Pegasus Spring 2017 issuu

The Magazine of the University of Central Florida

SPRING 2017

MONSTERS

IN THE CLOSET

UCF’s Bug Closet inspires nightmares and research.

RUBBER DUCKY, YOU’RE THE ONE

Students clamber for 2016’s collectible rubber duck, the signature souvenir tossed to participants during Spirit Splash.

The popular Homecoming tradition allows Knights to charge into the Reflecting Pond for a wet and wild pep rally.

VOLUME 23 • ISSUE 2 • SPRING 2017

PEGASUS

INBOX

VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Grant J. Heston ’13 ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT FOR MARKETING Patrick Burt ’08 MANAGING EDITOR Laura J. Cole EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Eric Michael ’96 CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ron Boucher ’92 ART DIRECTORS Lauren Haar ’06 Steve Webb DESIGNERS Mario Carrillo Adam Smajstrla ’11

University of Central Florida December 29, 2016

PEGASUS MAGAZINE IS TRULY a remarkable

publication. It looks stunning, but the writing is even better than it looks. Your articles are interesting, the pictures are engaging, and the layout is wonderful.

Thank you so much for your hard work. I am truly thankful for my education at UCF. It set me on the path to an incredible career in education.

» DAVID JACOBS ’92

I WAS RECENTLY SENT A LINK TO THE ARTICLE “HELPERS AND HEALERS” (fall 2016).

It was one of the most moving pieces I have read in recent memory. The interviews elicited very honest testimonials of those individuals we rarely think about when we hear of a human tragedy such as the killings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. I’m now much more appreciative of the work done by volunteers and professionals who went well beyond what was required to help wherever they could.

Responses such as these give one hope in a time when there is so much hate and divisiveness in our nation and in the world. Human beings are capable of great violence but are also equally generous in their love and support of the victims of such violence.

Orlando and UCF should take great pride in what they did to assist these fine people to do the work that they did and still do.

» DENNIS E. ROBINSON

Dean emeritus, James Madison University

I READ THROUGH THE ARTICLE ABOUT PULSE (“Helpers and Healers”). It brought tears to my

eyes. I’m a current student at UCF, and I work at ORMC in the emergency department. I was also there that morning. It was truly a great article.

» CHRISTINE BURNS

What was your best memory of 2016? Tell us in the comments below!

59 people like this.

77 comments

Nathan Dean Trimboli Making Scrap with a team of 13 other game design students for my senior project and working toward getting it published on Steam!

December 29, 2016

Ellen Tucker My 30th year of teaching thanks to a UCF degree.

December 29, 2016

Melissa Nicole Being accepted to UCF and The Burnett Honors College.

December 29, 2016

Jenny Helmberger Figuring out that doing what I love can actually change someone’s life.

December 29, 2016

Sarah Cotler Raising $1 million with Knight-Thon!!

December 29, 2016

Lala Lu I graduated with my degree in legal studies after taking a year off to fight breast cancer in 2013.

December 29, 2016

Kyle Wolfe Soccer team winning the War On I-4.

December 29, 2016

Antonio Robelo Becoming bowl eligible December 29, 2016

Celine Marie Syc Being a peer mentor for the Lead Scholars Academy and seeing my mentees become involved and develop as leaders within the UCF community!

December 29, 2016

Joseph Fernandez Graduating in May with my master’s degree and, a couple months later, being selected for commissioning with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard! Still in shock!

January 1, 2017

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS SHAHAN

Pegasus is published

by UCF Marketing in partnership with the UCF Foundation, Inc. and UCF Alumni.

Opinions expressed in Pegasus are not necessarily those shared by the University of Central Florida.

Email:

pegasus@ucf.edu

Mail: UCF Marketing P.O. Box 160090 Orlando, FL 32816-0090

©2017 University of Central Florida. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Pegasus is a registered trademark of UCF Alumni.

COPY EDITOR Peg Martin PHOTOGRAPHERS Nick Leyva ’15 Austin Warren Bernard Wilchusky PRODUCTION MANAGER Sandy Pouliot ONLINE PRODUCER Roger Wolf ’07 WEB PROGRAMMERS Jim Barnes Keegan Berry ’12 RJ Bruneel ’97 Jo Dickson ’11 CONTRIBUTORS Bree Adamson ’04 Christopher Bobo Brian Carlson Deanna Ferrante Jay Hamburg John C. Hitt Gene Kruckemyer ’73 Josh Letchworth Dan Morrell Thomas Shahan PEGASUS ADVISORY BOARD Barb Abney ’03 Chad Binette ’06 Anne Botteri Richard Brunson ’84 Cristina Calvet-Harrold ’01 John Gill ’86 Michael Griffin ’84 Mike Hinn ’92 Gerald McGratty Jr. ’71 Michael O’Shaughnessy ’81 Dan Ward ’92

MAILBOX SUBMISSIONS Emails to the editor should be sent with the writer’s name, graduation year, address and daytime phone number to pegasus@ucf.edu.

Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. Due to volume, we regret that we cannot reply to every letter.

MOVED RECENTLY? NEED TO UPDATE YOUR INFO?

Phone: 407.882.1238 Cert no. SW-COC-002556

Update your contact information:

ucfalumni.com/contactupdates 4 | SPRING 2017

ON THE RISE Center Tacko Fall went for the slam dunk in the season opener against Mississippi State, as the Knights took home their first win with Johnny Dawkins as head coach.

CONTENTS 6 In Focus 10 The Feed 11 Spellbound 12 On Campus 14 Briefs 16 Knights’ Kingdom 18 In Good Health 19 Tackling Cancer 20 Kickin’ It New School 22 Breaking Down Debt 24 Monsters in the Closet 30 The Calm Persistence of Richard Lapchick 35 The Science of Scent 38 AlumKnights 46 Why I Give a Damn

IN FOCUS

6 | SPRING 2017

PEGASUS M AGAZ I NE

THE BRO’D TRIP It took one bad breakup for Justin Fricke ’12 to completely change his life. After his girlfriend broke up with him, Justin left his corporate job and recruited his brother Adam Fricke ’15 to join him on a cross-country road trip. Together, the two found corporate sponsors, converted an old Sprinter van into a home on wheels, and have spent the past year honing their photography and videography skills and gaining experience in social media marketing while touring all 50 states.

Although there were speed bumps along the way — including a valet mishap that almost destroyed the van — the brothers documented everything from the glaciers in Alaska to the rocky coasts of Maine on Instagram and their website, brod-trip.com.

“We’re told that we can’t more often than we can. … I was told I couldn’t take a year to visit all 50 states with my brother.

Whoever told me that was right. I did more than that.”

— Justin Fricke ’15

43,918 43,162 366 50 3 1 Miles driven

Photos taken

Days on the road

States

Canadian provinces

U.S. territory

View more photos and videos at ucf.edu/pegasus.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 7

IN FOCUS

COURTING SUCCESS

In January, the United States Tennis Association opened a new national campus in Lake Nona, Florida. This state-of-the-art complex is the new center of U.S. tennis, helping to create the next generation of tennis athletes, and the new home for UCF Tennis. Under the leadership of Director of Tennis John Roddick, the Knights will practice and compete on the facility’s clay and acrylic courts, as well as use the strength and conditioning areas, to gain a competitive advantage against their opponents.

Watch a video tour of the new complex at ucf.edu/pegasus.

8 | SPRING 2017

“It’s the most unique and best outdoor facility in the country, and it’s a great place to showcase college tennis. We’re thrilled to be the home team.”

— John Roddick, UCF director of tennis

IN FOCUS PEGASUS M AGAZ I NE

TECH SQUAD

Otronicon is the Orlando Science Center’s largest annual event that showcases innovation in electronic gaming and simulation from companies across the industry.

From the College of Sciences to the School of Visual Arts and Design, UCF had a large presence across the center in January. Highlights ranged from workshops on gaming and virtual reality led by Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy to a lecture by Professor Ryan Buyssens on his interactive sculpture, “Turbulence,” which is displayed above the main lobby and moves in response to the people beneath it.

“Otronicon is great because grandparents, parents, students and children of every age get to play our games and interact with our staff and students. It’s part demonstration and part celebration of all we do at UCF.” — Joe Muley, assistant director for academic support services at FIEA

To watch a video and learn more about Otronicon, visit ucf.edu/pegasus.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 9

The Feed Find more @

today.ucf.edu

@UCF

@University of Central Florida

Pregame Blitz Army veteran, Purple Heart recipient and current UCF defensive lineman Rory Coleman draws on his military experience to help ready the Knights for the field. bit.ly/ ucf-pregame-blitz

Sprouting Solutions A new agricultural research center, focused on fighting crop disease, opened in the fall. bit.ly/ucf-sprouting-solutions

Havana Knights UCF to offer its first study-abroad programs in Cuba. bit.ly/ucf-havana-knights

WHAT’S TRENDING ON...

UCF TODAY Work of Heart UCF students started a program that provides free health screenings for the homeless. bit.ly/work-of-heart

Charge On A UCF scientist has developed a way to turn your clothes into solar-powered batteries. bit.ly/ucf-charge-on

Goodbye, Shy How a UCF professor is using iPads to help children with social anxiety feel more comfortable in social situations. bit.ly/ucf-goodbye-shy

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

Jan 5 @UCFSCUA #TBT to 5/12/1979: Students

University of Central Florida

competing in a #concretecanoe competition prepare their boats for launch at #LakeClaire on the #UCF campus.

January 5, 2017 So this is how #UCFsquirrels came about

#TBT

Double Duty UCF launched its first interdisciplinary dual master’s degree program, in the fields of criminal justice and public administration. bit.ly/ucf-double-duty I Scream, You Scream Why we love manufactured fear — from haunted houses to scary movies. bit.ly/ucf-i-scream-you-scream

Dec 21 @ucf_marcdaniels It’s been 4 years since

@tackofall99 saw his brother in person. In the two games little bro has been to, Fall has scored 31 and 20…

1.1K

DOWNLOAD the digital edition of Pegasus at: bit.ly/ucf-pegasus

Dec 21 @UCFBusiness Accounting grad Kamila

Pervaiz received the 300,000th degree awarded from UCF during the fall graduation.

Nov 22 @UCFKnights Thanks for taking the ‘golden’ off our hands, @VegasHockeyNHL

10 | SPRING 2017

52 comments

Frank Juge I remember [provost] Les Ellis well. Such a fine man. I was privileged to have worked with him as my mentor. January 5, 2017 Christopher Shawn He’s the reason UCF squirrels are gangsta? Even though they stole my Subway cookies, just another great experience I had there. January 5, 2017

Artifact SPELLBOUND The Speak & Spell broke ground in technology.

BY BREE ADAMSON ’04

I

f you’re a parent or child of the ’80s, you’re likely familiar with the brightly colored Speak & Spell and the metallic, metronomic voice it produced. But when it debuted in 1978, few could have predicted that the hardware inside that plastic icon would forever change the landscape of technology and communication.

“We had created the first single-chip digital signal processing (DSP) device,” says Gene Frantz ’71, one of the four original designers of the Speak & Spell from Texas Instruments. The discovery of DSP allowed researchers to study signal processing

in real time with no perceived delay between the input and output of a signal. In short, they could convert information from analog to digital — and back to analog — almost instantly.

