Instructor: Gregg Buckingham, a听 adjunct instructor and retired associate lecturer.

During his 28-year NASA career, Buckingham served in various roles in Washington, D.C., and at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), including positions in the NASA Administrator鈥檚 Office, the Space Shuttle Logistics Program and external relations at KSC.

When is the class offered?

The class will be offered fully online in Fall 2026.

What is the class about?

For many people, astronauts and engineers are among the first things that come to mind when thinking about space exploration. What they may not picture is the host of professionals working behind the scenes whose jobs are crucial to managing and implementing space policy.

鲍颁贵鈥檚 Space Policy and Management course offers graduate students 鈥� as well as select undergraduate students 鈥� a historical overview of the policy and administrative issues surrounding space exploration, from presidential initiatives and congressional oversight to governance, infrastructure, international competition and cooperation, and commercial participation.

From the Instructor

Gregg Buckingham

What is space policy?

A policy is simply a direction that an organization wants to go in. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before Congress and proposed that the United States should land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth in a decade 鈥� and Congress agreed. That鈥檚 a policy statement.

Over NASA’s history, the United States has shifted direction from the moonshot to the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, and now to increased commercial involvement in space, while also carrying out a host of scientific missions. Each direction was sponsored by a president, funded by Congress and implemented by NASA. Many variables drive these policy and management changes, including national prestige, efficiency and technology development.

How do public administration and public policy intersect with the space industry?

NASA is a government organization, and like any organization, it has administrative needs involving budgeting, procurement, organizational structure and leadership. With 10 primary field centers nationwide, various components of NASA鈥檚 mission are carried out across the centers.

When people think about space, they often think about rocket launches, engineers, scientists and astronauts 鈥� and they are certainly very important. But behind that technical work are contract specialists, finance and accounting professionals, public affairs professionals and many other necessary roles to support the agency’s technical work.

Emergency management is crucial, too. NASA has valuable facilities and hardware to protect during events such as hurricanes, and for launches, public-safety planning and preparation in case something doesn’t go as planned.

What will students learn in this course?

This course uses NASA as a case study for government infrastructure and governance in space exploration. We’ll discuss the organization and structure of the NASA network over the last 70 years, from policymaking and implementation to collaborative governance and communication.

In the space policy arena, students will learn about the many stakeholders that affect policy in one way or another. The president and Congress set policy and determine the budget, but other organizations 鈥� including commercial firms such as SpaceX and Boeing 鈥� also have an ongoing interest in NASA鈥檚 work.

Some of the resources we鈥檒l use include NASA鈥檚 oral histories with astronauts and administrators, as well as recordings from the Presidential Library system of presidents discussing the space program with NASA administrators and engineers. The goal is for students to gain a sense of different approaches to and perspectives on space policy and space management. They鈥檒l also look at leaders from around NASA and the impact they’ve had on programs and policy.

Who should take this course?

This graduate-level course is open to students across the university, including those studying engineering, business, political science and public administration. It鈥檒l also be available to outstanding undergraduate students.

Anyone interested in working in the space industry or government in some capacity could benefit from gaining perspective on policy and management, especially those who plan to move up from a technical position to a managerial one. Many of the variables that affect policy are similar whether you’re at NASA, the Department of Defense or another government agency.

What do you hope students take away from the experience?

My goal is to convey the excitement, innovation and creativity that goes into the space program and the role policy, management and administration play in making it possible. The course focuses on the space program, but students will also gain a broader understanding of the relationship between industry and government and how it can be applied to whichever sector they choose to pursue.

• Associate Professor Chen Chen 鈥� Associate Member
• Professor Ivan Garibay ’00MS ’04PhD 鈥� Associate Member
• Professor Jayanta Kapat 鈥� Full Member
• Professor Damla Turgut 鈥� Full Member
• Associate Professor Thomas Wahl 鈥� Associate Member
• Associate Professor Dazhong Wu 鈥� Associate Member
• Professor Xiaohu Xia 鈥� Associate Member
• Professor Yang Yang 鈥� Associate Member

Full members are recognized as established leaders with a sustained record of exceptional impact in their respective fields. Associate members, who are new to ASEMFL this year, are recognized for their professional accomplishments and emerging leadership.

鈥淲e are proud to welcome this exceptional group of scholars and innovators to ASEMFL, including our inaugural class of associate members,鈥� says Yogi Goswami, ASEMFL president and distinguished professor at the University of South 性视界传媒. 鈥淭heir lifelong dedication and creativity have led to transformational advances in their fields, improving lives and strengthening our communities.鈥�

Since its establishment, ASEMFL has grown to more than 300 experts grounded in common research and educational pursuits who are committed to undertaking issues in science, engineering and medicine of particular interest to the state.

This year鈥檚 cohort is the largest in ASEMFL history. All new members will be inducted at the ASEMFL annual meeting, which takes place in November at the University of South 性视界传媒.

Chen Chen

Associate Professor in the and the Institute of Artificial Intelligence

Citation: For pioneering contributions to multimodal and federated learning and real-time, privacy-preserving video analytics, advancing trustworthy and efficient AI systems for public safety, healthcare, and societal well-being.

