Mechanical And Civil Engineering Research

Civil Engineering

Civil engineering faculty are actively engaged in a wide range of research areas including construction management, geotechnical engineering, materials, structures, transportation and water resources. 

Laboratories for research and instructional activities are available in the areas of materials and structures and soil mechanics. The materials and structures laboratory is equipped with several universal testing machines for physical testing, and equipment and instrumentation for experimental stress analysis. The soil mechanics laboratory contains commercial equipment for evaluating the engineering properties of soils.

Faculty research has been supported through several grants from the federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Research Council of Canada, Florida Department of Energy, Florida Department of Transportation, Florida Department of Energy Management, the Florida Department of Community Affairs, and FEMA.

Construction Management 

Research areas for construction management faculty are project management, sustainable construction, construction materials and methods, risk management and computer modeling.

The construction management program uses the civil engineering materials, geotechnical and transportation, laboratories for materials and soil-related research. Several computer laboratories are available for BIM related research. Additionally, the construction management program is in the process of building a high-energy efficient building on campus that will be used as a hands-on laboratory during construction and operation.

Faculty research has been supported through the Florida Department of Transportation, Turkish Airlines, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs – Office of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Education.

Engineering Management 

Research topics in engineering management are interdisciplinary in nature. The student may select a topic from their original engineering field, or a topic that spans several fields with the approval of the student’s major advisor and committee. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, project engineering, quality engineering, technology commercialization, engineering logistics and situational analysis.

Mechanical Engineering 

Mechanical engineering faculty are actively engaged in a wide range of research including areas of energy, robotics, nonlinear dynamics and vibrations, biomechanics, materials, combustion and propulsion, structural controls and dynamic systems, control systems, instrumentation, optimization, laser material processing, and design and manufacturing. 

Major laboratories include the Dynamic Systems and Controls (DSC) Laboratory; Laser Optics and Instrumentation Laboratory (LOIL); Design and Manufacturing Research Laboratory (DMRL); Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) Laboratory and the Laser Materials Processing (LMP) laboratory among others. Faculty are also actively engaged in Florida Tech’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design (CAMID) laboratory.

Faculty research has been supported through several grants from National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA (Marshal), NASA (Headquarters), Energy Florida, Department of Agriculture and industries such as Aerojet Rocketdyne and Lockheed Martin. Mechanical engineering faculty have also been recipients of the NSF career award and several NSF I-Corp projects.