Frantz and his team’s breakthrough in DSP led to the creation of synthesized speech and contributed to advancements in digital audio, digital cameras, wired and wireless phone technology, and cloud storage. He says, “Many of the products we can no longer live without can be traced back to [DSPs in] early products, and finally back to the Speak & Spell.”

Here are a few more facts about the Speak & Spell: 1

A REAL VOICE

2

“The voice of the Speak & Spell [was] a radio disc jockey in Dallas,” Frantz says. “We would record his voice and then [put it] through an algorithm called analysis synthesis.” The result was a voice that didn’t convey much emotion, which turned out to be a benefit, Frantz says. “It never raised its voice, never got mad, never laughed at the student and never told on him or her.”

THE MECHANICS

After being converted to digital and compressed, data was placed on an integrated circuit with 128 kilobits (16 kilobytes) of memory — state of the art considering 4 kilobits was standard, but a far cry from today’s gigabyte lifestyle. Whenever the Speak & Spell chose a new word, the information was pulled from the memory and sent to the synthesizer, which recreated the sounds for the user.

3

BRIGHT AND SMART

While the cherry-red case of the Speak & Spell caught people’s eye, it was the interactive educational experience that captivated their attention. Using the rote method of learning, the toy taught users to spell words that didn’t follow traditional spelling rules. The 250-word list included “echo,” “beauty,” “courage” and “rhythm” — Frantz’s personal favorite.

4

MORE THAN A TOY

The Speak & Spell was the first device to use synthetic speech — something many other researchers and organizations, including the federal government, were trying to accomplish. When his team cracked the code, Frantz says, “We had military companies calling us asking about [synthetic speech]. They would say, ‘We feel kind of funny coming to a toy company to talk about this kind of technology.’ ”

5

COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT

Designed to resemble a book, the Speak & Spell featured a handle and was powered by batteries, not a wall adapter, so kids could carry it around easily and safely. What began with four engineers evolved into a team of hundreds, including a significant design staff. “You have to live with this collaborative result, not all of which you would have chosen,” Frantz says. “But by golly, it looks good.”

5

3 1

4 2

OCT.

12

Student Linda Solange won first place and fan favorite at Knights Got Talent for her rendition of Beyoncé’s “Listen.”

FEB.

9

As part of a recent renovation, Knights Plaza now features a large Pegasus and a shaded seating area.

JAN.

1

The Knights took on the No. 1 University of Connecticut Huskies at the CFE Arena.

FEB.

1

Students covered the sidewalks near Memory Mall with colorful self-expressions during this year’s Chalk Art Festival.

JAN.

30

BET News correspondent and CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill was the keynote speaker at the 23rd annual Joseph C. Andrews Mentoring Celebration.

FEB.

1

A student kicked off his shoes and relaxed in a hammock on Memory Mall.

FEB.

9

As part of Rent-A-Pup, students borrowed shelter dogs from Pet Rescue by Judy for an afternoon, giving the pups a chance to get out of their kennels.

OCT.

15

Kevin Louidor and Sabrina Jérôme were crowned UCF’s first black Homecoming queen and king.

Briefs RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

“Limbitless Solutions exemplifies the impact we want our students to have — to use their intellectual curiosity and the knowledge they gain here to

innovate solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. This talented group of thinkers and makers isn’t just helping children by giving them arms.

They’re also inspiring them to dream big. That’s part of our DNA at UCF.”

— Provost and Executive Vice President A. Dale Whittaker, after the UCF board of trustees voted unanimously to make Limbitless Solutions the university’s newest direct support organization, officially affiliating it with UCF

$2.4

MILLION

TO IMPROVE HOW ENGLISH IS TAUGHT TO NONNATIVE SPEAKERS 14 | SPRING 2017

The U.S. Department of Education awarded UCF a $2.4 million grant to research ways to improve how English is taught to nonnative speakers.

Partnering with Pinellas County Schools, UCF professors Florin Mihai and Kerry Purmensky will develop 10 video-based instructional modules to support teachers of elementary English learners at beginning, intermediate and advanced proficiency levels.

FUELING THE FUTURE

UCF engineering researchers were awarded more than $1.25 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to help find affordable, alternative fuels for use in high-efficiency, low-emission engines. They will also test the viability of mass-producing and delivering the alternative fuels safely, efficiently and cost effectively.

Seeking Justice

UCF chemistry professor Candice Bridge was awarded a $324,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice to develop new forensic science techniques to aid in sexual assault investigations. Along with a team of 11 students, Bridge will use tools exclusive to the FBI and government laboratories to investigate ways to identify rapists besides DNA.

24/7

PBS KIDS

WUCF has launched a new 24/7 children’s channel. The channel, 23.3, will broadcast PBS Kids shows via TV, a live-stream on pbskids.org, on the PBS Kids video app and through platforms such as Apple TV, Roku and Chromecast. The new multiplatform will help bring free, high-quality educational content during primetime and after-school hours when viewing among families is highest.

Nourishing Student-Athletes UCF received a $1 million gift from UCF Trustee Robert Garvy to fund the Garvy Center for Student-Athlete Nutrition. The center, which is slated to open by spring 2018 pending board of trustees’ approval, will serve as the nutritional headquarters for all UCF student-athletes.

10 YEARS

OF GIVING BACK

Knights Give Back, Volunteer UCF’s annual day of service, celebrated a decade of community outreach in October. Over a thousand volunteers come out every year to plant trees and shrubs, pack meals, clean tombstones, create cards for hospitalized children and recycle soap, among other services.

22,000 VOLUNTEER HOURS

$600,000

IN SERVICES TO THE COMMUNITY

REPPIN’ THE KNIGHTS Amber Mariano, a UCF political science senior, has become the youngest person ever elected to Florida’s House of Representatives.

Mariano, 21, will represent Pasco County in Tallahassee this spring, while continuing her studies at UCF.

KNIGHTS ON TOP

1

#

1

#

2

#

Full-time public jazz radio station in the nation, WUCF-FM (Nielsen Audio ratings)

Women’s flag football team in the nation for the fourth consecutive year

For student-athlete graduation success rate among public schools

#

4

Cheerleading team in the nation

#11 #16

Best Health Services in the World (The Princeton Review)

Best Online Colleges (College Choice)

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 1 5

KNIGHTS’ KINGDOM

UCF alumni chapters and clubs are a great way to stay connected to everything you love about being a Knight. From prime networking events to fun tailgating parties, rewarding volunteer opportunities and much more, the experience of being an active member in your local group can bring benefits far beyond your degree.

“With an alumni base of more than 263,000, it’s important to harness our scale and strengthen UCF’s connection to our alumni through our chapters and clubs program,” says Julie Stroh, senior associate vice president for advancement, alumni engagement and annual giving. “Our regional groups are an integral part to helping us build a culture of service and philanthropy in support of our beloved university.

Although we are in the very early stages of our international outreach, I can’t wait to see what the future has in store as we broaden UCF’s global footprint.”

DECEMBER 20, 2016

SAUDI ARABIA DISTANCE: 7,342 MILES

In December, UCF launched its first international alumni chapter in Saudi Arabia. It was established in partnership with students and scholars from the region.

CHAPTER

DENVER denver@ucfalumni.com

HOW CAN I GET NOTIFIED ABOUT EVENTS IN MY CITY?

Be sure to update your information at ucfalumni.com/contactupdates. As long as we have your correct ZIP code and email address, you’ll receive regular updates about networking and social events in your area.

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

Sign up to volunteer or nominate a friend to help you lead an alumni chapter or club at ucfalumni.com/nominationform.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CHAPTER AND A CLUB? Chapters designate the largest, most active alumni groups, while clubs are for active networks in the process of growing and becoming chapters.

HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS?

Contact us at knightsaroundthenation@ucfalumni.com.

16 | SPRING 2017

DISTANCE: 1,856 MILES 509

CHAPTER

CHICAGO chicago@ucfalumni.com DISTANCE: 1,168 MILES 548

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CLUBS ARIZONA

FLORIDA

Tallahassee

Phoenix

Jacksonville

phoenix@ucfalumni.com

jacksonville@ucfalumni.com

Volusia/Flagler County

OHIO

tallahassee@ucfalumni.com

Cincinnati

volusiaflagler@ucfalumni.com

knightsaroundthenation@ucfalumni.com

MARYLAND

OREGON

Baltimore

Portland

Lake County

CALIFORNIA

knightsaroundthenation@ucfalumni.com

Ocala

Los Angeles losangeles@ucfalumni.com

San Diego sandiego@ucfalumni.com

San Francisco sanfrancisco@ucfalumni.com

ocala@ucfalumni.com

knightsaroundthenation@ucfalumni.com

portland@ucfalumni.com

MASSACHUSETTS

PENNSYLVANIA

knightsaroundthenation@ucfalumni.com

Boston

Sarasota

boston@ucfalumni.com

Philadelphia

Osceola County knightsaroundthenation@ucfalumni.com

Panhandle

CONNECTICUT

sarasota@ucfalumni.com

Statewide

seminolecounty@ucfalumni.com

knightsaroundthenation@ucfalumni.com

Southwest Florida

Seminole County

swfl@ucfalumni.com

philadelphia@ucfalumni.com

NORTH CAROLINA

TEXAS

Charlotte

Austin

charlotte@ucfalumni.com

austin@ucfalumni.com

Dallas/Ft. Worth dallasftworth@ucfalumni.com

Houston houston@ucfalumni.com CHAPTER

WASHINGTON, D.C. washingtondc@ucfalumni.com DISTANCE: 846 MILES 1K CHAPTER CHAPTER

ATLANTA atlanta@ucfalumni.com DISTANCE: 452 MILES

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NEW YORK

SPACE COAST, FL

newyork@ucfalumni.com

spacecoast@ucfalumni.com

DISTANCE: 1,070 MILES

DISTANCE: 37 MILES

781

951

671

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PALM BEACH, FL palmbeach@ucfalumni.com DISTANCE: 167 MILES 1.1K

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SE FLORIDA

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sefl@ucfalumni.com

tampabay@ucfalumni.com

DISTANCE: 208 MILES

DISTANCE: 99 MILES

1.7K

1.2K

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IN HEALTH Good

It’s been 11 years since the Florida Legislature and then-Gov. Jeb Bush approved UCF’s new medical school. As the university prepares to expand our medical offerings to include a teaching hospital, we look at 10 numbers that set the College of Medicine apart from similar programs in the nation.

The amount the 41 members of the school’s charter class, which matriculated in August 2009, had to pay in tuition. Each student received a four-year scholarship, making UCF the first medical school in U.S. history to provide full scholarships to an entire class.

$0

The acceptance rate for this year’s class, making the College of Medicine one of the most selective programs in the nation with rates comparable to Harvard and UVA.

Physicians who have graduated from the program and are working in health care facilities across the nation, including Florida Hospital, Georgetown, Harvard, Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Johns Hopkins, Orlando Health, Stanford, UCLA, UF and USF.

2.4%

263

New residencies to be created in Florida by 2020, thanks to a partnership with Hospital Corporation of America.

Percentage of the college’s Health Sciences Library that is digital, allowing students and faculty to access learning materials 24/7 on any device.

Students looking for a more customized approach can turn to their personal librarian — every student is assigned one for research and analytic support and data collection.

550+

98%

Physicians in training at the College of Medicine. In fall 2016, the school reached full enrollment.

