Student Research Week Kicks off with Seed Funding Program Presentations

Student Research Week kicks off Monday, March 28 with a two-day blitz of research presentations that will provide updates on 37 active research projects funded by UCF’s Seed Funding program.

The Seed Funding program, funded by the Office of Research and the Office of the Provost, provides money to researchers who are attempting bold new approaches to tough problems and need preliminary data before they can go after big grants. About $1 million is awarded during a competitive proposal period and winners present during Student Research Week to demonstrate how the projects are coming along. The program was announced in 2019 and $3 million has been awarded to 99 teams to date. The 2022 recipients were announced earlier this month.

The winning research teams are interdisciplinary and include faculty, research scientists, graduate students and undergraduates. The groups presenting March 28-29 are from last year’s winning teams.

The UCF community is invited to attend the virtual presentations in their entirety or for a portion of the day. Dropping in for a single session is also welcomed. RSVP is needed to obtain the link to join the sessions. Some of the projects that will be presented include:

• High Fidelity Lunar Dust Propagation and Charging Interactions: Modeling and Experiments
• Exploring the icy Outskirts of the Solar System
• A Chip for Retina-like Artificial Neuromorphic Vision Sensing
• Semiconductor Nanoparticle Structures for Trapping Human Viruses
• Myeloid Immune Cell Dysregulation in Pancreatic Tumor Progression
• Exploring Outcomes of FitMoms2B Exercise Program Among African American Women with High-risk Pregnancy
• A Simple and Sensitive Antibody Test Technology for Diagnosing COVID-19
• The Impacts of Tourism on Residents’ Quality of Life, Health and Well-being
• Power Through Play: Participatory Design of Games for Diversity in Leadership

The times and topics covered each day are:

Monday, March 28, 2022, from 9–11 a.m.                             Agenda              RSVP

Monday, March 28, 2022, from 2­–3:15 p.m.                          Agenda              RSVP

Tuesday, March 29, 2022, from 2–3:15 p.m.                          Agenda              RSVP

These presentations are just one aspect of Student Research Week. To find out more, visit https://researchweek.ucf.edu.