ART: Research to Solutions, Building Translational Capacity in the Central Florida Innovation Ecosystem

该项目将加速中佛罗里达大学（UCF）对以佛罗里达中部地区为中心的区域和全球创新生态系统的贡献。UCF是一个强大而支持性的创新生态系统的一部分，为研究翻译做好了准备。UCF与空间、航空航天、卫生、国防（光学和激光、人工智能/机器学习/计算机视觉、数字孪生、仿真和建模）、能源等许多部门建立了伙伴关系和合作关系。加速UCF的研究转化将创造巨大的经济发展机会，因为UCF已经产生了高水平的基础研究。该项目将创建连接UCF产生的基础研究所需的基础设施，并培养多样化的人才，以满足佛罗里达州中部生态系统和国家生态系统的需求。由于工业部门（空间，航空航天，国防和能源）以及所涉及公司的全球性质，该项目将对经济增长，社会福祉和国家安全产生国家和全球积极影响。该项目将加强UCF的研究翻译能力，这是一个西班牙裔服务机构（HSI），在指导机构佐治亚理工学院（一个高研究翻译机构）的帮助下，通过建设缺失的基础设施和利用现有的基础设施。该项目将沿着以下重点开展活动：(1)通过创建一个创业实验室来直接支持翻译，并通过重组创业支持组织来遵循类似于我们的导师机构的更先进的模式来提高研究翻译能力。(2)通过重新规划和扩展工程学院、计算机科学学院和商业学院的循证创业教育，扩大全校学生的教育和培训机会；并扩大研究生毕业后可以追求的途径，包括创业开发和产业研发。(3)招募、指导并支持6个种子型转化研究项目，这些项目旨在发展成为成功的科技创业公司。(4)创建、扩展并维持来自行业和社区合作伙伴的创业和创新大使网络，以支持项目目标1-3。该项目得到了国家科学基金会路易斯·斯托克斯少数民族参与联盟项目的部分支持。该项目的部分资金由改善本科STEM教育（IUSE）计划提供，该计划支持改善所有本科生的STEM教学和学习。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will accelerate the University of Central Florida’s (UCF’s) contributions to the regional and global innovation ecosystem centered in the Central Florida area. UCF is part of a strong and supportive innovation ecosystem primed for research translation. UCF has partnerships and collaborations with the sectors of space, aerospace, health, defense (optics and lasers, AI/ML/computer vision, digital twin, simulation, and modeling), energy, and many others. Accelerating UCF research translation will create an enormous economic development opportunity since UCF already produces high levels of fundamental research. This project will create the infrastructure needed to connect fundamental research produced by UCF and to train diverse talent to meet the needs of the Central Florida ecosystem and the nation’s ecosystem. Because of the industry sectors (space, aerospace, defense, and energy), and the global nature of the companies involved, this project will have national and global positive impact on economic growth, societal wellbeing, and national security.This project will enhance the research translation capacity of UCF, a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), by building missing and by leveraging existing infrastructure with the assistance of mentoring institution, Georgia Tech, a high research translational institution. The project will undertake activities along the following key thrusts: (1) Enhance research translation capacity by creating a Venture Lab to directly support translation, and by reorganizing entrepreneurial support organizations to follow a more advanced model similar to our mentor institution. (2) Expand the educational and training opportunities for students across campus with reprograming and expansions of evidence-based entrepreneurship education at the colleges of engineering and computer science and business; and expand the pathways graduate students can pursue after graduation to include startup development and industrial research and development. (3) Recruit, mentor, and support six seed translational research projects aimed to be developed into successful technology startups. (4) Create, expand, and sustain a network of entrepreneurship and innovation ambassadors from industry and community partners in support of the project objectives 1-3.The project is partially supported by NSF’s Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program. Partial funding for this project was provided by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program, which supports improvements in STEM teaching and learning for all undergraduate students.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.