Kareem Ahmed, a world expert in hypersonic and space propulsion, is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a faculty member of UCF’s Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research.

His groundbreaking work includes developing technology that makes a 15-minute flight from coast to coast a future possibility.

Ahmed joins  of UCF faculty members to receive the five-year trustee chair appointments, which were created in 2003 to help retain and attract exceptional faculty. The designation carries an annual stipend for honorees to advance their scholarship, part of which can be used as a salary supplement.

, who are evaluated by a trustee chair review committee and affirmed by UCF’s president and provost.

“Accomplished and innovative faculty — including those honored as trustee chairs — are the cornerstone of UCF’s academic excellence and essential to achieving our vision as Florida’s Premier Engineering and Technology şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą,” UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright says. “Dr. Ahmed’s bold work is inventing the future of the aerospace and defense industries, inspiring future innovators and generating impact that will be felt for generations.”

Ahmed heads the UCF Center of Excellence in Hypersonic and Space Propulsion, which opened last fall to develop technology and innovation aimed at enhancing national defense and fostering new frontiers in space exploration. Beyond advancing faster air and space travel, Ahmed and his team’s research holds promise for enabling lighter, energy-efficient rockets that burn clean fuel and travel farther at a reduced cost.

The U.S. Department of Defense supports Ahmed’s work through multiple research grants, which also offer opportunities for students to prepare for careers in the space industry. Ahmed’s strong record of mentoring and advising encompasses 145 doctoral, master’s and honors undergraduate thesis students who have either graduated or are currently pursuing their degree.

Before joining UCF in 2014, Ahmed was an assistant professor at Old Dominion şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ąâ€™s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and served as a faculty member at Florida State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą. He spent three years as a senior aero/thermo engineer at aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, focusing on military engines and working on advanced engine programs and technologies. Widely published in his field, Ahmed is a fellow of The Combustion Institute, a Department of the Navy Distinguished Faculty Fellow, an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics associate fellow and a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and Office of Naval Research faculty fellow.

Ahmed earned his doctoral and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą at Buffalo and his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the New York State College at Alfred şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą.

To keep the power grid reliable, UCF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor Like Li is developing a novel energy storage system that can reserve solar energy for future use. The project is supported through a three-year, $3.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office.

Li will work with engineers from Sandia National Laboratories, Oregon State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą, the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Houston and Redoxblox, a startup that specializes in low emission energy storage units. Together, they will develop a thermochemical energy storage (TCES) system, which uses chemical reactions to either absorb or release heat for the respective charging and discharging steps.

The high temperature heat for the charging step will be from the concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP). It can also be charged by electric furnaces powered by any type of renewable energy such as solar panels or wind power. A TCES system can store a large amount of energy at very high temperatures for less money, making it advantageous. The high temperature heat released during discharging can be used to drive high-efficiency power cycles or as process heat for a wide range of industrial processes.

Li and his team have been using computational modeling and lab-scale reactor testing to design a solar receiver and chemical reactor. Once the parts are fabricated, they will conduct demos at Sandia using sunlight and a solar furnace.

“These demos are important because the technology is new,” Li says. “Most TCES reactors are at lab scales, our goal is to demonstrate an integrated TCES system coupled with CSP under real conditions.”

The demos are also important to the postdocs and graduate students in Li’s lab, who will have the opportunity to travel to Sandia to assist with the testing. He says this is a great chance for them to work with industry professionals, gain research experience and potentially find future job opportunities.

The work can also benefit companies in Orlando that have a vested interested in thermal energy storage, such as Siemens or Duke Energy.

“Now is a crucial time in history to redefine a cost-effective energy storage system to achieve energy decarbonization,” Li says. “If we can demonstrate that capability, we can apply our research and demos and attract attention that can lead to fruitful collaborations in the future, especially when we start to scale up those energy storage systems.”

About the Researcher

Li joined UCF as an associate professor in 2023. He is a member of the UCF Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research, and he leads the Thermal Energy Storage and Decarbonization Lab, which focuses on advanced energy storage technologies. Li previously worked in the mechanical engineering department at Mississippi State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą and earned his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Florida. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Duke Energy.

UCF’s REU site, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, connects promising STEM students with established faculty at REU sites, enhancing their in-class learning experience with research, workshops and events.

