Department of Materials Science and Engineering Archives | �鶹ԭ�� News

�鶹ԭ�� Researchers Receive NSF CAREER Awards for Engineering Research on Intelligent Systems

Andrew Miller | Photos by Antoine Hart — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 13:00:31 +0000

Two �鶹ԭ�� researchers have received U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards supporting separate engineering research projects focused on how complex systems sense, adapt and respond to changing environments.

The awards were presented to Chinwendu Enyioha, an assistant professor in , and Mohiuddin Quadir, an associate professor in . Among NSF’s most prestigious recognitions for early-career faculty, the CAREER Award supports researchers who show strong potential as academic leaders while integrating research, education and student development.

Recognizing Emerging Research Leaders

While Enyioha and Quadir work in different engineering fields, both researchers are developing systems designed to respond under complex conditions — including autonomous systems coordinating under limited communication and nanoparticles interacting with biological signals in complex environments.

Enyioha says the award will enable his group to build on years of prior work, including early doctoral students who helped lay the foundation for the project.

“It gives us the opportunity to study these problems and acknowledges the effort that has gone into making important findings in this area,” Enyioha says. “It will enable us to continue training doctoral students and make contributions to the broader cyber-physical systems research community.”

For Quadir, the award will help support the long-term development of ideas his research group has been pursuing for years for engineering ‘smart’ materials with programmable form and function.

“This recognition means a very significant impact for our research group and for the progression of our ideas,” Quadir says. “This is a core idea that we want to develop over time, and for that, you need logistic support, intellectual support, collaborations, and of course, newer ideas.”

Designing Autonomous Systems Under Communication Constraints

Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Chinwendu Enyioha has received a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award to advance research in intelligent autonomous systems while expanding STEM education opportunities. (Photo by Antoine Hart)

Enyioha’s CAREER project, “Limited-Communication Control of Teams of Autonomous Systems” focuses on developing mathematical frameworks and distributed algorithms that allow teams of autonomous systems to coordinate effectively under bandwidth-limited communication constraints.

The research examines how spatially distributed systems — including robotic networks, wireless sensors and autonomous infrastructure systems — can continue operating cooperatively even when communication bandwidth becomes constrained or unreliable.

“One way to think about it is if you have a bunch of robots that need to solve a particular task. Clearly they have to talk and agree and coordinate,” Enyioha says. “The question we are interested in is how can they solve that problem when they are not able to talk freely with one another?”

Communication constraints are common in real-world environments, including disaster zones, underwater systems and crowded networks where many devices compete for limited bandwidth.

“Our focus isn’t on situations where we have no communication, but on being efficient in how we use limited communication resources down to single bits,” Enyioha says.

To explain the concept, Enyioha compares the challenge to compressing navigation instructions.

“If you want to go from Orlando to Houston, Google Maps gives you a long list of instructions,” he says. “But if you only had two pieces of information to give someone, you might say, ‘Go north. Then go west.’”

The project also studies resilient systems capable of continuing to operate even when communication channels fail or individual components become compromised, an important challenge in areas such as disaster response, autonomous infrastructure and large-scale robotic systems.

“In the community we call this designing autonomous systems that gracefully degrade,” Enyioha says.

Engineering Materials That Respond to Biological Signals

Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Mohiuddin Quadir has received a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award to advance research in sustainable materials while expanding STEM education opportunities. (Photo by Antoine Hart)

Quadir’s CAREER project, “Nanoscale Interactions of Stimuli-responsive Nanoparticles with Enzymes,” investigates how engineered nanoparticles can be designed to recognize and respond to biological signals in ways that mimic certain characteristics found in living systems.

“As you know, in [human] physiology, in the physiology of the plants, in the physiology of any living materials around the world, there is a very basic paradigm that goes on, which is selective responsiveness to a particular stimulus within the myriad of noises,” Quadir says. “This sensitivity means a system can register and isolate signals from a complex external environment and translate them into an action.”

Quadir says his research group is trying to translate that biological principle into the materials world by engineering nanoparticles capable of recognizing specific molecular signals and producing targeted responses.

The research focuses on enzyme-responsive nanomaterials — particles capable of interacting with enzymes at the molecular level. Quadir says his research group designs and engineers the molecular building blocks of nanoparticles so they can recognize specific enzyme signals and respond accordingly.

Potential applications could include medicine, aging research, environmental science, and adaptive materials capable of responding to dynamic biological environments.

Supporting Long-Term Research and Education

Both CAREER projects include education and outreach components designed to train students and expand engagement with emerging areas of engineering.

Education and workforce development are central components of Enyioha’s CAREER Award, he says. His research group includes doctoral, master’s and undergraduate students who participate in research on autonomy, machine learning, and distributed optimization theory, with applications to networked cyber-physical systems. Beyond the university, he also introduces younger students to these fields through programs such as �鶹ԭ�� Camp Connect, where K-12 participants are introduced to decision-making algorithms and autonomy during a week-long summer program.

“Seeing real demonstrations helped them understand how core concepts from math and physics apply to real problems,” Enyioha says.

Quadir acknowledges the work done by the graduate students and postdocs towards the research goal. He is grateful to his mentors, collaborators and colleagues at the department and college for their guidance and inspiration, and the National Science Foundation for research support.

Quadir says scientific and engineering research ultimately aims to improve the lives of others.

Together, the awards highlight how �鶹ԭ�� researchers are advancing engineering systems capable of adapting to increasingly complex biological, computational and real-world environments.

Enyioha’s CAREER Award project, “Limited-Communication Control of Teams of Autonomous Systems,” is supported under NSF award GR110760. Quadir’s CAREER Award project, “Nanoscale Interactions of Stimuli-responsive Nanoparticles with Enzymes,” is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under awards GR111180 and GR111181 (Award number – 2609681)

What Electric Eels and Knifefish Reveal About the Science of Stealth

Ryan Fox | Photos by Lok Poon ’26PhD & William Crampton — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:00:55 +0000

In aquatic ecosystems, some species use active sensing systems, emitting echolocation sounds or electric fields to navigate dark or murky waters.

This sensory ability can come with trade-offs. For electric eels and their weakly electric knifefish prey, generating electric fields helps them navigate and hunt, but those same signals can also reveal their location.

In a recent study published in , �鶹ԭ�� researchers found that both electric eels and knifefish strategically suppress and resume their electric signals to avoid detection.

The findings provide new insight into how animals balance sensing their surroundings while remaining hidden from predators or prey, a challenge that also appears in technologies such as sonar and radar. This work also expands scientific understanding of how active sensory systems evolve in competitive environments where being detected can mean losing a meal or becoming one.

