Denise R. Simmons, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering and associate dean for Workforce Development in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, is the leading principal investigator for the $1.28 million, four-year project “Critical Conversations: Systemic and Agentic Empowerment of Black Ph.D. Students and their Faculty Advisors in Engineering,” which is sponsored by the Racial Equity in STEM Education program, an initiative of the National Science Foundation’s Education and Human Resources (EHR) division that supports racial equity in STEM.
UF Genome Sleuths Build a Map to Human Cancer Detection by Tapping Into the DNA of Other Species
Kiley Graim, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, is leading a $1.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute study with co-investigator James Cahill, Ph.D., an assistant instructional professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences. Their grant seeks to create a valuable tool that will allow researchers to diagnose human cancers, potentially leading to earlier clinical interventions.
Laser Attack Blinds Autonomous Vehicles, Deleting Pedestrians and Confusing Cars
New research reveals that expertly timed lasers shined at an approaching lidar system can create a blind spot in front of the vehicle large enough to completely hide moving pedestrians and other obstacles. The deleted data causes the cars to think the road is safe to continue moving along, endangering whatever may be in the attack’s blind spot.
A Scientist’s Quest for an Accessible, Unhackable Voting Machine
Juan Gilbert, Ph.D., the Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and department chair of CISE, has spent 19 years inventing “the most secure voting technology ever created.”
$1 Billion in Research = Boundless Possibilities
As the University of Florida celebrates an ambitious landmark achievement of surpassing $1 billion in research expenditures, the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering would like to share how our eminent faculty and researchers—working side-by-side with our students—have helped contribute more than $131 million to that tally over the past year.
Wertheim Foundation Provides Lead Gift of $100 Million to UF Scripps
The largest individual gift in UF history will name the Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology and launch a $1 billion public-private partnership that will drive the future of biomedical research and innovation.
Erika Moore Receives $1.85 million from NIH to Investigate How Ancestry Affects Wound Healing
Erika Moore, Ph.D., holder of the Rhines Rising Star Larry Hench Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, has received the prestigious National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Dr. Moore and her team will use the five-year, $1.85 million award to address critical gaps in understanding the relationship between ancestry and cell responses in wound healing. In the long term, this research will lead to biomaterial models of health disparities for the improved identification of wound healing risks and outcomes.
For Scientists, Hurricane Ian is Posing Threats—and Opportunities
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.
UF helps state launch AI curriculum in Florida public schools
Florida is among the first states to adopt a K-12 artificial intelligence, or AI, education program designed to prepare its youth for the growing global demand for an AI-enabled workforce. The framework for the public school coursework was designed with help from UF faculty, including Christina Gardner-McCune, who modeled it after the Artificial Intelligence for K-12 Initiative, or AI4K12.
Deepfake Audio Has a Tell – Researchers Use Fluid Dynamics to Spot Artificial Imposter Voices
Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., Professor and John H. and Mary Lou Dasburg Preeminent Chair in Engineering in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), and Logan Blue, a Ph.D. student in CISE, write in The Conversation about why detecting audio deepfakes may be even more important than catching video deepfakes.