UCF Trustee Chair Subith Vasu and postdoctoral scholar Justin Urso ’15 ’22PhD have been awarded a $750,000 grant from NASA to study the effects that AAM may have on communities. The UCF researchers have partnered with Ocala International Airport on this project, which will specifically explore the effects of pollution and noise on the surrounding neighborhoods.

“We partnered with Ocala International Airport because of the air traffic around that community,” Vasu says. “Anything that flies makes noise, and it can be annoying for residents. We’re looking at how to minimize the risk so the community isn’t bothered.”

Ocala International Airport was a prime partner due to its potential for implementation. Vertiports are the specialized launch pads for electrical air vehicles such as drones and air taxis. Companies like Amazon are interested in using AAM technology for fast and convenient home deliveries while organizations like NASA aim to develop this new transportation system that will deliver both goods and people around the world, safely and efficiently.

“If you live in Ocala and want to take a flight to Europe, California or New York, where do you go?” Vasu says. “The Tampa and Orlando airports are two hours away by car. Depending on where you live, AAM can be very helpful.”

Urso says we could see the development of a vertiport at the Ocala International Airport by 2035. The City of Orlando also has a vested interest in AAM and is working with NASA to develop an air transportation system plan. Vasu says, in the future, they may expand their project to include Orlando International Airport.

An additional partner on the project is Yingru Li, a professor of sociology at UCF, who will conduct community assessments to provide important data on the City of Ocala. Vasu says the goal is to put UCF at the forefront of this developing industry.

“There’s a lot of opportunity within AAM for UCF and the state of Florida,” Vasu says. “We just want to push UCF as a leader in that field.”

Professors Subith Vasu and Jayanta Kapat are leading a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to establish a consortium that will support students who are interested in earning engineering degrees.

The PARtnership and Training for NNSA Engineering and Relevant Sciences (PARTNERS) consortium will include the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of California, Irvine and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą (FAMU). Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory will collaborate and support students and faculty.

The goal of PARTNERS is to provide a training ground and talent pipeline for the next generation of nuclear engineers.

“The U.S. has a nuclear stockpile and the NNSA is responsible for the safe maintenance and modernization of that stockpile,” Vasu says. “This particular opportunity allows us to conduct research and train students. The hope is that, after graduation, these students will get a job offer from the NNSA or related industires.”

This is the second NNSA consortium that UCF has joined under Vasu’s leadership. In 2023, the university entered a $25-million, national consortium on nuclear forensics that was directed by the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Florida.

Justin Urso ’15 ’22PhD, a co-principal investigator (PI) on the grant, says this new consortium, led by UCF this time, will augment the work already completed by the group of universities and national labs. On the research side, students and faculty will continue to work on projects that can predict and assess the damage from nuclear events and assist with nuclear forensics.

Students will have the opportunity to work on these projects, but they also have the chance to intern at one of the national labs in the consortium. They will be paired with a mentor and will continue to develop their research skills and train for a career in nuclear engineering under their guidance.

“The current nuclear engineering workforce is retiring but also the world is changing,” Vasu says. “The U.S. is the world police, and we need to make sure that nuclear weapons are only with responsible countries. The threats against the U.S. are also changing. Our enemies have newer, more sophisticated weapons.”

About NNSA

Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semiautonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy that protects our nation by designing and delivering a safe, secure, reliable and effective U.S. nuclear stockpile; forging solutions that enable global security and stability through nonproliferation, counterproliferation, and emergency response; providing nuclear propulsion to power a global U.S. Navy; and leveraging transformative technologies to address emerging challenges.

About the Researchers

Vasu received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą and joined ±«°äąó’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2012. He is a member of ±«°äąó’s Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research and is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Vasu is a recipient of DARPA’s Director’s Fellowship, DARPA Young Faculty award, the Young Investigator grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, American Chemical Society’s Doctoral New Investigator, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Dilip Ballal Early Career award, and the Society of Automotive Engineers SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational award. He has received many of the highest honors at UCF including the UCF Luminary, Trustee Chair Professor and Reach for the Stars awards. Several of his former students are employed by the NNSA, aerospace, energy and defense entities.