“Our findings show that active sensing creates a paradox: the same electric signals these animals need to navigate and hunt can also reveal them to eavesdropping predators or prey,” says Professor of Biology William Crampton, who co-led the study with biology doctoral graduate Lok Poon ’26PhD. “Both eels and knifefish appear to resolve this paradox through electric stealth, briefly suppressing their signals when concealment matters, then resuming them when sensing becomes more important.”

�鶹ԭ�� biology doctoral graduate Lok Poon ’26PhD holding electric signal loggers designed by Crampton Lab, which are used to record wild electric fish activity in the Amazon. (Photo by William Crampton)

Tracking Electric Signals in the Amazon

To test these predator-prey interactions, the researchers deployed six custom-designed electric signal loggers along a 150-meter section of an Amazonian stream. Each logger recorded 60-second segments of electric signals over 27 nights. In total, nearly 107,000 minutes of data were collected.

“Electric fish are ideal for this kind of study because their signals let us monitor their presence and movements electronically, simply by recording how often they pass near submerged electrodes,” Crampton says. “Our loggers allowed us, for the first time, to monitor predator-prey electric signaling interactions continuously in the wild.”

Researchers then analyzed the recordings to distinguish species by their unique electric signal signatures.

How Eels and Knifefish Use “Electric Stealth”

“With knifefish, we found that when they detect electric eel signals, some flee while some pulse-type species switch off their own electric discharges for several seconds. “—William Crampton, professor of biology

“With knifefish, we found that when they detect electric eel signals, some flee while some pulse-type species switch off their own electric discharges for several seconds,” Crampton says. “In our logger recordings, a knifefish could be producing its normal train of pulses to sense its environment, then suddenly become electrically silent as soon as eel signals appeared.”

Laboratory tests showed that low-frequency components of electric eel signals play a key role in triggering this response, with knifefish reacting far less when those components were reduced.

Electric eels were also found to pause their low-voltage electrolocation pulses before high-voltage bursts used to probe for or stun prey. This silence would make an approaching eel less detectable to electroreceptive prey such as knifefish. Once the eel produces a high-voltage burst, however, it has revealed its presence, temporarily reducing the benefit of stealth. The eel promptly resumes its regular low-voltage pulses, likely to rapidly relocate, track or capture prey.

Professor of Biology Will Crampton recording electric signals from weakly electric fishes in temporary captivity. (Photo by Lok Poon ’26 PhD)

“The field recordings revealed these phenomena in the ecological context,” Crampton says. “The laboratory experiments then allowed us to isolate the eel signal features that trigger knifefish responses.”

Parallels in Nature and Technology

In nature, the only well-studied comparison to this behavior is the predator-prey dynamic between killer whales and their toothed-whale prey.

“Killer whales and smaller toothed whales such as beaked whales use echolocation, relying on sound rather than electric signals to sense their surroundings,” Crampton says. “Mammal-eating killer whales can suppress echolocation and calls while hunting, while beaked whales and other prey species may reduce vocal activity or take evasive action when they detect killer whale sounds. The eel-knifefish system shows a remarkably similar trade-off in the electric sense.”

The findings suggest convergent evolutionary pressures favoring the ability of both predators and prey to modulate active-sensing signals to improve survival.

Similar trade-offs also occur in human active-sensing technologies such as sonar and radar. A submarine, for instance, can use active signals to detect its surroundings, but each outgoing ping can also reveal the vessel’s location.

“Just as we found in electric eels and knifefish, operators of these systems balance the need to gather information with the need to remain hidden,” Crampton says. “In submarines, that can mean alternating between active sonar and passive listening depending on the situation.”

Electric eels, knifefish, echolocating whales and human operators all face the same challenge: balancing the benefits of active sensing with the risk of detection.

Future Research Applications

Electric fish have long contributed to scientists’ understanding of concepts beyond biology, including electricity, nerves and sensing.

“Electric fishes have played an outsized role in the history of biology and physics,” Crampton says. “For example, their discharges helped shape early research on electricity, including Alessandro Volta’s invention of the first battery, and their electric organs later became important model tissues for studying acetylcholine receptors — protein channels that help nerves send signals to other cells.”

The new findings build on this legacy, showing how electric fish can reveal principles related to sensing, stealth and decision making. Similar trade-offs shape sonar, radar and autonomous sensing technologies, suggesting that nature’s solutions to stealth and detection may offer insights for future adaptive sensing systems.

“This study shows that active sensing is not just about gathering information, but also about managing the risk of being detected,” Crampton says. “This opens opportunities for future research, from understanding how other aquatic species respond to electric signals to uncovering whether similar stealth strategies occur in other sensory systems.”

This work was funded by National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program grant 2035702 (L.P.), an American Philosophical Society Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research grant (L.P.), and National Science Foundation grant DEB-1146374 (W.G.R.C.).

�鶹ԭ�� Materials Science and Engineering Alum Recognized for Medical Device Innovation

Bel Huston — Thu, 21 May 2026 13:30:28 +0000

The ultra-fine wires Cacie McDorman ’20 helps develop are small in size but transformative in impact.

Now a global project manager for wire technology at Alleima Advanced Materials, the materials science and engineering alum has earned the company’s 2026 Innovation Prize for her work advancing wires used in critical medical devices such as continuous glucose monitors, hearing implants and pacemakers. The annual award recognizes excellence in product development.

“The work I do is very rewarding. Every day, I get to contribute to advancing medical care and treatment,” McDorman says. “If it’s a medical device and it has a wire, Alleima is likely contributing to it somehow.”

�鶹ԭ�� alum Cacie McDorman ’20 serves as global project manager for wire technology at Alleima Advanced Materials.

McDorman earned her doctoral degree from �鶹ԭ�� under Associate Professor Swaminathan Rajaraman, who directs the , where researchers develop micro- and nanoscale solutions spanning biotechnology, pharmacology, plant sciences and medical devices.

“I chose �鶹ԭ�� because the [materials science and engineering] program was highly rated … and had a wide variety of research areas …”

Before coming to �鶹ԭ��, McDorman earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in physics, but discovered a passion for applied research that required a deeper focus on materials.

“When I decided to pursue a Ph.D., materials science and engineering was a natural choice,” she says. “I chose �鶹ԭ�� because the program was highly rated, small and had a wide variety of research areas that I was interested in.”

Through her doctoral studies, McDorman found a more biology-focused side of materials science. Her work with biosensors in Rajaraman’s lab ultimately inspired her to pursue a career in the medical device industry.

She credits her research experience at �鶹ԭ�� with preparing her for work at Alleima, where 90% of her unit’s business supports medical device manufacturing.