UCF’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Office of Research collaborate to support REU principal investigators and student participants. There are six cohorts covering distinct areas of research that are comprised of 11 principal investigators and dozens of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty mentors:

• Research Experience for Undergraduates in Computer Vision
• Advanced Technologies in Hypersonic, Propulsive, Energetic and Reusable Platforms
• Research in Materials for Energy Applications
  • and
• Engineering and Nanoscience of Materials and Device Applications in Biotechnology and Medicine
  • and the
• Conservation, Restoration and Communication
  • and Coastal Cluster
• Applied Computation Mathematics

UCF’s CRCV, led by director Mubarak Shah, has run the nation’s longest continuous REU program for 37 years. The university has maintained five or six REU programs since 2022, and UCF-based nonprofit has been approved for next summer’s REU.

Students engage in a 10-to-12-week program and participate in workshops, labs and an individual research project that they may select from topics provided by corresponding mentors. Students then present their research to their cohort at the conclusion of the REU just before the start of the fall semester.

Launching Research and Accelerating Learning

Isabella Llamazares, a rising junior studying mechanical engineering at Florida International şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą, wanted to learn more about aerospace engineering but opportunities were limited at her school. She was accepted into the HYPER REU at UCF and was excited to supplement her learning.

“I always knew that I had to find other opportunities, and I knew that I wanted to come to UCF either for undergraduate or graduate studies,” Llamazares says. “This REU will help me back at my university. Although we don’t have aerospace down there, I’m part of an aviation club, and I have this as knowledge that I can build upon.”

With an interest in fluid dynamics and propulsion, her project described timing detonations as part of the combustion process for rockets and how to ultimately make them safer.

“I came in just having very basic knowledge from my classes,” Llamazares says. “I didn’t have the average aerospace engineering experience, but it was that dedication and really wanting to continue in this field that got me here. This REU and this project have really helped solidify that I want to pursue something related to the fluids field.”

James Hippelhauser ’11 ’20MS ’23PhD, a HYPER REU mentor and postdoctoral researcher for astrodynamics and space robotics, was pleased with his students.

“I’m definitely satisfied with their progress,” he says. “Astrodynamics is a topic that they don’t really get to learn from a classroom standpoint. I know they learned a lot just from a concept standpoint, but also applying it.”

Hippelhauser was impressed with how well the students absorbed and applied complicated topics such as orbital mechanics.

“It kind of reminded me a lot when I first started research,” he says. “It can be a challenge. Orbital mechanics isn’t a common topic especially for undergrads. They learned as much as they could and as fast as they could.”

Hippelhauser encourages prospective REU students interested in hypersonics, space, propulsion and energy to explore something they may not know.

“Don’t limit yourself to a topic you’re comfortable with,” he says. “Try to go for a topic that you would not have considered.”

Emmelia Lichty, a junior mechanical engineering major at Oral Roberts şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą, was drawn to UCF’s REU because she says she’s always loved space.

“My dad was an Air Force pilot and he flew fighter jets,” she says. “So, I got to see them up close and I’ve always been infatuated. I came here because everything aerospace is right here with NASA, the space coast, and UCF is so involved in aerospace research.”

Lichty worked under the mentorship of Florida Space Institute (FSI) Interim Director Julie Brisset to enhance a precision cooling loop for a space-based payload.

“Any fluctuations would affect the actual experiment itself,” Lichty says. “My cooling loop had to be very precise, within plus or minus point one degrees. I had to make the improvements and monitor hardware and code modifications to get the cooling loop to that precision, which I was able to do by the end of the summer.”

The ability to not just apply classroom knowledge but move beyond it was something she says was very appealing and rewarding.

“Getting hands-on experience with problem-solving is a really a big part of the REU,” Lichty says. “You also get a taste of research, and it helps you make those decisions about your career, like if you want to go to grad school or not.”

Brisset, who also is an associate scientist with FSI, agrees that exposure to research is crucial in understanding and navigating a STEM education.

“There are two components that need to work together, both in the classroom and in the research lab,” she says. “Sometimes it can be an abstract exercise working in a classroom, but if you have a real-life application, it can be easier to make a connection.”

It was rewarding seeing Lichty immerse herself fully in her research, Brissett says.

