Life-Changing Research
UCF is a hub for health and human performance research and innovation. Our approach to hiring faculty is different — focusing on emerging areas or interdisciplinary perspectives — and infusing engineering thinking and technology into every classroom and lab.
Here, faculty members collaborate across fields — and offer unparalleled opportunities for student researchers — to accelerate diagnoses, advance medicine, improve patient outcomes and elevate quality of life.
Gregory Welch
AdventHealth Endowed Chair
in Healthcare Simulation
Innovating Learning for Real Life: A computer scientist and engineer, Gregory Welch was the first non-nurse faculty member to join UCF’s College of Nursing. As part of his pioneering research in healthcare simulation, he created the first physical-virtual patient — melding the physicality of a manikin with the versatility of virtual humans. His nationally acclaimed work has resulted in more than 25 patents at UCF.
Impact to Industry: Welch’s development of these simulation technologies has elevated the quality and capabilities of nursing education — not only at UCF, but also inspiring similar tech across the country. Having an interactive, human-like patient has vastly improved students’ opportunities to safely, realistically practice the interactions involved in the diagnosis and treatment of disease long before entering the field.
Ozlem Garibay
Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
Sudipta Seal
Department Chair of
Materials Science and Professor
Harnessing AI for Better Healthcare: Fueled by UCF’s opportunities for interdisciplinary discovery, researchers Sudipta Seal and Ozlem Garibay ’01MS ’08PhD, a UCF alum, created an Al-based prediction method that helps develop life-saving medicines and treatments for various diseases with up to 97% accuracy. Using a unique two-step approach, the method enhances drug design accuracy and efficiency when identifying critical protein binding sites.
Impact to Industry: This development can further help improve any deep learning-based prediction model and ultimately lead to quicker, lower-cost medication design. The goal is to provide the possibility for swift treatments, disease prevention and longer, healthier lives for patients.
Melanie Coathup
Lead of the Biionix Cluster and Professor of Medicine
A biomedical engineer, Melanie Coathup created groundbreaking technologies and therapies to protect and rebuild damaged bones from radiation — pivotal for cancer patients and space travelers alike.
Deborah Beidel
Executive Director of UCF RESTORES, and Trustee Chair and Pegasus Professor of Psychology
Reimagining Mental Health Support: An internationally recognized leader in traumatic stress research, Deborah Beidel leads UCF RESTORES — a clinical research center dedicated to changing the way PTSD is understood, diagnosed and treated. She and her team have pioneered advancements in trauma management using innovative technologies as part of an intensive outpatient program.
Impact to Industry: Beidel’s use of virtual reality to treat people with PTSD has led to the development of treatments that are two to three times more effective than standard psychological treatments. UCF RESTORES also recently launched the Resiliency Command Center — a first-of-its-kind mobile behavioral health facility that provides a safe environment for evidence-based care to first responders at the scenes of crises across Florida.
Ladda Thiamwong
Florida Blue Endowed Professor for Healthy Communities
Collaborating with psychology, kinesiology and engineering faculty and students, Ladda Thiamwong developed low-cost, portable technology to help reduce falls and fear of falling for older adults, and improve quality of life.
David Eddins
Professor of Communication
Sciences and Disorders
Advancing Hearing Tech and Diagnostics: A classical psychoacoustician and clinical audiologist, David Eddins is nationally regarded for his research addressing hearing impairments and discoveries leading to the improvement of diagnostic tools and hearing enhancement devices. He’s ramping up his pioneering work to develop assistive technology solutions that improve the quality of life for people with hearing challenges — and creating more effective tools for the clinicians treating them.
Impact to Industry: The developments taking place in Eddins’ newly created Communication Technologies Research Center have implications for children and adults facing hearing challenges that stem from trauma, disease and neurodevelopmental disorders — as well as people with age-related conditions and patients like professional singers or athletes who rely on voice, respiratory and speech health.