“The company has a rich history of materials innovation in steel and nickel-based alloys,” McDorman says. “Since we produce wire, I am constantly using base materials science knowledge to process the material in a way that achieves a specific set of properties in the end product.”

She says she has always aimed for a position that would allow her to make a positive contribution to society, an opportunity she is grateful to have at Alleima.

For new graduates considering a similar path, McDorman encourages them to connect with �鶹ԭ�� alumni on LinkedIn and to explore job opportunities in Florida’s growing manufacturing industry, particularly in Volusia and Flagler counties.

“We put a lot into our work every day because we truly care about ensuring the best possible patient outcomes,” she says. “It is great that our efforts have been recognized by the business.”

�鶹ԭ�� Materials Science Undergraduate Researcher Awarded DOE Internship at National Lab

Bel Huston — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:49:06 +0000

This materials science and engineering major isn’t just studying sustainable methods of retrieving rare earth metals — she’s developing new ways to do it.

Now, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has taken notice.

Deneé Lichtenberg was awarded the DOE’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship, giving her the opportunity to further her research at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. This premier multidisciplinary research institution is advancing breakthroughs in science and technology to address national security challenges.

The opportunity brings her closer to achieving one of her biggest goals: working at a national laboratory, where she’ll collaborate with experienced researchers and learn how large-scale scientific projects are conducted.

Deneé Lichtenberg (Photo courtesy of �鶹ԭ��’s KM Lab)

Raised in Titusville, less than an hour away from �鶹ԭ��’s main campus, Lichtenberg says she always knew she’d attend �鶹ԭ��, especially given the strength of its engineering programs. What she didn’t yet know was how far that decision would take her.

“The ability to design and improve materials that impact a variety of fields really motivated me to pursue this discipline.”

She found her path in materials science — a field where physics, chemistry and engineering intersect — which would allow her to study materials from the atomic level to real-world applications.

“Ultimately, everything is made up of materials,” she says. “By changing a material’s structure or composition, you can drastically alter its performance. The ability to design and improve materials that impact a variety of fields really motivated me to pursue this discipline.”

That curiosity has evolved into something bigger: tackling the challenge of sustainably recovering rare earth metals that are vital to the future of energy and technology.

Advancing Sustainable Extraction

Over the past year in the , led by Assistant Professor of Engineering Kausik Mukhopadhyay, Lichtenberg has focused on a breakthrough approach that uses a naturally occurring protein, lanmoudulin.

“The protein can capture rare earth elements from dilute waste streams, and then a small temperature change can trigger the protein to release them so they can be collected,” she says. “This could create a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly way to recover valuable materials.”

Those materials are critical to everything from renewable energy systems to manufacturing; however, traditional extraction methods rely heavily on large amounts of energy and chemicals sourced from acid mine drainage, coal byproducts and electronic waste.

Lichtenberg’s work points to a sustainable future.

“By developing protein-based systems that selectively capture and release these elements, we could potentially reduce the reliance on traditional extraction,” she says.

At Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lichtenberg will take that work further, designing modified proteins, producing them in the lab and testing how effectively they bind and release rare earth elements.

“It is a very exciting interdisciplinary project that combines protein engineering, materials science and sustainability,” she says. “I hope to continue this research after the internship ends.”

It Takes a Lab — and a Team

But just as impactful as the research has been, the environment that’s shaped it has been.

“Dr. Mukhopadhyay is a fantastic mentor who creates a very supportive and positive environment that encourages learning [both] in and out of the lab,” Lichtenberg says. “The graduate students in the lab have [also] played a huge role in … helping me learn new techniques and [understand] the experiments and science itself.”

Next, she plans to continue her journey as a Knight by pursuing a doctoral degree at �鶹ԭ��, advancing her research as a graduate member of the KM Lab.

For Lichtenberg, the DOE internship isn’t the finish line — it’s just the beginning of reimagining how the world sources its most essential materials.

�鶹ԭ��’s New $4M Electron Microscope Expands Research Access Across Campus, Industry

Andrew Miller | Photos by Antoine Hart — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:59:40 +0000

Today, �鶹ԭ�� unveils a $4 million high-resolution transmission electron microscope, significantly expanding advanced materials research capabilities across the university and opening new opportunities for collaboration with industry partners throughout Florida.

The Thermo Fisher Talos F200X analytical transmission electron microscope enables researchers — both at �鶹ԭ�� and in industries across Florida — to observe and analyze materials at the atomic scale. Equipped with advanced nanoanalysis tools, the instrument allows direct observation of elemental, chemical, electrical and magnetic states, dramatically enhancing what scientists can measure and understand.

The instrument will be housed in �鶹ԭ��’s AMPAC Materials Characterization Facility (MCF), directed by Professor Jiyu Fang, and will operate as a shared university resource supporting interdisciplinary research and external partnerships.

“The new Thermo Fisher Talos F200X analytical transmission electron microscope will revolutionize materials science and engineering at the nanoscale,” says Professor Sudipta Seal, chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “Its advanced analytical capabilities will enable unprecedented insight into structure–property relationships, accelerating innovation across next-generation semiconductors, quantum materials, space and hypersonic systems, and cutting-edge biomedical applications.”

“This instrument is a catalyst for discovery,” says Vice President for Research and Innovation Winston Schoenfeld. “By giving our researchers and students the ability to see and understand materials at the atomic scale, �鶹ԭ�� is unlocking new pathways for innovation across energy, aerospace, semiconductors and beyond.”

A Unique Capability in Florida

While other institutions in Florida operate microscopes within the Talos series, �鶹ԭ��’s system offers a distinct combination of capabilities.

It is the only Talos F200X in the state equipped with both a cold field emission gun and a super X energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy detector. This configuration significantly enhances energy resolution and high-contrast imaging, enabling exceptionally precise chemical mapping at the atomic scale.

According to Professor Akihiro Kushima, the cold field emission gun allows advanced atomistic-scale analysis even for beam-sensitive materials — samples that can be damaged under conventional imaging conditions. The improved resolution and signal collection make it possible to analyze delicate materials in ways that were previously difficult or impossible.

In addition to supporting engineering and computer science research, the instrument will expand capabilities in fields such as planetary science, where nanoscale characterization of extraterrestrial materials can provide new insight into the origins and composition of planetary bodies.

�鶹ԭ��’s new Thermo Fisher Talos F200X analytical transmission electron microscope enables researchers to observe and analyze materials at the atomic scale, expanding advanced materials research capabilities across campus.

Supporting Florida’s Innovation Ecosystem

Beyond academic research, the microscope is expected to strengthen partnerships with Florida’s high-tech industries.

