Faculty Excellence Archives | �鶹ԭ�� News

�鶹ԭ�� Researchers Win International Award for Robotic Technology That Shares Immersive Experiences

Bel Huston — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:00:02 +0000

Imagine walking through Paris, inspecting a disaster zone or treating a patient hundreds of miles away — all without leaving the room.

That’s the future a team of �鶹ԭ�� researchers is building, and their groundbreaking work has earned international recognition.

A team of �鶹ԭ�� researchers has won an industry award for using robotics and digital twins to blend human intuition with technological innovation.

Their work, Be There Without Being There: Humanoid Robot Immersive Telepresence, received the Auggie Award for Best Interaction Product at this year’s Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California. Auggie Awards, which received over 330 entries across 18 categories, are among the world’s most recognized honors in the augmented and virtual reality industry.

The award-winning �鶹ԭ�� team includes computer science student researchers Judah Rowe ’23 ’25MS, junior Liam Abramov, seniors Seniah McField and Megan Bailey, Assistant Professor Mohsen Rakhshan, and is led by �鶹ԭ�� Institute for Simulation and Training Interim Director and Agere Chair Professor of Computer Science Carolina Cruz-Neira. In addition to this honor, Cruz-Neira received the 2026 Auggie Award for Innovator of the Year.

Together, they developed a system that pairs a humanoid robot with an immersive digital environment, allowing a person to interact with a remote location as if they were physically there.

The technology creates a real-time digital twin of the robot’s surroundings while mapping the user’s body movements directly onto the robot.

“From a technical [standpoint], this is perhaps the first working product or system that actually [allows] a human to be physically functional in a remote location as if they were really there,” Cruz-Neira says. “We map the body of the human to the robot. So the human walks, the robot walks. The human moves, and the robot moves. The human turns the head, the robot turns the head. It’s almost like the concept in the movie Avatar.”

While Cruz-Neira and Rakhshan guided the project, she says the talented �鶹ԭ�� students are responsible for successfully implementing physical telepresence.

“This project was done entirely by �鶹ԭ�� students,” she says. “They are the ones who solved all the problems. They brought it to this level of sophistication to win the award.”

The technology has applications across industries wherever people cannot safely or easily be physically present.

A robot could enter buildings damaged by hurricanes or earthquakes to assess structural damage and search for survivors. Healthcare providers could remotely examine patients with limited mobility or those living far from medical facilities. Someone unable to travel could experience strolling along the Champs-Élysées in Paris through the robot’s perspective.

The most important aspect of the work is its ability to blend human intuition with technological innovation, Cruz-Neira says.

“At the end of the day, we have a human element, and robots can help us extend our human capabilities through this amazing technology,” she says. “This project is about [using] technology to augment or extend our human capabilities to help us do things more safely and more effectively.”

The team continues refining the technology to enhance the human experience. Future developments include incorporating artificial intelligence to give the robot greater autonomy and adding a sense of touch that would allow users to remotely feel temperature and texture, as well as manipulate objects.

Cruz-Neira says the project demonstrates not only what’s possible through emerging technologies, but also what �鶹ԭ�� students can accomplish when given the opportunity to tackle complex real-world challenges. The students have taken this project from the lab into the real world. They’ve built a robust working prototype that’s an exceptional display of real value for the community.

“�鶹ԭ�� is making [its] mark in the world as the technology university,” she says. “This project demonstrates that as a university, we’re part of the future that we like to talk about. [We’re helping build it.]”

2 Engineering Professors, 1 Alum Inducted Into Florida Inventors Hall of Fame

Marisa Ramiccio ’11 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:50:58 +0000

�鶹ԭ�� researchers are known worldwide for their innovative studies, groundbreaking discoveries and contributions to patented technologies that have impacted society and influenced other leaders in the field.

Two College of Engineering and Computer Science professors and a three-time �鶹ԭ�� alum-turned-courtesy faculty appointee are now being recognized for their achievements that have advanced the quality of life for the state of Florida and the nation.

Professors Reza Abdolvand and Ni-bin Chang and Lockheed Martin Fellow Clara Rivero Baleine ’01 ’03MS ’05PhD have been named 2026 inductees of the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame (FIHF). This initiative celebrates pioneering inventors and empowers future problem-solvers and changemakers.

This initiative celebrates pioneering inventors and empowers future problem-solvers and changemakers.

This year, 10 inventors from Florida will be inducted during a formal ceremony in Tampa on Nov. 6. Since FIHF was founded in 2013, five faculty inventors from �鶹ԭ�� have been recognized with the distinction.

“Induction into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame represents the ultimate validation of a lifelong commitment to translating academic research into industry practice,” Chang says. “Being inducted into the Hall of Fame, which includes over 90 inventors in different fields is also a testament to the thriving Florida innovation ecosystem and the power of continuous, groundbreaking discovery.”

Ni-bin Chang’s research is focused on sustainable water treatment technologies that improve water quality.

A Career in Environmental Innovation

Chang was selected for induction based on his groundbreaking invention of green sorption media (GSM) and sustainable water treatment technologies that improve water quality.

