“Some boats make it around the pond, some spin around in little circles and some sink — designing, building and racing an autonomous (self-guided) vessel is quite difficult,” says Jacqueline Sullivan ’87 ’91MS, instructor of the Introduction to Engineering course that culminates with this final project.

Beyond a passing grade, a coveted grand prize is up for grabs for the team of the fastest vessel: a four-year McGraw book, e-book and software scholarship for each team member.

The race, in its 29th year, has all the components for innovation and potential for a mess. The classes of budding engineers have grown to nearly 2,000 students who form hundreds of teams. They’re using advanced technology and more components.

With this in mind, perhaps the most amazing aspect of the event is that it has become more orderly than ever, with races starting every 10 minutes for nine straight hours. There is no waste, in terms of time or materials.

“Sustainable engineering,” Sullivan calls it, before admitting, “but it wasn’t my idea. Race day used to be a bit chaotic until Mason [Clewis] came along.”

It’s been only two years since Clewis, a senior photonic science and engineering student, recognized an opportunity to create a perfectly tuned e-waste recycling system, a timeline even he can hardly believe.

“The students are doing at this level what SpaceX and NASA are doing at the highest level — reusing and recycling.” — Jacqueline Sullivan, instructor

“At first, I thought I’d run a recycling booth by myself and maybe reuse the boat parts or sell them on eBay,” he says. “But it’s grown beyond me, to multiple departments and a network of volunteers. It’s all happened fast and naturally.”

The magic begins as each race ends. Participants who don’t advance to the final rounds take their boats to a tent where students disassemble each craft with the speed of NASCAR pit crews. They pull out batteries, computer chips and servomotors. Stainless steel screws and hardware are also collected. Whatever is left of the hulls is crushed and deposited into recycle bins.

The oranges are saved for other races.

As the day progresses through dozens of races, the lawn around the Reflecting Pond never changes from its original condition: a green carpet, in perfect spring form.

“The students are doing at this level what SpaceX and NASA are doing at the highest level — reusing and recycling,” Sullivan says. “That’s why I say Mason is my hero.”

A Village Beyond the Tent

Clewis watched his first GNOR as a curious freshman. He’d been working on his own capstone project — developing a temperature-controlled fan. During the races, a few of his internal wheels started turning when he noticed boat carnage spilling from trash cans and onto the lawn.

“Some of the parts on the boats were the same parts I needed for my own project,” he says. “I know plenty of students like me who don’t want to shell out $100 for the same perfectly good batteries, chips and sensors that are being thrown away. Plus, I’m interested in entrepreneurship and keeping the environment clean. So, I took the basic idea for a recycling booth to Miss Sullivan.”

“That’s the most rewarding aspect for me: the lasting impact — a positive, mutually beneficial impact. The campus looks better. Students can access free parts for their projects. Everyone has fun. There is no downside.” — Mason Clewis, student

The power of organic growth took root when Sullivan put Clewis and his project partner, Chris Lesniak, in touch with Jim Essad, manager of the machine shop sciences program. When students from UCF’s Robotics Club found out, they offered to disassemble boats on race day and organize parts for future reuse. Word then spread to College of Engineering and Computer Sciences Facilities Operations Manager Pete Alfieris, who offered recycle containers and golf carts. Don Harper ’88, manager of the Texas Instruments Innovation Lab, said he’d gladly take the discarded wood and barely-used hardware for the next cohorts to access for free.

“I never thought so many people would want to be involved,” Clewis says, “but we’re helping others and there’s something inherently attractive about that.”

Students want to be involved. Faculty and staff want to be involved. In the past 24 months, the savings in money and materials has been incalculable. The cycle feeds itself with the rare combination of sustainability and scale.

“Mason started doing the right thing about a need when no one was looking,” Sullivan says. “Now everyone is looking.”

E-Cycling into the Future

Clewis was in the recycling booth again for this year’s GNOR, but with a slightly different purpose: Teaching freshmen how to run the show.

“I won’t be here in a couple of years, but someone else will keep it going,” he says. “That’s the most rewarding aspect for me: the lasting impact — a positive, mutually beneficial impact. The campus looks better. Students can access free parts for their projects. Everyone has fun. There is no downside.”

UCF alum Kelly Shea ’23 understands first-hand the academic challenges some children struggle with in the classroom. After all, she was once one of them.

“School just didn’t make sense to me,” says the elementary education grad, who couldn’t read until midway through elementary school.

Those early challenges have been integral to Shea’s career path as an educational entrepreneur. They also fuel the “why” behind her mission to empower young students through her start-up business that offers invention education kits for kids.

Making Sense of School

Growing up, Shea recalls struggling in every subject, especially reading, during her elementary school years.

“I had trouble comprehending things,” says the 23-year-old, who has since written and published four children’s books. “My first-grade teacher, Ms. Shepard, was the one who recognized I was having problems. I met with her almost weekly throughout second grade for extra support. Things finally started clicking for me in middle school, but I struggled a lot early on.”

She got involved with a Tampa-area nonprofit called Girls With Confidence, which empowers young girls in developing positive self-esteem. As she got older, she began volunteering and taking on more leadership roles with the organization.

“I would come up with activities and games for their programming and realized that I love teaching and creating impact, like how people did for me,” she says. “I just loved working with kids. I wanted to help them find solutions to their struggles because I was there once, too.”

Shea carried that determination and creative, problem-solving spirit throughout her time in and leveraged it to create two businesses before she graduated. She credits UCF’s and as crucial resources that complemented the knowledge she gained in her coursework, ultimately fueling her career path today with Innovation Station LLC.

