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Overcoming Obstacles to Make an Impact: Camille Coffie
Roadblocks and obstacles inspire Camille Coffie. It’s how she reached her position today pursuing a doctorate in physics, and what inspires her to help other young black women access the sciences. Coffie made a big step in that direction recently when she was named co-principal investigator on a project titled “Journey to a PhD through […]
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2023 CUWiP Champions Women in Physics
The 2023 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) brought over 200 students to UCF from Jan. 20-22, 2023. According to the National Science Foundation, only 20 percent of people studying physics are women. The annual Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics organized by the American Physical Society plays an important role in bringing […]
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Physicist Works to Make Science Accessible
Jackie Chini is one of the UCF Department of Physics’ most well-funded junior faculty. Her awards from the National Science Foundation total over $1 million, and she’s achieved one of the most prestigious awards: The NSF CAREER Award. It all started in high school in her hometown in rural New Jersey in a physics class. […]
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Virtual Teaching May Help GTAs Prepare for the Classroom
An innovative tool with a new application in STEM education research may help prepare graduate teaching assistants (GTA) to transition from students to instructors. Jackie Chini, an assistant professor in the UCF Physics Department, focuses her research on STEM education – or how to improve science teaching and learning. In her latest NSF-funded grant, she, […]
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Real Science
The Biology Summer Field Institute isn’t a field trip into the woods. For the week of July 17, rising high school juniors and seniors become real scientists. Led by Jennifer Elliott, Assistant Director of the UCF Arboretum, students were broken up into four groups: wetlands health assessment, forest ecology, vegetation monitoring, and gopher tortoise studies. […]
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Breaking Down the Stigma of Physics with Free Camp
Story by Jacob Rosenfarb & Zenaida Kotala While many teenagers enjoy their summer break on the beach or at theme parks, a small group of high school students spent a week at the University of Central Florida getting over their fear of physics. UCF held its free one-week physics camp in June to help […]
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UCF STEMS Throughout Florida Education
The University of Central Florida’s Center for Initiatives in STEM hosted the 12th annual Florida Engineering Education Conference on March 3, 2017. Over 200 teachers and professionals from all over Florida flocked to UCF’s Student Union to discuss teaching science, technology, engineering and math. The College of Engineering and Computer Science started the conference in […]
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EXCEL Celebrates 10 Years
On Saturday, November 19, 2016, EXCEL at the University of Central Florida hosted an event in honor of its ten year anniversary. A group of 50 faculty, alumni and students celebrated at a special tailgate in the Harris Corporate Engineering Center before UCF’s home game. The EXCEL program at UCF is aimed to increase student […]
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UCF Research Team Seeks to Improve Classroom Learning
Three University of Central Florida professors are teaming up to improve classroom learning for students who struggle with attention deficit disorder, autism and learning disabilities. The National Science Foundation awarded $300,000 to fund Project Adapting College Classrooms to Equally Support Science Students (ACCESSS), led by UCF professors Jacquelyn Chini, Ph.D., Cherie Yestrebsky, Ph.D., and Eleazar […]
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Physics Team’s Research Paper is Editor’s Pick
A UCF research team just had its paper on how to improve graduate student teaching methods chosen as an Editor’s Pick in “Physical Review.” The journal is the flagship series of the American Physical Society, the largest society of physicists in the U.S. Among its newest offerings, added in 2005, is an open access online […]
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Carolyn Euliano Endowed Scholarship
Women are vastly underrepresented in STEM jobs and among STEM degree holders, despite making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce and half of the college-educated workforce. Carolyn Euliano recognizes this crisis and is an advocate for change. Carolyn and her husband Neil Euliano, Ph.D., believe it is important for women to be present in the STEM field […]
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STEM Day at UCF
On Friday, April 8, more than one thousand students from the Central Florida area spilled on to UCF campus for STEM day. STEM day is a bi-annual outreach event for K-12 students interested in learning more about the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The day featured a wide variety of activities focused on STEM […]
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Faculty Spotlight: Lisa Malone
If you’ve watched a space shuttle launch in the past 30 years, you’ve probably heard the voice of Lisa Malone, the former director of Public Affairs for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), counting down the seconds until liftoff. Now you can expect to hear – and see – Malone at the Nicholson School of Communication […]
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UCF RESTORES at Otronicon
For the last 11 years Otronicon, or the (O)rlando Elec(tron)ic (I)nteractive Entertainment (Con)vention, has explored the science, art, technology, careers and fun behind simulation, robotics, videogames, virtual reality and digital media. Each year, various industry partners join the Orlando Science Center to promote STEM careers and celebrate how digital media technologies impact the way we live, […]
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GIS Academy Hosts National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
On Oct. 28, Timothy Hawthorne, Ph.D., and The Geospatial STEM Academy hosted Sue Gordon, deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), for a student and STEM meet and greet event. Currently an assistant professor of geographic information systems (GIS) in the department of sociology, Dr. Hawthorne is also the Founding Director and Principal Investigator of […]
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Who Is a Millionaire?
