Partner With DRACO

DRACO partners with industry and government to answer hard security questions — from silicon to swarms. We turn open problems into deliverables: hardened architectures, vetted designs, attack/defense tooling, red team assessments, and a pipeline of engineers already trained on your problem domain.

If your team is sizing up a research gift, sponsoring directed research, scoping an R&D contract, or needs an outside red team that understands the hardware as well as the software — let’s talk.

Why DRACO

• Track record across the stack. $7.7M awarded across 43 projects with federal agencies (NSF, NSA, DOE / Idaho National Laboratory), primes (Northrop Grumman, AMD, Leidos), and commercial security and Web3 partners (Arctic Wolf, Microsoft, Kraken, Ripple, IOHK).
• From logic gates to autonomous systems. Side-channel analysis and countermeasures, hardware Trojan generation and detection, post-quantum and homomorphic primitives, superconducting/emerging-device logic, secure swarm coordination, and AI/LLM security (Shadow AI, Trace-AI).
• Cleared-ready, defense-aligned talent. Our alumni land at AMD, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, Collins Aerospace, BAE Systems, and Northrop Grumman. Sponsors get first-look access to the same talent before they hit the open market.
• Open or embargoed. Most of our work is published and open-sourced; sensitive engagements stay embargoed when sponsors require it. We’ve operated under both for years.

Ways to Engage

We tailor each engagement to the partner’s timeline, IP needs, and clearance posture. Common models include:

• Unrestricted gifts. Lowest friction. Fund a directed thrust (e.g., side-channel of your IP block, ML-driven Trojan detection on your toolchain) without contractual deliverables. Eligible for FL High Tech Corridor 2:1 matching — your dollar can become three.
• Directed / sponsored research. Defined scope, milestones, and IP terms, negotiated through UCF’s Office of Research. Examples in flight or recently completed: AI-driven shadow-model risk, automated hardware Trojan benchmarking, superconducting logic synthesis automation.
• R&D subcontracts and prime contracts. Multi-year federal and prime-led programs. We routinely team on DoD, DoE, NSF, and NSA-aligned solicitations and can stand up as PI or as a hardware/security subaward.
• Red teaming and security assessments. Independent, university-led red team engagements against hardware, firmware, ML pipelines, or blockchain infrastructure. Deliverables include reproducible findings, mitigations, and a defensible written record.
• Capstone / senior design sponsorship. Scope a real, contained problem; an ECE or CS senior design team builds and delivers it across two semesters with faculty oversight. Low cost, high signal for hiring.
• Talent pipeline & embedded internships. Co-define a research thrust, then host the student(s) working it. Multiple sponsors have hired directly out of these engagements.
• Joint proposals. We’re an active partner on NSF, NSA, DOE, and DARPA-relevant solicitations and welcome industry letters of support, cost share, and primed/subbed teaming.

Selected Collaborations

A snapshot of recent and historical partners — see the Funding page for the full list.

Hardware security & defense R&D

• Idaho National Laboratory / DOE LDRD & INL-CAES — multi-year engagements on resilient architectures and cyber-physical security for energy infrastructure.
• AMD, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, Collins Aerospace, BAE Systems — ongoing alumni placements and collaboration on trusted hardware and secure design.

AI, ML, and red teaming

• Leidos — Red Teaming ($100K, PI, 2025–2026) — adversarial assessment of AI/ML systems.
• Arctic Wolf Network — Trace-AI ($100K, 2026–2027) and Shadow AI ($165K, 2024–2026) — AI/LLM threat detection and shadow-model risk, each paired with a 2:1 FL High Tech Corridor match.

Cryptography, blockchain, and trusted infrastructure

• Kraken — Research Support and Secure Blockchain Initiatives ($225K total, PI) — applied cryptography and exchange-side blockchain security.
• Ripple — XRPL Validator and Smart Contracts research ($90K total, PI) — validator security and contract analysis on the XRP Ledger.
• IOHK / IOG — Cardano-adjacent research on cryptographic primitives and protocol assurance.

Federal mission and workforce

• National Science Foundation — WySTACK ($600K, PI), CS For All: WySLICE ($1M, PI), and related awards on scalable, secure computing and CS workforce development.
• National Security Agency — GenCyberWY ($325K, PI-LI) — cybersecurity workforce pipeline aligned to NSA priorities.
• Microsoft / Code.org — regional infrastructure for security and CS education at scale.

Common Questions

What does a typical engagement cost? Gifts start in the low five figures and routinely unlock state matching. Directed research is usually $75K–$250K per year per thrust; multi-year R&D contracts and federal subawards scale from there. Capstone sponsorships are the lowest-cost on-ramp.

How is IP handled? University standard terms apply by default; specific IP, publication, and embargo terms are negotiated through UCF’s Office of Research. We have a track record of operating under both fully open and fully embargoed terms.

Can you work on sensitive or controlled material? Yes, scoped appropriately. We work routinely with DoD primes and national labs and can structure engagements around export-control and clearance requirements.

How fast can we start? Gifts and capstone projects can stand up in weeks. Directed research typically takes 4–8 weeks through contracting. Federal teaming follows the solicitation timeline.

Get in Touch

Email Dr. Mike Borowczak with a few sentences on the problem you’re trying to move, your rough timeline, and whether you’re thinking gift, directed research, contract, or red team. We’ll come back with a scoped one-pager and a path forward.

Student Opportunities

We’re well-staffed with motivated student researchers, but we’re always interested in standout candidates — especially those bringing skills our partners need.

Graduate Research (MS & PhD)

We periodically open funded positions tied to active sponsored projects. Areas of current interest include side-channel analysis, AI-driven hardware Trojan detection, post-quantum and homomorphic architectures, superconducting / emerging-device logic, and secure autonomous coordination.

To apply: Email Dr. Borowczak with your CV, 2–3 sentences on which research areas interest you and why, and any relevant coursework, projects, or publications.

Undergraduate Research & Senior Design

Paid and experiential (course-credit) undergraduate roles open as projects allow. Senior design / capstone teams should browse the Projects page and filter by senior-design or undergraduate-research-spots for currently scoped ideas. Industry sponsors interested in funding a capstone team should reach out via the partnership contact above.