Connecting Education and Entrepreneurship

While taking the Careers in K-12 Education course with Cristina Sáenz ’22PhD — now an invention education manager for Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lemelson-MIT Program — Shea had her light bulb moment: She could bridge her passion for education with her entrepreneurship endeavors.

Invention education is a learning approach that challenges students through hands-on problem-solving. Shea often saw this play out during her internship with , where young patients face educational challenges due to injuries and illnesses.

“At Nemours, I saw how kids with cerebral palsy adapt things for their needs, and it inspired me because that’s what invention is about,” she says. “I thought, ‘Why don’t I create a series of kits for K-5 students that teaches them to go back to the basics of hands-on learning?’”

With that, Innovation Station LLC was born during her last semester at UCF.

Empowering Tomorrow’s Innovators

Through Innovation Station, Shea offers a series of four invention education kits that teach children to identify and explore problems, brainstorm and develop innovative ideas, build and prototype concepts, and practice their presentational skills.

Each kit includes a relatable storybook — written by Shea herself — as well as guided activities, worksheets, crafting supplies, and lesson resources for teachers. Even the packaging is designed to be used as part of the inventive process. With the final kit in the series, students cut off the sides of the box to make into a poster board they’ll use to pitch their product.

“They’re reminded that their product is a prototype; it’s not going to be perfect, and failure is OK because we can always fix things based on what we learn from it,” she says. “They learn how to communicate their brand with problem and solution statements. The books also cover easing those presentation nerves and learning to support your friends even if you’re competing.”

Prior to launching Innovation Station kits in July 2025, she conducted a six-week focus group with the Girls Scouts of Citrus Council, where she was able to test the kits with girls ranging from 4 to 12 years old. One 4-year-old invented a soft pencil because she was just learning to write, and regular pencils hurt her hand.

“It’s meant to teach them to be problem-solvers,” she says.

Since then, Shea has been promoting Innovation Station kits while also working in manufacturing, helping others bring their own inventions to life. She is piloting the kits this semester in partnership with fellow teacher education alum Chuck Burgess ’92. The kits will debut in nine Tampa-area elementary schools through local nonprofit High 5, Inc., which offers a variety of after-school and recreational programs.

“I took a chance on myself, and I decided that this is what I want to do.” — Kelly Shea ’23

She aspires to collaborate with school districts to introduce them into today’s classrooms.

“I took a chance on myself, and I decided that this is what I want to do,” she says. “I want to inspire and have an impact on the next generation and help create core memories by facilitating those light-bulb moments of, ‘Wow, I can be an entrepreneur.’”

The clinic also serves as a mobile classroom, preparing UCF healthcare students in programs including medicine, nursing, physical therapy and speech-language pathology with hands-on experience delivering community-based care.

The clinic is the first interdisciplinary clinical care program offered by UCF’s Academic Health Sciences Center (AHSC). The center unites UCF’s colleges of Health Professions and Sciences, Medicine and Nursing to create more interprofessional health education, research and patient care efforts.

“This new mobile health clinic is expanding access to healthcare in our community,” says Deborah German, who as vice president for health affairs leads the AHSC and serves as College of Medicine dean. “Our goal is simple and powerful – when healthcare providers work together, the patient receives better care.”

The clinic is focused on low income, uninsured and underinsured populations in Orange and Osceola counties, helping patients who face transportation, mobility or financial barriers that restrict their access to healthcare.

Services include screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and hearing, along with chronic disease monitoring, fall-risk assessments, medication reviews, audiology services and health education.

With two private exam rooms, diagnostic equipment, and point-of-care testing capabilities, the clinic is aiming to reduce preventable conditions and improve long-term health for the Central Florida region.

“The UCF Health Mobile Health Clinic is designed to complement the incredible work being done by community health centers, federally qualified health centers and charitable clinics across Central Florida,” says Caridad Hernandez, chair of medical education at the College of Medicine, who has worked for years to make the mobile clinic a reality. “Our goal is to fill gaps and meet people where they are, working hand in hand with these organizations to amplify resources and create a seamless continuum of care.”

Training Future Health Leaders

UCF’s Academic Health Sciences Center is made up of healthcare providers, faculty, researchers, staff and students committed to improving healthcare. It is focused on educating the next generation of healthcare leaders and finding better ways to treat disease through innovation, discovery and collaboration.

The mobile clinic serves as a classroom on wheels that provides future UCF physicians, nurses, audiologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists and others with the opportunity to learn in real-world settings, side by side, as part of interprofessional teams.

“These experiences prepare graduates who are not only clinically skilled but know how to work and communicate better in healthcare teams.” — Caridad Hernandez, chair of medical education at the College of Medicine

“They will see firsthand how life and social circumstances impact health and care, and how collaboration strengthens outcomes,” Hernandez says. “These experiences prepare graduates who are not only clinically skilled but know how to work and communicate better in healthcare teams. That training stays with them when they go into clinics and hospitals to care for us all.”

Mimi Alliance ’22 is a family nurse practitioner doctoral student at UCF’s College of Nursing who is providing care on the mobile health unit and conducting doctoral research on hearing screenings for seniors.

“UCF’s mobile health clinic is an incredible and innovative tool that will allow us, as a group of providers, the ability to care for patients by serving them where they are,” she says. “Ultimately, this is going to improve the health of our communities.”

