Category: Featured

Through a $4.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), two researchers in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering are working to advance the therapeutic intervention known as “neuromodulation,” fine-tuning electronic stimulation inside the body by creating next-generation electrodes that will deliver the equivalent of high fidelity for the central nervous system. 

A multidisciplinary team of researchers led by engineering faculty including James Fairbanks, Ph.D., an assistant professor in CISE, hopes to build software that will relate data from one scientific problem to another, with the goal of providing valuable applications for defense readiness.

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.

Using a $7.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a team of researchers led by the University of Florida will examine the needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations among security and privacy technologies. The project, supported by the NSF’s Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Frontiers program, seeks to develop foundational design principles to mitigate harm and improve benefits to these populations based on foundational computer science, social science theory, and direct collaboration with marginalized and vulnerable populations.

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.

Ben Keselowsky Ph.D., professor, and Greg Hudalla, Ph.D., associate professor, both in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, are collaborating with UF College of Medicine researchers on a three-year, $2.6M R01 project funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) that will further develop a novel enzyme-based therapeutic that has shown early promise in the treatment of liver ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI).

The National Science Foundation has recognized a record nine University of Florida faculty members, including five Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering faculty members, with 2022 Early Career Development Awards, one of its most prestigious honors.

Damon Woodard, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has agreed to serve as director of the Florida Institute for National Security (FINS). As part of a new vision, FINS will particularly focus on leveraging the UF AI Initiative to position the state’s flagship university as the nationally recognized premier provider of AI talent for the national security and defense industry, and as an innovation leader in AI-enabled national security.