Jayanta Kapat

Pegasus Professor and Director of the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research

Citation: For innovative research and digital twin modeling and their impact on improved costs, efficiency and emissions in advanced turbines and energy systems.

Nasser Kutkut

Graduate Faculty Scholar in the

Citation: For having pioneered high-efficiency and IoT-enabled battery charging systems, cloud-based energy management, and smart telematics platforms 鈥� technologies that cut costs, reduce emissions, and modernize industrial and electric vehicle power management worldwide.

Ivan Garibay ’00MS ’04PhD

Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems and Director of the 性视界传媒 Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Initiative

Citation: For pioneering work in AI for modeling complex human behavior, including the development of inverse generative social science, evolutionary model discovery, green technological innovation, and AI for social resilience against disinformation and polarization.

Damla Turgut

Pegasus Professor and Chair of Computer Science

Citation: For pioneering contributions to the application of value of information in wireless networks, and for outstanding leadership in advancing research and education at both the university and international professional society levels.

Thomas Wahl

Associate Professor in the and the Center for Integrated Coastal Research

Citation: For pioneering work on flood risk analysis, coastal compound flooding and assessment of coastal hazards at multiple scales under weather extremes.

Dazhong Wu

Associate Professor in the

Citation: For contributions to the development and implementation of machine learning-based techniques for part qualification and certification in advanced manufacturing.

Xiaohu Xia

Professor in the

Citation: For pioneering artificial enzyme research, achieving unprecedented catalytic efficiencies and developing diagnostic technologies with substantial clinical and societal impact.

鈥淒r. Xia鈥檚 research is an excellent example of how cutting-edge research in the College of Sciences leads directly into transformative applications for the betterment of humanity,鈥� says Josh Colwell, College of Sciences dean. 鈥淗is recognition by ASEMFL is particularly appropriate given the nature of his innovative work combining nanomaterials and fundamental chemistry research for healthcare applications that will directly impact people鈥檚 lives.鈥�

Yang Yang

Professor in the

Citation: For being an accomplished scholar in developing energy materials using nanotechnology.

Driving Research Excellence at 性视界传媒

Together, the honorees exemplify the breadth of research excellence driving innovation across 性视界传媒’s College of Sciences and College of Engineering and Computer Science.

鈥淛ay Kapat, Damla Turgut, Chen Chen, Ivan Garibay, Thomas Wahl, Dazhong Wu, Yang Yang and all faculty in the College of Engineering and Computer Science have contributed significantly to the research and education in their disciplines and their induction to the academy is a testament [to] their meaningful accomplishments,鈥� says Michael Georgiopoulos, College of Engineering and Computer Science dean. 鈥淭he academy is expected to benefit from their expertise and their anticipated service to move its mission forward.鈥�

The nationwide initiative encourages interdisciplinary teams to develop new AI models and research workflows capable of addressing national challenges across fields such as advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, critical materials, energy and quantum information.

鈥淭he Genesis Mission harnesses the collective strengths of the nation鈥檚 leading institutions across academia, industry, and government to accelerate the pace of discovery,鈥� says Winston Schoenfeld, 性视界传媒 vice president for research and innovation. 鈥湵涔筲�檚 participation reflects听the expertise of our researchers听and talented students, whose contributions will help shape AI-enabled scientific workflows and transform technological advances into real-world solutions that fuel American competitiveness.鈥�

A New Approach to Creating Fuels and Chemicals

As interdisciplinary scientific challenges become increasingly data-intensive, applying human ingenuity to advanced technologies creates possibilities to solve long-standing industry issues.

Ling鈥檚 contribution to the Genesis Mission will aim to address problems with biomanufacturing by developing an AI digital twin (virtual replication). This digital twin predicts and optimizes bioprocess performance, enabling improved process monitoring, decision-making, and scale-up.

The project will also provide opportunities for 性视界传媒 researchers at different stages of their careers to contribute to the work. Pinzhen Lin, who will begin a doctoral degree at 鲍颁贵鈥檚 College of Optics and Photonics in Fall 2026, will join Ling鈥檚 research group and lead development of the project鈥檚 real-time sensor, including its characterization and performance benchmarking. Jirui Fu 鈥�24PhD, a 性视界传媒 mechanical engineering doctoral graduate and postdoctoral scholar in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, will also assist with the project.

鈥淭he challenge is that conventionally scaling up biomanufacturing is slow and prone to failure, creating a need for smarter tools to accelerate development,鈥� Ling says. 鈥淚f successful, this project could significantly accelerate the development and deployment of sustainable biomanufacturing for fuels and chemicals, making the process faster, cheaper and less risky.鈥�

With industry-academic collaboration at the core of the Genesis Mission, Ling is working on the project with Kansas State University Assistant Professor Yian Chen, as well as the National Laboratory of the Rockies researchers Ajinkya Pal, Jason DesVeaux and Evan Komp.

A Mission With Many Benefits

Although the Genesis Mission is focused on accelerating scientific discovery, Ling believes the work has the potential to create benefits that extend beyond the research community.

鈥淭he AI digital twin framework developed here has strong potential as a commercial platform that can be adopted across a wide range of industries, from energy to materials,鈥� Ling says. 鈥淢ore broadly, it could lower the barriers for industrial partners to adopt bio-based processes, helping drive the transition toward a more sustainable economy.鈥�

For Ling, the research also represents an opportunity to see emerging technologies applied to real-world challenges.