Addressing a Community Need

The mobile clinic serves Florida residents who are uninsured or underinsured with income levels at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. Nearly 15% of both Orange and Osceola County residents are not insured, regardless of income level. In addition, 27% of Floridians say they do not have a personal physician.

Since March, almost 500 patients have visited the clinic for blood pressure checks, hearing screenings and point-of-care testing for blood sugar levels and cholesterol. It has provided care at Four Roots Farm, Kinneret Council on Aging, Grace Medical Home, the Central Florida Fairgrounds and four Central Florida YMCA locations. UCF has also reached an agreement with Osceola County to provide care at community centers in the future.

Thanks to a grant from the Florida Department of Health, the clinic is working to improve care for the community’s diabetic patients with limited access to care.

Diabetes is a worldwide epidemic. In Florida, at least 2.17 million adults have been diagnosed with diabetes and an estimated 550,000 more are unaware they have it. The state’s diabetes rate is higher than the national average and it is getting worse – an additional 6 million adults in Florida have prediabetes.

“Many of our neighbors with diabetes have no access to healthcare. That leads to premature death, blindness, loss of limbs and kidney failure,” Hernandez says. “Through the FDOH grant, we can help provide these patients with needed care. We screen patients for diabetes, can provide prescriptions at no cost, and offer education on diet changes that will help them manage their disease.”

As one recent patient at Kinneret Council on Aging explains, “UCF helped me know what kind of food and protein I can eat to help my blood sugar not get too high or too low. Thank you so much. You are helping.”

The clinic also started a diabetic foot program after one of the Kinneret patients said she and other diabetics lacked mobility and eyesight to regularly check their feet for ulcers or blisters. Diabetes increases a patient’s risk for foot ulcers that can lead to amputation. Thanks to the foot program, UCF College of Nursing faculty and students are providing hands-on education and preventive screenings to patients, who also received their own telescoping mirrors to do regular foot checks at home.

Providing Needed Audiology Care

One of the clinic’s major health services is hearing health and the prevention of hearing loss.

“This is not just a ‘nice to have’ screening,” says Bari Hoffman ’96 ’98MA, associate dean for clinical affairs at UCF’s College of Health Professions and Sciences and a certified speech pathologist who has helped lead the mobile clinic effort. “Hearing loss is linked to diabetes, cardiovascular and cardiometabolic conditions, balance, cognition and overall health. When we catch hearing loss early, we can intervene before it affects someone’s safety, memory, their social connections, or their long-term health trajectory.”

Thanks to a gift from the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, UCF purchased diagnostic hearing equipment to provide clinical-grade hearing assessments in the community. And though a collaboration with Central Florida Hearing Aid Recycling Programs, the mobile clinic can help connect patients with reprogrammed, refurbished hearing aids at no cost.

“This is such a meaningful addition,” Hoffman says. “Identifying hearing loss is important, but ensuring people have access to hearing aids is what truly changes lives.”

The mobile unit is also supported by the Community Fund of our teaching hospital – UCF Lake Nona Hospital and our partners HCA Florida Healthcare and The Jules B. Chapman MD and Annie Lou Chapman Private Foundation.

Stephanie Garris is CEO of Orlando’s Grace Medical Home, which provides high-quality, continuous care to some of Orange County’s more than 160,000 uninsured residents. Grace patients have received audiology care from the UCF mobile clinic.

“This mobile clinic is an incredible resource for our patients, offering essential services they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.” —Stephanie Garris, CEO of Orlando’s Grace Medical Home

“This mobile clinic is an incredible resource for our patients, offering essential services they otherwise wouldn’t have access to,” Garris says. “Through our partnership with UCF, we are expanding access to care—especially for the working poor, whose jobs often don’t include healthcare benefits.”

Expanding Efforts

Mobile clinic leaders are eager to expand services and work with additional community organizations.

Plans also include expanding the mobile clinic into an innovation hub to pilot and evaluate emerging aging-in-place and digital health technologies and integrate new diagnostic and disease prevention tools.

UCF research faculty also want to use the vehicle’s services to study better ways to advance health accessibility and chronic disease management. Educators from the AHSC’s three colleges also plan to grow interdisciplinary student training across areas including audiology, nursing, medicine, physical therapy and speech language pathology.

Community organizations wishing to partner with the mobile health clinic can contact anna.cisneros@ucf.edu.

UCF earned the status after completing the and demonstrating the university meets all related to institutional mission; ethical and responsible conduct; teaching and learning for student success; and institutional effectiveness, resources and planning.

“HLC is an accreditation partner that matches our scale, our innovation, and our commitment to strong stewardship of public resources.” — President Alexander N. Cartwright

“UCF’s transition to HLC reflects our bold ambitions for the future and our responsibility to deliver exceptional value for Florida,” says UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright. “HLC is an accreditation partner that matches our scale, our innovation, and our commitment to strong stewardship of public resources. Meeting the rigorous standards to earn this accreditation reflects the faculty and staff whose unwavering dedication to student success, academic excellence, and operational efficiency fuel our momentum.”

About the Higher Learning Commission

Founded in 1895, HLC is a private nonprofit accrediting agency and the nation’s largest institutional accreditor recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. HLC accredits approximately 1,000 colleges and universities in the United States.

Why Accreditation Matters for UCF

As Florida offers universities new and innovative options for accreditation, UCF is proud to lead the way as the first in the State ����ֱ�� System to earn accreditation from HLC.

HLC accreditation validates excellence across UCF, evaluating aspects including academic programs, governance and administration, mission, finances and resources.

