Recipients of this prestigious, early-faculty award exhibit the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, and lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

Each UCF awardee is using their expertise to study the core part of a key system — whether it’s Perotti understanding heart mechanics in relation to health and disease, Guo’s research on harnessing solar power through electric vehicles or Chen, who is redefining high-speed connectivity used in communication antennas.

Non-Magnetic Technology for the Future of Communications

Kenle Chen

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Project Title: Non-Reciprocally Coupled Load-Modulation Platform for Next-Generation High-Power Magnetic-Less Fully Directional Radio Front Ends

Award: $500,000

Our current radio spectrum, or the range of frequencies used for wireless communications, is quickly becoming congested due to rapidly increased user volume from humans and smart devices, as well as from new wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi7, 5G+ and more.

Assistant Professor Kenle Chen, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is developing a first-of-its-kind technology that could alleviate this congestion and allow for more efficient and reliable communications.

In emerging communication systems, an essential device is a circulator that helps control the flow of signals by routing them between an antenna, transmitter and receiver. It can be found on base stations on Earth and on satellites in space.

Traditional circulators rely on “magnetic material,” in which signals travel in one direction under the influence of a magnetic field.

“I can foresee that this research will be wildly exciting and enable knowledge for the future 6G systems featured as joint communication and radar,” Chen says.

Recently, microchip-based, non-magnetic circulators have become possible, but their performance is far from their magnetic counterparts. For instance, state-of-the-art non-magnetic circulators can only handle watt-level of transmission power, which is far below the usable range of many realistic systems, Chen says.

Chen’s approach unleashes the high-power operation of a non-magnetic circulator in an indirect way that will enable more than 10 watts of signal transmission and allow bidirectional signal flow at the antenna interface. Making the technology completely magnetic-less renders a more affordable solution for wireless industries, Chen says.

“It’s a way to directionally route the transmission signal and receive signal, so it’s a bidirectional process, using a single unified antenna,” Chen says. “It will meanwhile enhance the efficiency of high-power amplifiers, the most energy-consuming unit on all wireless platforms.”

Additionally, current magnetic circulators are quite expensive, large and heavy in size — leading to high manufacturing and installation costs for the system as well as increased maintenance requirements. Chen’s new technology will shrink the weight and size of the emerging radio system.

The significant advantages of Chen’s disruptive technology have created interest from wireless and semiconductor industries. Chen says that when installing a current antenna array high onto a base station, oftentimes a helicopter or heavy lifting equipment is needed.

“If we can get rid of magnetic circulators, then we can very much minimize the size and weight of this antenna array,” he says. “So, workers can just carry it on their back as they install it — saving the overall cost and improving labor efficiency and safety.”

Chen’s NSF project will establish the theoretical foundation and practical design methodologies for the proposed technology. He will demonstrate the effectiveness of his proposal using prototypes that mimic the advanced antenna array system within an anechoic, or echo-free, chamber at UCF.

Chen will be working with his research group and the UCF INSPIRE Lab. His team will also provide outreach programs to K-12 students with videos and lectures about wireless technology.

Chen earned his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Purdue şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą in 2013 and worked in the industry before joining UCF in 2018. He credits the four years he spent in the wireless semiconductor sector for fueling his excitement toward developing new research.

“I can foresee that this research will be wildly exciting and enable knowledge for the future 6G systems featured as joint communication and radar,” Chen says. “Beyond the technological frontiers, it will address the nation’s core interests in spectrum sustainability and ubiquitous coverage of high-speed connectivity and lead to economic benefits in the future.”

Harnessing the Sun’s Energy Through Electric Vehicles

Zhaomiao (Walter) Guo

Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

Project Title: A Decentralized Optimization Framework for Next-Gen Transportation and Power Systems with Large-scale Transportation Electrification

Award: $525,781

Using the increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads as an advantage, civil, environmental and construction engineering Assistant Professor Walter Guo’s project will couple two important infrastructure systems — transportation and power — to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Guo is currently building a network model that will examine EVs to capture and store solar energy, which can then be transferred into a power system as the EV replenishes its own battery supply — creating a bidirectional flow of power.

