Students Awarded for Research Excellence

Students, faculty, and community members filled the Pegasus Ballroom on April 1 to support over 200 graduate student presenters and learn about their innovative, original research. The Best in Category winners receive a monetary prize and recognition for their accomplishment. The College of Graduate Studies congratulates the winners of each category and would like to thank all those who participated in the event.

The Best in Category winners for this year’s Graduate Research Forum are:

Business Administration and Hospitality Management

Minoo Talebi Ashoori, Business Administration PhD – Marketing Track for The Impact of Customer’s Feeling of Betrayal on the Profitability of Targeted Promotions.  Mentor and co-author: Axel Stock, PhD.

Education

Jarrad Plante, Educational Leadership EdD – Higher Education EdD Track for Lessons without Borders: The Impact of International Service Learning on a Student’s Worldview. Mentor: Thomas Cox, PhD. Co-authors: Lauren Murray and Thomas Cox, PhD

Diana Dawn Scott, Applied Learning and Instruction MA for A Multimedia Pedestrian Safety Program and School Infrastructure: Finding the Connection to Child Pedestrian Risk Taking Attitudes and Risk Perception of Pedestrian Behavior. Mentor: Bobby Hoffman, PhD

Engineering, Computer Science, and Modeling and Simulation

Ahmadreza Amirahmadi, Electrical Engineering PhD for Three Phase Micro-Inverter. Mentor: Issa Batarseh, PhD. Co-author: Lin Chen

Alan Paris, Modeling and Simulation PhD for Advanced Signal Processing Methods for Brain-Computer Interfacing. Mentor: Azadeh Vosoughi, PhD. Co-author: George Atia, PhD

Mark Varvak, Modeling and Simulation, PhD for Pattern Classification Using Radial Basis Function Neural Networks Enhanced with the Rvachev Function Method. Mentor: Peter Kincaide, PhD

Amir R. Zamir, Electrical Engineering PhD for Visual Geo-Localization and Location-Aware Image Understanding. Mentor: Mubarak Shah, PhD

Fine Arts and Humanities

Leanne Wiggins, History MA for Viewpoints on Seminole Education: An Analysis of the Efforts to Improve the Florida Seminole Tribe’s Educational System, 1969-1989. Mentor: Daniel Murphree, PhD

Health Sciences

Debarati Mukherjee, Biomedical Sciences PhD for Kruppel-like Factor 8 Acts as the Transcriptional Activator of CXCR4 Receptor to Promote CXCL-12-depnedent Invasion and Transendothelial Migration of Breast Cancer Cells. Mentor: Jihe Zhao, PhD 

Swaran Nandini, Biomedical Sciences PhD for Characterization of Altered Dynein/Dynactin Function on Intracellular Motility. Mentor: Stephen King, PhD

Life Sciences

Kyle Beyer, Sport and Exercise Science MS – Applied Exercise Physiology Track for Neuromuscular Economy of the Vastus Lateralis is Related to Measures of Strength and Power. Mentor: Jeffery Stout, PhD

Carleigh Boone, Sport and Exercise Science MS – Applied Exercise Physiology Track for Bilateral Differences in Muscle Morphology in Relation to Strength and Power in Untrained Young Men. Mentor: David Fukuda, PhD

Michael LaMonica, Sport and Exercise Science MS – Applied Exercise Physiology Track for Bilateral Muscle Architecture Symmetry is Related to Greater Vertical Jump Power. Mentor: David Fukuda, PhD. Co-authors: Gerald Mangine, Adam Gonzalez, Adam Wells, Jeremy Townsend, Adam Jajtner, Edward Robinson, William McCormack, David Fukuda, PhD, Maren Fragala, PhD, Jeffrey Stout, PhD and Jay Hoffman, PhD

Gabriel Pruna, Sport and Exercise Science MS – Applied Exercise Physiology Track for Less than 48-hour Recovery Period May Not be Sufficient to Maintain Performance in Women’s Soccer. Mentor: Jay Hoffman, PhD

Mathematics, Optics, and Physical Sciences

Veerachart Kajorndejnukul, Optics PhD for Conservation Laws and Optical Interactions as Dielectric Interfaces. Mentor: Aristede Dogariu, PhD. Co-authors: Wequiang Ding, Sergey Sukhov, David Haefner, Aristede Dogariu, PhD, Cheng-Wei Qiu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in National University of Singapore; Girish Agarwal, Department of Physics in Oklahoma State University

Janardan Nath, Physics PhD for Optical Salisbury Screen with Design-Tunable Resonant Absorption Bands. Mentor: Robert Peale, PhD. Co-author: Isaiah Oladeji, SISOM Thin Films LLC, Orlando

Amy Van NewKirk, Optics PhD for Multicore Optical Fiber for High Temperature Sensing. Mentor: Axel Schulzgen, PhD. Co-authors:  Zeinab Sanjabi Eznaveh, Enrique Antonio-Lopez, Guillermo Salceda-Delgado, Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa, and Axel Schülzgen, PhD

Social Sciences

Lindsay Dhanani, Psychology PhD – Industrial and Organizational Track for Outcome of Perceived Workplace Discrimination: A Meta-Analysis of 35 Years of Research. Mentor/Co-author: Dana Joseph, PhD

Rachel Kangas, Anthropology MA for Unraveling Ix Tab: Revisiting the Acient Maya “Suicide Goddess” in Archaelogy. Mentor/Co-author: Beatriz Reyes-Foster, PhD

 Julie Krupa, Criminal Justice MS – Research Track for Examining Trajectories of Delinquent Behavior among Families to Adolescence to Early Adulthood. Mentor: Kristina Childs, PhD