Accreditation provides assurance that the university is fulfilling its public mission and providing excellent education, while also demonstrating UCF’s commitment to continuous improvement. It is also essential for the university to receive federal funding, including student financial aid.

UCF’s Strong Return on Investment

As a leading R1 university committed to building a better future, UCF empowers innovative community partnerships, world-class research with global impact, and the integration of technology and learning to foster incredible student outcomes.

U.S. News & World Report ranks UCF among the top 15 most innovative universities in the country and has consistently ranked UCF’s online degrees among the top 10 nationally for Best Online Bachelor’s Programs.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, UCF has a higher graduation rate and lower annual cost than the average midpoint for four-year schools, with a graduation rate of 73% compared to the midpoint of 58%. UCF remains a great value for a quality education, with average annual costs of $10,650 compared to the $19,740 midpoint for other four-year schools.

UCF is also Florida’s most financially efficient university.

“UCF has become a national leader in delivering excellence at scale, achieving outstanding outcomes for our students and the state while operating with one of the lowest costs per degree in the nation,” President Cartwright says. “Because of that efficiency, additional new investments in UCF would deliver among the strongest returns in higher education — fueling the talent, research, and innovation that drive Florida’s future.”

Our Ongoing Commitment to Excellence

UCF was initially accredited in 1970, and most recently held its status through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

Accreditation is an ongoing relationship. As a member of HLC, the institution will participate in ongoing reviews for compliance with HLC standards.

More information about the institution’s accreditation is available in HLC’s .

“I am on the receiving end of care for this disease. I want to be part of improving care for all of us who deal with epilepsy.” — Julia Moras, student

Moras is part of new UCF research and educational opportunities created by Laura Brattain, a biomedical engineer by training who is integrating AI, medical ultrasound and surgical robotics to create healthcare innovations that improve patient care.

As an associate professor at UCF’s College of Medicine and a member of UCF’s new Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Brattain holds secondary positions in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. She is offering a newly revitalized Introduction to Medical Robotics course that is part of a new master’s program in robotics and autonomous systems. Those educational opportunities are also expanding research opportunities.

During a recent gathering, Brattain and her students — UCF undergraduates, master’s and doctoral candidates — demonstrated the promise AI and medical robotics have for patient care.

“My hope is that students come away from this course with not only a solid understanding of how robotics and AI are transforming medicine, but also a sense of creativity and purpose — seeing themselves as future innovators who can bridge engineering and healthcare to improve patient outcomes,” Brattain says.

“With the advances in AI and hardware acceleration, medical robotics is going to be one of the next frontiers in healthcare innovation.” — Laura Brattain, associate professor

The Promise of Technology

As part of the new class, students are using AI to program a small medical robot to recognize anatomical structures in medical images. For example, the robot’s probe can recognize the difference between soft tissue and bone in the human body. With the probe, you can feel the softness of human tissue and the hardness of bone as the probe enters each.

Such robots could provide needed care in rural and isolated areas, Brattain explains. A surgeon miles or even countries away could direct the robot with his or her hands to perform surgery.

M. Iffat Hossain is a UCF graduate student studying computer engineering. He says Brattain’s class has opened his eyes to ways engineers and physicians can work together.

In another lab, UCF students and Brattain show the use of ultrasound technology to improve care. There, they are programming a small, handheld ultrasound machine that can provide medical imaging rather than rely on the large ultrasound machines used in hospital and established clinical settings.

One of her students uses a wireless ultrasound probe on his arm to track the median nerve using AI. Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome often require surgery or nerve blockers injected into that nerve to relieve their pain. AI-driven ultrasound technology can improve outcomes of such procedures and increase access to care, she says.

Her research is also studying the use of AI and ultrasound to better diagnose breast cancer with less invasive procedures for patients. Currently, a certain percentage of patients with a suspected tumor undergo surgical biopsies, where a piece of the tumor is surgically removed for testing.

What if AI and ultrasound imaging could better differentiate between benign vs. malignant tumors, thus reducing the need for surgical biopsies?

What if technology could provide a less invasive and more cost-effective way to keep track of breast cancer progression and reduce the reliance on mammograms and MRIs?

“If we could use AI and medical ultrasound technology to safely reduce surgical biopsies by even 20%, that would mean improved quality of life to many women, including younger women.”

UCF Students Are Inspired

Farhan Fuad Abir is a UCF computer engineering doctoral candidate working on the breast cancer AI research. His mother is a breast cancer survivor.

“I want to create technology that serves humankind.” — Daryl Docteur, computer science graduate student

“The opportunity to use my skills to create technology to help people like my mother is powerful,” he says.

Engineering and computer science students say the medical robotics course has inspired them on new ways to use their skills while simultaneously increasing the potential of job opportunities linking engineering, computer science and healthcare.

Daryl Docteur was inspired to return to school after what he saw firsthand while working as a nurse in assisted living centers in Miami. He says as a health provider, he became enthralled with the innovative technology being developed to improve patient care and decided to come to UCF to pursue his master’s degree in computer science to further his training.

“I want to be part of the solution,” he says. “I want to create technology that serves humankind.”

“We’re well positioned to redefine the optical network of the future,” Eichenholz says.

That’s the vision for Relativity Networks, founded by Eichenholz and UCF’s College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) Professor Rodrigo Amezcua Correa. As the artificial intelligence (AI) industry grows, so does its need for data processing, which requires large amounts of energy. By 2026, data centers in the U.S. are expected to consume more than twice their current energy usage, and more than 40% of facilities are expected to face power shortages by 2027.

