Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/54910
PILLARS OF RESEARCH Collaborating to Shape Florida's High Tech Future Through Research T hree of the nation's premier research universities create the foundation for the thriving technology environment in the Florida High Tech Corridor. The University of Central Florida, the University of South Florida and the University of Florida are home to many of the scientific breakthroughs that are leading the way toward Florida's bright high tech future. At the center of these research success stories is the Florida High Tech Corridor Council's Matching Grants Research Program. Since the inception of the program in 1996, the Council has partnered with more than 350 companies on more than 1,200 research projects engaging 2,400 students and 300 faculty members. The nearly $57 million in funds that have been invested by the Council have been matched by corporate cash and in-kind investments of $159 million, generating an additional $784 million in quantifiable downstream impacts, resulting in a return of $943 million and total project value of more than $1 billion. The span of industries that benefit from the program is vast—from Life Sciences/Medical Technologies and Agritechnology to Modeling, Simulation & Training, Optics and Photonics and beyond. Together with faculty researchers, high tech companies of all sizes throughout the Corridor are able to develop commercially applicable emerging technologies using state-of-the-art university research facilities. In these pages, you'll learn about a microgravity research center that lets scientists better study the effects of weightlessness in space, researchers who are florida.HIGH.TECH 2012 17 developing an innovative method that uses recycled water and carbon dioxide to create "solar fuel," a project aimed at reducing the size of antenna arrays to prevent the jamming of GPS signals, and much more. These and many other unique scientific innovations are all being made throughout the thriving high tech hub known as Florida's High Tech Corridor.