Kawai Kwok

Engineering student Andrew Allen spends a lot of time studying sails, but the kind that outfit spacecraft, not sailboats. The Oviedo native is pursuing a master’s in mechanical engineering while completing the research in Dr. Kawai Kwok’s Structures and Materials Design Lab. Allen believes that solar sails are the future of spacecraft design, describing how […]

Two UCF researchers will partner with small businesses to develop new and innovative space technologies through NASA’s Small Business Technology Transfer Program. Mechanical and aerospace engineering Professor Subith Vasu and Assistant Professor Kawai Kwok have been awarded Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Planning Grants, which are awarded […]

Ten UCF graduate students have been awarded NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium (FSGC) fellowships. The students represent various colleges and disciplines, studying a range of topics in nanotechnology and mechanical and aerospace engineering that have the potential to advance space exploration. The NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium awards two different types of fellowships in areas […]

Sometimes big things come in small packages, and the new thin but strong materials the University of Central Florida is helping NASA develop are no exception. These materials, known as thin-ply composites, are as thin as carpenter’s measuring tape but strong enough to support satellite payloads, such as solar sails for solar-powered space travel, or […]

UCF engineering Assistant Professor Kawai Kwok studies the way insects fly and land on plants to inspire his understanding of deployable structures, which could one day help NASA more easily explore the solar system. Deployable structures are those that can change their shape on command. Think of an umbrella, which uses mechanisms to change shape […]