On March 13th, the Office of Technology Licensing will hold its 8th annual Celebration of Innovation. Half of the startup companies featured in this year’s event have their origins in the College of Engineering. These Gator Engineering startups represent the spectrum of different departments and disciplines that make up the college, including materials, mechanical, aerospace, computer, electrical, systems and biomedical …
Engineering student group wins first place in competition
The University of Florida’s student chapter of Materials Advantage – a program for materials science and engineering majors – placed first in the TMS Materials Bowl on Feb. 16. The team – Glenn Bean, Hunter Henderson, Peter Feldtmann and Steven Chiu – defeated 11 other university teams in the Jeopardy-style trivia competition with single elimination rounds. “I feel great about …
Engineering dean honored in “Working Women” awards
In honor of Women’s History Month, Gainesville-based FM radio station 98.5 KTK is celebrating who they consider to be the most influential women in North Central Florida. Cammy Abernathy, dean of the College of Engineering made the list and was featured in a broadcast on March 7th. She will be honored, along with 20 other women, at a reception on …
EDGE program facilitates graduate studies globally
For William Huffman, engineering is more than his chosen career path. It’s the pursuit that has led him across the globe. He utilized his civil engineering degree by joining the Peace Corps, a calling that brought him to Kenya in 1976 designing and installing community water systems. Thirty-four years later, it brought Huffman and his wife, Ruth, to Mali and …
Distinguished professor examines all angles of industrial disaster
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It wasn’t just chemistry gone awry that resulted in thousands of deaths when a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, leaked tons of poisonous gases in a single evening 30 years ago. The recipe for the disaster also included ingredients of politics, economics, history and culture. So says Ranganathan “Ranga” Narayanan, a University of Florida chemical engineering professor who is …
Electrical engineering professor remembered
Dr. C. Vernon Shaffer passed away on January 17, 2014. He was 91. Senior faculty and alumni will remember him warmly, and the college and university are grateful for his contributions. Before retiring and becoming a professor emeritus in 1985, Dr. Shaffer spent 39 years as a professor of electrical engineering. He served as assistant dean of the UF Graduate …
Former engineering dean honored by Chamber of Commerce
The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce honored Dr. Winfred Phillips last month with their Legacy Award. Phillips was acknowledged for being a “game changer” for the University of Florida, a key catalyst in shaping UF’s role as an innovator. Phillips is both a professor of mechanical engineering and the Don and Ruth Eckis Professor of Biomedical Engineering. He served as …
First engineering chair appointed under UF’s preeminence initiative goes to Big Data expert
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida College of Engineering has named Panos Pardalos as the Paul and Heidi Brown Preeminent Chair in Industrial and Systems Engineering. Pardalos came to UF in 1991 and has been a distinguished professor since 2005. He is the first engineering faculty member to be awarded a chair under the preeminence initiative. Pardalos’s research focuses on global …
Gator Engineering professor improves methods for estimating citrus crop yields
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Citrus crop-yield estimates may be more accurate, thus ensuring higher productivity and more revenue, if an algorithm proves as successful as it did in a recent University of Florida study. Wonsuk “Daniel” Lee’s study, published in the January issue of the journal Biosystems Engineering, could eventually help Florida’s $9 billion-a-year citrus industry. Lee, a UF agricultural and …
Gator Engineering Professors honored with Semiconductor Industries Top Award
The global industry association Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) awarded its highest honor to two University of Florida engineering professors this month: Mark Law and Kevin Jones. The two men were recognized for developing a flexible code in 1990 that modeled semiconductor fabrication processes. It later became a cornerstone for the modern era of computational modeling. Florida Object-Oriented Process …