The Talos F200X enables deep structural understanding of advanced materials, opening new opportunities for collaboration with companies across aerospace, defense, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, electronics, semiconductors, energy and environmental sectors.

Kushima notes that the microscope is already supporting collaborations with local industry partners developing advanced battery materials. Using the Talos F200X, researchers can study how material structures evolve during charge and discharge processes, providing deeper insight into reaction mechanisms and helping optimize performance. The acquisition was made possible by the �鶹ԭ�� Office of Research, with support from the Office of the Provost.

Training the Next Generation

The Talos F200X will be incorporated into undergraduate and graduate coursework in electron microscopy and advanced characterization techniques. Students conducting research can also gain hands-on experience after completing required training.

Understanding materials at the nano and atomic scales is essential in advanced manufacturing and semiconductor sectors, where structural insights inform synthesis optimization and failure analysis. Students trained in advanced characterization techniques such as transmission electron microscopy are highly valued in industry, positioning �鶹ԭ�� graduates to contribute directly to Florida’s advanced manufacturing and semiconductor workforce.

Industry partners interested in utilizing the AMPAC Materials Characterization Facility may request instrument time by contacting ampacmcf@ucf.edu.

Atomic Vision: �鶹ԭ�� Researchers Create New AI Model for Molecular Analysis

Andrew Miller — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:19:07 +0000

At the �鶹ԭ�� Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IAI), researchers have developed MolVision, a new artificial intelligence (AI) vision language (VLM) model capable of accurately viewing a molecule’s structure. The project was launched from a bold idea, to make AI models learn scientific principles the same way students do. Leading the study is Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Shruti Vyas. The MolVision research team includes Associate Professor of Computer Science and IAI member Yogesh Singh Rawat and Deepan Adak, a researcher from the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra.

“AI should learn chemistry the way humans do — by seeing molecular structures, not just reading linear strings,” Vyas says. “While large language models have shown promise for molecular property prediction, their reliance on representations like SMILES or SELFIES [textual representations] limits their ability to capture the rich structural cues chemists rely on.”

According to Vyas, this work opens a new pathway for chemical predictions and molecular analysis, by creating an AI system that operates more intuitively.

A Challenging Vision

According to Vyas, one of the biggest challenges facing the field of artificial intelligence and computer vision is in shifting AI models from a textual to a visual understanding of chemical reactions.

“Molecular images represent a very different data domain compared to the natural images or text that vision-language models are typically trained on.” Vyas says, “Molecules contain highly specific structural relationships — bonding patterns, stereochemistry, and functional group arrangements — that are subtle yet crucial for property prediction.”

Many VLM models have limited exposure to visual representations of scientific data, which makes training and adapting them to understand the nuances of molecules and their atomic structure a primary challenge.

Transforming How Scientists and AI See Chemistry

To address these challenges, Vyas and her research team developed a multi-modal data set for MolVision to refer to during its training. The data set pairs 2D diagrams with text-based descriptions on a variety of molecules and different atomic structures. Using this data set was crucial for training the MolVision VLM to integrate textual and visual information effectively. Using a LoRA (low rank adaptation) algorithm, the MolVision VLM is able to engage in billions of parameters worth of data enabling it to complete complex tasks such as molecular property prediction or chemical description without the cost of full retraining.

“Recent advances in vision–language models have transformed how AI understands the world, but most of that progress has focused on natural images and everyday language,” says Yogesh Singh Rawat. “With MolVision, we’re bringing those same AI capabilities into chemistry — allowing models to reason about molecules visually, in ways that are much closer to how scientists actually think.”

This work has the potential to transform drug discovery, the personalization of medicine, and even sustainable design and engineering. The research team also expects that “over the next few years we can expect this multimodal approach to reduce experimental screening burdens, support faster identification of promising drug candidates and materials, and offer more interpretable insights into structure-property relationships,” Vyas says.

Vyas and her team here at �鶹ԭ�� plan to scale up the MolVision VLM project in terms of its data set and capabilities. The team plans to integrate the VLM model in chemistry with technologies using current AI neural networks and large molecular simulators to create hybrid systems that can combine symbolic, visual and physical reasoning.

Vyas will also participate in the upcoming where she will be presenting an exhibit on AI for chemistry and molecules. Those interested in viewing the exhibit can attend from 7:45 to 11:00 p.m. this Saturday on the 4th Floor.

�鶹ԭ�� Engineering Professor Named Outstanding Mentor of the Year

Marisa Ramiccio — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:34:20 +0000

Educators at �鶹ԭ�� do more than teach coursework — they mentor the next generation of professionals, helping them discover what’s possible for themselves and guide them toward it. One engineering professor has been recognized for his impact beyond the classroom.

January is National Mentoring Month, celebrating the value of mentorship and its positive impact on individuals and communities.

The Florida Education Fund (FEF) unanimously selected Assistant Professor Kausik Mukhopadhyay as the recipient of the 2025-26 William R. Jones Outstanding Mentor Award, honoring faculty who demonstrate extraordinary commitment to mentoring and supporting McKnight Doctoral fellows.

It Began with a Nomination

For Mukhopadhyay, the recognition carries added meaning because it came from the people he prioritizes most: his students.

He was nominated by Amanda Bernard ’22, a first-year doctoral student, McKnight Doctoral fellow and member of Mukhopadhyay’s . A faculty member in materials science and engineering, Mukhopadhyay says the award came as a complete surprise, as he didn’t even know he was nominated.

“It’s special knowing that this is a student-nominated award,” Mukhopadhyay says. “Special thanks to my student, Ms. Amanda Bernard, for secretly nominating me for this award. This is also my first award for mentorship, so it is very special to me. I am so thankful to the FEF committee for this.”

Support That Opens Doors

Bernard’s path to doctoral study reflects the kind of trajectory Mukhopadhyay works to develop. She first joined the KM Lab as an undergraduate biology student and has remained a member for the past year. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she planned to pursue a master’s degree in materials science and engineering, until Mukhopadhyay — known simply as “Dr. K” to his students — encouraged her to aim for a doctoral degree.

“Rarely do you meet a professor whose passion is to see his students succeed without expecting anything back.” — Amanda Bernard ’22, �鶹ԭ�� doctoral student

Mukhopadhyay quickly began helping Bernard envision a future she hadn’t fully considered for herself. Within weeks of her joining the KM Lab, Bernard says that he was researching fellowships and internships to support her graduate journey, which led her to the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship.

“Once you join Dr. K’s lab, he always has your back,” Bernard says. “He defends his students, advocates for them and does the behind-the-scenes work most mentors never bother with.”

When Bernard learned she could nominate a professor for the Outstanding Mentor Award, it wasn’t a question of who; it was just a matter of winning.

