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Research

Reaching for the stars, solving real-world problems

Our largest grants support research for NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to name a few.

 

Daniela Radu was awarded $3 million by NASA to lead a team of student researchers in solving some of the most important challenges of exploring the "final frontier" – creating materials that can withstand the extreme environment of space.

 

Another researcher, Stavros Georgakopoulos, is expanding his groundbreaking innovation involving origami antennas for the U.S. Air Force with a $4.82 million grant.

Daniela Radu, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a Diversity Mentor Professor

REAL combines research and education to develop students and faculty

FIU’s Applied Research Center (ARC) specializes in solving real-world problems through multidisciplinary research. Researchers at ARC are developing robotic technologies, like the Jackal, a robot outfitted with imaging technology. Under an NSF-sponsored project, researchers are using the Jackal to examine the structural health of infrastructures, helping researchers identify potential degradation of concrete so to address these in an effort to avoid structural failure.

Research Associate II, Aparna Aravelli, and a student pose with the Jackal at the Applied Research Center (ARC).

FIU among top 50 U.S. patent producers in the world

FIU is ranked 20th in the nation among public universities and 40th globally in new utility patents issued.

  • University Patents: 61
  • College Patents: 44

*2019

Standout Patents

Hybrid Spectroscopy Imaging System for Intraoperative Epileptic Cortex Detection

The system enables the detection of unique characteristics of the epileptic cortex during surgery, which are not visible by the naked eye.

Inventors: Wei-Chiang Lin and Yinchen Song

Novel Age-Hardenable Magnesium Alloys

Innovative magnesium alloys are created with increased performance capabilities to benefit automotive and aerospace industries by providing a cheaper, lightweight alloy that improves fuel efficiency and maneuverability.

Inventors: Benjamin Boesl, Arvind Agarwal and Sadegh Behdad

Systems and methods for providing security in power systems

An innovation that develops security techniques and frameworks for equipment and communication infrastructure in electric utility and industrial systems.

Inventors: Ahmed Aly Saad Ahmed, Samy Gamal Faddel Mohamed and Osama Mohammed

$45M in total annual research
awards (2019-2020)

New awards

$6 million

The Department of Defense (DOD) awarded $6 million to the School of Biomedical, Materials and Mechanical Engineering to expand its testing of a pioneering prosthetic hand system, which allows amputees to “feel” again. Designed at FIU to help military veterans and other amputees, the neural-enabled prosthetic hand (NEPH) system restores a sense of touch/grasp force and hand opening by stimulating sensory nerve fibers in the residual limb with fine wires implanted inside nerves.

$1 million

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded FIU researchers a $1 million grant to design and develop machine-learning algorithms that allow biologists to perform a large-scale study of proteins. The study of proteins is critical for understanding and treating diseases, as well as developing effective vaccinations.

Ranu Jung, Wallace H. Coulter Eminent Scholar Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Faculty accomplishments

Our driven and dynamic faculty members are recognized for their expertise, leadership and continuous contribution to the engineering and computing community.

 

Geoffrey Smith, professor in the School of Computing & Information Sciences, was honored with the prestigious 2020 ETAPS Test of Time Award, for his paper, “On the Foundations of Quantitative Information Flow.” Smith’s highly cited paper, published in 2009, represents a cornerstone in the field of security information flow.

Trina Fletcher, assistant professor in the School of Universal Computing, Construction and Engineering Education (SUCCEED), was appointed as one of 12 members to the EngineerGirl Steering Committee, a service initiative within the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). The mission of the committee is to further strengthen the contribution of the EngineerGirl program, designed to bring national attention to thrilling opportunities that engineering represents for girls and women.

John Volakis, dean of the College of Engineering & Computing, received the 2020 International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Booker Gold Medal Award for his citation, “Seminal contributions to electromagnetics, including small, ultrawideband and textile antennas and arrays, low power transceivers, diffraction and for transitioning hybrid finite element methods into commercial computational toolsets.”

Sharan Ramaswamy, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical engineering, was awarded a National Science Foundation Partnerships for Innovation – Technology Translation grant. The funded innovation project aims to help regenerate heart muscle through injectable treatments to offer partial restoration of lost heart function.

17 NSF early career awardees to date

NSF career awardees

Liting Hu, assistant professor in the School of Computing & Information Sciences, was awarded approximately $420k to design a streaming processing system to benefit time-critical Internet of Things applications in the areas of factory automation, autonomous vehicles and process automation. Through this five-year grant, Hu is also collaborating with several K-12 Miami-Dade County Schools to offer coding workshops, in hopes of igniting a passion in STEM into a younger generation.

Elias Alwan, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received $500k to study, design and develop wideband multifunctional adaptable transceivers for operation across the 5G, millimeterwave and sub-THz spectrum. The project aims to create a single platform that will incorporate all radio communication systems.