GSM is a cost-effective and sustainable type of filtration media that uses recycled byproducts and natural minerals to treat stormwater runoff, wastewater effluent, groundwater flow and agricultural discharge.

There are a variety of patented GSM blends that can filter heavy metals, pathogens and contaminants from water systems. This process not only restores aquatic ecosystems but halts the transmission of waterborne diseases, and eliminates cyanotoxins and “forever chemicals” from water that can harm both humans and animals.

“Removing these diverse contaminants from water matrices provides profound, cascading benefits for both human health and aquatic ecosystems,” Chang says. “By eliminating the risk pathways associated with both acute exposure and chronic bioaccumulation, these GSM-based treatment technologies support fundamental ecological balance and public well-being.”

GSM blends are already used at more than 300 water treatment sites across the U.S.

Reza Abdolvand serves as chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The Inventor of Advanced Electronics

Abdolvand, the chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was named an inductee for his contributions to the field of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) — incredibly small devices that have mighty power. Specifically, he is the inventor of a class of microelectronics called Thin-Film Piezoelectric-on-Substrate (TPoS) devices, which improve the reliability and efficiency of a wide range of electronics, including cell phones.

“By improving the efficiency and reliability of the components that make up these systems, the impact, while often invisible to the end user, is very real,” Abdolvand says. “Better performance, lower power consumption, and more reliable devices are the kinds of improvements that quietly make everyday technology work better for everyone.”

Abdolvand’s interest in innovation stems from his natural sense of curiosity. He says his tendency to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated events or systems has served him well throughout his career in research and academia.

“The moment it all clicked was during my Ph.D., when I was first given the opportunity to work on genuinely hard technical problems,” Abdolvand says. “I realized I could come up with solutions that simply did not exist yet. That realization was a turning point.”

As his career progresses, Abdolvand hopes to leave behind a legacy that is less about devices and innovation and more about people. His passion for educating, inspiring and creating opportunities for students means more than the impacts of his inventions.

“What excites me most is seeing students take the seed ideas developed at the university and carry them forward into their own companies, their own inventions, their own contributions to society,” Abdolvand says. “That chain of innovation — from a research lab to a startup to a product that improves people’s lives — is what I find truly meaningful. If I can play even a small role in setting that chain in motion for as many students as possible, that is the legacy I would be interested to leave behind.”

Clara Rivero Baleine continues to maintain strong ties with �鶹ԭ�� through a courtesy faculty appointment at CREOL and serves on the CREOL Dean Advisory Board and the �鶹ԭ�� Material Science Industrial Advisory board.

On the Cutting Edge of Infrared Materials and Optics

Driven by a desire to protect people and advance technologies that matter, Rivero Baleine joined Lockheed Martin, a �鶹ԭ�� Pegasus Partner, in 2005 after completing three degrees in six years at �鶹ԭ��.

Rivero Baleine now serves as a Lockheed Martin fellow, contributing to cutting‑edge innovation in infrared materials and optics.

Rivero-Baleine’s gradient refractive index optical materials and metamaterial coatings transformed infrared sensing systems for defense and advanced photonics applications.

“I am profoundly proud and deeply humbled to be welcomed into such an extraordinary community of inventors and innovators,” Rivero-Baleine says. “What inspires me most is knowing that these innovations will become part of systems that protect service members, strengthen national security and expand the capabilities of the platforms we rely on. That sense of purpose continues to drive my work every day.”

Rivero Baleine continues to maintain strong ties with �鶹ԭ�� through a courtesy faculty appointment at CREOL and serves on the CREOL Dean Advisory Board and the �鶹ԭ�� Material Science Industrial Advisory board.

Rivero Baleine is a Burnett Honors Scholar and earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, and a ��ٱ��’s and a doctorate in optics.

�鶹ԭ�� Researchers Advance Tech That Could Help Scientists Detect Habitable Worlds Beyond Our Solar System

Andrew Miller | Photos by Antoine Hart — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:00:18 +0000

Are we alone in the universe?

For scientists working on NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, that question is no longer purely philosophical. It is increasingly becoming an engineering problem.

Researchers at �鶹ԭ��’s are helping develop technology designed to help future space telescopes detect potentially habitable planets orbiting distant stars.

The NASA-funded project, known as PEEPSS (Photonics-Enabled Exoplanet Spectroscopic System), aims to help astronomers directly observe planets hidden within the overwhelming brightness of their parent stars.

“If they’re in the habitable zone, that means they are orbiting close to their host star, and that host star is typically going to be 10 billion times brighter than the planet,” says Professor Stephen Eikenberry, principal investigator on the project.

To explain the difficulty, Eikenberry compares the task to trying to spot “a tiny blinking light while someone is shining a spotlight directly in your face.”

The work supports the long-term goals of NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a future flagship space telescope intended to search for Earth-like planets beyond our solar system and analyze their atmospheres for signs of life.

Solving One of Astronomy’s Hardest Problems

Astronomers already know planets are common throughout the universe. The challenge now is identifying Earth-like planets that are extraordinarily faint compared to the stars they orbit.

Astronomers use instruments called coronagraphs to block a star’s glare while allowing faint planetary signals to reach a telescope’s detectors.

Even then, however, microscopic imperfections in a telescope’s optics can allow enormous amounts of starlight to leak through the system.

“And you can say, ‘Well, that’s only a part in a million,’ ” Eikenberry says. “Guess what? A part in a million means it’s still 10,000 times brighter than your exoplanet. You’re doomed.”

The system performs an advanced form of wavefront sensing that detects and corrects tiny distortions in incoming light before they overwhelm planetary signals.

Unlike many existing systems that monitor light earlier in the optical process, PEEPSS performs wavefront sensing directly at the telescope’s focal plane, the same location where scientific imaging occurs.

That distinction is important because it allows researchers to detect and correct optical errors that emerge after light passes through a telescope’s coronagraph. Scientists refer to these distortions as “non-common-path aberrations.”

To explain the concept, Eikenberry compares the system to trying to monitor a room you cannot fully see.

“Imagine you’re in a house and you want the entire house to be perfectly clean,” he says. “You can see people walking into the bedroom, but you can’t actually see inside the bedroom itself. That’s the non-common path.”

By monitoring the complete optical pathway all the way through to the focal plane, researchers hope PEEPSS can help future observatories achieve the extraordinary precision necessary to detect habitable worlds.

�鶹ԭ�� graduate students Liza Fernanda Quinn Reyes (foreground) and Genevieve Markees work with photonic lantern fabrication equipment in a CREOL laboratory. The technology is being developed as part of the NASA-funded PEEPSS project to improve future exoplanet imaging. (Photo by Antoine Hart)

A New Approach Using Photonic Lanterns

At the center of the project is an emerging technology known as a photonic lantern.

The device separates complex incoming light into individual optical channels, allowing researchers to recover not only brightness information, but also phase information carried by light waves, data that conventional imaging systems typically discard.

Precision fabrication equipment used by �鶹ԭ�� researchers to develop photonic lanterns for the NASA-funded PEEPSS project. The technology is designed to improve future observations of Earth-like exoplanets. (Photo by Antoine Hart)

“Traditional detectors wipe that information out,” Eikenberry says. “Photonic lanterns allow us to recover it.”

That additional information enables what researchers describe as “quantum-inspired imaging,” an emerging technique that uses light behavior to improve image resolution and filter out the remaining starlight.

Researchers at CREOL have become major contributors to the rapidly growing field of astrophotonics, which combines astronomy, fiber optics and advanced photonic technologies.

“There are really only two major centers doing cutting-edge work on photonic lanterns,” Eikenberry says. “Us and the University of Sydney in Australia.”

The project brings together collaborators from �鶹ԭ��, University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Sydney, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. At �鶹ԭ��, Eikenberry works alongside graduate student Genevieve Markees and researchers including Rodrigo Amezcua Correa, Miguel Bandres and Jose-Enrique Antonio-Lopez, whose expertise in fiber optics and photonics helped establish the collaboration.

Looking Toward Habitable Worlds

The current PEEPSS project is structured as a three-year effort focused on building and testing prototype photonic lantern systems in laboratory and telescope environments.

Some versions of the technology have already undergone testing on telescopes in Hawaii through collaborations with the Air Force Research Laboratory and international research partners.

Ultimately, researchers hope the technology could become part of the future NASA missions searching for habitable planets around distant stars.

“If we can identify habitable worlds around other stars and show they possess conditions where Earth-like life could survive, that’s already revolutionary,” Eikenberry says. “If we discover actual evidence of life, then we’re talking about one of the greatest scientific discoveries in human history.”

For Eikenberry, humanity may now be approaching a historic turning point.

“We are one mission away,” he says.

And if future observations succeed, humanity may no longer simply wonder whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. For researchers involved in the project, that possibility is what makes the work so compelling.

“We’ll look up and know.”

The PEEPSS project is supported by NASA through award No. 80NSSC26K0577 and brings together researchers from �鶹ԭ��, the University of Sydney and the University of California, Santa Cruz to develop advanced photonic technologies for future exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy missions, including NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory. The initial PEEPSS concept development was supported by the �鶹ԭ�� through its SPICE Academic Excellence Program.

�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, ��ٱ��’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)

4 �鶹ԭ�� Experts Named 2026 American Academy of Nursing Fellows

Julie Harper ’01 — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:37:56 +0000

Four faculty members from �鶹ԭ��’s College of Nursing have been selected to receive the profession’s most prestigious recognition of fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN): Jean Davis ’19PhD, Jacqueline LaManna ’13�ʳ��, Kimberly Navarro and Kaitlyn Rechenberg.

�鶹ԭ�� has the most inductees among universities in Florida in the 2026 American Academy of Nursing Class of Fellows, which includes influential healthcare leaders from across the U.S. and around the world. The induction ceremony will be held on Oct. 10, 2026, during the organization’s annual Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.

Fellows are selected through a rigorous nomination and review process, and recognized for substantial contributions to improving health outcomes. With the new cohort, the American Academy of Nursing will have more than 3,600 fellows worldwide dedicated to advancing nursing leadership, innovation and science.