“I think it was very complete,” she says. “Emmie did mechanical work, fluid mechanics, some electronics and some coding. In the end, it was a very complete lab experience. The research was a success as she achieved the cooling precision.”

The competitive nature of REUs across the board has increased, as well as the quality of applicants, Brisset says.

“We have undergrads who go through this program who stay in STEM and routinely end up in grad school,” she says. “We have people who are mid-career that come to us and say they discovered their love for astronomy when they did the REU program.”

Getting Out and Shoring Up

Rowan Wyss, a senior biology student at Eckerd College, participated in UCF’s Coastal Cluster REU, where he studied feral hog populations and their interactions with the environment and other animals at the Mosquito Lagoon.

He says found the research experience gratifying and hopes to continue quantifying where and how these animal populations forage.

“I was looking for an REU experience and was aware of its transformative nature — how it exposes you to grad school and different software or programs used for biology research,” Wyss says. “I got way more out of the REU than I thought. I built so many connections and I’m much more proficient in software and the tools of the trade.”

In the early stages of applying and even participating in the REU, it can be easy to feel the “imposter syndrome,” or feeling like you’ve lucked into a position you’re not qualified for despite being actually qualified, Wyss says.

“You’re surrounded with people extremely proficient in this field when you might have little to no research experience. But that’s just science. It’s never a competition. It’s people working together,” he says.

Otis Woolfolk, a junior studying biology/marine biology track at UCF, tested the resiliency and sustainability of novel non-plastic oyster bags filled with recycled shells to restore shorelines throughout Florida. Woolfolk’s research marks the first test of the new materials in warm water restoration conditions.

He learned about REUs after being encouraged to apply by his ecology professor, Melinda Donnelly, and through his volunteer work with UCF’s Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab.

“I was asked about the ideas I had for my Ph.D., and I really want to work on microplastics and how they affect mangroves,” Wolfolk says. “So, this was close to that. Oyster bags generally use plastics, so I experimented with using more environmentally friendly materials made of potato starch or basalt that deteriorate within years.”

He found the process exciting and enjoyed delving into a component of marine biology and conservation that he may not have considered had he not participated in the REU.

“As a novice scientist, I learned a huge amount,” Wolfolk says. “It’s a time for you to get messy and make mistakes. You’re doing research, doing workshops and you’re learning how the science world works.”

During his poster presentation, Wolfolk says he felt a newfound confidence in his ability as a novice scientist when a freshman asked him how to get involved with research.

“My advice?” he says. “Volunteer as much as possible and don’t doubt yourself.”

Linda Walters, lead investigator for the Conservation, Restoration and Communication NSF REU site and Wolfolk’s REU mentor, says Wolfolk did an exemplary job in his research.

“It was very rewarding to watch this journey,” she says. “Otis had the opportunity to be on the ground-floor of our cutting-edge research in marine restoration this summer. He is gifted at asking good, thought-provoking questions and communicating his science.”

The program is very competitive and only 10 students were selected for the Coastal Cluster REU out of 377 applicants, says Walters, who also is a Pegasus Professor of biology. Those who participate in the REU usually continue their education through graduate school, she says.

“During the 10 weeks, the students go from a very limited research background to developing their research questions, collecting data, analyzing their data and presenting their projects to the larger community,” she says. “It is a lot of work for the mentors to keep everything on track for this accelerated timeline, but the students make it worthwhile. They become confident researchers in 10 weeks.”

Honing a Vision

UCF’s CRCV has hosted about 370 students since it was designated as an REU site 37 years ago and continues to guide undergraduates in the evolving field of computer vision, says Niels Lobo, associate professor of computer science and CRCV REU mentor.

“The nature of the REU has matured,” he says. “The field has evolved, and what students are doing now in their projects is vastly different than what people would have done 10 to 20 years ago.”

Lobo came to UCF 31 years ago and was encouraged to assist with REUs within the first year. Lobo has seen the composition of student applicants and participates becoming more dynamic during his time at the university.

“What we’re seeing is that the student population applying for these research opportunities is exploding,” he says. “That means that the overall experience of the cohort is going to be a little bit richer because everybody gets exposed to something different.”

