Leading researchers from across the country gathered at UCF on Dec. 12 to launch a major Multi University Research Initiative (MURI), supported by the U.S. Army Research Office, aimed at transforming how scientists understand and design for the extreme environments of hypersonic flight. With flight tests, ground-test facilities, and first-principles simulations generating more complex data than ever, new analytical tools are urgently needed — and this initiative answers that call.
Researchers convening at UCF underscores the university’s national role as America’s Space University and its growing influence in hypersonic science, aerospace innovation, and defense research.
“Bringing this national team to UCF is a tremendous step forward,” says Trustee Chair Professor Kareem Ahmed, director of the UCF HyperSpace Research Center. “This program will advance our understanding of the fundamental science behind hypersonic material interactions, driving breakthroughs in advanced materials, propulsion systems, and next-generation vehicle technologies.”
The five-year MURI will develop new methods that combine laboratory experiments, operando testing, and atomistic simulations using advanced deep-generative algorithms. These techniques can disentangle multiple drivers of observed behavior, handle noisy measurements, and overcome nonlinear and chaotic relationships between what scientists can measure and what they need to infer. The goal: integrate diverse datasets and pinpoint which inputs matter most.
“Known for boldly advancing critical hypersonic technologies, UCF’s world-class faculty are well-positioned to join their colleagues at other leading research universities to strengthen our nation’s capabilities in this area of significant national interest,” says UCF Vice President for Research and Innovation Winston Schoenfeld. “Fitting for the nation’s top provider of graduates to the aerospace and defense industries, this partnership also will provide invaluable hands-on experiences for dozens of student researchers at the HyperSpace Center, ensuring a highly trained workforce.”
The initiative is expected to influence future U.S. Department of Defense hypersonic systems.
The initiative is expected to influence future U.S. Department of Defense hypersonic systems — from vehicles and weapons to propulsion technologies — by improving material models, enhancing reliability assessments, and providing a framework that can be replicated across other advanced materials programs.
The team includes leading experts in probabilistic inference (Assad Oberai, University of Southern California; Romit Maulik, Purdue University); hypersonic flight experiments and simulation (Kareem Ahmed, UCF; Savio Poovathingal, University of Kentucky; Onkar Sahni, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute); and micro-scale solid–gas interface physics (Aiichiro Nakano, University of Southern California).
In addition, the program will train the next generation of researchers through hands-on work with four postdoctoral scholars, 10 graduate students and 10 undergraduate students in areas such as scientific machine learning, high-speed flows, computational physics, and materials science.
This MURI marks a major step forward in advancing the science behind hypersonic systems and will help pave the way for safer, more reliable, and more capable technologies for national defense.
