The Ultrafast Electron Diffraction (UED) facility was originally developed as part of the research effort at the BNL Source Development Laboratory. Researchers are able to explore ways to advance and optimize accelerator technology for UED, and also the closely associated Ultrafast Electron Microscopy (UEM) applications for the materials science research community. Fast diffraction measurements represent a key probe of structural dynamics in a range of materials. At present ultrafast experiments based on FEL x-ray sources and electron beams enable us to probe the relevant physical processes. An advantage of electron beams is their large interaction cross-section. However, there are challenges associated with obtaining short pulses of sufficient charge to probe processes on femtosecond timescales in a single pulse due to the space charge effects which limit the minimum bunch lengths that can be obtained. A key thrust of the planned UED research program will be to demonstrate techniques which optimize the time resolution of the device, targeting femtosecond-scale performance.