Computer vision is harnessing the power of technology to not just view things through a camera, but to understand them, Lobo says. Continually adapting to the constant evolution of the field while also considering computer vision’s ethical implications are two components he is teaching students.

“Every two or three years, the field discovers something new,” Lobo says. “In research, there are no study guides, so you need to go out and explore. That process of discovery is only accomplished through research.”

Claire Zhang, a junior studying applied mathematics-computer science at Brown şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą, was glad to have embarked on CRCV REU.

She previously conducted remote research, but she says the program at UCF provided her with a more immersive and shared experience.

“It was really nice meeting this community and coming to work together,” Zhang says. “I imagined it being very independent, but I found that it was a lot more collaborative than I originally thought even though we all had our own independent projects.”

Her project involved creating segmentation masks for solar cells to show their degradation in a quantitative way rather than the qualitative way of identifying degradation by darkened glass regions of cells. Zhang created and used a model that outlines the materials and can characterize how degraded the cells are.

“I have almost no experience with material science,” she says. “This project connected material science to computer science, and it was a great introduction.”

Zhang gained not just expertise in a field she’s interested in, but also knowledge and momentum to continue her education and pursuit of a STEM career.

“For the past semester, I had been thinking about whether I should explore different concentrations,” she says. “This summer showed me that I can continue to explore other interests while remaining in this concentration, specifically, that I could apply computer science to these other interests.”

Students interested in more information about UCF’s REU program should visit: .

Hypersonic propulsion would allow for air travel at speeds of Mach 6 to 17, or more than 4,600 to 13,000 mph, and has applications in commercial and space travel. Although the technology has been around since the 1960s, countries including the U.S., Russia and China, are racing to improve the systems to achieve more efficient and longer, more sustained hypersonic flight.

The $450,000 Naval Research Laboratory grant-funded project will develop a hypersonic engine that can morph or transform its configuration during flights to optimize performance.

“Most hypersonic engines are structurally fixed due to the challenging flight environment,” says the project’s principal investigator Kareem Ahmed, a professor in UCF’s . “Our research will show the performance gains from an adaptable engine configuration that would self-optimize its surfaces to maximize performance power, thrust and travel distance which is the first of its kind for hypersonic engines.”

Ahmed is a leading researcher in the field of hypersonics, achieving the first stabilized and sustained rotating detonation wave for hypersonic travel and heading a $1.5 million U.S. Department of Defense award to develop high-performance fuels for hypersonic propulsion.

This new research project is based off Ahmed’s work on “scramjet”, or supersonic combustion ramjet engines. The key feature of a scramjet engine is its ability to combust air at supersonic speeds without slowing it down to subsonic speeds, as is done in traditional jet engines.

Ahmed and his research team have developed an aerothermodynamic model for the hypersonic, morphing scramjet engine and are currently in the stage of experimental testing it to assess the performance. Aerothermodynamics analyzes the interaction of gases at high speeds and elevated temperatures.

“We are very happy for being selected for the program,” Ahmed says. “Our lab has been a leader and innovator in high-speed and hypersonic propulsion and this program gives our group the opportunity to contribute and make an impact.”

Ahmed joined UCF’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, part of UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, in 2014. He is also a faculty member of the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research and the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion. He served more than three years as a senior aero/thermo engineer at Pratt & Whitney military engines working on advanced engine programs and technologies. He also served as a faculty member at Old Dominion şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą and Florida State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą. At UCF, he is leading research in propulsion and energy with applications for power generation and gas-turbine engines, propulsion-jet engines, hypersonics and fire safety, as well as research related to supernova science and COVID-19 transmission control. He earned his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of New York at Buffalo. He is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics associate fellow and a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and Office of Naval Research faculty fellow.

The goal of the consortium is to engage in research that supports the NNSA’s nuclear security and nonproliferation missions while building a next-generation workforce of nuclear scientists, engineers and researchers. The şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Florida leads the group, which is also comprised of seven national laboratories including Sandia, Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley and Oak Ridge.

“The role of universities for nuclear forensics research is to innovate and develop some of the most challenging and fundamental aspects of new technology and methods,” says Keith McManus, the university program manager for defense nuclear nonproliferation research and development at NNSA, in a release. “Once these basic aspects have been proven at the university level, the Department of Energy’s national laboratories can fulfill their unique role to perform mission-specific research and development that improves on capabilities for adoption by operational enterprises.”

This is the first NNSA consortium that UCF has joined. Two faculty members — Professor Subith Vasu of the and Assistant Professor Vasileios Anagnostopoulos of the — lead the charge for the university. They will work with researchers from other universities in the consortium, including Notre Dame, Clemson and Texas A&M, to address gaps and challenges within different aspects of nuclear forensics research.

“As a member of the consortium, we’ll be conducting research on different aspects of nuclear forensics,” Vasu says. “For example, when you have a nuclear detonation, how do the fireballs interact with the materials and what residuals does it leave?”

Other questions the team will seek to answer include how to determine what materials were used in a nuclear weapon after it’s been detonated, and how to detect a nuclear weapon or materials that may have been smuggled into the country. Vasu says this type of research has renewed relevance due to the war in Ukraine and public interest in whether or not Russia would resort to the use of nuclear weapons.

A separate challenge the NNSA aims to address is the dwindling nuclear forensics workforce. Vasu says that many researchers in this area started their careers in the 1960s and 1970s and are now headed into retirement. Through the consortium, the NNSA can build a pipeline of young professionals who have experience in nuclear forensics.

“Students will do research, have internship opportunities, and when they graduate, they can be employed by the NNSA labs,” Vasu says. “It builds a pipeline for these labs and it’s also very prestigious for students to go work at a national laboratory.”

For UCF, being included in the consortium is an impressive feat. Out of the 16 universities, UCF is one of the few without a dedicated nuclear forensics degree program or department. Vasu says this speaks to the strength of UCF’s reputation for research.

“UCF has been working in this area for several years now, with research in aerospace, computer science and chemistry that can support our future work in nuclear forensics,” he says. “It’s possible that this work could lead to a nuclear forensics program at UCF since we already have the base to create it.”

Vasu joined UCF in 2012 as an assistant professor, and prior to that, worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Sandia National Laboratory. He is a member of the at UCF, is an associate fellow of the American Institute of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the International Energy Agency’s Task Team on Energy. He has ongoing projects with several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, among others.

Anagnostopoulos joined UCF in 2018 as an assistant professor and currently runs the Environmental Radiochemistry Research Group within the Department of Chemistry. His research focuses on the fate and retention-release cycles of contaminants as well as nuclear fuel disposal.

But in smaller aircraft, such as unmanned aerial vehicles or micro air vehicles, turbulence is more than a bumpy ride. It can severely affect the stability of these vehicles and cause them to lose control. On the other hand, nature’s natural fliers — birds — know how to retain control during airflow disturbances.

Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering Samik Bhattacharya is studying the morphing power of bird wings in turbulence through a three-year, $441,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The goal is to uncover the secrets of bird stability and engineer a comparable solution for UAVs and MAVs.

“Birds have perfected the art of unsteady flow control through millions of years of evolution,” Bhattacharya says. “They don’t use any separate flaps or slats; rather, they morph their wings and use their feathers to achieve similar feats. However, we don’t know how to utilize similar morphing capabilities in man-made flight vehicles.”

To study these morphing capabilities, Bhattacharya and his team of researchers in the have 3D printed a set of wings made of black agilus plastic. This material is very flexible, so the 3D model can be morphed along the wingspan to mimic the collapsible structure of real bird wings.

The team will test the wings’ morphing capabilities in high turbulence through a state-of-the-art gust generator system that will be funded by the AFOSR grant. This system will be integrated with the towing tank that’s already operating in the EFML lab. The wings will be placed in the tank with a sensor that can measure the lift and drag forces. Images of the flow field will also be captured with the aid of high-speed cameras.

Along with the gust generator, the AFOSR grant will also fund the hiring of graduate students to work on this project. Bhattacharya says he’s grateful for the award, which is highly competitive.

“It feels great to receive this award from AFOSR, especially because the program that funded this work is one of the few federal programs that support this type of fundamental fluid mechanics research,” he says. “It’s very challenging to receive funding from this program.”

Bhattacharya joined UCF’s as an assistant professor in 2016. He received his doctoral degree in aerospace engineering from The Ohio State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą, his master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą and his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology in Warangal, India. He is also a researcher with UCF’s .

