The College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University will receive a gift of $1 Million from the Ware Foundation to establish and endow the Ware Foundation Laboratory for Brain Research and Neuro-Engineering Applications. The Ware Foundation donation will expand and enhance the joint Neuro-Engineering Program of the FIU Department of Biomedical Engineering and Miami Children’s Hospital’s Brain Institute.

The Ware Foundation fund will be utilized to furnish the research laboratory with state of the art equipment; provide annual support for research activities and to establish a permanent Ware Foundation Research Endowment Fund. Through the State of Florida Matching Gifts Program, the Ware Foundation gift will total $1,420,000.

This is the second gift from the Ware Foundation within the last two years. The first gift established the Ware Foundation Professorship in Engineering at the College. The present gift from the Foundation recognizes the quality of research that the biomedical and electrical engineering faculty is conducting in the area of neuro-sciences and engineering. It further recognizes the partnership the College of Engineering has established with the Miami Children’s Hospital (MCH). Previously, Miami Children’s Hospital created the MCH Professorship in the FIU Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The Ware Foundation Endowment will give the College of Engineering the ability to attract exceptionally talented new researchers into the FIU-MCH joint program. These individuals will have the opportunity to conduct cutting edge research in an innovative multi-disciplinary environment that will allow them to make significant contributions as well as attract additional research funding. The Ware Foundation’s generous philanthropic support will produce a lasting legacy of medical breakthroughs benefiting children and their families today and for generations to come.

Mr. Mark Edwards, Executive Director of the Ware Foundation and the trustees, Elizabeth Eason and Morgan Soumah deserve special recognition for this most significant gift, which is the second largest endowment gift that the FIU College of Engineering has ever received. Recognition is also due to the leadership of Professor Malek Adjouadi, Director of the NSF-sponsored Center for Advanced Technology and Education, Professor Armando Barreto, Professor Richard Schoephoerster, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Prasanna Jayakar, Director of the MCH Neuroscience Center, and Mr. Avy Weberman, Director of Development for the
College of Engineering.