Guo, who is also a part of UCF’s Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems faculty cluster initiative and center, says his ultimate research goal is to introduce more clean energy into the power and transportation systems in a cost-effective way.

While Guo’s model will rely on his computational and engineering expertise, the outcome is largely dependent on the adoption of the system by transportation departments, utility companies and industry partners, including individuals who own EVs.

“EV and solar technologies are going to have a large market penetration in the next 10 or 20 years,” Guo says. “And when we’re able to get these two technologies to work together, it will completely change both systems.” Guo is looking forward to broadly collaborate with the stakeholders, including Florida Department of Transportation, utility companies and the City of Orlando to enable this paradigm shift.

“When the EVs provide support during an outage, they can potentially help recover the power system’s critical loads, allowing the power system startup to be easier,” Guo says.

Guo’s study will also incorporate key concepts in game theory to explore how the average EV owner may adopt the model if given rewards, such as monetary incentives.

“It’s a cyclical process,” he says. “By providing incentives to the EV owners, we essentially reduce the ownership costs for them. So eventually, it will promote the adoption of EVs that in turn, will enable the integration of solar or renewable energy in power systems.”

To quantify the value of providing a certain amount of energy back into the power system, Guo will consider various factors like time, vehicle use and cases where the demand for power is high, such as during a power outage due to a natural disaster.

“When the EVs provide support during an outage, they can potentially help recover the power system’s critical loads, allowing the power system startup to be easier,” Guo says.

Since the time he was working as a transportation engineer in 2012 to his postdoctoral assignment in 2018 where he investigated the power transmission and distribution networks for EVs, Guo’s career path has led him straight to this project.

Over the past five years, Guo’s team of collaborators, which includes students, have played a major role in developing the preliminary results needed to receive the NSF CAREER grant.

“The idea of our contribution is to seamlessly integrate the transportation system with the energy system,” he says. “I hope to carry forward this research direction to a broader context that fundamentally improves sustainability and resilience.”

Modeling Heart Mechanics at the Microscale

Luigi Perotti

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Title: How Does the Heart Contract? A Microstructure-Based Approach to Understand Cardiac Function and Dysfunction

Award: $520,769

Mechanical and aerospace engineering Assistant Professor Luigi Perotti’s project will develop a computational model capable of relating observable macroscopic motion in the heart, such as a cardiac contraction, to its causes at the cellular and tissue levels.

By linking cellular and tissue level mechanics to heart function in health and disease, Perotti’s work can inform investigations of how localized and more widespread abnormalities contribute to cardiac dysfunction across scales.

“If we can link the micro and macroscales more accurately, then we can improve diagnosis and treatment because we can have a more precise, causal link between the changes that happened in the heart,” Perotti says.

“If we can link the micro and macroscales more accurately, then we can improve diagnosis and treatment…” Perotti says.

To build, test and improve their models, Perotti and his team in the Computational Biomechanics Lab, will use existing literature and acquired magnetic resonance imaging data, like those from Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Displacement Encoding with Stimulated Echoes Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or DENSE MRI.

The multiscale computational models will be compared with this experimental data to connect deformation at the cellular and microstructural levels to motion measurable at the tissue and ventricle scales.

“We hope that our results based on microstructural models and imaging data can suggest new quantitative biomarkers to quantify cardiac motion,” Perotti says.

The project will also include outreach to students from local schools to inspire their interest in science, engineering and healthcare.

“Students will be able to hold basic heart models in their hands to understand how the myofiber organizes in a helical structure across the wall and understand how this helical structure is important for cardiac contraction,” Perotti says.

For Perotti, his heart has always been intrigued by coding and biology. His research as a postdoctoral scholar at the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of California, Los Angeles, initially focused on analyzing the maturation of spherical viral shells and how to model their change in shape. However, after his mentor invited him to join a cardiac electrophysiology project, Perotti’s interest in the complex studies of the heart with medical experts intensified.

Since joining UCF in 2019, he continues projects with faculty and students, and says he enjoys the collaborative opportunities the university offers.

“From the time I interviewed for this position, I always had the impression that UCF is very energetic and there is a strong push to grow together,” he says.