While trying to find a way to store renewable energy (like solar and wind) and then use it when needed, UCF Pegasus Professor Jayanta Kapat and researchers Marcel Otto and Ladislav Vesely found that NASA’s Cryogenic Flux Capacitor (CFC) could be part of the solution.

The UCF team recently invented a way to cost-efficiently convert excess renewable energy to hydrogen and oxygen and store it long-term — days, weeks or even months. Later, when the energy is needed, it’s reconverted and added to the electrical grid. That on-demand capability enables power companies to meet and balance the energy needs of a community not just from day to day, but from season to season.

Kapat, who directs the UCF , says that lithium battery systems are fine for short periods — a few hours to a day.

“But suppose a hurricane comes and causes a blackout for a week?” he says. “Or it’s a very bad winter out West and they do not have a lot of renewable resources?”

“It’s not just about having the morning to night kind of storage, but it is from one season to another season kind of storage too,” he says. “Summer could be a time when you’ve got excess energy, like solar, and winter could be a time when you need the energy.”

Blending Renewable Energy for the Electrical Grid

Designed to help resolve that kind of mismatch between demand and available power, the UCF invention (called an H2/O2 Direct-fired sCO2 Power System) blends the use of renewables to keep electrical grids going.

“We use that excess electricity from renewables to electrolyze water and make hydrogen and oxygen, and then we store them separately,” Kapat says.

Later, when electricity is needed, the UCF technology combines the stored hydrogen and oxygen in a combustion chamber. The combination forms water, which heats and mixes with supercritical sCO2. Part of the closed-loop power system, sCO2 is a nontoxic, nonflammable, low-cost working fluid used to run turbine systems that generate electricity.

Kapat says the technology is a closed system without any nitrogen or air present and recycles the water from the combustion, storing it in a reservoir for the next cycle.

With NASA’s CFCs as the storage mechanism, the UCF system can house the hydrogen and oxygen separately using conduits and pressure valves until they are needed. The CFCs contain retention material that adsorbs the hydrogen and oxygen for storage. They keep the gases at liquid-like densities, applying moderate pressures and temperatures without the need for liquefaction.

“So, the energy requirement as compared to liquid hydrogen weighs less over time, making it more attractive for long-term storage,” he says.

Safeguarding the Environment

One of the benefits of the technology over other systems is that it does not emit harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) since air is not included in the hydrogen-oxygen combustion process. These are known for causing acid rain, smog and gases that damage the ozone layer.

A second environmental plus is that the system can be installed and operated in an area with little or no water sources.

“We do not have to worry about where to get the water,” Kapat says. “So, there’s no need to constantly use groundwater or water from sources like rivers and lakes.”

Vesely says another benefit of the technology is its compact size.

“You don’t need much of a footprint to build the system,” he says.

Looking Beyond Power Grids

Otto says in addition to traditional power grids, the invention could be used for other applications.

“I could see using this technology as a backup system for a data center, a hospital or some facility that needs to be available 24/7,” Otto says. “Or to reduce the emissions capacity to replace a diesel generator.”

In agreement, Kapat notes that the power generation market is changing drastically, and the idea of a large central power grid supplied by a utility company may not exist in 20 years as it does today.

For example, he says that instead of one system powering hundreds of thousands of homes, there could be a group of smaller systems each powering a few thousand for a local community.

“By doing this in distributed systems, the whole structure becomes more resilient and not everybody gets affected,” he says. “Thus, a smaller portion of people get affected because everybody else can live off their own energy storage system.”

This format also offers more control, he says.

In the case of an upcoming hurricane, an area might determine that severe weather could cause a maximum outage of one week. In preparation, the area would split the water and store the resulting hydrogen and oxygen.

“If it ends up being enough for four weeks, then you know that you can survive for four weeks,” Kapat says.

The invention supports the storage needs of other industries, such as aviation, too.

“Planes cannot be directly powered by solar or electricity — we need the fuel,” Kapat says. “Hydrogen can be used there too, where we convert renewables into a storable chemical and then use it.”

As for future plans, Kapat says the team is continuing to research ways to optimize the storage. They are also promoting the technology to the U.S. Department of Energy and working to secure funding for more testing.