Kapat is a Pegasus Professor and the director of the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research. The most significant impact of Kapat’s work stems from his vision for CATER. He brought 10 core faculty members with multidisciplinary capabilities together to solve some of the most complex research problems in turbomachinery for power generation, aviation and space propulsion. Through CATER, Kapat has facilitated graduate-level research and degrees and has established excellent success rates for internship and job placement of students at all levels. Because of the international reputation of CATER, high-caliber students from Brazil, France, Germany and India now come to UCF.

Urso is a research assistant professor at CATER. He earned his bachelor’s from UCF in 2015 and completed his doctoral degree at UCF in 2022 as a Graduate Dean’s Fellowship Recipient under Vasu.  He has over 30  publications and has been involved in mentoring efforts targeting undergraduate and  K-12 students in STEM.

However, an environmentally friendly solution may emerge within the next decade with the help of a UCF researcher.

Engineering Professor Subith Vasu is working with commercial truck manufacturer PACCAR, owner of the Peterbilt and Kenworth brands, to create a hydrogen-based combustion engine for heavy-duty vehicles. The project is funded through a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and is the agency’s first effort to develop hydrogen combustion engines for commercial trucks.

“We’re fortunate to be part of this project,” Vasu says. “It’s a very prestigious effort for UCF, to be part of this project that’s highly relevant in the decarbonization of transportation efforts around the globe. It will also be a great opportunity for students to get involved with an industry-funded project.”

The Demand for Hydrogen

For decades, diesel has been the fuel of choice for large commercial vehicles. But in recent years, the government has pushed for a cleaner alternative. In 2021, President Biden appropriated $62 billion to the DoE, including $9.5 billion for clean hydrogen solutions as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Over this past year, the Environmental Protection Agency also tightened its NOx emissions standards for heavy-duty commercial vehicles beginning with 2027 model year equipment.

While Tesla has developed a semi-truck that runs on electric motors, Vasu says there are some limits to the weight it holds and the distance it can travel.

“Tesla is developing electric supercars and semi-trucks, but there are limits to the batteries,” Vasu says. “They’re fine for driving down to the nearest town but driving from Seattle to Miami, you need significant battery power, also you don’t have time to wait until it is fully charged since most of these freightliners are under time pressure.”

Building a Better Engine

Hydrogen can solve the problem of a longer-lasting battery, but PACCAR currently has more questions than answers. How will hydrogen behave in the extreme temperature and pressure of an engine? Under what conditions will it ignite? Alternatively, what conditions will prevent ignition?

Vasu and his team of researchers will find these answers through experiments run in their state-of-the-art shock tube. The data collected will be used to create computational models to share with PACCAR.

Vasu received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą and joined ±«°äąó’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2012. He is a member of ±«°äąó’s Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research and is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Vasu is a recipient of DARPA’s Director’s Fellowship, DARPA Young Faculty Award, the Young Investigator grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, American Chemical Society’s Doctoral New Investigator, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Dilip Ballal Early Career award, and the Society of Automotive Engineers SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational award. He has received many of the highest honors at UCF, including the UCF Luminary and Reach for the Stars awards.

Founded in 1963 with the mission to provide talent for Central Florida and the growing U.S. space program, the university’s extensive involvement in space research and education not only drives innovations in space technology but also prepares the next generation of leaders in the field.

With more than 40 active NASA projects totaling more than $67 million in funding, UCF continues to push the frontiers of space research, and its contributions promise to help shape the future of humanity’s presence in the cosmos.

±«°äąó’s cutting-edge areas of space expertise include:

Space Medicine

±«°äąó’s College of Medicine is pioneering new frontiers in aerospace medicine, positioning itself as a leader in space health research and education. Spearheaded by initiatives to create an interdisciplinary curriculum, UCF is integrating expertise from engineering, medicine and nursing to address the unique health challenges of space exploration.

The college is building on existing research in space health, including innovative studies on the effects of microgravity on bone health, which could lead to improved protection for astronauts. Collaborations across disciplines, such as testing therapeutics for radiation protection and developing antimicrobial solutions for space station environments, highlight ±«°äąó’s commitment to advancing astronaut health and shaping the future of space medicine.