The four new inductees, whose collective works have advanced care across the lifespan from pediatrics to older adults, will join 11 fellows of the American Academy of Nursing on faculty at �鶹ԭ��’s College of Nursing.

Jean Davis ’19PhD

Nursing Associate Professor Jean Davis is advancing public health through her interdisciplinary scholarly work. By working with a collaborative team of public health, psychology, kinesiology and artificial intelligence experts, she has developed and continually improved upon a physical activity habit-forming intervention that tailors cues for movement and optimizes responses to ultimately improve outcomes. This intervention is improving health for veterans and pregnant women, and influencing providers, educators and health systems. Davis is also dedicated to advancing nursing science through active mentorship of �鶹ԭ�� nursing students and early career scholars.

Jacqueline LaManna ’13�ʳ��

For more than three decades, Family Nurse Practitioner and Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program Director Jacqueline LaManna ’13�ʳ�� has made substantial contributions to advancing diabetes care and self-management education as a provider, educator and researcher. Her scholarly works have been cited more than 250 times and are included in the American Diabetes Association Standards of Care in Diabetes shaping care for pregnant women. In addition, LaManna has helped establish national frameworks for telehealth education for nurse practitioner graduate students that have been accessed more than 4,000 times.

Kimberly Navarro

Lecturer Kimberly Navarro is a certified nurse midwife and board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner who has pioneered community health initiatives to increase healthcare access and improve quality of care for children, adolescents, and pregnant women in the U.S., Guatemala, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. As program director of the Hispanic serving healthcare professionals graduate certificate at �鶹ԭ��, Navarro has increased access to the program, strengthened curriculum, and mentored future healthcare professionals. In addition to her faculty appointment Navarro maintains a clinical practice as founder and president of a technology-driven midwifery-led birth center in Orlando.

Kaitlyn Rechenberg

Associate Professor Kaitlyn Rechenberg is advancing standards of behavioral healthcare for children and adolescents living with complex chronic medical conditions through design and implementation of technology-driven interventions. She pioneered the development and validation of the first precision instrument to differentiate diabetes-specific anxiety symptoms from general anxiety symptoms. She also created a mobile health application to deliver tailored mindfulness training to adolescents living with diabetes. Her scholarly work has been cited in seminal position statements by both the American Diabetes Association and International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes and has been cited nearly 800 times across 26 countries.

CATER Named an Official University Research Center

Marisa Ramiccio — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:23:11 +0000

At the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research (CATER), the mission is simple: CATER to the energy needs of society. For 20 years, researchers affiliated with the center have worked on groundbreaking projects in power generation, space propulsion and aviation that have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in power generation, air travel and spaceflight.

Now CATER is expanding its mission and its reach as it shifts from a center within the College of Engineering and Computer Science to an official university center, effective July 1. This new iteration of CATER includes structured goals for faculty success, advancing new industry and national lab partnerships and the development of new research and testing facilities for students and faculty.

“Florida has an unparallel industrial ecosystem that includes turbomachinery companies, space propulsion companies and aviation companies,” Pegasus Professor and Trustee Chair Jayanta Kapat says. “CATER works at the intersection of these technologies and strives to provide the best training to �鶹ԭ�� students who will work for these organizations, capable of providing them with fast and quality technical solutions.”

Fostering Faculty Mentorship

�鶹ԭ�� sets up its faculty for long-term success, in part, through quality mentorship.

As part of Kapat’s plan, core senior CATER faculty members will mentor incoming assistant professors who join CATER as core faculty members until they receive promotion and tenure. Throughout the process, junior faculty will receive guidance on the grant funding process and networking as well as student recruitment and advising.

CATER’s current interdisciplinary faculty expertise includes mechanical and aerospace engineering, and modeling, simulation and training.

“The typical faculty career is 20 to 30 years, and we want our faculty to stay successful over that period of time,” Kapat says. “None of this is taught in a university as a course. So in CATER we have created a very intense one-to-one mentorship plan that worked well in the previous version of CATER so that core members can sustain productivity over their entire faculty careers.”

Redefining the Research Focus

To be considered or to remain a core member of CATER, senior faculty will need to continuously meet specific metrics such as annual research expenditures, total annual awards, the number of mentored graduate students, number doctoral graduations, publications, etc.

CATER won’t expand beyond 15 core members and 10 research faculty members, while keeping its focus on various research applications, such as hypersonics and national security, energy and sustainability, advanced air mobility, and space power and propulsion.

“These are the areas where we contribute to the university’s overall strategic initiatives that President Alexander N. Cartwright implemented as part of �鶹ԭ��’s strategic plan,” Kapat says. “So this is our contribution to the university’s strategic goals.”

The faculty are already working on several research projects to support CATER’s research pillars, including the development of digital twin architecture for power plants and aviation systems, creating new fuels for zero-emission aviation, use of supercritical carbon dioxide, molten salt and ammonia as energy carriers for future power generation systems, expanding design paradigm using advanced manufacturing and newer materials, and investigating the possibility of building a power plant on the moon.

