Description

The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track or tenured faculty position at the rank of Assistant/Associate/Full Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) (https://mae.ufl.edu/).

The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering (HWCOE) has identified robotics and autonomous systems as core areas of emphasis and candidates are sought whose research is focused on advanced autonomy. In addition to over 30 primary robotics and autonomy faculty within the HWCOE, as a comprehensive Carnegie R1 research university, opportunities are available for multidisciplinary collaboration with faculty in agriculture, astronautical sciences, coastal and environmental engineering, health sciences, industrialized construction, medicine, and transportation. UF is one of the nation’s first universities to offer its students AI Across the Curriculum with courses in artificial intelligence available in all 16 colleges. Comprehensive AI research is supported with HiPerGator, one of the fastest supercomputers in higher education, gifted to UF by the NVIDIA Corp. The recently completed Malachowsky Hall is also part of the AI infrastructure which includes ground floor makerspaces that provide dedicated environments for advancements in robotics, virtual reality, and Internet of Things (IoT). The HWCOE also recently established a collaborative Autonomy Park, which is a 1.3 million cubic foot fully netted outdoor robotic facility with adjacent indoor ground station and computational buildings.  A distinguishing feature of the Autonomy Park is the inclusion of unique software-defined radios, along with 5G/LTE and satellite-based communications that allow for experimentation in an outdoor environment with a contested RF spectrum.  Autonomous agents in the Autonomy Park include small and large quadruped robots, dozens of unmanned air vehicles from heavy lift to small scale capabilities, and a heterogeneous network of ground robots. Collaborations can be established within existing centers and institutes such as the AFOSR Center of Excellence in Assured Autonomy in Contested Environments (https://ncr.mae.ufl.edu/aacoe.php), the UF Transportation Institute (https://www.transportation.institute.ufl.edu/), the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences (https://ifas.ufl.edu/), and the UF Center for Coastal Solutions (https://ccs.eng.ufl.edu/). These opportunities exist for the successful candidate to establish and grow a dynamic research enterprise at UF. 

The Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department (MAE) is one of the largest degree-granting units at the University of Florida. The Department has over 60 faculty members, 500 graduate students, 1900 undergraduate students and over $18 million in annual research expenditures (2022 ASEE). BS, MS, and PhD degrees are offered in both Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering. MAE is home to over a dozen student societies and provides exceptional dedicated facilities and financial support for our student-led design/build/compete organizations that routinely capture top placement at national and international competitions. Traditional strengths in solid mechanics and design, thermal fluid systems, and dynamics and controls are leveraged in many interdisciplinary and cutting-edge efforts that include autonomous systems, multiphase turbulent systems, experimental mechanics, advanced manufacturing, novel energy systems, computational methods, soft-matter engineering, and aerospace technologies and systems. 

The University of Florida is the flagship campus of the State of Florida university system and is ranked as the #1 best public US university according to the Wall Street Journal. UF recently announced a $70 million artificial intelligence partnership with NVIDIA to create an AI-centric data center that houses the world's fastest AI supercomputer in higher education. For more information about the college, please visit http://eng.ufl.edu.

Requirements

The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or a related field with a strong interest in collaboration. Candidates should have a solid foundation for interdisciplinary research and successful collaborative investigations in relevant disciplines, as demonstrated in their record of peer-reviewed publications and proposal writing. In addition to a passion for research, candidates should have a strong interest in teaching and mentoring graduate and undergraduate students.