In a study appearing today in the journal Science Advances, researchers show that higher local tide ranges, most likely from human alterations to coastal areas and estuaries, has increased the number of nuisance flooding days in many coastal locations in the U.S.

Coastal nuisance flooding is considered to be minor flooding from the seas that causes problems such as flooded roads and overloaded stormwater systems, which can be major inconveniences for people and provide habitat for bacteria and mosquitoes.

Changes to local tide range often occur in coastal areas and estuaries when channels are dredged, land is reclaimed, development occurs, or river flows change. This can cause tide ranges, defined as the height difference between high tide and low tide, to increase in some areas and decrease in others.

The study found that out of the 40 U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tidal gauge locations used in the study that dot the continental U.S. coastlines, nearly half had more nuisance flooding days because of higher local tide ranges.

“It’s the first time that the effects of tidal changes on nuisance flooding were quantified, and the approach is very robust as it is based purely on observational data and covers the entire coastline of the U.S. mainland,” says study co-author Thomas Wahl, an assistant professor in UCF’s .

The researchers performed the study by using tidal gauge data at 40 locations along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts spanning at least 70 years of data. They compared water levels at the locations based on two different scenarios – one in which tidal range never changed and one where it did.

This allowed them to see how often nuisance floods occurred or were prevented over time because of tidal changes.

They found that nuisance flooding increased because of tidal changes in about half the locations, decreased in a fourth of the locations, and was not changed in the remaining quarter of locations.

For example, in 2019, Cedar Key, Florida, received about 23 additional nuisance flooding days because of increased tidal range, while Washington, D.C., had about 42 fewer due to decreased tidal range.

“Seeing how many nuisance flooding events occurred in the past and are happening today simply because of tidal changes should be motivation for us to keep alterations to sensitive estuarine systems at a minimum as to not further exacerbate the problem, which we already face because of sea level rise,” Wahl says.  “We should at least be aware of these potentially negative impacts in the planning phase of alteration projects, and it might even be possible to reverse some of the negative impacts from past decisions.”

Sida Li is the study’s lead author and a visiting student in UCF’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering and the .

Li says that while a few individual instances of minor flooding events do not cause too many impacts, the cumulative impacts of frequent events can become very large.

“Hence, understanding what drives the changes in nuisance flooding is very important,” Li says.

The work was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Wahl earned his doctorate in civil engineering from the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Siegen, Germany, and joined UCF’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, part of UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, in 2017. He is also a member of UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research.

“UCF’s Smart and Safe Transportation Team and I are honored to be selected by the U.S. DOT for our innovative data analytics and visualization system to help operators and decision makers in their work to make our transportation system safer,” says Mohamed Abdel-Aty, a Pegasus Professor and chair of UCF’s , who led the research team.

“The system adds many dimensions to state-of-the-art in-road safety research and practice, and changes much of our thinking from being reactive to being proactive in how we deal with traffic safety issues,” he says. “This system will be the start of more innovation and safety solutions in the near future by the SST team at UCF.”

Notice of the win of the Solving for Safety Visualization Challenge came from Elaine L. Chao, secretary of the Department of Transportation, which sponsored the competition.

“Safety is the department’s top priority and the Solving for Safety Visualization Challenge, which the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą won impressively, is part of ongoing efforts to save lives and prevent injuries,” Chao says in a news release.

As the winner and also a semi-finalist in the competition, UCF will receive $220,000 in prize money from the department.

UCF’s entry, Real-Time Crash Visualization Tools for Traffic Safety Management, is a computer program that uses big data to predict — and hopefully prevent — traffic accidents before they happen.

Abdel-Aty’s team became a finalist in April, along with Ford Motor Co., after beating three other teams, including one from Uber, during the semifinals.

As the team advanced through the competition, it developed its entry from an idea in stage I, to a prototype for the stage II semifinals, and then created a fully working version for submission in stage III, the final part of the competition.

Using information such as real-time traffic data, weather, history of past accidents and violations, and other data, the UCF Smart and Safe Transportation team’s program predicts if the risk of an accident increases or decreases in a situation and presents the probability in an easy-to-understand visual readout alongside a map overlaid with current traffic-flow conditions.