“Currently, new data centers can’t be built fast enough to satisfy the rapidly expanding AI-driven economy and the lack of available power is an existential threat to fueling that growth,” Eichenholz says.

Their solution? A patent-pending hollow-core fiber (HCF) cable that can transmit data nearly 50% faster than conventional glass fiber. The company has raised $4.6 million in pre-seed funding, and has already deployed the technology in multiple installations.

This large-scale innovation is familiar territory for Eichenholz. The holder of more than 90 U.S. patents was recently inducted into the National Academy of Inventors and the Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine of Florida. He co-founded and served as chief technology officer of Luminar Technologies, one of the leading providers of lidar technology in driverless vehicles.  As a CREOL courtesy faculty member, he also maintains close ties with UCF, which he considers a key part of the first of three “life chapters” so far.

“I thought I was closing out my ‘chapter two’, but when I saw this technology, I realized this chapter is still being written,” Eichenholz says. “Being able to partner with UCF, which is near and dear to my heart, makes it that much better.”

The Power of Hollow Core

Since HCF can move data with less delay than conventional fiber, it can travel 1.5 times farther without adding additional latency, which can throw data centers in multiple locations out of sync. Traditional fibers usually limit these centers to being within 37 miles of each other. Relativity Networks’ HCF cable expands this to 56 miles.

“Basically, we are doing things you cannot do with any other conventional fibers,” Amezcua Correa says.

The vision affords the new AI economy more geographic optionality for data centers, which means they can be built closer to already-existing power sources. Relativity Networks, already backed by multimillion dollar contracts, aims to give the right partners the ability to rapidly scale their production.

Amezcua Correa, who originally developed the HCF used by Relativity Networks, says HCF continue to push the boundary of what’s possible. “We have been working on hollow-core fibers for almost 20 years,” Amezcua Correa says. “We are excited to leverage the unique optical properties of hollow core fibers to design the optical networks of the future.”

A Partnership for the Future

The launch of Relativity Networks is another example of innovation fostered by industry partnerships with UCF.

“This breakthrough demonstrates a decade of dedicated research by our team,” says Winston Schoenfeld, UCF’s vice president for research and innovation. “UCF strongly values industry partnerships and this is a wonderful example of how collaboration between academia and industry can lead to accelerated innovation that translates into significant societal impact.”

UCF is actively forging new relationships with industry partners, by matching the university’s research strength and academic expertise with the strategic priorities of entities of all sizes, from brand-new startups to major corporations. This relationship fostered Relativity Networks from concept, to collaboration, to company.

Eichenholz says the vision for the future of photonics, or light-based technology, is shining brightly in Central Florida.

“My mantra has been ‘Why not change the world?’ and I think we are doing that,” Eichenholz says.

About the Researchers
Eichenholz is a serial entrepreneur, executive and recognized pioneer in laser and photonics-enabled innovation. With a Ph.D. in optical sciences and engineering from CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics at UCF, Jason has spent more than over three decades at the forefront of transformative technologies.

As the co-founder and former chief technology officer of Luminar Technologies, Eichenholz helped redefine autonomous vehicle safety with lidar technology. Under his leadership, Luminar became a publicly traded company on Nasdaq, raising approximately $1 billion in funding. Eichenholz’s expertise in turning groundbreaking research into scalable solutions is now driving Relativity Networks’ mission to revolutionize fiber optics with hollow core fiber technology.

When he’s not reshaping industries, Eichenholz dedicates himself to serving others — as a volunteer firefighter and EMT, and through his greatest passion: the Jonathan’s Landing Foundation, a residential community he founded for his son Jonathan and 500 other adults with autism.

Amezcua Correa is a professor at UCF’s College of Optics and Photonics, where he leads the Optical Fiber and Fiber Devices Laboratory. He received his doctorate from Southampton ����ֱ��. After that, he joined the ����ֱ�� of Bath and worked at Powerlase Photonics developing industrial lasers. His main interests are advanced fiber design and fabrication, hollow core fibers, space division multiplexing optical fiber communications, high-power fiber lasers, nonlinear fiber sources, optical sensors and laser components.

“If we take our values seriously,” he says with a voice as welcoming as his smile, “then good things will happen.”

His statement about values would be rather vague if there weren’t concrete reminders of them at the top of Abdolvand’s bookcase: thank-you cards from current and former UCF students. The centerpiece of his uncluttered desk serves as another reminder: a well-worn mousepad with a picture of his daughter and son taken around the same time Abdolvand came to UCF in 2014.

“This,” he says, picking up the mousepad, “is a big reason why I’m here.”

He mentions values two more times before moving on to “the objectives of UCF as a whole” and “the objectives of the electrical and computer engineering department as a unit.” Asked to explain what he means, Abdolvand pulls out another visual aid: a department magazine he helped conceive, called Charged.

“Right here,” he says, pointing to the 10 faculty members on the magazine’s cover. They’re among 21 new electrical and computer engineering hires over the past two years, an expansion of more than 50%. “Yes, this is about engineering and research, but people — quality people — are the most important part of our infrastructure. And this kind of growth … I didn’t think it was possible.”

It’s an interesting comment from a research professor who could be describing impossible inventions that are smaller than dust particles. Instead, he has something bigger in mind.

“See the tagline of the magazine?” he says, tapping a finger on the four words under the Charged title: To empower and serve. “Serving our constituents  is at the core of our values.”

Abdolvand has spent nearly as much time since 2022 vetting faculty candidates as he has looking through powerful electron microscopes. It isn’t enough to simply hire enough faculty to keep up with the demand from student enrollment.