Expanding Industry Partnerships

CATER also supports industry needs through partnerships with major energy, aerospace and defense organizations that are based in Central Florida, including Pegasus Partner Siemens Energy. For the past decade, CATER’s homebase has been the Siemens Energy Center on the main campus. But now researchers have additional facilities that support their work.

CATER and the Aerospace Technology Group (ATG) have collaborated on the CATER-ATG Engine Research Test (CERT) facility, which recently opened at Valkaria Airport near Melbourne, Florida. The space allows CATER researchers to certify engine parts and develop/validate new technologies that companies like Boeing or GE could incorporate into their next generation aviation systems.

Professor Kareem Ahmed, a world expert in hypersonic and space propulsion, is using the space to conduct fuel tests for the Department of Defense. Professor Subith Vasu, a world expert in supercritical carbon dioxide oxy-combustion and ammonia combustion, will conduct engine testing of ammonia as a fuel for an actual aviation gas turbine — one of the first in the world.

Kapat’s group is conducting ground testing of hypersonic flight components and will conduct cracking of ammonia using heat from a gas turbine exhaust. Such experiments can’t be run on the �鶹ԭ�� campus.

A third joint facility called the CATER Applied Propulsion and Energy Center (CAPE), is under development with start of operation expected by August. This would house several mid-TRL experimental rigs on supercritical carbon dioxide cycle, molten salt systems and components, energy storage, advanced air mobility, etc.

CAPE facility will be also strategically located close to the world’s largest molten salt energy storage facility, called MOSS, being planned by Siemens Energy and will be used to test components for thermal energy storage systems and thermal interface for advanced nuclear reactors. Siemens Energy would own the MOSS facility while a nuclear reactor company will supply a large fraction of the equipment. �鶹ԭ�� researchers will help operate and use the facility to conduct research and train the next generation of nuclear and mechanical engineers.

“We need to train the new workforce because there is not enough people trained in nuclear engineering anymore,” Kapat says. “Mechanical engineering is a nuclear-adjacent area, so they see this as an opportunity to train the workforce by letting them run the facility. So it’s a win-win for everybody.”

New �鶹ԭ�� Study Links Microgravity, Space Radiation to Accelerated Aging

Eddy Duryea ’13 — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:12:21 +0000

What happens to the human body in space may help scientists create new anti-aging therapies.

�鶹ԭ�� Professor Michal Masternak and his team have identified molecular changes in the liver that happen when space travelers experience radiation and microgravity. These changes – that resemble accelerated aging – provide new insight into how prolonged space missions may increase health risks for astronauts and reveal potential targets for therapies that could combat age-related diseases on Earth.

“Just 24 hours after radiation exposure, there are many genetic changes in the liver that are remarkably similar to what happens during aging.” — Professor Michal Masternak

“We focused on the liver because it is one of the major metabolic organs in our body,” says Masternak, leader of the College of Medicine’s aging and space medicine research efforts. “What we found was that just 24 hours after radiation exposure, there are many genetic changes in the liver that are remarkably similar to what happens during aging. We can assume that if someone were in space much longer, the damage could be much greater.”

The findings were recently published in GeroScience.

Professor Michal Masternak says the space industry provides unique opportunities to study aging at an accelerated pace. (Photo by Eddy Duryea ’13 )

Navigating the Science

For their study, �鶹ԭ�� researchers and scientists from the U.S. created a simulated deep space environment in the lab. The team exposed animal models to simulated microgravity for 14 days and galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events at NASA Space Radiation Laboratory trying to mimic the dosage that astronauts would be exposed to during a trip to Mars.

The exposure triggered noticeable and potentially harmful changes in the liver, including increased cellular senescence (aging and decreased cell function), inflammation and fibrosis. Left untreated, these conditions can eventually lead to declining and even failing organ function.

The research team then compared their results with data collected from astronaut blood samples taken during the NASA Twins Study and Inspiration4 astronauts. They saw similar genetic changes in blood.

“We’ve got this raw data from human studies, and they show that some of these changes are similar,” Masternak says. “That tells us we’re identifying useful molecular targets that one day could help protect astronauts during long-duration space missions.”

They also went a step further to see whether the changes could be treated. They identified a group of molecules known as antagomirs that alter several aging and inflammatory genetic pathways by interacting with the body’s microRNA. This system could pinpoint promising future therapies for space travelers.

(From left to right): Biotechnology graduate student Sarah Siddiqi, researcher Mishfak Mansoor, �鶹ԭ�� Professor Michal Masternak and biomedical sciences doctoral student Md Tanjim Alam. (Photo by Eddy Duryea ’13 )

Understanding Aging in the Space Age

Masternak says the nation’s growing space industry provides a unique opportunity to study aging at an accelerated pace.

“Very often when we study different aging processes, it takes time,” he says. “Even in humans, it’s almost impossible because it would take decades. But if we see some acceleration of aging in space, then we can translate it to human studies. We can observe processes happening much faster, understand them better and eventually use that knowledge to improve health for people here on Earth.”

