The Composite Materials and Structures Laboratory (CMSL) at the University of Central Florida was estabilshed in the Department of Mechnical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering (MMAE) under the leadership of Prof. Jan Gou. The long range goal of our laboratory is to build state-of-art capabilities in composites processing, characterization, testing, and analysis to conduct fundamental research and provide a knowledge and technology base for composites applications in aircraft, space, renewable energy, marine, automotive, and sports goods. The interdisciplinary environment of Mechnical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering Department at UCF has faciliated the achievement of our goal.

The CMSL has attracted external research fundings from NSF, NASA, ONR, AFRL, ACS PRF, and FSGC. A number of research projects have been completed in a variey of topics such as multifunctional nanocomposites, fire resistant composites, non-destructive evaluation, environmental effects, dynamic properties of composites, process modeling and simulation.

A team of post-docs, PhD students, MS tudents, undergraduate students, and visiting scholar have been trained in the CMSL. The students in this laboratory have achieved fundmental knowledge by completing core courses in both materials and mechanics offerred by MMAE and gained both experimental and computational research skills. They have become well-qualified workforce for composites research and development.