UCF Research
Research Strengths
As a leading metropolitan research university, UCF has built research strengths in a variety of areas including education, photonics, engineering, simulation, computer science, alternative energy, and the emerging areas of nanoscience and life sciences, in order to become a catalyst for the region's high-tech development. A strong spirit of collaboration has made UCF an attractive partner for many central Florida high-tech businesses that, in turn, have provided UCF students with real-world experiences.
"Industry-university partnerships are the key to the creation and growth of knowledge-based, wealth producing, and high-tech businesses," says M. J. Soileau, UCF Vice President for Research and Commercialization.
Research and Employment Opportunities
Students can find research and employment opportunities through UCF or many of the 21,000 high-tech companies doing business in the Central Florida High-Tech Corridor. As one of the region's largest high-tech employers, UCF employs hundreds of B.S. through Ph.D. scientists and engineers. Sponsored research activities result in millions of new dollars for the local economy ($121.4 million in extramural research funding in 2007) and helps attract, retain and grow high-tech companies in the region. Through UCF's highly successful Technology Incubator, graduate students can work with start-up companies or bring their own innovations to market. The Central Florida Research Park, located adjacent to the UCF Orlando campus, is a hotbed for sponsored research, industrial partnerships, internships and employment opportunities for UCF students and graduates. The university's Office of Research and Commercialization fosters the creation of intellectual capital that can solve today's pressing problems, improve quality of life, and provide an engine for economic growth.
Students are the foundation of UCF's commitment to enhancing central Florida's high-tech base. By focusing on providing the best undergraduate education in Florida, particularly in science and engineering; investing in selected areas of research and graduate studies; and attracting leading students and scholars to UCF's research centers of excellence (in optics and photonics, materials science and engineering, computer science and engineering, simulation and training, biomolecular sciences, alternative energy, etc.), UCF aims to take technology to the next level of knowledge and application. Research teams of faculty, students, and research staff generate the kind of "disruptive technology" that results in new products, new companies, and highly trained new research scientists.