479

3,071*

98.9%

Undergraduate and graduate students in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. The College of Medicine is one of the only medical schools in the nation that includes undergraduate students. As part of the program, they conduct research on diseases that plague humanity. *As of January 2017

UCF’s 2016 residency match rate, which is higher than the national rate of 96.2 percent.

2

Years of research required to investigate and solve patient problems, which is not common among M.D. programs. As a result, many medical students present and publish research at local, regional and national events before graduating.

253

The Class of 2016’s average on the clinical knowledge portion of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. The national average was 240.

Every year, Dean Deborah German asks all first-year students what traits they would want in a physician if the person they love most became ill and needed treatment. The responses are written on a chalkboard and displayed the rest of the year as a contract the students make for how they will care for others.

Speed does not always equal quality, but for us, the two go hand in hand. M.D. enrollment has jumped from 41 to 479 students in just seven years. Our students are scoring in the top quartile and above nationally in all measurements. We are gaining a national and worldwide reputation for innovation and academic excellence. The best part is we are just getting started.”

— Deborah German, vice president for medical affairs and founding dean of the College of Medicine

18 | SPRING 2017

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TACKLING CANCER How the Cure Bowl is fueling groundbreaking cancer research at UCF.

BY CHRISTOPHER BOBO Annette Khaled, head of UCF’s College of Medicine Cancer Research Division, is a member of one of four teams whose research is funded from proceeds of the AutoNation Cure Bowl. Thanks to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and AutoNation, they will continue to receive funding every year as long as they continue to produce results.

This December, the Knights may have fallen to the Arkansas State Red Wolves at the Cure Bowl, but it was still a win for UCF. Khaled’s team received $250,000, for a total of approximately $645,000 since 2015, toward their breast cancer research, allowing them to advance to the next stage of development.

Their first generation of treatment relies on a small peptide encapsulated in a nanoparticle. This particle is capable of going after the primary tumor, but is helpless to deal with any cancer that’s spread elsewhere.

“The nanoparticles that we use have to be recharacterized, restructured, retargeted to reach these tissues,” Khaled says. “But a small molecule doesn’t. A small molecule will actually go everywhere in the body. So what we want to do with the funding … is make that next generation of therapeutics that will hopefully have the versatility.”

A key component in their new plan is the research being conducted by scientist Alicja Copik.

Copik’s work focuses on white blood cells called natural killer cells. She likens them to the body’s front-line defense. These warriors stop cancers and other viruses before they make us sick, unlike T-cells, which attack a specific target.

Since the discovery of NK cells, they’ve been difficult to cultivate in a lab. However, research over the past decade has made NK cells easier to work with, providing a better understanding of their role.

NK cells “orchestrate the [other cells], meaning they kind of give the directions to other, more specialized troops to tell them, ‘I think something bad is happening

The combined treatments could be the key one-two punch to attack the initial tumor and any cancer that’s spread to other parts of the body. here, we need a more direct immune system response,’ ” Copik says.

Using nanoparticles to signal reproduction, Copik’s research has been able to increase the number of NK cells in a person’s body ten-thousandfold, significantly boosting the body’s natural defense system response from a few soldiers to a battalion.

Though barriers still exist, there’s a chance for this cancer treatment to one day replace current methods.

“There are so many treatments out there that will regress the tumor size,” Khaled says. “We have many chemotherapeutics that will eliminate the tumor, but there’s nothing really out there to keep the tumor from coming back.”

“And usually when the tumor comes back,” Copik adds, “it is already resistant to everything that you had, meaning you have nothing else to give to the patients to treat them.”

The combined treatments could be the key one-two punch to attack the initial tumor and any cancer that’s spread to other parts of the body. Copik’s work on NK cells is currently planned for clinical trials by the end of 2017 for patients with leukemia.

Other research on NK cells has shown them to be a key part in the body’s fight against HIV, Ebola and influenza. This could suggest other applications for the treatment as an injection.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 1 9

BY DEANNA FERRANTE

I

t’s Monday morning in a small classroom in Orlando, and a teacher is trying to start the day’s lesson. Maria, sitting in the back, won’t raise her hand — she’s too shy to speak. Sean, an energetic redhead who won’t stop talking, is monopolizing the class discussion. Cindy pulls out her cellphone to answer a text from her boyfriend and refuses to put it away. The teacher panics, unable to gain control, and suddenly says, “Stop classroom.” The children freeze, and the teacher turns away to gather her thoughts.

This is no ordinary schoolroom. This is TLE TeachLivE, a mixed-reality classroom simulator with avatars.

Back in 2005, Lisa Dieker and Michael Hynes, both now Pegasus Professors in the College of Education and Human Performance, had an idea that seemed far-fetched at the time: Could teachers improve their performance — like soldiers or pilots — through simulation?

They took their question to Charles Hughes, Pegasus Professor of computer

which a simulated classroom is projected.

A motion-capture device and camera read the teacher’s movements. On the other end, an interactor controls the student avatars in the classroom, speaking through a microphone and using head-mounted and handheld controllers programmed to respond to certain movements.

Each avatar has his or her own personality, portrayed through a mixture of human control and specific programming, says Hughes. “We do a blend of what’s called ‘agency,’ which is programmed control, and ‘puppetry,’ which is human control,” he says.

“This provides a paradigm that scales very well because one human, properly trained, can control six characters.”

TLE started with five middle school-aged avatars: Maria, Sean, Cindy, Ed and Kevin.

Then, high school-aged versions of the same characters were created. More recently, adult avatars to simulate other teachers, counselors or parents were added. Teachers, administrators and even students use the

“We don’t give a pilot the whole plane — the passengers, the food carts, the restrooms, the locked door, the announcements, the speakers,” she says. “We give them a dashboard, and we say, ‘You’re working on landing the plane. Here are your wings.

Here’s the landing gear. Practice.’ ” This, Dieker says, is not a system designed to completely replace practice in real classrooms. It’s simply a way for teachers to improve in a specific area.

“It’s meant for you to come in and practice a skill you’re missing,” she says. “So if you’re having a crash landing in teaching fractions, come and practice here. … Our avatars are patient.”

That’s the beauty of this type of system, Hynes says. Educators can use it without having to worry about the impact on real students. “If you don’t do well, there are no consequences because the avatars just forget and you can start over again,” he says. “But if you did that in the classroom, the kids don’t forget.”

Kickin’ It New School

A cutting-edge simulator at UCF is helping educators become better teachers. science. And from there, the three, along with an interdisciplinary team, created a system that’s changing how teachers are trained.

It was difficult in the beginning. The technology was expensive and not many people jumped at the idea of interacting with characters on a screen.

But in 2012, the TLE team received a $1.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to study the effects that occur when teachers use the system.

The research found that after only four 10-minute sessions, the simulator bettered teachers’ targeted behaviors and transferred the improvements back to their classrooms.

The funding also allowed the team to create partnerships with educators around the world, including Australia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Now, TLE is the leading lab in the U.S. using a mixed-reality environment to prepare and retrain future and current teachers.

The patented system works from two ends. On one end, a teacher views a screen on

20 | SPRING 2017

system to address a variety of scenarios that crop up in classrooms daily.

The team’s newest ventures include creating avatars that represent students with disabilities and designing an entirely new classroom with kindergarten-aged avatars.

Jacqueline Rodriguez ’13PhD, now an assistant professor at the College of William & Mary, was a co-director and principal investigator of the TLE program in its early stages. She says that after teaching in diverse schools in Washington, D.C., she was skeptical that the system could provide authentic experiences for teachers addressing the complicated needs of many students. But that changed when she started to use it.

“I’ve seen the lab provide vital experiences for new and established educators,” Rodriguez says. “You learn how to confidently provide instruction, gracefully react to students’ needs and be considerate of different personalities.”

Dieker, who holds the Lockheed Martin Eminent Scholar Chair, compares the system to pilots who use a flight simulator.

In 2015, the research team entered a public-private partnership with Mursion, a California-based organization that licensed the commercial rights from UCF to develop further and deliver the simulator technology.

With this partnership, the technology has been implemented in more than 80 colleges of education and in a small number of school districts across the country, including Seminole County Public Schools.

But the technology is also being used outside the classroom: to help children with autism develop communication skills, to help hotel clerks develop better customer service skills, to train students looking to become nurses and physicians, and to prepare college students for job interviews. It’s even being adapted by the UCF Police Department to train officers in de-escalation tactics.

No matter the application, Hughes says, there is only one goal for the technology they developed: to help people. “That’s what we want to do … to help people reach their potential, whether it’s a first responder … a nurse, a physician or a teacher,” he says.

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Each avatar has his or her own personality, portrayed through a mixture of human control and specific programming.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 2 1

DEBT IN CONTEXT

BREAKING DOWN DEBT

Where average debt is concerned, the type of undergraduate institution matters.

$21,824

UCF1

$23,379

F LORI DA 3

$25,500

PUBLIC2

$32,300

P RI VAT E NONP ROF I T 2

he story of student debt has grabbed national headlines, but most news reports don’t tell the whole story. Compared to the average debt incurred by students of for-profit institutions, most UCF graduates face a far brighter future thanks to the university’s strong educational value and programs focused on fiscal responsibility and financial freedom.

$39,950

FOR- P ROF I T 2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

THOUSA N DS OF DOLLA R S

2012 data for for-profit, private and public universities, 2014–15 data for Florida, and 2016 for UCF Sources: 1 UCF Office of Student Financial Assistance, 2016; 2 “Quick Facts About Student Debt,” The Institute for College Access & Success, 2014; “Student Debt and the Class of 2015,” The Institute for College Access & Success, 2016

3

BORROWING TRENDS BRIGHTER FUTURES The percentage of undergraduates receiving student loans varies greatly between for-profit, private nonprofit and public institutions, such as UCF.

Nearly half of UCF undergraduates carry no debt when they graduate.

P R I VA T E N O NP R O

FI

Private Nonprofit

1

T

For-Profit Public

25

100 PU

BL

1

IC

% UN

1

AL ON

N AT I Sources: “National Postsecondary Student Aid Study,” U.S. Department of Education, 1991, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013

22 | SPRING 2017

’11–’12

’07–’08

’03–’04

’99–’00

’92–’93

’89–’90

0

O

FI

T1

12%

A2

29

%

RID

20

FO

R-

T R A L F LO

of UCF graduates have no student loan debt

CEN

44

%

OF

PERCE N T (% )

%

TY

40

E

SI

34

60

IV

R

80

PR

2012 data for national, for-profit, private and public universities, 2014–15 data for UCF Sources: 1 “Quick Facts About Student Debt,” The Institute for College Access & Success, 2014; 2 UCF Institutional Knowledge Management, 2016

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RELATIVE CONSEQUENCES Student loan default rates also correlate to the type of institution.

15

The Centsible Knights financial literacy program was created to help students make better decisions about money. UCF’s Office of Student Financial Assistance offers a wide variety of training and tools.

12 9

Healthy Spending UCF2

FLO RIDA 2

0

PU B LIC 1

3

PRIVATE N O N PRO FIT 1

TO P I C S I N C LU D E :

6

FO R- PRO FIT 1

PERCEN T ( % )

TEACHING RESPONSIBLE BORROWING

2012–13 cohort data for for-profit, private and public universities, 2012–15 preliminary data for State University System of Florida and UCF

Student Loan Management

Protecting Your Credit

Sources: 1 U.S. Department of Education, 2016; 2 Florida Board of Governors System Survey of University Work Plans, 2016 (Preliminary data)

Planning Investments

A CLEAR COMPARISON For UCF graduates who do incur debt, the amount borrowed is collectively lower than national averages.

Saving for Your Future

Understanding Your Earnings

My experience, the faculty and people who have helped me — it’s been invaluable.”

— Bryce Nelson, a first-generation UCF marketing student who used Student Financial Assistance counseling, financial aid and work-study opportunities to earn an education with minimal debt.

AVERAGE DEBT UCF (2015–16)1

Public (2011–12)2

$1 – $19,999 29% 26%

$20,000 – $29,999 14% 17%

$30,000 – $49,999 11% 16%

$50,000+ 2%

Sources: 1 UCF Institutional Knowledge Management, 2016 2 Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, 2015

Responsible borrowing allows students, who might not otherwise be able to pay for their education, to invest in their future. So we teach our students to borrow smart.”

— A. Dale Whittaker, provost and executive vice president

5%

74%

of UCF graduates who responded to a recent survey are working full time, which is linked to higher productivity and well-being.

To learn more, visit

finaid.ucf.edu/financial-literacy.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 2 3

Stag beetles use their furry, orange tongues to drink fruit juice, tree sap and water — their only sustenance. And while the males appear more threatening with their large, antlerlike mandibles, the smaller-jawed females, like the one shown here, are the ones to watch for. Their bite is more painful for humans.

UCF’s Bug Closet holds more than half a million specimens and countless tales of stranger-than-fiction beetles, butterflies and wasps that help weave our wondrous environmental web.

MONSTERS T

IN THE CLOSET

BY JAY HAMBURG

ucked in a corner on the first floor of the Biology Building, with hardly a sign to mark its location, sits a top-notch

research facility that houses one of the nation’s leading insect collections — a place renowned for identifying new species that creep, crawl and fly.

The University of Central Florida Collection

of Arthropods, known more commonly as the Bug Closet, holds more than 560,000 insects, each one carefully labeled and stored in one of 1,030 drawers.

It’s easy to stroll past this modest facility, which has more insect specimens than neighboring Seminole County has people. But inside its walls is a place that reminds us that up to one of five animals in the world is a beetle and that around the world insects are used for jewelry, studied for possible cancer-fighting properties and act as muses for pop culture phenomena such as Spider-Man and Pokémon.

“INSECTS ARE THE MOST DIVERSE AND ABUNDANT ANIMALS ON EARTH, AND THE IMPACT INSECTS HAVE ON HUMANS IS IMMEASURABLE.” — BARBARA SHARANOWKSI

“Insects are the most diverse and abundant animals on Earth, and the impact insects have on humans is immeasurable,” says director Barbara Sharanowski.

“Some are major pests, causing immense destruction to crops or numerous deaths by vectoring disease. Others are extremely beneficial and valuable by pollinating plants, controlling pests or contributing to soil fertility and ecosystem health.

The Bug Closet preserves a historical and evolutionary record of the numerous insects that surround us, including native species and exotics that invade our ecosystems.”

Respected in the scientific world for its reputation and collection size, the Bug Closet also serves as a lending library for scientists.

Its electronic database, one of the largest in the world, includes information about where and when each insect was found, and its mounted specimens have been lent to researchers as far away as Colombia, Brazil and Italy. As a result, more than 30 significant research articles have been published using the UCF collection since 2011.

With increasing inquiries from international researchers and students, Sharanowski wants to help the tiny museum spread its environmental message to a wider audience by increasing its space. She also wants to grow the collection with specimens from other countries as well as discuss how

MEET THE BUGS 26 | SPRING 2017

the public can more easily discover the knowledge gathered during more than 20 years of work.

“We want to get kids outside and interested in the plant, animal and insect life around them,” Sharanowski says. “We want to facilitate passion in biology.”

Sharanowski recognizes the mystery of insects — how there is so much diversity in the insect world; how thousands of species still wait to be discovered. They’re everywhere.

Tiny Bugs Create Huge Collection The Bug Closet is staffed mostly by students, like biology major and outreach coordinator Erin Barbeau. Like the other students who work there, she loves bugs, referring to even the creepiest among them as “cute.”

And if you let her, Barbeau will convince you of the importance of nearly every insect in the collection, including fireflies that lure similar species to their doom, dragonflies that breathe through their butts, and parasitic wasps with life cycles that inspired the monster in Alien. Just like the alien in the sci-fi thriller, the tiny wasps lay their eggs in other insect species, and when the larvae hatch, they consume their host from the inside out.

But not every bug has a backstory, and entomologists don’t always know the role

In a rare display of parental devotion in the insect world, the adults of bess beetle family groups remain with their young ones, protecting them until they are strong enough to strike out on their own. Although researchers have tried to replicate every condition found in the wild, none has been able to sustain an ongoing colony of these familyoriented beetles in the lab. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing, as mites are commonly found hitching a ride atop certain species, like the horned passalus (seen here).

Bess Beetle Order: Coleoptera Family: Passalidae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 61

each plays in the ecosystem. That’s the ambition of the Bug Closet, and the people who work there take pride in recording the locations and ecosystems where the insects were found. This data helps explain why a bug barely visible to the naked eye might hold a vital spot in the chain of life.

Biologists point out that we would never know what impact an insect might have on the evolutionary chain if it’s never discovered. Tiny parasitic wasps, for example, don’t sting or harass humans, but in many cases, they control insects by devouring the bugs that might otherwise devour your plants and garden.

“There are a lot of insects out there that we didn’t know existed,” Barbeau says.

“And you can’t protect what you don’t know is out there.”

Each discovery of a new species helps scientists understand more about the ecosystem’s complex connections between insects, plants and animals. “The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know,” says collection manager Shawn Kelly ’12, who identified one of the 23 new species discovered at the Bug Closet.

The late Stuart Fullerton, a research associate at UCF who led a group of students with a similar passion for collecting and studying insects, began the collection in 1990. Three years later, they secured a place for their collection in what was hardly more than a large closet. But Fullerton’s love of insects kept the collection growing.

Over the years, the Bug Closet has earned its wings among researchers around the world, who often send in specimens to be identified or ask to borrow UCF specimens to study. In addition, a steady procession of master gardeners, artists, small school groups and families with budding entomologists also schedule tours of the collection.

“THERE ARE A LOT OF INSECTS OUT THERE THAT WE DIDN’T KNOW EXISTED, AND YOU CAN’T PROTECT WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW IS OUT THERE.” — ERIN BARBEAU This lending library of bugs is bursting with stories of fairy wasps that swim through the air, antlions with an insatiable appetite for other bugs, giant silk moths that never eat as adults and parasitic wasps so small that they are nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. The majority of these insects live in Florida.

“It’s stranger than fiction,” Kelly says.

Collection manager Shawn Kelly ’12 inspects a tray of dobsonflies and fishflies in one of the 1,030 drawers found in the Bug Closet.

While the larvae of both insects, which are part of the Corydalidae family, are aquatic predators that use their strong, sharp mandibles to hunt prey, the mature insects are practically vegans, surviving only on nectar and fruit juice — if anything at all.

Atala Butterfly Order: Lepidoptera Family: Lycaenidae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 1 Once considered the most conspicuous insect in South Florida, the Atala butterfly was thought to be extinct in the 1950s. Their disappearance was tied to an overharvesting of the coontie plant, on which the Florida native butterflies lay their eggs and caterpillars munch. Thanks to scientists who collected and

preserved specimens, we knew what they looked like and where they once lived — among the pine rockland habitat in southeast Florida. In 1979, a local naturalist discovered an Atala butterfly colony off the coast of Miami. Today, the coontie is a popular plant for landscaping, and it’s believed that every Atala colony currently alive originated from that single colony found only 38 years ago.

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 2 7

MEET THE BUGS

American Cockroach

Lubber Grasshopper Order: Orthoptera Subfamily: Romaleinae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 40 Lubbers emit a foul odor and secrete toxins that will poison predators. However, loggerhead shrikes have figured out how to turn them into dried delectable delicacies. The birds capture the grasshoppers and impale them on thorns or barbed wire. They let nature do the rest, waiting for the dead insects to detoxify while they decay and dry out.

We may tell tourists that all roaches are palmetto bugs. But if they are in the house and snacking on crumbs, they are more likely to be American cockroaches and a sign that things may not be as clean as they should be. The true palmetto bug generally prefers the outdoors, where they often live in the branches of palmetto trees. When alarmed, the insect puts off a stench to ward off predators and signal nearby palmetto bugs to scatter.

Dragonfly Nymph Order: Odonata Suborder: Anisoptera Specimens in the Bug Closet: 120 Why do these insects breathe through their butts? Short answer: Because that’s where their gills are located when they are hatched underwater.

And when the young insects expel water out of their rear gills, it propels them forward.

Leaf-cutter Bee Order: Hymenoptera Family: Megachilidae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 1,677 The female leaf-cutter bee is both a queen and worker bee. This gentle bee gathers pollen, lays eggs and cuts holes in leaves for her nest.

(You can tell if one’s nearby by the small, almost perfectly round pieces that are missing from leaves.) And unlike her cousin the honeybee, which wets the pollen so it sticks to its legs as it travels from flower to flower, the leaf-cutter bee carries dry pollen on the underside of her hairy abdomen, resulting in significantly more pollinated flowers.

NAME A BUG

Looking for a unique gift idea? By donating to the Bug Closet, you can have the chance to name a new species after yourself or someone else. To learn more about naming options or to donate specimens, equipment or money to keep the Bug Closet flourishing, visit sciences.ucf.edu/biology/bugcloset/giving.

PHOTO BY RYAN RIDENBAUGH

PHOTO BY SHAWN KELLY ’12

Palmetto Bug Order: Blattodea Family: Blattidae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 21

Fairy Wasp Order: Hymenoptera Family: Mymaridae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 6,952

Firefly Order: Coleoptera Family: Lampyridae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 887

Nearly too small to see and too light to create the air resistance needed to fly, the tiny fairy wasp doesn’t even have normal wings. Instead, it swims along the air currents, using oarlike wings to control its movement.

If you’ve spent any time outside in Florida, a good many fairy wasps have floated by you, silent and small.

This female firefly mimics the flashing patterns or mating calls that attract male fireflies of other species. The males accept the flashy invite and arrive only to find they have been invited to dinner — at which they will be the main course.

Robber Fly Order: Diptera Family: Asilidae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 67

Antlion Order: Neuroptera Family: Myrmeleontidae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 306

A type of robber fly, the Bee Killer has a well-earned nickname. It kills its prey, often bees, by stabbing them with its sharp snout and then injecting its victims with a substance that paralyzes them and liquefies their insides before sucking out the remains for sustenance.

The antlion buries into the sand, creating a small pit to trap other insects, especially ants that become snacks to feed its voracious appetite. While the antlion sounds fierce, its other nickname, the doodlebug, comes from the curlicue trail it leaves behind.

The Bug Closet has identified 23 new species of insects, including 13 found on the UCF campus.

The hawk moth rubs its genitals together to produce noises that interfere with the sonar signals used by bats to locate their insect prey.

These include 18 hymenopterans (bees, wasps and ants), four coleopterans (beetles) and one dipteran (fly).