“During my time at �鶹ԭ��, I have met many professors, some of whom have passions in research, teaching, social service and more,” Bernard says. “Rarely do you meet a professor whose passion is to see his students succeed without expecting anything back.”

Mentorship That Starts with Students

That belief defines Mukhopadhyay’s approach to mentorship. Over the years, he has mentored nearly 50 students, including visiting scholars, postdoctoral researchers and high school students. His advising philosophy has evolved over the years, shaped by what he’s learned from conferences, books and his personal experience.

“Every scholar is like a puzzle, and I love being able to serve as a resource to help connect the pieces for each one.” — Kausik Mukhopadhyay, �鶹ԭ�� assistant professor

Mukhopadhyay says the key to his success as a mentor lies in how he approaches his mentees. He views them as colleagues, not students, and listens to their thoughts and questions.

“I believe a faculty’s success depends on how successful their students are,” Mukhopadhyay says. “Every scholar is like a puzzle, and I love being able to serve as a resource to help connect the pieces for each one — whether by answering questions about a plan of work and training, pointing them to resources, helping them set and achieve academic and career goals, or simply offering words of encouragement and support when plans don’t get going.”

For Bernard, that support has been transformative. It reflects the power of �鶹ԭ�� — a university where mentorship fuels momentum and where faculty invest not only in solving the world’s greatest problems, but also in its people.

“Being intentional about creating or modifying my philosophy allows me to reflect on how I interact with [students], make space for their independence and improvement as needed, and contribute to society and the next generation of students,” Mukhopadhyay says.

For the students who walk into his lab, it often marks the moment they begin to see a bigger future and realize they’re capable of achieving it.

�鶹ԭ�� Researchers Aim to Uncover Link Between Age and Breast Cancer Treatment

Marisa Ramiccio ’11 — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 18:39:16 +0000

Age is considered a risk factor for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease that can be difficult to treat, particularly in later stages. But age may also be a factor in treatment response, causing some women to fare better with immune therapy than others.

�鶹ԭ�� researchers Needa Brown and Aleksandra Petelski-Kulik, assistant professors in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, plan to study the microenvironment of TNBC to understand how age may play a role in the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors, a promising therapy for the disease. Their work is supported through a $100,000 grant from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation.

“Recent studies suggest that younger and older women may respond differently to breast cancer therapies due to differences in their immune systems and tumor biology,” Brown says. “However, we still do not fully understand how age affects the immune response in TNBC.”

The researchers aim to discover how age shapes the immune landscape of TNBC and if this age-driven dysfunction can be reversed, leading to improved patient outcomes.

The team’s approach combines Brown’s knowledge of cancer biology with Petelski’s expertise in proteomics, the large-scale study of protein abundance and functional networks in biological systems. Using advanced mass spectrometry techniques, the team hopes to identify the age-related proteomic biomarkers associated with TNBC progression, immune invasion and a poor response to ICI treatment. With Florida’s aging population, Petelski says these findings could have a significant impact on treatments within the state and across the nation.

“By understanding how age influences TNBC and immune therapy response, our findings could translate to improved outcomes for thousands of patients both in Florida and beyond,” Petelski says. “New biomarkers identified could set the stage for age-specific health screenings and personalized treatment strategies.”

One promising therapeutic strategy involves targeting the STING pathway, a critical immune pathway that can either inhibit or promote cancer growth. The team plans to investigate how the STING pathway could be used to turn “cold” tumors that evade immune detection into “hot” tumors that could be attacked by the immune system.

Brown and Petelski will co-mentor a postdoctoral researcher who will gain hands-on experience with the project while fostering collaboration between the two labs.

“We’re excited to have the chance to work together on new research opportunities that can help shape the future of cancer therapies.” — Aleksandra Petelski-Kulik, assistant professor

“Through this project, we will jointly mentor a postdoctoral fellow to allow for professional development in cross-disciplinary fields,” Brown says. “We hope this project will set-up a pipeline of next-generation doctoral students who can traverse the fields of materials science, proteomics and cancer biology.”

While the researchers are also open to collaborations with other �鶹ԭ�� faculty, they look forward to working with each other. Ironically, they followed a similar path from Boston to Orlando this past year.

“We both started at �鶹ԭ�� in Fall 2024 and were looking for opportunities to merge our respective fields to allow us to make an impact within the Florida community,” Petelski says. “Although we both had been a part of Northeastern University in Boston, our paths never crossed until we met at �鶹ԭ��. We’re excited to have the chance to work together on new research opportunities that can help shape the future of cancer therapies.”

�鶹ԭ�� Researchers Fight Breast, Prostate Cancer with Targeted Therapies Backed by 2 New Grants

Eddy Duryea ’13 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:13:03 +0000

A �鶹ԭ�� team of researchers is refining its game plan to tackle cancer.

Annette Khaled, who leads the College of Medicine’s cancer research division, recently received more than $2 million in grant funding to expand her work with Z-TOP, a peptide she discovered in 2012 that stops the spread of metastatic cancer cells. She is collaborating with �鶹ԭ�� College of Engineering and Computer Science colleagues to design a better cellular delivery system for the treatment.

An almost $258,000 grant through the Casey DeSantis Cancer Research Program’s Florida Cancer Innovation Fund will help Khaled’s team further their efforts to stop metastatic breast cancer by disrupting the cellular activities that allow cancer cells to spread. And nearly $1.8 million in funding through the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), in partnership with the Orlando Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, will allow her to develop the treatment for men with late-stage metastatic prostate cancer.

Khaled says her research has expanded thanks to the support of the Orlando Sports Foundation, which funds cancer research through sports-related fundraising events. The nonprofit’s flagship event is the StaffDNA Cure Bowl, a unique college football game with the goal of ending cancer.

“When you get funding for a research project, you can only do the work that is described in the specific aims of the project,” she says. “The donations from the Orlando Sports Foundation do not have this limitation. Without their support, I would not have been awarded the DOD grant. Using the donations, I was able to generate the preliminary data that made me competitive for the DOD and the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) grants we received this year.”

Alan Gooch ’84 ’89MA, CEO of the Orlando Sports Foundation and executive director of the StaffDNA Cure Bowl, says he’s grateful to continue partnering with �鶹ԭ��.

“We’re all about bringing teams together,” says Gooch, who played football at �鶹ԭ�� and later coached the team for 22 years. “Our relationship with Dr. Khaled is outstanding, and we are honored to continue to partner with her and sponsor her research.”

The Science Behind Khaled’s Work

The two new grants expand Khaled’s portfolio of research to understand how and why cancer cells spread.

