Category: Research & Innovation

The University of Florida ranks first among public universities and second nationwide in a new report that evaluates which U.S. universities are best at moving new discoveries from the lab and into the real world through research commercialization and STEM graduates.

Nancy Ruzycki, Ph.D., instructional associate professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, is leading multiple K-12 engineering education initiatives to develop the teachers and the students to help fill prospective job openings in AI related fields.

University of Florida researchers have confirmed their artificial intelligence system, known as MySurgeryRisk, is at least as accurate as physicians in predicting surgical complications and sometimes more so. Developing and testing MySurgeryRisk has been a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort involving experts across the UF campus. A group of 22 engineering and medical researchers initially helped to develop and test the algorithm, and researchers from the UF departments of anesthesiology, medicine and electrical and computer engineering contributed to the latest findings.

Jennifer Nichols, Ph.D., assistant professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Department of Biomedical Engineering, and collaborators have been awarded a $2.2 million R01 grant from the NIH National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) for her project titled “Carpometacarpal Osteoarthritis: Understanding the Intersection of Muscle Mechanics, Joint Instability, and Pain.”

Damon Woodard, Ph.D., director of the Florida Institute for National Security and associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is leading a $1.2M research effort to use artificial intelligence for the purpose of hardware security.

A recent grant from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention will allow Benjamin Lok, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, to train healthcare students and practitioners on how to express empathy when interacting with patients who have suicidal ideation. The project is titled “Virtual Interaction Training in Emotional Self-Awareness for Working with Suicidal Patients.”

Vobile, the worldwide leading Software-as-a-Service provider in digital content protection and monetization, announced on April 21 the opening of a new R&D and Operations Center in Gainesville, FL, home to more than 75,000 college students between the University of Florida and Santa Fe College. This strategic move is part of the company’s rapid growth initiatives. This is the first step in Vobile’s plan to create hundreds of jobs in Gainesville.

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.

Kristy Boyer, Ph.D., and Mehmet Celepkolu, Ph.D.Researchers from the University of Florida were recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore how to integrate AI learning into middle school science through natural language processing (NLP). Investigators will work with teachers and students at middle schools in Florida and Indiana.

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.