Category: ESSIE

For scientists, Hurricane Ian, which roared onto Florida’s southwest coast on September 28, 2022, as a Category 4 storm with winds of 250 kilometers per hour, has been both a research opportunity and an ordeal.

University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI), in collaboration with the Florida Department of Transportation and campus and city partners, will study a suite of emerging technologies that can save lives by providing timely warnings to drivers and pedestrians about one another — before an encounter becomes fatal.

Antarpreet Jutla, Ph.D., an environmental engineering sciences associate professor in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment, along with researchers and humanitarian advisors from other institutions, created a one-of-its-kind portal to predict and prevent cholera outbreaks. With a $1 million grant from NASA, UF will become one of the first institutions primed to understand the patterns of this disease’s emergence in several parts of the world with the use of prediction tools.

The University of Florida’s Center for Coastal Solutions, or CCS, and the SAS Institute, a global leader in data analytics software, are joining forces to study the factors that influence water quality and the connections between water quality and economic activity in southwest Florida.

Researchers at the University of Florida found that residential settings might be hotspots to spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, due to poor ventilation in homes and the relaxed usage of masks. As part of this study, researchers were also the first to demonstrate a viable, or infectious, virus on the surface of a cellphone.

The University of Florida’s Eckhoff Steel Bridge team placed first in the American Institute of Steel Construction’s (AISC) Student Steel Bridge National Competition for the second year in a row. The competition was hosted by Virginia Tech on May 27 and 28, 2022, with more than 140 participating schools internationally.

A University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI) study funded by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) found that advanced communication technologies and vehicle on-board units (OBUs) are effective in increasing driver awareness. These technologies provide information to drivers regarding their surroundings, such as the presence of pedestrians and traffic signal information.

The University Term Professorship was established in 2016 and is presented to 250 eligible faculty members annually. Selection of the professorships is based on an assessment of academic accomplishment by either a faculty advisory committee and/or the department chair and approved by the dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

With $3 million in government funding through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a team of UF researchers led by Christine Angelini, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Coastal Solutions, along with colleagues in ESSIE, is giving the Corps a sustainable framework for water resources engineering projects on Florida’s First Coast. The multidisciplinary team hopes to provide these ecosystems the protection necessary to withstand and even thrive under unpredictable climatic conditions and the burden of their many uses — commercial, residential, recreational and tourism.

On any given day, Gainesville’s Autonomous Shuttle (AV) can be seen driving around city streets. AV shuttle corridors across the country are mostly designed without traffic lights, or the shuttles are maneuvered through traffic lights manually by an attendant. However, the Gainesville AV can now communicate with traffic signals and make right or left turns without the assistance of a human operator.