“Cancer treatments are very effective when the cancer is localized, but the problem is that cancer doesn’t stay at one site,” she says. “It spreads to other sites of the body. Usually, the cause of death is not the primary cancer, but metastasis. Preventing that can be a cancer cure, and that is what we’re looking at here in our lab.”

Khaled’s latest research focuses on the spread of cell fragments called extracellular vesicles that are shed by cancer cells during the early stages of the disease. These vesicles are resilient to early cancer treatment and can travel through the bloodstream, acting as tumor “seeds” by preparing future sites for metastasis.

The vesicles are mediated by a molecular structure called a chaperonin. Chaperonins help fold proteins that support the body’s normal cell function. But cancer cells hijack the folding process because they need more chaperonins to grow and spread.

Khaled’s breast cancer research project aims to distinguish which chaperonins help facilitate cancer cells’ growth and stop them without harming normal chaperonins. She hopes to develop a treatment that could regularly deliver her peptide to cancer patients to prevent metastasis. Patients, Khaled says, could receive her treatment while they are receiving chemotherapy and radiation to kill the original tumor.

Her prostate cancer research will confirm the chaperonin as a viable treatment target for prostate cancer, and if so, optimize the peptide specifically for use in men who have lethal forms of metastatic prostate cancer. Unlike breast cancer treatment, which seeks to prevent metastasis, prostate cancer research will see if a strengthened variant of the peptide can eliminate cancer that has already spread.

Annette Khaled, second from right, stands with �鶹ԭ�� students and collaborators at the Orlando Sports Foundation’s Kickoff to Cure fundraising event.

Fielding a Team Against Cancer

In the lab, Khaled’s peptide has shown success in preventing cancer cells from spreading. The challenge is how to engineer and deliver the treatment. For that, she is collaborating with Lorraine Leon, associate professor of materials science at �鶹ԭ��’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.

They are working to create a system that delivers the peptide to where the cancer has spread and at the same time protects the peptide from being destroyed in the bloodstream by the body’s immune and digestive systems.

“The College of Engineering and Computer Science is a great collaborator,” Khaled says. “Normally this peptide is very fragile but we’re working with materials sciences to create a protected peptide and then find [a] way to get it to the right spot. By having a variety of expertise and interests, we can work together to find new technologies and new ways to combat cancer.”

Leon specializes in biomaterials and polymer science. Her team studies how to build and program molecules to form assemblies for many purposes, including biomedical transport. She developed a specialized polymer that binds to the peptide, forming a large, water-soluble molecule. This allows it to travel easily through the bloodstream while keeping the peptide intact as it reaches its destination. The system drives the molecules to form self-assembled structures called micelles, which are assemblies of around 100 or so individual molecules, Leon says.

“In addition, we can tune the shape of these micelles, decorate them with targeting elements and make mixed versions of them where we incorporate different functionalities,” she says. “Our original designs have had great preliminary results so far. We will continue to optimize the designs moving forward.”

Leon is excited to team up with Khaled, and she says she looks forward to achieving more breakthroughs together as the projects progress.

“Working with Dr. Khaled has been very fun,” she says. “Our labs really complement each other. This is the beginning of a very long collaboration.”

Khaled and Leon are also working with Cancer Specialist and Associate Professor of Medicine Deborah Altomare, along with Burnett School of Biomedical Science Biostatistician Xiang Zhu, on the prostate cancer research project.

Khaled says strong research and community collaborations are critical to beating cancer.

“Cancer is a tough enemy,” she says. “But we have a great team.”

These studies are the first phase of preclinical research that may lead to new drugs in the future.

This work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs,��in the amount of $1,771,271,��through the Prostate Cancer Research Program Idea Development Award under Award No. HT9425-25-1-0487. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Researchers’ Credentials

Khaled joined �鶹ԭ�� in 2002 after receiving her doctoral degree from the University of Florida and doing post-graduate training at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). A tenured professor, she has been funded by multiple R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the FDOH. She has published more than 100 manuscripts and abstracts and presented her research at numerous national and international scientific meetings. She has been recognized with research, leadership and teaching awards, including the NCI CURE Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to her research responsibilities, she teaches molecular immunology to �鶹ԭ�� graduate students and serves as the College of Medicine’s assistant dean for faculty affairs.

Leon joined �鶹ԭ�� in 2017 after postdoctoral appointments at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, and she received her doctoral degree from the City University of New York. She is a recently tenured professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where she also serves as the education director for the U.S. National Science Foundation PREM Center for Quantum Materials Innovation and Education Excellence. She has published more than 20 refereed publications. Other accomplishments include her being named a 2019 Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, receiving an NSF CAREER award in 2021 and a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty award in 2022.

5 �鶹ԭ�� Researchers Use 2025 NSF CAREER Awards to Address Emerging Challenges in Computer Science, Engineering

Eddy Duryea ’13 — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 12:54:48 +0000

Three �鶹ԭ�� faculty were named 2025 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award winners while two recent faculty hires transferred their CAREER projects to continue their work at Florida’s Premier Engineering and Technology University.

All five awardees teach and conduct research through �鶹ԭ��’s College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS), and together their funding totals an estimated $3 million to advance real world technologies and positively impact the world.

The annual award program from NSF supports an estimated 500 early-career STEM faculty nationwide from either institutes of higher education or academic nonprofit organizations who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

Since the program launched in FY 1995, nearly 100 �鶹ԭ�� faculty have qualified for NSF CAREER grants, generating more than $40 million in research funding. It has supported a pathway to implement their research through �鶹ԭ��’s Office of Technology Transfer, which helps bring discoveries to the marketplace through licensing �鶹ԭ�� technologies and providing information about sponsored research opportunities.

�鶹ԭ�� Associate Professors Sidong Lei and Truong Nghiem along with Assistant Professors Kevin Moran, Wen Shen and Hao Zheng continue to accelerate research in their respective fields through their NSF CAREER projects.

Studying Specialized Semiconductors

Sidong Lei

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

NanoScience Technology Center (NTSC)

Project Title: Van der Waals Semiconductor Integration via Surface and Interface Tailoring

Award: A total of $516,085 over five years, with $449,136 over three years at �鶹ԭ��

Sidong Lei endeavors to meet the demand for better materials to help make smaller devices run more efficiently.

“We all want our phones, smartwatches and laptops to be lighter, faster and more powerful,” says Lei, an associate professor of materials science and engineering. “To make that happen, we need to shrink the size of the electronic circuits so that more components, such as transistors, which are tiny switches for computing, can fit onto a single chip.”

Lei researches new methods of developing innovative microelectronics by studying electronic and optoelectronic properties of emerging materials.

