Florida Tech Faculty Member Earns Engineering Design Grants

– Dr. Ken Ports, Florida Tech visiting professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), and associate dean of the College of Engineering, has earned
$40,000 in grants from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. The grants support the university’s senior design program.

Ports received a $15,500 share of a $28,000 grant over three years for a joint proposal from Florida Tech and the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in
Terre Haute, Ind. The grant supports joint electrical and computer engineering senior design course efforts by the universities in the area of wireless
technology. The two departments are cross-benchmarking each other’s programs.

The other grant Ports received from the NCIIA was $24,500 over 15 months for a senior design commercialization and entrepreneurship program. This effort is
intended to link ECE’s senior design program with an entrepreneurial curriculum existing in Florida Tech’s engineering systems program. The grant will fund
courses and pay some team expenses of those seeking to pursue commercial applications and new business opportunities resulting from their senior design
projects.

Florida Tech offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering.