College of Engineering News Room
New Institute of Applied Engineering Signs RDAs Worth $1.18M
The newly established Institute of Applied Engineering (IAE) at the University of South Florida has secured two important collaborative agreements with DefenseWERX that have a total value of $1.18M.
Robert Bishop, president and CEO of the IAE, and dean of the USF College of Engineering, signed two Research and Development Agreements (RDAs) with non-profit organization DefenseWERX in September. In addition to the two RDAs, two task orders under the overarching RDA were also signed with SOFWERX.
“Our goal is to harness the intellectual and creative firepower of the USF Institute of Applied Engineering to address many of the serious challenges we are facing as a world community,” Bishop said. The collaborations will enable us to reach broadly across the domains of cybersecurity and data analytics, to health and human performance, to transportation and energy, and to autonomous systems and artificial intelligence.”
SOFWERX is a venue operated under an agreement between the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and DefenseWERX designed to increase collaboration and innovation in order to solve the most difficult defense problems.
The SOFWERX agreement supports an effort to equip Special Operations Forces operator mobile devices and sensors with artificial intelligence to support battlefield medical diagnosis and treatment. The contracts also support a USF-administered intern program and an on-the-job training program at SOFWERX.
SOFWERX is a forum for accelerating delivery of innovative capability and facilitating capability refinement through exploration, experimentation and assessment of promising technology. SOFWERX is located in the heart of Ybor City at a neutral, easily accessible facility.
The USF Board of Trustees certified the IAE as USF’s newest Direct Support Organization (DSO) in June of 2018. The IAE provides agile, best value engineering products and services to enhance the performance, effectiveness and safety of its customers — including the Department of Defense, other federal, state and local agencies, and industry.
The IAE provides these engineering solutions in alignment with its core competencies: autonomous systems, human performance enhancement, data analytics, cyber and electromagnetic domain security, and transportation and energy infrastructure.
As a DSO, the institute is a separately-incorporated Florida not-for-profit authorized to use USF property, facilities and personnel services for the benefit of USF’s research, development and education mission.