“If we see some acceleration of aging in space, then … we can observe processes happening much faster, understand them better and eventually use that knowledge to improve health for people here on Earth.” — Masternak

Those discoveries could eventually lead to therapies that slow age-related diseases, preserve organ function and improve quality of life for everyone as they age.

“Our understanding of aging is very complex,” Masternak says. “Aging isn’t simply wrinkles or cosmetic changes. It’s the gradual and cascading failure of multiple organs and biological systems that happen at the same time. By understanding what starts that process and where it happens, we have a better chance of preventing many diseases before they develop. That is one of the biggest outstanding questions.”

Students Positioned at the Forefront of Space Medicine

College of Medicine students are also benefitting from space medicine research. Biomedical sciences Ph.D. student Md Tanjim Alam ’25MS joined Masternak’s laboratory during his biotechnology master’s program after initially planning to study cancer in relation to aging biology. Then he was introduced to space medicine, including processing astronaut samples from commercial space travelers to study how extreme environments affect human biology. That research has inspired him.

“I want to keep exploring the unknown,” Alam says. “I really want to understand how space travel influences human health, particularly its effects on aging and cancer.”

��ǳٱ𳦳�ԴǱ��ǲ��ܲ��ٱ��ٳܻ��Գ����.��徱�羱��’24��says the interdisciplinary nature of the research attracted her to the space medicine and aging lab.

“When people think of aging, they think only about elderly populations,” says Siddiqi, who earned her bachelor’s degree as a Burnett Honors Scholar in biomedical sciences. “But we study aging across different stages of life and different environments, including space. I’ll always be focused on improving quality of life. I want to better understand diseases that are increasingly prevalent and find ways to recognize them earlier, before they progress to later stages.”

Funding and Disclosure:

��Գپ��Բ��,��Natalie Hayslip ’24 served as first author, while Sarah Ashiqueali ’21MS ’24PhD, Xiang Zhu, Ridwan Hussein ’22 and Mishfak Mansoor also contributed to the research. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also contributed.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Award Number (FAIN): 2317758(MMM), Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program of the Florida Department of Health, Public Health Research, Biomedical Research Program 24A12 (MMM), and the National Science Centre, Poland UMO-2023/51/B/NZ5/00498 (MMM).

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the awarding agencies.

�鶹ԭ�� School of Teacher Education Director Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Engineering Education Society

Natalie Fedor ’26MA — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:41:32 +0000

Every groundbreaking engineer was once a student, which is what makes the work of passionate educators like ’92 so important.

Those first introductions to STEM in the classroom — whether through simple pattern recognition, launching water balloons across a football field or the classic “egg drop” project — all serve as formative learning experiences that lead children to shape the future of engineering.

For Borowczak, it’s why she’s been passionate about developing new ways to incorporate early introductions to engineering education in the classroom and beyond. In honor of her 20-plus years of this work, Borowczak was peer-nominated and selected for the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) Pre-College Engineering Education (PCEE) division.

The Lifetime Achievement award is given to a PCEE Division member who has provided a high standard of service in support of pre-college engineering education, and who has made significant and sustained contributions to the field. In her 20 years with PCEE, Borowczak held multiple leadership roles for PCEE, served as associate editor for ASEE’s Computers in Education journal for six years, and led and published many research studies on engineering education.

“Winning this award was very humbling, and I’m extremely grateful,” she says. “There’s still a lot of work that I want to do, but I’m so incredibly appreciative of all the mentors that I’ve had who gave me the support that’s allowed me to do the work that I’ve done with teachers and students.”

Borowczak’s research centers on integrated STEM education, often focusing on how engineering, technology and math can be woven into the classroom at all levels. That work has earned her more than $11 million in grant funding over her career, including support from the National Science Foundation.

“To really understand any subject, you have to understand the adjacent subjects,” she says. “Engineering education is a fantastic way of bringing real-world application front and center. I was already doing engineering-like projects before I even realized I was doing engineering education.”

The contribution she’s most proud of is demonstrating that teachers across subjects and grade levels can integrate STEM disciplines into their existing instruction plans without it becoming extra work. She believes that giving students the opportunity to see themselves in STEM starts with teachers.

“Whether we’re talking about kindergarten or a university class, there are ways to integrate different subjects effectively,” she says. “I think I’m most proud of showcasing how that’s happened and having the evidence and the data to back it up.”

That same systems-level thinking now informs her leadership of �鶹ԭ��’s School of Teacher Education. For Borowczak, a lifetime achievement award is far from the finish line. She plans to keep building partnerships across disciplines and is currently exploring how AI should be integrated into classroom teaching and learning.

Her work continues this summer through the School of Teacher Education’s inaugural “Eclipse” STEM Summer Camp, which will be hosted at Orange County Public Schools Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) in Downtown Orlando. The camp is dedicated to learning through STEM, including two engineering education-focused sessions each day of the two-week experience.

“Our whole country is beholden to our pre-K-12 teachers,” she says. “They’re at the front lines of every engineering education movement and every STEM movement. Every time we as a society decide something is important, teachers are the ones who make it happen.”

�鶹ԭ��-Led VERA Project Reaches 2 Major Milestones for VR Research

Julie Harper ’01 — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:30:23 +0000

After years of research and development led by experts at �鶹ԭ�� in collaboration with researchers from universities across the U.S. and in Europe, the Virtual Experience Research Accelerator (VERA) has reached two major milestones: powering its first full-scale study to address one of virtual reality’s most persistent barriers to adoption and awarding its first use grant to enhance immersive learning and information across industries.

VERA, a platform funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, is the first, large-scale system for extended reality human subjects research and designed to advance the speed, scale and scope of immersive research. The platform enables immersive researchers to design, deploy, and manage virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) studies with remote participants therefore significantly improving the quality of the science, while reducing costs, lowering logistical barriers and expanding participant reach.

“No one has built anything like VERA before,” says Pegasus Professor Gregory Welch, lead principal investigator on VERA. “The team was really starting from scratch to create this national platform, integrating AI technologies and establishing policies and procedures that will produce methodologically rigorous behavioral data.”

“We’re excited for VERA to now start to run in an open beta mode and reach these two firsts,” Welch continues.

Cybersickness occurs when symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and discomfort are caused by a mismatch between visual motion in a headset and the user’s physical motion.

Accelerating Understanding of Cybersickness

For its first major large-scale study leveraging remote participants, VERA is helping researchers address one of the most persistent challenges in virtual reality: cybersickness.

Cybersickness occurs when symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and discomfort are caused by a mismatch between visual motion in a headset and the user’s physical motion. Associate Professor of Computer Science Gerd Bruder, who is an affiliate researcher in the Institute of Simulation and Training, is leading the research study in collaboration with other �鶹ԭ�� researchers and external partners.

“Understanding who is susceptible to cybersickness is critical to improving VR accessibility, making VR more comfortable for all users and enabling broader adoption across research, education and industry,” Bruder says.

Early data collection highlights the powerful capabilities of the VERA platform to accelerate VR research at an unprecedented scale.

In just 15 cumulative days, VERA had more than 250 participants complete the full study protocol. In comparison, the original in-lab study collected data from just 30 participants and in traditional VR research settings, studies with hundreds of participants often require several months to complete.

For the study, each participant experiences a controlled VR rollercoaster ride on their own headset and provides sickness ratings at periodic intervals, a pre- and post- exposure questionnaire, an in-VR visual acuity assessment, and continuous head-tracking data. Each session is completed in approximately 30 minutes at home.

“The sectors where VERA can make an impact are expansive, from healthcare to workforce training to accessibility to learning.”

Enrollment is ongoing with a target of 2,000 participants. Preliminary analyses already suggest meaningful individual differences in how quickly and severely participants experience cybersickness.

“VERA was built to study problems like this with a combination of speed, scale and experimental complexity not previously possible,” Welch says. “The sectors where VERA can make an impact are expansive, from healthcare to workforce training to accessibility to learning.”

AdventHealth Endowed Chair in Healthcare Simulation Greg Welch (left) and Associate Professor Gerd Bruder from �鶹ԭ��’s Institute for Simulation and Training (right) are leading the VERA initiative and first study.

Groundbreaking Immersive Learning Project

For the first project selected in its Use Grant program, VERA is supporting innovative research to study how different immersive technologies engage learners in different ways. The study will help inform how to leverage emerging technologies in education, cultural institutions, public engagement and more.

The grant was awarded to the San José State University School of Information Library Technology Integration Lab in Silicon Valley and New Media Learning, one of the largest providers of virtual reality programming in public libraries.

The project will support a collaborative virtual reality research environment integrated with VERA with participants from across the U.S. in public libraries, universities and other sites.

Researchers will collect behavioral and interaction data including attention patterns, object interaction, navigation pathways, movement, clicks, engagement metrics, and time-on-task, supplemented by surveys and participant feedback. The resulting research environment will serve a scalable prototype for future applications to make immersive learning experiences more accessible to communities worldwide.

A distinguishing feature of the project is the active involvement of San José State University undergraduate and graduate students from the School of Information who will work alongside faculty researchers and technology partners to gain hands-on experience.

“Being selected as the first VERA Use Grant recipient is both an honor and an extraordinary opportunity,” says Anthony S. Chow, professor in the San José State University School of Information and founder of the Library Technology Integration Lab. “Through this collaboration, we hope to generate research that helps libraries, educators, museums and community organizations leverage virtual reality to address some of society’s most important challenges while creating meaningful research opportunities for students.”

“We are excited to welcome San José State University and New Media Learning as the first recipients of a VERA Use Grant,” Welch says. “Their expertise in libraries, immersive learning, public engagement and emerging technologies makes them ideal partners for demonstrating how VERA can accelerate impactful XR research. We believe this collaboration will help establish new models for studying learning, engagement, and information behavior in immersive environments.”

A Retirement Tribute to �鶹ԭ��’s Online Learning Pioneer, Longest-Serving Faculty Member

Robert Stephens — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:54:56 +0000

Chuck Dziuban came to �鶹ԭ�� (then Florida Technological University) to teach statistics in 1970 at 29 years old, fresh off earning his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. Over the course of 56 years, he wound up putting the university on the global map for a wide range of innovations.

At the threshold of retirement on June 30, �鶹ԭ��’s first Pegasus Professor (honored in 2000) and original architect of online learning would rather talk about his ultimate inspiration.

“My greatest reward is that so many of my former students stay in touch with me,” says Dziuban, an inaugural Online Learning Consortium (formerly Sloan Consortium) fellow.

“My greatest reward is that so many of my former students stay in touch with me.”

Those students often showed up for Dziuban’s statistics and research design classes. Many of these students were daunted by the subjects only to find that the person teaching them listened intently, making himself, and the material, approachable.

This is Dziuban’s style — with students, colleagues, everyone. To effectively teach, he knows he must begin with the right questions. That curiosity-driven approach has guided �鶹ԭ�� to be a leader in online education, including the �鶹ԭ�� Online program which serves 9,000 students annually, for over 30 years — earning recognition among the nation’s best programs, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Here, �鶹ԭ��’s longest serving faculty member is finally on the other side of the questions, sharing insightful reflection and parting wise words.

Chuck Dziuban in his early days at the university.

Humble Roots

“I never set out to achieve any of this,” he says, “but the smallest incidences can make significant impacts.”

Dziuban grew up near Utica, New York, where most boys graduated from high school and followed their fathers into the mills. Dziuban, avid about hunting and fishing, began to develop a routine that exists to this day: reading two books every week.

“The truth is, I didn’t want to work in a mill,” he says. “Reading led to college and college allowed me to reinvent myself. People had called me Charlie. I hated it. In college, I became Chuck.”

Chuck earned degrees, moved, taught, and discovered a connection with statistics and research. At the University of Wisconsin, a mentor, Chester Harris, changed his life.

“He was terrifyingly smart,” Dziuban says, “but he knew the importance of understanding students before expecting them to understand the subject. I still have a picture of Chester on my desk. It keeps me humble.”

Humility was among the factors that drew Dziuban to a new university in Orlando, where parking lots were dirt and a cardboard box housed the university’s entire computing output.

“I saw FTU then, and �鶹ԭ�� now, as a place where you had room to develop ideas.”

“I saw FTU then, and �鶹ԭ�� now, as a place where you had room to develop ideas,” he says. “It was like a Silicon Valley startup. You weren’t sure how it might go, but at least the vibe was positive.”

He developed one of his first ideas following a three-hour statistics lecture.

“My students should have been in an emergency room after that lecture,” he says. “I realized they’d learn better by running data first and then coming back for an abbreviated lesson — similar to what we call a ‘flipped classroom.’ Students said, ‘Oh, I get it now.’ ”

Former president John C. Hitt (left) charged Chuck Dziuban (right) to innovate and develop what is now �鶹ԭ��’s robust online learning programming.

Pioneering Digital Learning

Dziuban was called upon to use his expertise in and research design to develop a plethora of ideas that would attract international attention to �鶹ԭ��.

One of those early ideas led to a seismic shift that thousands of �鶹ԭ�� and �鶹ԭ�� Online students are still benefitting from today.

While developing what would become the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, Dziuban mentioned to the university’s fourth president, John C. Hitt, the concept of remote learning through the use of VHS tapes.

“He told me to innovate,” Dziuban says, “so we used computers instead of tapes. Eventually, we had the most sophisticated online learning model in the country, and the walls of classrooms came down.”

This is why, the annual Chuck D. Dziuban Award for Excellence in Online Teaching, established in 2012, is bestowed to one �鶹ԭ�� instructor who teaches an exemplary online or video course.

“Like I said, I never planned any of this,” he says.

President Alexander N. Cartwright (left) congratulates Chuck Dziuban (right) at a faculty and staff celebration.

Staying True to “Doing the Right Thing”

If you ever stepped near Dziuban’s office, you’d see a poster featuring a child with hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen — namesake of �鶹ԭ��’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Rosen used an adage that’s echoed in Dziuban’s mind since they began to break barriers to education in communities in need 31 years ago: “Do the right thing.”

With this as his guide, Dziuban helped The Rosen Foundation institute a program to ensure free preschool and resources through high school. College and trade school would also be free. Instead of directing the program, they empowered people in Orlando’s Tangelo Park and Parramore communities to lead it.

Chuck Dziuban recognizes a pre-K graduate as part of his involvement with The Rosen Foundation.

They’ve expanded that impact across Florida as well, and the results have been remarkable — including a recent $50,000 donation from the Harris Rosen Foundation to Gainesville for All in honor of Dziuban’s work transformative community initiatives.

“The odds of earning a college education have gone from nine-to-one against to three-to-one in favor,” Dziuban says. “There’s immense talent in every community. We can’t let it go to waste. It’s why we start young and celebrate every success.”

At the end of this school year, he will be on stage for just such a celebration.

“I’ll have the honor of moving tassels from the right to the left on the graduation caps of pre-k students,” Dziuban says.

The man with six decades of achievements in higher education will stand back and enjoy a moment the 4- and 5-year-old kids can tell others about.

“I can’t imagine anything more meaningful than that.”