The Applied Superconductivity Center (ASC) advances the science and technology of superconductivity and particularly superconductivity applications. We do this by investigating low temperature and high temperature materials through our research grants and through our collaborations with other universities, national laboratories and industry. We continually educate post-graduate, graduate and undergraduate students by our research and public service. In 2006, after more than two decades at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the Center was lured to the Magnet Lab and Florida State University in Tallahassee. Its new facilities are located between the Mag Lab and the Florida A&M University-FSU College of Engineering, within walking distance of both institutions.

The Center's work is made possible by generous funding from:

• Air Force Office of Scientific Research / Multidisciplinary Research Program (AFOSR MURI)
• National Science Foundation - Materials Research (NSF-DMR) Focused Research Group
• U.S. Department of Energy / Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
  (DOE-EERE): Superconductivity Partnership Initiative (SPI)
• U.S. Department of Energy / Fusion Energy Sciences Program (DOE-Fusion)
• U.S. Department of Energy / High Energy Physics Program (DOE-HEP)

The Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS), with funds from the Office of Naval Research, is the preeminent center for multidisciplinary research, development and education for advanced electrical power technologies serving transportation and utility systems. The Center has developed an academic-industrial consortium focused on recent advances in power semiconductors, materials, advanced controls and superconductivity applied to power system technologies.

CAPS is committed to developing a national resource in power systems technology built around an extensive simulation capability which will provide both off-line and real-time simulation of power systems with a major hardware-in-the-loop capability. CAPS is also one of the few new initiatives in our University's electric power engineering. Through the investments and research opportunities that CAPS represents, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering has an opportunity to become the top power engineering school in the state of Florida, and even one of the top power engineering schools in the country.

The Center for Intelligent Systems, Control, and Robotics (CISCOR), provides a cooperative approach for conducting interdisciplinary research in the automated systems area. The Center's goal is to provide a means for the state of Florida to achieve national recognition in the area of automated systems with application in such areas as robotics, process optimization, aerospace control, image processing, power systems, and structural control. With major collaboration from defense agencies, the Center focuses on the development and implementation of automated systems technology for transfer to entities capable of sustaining Florida's economic growth for both private enterprise and government sectors.

At CISCOR, Collins and his fellow researchers devise complex algorithms-precise sets of rules that specify how to solve a specific problem-in designing systems that allow for the automation of various devices.

Once such an algorithm is prepared, various sensors employing laser, optical and/or radio-frequency technology would feed a constant stream of data to the vehicle's computer to help it make sense of its surroundings and react accordingly. Several versions of such vehicles are currently being tested within the CISCOR labs.

The Energy and Sustainability Center (ESC) (formerly SESEC) is set up to address the most challenging energy issues related to the use of alternative energy through the development of innovative solutions for consumers and industry. In particular, the need for energy systems that have much lower emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse materials into the atmosphere is of paramount importance.

ESC will first focus the creativity of faculty and talented students from various universities to develop and carry out research activities that cross-fertilize solutions involving energy and the environment. ESC will promote industry, government, and academia collaboration and participation in the research activities that will be critical if promising technologies are to move beyond the stage of initial demonstration to commercialization. The center will help bring industry perspectives to research groups to understand real-world barriers that limit technology implementation. The center will also form a consortium of small-scale businesses involved in energy, environment and related fields.

The Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion (FCAAP) was recently formed to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving and highly competitive aerospace industry. The Center objectives are to help train and sustain the much needed, highly skilled workforce; to design and develop new technologies and products required to help sustain the aerospace industry; and to transition the technology to applications in a timely and efficient manner. The Center was launched with nearly $15 million in seed funding by the state of Florida.

These funds will be used to maximize and supplement our resources creating a state and nationwide technology and resource team in the highly competitive and innovation-driven aerospace market. The Center leverages the seed funds and the extensive existing resources (nearly $70 million) of its partners both in terms of infrastructure and a team of highly experienced, internationally recognized scientists, researchers, and engineers. The FCAAP's interdisciplinary team covers a broad range of areas related to aeronautics, aerospace, propulsion and space sciences. FCAAP will be a technical incubator and will facilitate rapid transfer of knowledge and technologies to applications and products through partnerships with aerospace industry, government, and other stakeholders.

The Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center, headquartered on North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus, is one of the latest Gen-III Engineering Research Centers (ERC) established by the National Science Foundation in 2008. The FREEDM Systems Center will partner with universities, industry, and national laboratories in 28 states and nine countries to develop technology to revolutionize the nation's power grid and speed renewable electric-energy technologies into every home and business. The center is supported by an initial five-year, $18.5 million grant from National Science Foundation (NSF) (award #0812121, Division of Engineering Education and Centers) with an additional $10 million in institutional support and industry membership fees. A large number of utility companies, electrical equipment manufacturers, alternative energy start-ups, and other established and emerging firms are part of this global partnership.

The Center's core United States universities are North Carolina State University (NCSU), Arizona State University (ASU), Florida A&M University (FAMU), The Florida State University (FSU), and Missouri University of Science and Technology (MUST). The Center's core international universities are RWTH Aachen University in Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland.

The High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in developing cost-effective high-performance composite materials and systems.

As a world-class research center and an integral part of higher education, HPMI researchers focus their efforts on the following three major activities: 1. conducting a broad range of research and integration to improve the performance and affordability of advanced composite materials, components, subsystems and structures; 2. expanding the pool of well-trained engineers and scientists for a technology sector of national and global significance; and 3. working with tech transfer and economic development professionals in transferring and commercializing composite technology and increasing economic impact.

Materials research, by its very nature, is multidisciplinary, involving basic sciences such as chemistry and physics, as well as chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering and mechanical engineering. HPMI program teams consist of researchers with a wide range of technical backgrounds who share the vision of conducting worldclass research towards making high-performance composites affordable.

HPMI continues to work with many major industries, governmental agencies and all research branches of the military services.

The Institute for Energy systems, Economics and Sustainability(IESES), a research and policy group established earlier this year at The Florida State University to address sustainability and alternative power issues, has announced $6.5 million in grant awards for research in the areas of fuel cycles, governance and energy delivery systems.

Three major research areas were defined during the review process:

• Sustainable Energy Governance and Decision Making, to be led by Professor Richard Feiock of the Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy
• Excellence in Fuel Cycles, Including Bio-Fuels and Marine Bio-Energy, to be led by Joel Kostka, a professor in Florida State's Department of Oceanography
• Energy Delivery, to be led by Steinar Dale, director of the Center for Advanced Power Systems

In addition to the major awards, planning grants also were announced to provide resources to assist researchers in writing proposals for funding from outside agencies.

The 29 grants were selected from research proposals seeking nearly $14 million in funding and covering a variety of sustainable energy topics. Given the excellent quality of the proposals submitted and limited dollars available in this funding cycle, the IESES review and selection process was highly competitive.

IESES was formed in summer 2008 by The Florida State University to meet the challenges of Florida's rapidly evolving sustainable energy economy. The institute is staffed by a new generation of engineers, scientists, policymakers and planners - those with a comprehensive understanding of complex sustainable energy systems who stand ready to tackle the challenges and opportunities related to an energy-based future.

IESES research focuses on new and more efficient sustainable technologies for generating electric power, and also on the new efficiencies in energy systems and consumption that will also be necessary to a sustainable energy economy.