Space Propulsion and Power

UCF is advancing space propulsion with groundbreaking research that could make space travel more efficient and viable for future missions. Researchers are developing innovative hypersonic propulsion systems, such as rotating detonation rocket engines, which harness high-speed detonations to increase propulsion efficiency and reduce fuel consumption — an advancement that could significantly lower costs and emissions associated with space travel, creating new commercial opportunities in the industry. UCF is taking its hypersonics research even further with its recently launched Center of Excellence in Hypersonic and Space Propulsion — the HyperSpace Center.

Additionally, UCF teams are exploring novel power systems for spacecraft venturing far from the sun, where solar energy becomes impractical. With funding from NASA, researchers are creating storable chemical heat sources capable of providing essential heat and power in extreme environments, from the icy surfaces of distant moons to the intense heat of Venus.

Space Technology and Engineering

UCF is forging the future of space technology with innovations that push the boundaries of lunar and deep space exploration. Through advancements in lunar resource utilization, UCF has developed methods to efficiently extract ice from lunar soil so that it can be transformed into vital resources like water and rocket fuel, while new techniques for processing lunar soil drastically reduce construction costs for infrastructure such as landing pads.

UCF researchers are also pioneering 3D-printed bricks made from lunar regolith that withstand extreme space conditions, setting the foundation for resilient off-world habitats. Lunar regolith is the loose dust, rocks and materials that cover the moon’s surface.

±«°äąó’s Exolith Lab, part of the , continues to lead in space hardware testing, advancing resource extraction and lunar construction technologies. Meanwhile, FSI’s CubeSat program is opening new doors in space exploration with compact, affordable satellites that give students and researchers access to microgravity and beyond.

Space Commercialization

UCF’s new space commercialization program — led by , College of Business professor of practice and associate provost for space commercialization and strategy — positions the university as a leader in space-related business education.

Autry will guide the college’s efforts to deliver Executive and MBA programs in space commercialization, driving curriculum development and establishing space-focused programs that equip students to lead in the growing commercial space industry.

In addition to the space commercialization program, Autry will be working with external stakeholders, including NASA, the U.S. Space Force and commercial firms like Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, to develop opportunities to advance mutual interests in space.

This includes working with Kennedy Space Center to lead a State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą System partnership with the state of Florida to develop the necessary talent to maintain and expand Florida’s leadership in space exploration and commercialization.

Autry will also be leading ±«°äąó’s effort to develop and execute a roadmap for the university’s SpaceU brand through targeted investments in talent and facilities.

Space Domain Awareness

UCF is advancing space domain awareness research to protect critical assets in orbit by developing sophisticated algorithms for tracking and predicting the movement of objects such as satellites and asteroids, so they don’t collide with spacecraft. Under the guidance of aerospace engineering expert Tarek Elgohary, UCF researchers are creating a computational framework to rapidly and accurately track space objects in real time. This initiative is backed by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Dynamic Data and Information Process Program.

UCF is also addressing the growing issue of orbital debris through a NASA-funded study that includes researchers from ±«°äąó’s FSI and . This project seeks to increase public awareness and support for managing space debris, a hazard to satellites and potential space tourism ventures.

Workforce Development

UCF is propelling students toward dynamic careers in the space industry with hands-on programs and sought-after internship opportunities. Through the new engineering graduate certificate in electronic parts engineering, developed in collaboration with NASA, students are gaining essential skills in testing and evaluating space-ready electronic components — a key advantage for aspiring space professionals.

Additionally, UCF students can benefit from hands-on internships at Kennedy Space Center, where they gain real-world experience in various fields, from engineering to project management.

At the , students gain direct experience in microgravity research and robotics. The center embodies ±«°äąó’s commitment to democratizing space access, offering pathways for students from all backgrounds to participate in and contribute to the growing space industry.

FSI’s CubeSat program further immerses students in satellite design and operation, offering direct involvement in active space missions.

Planetary Science

UCF’s planetary science program is driving breakthroughs in space exploration with projects spanning the moon, Mars and beyond. The NASA-funded Lunar-VISE mission, led by UCF, will explore the Gruithuisen domes on the far side of the moon to understand their volcanic origins, potentially unlocking insights crucial for future space exploration.

