Army seeks partnership with University of Central Florida

UCF’s Dr. Michael Macedonia, the assistant vice president for Research & Innovation hosted ARL’s Steve Taulbee, a general engineer with the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate, for faculty meetings and facility tours. Photo courtesy University of Central Florida

A representative from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory visited the University of Central Florida Feb. 9-11 to investigate partnership opportunities.

UCF’s Dr. Michael Macedonia, the assistant vice president for Research & Innovation hosted ARL’s Steve Taulbee, Open Campus and Institutional Relations ambassador with the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate, for faculty meetings and facility tours of the College of Optics and Photonics, the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center and the Nanoscience Technology Center.

Macedonia has been serving as an Army Science Board member since mid-2015, according to a UCF news release. “The board is a federal advisory committee that advises and makes recommendations on matters of scientific and technological concern to the Secretary of the Army, Chief of Staff of the Army and other Army leaders who help advise the President.”

“As a result of this visit, a new CRADA

[Cooperative Research and Development Agreement] is being pursued,” Taulbee said. “The vision for our initial collaboration would be in energetic materials research for air-breathing propulsion and ballistic Weapons.”

In January, ARL hosted a visit from UCF assistant professor Dr. Subith Vasu, from the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research at ARL-WMRD.

“ARL research teams engaged in further discussions with Dr. Vasu on collaboration in energetic materials research, including the Disruptive Energetics Initiative under the ARL Open Campus Sciences for Lethality and Protection Campaign,” Taulbee said.

As part of the laboratory’s Open Campus initiative, outreach efforts have the goal of building a “science and technology ecosystem that will encourage groundbreaking advances in basic and applied research areas of relevance to the Army,” according to ARL Director Dr. Thomas Russell.

“In addition to collaborate engagement in existing ARL facilities, future phases will include opportunities for partners to establish new on-site facilities on our campuses,” Russell said.