Joining Forces: UCF and USF Share Insights, Tactics on Defense Research and Innovation

“We can solve a lot of major challenges if we can have the right people working together,” says UCF President Alexander Cartwright.

ORLANDO — When it comes to technological advancement and achievement, Florida has two significant competitive advantages: its research universities and the presence of some of the U.S. military’s most significant commands enabled by some of the world’s most sophisticated systems. When those entities come together and collaborate on boundary-breaking innovation, it can impact the world.

That’s why last week’s inaugural Florida Defense Science & Technology Symposium hosted by the University of Central Florida, the University of South Florida and the Florida High Tech Corridor bringing together about 200 researchers working in areas of national security science and technology was particularly significant. Collaboration between Florida’s top research universities leverages the strengths of faculty and students to produce greater impact, organizers said.

The two-day program included lectures by program managers from Department of Defense agencies and military commands, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Tampa-based Special Operations Forces and U.S. Special Operations Command , which both operate from MacDill Air Force Base. Faculty researchers also were briefed on funding opportunities, shared poster presentations and attended workshops by experienced faculty on how to write DoD proposals. The gathering’s goal: to build greater collaborative bridges between the universities, advance research and innovation, and solve some of the world’s most complex problems.

“I hope you enjoy talking to each other and learning from each other,” UCF President Alexander Cartwright told the gathering of faculty and graduate student researchers. “Collaboration across the universities is something all the (State University System of Florida’s) presidents are interested in doing.

“It’s a special ecosystem to be sure … it’s part of our DNA.”

USF Vice President for Research & Innovation Sylvia Wilson Thomas said the gathering was inspired by a recent trip to Washington, D.C., where USF and UCF leaders began to see the possibility of what could be achieved by bringing the strengths of Florida’s research institutions together. UCF — founded to focus on space technology and to serve the workforce needs of the NASA during the height of the Space Race — has an ambitious plan to grow its engineering and computer science programs to 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students. USF is one of the newest members of the Association of American Universities, the prestigious organization of North America’s top 71 research institutions, and also has a long history of conducting research for the Department of Defense and military programs in areas as varied as medicine to marine science technologies.

“We'll be having networking opportunities and conversations about how we can move the needle in terms of protecting our most valuable commodity — and that's humanity,” Thomas said. “From cybersecurity to AI, to quantum computing and biotechnology, the State of Florida is not only responding to today's security demands but anticipating tomorrow’s.”