For more information about the invention,

Technology Available for License

To learn more about the research team’s work and additional potential licensing or sponsored research opportunities, contact Andrea Adkins (andrea.adkins@ucf.edu) at (407) 823.0138.

The project focuses on rotating detonation rocket engines (RDREs), which are powered by continuous Mach 5 explosions that rotate around the inside of the engine and are sustained by hydrogen and oxygen propellants fed into the system in certain amounts. NASA recently awarded $50,000 to fund the project.

Mach 5 explosions create bursts of energy that travel 4,500 to 5,600 miles per hour, which is more than five times the speed of sound.

By using these high-energy detonations, more energy can be generated with less fuel, improving engine efficiency and cutting down space travel costs and emissions.

Kareem Ahmed, the lead researcher of the project and associate professor in UCF’s , has been researching RDREs for years. Ahmed and his team have already published a study with evidence that this type of engine works and are using the NASA award to work on an RDRE replacement for the RL10 engine, which currently powers many space flights including the upcoming Artemis missions.

“We have demonstrated the technology, now it is time for the development,” Ahmed says.

RL10 engine variants are used in many launchers such as the Atlas V, Vulcan, and Orbital ATK OmegA. Seeing as the U.S. government is the largest user of launch services in the world, advancing lower-cost, high-performance RDRE technology will lead to significant cost savings, Ahmed says.

RDREs could also be used for commercial purposes, facilitating new markets such as widespread satellite-based high-speed internet services due to reduced launch costs. Multiple federal agencies such as NASA, the Department of Defense, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration depend on satellites for their basic functions.

If expanded to other transportation methods like planes, RDREs could even allow for coast-to-coast travel in under thirty minutes and .

The project was one of twelve proposals selected for NASA’s 2022 M-STTR grant, which seeks to promote partnerships between Minority-Serving Institutions and small businesses in preparation for them to send proposals to NASA’s annual STTR Phase I solicitation. Ahmed and his team partnered with small business Creare LLC as well as Halo LLC with Aerojet Rocketdyne for the technology transition.

Ahmed earned his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą at Buffalo – The State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of New York. He worked at Pratt & Whitney Military Engines and Old Dominion şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą prior to joining UCF’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, part of UCF’s , in 2015. He is the director of UCF’s , a faculty member of UCF’s , an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an AFRL Faculty Research Fellow.

Associate Professor Ranajay Ghosh of UCF’s and his research group found that 3D-printed bricks of lunar regolith can withstand the extreme environments of space and are a good candidate for cosmic construction projects. Lunar regolith is the loose dust, rocks and materials that cover the moon’s surface.

The results of their experiments are detailed in a recent issue of Ceramics International and were also featured in New Scientist magazine prior to publication.

“It is always an honor to be able to publish our work in a prestigious journal such as Ceramics International, and we are quite delighted that New Scientist picked our research to publish in their magazine,” Ghosh says. “Considering UCF’s special place as a space grant university, we feel privileged to contribute to the great tradition of scientific knowledge.”

To create the bricks, Ghosh’s team in the (COSMOS) Lab used a combination of 3D printing and binder jet technology (BJT), an additive manufacturing method that forces out a liquid binding agent onto a bed of powder. In Ghosh’s experiments, the binding agent was saltwater, and the powder was regolith made by UCF’s .

“BJT is uniquely suitable for ceramic-like materials that are difficult to melt with a laser,” Ghosh says. “Therefore, it has great potential for regolith-based extraterrestrial manufacturing in a sustainable way to produce parts, components and construction structures.”

The BJT process resulted in weak cylindrical bricks called green parts that were then baked at high temperatures to produce a stronger structure. Bricks baked at lower temperatures crumbled, but those exposed to heat of up to 1200 degrees Celsius were able to withstand pressure of up to 250 million times the Earth’s atmosphere.

Ghosh says the work paves a path for the use of BJT in the construction of materials and structures in space. Their findings also demonstrate that off-world structures can be built using resources found in space, which can drastically reduce the need to transport building materials for missions like Artemis.

“This research contributes to the ongoing debate in space exploration community on finding the balance between in-situ extraterrestrial resource utilization versus material transported from Earth,” Ghosh says. “The further we develop techniques that utilize the abundance of regolith, the more capability we will have in establishing and expanding base camps on the moon, Mars, and other planets in the future.”