“As we push the limits of traditional silicon technology into the sub-10 nanometer range, it becomes extremely difficulty to make the chips even smaller,” he says. “At the same time, new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are demanding faster speeds, lower energy use and many more. All these make current microelectronics struggle and urge new materials and device architecture.”

Through the NSF CAREER award he received in 2023 and brought with him to �鶹ԭ�� the following year, Lei is exploring how Van der Waals semiconductors may be integrated at the 3D level versus the 2D level. These specialized semiconductors represent a major frontier in materials science, offering a path to ultrathin, flexible and high-performance electronic and photonic devices— pushing beyond the limits of traditional bulk semiconductors such as silicon.

“The question is how can we produce functional devices with these materials?” Lei says. “Other than fundamental investigations, we want to see our explorations and innovations find practical applications in critical fields. My research aims to find pathways towards this purpose.”

His NSF CAREER project, much like the advanced materials he studies, integrates well with his group’s portfolio of research and translates into real-world applications.

“We are developing methods to fabricate very large-scale integration circuit based on 2D materials and looking for strategies to combine them with mature silicon technology to further enhance their functionality,” Lei says. “We are also investigating strategies to fabricate very-large-scale integrated circuits in flexible and stretchable packaging materials. This research will allow us to implement next-generation wearable and implantable electronics devices for health monitoring and disease treatment, for example, on Parkinson’s disease.”

The vast opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration to advance research at �鶹ԭ�� were a significant factor in Lei’s decision to expanding his career here.

“�鶹ԭ�� offers a comprehensive platform to elevate my research,” he says. “Modern scientific and technological challenges are typically highly complex, requiring the integration of expertise from different fields. The integration is truly happening here. Only a few months after joining, I have already become acquainted with many new colleagues who are experts in their respective fields, continually refreshing my perspective.”

Lei considers his triumph in earning an NSF CAREER award funding a shared effort, and he credits �鶹ԭ�� and his colleagues for their unwavering support and guidance.

“The award represents a meaningful confirmation from my peers of my efforts and endeavors,” he says. “However, the most enjoyable and exciting part was the journey itself, which included deciding on research directions, building a research team and then gradually generating results.”

Improving User Interface Experiences

Kevin Moran

Department of Computer Science

Cyber Security and Privacy Cluster

Project Title: Enhanced UI Engineering via Automated Semantic Screen Understanding

Award: $582,308 over five years

Whether it’s a smart phone or a computer, the user interface (UI) is a critical gateway for people interacting with software and technology.

An intuitive UI can make a world of difference to new users and ultimately be the deciding factor for users when it comes to feeling comfortable with technology, says Kevin Moran, assistant professor of computer science.

His research group at �鶹ԭ�� aims to make it easier for software engineers to build complex yet user-friendly systems that translate into practical use.

“More aspects of daily life rely on software than at any point in human history,” he says. “From banking to social media, the importance of the quality of the software that we interact with on a daily basis has never been more important. My lab at �鶹ԭ�� aims to help provide engineers the tools that they need to wrangle this complexity, using machine learning, program analysis, and careful tool design.”

Through his Software Automation, Generation, and Engineering (SAGE) Lab, Moran and his research group help simplify the difficulties engineers may face in building and troubleshooting such complicated systems. His research tackles two challenges in software engineering: making issue tracking (also known as bug reporting) more robust and improving the UI engineering process.

UI engineering is the practice of developing, testing and managing UI software, which is an emerging topic his group specializes in, and it is the focus of his newly awarded NSF CAREER project.

“My team and I have done quite a bit of work on UI engineering, a research area we pioneered,” Moran says. “Building the user interfaces for software has long been documented to be a particularly challenging task. My team and I were among the first to combine program analysis, computer vision, and machine learning techniques to develop tools to help aid developers in engineering high quality UIs.”

His project focuses on automating tedious tasks for software engineers through artificial intelligence (AI). The proposed AI model will learn from UI interactions, understand UI features, and automatically translate them to code for engineers.

Ultimately, this may save software engineers time and increase their efficiency in developing UIs, Moran says.

“Our aim with this work is to get our developed programming tools to software engineers so that they can improve the quality of the UIs they are building,” he says. “For the general public that uses software, this means UIs that are easier to use and contain fewer bugs.”

The path to earning such a prestigious grant like the NSF CAREER award requires a high level of detail and Moran says receiving one is incredibly gratifying.

“CAREER proposals are rigorously reviewed by other scientists in my area of research, and receiving the grant is tremendous validation for a very ambitious future research agenda related to improving UI engineering,” he says. “This award will fund students who will be working on projects to help make it easier for developers to build high quality user interfaces, so that hopefully in the future, we can reduce the frustrating interactions that users may have when interacting with software.”

Moran says �鶹ԭ�� provided a space for professional growth. The university’s vast resources, which include welcoming and collaborative faculty, helped to further hone his skills that ultimately led to receiving his NSF CAREER award.

“Being a part of this academic community lead to the formation of some of the ideas in my proposal and I am excited to be a part of computer science at �鶹ԭ��, particularly as we expand our department and expertise in AI,” Moran says. “CECS has a CAREER mentoring program where I was paired with senior scientists in my area of work who were able to give me early feedback on my proposal. They helped me to refine the plan of work and gave me invaluable suggestions. �鶹ԭ�� played a key part in my success for this award”

Machine Learning Guidance to Make Smart Systems Even Smarter

Truong Nghiem

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project Title: Composite Physics-Informed Learning of Dynamics Systems

Award: $477,585 over five years

Associate Professor Truong Nghiem came to �鶹ԭ�� in Fall 2024, bringing expertise in machine learning and autonomous systems.

His research focuses on developing new methods that blend machine learning with physical principles to improve complex systems such as autonomous vehicles, smart buildings and industrial automation systems.

“My work aims to help create the intelligent, autonomous systems of the future—systems that will enhance productivity, improve safety, and make everyday life more convenient and sustainable,” says Nghiem, whose research group is called the intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems (iCPS) Lab. “I specialize in intelligent cyber-physical systems — engineered systems that seamlessly integrate the cyber world, which includes computation, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), with the physical world, which includes mechanical and dynamic systems like vehicles, buildings and robots.”

His CAREER project, which he transferred from his previous university, directly supports his ongoing efforts and broadens the scope of his machine learning research.

“This research aims to create a composite physics-informed machine learning (CPIML) framework,” Nghiem says. “Physics-informed machine learning (PIML) embeds the laws of physics into the learning process, leading to models that are more accurate, physically consistent and interpretable compared to traditional machine learning approaches. CPIML takes this a step further by enabling the composition of both physics-based models and PIML components — along with their physical properties — to model more complex, large-scale systems.”