“We need to find the right faculty,” he says, speaking partly about their research interests in key fields like energy, AI and semiconductors. “It’s more than that. They need to also fit the personality of UCF. Just like it is with humans, our personality is unique.”

With that, he brings the connection between values, objectives and personality full circle to the link that until now has been missing from the conversation.

“Invention,” he says. “We invent in labs, of course, but there’s another kind of invention that makes UCF different. Anyone who comes into our department will help us invent new ways to serve our students.”

What he is talking about includes a new master’s program in robotics, certificate programs in electronic parts engineering and semiconductor manufacturing, and other tracks and minors that are still being developed.

“The foundation of our infrastructure, however, are the faculty and students,” Abdolvand says. “They reflect our personality. Young. Creative. This is a top university for social mobility, which is big. And we have a history rooted in technology. All of this is in the genes of UCF.”

It’s this personality that attracted him to UCF 10 years ago when there was no university-level facility for fabrication of the microscale devices that his research depends on. He was willing to help build this infrastructure because he admits to also being drawn to something more obvious.

“This is Florida. It’s beautiful. And we are not a college town in the middle of nowhere. We’re in Orlando,” he says as he picks up the mousepad again. “It’s a great place for raising a family.”

We can’t leave Abdolvand the father, the hiring manager and the mentor without seeing something from Abdolvand the inventor.

“You want to see what we research?” he says, standing up from his desk. “OK, I’ll show you. Although, you cannot actually ‘see’ anything.”

He leads the way across the L3Harris Engineering Center to a cleanroom in another building. Until recently, it would have taken months to gain access to the cleanroom. Abdolvand spent four years reshaping the process.

“Quicker access fits the infrastructure we want,” he says. “It means our research can be far more efficient.”

Along a hallway, Abdolvand stands outside the windows of the cleanroom. Inside, researchers wear protective suits, head coverings and booties. From the windows, it’s like watching delicate surgery from a safe distance.

“The people don’t need to protect themselves from anything,” Abdolvand says. “They’re protecting the devices.” For context, the air in a typical room has more than 500,000 particles of size 0.5 micrometer or larger per cubic feet. A cleanroom should have far less than that. “If those small  particles sit on a device we’ve fabricated, the device can be ruined.”

None of it is visible: the particles or the devices.

“It’s complex, I know,” Abdolvand says.

For more context, he points out a scanning electron microscope near the window. The scope bounces high-energy electrons off the surface of micro- and nano-devices to convert what is impossible to optically see into gray-scale pictures. This has helped Abdolvand develop microscopic devices similar to the tiny microphones that are utilized in smartphones.

“I’m still amazed at times that we’re doing this kind of research,” he says.

As he walks back toward his office, Abdolvand casually waves to one student and faculty member after another. These are the values and objectives he explained earlier, in plain sight. People. Personality. Mentorship. Then, before heading into another meeting, he finally opens up about the one topic he’s avoided: himself.

“I’m an engineer, an inventor,” he says. “You know the [notion] — we’re good with ‘things,’ but not necessarily with people. And it’s true that I’m naturally an introvert. It’s my personality. So, for a long time I believed making the next important gadgets would be my calling. But after I came to UCF, I realized how fulfilling it is to be a teacher and mentor. It surprised me. What I’m doing now, the relationships, the cards in my office, this is not what I anticipated for my career. It’s much better than anything I ever imagined.”

The irony is obvious. Awan is a speech scientist. Through research, he helps speech pathologists improve clinical services for people with speech disorders. His momentary vocal discomfort creates an opening to discuss — and simplify — his most recent groundbreaking work.

“Being hoarse isn’t necessarily a problem unless it persists for more than two weeks,” Awan says. “When it disrupts daily life beyond an irritation, medical referral and potential speech pathology services come into play. The goal of my research is to help speech pathologists more easily determine the ‘why’ regarding voice disorders.”

With his current research, Awan and his team can literally hear the future of speech pathology. They can see the future, too. In fact, Awan can hold it in the palm of his hand. For more than 30 years, the research professor in UCF’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders has focused his lifelong interest in acoustics and his expertise in voice evaluation to find the root causes of communication disorders that affect as many as one in ten people in the U.S. One of the unsolved problems in voice-disorder assessments enticed him out of retirement so he could pursue a simple solution, this time with a $3.12 million dollar grant funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and a team of six interdisciplinary researchers from three universities.

Today, Awan and his team believe they have an answer: a whistle. Not a cumbersome costly machine, but a vortex whistle small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. In its final form, it will be biodegradable, disposable, and affordable. It will have no moving parts and doesn’t need to be powered. Awan envisions the whistles being as readily available as a bag of dental-floss picks. Accompanying software that captures and analyzes the vortex whistle tone completes the system.

He also sees them changing lives, soon.

“Our version of the vortex whistle addresses a widely known deficit that speech pathologists deal with in terms of accurately assessing voice-disordered patients,” Awan says.

To uncomplicate the picture, he compares the evaluation of voice to the evaluation of vision. “Imagine if your optometrist said, ‘We really should do one other test to make sure we’re on the right track with your prescription … but we don’t have the equipment because it’s too expensive.’ That’s the scenario what we want to change in speech pathology.”

