The present COVID-19 pandemic has become much worse due to shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), and mobile and rapid testing instrumentation. Technological and manufacturing innovations can overcome such shortcomings for this as well as future extreme events. USF has become a national leader in advancing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship with evidence of technological and manufacturing innovations in the College of Engineering. Development, rapid prototyping and manufacturing of COVID-19 testing swabs and development of Plasmonic PECO integrated respirator/mask prototypes are just two of many examples.
The Manufacturing, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub leverages the ongoing work at centers such as the Institute for Applied Engineering funded by SOCOM and the USF Jabil Innovation Institute, and the Entrepreneurship centers at various USF campuses.
Coordinator(s): Yogi Goswami, College of Engineering
Research and Development Cluster Areas:
Five research and development clusters have been especially focused on advocating for USF researcher access to additional Research & Development (R&D) and manufacturing resources such as: GLP (Good Laboratory Practice regulations) and/or GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice regulations) manufacturing facility; additional BSL-3 (BioSafety Level) facility; chemical synthesis lab; nanomaterial and analytical characterization lab; bioreactors and scaling up facility; small animal imaging facility; aerosol testing; Nanotechnology Research and Education Center (NREC) and rapid prototyping facility.
These clusters are:
- Biological/Biomedical Manufacturing
- Mechanical/Electrical Manufacturing
- Supply Chain
- Entrepreneurship