The idea is that if the risk of an accident rises, then transportation operators could implement measures immediately to reduce the risk, such as reduced speeds, metered ramps and messages warning drivers of perilous conditions ahead, says Abdel-Aty.

“Reducing risk can reduce the possibility or the severity of an accident,” he says.

Abdel-Aty says his team’s tool represents a proactive approach to helping vehicular travel become less dangerous by recognizing dangerous roadways, intersections and conditions before the statistics about their hazards pile up.

“There are about 37,000 traffic fatalities per year in the United States and millions of injuries, which is really unacceptable and a huge burden on our society,” Abdel-Aty says.

He says the Smart and Safe Transportation team’s program is designed to make real-time improvements in traffic safety based on rich data and sophisticated algorithms. Seeing different trends and dynamics will allow operators to make better decisions.

Abdel-Aty received his doctorate in civil engineering from the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of California, Davis, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering from Alexandria şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą. He joined UCF in 1995.

The research team was comprised of students and researchers from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, including students Ou Zheng, Cheng Yuan, Morgan Morris, Yaogang Gong, Jacob Lites, Jiajia Dong, Whoibin Chung, Moatz Saad, Lishengsa Yue, Jorge Ugan, Shile Zhang, Pei Li, Zubayer Islam, Md Sharikur Rahman, Md Hasibur Rahman, Ma’en Al-Omari, Ahmed Abdelrahman, Nada Mahmoud, postdoctoral associates Yina Wu and Jinghui Yuan, and professors Samiul Hasan, Jaeyong Lee and Qing Cai.

Chopra, a professor in the UCF , will assume the role Friday, replacing Professor Charles Reilly, who will become UCF’s assistant vice provost after serving as the college’s associate dean for Academic Affairs since 2009, says Dean Michael Georgiopoulos.

Chopra will lead all academic operations of the college, with a student enrollment of more than 11,500, while the college undertakes a search for a permanent associate dean. The office handles student advising, faculty teaching, scholarships, degree conferment, space and facilities. The office has 15 academic advisors and support staff.

 ‘My goal is to create an environment of support for the success of our students and faculty.’

“My goal is to create an environment of support for the success of our students and faculty,” Chopra says. “It is important that this transition be smooth and seamless, and I hope to build on my experience in interacting with the faculty and mentoring of students, to provide leadership for the critical academic operations of the college.”

Chopra has held numerous leadership positions in the college and for the university since joining UCF in 1993, including serving as associate chair for the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, and as director of the UCF Stormwater Management Academy.

He is the university’s lead for research space for the UCF Office of Research, working on solutions and strategies for the optimal use of limited research space on all UCF campuses.

In 2014, he was selected as a UCF Provost Faculty Fellow to conceptualize and implement the UCF Faculty Cluster Initiative, a university research effort to leverage UCF’s existing strengths with interdisciplinary teams focused on solving pressing scientific and societal challenges.

Since 2012, when UCF’s former President John C. Hitt appointed him as the NCAA faculty athletics representative for UCF, Chopra has served as the liaison between the president’s office and UCF Athletics, responsible for the academic success, eligibility, welfare and development of student athletes.

He served as the chair of the UCF Faculty Senate and represented the faculty on the UCF Board of Trustees from 2005 to 2009. Subsequently, he was elected by his peers to serve as the faculty representative on the Florida Board of Governors responsible for all 12 state universities. In 2014-15, he was briefly appointed the interim vice provost for Teaching and Learning and the dean of Undergraduate Studies. Chopra is a program evaluator for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

His research areas include the study of sinkholes, behavior of soil and foundations, soil erosion and sediment control, and sustainable pavements. He has conducted more than $6 million of sponsored research and has 75+ publications with his students. He shared the 2001 Excellence in Environmental Engineering award by NASA for his patented work in innovative groundwater cleanup techniques. His professional assessment and research on sinkholes have received extensive media coverage in Central Florida and nationally. He has also received several awards for his educational activities, including four Teaching Incentive Program awards, the UCF Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the UCF Excellence in Faculty Advising.

Chopra holds master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from the State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of New York at Buffalo, and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India.