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Submitter

Sasan Fathpour, Professor, College of Optics and Photonics

Amount Awarded

Funding: $1 million recurring; $3.3 million non-recurring

Matching Funds

Matching: $250,000 recurring; $1.9 million non-recurring

Colleges Represented

College of Optics and Photonics, College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Sciences

Project Summary

UCF researchers are investing in next-generation computing hardware that will train our students to be leaders at developing scientific technologies that will make society healthier, protect our environment and power our electronics. The investment comes as the federal government has prioritized sustaining our nation’s position as a global leader in semiconductor innovation.

The team, led by Professor Sasan Fathpour of the College of Optics and Photonics, will invest in an advanced electron-beam lithography system – one of the most advanced tools available for nanotechnology research in the world – among other state-of-the-art equipment. Only a few educational institutions possess this advanced technology. This educational investment will provide hands-on experiences for students, helping to produce a high-tech workforce that is equipped to contribute to advanced semiconductor endeavors in a wide range of fields.

New faculty members associated with these efforts will do groundbreaking research on design, nanofabrication and characterization of next-generation electronic, photonic and quantum devices, circuits and materials.

In addition to the College of Optics and Photonics, the team includes faculty experts from the College of Engineering and Computer Science and College of Sciences. Overall goals include:

  • making UCF one of the nation’s anchor institutions for advanced semiconductor technologies and nanofabrication;
  • providing students – graduate and undergraduate – hands-on experience that will make them highly desirable in a growing national industry;
  • building long-lasting relationships with other public and private research institutions as well as private-sector industrial partners;
  • and attaining major research grants and other funding resources as part of the federal government’s priority to be a global leader in this area.

Collaborators

Patrick LiKamWa, Kyle Renshaw, Reza Abdolvand, Parag Banerjee, Hyoung Jin Cho, Kevin Coffey, Kris Davis, Xun Gong, Tengfei Jiang, Swaminathan Rajaraman, Tania Roy, Kalpathy Sundaram, Robert Peale, Enrique del Barco, Debashis Chanda, Arkadiy Lyakh, Masahiro Ishigami, David Hagan, Michael Georgiopoulos, Maggy Tomova