Complementing this, UCF researchers are contributing to NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission, which will map water ice deposits on the moon — an essential resource for sustained stays in space. On another front, UCF scientists are studying dust behavior in microgravity through experiments that flew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, potentially leading to strategies for mitigating lunar dust, a challenge for electronics and equipment on future missions.

Expanding its reach beyond the moon, ±«°äąó’s planetary science research involves asteroid studies, including the high-profile OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu and examining seismic wave propagation in simulated asteroid materials to understand asteroid evolution and early planetary formation. UCF is also home to the , a node of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, which facilitates NASA’s exploration of deep space by focusing its goals at the intersection of surface science and surface exploration of rocky, atmosphereless bodies.

Additionally, UCF researchers are studying trans-Neptunian objects and using the James Webb Space Telescope to explore the solar system’s outer reaches, analyzing ancient ices to uncover clues about the solar system’s history, while also investigating exoplanets to advance our understanding of other planets and to search for life beyond Earth.

In parallel, UCF researchers are also advancing bold ideas for terraforming Mars through nanoparticle dispersion to create warming effect, making the Red Planet potentially more habitable.

UCF researchers have also contributed their expertise to multiple high-profile NASA missions, including Cassini, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Curiosity, and New Horizons.

Advancing Astrophotonics, History and Policy

±«°äąó’s space research spans pioneering astrophotonics technology, studies in space history and critical analyses in space policy, each offering unique insights into the universe. The within CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics, is pushing the boundaries of photonics and astronomy, using tools like photonic lanterns, fiber optics, and hyperspectral imaging to detect cosmic phenomena and address profound questions about dark energy.

Meanwhile, delves into space history, exploring the cultural and scientific impacts of milestones like the Apollo missions and the Space Shuttle program, helping illuminate humanity’s journey into space.

The contributes to this comprehensive approach with its broad studies of space policy, both domestically and internationally, including examining military space policy and rising space powers. The work involves studying space law, international agreements, and policy frameworks that guide space activities, which is essential for addressing the governance and strategic planning needed for space exploration and utilization.

Pioneering Tomorrow’s Space Exploration

UCF is pushing the frontiers of space research and education, tackling today’s challenges while preparing for the demands of future space missions. As the new space race continues, ±«°äąó’s forward-thinking approach will continue to drive progress, inspire new possibilities and expand humanity’s reach into the universe.

New appointee Subith Vasu and reappointee Alain Kassab are professors in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS). They are among 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.

Deans nominate  for the appointments. A trustee chair review committee evaluates them, and they are affirmed by ±«°äąó’s president and provost to take effect in August.

Vasu and Kassab share a passion for teaching and promoting student success, and they have an array of impressive accomplishments as scholars and researchers.

Vasu joined the university in 2012 and is an expert in optical diagnostics and spectroscopy for energy and aerospace. His research group at UCF has produced more than 500 articles for journals and conferences about using diagnostic sensors for various applications, including propulsion, power generation, transportation and spacecraft air quality monitoring. His various national and international early career awards include the 2020 U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Director’s Fellowship, 2018 DARPA Young Faculty Award and the 2017 American Society of Mechanical Engineers Dilip R. Ballal Early Career Award, an international award given to only one person each year. His UCF honors include earning a Reach for the Stars Award, which recognizes highly successful research and creative activity by early-career professionals, and a UCF Luminary award.

In nominating him for the trustee chair appointment, CECS Dean Michael Georgiopoulos described Vasu as “among the top scholars in the U.S. and the world” who plays a critical role in the college’s core energy and propulsion research.

“His work on understanding the fundamentals of chemical weapon simulants destruction using shock tubes has brought international attention to UCF,” Georgiopoulos said. “The work was featured in a United Nation’s documentary, Combustion Man. This is a rare and once-in-a-lifetime achievement for all scientists and engineers.”