Under a sunset stroked sky in front of the University of Central Florida’s main administration building, university leaders celebrated the common traits of tenacity, collaborative spirit, and commitment to excellence that UCF’s top grant earning researchers share. Twenty-nine researchers earned $1 million or more earning a bid into UCF’s Millionaires Club, which hosted the celebration […]
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Bridging Generations Through STEM
On September 22nd, the Renaissance Orlando hotel hosted the 2015 National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemist & Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) conference. This annual conference gathers hundreds of underrepresented chemists and chemical engineers each year, who participate in events such as career fairs, professional training workshops, technical sessions and more. This year’s conference theme was […]
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UCF STEM Day Inspires Thousands
The Center for Initiatives in STEM (iSTEM) Office hosted over 1,300 students in grades K-12 for UCF’s bi-annual STEM Day on Friday, November 6th. STEM Day was a free outreach event for K-12 students interested in learning more about the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The day featured a wide variety of activities focused on STEM disciplines, […]
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LEARN Expands with National Science Foundation Grant
A University of Central Florida researcher who started a successful program to keep freshmen in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines is expanding the model to two other universities and adding a component to focus on transfer students. Kimberly Schneider, Ph.D., director of the Office of Undergraduate Research in UCF’s College of Undergraduate Studies, […]
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Teens Experience NASA Explorations Through UCF’s Camp Connect
Story courtesy of Nicholson News, August 2015 Last month, the world watched in awe as the NASA-captured images of Pluto made headlines in the media. Coverage of this historic event highlighted the role of communication in the world of science and technology, a topic that NSC’s Kennedy Space Center liaison, Lisa Malone, knows all too well. Malone […]
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Bringing STEM to Young Future-Scientists
The concepts of gravity, electricity, and momentum, to name a few, were all demonstrated in a fun and entertaining way at the STEM outreach day on Thursday, Jan. 29. The UCF Physics Department and the College of Engineering and Computer Science hosted this day of learning. The Florida High Tech Corridor Council’s techPATH group co-sponsored the event, including a lunch […]
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Astronaut Scholarship Foundation offers opportunity to student scientists
30 years ago, the Mercury 7 astronauts joined together to encourage students to pursue scientific endeavors. Their idea of keeping America on the leading edge of technology led them to form the Mercury 7 Foundation, which later became the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). UCF is one of the first five universities to sign a Memorandum […]
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Physics Class With No Tests, No Lectures
How would you do in a class that didn’t have any tests or lectures? Beginning in Fall 2014 at UCF, two physics classes will attempt to answer that question. Instead of listening to long lectures and taking multiple exams and quizzes, students will read the material at home and have their understanding improved via class […]
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Science Olympiad Heads for the Black AND Gold
Saturday and Sunday, May 16 and 17, UCF will welcome over 10,000 middle and high school students, their families, coaches, and teachers from all over the United States and Japan for the 30th annual Science Olympiad. This is second time in three years that UCF has hosted the Science Olympiad, the largest STEM (science, technology, […]
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UCF Offering Multiple STEM Summer Camps for High School Students
UCF’s Summer Institute will host summer camps for students interested in pursuing STEM Careers. The Summer Institute: Cryptography The Summer Institute: Cryptography, is an intensive three-week program for gifted and high-achieving students who have an interest in learning the foundations of computer sciences and computer technology. The program offers a mix of activities designed to maximize learning […]
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Science SURE is Awesome
Thursday, April 3, students, professors and family members crowded the Pegasus Ballroom in the Student Union for the Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence (SURE) Conference. The entire ballroom was covered almost wall-to-wall with fascinating and innovative research presentations. Each student had a trifold poster on display. They stood next to their work and answered questions […]
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Mathematical Conversation Starters: Talk Monday, April 7
Prof. John DePillis Department of Mathematics, University of California, Riverside, author of 777 Mathematical Conversation Starters and Illustrated Special Relativity Through Its Paradoxes WHERE: Health and Public Affairs Building I, Room 112 WHEN: Monday, April 7, 2014, 3:40 – 4:40pm USING BASIC LINEAR ALGEBRA as a natural language of special relativity, and assuming very little […]
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Sandwich Generation
Rebekah McCloud, director of UCF’s PRIME STEM /Student Support Services, penned an editorial for the Huffington Post’s UCF Forum. McCloud’s piece is part of a Huffington Post opinion series on the UCF forum written by UCF faculty and staff. In her writing, McCloud explores her experience in being a part of the “sandwich generation” or, […]
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2014 STEAM Exhibit: Putting Art in Science
People often view art and science as polar opposites, but fine arts students at UCF may be changing that perspective with their newest exhibition. The 2014 STEAM Exhibition will showcase students’ artwork they have created in response to presentations given by UCF scientists and students in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The […]
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UCF Team Tests Satellite Design in Zero Gravity
For more than 10 years, scientists and engineers have been developing satellites the size of softballs that float in space and collect data, such as weather conditions. These picosatellites, which weigh less than 1 kilogram (about 2.2 pounds), are a lot less expensive than conventional large satellites and easier to launch into space as secondary […]