Our team will address the limitation of conventional feedback loops using novel sensing motifs and inherent coupling to adaptive structures to create an agile and robust aerospace system with integrated sense, assess, and respond functionality.

A diverse team led by three ECE Florida faculty members is set to receive funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to design and fabricate dynamic pressure sensors capable of performing at temperatures upwards of 800 °C (1472 °F), over a factor of 6X higher than any integrated pressure sensor currently in use.

For over thirty years, the Hawaiian bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes has served as a model to understand the influences of beneficial bacteria on animal development and elucidate the molecular mechanisms of specificity during the establishment and maintenance of environmentally transmitted symbioses.

As the field of hypersonic vehicle design develops, having shear stress data can aid in the minimization of 
drag source effects and verify results from computational fluid dynamics simulations. Transducer size, 
placement, and narrow bandwidth currently limit accurate shear stress measurements due to the small 
length and time scales seen in turbulent fluid motion and the issue of flow disruption. Shock wave and 
boundary layer effects also produce large thermal loads in hypersonic flows. The proposed research plan 

The goal of this project is to develop processes that will advance microfabrication technologies using stereolithography as the additive manufacturing (3D printing) method. This project focuses on fabrication of multifunctional devices that are both high resolution (tens of micrometers) and large area (tens of millimeters). The ability to fabricate functional microdevices using 3D printing can enable novel devices in the area of MEMs, sensors, actuators, microrobots, micro-optics, radio frequency, etc.

Understanding the character and dynamics of hypersonic boundary layers poses a considerable challenge to the design of hypersonic vehicles.  Specifically, being able to predict the location of laminar-to-turbulent transition is of critical concern as it affects heating rates, aerodynamic loading, and skin-friction drag, therefore impacting the design of the thermal protection system and thus the overall weight and performance of the vehicle.

See www.iot4ag.us for more information.

We are developing ultra-compact antennas, where the antenna size is much smaller than the electromagnetic wavelength.

Pervasive wireless connectivity is a must for today’s interconnected world.  Many MHz-GHz communication systems require antennas with physical sizes that can be much larger than the entire size of the system.  It is difficult to achieve good antenna performance if the size of the antenna is less than 1/10^ththe electromagnetic wavelength (e.g. minimum of 3 cm at 1 GHz)

Chronic and acute pain affect ~100 million people in the US and greatly increase national rates of morbidity, mortality, and disability. Pain not only negatively impacts individual lives in significant ways, it also imposes enormous national economic costs (up to $635B annually). The misuse of and addiction to opioids, such as prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids (e.g., fentanyl and carfentanil) is a serious national crisis. Currently ~130 Americans die of opioid overdose every day.

Chronic and acute pain affect ~100 million people in the US and greatly increase national rates of morbidity, mortality, and disability. Pain not only negatively impacts individual lives in significant ways, it also imposes enormous national economic costs (up to $635B annually). The misuse of and addiction to opioids, such as prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids (e.g., fentanyl and carfentanil) is a serious national crisis. Currently ~130 Americans die of opioid overdose every day.