Kassab joined UCF in 1991 and directs the biomedical engineering program at ±«°äąó’s . He has long distinguished the university nationally and internationally through research, partnerships and the advancement of the mechanical and aerospace engineering curriculum. For instance, his work on treatment planning for congenital heart disease has drawn national attention and the support of the American Heart Association and other research foundations. His research engages several disciplines and includes computational methods in heat transfer and fluid flow, inverse problems, boundary element, meshless methods and in bioengineering, generating more than 400 scientific publications. Kassab is a Pegasus Professor, the highest designation a faculty member can earn at UCF, and his lengthy list of honors includes being elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

In nominating Kassab for reappointment, Georgiopoulos wrote: “Dr. Kassab is a highly productive researcher with an international reputation in computational methods in heat transfer, fluid flow and bioengineering. He has made highly significant and consistent contributions to UCF developing and growing academic programs. He is an outstanding educator in his own right. In my opinion, he has achieved the extraordinary levels of accomplishments in teaching, research and service expected of a UCF Trustee Chair.”

Both appointments align with ±«°äąó’s strategic plan goals of retaining and recruiting outstanding faculty.

A total of 18 projects received Phase I funding across 15 universities. UCF received the most awards, with all three housed within the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Dean Michael Georgiopoulos says this speaks to the quality of research produced by CECS faculty.

“I’m proud to see that three of our research teams have been recognized by NASA for their innovative ideas that can shape the future of air travel and space flight,” Georgiopoulos says. “Our college has built a rich history with NASA and this award further solidifies the partnership between our respective researchers.”

All Phase I award recipients will be eligible to compete for Phase II funding and şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą Leadership Initiatives and Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) grants. Learn more about the projects below.

Project Title: Multimodal Wireless Piezoelectric Microsensors

Award Amount: $50,000

Researchers: Reza Abdolvand and Hakhamanesh Mansoorzare ’21PhD

The third time was the charm for the Artemis I launch. After two unsuccessful launch attempts due to dangerously high engine temperatures, a crack in the fuel tank insulation and multiple fuel leaks, the rocket finally soared into orbit off the Space Coast.

To prevent these issues from delaying future Artemis missions or other NASA space explorations, a team of UCF researchers is developing a wireless multimodal sensor module that can monitor conditions such as temperature, pressure, acceleration and airflow in real time.

The module, less than a cubic centimeter, will include multiple microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators that will measure those conditions. MEMS resonators are often used for motion sensing, time referencing and signal filtering in electronic devices but show promise in the aerospace engineering field due to their light weight, highly accurate readouts and cost-effective manufacturing.

Although the sensors will be roughly the size of a pencil eraser, they will be able to withstand extreme temperatures since there is no battery or electronics in the device. This will be the first wireless multimodal sensor of its kind.

“Piezoelectric MEMS resonators can detect change in environmental parameters without the need for any auxiliary power source such as battery as they could be powered wirelessly by a remote transceiver unit,” says Reza Abdolvand, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “This will create a unique opportunity for development of compact and battery-less sensing units that could withstand a harsh environment.”

Once manufactured, the sensing system can be used across various NASA missions to detect dangerous temperatures in critical spacecraft components, monitor the pressure in fuel tanks to prevent leaks, measure the temperature and pressure of lunar regolith, and assess the climate conditions for takeoff.

Project Title: SUPERSAF-SAF for Low Emission Supersonic Transport

Award Amount: $50,000

Researchers: Subith Vasu, Justin Urso, Ramees Khaleel Rahman, Gihun Kim

Supersonic commercial aircraft may be able to fly faster than the speed of sound and reduce the time for transatlantic journeys considerably, but their ultra-fast flights powered by fossil fuels could have a harmful effect on the environment. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Subith Vasu and his team of postdoctoral scholars aim to protect the environment by studying the emissions of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), a greener alternative made from sustainable resources such as wood residues, fatty acids, fermented sugars and processed alcohols.

Several government agencies have started to test these fuels for emissions.

The team in the Vasu Lab will conduct shock tube experiments to test the NOx and soot emissions of several different SAFs. That data will be used to improve the aviation industry’s and NASA’s current chemical kinetic models that can predict the soot and NOx output of various SAFs in flight conditions.

“The data we collect could significantly improve the current chemical kinetic model and advance the production of combustors for supersonic flights,” Vasu says.

The research is timely, given NASA recently awarded contracts to both Boeing and Northrop Grumman to develop technology roadmaps and concept vehicles for supersonic aircraft. Vasu plans to work with industry partners on this research and to seek additional funding from NASA beyond the MPLAN grant.