鈥淎s an early-career researcher, I feel very fortunate to lead and participate in a mission of this scale,鈥� Ling says. 鈥淲hat excites me most is the opportunity to apply this technology to solve real-world problems, and to see how it can be integrated with the rapidly advancing field of AI.鈥�

This project will be supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science through the Genesis Mission, a Transforming Science and Energy with AI initiative.

Studies have shown the condition affects nearly one in four women worldwide and is linked to dozens of potential disorders involving multiple organ systems. Yet many healthcare providers receive only limited training in diagnosing the source of pain, often leaving patients facing years of uncertainty, repeated testing and ineffective treatments before receiving the right diagnosis.

A yearlong collaboration between a 性视界传媒 physician-scientist and two biomedical sciences undergraduate students aims to create a better environment for doctors and patients to reach an understanding together. Biomedical sciences students Sarah Gabriela Nieto Chavarro and second-year Juliana Dimetry interned with Georgine Lamvu, a 性视界传媒 College of Medicine volunteer professor of obstetrics and gynecology, to transform years of international research into a practical tool to help clinicians evaluate patients more quickly and confidently.

The team is developing an AI-assisted clinical questionnaire application that guides physicians through a patient’s symptoms and identifies which organ systems and conditions should be examined. Rather than replacing a physician鈥檚 judgment, the application compiles patient histories quickly to help guide physicians toward making a clearer diagnosis.

From International Research to a Practical Tool

Despite the prevalence of CPP, many healthcare providers lack specialized training in diagnosing the underlying condition because symptoms often overlap with gastrointestinal, urinary, musculoskeletal and reproductive disorders.

鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that this can become easy to use and can take a detailed medical history that could take an hour to get through down to just 5 to 10 minutes.鈥� 鈥� Georgine Lamvu, volunteer professor and Orlando VA practitioner

鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that this can become easy to use and can take a detailed medical history that could take an hour to get through down to just 5 to 10 minutes,鈥� says Lamvu, who practices at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Orlando and directs its gynecological surgery fellowship program and center. 鈥淭hat allows physicians to have a more efficient evaluation and spend more time with the patient.鈥�

The center is a pioneering program designed to address the growing demand for specialized gynecologic care among women veterans. As the number of women veterans using VA healthcare services is expected to increase significantly, this fellowship and center aims to train highly skilled gynecologists to meet their healthcare needs within the VA system and beyond.

As part of that initiative, this project builds upon nearly five years of work led by Lamvu alongside an international coalition of physicians, researchers and patient advocacy groups.

Their research culminated in an international consensus called R U MOVING SOMe, an acronym that categorizes the broad range of symptoms associated with chronic pelvic pain and is the basis of the AI-tool Lamvu and her team developed.

Finding a Definitive Diagnosis

Lamvu says the team translated the clinical research into the logic behind a chatbot-style application that asks fewer than 20 targeted questions. Physicians enter a patient鈥檚 symptoms and history into the program, which then suggests the organ systems and conditions most likely responsible for the pain, helping clinicians focus their evaluation.

The team plans to expand the application beyond patient questionnaires by incorporating physical examination findings into the same scoring system. Ultimately, the researchers say they hope it can be used in any practice that serves women, but it may be years away from being realized.

鈥淧hysicians just need a way of processing all the information that comes from the patient to narrow it down to a differential diagnosis,鈥� Lamvu says. 鈥淩ight now, it鈥檚 all too common to see healthcare workers panic a little when they hear a patient has chronic pelvic pain because it’s considered a complex condition.鈥�

An Inspiring Internship

The students sifted through years of research and developed the logic for the AI in less than a year. Given the complexity of CPP and the vast amount of data, Lamvu says she is impressed by Dimetry and Nieto Chavarro.

鈥淭hey learned valuable lessons, like if you see a problem that seems unsolvable to everyone else and that directly and negatively impacts patients, you have the power to do something about it,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hese are experiences not every student gets to have, especially this early on in their life.鈥�

Dimetry says she challenge intrigued her, and that she was drawn to the project for the opportunity to be at the forefront of medicine and emerging technology.

鈥淚 think that adapting the field of medicine to AI in ways such as this project is necessary to keep medicine growing and advancing,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 also saw how impactful this project could be if done successfully, and I wanted to be a part of that and make a difference,鈥�

For Nieto Chavarro, who graduates Summer 2026, the experience showed her how to use technology to help deliver compassionate patient care.

鈥淥n a personal level, this experience has taught me to keep going and to never give up,鈥� Nieto Chavarro says. 鈥淎ll of this has ultimately reinforced how essential it is to genuinely listen to patients so they feel safe and understood鈥�

Joshua Taggart knew he wanted to work for the space industry the day he experienced his first launch while attending a camp at Kennedy Space Center, seeing the space shuttle Endeavour soar into the sky. He鈥檚 now closer to making that dream a reality after being recognized with one of the industry鈥檚 most distinguished awards.

Taggart is the latest Knight to receive the coveted Astronaut Foundation Scholarship, a national award that provides more than 70 scholarships of up to $15,000 each for some of the nation鈥檚 very best STEM students. He will be recognized with the 2026 class of scholars at the foundation鈥檚 gala, to be held next month in Houston.

Taggart says he chose 性视界传媒 for its reputation in engineering as the No. 1 supplier of talent to the nation鈥檚 aerospace and defense industries (Aviation Week Network). He is in good company as part of a trio of Astronaut Scholars this year from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, joining mechanical engineering student Keanu Brayman and computer engineering student Kyle Coutray (a biomedical sciences double major), who have received the scholarship for second consecutive year.

As Taggart works to complete his final year at 性视界传媒, his latest accomplishment fuels his path to make an impact as a future space researcher.

Future Focused

Driven to contribute to humanity鈥檚 exploration of our universe, Taggart is already working on future-focused innovations that can benefit the space industry.

Through NASA Office of STEM Engagement, he interned at the Johnson Space Center working on communications, avionics, propulsion and flight software for CubeSat subsystems.

This summer at NASA鈥檚 Glenn Research Center, he is researching packaging materials for silicon carbide pressure sensors, working to make sure they perform reliably above 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit), and on integrating thermocouple sensors for temperature compensation.

鈥淚 chose this field of research because I want to be involved in next-generation electronics that can withstand the extreme nature of outer space.鈥� 鈥� Joshua Taggart

鈥淲ith the harsh environment that outer space is and planet surfaces like Venus, electronics must survive very high temperatures and radiation effects,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 chose this field of research because I want to be involved in next-generation electronics that can withstand the extreme nature of outer space.鈥�

His work as an undergraduate researcher for the Q-Sim Lab, directed by Assistant Professor Jaesung Lee, also centers around developing technology designed to operate in outer space. Taggart is working on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators designed to perform under extreme conditions, such as elevated temperatures and increased exposure to radiation.

He recently won a Judge鈥檚 Choice Award at 性视界传媒 Student Research Week for his Honors Undergraduate Thesis, 鈥淩obust AlN MEMS Resonators for High Temperature Space Environments.鈥�

His passion for space has only grown over the years, reflected by his ongoing research at 性视界传媒 and for NASA. As an Astronaut Scholar, Taggart is launching into a future full of possibilities.

鈥淎side from the financial support that this scholarship will provide me as I complete my undergraduate program, I am very eager for all of the networking opportunities I will have,鈥� Taggart says. 鈥淚 look forward to networking with other students and industry leaders to learn and grow as much as I can thanks to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.鈥�

Those interested in the Astronaut Scholarship and other opportunities should reach out to the Office of Prestigious Awards at听OPA@ucf.edu.

That鈥檚 the future a team of 性视界传媒 researchers is building, and their groundbreaking work has earned international recognition.

A team of 性视界传媒 researchers has won an industry award for using robotics and digital twins to blend human intuition with technological innovation.

Their work, Be There Without Being There: Humanoid Robot Immersive Telepresence, received the Auggie Award for Best Interaction Product at this year鈥檚 Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California. Auggie Awards, which received over 330 entries across 18 categories, are among the world鈥檚 most recognized honors in the augmented and virtual reality industry.

The award-winning 性视界传媒 team includes computer science student researchers Judah Rowe 鈥�23 鈥�25MS, junior Liam Abramov, seniors Seniah McField and Megan Bailey, Assistant Professor Mohsen Rakhshan, and is led by 性视界传媒 Institute for Simulation and Training Interim Director and Agere Chair Professor of Computer Science Carolina Cruz-Neira. In addition to this honor, Cruz-Neira received the 2026 Auggie Award for Innovator of the Year.

Together, they developed a system that pairs a humanoid robot with an immersive digital environment, allowing a person to interact with a remote location as if they were physically there.

The technology creates a real-time digital twin of the robot鈥檚 surroundings while mapping the user鈥檚 body movements directly onto the robot.

鈥淔rom a technical [standpoint], this is perhaps the first working product or system that actually [allows] a human to be physically functional in a remote location as if they were really there,鈥� Cruz-Neira says. 鈥淲e map the body of the human to the robot. So the human walks, the robot walks. The human moves, and the robot moves. The human turns the head, the robot turns the head. It’s almost like the concept in the movie Avatar.鈥�

While Cruz-Neira and Rakhshan guided the project, she says the talented 性视界传媒 students are responsible for successfully implementing physical telepresence.

鈥淭his project was done entirely by 性视界传媒 students,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey are the ones who solved all the problems. They brought it to this level of sophistication to win the award.鈥�

The technology has applications across industries wherever people cannot safely or easily be physically present.

A robot could enter buildings damaged by hurricanes or earthquakes to assess structural damage and search for survivors. Healthcare providers could remotely examine patients with limited mobility or those living far from medical facilities. 听Someone unable to travel could experience strolling along the Champs-脡lys茅es in Paris through the robot鈥檚 perspective.

The most important aspect of the work is its ability to blend human intuition with technological innovation, Cruz-Neira says.

鈥淎t the end of the day, we have a human element, and robots can help us extend our human capabilities through this amazing technology,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his project is about [using] technology to augment or extend our human capabilities to help us do things more safely and more effectively.鈥�

The team continues refining the technology to enhance the human experience. Future developments include incorporating artificial intelligence to give the robot greater autonomy and adding a sense of touch that would allow users to remotely feel temperature and texture, as well as manipulate objects.

