Excellence in Faculty Mentoring
Two UCF faculty members are recognized each year for their exceptional job in mentoring doctoral students. This year’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students honors two professors for their dedication to mentoring and inspiring their students: Gita Sukthankar, PhD, and Rosa Cintrón, PhD.
Gita Sukthankar, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. As an advisor, her goal is to train students to be capable and persistent researchers who are able to tackle the challenges of the future, she says. “I teach my students to be good problem solvers, to be self-educating, and how to work in teams. My belief is that those skills never go out of style and are critical to post-graduation employment success,” Dr. Sukthankar says.
The students she advised highlighted her constant professional and personal support. “Dr. Sukthankar seems to have an intuitive sense of hurdles that her students are going to encounter and she is knowledgeable enough to provide students solutions to those problems, often before the students get to them,” says one of her doctoral students, Kennard R. Laviers. Dr. Sukthankar was co-organizer of the doctoral mentoring program at the International Conference of Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems in 2010.
Rosa Cintrón, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Educational and Human Sciences, Higher Education & Policy Studies. In mentoring her doctoral students, Dr. Cintrón says she offers her students her brain to pick, her ear to listen and a solid push in the right direct, when needed. She offers moral and personal support, encouraging her students to open up about their important, personal matters because she believes that what happens outside their classroom matters. “My aim is to always develop students so that they will surpass me,” says Dr. Cintrón.
Even after her students have passed the required courses, she expects them to join the Dissertation Writing Group (DWG), a group which meets every four?five weeks at her dinner table and simulates the classroom environment. Students, while enrolled in dissertation hours, must come to the group with specific assigned homework related to one of their chapters. “The success rate of the DWG? One hundred percent of the previous participants have been awarded their EdD or PhD,” she says.
Congratulations to the inspiring Faculty award winners!
Share This Article

UCF Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship Drives Excellence, Provides Aid
As the cost of living has risen dramatically over the past several years, financial assistance has become a vital component of student success. There is no doubt that completing a...
Latest News

UCF Postdoctoral Scholar Draws on Her Island Roots to Champion for Marginalized Populations
Makella Coudray is passionate about advocating for disadvantaged groups. “I personally like championing causes for those that society may overlook, and I try to do that through my work,” she...

UCF Researchers Work to Reduce the Amount of Precious Metals in Catalytic Converters
The precious metals, such as platinum, palladium and rhodium, in catalytic converters make the vehicle devices attractive to thieves, but University of Central Florida researchers are working to reduce the...

UCF Researcher Receives Samsung International Global Research Outreach Award
Debashis Chanda, a professor in UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center, recently received Samsung’s International Global Research Outreach Award for the year 2022 in the Future Camera and Sensor category. This is...

New UCF-Developed Battery Could Prevent Post-Hurricane Electric Vehicle Fires
A University of Central Florida researcher has developed technology that could prevent electric vehicle fires, like those caused by saltwater flooding from Hurricane Ian. The technology, an aqueous battery, replaces...