Project Title: A CNS Digital Twin Framework for AAM

Award Amount: $50,000

Researcher: Adan Vela

Airplanes and helicopters are often spotted in the sky, but in the future, cargo-loaded drones and passenger-carrying air taxis might become a common sight. Through NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) mission, the organization aims to create a safe and accessible aerial transportation system that can send cargo or people to hard-to-reach areas or even tourist destinations.

However, before AAM can take flight, engineers must address fundamental challenges of the communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) system that supports control, command and collision of these vehicles, as they could face challenges from the low altitude at which they fly or the lack of a human pilot. Buildings or terrain could distort or delay important CNS signals such as GPS or 5G.

To better understand this problem, Industrial Engineering and Management Systems Assistant Professor Adan Vela will develop the CNS-AAM simulation engine, a digital twin framework that mimics the CNS system that the AAM would require. With the aid of computer science students, Vela will create the simulation engine in Python. The resulting framework will allow NASA, the FAA and researchers around the world to digitally develop and test new artificial intelligence algorithms that manage aircraft and CNS technologies, including cybersecurity measures that could protect UAVs from malicious attacks.

If you’re an engineering student interested in working on this project, contact Associate Professor Adan Vela at adan.vela@ucf.edu.

This year, 165 students from 68 U.S. institutions were selected for this fellowship, which lasts for three years and covers tuition and fees for any doctoral program in the country. Participants also receive a monthly stipend and are paired with a research mentor who will guide them through their chosen project. At the end of the fellowship, students have the chance to present their research at the annual NDSEG Conference.

Since the program’s inception in 1989, more than 4,500 fellowships have been awarded to college students. This year’s UCF awardees are:

• Andrew DeRusha ’22, aerospace engineering
• Daniel Dyson ’21 ’22MS, aerospace engineering and Burnett Honors Scholar
• Alphonse Marra, physics

Andrew DeRusha ’22

DeRusha may not have his career path solidified yet, but he’s already following in his father’s footsteps. His dad worked as an engineer while DeRusha was growing up and introduced him to the ultimate space saga, Star Wars. His interest in the franchise, paired with the influence of his father’s career, led him to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering.

DeRusha walked across the UCF stage in Spring 2022 and has already completed the first year of his aerospace engineering doctoral degree. He says the NDSEG fellowship will help him explore his interests and entertain future engineering and research possibilities.

“The fellowship is the perfect opportunity to help me find out what I want to do,” DeRusha says. “All I know is that I love engineering and am passionate about research. I hope that whatever my career ends up being, I can continue to work in a research role.”

DeRusha will flex his research skills as he develops a multi-species laser-absorption sensor, used in diagnostics for combustion systems. He’ll also continue to work in the Vasu Lab, led by Professor of Aerospace Engineering Subith Vasu, an experience that led him to the NDSEG fellowship.

“I am incredibly excited and honored to have been selected for the fellowship,” DeRusha says. “It’s incredibly satisfying to receive recognition, but it also reminds me to be thankful for all the people who helped me on the path to being given this award.”

Daniel Dyson ’21 ’22MS

Like many aerospace engineering students, Dyson was drawn to the field of astronautics through the space shuttle program and the burning questions it posed in his young mind: How does a rocket function? How can it carry a payload from Earth to space?

His career path was set after attending the Florida Space Grant Consortium Engineering Academy, which allowed him to tour the UCF engineering labs, design and test model rockets, build popsicle-stick bridges, and code in Java.

“These projects and my mentors from this program encouraged me to pursue a degree in engineering and really kickstarted my development as an engineer and a researcher,” Dyson says.

After earning two degrees in aerospace engineering, interning at Northrop Grumman and working on research projects with Vasu, Dyson is now a full-fledged engineer and researcher. He’ll use the skills he’s honed at UCF to complete his NDSEG research project, which aims to reveal new insights regarding combustion and explosion dynamics.

Dyson will specifically study the combustion of burning fuel droplets that contain nitrogen and their effects post-detonation as well as the combustion process of nitromethane. But perhaps his most compelling discovery will come from the experience itself. Dyson says he looks forward to future mentorship from scientists and engineers and learning more about careers in research.

At UCF, the two-time alum will still be mentored by Vasu as he completes his doctoral degree in aerospace engineering. Dyson says he chose to attend UCF not only for its location and tuition support, but its reputation as SpaceU.