Voice production, Awan says, combines the physical laryngeal component (the “voice box”) with respiratory airflow. To properly assess and treat patients with voice disorders, four key areas need to be measured:

1. Perceptual analysis. “The therapist listens to the patient, describes the voice and categorizes it. This requires training but no additional instrumentation.”
2. Visual analysis. “Images of vocal folds, often referred to as ‘vocal cords’, are obtained by a laryngologist or an associated professional under the supervision of a laryngologist).”
3. Acoustic analysis. “The acoustic signal is recorded and analyzed for measurements related to a potential voice difference and the severity of the problem. Almost all speech/voice clinicians have access to a computer, microphone and analysis software capable of doing this type of measurement.”

And that leads to number four, the critical link that’s usually missing.

“Aerodynamics,” Awan says. “When you produce voice, the vocal folds vibrate because of air coming up from the lungs. The voice is dependent on the respiratory system’s capacity and ability to generate air flow and pressure. If there’s a deficit in producing or controlling respiratory forces, the voice is often affected. There could be an underlying neurological problem, or a medical issue like asthma or COPD that may require medical treatment or voice therapy. Until now, the respiratory element in speech has been overlooked because there’s been no low-cost, accurate, available method to measure aerodynamics. This vortex whistle, with easy-to-use software, will make it possible in a day-to-day clear-cut fashion.”

Awan talks about how this project came about.

“This all started at a voice disorder conference,” he says. “People were discussing the fact there were no low-cost tools to measure aerodynamics as it relates to voice. In my mind, I knew there must be something out there that could be reimagined.”

Awan, the speech scientist who once thought following his graduate work in the U.S. that he might return to his childhood home in London, Ontario, Canada, to pursue a career in music, used his knowledge in acoustics to consider a few ideas. A flute? A referee’s whistle?

“Neither of them produces a sound specifically related to the amount of air flow going into them,” Awan says. “Then I became aware of the vortex whistle. It has no moving parts. Air enters the cylinder, which forces the air to spiral and exert pressure against the walls of the cylinder before exiting. This creates a signal that has a pitch and frequency that are directly proportional to the amount of air flowing into the whistle. That’s the principle.”

The frequency of the vortex whistle sound wave can then be converted to measurements of airflow and volume.

The vortex whistle’s potential is why Awan took up his friend and colleague, UCF Professor David Eddins, on an offer to unretire, form a team, and work toward applying the science. The NIDCD-funded grant has accelerated the progress. At Purdue, his son, Jordan Awan, leads data analysis while aerodynamics engineer Jun Chen works on modifications of the whistle for specific tasks. At Emory ����ֱ��, Amanda Gillespie conducts studies with voice disordered human subjects. And at UCF, Awan, Eddins and Assistant Professor Victoria McKenna have access to lab space built to spec in the Communication Technologies Research Center in the UCF Innovative Center — sound-treated booths, an anechoic chamber and a reception area for subjects participating in tests. In the same building are a speech and hearing clinic and capabilities for 3D printing and simulation.

“For the vortex whistle to be ready for use, its construction has to be very precise,” Awan says. “It also requires software development to accurately capture and analyze a somewhat difficult soundwave. We’re getting close.”

The Journal of Voice has already published the study from Awan’s team as an award-winning cover story. Since then, various versions of the whistle have been computer-modeled and 3D printed. The modifications are being tested in the first of three large-scale human subject studies. The second study, in 2025, will look at subjects from 5 to 90 years old to see how well the vortex whistle works to document potential changes in measurements of respiratory volume and airflow during voice production across the lifespan. And the final study will utilize the vortex whistle as a treatment-outcome measure before and after medical procedures for vocal-fold paralysis.

From there, the application could be far-reaching.

“My hope with the vortex whistle,” Awan says, “is that we start with speech and voice-disordered patients, and then identify its usefulness in other areas of medicine and associated areas such as exercise science and sports physiology. By making it affordable and accessible, there’s no limit to how many people can ultimately benefit from it.”

“Much of the research that drives the parks is done right here at home,” says Rob Panepinto, senior strategic advisor and director Innovation Districts Strategy and Partnerships at the UCF Incubation Program. “Yet the story of Central Florida as a hub of technology is lost on most people, including people who live here.”

The technology isn’t all for fun and games either. Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis ranks the Orlando region No. 22 in the nation and No. 1 in Florida for producing tech talent, with UCF as the main pipeline. UCF is one of the few universities in the nation offering undergraduate degrees and graduate programs and certificates in cybersecurity, augmented reality, virtual reality and fintech. For years, UCF has been ranked the No. 1 supplier of graduates to the aerospace and defense industries. Nearly one in three employees at Kennedy Space Center are UCF graduates. U.S. News and World Report has ranked UCF the No. 15 most innovative university in the nation. Among public universities in the U.S., UCF ranks 21st for producing patents.

The numbers go on and on, and some of them are about fun and games. Princeton Review has named the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) at UCF the top graduate-level game development program for three consecutive years.

“I think sometimes we might take for granted what we have here at UCF,” says Agere Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and AR/VR pioneer Carolina Cruz-Neira. “We have tech experts in energy, cybersecurity, healthcare, nanotechnology, blockchain, a broad spectrum of specialties. That’s what makes it exciting as a faculty member — one day we’re working on technology for cancer research, the next day it’s traffic safety, and then mental health. It’s why my husband and I came to UCF in January 2020. We wanted to be a part of this.”

Cruz-Neira and her husband, Associate Professor of Computer Science Dirk Reiners, had known about UCF’s status in tech research and simulation for years. As world-renown pioneers in augmented and virtual reality, they’d travel to Orlando for presentations and conferences. While inspiring others with their own work, they would be mutually wowed with the leading-edge simulation advancements being made in Research Park.

