A research team led by Guifang Li, a professor in UCF’s College of Optics and Photonics, will receive a $19.2 million five‑year award from the U.S. Army Research Office to study how light travels through complex, changing environments. The effort brings together researchers from CREOL, UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, the University of Dayton, the University of California Berkeley and industry partners, and will also support a new chapter for CREOL’s Townes Laser Institute under Li’s leadership.
The program seeks ways to measure distortions of light in media such as atmospheric turbulence, scattering materials and biological tissue when a sensor cannot be placed at the far end of the optical path. Potential applications include directed‑energy systems, imaging through tissue, laser‑based medicine, remote sensing and free‑space optical communications.
Researchers will explore techniques that analyze weak back‑scattered light with coherent measurements and advanced computation, use patterned illumination and inverse methods to learn about unknown objects and media, and apply artificial intelligence to interpret optical data. The team will also investigate multi‑plane light conversion, which manipulates an optical wave across several controllable planes, aiming to correct complex distortions beyond the capabilities of conventional single‑plane approaches.
Press release issued by UCF Today:
https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-led-team-receives-19-2-million-army-research-office-award-to-advance-the-science-of-light/
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