Cruz-Neira says the project demonstrates not only what鈥檚 possible through emerging technologies, but also what 性视界传媒 students can accomplish when given the opportunity to tackle complex real-world challenges. The students have taken this project from the lab into the real world. They鈥檝e built a robust working prototype that鈥檚 an exceptional display of real value for the community.

鈥溞允咏绱� is making [its] mark in the world as the technology university,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his project demonstrates that as a university, we鈥檙e part of the future that we like to talk about. [We鈥檙e helping build it.]鈥�

Over millions of years, flowing water etched valleys, shaped mountainsides and formed the branching blue and green scars visible across Earth 鈥� and potentially those on other celestial bodies.

Now, 性视界传媒 researchers and collaborating institutions developed a framework capable of reconstructing realistic 3D landscapes using only 2D river network patterns. By combining computer models that simulate how river networksform with principles of hydraulic geometry 鈥� the study of how rivers naturally shape themselves over time 鈥� the researchers were able to estimate terrain features such as elevation, channel depth, slope and sediment transport.

The approach could help scientists better understand how landscapes evolve under different environmental conditions on Earth and potentially other planetary bodies such as Mars and Titan.

Rivers as Geological Records

According to Arvind Singh, an associate professor in 鲍颁贵鈥檚 Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, river networks preserve traces of the physical processes and external forcings that shaped them over time.

鈥淩iver networks encode the integrated effects of hydrologic and geomorphic processes, reflected in metrics such as drainage structure, channel geometry, relief and hypsometry (the measurement of elevation and depth),鈥� Singh says.

Reconstructing Landscapes from Networks

Traditionally, researchers study river systems by starting with 3D topographic data gathered through satellite imaging and digital elevation models, then extracting river networks from the terrain.

The new framework flips that process.

Instead of beginning with terrain itself, the researchers investigated whether river networks contain enough information to reconstruct landscapes from the ground up.

鈥淏ecause traditional approaches require full topography and only describe patterns, reverse engineering (e.g., from networks) can reveal the underlying physical processes that govern landscape form,鈥� Singh says.

The researchers say river networks can reveal far more than simple drainage patterns. Under the framework, the geometry of the networks can also help estimate hidden environmental variables tied to landscape formation.

鈥淎 key insight is that realistic 3D landscapes, and even unobservable quantities like discharge or sediment transport, can be reconstructed from 2D network structure alone, revealing strong constraints imposed by fundamental scaling laws,鈥� Singh says.

Testing Alien Worlds

Because the framework is dimensionless and scalable, researchers were also able to adapt the model to hypothetical landscapes on Mars and Titan by changing variables such as gravity and sediment density.

The resulting simulations revealed how river valleys and terrain formations may differ across planetary environments. Compared to Earth and Mars, Titan鈥檚 lower gravity and unique environmental conditions produced wider channels, deeper river systems and flatter overall landscapes.

鈥淢ars and Titan provide natural laboratories with different gravity and fluid/sediment properties, allowing the framework to test how identical network structures yield different landscapes under altered physical conditions.”鈥擜rvind Singh, associate professor

The planetary comparisons allowed the researchers to test how different environmental conditions influence landscape formation even when river structures remain similar.

鈥淢ars and Titan provide natural laboratories with different gravity and fluid/sediment properties, allowing the framework to test how identical network structures yield different landscapes under altered physical conditions,鈥� Singh says.

The simulations also demonstrated how gravity and sediment behavior can dramatically alter the shape of landscapes over time.

鈥淒ifferences in gravity and sediment properties directly alter channel width, depth, slope, and relief, leading to distinct landscape geometries even with the same network structure,鈥� Singh says.

The researchers say the framework may also help scientists better understand how precipitation, sediment size and watershed structure influence the evolution of landscapes over time. Unlike many traditional landscape evolution models, the framework explicitly resolves river channels and their physical characteristics, including depth, slope and gravel transport.

A New Framework for Landscape Evolution

The researchers say the framework differs from many traditional landscape evolution models because it directly incorporates the physical properties of river channels into the simulations.

鈥淭his framework couples probabilistic 2D channel network generation with physically based, dimensionally consistent hydraulic geometry and hillslope models, explicitly resolving channel properties and producing fully scalable 3D landscapes,鈥� Singh says.

By revealing how river networks preserve hidden information about the worlds they shape, the researchers hope the framework can help scientists better understand not only Earth鈥檚 geological past, but also the ancient landscapes of distant planetary environments.

听The study was conducted by researchers from 性视界传媒, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and collaborating institutions, with support from the 性视界传媒 P3 program and other funding sources.

For scientists working on NASA鈥檚 proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, that question is no longer purely philosophical. It is increasingly becoming an engineering problem.

Researchers at 鲍颁贵鈥檚 are helping develop technology designed to help future space telescopes detect potentially habitable planets orbiting distant stars.

The NASA-funded project, known as PEEPSS (Photonics-Enabled Exoplanet Spectroscopic System), aims to help astronomers directly observe planets hidden within the overwhelming brightness of their parent stars.

