Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees received a $348,110 CAREER Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070), awarded July 1, 2026, with a completion date of June 30, 2031. This award funds research and development of scalable, general-purpose, and automated secure computing methods for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure that can process protected data and models while reducing exposure during computation. The project addresses three primary challenges: improving the efficiency and scalability of protected and secure computation, expanding support for broader protection needs and AI functions, and simplifying secure deployment for developers. Research deliverables include investigation of scalable homomorphic computing and algebraic invariance methods for secure dense and sparse linear algebra, hardware-adapted kernels for integer and modular arithmetic on computing accelerators, and methods to protect data, models, or both while supporting nonlinear functions.

Beyond research outputs, the award supports comprehensive education and workforce development activities including course and laboratory modules, student mentoring, public tutorials, open-source software releases, practitioner engagement, and K-12 outreach. The project advances national interests in trustworthy computing and safer use of sensitive data across health, security, and other sensitive fields while contributing to the broader NSF mission of supporting investigator-initiated research and education in computing, communications, and information science and engineering.