Applications of machine learning that may be integrated into everyday life include improved response times of autonomous vehicles and robots, smarter energy systems that optimize energy use and temperature control, and more reliable industrial robotic systems that require minimal supervision.

Nghiem says he strives for his research to not only provide foundational knowledge but to also have a direct impact on real technologies that people are using right now.

“As our world becomes increasingly automated, ensuring that systems are safe, efficient and trustworthy isn’t just a scientific goal — it’s a societal necessity,” he says. “I have developed efficient models for HVAC systems in buildings that improve energy management, and I’ve also worked on predictive models for autonomous racing cars, pushing the boundaries of what AI can do in dynamic, high-speed environments.”

Like the complex systems Nghiem studies, a university’s network of resources should be robust and reliable. He says he’s fortunate that his research fits perfectly into �鶹ԭ��’s supportive interdisciplinary ecosystem.

“�鶹ԭ��’s commitment is evident through initiatives like the and the ,” Nghiem says. “This work also underscores the importance of combining knowledge from different domains, bringing together AI, engineering and physics to create solutions for real-world problems.”

Elevating Rare Earth Elements to Make Powerful Magnets

Wen Shen

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)

NanoScience Technology Center

Project Title: Manufacturing of Rare Earth Permanent Magnets via Three-dimensional Printing and Decomposition of Hydrogels

Award: $697,264 over five years

Rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs) — composed of alloys containing rare-earth elements — are the strongest permanent magnets with numerous applications across aerospace, automotive, electronics, medical devices and renewable energy industries due to their exceptional magnetic properties.

REPMs generate strong magnetic fields through aligned atomic structures, attracting ferromagnetic materials by inducing a magnetic field, enabling them to lift heavy loads, power motors and generate energy in various technologies.

Despite their widespread use, current REPMs manufacturing techniques are energy- intensive, complex and struggle to fabricate magnets with intricate shapes and minimal defects.

That’s where Wen Shen, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at �鶹ԭ��, comes in. Her NSF CAREER project aims to develop a new hydrogel-based additive manufacturing process that fabricates high-quality REPMs more efficiently.

The new fabrication process, which uses 3D printing and decomposition of hydrogels containing rare-earth elements, has tremendous potential, Shen says.

“This research will enable an energy-efficient and laser-free additive manufacturing process that fabricates REPMs with near-zero defects as well as excellent magnetic and mechanical properties,” she says. “If successful, the outcome of this research will significantly impact the global REPMs market.”

Shen says she’s honored to be an NSF CAREER award recipient and continues to elevate her impactful research.

“The CAREER award allows me to conduct in-depth studies,” she says. “It fits well into my career, allowing me to advance my goals as both a researcher and educator while fostering impactful contributions to academia and industry.”

�鶹ԭ�� encourages state-of-the-art research through its resources, educational opportunities and collaborative environment. Shen says that she and her colleagues are grateful for the vast availability of university-wide support that helps advance their research and allows faculty to thrive.

“The fellowships as well as the research facilities and infrastructure provided by the MAE department, CECS [the College of Engineering and Computer Science] and NSTC [NanoScience Technology Center] to my group allowed me to conduct unique and transformative research that can make potential societal impacts,” Shen says. “I would like to acknowledge my department chair, the CECS dean, [and] the NSTC director, who have been very supportive of my research since I joined �鶹ԭ��.”

New Chips to Keep Pace with Modern Processing Demands

Hao Zheng

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project Title: A Scalable, Polymorphic, and Efficient Architecture for Irregular and Sparse Computations (APEX)

Award: $550,000 over five years

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, while transformative, has created new challenges for today’s computing hardware.

Hao Zheng, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, says he’s determined to navigate these challenges and arrive at solutions. His NSF CAREER project, much like his research, focuses on how to enhance the performance, energy efficiency and utility of chip processors to support the evolving landscape of AI workloads.

“My research lies in the area of computer architecture and machine learning,” Zheng says. “I aim to design versatile chip processors that can greatly speed up machine learning applications with significantly reduced power consumption.”

Creating general-purpose or fully customized chips have been the most common methods of addressing emerging challenges in computational tasks, but both approaches have drawbacks.

Zheng’s bold solution is to design a chip that can adapt to any applications with various computing tasks. His research group, the Intelligent Computer Architecture and Technology (iCAT) Laboratory, is working to revolutionize current chip architectures, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), to handle the rising complexity of modern AI workloads. These include not just large models but multimodal systems, robotics, simulations and real-time decision-making.

“Specializing the underlying hardware architecture has become a trending solution to meet the computational demands of modern applications,” Zheng says. “However, current specialized hardware, in the form of accelerators, is either fully customized for regular applications or lacks the generality to support a wide range of applications. However, today’s applications are evolving rapidly with increasingly complex workloads such as large language models, multi-modal models, embodied AI, among others.”

Some real-world applications of his research can directly affect how robotics, augmented and virtual reality, autonomous driving, simulations and biological discoveries operate.

“This award will introduce a transformative concept — the polymorphic chip processor — to support ubiquitous irregular and complex applications with intensive data,” Zheng says. “The research will invent a new class of chip processors, grounded in graph theory, that can dynamically adapt to irregular and complex workloads at runtime. We believe this can have a transformative impact on computer architecture, compilers, scheduling and many other key areas in computing.”

Zheng says his NSF CAREER award is just the beginning of what he can achieve here at �鶹ԭ��.

“This honor is a testament to the collective efforts of my entire research team,” he says. “I truly appreciate the collaborative research culture here at �鶹ԭ��. I’ve also benefited greatly from the guidance and encouragement of my colleagues, and I would like to thank our department chair, Dr. Reza Abdolvand, for his support over the past several years. Most importantly, I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with four exceptional Ph.D. students who have grown alongside me throughout this journey.”

Opportunities for growth and enrichment at �鶹ԭ�� are plenty, Zheng says. Exploring emerging unconventional applications for chips, strengthening educational development and collaborating with industry are three pillars he aspires to focus on and expand as he continues his research.

“First, I plan to establish a solid theoretical foundation for irregular application acceleration,” Zheng says. “Second, I intend to collaborate with industry to prototype the concept. By the end of the award period, we aim to have a functional chip processor running in the lab, demonstrating the practicality of our idea.”

One of the most important and personal components of his future efforts is his emphasis on education.

“This is the core mission of both our university and the academic community,” Zheng says. “As a first-generation college student, I am aware that a significant number of �鶹ԭ�� students come from similar backgrounds. I will provide mentorship to both undergraduate and graduate students interested in the chip industry.”