鈥淚f they鈥檙e in the habitable zone, that means they are orbiting close to their host star, and that host star is typically going to be 10 billion times brighter than the planet,鈥� says Professor Stephen Eikenberry, principal investigator on the project.

To explain the difficulty, Eikenberry compares the task to trying to spot 鈥渁 tiny blinking light while someone is shining a spotlight directly in your face.鈥�

The work supports the long-term goals of NASA鈥檚 proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a future flagship space telescope intended to search for Earth-like planets beyond our solar system and analyze their atmospheres for signs of life.

Solving One of Astronomy鈥檚 Hardest Problems

Astronomers already know planets are common throughout the universe. The challenge now is identifying Earth-like planets that are extraordinarily faint compared to the stars they orbit.

Astronomers use instruments called coronagraphs to block a star鈥檚 glare while allowing faint planetary signals to reach a telescope鈥檚 detectors.

Even then, however, microscopic imperfections in a telescope鈥檚 optics can allow enormous amounts of starlight to leak through the system.

鈥淎nd you can say, 鈥榃ell, that鈥檚 only a part in a million,鈥� 鈥� Eikenberry says. 鈥淕uess what? A part in a million means it鈥檚 still 10,000 times brighter than your exoplanet. You鈥檙e doomed.鈥�

The system performs an advanced form of wavefront sensing that detects and corrects tiny distortions in incoming light before they overwhelm planetary signals.

Unlike many existing systems that monitor light earlier in the optical process, PEEPSS performs wavefront sensing directly at the telescope鈥檚 focal plane, the same location where scientific imaging occurs.

That distinction is important because it allows researchers to detect and correct optical errors that emerge after light passes through a telescope鈥檚 coronagraph. Scientists refer to these distortions as 鈥渘on-common-path aberrations.鈥�

To explain the concept, Eikenberry compares the system to trying to monitor a room you cannot fully see.

鈥淚magine you鈥檙e in a house and you want the entire house to be perfectly clean,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou can see people walking into the bedroom, but you can鈥檛 actually see inside the bedroom itself. That鈥檚 the non-common path.鈥�

By monitoring the complete optical pathway all the way through to the focal plane, researchers hope PEEPSS can help future observatories achieve the extraordinary precision necessary to detect habitable worlds.

A New Approach Using Photonic Lanterns

At the center of the project is an emerging technology known as a photonic lantern.

The device separates complex incoming light into individual optical channels, allowing researchers to recover not only brightness information, but also phase information carried by light waves, data that conventional imaging systems typically discard.

鈥淭raditional detectors wipe that information out,鈥� Eikenberry says. 鈥淧hotonic lanterns allow us to recover it.鈥�

That additional information enables what researchers describe as 鈥渜uantum-inspired imaging,鈥� an emerging technique that uses light behavior to improve image resolution and filter out the remaining starlight.

Researchers at CREOL have become major contributors to the rapidly growing field of astrophotonics, which combines astronomy, fiber optics and advanced photonic technologies.

鈥淭here are really only two major centers doing cutting-edge work on photonic lanterns,鈥� Eikenberry says. 鈥淯s and the University of Sydney in Australia.鈥�

The project brings together collaborators from 性视界传媒, University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Sydney, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. At 性视界传媒, Eikenberry works alongside graduate student Genevieve Markees and researchers including Rodrigo Amezcua Correa, Miguel Bandres and Jose-Enrique Antonio-Lopez, whose expertise in fiber optics and photonics helped establish the collaboration.

Looking Toward Habitable Worlds

The current PEEPSS project is structured as a three-year effort focused on building and testing prototype photonic lantern systems in laboratory and telescope environments.

Some versions of the technology have already undergone testing on telescopes in Hawaii through collaborations with the Air Force Research Laboratory and international research partners.

Ultimately, researchers hope the technology could become part of the future NASA missions searching for habitable planets around distant stars.

鈥淚f we can identify habitable worlds around other stars and show they possess conditions where Earth-like life could survive, that鈥檚 already revolutionary,鈥� Eikenberry says. 鈥淚f we discover actual evidence of life, then we鈥檙e talking about one of the greatest scientific discoveries in human history.鈥�

For Eikenberry, humanity may now be approaching a historic turning point.

鈥淲e are one mission away,鈥� he says.

And if future observations succeed, humanity may no longer simply wonder whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. For researchers involved in the project, that possibility is what makes the work so compelling.

鈥淲e鈥檒l look up and know.鈥�

The PEEPSS project is supported by NASA through award No. 80NSSC26K0577 and brings together researchers from 性视界传媒, the University of Sydney and the University of California, Santa Cruz to develop advanced photonic technologies for future exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy missions, including NASA鈥檚 proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory. The initial PEEPSS concept development was supported by the University of Central 性视界传媒 through its SPICE Academic Excellence Program.

Two 性视界传媒 researchers have received U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards supporting separate engineering research projects focused on how complex systems sense, adapt and respond to changing environments.

The awards were presented to Chinwendu Enyioha, an assistant professor in , and Mohiuddin Quadir, an associate professor in . Among NSF鈥檚 most prestigious recognitions for early-career faculty, the CAREER Award supports researchers who show strong potential as academic leaders while integrating research, education and student development.

Recognizing Emerging Research Leaders

While Enyioha and Quadir work in different engineering fields, both researchers are developing systems designed to respond under complex conditions 鈥� including autonomous systems coordinating under limited communication and nanoparticles interacting with biological signals in complex environments.

Enyioha says the award will enable his group to build on years of prior work, including early doctoral students who helped lay the foundation for the project.

鈥淚t gives us the opportunity to study these problems and acknowledges the effort that has gone into making important findings in this area,鈥� Enyioha says. 鈥淚t will enable us to continue training doctoral students and make contributions to the broader cyber-physical systems research community.鈥�

For Quadir, the award will help support the long-term development of ideas his research group has been pursuing for years for engineering 鈥榮mart鈥� materials with programmable form and function.

鈥淭his recognition means a very significant impact for our research group and for the progression of our ideas,鈥� Quadir says. 鈥淭his is a core idea that we want to develop over time, and for that, you need logistic support, intellectual support, collaborations, and of course, newer ideas.鈥�

Designing Autonomous Systems Under Communication Constraints

Enyioha鈥檚 CAREER project, 鈥淟imited-Communication Control of Teams of Autonomous Systems鈥� focuses on developing mathematical frameworks and distributed algorithms that allow teams of autonomous systems to coordinate effectively under bandwidth-limited communication constraints.

The research examines how spatially distributed systems 鈥� including robotic networks, wireless sensors and autonomous infrastructure systems 鈥� can continue operating cooperatively even when communication bandwidth becomes constrained or unreliable.

鈥淥ne way to think about it is if you have a bunch of robots that need to solve a particular task. Clearly they have to talk and agree and coordinate,鈥� Enyioha says. 鈥淭he question we are interested in is how can they solve that problem when they are not able to talk freely with one another?鈥�

Communication constraints are common in real-world environments, including disaster zones, underwater systems and crowded networks where many devices compete for limited bandwidth.

鈥淥ur focus isn鈥檛 on situations where we have no communication, but on being efficient in how we use limited communication resources down to single bits,鈥� Enyioha says.

To explain the concept, Enyioha compares the challenge to compressing navigation instructions.

鈥淚f you want to go from Orlando to Houston, Google Maps gives you a long list of instructions,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut if you only had two pieces of information to give someone, you might say, 鈥楪o north. Then go west.鈥欌��

The project also studies resilient systems capable of continuing to operate even when communication channels fail or individual components become compromised, an important challenge in areas such as disaster response, autonomous infrastructure and large-scale robotic systems.

鈥淚n the community we call this designing autonomous systems that gracefully degrade,鈥� Enyioha says.

Engineering Materials That Respond to Biological Signals

Quadir鈥檚 CAREER project, 鈥淣anoscale Interactions of Stimuli-responsive Nanoparticles with Enzymes,鈥� investigates how engineered nanoparticles can be designed to recognize and respond to biological signals in ways that mimic certain characteristics found in living systems.

鈥淎s you know, in [human] physiology, in the physiology of the plants, in the physiology of any living materials around the world, there is a very basic paradigm that goes on, which is selective responsiveness to a particular stimulus within the myriad of noises,鈥� Quadir says. 鈥淭his sensitivity means a system can register and isolate signals from a complex external environment and translate them into an action.鈥�

Quadir says his research group is trying to translate that biological principle into the materials world by engineering nanoparticles capable of recognizing specific molecular signals and producing targeted responses.

The research focuses on enzyme-responsive nanomaterials 鈥� particles capable of interacting with enzymes at the molecular level. Quadir says his research group designs and engineers the molecular building blocks of nanoparticles so they can recognize specific enzyme signals and respond accordingly.

Potential applications could include medicine, aging research, environmental science, and adaptive materials capable of responding to dynamic biological environments.

Supporting Long-Term Research and Education

Both CAREER projects include education and outreach components designed to train students and expand engagement with emerging areas of engineering.

Education and workforce development are central components of Enyioha鈥檚 CAREER Award, he says. His research group includes doctoral, master鈥檚 and undergraduate students who participate in research on autonomy, machine learning, and distributed optimization theory, with applications to networked cyber-physical systems. Beyond the university, he also introduces younger students to these fields through programs such as 性视界传媒 Camp Connect, where K-12 participants are introduced to decision-making algorithms and autonomy during a week-long summer program.

鈥淪eeing real demonstrations helped them understand how core concepts from math and physics apply to real problems,鈥� Enyioha says.

Quadir acknowledges the work done by the graduate students and postdocs towards the research goal. He is grateful to his mentors, collaborators and colleagues at the department and college for their guidance and inspiration, and the National Science Foundation for research support.

Quadir says scientific and engineering research ultimately aims to improve the lives of others.

Together, the awards highlight how 性视界传媒 researchers are advancing engineering systems capable of adapting to increasingly complex biological, computational and real-world environments.

Enyioha鈥檚 CAREER Award project, 鈥淟imited-Communication Control of Teams of Autonomous Systems,鈥� is supported under NSF award GR110760. Quadir鈥檚 CAREER Award project, 鈥淣anoscale Interactions of Stimuli-responsive Nanoparticles with Enzymes,鈥� is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under awards GR111180 and GR111181 (Award number听 – 2609681)

性视界传媒 Professor Michal Masternak and his team have identified molecular changes in the liver that happen when space travelers experience radiation and microgravity. These changes 鈥� that resemble accelerated aging 鈥� provide new insight into how prolonged space missions may increase health risks for astronauts and reveal potential targets for therapies that could combat age-related diseases on Earth.

鈥淛ust 24 hours after radiation exposure, there are many genetic changes in the liver that are remarkably similar to what happens during aging.鈥� 鈥� Professor Michal Masternak

鈥淲e focused on the liver because it is one of the major metabolic organs in our body,鈥� says Masternak, leader of the College of Medicine鈥檚 aging and space medicine research efforts. 鈥淲hat we found was that just 24 hours after radiation exposure, there are many genetic changes in the liver that are remarkably similar to what happens during aging. We can assume that if someone were in space much longer, the damage could be much greater.鈥�

The findings were recently published in听GeroScience.

Navigating the Science

For their study, 性视界传媒 researchers and scientists from the U.S. created a simulated deep space environment in the lab. The team exposed animal models to simulated microgravity for 14 days and galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events at NASA Space Radiation Laboratory trying to mimic the dosage that astronauts would be exposed to during a trip to Mars.

The exposure triggered noticeable and potentially harmful changes in the liver, including increased cellular senescence (aging and decreased cell function), inflammation and fibrosis. Left untreated, these conditions can eventually lead to declining and even failing organ function.

The research team then compared their results with data collected from astronaut blood samples taken during the NASA Twins Study and Inspiration4 astronauts. They saw similar genetic changes in blood.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got this raw data from human studies, and they show that some of these changes are similar,鈥� Masternak says. 鈥淭hat tells us we鈥檙e identifying useful molecular targets that one day could help protect astronauts during long-duration space missions.鈥�

They听also听went a step further to see听whether the听changes could be treated. They听identified听a group of molecules known as antagomirs that alter several aging and inflammatory genetic pathways听by interacting with the body鈥檚听microRNA. This system could pinpoint promising听future听therapies for space travelers.

Understanding Aging in the Space Age

Masternak says听the nation鈥檚听growing space industry provides a unique opportunity to study aging at an accelerated pace.

鈥淰ery often when we study different aging processes, it takes time,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ven in humans, it鈥檚 almost impossible because it would take decades. But if we see some acceleration of aging in space, then we can translate it to human studies. We can observe processes happening much faster, understand them better and eventually use that knowledge to improve health for people here on Earth.鈥�

鈥淚f we see some acceleration of aging in space, then … we can observe processes happening much faster, understand them better and eventually use that knowledge to improve health for people here on Earth.鈥� 鈥� Masternak

Those discoveries could eventually lead to therapies that slow age-related diseases, preserve organ function and improve quality of life for everyone as they age.

鈥淥ur understanding of aging is very complex,鈥� Masternak says. 鈥淎ging isn’t simply wrinkles or cosmetic changes. It鈥檚 the gradual and cascading failure of multiple organs and biological systems that happen at the same time. By understanding what starts that process and where it happens, we have a better chance of preventing many diseases before they develop. That is one of the biggest outstanding questions.鈥�

Students Positioned at the Forefront of Space Medicine

College of Medicine students are also benefitting from space medicine research. Biomedical sciences Ph.D. student Md听Tanjim Alam听鈥�25MS听joined Masternak’s laboratory during his听biotechnology听master’s program after initially planning to study cancer in relation to aging biology. Then he was introduced to space medicine, including processing astronaut samples from commercial space travelers to study how extreme environments affect human biology. That research has inspired him.

鈥淚 want to keep exploring the unknown,鈥� Alam says. 鈥淚 really want to understand how space travel influences human health, particularly its effects on aging and cancer.鈥�

Biotechnology听graduate听student听Sarah听S.听Siddiqi听鈥�24听says the interdisciplinary nature of the research attracted her to the space medicine and aging lab.

鈥淲hen people think of aging, they think only about elderly populations,鈥� says Siddiqi, who earned her bachelor鈥檚 degree as a Burnett Honors Scholar in biomedical sciences. 鈥淏ut we study aging across different stages of life and different environments, including space. I’ll always be focused on improving quality of life. I want to better understand diseases that are increasingly prevalent and find ways to recognize them earlier, before they progress to later stages.鈥�

Funding and Disclosure:

Representing听性视界传媒,听Natalie Hayslip听鈥�24听served as first author, while听Sarah Ashiqueali听鈥�21MS 鈥�24PhD, Xiang Zhu, Ridwan Hussein听鈥�22听and听Mishfak听Mansoor also contributed to the research.听Researchers from听Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine,听Universidade听Federal de Pelotas,听the听University of听Pittsburgh听and听the听University of North Carolina at Chapel听Hill听also听contributed.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Award Number (FAIN): 2317758(MMM), Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research Program of the听性视界传媒 Department of Health,听Public Health Research, Biomedical Research Program听24A12 (MMM), and the National Science Centre, Poland UMO-2023/51/B/NZ5/00498 (MMM).

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the awarding agencies.