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First-year engineering students Jackson Lee (left) and Richard Hammingh (right) listen to Jennifer McKinley’s eWeek Tech Talk event Thursday in the L3Harris Engineering Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Antoine Hart<\/p>\n
Students and faculty\u00a0gathered in the L3Harris Engineering Center Thursday to attend a UCF Engineers Week<\/a> Tech Talk to learn about research opportunities made possible through a local nonprofit.<\/p>\n Jennifer McKinley<\/a>, host of the discussion,\u00a0works with the\u00a0Florida High Tech Corridor<\/a>, a nonprofit organization dedicated to securing additional funding for regional universities’ research.<\/p>\n The organization, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, works to create industry opportunities for STEM research-based members of Florida universities, according to the company\u2019s LinkedIn<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr. Alexander Cartwright<\/a>, president of UCF, serves as a council co-chair for The Corridor alongside other university presidents.\u00a0Cartwright works in direct conjunction with The Corridor to fund research initiatives and project start-ups for qualifying program applicants at UCF.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thursday’s\u00a0events featured several different avenues The Corridor uses to fund individual research projects. One of the main assistance programs used\u00a0by UCF is the Matching Grants Research Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow do we give these projects every opportunity for success,\u201d McKinley said. \u201cHow do we introduce more students to opportunities like this? How do we make targeted investments like this?\u201d<\/p>\n The matching grant program fosters applied research among\u00a0different industry partners, faculty and student researchers. The program also funds the work of expert faculty and creates an opportunity for students to participate in collaborative research with industry partners in the 23-county region, according to McKinley\u2019s presentation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can really track not just where these projects start and what impact metrics they have at the beginning, but also decades down the line,\u201d McKinley said during the talk.\u00a0\u201cWe have stories of students who worked on industry research projects that went out and got jobs that elevated their position, to where they could now decide whether to fund research back to the university.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A successful example of The Corridor’s grant funding includes research work done in collaboration with NASA, known as project\u00a0LOXSAT<\/a>.\u00a0Supported by a grant of more than $67,000 from The Corridor\u2019s program, research partners Eta Space<\/a> and selected UCF applicants created optical imaging technology to help astronauts estimate the mass of liquid available in liquid oxygen storage tanks, according to The Corridor<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jennifer McKinley, Florida High Tech Corridor UCF program director, introduces herself to faculty and students attending The Corridors’ industry connection eWeek event Thursday in the L3Harris Engineering Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtesy of Antoine Hart<\/p>\n One collaborator on the project LOXSAT is\u00a0Shuo Pang<\/a>, an assistant professor who worked the College of Optics and Photonics.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n