Phase II IUCRC at University of Florida: Center for Multi-functional Integrated System Technology (MIST)

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The broader impacts of the Multi-functional Integrated System Technology (MIST) Center are to develop the hardware technologies necessary to propel the next generation of smart systems. The center focuses on translating novel materials, devices, and manufacturing processes into multi-functional integrated systems via collaboration with industry and government partners. The MIST Center targets pre-competitive research along the entire stack from emerging materials, electron, magnetic, acoustic, photonic, microelectromechanical, and photonic devices, to circuits and architecture needed to tackle complex challenges in developing the hardware underlying the Internet of Things (IoT). The Center trains the next generation of graduate students versed in the center's precompetitive research, actively recruits and mentors participants from underrepresented groups in science and engineering, and fosters public-private research networks across multiple academic, industrial, and government organizations. The UF Site will expand its STEM- and diversity-enhancing undergraduate outreach effort, called the “MIST Makers,” mentored by MIST Center faculty that develops IoT prototypes using off-the-shelf hardware. UF will also continue outreach to industry by organizing an industry/university symposium to promote dissemination and discussion of technology trends in smart system IoT hardware.The proposed MIST Industry University Cooperative Research Center will be structured around five technology thrust areas – sensing, computing, wireless, power, and integration – to drive system technologies such as wearable devices, IoT systems, sensor networks, and "mist computing", bringing computing hardware to the sensor node and is the logical progression of the IoT ecosystem beyond cloud computing and fog computing. The MIST center will address specific technology challenges such as high-speed communication; self-powered, edge-of-the-node sensing; energy-efficient, low-power computing; advanced networking; and system integration. The UF research will focus on interdisciplinary microsystems, including acoustics, devices, magnetics, metamaterials, microfluidics, microelectromechanical systems, radio frequency antennas, and circuits, with research on topics such as: integration on flexible platforms, zero- power magnetic field sensors, shear-stress sensors, miniature LiDAR for autonomous applications, and low-loss, high-gain 5G antenna.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.