THE INSECTS DISCOVERED AT UCF ARE: Bakeriella mira Evans – parasitic wasp Calosota albipalpus Gibson – parasitic wasp Dryinus fullertoni Olmi – parasitic wasp

Lasioglossum batya Gibbs – sweat bee

Synopeas russelli MacGown – parasitic wasp

Entomacis cellaria Yoder – parasitic wasp

Lepidosternopsis irradiata Lanes and Azevedo – parasitic wasp

Zaischnopsis bouceki Gibson – parasitic wasp

Epsilogaster fullertoni Pitz – parasitic wasp

Pachybrachis archboldi Barney – case-bearing leaf beetle

Enaphalodes archboldi Lingafelter and Chemsak – long-horned oak borer

Zaischnopsis coenotea Gibson – parasitic wasp Zaischnopsis phalaros Gibson – parasitic wasp

1 mm

1 cm

1 mm

1 mm

Bakeriella mira

Enaphalodes archboldi

Entomacis cellaria

Zaischnopsis bouceki

PHOTOS BY DEREK WOLLER

Hawk Moth Order: Lepidoptera Family: Sphingidae Specimens in the Bug Closet: 120

An eminent scholar, endowed professor and director of the DeVos Sport Business Management program at UCF, Richard Lapchick believes in the power of sport to bring people together.

30 | SPRING 2017

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From basketball camp to the world stage, Lapchick has dedicated his life to addressing racial inequality in sports and society.

BY LAURA J. COLE

The first time Richard Lapchick heard the N-word he was 5.

Some men had called his home, shouting racial epithets at his father, calling him an N-word lover. The 5-year-old didn’t know what that meant, the N-word, but he could hear the fury, the rage in the men’s voices, and he didn’t want his father to be something bad, something that made people hate him.

But those men did hate Joe Lapchick — all because his father, head coach of the New York Knickerbockers, had signed Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the first African American signed to the NBA. Young Lapchick didn’t know that the men on the other end of the receiver were referring to Clifton when they used the N-word. He knew Clifton, as he knew Carl Braun and Harry Gallatin and Vince Boryla and the other stars on the team. He watched Clifton play on the courts of the old Madison Square Garden. He saw him treated as one of the guys in the locker room after games. Nothing about Clifton playing with the Knicks should make people angry, he thought, unless you were rooting for the other team.

But this was 1950 in America, only three years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color line and played first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was four years before

the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to force little black boys and girls to attend different schools than little white boys and girls, and nearly a decade before the civil rights movement gained momentum.

Segregation was the norm in schools and dining facilities and buses — and also basketball courts.

Young Lapchick was confused.

“I saw how many people came together to try to stop my father and how many disliked him for signing the first black player in the NBA,” Lapchick says. “I didn’t know what it meant at the time.”

How could the man he knew to be so kind and generous incite so much hatred? Later, when he understood what those calls were about, his “feelings of alienation from the racist segment of American society began to grow. [I learned] my father was hated because he loved.”

“Born just before the Jackie Robinson era, I was so oblivious to the reality of inequality in sports that I was unconscious even of my own father’s role as a quiet pioneer in bringing about racial change in American basketball,” wrote Lapchick in Smashing Barriers, one of 16 books he’s authored.

“America,” he continues, “has made many

promises to its people that it has not fulfilled.

The promise of racial equality in sports is one that has been broken time and time again.”

Addressing racial inequality, both in sports and in society, is the cause to which Lapchick has devoted his life. He has spent more than five decades fighting for human rights and equality in sports, garnering him recognition as “the racial conscience of sport.”

He has received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Work in Civil Rights, won the Arthur Ashe Voice of Conscience Award, and been named among The Beyond Sports Inspirational 50, which recognizes people who have used sports to change the world.

He has also earned the respect and friendship of many who have fought to make sports and society more equal, such as three-time world champion boxer Muhammad Ali and South African President Nelson Mandela.

“For all that sports are and claim to be — entertaining, brawny, commercial, tough, competitive, fulfilling — they are still a catalyst for human interaction,” Ali wrote in the foreword to Smashing Barriers.

“Richard Lapchick, in chronicling his personal experiences within the sports world, has provided us with a rich and hopeful vision for the new millennium.”

U C F. E D U / P E G A S U S | 3 1

Lapchick and Alcindor shared the basketball courts and a room, but they weren’t particularly close. They were friendly but not yet friends.

“It was the first time I had lived with someone who was black,” Lapchick wrote. And he could see that Alcindor was having a difficult time.

As a result of the confrontation, the camper punched Lapchick, knocking him out cold.

Lapchick was down but not out. He had gained the admiration and lifelong friendship of Alcindor, who would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The two both fought against racism and other social injustices, including apartheid in South Africa. And last year, Lapchick sat front row at the White House when President Obama presented his friend with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In November, Lapchick (3rd from right) was the guest of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when President Barack Obama presented him with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

His commitment to equality earned him an invitation from Pope Francis to the Vatican to discuss with other leaders the ways faith and sport can better serve humanity. He serves as president of the National Consortium for Academics and Sports, and in 2001 he founded the DeVos Sport Management program at UCF. An emphasis on diversity, service, leadership and ethics drives the

“Many think of sports as being a sanctuary which racism cannot penetrate, but [sports] often reflect what is going on in society.” program that has been named one of the nation’s top five by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and ESPN The Magazine.

And while many strides have been made in addressing racial inequality

32 | SPRING 2017

“You don’t get very far if you can’t acknowledge your own weaknesses and inefficiencies.”

This is President John C. Hitt’s response today when asked about the time in 2005 when UCF played in its first bowl game. It’s a bold confession but not an easy one. That year, Lapchick publicly released the studentathlete Graduation Success Rate and Academic Progress Rate for the bowl-eligible teams, a report he compiles every year through The

since 1950, when strangers made threats against his father, hanging his effigy in their front yard in Yonkers, New York, Lapchick knows things are still far from equal.

“Many think of sports as being a sanctuary which racism cannot penetrate, but [sports] often reflect what is going on in society,” he wrote earlier this year on ESPN.com. “There seems to be a broad agreement that acts of racism in the United States are increasing at an alarming rate. The same was true in sport in 2016, [when] such acts tripled from 11 in 2015 to 31 in 2016. … There were 104 reported incidents of racism in sports internationally in 2016.”

By the time he was 15, Lapchick had heard the N-word said so often to a teammate that he could no longer be silent.

It was the summer of 1961 at Friendship Farm, a basketball camp in Saugerties, New York. One of the campers, Lew Alcindor, was a tall, shy and promising ball player. He was also the only black player at the camp. And as his talent became increasingly apparent on the court, so did the frequency with which one of the white campers called him the N-word. Maybe the camper was jealous or trying to get inside Alcindor’s head. Either way, Lapchick grew fed up and told him to stop. Enough was enough.

Lapchick’s father, Joe Lapchick (left), dedicated his life to basketball.

He played for the Original Celtics and the Cleveland Rosenblums, leading the latter to successive championships, and coached for St. John’s University and the New York Knickerbockers.

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Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at UCF. The Knights had the worst GSR and next-to-worst APR score of all 56 teams competing that year.

Lapchick knew those numbers would not reflect well on UCF, and he received calls from colleagues asking why he released them. But he’s released these reports every year since 2002. And he continues to generate them every year for college football, as well as men’s and women’s basketball, to hold teams accountable, to ensure the emphasis is as much on academics as it is on athletics.

Increasing Lapchick’s admiration, Hitt thanked him. “Hitt shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you for holding our feet to the fire. We are going to get better as a result,’ ” Lapchick recalls in an article on ESPN.com.

“I was very sincere in my comment to Rich, that I appreciated his calling [those results] to our attention,” Hitt says. “That’s where we were. We were doing better with regard to our on-the-field and on-the-court performance, but we really hadn’t made the investment that it’s taken to be successful academically. We are today, by any measure, successful in those areas.”

Hitt is rightfully proud. When the Knights played in the Cure Bowl this year, UCF athletics ranked No. 1 in the nation among Football Bowl Subdivision public institutions for overall GSR and No. 6 for APR. Success stories like the one at UCF are the reason Lapchick does these reports and relies so heavily on stats and figures.

“Not only did [UCF] become a competitive football team during that era, but we went from the worst to [where we are today],” Lapchick says. “That same approach can apply to violence in society, child abuse, drug abuse. All of the things that I talk about, they’re addressable. With the will and the leadership, you can make change.”

In the late 1970s, Lapchick began working for the United Nations. While organizing a protest together, Kofi Annan (middle), then a staff member, asked if Lapchick could get Muhammad Ali (left) to speak to the General Assembly. That began more than 35 years of friendship between Ali and Lapchick.

In 1978, at the age of 32, Lapchick would learn that progress does not come without pain.

At about 10:45 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, he was attacked in his office on the Virginia Wesleyan College campus.

He was working later than usual, when two men — tall, muscular, masked and white — entered his office and shoved a thick winter glove in his mouth. Using a steel sculpture from Lapchick’s office, they hit him repeatedly while calling him an N-word lover, the

In the 1970s, Lapchick fought against apartheid by leading the boycott of South Africa’s participation in international sporting events. His activism earned him an invitation from Nelson Mandela (left) to his presidential inauguration in 1994.

same epithet used against his father almost 30 years earlier. Lapchick passed out from the pain. When he woke up, the men were kneeling over him, cutting his stomach with office scissors.

“You know you have no business in South Africa,” one of the men said, before a noise outside of the office caused the men to leave quickly.

Lapchick was leading the boycott of South African participation in international sporting events. As the national chairperson for the American Coordinating Committee for Equality in Sport and Society, he had been “campaigning to end all sports contacts between the U.S. and South Africa, as long as sport and society [in South Africa] were segregated.” At the time of the attack, Lapchick was focused on stopping South Africa from competing during the Davis Cup tennis match, which was scheduled to take place that year at Vanderbilt University.

This was not the first time Lapchick had received threats for his work, but it was the only time he was attacked for it. The local police and some newspapers questioned his account of the events, whether it was unknown assailants or Lapchick himself trying to get publicity. He was forced to complete a lie detector test, which affirmed his account, as did a New York medical examiner.

There was also the physical evidence on his body: He was left with a concussion, kidney and minor liver damage, a hernia and the N-word, misspelled with only one G, etched across his belly.

In the hospital, as he recovered, he wondered whether he should keep fighting against racism, against apartheid, whether it was all worth it. From his bed, he overheard three African American nurses talking and one said, “I didn’t think white people

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cared.” For Lapchick, that was just the encouragement he needed.

“I knew then that I had to keep doing what I was doing because I knew a lot of white people who cared,” he says. “I was just placed in a historical set of circumstances that made me a focus of attention.”

Though many financial backers backed out of the event and protestors outnumbered attendees, ultimately, the U.S. would compete against South Africa that year. The next year, however, South Africa was excluded from the Davis Cup and not allowed to compete again until 1992.

“You have the power to bring change, to give hope,” Lapchick writes. “It is never too late.”

“Richard is really one of my heroes because he doesn’t give up, because he doesn’t have to be the loudest voice in the room, he just has to be in the room,” says his friend and fellow human rights advocate Caryl Stern, who is also the president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. “He understands that the loudest voice might get heard first, but the loudest voice isn’t necessarily the one that’s going to change the world.”

But Lapchick makes sure his voice is heard — through the more than 550 articles he’s published and 2,800 public speeches delivered. He believes in the power of sport to produce change because in his 71 years, he’s seen that change, been a part of causing it. He has infused this ethos into the DeVos Sport Management program, and his service extends far beyond sport, too.

In 2006, Lapchick, along with his wife, Ann Pasnak, his daughter, Emily Pasnak-Lapchick, and a group of DeVos students, started the Hope for Stanley Alliance, which works to rebuild communities affected by natural disasters. As of this December, Lapchick,

Lapchick protested the Dakota Access Pipeline along with his daughter, Emily, and wife, Ann. “I’ve been fighting social justice issues with my wife, Ann, for 30 years. To be able to do them together and be joined by Emily as a family has been an incredible blessing and incredibly profound for me,” Lapchick says.

Ann and students from the DeVos program have spent a total of 50 weeks in New Orleans, rebuilding more than 125 homes in 10 years.

And when Emily took a college course about human trafficking, the whole family became involved in learning more and has since taken up the issue. Emily is now the manager of the End Trafficking Project at UNICEF, and Lapchick has called addressing human trafficking “the last new social justice issue

that I’ll spend a significant amount of time on.”

The Shut Out Trafficking program that they both promote has worked on more than 25 campuses, educating more than 50,000 people about human trafficking and how to end it.

Lapchick has already chosen the words he wants inscribed on his tombstone. They are the mantra he has lived by: He didn’t have to be a person of color to fight against racism.

He didn’t have to be a woman to fight against sexism.

He didn’t have to be gay or lesbian to fight against homophobia.

He didn’t have to be Jewish to fight against anti-Semitism.

He didn’t have to be a Muslim to fight against Islamophobia.

He didn’t have to be poor to fight against poverty.

He didn’t have to have a disability to fight for the disabled.

He didn’t have to be an immigrant or refugee to fight against xenophobia.

He knew that we are all part of the same human fabric and family.

When Lapchick first met his wife, Ann, in 1972, she owned this pair of Joe Lapchick sneakers. “That was telling us fate was behind it,” Lapchick says.

34 | SPRING 2017

Professor Konstantin Vodopyanov’s revolutionary technology could make diagnosing disease as easy as exhaling.

BY DAN MORRELL

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Let’s say you’re sick. It’s a fever you’ve had for days. Maybe it’s a headache that is getting worse and worse. Or perhaps

IF YOUR BREATH SMELLS LIKE:

your vision is blurred. Some system in

Decaying apples

your body is offline, and it’s bad enough

You may have diabetes

that you need professional advice.

Raw fish

You may have liver disease

You head to the doctor's office, where a great hunt for the cause begins. Your temperature is taken; your blood is drawn. X-rays or maybe an MRI is ordered. So maybe more appointments, more waiting, all while whatever it was that brought you there in the first place continues unabated.

But what if there was a way to halt that hunt during the first visit to the doctor’s office? And what if the test took seconds to administer, involved no needles or claustrophobia-inducing medical equipment, gave results in milliseconds and wouldn’t tax your insurance or your wallet?

This is the “Jetsonian” promise of the technology being developed by Konstantin Vodopyanov, 21st Century World Class Scholars Endowed Chair in Optics and Photonics. More than a decade ago, this laser specialist saw a way to use laser technology to find instant, actionable medical clues hidden in the unseen: your breath.

36 | SPRING 2017

Scent has a long history as a medical diagnostic tool. Before the advent of molecular evaluation or invasive techniques, ancient Chinese healers would diagnose tuberculosis via a tarlike scent it gives off. Hippocrates sniffed patients’ breath for a fishy odor as a way to diagnose liver failure.

In the late 1700s, John Rollo, surgeon general of the British Royal Artillery, noted that diabetes sufferers exhibited “the odor of decaying apples” on their breath.

But these ancient methods have been getting a new look in the past decade. Breath tests for tuberculosis, lactose intolerance, gum disease, pneumonia and even some forms of cancer have been the subject of academic studies or even released to the market. Canine disease detection — once anecdotal evidence — has picked up academic acolytes and seen real-world applications, with dogs now being trained to paw their diabetic owners before a meter reading even shows danger.

The idea first hit Vodopyanov’s radar in 2000, when he was hired by the California startup Picarro — a group of young Stanford Ph.D.s who were trying to develop a breath analysis test for ulcers. Vodopyanov’s charge was building a laser that would be specifically tuned to find the molecules indicative of the stomach sores.

He had studied physics as a student in Moscow, eventually finding a passion for lasers.

“I started building my own laser on the first day of my master’s program,” Vodopyanov says — everything from the electrical engineering of the circuits to aligning the lenses and detectors.

“At first, it was one day a week. Then two days a week. Then three days a week,” he says with a laugh. He was hooked.

For years, Vodopyanov’s career alternated between the academic world and the private sector. After 14 years in teaching posts in Russia, Germany and the U.K., in 1999 he took a job at a company that was developing crystal technology for use in remote-sensing operations. Picarro was his next job, and he’d stay there for three years before heading to Stanford to do research.

But his experience at Picarro — seeing the potential for biomedical applications of his laser work — stuck with him. Two years later,

in 2005, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to researchers who found that short pulses of laser light would enable highly precise molecular measurements, and Vodopyanov had what he calls “his great inspiration.” It was a chance to expand beyond the startup’s limited focus. He began working on a new kind of laser — one that wouldn’t just try to find one molecule in someone’s breath but all of them.

Molecules in breath can arrive there from anywhere in the body. They all use the same public transportation system: your blood.

Alcohol is a good example. It travels from your mouth to your stomach, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream. When the blood circulates to the lungs, it is exchanged with air and exhaled. (“People think Breathalyzers are measuring the amount of alcohol in the stomach,” says Vodopyanov, so they’ll try — in vain — to beat police Breathalyzers by “eating crazy foods.”) The process for cancers involves a different, often more circuitous route, but the exchange in the lungs is the same.

In previous methods of detection — like the one employed at Picarro — laser wavelengths were tuned to find a specific molecule. So it would help only if you knew you were looking for a specific type of disease. Vodopyanov uses the analogy of a checkout line at the grocery store: Every molecule has a bar code. The existing technology was using a scanner set to read just one of them. Vodopyanov spent the years after the Nobel announcement experimenting with how to develop a scanner that could read all of the bar codes at once.

By 2009, he had a breakthrough. After making a quick study of the biology involved — “that’s the most fun, when you learn something new” — he gave his first presentation at a breath analysis conference in 2010 to a warm reception. When he was hired by UCF in 2013, it was to continue his biomedical research.

These ideas have moved beyond theory. He and his colleagues are working on a prototype for a point-of-care device: The patient exhales in a tube, the doctor pushes a button to start the laser identification, and the measurements are fed into a computer for instant analysis. “[It takes] maybe a millisecond,” Vodopyanov says. (The tech seems far-fetched in context, but it’s actually pretty commonplace, he says.

Your smartphone or social network already likely has some form of facial recognition, analyzing millions of pixels in less than a second. “This does the same thing, just in two dimensions.”)

Then, a bit of code will translate those readings into coherent medical notes — warnings, low counts, telltale signs. It’s the high-tech equivalent of the dog pawing its diabetic owner. “But the dogs, they’re binary. It’s just a ‘yes, something is wrong’ or ‘no, it isn’t,’ ” he says. “We’re just trying to outperform dogs.”

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It’s a modest appraisal that he delivers with a laugh, but he readily offers the truth about the work: “We’re the only lab in the world that can do what we’re doing.”

And while biomedical research has been an important first application, the device has the potential for broader impact. “This will prove to be a very important discovery,” says Sergey Mirov, a physics professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and longtime Vodopyanov collaborator. Being able to rapidly detect chemical composition shows promise for everything from environmental monitoring to detecting oil pipe leaks. As a prototype, Mirov says, this can go anywhere — dentist offices, airplanes, the space station. “It can be really, really global.”

The prototype refinement is ongoing.

Vodopyanov makes the comparison between his lab’s current work and that of a solar cell engineer. “[Engineers] are focused on improving efficiency — on making a better solar cell,” he says. “Same with us.” He wants the prototype to be more sensitive, more efficient, maybe even shrunk to the size of an iPhone. There’s much to be done.

It’s hard not to daydream about the potential impact though. Think of the cost savings to patients spared expensive but irrelevant tests.

And think of how useful, Vodopyanov says, this could be in developing countries, where hospitals and diagnostic tools are inaccessible to millions. “We are just on the cutting edge,” he says. “But if we’re successful, it is clear that this would be very widely used.”

Asked how long it will be until the prototype is unveiled, Vodopyanov estimates a year or so. “It is like approaching the Wright brothers after their first flight and asking, ‘OK, how soon until we can load that with 300 people and fly it around the world?’ We just can’t be sure. But we’re ahead of the crowd.”

IF YOU SMELL LIKE:

Freshly baked brown bread

You may have typhoid

A butcher’s shop

You may have yellow fever

TRIGGERING THE PAST Scent can serve not only as an indicator of danger but also as a reminder of it.

For veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, everyday sensory experiences can trigger traumatic memories. Fireworks may be a reminder of gunshots. The rumble of a car might recall a fateful trip interrupted by an IED. Even the smell of gas might bring back the harrowing scene after an attack.

“Smells make for more emotional and stronger memories,” says Deborah Beidel, Pegasus Professor of psychology and medical education. It’s a biological byproduct: “[Memories] head right from your olfactory bulb to your hippocampus and amygdala,” Beidel says. In other words, it’s a straight run from your smell center to your emotional center.

Beidel has incorporated scents into her clinical treatment at UCF RESTORES, which is focused on exposure therapy for patients with PTSD. The setup includes virtual reality headsets to provide audio and visual in addition to smells like cordite and diesel fuel, all working together to create an immersive experience for patients so they can accurately relive their trauma. The more patients relive these experiences in a safe environment, Beidel says, the weaker the link between the sound, smell or scene and the emotional response. She compares it to reversing the training of Pavlov’s dog — making it so the food bell that instantly inspired salivation is just a noise. “We are making new neuronal connections in your brain,” Beidel says.

But those lessons don’t come easy.

In the first few exposure sessions — which last between 90 minutes and two

hours — Beidel notes that most patients experience a high level of distress. But after 10 to 14 sessions, patients report thinking about the event less. They’ll never forget, but their response starts to lessen — there’s less heart racing, less sweating, no more lump in the throat.

“The clearest analogy might be when someone close to you dies,” says Beidel.

“We may cry, we may feel very sad. But after a period of time, it doesn’t have that same intense effect. Exposure therapy does the same thing for people who have PTSD.” Beidel has seen dramatic results: At the end of three weeks, 67 percent of patients she has treated with exposure therapy no longer meet the criteria for PTSD. But funding from the Department of Defense — which supported her work with a grant — runs out in May 2017. For Beidel, it means pivoting from being a research trial to a clinical program — and that means fundraising. There is a target goal of $10 million to fund the work, which Beidel notes provides services to PTSD sufferers free of charge. “Patients get housing for three weeks,” she says.

“We treat them and provide them with a safe space to live.”

Still though, keeping the clinic open might require expanding services to groups beyond veterans. First responders at June’s Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando — where a gunman killed 49 and wounded 53 more — have also requested services. With so many phone calls going unanswered in victims’ pockets in the aftermath, emergency workers report that the sound of a cellphone ring has been traumatic for them. Now, Beidel says, they’ll have to figure out what scents may be haunting them too.

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ALUMKNIGHTS

Six ways nanotechnology is changing our lives.

BY ERIC MICHAEL ’96 Lisa Friedersdorf ’91 knows that even the smallest changes in technology can have huge implications. As director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, she cultivates research and development collaborations between the 20 governmental departments and independent agencies that make up the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), such as the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and NASA. In addition to advancing the study of this groundbreaking field, NNI has an educational mission to build awareness of nanotechnology.

“Even though nanotechnology is part of our daily lives, the vast majority of the public still doesn’t know what it is,” says Friedersdorf, who earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UCF. “I describe nanotechnology as the control and manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular level. We’re talking about things so small — a human hair is on the order of

38 | SPRING 2017

80,000 nanometers in diameter — you can’t even wrap your head around [it].”

The concept of nanotechnology is credited to Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, who introduced the idea in 1959 during a lecture titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” at the California Institute of Technology. In 2000, President Bill Clinton announced the founding of the NNI during an address at the same institution, where he described the incredible potential of nanotechnology: “Just imagine, materials with 10 times the strength of steel and only a fraction of the weight; shrinking all the information at the Library of Congress into a device the size of a sugar cube; detecting cancerous tumors that are only a few cells in size.”

“The applications of nanotechnology are limitless — the only boundary is our imagination,” Friedersdorf says. “Now that we have the ability to make these materials and we’re beginning to understand them, we’re actually beginning to see the applications that exploit these novel properties.”

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01

02

CLEANER WATER

LONG-LASTING MATERIALS

Nanoscale filters can remove an unprecedented number of contaminants, including most bacteria and viruses that contribute to many deadly waterborne illnesses. “Access to clean water is a critical issue worldwide, even here in the United States,” Friedersdorf says. “Nanoenabled sensors can detect low levels of pathogens, and nanotechnology can be used to treat water with filters, membranes and antimicrobial nanoparticles.”

Incorporating nanoscale additives in plastics and other polymers has improved millions of everyday items to be stronger, more resilient and longer lasting, reducing the amount of trash in landfills and pollution in the environment. “One of the early applications of nanotechnology is to make stronger, lighter composites for use in things like vehicles and sporting goods,” she says.

03 SMART TEXTILES With fabric weaved from nanofibers, clothing is becoming more resistant to stains, water, fire — and even bullets — without a significant increase in thickness or weight. “Nanotechnology will also enable the development of all kinds of smart textiles, such as embedded sensors to monitor health,” Friedersdorf says. “There are even concepts for T-shirts that enable individual temperature control.”

04 SMARTER PHONES

HOW SMALL IS NANO?

Nanotechnology is being used to reduce the size and weight of the processors and batteries running our smart phones, rapidly increasing ease-of-use and capability. “We carry a supercomputer in our pocket that’s been enabled by nanotechnology,” Friedersdorf says. “Cellphones and touchscreens use nanoscale materials like graphene, and waterproof phones use super hydrophobic coatings to prevent water damage.”

05 BETTER SUNSCREENS

According to Friedersdorf, “A softball compared to the Earth is very small, but if you look at a molecule like a buckyball, which is on the order of a nanometer in diameter, that is compared to a softball as the softball is compared to the Earth.”

Products made in nanoparticle form provide better coverage for our skin and filter out more harmful ultraviolet rays than previous types. “Since nanoparticles are smaller than the wavelength of light, sunscreens are now transparent instead of the white-stuff-on-your-nose sunscreens many of us remember from our childhood,” Friedersdorf says.

06

EFFICIENT WINDOWS Coating glass with nanoscale materials allows certain wavelengths of light to pass while blocking others. As a result, buildings are becoming more energy efficient. “In summer, you can have light without the heat,” Friedersdorf says. “Then in the winter, you can adjust [the windows] so that they let in heat with the light. They have huge energy ramifications.”

S 7,926 MILE 0 INCHES 0 ,8 2 9 ,1 502 ERS 16 NANOMET 1.276 X 10

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CLASS NOTES 1975

1997

2003

Kurt Wolfe retired from Montgomery County Public Schools in Rockville, MD, after 25 years as an insurance risk manager.

Craig Evans is vice president for advancement at Wells College in Aurora, NY.

Reginald Davis is a human resources section manager with Orange County government.

Holly (Spoto) Child is director of research and development for the Santa Clara County, CA, probation department.

Megan (Sexton) Nivens was named one of the 2016 Women of Internet of Things in Marketing by Connected World. She is the director of marketing management at Synapse Wireless.

1980 Treva Lee Lewis retired after 35 years in education in Volusia County, FL.

1990 Debreita “Brei” Taylor was named to the Contigo Fund Grant Committee.

She is the founder of Oasis Fellowship Ministries.

1999 Monica (Potter) Davis is a clinical professor at the Florida State University College of Medicine.

1994

Michael Quinn was featured in articles in USA Today and NerdWallet for his life insurance website.

James David Brantley is a co-inventor of a blast-debris protective harness.

Diane (Sadler) Diaz launched The Brand Teacher company.

Steve Knobl was named CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County.

2000

1995 Jeff Hogan was appointed to the Board of County Commissioners for the Agricultural Advisory Board of Hernando County, FL.

1996 Keisha Bell was elected to the board of trustees for the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg.

David Robertson competed in the OUC half marathon and the Celebration full marathon.

2001 Jesse Bradley earned an MFA in creative writing from Lindenwood University in December.

2002 Jevon Knowles is an assurance partner in BDO USA’s Chicago office.

Carlos Guillermo Smith was elected to represent District 49, which includes UCF, in the Florida House of Representatives.

2004 Bree Adamson is the senior copy writer for UCF Marketing.

2005

Michael Suarez II is an operations manager at Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems.

2009 Leah Saunders is an account manager at B2 Communications.

Melissa Strassner is an associate at ShuffieldLowman.

Rachael Todd was featured on The Doctors for her work as a virtual instructor with HotWorx infrared sauna.

Brian Whittaker is an attorney with the Macquarie Group.

2010

Angela (Yarbrough) Jones is a criminal justice assistant professor at Texas State University.

Presley Adamson is a producer with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s documentary film unit in California.

2007 Todd Bryant earned the Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation.

Jack Demetree II earned his LLM in real property development and is an associate at the Law Offices of Bret Jones in Clermont, FL.

Brandon Woodard was named a Top 40 Young Lawyer on the Rise by the American Bar Association.

Jacqueline Dheere is a regional vice president at Primerica in Boca Raton, FL.

Pamela (Androff) Duffy was named a Top 40 Under 40 by The NEWS. She is the senior variable refrigerant flow product manager for Lennox International.

Thomas Bell is the multimedia specialist and videographer for UCF Marketing.

Shawn Chaudhry is a co-founder of The Dru Project, an LGBTQ advocacy organization named in honor of Christopher Andrew Leinonen ’07, one of the 49 people killed at Pulse nightclub.

40 | SPRING 2017

Christine Edwards writes “Art with Heart,” a column about Brevard County’s arts scene, for Hometown News.

Yolanda (Ashman) McCray is the founder of Julia’s Kids, a nonprofit that provides free proactive life planning for individuals and families.

2008

Terry Shaw ’90MBA was named president and CEO for Adventist Health System. The faith-based health care system is comprised of 46 hospital campuses in 10 states, including 22 Florida Hospital branches, has more than 80,000 employees and serves more than 4.7 million patients annually.

April Dickerson is an event marketing manager for Amazon Alexa.

Brandon Peters was named a 2017–18 Walt Disney World Ambassador. Formerly, he was a performer and part of the 2016 Disney University Traditions team.

Brittany Sted is a co-founder of The Dru Project, an LGBTQ advocacy organization named in honor of Christopher Andrew Leinonen ’07, one of the 49 people killed at Pulse nightclub.

2011 Rachel (Giarraputo) Green is the district manager of the Zales Corporation in the Louisiana-Gulf Coast region.

Dedrix Daka is an optometrist for MCR Health Services in Bradenton, FL.

Jocelyn Morera is an art director at VML in Kansas City, MO.

Anthony Davis is a motivational speaker and founder of the company Absolutely Determined.

Jason Polynice earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation.

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Authors ALUMNI

Scott George ’84 wrote Do Good, Be Great: Discovering the Keys to Unlocking the Greatness in You.

Leydi Restrepo was named a Worlds Ahead Graduate by Florida International University, where she earned an MBA in international business in December.

2012 Alicia Bock is the cancer registry supervisor at Scully-Welsh Cancer Center in Vero Beach, FL. Ida Eskamani was named a legislative aide for Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith ’03.

Jennifer Hostetler is an associate at Winderweedle, Haines, Ward & Woodman in Winter Park, FL.

Daniel Slowik ’94 wrote An Act of Theatre.

Carolyn “C.B.” Hoffman ’96 wrote Bulletproof Wedding: An Alexa Silven Finale.

— President John C. Hitt

A mother, newlywed and 17-year veteran with the Orlando Police Department, Clayton was shot and killed while attempting to arrest a wanted homicide suspect. She earned both a bachelor’s degree in public administration and a master’s degree in criminal justice from UCF. Clayton was promoted to the rank of master sergeant in 2016, and during her time with OPD, she worked with Parramore Kidz Zone and was an active member of the Urban League’s anti-violence task force.

2014 Mark Berrios-Ayala is a regional president for the Hispanic National Bar Association Law Student Division.

Luis Figueroa is the founder and CEO of Gold Bridge Realty.

Miguel Naranjo was named to the Contigo Fund Grant Committee. He is the founder of QLatinx, a grass-roots, all-inclusive community organization that was formed in response to the Pulse nightclub shooting.

2015 Ashton Keys is a behavior technician with Alternative Directions.

Carrie Lewis is an educator for the Clinical Documentation Integrity Department at Florida Hospital.

Erin Morse is a managing partner at Meglino Morse Law.

Elena Poklenkova is a staff accountant at James Moore in Daytona Beach, FL.

Andrew Albaugh passed the bar exam and is an associate at Holland & Knight in Orlando.

“Master Sergeant Clayton and Deputy First Class Lewis dedicated their lives to making our community safer, and they were outstanding role models. They are heroes and Knights forever.”

Mario Lurig ’02 wrote Pokémon Go for Business: A Guide to Capturing New Customers.

Vanessa (Lepe) Skalland is a biostatistician for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.

2013

On January 9, 2017, two UCF alumni were killed in the line of duty.

We mourn and honor Master Sergeant Debra (Durgins) Clayton ’98 ’02MS and Deputy First Class Norman Lewis ’04.

Rachel Williams is the communications coordinator for UCF News and Information.

A former offensive lineman for the Knights, “Big Norm” Lewis was killed in a traffic accident in Pine Hills, Florida, while helping search for the suspect in the killing of Clayton. Lewis graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from UCF. In 2005, he joined the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, where he served as a member of the motors/ DUI unit.

2016

Christina (Colbert) Smiekle is an assistant general counsel at the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Jason Fronczek is the senior photographer and lead designer for Artborne Magazine.

Marciana Logu passed the bar exam and is an associate at the Abogado Law Group in Malabar, FL.

Julie Ludwig is a meeting and event planner with Wells Fargo in North Carolina.

TJ Woolford is a history and religion teacher and the head swim coach at All Saints Academy in Winter Haven, FL.

Hilal Peker is a visiting professor at Florida State University.

In Memoriam

William Connolly ’77 died on June 3, 2016.

Christopher Byrd ’04 died on September 8, 2016.

Nancy Wood Rowan ’82 died on December 11, 2016.

Thomas R. Jones ’09 died on June 9, 2016.

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ALUMKNIGHTS

Weddings

1

& BIRTHS

7

1

Wes Brown ’99 married Shannon Larimer on March 3, 2016.

16

Michael Smajstrla ’05 and Emily (Redder) ’11 welcomed Mason Michael on December 9, 2016.

2

Betty Rios ’00 married Michael Obermaier on April 9, 2016.

17

Paul Adamson ’06 and wife Jennifer welcomed Lilly Mae on March 26, 2016.

3

Bruce Barbre ’01 married Brandi Lefler on July 1, 2016.

Dane Smith ’06 married Marcy Haylett on July 15, 2016.

4

Robert Carr ’01 married Ashley Wenk on May 29, 2016.

Rose (Beetle) ’07 and Kyle Jones welcomed Riker Phoenix on September 16, 2016.

5

Ann Einselen ’01 married Raul Hernandez ’05 on January 2, 2016.

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6

Alaina (Haddad) ’02 and H.J. Kennedy ’99 welcomed Reid on August 29, 2016.

Courtney Carter ’08 married Johnathon Pruitt on September 3, 2016.

7

Jonathan Sanchez ’02 and wife Nicole welcomed Victor Andrew on October 22, 2016.

19

Danielle Coulson ’08 married Dylan Perez ’08 on April 9, 2016.

8

Timothy Taylor ’02 married Anna Marchand on August 27, 2016.

20

Shannon Nielsen ’08 married Ryan Tucker on October 22, 2016.

9

Bree Adamson ’04 married Brett Watson ’09 on March 5, 2016.

21

Melissa Renna ’08 and Daniel Gover ’07 welcomed Luke Daniel on October 15, 2016.

10

Sarah (Hultman) ’04 and Troy Lindbeck ’04 welcomed Emerit on May 23, 2016.

22

Nicole Riesenberg ’08 married Andrew Waldeck on May 14, 2016.

23

Sarah Wood ’08 married Patrick Flischel on June 25, 2016.

24

Courtney (Dake) ’09 and Alex Jadidian welcomed Natalia Leeann on May 1, 2016.

Chrain Simes ’04 married Derek Walls on June 25, 2016.

11

Leah (Spero) ’04 and Tanner Whitmill welcomed Ries Sydney and Pippa Ty on September 22, 2016.

12

Andrea (Wesser) ’04 and Keith Brawner ’08 welcomed Lily Francis on October 4, 2016.

13

Kristen (Winnie) ’04 and David Rhodes ’06 welcomed Hazel Marie on August 29, 2016.

14

Allison Herzlich ’05 and husband David Arce welcomed Molly on April 9, 2016.

15

Kelly (Otto) ’05 and David Norton welcomed Landen David on May 15, 2016.

42 | SPRING 2017

Ashley Smith ’07 married Scott Moriarty ’10 on October 20, 2016.

Morgan Peters ’09 married Robert Decker on September 4, 2016.

25

Taylor (Wiatt) ’09 and Phillip Stokes ’09 welcomed Coraline Mae on June 16, 2016.

26

Alexandra (Blinder) ’10 and Marc Berkovitz ’08 welcomed Ryan Elliot on August 5, 2016.

27

Allison (Blum) ’10 and Brian Peterson ’10 welcomed Ruthe Harley on July 14, 2016.

15

20

3

4

5

6

2

10

8

9

11

16

21

17

12

18

13

19

22

23

25

14

24

26

27

ALUMKNIGHTS

Weddings & BIRTHS

28 Anne Marie Dozier ’10 married Brian Timm ’10 on April 29, 2016.

29

Loren Ferretti ’10 married Sean Huges ’10 on November 12, 2016.

28

Jazmin Krug ’10 married Adam Smajstrla ’11 on September 24, 2016.

Samantha Needleman ’10 married Ben Vanderpool on October 15, 2016.

29

Kristen Parson ’10 married James Bardin ’11 on April 23, 2016.

30

Jaclyn (Penix) ’10 and Nicholas Schiegner ’10 welcomed Lucas on March 3, 2016.

Jamie Waksman ’10 married Allan Benes on July 3, 2016.

30

31

Dana Boundy ’11 married Austin Brown on October 17, 2016.

Melissa Epifanio ’11 married Ryan LaPlante ’13 on June 18, 2016.

Sarah Galicki ’12 married Robert Horn ’12 on April 16, 2016.

31

Vanessa Michelle Lepe ’12 married Timothy Skalland on September 17, 2016.

32

Alexandra Prano ’12 married Justin Rizzo ’09 on May 21, 2016.

33

Amanda Maier ’13 married Roman Rodriguez on May 14, 2016.

34

TJ Woolford ’13 married Christina Knott on March 19, 2016.

35

Madalyn Lageman ’14 married Willem Hernandez ’14 on August 16, 2016.

36

34

33

35

Teresa Leonard ’14 married Jeremy Wiggins ’14 on July 23, 2016.

Madeleine Rodriguez ’14 married Adam Goldstein on November 6, 2016.

Karen (Lopez) ’15 married Matthew Hernandez ’15 on November 11, 2016.

Jessica Berlin ’16 married Jordan Hammer on July 17, 2016.

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32

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YOU MOVED OUT. BUT WE DIDN’T. New address? New job? New name? It’s time to update your information. Because as much as your parents enjoy reading Pegasus, it’s you we’re trying to reach.

Update your contact info today. ucfalumni.com/contactupdates

NCAA COMPLIANCE

men’s basketball coaches were prohibited from recruiting in July 2013; vacation of all men’s

The following is an NCAA notice that must be in this issue of Pegasus to meet UCF and NCAA requirements.

basketball victories in which an ineligible studentathlete participated during the 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons; head men’s basketball coach Donnie Jones was given a show cause order and

In February 2012, the University of Central Florida

was required to complete additional rules training.

was placed on probation by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions for violations involving

In response to the infractions, the university has

the impermissible recruiting activity of outside third

increased its athletics compliance staff as well

parties, impermissible benefits, an impermissible

as its overall compliance of educational and

recruiting inducement, unethical conduct, failure

monitoring efforts. UCF has instituted the use of

to monitor and lack of institutional control. The

compliance and recruiting software for all athletics

university’s probation runs through February 9, 2017.

programs, and a greater emphasis has been placed

In addition to the imposition of the probationary

on educating coaches, student-athletes, staff

period, additional penalties were imposed. Those

and fans on the rules and regulations concerning

additional penalties include public reprimand and

representatives of athletics interests (“boosters”)

censure; a postseason ban for the men’s basketball

and third-party representatives. In addition, the

program following the 2012–13 season; reduced

University Compliance, Ethics and Risk Office

numbers of initial scholarships and total scholarships

now shares a dual-reporting structure with the

in football and men’s basketball each year for

university’s chief compliance and ethics officer as

three years; a reduction in the number of coaches

well as the vice president and director of athletics.

permitted to recruit off-campus at any one time for two years; a reduction in the available number

UCF will continue its efforts of promoting a culture

of recruiting evaluation days and recruiting person

of compliance throughout the university community

days for two years; a reduction in the number of

and its goal of becoming a national model for

official paid visits for two years; head and assistant

athletics compliance.

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WHY I ...

Why I Give a Damn

BY JOHN C. HITT

President Hitt sits with his father, John Hitt Sr., on the front porch of their Houston family home in the mid-1940s. President Hitt was the first in his family to earn a college degree.

46 | SPRING 2017

PEGASUS M AGAZ I NE

Dr. John C. Hitt is president of UCF. He graduated from Austin College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and earned master’s and doctoral degrees in physiological psychology from Tulane University.

Dr. Hitt celebrated 25 years in office on March 1.

Why do so many universities pride themselves on whom they keep out?

Stop and consider that for a moment.

If higher education is such a powerful force for good in the world, shouldn’t we make it more accessible?

Shouldn’t we strive to transform more lives and communities? I certainly think so.

Of course, I’m as proud as any university president about the quality of our students. Twenty years ago, the average incoming UCF freshman was a B student. In 2016, the average GPA was a 4.0.

But we also make this promise to students who, for whatever reason, choose a different path to their degree: If you work hard and successfully graduate from a local state college, we have a place for you at UCF. This dual approach has fueled our growth to more than 64,000 students, making UCF one of the largest universities in the nation. But size alone isn’t enough. We are in the business of demanding excellence, too.

This is something I first learned from my father, who ran his own printing business. Dad would pay me a dollar for every 1,000 prints I made that were good enough to sell. That’s where I learned a good lesson: Making a lot of something is not necessarily worth anything — unless it’s excellent.

Admitting and graduating a lot of students isn’t worth anything unless they receive an excellent experience.

At UCF, we ensure students learn from

the best professors, secure meaningful internships and graduate on time.

We also prepare students to begin or advance in rewarding careers or continue their educations.

I’m proud that more students are applying, staying and finishing their degree than at any time in the history of UCF. Florida recognized our efforts in 2016 by naming UCF the best-performing university in the state system for the second time in four years. UCF is the only institution to be in the top three every year the rankings have been in place.

As The Washington Post has written, UCF is in “the vanguard of an insurgency that aims to demolish the popular belief that exclusivity is a virtue in higher education.”

Simply put, we are here to make a better future for our students and society. And we won’t be successful without more of us living up to our full potential.

I believe everyone has potential.

And when more people unleash their full potential?

Anything is possible.

My father provided me the precious gift of a college degree. His dream changed my life, and as president I am dedicated to providing that same opportunity to sons and daughters everywhere.

It’s why I give a damn.

Thanks, Dad.

PHOTO BY JOSH LETCHWORTH

M

y father died when I was 15.

My family was of modest means, and my father’s dream was for me to go to college. After he died, my mother helped me become the first in my family to earn a degree.

My dad has been gone for more than 60 years. But I still sometimes wonder what he would think about my life and career. Would he be proud of me?

I hope he would see that I try to make a difference in people’s lives.

That I care about our community.

That I give a damn.

I give a damn because I know, after 25 years as UCF’s president, that our mission is more important than ever. In the United States, there is no better tool than a college degree for improving social and economic mobility.

Imagine two students with equal ability. If one graduates from college and the other doesn’t, guess what? The one with a college degree, on average, makes substantially more money.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2015 show that college graduates’ earnings averaged almost 70 percent more than high school graduates’ pay.

A college degree creates value. It also creates values.

College helps students grow intellectually, emotionally and socially. It helps them hone criticalthinking and problem-solving skills by exposing them to different people and ideas. A more educated population results in more engaged citizens and a stronger democracy.

Like many people, I also enjoyed an extra college benefit: It’s where I met my wonderful wife, Martha. She was two years ahead of me but was willing to take pity on a poor sophomore.

We dated, fell in love and have been married for 55 years.

With all of the benefits higher education offers individuals and society, one question has always bothered me: Why do so many universities pride themselves on whom they keep out? The standard practice for decades has been for institutions to boast about how exclusive they are and how many applications they reject.

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