UCF Student’s Simulation Startup Finds Home at UCF Business Incubation Program, Earns First Contract

The growing prominence of augmented and virtual reality gave UCF senior Zack Zuniga an idea that he recently brought to life.

Zuniga founded ZuLeris Interactive in 2023 after realizing the opportunity to create simulations for specialized electromagnetic defense training through his Entrepreneurship for Defense course while earning degrees in both electrical and photonics engineering.

Nearly a year later, the company has earned its first contract and acceptance to the UCF Business Incubation Program where it will accelerate innovation and unleash its potential.

ZuLeris will integrate its electromagnetic warfare virtual training environment into tactical awareness kits through its first contract with Chesapeake Technology International (CTI), its sponsor company. The team will work to enable communication of CTI’s geospatial mapping and constructive electromagnetic capabilities with ZuLeris’ visualization of the electromagnetic spectrum to conduct immersive training scenarios.

The promising company is looking to continue its initial success and harness the UCF Business Incubation Program’s resources in its quest to defend against threats unseen.

“When you see the wars that are happening nowadays, it’s more prevalent than ever, and so it’s important that the soldiers have the training that they need for this,” Zuniga says. “And so how can you be ready for something you can’t see? Well, the answer isn’t through simple presentations; it’s simulations that you can play with. That’s what we aim to do as a company to make that training happen.”

The simulation is played on a computer or tablet to ensure that it is compliant with defense industry standards and easily deployed as a training exercise. Users’ response times and effectiveness are measured as they navigate through a virtual area with varied terrain and obstacles to track and determine where an electromagnetic signal is coming from.

“You walk around with your spectrum analyzer and your map, and then you draw lines on the map to try and triangulate where exactly the signals coming from,” Zuniga says. “Once you find your signal, then you get given a measure of effectiveness report, which is telling you how you did and where you could have done better.”

Existing training consists of searching for an object with a signal embedded in it and then hidden within a challenging environment. It can be costly and time consuming to stage these exercises, Zuniga says. However, their simulations have the potential advantage of being able to create a virtual space that is close to an inaccessible area where users may experience electromagnetic interference.

“The problem we’re trying to solve was, how do we take this training that’s really costly that usually comes with a lot of paperwork, and get all that ready to go for an hour training?” Zuniga says. “We wanted to make it so you can do it whenever and wherever you want.”

Zuniga and UCF student and co-founder Liam Etan ’24 received defense agency sponsorship to develop their ideas through class, advancing through multiple defense-oriented technology competitions that showcased their simulation and validated that their technology was worthy of pursuing and growing.

The journey in developing ZuLeris has been both expeditious and exciting, as the supportive team has been crucial to maintaining direction, Zuniga says.

“Sometimes I wonder, ‘Am I really ready for this kind of thing?’” Zuniga says. “I’m still a student, and it’s a huge jump, and it’s a jump that I’m still learning. The easiest way that I have found to handle that process is having a co-founder on your side to help you along that journey, and vice versa. Liam is fantastic, and he helped me in so many ways that I don’t think I could ever do without him.”

Etan, who received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, is the company’s chief operating office. He says he’s grateful to be a part of ZuLeris and see how the UCF Business Incubation Program can help.

“It’s always important to emphasize how truly grateful we are for the community in Orlando and all of our mentors, especially organizations like the National Security Innovation Network, UCF, and the Tech Grove,” he says. “We are still brand new to the incubator, but so far, we’ve been able to establish a real address and office for the company, rather than using our parents’ homes. We’ve also already been able to have very productive meetings with the incubator team that have helped us decide on next steps.”

The additional boost the mentorship and guidance the incubation program provides can almost literally be a game changer, Zuniga says.

“It gets rid of all those potential roadblocks along the way,” he says. “We can even prepare for those we didn’t even know about. Having that foresight is fantastic, and that’s where the incubator is really helpful.”