The first author of the paper is Peter Warren, Ghosh’s graduate research assistant. Co-authors include mechanical engineering doctoral candidate Nandhini Raju, mechanical engineering alumnus Hossein Ebrahimi ’21PhD, mechanical engineering doctoral student Milos Krsmanovic, and aerospace engineering professors Seetha Raghavan and Jayanta Kapat.

Study title: Effect of sintering temperature on microstructure and mechanical properties of molded Martian and Lunar regolith

Ghosh joined UCF in 2016 as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and is a researcher with MAE’s . He manages the Complex Structures and Mechanics of Solids Laboratory, better known as the COSMOS Lab, where he and his team fabricate and design novel materials with the aid of computer models and experiments. He earned his doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Cornell şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą in 2010 and is a recipient of the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

In the forum, Hydrogen: The Time is Now, UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright and Mitsubishi Power Americas President and CEO Bill Newsom will discuss collaborative opportunities to achieve net zero by 2050. Keynote speaker Jennifer Wilcox, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Fuels and Carbon Management principal deputy assistant secretary, will address the government’s role and recent legislative progress. Panels of experts will discuss the challenges and opportunities in creating a national hydrogen economy.

The forum comes at a critical time, as nations worldwide seek clean-energy solutions. Scientists and engineers are turning to the most abundant element, hydrogen, as a clean energy source that could produce enough energy to serve growing populations while reducing greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by 2050.

The power generation industry’s transition to hydrogen, which involves large-scale production, storage and distribution,  is a complex challenge. Creating a hydrogen-based energy economy, according to Cartwright and Newsom, will require high-level collaborations and investments among academia, industry and government.

“UCF offers partnership opportunities through our multiple research centers that leverage faculty expertise in a variety of relevant areas — such as power generation and storage, combustion, modeling and simulation, energy grid technology, sustainability, aerospace and environmental engineering, and more,” Cartwright says. “UCF — among the nation’s largest producers of engineers and computer scientists — in partnership with Mitsubishi Power and others can play a key role in educating and training the talent pipeline required for a hydrogen-based energy economy.”

Mitsubishi Power, a global leader in power generation, has made major investments in recent years to create the infrastructure required to produce and store hydrogen, and transition existing power plants to clean hydrogen.

“We have set an ambitious goal to reach net zero across all MHI Group companies by 2040,” Newsom says. “In order to help meet this goal we are elevating our partnership with the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą — a proven research powerhouse in the energy sector. Through this partnership, we will focus on innovation, research, and education to advance the energy transition.”

• UCF and Mitsubishi Power are longtime partners. Approximately a third of the company’s engineering/manufacturing workforce are UCF graduates.
• In the past 16 years, the company has provided internships for hundreds of UCF students.
• In 2012, UCF installed a Mitsubishi Power power plant on campus that in four years reduced UCF’s carbon footprint by 2,000 to 3,500 metric tons of CO₂ per year in carbon emissions.
• In 2021, UCF and Mitsubishi Power developed and launched a nitrogen oxide emissions tracker
• Since 2021, Mitsubishi has been funding Professor Subith Vasu in UCF’s Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Systems to research and experimentally quantify hydrogen ignition safety boundaries for gas turbines. This effort is also supported by additional funding from the Florida High Tech Corridor Council.
• Mitsubishi is a collaborator on an $800,000 award to UCF from the U.S. Department of Energy, also led by Vasu. The effort focuses on better understanding how to implement hydrogen in modern electricity-generating turbines, including exploring the best fuel blends and their combustion characteristics

UCF’s Research and Academic Centers that Can Support a National Transition to Hydrogen-Based Clean Energy

CATER: Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research — led by Pegasus Professor Jayanta Kapat, UCF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

FSEC: Florida Solar Energy Center — led by Professor James Fenton, UCF Department of Materials Science and Engineering

RISES: Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems — led by Pegasus Professor Zhihua Qu, UCF Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

REACT: Renewable Energy and Chemical Transformations — led by Pegasus Professor Talat Rahman, UCF Department of Physics

UCF School of Modeling, Simulation and Training — led by Director Grace Bochenek ’98PhD., former director of National Energy Technology Laboratory and former acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy