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UCF Ranks 21st in U.S. Public Universities for Patents with 57 New Inventions in 2023

March 14, 2024
UCF continues to be a top university in the world for producing patents, securing 57 patents in calendar year 2023 and ranking 53rd among public and private universities in the world and 21st in the nation among public universities. The worldwide rankings, released this month from the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), place UCF in a…

UCF Research Sets New Funding Record for Fiscal Year 2023

January 4, 2024
The University of Central Florida saw another record year in research funding for fiscal year 2023, with more than $217 million in total sponsored awards. This is the eighth consecutive year of increased research funding for the university. Top awards included funding for the UCF-led mission to the moon’s mysterious Gruithuisen Domes and for UCF’s Center for Community…

UCF Alumna Receives $1M NSF Grant to Further Development of Microbe-Killing Residual Disinfectant

November 3, 2023
The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded a Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Phase II award for $1 million to Kismet Technologies to further its research and development of a broad-spectrum residual antimicrobial technology that eradicates COVID-19 among other bacteria and viruses. The company, led by UCF materials science and engineering alumna Christina Drake ’07PhD,…

AI Drug Discoveries to Cut Costs and Save Lives: Medicine’s Next Big Thing?

July 14, 2023
ORLANDO, FL – It takes millions, if not billions, of dollars to take a drug from the lab to the pharmacy. Last year out of thousands of drugs in clinical trials, the FDA approved 37, the fewest to pass regulatory scrutiny since 2016. But now, artificial intelligence, or AI, may help to weed out the good…

UCF Ranks as a Top 25 U.S. Public University for Patents Granted

May 1, 2023
The University of Central Florida has moved into the ranks of the top 25 public universities in the nation for patents granted, according to the latest report from the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). UCF secured 63 patents in 2022, ranking it No. 52 in the world and No. 23 among public universities in the…

MSE Affiliated Posters Win Awards at Student Scholar Symposium

March 31, 2023
UCF students shared their discoveries, findings and breakthroughs at the 2023 Student Scholar Symposium. More than 500 students, including some from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, showcased their work at the annual research celebration co-hosted by the College of Graduate Studies, the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Division of Student Success and Well-Being.…

UCF Researchers Receive Patent for COVID-Killing Nano-Coating

February 21, 2023
A team of UCF researchers, led by Materials Science and Engineering Professor Sudipta Seal, have been awarded a patent for their nanomaterial-based disinfectant that can kill several viruses, including COVID-19. This is the 85th patent that Seal has been awarded through the UCF Office of Technology Transfer. The Pegasus Professor and chair of the Department of Materials Science…

UCF Researchers Design Treatment to Protect Bones During Cancer Therapy

September 26, 2022
UCF material sciences engineers Melanie Coathup and Sudipta Seal have designed a cerium oxide nanoparticle — an artificial enzyme — that protects bones against damage from radiation. The nanoparticle has also shown abilities to improve bone regeneration, reduce loss of blood cells and help kill cancer cells. Their study, a collaboration with Oakland University, North…

AI-Based Screening Method Could Boost Speed of New Drug Discovery

September 23, 2022
Developing life-saving medicines can take billions of dollars and decades of time, but University of Central Florida researchers are aiming to speed up this process with a new artificial intelligence-based drug screening process they’ve developed. Using a method that models drug and target protein interactions using natural language processing techniques, the researchers achieved up to…

UCF Researchers Prove that COVID Disinfectant Works in Latest Research Paper

September 21, 2022
A team of UCF researchers have proven the efficacy of a nanomaterial-based disinfectant they developed to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Through their experiments, they found that the disinfectant was able to kill several serious viruses including SARS and Zika. The results of their findings were recently published in ACS Applied Materials and…

3 UCF Colleges Receive $4.5M for Infectious Disease, Travel Health Research Initiative

July 25, 2022
University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, College of Medicine and College of Engineering and Computer Science have received $4.5 million dollars in funding for a research initiative aimed at mitigating the damage caused to hospitality, travel, and small businesses by health crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding for the collaborative research project comes from the…

MSE Students Gain Hands-On Experience Through GEMS Fellowships

July 11, 2022
Seven University of Central Florida graduate students are currently interning at Adobe and 3M, among other leading employers thanks to fellowships supported by the National Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering Fellowship (GEM) program. The GEM program began in 1976. The public-private partnership aims to connect students from underrepresented groups with the nation’s top employers…

MSE Student Receives Two Scholarships From UCF

June 14, 2022
Materials science and engineering doctoral student Udit Kumar has received two scholarships from the UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science. Kumar has been selected for the Dr. Austin L. Grogan Scholarship as well as the David T. and Jane M. Donaldson Scholarship. The former is worth $500 and the latter is worth $4,000. Both…

Five MSE Students Receive SURF Fellowship

June 1, 2022
Five students affiliated with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering have been selected to receive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships from UCF. Avani Shandilya, Erik Marcelo, Ishan Patel, Ryan Wood and Erin Watson will each spend the summer working a research project that they will later present at the UCF Summer Undergraduate Research Poster Showcase.…

First Materials Science and Engineering Team to Present at Senior Design Showcase

April 20, 2022
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering marks a milestone this semester with its first entry in the Senior Design Showcase. A team of four students, guided by Assistant Professor Tengfei Jiang, will make department history when they present their project, titled “Alloy Design for Solder Joints in Advanced Semiconductor Devices.” “Being the first in…

UCF’s Bone Doctor Aims to Protect Our Bones Here on Earth and in Space

March 17, 2022
Our human bones are under constant attack. From the moment we are born, they are fending off against aging and degenerative diseases. Some begin to crumble under the weight of cancer and there is evidence that time in gravity free space also weakens our bones. At UCF, Melanie Coathup is working to find ways to…

UCF Researchers Share Their Insights into Innovation and Inspiration

February 16, 2022
Innovation at UCF is not an exception; It is the expectation. In 2021, U.S. News and World Report ranked the University of Central Florida as the 15th most innovative university in the United States — of the top 30, it was also the youngest. The classification drew from a survey of top college administrators, asking them to nominate…

Long-lasting Disinfectant Promises To Help Fight Pandemics

September 2, 2021
UCF researchers have developed a nanoparticle-based disinfectant that can continuously kill viruses on a surface for up to seven days – a discovery that could be a powerful weapon against COVID-19 and other emerging pathogenic viruses. The findings, by a multidisciplinary team of the university’s virus and engineering experts and the leader of an Orlando technology firm,…

UCF Awarded $800,000 Grant to Establish Center on Materials Research and Education

September 2, 2021
The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Central Florida an $800,000 grant to help build a partnership with the University of Washington that will accelerate research in the areas of Ultrafast Dynamics and Catalysis in Emerging Materials. UCF was one of 10 universities selected across the nation for the award. The funding,…

UCF Researchers are Helping Develop Rapid, Longer Lasting COVID Disinfectant

September 9, 2020
Current disinfectant products for killing viruses like coronavirus take minutes to fully sanitize surfaces, which isn’t practical on high-contact areas such as door handles, elevators and bannisters. That’s why the University of Central Florida is co-developing a new, rapid-acting, long-lasting disinfectant spray that instantly kills viruses without using harsh chemicals. The project is led by Christina Drake…

Engineer Named National Fellow for Work in Materials Science

June 12, 2020
Engineering Professor Sudipta Seal has been named a 2020 Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS). The organization, which began in 1968 when brick manufacturers got together to discuss the industry, has grown into one of the most influential groups shaping the way we think about materials science. It includes 11,000 scientists, engineers, researchers, manufacturers,…

New Bachelor’s Degree in Materials Science and Engineering to Begin in Fall

April 9, 2020
Undergraduate engineering students have a new degree option at the University of Central Florida with the addition of a bachelor’s degree program in materials science and engineering, a field that combines engineering, physics and chemistry to design and manufacture materials that all other engineering fields require. UCF is one of only two universities in the…

UCF Scientists Seek Novel Material to Kill COVID-19

April 8, 2020
Masks that protect doctors and nurses from COVID-19 only block the virus before it reaches their faces, but UCF researchers are working to create a protective coating that would include a novel mask material that would catch the virus and kill it within seconds. Sudipta Seal, an engineer specializing in material science and nanotechnology, initiated this project…

UCF Researcher’s Novel Nanoparticles Show Promise in Healing Diabetic Wounds

February 12, 2020
A University of Central Florida researcher’s novel work in nanoscale antioxidants is continuing to show promise in the medical field, with a new study that shows their effectiveness in helping to heal diabetic wounds. The study, published recently in the journal Acta Biomaterialia, showed that gels containing cerium oxide nanoparticles, whose therapeutic properties were discovered by UCF,…

UCF Engineering Chair Named Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry

July 17, 2019
Sudipta Seal, an engineering professor and chair of UCF’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, one of the oldest chemical societies in the world. “Getting recognized by the Royal Society of Chemistry is not only a humbling experience but will also create a lot…

Engineering Chair to Receive 2 International Awards

April 15, 2019
Sudipta Seal, an engineering professor and chair of UCF’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, will receive two international awards in the coming months for his contributions to materials science research. He will receive the prestigious Materials Research Society Fellow award at the end of April during the society’s spring meeting. Seal will be the first…

UCF Researchers Developing Sensor to Detect Brain Disorders in Seconds

March 18, 2019
Using nanotechnology, UCF researchers have developed the first rapid detector for dopamine, a chemical that is believed to play a role in various diseases such as Parkinson’s, depression and some cancers. Studies show too much dopamine could be associated with some cancers, while low dopamine could be associated with Parkinson’s disease and depression.  The new…

UCF to Offer Bachelor’s Degree in Materials Science and Engineering

February 27, 2019
UCF will offer a new bachelor’s degree this fall in materials science and engineering to help graduates find jobs in fields as wide ranging as space, defense, electronics, energy and biomedicine. Materials, obviously, are at the core of all things engineered, and this new undergraduate program will be designed to meet the 21st century needs of the…

Fetal Healing and Its Implications for Diabetic Wounds

January 31, 2019
It’s a fact known to fetal surgeons like Dr. Kenneth Liechty that fetuses can heal perfectly, without scars. Surgeries, heart attacks, tears and contusions to organs, tendons, skin — fetuses weather them all and come out like new. “You look at animals like the salamander that can regrow limbs or the zebrafish that can regenerate…

Antioxidant Protects Tissues, DNA from Radiation, New UCF Research Finds

October 23, 2018
New research shows that a powerful antioxidant may be just as useful one-day protecting beachgoers and cancer patients from radioactive rays as it could astronauts. In a recent study published in the journal Nanoscale and identified as a top article, the University of Central Florida researchers found that tissues and DNA from mice treated with an antioxidant,…

UCF Alumni Developing Self-Heating Blankets to Save Babies

October 1, 2018
Two UCF alumni are in the process of developing a self-heating blanket that will protect infants from hypothermia in low- and middle-income regions, increasing their chances of survival. Ajay Karakoti ’10 Ph.D., and Satyanarayana Kuchibhatla ’08 Ph.D., received a grant of more than $75,000 to continue their development of a non-electric blanket, which is made entirely of ecofriendly…

UCF Engineer to be Honored by World Academy of Ceramics

May 25, 2018
UCF engineering professor Sudipta Seal is one of only four Americans and 20 scientists worldwide named to the World Academy of Ceramics for 2018. The academy will honor the scientists June 4 at its 14th annual meeting in Perugia, Italy, for their “renowned contributions to the advancement of this field.” Seal has certainly delivered throughout his remarkable…

Seal to be Inducted into Florida Inventors Hall of Fame

April 17, 2018
UCF scientist Sudipta Seal, whose research has led to groundbreaking therapeutic applications in regenerative nanomedicine, has been chosen as a 2018 inductee into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Seal, who is a UCF Trustee Chair, Pegasus and University Distinguished Professor, is one of seven inventors who will be inducted in September at an annual ceremony…

Materials Science and Engineering Jumps 21 Points in New National Rankings

March 30, 2018
University of Central Florida’s Materials Science and Engineering graduate program, which advanced 21 points to rank No. 50 in the nation, is among 25 UCF programs ranked in the top 100 of their fields by the recently released U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools of 2019. UCF’s biggest point-gain improvement in the rankings was…