“Most importantly, I recognized ±«°äąó’s reputation as a leader in providing the Space Coast with new engineers ready to tackle the biggest challenges in industry,” Dyson says. “Remembering that it was outer space that initially encouraged me to pursue engineering in the first place, it seemed like I was destined to pursue engineering in Central Florida and become a Knight.”

Alphonse Marra

Physics doctoral student Marra’s research began with ultrafast physics during his undergraduate studies at the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Wisconsin-Madison. He became fascinated with the use of lasers to study phenomena at very short timescales.

“To me, physics is all about pushing the limits of our knowledge of the physical universe,” Marra says.

After graduating with his bachelor’s degree, Marra began working at UCF on a new project to build a laser alongside a well-respected group with a history of success. Marra’s focus on physics is attosecond science, and he works with Pegasus Professor Zenghu Chang. The next step in their research is to focus on generating few-cycle pulses capable of driving single-isolated attosecond pulses.

The NDSEG fellowship he’s received will give him greater flexibility with his research and allow him to travel to conferences like a seminar at the Air Force Institute of Technology, where he is presenting this fall.

“I’m grateful for the staff members in the Department of Physics and the sense of community in the department, Marra says. “I have a lot of people from UCF to thank, from machinists to fellow students to professors and many others. I especially am grateful to my PI (principal investigator), professor Chang, for his dedication to our research.”

Only one award is given per year and as this year’s recipient, Kancherla will receive a $2,000 honorarium and complimentary registration to the ASME Turbo Expo, an annual conference for engineers in academia, research and government who specialize in turbomachinery.

“I am honored and humbled to receive this prestigious recognition from ASME,” Kancherla says. “I would like to thank my excellent team and my mentors over the years who have motivated me to pursue research related to combustion in gas turbines. This award is inspiring and makes me feel I will be more responsible in this field.”

Since 2021, Kancherla has worked as a senior combustion engineer for Power Systems Manufacturing LLC, a gas turbine company that focuses on clean energy solutions. In this role, he contributes to the design and development of hydrogen-fueled, low-emission gas turbine combustion systems.

Within the field, Kancherla’s already established a name for himself. He’s considered an expert in the areas of chemical kinetics, computational modeling and combustion systems testing, and he currently serves as a reviewer for 12 industry journals. His chemical kinetic models that have been used by scientists and researchers in academia, industry and government agencies like the U.S. Department of Energy to advance supercritical CO2 combustion technology.

Those chemical kinetic models were developed at UCF, under the tutelage of aerospace engineering Professor Subith Vasu. Kancherla says that ±«°äąó’s location and its Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research (CATER), housed within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, factored into his decision to attend the university for his doctoral education.

“UCF has been situated in a prime location where most of the major energy equipment manufacturers in the world are located, and CATER and the Vasu Lab have been significantly contributing to the cutting-edge research that is vital for these industries,” Kancherla says. “Coming from a combustion background, I felt that Vasu’s lab was the right place to pursue my Ph.D. and to advance in the ambitious gas turbine sector.”

The Vasu Lab was indeed the right place for Kancherla. Vasu himself is a leading expert in combustion and chemical kinetics and was even featured in the Combustion Man documentary by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The professor is also familiar with the Diliip Ballal award, having received it in 2017.

“Raghu is an outstanding candidate for this award because of his tremendous achievements and contributions to advanced power generation concepts … that started when he was a Ph.D. student in my lab,” Vasu says. “His and I receiving (of) this award is also a testament to UCF CATER’s strong connections and interactions with the power generation industry.

The grants were part of the DOD awarding of $50 million to 85 institutions across the nation in the Fiscal Year 2021 Defense şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą Research Instrumentation Program.

The recipients and their projects are:

• Ayman Abouraddy, professor in the College of Optics and Photonics – Studying Classical Optical Entanglement in Space and Time, $347,786 from the Office of Naval Research.
• Brian Kim, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering – Massively Parallel Bio-Security and Bio-Computing Research Using In Vivo Neurotransmitters and Synaptic Transmission, $301,207 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
• Subith Vasu Sumathi, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – Micro/Macro (PIV/LIF) High Speed System for Heat Transfer Experiments, $381,311 from the Office of Naval Research.