“We were professionally lonely at other institutions,” Cruz-Neira says. “We would try to explain to people the challenging research necessary to produce effective virtual reality applications. Here at UCF, we immediately became part of a larger team of experts in VR and in other fields. Every day we’re collaborating and tackling answers to larger problems.”

There’s an even bigger motivating factor for them: students.

“The students are learning new technologies at the same time we’re researching them,” says Cruz-Neira. “They’re enthusiastic about the material because they have the freedom to apply what they learn in our VR classes to biology, psychology, hospitality, whatever they’re interested in.”

When she was working toward her doctorate in computer engineering in Illinois, instructors would ask Cruz-Neira why she was there. There were no other women in the program. Early in her career, most of the other women she saw working in VR were artists.

“The environment here at UCF is different,” she says. “There are many women in technical leadership and senior positions. For example, the director of the School of Modeling, Simulation and Training is a woman, Grace Bochenek ’98PhD. Instructors come together from all backgrounds to explore the next next big thing, which makes UCF effective in preparing new pioneers.”

Yan Solihin is a professor of computer science and director of the Cyber Security and Privacy faculty cluster initiative at UCF. His research in the high-demand field could have taken Solihin to any institution in the country. He chose this one.

“There’s an energy at UCF that you don’t find in many places,” Solihin says. “The faculty is allowed to look to the future without the restrictions of a legacy institution. That’s among the reasons we have strong partnerships in the technology sector — major corporations know that we’re a growing powerhouse.”

The UCF powerhouse sends graduates into careers with companies that have a presence near campus, like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Siemens, L3 Harris, EA Sports and Google. The U.S. government uses UCF’s deep pool of tech talent to ramp up the Department of Defense and Department of Energy.

As Solihin says, “We have the critical mass.”

In the past decade, enrollment in computer science related majors has more than quadrupled and is approaching 5,000. The majors are aligned with current and future needs. There are degrees at various levels for digital forensics, computer vision, optics and photonics, and modeling and simulation of behavior cybersecurity. Just one year after launching the master’s program in cybersecurity, Solihin believes there will be more than 100 applicants very soon.

“Our successes,” he says, “are predictors of more great things to come.”

The real surprise in all of this is that UCF would be considered an unheralded producer of tech talent. The university was founded in 1963 as Florida Technological ����ֱ�� for the purpose of feeding the space program with research and expertise. Tourism in Orlando didn’t become an economic force until the 1970s.

“Innovation, especially in engineering, has always been part of UCF’s fabric,” says Panepinto. “Now it’s a matter of scaling the talent into other fields. Look at the structure of the fintech program. It combines business and engineering, which makes it unlike anywhere else.”

Ajai Singh came to UCF in 2015 with the charge of building UCF’s finance department into a nationally recognized tech-savvy training ground. Crypto and Venmo were not yet on the general public’s radar, so he knew there were opportunities to get out in front of the fintech movement. Other universities were trying to do the same thing — NYU within its business school, Duke within its college of engineering, a few schools with basic fintech courses.

UCF’s version of a fintech program, however, would establish a new template: it would be developed jointly between the finance department and the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

“The culture of creativity and collaboration that made the space program so effective is still here,” Singh says. “No other institutions have this kind of research and relationships between departments.”

To take the fintech program to yet another level, Singh sought to build an all-star team of instructors and researchers, like Christo Pirinsky, who had co-written a paper that everyone in the field held almost as gospel.

“When Christo and several others agreed to join us,” Singh says, “they gave us the backbone in fintech that cannot be matched.”

Pirinsky had been working with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He’d taught at other universities around the country. But he saw an opportunity to be part of something special at UCF.

“If you look at high-tech centers around the world, they emerge close to universities,” Pirinsky says. “So, I believe the fintech program will only make Orlando and UCF more prominent. It’s a vibrant scene and the trajectory is upward.”

Leaders at other universities around the country are already asking Singh and Pirinsky how they might mirror what’s happening at UCF.

“I’ve only been in Central Florida for a few years and can feel the reputation as a hub of technology is at an inflection point,” Singh says. “The corporate world knows it. Other schools know it. I believe everyone is about to know it.”

King was one of five winners of the Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize, which recognizes innovators who are reaching beyond the traditional conservation community to foster technology-driven solutions that can solve conservation challenges.

King’s method, which has been named The Antheater, is a mobile, high-volume, water heating machine of 150 degrees Fahrenheit or higher that injects hot water into the mounds of fire ants in order to suppress them and does not disturb or affect other species nesting nearby. The system can potentially be used on other ground nesting insects as well.

King has been working on this technology for the last decade in order to get it patented and licensed. He started his research and prototype as part of his postdoctoral work at a different university and collaborated with an agricultural fabricator when he came to UCF.

Over the years the prototypes for King’s invention varied from a 20-gallon boiling pot to a coal-fired kiln. He ended up creating a fuel-powered machine that heats up the water before being injected directly into ant colonies.

The Antheater has been proven effective in defense of threatened and endangered wildlife affected by fire ants, including beach nesting sea turtles and Florida grasshopper sparrows. The system also has potential in a variety of pest control scenarios in urban, suburban and agricultural settings where ant control is desirable without the use of pesticides.

For information about licensing this technology, see this fact sheet:

Researcher Credentials

King received his doctoral degree in entomology from the ����ֱ�� of Florida. His research and laboratory are focused on community assembly and species invasions of natural and human-altered landscapes.