“These awards represent continued recognition by the Department of Defense of ±«°äąó’s critical contribution to science and technology,” says Michael Macedonia, assistant vice president for research. “It also is a recognition of the leadership of our faculty and their novel ideas to advance research in support of national security.”

The Department of Defense seeks specific proposals from university investigators conducting foundational science and engineering research relevant to national defense.

Through the DURIP awards, the DOD supports purchases of research equipment to boost the United States’ science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce.

“DURIP awards help maintain the cutting-edge capabilities of our universities and provide research infrastructure to enable the most creative scientific minds in the country to extend the boundaries of science and technology,” says Bindu Nair, director, Basic Research Office, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. “The awards will facilitate scientific advances that will drive unparalleled military capabilities for our country and help train our future STEM workforce.”

The annual award process is highly competitive. For the FY 2021 competition, the service research offices received 742 proposals requesting $297 million in funding.

UCF Optics and Photonics researcher, Bob Crabbs, also received a 2020 DOD award in August for $384,442. The grant was to provide instrumentation to expand and improve atmospheric monitoring capabilities in support of ±«°äąó’s High Energy Laser and laser communications.

Crabbs is the facility manager and principal investigator at the university’s Townes Institute Science and Technology Experimentation Facility at Kennedy Space Center.

Vasu, an expert in spectroscopy and optical diagnostics, was awarded $250,000 by the Department of Defense to continue his work to develop a handheld device to help first responders and military personnel detect deadly toxins. He won the highly selective DARPA Young Faculty Award for the project in 2018 and received $250,000 for each of the past two years.

Vasu was selected for this new grant because of the progress he has made on the device, says Mike Fiddy, program manager in DARPA’s defense sciences office that oversees DARPA’s Young Faculty Award program.

Vasu has been working on the mobile sensor to detect fentanyl and Carfentanil, opioids that are 50 to 10,000 times more potent than heroin.

He has been working on the mobile sensor to detect fentanyl and Carfentanil, opioids that are 50 to 10,000 times more potent than heroin. When dispersed in the air, the chemicals can kill. The sensor is being developed to also detect similar toxins, which are sometimes released in fires or explosions and pose threats to first responders. The toxins also can be used in chemical warfare.

“While DARPA and other agencies have been working on stand-off trace detection, it has been more for gases and in the IR [infrared region of the spectrum],” Fiddy says. “Regarding developed reflection spectroscopy systems, particularly those that claim to detect solids on a surface, no commercially available THz [terahertz] or IR systems immediately come to mind. Hence the importance of Vasu’s research.”

The award is significant since it is a way for DARPA to recognize some of their high performers, says Michael Georgiopoulos, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, adding that it is the first such award received at the university.

“For Vasu and UCF it means that federal funding from DARPA related to Vasu’s work could continue coming in a sustained fashion to advance research and innovation,” Georgiopoulos says.

The DARPA program seeks to establish and sustain young scientists pursuing high-risk, high-reward research by pairing them with DARPA program managers and providing funding. Vasu’s research associate, Anthony C. Terracciano, executed most of the device work. The team also collaborated with professors Artem Masunov, Mengyu Xu and Robert Peale from UCF to accelerate their work.

Vasu previously received a young investigator grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, American Chemical Society’s Doctoral New Investigator, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Dilip Ballal Early Career Award, and the Society of Automotive Engineers SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award. He received many highest honors at UCF including the important UCF Luminary and Reach for the Stars awards.

Vasu’s lab has ongoing projects with several federal agencies, including NASA, the Air Force, Army, Navy, Department of Energy, Federal Aviation Administration and others.

Before joining UCF in 2012 as an assistant professor, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Sandia National Laboratory. He earned his doctorate from Stanford şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą in 2010. He is a member of the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research 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.

A second 2020 Director’s Fellowship was awarded to optics and photonics researcher Mercedeh Khajavikhan for work done at UCF on topological phenomena in active photonic platforms before she took a position as an associate professor at the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Southern California last fall.

Khajavikhan, whose grant was $235,871, remains a courtesy faculty member at UCF because she is still finishing up some work with students.